Rumi

I know by frequent experience that there is nothing which puts the devils to fli ght like holy water. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing make you afraid. All things are passing. God alone never changes. Patience gains all things. If you have God you will want for nothing. God alone suffices. St Teresa, The bookmark of Teresa of Ávila,

Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours. Teresa of Ávila Lao Tsu. "If you don't realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterest ed, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king, immersed in the w onder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death com es, you are ready."

G.I. Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff's approach to enlightenment involved observing one's l ife, not trying to change it, but observing it so closely that one becomes aware of what is underneath it. Instrumental to his teachings was that the individual need not follow anyone else's path but his own, and in seeking enlightenment, o ne must look within, question one's motives, and go through a process of what he called self-remembering. Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak taught that it is God who prevails and that man ?however great he may be? is only the channel, the instrument for the flow of Divine Wisd om. Men are meant to praise God, and to teach others to do so, not to become obj ects of worship themselves.

Ramana Maharishi. There is such warmth, light, delight and playful humor to his teachings. Ramana taught self-inquiry. He encouraged people to bring full attent ion to a thought, and by becoming absorbed in the thought, find the source. As a ll phenomenon arises from the source, following any thought back to the source l eads to realization of the true nature of the Self. Ramana was often silent, bli ssful, peaceful and shining with radiance, expanding to include all beings in hi

s awareness. Ramana Maharshi Attaining sudden self-realization at the age of 16, Ramana Mah arshi (1879-1950) is one of the great sages of modern India. On the holy mountai n Arunachalam, he taught seekers to meditate upon the question "Who am I?" He wr ote, "One can thus attain immortal consciousness and awaken to the true self, Go d, the real nature of man."

"Someone who is a clever speaker and maintains a 'too-smiley' face is seldom con sidered a person of jen." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". "Each day I examine myself in three ways: in doing things for others, have I bee n disloyal? In my interactions with friends, have I been untrustworthy? Have not practiced what I have preached?" "If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots (a small-to-middle-size stat e), you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economic al in expenditure and love the people. You should use them according to the seas ons." "A young man should serve his parents at home and be respectful to elders outsid e his home. He should be earnest and truthful, loving all, but become intimate w ith jen. After doing this, if he has energy to spare, he can study literature an d the arts." "If the Superior Man is not 'heavy,' then he will not inspire awe in others. If he is not learned, then he will not be on firm ground. He takes loyalty and good faith to be of primary importance, and has no friends who are not of equal (mor al) caliber. When he makes a mistake, he doesn't hesitate to correct it." "When your father is alive, observe his will. When your father is dead observe h is former actions. If, for three years you do not change from the ways of your f ather, you can be called a 'real son (hsiao).'" "When the Superior Man eats he does not try to stuff himself; at rest he does no t seek perfect comfort; he is diligent in his work and careful in speech. He ava ils himself to people of the Tao and thereby corrects himself. This is the kind of person of whom you can say, 'he loves learning.'" "Ah, now I can begin to discuss the Book of Odes with Tz'u. I give him a hint an

d he gets the whole point." "If you govern with the power of your virtue, you will be like the North Star. I t just stays in its place while all the other stars position themselves around i t." "If you govern the people legalistically and control them by punishment, they wi ll avoid crime, but have no personal sense of shame. If you govern them by means of virtue and control them with propriety, they will gain their own sense of sh ame, and thus correct themselves." "At fifteen my heart was set on learning; at thirty I stood firm; at forty I had no more doubts; at fifty I knew the mandate of heaven; at sixty my ear was obed ient; at seventy I could follow my heart's desire without transgressing the norm ." "I can talk with Hui for a whole day without him differing with me in any way--a s if he is stupid. But when he retires and I observe his personal affairs, it is quite clear that he is not stupid."

"Hafiz, there is no one in this world who is not looking for God. s trudging along with as much dignity, courage and style as they possibly can."

Everyone i

- Hafiz "The life of the believer is like a torrent making its way out of the h igh mountains down into the canyons and chasms of life, passing through many experiences until finally comi ng to the spiritual experience of death. From there, the torrent experiences resurrection and a life live d in concert with the will of God while still going through many stages of refinement. At last the torrent find s its way into the vast, unlimited sea. Even here the torrent does not totally come to be one with the vast oce an until it has once more passed through final dealings by the Lord." - Madame Guyon "There are men of enlightenment who cannot throw down a bridge from whe re they are to where they once were, so that others too can cross over. They do not know or cannot des cribe in detail the way which others must follow to reach the goal. Such men are not the teaching masters, a nd should not be mistaken for them...

The man of enlightenment who has never been a learner, who suddenly gai ned his state by the overwhelming good karma of previous lives, is less able to teach others than the one who slowly and laboriously worked his way into the state - who remembers the trials, pitfalls, and difficulti es he had to overcome." - Paul Brunton "Once a man came to Bhagavan. One of them addressing Bhagavan said, "My friend has taken as his guru a man who is not even a sadhu. To show him what a sadguru should be, I have b rought him here." Bhagavan replied sternly, "Who are you to say who is the right guru for him? By what power can yo u make out what a man really is? In fact, the guru is not as important as the disciple himself. If one worships w ith utmost devotion, even a stone would become the Supreme Lord." - Ramana Maharshi

Emptiness Is 'Empty'

Only the sage has the strict right to call this world an illusion. If anyone el

se does so, his talk is mere babble.

(1) - Paul Brunton (PB)

"The sravaka is enlightened but going astray; the ordinary man is out of the right path and yet in a way enlightened. The sravaka fails to perceive that Mind as it is in itself knows no stages, no causation, no imagination. Disciplining himself in the cause he has attained the result and abides in the samadhi of emp tiness itself for ever so many kalpas. However enlightened in his way, the srava ka is not at all on the right track. From the point of view of the bodhisattva, this is like suffering the torture of hell. The sravaka has buried himself in em ptiness and does not know how to get out of his quiet contemplation for he has n o insight into the buddha-nature itself." - Shih-Tou "Unwise people think that in the world of essence there should be no bloom of flowers and no fall of roses." - Zen Master Dogen Nagarjuna's famous commentator, Chandrakirti, went so far as to say that thos e who take shunyata or emptiness as a point of view were philosophically doomed, and destined "to land in a self-condemned void." Nagarjuna himself said, "Belie vers in emptiness are hopelessly incurable." One modern writer called it the "su icide of enlightenment." What these men were saying is that traditional attempts to transcend, conquer, avoid, or ignore the relative world as the conceived sou rce of our bondage were even centuries ago inappropriate and fruitless, leading not to true spiritual realization, but rather nihilism and real emptiness of spi rit. This is becoming even more evident today. While in this paper we will more or less academically discuss the concept of emptiness, Madhyamika Buddhism or th e 'Middle Way' as an attempt to re-align itself with the original absolutism of the Buddha, its elaboration in the doctrine of shunyavada teachings of Nagarjuna , common misconceptions and traditional assumptions on the nature of realization , and also the nature of emptiness in these various traditions, we will also try to be practical and discuss what this doctrine really means in our modern world . "To incarnate or not to incarnate, that is the question" might be our central theme. Out of fear up to this point most have said we have incarnated too much, while out of love others now are saying that we have incarnated too little. This apparent dilemma is really at the heart of our discussion of emptiness, and on the subject of maya or illusion as well. This article is fairly long, for which I ask in advance that the reader won't shoot me. "When you are condemned by the gods to write," said Arthur Machen, "y ou can't leave off." There is much to consider here, and this is meant to be a ' consideration'! There will also of necessity be some overlap between this and it s companion piece, Maya Is 'Maya', (which treats its subject from the point of v iew of Hinduism and Buddhism, along with extensive ontological discussion of Isl am and Taoism as exemplified by Ibn al 'Arabi and Chuang Tzu - and a bit of esot eric Christianity as well). Here we will offer the reader a mix of traditional s cholastic and practical writings and also contemporary renderings of the subject matter. It is a serious subject, but we will also try and inject a bit of levit y where possible. Real people do not speak or write to no purpose. The reader must pay attention line to line, phrase to phrase, not letting a single word pass by lightly. - Li u I-ming, Commentary on Ch ang Ch un s Journey to the West (13th c.) "A fixed idea is like a cramp in the foot; the best thing to do is to stomp o n it." - Soren Kierkegaard "We shall read these old texts not to treat them as final authorities but to verify our own thought, and we shall quote them only to illustrate it." (2) - PB

Three ways of looking at 'emptiness' 'Emptiness can be confusing as it may be taken in three different ways: one, a s a methology of negation, wherein the inherent self-exiting nature of an object ive phenomena is seen as illusory, that is, as a dialectical methodology of unde rstanding the non-entitification of things, with no part existing in itself but only in relation with, or interdependence on, the whole; two, as a meditative tr ance state, a void of self-existing consciousness supposedly without attributes (we say 'supposedy' because even in formless nirvikalpa samadhi or its Buddhist equivalent state, while without phenomenal objects it is not entirely without co ntent - the unmanifest archtypal world image is still there, for the very defini tion of consciousness implies a content present to consciousness); and, three, a s a name for the non-conceptual, nondual, Reality Itself, in which emptiness and form are seen as two aspects of the same indescribable Essence. In Zen they mig ht say that our empirical world represents 'being', while a state of meditative void is 'non-being', and Reality beyond the polarized categories of both being a nd non-being is the 'Ultimate Void', where even 'Emptiness' is recognized as 'em pty of emptiness' inasmuch as it is also a construct of the mind. As such, 'Empt iness' is perhaps the most misunderstood concepts in Buddhism. Hopefully, it wil l become clearer as one proceeds through this article. The biggest error is in reifying emptiness, that is, making it into any kind of thing whatsoever, however subtle: "The Great Way is alive. It is not stuck in the realms of being or nothingnes s. To be stuck in the realm of being means to be attached to appearances. To be stuck in the realm of nothingness means to be attached to emptiness. Neither att achment to appearances or emptiness is the Way of the creative flow of heaven an d earth. Nor are they the sages' Way of true emptiness and subtle being." - Lu Y en, the Complete Reality School of Taoism, 7th century. (3) Origins of Madhyamika Buddhism and similarities with Vedanta First let it be stated that there are six main schools of Indian philosophy, of which Buddhism is one. All schools of Indian philosophy use Nyaya logic, crea ted by Gautama, and all schools, including Vedanta and Yoga, likewise employ var ious elements of the Samhkya philosophy of Kapila. The Buddha studied Samhkya ex tensively, and interesting enough his birthplace, Kapilavatsu, was the center of an ancient monestary of Kapila's. (4) Further, the Four Noble truths are found in the yoga sutras of Patanjali, and the word 'Nirvana' is found in the Vedas an d was not original to the Buddha. Therefore, it is no surprise for there to be m uch similarity between the teachings of the Buddha and the ancient rishis. Buddh a, a Hindu, in his day was a reformer of a decaying Vedic religion, while Guadap ada and Sankara also later worked to restore it to its ancient glory. Further, t he Hindus recognized the Buddha as the ninth avatar of Vishnu, and early Therava da Buddhism, lacking such a devotional savior figure, adapted itself in Mahayana to that need with its elaboration of the three bodies of the Buddha: Dharmakaya , Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya. Tibetan Buddhism adopted kundalini yoga and tan tric teachings from Hinduism, so the cross-pollination was nearly complete. All ultimately trace back to the ancient Vedic teachings (which may be the origin of all other great religions as well). What was seemingly unique in emphasis in the Buddha's teaching was the doctri ne of anatta, or 'no-self', which is where we will then begin. Emptiness teachings essentially started with the Buddha, but were rejuvenated by the great sage, Nagarjuna, whose famous Madhyamika Karika, commented on by C handrakirti, begins with his famous eight-fold negation : no origination (ajatavada ); no cessation; no permanence; no momentariness; no identity; no difference; no

bondage; no liberation. If the reader finds similarity of these statements with those of Ramana Maharshi it is no surprise, because the Madyamika doctrines and methology of negation are very similar to those of the Guadapada and the Vedant ins. Also for Nagarjuna, the wheel of samsara or birth and death symbolized by d ukkha (suffering) is due to beginningless avidya or transcendental illusion whic h covers the real and projects through its innate thought-forms the world of phe nomena. This is nearly identical with the maya doctrine of Vedanta. The differen ce being that the Madyamika do not positive an absolute Self as the substratum f or the empirical reality, but go about asserting the same in a more round about way, while the Vedantins generally assert that maya is a relative power or aspec t of the Absolute. Nagarjuna used the four-fold logic rejecting 'eternalism', nih ilism', both, or neither. Or, in laymens terms, it is, it isn t, it s both and neither . His principle purpose was to refute the nihilistic and eternalistic views of t he Hinayana Buddhists, who had corrupted the anatman doctrine as well as transce ndental absolutism of the Buddha. For the Hinayanists, there had come to be beli eved that there were no individual souls, but real objects. The Madhyamika view was that both the empirical self and objects were devoid of inherent existence. The question of whether there was an individual soul was left unanswered by the Buddhists, but the Hinayanists converted the doctrine of no fixed empiritcal sel f to mean no self or eternal essence of any kind. For Nagarjuna, however, there was a transcendental reality, it just wasn t as it usually seems. So while he deco nstructed the universe, using the argument of the Buddha that the universe is be ginningless and endless, and something that does not exist in the beginning nor in the end can have no existence in the middle either, therefore, the universe w as unreal (an argument also used by Guadapada), Nagarjuna was not content, contr ary to popular opinion, to leave it as simply negation (after all he was a great tantric adept who got much of his teachings from the Nagas) but added that the Real wasshivam, or pure bliss, and beyond all conceptual categories of the mind, w hat Buddha called pratityasamutpada or what he called as shunyata. The argument of the Buddha that there was no beginning and no ending, and the refore no middle, was stating negatively the Western counterpart that truth was in the beginning, middle, and end, i.e., therefore it is one, eternal. However, its advantage was that it voided the substantiality of both the ego and the obje ctive universe, and its realization leads to the indistinguishableness of emptin ess and compassion. Restating, use of the term shunyata or emptiness was particularly emphasized by Nagarjuna who used the term to describe the absolute as having the characterist ic of being empty or void of a self-nature or other eternally permanent characterist ics. All phenomena, even spiritual phenomena, are ultimately relatively fleeting manifestations in a stream of endless transformations . Emptiness can be considere d, therefore, a characteristic of existence because it points to the lack of an eternal substance distinguishing one thing from another, while it is also the na ture of the individual self. True actualized realization of these two yields a s eamless flow of blissful reality. Again, the appearance of essence , even self-esse nce, is actually temporary and changing. All that persists is the uncharacteriza ble absolute so the realization of the emptiness of all impermanent phenomena, eve n the self , is the same as the realization of its true nature, which is Buddha-nat ure (or the same as the Vedantic 'Self'). According to Buddhist metaphysics, the subtlest element or sixth skhanda is s elf, self-essence, or consciousness in this relative sense, sometimes actually e quated with the discriminative part of mind or buddhi (4a). Although it is the s ubtlest, most universal and apparently enduring (of the nature of 'clear light') , it, too, is one of the conditioned elements and is therefore part of samsara o r transitory phenomena. [However, in some places, such as the Saddha-tu-Sutta, t his sixth skhanda is termed vijnana, andis considered as consciousness in its tr ue sense, and not subject to change or death, so one needs to read these texts w ith some understanding]. The Buddha said There is, monks, something which is neit

her earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air, neither boundless space, nor boundless consciousness . . That is why, too, the Buddha taught the doctrine of anatta or anat man, or non-atman, which is essentially the teaching that Nirvana is not to be c onfused with the jiva-atman or spiritual self (atma or atman in the theosophical and not the Vedantic sense). Beyond all elements (which in early Buddhist philo sophy there are actually seven: four with form and three formless) is Emptiness or Voidness, which is the context for all phenomena and their ultimate nature. T he term Emptiness in this ultimate sense, therefore, does not mean that reality or nondual is missing or lacking something, only that its nature is so transcend ent that it is not possible to attach any limiting label or characteristic to it . This negative formulation or method of description is typically Buddhist. The Buddha and Nagarjuna chose this method because assigning a positive characterist ic tends to have connotations of limitation. For example, 'the 'absolute' may su ggests lack of an ongoing process'; 'Brahma' may mean that perfection is here al ready, and 'God', well, that is a whole other ballgame - more conceptual limitat ion. So they settled on emptiness, or shunyata, which has no boundaries, yet is not nothing but no-thing, which is not really empty, but indescribable fullness, which is also called nothing! Get it? It is empty of conditional or limiting char acteristics, yet is the very ground or substance of all phenomena. Like any other name for the transcendent reality, of course, it is inherently limited and has s trengths and weaknesses when considered only conceptually or outside of a life o f practice. Such practice yields more and more the characteristic of life as lik e a dream, which is a sign that one is getting closer to the reality (not that y ou can get closer to reality, or that life is a dream); it is an experience that one can have that in itself produces as a byproduct a sense of calm and relief from the dukkha associated with separate existence. Just a few words on dukkha. This is a Buddhist version of a common idea in ma ny traditions of an existential core pain or 'wound' of separation - the root wo und or pain at the essence of all dualistic experience. This root pain is at the foundation off all relativity, and is embedded in every being, every form, ever y elemental, every atom and subatomic particle. As the Buddhist's would say, eve ry 'being' and 'element' of samsara is fundamentally rooted in impermanence and dukkha. This comes to full expression and consciousness in beings such as humans who experience their relative existence with self-consciousness, though dualist ic consciousness pervades all relativity in some form. So no being or particle o f relativity is not rooted in this core existential reality of dukkha or dualist ic pain. Even if one attains trance samadhi, they will return to a personality t hat is still not fully liberated from this core pain. If they go further and ach eive sahaja samadhi, then their state of 'ordinary awareness' will have been lib erated from this 'core wound', but the remaining karma of their relative nature, as well as the very particles of nature that make up their lower bodies, will s till be tainted with this 'core' pain, though now deeply illumined and embraced by the sahaja presence of the liberated soul that dwells within. According to va rious tantric paths as well as Dzogchen, if the individual goes further in profo undly integrating this nondual state with the relative bodies, they will finally be so deeply and thoroughly liberated from the core pain of dualism that even t he very elements that make up the lower nature will be fully embraced in this st ate, which will result in 'the rainbow body' or 'light body'. This world will no t be able to understand and relate to such a being, and so, from the point of vi ew of those still too identified with this world, such a being will appear to no longer exist here. But that is not really true. They 'didn't go anywhere'. They , including their 'bodies', down to its very cells, are just no longer condition ed by the dualism and the core pain or dukkha of relativity/separation. The purpose of emptiness teachings is to help one know this dukkha without a doubt as inherent in one's dualistic constitution and be able to lessen its grip . This takes time, with many vicissitudes and trials along the way. It requires a revolution in the innate way one perceives oneself and the world. It is not ju st a self-contained intellectual exercise.

The true meaning of the 'Middle Path' was not just the avoidance of the extre mes of asceticism, etc., but avoiding the extremes or polarities of sat and asat (being and non-being), one and many, eternalism and nihilism, purity and impuri ty, as well as avoiding the 'middle' also. Nagarjuna was not a nihilist, agnosti c, positivist, or sceptic; he was a spiritual absolutist who accepted a nondual, unlimited, unalloyed blissful Nirvana free of all thought-constructs and not ju st the negative elimination of suffering. Asanga called it pure self (shuddhatma ), universal self (mahatma), and highest self (paramatma). So for all this empha sis on negation the Buddhists also assigned positive terms to reality. Which is only natural as the Buddhist roots are essentially found in the ancient Vedas, s ame as the Hindus. Simply put emptiness is a (non) position between the extremes of "everything exists independently', and 'nothing exists'. It is the absence of all conceptual viewpoints, and, as such, points to reality itself. However, don't think one ca n get to this position of the Zen and advaitic paradoxes, which belong to the en d of the path, not its beginning, without honoring and passing through the primo rdial or archypal forms of the mind representing the intermediate levels of prac tice. It is easy to confuse intellectual understanding with realization. It follows from this, however, that bondage and liberation, samsara and nirva na are also, in a sense, unreal. And if bondage is unreal, the attainment of Nir vana, or moksha for the vedantists, is also only an appearance. Time, space, cau sation, self, object, difference, identity are all constructions of thought whic h are due to avidya. However, for practical purposes we must accept that Nirvana points to what is real. The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking. If y ou will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as ordinary and Enlightened, illusion will cease of itself. And then if you still want to destroy it wherever it may be, you will find that there is not a hairsbreadth left of anything on w hich to lay hold. This is the meaning of: I will let go with both hands, for then I shall certainly discover the Buddha in my mind. - Huang Po (5) Coming at this from a different angle, anadi points to reality as what he cal ls 'absolute objectivity.' While it is generally considered that there is no sub ject without object, for effect and to make a point the following analogy holds well and is consistent with our definitions of Emptiness when meant as Reality a nd not an empty void : "In the discipline of hard science, the term 'subjective experience' generall y denotes an experience that is relative in nature, and there-fore cannot be obj ectively described or confirmed. In contrast, the term 'objective experience' si gnifies an occurrence that is factually verifiable, and as such, independent of our individual experiences or opinions. The 'subjective observer' is therefore s een as an impediment to empirical analysis. However, in the science of spiritual ity, the subjective essence is understood to lie far deeper than the relative su bjectivity of the mind and personality. Our true subjectivity is in fact absolut ely 'objective' because it reflects the eternal light of universal I am." "Despite the fact that in the language of meditation and consciousness the te rm 'objective' usually points to something external to I am, we should not assum e that the reality of objects and appearances is in existential opposition to pu re subjectivity. This is true only in the case of an unconscious person in whom the light of subjectivity is lost in ignorant identification with phenomenal exi stence. When pure subjectivity is fully realized it transcends the polarity of i nner and outer, containing them both in the space of all-pervasive oneness. Ulti mately, there is only one reality nothing exists outside of all-that-is." (5a)

[Note: within 'all-that-is' Anadi distinguishes between the 'I am' and the 'u niversal I AM'; he, so to speak, asks us to imaginatively posit a transcendental 'relationship' of 'subject-Subject' between soul and God. Absolute Subjectivity and Objectivity are not separate. The soul is not itself consciousness, per se, but has consciousness. Similarly, all-that-is also includes consciousness. See Dual Non-Dualism for more on his teaching, which is different than standard adva ita or other nondual schools] For the Vedantists, the indescribability of Brahman doesn t means absolute indescr ibability , but only indescribability as either real or unreal, both, or neither, which itself brings out the self-contradictory nature of avidya, and as such is its very merit, not a defect. The Vedantins found the shuyavada of its day as re garding everything including consciousness as indefinable and unreal and therefo re relational and false; the Vedantins, however, considered Consciousness as pur e, eternal, nondual, self-shining, the undeniable foundation of Reality. In essence, the Madhyamika method of negation of the not-self was much like t hat of the Vedantins, in an attempt to get at the underlying essence of Reality. They employed a four-fold logic much as did Guadapada: not this, not that, not bo th nor neither. The chief difference in the two schools was that the Vedantins w ere not averse to pronouncing this substratum as the Self, in a positive sense, through the use of Maha Vakyas , such as Thou art That , I Am Brahman , etc., whereas the early Buddhists had only seen the absence of a fixed empirical self and fell in to nihilism, which the Madyamika teachings were designed to correct. By calling the Nirvanic truth - the original Absolutism of the Buddha - Emptiness , it was not meant to imply that Ultimate Reality was an experiential Void, or a separate st ate to be known. Rather, emptiness meant the deconstruction of the empirical self into its constituent elements, or five skhandas, revealing its relative absence or void-nature, with the Reality Itself to be revealed as the obvious [neverthel ess, this reality was also sometimes referred to as the Great Void or Emptiness] . This, however, for the Buddhists, was not just a philosophic exercise in discr imination, but,as mentioned above, was to be accompanied by many practical and s piritual disciplines and meditations (indeed, four meditations (dhyanas), four m editative joys (Brahma-viharas), three higher meditations (samadhi) six excellen ces (paramitas), whereas for the Vedantin, the same was achieved through the phi losophic discipline and the transmission of the adept or rishi. It has been deba ted whether yoga meditation was a necessary adjunct of this or not (see The Ques tion of the Importance of Samadhi in Modern and Classical Advaita Vedanta]. Howe ver, to set to rest any doubt that qualifications were required to engage in ved antic study under a master, Sankara says, in his commentary to the Kena Upanisha d: "The concentration of the body, the sense, and the mind are the means, for it is found that the knowledge of Brahman arises in a man who has attained the req uisite holiness by means of purification of the heart through these. Knowledge,a s imparted by the Vedas, dawns on one whose mind has been purified by concentrat ion, etc., either in this life or in many past ones, as mentioned by the Vedic v erse: 'These things get revealed when spoken to that high-souled man who has sup reme devotion towards the Effulgent One, and the same devotion to the teacher as to the Effulgent One' (Sv, VI.23). And this is borne out by the Smrti, 'Knowled ge dawns on a man on the eradication of sinful acts.' (Mbh,Sa. 204.8)." (6) This Upanishad, somewhat like the Buddhists, also suggested that consciousnes s was a relative term. In commenting on the verse, "Brahman is consciousness," S ankara states: "Truly this is so. But even so, that aspect is indicated by such words as con sciousness, not from the intrinsic point of view, but merely with reference to t he limiting adjuncts - mind, body, and senses..But in reality, the conclusion wi

ll be: 'unknown to those who know well, and known to those who do not know.' (7) Thus Sankara, too, points to the transcendental absolute as beyond the catego ries of thought and conception. Nagarjuna, as mentioned, not wanting to be left with no pointer to the absolu te, conceeded that it s attribute was bliss. However, the Madyamikas held to the v iew of the world as neither real nor unreal, but transcendental illusion; the ea rlier Buddhists a nihilistic shunya; whereas advaita held that reality cannot be the negation of an illusion, and that maya therefore essentially didn t exist as other than Brahman. Maya was basically a concession to a lesser point of view th at insisted on a causal relation between the absolute and the relative, but from the ultimate point of view, both of these are categories of the mind. Thus, empt iness and manifestation were meant to be seen as two polarities within relativity, on the principle that something cannot (causally) come out of nothing. Those who e nvision the great Void as the pregnant womb from which all manifestation is born are involved in relative languaging and choosing one side of two relative polar ities. The term Emptiness , however, is also used by some schools of Buddhism to me an the Ultimate Reality itself, beyond all polarities. As such, to repeat (and I realize there has already been quite a bit of repetition, but that is all right and in fact an ancient teaching method!), it is not really an experiential void , although such a state, devoid of distinguishing characteristics, is realizable in meditative trance as nirvikalpa or nirodha. But emptiness is indistinguishab le from fullness, and as such is beyond all concepts. The Void and Emptiness PB wrote: The Void must not be misunderstood. Although it is the deepest state of medita tion and one where he is deprived of all possessions, including his own personal self, it has a parallel state in the ordinary active non-meditative condition, which can best be called detachment...After all, even the Void, grand and awesom e as it is, is nothing but a temporary experience, a period of meditation...The awareness of what is Real must be found not only in deep meditation, in its tran ce, but when fully awake. It is not the annihilation of being but the fullness of being. That which is called the Void, Emptiness, is not the total annihilation of all things, but the total lack of that matter of which they were supposed to be com posed. As applied to a meditative state, he says: The Void is not a mere nothing as ordinarily meant; nor is it something the mi nd can hold for unlimited periods. But as denoting the ineffable Reality, he writes: The Void is the state of Mind in repose, and the appearance-world is its (in)a ctivity. [In other words, the Void-Mind doesn t do anything; the appearance is not d ifferent from the Void. There is no causal relation between them]. At a certain stage of their studies, the seeker and the student have to discriminate between both in order to progress; but further progress will bring them to understand th at there is no essential difference between the two states and Mind is the same in both. In a precise scientific sense, the Void is beyond explanation since it is not

really a Void at all. It is a perpetual paradox. On the one hand there is the emptiness of the Void, on the other had there is the fullness of the cosmos which comes into being to occupy it. (8) PB makes this point in a different way in the following quote: "The absence of the ego is the presence of the Overself. But this is only a s urface impression in the person's thought, for the Overself is always present." (9) Huangbo Xiyun stated: People are scared to empty their minds fearing that they will be engulfed by the void. What they don't realize is that their own mind is the void. And the great Hui-neng himself said: "The world should be transcended right in this world Do not depart from this world To seek the transcendent world outside." (9a) In other words, 'nothing truly 'hides' Reality'! (10) Further, PB here points out that the true displacing element upon ego-transcendance is not, as is commo nly presumed among nondual teachings, directly the ultimate reality or the 'One, but the divine Soul (or Overself), which, too, is of the nature of 'void' or 'e mpty', while not the deepest principle of 'Emptiness' Itself meant as the Absolu te. [More on this important distinction is discussed in PB versus Advaita on the Soul found on this website]. So, Buddhists and Advaitins, do not be too quick t o dismiss the notion of soul or a higher individuality as merely ego! So one can see that the Void, Emptiness, Shunyata, MInd, Reality is always th e case, whether one experiences a relative void, the so-called Void as Mind-in-rep ose, or any of the states of manifestation. As such it is beyond duality and nonduality or any such conceptualization (have I said it enough?), as Dattatreya pro claims in his Avadhuta Gita: The whole Without any The idea of Duality and The

universe is shining as One, split or break, or separate parts. 'Maya' is itself the great delusion; Non-duality are merely concepts of the mind.

empty Void' as void or nothing is also

empty . Thus, one comes to Reality.

Adyashanti beautifully states: "To find out that you are empty of emptiness is to die into an aware mystery, which is the source of all existence. It just so happens that that mystery is i n love with all of its manifestation and non-manifestation." (11) PB also said: "He enters into the mastery of philosophy when he not only sees its truth but also feels it fully and loves it deeply." (12) He who thinks that the nature of emptiness, the void or ultimate reality is d ry and lifeless needs to think again. While the way through the desert of unders tanding may be like that at times, IT itself is not like that! Rather, it is hom

e. Modern dilemmas about emptiness, and some thoughts on Nirguna/Saguna, and non -duality Let's put this in another context. Adyashanti said that the spiritual types a re often more afraid of the world than the spirit. There may be many reasons for this: lifetimes of seeking based on the belief that the world is the source of illusion and bondage; a culture that does not welcome one into the world as infi nite being-consciousness; a heightened sense of mortality, a wounded ego or psyc he. In order to fully embrace the world in a non-dual way, therefore, the seeker must have the realization of himself as infinite consciousness or emptiness. Ot herwise, the fear of involvement and pain of limitation will always be there, ev en if unconscious. Getting 'stuck' in emptiness can, however, lead to a form of dissociation. On the other hand, those more apparently successful in the world, but without realizing emptiness, also remain in some degree dissociated and not fully in their bodies or heart. Neither, it might be said, are living from a con dition of 'basic sanity'. Some spiritual teachings 'permit' or allow the ego to exist, while basically considering it irrelevant and unreal: they say, "forget all 'personal stories', desires, fears, thoughts, and dreams, they are illusion." However, while this is a bit better, it gets even more subtle: know only consciousness, and don't reje ct the world, but absorb the world in consciousness - sounds like classic sahaja . But at all costs, however, don't be sullied by actually experiencing oneself a live in a world of limitation and relating to others whom one might not be famil iar with in a relative sense rather than just seeing them all as the 'non-dual S elf'! This can still be a form of self-protection and hinder a truly integrative non-dual actualization. PB emphasizes this 'dynamic' second half of the emptiness equation: A good deal of achievement goes on in the silent solitude of our own hearts, u nnoticed and unknown toother men; one day it blossoms into irresistable action, and then the world wonders why. "We fulfil life when we find ourselves in the divine presence unendingly, awa re of it and expressing it. (13) We also suggest this view of things. In this understanding we posit indescrib able Brahman, as the absolute or ultimate, and in which there are relative (Sagu na) polarities: consciousness/phenomena (maya), emptiness/manifestation, imperso nal/personal, etc.. Thus, the realization of emptiness and its inseparability fr om phenomena is a form of non-duality - but still a 'Saguna' or relative form, w ith attributes like 'Sat-Chit-Ananda. Nirguna non-duality transcends these chara cterizations. It is both empty and full, and neither empty nor full. Nirguna has no attributes. Some teachers superimpose 'unmanifest' on Nirguna Brahman. This is one of the most common errors that many nondual philosophers fall into. Nondu al 'experiences' can come in all kinds of flavors, being conditioned by the rela tive aspects of a person's nature. For it is their relative 'self' which focaliz es this realization within relativity as a 'nondual awakening' or realization or whatever. So that relative self, in its many layers, will necessarily condition how the nondual is experienced. So sometimes it will feel full, sometimes voidlike, sometimes blissful, sometimes sublimely cool, sometimes transcendent, some times immanent. And all of these are 'true' and facets of a realization that inc ludes and transcends them all. So it is not unmanifest. That would be more dual ism. Nirguna is simply not describable in human terms and has no attributes. This

would be true emptiness or Shunyata, the Tao, and only experienced (a relative a nd inadequate word) in glimpses until a high degree of relative actualization of the non-dual vision is achieved. By this is meant becoming more and more refine d and integrative of the non-dual vision with subtler and subtler states of the body-mind - either within or without the body - with more and more universal spi ritual qualities like love, compassion, discrimination, and the like becoming pa rt of one's character. This is to begin to live a form of 'enlightened duality' as a bridge to non-duality. In Sufism it is being available to the grace of a ma ster or other liberating presence, and inculcating the virtues, each of which fo rm a 'spiritual station', which is a permanent advance of the soul. It is also w hat is meant by embodying the Christ Consciousness, which exists in both individ ual and cosmic forms, as both one's inner conscience and guide (the higher perso nality) and as a universal enlightening presence within relativity. Even Sri Nis argadatta seemed to be of a mind with this: There is a power in the universe working for enlightenment and liberation. We call it Sadashiva, who is ever present in the hearts of men. It is the unifying factor. Unity - liberates. Freedom - unites. Ultimately nothing is mine or yours - everything is ours. Just be one with yourself and you will be one with all, a t home in the entire universe. (14) [What is interesting is that Maharaj s teaching here sounds much like Christian ity when it speaks of the true light that lighteth every man who cometh into this world , and that it suggests there is a liberating presence or power within relativit y, call it Logos, Cosmic Christ, Adi Buddha, Masters, Archangels, the Overself, etc., that is a helping bridge beyond relativity. Moreover, there is a we implied in the phrase 'everything is ours , and where there is a we there must be an I or form of individuality hiding out also, or, at the very least, it is an open question . So much for the simple absolute beyond consciousness or a solid block of reality t hat Nisargadatta is famous for !] What we are taking about is basically that aspect of the soul, personal and u niversal, which seeks enlightenment or liberation, to be of service, etc.. At th e highest levels of relative existence one's soul becomes in touch with what in many traditions is called Spirit (i.e., Atman) and becomes even more impersonal and universal and, being less veiled, imbibes the essence of the non-dual more d irectly. All spiritual traditions have this intermediate phase, means, and metho ds, bridging the relative and the absolute. All of the planes and bodies of mani festation are illusion from the standpoint of Maya, but reality from the side of the Absolute. The process is, in relativity, of actualizing the Absolute or non -dual. For most, it is a gradual process. There are relative laws which must be respected and also embraced within non-dual understanding. One more thing. Some schools maintain that non-duality has to be united, merg ed, fused, or integrated with duality. This can cause problems. Various stages o f spiritual awakening, beyond the stage of awakening to even a little degree to the reality of the nondual, are really just, stage to stage, unfolding realizati on of the 'true' nature of the nondual. It does not require integrating or uniti ng nonduality with anything, as some schools suggest. That is just another expla nation of what nonduality already means. Nonduality inherently integrates every conceivable polarity, including our own belief or experience that it is somehow different from anything else. So, for instance, if we have an internal nirvikalp a realization, then that is a type of nondual realization, but if our experience of it includes a sense that it is away from the physical world, or requires neg ating or transcending Relativity to experience, or that it makes us special, or that it is on another plane, and so on and so forth, then it is a limited versio n of nondual realization. Then, as we gradually ripen the realization, nondual r ealization 'integrates' with everything, not because it in itself needs to be in tegrated, united, brought down, or infused. But because our realization of the t rue nature of nonduality grows, it is experienced as doing all these things. But

it is not. That is our story of how we are understanding what we think is happe ning based on our current level of realization of what nonduality is. But it is all just unfoldment of nondual realization. Imo, any belief or experience otherw ise is a misunderstanding of nondualism. For instance, there is no need to unite nonduality with anything. The nondual is already nondual and not separate from 'duality'. The perception of nonduality as needing to be balanced with duality i s a misunderstanding of the nature of the nondual. This is potentially a huge pr oblem, and has a domino effect that can cause flaws in the rest of any such syst em. Much more could be said on this, as it is fundamental to an integral vision o f spirituality. Emptiness, illusion, and non-duality in Islam It is not only Buddhism and Vedanta that have their versions of emptiness or maya. It exists in Sufism as well. Rumi often sided with those who spoke of anni hilation of self: "Dear heart, where do you find the courage to seek the Beloved when you know He has annihilated so many like you before? I do not care, said my heart, my onl y wish is to become one with the Beloved." Medieval sage Ibn Al' Arabi, however, in a passage as eloquent as anything fr om Advaita, tells us that the experience of Truth is veritably non-dual and not a form of monism, with a radical naughting of the individuality not required: "If you know yourself as nothing, then you truly know your Lord. Otherwise, y ou know him not. You cannot know your Lord by making yourself nothing. Many a wi se man claims that in order to know one's Lord one must denude oneself of the si gns of one's existence, efface one's identity, finally rid oneself of one's self . This is a mistake. How could a thing that does not exist try to get rid of its existence?...If you think that to know Allah depends on your ridding yourself o f yourself, then you are guilty of attributing partners to Him - the only unforg ivable sin - because you are claiming that there is another existence besides Hi m, the All-Existent: that there is a you and He...Our Master, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), said: He who knows himself knows his Lord. He did not say: He who eliminates himself knows his Lord! (15) Shaikh Mawlay Al Arabi ad Darqawa confirms Ibn 'al' Arabi's insight: "Extinction also is one of thine attributes. Thou art already extinct, my bro ther, before thou art extinguished and naught before thou art annihilated. Thou art an illusion in an illusion and a nothingness in a nothingness. When hadst th ou Existence that thou mightest be extinguished?" (16) One only feels the needs to get rid of something if he believes it is real. T he ego is in the category of being neither real nor not real, therefore, to try to get rid of it is a fruitless, yet paradoxical, task. It is a trick of the ego to convince you to try to get rid of it, but it is also a trick of the ego to c onvince you not to try to get rid of it! Neither side is right; better to embrac e and transcend while also trying to develop and perfect it, as PB and others ha ve advised. For the Sufi, the mystery is not as simple a matter as rejecting illusion and affirming reality, as the illusion is an important aspect of the soul becoming conscious of Itself - the search for the 'hidden jewel of the divine treasure'. It was an illusion for Arabi, however, to think that one was ever separate from God, for we would have no being or consciousness if we were truly apart from or

other than the Reality. Called a 'son of Plato' for his indebtedness to neo-Plat onic philosophy, he believed in the Oneness of Being-Perception and also the Cre ative Imagination of the Intellectual, which is the closest he got to a concept of maya. W.J. Austin writes: "Thus, ultimately, whether we throw ourselves into the infinite ocean of cosm ic "illusion," in conformity with the all-creating Will, or whether we annihilat e our identity in the absolute truth of His identity, in conformity with the all -commanding Wish, we can never be, in reality, other than the Real, on pain of a bsurdity." "[Arabi] said, "It is part of the perfection of being that there is imperfect ion in it." (17) Therefore we are not the first to suggest such an expansive form of non-duali ty. Thoughts on the ego and emptiness The growing consensus, then, seems to be that the ego and/or personality is a nd/or must be wedded to consciousness from which it has apparently divorced itself for a true existence to be actualized. It is too easy to say that the ego is 'e mpty', for what is it exactly? An "I"-thought? A 'bunch of thoughts'? A 'fire-br eathing dragon'? What is its function? Is it really only negative and illusion? anadi writes: "Many seekers are confused and not able to comprehend the apparent paradox of transcending the ego without annihilating it. In Buddhist psychology, there is a concept of so called five skandhas. This concept is missing the elemental unde rstanding that our body-mind operates as an alive and coherent organism of intel ligence in a purposeful and meaningful way. The ego cannot be found anywhere as such, for the one looking for it - is the ego. it is too close to be found, but certainly it is always there." "The ego-personality not only participates and promotes the shift of our bein g into the deeper dimensions of reality, from the state of presence to resting i n the Absolute, but it also allows us to comprehend our post-Enlightenment situa tion. Enlightenment is not the end of our growth. The understanding of the Enlig htened state and its relation to the ego as well as to the manifested reality is constantly evolving. The ego and Enlightened state co-exist in a very interesti ng way - they relate to each other...Even after realization, the ego and our ess ence are in a very rich and dynamic relationship - they are simultaneously prese nt." "Those masters who claim that they have no ego, prove to have a certain psych ological ignorance; or they're using the term in an improper way. They are most likely victims of certain idealistic, linear and simplistic logic. The transcend ental logic embracing the apparent paradox (the co-existence of the ego and the egoless state), goes beyond this simple logic in the apperception of the truth w hich is not conceptual but alive. The goal of Enlightenment is not to eliminate the ego, but to enlighten it. How could we possibly enlighten it if we deny its very existence? To enlighten the ego is to create within the personal intelligen ce a clear understanding that our personality, with all its limitations, and our timeless essence, is an indivisible, dynamic whole. It is here that the humilit y, intelligence and the highest spiritual realization meet. Ego, the operative center of our personality, even after melting with the Source, must face this ne ver-ending challenge of fulfilling the dynamic balance between its participation in the manifested reality and of resting in the Absolute. The absolute dimensio

n and human perspective are truly one. But although they are one, they give birt h to one another in the continuous process at arriving at wholeness." (18) So, this debate about the ego and the faculty of reasoning has been going on a long time. Rumi decried reason as taking one to hell. Ibn Arabi, on the other hand, felt that, in its proper use, Reason along with what he called Imaginatio n could (along with a few other things, like the virtues, devotion, etc.) take o ne to the Intellectual or the Nous, the World-Mind. But, practically speaking, w hy do we have a problem, especially with the ego? Here is another way of looking at it. We are first born, according to the Sufis, into the stage of egotism, where e verything is about 'me': food, sustenance, comfort, etc.. We may at first, it is true, as the psychologists say, have no sense of existence apart from the mothe r, and then explore the outside world, and only at age two or so experience the arisal of a self-referral in the mind, but it is still 'all about me'. We gradua lly learn to reason and discriminate and appreciate the presence of others and a world outside of ourself. In this necessary evolutionary stage we are really e xpanding, but also generally lose something precious: not only contact with the 'angelic realms', but also our innate love of ourselves. Therefore we hold on ti ghter to what we feel will fill that sensed hole or lack or emptiness. Our woun ded ego develops or continues its age-old habits: 'bad' ones, and also efforts t o 'become good'. Traditionally the path has then been portrayed as a battle agai nst lower tendencies: vasanas, 'nafs' in Sufism, 'the mind is the slayer of the real', and all that. And there is good reason for this: blind identification wit h phenomenal reality is binding and painful. So we are told to identify with Spi rit and get rid of the "I", or find a bigger "I". Unconsciously we first take to that quest as a way to fill the emptiness, not realizing we must at some point go into it in order to become human. This understanding is given in most mature paths, but the ego finds ways to co-opt the understanding for its own sake. However, realizing that emptiness, that consciousness, is still only half-way to completion. We must then integrate that with the world to become whole. Some will say thay there is nothing to integrate, for their is no separation to begi n with. They would negate all yoga, meditation, and the path itself. They are en titled to their point of view. But we choose to be practical. The others will sa y that it is they who are being practical. So be it. In any case, this can be a long haul, or somewhat shorter if we can embrace both sides simultaneously: Over self/consciousness and self/ego, which is not necessarily easy, because of a lac k of self-love in a positive sense, and lack of a supportive culture in which to have such reflected back to us. To some extent that is changing, thank God. We do need a base in consciousness to have the real well-being to so embrace the wo rld, however, so until that is stabilized and integrated there is an inevitable battle, to some extent, with both our old self-centeredness, and also with allow ing the more positive side of the ego to exist. So, we in our fear run from exis tential emptiness, but it is that emptiness that not only allows everything to b e, but its realization allows us in human terms to embrace the relative world in a real, living way. The ego, therefore, as ego, is certainly 'empty' of inherent existence, but i t has real relative existence as a function, not just of division but of intelli gence; it is also inseparable from the 'emptiness' of consciousness, as Soul, of which it is a projection, which in turn is inseparable from the 'emptiness' of Ultimate Reality. PB argues that the ego is 'a bunch of thoughts around a fixed but empty cente r' (the latter in this reference being the higher self), from which it - the "I" - gets its sense of reality, and as such, in itself, the ego is empty and imper manent, as the Buddhists argue. Yet as a projection of the Soul it is also what, in a paradoxical sense, gets enlightened, after maturation and balancing of the

functions of feeling, thinking, and willing and their fusion into a superior fa culty he calls 'insight'. In an enigmatic passage he speaks, upon realization, o f it as being none other than 'the presence of the World-Mind in one's own Heart '. So it is not so easily pinned down. It can be said to be both the "I"- though t and the "I"-feeling, and functioning on multiple planes of being as an emanant of the Soul. It is phenomenally empty inasmuch as it is subject to interdepende nt origination (to be discussed shortly), but also derives its existence from th e noumenal 'emptiness' of consciousness. This needs additional discussion, which will be touched on here and also in t he article "Maya is 'Maya'." In the philosophy of PB and Plotinus, things are de scribed in this way. This is highly conceptual, but an outcome of revelation of two great sage for our benefit. Hold it lightly, but try to understand. There ar e three higher principles constituting Reality, for Plotinus the One, the Intell ectual Principle or Nous, and the Absolute Soul. For PB they are Mind, World-Min d, and Overself. The Intellectual Principle or Divine Intellect or World-Mind (t hought of as a One-in-Many) projects a World-Idea through the Absolute Soul (con sidered as a One-and-Many, that is, a 'mother' principle of Soul or Overself) an d countless individual Souls; none of the three Hypostases are separable in trut h, but represent distinct Principles nevertheless. All three together are of the nature of Voidness. However, it is more complex than just that. The Void-Mind o r Emptiness characteristic of the Nous contains not only the principle of Soul o r consciousness but a divine emanation or World-Idea that is projected through e ach individual Soul, becoming the sensible world. The Soul, simultaneously, whil e eternal and one, an undivided whole of infinite consciousness-intelligence (or Mind as the Buddhists refer to it) is nevertheless a 'unit Mind, as it is Many while also One, projects a ray of itself into that World-Idea (which is within i tself) in order to experience that World-Idea in a particular way. The purpose i s to gather experience and know itself in an individual way. Thus, the principle of non-duality is maintained, but the practicality of human experience is admit ted. The Soul, then, has a higher part (although it is really unpartable), and a lower part, its emanation, that conjoins with a body which is part of that Worl d-Idea and the two together constitute the ego. Thus, the ego is not just an ins tant to instant flux of tendencies as the Buddhists define it, but a conjoint of consciousness and content, which content is a projection of the World-Mind or N ous. Without the light of consciousness the ego would not exist. So it is a stra nge thing, not easily dispensed with. It grows and matures over eons of time. It is only a problem when it takes itself to be separate from the whole. So, the e go is 'empty' as 'ego', but the sense of 'I' that we associate with it comes fro m the higher knower within, which is the lower phase of the Soul which may be sa id to incarnate. It, too, is void, but in a different sense, because void here m eans reality or consciousness, not the ever-changing content. Both together cons titute our true being. And neither is ever separated from the other. It is all v ery paradoxical because, as mentioned, the World-Idea is within the Soul while a ray of the Soul enters or associates with that very World-idea within it! We wi ll return to this concept of the three Hypostases in the section of this article entitled "Levels of Emptiness'. PB also makes reference to it in terms of the issue of free will. Our true fr eedom lies with the ego's alignment with the higher power or universal intellige nce: "Where is man's free will? He is free to choose whether he will conform to th e pattern of the World-Idea, whether he will obey or not obey the higher laws." "What he wills in his highest moments is both a free act and a necessary act. In these moments the conflict vanishes, the paradox appears. In them alone the ego attains its fullest power yet falls also into complete powerlessness." (19) This issue of the ego is explored in more detail in the article, The Great Un

iqueness, on this website. Sankara's and Buddhist methodology: epistemic, not ontological negation Sankara's method of 'neti, neti' ( not this, not this ) is also often misundersto od. In it the sheaths or upadhis are supposedly rejected one by one as 'not-self ' in order to reach the Self. Guadapada, his predecessor, had often, in fact, as previously mentioned, been accused of being a 'crypto-Buddhist' as the dialecti c used by him was nearly identical to that of the Madhyamikas. However, the doct rine of the five sheaths in the Tittireya Upanishad, which forms part of the mat erial which Sankara drew from, never once mentioned negating a sheath as not rea l or as not-self. Rather, the method of analysis there was wholistic, in which o ne successively realized each sheath as the Self, incorporating each in turn wit hin the other, until nothing was known apart from the bliss of the Self. Sankara used a provisional negation, an epistemological method of negation, yes, as a f irst stage to find the self apart from the world, which some have interpreted as ontological negation, looking for an essence apart from that which was not real . But, in non-dual truth, there is no such separated essence per se, as nothing is not-real or known apart from the Self. The Self is the negation of a negation , realized in the second stage of the Vedantic approach where the world is known as Brahman. That is, Sankara would use 'neti neti' to strip away one's attachme nt to everything perceivable; then, when one had become so detached, he would as k one to reintroduce the negated elements into the one Self. "Brahman is real, t he jiva is mithya (neither real or unreal, that is, apparent or relatively real) , the jiva is Brahman' is how the formula actually read. The emphasis on 'neti n eti' was more on negating the limits on the Self rather than trying to negate or eliminate the world. For even after realization of the Self, the sage would sti ll see the world of duality like other men, only as not apart from the Self and this not objectively real in itself. Sometimes Ramana Maharshi, for instance, wo uld say things that implied that for the sage whose jiva-hood was gone there was no world, thus misleading some people into an incorrect view of non-dualism. A bhakti method, on the other hand, such as espoused by Anandamayee Ma, would say 'wohi, wohi' ('all is He') rather than 'neti,neti'. Either way works in the end. [As mentioned above, we still have to solve the conundrum of whether the Self , Atman, and Brahman are the same, or not. The Vedantic traditions are confusing . This is discussed at greater length in The Primordial Ground: Part Two, and al so, once again, The Great Uniqueness on this website]. Sankara, then, like many teachers in different traditions, such as Dzogchen, for instance, used a two-phased approach, in which the ultimate realization was attained through a pinnacle shift and/or practice after certain preliminaries ha d been achieved. For Sankara, one endowed with dispassion, discrimination, menta l discipline (composed of six factors, including arguably the most important, sh raddha or faith in the words of the scriptures and the teacher), and a burning d esire for liberation, then went through a mental discipline. First the world is declared and analyzed as unreal (impermanent, or lacking inherent reality; mithy a), then Brahman is declared as the real (and sometimes experenced as such throu gh yogic trance, but not in 'pure' advaita), then Brahman is declared to be the world. [Supposedly this lets one see the jiva and world as none other than Brahm an also. The difference in phrasing is significant, because seeing the world as Brahman would imply actually living as if that were so. The usual Vedantin doesn 't really do this, but still somewhat holds back to avoid lingering 'contaminati on. More on that later]. This total procedure or method is said to yields a nond ual result. In the sutra forms of Buddhism, first one analyzes the five skhandas or aggregates in order to find the self as 'empty', which in turn must then als o be seen as empty - or real. In the more fast track school of Dzogchen, while o

ne is to have already engaged or embodied the preliminary or ngondro practices o f virtue, samatha ('calm abiding') and vipashyana (insight meditation), the 'int roduction to the view' or important transmission of the non-dual awareness (rigp a) is given at the start by the guru and becomes one s primary practice, self-liber ating' all conditions as they arise and as one more deeply integrates the nondua l vision. Thus, even here, as in traditional Vedanta, the role of the guru is es sential in transmitting truth. The Upanishad in this case essentially gave a positive declaration of Truth f rom the beginning, then an analysis of relativity. The Buddhist approach to a de gree is the reverse: first analyze relativity, then practise based on a vision o f truth (right view). The end result, however, is the same: a transcendental tru th beyond all categories of thought. It must be pointed out that the path of Vedanta does not negate the existence of the ordinary world, instead it has always given it a relative reality, just as do the Madhyamikas, who remain ontological idealists but empirical realists, insisting on reconciling the 'two truths' (absolute and relative), the law of ka rma or dependent origination, and emptiness, and the tendency of some non-dual t eachings to insist that there is no 'doer', or 'no one to do anything', can ofte n lead to confusion and spiritual stagnancy. One antidote to this potential prob lem of the popular 'awareness' teachings, are, in fact, the 'emptiness' teaching s, which are logical and practical in their investigations. As Greg Goode writes : "There are three main reasons for not refuting conventional existence. One i s that conventional existence, according to Middle Way Buddhism, is not the caus e of suffering. Therefore, there is no necessity to refute it. Two, not refuti ng conventional existence allows Buddhism to be able to speak with the world by ac cepting what the world accepts. Three, not refuting conventional existence provi des a way for Buddhism to present the Four Noble Truths and the eight-fold path to the end of suffering. Even though the Buddhist teachings are vast and profou nd teachings, they are still conventional existents. By not refuting convention al existence while indeed refuting inherent existence, Buddhism itself can tread the Middle Way between the extremes of existence. If conventional existence we re refuted along with inherent existence, the Buddhist path would not be possibl e since nothing would be said to exist. Refuting conventional existence would e rr on the side of nihilism. Retaining conventional existence avoids this extrem e." "On the other hand, if inherent existence were not refuted, then too the Budd hist path would not be possible. Inherently existent things are independent of everything and therefore causeless, untouchable and eternal. If things existed inherently, they would be forever frozen in place, and no change or progress alo ng the Buddhist path would be possible. Suffering entities would forever remain suffering entities. For Buddhism not to refute inherent existence would err on the side of eternalism. Avoiding both extremes is the Middle Way." (20) If one is established in the witness position he has achieved disidentificati on with himself as an 'entity'. Thus his self is seen as empty . Yet turning away f rom appearances or the world assumes that the appearances and the world are sepa rate from empty awareness (a primary dualism). It may be a necessary first step, getting established in the witness. But to go thus from knowing 'who' one is (t he dis-entificaton of consciousness) to knowing 'what' one is (embodied non-dual consciousness) take a further process. It may occur spontaneously, if the witne ss identification is strong (see Greg Goode on collapsing of the witness into no n-dual awareness), or it may take a passage through fear, followed by a radical letting go, as well as metaphysical understanding - or, for some, perhaps just a withering away of the search. It is the harder of the two steps, according to P B, and could take a long time after the exclusive inner self or witness is found

. The first advaitic step alone, stabilization of the true witness, is profound, and, as Anthony Damiani once forcefully told me, "could take you fifty years!" In other words, there is no time limit to it, and also no modern trick or techni que to fast-track one to rapid success. It is an individual matter, as profound as the fruition of the mentalistic discipline, the realization of the 'emptiness ' of objects or the 'de-objectification' of the external world, transforming age -old habits. And, for most of us, it cannot be done in a cave; we must learn swi mming in water. Taking emptiness teachings to heart This is because it is not merely an intellectual exercise, but one that requi res some effort, patience, endurance, feeling, and discrimination in daily life with all of its ups and downs, twists and turns. Therefore, it is said tradition ally that to be truly ready for emptiness teachings requires that one burst into tears at the mere mention of the word 'emptiness', or that its contemplation wi ll make ones 'hair stand on end'. The Dalai Lama has even said that if studying the teachings of emptiness doesn't at some point turn your world upside down one has not taken the teachings to heart. Traditionally, there was given a warning to disclosing such a teaching: "This profound subject should be taught to those who in the past have repeate dly established in their minds the propensity for understanding emptiness, and n ot to others. This is because, although those [others] may have managed to study the scriptures that teach emptiness, with their mistaken preconceptions about e mptiness, teaching it to them will be utterly useless. it is utterly useless bec ause some of them, those who have no expertise, refute emptiness and go to unfor tunate realms. Others, thinking that the meaning of emptiness is that phenomena do not exist, first generate the mistaken view that is nihilistic in regard to c ause and effect. Then, without turning away from this false view, it grows large r and larger until, as a result of this, they are reborn into the Avici Hell...O ne goes to Avici not only by having a nihilistic attitude in regard to emptiness , but also by having a nihilistic attitude in regard to cause and effect. A mult itude of reputable sutras and sastras all agree that to view causality as nonexi stent is the cause of losing the roots of all of one's merit, and is also the ca use of the degeneration of one's vows." ! (21) I consider this a scare tactic 'disclosure statement' for medieval Buddhist t eachers when speaking to many different levels of students! It is similar to tea ching to beginners that there is no separate self, before they have even exercis ed and inquired into such a self. In this day and age, however, such teachings c an no longer be held back. Nevertheless, in the Madhyamakavatara it states: "Even though still at the stage of ordinary beings, when [some people] study emptiness, they experience great rapture and wonderment internally. Arising from this great rapture, their eyes well with tears, and the hairs of their body sta nd on end. Those beings have the seed of the perfect Buddha's mind. They are the vessels to whom reality is to be taught. it is to them that the ultimate truth should be taught." (22) Combining Buddhism and Vedanta We should add that for 'awareness' teachings, Consciousness, being noumenal, is not refutable (unless one considers it to be a 'thing') and therefore it is c ompatible with the teachings of emptiness. Anthony Damiani argues that one must combine the viewpoints of both Vedanta and Buddhism, consciousness and emptiness to get a clear picture:

"Soul in its nature or essence is of an unchanging consciousness. The ego, wh ich is part of the World-Idea [a term used by PB. For a precise explanation of P B's terminology, which the reader will found scattered throughout this paper, pl ease click here], is constantly changing from moment to moment. You've got to ex plain that. You've got to explain the Buddhist position and the Vedantic positio n. One is a psychological one and the other is more metaphysical. Understand the nature of consciousness that the ego represents - that is from moment to moment , and that would be the Buddhist position. Understand the nature of the consciou sness which is always abiding, never changing, and that would be the Vedantic po sition. Now the two of them are together in every and any situation that you car e to think about....If we say that the World-Idea - the world and all the bodies in it - is the product of this Mind which, from instant to instant, is manifest ing this world, then body and the world have to be changing from moment to momen t. And we're speaking about consciousness. I'm speaking about this body which is manifesting from instant to instant. I'm speaking about consciousness manifesti ng from instant to instant. That means that my body is this consciousness manife sting instant to instant. Inside that - and this is a colloquialism - inside tha t is this light of the soul which doesn't change. This is the light, so to speak , that becomes aware of change. It itself is unchanging. And I've got these two things together." (23) Damiani argued that the arguments of Vedanta (i.e., Atman/Brahman, the Self) really should be combined with those of Buddhism (anatta or no-self) to gain a c omplete picture of truth. For the 'idealistic' view of Vedanta - whether the Sel f is asserted as per the method of the Vedas as the transcendental Reality to be known through direct insight and reliance on revealed scriptural pronouncements , or Maha Vakyas, and the jiva is considered to be phenomenal illusion, or wheth er it is proven through Reason using the method of affirmation and negation as p er Guadapada and Sankara - comes to the same ultimate conclusion as the more 're alistic' Buddhist analysis where the phenomenal self is investigated and found t o be impermanent leaving Nirvana as the transcendental Reality. Thus, Brahman of Vedanta and Nirvana of Buddhism point to the same truth. This somewhat analogou s to Parmenides and Heraclitus of ancient Greece, the former saying that everyth ing is always the same, and the latter saying that all is flux. One is speaking of the essence and one of the appearance. Because the anatta or 'no-self' doctrine of early Buddhism had given fuel to the doctrine of nihilism, however, which Buddha actually refuted, Sankara came a long with a mission of rejuvenating the earlier Brahmanical Vedanta and purifyin g India of such degenerated doctrines of Buddhism. While Buddha had been an impr ovement over the decadent state of Brahmanism, with its animal sacrifices and ex clusive God-idea of the priesthood, and for which the Buddha emphasized pure rea son and the cultivation of compassion, his neglect of religion left India bereft of guidance for the masses, and Buddhism did not take hold en masse there. Sank ara came along and achieved two goals at once, both reviving religion while also refreshing and streamlining advaita vedanta for the higher minds of his time an d for centuries to come. He was in agreement with many ideas of Buddhism, but co ntrary to critics did not borrow from them but took his ideas from the Sanatana Dharmic sources and his own genius. Because he didn't reject religion like Buddh a had, his work was farther-reaching within India. Still, for many centuries bot h Vedanta and Buddhism were talk side by side in the ancient university of Nalan da, until the latter's destruction by the Moguls. Sankara's formulation of Vedanta, like other paths, required the unerring gui dance of a competent realized teacher who has embodied the teachings and can dis passionately and impersonally transmit grace, in the appropriate time and manner , to each individual aspirant. It wasn't a do-it-yourself path. Moreover, for Sa nkara there was no fundamental difference between bhakti and jnana. He even desc ribed bhakti as devoted inquiry into the nature of the Self. In the introduction to the Kena Upanishad he writes:

"May my limbs, speech, vital force, eyes, ears, as also strength and all the organs, become well developed. Everything is the Brahman revealed in the Upanish ads. May I not deny Brahman; may not Brahman deny me. Let there be no spurning o f me by Brahman, let there be no rejection of Brahman by me. May all the virtues that are spoken of in the Upanishads repose in me who am engaged in the pursuit of the Self." (24) Who is the 'me' referred to by Sankara here?! Earlier, Nagarjuna, seminal figure in Mahayana Buddhism and "emptiness" teach ings also : "distinguished the easy way of Faith [or devotion, bhakti] from the hard way of Wisdom." (25) For those whose reasoning powers are limited in directly understanding emptin ess, he said that if they devotedly follow the teachings of the Tathagata (on im permanence, the noble eight-fold path, compassion, etc.) they will come to an un derstanding of it gradually by faith: "The self-arisen ultimate is to be understood by means of faith." (26) However, the essence of the direct path to liberation for the Mahayanists is the practice and understanding of emptiness or selflessness. This, however, can be misunderstood. Selflessness is ultimately also selfless, just as emptiness is empty. It is beyond categories of thought. That is why to speak of 'no-self' or 'the Self' are basically attempts to point towards the inconceivable, from with in relativity. It is difficult to speak of these things, and neither alternative adequately expresses the richness of truth. Each contains its own problems, and require the epistemological discipline, "how do you know?", for one to even beg in to understand. Combining emptiness teaching with Vedanta is also justified in order to answe r the inevitable question,"how does one know the skhandas are ever-changing and empty?" Vedanta says there has top be an unchanging knower to know this. If one objects, similar to the British philosopher David Hume and say that any such kno wer is itself 'empty' of self, an idea(s) only, then there is still the need for another knower which is unchanging in order to know that. Thus, 'emptiness' log ic will show the inherent interdependency of all phenomena, their lack of an inh erent self-existence, and therefore the non-existence of an inherently independe nt phenomenal self, while Awareness teachings will show the 'empty' or noumenal substratum of Consciousness in which phenomena simultaneously arise. Phenomena a re not conscious, but are the actualization of the World-Mind's World-Idea proje cted through the Soul or Consciousness, seated in the human heart, with which, u pon Realization, they are non-separate, including one's very body itself. Ultima tely, one comes full circle and realizes that all is non-dual Brahman, including the skhandas, ego, body, etc.. How to realize that condition? Ah, that is the m ost important thing, isn't it? We will touch on that, we must, but this is overa ll more of a philosophical essay to save the reader perhaps years of intellectua l slogging through various old traditions. A possible problem with awareness teachings is that their 'idealism' can lead to an avoidance of the world (but shouldn t) while emptiness teachings, not being so idealistic (since they view any mind, or consciousness, or substratum, as 'e mpty'), actually in a sense 'liberate' the world while asserting its non-inheren t reality, or reality only as dependently arising conditions or phenomena. One c an take then emptiness teachings as a path unto themselves - the Middle Way of M ahayana Buddhism, as taught by the Buddha, Nagarjuna, as well as the Dalai Lama - or as an aid to the second half of the quest as taught by PB, the first being

realization that one is consciousness, and the second being the realization of t he non-separate nature of that consciousness with the world of manifestation. Ei ther way or in combination one comes to selflessness, compassion, and non-dualit y. There is a tendency for those into non-dual teachings, after disidentifying w ith self, other, the body, and their story, to still cling to the notion of an a bsolute (as an object), and thereby dismiss or avoid the uniqueness of all thing s. This is the old error of which in Zen they call being a 'one-eyed monster'; t hat is, holding to a One absolute by negating or avoiding the Many, rather than seeing the One in the Many and the Many in the One. In other words, one rejects the object, then the subject, and then the void or sunyata (!), finally re-enter ing life free of all discriminations. As they say in Zen, finally 'rivers are ri vers and mountains are mountains" again. Untangling terminology among Tibetan schools There is room in the traditions for some confusion, for different Buddhist sc hools speak of dependent origination and emptiness in different ways. For instance, the Gelugpas say the mind is impermanent, while the Kagyupas and Nyingmapas say it is permanent. There is no contradiction, because the former is speaking of th e relative mind in the world of objects, while the latter means the absolute min d beneath or behind objects. The mind in this instance is the same as the Self of the Vedantins. Similarly, the Gelugpas refer to everything as subject to dependen t origination, while the Kagyupas and Nyingmapas do not. For them, absolute real ity is beyond dependent origination, for Reality does not arise from ignorance. Again, merely a conceptual difference [sometimes it is called 'dependent origina tion', and sometimes 'interdependent origination'; it basically means the same t hing: the individual objective thing exists only in relationship to the universa l or the whole, and not by independently by itself]. On the nature of the Void, the Gelugpas speak from the point of view of non-buddhas, and focus on Void or a ppearance one at a time. Thus, the Void is a state. The Nyingmapas and Kagyupas, as well as Dzogchen, speak from the point of view of the buddhas, and do not se parate the Void from appearance. In fact, the void or 'emptiness and its appeara nces form the primordial unity of the buddha state. This is most definitively re alized at the time of death, when the child luminosity of the meditators's consc iousness meets the Mother luminosity or dark light of emptiness, from which ever y manifestation (including a buddha's pure abodes) appears transcendentally rebo rn from this primal unity. Finally, in regards to realizing the clear light awar eness of voidness, the Gelugpas speak of self-voidness, and focus on the lack of i nherent self-nature in the object perceived, while the Kagyupas, Nyingmapas, and Dzogchen practitioners speak of other-voidness, and stress the direct meditation on the clear light mind itself. There, too, they differ in approach. The Gelugp as teach a gradual process of eliminating the grosser levels of mind in order to reach the clear light mind, while the others go directly to the meditation on t he clear light mind without dissolving the grosser levels first. However, even h ere, they usually have had experience with various energy practices (i.e., kunda lini yoga, etc.) and thus face little resistance in dissolving the grosser level s automatically as they adhere solely to rigpa or the clear light void-mind itse lf. Finally, for the Gelugpas, voidness actually refers to voidness , while to the Ka gyupas and Nyingmapas voidness is totally non-conceptual and beyond words. To complicate things a bit further, the Advaitins use the word atma in the se nse of the transcendental subject, pure consciousness, while the Buddhists use t he word atma to mean an eternal individual substance, which they reject while re taining its empirical truth. Yet they also do not mean to deny the so-called abs olute self, only denying that it falls within the categories of thought. To atte mpt to do so, said the Buddha, was to land in a 'wilderness of views' (ditthi-ga hana), a 'jungle of theories' (ditthi-kantara), or in the 'net of thought constr

uctions'. Indeed, shunyata itself is not a view, but the transcendance of all vi ews (drsti-shunyata). Those who make it a view become 'hopelessly incurable' and 'philosophically doomed', because they deny the relative, empirical world, endi ng up with truly nothing. While thought is not the real, as a relative tool (sam vriti) it can still indirectly point towards the truth. There is, in fact, no no n-dual path! There are only relative means to point towards the non-dual. And pa radoxically, for the Mahayana Buddhists, while emptiness is the transcendance or repudiation of all views, it is still important to have the 'right view'! The Buddhist question of balance On the essentials, however, all of the above Tibetan schools have a Mahayana or Madyamika basis and are thus in fundamental agreement. This problem of divers ity of interpretation doesn t exist in Advaita Vedanta so much, except for those e xtremists who argue that the world doesn t exist at all. As mentioned, this was ne ver the position of Sankara, who, like the Madyamikas, always gave the world a r elative or provisional existence, ending with the positive conclusion that the w orld is non-dual Brahman. The basic Mahayana path is the backbone of all Tibetan schools. The Dalai Lam a thus emphasizes virtue, concentration, and insight: "This pattern of training in the path, training first in ethics then in medit ative stabilization and then in wisdom is not just a pronouncement of the Buddha but accords with the actual fact of experience in training the mind. In order t o generate the view realizing emptiness in any strong form, never mind that spec ial level of mind called special insight realizing emptiness, it is necessary th at the mind not be distracted, that it be channeled, that it be brought together and made powerful. Thus in order for the wisdom consciousness to be powerful an d to be capable of acting as an antidote, it is necessary for the consciousness itself to be channeled. Thus meditative stabilization is needed for wisdom." "In order to have meditative stabilization, in which there is a quieting of i nternal mental distractions, it is necessary prior to that to restrain coarser t ypes of distraction of body and speech. Thus one engages in practices of ethics that involve restraint of these coarser activities of body and speech in order t o lay the groundwork for meditative stabilization. Thus ethics is first, meditat ive stabilization second and wisdom is third in the order of the three trainings . This is certified by experience. (27). The Dalai Lama once said that if he had to choose between teaching about empt iness, or teaching about karma, he would choose the latter. What he meant by thi s is that if he had to choose (which he doesn t) between focusing exclusively on a 'direct pointing' approach that emphasized nondual awakening, the so-called dir ect path, or focusing on the relative aspect of the teaching, which is based squ arely on appreciating the story of the path, the process of becoming, the karmic processes of cause and effect, of cultivating character and virtue, of cleansin g karma/thought-forms/vasanas, of healing trauma, of going through dark nights a nd the kind of karmic cleansings that Milarepa went through guided by Marpa, lab oring, surrendering, suffering - he would chose the latter because that is where most people are at. Many so-called direct path teachings do not recognize the p rofound relative truth of the necessity, for most people, of much of this kind o f thing. They often just want to gloss over it all. People who are having a hard time 'getting it' are made to feel they are doing something wrong, not forgetti ng their personal story, or simply dramatizing their ego. Whereas it is not reco gnized by many that the very coming to the teaching, meeting the teacher, and th e awakening to truth are to large extent karmically determined. The Dalai Lama w as not saying forget such paths, but was expressing the simple truth that betwee n these two approaches, the so-called 'karmic' teachings are much more universal

ly relevant and practically wise, and the direct teachings by themselves are of value to very few. Karma Changchub Thinley puts it in another way: "I ve also seen many folks shun basic bodhicitta practice for practices that de al in a more head-on way with emptiness; more secret practices, higher ones, imp lying that loving kindness is basic. Actually, it can be excruciating to try to be there for others. Kindness in the face of adversity, or aversion for that mat ter, is not as easy as reading a book about it. It can be much more convenient t o rest in the thought that my self-centeredness doesn t exist, it s empty of any self -nature - therefore it s unnecessary to really look at it in the face to see where i t s coming from." (28) Like everything, these views must be balanced, and tailored to the individual . A good quote on glimpsing emptiness, as taught in many direct path teachings, with the caveat that it is still a half-way house to full recognition of what em ptiness really is, is given by Anam Thugen: "When we leave mind alone, we arrive at a point where mind dissolves and wher e we know nothing and we are left innocent like a newborn child. Then the ground of all things reveals itself. Emptiness reveals itself, just like when the clou ds move away, the majestic mountain reveals itself. Then we glimpse the ground o f all things without any veils, barricades, or walls between our consciousness a nd the truth itself. We glimpse it just as we glimpse everything around us. Then absolute truth is transparent, immediate, and luminous. But glimpsing the truth is just the beginning of our unfolding process of inner awakening. What is requ ired is recognition of the truth, and that recognition is the supreme realizatio n that liberates us. (29) To get to this recognition means that even a 'direct' path is a 'gradual' pat h, in that we must use skillfull means, and even 'lesser' practices, when we are not so easily able to glimpse 'emptiness' or presence. This is what the Dalai l ama was talking about. Perhaps one needs to use mindfulness, or samatha practice , or japa, or karma yoga, when direct seeing is not possible or happening. This is not a sign of weakness. The 'best practice' is not necessarily the 'highest p ractice', it is whatever is true for us in any moment. In most cases, the direct teachings are supplemental to a fundamental traditional life of practice into w hich they become integrated gradually, not a complete path themselves. We need a raft to get us to the other shore. What did the Beatles sing? "I'm fixing a hol e where the rain gets in, to keep my mind from wandering..where it will go o o o ..." Were they not speaking of mindfulness?! This is one example of adapting as the need requires. Also, when even the Dalai Lama, Dogen, or Suzuki Roshi wouldn 't say if they were realized, it makes one think before declaring that any new t echnique, anti-technique, teaching or anti-teaching guarantees one a rapid road to Nirvana. "To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue." - Buddha Views of modern teachers on emptiness Here are some views from several contemporary teachers. anadi says: Emptiness is another name for the absolute, the uncreated energy. Certain myst ics have realised that the original void or emptiness is the ultimate. This real isation is however not complete, as emptiness is not the whole of the ultimate. The secret within the absolute is the presence of the divine dimension. The divi ne is simply the heart of emptiness and, in truth, the very meaning of the absol ute. The absolute represents the being aspect of the ultimate reality. The belov

ed is the unity of emptiness, love and inexplicable intelligence.

(30)

Is this really unique? Long ago it was said in the Heart Sutra, form is emptin ess, emptiness is form. What is different for anadi is that emptiness as the absolu te state (a term of Sri Nisargadatta s) is beyond consciousness, or rather, the grou nd of being in which consciousness 'consciously recognizes its own absence', no doubt quite a paradox. Thus, by this explanation, emptiness is not consciousness as is commonly presumed. Traditionally, according to Mahayana Buddhism, the gli mpse of emptiness is the first of ten stages to full enlightenment. It is recogn ised that the underlying nature of all these steps or stages is effortless, nonconceptual awareness. That is the precondition for progress. It is progress of t he soul, not the ego [my emphasis]. Furthermore, it is taught in the Mahayana tr adition that fixating on non-conceptual awareness may grant one rebirth in one o f the formless realms, which themselves are still within conditional existence. Chandrakirti, said that those who considered emptiness as a state were philosophica lly doomed and destined to land in a self-condemned void! This is what anadi and Nisargadatta have said about consciousness or awareness: by itself it is still i n the realm of the (uncausally) created, per se, not the Uncreated. So, accordin g to this view, among some of both the traditional as well as contemporary teach ers of non-dual consciousness, it appears, there may be legitimate, but partial understanding: consciousness and form are polarities, inseparable from one anoth er, but there may be more to reality than just consciousness. This is a complex, non-traditional argument found in detail in the four-part series Dual Non-Duali sm on this website. Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche gives a more traditional explanation: "Emptiness, the ultimate nature of Dharmakaya, the Absolute Body, is not a si mple nothingness. It possesses intrinsically the faculty of knowing all phenomen a. This faculty is the luminous or cognitive aspect of the Dharmakaya, whose exp ression is spontaneous. The Dharmakaya is not the product of causes and conditio ns; it is the original nature of mind...Emptiness of mind is not a nothingness, nor a state of torpor, for it possesses by its very nature a luminous faculty of knowledge which is called Awareness. These two aspects, emptiness and Awareness , cannot be separated. They are essentially one, like the surface of the mirror and the image which is reflected in it." Adyashanti speaks of 'radical emptiness': "To the extent that the fire of truth wipes out all fixated points of view, it wipes out inner contradictions as well, and we begin to move in a whole diff erent way. The Way is the flow that comes from a place of non-contradiction - n ot from good and bad. Much less damage tends to be done from that place. Once w e have reached the phase where there is no fixed self-concept, we tend to lead a selfless life. The only way to be selfless is to be self less - without a sel f. No matter what it does, a self isn't going to be selfless. It can pretend. I t can approximate selflessness, but a self is never going to be selfless becaus e there is always an identified personal self at the root of it." "This is radical emptiness - where everything is arising spontaneously. Ther e is no more need to discriminate with the mind between what seems to be the ri ght thing or the wrong thing to do. In ego-land it's helpful to have an ego tha t can discriminate between right and wrong, but at a certain point, that's not what you are operating by. You are operating by the flow of the Tao, which is a higher order of intelligence. You don't need to intellectually discriminate an ymore because the Tao discriminates without discriminating; it knows without k nowing; it moves without moving. There is no sense of being enlightened or unen lightened. Since there is no self, there is nothing to be enlightened or unenli ghtened."

"We can talk about enlightened beings and non-enlightened beings, and concep tually that has a use. But when there is no self, when there is radical emptine ss, the whole enlightenment thing is sort of irrelevant because reality has bec ome conscious of itself, which is enlightenment. That's what is often missed. P eople believe that enlightenment is an improvement on reality, like becoming a super human being or God-knows-what. But enlightenment is when reality is awake to itself as itself within itself." (31) Is this 'radical emptiness' - something new - or just basic 'emptiness', as d ecribed by Nagarjuna and the Buddha? I think it is the latter, with the word 'ra dical' put in there to make it clear for the new student that emptiness is not s ome kind of experiential 'nothing' by a 'somebody'. He elsewhere points out clea rly that emptiness is not empty, but full, and that it 'is in love with its mani festations'. He certainly has it right that emptiness requires that 'the fire of truth wip es out all fixated points of view'. The question is, how eager is one to enter t hat fire, and by what means? Levels of emptiness? V.S. Iyer points out in his commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad: "Advaita...uses the term "unborn," in reference to the Atman, only to refute those who say it is born, i.e., created, produced. So we say it is "uncreated" i n reply. For "birthless" is only a word, i.e., a thought...not the truth. It is a thorn to pick out the thorn of causal-grounded ideas." (32) Thus, the unborn is also used in two ways: one, as the unmanifest polarity to the manifest, and, two, as Ultimate Reality itself, which transcends the polarit y of manifest/unmanifest. This is another possible confusion when studying the B uddhist doctrines. The soul has also been spoken of as unborn in the Upanishads, to further complicate the issue. It has also been argued in different schools that there is a difference betwe en states of emptiness, or awareness as reflected within the psychosomatic organ ism, and the great emptiness of the absolute, the beyond, which is much deeper. That there is claimed to be a profound distinction between the void nature of th e soul and the void nature of the absolute, of which we will speak in depth shor tly... The Taoists speak of transmuting human essence, vitality (chi), and spiri t into purified yang-spirit (shen) which unites with the great Void or cosmic ya ng-spirit resulting in immortality. The Tibetan Buddhists speak of a meeting of the true nature of the mind , or the 'Child Luminosity', with the 'Mother' or Ground Luminosity at the time of death, in which one has a first opportunity for libera tion before sojourning through the bardos and eventual rebirth. Among the differ ent schools within the Vajrayana and Dzogchen traditions, they sometimes disting uish between the mind of clarity and the clear light of reality. According to La ma Yeshe: "With the arising of the clear light, this very subtle mind mixes indistingui shably with emptiness in an experience of inexpressible bliss. For such a person , death has become the precious opportunity for perfecting the wisdom of nondual ity." (33) Joel Morewood of the Center for Spiritual Sciences has an interesting take on this phenomena or opportunity: By practicing effortless contemplation [in this meditation as he describes it,

essentially one begins by calming and centering himself through the breath, and then observe perceptions, thoughts, etc., recognizing them as such, until one k nows that they only arise to consciousness; one then keeps coming back to that u nderstanding until it stabilizes; and then] you will develop a Realization that the self is (as the Buddhists say) "empty of any inherent existence." Thus, whil e objects continue to appear in Consciousness, the delusion that they are being experienced by some `one' will temporarily subside. This state of profound selfl essness, or Consciousness-without-a-subject, is often a prelude to Full Awakenin g[In other words, one is in the Witness position but not full enlightenment]. Wh at is missing is the complementary Realization that not only does the `self' lac k any inherent existence, but so do objects. Consequently, as long as objects st ill seem to exist in their own right, there is no Gnosis. However, if you can re main in a state of Consciousness-without-a-subject as you pass through Death's G ate, then, when Consciousness-without-an-object finally dawns in the seventh sta ge, you will Realize that the now vanished objects were, themselves, only imagin ary projections of this objectless Consciousness. Furthermore, you will Realize that your own Consciousness-without-a-subject is, in fact, indistinguishable fro m (and thus identical to) Consciousness-without-an-object. In other words, you w ill directly and simultaneously apprehend not only the True Nature of your `self ', but also the True Nature of all `objects' and all `worlds' which is to say, Con sciousness-without-an-object-and-without-a-subject. This is Enlightenment, the e nd of the path. (33a ) What he is saying is that if one has attained the Witness position during lif e, but not nondual realization, then at the moment of death he will have an favo rable opportunity of integrating his consciousness with the clear light that daw ns in the first flash of the Bardo of Reality, which otherwise for most people i s over in an instant . Two things need to be said here. One, this is not the same a s the levels of emptiness that will be discussed shortly in quotes from Anthony Damiani, which pertain to the Void of the void , so to speak, a deeper Emptiness th an that of the true Soul or Overself that one may potentially slip into at the t ime of death, and, two, we prefer not to assert that such a Bardo experience is the end of the path . It may be the end of dualistic seeking, but according to bein gs such as the Buddha, there are further degrees 'beyond' that are more or less inconceivable prior to this point. Moreover, one may only temporarily enjoy this enlightenment, for, being perhaps what is known as a once-returner , one may still need to deepen his attainment in a further incarnation. His nondual realization may not thus be permanent, full, and complete. But we thought this was a novel and interesting way of describing the merging of the Mother and Child Luminositi es, an often confusing topic. Great sages who have awakened to the subjective nature of the mind, such as R amana Maharshi, Bankei, and Milarepa, didn't spend years in meditation, contempl ation, and in some cases the company of other sages deepening, completing, and c onfirming their enlightenment for nothing. It is not the labor of a few weeks. T here are many elements necessary, including, not only a cognitive shift of under standing and transcendental insight, but profound surrender and an energetic tra nsformation in all the dimensions of the being, requiring the help of grace. How ever, the world is waking up; it may not be as hard as it used to be. New paths of enlightenment are emerging, or are they? Are new paradigms emerging, that can streamline one's quest by fifty-fold, as some seem to suggest, or is there just a streamlining of existing traditions, and an illusion of a new paradigm for so mething that has always been there, but available for only a relative few? This question is gone into in more depth in Why We Need A New Vision on this website. Chang Po-tuan wrote one thousand years ago in the most important book of the Complete Reality School of Taoism, "Understanding Reality": "The essence of true thusness is naturally real being as is - there is no eff ort involved at all. It is not material, not void. It is what is called unconsci

ously following the laws of God...If in spite of having understood it you do not know how to cultivate and refine it, your life does not depend on yourself and still depends on fate - when your time is up, you have no support, and cannot es cape death and reincarnation...Not giving up the work of gradual cultivation aft er sudden enlightenment..you dissolve aggregated conditioning...In ancient times , after the sixth patriarch of Ch'an Buddhism had gotten the transmission of the fifth patriarch, he hid among hunters, mingling with ordinary folk, integrating his illumination, thus perfecting true attainment. Tzu-hsien realized complete pervasion suddenly, but he knew in himself it wasn't the ultimate, and he needed the transmission of Hsing-lin to attain the great achievement. People usually t hink it is just a matter of cultivating the great medicine, or that if one reali zes true thusness this itself is enlightenment. Then what did the fifth patriarc h transmit to the sixth patriarch, since the latter had already realized "there is originally not a single thing"? And why did Tzu-hsien seek out Hsing-lin afte r having suddenly realized complete pervasion? So we know that all-at-once under standing and gradual cultivation are both necessary. It may happen that one sudd enly understands first and then gradually practices, or one may first gradually cultivate and then suddenly understand. Essence and life must both be cultivated ; the work requires two stages." "The path of cultivating essence is the path of nonstriving, nondoing...The p ath of cultivating life, this is the path of striving, doing. Practicing the Pat h is for oneself, practicing virtue is for others. Practice of the path has an e nd, but practice of virtue has no end. Therefore after spiritual immortals compl eted the Path, they always fulfilled three thousand meritorious deeds." "If you reject the world, there is no Tao." (34) One might say that the illusion, in one sense, is that there is Being without Becoming; Emptiness, even a 'Full-Emptiness' (rather than an 'empty' witness, a s some ancient versions of advaita assert as the nature of the Atman), in which to luxuriate, without seamless integration of that Emptiness with the world. Something to think about. What does this really mean? It means, I might sugge st, that dissociation, world-denying asceticism, 'other-worldly' ascension, or c hoosing the 'unmanifest' over the 'manifest' are not true ways of realization, b ut a historical development that served its purpose - for several millenia - in breaking us away from primitive shamanism and identification with nature, but no w promise only to, at best - if one has extreme talent - grant one a blissful 's piritual vacation' for a still finite period of time, or at worst, as Chandrakir ti said, 'land oneself in a self-condemned void!' How to get out of this predica ment? By, paradoxically, going into it. Frankly, that means pain. It means havin g no options left but to 'descend' from dissociative means into the pain of bein g a conscious human being. This separate and separative self is itself a product , in a way, of the entire evolutionary development that produced the experiment of trying to 'get out of here', or trying to 'control what is here', depending o n one's leaning. It means entering the 'hole' to become 'whole.' What 'hole'? Th e existential hole or dukkha at the core of our separative sense of being. Alas, few as yet really want this, because the distractions and options of avoidance are so compelling that few even feel it. Even great saints and mystics don't alw ays want this, depending on the success they have in reaching their particular k ind of ecstatic freedom. This, to borrow a phrase from singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, is for "rainy day people," or those who have been disheartened by the search to 'escape', and are willing or have no choice but to simmer in their ow n pot until the sun of their true being breaks out. This is what is meant by the term 'incarnational spirituality'. No separation. This, I propose, is one moder n interpretation of what 'without the world, there is no Tao' might mean. This is also why ascetics can not generally realize truth - they leave the wo rld. And whatever you leave comes back to bite you, in particular your delusions

. But we promised earlier to explain more about the different dimensions of thi s void nature. As discussed, PB and Plotinus and in general the ancient neo-Plat onic philosophers mentioned three higher principles beyond that of individual So ul or Atman: Absolute Soul, Intellectual Principle, and the One. When one has a glimpse of the soul, it is of unlimited consciousness. The ego is not there. It is void or empty to the human personality. A sage is one who has achieved union with his divine Soul. His egoism, or tendency to experience himself as separate from the whole is entirely subordinate to the soul. From this position, he can e xperience the deeper dimensions of the Void-Mind, of which there are the said to be three degrees. This is the great principle of Emptiness. Some of the Zen mas ters experienced this, some did not. Most mystics stop at the unity of soul. Aft er all, it seems like the Absolute - and is not essentially separate from it. Ne vertheless, there is more to be known, although we are now far beyond the dimens ion of subject-object experience. Anthony Damiani states: "The whole issue is a little confusing. First of all, because the very nature of the Absolute Soul is Void, the individual soul as absolute is also void. PB points out that when the experience of the union with the soul takes place, one recognize that his soul or his mind is of a void nature. That nature is similar but not identical with the Intellectual principle or the World-Mind. When one is in that position, that union with the soul [which is a realization of nondualit y], then he can receive the aura which is emanating from the World-Mind. And he knows - that is his soul knows - that that principle is" "If we say that the experience of the Intellectual Principle can't exist, the n the most that we could know is the existence of our soul a the absolute indivi dual, and we would never know what Plotinus refers to as the three primal Hypost ases, or even what PB refers to as the World-Mind. You couldn't know it. But bec ause the very nature of the soul is similar to the Intellectual principle, it ca n receive the aura which is emanating from the Intellectual principle. And in th at emanation the soul receives the fact or the revelation that God is, the exist ence of God...That individual soul, that sage, can even be directed by the Intel lectual Principle...The reception of the Void, that Intellectual Principle comin g into your soul, is utter silence. It's so silent it is deafening." And this may account for differences among sages, such as Ramana Maharshi, or perhaps adepts in the Sant Mat tradition who have merged in Anami Lok and not o nly Sach Khand: they are directed by the divine, and agent for divine Power. Damiani explains that among the Buddhists one doesn't find them speaking of t he soul, but call it mind. They deny the soul (anatta) doctrinally, but what it really represents they refer to as mind: "They speak of the direct transmission of No-Mind, and things like that. When Hui-neng, for instance, speaks about "from the first not a thing is,' he's spea king about the principle of his absolute mind, his individual mind [remember tha t, while infinite, the soul is a 'one-and-many'; it can be both one and many; th erefore, the term 'unit soul' or 'unit mind' is used; there is no contradiction of logic here]. That's where he is coming from. He's not coming from the Intelle ctual principle, the principle of Emptiness. This is the position that all you c ould know is your own mind and that if you could experience it in its profoundes t level it would be void." "Your individual consciousness, even if distinguished from your ego, cannot d irectly go into the Intellectual Principle, cannot be receptive of the Intellect ual Principle. It must do so through the unity of the soul, though the unity of your own mind."

"PB points out that each and every one of us has an Overself, and then there is the universal principle of Overself. Let's say there is a universal Self, and from it come all these individual Overselves. Each one of these individual Over selves is made of the very stuff of awareness, of which this is the universal pr inciple. In other words, there's the mother Overself, the universal consciousnes s, the principle of awareness, and then each individual Overself is a unit of aw areness, an absolute individual. And each one of these units of awareness he ref ers to a an Overself. Now if that's so, wouldn't it make sense to you that in or der to make contact with the Universal Overself, the principle itself, you would have to do so through the intermediary of your Overself?" "This would be the same as when Plotinus says that the Absolute Soul is the S oul Essence undivided and integral to the Intellectual Principle, and from it em anate individual souls. He calls then units of life. Now wouldn't it stand to re ason that each one of these souls that emanates - or each one of these minds tha t emanates - has to be of the very essence, of the very nature of that Absolute Soul, that Universal Overself?...And the nature of her Overself, my Overself, yo ur Overself is similar to the nature of that Univeral Overself, pure awareness. Now in order for me to become recptive of that Universal Overself, I first have to become the Overself itself, my individual Overself." "The individual Overself is similar but not identical in essence with the Uni veral Overself. PB makes that point quite often: there is a difference between e very individual Overself and the source from which it comes....The important thi ng is this, that the only way you can receive or perceive the Void is to become that pure awareness that your Overself is, because it's that pure awareness of w hat your Overself is which is receptive to the Univeral Overself. There can't be any admixture in that awareness because it would interfere with the reception o f the Void. So there can't be any kind of individual consciousness that receives the emanation from the Void. It's a cosmic consciousness, your absolute mind, t hat receives that." "They don't have texts available on these things. When PB speaks of about wha t a philosopher sage is, he points out that the philosopher sage is a person who has achieved permanent union with his soul. he doesn't say that the philosopher sage is one who has achieved permanent union with the Intellectual Principle or with the Absolute Soul, but one who has achieved permanent identity with his so ul. The soul that he speaks about, this is what he refers to as made in the imag e of God - in other words, the image of the Intellectual Principle. And that is what the philosopher or the jnani is, he's that soul. He knows his essence comes from the Intellectual Principle. He knows it, not intellectually,he knows it be cause his soul is a direct emanation from that, and the soul's self-cognition au tomatically includes the recognition of its principle - where it comes from." "So it's true that the glimpse into your soul is of the nature of the Void. I t's true. But it's also true that the essence of your soul, even though it is vo id, and the essence of the Intellectual Principle, which is also void, are disti nct. Now what is the distinction between these two? When the philosopher sage sa ys to you, "God is," he's not saying that my soul, even though it is cosmic and infinite, is God. He's speaking about the Intellectual Principle, and that's the experience that comes to the philosopher sage..." (34a) So the Void is not one monistic block. It has depths to it. PB recaps much of the above succinctly: "The ego of which we are conscious [as an object] is not the same as the mind by which we are conscious. He who perseveres until he can understand this, open s the first door of the soul's house." Not the absolute, but the 'first door of the soul's house'. That is to say, c

onsciousness, the witness to the ego, is not as some would affirm, the ultimate reality. While the immortal Overself or Soul, there are further stages possible: "Immortality of the kind for which most human beings yearn can be found in on e aspect of the Overself, which retains a kind of individuality because of its h istorical and psychological relation with its offspring. Hence, when it is writt en that the immortality of the true Self is relatively permanent, the term "rela tive" was used from the highest possible standpoint and not from the human stand point. It is sufficient and quite true from the human outlook to accept the stat ement that the immortality of the Overself is true immortality, if not the ultim ate, because the former must be attained first." (34b) Seven hundred years ago German mystic Meister Eckhart alluded to this when he said to enter the stillness and go beyond thoughts and images, where, "being in not-knowing and ignorance, It shall be opened and revealed; we will then become aware of the Divine Ignorance, and our ignorance will be enobled and adorned wi th supernatural Knowledge; the enraptured soul will flee out of herself - for sh e is no more satisfied with what can be named - to her first Source, God Alone, the greatest wonder." Was this also what the sage, Sri Nisargadatta meant when h e said that "In the Absolute, every I AM is preserved and glorified" ? Was the ' It' to be 'opened and revealed' through our not-knowing not the absolute as some direct path teachers claim, but the 'secret and hidden' divine path of the soul , which is said to pass through void upon void on its way to the realization kno wn in Sant Mat as Sach Khand and Anami, an effortless, formless contemplation co nsisting of progressive divine Revelation? This is a serious question and one no t easily to be dismissed. Lastly, Eckhart also made it clear that this was not j ust to be known in a contemplative state, but as the ground of our ordinary expe riencing. Such is also consistent with the higher teachings within Sant Mat and other emanationist paths. To summarize, the Soul as defined by PB and Plotinus is of the nature of infi nite consciousness, but still there are - as gnawing at the craw of the advaitis t as it may be - many Souls all of the same nature, abiding in the Divine Intell ect, or Absolute Soul-in-the-Intellectual-Principal, which is inseparable from t he One. All of manifestation is within the Soul, deriving from World-Idea of the World-Mind or Intellectual Principle in the Soul, including all bodies necessar y in order to experience the sensible World-Idea and thus come to know its prior principle, the World-Mind! When one has achieved permanent identification with his Soul, he can then penetrate deeper into the Void-Mind and know the divine pr inciples which eternally generate the Soul and which can be said to constitute t he true principle of Emptiness. Furthermore, there is then not just "consciousne ss and its physical manifestation", but a whole hierarchy of emanated intermedia te dimensions that are part of the World-Idea as well, and as existing cosmologi es attest. They are all within the Soul, too, yet the Soul is not the Absolute, although it is rooted in it, as is the universe. So while all sages (and beings) are of the same 'stuff', there are paradoxically distinctions, and degrees of r ealization, amongst them. Thus there can be infinite interpenetrating while dist inct Bodhisattvas active in the cosmos while abiding beyond the constraints of t ime and space! And no amount of confusion of relative and absolute levels will r educe this paradox. The path remains a practical one of actualizing realization within relativity. By the way, the Buddha never said there was no soul, he simpl y said that it was indefinable. The soul is beyond human logic, in that it is bo th individual and non-individual, infinite and not limited to subject-object dis tinctions. It has been spoken of as an 'entity', although an entity without dime nsions, beyond time and space. The word 'entity' is just an expediency of langua ge, it is not an entity in any way we can conceive. The traditional explanations from Buddhism, however, are just not adequate to deal with this. Don't worry if this material is too difficult to grasp quickly; this is just an outline to stimulate thinking and intuition and offer another way of looking

at the matter than more simplistic teachings offer. Just know that the advaitic and most common Buddhist theories are not the only ones that are available. Dependent Origination, the five skhandas, and traditional teachers on emptine ss In Buddhism, the twelve links of dependent or interdependent origination (pra tityamatpada)describe the workings of cause and effect, or,more precisely, since causation is not admitted in Buddhism, they describe the conditions that permit the chain of bondage to arise. To end the bondage to the cycle of rebirth (but not necessarily to repeal or end the cycle itself - which the Solitary Realizer, but not the Bodhisattva, may want to do) is to see the point at which the links of interdependent origination can be cut. For instance, feeling gives rise to c raving, and craving gives rise to clinging; if the mind is stilled, feeling is s tilled, craving ceases, and clinging ceases as well. An analysis of causation in which every cause is seen to be the result of another cause, and thus are all ' interdependent, is also a part of this. However, it is not as easy as it might s eem. As the Buddha states in the Samyutta Nikaya: Even so, though a noble disciple has put away the five lower fetters [includin g the sakkayaditthi, the belief in something permanent in the five aggregates], yet from among the five groups of grasping the subtle remnant of the conceit of the I , an attachment to the I , and the lurking tendency to think I am is still not rem oved from him. And in the Digha Nikaya, after his disciple Ananda said that the concept of i nterdependent origination was easy, the Buddha replied: Do not say that, Ananda. The teaching of interdependent origination is indeed deep and subtle...It is because of not understanding and not penetrating this Dh amma that this generation...does not go beyond transmigration. (35) Sustained contemplation and grace are necessary to remove this conceit of I . Th e links of interdependent origination reveal the emptiness and interconnectedness of all things, that is, the lack of a permanently existing entity or self anywhe re. The realization of all things being interconnected gives rise to Bodhichitta , or universal love. The way of the Madhyamakas is the path followed by the Dala i Lama. His Holiness gives a very succinct description of these teachings: Ignorance is conquered by understanding the interdependence of all phenomena, or, in other words, interdependent origination. So what is the meaning of interdep endent origination? Whatever is dependent on something else, that thing is not in dependent, adds Aryadeva. We cannot talk about a self in any other sense apart fr om this. That means that something that comes about in dependence on something e lse is not an independent entity. Hence, this self is not an independent entity... And that which is interdependent is called empty. This is the Madhyamaka, or mid dle path...Nagarjuna said, For me, emptiness is equivalent to interdependent orig ination. Whatever is interdependent, that is empty..As long as there is attachme nt to the Five Skandhas, there will be clinging to a self. The individual identif ies with the skandhas as being 'I'...Yet, there exists no such substantial self. It is empty of substantial existence. There has never existed a self that the i ndividual can base is or her pride on...The Buddha said that the idea that thing s arising from causes and conditions are existent is ignorance. He also said that something that is not dependently arisen does not exist. Therefore a non-empty thing does not exist. This is typical speach of the Gelugpa sect, where dependent origination is sp oken of in relationship to the phenmenal world. For the Kagyupas and also in Dzo gchen, the clear light void mind of reality is independent of this chain of depe ndent origination. They emphasize the absolute, not the relative. Thus, the Dala

i Lama must add: Non-existence, however, does not exist either. Unless this is clear, the refut ation of existence is just words. The skandhas, the basis of our notion of a per sonal self, do not exist at all. This does not mean that no individual exists. I f there were no individuals at all we could not speak of samsara and nirvana, of happiness and suffering. Thus the absence of a self contradicts our direct expe rience. We do exist in some way. But the basis on which a self is imputed does n ot have the slightest true existence. There is, however, what is called nominal existence or merely a name. There is som ething that the name refers to, but that thing cannot be found. Merely a name is found. It is quite odd, isn t it? This is the emptiness of emptiness or natural emp tiness. Nirvana can also be analyzed in this way. Although nirvana is a very fam ous thing, it is actually the emptiness of nirvana that is found, not nirvana it self. (36) One might also say that this realization reintegrates the five skhandas as 'no t-non-self , but rather inclusive of the self. That is how the higher Vajrayana/Dz ogchen schools look at it. But provisionally, as a methodology of discrimination , the negation of the skhandas comes first. That is the Madyamika way. That is a lso the Upanishadic way of 'neti, neti'. Some awareness teachings say finding th e "who" comes before the "what", but deconstructing our ages-old naive realism viewing the external world objectively - comes first in Buddhism. PB called thi s the 'mentalistic' discipline, a complete turn-about in perception that can tak e lifetimes to make real for oneself. This approach also comes naturally to a ch ild: first he is interested in what is outside him, only later does he make a se lf-referral. Without this grounding in emptiness, seeing things as devoid of inh erent self-existence, as changing mental impressions arising in consciousness, s imply meditating on the source of the self often isn't enough to truly liberate and free us of the 'innate mind' that gives us our basic sense of self - a sense of self we even share with animals. That is, we can't fully eliminate the sense of subjectivity unless we first eliminate the sense of objectivity. mKas grub d Ge (1385-1438), disciple of Tsong kha pa, argues: "From among these two, [that is, from among the subjective aspect eliminated by means of the path and the objective one refuted by means of reasoning] the ch ief thing to be refuted is the object, [that is, the incorrect mode of existence ,] and not the subject, [the mind grasping at this incorrect mode of existence] for unless one undermines this mode of existence as it is grasped by mistaken co nceptualization no other method brings an end to this mistaken conceptualization . Having witnessed the understanding of that [mode of existence], one ascertains that in fact [things] do not exist as they are apprehended by the mistaken conc eption; and by the force of constantly meditating on this, one is able to destro y from the root the very seeds of mistaken conceptions." (37) Both of these tasks can be achieved through emptiness teachings, but combinin g emptiness teachings with awareness teachings is another and logical way to go. To add another perspective to the analysis and rejection of the skandhas and th eir re-assimilation as part of reality, PB writes: "In contacting the Overself, he SOMETHING which is. This is first ty, the "I". But at a later stage, that the ego, the personality, and NG." (38)

does not really sense a bigger "I." He senses achieved by forgetting the ego, the personali there is nothing to forget for then he finds the "I" are of the same stuff as this SOMETHI

Thus, the 'empty' skandhas, once having gone through the discipline, are know n as also part of Reality.

Remember, the Dalai Lama did say that we exist in some way . The Buddha, in the D iamond Sutra, also pointed out that exactly because of the teaching of the Void ( No-thing exists ) that every-thing exists in some manner. And His Holiness once sa id, He who denies his own existence is a fool. Suzuki Roshi echoed him when he sai d: "How can you practice zazen? Only when you accept yourself and when you reall y know you exist here. You cannot escape yourself. This is the ultimate fact, th at "I am here." (39) PB echoes him when he writes: "If he himself is a mere nothing who does not exist, who then is it who takes all the trouble to prove it?" (40) This must be understood in the right way. It is not understanding or knowing pe r se, but beyond both knowing and not-knowing dualistically considered. Just lik e with all conceivable polarities. It is 'beyond' duality and nonduality, being and becoming, emptiness and manifestation. It Is what it is. This 'we exist in s ome way' is why one who has realized the 'full-blown' nature of emptiness wants to help others. Why would he do so, if there are no others, no 'self' even? One could say because that is simply the nature of the non-dual reality itself, or y ou could say because 'he' or 'she' still feels that there are others who don't k now that there are no others! You could also say because such a man or woman's h eart bleeds for humanity and all creation. This is why many emptiness teachers f or centuries have said that even though understanding and practicing the emptine ss or the lack of inherent existence of a person is the basis of the path, it is also necessary to practice awakening the boddhicitta or altruistic mind [not as a means to relieve one's existential despair or emptiness, which must be felt a nd known well as the essential human condition and as a right of passage to one' s true nature, but because, as it is an aspect of one's true nature and therefor e where 'one is headed' anyway, one may as well practice it ahead of time even t hough one may inevitably fail! You can't fail, and you can't do it wrong], which they (the Mahayanists) call 'the superior method', leading to full buddhahood, or one who has achieved the 'four stages': stream-enterer (awakening to emptines s or no-self of phenomena and personhood), once-returner, non-returner, and Arha t). mKhas grub dGe said: "The elimination of the obscurations to omniscience cannot be accomplished by wisdom alone. It requires that the wisdom that perfectly meditates on the selfl essness of phenomena be conjoined in a complementary way to the inconceivable sp ecial features of method that belong to the Mahayana." (41) In other words, without one needing to accept hyperbole, he means the combini ng of understanding emptiness ('ultimate emptiness', 'emptiness of essence', and 'emptiness of emptiness' !) as well as the law of karma as explained in the doc trine of dependent origination, and the cultivation of boddhicitta. [Note: if on e's heart sinks at the immensity of such a task, through all of these readings, I suggest that he may actually be close to making real progress on the Way. It t akes real ripeness to reach such a stage. We must while examining these heroic h istorical expositions hold them lightly in our hearts and minds; we stand on the shoulders of giants, but may not have to go through what they went through in a distant place and time]. The Bodhicittavivarana of Nagarjuna states: "Having realized that all phenomena are empty We still rely on the doctrine of karma and effects. Among all amazing things, this is the most amazing. Among all astonishing things, this is the most astonishing." (42)

He also emphasizes that philosophical reasoning, understanding impermanence, even "understanding the refutation of the fact that subject and object are diffe rent substances [the doctrine of non-duality]", (43) is not the same as meditati ng on the selflessness or lack of inherent existence of all phenomena, and will not be enough to make a significant dent on the 'innate mind' of self that we ha ve had for countless ages. At best we will temporarily quiet the obscurations to clear-seeing: "At the time of realizing selflessness, the notion of a permanent self is eli minated; But in this regard we do not in the least regard the apprehension of the self to be permanent as the apprehension of an ego; Hence, it is quite surprising that you should claim that understanding such a naive kind of selflessness Can subsequently destroy the view of a self." (44) mKhas grub dGe wrote sarcastically of the 'quietist' practitioners of his tim e and their illusions of attainment and lack of insight, especially those who di dn't have the necessary foundation method and understanding of 'emptiness': "All of these great dialecticians who argue on a variety [of topics], such as the emptiness of self and the emptiness of other, and on whether reality truly exists, do not differ in the least when it comes to practicing the meaning of th e profound [emptiness]. Whether they believe that they are practicing the idiot' s meditation of not training in anything whatsoever, the practice of the great M aster of the Tripitaka, or that they are practicing the profound completion stag e of the anuttarayoga tantra, they all concur on this one point: they posit that no [mental] object should be established, that the mind should apprehend nothin g. This will be seen to be a great den of iniquity when looked upon by those of sharp faculties...They hold [to the doctrine] that to create nothing within the mind is to meditate on reality, and thus err in so far as they end up not being able to meditate on selflessness. They repudiate the practice of the path that i s the counteractive measure against the way in which [we] grasp at a self, the r oot of cyclic existence. They exert themselves in a kind of practice that does n ot the slightest harm to the way we grasp at self. Hence, one should be aware of the fact that although many of our own Tibetan practitioners pride themselves o n having meditated assiduously on reality for the whole of their lives, that the y have not managed to put even the slightest dent in their grasping at a self... Because they believe that when it comes down to meditating on reality one ought not to create anything in the mind, they must of necessity believe that when th ey set forth reality they ought not to set it forth even in terms of selflessnes s. In the same way, they must accept that one ought not to put forth even a theo ry of reality...This is an infinite source of faults..." "The great meditators of today, who are inexperienced at guarding against men tal excitement or lethargy, even if they attain single-pointed concentration on the nature of the mind, by meditating on silence and blankness as their object, they are in actuality accumulating a subtle form of mental lethargy. By accustom ing themselves to this for long periods of time, the dispersion of air (rlung) w ithin their bodies gives them a certain type of lightness and ease in action. It seems as though they are abiding like space in the midst of space, or as if, ha ving pushed their minds into a state of nakedness, they are emerging from the sk in of a snake. It appears to them as though they are making their home on the pi nnacle of Mt. Meru and that they are no longer solid as before, but are now like a rainbow. This leads to extreme elation and to thinking that one has traversed a variety of stages and paths, causing these masters to claim that the teaching s of the Mahamudra, which perceives the nature of the mind are the most importan t and profound instructions of the Buddha, that they are the teachings which wil l allow one to attain the state of buddhahood in this very life."

"In response to this the great lord Tsong kha pa and most of his followers ha ve stated that the single pointed equipoise on the nature of the mind is only a slight mental avoidance of the self of the person or the self of phenomena and i s only a slight break in the proliferation of conceptualization in regard to oth er things. Hence, they say it does not eliminate on the least either the delusio n or the self-grasping that has arisen innately from beginningless time in samsa ra, since it does not in the least negate the object that appears in grasping at true existence...So please distinguish carefully between not meditating on a se lf and meditating on selflessness!" (45) Sound slightly familiar? Lest the practitioner get into arguments over whethe r Hinayana or Mahayana (or Vajrayana) is better or the sole way to enlightenment , or the worst error - the reification of emptiness - mKhas grub dGe adds many e xamples from existent scripture to redirect the vagaries of attention and unders tanding, such as to the fact that the emptiness of inherent existence is to be a ffirmed to be the ultimate liberating force, and that as such even reality is 't ruthless' - meaning empty. Example of this was given in the Lankavatara Sutra wh ere, perhaps most important for the trenchant criticism of the sravakas and prat yekabudha's desire for liberation for themselves, thus effectively taking them ' out of circulation', instead of being bodhisattva's dedicated to lives of servic e, understanding that true liberation is liberation of the whole and not only th e part, it also mentions that certain teachings of the Buddha were meant as 'pro visional' ones to prevent great fear from arising in those not ready to face the full brunt of emptiness, such as by speaking of a tathagatagarbha, or buddhahat ure, that everyone 'has': a pure, clear light, as a 'nonconceptual object', wher e in reality no such 'thing' exists inherently. This point was also made by PB w ho wrote: "The Long Path is taught to beginners and others in the earlier and middle st ages of the quest. This is because they are ready for the idea of self-improveme nt and not for the higher one of the unreality of the self. So the latter is tau ght on the Short Path, where attention is turned away from the little self and f rom the idea of perfecting it, to the essence, the real being." (46) Yet, even in this quote the teaching of the self as unreal is provisional (!) , for where in the continuum of our personal self, our inner subtle psyche or so ul nature, and our 'real' Conscious-Being can we separate out one part and say ' this is ourself'? It is all ourself. We do exist. The self as unreal is only fro m the empirical point of view. PB repeatedly points out that there is some form of 'higher' or 'true' self, even though it is 'shrouded in mystery' and not easi ly defined in words: "It is hard to tell in words about the wordless, hard to formulate in intelle ct-born phrases what is beyond the intellect. To say that the higher self is or is not individualized is to distort meaning and arouse misconception." "It is a kind of impersonal being but it is not utterly devoid of all individ uality." "He enters into a state which is certainly not a disappearance of the ego, bu t rather a kind of divine fellowship of the ego with its source." "There is still a centre of consciousness in him, still a voice which can utt er the words or hold the thought "I am I." The ego is lost in an ocean of being, but the ego's link with God, the Overself, still remains." "He loses his ego in the calm serenity of the Overself, yet at the same time it is, mysteriously, still with him."

"The dictionary defines individuality as separate and distinct existence. Bot h the ego and the Overself have such an existence. But whereas the ego has this and nothing more, the Overself has this consciousness within the universal exist ence. That is why we have called it the higher individuality." "The Overself [Soul] is an emanation from the ultimate reality but is neither a division nor a detached fragment of it. It is a ray shining forth but not the sun itself." "In contacting the Overself, he does not really sense a bigger "I." He senses SOMETHING which is. This is first achieved by forgetting the ego, the personali ty, the "I." But at a later stage , there is nothing to forget for then he finds that the ego, the personality, and the "I" are of the same stuff as this SOMETH ING." (47) He seems to be saying that it is paradoxically distinct but not separate, in contrast to the dictionary definition of individuality as being 'distinct and se parate'. Even the Buddha, while teaching anatta or 'no-self' - meaning no inhere ntly existing empirical self - in order to refute the eternalists, did not expli citly denounce the existence of such a soul: "Even in this present life, my brethren, I say that the soul is indefinable. Though I say and teach thus, there are those who accuse me falsely of being a ni hilist, of teaching non-existence and annihilation of the soul. That is what I a m not, and do not teach." (48) PB even goes so far as to say that while the ego is displaced from its place of sovereignty in the realization of the Overself, it is not altogether lost; af ter all, it is the Overself's projection: "He enters into a state which is certainly not a disappearance of the ego, bu t rather a kind of divine fellowship of the ego with the source." "The ego is lost in an ocean of being, but the ego's link with God, the Overs elf, still remains...He loses his ego in the calm serenity of the Overself, yet at the same time it is, mysteriously, still with him." (49) [In the preceding quotes PB is using a broader sense of the term ego than jus t an empirical, evolutionary self-referrant, useful for practical discrimination and analysis; he means it more in the sense of higher personality, or such as t heosophy uses the word Ego. In any case, so long as a man is in physical form th e ego will be there; it is essentially a neutral mechanism: a necessary part of his unique human form of evolution, and active tool for the quest, but also an e nemy when seen only in itself, as egoistic and not 'spacious' ego]. So what is empty, and what is not, becomes somewhat hard to define. Moreover, the teaching that there are no inherently self- existing external o bjects, which PB held as well, is a traditional provisional one, to revert the m ind back from excessive outward attachment, with the intention that eventually o ne would see that the mind that perceived those objects was empty of self-existe nce, and so 'attachment' was also a provisional teaching, being only an accompan ying polarity of non-attachment. The essential instruction, however, was that ta thagatagarbha, emptiness, 'foundation consciousness', all were 'empty' - non-con ceptual - and yet denoted and affirmed ultimate Reality. Nagarjuna thus provisio nally states, while fully intending to point towards the truth in the end: "Since the compounded does not exist, how can the uncompounded exist?" "When there is nothing that is not empty

How could emptiness be said to exist? In the absence of something How can its opposite exist?" "The Conquerors have taught emptiness To be the eradication of all views, For they have taught that those who perceive emptiness Have nothing to prove." "The Great Victor opposed Both the view of self and selflessness." PB call to our attention the need to hold the 'two truths', or what he calls 'the double standpoint', in mind simultaneously if all is to be right with us. I n other words, as physicist Niels Bohr once stated, "Human beings are both actor s and spectators in the world drama": "from the first [the relative] standpoint we see the necessity and must obey the urge of undertaking this quest in all its practical details and successive s tages. From the second one, however, we see that all existence, inclusive of our own and whether we are aware of it or not, dwells in a timeless, motionless Now , a changeless, actionless Here, a thingless, egoless Void. The first bids us wo rk and work hard at self-development in meditation, metaphysics, and altruistic activity, but the second informs us that nothing we do or abstain from doing can raise us to a region where we already are and forever shall be in any case. And because we are what we are, because we are Sphinxes with angelic heads and anim al bodies, we are forced to hold both these standpoints aide by side." "Only by accepting the double standpoint concurrently, rejecting neither the Real nor the Illusory, can we achieve Truth's wholeness." (50) And further, in line with the Taoist quote above on performing 'one thousand meritorious deeds', befitting an enlightened person, which the Bhagavad-Gita sec onds in advocating 'karma yoga' both before and after realization or obtaining j nana, PB writes: "He cannot dwell in that magical state without transforming his experience in the world so that in some way or other it serves God's purpose, thus turning ev en outer defeat to inner victory." (51) 'A dialectic on self and emptiness' That the last verse is so is because both self and selflessness are opposites and relative to each other. A true way to speak of it might be to say 'no-no-se lf' (since self and no-self are mutually conditioned opposites), but, since even 'no-no-self' is still somewhat conditioned by the complementary nature of the p reviously negated opposites, we must posit a final 'no [no no-self]' as the affi rmation of a true transcendental reality. Isn't that great? That is how Chuang T zu would handle it (as discussed further in "Maya Is 'Maya' " on this website). And, for that matter, we must do the same with 'emptiness'. If we first posit 'f orm', and then negate that as not being the reality, we posit 'emptiness'. But t hen, since 'emptiness - considered as 'no-thing' - is only emptiness relative to form - or 'some-thing' - we must negate that and posit 'no-emptiness'. Finally, since even 'no-emptiness' bears the conditioning of the previous two negations, we must make a final negation, affirming the reality, as 'no [no-emptiness]' ! If truly meditated on this can become more than a mere exercise in logical diale ctic. It might even take your head off. Next, we must also do the same thing with the notion of subject-object. First

we start with naive realism that posits an object 'out there'. But since that i s never seen without a subject or perceiver to perceive it we then posit a subje ct by and in which the object is seen. We don't remain stuck in subjective ideal ism like Bishop Berkeley, however, and realize that since even this 'subject' is an subtle object or arising to consciousness or awareness, we must posit no sub ject-object. Some say this is non-duality and the transcendence of distinctions. Lest one think this is the final negation, however, since this no subject-objec t is still conditioned by the prior negation of subject-object, we must then pos it no [no subject-object]. In other words, the consciousness we felt to be the v ery ground of reality is also seen to be a concept and 'empty', and it gradually ceases to hold our interest and falls away. This final negation gives us 'river s are rivers, and mountains are mountains again', as the Zen saying goes. Not in logic, but in Reality. Fear of 'contamination' is gone. The Sun is shining thro ugh all. While we are on this topic, we must make mention that following our logic we must say that the five skhandas are 'empty', the chakras are 'empty', the 'Logos is 'empty', and even Ramana Maharshi's famous 'Amrita Nadi' are 'empty'. In reg ards to the latter, Ramana proposed a terminal bend of the sushumna nadi from th e sahasrar chakra back down into the heart felt relative to the body to be on th e right side. However, once realized, that 'center' of the heart becomes 'no-cen ter', and any Amrita Nadi or Atma Nadi vanishes into or becomes indistinguishabl e from the all-pervading conscious radiance of Being. There is, thus, no need fo r repetitive experiences of this type to prove or achieve anything. Nor is it ab solutely necessary to have this experience even once. It is only a yogic possibi lity. Yet, since, as we have seen, the true position o-emptiness], all of these structures do continue me at least. Thus, a realizer can still be a yogi nt for it. There is no problem with that, no more tree, or a person.

is not 'emptiness', but 'no [n to exist in some way, for a ti if he wants to or has the tale than there is a problem with a

A garland of verses on emptiness "The Buddha is the essence of true emptiness which comes from nowhere and goe s nowhere. True emptiness is not empty; so its body is most subtle. The essence of true emptiness basically has no body, but because it includes subtle existenc e, that subtlety is its body. Emptiness without this subtlety is nihilistic, ind ifferent emptiness; it is not the real emptiness of Buddha. How can it be omnipr esent, how can myriad phenomena present no obstacle? because of its subtle nonvo idness, the body is omnipresent, all-pervasive; because it is empty yet real, my riad phenomena cannot obstruct it. Because it is omnipresent and unobstructed, i t is also called the completely pervasive reality eye...IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE TR UE REALITY EYE WHICH IS COMPLETELY PERVASIVE, THEN YOU WILL KNOW THE TRIPLE WORL D [the desire, form, and formless realms] IS YOUR HOME." "BUDDHA IS MIND, MIND IS BUDDHA: "MIND" AND "BUDDHA" ARE BASICALLY ILLUSIONS. IF YOU KNOW THERE IS NO BUDDHA AND NO MIND, THIS AT LAST IS THE REAL BUDDHA OF TRUE SUCHNESS. THE BODYLESS BODY IS THE REAL BODY; THE FORMLESS FORM IS THE TRUE FORM. NOT MATERIAL, NOT VOID, NOT NONVOID, NOT MOVING, NOT STILL, IT DOES NOT COME OR GO. NO DIFFERENCES, NO SAMENESS, NO BEING OR NONBEING, IT CANNOT BE GRASPED OR ABANDONED, CANNOT BE LISTENED TO OR LOOKED AT. INSIDE AND OUTSIDE ROUND AND BRIGHT, IT PERVADES EVERYWHERE."

"WHAT A LAUGH MY MIND IS - LIKE A DUNCE, LIKE A BUMPKIN, NOW UNMOVING, NOW EBULLIENT, CALMLY LETTING THINGS BE AS THEY MAY. I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO CULTIVATE SPIRITUAL PRACTICE, YET DO NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG." "Even sages have the human mind, and even ordinary people have the mind of Ta o. Sages have the human mind in that they cannot annihilate perception; ordinary people have the mind of Tao in that they have moments of lucidity." - Chang Potuan "Do not rely on those who think they are Tathagatas or sravakas, Who accept themselves to be pratyekabuddhas or to be the King of the Doctrine . There is nothing to be obtained!" - Nagarjuna "Subhuti spoke: Oh sons of the gods, if we say that even nirvana is like an i llusion, then what need is there to mention other phenomena?" "Subhuti, what do you think, does he who is a stream enterer think to himself , 'I have obtained the fruit of stream enterer'?" Subhuti spoke: "No Lord, he does not. And why is that? Lord, it is because he has entered nothing. It is because of that that he is called a stream enterer." - Buddha "The boddhisattva understands that even consciousness is truthless." (52) Yet this emptiness is the reason everything can exist. It is also said to be synonymous with nirvana or reality: "Even though nirvana is profound, It is expressed by words. Nirvana is not to be found And neither is the word nirvana findable. Neither the word nor nirvana can be found. In this way it is empty phenomena that reveal nirvana." "If what arises due to the condition of ignorance Is analyzed with proper knowledge One will perceive nothing, Whether arising or ceasing, The phenomena perceived then Is the actualization of nirvana." "If everything was not empty Nothing could arise or cease. And it would follow for you There would be no four noble truths. Where emptiness is possible There everything is possible." - Nagarjuna (53) This latter must not be misunderstood: emptiness is not the source or cause o f phenomena or fullness; rather, the two are inseparable, and reality - what mig ht be called 'true or ultimate emptiness' - is beyond both, as an earlier quote from PB implied.

Some points from Dzogchen This is made the most clear in Dzogchen where all lesser practices than that of direct seeing of the nature of the mind - where possible according to the cap acity of the student - are rejected as being bound to cause and effect. This inc ludes the sutra teachings of the Hinayana and Mahayana, the way of the bodhisatt vas, the lower and higher tantras (i.e., kriya/kundalini yoga, mahayoga, anuyoga ) - all except "the treasure chest" of Ati Yoga or Dzogchen: rigpa, or pure and total consciousness beyond judging and analyzing. This seeing, they say, is our true nature, both the goal and the way. Just remember that it is a living proces s, and not only an intellectual or mind-based one - although that is all too oft en the traditional communication. The seminal Dzogchen text (centuries old) , Ku nyed Gyalpo, states: "Understand well! The teaching of the supreme source, teacher of teachers, wh ereby there is no need to train oneself in order to progress through the various levels, is not appropriate to all and is difficult to grasp...As all the phenom ena of existence are one single thing in the ultimate dimension of the unborn, t here is no distinction between the various levels of realization. Understand tha t there is only one level...For fortunate practitioners of the supreme yoga who have appropriate karma, there is no view, no commitment, no spiritual action, no level, no path, no generation of altruistic commitment, no meditation on cause and effect, no sadhana, no antidotes. They see that neither the absolute nor the relative exists and in this way they understand the fundamental condition of th e mind." (54) This is a pinnacle teaching and practice; it is not for everybody. Take heed of the notation that it depends on favorable karma. In the West we readily sympa thize with a line from Carrie Fischer's book, Postcards from the Edge, "Instant gratification takes too long"! Everyone wants the 'best' or 'highest' practice, but the best or highest practice is the one which one is actually capable of pra cticing in any moment. As Anthony Damiani once said, "you can't kid the Soul." T herefore, we will present (without implicitly or explicitly recommending it) a s implified, gradual approach to a practice founded in emptiness later that makes more sense to many students. For now, however, we are still at the stage of defi ning and understanding. Namkhai Norbu summarizes the nature of the primordial st ate from the Dzogchen perspective: "Self-arising wisdom, the essence of all the Buddhas, exists prior to the div ision of samsara and nirvana and is beyond the limits of transmigration and libe ration. As it transcends the four conceptual limits [the dualism of "birth and c essation," of "eternity and nothingness," of "being and non-being," and of "visi on and emptiness"] and is intrinsically pure, this original condition is the unc reated nature of existence that has always existed, the ultimate nature of all p henomena. It cannot be identified with a stable and eternal substance allowing t he assertion "It is thus!" and is utterly free of all the defects of dualistic t hought, which is only capable of referring to an object other than itself...As i ts essence is the purity of original emptiness, it transcends the limits of bein g an eternal substance: it has nothing concrete and no specific characteristics to display. As its nature is self-perfection, it transcends the limits of nothin gness and non-being: the clarity of light is the pure nature of emptiness. Thus, this natural condition of primordial enlightenment, which is the immutable stat e of dharmakaya, does not entail subdivision into samsara and nirvana. Self-aris ing wisdom, primordially empty, is in a condition similar to space, and it perva des all beings without distinction, from glorious Samantabhadra down to the tini est insect on a blade of grass. For this reason the total state of dharmakaya, t he inseparability of the two truths, absolute and relative, is called "the primo rdial Buddha." (55)

Remember, this is our natural state, not far away - and perhaps more impossib le to believe than to actually see. Yet it is apparently difficult to see, which is why the Dzogchen masters try so hard to point it out. Dzogchen is transmissi on-based, it must be repeatedly emphasized, and a teacher is necessary. mKhas grub dGe is straightforward where the two truths, absolute and relative , and the twin teachings of dependent (or interdependent) origination and emptin ess are leading us: "The ultimate goal toward which every Mahayanist strives is the unity of the dharmakaya and the physical body. To obtain them, one must rely on the inseparab ility of methods that accumulate the two masses of merit and gnosis into a combi ned whole...Unless one has truly found certainty in regards to the workings of d ependent arising whereby causes give rise in an orderly way to their individual effects, the accumulation of one's mass of merit will not be accomplished faithf ully and from the heart..If one has not found certainty as to the fact that no p henomenon whatsoever has even the smallest atom of inherent existence even nomin ally, one will not be able to accumulate the true mass of gnosis [and] there is no way one will be able to assimilate the two masses into a combined whole. Such also is the fate as regards the accumulation of the two masses in that they wil l not be able to be accomplished by those who proclaim that "in our own system w e accept no causality whatsoever, it being a temporary expedient for the sake of others." So finding this certainty, which is the deep belief in the ways of cau sality, is what the sutras call the mundane correct view; and the unmistaken asc ertainment of emptiness is called the supramundane view." (56) Can we simplify this ancient exposition a bit? Yes, I certainly hope so (!), but by outlining it from various angles more doubts can potentially be created. However, it might be said: every thing (object) has no inherent existence of its own, it arises interdependently, and in mind; the perceiver (subject) of things also arises in mind; the mind (or consciousness) itself is empty of inherent ex istence; and what is left is Reality! Assuming you have honored the relative rea lity in the process (the meaning behind the traditional notion of 'accumulating a 'mass of merit', which includes the inclination of other beings and intelligen ces to help you). The only conflict that may arise is between awareness teaching s that maintain that consciousness is inherently self-existent and irreduceable, and emptiness teachings that say that consciousness itself is a subtle self-ess ence that itself is 'empty'. Emptiness in Taoism An example of emptiness is given in a poem from 'Lu Yen's Stanzas' that illus trates how many Taoist masters absorbed Ch'an Buddhism. Considering its ancient shamanistic roots and later cultural exchange with Buddhism, it is not surprisin g that Taoism has taken many forms, which can be basically be reduced to three: alchemy (both false and true, including tantra), yoga meditation ('cultivating t he 'golden elixer' between the eyes and raising the transmuted 'essence, vitalit y, and spirit' up the 'central channel'), and purely philosophical. Lao Tzu appe ars to have been an example of the latter, and Chuang Tzu a combination of both of the last two. Lu Yen, while the great forerunner of the 'Complete Reality Sch ool' of Taoism, which combined Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, here gives ev idence of preferring the latter purely spiritual mind-only approach to that of t he inner yogic cultivation of the 'essence': "To those who know the secret, 'There's not a single thing'. [A reference to the Diamond Sutra stressing the essential voidness of phenome na]

"They learn to give things up And simply practise stillness. All day long they battle with six robbers called the senses Until they recognise that shapes And forms are totally void, Then awaken to the truth That 'there's not a single thing', That the 'magic mirror stand' Exists only in the mind. [A reference to Hui-neng: 'there is no mirror to be polished', that subject a nd object, pure and impure - exist only in the mind] "When sense reaction's cut, Self-transformation follows. Then stillness dawns, and form Is recognised as void." (57) [A reference to the Heart Sutra, i.e., the realization of non-duality] Lu Yen taught that emptiness was an obstacle in Buddhism in that it could lea d to quietism and nihilism, that true emptiness is not 'empty', nor does it trul y void anything, and, further, that 'forgetting emptiness to return to reality that is refining emptiness.' (58) He made it clear, however, what a mystery this thing called 'The Way' really is: "If you consider it substantial, still all substance is empty. If you conside r it empty, still all emptiness is substantial...The substantiality within empti ness cannot be called substantial, the emptiness within substantiality cannot be called empty. Substantiality is not to be considered substantial, emptiness is not to be considered empty; yet though they are not to be considered empty or su bstantial, ultimately they are not nonexistent. Now empty, now substantial, it i s difficult to express in words. Now empty, now substantial - it is subtle indee d." "Though you cannot consider it empty, it really is empty; though you cannot c onsider it substantial, it really is substantial. It cannot be called alternatin g emptiness and substantiality, yet it is really none other than alternating emp tiness and substantiality. Ultimate indeed is the mystery of the Way! It has no name or form. So profound are its depths that it is difficult to fathom." (59) He also gives some practical advise: "The Tao is always to be practiced in the midst of daily life. Stop talking a bout lofty wonders and the empty void. Just carry out the human Tao, and there w ill be no shame in your heart. When you fulfill your nature, you'll know heaven and earth are the same...All things are empty, but essence is not void...Before you know true emptiness, do not speak of emptiness. If you cling to emptiness, y ou will lose the inner self...The Tao is entered by way of sincerity, When you r each complete sincerity, the Tao is not far off. Therefore a classic says,"Befor e practicing the way of immortality, first practice the way of humanity." (60) The voice of science

Interestingly, while not exactly speaking of the same thing as emptiness or the void (whether meant experientially or as the ultimate Plenum), even science is telling us that what we consider to be nothing is nothing of the sort: No matter how remote, every inch of our universe carries a mysterious "dark" e nergy that is pressing out in all directions. We're not sure how it works, but a cross this same patch you will also find threads of gravitational force stretchi ng to every part of the universe, while deep down, in impossibly small subatomic nooks and crannies, there's a riot of coming and going, a quantum flux, with li ttle clouds of matter popping in, then out of existence, like summer storms. A p atch of "empty" space may look empty, but in fact, its nothingness contains all kinds of invisible somethings. "Empty" is always hiding secrets. The universe doesn't tell what it's hiding, though it's hiding a lot. All thos e planets, stars, moons and great clouds of dust we can see are a small percenta ge of what's actually there. Most of the universe is made of "dark" matter that neither emits nor absorbs light. So most of what's going on in the universe look s like, well...nothing. We are surrounded by Nothing. Everywhere we go, we have no idea what we're not seeing. We don't know what gravitational fields look like, what dark matter loo ks like, what quantum foam looks like... but what the scientists and the artists are telling us, in their very different ways, is that if we lean in, and pay ve ry close attention, sometimes what looks like Nothing is the best place to find the most interesting...somethings. (61) Can one see how they say we are but picking up pebbles on the seashore of kno wledge? Another way of looking at the whole issue of emptiness and illusion, one and many, as well as dependent origination, from the point of view of science (inclu ding 'spiritual' science) is through a term used by Ken Wilber but which was ori ginally coined by Authur Koestler 1967. A holon, neuter form of holos "whole") i s something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. A classic example of a se quence of holons in a 'holarchy' would be subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, bodies, micro-ecologies, meso-ecologies, or planetary biosphere. One could also delineate various types of spiritual hol archies, such as for the archangelic kingdoms related to nature, and so on. In t his way of thinking, the aspect of a holon's nature that is individual reflects its own capacity to be semi-independent within the system, but at the same time this individuality participates in a larger pattern of interrelationships, some of which give profound shape and context to the very nature and existence of ind ividual holons that make up the larger holons. In a very profound sense, all hol ons cannot exist without at least aspects of the holarchy of which they are a pa rt, so that in that sense they are not fully independent, and so true individual ity has a type of meaning, but not the simplistic sense of separateness or indep endence, which even in relativity, is an illusion, given that time and space are themselves categories of the mind. Holon theories blend individuality, hierarch ies, ecologies, systems, and larger wholes, into an understanding of complex int edependent individuality. If one reads Reimagination of the World one will be in troduced by David Spangler to a radically expanded view of the 'higher worlds' t han the standard, more static traditional hierarchical versions, such as in the seven-stage model of the Puranas, also found in most schools of yoga as well as Sam'khya/Vedanta philosophy. In Spangler's investigations of these realms he has found beings and presences whose identities span different dimensions at once, and that also transcend our understanding of the notion of individuality versus a group or whole. Also the notion of 'presences' that themselves make up 'dimens ions', and that what takes place in so-called 'lower' realms affects the 'higher ', and that a quantum or post-quantum view that is senior to but does not exclud e that of a hierarchy is needed to navigate these worlds and understand somethin

g of the beings that reside therein. So as part of our totality that includes th e human, personal self, our deeper psyche or soul nature, and our essence as Con scious-Being, all of which we are called and impelled by Nature to incarnate her e (lest we forget in the midst of this theoretical discussion), the 'intermediat e' realm alone is quite complex and equally mysterious to the great mystery of B eing itself. While perhaps not of immediate concern for our direct awakening or Self-realization, it is part of our eventual complete and integral destiny. And while traditional teachings of spirituality usually opt for exclusive identifica tion with either the subtle soul nature or the Conscious nature alone, how can w e draw a line of separation between these three aspects of one whole? We are all of that, and in a holarchy of other such holons! This is a fascinating subject for another essay, It's All Too Much For Me To Take, on this website. One literary example of the method of emptiness is given us by the famous She rlock Holmes: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbabl e, must be the truth" ! A Modern Approach to Understanding Emptiness from PB: the Doctrine of Mentali sm PB simplifies this idea of emptiness for us also. He equates emptiness with m entalism, which holds that all perceived objects are arising in mind, whether pe rsonal mind or Universal Mind (~Brahman), and are therefore constantly changing with no inherent self-existence; however, they are real insofar as they do arise in and as Mind itself. They are not illusion per se. To become converted to thi s radical turnabout in one's perception of the world - from materialism to menta lism - is something that takes a long time to make one's own, due to the habits of ages and ages of seeing in another way: "A further result of this contemplation of the world as the great Void is tha t the work done by mentalistic study is advanced still further, for not only are the things experienced by the five senses seen to be only thoughts but the thou ghts themselves are now seen to be the transient spume and spray flung out of se eming Emptiness. Thus there is a complete reorientation from thoughts to Thought . Instead of holding a single thought or scenes of ideas in perfect concentratio n, the practiser must now move away from all ideas altogether to that seeming em ptiness in which they arise. And the latter, of course, is the pure, passive, un differentiated mind-stuff out of which the separate ideas are produced. Here the re is no knowing and discriminating between one idea and another, no stirring in to consciousness of this and that, but rather a sublime vacancy. For the Mind-es sence is not something which we can picture to ourselves; it is utterly formless . It is as empty and as ungraspable as space." (62) This could be interpreted in two ways. One, is that of the realization of wha t can be called the 'Fullness-Emptiness', or pure Consciousness (as contrasted w ith an experience of 'the empty Witness', or traditional Atman as interpreted in some forms of advaita), characterized as deathless and birthless, realization o f what you have always been, radiant, timeless, the real, etc., and, second, a f urther, uncontradictable true Emptiness, which is the integration of that blissf ul pure Consciousness-Being with the World-Mind's manifestation. This is full no ndualism, which, within relativity, can still be immeasurably deepened, even whi le the realizer in his essence and more and more in his humanness stands impertu rbably serene in the midst of any such changes. This 'Emptiness' is 'full' of th e two essential 'perfection's of the Buddha: wisdom and compassion (karuna). To make mentalism or emptiness - which can be taken as synonyms inasmuch as t hey take away the fixed material view of the world - to make this one's own take

s a long time. Anthony Damiani explained it like this: for eons as primitives we have look at getting our dinner 'out there'; now we have to deconstruct that na ive view! Thus is nothing but a revolution in our consciousness. "To appreciate the teaching that the world is an appearance is immeasurably e asier than to establish its actuality in consciousness." "The road from mentalism as conception to mentalism as a conviction is a long one." "No man becomes a confirmed mentalist save after many doubts and some lapses, after strenuous reflections extending over years, and mystical intuitions manif esting in spite of himself. The strangeness and mystery of this doctrine are too baffling to be overcome either easily of quickly." "Through the disappearance of the world during mystical meditation he finds o ut its non-materiality. This is the Glimpse. [Note: this is not the only way to find out its non-materiality; it was how PB discovered it, but it can be accompl ished purely through the jnana approach of the mentalistic discipline itself] Bu t with his return to the world his glimpse changes into a memory only. How to es tablish it permanently, this harmony between inner vision and outer world, is di scoverable only when living and active in the world yet thoroughly understanding the mentalistic nature of the world." "Such development comes only after many births. And since this truth has to b e lived, it must be in practice and not only in theory. Before a man comes to th is truth, this mentalism, much time is needed to enable his mind to develop and receive it." He also makes the point that understanding emptiness or mentalism is a key to an ethical life: "It is because men are deceived by their senses into accepting materialism th at they are deceived by their ego into committing sin. Mentalism is not only an intellectual doctrine but also an ethical one." "Even though he knows that it is like a dream, he must live, work and act, lo ve, strive and suffer as if the dream were true." He refutes the nihilists also, just as do the Mahayanists: "If he himself is a mere nothing who does not exist, who then is it who takes all this trouble to prove it?" Further, like the Dalai Lama above, he explains a multifactorial approach req uired to understand and actualize these teachings of mentalism or emptiness. One cannot by some 'direct' approach simply jump into a fruitful analysis of the sk handas such as in Buddhism without preparation and auxiliary aids of practice unless one is an exceptional being: "If, however, by profound thought, deep meditation, and other preliminaries [ such as moral purification - a veritable 'furnace' for most of us - altruistic a ctivity, etc.], you have removed some of the obstacles which surround and entrap most people, then you may be more likely to let light dawn within you. You may get the shattering experience of the mentalist revelation: many more discoveries will then be made. You will discover that the world is a form taken by consciou sness. You will learn the meaning of the void." And that is to say:

"When this truth of mentalism strikes our minds with vivid lightning flash, w e have come a long way on the quest." "He discovers the nothingness (no-thing-ness) of matter." "The manifest is Mind, and so is the Void." - Tilopa (63) Let us explain this a little further. For this is a new, modern way of unders tanding what the ancients termed 'emptiness', and may not be understood in one g o. PB and Anthony Damiani argue forcefully for a philosophical approach to gaini ng the mentalistic insight or understanding. It can also be reached through myst ical experience, but is doubly assured with reflection. The task is to reason ou t how what we see is in or made up of mind, consciousness - that it is mental, a nd not physical, which is as far as the limits of our epistemology allows us. Th at we can only know the existence of things as manifested through our minds. Any thing-in-itself as scientists, as well as common folk and even some philosophers believe is just that - a belief. PB writes of the hidden power behind such reaso ning: Constant reflection on metaphysical and ethical themes reaches a point where o ne day its accumulated weight pushes him around the corner into a mystical reali zation of those themes no less surely than meditation might have done. Although every tenet of the metaphysics of truth is worked out with strict rationality an d scientific respect for facts, there is a hidden support in transcendental know ledge running right through them all. The whole intellectual structure is suppor ted by a solid core of super-intellectual insight. "The metaphysics of truth is set out in such a way that the student believes he is proceeding step by step purely by logical deduction from ascertainable fac ts, that his reasoned thinking upholds the findings of transcendental experience , whereas not only is he doing this but at the same time is proceeding upon a pa th which conforms to his own latent insight. It kindles a higher intelligence in its students. Consequently the sense either of sudden or of growing revelation may often accompany his studies, if he be sufficiently intuitive. The authentic metaphysics of truth can bring him close to the mystical experience of reality. Then the trigger-pull which will start the experience moving need only be someth ing slight, perhaps a printed inspired sentence, perhaps just a single meeting w ith one who has learnt to live in the Overself, or perhaps a climb in the mounta ins. For then the mind becomes like a heap of dry wood, needing only a spark to flare up into a blazing pile. The close attention to its course of thought then becomes a yoga-path in itself." (64) Anthony Damiani writes on the epistemological side of this discipline: This is one of the problems that philosophers are interested in. They want to know how they know. So they go through this inquiry and this reflection into the meaning of knowledge and what makes knowledge possible. And they have to start there. Because if we don't start there we might be assuming that we have such a thing as knowledge and it might be a lie. Maybe we have no knowledge. You know, like people in a dream, they dream that they have knowledge. They say, "I know t his and I know that." They don't know anything. When they wake up they say, "How stupid I was." We would have to take as given the world that we perceive. My eyes see colors, my nose smells...but given this phenomenal aggregate, then I have to reason on it. The scientist tells me that what I see comes from out there, goes into my ey e, makes an image in the retina of my eye, travels up the optic nerve, and then I become conscious of the thing out there. I could point out, through reason, th at he has a process which is correct up to the point where you have a molecular

activity in the brain and then you have a thought. Here you have on one hand mot ion in the brain cells, the neurons firing, and then on the other you have consc iousness. But these are two utterly distinct different kinds of things. And reas on would say, "How did thought arise from motion? What are you talking about?" O nly through the use of reason can I criticize the scientist when he says that. S o reason is going to be the means that we have to use to get to understand somet hing about how we know. We won't worry about who we are yet. To find out who the dreamer is, you would have to bet on the assurance that kn owledge could deliver. So we are back to the question of knowledge. Unless I kno w how I know and unless that knowledge is valid, there is no sense saying I know w ho I am, because I would only be reflecting the primeval ignorance that I starte d out with. So the question of knowledge always comes first. You see, the difficulty is that all your life you believe in the existence of a world of things, a reality which is non-mental. And when reason confronts you with the fact that you can t know anything except your idea, you try to excuse you rself by saying, Well, regardless, there is something out there. It is true that I can know only me ideas, but my idea are telling me about something out there. A nd they always try that, you know? You have to remember that if for many many lives we believed in a real world o ut there, outside of us, you are not going to be able to abolish a belief which has grown into you. You are not going to ablish it with the stroke of a pen. It is going to take a lot of effort. Because these are beliefs that are ingrained, inborn, innate...In other words, we are ignorant. Period. We are all born in bon dage. We are not born free. We are born in bondage to our ignorance. But as we m ature, as we reflect, then we start challenging those things. Those are habits that have to be rooted out. And the way that you root them ou t is by constantly going over the teachings, understanding them until they are p erfectly clear in your mind. So that when the thought tries to express itself as that is a thing you say, No, that is a thought. In other words, you begin to see, i n the precision of your language, that your habits are changing. You get more an d more accurate in the way you speak - that could be considered as habit. The me ntal habits are almost impossible to break. they are so deeply rooted...When you start attackingbeliefs, whether yours or someone else s, you are undertaking a Hi malayan task. You just have no idea how deeply rooted beliefs are. (65) What they are saying, only briefly outlined here, is a philosophic way of com ing to the understanding of emptiness . That even before we attempt the ontological inquiry, or make the ontological conclusion, of who or what we are, we must mak e the epistemological inquiry into understanding how we know anything. And that is only through our awareness of anything. Nothing is ever known non-mentally. T his opens the door to a western way of getting at the doctrine of emptiness. All preceptions are in mind or consciousness, and as such they are empty of inheren t self-existence - yet they are not unreal either, only impermanent. PB gives the final result to be attained through this philosophical inquiry, once it is established that there I nothing but thought arising in Mind: The first step is to discover that there is a Presence, a Power, a Life, a Min d, Being, unique, not made or begot, without shape, unseen and unheard, everywhe re and always the same. The second step is to discover its relationship to the u niverse and to oneself. (65a) Having ascertained the 'what', then we discover the 'who'. Needless to say, this is not the only approach to coming to Self-knowledge or knowledge of Truth. But it is one authentic way of coming at it.

This can also be seen as where the synthesis of emptiness and awareness teach ings comes in. Once again, one first asks the "What is the world" question befor e the"Who Am I"?" one. This, in fact, is the natural way of exploring for a grow ing child. That is, one understand the mentalistic or 'empty' nature of the worl d of objects, including the empirical person, and then finds the source of the ' I'. It can be, and traditionally has been, done in the reverse order, but this w ay has its advantages: "When the mind withdraws from its creations after understanding their mentaln ess and looks into itself, it discovers the final truth. But when it does this p rematurely - that is, before such inquiry into the world's nature - it discovers a half-truth: the nature of the "I". After acknowledging the meditational experience of the Void, he also says tha t one must then contemplate on the world as Void to get a final nondual result: "This must not be understood. The sage continues to see things, only he knows them as pure consciousness. They no longer ruffle his experience or cause exist ential doubt." When the world is deconstructed first, it becomes easier to integrate that un derstanding with the inner void-nature. And PB's words suggest that one also may come to understand - although here we step beyond Buddhism language - a transce ndental relationship (their distinction, but non-separation) of Soul and God, or Overself and Mind: "The mystic is usually satisfied in enjoying [the] inner stillness whereas th e philosopher needs also to know where it emanates from." He offers a few more quotes on understanding mentalism and the nature of the quest to round out the discussion: "He can come into this knowledge by correct deep thought or by purified clean sed faith or by the influence of someone else who has discovered it." This is why in a path such as Buddhism there are different means of approach, and why the teacher, guru, or guide is also of such importance. "The thought of the external world comes from the Universal Mind (God) origin ally, while thoughts which pertain to personal characteristics come out of the s ubconscious tendencies developed in previous incarnations. In both cases the pow er which initiates thought is outside the conscious self but for that very reaso n is irresistible. The work of the Spiritual Quest is to enter into co-operative activity with God, on the one hand, and to conquer those subconscious tendencie s, on the other." This latter phrase I find hard to rigidly agree with anymore. 'Conquer' is su ch a divisive term, and as hard as trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. In fact, PB himself once said it! Subconscious tendencies will certainly be purifi ed and transformed, but not by our noble intentions and Herculean efforts alone. When our Conscious nature awakens, after seeing our essential helplessness, - t hrough spiritual help - an irresistable force, call it the Divine, call it Natur e, call it Being, will do it for and through and as us. Here PB concedes to usin g older language of a great uber-masculine 'battle' with ourselves. If you think you can do it, try and see. Grace must complement our efforts. "How hard for the average mind to grasp this central fact, that the World-Ide a is the world-creation...the World-Mind does not need to make an effort in orde r to make a universe, does not in reality have to do anything at all, for Its th

ought is the thing. Some mystics and most occultists have failed to perceive thi s. Their realization of the Spirit did not bring with it the full revelation of the Spirit. This is because they have not thoroughly comprehended - usually thro ugh lack of competent instruction - its utter emptiness. Nothing can come out of the Universal Mind that is not mental, not even the material world which men be lieve they inhabit and experience." The latter is a metaphysical challenge to Theosophical, Platonic, and other e manationist views; PB is saying that from the ultimate standpoint, all is an 'id ea' in Mind, even such 'ideas' as divine archtypes or the creative 'Logos'. Such , of course, are 'powerful' ideas. "The World-Idea is thought by the individual mind and, in the process, inevit ably shaped according to its limitations. But the first cause and ultimate sourc e of that idea cannot be this mind. For the idea is "given" to it." "It is not enough to say that the world is man's idea. We need to know why he has it at all. To be sufficiently explained, his world-idea must be brought int o relation with the World-Mind's World-Idea, because his individual mind is inse parably rooted in the World-Mind." "It is on account of this union existing between the individual minds and the World-Mind that we are forced to give our attention to the world-idea." How close we are getting to the idea of the fact that all things are 'empty, including the ego, and that we are forced to see the world and its source as one , manifestation and the void as one! This is the emptiness teachings in modern l anguage. Thus mentalism proves why there must be God. Yet we have not said how a ny of this is accomplished. The impression may still unfortunately be that it ca n be attained through pure intellection, the 'head'. But of course that is a par tial understanding, which does not take into account the connection of the body and Consciousness and the great spiritual 'Heart' that Ramana Maharshi introduce d or re-introduced to a modern world, albeit in somewhat limited and still 'diss ociative language. So there is one thing more, which PB points toward: "He only is worthy of the name philosopher who not only possesses a knowledge of mentalism [emptiness], and understand it well, but who reverently lets the h igher power be ever present in, and work through, him. Otherwise he is only a st udent of philosophy." "He is a scientist to the extent that he respects fact, a metaphysician to th e extent that he wants reality, a religionist to the extent that he recognizes a higher power." Yes, a higher power. Even Sri Nisargadatta talked about it earlier. Did one t hink that emptiness was going to wipe that out? That is a large discussion in it self, which for now the reader will be left to chew on for himself. Just know th at all traditions speak of a liberating presence(s) or power or agency within re lativity. Remember also that PB said that the very Overself or Conscious princip le will make a 'mystical union with one's own body.' This is of most importance. I find it unfortunate only in that he didn't have time to flesh that out in muc h greater detail. In my opinion, that is a key quote of his, with deep significa nce. It is also important to look at it in another way, that 'we', in fact, will make such a union with our own body. Don't tell me we are already united with i t. We haven't incarnated too much, as some if not most (life-negative) tradition al teachings will say; rather, we haven't incarnated enough! We may have 'carnat ed' (a bad joke, implying we did something 'fleshly' wrong by just being here!), but not yet fully in-carnated. There is a big and sacred difference. This is no t to say it is something we can directly try to do, no, that is not what is bein g implied. Nor do we say to 'stop seeking,' or 'do nothing.' That is just a way

to keep belief alive in the mind while fundamental suffering continues. Where emptiness comes into the picture here lies in the inner attitude of the enlightened soul. As PB said: "Others may believe that he stands in the great Light, but he himself has no particular or ponderous self-importance." (66) To finish up this section, PB offers us this capsule summary of the 'mentalis tic discipline', which we may also consider as a modern version of the 'emptines s discipline': "Without keeping steadily in view this original mentalness of things and henc e their original oneness with self and Mind, the mystic must naturally get confu sed if not deceived by what he takes to be the opposition of Spirit and Matter. The mystic looks within, to self; the materialist looks without, to world. And e ach misses what the other finds. But to the philosopher neither of these is prim ary. he looks to that Mind of which both self and world are but manifestations a nd in which he finds the manifestations also. it is not enough for him to receiv e, as the mystic receives, fitful and occasional illuminations from periodic med itation. He relates this intellectual understanding to his further discovery got during mystical self-absorption in the Void that the reality of his own self is Mind. Back in the world once more he studies it again under this further light, confirms that the manifold world consists ultimately of mental images, conjoins with his full metaphysical understanding that it is simply mind in manifestatio n, and thus comes to comprehend that it is essentially one with the same Mind wh ich he experiences in self-absorption. Thus his insight actualizes, experiences, this Mind-in-itself as and not apart from the sensuous world whereas the mystic divides them. With insight, the sense of oneness does not destroy the sense of difference but both remain strangely present, whereas with the ordinary mystical perception each cancels the other out....Whatever he does or refrains from doin g, whatever he experiences or fails to experience, he gives up all discriminatio ns between reality and appearance, between truth and illusion, and lets his insi ght function freely as his thoughts select and cling to nothing. he experiences the miracle of undifferentiated being, the wonder of undifferentiated unity. The artificial man-made frontiers melt away. he sees his fellow man as inescapably and inherently divine as they are, not merely as the mundane creatures they beli eve they are, so that any traces of an ascetical holier-than-thou attitude fall completely away from him." (67) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Just one thing more. We said that PB would simplify things for us, but, alas, he adds another consideration to 'gum up the works!' Yet, and no doubt contrary to Vedanta and Dzogchen philosophy, it does makes sense in terms of some of the Taoist and Islamic ontology mentioned herein. And that is, that it may not be e nough to just say that there is emptiness-form, consciousness-phenomena, or void ness-manifestation. As discussed in Paul Brunton and Advaita on the Soul, he pos its an Unknowable Godhead that is itself the source of both the Void and the Wor ld-Mind. Man, when he attains union with his divine Soul, can know that Supreme Being Is, but more about it he cannot know and still be man. He states: "Mind is the Essence of all manifested things as World-Mind and the Mystery b ehind unmanifest Nothing." "The real is the same forever and unalterably the same, whether it be the unm anifest Void or the manifest world. It has never been born and consequently can never die." "The Mind's first expression is the Void. The second and succeedin

g is the Light, that is, the World-Mind [consciousness as universal and individu al Souls]. This is followed by the third, the World-idea. Finally comes the four th, manifestation of the world itself." "The Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, said, "In eternal non-existence I look for the sp irituality of things!" The philosopher perceives that there is no such thing as creation out of nothing for the simple reason that Mind is eternally and univers ally present. "Nothing" is merely an appearance. Here indeed there is neither ti me nor space. It is like a great silent boundless circle wherein no life seems t o stir, no consciousness seems to be at work, and no activity is in sway. Yet th e seer will know by a pure insight which will grip his consciousness as it has n ever been gripped before, that here indeed is the root of all life, all consciou sness, and all activity. But how it is so is as inexplicable intellectually as w hat its nature is. With the Mind the last word of human comprehension is uttered . With the Mind the last world of possible being is explored. But whereas the ut terance is comprehensible by his consciousness, the speaker is not. it is a Sile nce which speaks but what it says in only that it IS; more than that none can he ar." "Although nothing can be written about IT that is truly descriptive, everythi ng can be written bout what leads up to the revelation of IT; that can be writte n with precision and luminosity. The inside must forever elude words, but the ou tside need not." "In the end he will have to confess, as the English hermit Richard Rolle conf essed six hundred years ago, despite his deep mystical experience, that it is no t possible to know what God is but only that he is." "The mysterious Godhead has provided a witness to its sacred existence, a dep uty to evidence its secret rulership. And that Witness and deputy can be found f or it sits imperishable in the heart of man himself. It is indeed his true self, his immortal soul, his Overself...If it be true that no adept has ever seen the mysterious absolute, it is also true that he has seen the way it manifests its presence through something intimately emanated from it. If the nameless formless Void from which all things spring up and into which they go back is a world so subtle that it is not really intellectually understandable and so mysterious tha t it is not even mystically experienceable, we may however experience the strang e atmosphere emanating from it, the unearthly aura signifying its hidden presenc e." He concludes: "It is the topic most worth writing about yet least understood. Whoever has e ntered into a partial understanding - it would be too much to demand more - of i t, bears some responsibility. he must communicate with his fellows." To spin us around once more, however, he writes - seemingly retracting this e ntire line of argument: "There is a single Consciousness without beginning or end, ever the same in i tself, beyond and behind which there is nothing else." (!) (68) However, he also elsewhere says "God's "I" makes my "I" possible", so maybe h e has not retracted anything after all. As always, the reader will have to decid e. These matters are not understood in one night. More on Taoism and the Great Way In Taoism we find a more poetic emphasis on this same transcendence of the ca tegories of the mind, and the seamless nature of life. Chang Po-Tuan (11th centu

ry), of the Southern sect of the Complete Reality School, wrote: "It is not form, not void, yet both form and void. It is not being, nor nonbe ing, yet both being and non-being. Form and void interpenetrate, being and nonbe ing cannot be established; this is ineffable existence within true emptiness...T here is a secret method of summoning and absorbing the primordial: beckoning ful fillment by emptiness, you see the emperor of the void...When the mind of Tao is not obscured, the human mind vanishes...Nondoing is not sticking to indifferent emptiness; When you are able to avoid negligence and obsession both, rooting ou t the seeds of repeated birth and death, right in the center there is just one s piritual youth...Harmonizing illumination, merging with the ordinary world, is t he secret celestial mechanism...With a peal of thunder, the gate of heaven opens , and out leaps the indestructible immortal person...Transformation without end, unfathomable spiritual wonders." (69) [Translation: the void is not empty, the real is eternal and glorious. "When the mind of Tao is not obscured, the human mind vanishes" - when the mind of the sage becomes one with the World-Idea, understanding and perceiving the truth of mentalism, the 'what', or emptiness, of Nature, the little mind surrenders its sovereignty as the 'great uniqueness', the Primordial or Universal Man is realiz ed]. And Lu Yen tell us that even after finding the Way and achieving 'non-doing' (a coveted achievement in Taoism and various nondual schools, signifying alignme nt with the Way), then there is much still to achieve; the life of a Taoist in h is school was not just sitting on a mountaintop cultivating immortality: "This true transmission is received individually from a teacher; there is an opening up in the darkness, resulting in clear understanding. Once you are capab le of clear understanding, you eventually realize the hidden mystery. Upon reali zing the hidden mystery, you know the Great Way. This is called knowledge and is regarded as attainment. When you attain this ultimate mystery, then nondoing is finally possible." "Even if you have attained nondoing, you should still carry out undertakings, fulfilling them and realizing their proper results. After many undertakings, yo u should accomplish worthy deeds, fulfilling them completely and realizing their proper results...Observe what people who arrived did to enter the way. They str ove mightily, as if they feared they wouldn't reach it, and looked all over for elevated Real people to teach them the mysterious wonder..Such was their sinceri ty that they moved the Real People to teach them the essential, and thus they we re able to attain penetrating understanding, without distortion..But still they were not complacent: they mixed in with the ordinary world and carried out vario us undertakings and performed various deeds in the cities, towns, and villages. Thinking their works were still shallow, they made yet broader commitments, to c arry out unlimited undertakings and accomplish unlimited deeds. They vowed that all people through the ages, those with knowledge and those without, would hear of the Great Way and ascend to the ultimate goal...People of true enlightenment perform deeds of true enlightenment." (70) "A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?" One final angle to emptiness pointed out by Wang Che of the Northern sect of the Complete Reality School regards the transcendence of the 'three realms' of d esire, form , and formless. He says: "When the mind forgets thoughts, you transcend the realm of desire. When the mind transcends objects, you transcend the realm of form. Do not cling to the vi ew of emptiness, and you transcend the formless realm. When you detach from thes e three realms, your spirit lives in the homeland of the immortal sages, your es

sence is in the realm of jadelike purity"i.e., [true openeness]. (71) PB has pointed out that the experience of the great Void in meditation is sti ll, after all, only an experience, and that it has a counterpart on daily life, which is the attitude of detachment. That is all right as a provisional teaching . However, he was still referring to detachment from the world of form. While in itself necessary, I ask, ultimately and really, what is wrong with attachment? or desire? It is part of the relative reality, and also part of how we learn to love and know ourselves as conscious beings. This quote of Lu Yen suggests benef its during life and after death from not even clinging to the experience of empt iness (or non-attachment) as so conceived. Theravada Buddhism and emptiness: the contemplative states An excellent description of some of the experiential stages of varying forms of emptiness from a Theravada perspective is given in the book Samana by the vener able Luangta Maha Boowo (1913-2011). This may really get you down, so take it as an example of a traditional path to realization, the rigours of which are not p ossible for many active people today, especially in the West. It is the relative stages of samadhi and emptiness that I find of relevance here, not the monastic way! He writes (and this is a long but I think worthwhile autobiographical exce rpt; those who are pressed for time may skip forward to the next dotted line): When the mind settles down into total stillness, you could say that the mind i s empty, but it s only empty in samadhi. When the mind withdraws from samadhi, the emptiness disappears. From there, the mind resumes its investigations and conti nues with them until it gains expertise in the proper use of samadhi. Once samad hi is strong, wisdom steps up its investigation of the various aspects of the bo dy until it sees them all clearly and can remove its attachments concerning the body once and for all. At that point, the mind begins to be progressively more e mpty, but it doesn t yet display a complete emptiness. As long as it hasn t gained t otal proficiency, images will still appear within it as mental pictures. The ima ges within the heart then begin to fade day by day, until finally they are gone. No mental images appear either inside or outside the heart. This is called an e mpty mind. This kind of emptiness is the inherent emptiness of the mind that has reached its own level. It s not the same as the emptiness of samadhi. The emptiness of sam adhi lasts only as long as we sit in samadhi. But, when the mind lets go of the body, because of the power of its mindfulness and wisdom that are fully alert to the internal images, this is called the emptiness of the mind on its own level. This emptiness, gained through wisdom, is lasting. When this stage is reached, the mind is truly empty. Even though the body appears, there s simply a sense that the body is there. No image of the body appears in the mind at all. Emptiness o f this sort is said to be empty on the level of the mind and it s constantly empty like this at all times. If this emptiness is Nibbana, it s the Nibbana of that pa rticular meditator or of that stage of the mind, but it s not yet the Nibbana of t he Buddha. If someone were to take the emptiness of samadhi for Nibbana, it woul d simply be the Nibbana of that particular meditator s samadhi. Why is it that the se two sorts of emptiness aren t the emptiness of the Buddha s Nibbana? Because the mind empty in samadhi is unavoidably satisfied with and attached to its samadhi. The mind empty in line with its own level is likewise unavoidably absorbed in a nd attached to that sort of emptiness. The mind must then take that level of emp tiness as its object until it passes beyond it. Anyone who calls this emptiness Nibbana is actually attached to this emptiness without realizing it. When attach ment is involved, how can this sort of emptiness be Nibbana? If we don t want to settle for this level of Nibbana, we must take a thorough lo ok at feeling, memory, thought and consciousness until we see them clearly and i

n full detail because the emptiness we re referring to is the emptiness of feeling , in that a feeling of pleasure fills this emptiness. Memory recognizes it as em pty. Thoughts take this emptiness as their preoccupation. Consciousness is aware of an internal emptiness. So this level of emptiness becomes the emptiness of t he mind s preoccupation. If we investigate this emptiness, seeing it clearly as a mental fabrication, w e will open the way by which we are sure of transcending it someday. Investigati ng in this way, the truth of the mind will gradually reveal itself. The mind is then sure to find a way to shake itself free. Even the underlying basis for thes e fabricated things will not be able to withstand mindfulness and wisdom. Mindfu lness and wisdom of a radical sort will slash their way in just like a fire that burns without stopping when it meets with fuel until they have dug up the roots of all conditioned things. Only then will they stop their advance. On this leve l, the adversaries to the Nibbana of the Buddha are that to which the mind is at tached: the sense that, My heart is empty, My heart is at ease, My heart is clean and clear. Although we may see the heart as empty, it s paired with a non-emptiness. T he heart may seem to be satisfied, but it s merely the other side of dissatisfacti on. The heart may seem clean and clear, but it dwells with defilement without ou r being aware of it. Thus emptiness, ease and clarity are the qualities that obs cure the heart because they are the signs of becoming and birth. Whoever wants t o cut off becoming and birth should thus investigate these things with wisdom so as to let them go. Don t be possessive of them, or they will turn into a fire tha t burns you. When your wisdom digs down into these three lords of becoming as th ey appear, you willcome to the central hub of becoming and birth, and it will di sintegrate from the heart the moment wisdom reaches the foundation on which it i s based. The ultimate form of emptiness arises when those factors are ended thro ugh the power of wisdom. No signs of any conventional reality will appear in tha t emptiness at all. It is an emptiness different from the other forms of emptine ss we have passed through. Whether that emptiness can be called the emptiness of the Buddha, or whose emptiness it is, I m afraid I can t say, other than that it s an emptiness that each meditator can know directly only for him or herself alone. The ultimate emptiness has no time or season. It s absolutely timeless. The empt iness of samadhi can fluctuate and change. The emptiness of the formless or imag eless level [when the emptiness reached in samadhi has been extended into ordina ry life] which serves as our path, can change or be transcended. But this emptin ess exclusively within oneself [the Nibbana of the Buddha] doesn t change because there is no self within this emptiness, and no sense that this emptiness is ones elf. There is simply the knowledge and vision of things as they are seeing this emptiness in line with its natural principles as they actually are, and seeing a ll phenomena as they actually are. Even moral virtue, samadhi and wisdom the qua lities we use to straighten out the heart are realized for what they are and let go in line with their true nature. Nothing at all remains lurking in the nature of this final stage of emptiness. Please reflect on these three kinds of emptin ess and try to attain them in your practice. Especially the last form of emptine ss, which is emptiness in the principles of nature, beyond the range where any o ther person or any conventional reality can become involved with it ever again. Our doubts, ranging from the beginning levels of the Dhamma to this ultimate emp tiness, will finally be resolved, with our own knowledge and vision acting as ju dge. I encourage the reader to explore the rest of this book, especially the chapt ers on the artfull interplay between concentration/mindfulness and skillfullness /wisdom as well as meditation in the Buddhist middle way. In the final excerpt h e clears up the historical wrong impression or even wrong translation of the Bud dha's use of the term 'desire', which can be stated more correctly as 'selfish d esire'. [However, even that is a subject for much exploration, as it is a potent ially divisive and negative term in itself, for what is not selfish? Moreover, t here is a time and place for everything]:

So, go ahead and desire. Desire to gain release from suffering. Desire to gain merit. Desire to go to heaven. Desire to go to Nibbana. Go ahead and desire the se results as much as you like, because they re all part of the path. It s not true that all desire is craving. If we don t allow any desires because we think that al l desire is craving, then it s as if we were already dead. Nothing is accomplished in life without desire. That s not what it means to eliminate defilements and cra ving. Such a person is nothing special, nothing special at all, because he s a dea d person. A person who isn t dead has to want this and that - just be careful that you don t go wanting in the wrong direction, that s all. If you want in the wrong d irection, it means craving and defilement. If you want in the right direction, i t s the path, so make sure you understand this! The stronger our desire, the more resolute our persistence will be. Desire and determination are part of the path, the way to gain release from suffering. When our desire to go to heaven, to att ain Nibbana or to gain release from suffering is strong, making us brave in the fight, then our persistence, our stamina and our fighting spirit are pulled toge ther into a single strength by our intention to attain Nibbana and be released f rom suffering. These factors keep working constantly with no concern for the tim e of the day, the month or the year. [While I understand this venerable master's meaning, I find the teaching abou t desiring to avoid suffering potentially damaging, as there is unavoidable suff ering in just being human that must be owned, endured, and understood deeply, an d not just bypassed through with a pre-conceived Buddhist explanation and method ology, which may no longer be appropriate for our times. There is nothing wrong with being strong, it is a good quality, but there is also a necessary spiritual 'death' and rebirth that can, in some cases, be bypassed through too much willf ul effort and not enough acceptance. This must be said, although a full expositi on is beyond the scope of this paper. Sorry]. Important note However, notice how he says that after attaining the 'emptiness of samadhi ' or the inner self', and the 'emptiness of the world', and even the transparent o neness of the two, there is one final stage, which he calls the 'samadhi of the Buddha', in which one comes to recognize that even the Void or Emptiness is a me ntal fabrication. We suggest that this is nothing but YOU, the ground of even th e Void or Emptiness. PB writes in similar terms. He prefaces the following comments by saying that the Mind s first expression is the Void, whose first expression is the World-Mind and its emanated Overselves: The highest and the last of the inward-bound stages is still to be reached, an d this is the self-knowing Void of Being which can repeat the phrase "I am that I am" of Exodus 3:14, but which is without any other predicate. The dividing frontier between the Void and Being, between utter emptiness and inner reality, is hard to find. If anyone says he has experienced the Void or e Absolute Spirit, then he must have been present o know that it is Absolute Spirit. But clearly he y self [rather, he was present as the Overself or deny its presence nor claim its complete merger.

if he says he has merged into th to note that it is a Void or t was not present in his ordinar Soul], or he would not dare to

However, he takes care to note: The Void must not be misunderstood. Although it is the deepest state of medita

tion and one where he is deprived of all possessions, including his own personal self, it has a parallel state in the ordinary active non-meditative condition, which can best be called detachment. After all, even the Void, grand and awesome as it is, is nothing but a tempora ry experience, a period of meditation. The awareness of what is Real must be found not only in deep meditation, in it s trance, but when fully awake. (71a) We suggest, once again, that what is ing but YOU - the real you.

beyond the Void of inner Emptiness is noth

Ed Muzika, disciple of Robert Adams, himself a disciple of Ramana Maharshi, s peaks of even turiya as not being the absolute. Like Sri Nisargadatta he sides w ith the view that there is an absolute beyond consciousness - beyond even turiya , which is traditionally held to be that awareness of reality which underlies th e three states of waking, dream, and sleep. See Autobiography of a Jnani for a f ascinating story and his distinctions on deeper levels of self-inquiry along the se lines. Emptiness, Fullness, and Life Purpose As the path outlined in the above long quote is rather steep (!), as promised we will make one more try at simplifying this whole consideration as it works o ut in practice - especially with Westerners in mind. First, emptiness' is neithe r self nor no-self. It is our true nature, which transcends the concepts of both self and no-self. Further, it is not just emptiness, but a 'full' emptiness; th at is to say, it holds all things, including both 'selflessness' and a 'healthy sense of self.' For many of us, this healthy sense of self did not develop prope rly, but was wounded and suffers from unworthiness or a deficiency syndrome. Jac k Kornfield points out that for many western seekers often one of the first thin gs to do is to reclaim a healthy sense of self - not perfection, but at least to a workable degree. The spiritual process, of course, is not linear; the positiv e reclamation and strengthening of 'self' and the understanding of 'emptiness' c an evolve together in a spiralling fashion, and more often should. As PB said, ' the spiritual evolution that requires us to abandon (or see through) the ego run s parallel with the mental evolution that requires us to develop it'. So, all of this can unfold in any order, and usually simultaneously is best; what is impor tant is not to exclusively neglect or negate the relative self in pursuit of an idealistic higher self, or empty void-self, or else one may find he has mistaken true emptiness for a psychological form of deadness! And, moreover, one may als o avoid feeling the even more fundamental existential wound of true naked dukkha that is at the heart of our human nature through too much willful effort at for ms of spiritual 'transcendance'. That being said, Kornfield summarizes one form of this process. I must mention that there are certain Buddhist 'purists' who cr iticize this approach as granting unnecessary attention to psychological factors . However, Kornfield studied with many Buddhist masters for years, as well as Sr i Nisargadatta and Papaji, and has a good grasp on the western psyche, so I feel confident in his judgement: "If our sense of self is unhealthy, our spiritual work is initially a work of reclamation and healing. This means understanding and releasing a deficient or wounded sense of self and reawakening the lost energy and authentic connection t o ourselves. When we have reclaimed some measure of ourselves, the next task bec omes the further development of character, of our wisdom, strength, skill, and c ompassion. This development is described in the teachings of the Buddha as the c ultivation of the skillful qualities such as generosity, patience, mindfulness, and kindness."

"The development of self then leads to a more fundamental level, the discover y of true self. This is the discovery that the positive qualities of character t hat spiritual life works so hard to cultivate are already present as our true na ture...We do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what block s our heart. When our heart is free from the contractions of fear, anger, graspi ng, and confusion, the spiritual qualities we have tried to cultivate manifest i n us naturally. They are our true nature." But there is one thing more of great importance: "In awakening our Buddha nature, we find that there is one further aspect of self to understand, the need to honor our personal destiny...The intentions of m any lifetimes creates a specific character and destiny for each of us according to our karma. This needs to be recognized...The universal qualities of our Buddh a nature must shine through each of us, evolving out of the individual set of pa tterns in each person. This unique set of patterns we could call our character, our destiny, our individual path to fulfill. To discover our destiny is to sense wisely the potential of our individual life and the tasks necessary to fulfill it. To do so is to open to the mystery of our individual incarnation... In this we can bring together our practice, our particular tasks in our family and commu nity, fulfilling our capacities, our gifts, and our heart as a unique individual . As we do so, our individual nature reflects the universal." "Then when these qualities of Buddha nature and personal self are combined wi th a deep realization of the emptiness of self, we can be said to have fully dis covered the nature of self. This true self is both unique and universal, both em pty and full...The great capacities of love, unique destiny, life, and emptiness intertwine, shining, reflecting the one true nature of life." (72) [This important topic is discussed in detail in The Great Uniqueness on this website]. "Your work is to discover your work and with all of your heart give yourself to it." - Buddha Fear of Emptiness This is a very important area to explore. There are several ways of looking a t it. One way is to distinguish psychological emptiness, and the great Void of E mptiness experienced in advanced meditation. The former is something most all of us have to deal with, before, during, and even after significant awakenings. It is part of the human condition, especially in the West, and increasingly in the East as well. The latter is also the fruit of a great discipline. Most people d on't begin meditation and immediately confront the abyss! PB speaks of this expe rience as the farthest inward reach of the meditational path, and really a 'test of faith': "Those who find that beyond the Light they must pass through the Void, the un bounded emptiness, often draw back affrighted and refuse to venture further. For here they have naught to gain or get, no glorious spiritual rapture to add to t heir memories, no great power to increase their sense of being a co-worker with God. Here their very life-blood is to be squeezed out as the price of entry; her e they must become the feeblest of creatures." "There is no need to yield to the fear of the void, which comes in the deepes t meditation. That is merely the personal ego offering its resistance to the hig her self. That same fear of never being able to come back has to be faced by all advanced mystics when they reach this stage of meditation, but it is utterly gr

oundless and is really a test of faith in God to protect them in a laudable ende avour; to come closer to him and to advance father from their lower self...it is not the best part of their nature which really dreads the experience of the Voi d, but the worst part." (73) "Remove the concept of the ego from a man and you remove the solid ground fro m beneath his feet. A yawning abyss seems to open up under him. It gives the gre atest fright of his life, accompanied by feelings of utter isolation and dreadfu l insecurity. he will then clamour urgently for the return of his beloved ego an d return to safety once more - unless his determination to attain truth is so st rong and so exigent that he can endure the ordeal, survive the test, and hold on until the Overself's light irradiates the abyss." (73a) By 'void' in this quote PB is referring to the realization of the soul,the Ov erself, not the Intellectual Principle discussed earlier, which is not an experi ence preceded by fear, egoism having already died in that case. Nevertheless, al l do not 'confront such gaping fear', but, after developing soul qualities of pa tience, humility, faith, compassion, peace, and love, over time, may more easily 'slip into' the Void-state of the soul. On the other hand, a few are catapulted into such a state spontaneously due to previous background, and, as a result of a lack of metaphysical understanding and grounding, face fear and confusion. There are many forms of inner meditation where such fear may be faced. For we are talking of one's 'death', after all. In a gradual path such as Sant Mat, fo r instance, which recapitualizes the actual death process itself, I have known i nitiates of a Master who, after years of practice, finally get 'taken up' to hig her planes by the Master-Power and have felt great fear - followed, however, by a 'born-again' bliss. Others, not so prepared, finding their soul currents risin g rapidly up the spine to a point in the head have also reported fear from which they found themselves backed down. Yet, on this path, there is a void or 'zeropoint' at many stages, not just one great death. The first such 'death' is the h ardest. Yet, even here, for the prepared and surrendered individual, passage bey ond the physical body is as easy as 'taking a hair out of melted butter,' as Kir pal Singh often said. Merger into the full Void of the Soul and beyond comes muc h later on that path, and is a gradual affair. It is an advanced state and may a lso be experienced either as a loving union, or a final 'healing crisis' which m ust be earned. In Zen this is illustrated by the ninth oxherding picture, the 'G reat Death', in contrast to the third picture, which represents a 'stream-entry' initial satori or kensho. It must be mentioned that such an experience is not universally recognized as essential; one may, in other schools of meditation, such as Vipassana, pass thr ough such fear gradually, and without leaving the body. So much, then, for medit ation and its relationship the great Void of Emptiness. It is significant, but, once realized, there is no-thing to it. It needs to be mentioned that one cannot just meditate and plunge into the Vo id-Mind in one shot. Usually, it takes a great maturation and ripening of the eg o (yes, the ego) in order for the being to be capable of the surrender required to merge into the void. The ego as a perpetuating karmic continuity of tendencie s lit up by the lower phase of the soul must reach a point of saturation with ex perience where a fundamental revulsion takes place, a concept spoken of often in Buddhist literature, whereby the ego itself becomes more and more isolated from the psyche and its exclusive separative tendencies and readied for its absorpti on and overshadowing by the soul itself. As PB writes: "This whittling away of the ego may occupy the entire lifetime and not seem v ery successful even then, yet it is of the highest value as a preparatory proces s for the full renunciation of the ego when - by Grace - it suddenly rises up in the heart." (73b)

Damiani states: "When the time comes, if you haven't done the work you won't know it. But if you have done the work, and there comes a moment when the situation arises where you have to surrender the ego, that makes it possible for you to give up the eg o- or at least recognize that this is what's being called for. But you have to d o the work. You're not going to give up the ego just like that - I mean, as if a ll of a sudden you're presented with a situation where you can give up the ego a nd the Void-Mind knows itself. These things don't happen like that." (73c) The problem is that the ego, while a manifestation of the soul, or a conjoint product of the karmic tendencies of manifestation that are part of the World-Id ea and the light of the projection of the soul that enlivens them, has many hidd en tentacles, and thousands of years of experience at surviving as a separative entity. Further, while it is, in fact, 'empty' as an 'entity', it is also part o f the World-Idea and soul combined and is not going to actually be destroyed. Bu t its mistaken identity as a separate from both the soul and others must go, and will do so when it is mature enough. Yet knowing intellectually or even by a gl impse that it is 'empty' in the Buddhist manner will not be enough to counter th e eons of survival strategies it has accumulated. That will take time and work a nd understanding for completion. See Standing in Your Own Way (Larson Publicatio ns) by Anthony Damiani for a wonderfully detailed analysis of this whole issue o f the ego. This 'revulsion' from experience is not a neurotically negative attitude but a natural ripening stage where the separative ego-soul turns in on itself. It al so includes its understanding that phenomenally it is but a part of the whole, t he universe, which is the greater 'body' or manifestation of the soul. This, of course, includes the personality and physical body as well, but it is no longer limited to it. So it is quite a complicated affair. it is more than just 'gettin g it' ! Now, while the following can not really be separated, for ease of understandi ng we pose a distinction between the two aspects of psychological emptiness, and metaphysical emptiness that comes after or while the first is also dealt with a nd integrated. Many of us face the feeling of being 'hollow', 'empty inside', or somehow 'not real'. We fear this feeling even more than the actual emptiness it self, as is the case with all feelings when we allow ourselves to fall into and actually experience them, and discovering that they won't kill us. There are man y reasons for such fear, due to not being fully accepted into this world, and ea rly childhood wounding that suppressed our natural curiosity, exuberance, and cr eativity. We are, as adults, often afraid to face these early feelings of being empty, unreal, not good enough, impending annihilation, and so on, which may all be lumped into a fear of facing the unknown. We fear going into this unknown be cause it will remind us quite painfully of what we once felt and buried deep ins ide in order to survive and cope as children. Ultimately, we are only and always running from our higher or truest self, but, practically, we are afraid of what we were never allowed to fully feel: fear, grief, anger, pain. Therefore, we mu st enter this 'cave of phantoms', our personal darkness and 'emptiness', to recl aim our natural born self. Only then do we have a chance at understanding the gr eater nature of the principle of Emptiness as spoken of in the scriptures. Gelek Rinpoche once said, "Don't be so afraid of it; you will never understand what t he Buddhists mean if you are so afraid of your personal emptiness." This, obviou sly, is a process that takes time and patience and courage. It is not an overnig ht affair or the product of a few weeks or weekends. It is a matter of growth. T his represents the purification or purgation of the emotional nature. PB says it is like training oneself to die, and that no one should underestimate such a tr emendous task. Once we have done this sufficiently, we can then also begin to fa ce the paradoxical sense of how unimportant the efforts to understand ourself re

ally are! He writes: "The heart must become empty of all desires. This brings about the emotional void, which corresponds, in its own place, to the mental void experienced in the depths of mystical meditation. To this emptiness he must give himself, with it he must satisfy himself. In this way he obeys Jesus and becomes "poor in Spirit. " (74) Another way of looking at this is to consider that, while "emptiness is form, " as the Buddhists say, "form is also form." If we don't allow ourselves to expe rience 'form' (i.e., 'life') we will never be able to understand the true 'empti ness of form', but, as Chandrakirti warned, may instead land in a self-condemned void, an emptiness that is the worst of both worlds. This paradox is similar to the contrast between the famous words of Socrates, "the unexamined life is not worth living," and "the unlived life is not worth examining!" Both modern psychology and traditional Buddhist psychology agree that recover ing the capacity to feel is crucial for wholeness. It is necessary to develop pa tience with disappointment, converting that into tolerance and empathy, towards oneself and others. Then the process builds upon itself. So, once one has become sufficiently 'human', he progresses on any number of paths to a further deepeni ng understanding of emptiness. All sitting practice, inquiry, observation, ponde ring, discipline, contemplation has as a chief function to serve as a form of or 'heat', gradually stripping away the more superficial layers of defense and ego ity to reveal the core of basic anxiety, fear, and (guiltless, existential) woun dedness as a separate being that is the doorway to truth. This, too, is a gradua l process, although often punctuated by forms of awakenings along the way. One l earns to tolerate the doubt and uncertainty, the sense of emptiness, over not kn owing 'who I am'. This existential form of emptiness is basic to everyone, and i s beneath even the primal imprints and sense of emptiness or incompleteness acqu ired during childhood development. And, at some point, one understands or awaken s and is capable of enduring the revelation of the empty nature of the empirical self. This is achieving the 'fourth foundation of mindfulness' according to the Buddha (the four being body, sensations/feelings, emotions/thoughts. and psyche or mind itself). As Huang Po stated: "Men are afraid to forget their minds, fearing to fall through the Void with nothing to stay their fall. They do not know that the Void is not really void, b ut the realm of the real Dharma." (75) Therefore, it really depends greatly on one's prior preparation in all areas of life as to how much of a factor fear will be in the actual realization of the Void of Emptiness. It can be a very graceful process. In fact, there is no-thin g to it! A uniqueness perspective on the Void How close is his relationship to that other self, that godlike Overself! And n ot only his mind s relationship but also his body s. For in the center of every cell in blood, marrow, flesh, and bone, there is the void that holds, and is, pure S pirit. - PB (75a) Vedanta and Emptiness Approaching this from another angle, a non-Buddhist one, James Swartz gives u s a detailed look at the strategy of Shankara, and how to distinguish between va rious 'states' of emptiness. Instead of a three-stage vedantic process, he outli nes a four-stage one. In the first stage, one engages the discriminative method

of negation ('neti, neti') in order to disidentify with objects. Then the mind b ecomes sattvic, discrimination having led to dispassion, enabling one to have an experience of the Self in the sattvic mind. It is not the Self, but a reflectio n of the Self in the mind. It may be experienced as emptiness, silence, a sense of nonduality or oneness. This would be a form of the witness consciousness or s akshin. It is a very valuable state, because it allows deeper inquiry into the S elf. Then, in step two, one identifies with the subject, by asking, "who experie nces this silence/emptiness/etc.?" An important key epistemological question to cut through all doubts about experience throughout this process and to avoid sho rt-circuiting the answer is "how do I know that I know?" The identification with the isolated subject then becomes the knowledge that one is consciousness: "Experience of the Self is not enlightenment, but it can lead to enlightenmen t if the intellect can assimilate the knowledge - "I am awareness" - that arises when the attention is turned within and the mind is sattvic." He then makes the interesting comment that direct knowledge can actually come in Savikalpa Samadhi [the reflected experience of the Self], "because you are t here, ignorance is there, and the vision of the Self is there, so the akhandakha ra vritti [the unbroken 'I-Am-the-Self' thought] can destroy the ignorance and s et you free...if you identify with it". (76) The problem with this experience, says Swartz, is that if you are not very di spassionate and do not have at least a rudimentary self-knowledge you will be so overwhelmed by the vision of the Self that you will not grasp its significance and will not therefore be freed. In other words, one mistakes an experience for the true 'emptiness' of the Self. (77) At stage two, the full awareness of the Self, however, the so-called 'Atman a nd Brahman are one' declaration, is not yet possible, because there is no awaren ess of the Mind's projection (the World or World-Idea) there, with which to be r eintegrated; hence the value of the waking state. Thus, in step three, according to Swartz, one who is identified with the subj ect as consciousness, now takes back all of the objects he negated in step one, seeing them as non-separate from the Self, thus completing 'neti' and 'itti'. Th is can take a long time, because of the force of the outgoing vasanas. PB would say that the stable realization of this condition makes Real the relationship (but not identity) between the Overself [Atman] and Mind Alone [Brahman]." He and ot hers, such as Plotinus, believed there were several levels of deepening of this transcendental relationship. However, this is a realization of nonduality, or 'e mptiness'. Swartz adds a step four, wherein he says one truly attains moksha, which is r ealizing the relationship between the pure Self and the objects, which he charac terizes as the realization, "the objects are me (the Self), but I (the Self) am not the objects", which are insentient and only a superimposition of the Self's own maya. This is supposedly pure spontaneously self-verifying Knowledge for whi ch the question, "how do I know that I know" no longer applies. This is the end. This step is also a difficult one, and, I may say, also a controversial point. For something Vedanta doesn't logically explain [which they admit is impossible, and is why they posit a transcendental ignorance called maya, or avidya for the Buddhists, the source for all mental concepts and logic] is where does this ins entiency - an attribute of the objects - come from? Is it just maya, or is there a 'transcendental substance, 'mula-prakriti, that we must also make room for in our philosophy? Yet, that, too, like maya, is just a guess to explain the unkno wn. So, then, do we just follow 'Shiva' approaches like Vedanta, emphasizing con sciousness/awareness, wisdom, discrimination, equanimity, Self and formlessness, or, to be truly balanced, and therefore more nondual in our actualization/expre ssion, must we not also embrace the 'Shakti' aspects as well, and not just as so

mething to be observed, disidentified from, and transcended, but in a deeper, mo re nondual way, which we find more in traditions like Taoism, Vajrayana Buddhism , or certain Hindu Tantric/Advaita schools? Step four in a way almost seems to b ring us back to step two, still somewhat dissociated from the phenomena, still w anting to reside as the 'still ocean' and not be affected by the 'waves', but, o f course, Swartz would say not really. Yet, "How do I know that I know that 'I a m the Self'?" might still be asked, for a question arises, is there still a Soul there that I am simply missing in my expectation of an impersonal Consciousness ? There seems to be few teachings around that really do an incontrovertible job of addressing, in a nondual context, a good relative understanding of the nature of 'selfhood' in higher stages of realization. I do sympathize in that these ar e very hard things to talk about. But I don't personally find very useful system s that opt out and resort to simplistic notions like 'no-self' or 'there is only the Self', for reasons which will be discussed in the next article, really part two of this one, called "Maya Is 'Maya' ". But basically the reason is that as depictions of realization they are too static, and also simply not as non-dualis tic in practice as they purport to be in theory, especially advaita, and therefo re perhaps not so suitable for the emerging spirituality we are being drawn towa rds. How does one know, further, as Swartz maintains, that 'the Self is the worl d' but 'the world is not the Self'? What does that really mean? We are - I am! suggesting that so-called advaita teachings contain a subtle dualism, in theory , but especially in actual, practical living. They are still, despite their stat ed goal of non-duality, still trying to escape conditionality and karma as our a ncestors have for several millenia, a model that is 'getting long in the tooth'. Just because something is five thousand years old does not mean it is the compl ete truth. So, anyway, there is negation, followed by identification, followed by affirm ation, and a final understanding. Swartz says that this is described as realizat ion of Puroshottama in Chapter 15 of the Bhagavad-Gita. Maya is rooted in Brahma n, therefore one can make the statement, Atman and Brahman are one. If it were o therwise, one could not. Guadapada says that "the multiplicity of empirical expe rience in this universe is due to the very nature of the Effulgent Being. Whatev er one experiences is only non-dual Brahman...That we see duality is due to our ignorance. This ignorance (maya) does not exist from the standpoint of reality. Maya is only an explanation of creation given by those who hold creation to be a fact. 'None is in bondage, none liberated, this is the ultimate truth.'" (78) L ater post-Sankara vedantists postulated that Maya is not just an 'sublating expl anation', but the power of Brahman or Isvara Itself. This is to reify Maya. Howe ver, this issue of Maya and the relationship between Atman, Isvara, and Brahman is very complicated in Vedanta and will be dealt with in the upcoming essay on M aya. In any case, the 'Self' is beyond an experience of silence or non-silence, emptiness or non-emptiness. It needs to be added, that even great advaitic scholars are not unanimous tha t there is a strict identity between Atman and Brahman, that is, they remain non -committal over whether or not there is a higher individuality, one or more soul s, one or more witnesses (sakshin). The Buddha was silent on such questions. The important point, as Chandradhar Sharma comments on Mahamahopadhaya Pt. Anantakr ishna Shastri's Shatadusani ("Century of Merits") is: "'Advaita' does not mean formal identity; it means, on the other hand, 'trans cendental unity', which is beyond all categories of thought including the catego ry of unity and shines as their ground-reality." (79) What that ground-reality is remains mystery and paradox. We cannot so easily say there is no soul or no God or that these are only illusions created by an ab solute's own maya. mKhas grub dGe wrote six hundred years ago: "There is a very great difference between logical reasoning not finding somet

hing and it finding it to be nonexistent." (80) Further, when did Sankara say that the Self is fully realized? "The self is truly know when it is known along with each state of consciousne ss." (81) Emptiness and teachings of the Holy Spirit In this quote he most likely was referring to the three states of waking, dre am, and sleep, but I would ask whether or not we should include what are conside red 'super-conscious' states as well? This would bring into our consideration th e esoteric Christian as well as Sant Mat doctrines of the Holy Spirit, Word, or Logos, with which, they maintain, one must merge and pass through multiple 'deat hs', 'zero-points, 'voids', and realms, created and uncreated to be said to cons ciously unite with God. This appears to imply a fully integrated actualization o f such realization of 'emptiness' on every plane or dimension of existence, not just this earth realm. Don't be too disheartened; we don't have to perfect our h uman selves, in fact, we can't. But, in some sense, in certain traditions it is also our destiny, the very archtype of our incarnation. Swami Rama said while th at we are already Divine, but we must become fully human. However, it does get c omplicated when one considers a teaching like Kaballah, which terms what is beyo nd the Yesod or Atziluth, the mental or archtypal realm, simply as 'the great Ab yss', and contrasts that with the tradition of Sant Mat, which claims Yesod is o nly Trikuti, the highest stage that most religions as well as the vedas point to and which is only third of five stages before the true Eternal realms of Sat Lo k, which are of the nature of void compared with physical consciousness, yet the most positive existence there is. And, before the eternal realms of Sat Lok is also a great void they call Maha Sunn which, also beyond the mind, vast like spa ce itself and of such dense darkness that only a Satguru can take the soul beyon d to its source. Yes, to contrast emanationist paths with Buddhism is very diffi cult. Damiani once remarked that if you say that the ego is 'empty' [even if correc t in 'theory'] 'one hasn't even seen it yet, that just because one can't find it doesn't mean it isn't there!' Just so, anadi says that simply because the Buddh ists and Advaitists don't believe in or find the Soul doesn't mean it isn't ther e either. Father Maximos of the Eastern Orthodox Church spoke of passage through a death, blackness, a Void, an 'emptiness', much like many newer teachers have, yet not as an end in itself but in order to contact or be infused by the Holy S pirit, through which one will eventually unite with the Uncreated Light of God ( not merely the created light of the essence of the individual), which Light is s tatic and eternal, 'the true home of the Soul', and yet from within which the So ul still mysteriously 'evolves' and praises 'wonder after wonder', for 'ages upo n ages', of the divine mystery. One's identity is deconstructed-and-recreated by the Holy Spirit, and one thereafter realizes Oneness all around, yet still know ing an eternal distinction-within-unity of Soul and God. Orthodox researcher Kyr iakos Markides summarizes his impression of this alternate vision as follows: "The world of the five sense is not the only world there is...Other worlds ex ist that interpenetrate our own...These worlds are layered - that means they rel ate to each other in a hierarchical manner...These layers are not only out there in nature, objectively speaking, but they are also part of the structure of hum an consciousness itself. The various worlds are in ongoing communication with on e another. But most often the communication moves in a conscious way from top to bottom, rarely from bottom up. The higher realms constantly influence the lower realms in ways that the lower realms are not aware of. At all levels of this hi erarchy there are conscious beings. Those above us are on a more superior, more evolved vantage point than ourselves...The project of Creation and the existence of all the hierarchy is for the sake of the unfoldment and evolution of conscio

usness. This consciousness has as its destiny the transcendence of the hierarchy itself and the conscious reunification with the Absolute spirit or the Personal God [take your pick] out of Whom we come and within Whom, like fish in the ocea n, we constantly are." (82) The Elder Sophrony wrote that theologians of the philosophical type, realizin g the limits of human thought, may "arrive at a supramental contemplation, but what they contemplate is still me rely beauty created in God's image..SInce those who enter for the first time int o this sphere of the 'silence of the mind' experience a certain mystic awe, they mistake their contemplation for mystical communion with the divine." (83) Father Maximos adds that those who experience NDE's (Near Death Experiences), and we might add the experiences after death, may see the light of their own in ner natures, but not the Uncreated Light which the saints speak of, which is rea chable only after the deep purification of heart and mind the Greeks term Cathar sis (not to be confused with its more psychological reference). In his opinion t he real reason for the fall of Lucifer as an archangel was this enchantment with the beauty of his own existence, the light of his own nature, and not that of t he divine. (84) Thus, for esoteric Orthodox Christianity, Souls in Theosis, or union with God , through death-in-life, have moved passed such lesser contemplation, and are no w, paradoxically, complete and fulfilled, no longer seeking, yet also continuall y moving towards God witnessing the greatness of God's love enfolding their hear ts as a movement within the infinity of God's grandeur. This sounds very much li ke the St. Paul's, "then I shall know even as I am known," or Plotinus' Soul-inthe-Intellectual Principle or Nous, or, perhaps, to some degree, the currently-o ut-of-favor Vedantic doctrine attributed to Ramanuja of vasishta-advaita, or 'qu alified non-dualism'. And that may be so. We are in deep waters here, obviously. The question is whether the whole of spirituality as simple as some non-dual te aching - for instance, Zen or Advaitic 'minimalism' - claims it is, or not? Is h uman logic the sole arbiter of Truth? There appears to be a grand divide between these teachings, which the reader is left to ponder. And this brings us to part two of this series, on the subject of Maya. But first, a few concluding quotes: That which he finds in deep eternity must be worked out in day-to-day life. PB (85) When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace. Nothing real, nothing absent. Not holding on to reality, not getting stuck in the void, you are neither holy nor wise, just an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.

- Layman P'ang (86)

I saw You and became empty. This Emptiness, more beautiful than existence, it obliterates existence, and yet when It comes, existence thrives and creates more existence! - Rumi "When one sees that form is empty, one realizes great wisdom and no longer dw ells in samsara. When one sees that emptiness is form, one realizes great compassion and does not dwell in nirvana." - Fa Zang

77. Greg Goode gives a different view than that of Swartz on awakening, from wha t has come to be known as the 'direct path', which has ancient roots with Hui-ne ng and some of the Ch'an masters and in modern times with Shree Atmananda Krishn a Menon. He contrasts that with the understanding given in the traditional Hindu Vedanta/Yoga teachings. To be fair, he does not deny the truth of Vedanta, but offers a different way of looking at things. He starts (excerpted from his above -linked article) with a brief discussion of how these two paths treat the subjec t of deep sleep: "In a nutshell, the direct path is the only path I know of that treats deep s leep the way it does. Traditional Advaita Vedanta (of which the Tripura Rahasya is an expression) treats deep sleep as a very subtle covering, but a covering no netheless. The direct path treats deep sleep as your nature - witnessing awarene ss with no objects." [Note: A classic vedantic/yogic explanation for our apparent nescience in dee p sleep is that the first covering of the Atman, the anandamaya kosha, is active , giving us the 'memory of bliss' upon awakening, but the vijnanamaya kosha is n ot active, so we have no knowledge of this in sleep itself, only inferring so up on waking. Yogic schools such as Sant Mat argue that in dream one's attention fa lls to the throat center, where one is subconscious, and in deep sleep to the na vel, where one is unconscious, while the Kriya path of Paramahana Yogananda asse rts that during sleep the astral and causal bodies detach from the outer senses and retire to the internal organs, the spine, and the subconscious mind. The dir ect path apparently refutes all of this]. "[The] Tripura Rahasya...is seeking to posit the mind as the site of awakenin g - traditional Advaita Vedanta speaks of the "akhanda akara vritti," [which Swa rtz mentioned] which is said to be the mental modification that causes awakening . Awakening is definitely said to happen in the mind, being a modification of th e mind. So the mind must be active for this to happen." [V. Subramanian offers an explanation of this event: "It is the jiva that experiences ignorance, samsara. it is this jiva that str ives for knowledge. Ultimately it is this jiva that gets the realization. it hap pens through a peculiar vritti (transformation of the mind) called akhandakara v ritti. When due to prolonged practice, the mind takes on the 'form' of Brahman [ the 'undivided'], there occurs the destruction of the ignorance located in the j iva and thereby the jiva gets liberated. Once this happens that person is no lon ger jiva, but Brahman....It is the False self that gets the realization. This ma rks the end of the false and just the 'Self' remains"]. (87) Goode continues: "The direct path is different - awakening is spoken of inspirationally and rh etorically - but it is not seen as a true biographical event, especially one tha t requires explanation. An awakening event, like any event, would be a phenomena l event. But as such it is a mere appearance in awareness, so it can't be a real , functioning portal through which you transcend phenomenality. From the beginni ng there was no such need." "This is why according ear, including the one in eed to be. So there is no . There's no place there! kefulness!" Papaji also

to the direct path, none of the dramatic stories you h this interview, can be taken seriously as events, or n need to postulate a locale where the event takes place So there's no true awakening event. Instead, all is wa appeared to be of this school:

"You are that which is present even in forgetfulness because you are Aware th at you are forgetful. You are the Consciousness of Awareness in the three states

of waking, dreaming and sleeping. Only Self does not vanish in these three stat es." (88) As did PB: A man never leaves Consciousness...Whether asleep or awake, wrapped in himself or out in the world, his essential being remains what it is...Every man is cons cious being, even in deep sleep. (89) However, he seemed to be of two minds about it: "When a man falls totally asleep, when no thoughts and no dreams are active, he has withdrawn (or more accurately been withdrawn) into the centre of his bein g. He can go no farther inwards. He is really alone with the Overself but, being unable to harmonize with it, the principle of consciousness is not active." ! ( source misplaced)] Goode: "This is why in the direct path, deep sleep is not seen as a covering of the mind, but as an interval during which you are present even though the mind is no t. One of the exercises in the direct path is to contemplate how every experienc e is like deep sleep." The issue of sleep is a complicated and profound one, and we are only dipping our feet in the waters here. As even the sages disagree, this will be covered i n greater detail in a future article. There is real divided line among teachers and traditions whether there is awareness there or not, 'before' enlightenment. The direct path doesn't recognize an event of enlightenment, but states that awa reness is always present; vedanta 'sort of' recognizes an event; anadi most defi nitely says that the state of presence or awareness isn't there until it is reco gnized, and that only the most advanced sages are 'aware' in deep sleep. Greg co ncludes that deep sleep thus shows us that we are consciousness without objects, and therefore the consciousness in which objects appear, and as an after-though t adds, "Isn't the self Nirguna?" To me this is an oversimplification of a deep topic. It also ignores the important issue of further development, even diviniza tion of the personal or soul nature, after the realization of one's conscious na ture, by assuming that once one sees that all is consciousness the game is over. This really requires an extended discussion all its own. More along these lines is gotten into in "Maya Is 'Maya'". So, Is the self Nirguna? For the answer cou ld be yes or no. Yes, if Nirguna really means an absolute beyond all relativity, or an absolute as actualized within rel;nd form, impersonal and personal, and s o forth. If the Self as emptiness/awareness is 'empty', for instance, can we say that it is it Nirguna? It is a fair question, and I fully apologize if it is co nfusing! [Atmananda himself in his later works preferred to use the term I-Princi ple rather than consciousness as the fundamental (Subjective) Experience (anubhava) , as he felt the term conscousness too subject to misinterpretation and confusio n].

BUDDHA-NATURE Is my meditation correct? When shall I ever make progress? Never shall I attain the level of my spiritual Master? Juggled between hope and doubt, our mind is ne ver at peace. According to our mood, one day we will practise intensely, and the next day, not at all. We are attached to the agreeable experiences which emerge from the stat e of mental calm, and we wish to abandon meditation when we fail to slow down th e flow of thoughts. That is not the right way to practise. Whatever the state of our thoughts may be, we must apply ourselves steadfastly t o regular practice, day after day; observing the movement of our thoughts and tr acing them back to their source. We should not count on being immediately capabl e of maintaining the flow of our concentration day and night. When we begin to meditate on the nature of mind, it is preferable to make short sessions of meditation, several times per day. With perseverance, we will progre ssively realise the nature of our mind, and that realisation will become more st able. At this stage, thoughts will have lost their power to disturb and subdue u s. Emptiness, the ultimate nature of Dharmakaya, the Absolute Body, is not a simple nothingness. It possesses intrinsically the faculty of knowing all phenomena. T his faculty is the luminous or cognitive aspect of the Dharmakaya, whose express ion is spontaneous. The Dharmakaya is not the product of causes and conditions; it is the original nature of mind. Recognition of this primordial nature resembles the rising of the sun of wisdom in the night of ignorance: the darkness is instantly dispelled. The clarity of t he Dharmakaya does not wax and wane like the moon; it is like the immutable ligh t which shines at the centre of the sun. Whenever clouds gather, the nature of the sky is not corrupted, and when they di sperse, it is not ameliorated. The sky does not become less or more vast. It doe s not change. It is the same with the nature of mind: it is not spoiled by the a rrival of thoughts; nor improved by their disappearance. The nature of the mind is emptiness; its expression is clarity. These two aspects are essentially one's simple images designed to indicate the diverse modalities of the mind. It would be useless to attach oneself in turn to the notion of emptiness , and then to t hat of clarity, as if they were independent entities. The ultimate nature of min d is beyond all concepts, all definition and all fragmentation. "I could walk on the clouds!" says a child. But if he reached the clouds, he wou ld find nowhere to place his foot. Likewise, if one does not examine thoughts, t hey present a solid appearance; but if one examines them, there is nothing there

. That is what is called being at the same time empty and apparent. Emptiness of mind is not a nothingness, nor a state of torpor, for it possesses by its very nature a luminous faculty of knowledge which is called Awareness. These two aspe cts, emptiness and Awareness, cannot be separated. They are essentially one, lik e the surface of the mirror and the image which is reflected in it. Thoughts manifest themselves within emptiness and are reabsorbed into it like a face appears and disappears in a mirror; the face has never been in the mirror, and when it ceases to be reflected in it, it has not really ceased to exist. The mirror itself has never changed. So, before departing on the spiritual path, we remain in the so-called "impure" state of samsara, which is, in appearance, gov erned by ignorance. When we commit ourselves to that path, we cross a state wher e ignorance and wisdom are mixed. At the end, at the moment of Enlightenment, on ly pure wisdom exists. But all the way along this spiritual journey, although th ere is an appearance of transformation, the nature of the mind has never changed : it was not corrupted on entry onto the path, and it was not improved at the ti me of realisation. The infinite and inexpressible qualities of primordial wisdom "the true nirvana" are inherent in our mind. It is not necessary to create them, to fabricate some thing new. Spiritual realisation only serves to reveal them through purification , which is the path. Finally, if one considers them from an ultimate point of vi ew, these qualities are themselves only emptiness. Thus samsara is emptiness, nirvana is emptiness - and so consequently, one is no t "bad" nor the other "good." The person who has realised the nature of mind is freed from the impulsion to reject samsara and obtain nirvana. He is like a youn g child, who contemplates the world with an innocent simplicity, without concept s of beauty or ugliness, good or evil. He is no longer the prey of conflicting t endencies, the source of desires or aversions. It serves no purpose to worry about the disruptions of daily life, like another child, who rejoices on building a sand castle, and cries when it collapses. See how puerile beings rush into difficulties, like a butterfly which plunges into t he flame of a lamp, so as to appropriate what they covet, and get rid of what th ey hate. It is better to put down the burden which all these imaginary attachmen ts bring to bear down upon one. The state of Buddha contains in itself five "bodies" or aspects of Buddhahood: t he Manifested Body, the Body of Perfect Enjoyment, the Absolute Body, the Essent ial Body and the Immutable Diamond Body. These are not to be sought outside us: they are inseparable from our being, from our mind. As soon as we have recognise d this presence, there is an end to confusion. We have no further need to seek E nlightenment outside. The navigator who lands on an island made entirely of fine gold will not find a trace of anything else, no matter how hard he searches. We must understand that all the qualities of Buddha have always existed inherently in our being.

Sant Kirpal Singh (1894-1974), was a Master of Surat Shabd Yoga, or the yoga of absorption of the Soul in the inner light and sound, the creative vibratory lif e-current said to be emanating from God. From my humble experience in his compan y, he appears to have been was a true Sat Guru, grounded in a realization of non -dualism as well as a perfected adept in the celestial yoga he publicly taught. To write the story of a great saint, especially when one has not spent many y ears in his company, is difficult if not impossible. Even then one will never tr uly penetrate and understand the inner life and character, the sacrifices, strug gles, and trials spanning many lifetimes that go into producing such a personage . It has been said, moreover, that the only way to truly write such a story is t o embody it in ones own life. I regret that I can only do small justice to the l ife of such a great soul. I wish that I could have spent much more time with him , knowing Him, serving Him, loving Him, and imbibing his life impulse and wisdom . Along with Ramana Maharshi, Atmananda, and Paramahansa Yogananda, Kirpal Sing h belongs to a past generation of great Indian Godmen. He began meditating at th e age of four, and was gifted with transvision, or clairvoyance, and could see t hings happening in other places and also in the future. He later joked, telling us, I had background, you see. In his twenties, however, he prayed to God that thi s power be taken away so that he might lead a more natural life, and not be dist racted with such things in his search for God. He also prayed that if any good e ver came out of him for others that he would know nothing about it. Kirpal was a vegetarian from boyhood, although his family ate meat, and when he was five yea rs old he told them that he would not eat meat because he didn t want to make a gr aveyard of his body. He became a voracious reader of books and had an intense de sire for knowledge. In his ninth class he went through all the books in the scho ol library. Sawan Singh, his master, also was an avid reader, with thousands of books in his personal library, many with copious notes in his own handwriting. K irpal also said that he read all the books of a college library during the two y ears of his study there. His sole purpose was for the sake of knowledge and not the pursuit of a worldly career. Nevertheless he was at the top of his class, an d he impressed his teachers with the depth and thoroughness of his study. For in stance, he would not just read the assignment at hand, but also the contrasting opinons of other writers on the subject. He was an open-hearted personality who cared for the sick and poor. A true Aq

uarian soul, to Kirpal Singh humanitarianism was never an empty abstraction. As a young man he helped to organize a service league to aid victims of the influen za epidemic of 1919, taking dead bodies to the cremation grounds that even the r elatives were afraid to touch. After work he would visit hospitals to comfort an d give assistance to people, many of whom he had never met. Later on when his da ytime hours were taken up with work and service, he did his meditations (up to e ight hours a day) in the hours after midnight, resting very little. Later, when others mentioned to him that his son Darshan Singh was sleeping only an hour and a half a night, Kirpal remarked, An hour! Fifteen minutes should be enough! - thi s being an example of the profound energization these masters receive through de ep communion with the spirit-current. When he was seventeen Kirpal went through an intense heart-searching for days on end to determine his course in life. He arrived at the firm decision, God fir st, world second, and actually made a pact with his brothers that if any of them found a spiritual Master they would share their discovery with each other. I was so anxious to meet God, I used to weep from morning til night. Even whil e working in my office, tears would involuntarily flow from my eyes and my offic e papers were spoiled by tears. I could not sleep at night. I would ask, O God, w hat is happening? At home, my family could not understand what was happening - I had recently been transferred from the place of my parents and everyone thought the tears were due to this. What can other people know of the condition of one s h eart? Once the enigma of the mystery of life enters the heart, a person knows no peace until it has been solved. (1) Kirpal had a strong desire to study medicine, particularly homeopathy, but it was financially difficult for his family, so he went into government service, e ventually rising to be Deputy Assistant Controller of Military Accounts, in char ge of hundreds of people. He retired after thirty-five years of service, with hi s supervisor announcing that he had to hire three men to take his place. During his career years he was a stickler for honesty and once refused bribe money offe red him for favors expected of him at his office. When he was encouraged to take the payment, being reminded that it was common practice there, he again refused , and forcefully threw the coins after those who had left them on his desk, thus alerting the entire office to the questionable ethical behavior they condoned. He believed strongly on standing on one s own two legs, and once went so far as to say that a man capable of supporting himself yet living off of others might as well be dead. On many occasions Kirpal stood up for employees with families who were let go for various reasons, advocating their case before his supervisors, reminding th em that to err is human, to forgive divine, and that it would be a great hardshi p for all concerned if they should lose their jobs. He then guided persons to im prove themselves and their performance. He once coaxed an opium addict off of hi s habit by convincing him to hand over his opium, and then let him give him some of it every day, a little less each time, until he could do without it. His way was never an extreme, ascetic demand, but, rather, he tried to win over people with compassionate love. He was not sparing with himself, however. His personal discipline was exacting and almost superhuman. Even his grade school notebooks s how a daily study schedule broken down into specific timed segments from morning to late at night. He slept very little, as previously mentioned, and meditated many hours nightly, even before meeting his master, Baba Sawan Singh. He engaged strenuous yogic practices as well, including at one period, meditating in chest -deep waters in a flowing stream. Of this period he later commented that the wate r helped cool the fire of the kundalini! It was as if he was stretching the muscle of his body so that it would later become a clear channel or vehicle for the spi rit-current, which, in my opinion, is just what it became after he adopted the s uperior method, as considered by the Sants, of Surat Shabd Yoga under Sawan Sing h. During this period of initial search, Kirpal spent some time frequenting a re

clusive sadhu named Baba Kahan who lived in a forest and would throw stones at t hose who came near him. Kirpal saw something of value in the holy man, however, and exhorted his brother to go see him even if he kills you! Overall, Kirpal's per sonal discipline (tapas) was great, and he even later said with a smile, that du ring his married life he had his own room. He believed strongly in the traditional view in the power of ojas (continence), although he did lead a normal household er life, having two sons and a daughter, Darshan, Jaswant, and Harwant, the latt er who unfortunately died at three years of age. Kirpal was fond of telling a story of the devotion his mother had for him. On e time he was returning after a long absence and she was so excited on hearing h is voice that she absent-mindedly ran and fell off the balcony of her house into his waiting arms. He would say to us, "That's what love is all about." When he was in his twenties his father had a debilitating stroke, and Kirpal nursed him back to health. This required the pain-staking task of teaching him t o walk and talk again, saying, this is a fork, this is a spoon, etc. After recover ing, the grateful father told his son to ask for anything he wanted. Kirpal repl ied that, as his father knew, his only wish was to commune with God. His father thought for a while and then said, If a father s blessing has any effect (and in In dian culture such blessings are considered to be very auspicious), you shall cer tainly meet God. Kirpal confessed that from that very day onwards he began to hav e the daily vision (or inner darshan) of his future Master s radiant subtle form ( gurudev), who took him to higher regions within, which at first he took to be Gu ru Nanak. It was not until seven years later, however, that he met Sawan Singh i n the flesh, and he was surprised to find the same saint he had been seeing in m editation. To the question of why it had taken so long to meet him, Hazur Sawan Singh simply replied that this was the most opportune time. Then followed twenty -four years of service to his Master, including the holding of public satsang an d even actual initiations in Sawan s presence on numerous occasions, and the trans cribing of the Philosophy of the Masters series, received from Sawan Singh by in ner dictation. Many disciples testified to his intercession and aid on their beh alf on the inner and outer dimensions (including bi-location) even throughout th e years of his own discipleship Upon contemplating just these few stories, one gets a feeling for what Paul B runton meant when he said that for the sage, spirituality is "in his blood." It is not a matter of a few years work, but of many lifetimes. As a disciple under Hazur, Kirpal gave his entire salary to his Master, who i n turn dispensed to him whatever he needed for his personal and family needs. Wh en his own mission expanded worldwide, such a traditional practice was unworkabl e, and Kirpal encouraged his followers to be responsible for the right managemen t of their own affairs. A formal tithe was never asked for, nor was I, or anyone else that I am aware of, ever charged a cent for educational or spiritual servi ces, or even for room and board while on spiritual retreat at any ashram connect ed with his name. In Sant Mat, God is the giver, and all the Master's live off t heir own earnings. One couple tried to give him some money for their stay and he refused, saying, "Do you think I am running a hotel?!" I spent three months at Sawan Ashram in Delhi, India, in 1973, without once being asked for a donation, and, remarkably, one of the last things Kirpal Singh said to me, on the eve of m y departure for the United States, was, Do you need any money? (I actually didn t ne ed any, but I feel now that it would have been a big mistake to refuse his offer if I had. A friend of mine counts one of the most poverty-stricken times of his life as a period following the refusal of an offer of money from Kirpal, when h e was, in fact, in desperate financial straits). Initiated disciples were asked as part of their sadhana or spiritual practice to donate some of their earnings (but not necessarily a tithe) to charitable causes, or to the Master s work, but i t was up to them to decide where the funds would go.

For many years leading up to Sawan Singh s death, many people attested to Kirpa l Singh s inner help and intercesson on their behalf, including petitioning Yama, the Lord of death, for a reprieve of their fate (death, or time of death)! Thus it was no surprise to many when Kirpal Singh claimed to have been given the mant le of successorship when Sawan passed on. However, the Radhasoami group at Beas claimed that there had been a legal document drafted by Sawan Singh assigning th e power of guruship and the administration of the ashram to Jagat Singh, who onl y lived a short time before then transferring it to Charan Singh, Sawan Singh s gr andson. I don t want to get into that controversy here. Some have claimed that Cha ran Singh confessed he was inadequate for the task. But then, after Kirpal Singh 's passing, his son Darshan Singh also said the same thing. This could all just be the humility of the Masters, for who would want such a thankless job? Kirpal Singh once said to us with a world-weary look on his face, "he who wants to be a guru, I feel sorry for that man." At any rate, he confessed: On the morning of 12th October, 1947, at seven o clock he called me. When I was in his august presence, he said: Kirpal Singh! I have allotted all other work but have not yet entrusted my task of Naam-initiation (connnection to the inner lig ht and sound current) and spiritual work to anyone. That I confer on you today s o that this holy and sacred science may flourish. Hearing this my eyes were fille d with tears, and afflicted as I was, I beseeched: Hazur! The peace and security that I have in sitting at thy feet here cannot be had in higher planes... My hear t was filled with anguish; I could not speak anymore and sat staring - Hazur enc ouraging and caressing me all the time. (2) And of the moments before Sawan Singh s death, on April 2, 1948, he adds: Hazur s forehead was shining resplendently. He opened his mercy-showering lovely eyes intoxicated by God s divine love and cast a glance at my humble self - both eyes gleaming with a radiance like a lion s eyes. I bowed my head in solemn and si lent adoration and said, It is all Hazurs s own benignity. Hazur steadily kept gazin g for three or four minutes into my eyes, and I, in silent wonderment, experienc ed an indescribable delight which infused a beverage-like intoxication down to t he remotest corners of my entire body - such as was never before experienced in my whole life. Then those mercy-showering eyes closed not to open again...Thus, in his ninetieth year, on the morning of April 2, 1948, at 8:30 a.m. this brilli ant sun of spirituality, after diffusing his light in the hearts of millions, di sappeared to rest below the horizen at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh. (3) Kirpal Singh s grief was heightened by the fact that many years before he had a pre-cognitive vision of his Master s death. He confessed that from that time onwa rds he had not had a moment s peace, as he was constantly in touch with the pain o f being parted from the human form of his guru. One would think, since he was sp iritually advanced, and able to have regular contact with the subtle radiant for m of his Master within, and himself helped many people in such a capacity himsel f, as stated above, that he would have been somewhat philosophical about his gur u s eventual death, or about life and death in general, having himself died daily and transcended to higher planes. Yet this was not so, and it remains a spiritua l mystery, or rahasya, why and how he felt as he did, and why he had told his Ma ster that the peace that could be had sitting in his physical company could not be had in the higher planes. [I now feel that the answer simply lies in the fact that such Masters are cosmic, yet multidimensional beings, and, seeing the divi ne everywhere, find it no less in the human dimension, and are not devoid of hum an love and needs even while in touch with a transcendent plane]. Sawan Singh ha d expressed a similar sentiment, as Kirpal relates: "When Baba Sawan Singh once wrote that he did not even yearn for Sach Khand ( literally True Region, or the home of the Soul, a division of Sat Lok) but only pr ayed that he had Love and faith at the Satguru s holy feet, Baba Ji was extremely pl eased and replied that such self-surrender was indeed the highest karni (disciplin

e) and assured him that he who had such a love for the Master would certainly rea ch Sach Khand, and passing through Alakh, Agam, and Anami-Radhasoami, get merged in the Wonder Region. (4)

This last remark probably contains the heart and supreme, but as yet unexplai ned, secret in all of Sant Mat. Sant Mat teaches an emanationist philosophy/theo logy in which the fallen soul must retrace its journey back from realms of varyi ng densities of matter to those of pure spirit. The technique, considered superi or to other paths and unique to itself alone, is to concentrate at the ajna chak ra (third eye) and withdraw the attention from the body, catch the inner light a nd sound current, and ride that upwards to the fifth and, by their system, first divine and indestructible, plane, Sach Khand. Param Sants go further, to three more planes, Alakh, Agam, and Anami, where there is less and less light and soun d until merger into Anami, which is defined as being nameless and formless, GodRealization. Some schools of Sant Mat, particularly that descending from Rai Sal ig Ram through Dadaji (Agam Prasad Mathur) teach that 'Radhasoami' or "Dayal Des h" is a stage beyond Anami, but it is not well defined metaphysically or ontolog ically in the literature. The suggestion, through use of the terms "wonder regio n," or by saying that it is not a region per se, but the "source and reality of All", etc., is that it may refer to a non-dual realization, but it is not made c lear, and is therefore difficult to compare to the teachings of other paths. Exa ctly WHAT is this Wonder Region ? Is it the Dharmakaya of the Buddhists , the One of Plo inus, or the Emptiness of the philosophers? Is the word merger at this level to be t aken literally, being thus in conflict with the teaching in the Lankavatara Sutr a in Mahayana Buddhism, which rejects the concept of merger, but not with certai n of the Vajrayana and Sufi schools which use the word more frequently? Is the Wo nder region a region at all, and is it the achievement of further inversion beyon d Anami, or the Void-Mind opening or awakening to its true intrinsic nature? After the death of Sawan Singh, Kirpal retired for six months to the Himalaya n foothills where he meditated up to eighteen hours a day ( in two sittings , he hum orously recounted). After this he returned and, due to the controversy over succ essorship, left the colony at Beas (and a house which he had paid for with his o wn money) and moved to Delhi to begin his own spiritual work, with the formation of the organization known as Ruhani Satsang. Over the course of the next twenty -five years he initiated over one hundred thousand souls into the practice of su rat shabd yoga, wrote over a dozen books (all of which he insisted and he would jokingly remind us contain no rights reserved ), and went on three world tours, in 1955, 1963, and 1972. He was not one to make access to himself difficult or to s eclude himself behind a coterie of "buffers". He was the first spiritual leader to be given the honor of addressing the members of the Indian Parliament, and wa s friends with Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi, several Presidents of India, includi ng philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and many other government leaders. At o ne point King Hussein of Jordan asked him to be his minister of state, but Kirpa l politely refused, saying that his disciples were his primary responsibility. He was also friends with many religious leaders and spiritual teachers. Among the latter whom he was in communication with or either visited or were guests a t his ashram were Yogi Bhajan, Swami Sivananda, Anandamayi Ma, Pir Vilayat Khan, Meher Baba, Sri Daya Mata of SRF, the Shankaracharya, H.H. Nichidatsu Fuji, and many Jain, Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian leaders, including Pope John Paul VI. Pir Vilayat Khan, a spiritual leader himself, considered Kirpal Singh to be the highest being he had ever met, and even requested initiation from him. Kirpal s aid no, that that was not necessary, as Pir Vilayat had already been initiated b y his father, the eminent Hazrat Inayat Khan. Paul Repps, author of Zen Flesh, Z en Bones, also sought initiation from Kirpal Singh. Yogi Bhajan, founder of 3HO and a friend of Kirpal, asked to be initiated as well, but was told, "All right, but first you must give up your own disciples." He declined the offer. This was surely unfortunate, for one thinks it should have been understood that this was a first test, a first hurdle for such a person to overcome, for no man can serv

e two masters. I myself was young and naive, but came to Kirpal with much philos ophy under my belt and a host of questions and doubts, and at one point he said to me, with a hint of a smile, "You want to be my master. You don't want to be a disciple. You want to be my boss. That's the worst sin!" I didn't know at the t ime what he was talking about, but fortunately for me my oddysey at his feet cam e to a fruitful conclusion. Kirpal's position on all of this was refreshing, clearly stated, and a warnin g to those engaged in cultic spirituality everywhere: "The first condition I would say, of a Master, when he meets another Master, is that he will embrace him; he will rejoice. There's no question of high and lo w...Why should not those who are on the way embrace? Why should they not feel jo y? The very fact that they do not want to meet together shows that they are blow ing their own pipes - they have not seen God, I tell you." (5) It is little known, but even after reaching the highest plane of consciousnes s on the Sant Mat path, and becomiing the Master also, Kirpal still had question s and sought confirmation of his state. He asked gurus from other Sant Mat linea ges if, in fact, Anami Lok, was indeed the highest attainment. He also visited m any teachers, and, along with the steady stream of spiritual figures to this own ashram, I am sure over the years he "exchanged notes" and shared insight. It is my humble opinion, then, that Kirpal kept growing even after his realis ation. An example which convinced me was the following. A friend of mine, a lady named Judith from Salt Lake City, with the master's permission and in the compa ny of a number of dignitaries and a few westerners, myself included, while in hi s living room, was asked to give an account of her initiation experience. She to ld me that the day before she had been refused initiation, and went out into the garden and cried bitterly, "why don't you want me?" and so forth. An old friend of Kirpal's, Gyaniji, came over to her and said, "now, now,my dear, those who c ry for the master get the master." So then she told her story, which was basical ly that during her initiation she was taken up by Kirpal through the first five inner planes all the way to Sat Lok (as she put it, "into his lap"), the first e ternal or transcendental region, what in Sant Mat is considered to be the true h ome of the Soul. I tell you, mine wasn't the only jaw to drop in the audience. S he had seemed so ordinary to me. Anyway, here is the clincher. Even after this s pectacular experience, she still asked Kirpal, in wonder, "Master, who am I?" to which he replied, "Who is asking?"That really rang a bell for me. After all, wa sn't that what Ramana Maharshi had said? After this I looked at him with a new s ense of respect, and a deepened feeling of divine mystery. In all humilty he would always pass on all praise to his own master, and say that, I am Mr. Zero; I am a empty pipe, unless my Master sends his Grace, I am not hing. He once ecstatically told me , God is nothing! Kirpal's disposition during initiations into the practice of the light and so und was interesting. Hundreds might be earnestly meditating, while he would sit there, eyes open, fidgeting with pieces of paper, burping, drinking coke, and ha cking loudly into a spittoon; yet when the initiation was over and he asked peop le their experiences, while the westerners would do okay, the majority of the In dians would report seeing the Radiant form of the Master inside, or the Big Star , the inner Sun or Moon, or crossing them, and a number of lucky ones were drawn completely up and out of the body, sometimes for hours. In 1972 when he came to Virginia, some friends of mine from Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic S tudies in upstate New York came with me to meet Him. One of them, who was not an initiate, said that he went into nirvikalpa samadhi in Kirpal's presence. Anoth er - maybe the same, I don't remember - when asked by Kirpal why he had come, sa id, "For your grace." His reply was, "You're drowning in it already!" Just imagi ne; the saint could tell who was drawn to Advaita without even asking him.

Days before his death, he kept hinting of his leaving. He would say, Please as k any questions you like now, who knows what tomorrow may bring. And, the sun is a bout to set. Kirpal left his mortal coil on August 21, 1974, ten to fifteen years earlier than had been expected. In 1972, while visiting Boston, he was examined by macrobiotic healer Mishio Kushi, who remarked that he had the constitution o f seven men. In later years he suffered constantly (often with deep, racking cou ghs, the result of an injury suffered while working in the medical corps in Worl d War I), yet would be remarkably transformed and radiant in the course of a few minutes. I witnessed this personally on numerous occasions, once when I was alo ne with him in his bedroom. One must assume that his whirlwind pace and sympathe tic acceptance of devotee s karma on his own body led to his early demise (he had been expected to live well into his nineties). He often mentioned that he had bro ken the laws of nature , but such was the compassionate impulse of the Saints, wor king as they do ceaselessly for the liberation of all beings. Upon his deathbed, just before closing his eyes for the last time, an attenda nt asked him how he was. His last words were, bot acha. ( very good! ) Kirpal would always say that in Sant Mat the Master takes charge from Dharmar aja, or Yama, the angel of death, the karmas of the disciple, literally erasing what is in the official record. He said that the law of Grace overrules the law of karma. This sometimes extended to altering the date of ones ordained death. An example of this is that of his mother. She was dying of cancer, and one day said to him that she was ready to go. He replied, well, today is inconvenient; how ab out the day after tomorrow, say about 1 P.M.? When her time came, she became radi ant and burst out into peals of laughter, saying that she saw the Masters inside and outside. [This is similar to Robert Adams, who when dying said They ve all com e. Ramana is here, Ramakrishna is here. ] Whereupon Kirpal told her to close her e yes and concentrate within. He went to another room, and in a few minutes she wa s gone. He commented, She is more alive now than ever. Kirpal s son, Darshan, throug h his death demonstrated a similar disposition. He excused himself, went alone i nto an adjacent room, then laughter was heard coming from inside. When the door was opened, he had entered mahasamadhi. Although Kirpal Singh was extremely well-read in comparative religions and sp iritual traditions, and was the person Sawan Singh would send people to if they wanted an intellectual understanding of Sant Mat, he was first and foremost a pr actical man. His frequent recommendation was for seekers to study the lives of g reat men, and not just philosophy. As a young man he read over three hundred bio graphies of spiritual figures, and admitted that he had read only two novels in his entire life: Ivanhoe, and Pilgrim s Progress. Kirpal Singh started two traditions in his lineage within Sant Mat: one, that an experience of inner light and sound was to be granted at the time of initiat ion, both as proof of the Master s competency and as a boost on the Way, and, two, that the Master was pledged to come in his radiant form for the soul of the dis ciple at the time of death, neither of which were previously promised by the Rad hasoami group at Beas. In former times it was explained that the disciple must b e adequately prepared, physically, emotionally, mentally, and morally, before he received initiation from a spirtual master. The Shiva-Samhita, Hathayoga Pradip ika, Bhagavad-Gita, Vedanta-Sara, and other texts describe long lists of qualifi cations an aspirant must have to be considered worthy of acquiring the Master s sp iritual help and regard. Ramana Maharshi commented on this himself, saying that there may not be even one disciple on earth anymore who lives up to such qualifi cations. Therefore, the modern dispensation in this dark age or Kali Yuga, accordi ng to Sant Mat, was essentially to be initiation first, purification later. It is also promised that once initiated by the Master, it will take a maximum of four lifetimes for the disciple to reach Sach Khand.

Of course, the requirement of ego-transcendance cannot be bypassed indefinite ly, for without that the dream of life continues, and experience, the Guru, and Go d are known only through the filter of self . The teacher makes the student face hi mself, and persists until that one knows himself and surrenders. What makes Sant Mat successful, in any particular case, is not fundamentally its meditation tec hnique per se, in my opinion, but the sacred relationship between the Master and disciple, in those lineages where the masters are genuine. While Kirpal Singh gave more or less standard talks at public events, His rea l work, like most masters, went on in private with small groups, and in day to d ay contact with those close to Him. He often said, "it is difficult to become a man, but easy to become God." Of Sawan Ashram itself it has been said, that is th e place where men were made. Many great sinners were redeemed and transformed thr ough the power of his love. One incident stands out in mind. While still in the military service, he had a small house provided for his use by the army. One day he came home (the doors were never locked) and found a tall, fierce-looking, st rong man sweeping and cleaning the inside of the house. When Kirpal asked him wh at he was doing there, he replied, "Sahib, I saw you walking the other day, and when I looked into your eyes all of my sins confronted me at once and I became a fraid. I have killed over seven hundred men." Kirpal told him to sin no more, an d he eventually became a stalwart disciple. On another occasion, he gave an exam ple of the need for preparation before being graced with access to the higher re gions. When Bhadra Sena, long-time manager of the printing affairs of the ashram , finally after many years asked Kirpal if he would give him an experience of th e inner planes, Kirpal calmly replied, "Well, that sort of thing could be done, but in your present condition I am afraid you would not be able to carry on here when you came back." Like all such masters, besides one on one he also worked universally through spiritual transmission and by inner communion with devotees. Once he came out of samadhi and proclaimed to his son Darshan that he had just been giving initiati on to souls on the inner planes. This suggests that in Sant Mat, souls who have not yet undergone the "second death" (whereby the subtle and causal bodies disin tegrate into their constituent elements and the being with a new personality rei ncarnates) may do spiritual sadhana after death through the help of a Master-Sou l, and the question of their need to eventually incarnate again might vary from individual to individual. Kirpal Singh affirmed that in fact is the case: "The initiates have a great concession: at the time of death, your Master wil l come to receive you, and not the angel of death. He usually appears several da ys or weeks before death to advise you of your coming departure from this world. I'm talking about those who keep the precepts! For those who do nothing with th e gift of Naam, he may or may not appear before they leave the body...In your fi nal moments, and much beforehand if you have gained proficiency in meditation, M aster's radiant form will take you to a higher stage where you can make further progress. At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her d ay of marriage! He may then place you in the first, second or third stage, or he may take you direct to Sach Khand. In some cases, where worldly desires and att achments are predominant, he will allow rebirth, but in circumstances more conge nial for spiritual growth." (5) This would be something difficult to reconcile within the Buddhist tradition, for instance, wherein it is generally assumed that all who have not attained en lightenment in this life face complete egoic or skhandic dissolution followed by reincarnation until they realize enlightenment in the waking state, and is cert ainly one of the great spiritual mysteries yet to be illuminated for the present age. [Note: it is not always mandated in Buddhism canon that one must reincarna te on the earth-plane to attain enlightenment; exceptions are noted: see "The Fo ur Levels of Sainthood" and "The Ten Fetters of Buddhism" as presented by the Wa nderling on his website.]

When asked about other teachers, Kirpal Singh's usual response was often, gold is gold. Before initiations he would weed out those who were disciples of other teachers, only accepting them when they had made an honorable separation in the interests of pursuing something they felt was higher. While wearing a mantle of supreme tolerance and uniting all under one fold, however, on rare occasions He was not averse to privately commenting on other teachers. Kirpal's successor, Da rshan Singh, was also reticent to criticize, but did, for instance, upon surveyi ng the rise of many contemporary , especially so-called non-dual, western teache rs, simply and directly stated, they re NOT sages. He also remarked, "Is it such an easy thing to take a soul to Sach Khand?" Despite his often awe-inspiring presence and regal bearing, Kirpal had a fath omless depth of humility. When some devotees asked if they were being too much o f a burden on him he replied, no, you are my solace. For me, such a statement insp ires thoughts too deep for words. Sometimes I think its mere contemplation would be a complete spiritual practice in itself. Sitting at his feet and looking int o the eyes of Kirpal Singh was like gazing at ones dearest heart-companion, ones own deepest self, and into the soul of a being a million years old. The effect was at the same time spiritually uplifting as well as sobering, as exemplified i n the description given by Alcibiades about the company of his master Socrates: "At the words of Socrates my heart leaps within me and my eyes rain tears whe n I hear them. And I observe that many others are affected in the same manner. I have heard Pericles and other great orators, and I thought that they spoke well , but I never had any similar feeling; my soul was not stirred by them, nor was I angry at the thought of my own slavish state. But this Marsyas [Socrates] has often brought me to such a pass that I have felt as if I could hardly endure the life that I am leading; and I am conscious that if I did not shut my ears again st him and fly as from the voice of the siren, my fate would be like that of oth ers - he would transfix me and I would grow old sitting at his feet. For he make s me confess that I ought not to live as I do, neglecting the wants of my soul, and busying myself with the concerns of the Athenians; therefore, I hold my ears , and tear myself away from him. And he is the only person who ever made me feel ashamed, and there is no one else who does the same. For I know that I cannot a nswer him or say that I ought not do as he bids, but when I leave his presence t he love of popularity gets the better of me. And therefore I run away and fly fr om him, and when I see him I am ashamed." (from Plato's Symposium)

Part 1 [*]

I The experience of time and the boundaries of concepts and definitions in theoretical knowledge Quid est tempus? Si nemo a me quarat, scio, si quarenti explicari velim, nescio. [1 ] [What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; but if I want to explain it to a questioner, I do not know.] This well-known saying by Augustine contains a tru th of universal validity, which again and again seems to have been forgotten in philosophical discussions about the problem of time, as soon as people seek an u nderstanding of time as such in a theoretical concept. It is not open to contradiction that we have a sense of time. But the question n ow arises, whether this sense is not rooted in a deeper layer of our experience than the level that is accessible to our theoretical concepts. That such a deepe r level is present in our experience is something that must be evident to everyo ne who gives an account of the separate boundaries of the theoretical attitude o f thought in contrast to the immediate experience of reality of a non-theoretica l character. Each theoretical analysis and each definition has its internal boun

daries, which first make possible such analysis and definition. That which is ir reducible in theory is at the same time indefinable, [page 161] and each true definition rests in the final analysis on such irreducible moments . Without immediate insight into the indefinable, a real concept of what is defi nable is excluded. And insight itself remains rooted in a final foundation of expe rience [beleving], which oversteps the boundaries of the theoretical attitude of knowledge, and which excludes an absolute split between theoretical and pre-the oretical experience. Only in experience does the knowledge of reality become our own, and the sense of it being our own is the first condition for real knowledg e [i]. That which is foreign in principle to our knowing selfhood also then in p rinciple falls outside the boundaries of the human ability to know [2]. When reading the above, those who are trained in modern philosophy will be immed iately inclined to think of the role of intuition or of intuition of essences [wez ensaanschouwing], or of empathy [invoeling] or experience [beleving] as these ideas are put forward by phenomenology or vitalist philosophy [levensphilosophie] resp ectively, which they regard as an immediate mode of knowledge in contrast to mer ely mediated or symbolic knowledge. Now as we shall see, true insight into time in fact involves true insight into h ow our concrete experience of time is outside the boundaries of theoretical abst raction. In other words it involves true insight into how theoretical abstractio n necessarily takes away from [aftrekt] the full experience of time. But in the philosophical investigation of time, as long as one holds to the self -sufficiency or the complete autonomy of theoretical knowing, there will be a ch aracteristic vicious circle in any attempt to use intuition or experience to ove rstep the boundaries of the abstract theoretical concept. And this is done by mo dern phenomenology by its demand for the theoretical reduction or for the method ical epoché of the whole natural worldview, with its pretension of thereby being abl e to grasp in an adequate manner the essence of what is given in experience. Thi s assumption of self-sufficiency is also made by the metaphysical vitalist philo sophy of Henri Bergson, with its demand to eliminate everything that falls outsi de of the évolution créatrice of the psychical durée, in order [page 162] in this way to place whole elimination or cal abstraction, and of disclosing in an f time.

oneself in the metaphysical essence of true time. For this reduction is only possible by means of the path of theoreti this becomes absolutized whenever it carries the pretension adequate manner the essential givenness of the experience o

In order to give an account of this, we need to first briefly pause to consider the characteristic distinction between the theoretical and the non-theoretical o r naïve attitudes of thought. The former, which is a conditio sine qua non not only for the special sciences, but also for philosophy itself, is characterized by the theoretical distance tak en by logical thought over against its field of research, through which this fie ld really becomes the Gegenstand of thought. From out of this theoretical distancing is born the characteristic consciousness of problems [probleem-bewustzijn], which is proper only to theoretical experien ce. In contrast, naïve experience as such does not know any problem in this theoretica l sense, because naïve thought has no Gegenstand. The Gegenstand is the product of a t

heoretical splitting apart of temporal reality. In its logical side, naïve experie nce remains wholly fitted into [in-gesteld] temporal reality; it knows no dualis m between knowing and what is known [ii]; it understands both the logical and th e post-logical functions of things in what I later describe as the structural subj ect-object relation essentially as elements [bestanddeelen] of full reality as it is given to us. It experiences reality as held together and not split apart [ineen en niet uit-een]. Temporal reality is first split apart by theoretical analy sis and synthesis, without which it is not possible to have real theoretical kno wledge of what is being investigated. And in this said analysis, our logical function of thought is active in the theo retical attitude of thought, which as such can never free itself from the spell [ban] of theoretical concepts. Since theoretical analysis always works by abstraction, it is only by means of t heoretical concepts that it can split apart temporal reality, as that reality gi ves itself to our naïve experience. Theoretical analysis takes something away [tre kt af] from the full temporal reality, and such abstraction is necessary in orde r to obtain articulated insight into a definite structure [page 163] of this reality, which in naïve experience never comes explicitly to consciousness , but only implicitly. The two basic structures of temporal reality. We will call this poral reality. As oral reality, but his reality gives

determined structure the structure of the modal aspects of tem we shall see, this is not the only structure displayed by temp it is implied in a second, more concrete structure, in which t itself immediately to naïve experience.

We will call the latter structure the individuality structure of temporal realit y. In it, concrete things, events, actions, acts and social forms reveal themsel ves as individual totalities, which only function [fungeren] in the modal aspect s. As we shall see, insight into the fundamental distinction between these structur es, as well as their mutual coherence, is of fundamental importance for a true v iew of the problem of time. Therefore we need to subject them one after the othe r to a closer investigation. When we do this, it will be self-evident why time as such is inaccessible to the oretical concepts, and why time is an essential presupposition of all theoretica l knowledge, a presupposition that is accessible as such only to the depth dimen sion [diepte-laag] of experience, which oversteps the boundaries of theoretical concept formation. But we shall at the same time be on our guard against the wrong point of departu re of phenomenology and vitalist philosophy, which, although perhaps unintention ally, have tried to twist into the framework of theoretical abstraction either t he intuition of time or the experience of time. The modal aspects of time and time s cosmic continuity. Temporal reality functions [fungeert] in a variety of modal aspects, which are n ot themselves subjected to change within time, but rather form a constant and fo undational modal

[page 164] framework, in which the individual changing things, events, acts, actions and so cial relations have their varying functions, and which first make possible such variable functioning. In the modal structure, what is revealed is not the concrete what (as is the cas e in the individuality structure), but rather the how of reality. The modal stru cture is a functional mode of being, a modality or a modal aspect of reality. In its general theory of the law-spheres, the Philosophy of the Law-Idea has as of this date brought to light fourteen of such modal aspects of temporal reality , which will here be named law-spheres in accordance with their law-regular [wet matige] structure. They are: quantity, spatiality, the aspect of movement, the b iotic aspect, the feeling (or psychical) aspect, the analytical (or logical) asp ect, the historical aspect, the aspect of symbolic meaning, that of society, the economic, the aesthetic, the juridical, the moral and the aspect of faith. In the theoretical-philosophical analysis, these modalities are really split apa rt from each other in a theoretical dis-continuity. However, in temporal reality they are instead fitted together into a continuous cosmic coherence and this cosmic coherence is, as we shall see, a coherence of t ime. As modal aspects of temporal reality, they are implicitly modal aspects of time. That is to say, in each modality of reality, time comes to expression in a sepa rate way, but it cannot be reduced [opgaan] to any of these modalities. The moda l structure of reality is itself enclosed within cosmic time. The current opposition of time and space and the general theory of relativity. Is the opposition between time and the measurement of time a purely logical one? This statement will appear to be highly problematic for those who are used to th e abstract visions of reality in current philosophy. Now one of the most deeply rooted presuppositions of the current view of time is that time only reveals itself in motion and in change. In this way, time and sp ace are set over [page 165] against each other, whether as equal in value and sharply distinguished ordering schemas of experienceable reality that are already related to each other in mov ement, or as reciprocally excluding each other as a stream of experience contraste d with a mathematical conceptual construction. It is true that the current view, that space as such is nontemporal, is regarded as a serious problem in the general theory of relativity. But until now, the current philosophical view of time appeared little inclined t o give itself over to Minkowski s and Einstein s view that time and space cannot be separated. One tried to save himself from this view with the apparently logicall y irrefutable distinction between time and measurement of time. The general theo ry of relativity would then only concern the measurement of time, but not be abl e to teach us about the nature of time itself. The view of time as a fourth dimension would then only be a perspectival-mathemati cal way of understanding, which could in part be explained from the circumstance

that the general theory of relativity has accepted the transmission of light as the physical measurer of time and thereby has accepted the ray of light for tim e itself.[3] Can in fact a measure of time be anything other than a definite duration of time , and can the measurement of time occur outside of time? If not, then the opposition between time and measure of time, or between time an d the measurement of time, loses its unity of meaning and its exclusive characte r, and without further precision it becomes logically unusable. If one nevertheless assumes a mutually exclusive contrast between time and measu rement of time, then he confuses himself, as we shall see, in insoluble contradi ctions. As we shall see, the opposition between time and measurement of time is not in t he least logically irrefutable, because the word time must have a more limited mea ning in the second term than in the first, if the whole concept of measurement o f time is not to dissolve into internal antinomies. In any event, the fundamental distinction between time and measurement of time d oes not at all mean that we should accept the current view of classical physics [page 166] concerning the non-temporality of space. The connection of the current opposition between time and space with the metaphysical idea of substance. All definitions of time are in essence definitions of modal aspects of time. On the contrary, in this view, time appeared to be a necessary presupposition in the definition of space itself [4], whereas it was evident that one could not r eally define time itself. Rather, in this supposed definition of time, we are on ly able to mathematically approach the modal aspect of movement, in which time i s again presupposed. Now whenever the difference between time and space is represented as a continuou s flowing of succeeding moments of equal duration over against a static continuo us extensiveness, then it is clear that the concept of motion is included in the concept of flowing. For its part, such movement is only possible in time. And i n the concept of the static continuous extensiveness, there is hidden the idea o f spatial simultaneity, which presupposes time just as much. Moreover, simultane ity is possible not only in the static sense of space, but just as much, althoug h in a different way, in the modal meaning of movement, in that of organic life, in that of feeling, in that of logical analysis, in that of historical developm ent, etc. etc.. [In all these modalities], as we shall see, spatial simultaneity is presupposed. Finally, the view that space as such is non-temporal, was dependent from the ver y beginning on the metaphysical conception of matter as an extended substance, w hich, since it was timeless, could only in its operations [werkingen] be subjected to time [5]. And it is just this view that was fundamentally affected both by t he general theory of relativity, which no longer physically separates space and time, as well as by quantum theory concerning the transmission of energy. [page 167] In truth, all so-called definitions of time appear to be only definitions of mod

al aspects of time, in which time itself is always presupposed as indefinable. A nd from the very start, it must be regarded as impermissible to give a modal def inition as a definition of the time. This holds then just as much for Newton s absolute mathematical time, as for Einstei n s relative physical kinematic time; just as much for Bergson s feeling duration as f or Spengler s or Heidegger s historical time, just as much for Kant s view of time as tra nscendental sensory form of perception as for Hobbes empirical-sensory conception of time as phantasms of movement. In each of the modal aspects, time expresses itself in a particular meaning. The Philosophy of the Law-Idea has indeed demonstrated that time comes to expres sion in all modal aspects of reality in separate ways. I will now parade in proc ession, one after the other, the modal aspects of time that have been distinguis hed. I can here only give a summary indication of the characteristics of modal t ime. In the aspect of quantity, time takes on the modal meaning of numerical relation s. In the series of numbers there is an irreversible order of time of earlier an d later [6], which is in no way dependent on our [page 168] subjective counting, but much rather is implied in the law-regular structure of the modal numerical aspect itself. Earlier and later do not in the least express a succession of movement in the series of numbers, but they express a relation of the quantitative value of time. To say, 2 is earlier than 3 in the series of n umbers means that 2 is less than 3. [7] In the spatial aspect, time takes on the modal meaning of continuous extension. The static simultaneity of spatial relations is modally distinguished both from the time order of numbers as well as from that of the succession of movement. Spatial simultaneity has nothing to do with supra-temporality or time-lessness, with which Parmenides already confused it in his conception of timeless being. It is only understandable within the cosmic order of time (which encloses all aspec ts of time), and it has a temporal coherence both with arithmetical time as well as with the time of movement. (Spatial simultaneity can approach the succession of movement in its anticipatory function ). Without a static spatial time, we would not be able to speak of a time of moveme nt. This is so true, that Newton s conception of absolute motion, to which his mathe matical view of time was oriented, needs the static simultaneity of spatial coor dinates for a concept of the equal duration of moments of motion. In the aspect of movement, which must certainly not be understood in the mechani cal sense of classical mechanics, and in which e.g. the qualitative electro-dyna mic phenomena also function, time reveals itself in the modal sense of successio n of movement, in which as such no static spatial simultaneity is possible, and in which all simultaneity according to the modal meaning of movement itself can carr y only a relative character. Absolute rest is only understandable in its original sense of spatial extensiveness. However, movement presupposes [page 169] this static spatial simultaneity. It is not in spatial extensiveness [8], but it is possible as an irreducible new aspect of temporal reality only on the basis of the sptail extensiveness [9].

In the biotic aspect, time reveals itself in the modal meaning of organic develo pment of life, in which the biotic phases of development play an essential role. This biotic time of development cannot in any way be reduced to the modal time of motion. Development of life is not the same as motion, but can only take its co urse on the basis of the modal functions of movement. Mathematical-physical meas ures of time necessarily retain an external character over against the internal biotic order of time. They do not concern the internal modal nature of the bioti c phases of time of birth, maturity, aging and death, which carry no homogenous character and do not allow themselves to be mathematically delimited from each o ther. The question, When is an individual born? is an intrinsically biological question of time, which can only be answered from a biological standpoint, although undou btedly there are boundary questions [grensvragen] that arise here that are diffi cult to answer. In the psychical aspect, time reveals itself in the modal meaning of the life of feeling [10]. The modal order of time, to which the life of feeling is subjecte d, gives its own character to the succession of movement of feelings, in that ea rlier experience feelings or sensory impressions do not, like the moments of mov ement, simply disappear in the later ones. They either continue in the totality of a mood lasting a longer or shorter time in my consciousness, or they are supp ressed in the bottom layer [onderlaag] of consciousness, what has been called the subconscious, or respectively the unconscious, [page 170] from where they can continue to work [11] through into the conscious life of fee ling, and from where they can also be reproductively taken up anew in our consci ous stream of feeling in dream or memory although perhaps in modified form. This m odal order of time reveals itself just as much in the order of feeling-associati ons, which are not in the least to be explained in a mechanical way [12], but wh ich possesses its own feeling nature. Regarded from the subjective side, the time of feeling is a non-homogenous feeli ng of duration [13], in the sense intended by Henri Bergson. In this duration, f eelings push themselves through in a continuous stream, which cannot be mathemat ically divided anymore than we can divide the biotic duration of development. Fu rthermore, in the subject-object relation of duration of feeling, which presents itself in awareness time (discussed in more detail below), the subjective momen ts of feeling are not points of time, like the moments in spatial time, but rath er indivisible phases of time (cf. what has been called presence time or the specio us present [14]), which are actually phases of the movement of feeling in the per ception of sensory objects in the space of awareness [15]). In the logical aspect, time reveals itself in the modal-analytical meaning of th e logical prius and posterius, and in logical simultaneity. [page 171] The order of time here takes on a normative modal character, which it also retai ns in all post-logical aspects. The current view that we should not speak here o f a real order of time, is burdened by the presupposition that logical relations as such should be timeless. One then expressly sets the logical earlier and lat er over against the temporal earlier and later. But the logical prius and posterius is, just as much as the order of logical sim ultaneity, a real modal order of time, which in the logical movement of thought, or of the thought process, retains its normative character over against the psy

chical and pre-psychical aspects of time. Just as logical simultaneity (the logical characteristics) holds for each subjec tive conceptual synthesis and for each logical predicating, so does the logical earlier and later (of grounds and conclusion) hold for each logical argument. Although the abstract discursive form of the syllogism is revealed only in theor etical thought [16], this certainly does not exclude the order of the logical pr ius and posterius from playing any role in pre-theoretical thought. Whoever want s to maintain that will have to demonstrate that the principle of sufficient gro und finds no application in everyday thought, which is naturally impossible. The principle of the sufficient ground cannot be applied outside of the modal or der of time of the logical prius and posterius. [17] [page 172] The logical ground precedes the conclusion, and not the other way around. The naïv e thinker also knows that. In the historical aspect, time reveals itself in the modal meaning of developmen t of culture [18]. The historical periods are periods in the execution of the huma n task of forming and of having dominion. These periods are not mathematically d elimited from each other; the living cultural factors from an earlier period are taken up in those of later periods in the total form of the new image of time. In tradition, the historical time of development fuses past, present and future. Just like all aspects of time still to be discussed, this order of time also ca rries a normative modal character. It sets before the human race a normative tas k of forming; with its demand of the future, it opposes any inert resting in the historic present or any vegetating in the past. Historical reaction is the anti-h istorical reaching back towards a past that has died away; it turns itself in a reactionary way against the historical norm of development [19]. In the linguistic aspect, time reveals itself in the modal meaning of symbolic m eaning. The pause between two acts of speech, the slowing down or speeding up of the tempo of speech or of a gesture, all have symbolic meaning, as does also th e objective duration of a signal of sound or of light. The subjective duration o f a symbolic meaning, or of the objective duration of a sign are subjected to th e normative order of time of the linguistic aspect. The normative meaning of thi s modal order of time is evident whenever we consider that it can also be applie d in an inaccurate way, that is, in conflict with the linguistic norms. [page 173] In the social aspect, time takes on the modal meaning of social forms. To let so meone precede you who in a social sense is a higher placed person has the meanin g of social politeness or courtesy. Tact in society requires that one should not make a certain visit at an inopportune time. Politeness forbids a guest from ap pearing too late at a meal. Festival days carry an express social character, in which the demands of conviviality come to be held in force. The normative charac ter of time is also immediately evident in this modal aspect. In the economic aspect, time takes on the modal meaning of saving of values. The businessman says Time is money, and this proverb is more than purely metaphorical . Indeed the economic order of time is the normative weighing of the value of th e passing away of the saving of time. The whole economic phenomenon of interest rests on a higher valuation of present above similar future goods. The distincti on between wages based on time and those based on piecework, between fixed capit al and liquid capital, expressions such as futures market and discounted rate of in terest, etc. etc. have meaning only within the modal framework of the economic or

der of time, which as such cannot be reduced to any other modal aspect of time. In the aesthetic aspect, time reveals itself in the modal meaning of beautiful h armony. The classical form of unity of time (and place) for drama had only aesth etic meaning. The aesthetic order of time does not tolerate any aesthetically em pty moments. Whenever a novelist loses sight of this separate modal character of the aesthetic order of time, and confuses this order of time with the historica l, then he may well be able to write a more or less faithful historical story, b ut he can give no real work of art. In the juridical aspect, time reveals itself in the modal meaning of justice, or retribution that harmonizes interests. Lateness or delay as a form of nonperfor mance, superannuation as a way of receiving rights, or the coming to naught [ove r time] of claims and contracts, determinations of time in agreements, the age o f majority or minority, etc. etc., are real modal-juridical embodiments [iii]of time of a normative juridical character. The same can be said for the time of co ming into force of a law or order (cf. [page 174] also the embodiment of

retroactive force

in transitional laws).

Whenever a merchant in Amsterdam makes an order by telephone or telegraph from L ondon or New York, which is then accepted, there is then the question, when the relevant agreement came into existence. This is a true juridical question of tim e, which can only be answered in accordance with juridical norms, because only i n the juridical order of time is there a place for juridical consequences. In the moral aspect, time reveals itself in the normative modal meaning of moral love of neighbor [20]. The failure to give help or support within one s reach, wh ere this is urgently required, is loveless and immoral. In its moral aspect, all of time is filled by the demand for love. One s fatherland calls in times of dang er to the duty of love of country; the duties of love for one s elders or one s chil dren, the love of marriage, comradeship, etc. etc., require our time. Jesus sayin g, The poor you have always with you, but you do not always have me, is a succinct illumination of the time of love, which especially requires sacrifice in face o f death. Finally, in the faith aspect, time reveals itself in its transcendental boundary function, in its pointing within time to that which lies hidden behind time, in its pointing to eternity. In the majestic beginning words of the book of Genesi s: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the time of faith refer s to God s creative act, which first called time into existence. Whenever we as Gereformeerde people believe that rebirth precedes conversion, th en what is intended is certainly not a temporal succession in the sensory percep tible side of clock time, but much rather an order of time, which only has meani ng in the boundary function of faith. If the heart, the religious centre of exis tence, is not first reborn through God s Spirit, conversion can also not reveal it self in our temporal expressions of life [iv]. But rebirth itself can only be un derstood in the time of faith, as the mystery of God s work in the heart of the si nner, which is hidden behind his temporal existence. [page 175] The necessity in the theoretical attitude of thought of an abstraction from the continuity of time. The difference from the naïve attitude of thought. In the foregoing summary description of the modal aspects we have really done no

thing other than to give a theoretical explication of what one already can know implicitly in the pre-theoretical view of time. The current philosophical views of time, which attempt to identify time with a modal aspect of time (e.g. the ph ysical aspect of movement, the psychical aspect or the historical aspect) are de finitely in conflict with what is given in naïve experience. In order to avoid con fusion, we shall from now on refer to the full time, in distinction from its asp ects, as cosmic time. [v] In our theoretical analysis we must really cut off [uitschakelen] cosmic time it self in its continuity that overarches all the aspects, in order in an articulat ed way to be able to split apart its modal aspects from each other, and in order to obtain them in the grasp of a theoretical concept. And this is what the naïve experience of time cannot do. The naïve experience of time remains wholly fitted w ithin [in-gesteld] time, even in its logical-analytical aspect. It does not set itself in its logical function of thought over against abstracted modal aspects as its Gegenstand or problem. And just because it [naïve experience] lacks every setting-over-against attitude o f thought, and also because it remains wholly fitted within the cosmic continuit y of time, the modal diversity of the aspects of time remains wholly implicit in the continuous unity of the cosmic experience of time. The continuity of time c overs up [overdekt] the diversity of modal aspects in the naïve attitude of experi ence. Whenever I look at my watch, I experience perhaps in part only in my subconscious un o intuitio [an intuition] of cosmic time in its various modal aspects, without t hese aspects delineating themselves in an articulated distinction in my experien ce. The normative aspects in particular cannot be set outside of our considerati on without making time a theoretical abstraction that is foreign to our life. Th at the clock urges me to [page 176] my duties is one of the most elementary givens of naïve experience. Only a scienti fic theory that fails to recognize its boundaries can arrive at the thought of d enying these normative aspects of time. But why then must the theoretical attitude of thought shut out from the contents of its concepts the cosmic continuity of time, and with it time itself? Because time is a transcendental presupposition for theoretical analysis and synthesis; in other words because it determines and first makes possible theoretical conce ptual forming itself. Cosmic time and the problem concerning the possibility of a knowledge-acquiring synthesis. Why Kant could not bring a real solution to this problem. In Kant s critical question, How are synthetic a priori judgments possible? , the epi stemological problem concerning theoretical synthesis was brought forward for th e first time. From his standpoint he could not really find a solution. The synthesis of our th eoretical act of knowing is always a synthesis between the logical-analytical co nceptual function and the non-logical modal aspects of reality that are set over against it, and which are theoretically analyzed in the concept. How is such a connection possible? Undoubtedly due to his critical point of departure, Kant set out the problem in too narrow a way as concerning purely the so-called transcendental-logical categor ies [21] and the psychical sensory manifold. The sensory manifold was to deliver

to us only the brute matter of experience, ordered in the transcendental sensory forms of perception of time and space. But he thereby proceeded from the presupp osition of the self-sufficiency of the theoretical attitude of thought. In relation to this, he limited time to the modal structural [page 177] function of an a priori sensory form of perception, whereas, according to him, t he logical forms of thought as such were timeless. He now sought a third outside of the sensory matter of experience and the category , in order to make possible a synthesis between these completely differing modal aspects of consciousness differing always according to their nature And as the th ird third instance, he put time on the stage, in which the categories, with the he lp of the transcendental power of imagination were to schematize themselves. But time in the sense of a purely modal aspect of sensory forms of perception can certainly not fulfill this role of mediator between reason and the sensory manifold . Since the structure of the logical forms of thought are themselves supposed to be timeless, they remain irreconciled both over against the sensory matter of exp erience as well as over against time as the sensory form of perception. Only when all modal aspects without exception, including the logical-analytical, are enclosed within time can the time really be understood as the transcendenta l condition for theoretical synthesis. The immanence standpoint in current philosophy. But this state of affairs can only be seen and acknowledged by giving up the imm anence standpoint in philosophy. This standpoint is characterized by the fact th at man seeks the point of departure for philosophy from out of which the diversity of aspects is to be understood, and which the Philosophy of the Law-Idea calls the Archimedean point of philosophy immanently in theoretical thought itself. When w e critically consider this thought, it is seen to be irreconcilable with the ack nowledgement that theoretical thought in its transcendental-logical structure is enclosed within time, and thus determined by the cosmic order of time. Rather, this standpoint implies the postulate of self-sufficiency, of the autonomy of th eoretical Vernunft. From out of its Christian point of departure, the Philosophy of the Law-Idea has radically broken with this immanence standpoint, and has demonstrated the uncri tical dogmatic character of the postulate of the supposed autonomy of theoretica l thought. It is also true to say that [page 178] the immanence standpoint is no purely theoretical standpoint; the postulate of t he self-sufficiency of theoretical thought is a dogmatic presupposition of curre nt philosophy, a presupposition that in its deepest sense has a religious charac ter, but one which is in flagrant conflict with the whole structure of the tempo ral cosmos. The postulate of self-sufficiency, even if the limitation in its own area is added, implies a primary absolutization of the theoretical synthesis, i.e . of a theoretical thought abstraction through which all of reality is theoretic ized and the great givenness of naive experience is falsified. The said postulate [or self-sufficiency] is only seemingly given up in the moder n irrationalistic vitalist philosophy.

Bergson s psychical durée is in fact itself a theoretical abstraction, the product of a theoretical analysis of the feeling aspect of time according to its subjective side. By virtue of the primary absolutization of the theoretical (in this case psychological) synthesis, this is then represented as the true and complete time . The same holds for Heidegger s (phenomenological) historische Zeit [historical tim e] as the horizon that also applies to thought. For in this case there is an absol utization of a phenomenological abstraction, which itself can only be the product of theoretical analysis and synthesis. Heidegger also proceeds from out of the self-sufficiency of the theoretical atti tude of knowledge or more precisely, the phenomenological attitude, twisted around by him in an irrationalistic sense. He rejects each acknowledgement of a supratheoretical determinateness ( Bedingtheit ) of the phenomenological investigation. Only in the religious center of his existence does man transcend time. The uncritical character of the immanence standpoint. Why is this presupposition of the self-sufficiency of theoretical thought in its own area uncritical and dogmatic? Because theoretical thought in its modal-logica l aspect (and that is what is here intended) cannot by its own power [eigenmacht ig] determine its relation over against [page 179] the remaining modal aspects of reality. In the cogito [Descartes I think ], the thinkin g selfhood is active, which as such functions not only in the logical-analytical aspect, but equally in all aspects of reality. At the same time, this selfhood is the concentration point of temporal human existence. If all aspects are equal ly enclosed by cosmic time and thus have an intrinsically temporal character, th en the concentration point of human existence, in which all temporal aspects com e together in one focus (brandpunt), cannot itself be of a temporal, but must be of a supratemporal, transcendent character. The theoretical synthesis is determ ined both by cosmic time as well as by the supratemporal transcendent selfhood. The immanence standpoint can only seemingly be maintained, by following the so-cal led critical philosophy unexpectedly identifying the thinking selfhood with the so -called transcendental-logical subject of thought (in Kant, the transcendental-lo gical unity of apperception ). In this identification, the selfhood is shriveled u p into a transcendental-logical formal unity, which is then again sharply distin guished from the individual, temporal so-called empirical psychological selfhood . This transcendental subject of thought then serves as the theoretical-logical po int of concentration, which as the immanent subjective pole of thought (Theodor L itt), could never be made into the Gegenstand of thought, because it should be the necessary universally valid condition for all thinking that is directed towards a Gegenstand. The dogmatic character of the transcendental-logical conception of the selfhood is really apparent whenever one considers that it is a theoretical abstraction and as such is itself the thought product of the thinking selfhood. The thinking se lfhood identifies itself in an uncritical way with its thought product. A transcendental-logical selfhood exists even less than an empirical-psychological elfhood. The selfhood certainly has modal psychical and logical functions, but i t is itself the necessary transcendental concentration point, not only of the ps ychical and logical, but equally of all its temporal modal functions. A transcendental-logical unity above the theoretical diversity of thought catego ries, such as Kant wanted to find in his transcendental subject of thought, does not exist. Within the

s

[page 180] modal structure of the logical aspect there exists only logical unity in the log ical diversity. This unity cannot be of a transcendent character. The doctrine of the transcendental subject of thought is nothing other than the nominalistic, epistemological formalizing of the old doctrine of scholastic psyc hology concerning the anima rationalis [rational soul] as substance. In this met aphysical psychology, man sought for the unity and simplicity of the soul in the i ntellect as its essence, its centre of being, which would also overprint [opdruk ken] a rational character on the other human faculties of the soul. This idea itself of the soul came from out of Aristotelian psychology, and corre sponded with the Aristotelian view of divinity as pure nous (actus purus). The sch olastics tried in vain to fit this view to the Christian doctrine concerning the simplicity and indivisibility of the soul [22]. In vain I say. For the anima rationalis intrinsically lacks the simplicity of bein g that the Christian doctrine correctly accepted for the soul. As a metaphysical a bstraction, it [anima rationalis] remained caught in the diversity of the tempor al functions. Thought, which was supposed to comprise the essential character [o f the soul], is in the final analysis only one of its modes of revelation [openb aringswijzen] [vi]. Neither willing nor feeling allow themselves to be reduced t o mere modalities of thought. Only in the religious concentration point of exist ence are all temporal functions and acts brought together in their deeper unity. But because of its point of departure, immanence philosophy is forced to seek th e centre of being of temporal existence in thought itself. And because of its view of the concentration point of human existence, immanence philosophy could also acquire no insight into cosmic time. In Aristotelian-Thom istic scholasticism, time was understood merely as the measure of motion. According to this view, the anima rationalis, to which immortality was always attrib uted, is only accidentally subjected to time, in its connection with the material b ody. According to its substantial rational being, it is supratemporal, [page 181] and is only measured by the

aevum

[23] (Thomas Aquinas).[24]

A real sense of time supposes a transcendent centre of experience of time. Kuyper s understanding of the transcendent centre. Now it is indeed correct that we could have no true sense of time unless we did not go above time in the deepest part of our being. All merely temporal creature s lack a sense of time. All absolutizing of time rests on a lack of critical self-reflection. But we cannot learn to know of the true concentration point, the supratemporal r oot of our existence, from a self-empowered philosophy, which necessarily remain s closed up within the horizon of time. We can only learn it from the divine Wor d revelation. Only this Revelation discovers us to our selves. As Calvin remarks in his Institutio, we can only come to true self-knowledge through true knowled ge of God. I call this the religious law of concentration of human existence. The soul

of human existence, which according to the testimony of Scripture is not

affected by temporal death, but which continues to exist even after the putting off of the body, i.e. of all of the temporal forms of existence closed up in indiv iduality structures, is the religious root of human existence. Scripture also ca lls it the inward man or the heart of man, out of which proceed the issues of life in which eternity is laid. It is, as Kuyper expresses in his Stone Lectures, that point in our consciousness in which our life is still undivided and lies compreh ended in its unity [page 182] According to Kuyper, that concentration point is not in the spreading vines but in the root from which the vines spring. This point, of course, lies in the antithesis between all that is finite in our human life and the infinite that lies beyond it. Here alone we find the common source from which the different streams of our human life spring and separate themselv es [25]. And then Kuyper uses not only the image of the religious root, but also that of the focus [brandpunt]: Personally it is our repeated experience that in the depths of our hearts, a t the point where we disclose ourselves to the Eternal One, all the rays of our life converge as in one focus, and there alone regain that harmony which we so o ften and so painfully lose in the stress of daily duty [26]. This religious root of individual human existence can however not be understood atomistically as an autarchic individual, but rather as created by God in the reli gious root community of the human race, which fell away from God in its first he ad Adam, but in the second head Jesus Christ was again restored in its religious community with God. That religious root community of humanity is the true supra temporal concentration point of the whole temporal cosmos. This also explains ho w Adam s fall did not only drag with it the human race, but also the whole of the temporal cosmos, just as in Jesus Christ the whole cosmos is saved in the root. A real Christian philosophy of time is then also not possible whenever theoretic al thought is not directed to the true supratemporal concentration point of the temporal cosmos. Theoretical thought is never self-sufficient in philosophy, but , because of the structure of creation itself, it is necessarily religiously det ermined, whether in an apostate direction, or in the direction to the true Origi n of all things, as revealed itself in Jesus Christ. Go to Part 2 of this article Dooyeweerd's Footnotes to the Text [*] Note by Dooyeweerd: In this paper, which also appears separately in the publ ications of the Gereformeerde Psychology Study Group [Geref. Psychologische stud ievereeniging], readers of Philosophia Reformata will find for the first time a completed [afgeronde] view written by me concerning the problem of time. In part icular, I have not previously published my view of the problem of the measuremen t of time. Apart from this article, I hope that a continuing series of historica l studies about the problem of time in immanence philosophy will be published in this journal. [1] Augustine: Confessions, XI, 17. [2] Cf. my extensive discussion of this in De Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee II, 414f f.

and

[3] Cf. for example, J.A. Gunn: The Problem of Time (London, 1929), 206. [4] Even before Minkowski, this was brought to light by the Hungarian thinker Pa lágyi (Ausgewählte Werke III Zur Welt-mechanik, 2), who moreover was later known as a principal opponent of the general theory of relativity. [5] Cf. B. Bavink: Ergebnisse und Probleme der Naturwissenschaften (5th ed., 193 3), 179. [6] This modal order of earlier and later is, as we shall see below, necessarily related to the subjective duration of time, and reveals just in this fact its e ssential time character. It is not correct that the order of succession in the series of numbers, which w e here understand as a real modal order of time, is reversible. Of course we can just as well count from the front to the back as from the back to the front. But in this is presupposed the irreversible modal order of time of the numbers themselves. Counting backwards remains counting backwards, and it c annot be regarded as counting forwards. One may also not interpret the said orde r of succession in a logicistic way as a purely logical interpretation. The logi cal order of prius and posterius, as we shall see, is just as much a modal order of time, but as such it is not an order of succession in the meaning of quantit y. The view that the series of numbers is timeless leads to an obvious antinomy in the so-called measurement of time. Temporal duration cannot be measured by the timeless, and yet in each measuremen t of time the order of numbers plays an essential role. The same holds for the o rder of spatial relationships [ruimtedeelen; See NC I, 31, fn1]. [7] Herman Cohen, in his Logik der reinen Erkenntnis, p. 155, calls the + sign i n arithmetic the symbol of anticipation and the herald s staff of time. According to h im, anticipation is the characteristic of time, and he has therefore, in contras t to Paul Natorp, acknowledged the time character of the series principle for nu mbers, although he has logicized the arithmetical time order. Kant saw in number a schematization of the categories of quantity in time as transcendental forms o f intuition. [8] Each attempt to eliminate the modal boundaries between space and movement, b y reducing the dynamic course of movement to a static line, necessarily leads to the antinomies of Zeno the Eleatic. Each attempt to reduce a modal aspect to an other must lead to typical antinomies, as I have demonstrated in the WdW. [9] Spatial extensiveness and motion are here intended in their original sense o f separate modal aspects. One should therefore not confuse them with the sensory awareness of space and the sensory image of movement; these are analogies of sp ace and motion in the psychical aspect. [10] Feeling must not be understood in the current psychological sense, but in the sense of a modal aspect, of a modal nature. Cf. here note 33 of this article. [11] As is known, the same also holds for the logical life of thought. [12] Cf. A. Prandtl: Assoziations-psychologie (Einführung in die neuere Psychologi e), ed. E. Saupe, 2nd and 3rd ed. 1928), p. 88 ff. [13] With respect to the relation of time order and time duration (whether subje ctive or objective), see the discussion below. [14] Cf. J.A. Gunn: The Problem of Time (London, 1929), 391:

From the point of view of mathematics the present is a point without duratio n; it is the last instant of a series going back into the past and first of a se ries into the future. But from the point of view of psychology the matter is ver y different. The present is essentially a duration, brief but having an extensio n in time, a breadth of a temporal character. The moment of experience or the sp ecious present is always a definite slice or span of duration. [15] That the specious present is really a current time of feeling, or a time of s ensory awareness, and not something that can be brought back to memory as Reid t hought in his Essays on the Intellectual Powers, is forcefully brought to light by Wildon Carr in a conference of the Aristotelian Society held in 1915/-16, and mentioned by Gunn. He gave there a critical analysis of our awareness in the se eing of a shooting star. In this he remarks, The line is sensed, not memorized. The whole series is within the moment of experience, and is therefore a present sensation. Bergson has also placed all emphasis on this in his opposition of the duration of feeling and the mathematical concept of time. In a similar sense W. James and Gu nn, op. cit. p. 394 and others. [16] Cf. A. Messer: Psychologie, 5th ed. (1934), p. 259: Daß das Schließen sich in underem gewöhnlichen Denken in der Regel nicht nach Ober -, Unter- und Schlußsatz vollzieht, wie es nach der Lehre der Logik scheinen könnte, das bracht kaum noch betont zu werden. Meist erfassen wir die Relation der Geda nken-inhalte unmittelbar, ohne uns erst eines Mittelberiffs bewußt zu werden. The further statement of this writer, Über das Denkgeschehen selbst sagt sie (scl. die Logik) nichts aus is burdened by the criticalistic view of reality with its f undamental separation of sollen [ought] and sein [is]. [17] Schopenhauer saw in the principle of the sufficient ground itself the unify ing origin of time, which he with Kant only allowed to hold as a form of conscio usness for phenomena. In agreement with the foundations of his philosophy, which viewed temporal reality as merely a representation, he actually immediately falls into an overextension of the mode of time that reveals itself in the logical mo vement of thought, and which for him as a consequence takes on not a modal-logic al, but a knowledge-theoretical meaning. In his Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellu ng I, s 4 (Sämtliche Werke, 12 vols., Stuttgart und Berlin: Cotta sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, Vol. 1-2, p. 35), we read, Wer die Gestalung des Satzes vom Grunde, welche in der reinen Zeit als solch er erscheint und auf der alles Zählen und Rechnen beruht, erkannt hat, der hat ebe n damit auch das ganze Wesen der Zeit erkannt. Sie ist weiter nichts, als eben j ene Gestaltung des Satzes vom Grune, und hat keine ander Eigenschaft (!). Succes sion is die Gestalt des Satzes bon Grunde in der Zeit; Succession ist das ganze Wesen der Zeit. [18] According to the subject side of its modal meaning, culture tive control [beheerschende vorming].

is viewed as

[19] For the normative character of the historical aspect see my Wijsbegeerte de r Wetsidee, Vol. II, and my Recht en Historie (1938). [20] This temporal aspectual meaning of love may not be confused with the religi ous fullness of love, which is the fulfillment of the law. [21] From his standpoint, Kant could certainly not admit that in these categorie

forma

s there was already hidden a synthesis between the logical aspect and non-logica l aspects (quantity, space and motion). To acknowledge this would have meant the giving up of Kant s transcendental-logical point of departure, which seeks the or igin of all determination of the matter or experience in the free formative activi ty of the so-called transcendental subject of thought. [22] Cf. for further information my article Kuyper s Wetenschapsleer, formata 4 (1939), 203.

Philosophia Re

[23] The aevum has since Boethius been distinguished both from time as well as fro m eternity, and has been understood as a sort of intermediate state between both . According to Thomas, time has both an earlier and a later; the aevum however h as in it no earlier and later, but the later can be linked to it; eternity has n either earlier and later, nor can it be combined with them (Summa theol. I, qu. X, art. V). [24] Summa theol. I qu. X art. V: Sed aevum dicitur esse mensura spiritualium sub stantiarum. Cf. here my article Het tijdsprobleem en zin antinomieën op het immanent iestandpunt, Philosophia Reformata 4, 2ff. [25] Cf. here my article Kuyper s Wetenschapsleer, 211. [26] This understanding of the religious centre of existence is irreconcilable w ith the traditional scholastic idea of the soul, which however Kuyper maintains in his scientific-theological works, nor with the traditional view of dichotomy. [27] JGF: There is no footnote 27 in the original document, due to a numbering e rror in the original text. [28] Also within the modal aspects! In this way the arithmetical and spatial rel ations first acquire subjective differing durations within concrete things, even ts, etc. For example, five people find themselves at the same time for a period of five minutes in the same square space. After the five minutes have elapsed, o ne leaves to go to an adjoining room, so that after this first departure now fou r remain. The first numerical and spatial relation lasted only five minutes. The modal aspects of this duration of time follow the modal orders of time: the dur ation of number follows that of the numerical aspect; the spatial duration follo ws that of the spatial aspect (of simultaneous extension). In the structures of the modal aspects of number and space we find only modal ti me order, and no subjective duration. The same holds for the logical aspect of t ime. That some do not hold the logical prius and posterius to be real figures of time, can be explained in this way: they have thought that they could understan d the subjective logical movement of thought, in which the logical aspect of tim e reveals itself as logical duration in subjection to the logical order of time, completely separately from the logical time order, as a kind of psychical natura l event, which only asks for a causal explanation. In a logical discursive process of thought there is however implied a subjective logical time duration, in which the logical order of time subjectively differently realizes itself (one person makes logical conclusions faster and more accurately than another), and in which one can also argue non-logically (but not a-logically). Whenever one cuts off t he logical meaning from the subjective duration of the thought, one is in fact e liminating the thought process itself, and one can no longer speak of a thought duration. And such logical meaning is eliminated whenever one thinks he can sepa rate the thought duration from the logical order of time. Things have a logical duration in an objective sense (compare p. 17 following in the text) [JGF: p. 218?]in accordance with their objective-logical characterist ic, which in their temporal individual existence in fact come into existence and disappear with things, in contrast to the constant individuality structures (wi

th the therein implied logical types), in which they function. The objective-logical function of a thing may in no way be identified with the s ubjective logical concept, nor with the constant individuality structure, which first makes possible the individual coming into being and disappearance of the t hing in time, or with the constant structure of the logical aspect, in which it functions with its objective-logical characteristics. Of course the subjective c oncept that I have formed of a certain thing, is independent of the continued ex istence of it. Moreover, this holds just as much for sensory representation. But the current logical object function of a thing is with the thing as a whole jus t as perishable in time as its objective historical, economic, aesthetic or juri dical function. Just as a thing by its perishing ceases to be beautiful, economi cally valuable, a cultural article or object of law, so also and just as much do es it thereby lose its objective-logical characteristics. A building that collap sed into a heap of rubble no longer retains the logical characteristics of a bui lding. The subjective concept has it its subjective-logical duration and is just as per ishable in time. In human society, the contents of such a concept are objectifie d in linguistic symbols, whereby it also remains preserved for posterity. A conc ept objectified in this way, in its acceptance by a relatively constant communit y of things, receives a social-logical duration of validity, which is independen t from individual acceptance, and ends only when the community changes its manne r of thinking. However, a concept is never timeless, as idealism supposed. The matter stands totally differently whenever we bring into play the truth vali dity of judgments. The Truth is essentially not of a logical, but of a supratemp oral religious character, since it carries a totalitarian and central character. The judgment Socrates was a man, is not true in itself. Its truth depends on the me aning in which one understands the word man. It is certainly untrue whenever one h as a false unbelieving view of being a man for example when one understands him to b e merely a higher kind of animal. And the judgment 2 X 2 = 4 is also not true in i tself, since it immediately acquires a false meaning whenever we separate the tr uth validity of this judgment from God s creative sovereignty. [29] The Archimedean point, as we have seen above, is the concentration point fo r thought, from out of which the thinker must understand the modal aspects of re ality in the theoretical view of totality. This Archimedean point is the point o f departure for philosophical thought and must transcend time and its modal poin ts of refraction. [30]Also the identification of subject and substance in scholastic metaphysics h as disturbed the idea of subject. [31] Duration order.

is here simply made into a dependent reflex of the mathematical time

[32] That the linguistic function first unfolds itself after the rudimentary log ical development of the child is also acknowledged by A. Messer: Psychologie, 5t h ed (1934), p. 245, where he remarks: daß verschwommene Vorstellungen, die beim Erkennen als Begriffe funktionieren, im Kinde schon vor dem Besitz der zugehörigen Worte in großer Zahl vorhanden sind. [ that indistinct representations, which function as concepts in knowing, are present in large numbers in the child even before the possession of the related words.] Even in adults, it can happen that

der Begriff schon da sein, während er auf das Wort sich noch besinnt. [The concept can already be there, while he is still thinking of the word]. [33] The modal meaning of feeling definitely includes more than psychology gener al understands under it. Undoubtedly what has been called Empfindung or sensory aw areness also falls under it. Sensory awareness of a visual, tactile or other typ ical structure, according to its modal character, is viewed just as pleasure or displeasure are viewed as a phenomenon of feeling. Ever since Tetens, the prejudic e has worked its way into psychology to deny the nature of feeling to sensory aw areness, merely because of its normal subject-object relation. Only the apparent ly pure subjective feelings of pleasure and displeasure are acknowledged as havi ng this character [of feeling]. As is known, Tetens was himself not consistent i n his distinction of Gefühl and Empfindung, insofar as he ascribed both to the same fa culty of feeling or Empfindung. Kant was the first to be consistent in this line, when he no longer classified Empfindungen under feeling, but under the faculty of kno wing. Undoubtedly, a one-sided epistemology and doctrine of reality oriented to the na tural sciences played an essential role in this. The modern psychological view o f Empfindung as (relative) einfache Wahrnehmungsinhalt [(relatively) simple content of awareness] (cf. A. Messer, Psychologie, 5th ed. (1934), p. 152) derives from the atomistic association psychology, which sought to build up all of consciousn ess from out of elementary elements. It has however still not succeeded in providing a real modal difference between f eeling and Empfindung. Just as there is also no mention of this in the naïve experien ce, as it has found its expression in what has been called the psychology of ever yday life. Neither the criterion of subjectivity, nor that of polarity and affect ivity, nor that of the so-called actuality (Külpe) is suitable to really modally d elineate feeling from Empfindung. The first and the third of these criteria are al ready excluded from consideration since they are not oriented to the aspect stru cture, but in general to the subject-object relation. But the second criterion i s also not useable in this regard. One need only to think of the awareness of pa in and of temperature, which are classified as Empfindingen, although they undoubt edly have a polar and affective character. Moreover, the modal feeling moment of emotionality (movement of feeling) may not , as does Messer for example, be confused with the typical affectivity of the fe eling of pleasure and displeasure. In a modal sense the subjective feeling of co lour is also proper to the moment of movement of feeling. Otherwise we could not be aware of the greater or lesser intensity of colours, for this awareness pres upposes a sensory movement of feeling. On the other hand, logical feeling for in stance is only with difficult able to be classified in the schema of the affecti ve feelings of pleasure and displeasure. The lack of insight in the modal structure of feeling is also the cause that in the schema of spiritual feelings (or essentially normative feelings), as they ha ve been worked out by Messer following Jodl, such as formative (cultural) feelin g, the linguistic feeling, the societal feeling, economic feeling etc. have been left wholly outside of consideration. And except for what are called Persongefühle , only the logical, aesthetic, ethical and religious (Sachgefühle!) have been inclu ded. Part 2 [page193] III

Law and subject-side of cosmic time. Time as time order and as duration. The time-transcending character oral cosmos also reveals itself modal aspects that are enclosed the modal aspects can never be continuous character cannot be

of the religious concentration point of the temp in that it also transcends the diversity of the in the horizon of time. The deeper root-unity of found within time. And time itself in its cosmic the root-unity of these aspects.

In order to have good insight into the aspects, we must begin by sharply disting uishing between two sides of time, which mutually presuppose each other and whic h therefore are never to be separated from each other, namely the law-side and t he subject-side. According to the law-side, (cosmic) time is an order of time, which modalizes it self in the modal structures, and which typifies itself in the individuality str uctures [vii]. According to its subject-side, time is individual duration. And s o each creature, insofar as it now has a temporal mode of being, is subjected to the order of time, which in its cosmic character, that encloses all modal aspec ts and individuality structures, is always the same for each subject. [page 194] But the individual and subjective time duration is different for each individual temporal existence [28]. The criterion for the order of time. A real order of time is necessarily related to a subjective (or respectively to a subjective-objective) time duration; it is an order of time duration. Each ord er of before and after or of earlier and later, which according to the subject s ide of created reality necessarily holds itself to be in force in a duration of time, is an order of time. Where this necessary relatedness to a duration of tim e is lacking, no real time character can be ascribed to the before and after. So for example it certainly does not apply to the relation of priority of the Crea tor with respect to His creation. [viii] This is the proper criterion of the order of time, by which of course no definit ion of any kind is given. [page 195] In immanence philosophy, which always seeks its Archimedean Point [29] in theore tical thought, this necessary two-sidedness of time is not seen, because from th is standpoint, the true meaning of law and subject cannot be understood [30]. La w and subjectivity can in their mutual relation only be understood from out of t he Christian standpoint, which seeks the Origin of creation in God s sovereign cre ative will. God has set each creature as subject under His law. The subject is i n this sense sujet, subjected to God s creation order. The law belongs to creaturely reality as its [page 196] determination and limitation of being. Therefore there is no subject without law . But the converse is also true. The law only has meaning as determining and lim iting of the subject that is subjected to it. And therefore no law without subje ct. Only God is not a subject, because He is not subjected to the law, which alw ays itself finds its origin in His holy creative will. Law-side and subject-side are thus both sides of created reality, without which no creaturely existence i

s possible. Now since all of temporal reality is closed up in time, the two-sided nature of law and subjectivity must also find its expression in that time. Rationalistic and irrationalistic views of time. It is therefore an error in principle to allow time to become one-sided, whether in the law-side or in the subject-side. The conceptions of time of immanence ph ilosophy have all in turn fallen into this fundamental error. The absolutizing o f the law as universal order or rule was always characteristic for the rationali stic currents of current philosophy. On the other hand, the absolutization of in dividual subjectivity was characteristic for the irrationalistic currents. And so it should not cause surprise that with regard to views of time, we have a lso seen conceptions arise that are in turn rationalistic and irrationalistic. F or example, Newton s conception of absolute mathematical time is truly rationalistic . In contrast to so-called empirical time, mathematical time would, for the object ive order of earlier and later of movement, imply a completely equal duration [3 1] of its flowing moments, and in its course would be completely independent of all subjective occurrence. Here time as the mathematical order of uniform motion is completely separated fr om the subjective duration of reality. We may contrast this with Bergson s view of time as a subjectively experienced dur ation of feeling with its élan vital, over against which all law-regularity is oppos ed, which is regarded as [page 197] a conceptual abstraction that falsifies true reality. This is a standard example of an irrationalistic conception of time of a typically modal-psychological cha racter , whereby the boundaries between the biotic and the psychical aspects are wiped out. Time as the horizon of temporal reality. Whenever I now regard time according to its law-side, that is to say, time as or der, then in its determining and limiting character enclosing all of temporal exis tence it is the horizon of temporal reality and of all of our temporal experience; it is the horizon that first makes these two possible. In this horizon of time, both structural orders of reality are grounded the earlie r named modal and individuality structures. We will later deal with separately w ith individuality structures. The time order of the aspects as a law of refraction. The prismatic character of this order of time. As the horizon of the modal aspect structures, the order of time is really a law of refraction. The totality of meaning of our temporal cosmos, which is the rea l unity and fullness of the meaning of creation for all modal aspects, cannot be given in time. It is of a transcendent, supratemporal character. This holds both for the law-side as well as for the subject-side of reality. With respect to its religious fullness and meaning-totality, God s law is one and

indivisible; it is the requirement to serve God with one s whole heart. With respe ct to the religious fullness and meaning-totality of its subject-side, the tempo ral creation has since the fall into sin been concentrated in the religious root community of restored humanity in Jesus Christ. However, within time, this reli gious fullness refracts for its law-sides and subject-sides into the modal aspec ts, in which the wisdom of God s creative plan differentiates itself into a rich d iversity of modal ordinances and subject functions [ix]. Just as the unrefracted light is refracted into the many-coloured riches of the sun s spectrum, so the re ligious fullness of meaning of creation according to God s creative plan is refrac ted in time in its richness of modal aspects, which do not find their transcende nt root-unity in time itself. [page 198] The individuality structures of time lack this prismatic character. In the second place, the religious fullness of meaning differentiates itself acc ording to its law-side and subject-sides in the individuality structures of temp oral creation. As we have already seen, the modal structures are implied in thes e individuality structures. And the individuality structures, which are in essen ce structures of individual totalities that in principle function equally in all modal aspects, are also essentially structures of time [tijds-structuren] [x] w hich are enclosed by the horizon of time. However, as we shall still see, they a re not refracted points of time like the modal aspects [xi]. The idea of time as an element of the transcendental Ground-idea (Law-Idea) of philosophy. In its general theory of the law-spheres, the Philosophy of the Law-Idea has, by the path of theoretical analysis, demonstrated that the modal aspect structures are real structures of time [xii]. As we have seen, since cosmic time itself, in its continuity that encloses and o verarches all aspects, withdraws from theoretical analysis because it is a trans cendental presupposition of all such analysis, philosophical investigation has n o other theoretical access to the order of time than along the path of an analys is of its modal structures. Thereby cosmic time itself is set as the foundation in the transcendental Ground-Idea (Law-Idea) of philosophy. This Ground-Idea or Law-Idea is the foundational limiting concept [grensbegr ip] of philosophy, in which philosophic thought, by means of critical self-refle ction, gives an account of its necessary pre-suppositions or prejudices, which, even though of a non-philosophical nature, first make philosophical investigatio n possible. In this Ground-Idea, apart from an idea of the Origin and of the dee per root-unity of the modal aspects of temporal reality, there is contained just as much an idea of the mutual relation and coherence of the modal aspects. It is evident that these three transcendental Ideas, which are together summ ed up in the Ground-Idea, are found at the basis of each philosophic system, irr espective of whether [page 199] the thinker is himself critically aware of it. However, from the immanence s tandpoint, it cannot be admitted that the philosophic Ground-Idea is determined by non-theoretical prejudices. [unreferenced citation from Dooyeweerd s own work]. The method of theoretical investigation of the time order of the modal aspects.

If the modal aspects are themselves aspects of time, then their mutual order of succession in time is a real time order. And this order of succession must then also express itself in the modal structure of each aspect. When one has properly grasped the earlier explained distinction and correlat ion between time order and time duration, then one will have no more difficulty in seeing the essential time character of this order of succession. Although the order of the modal aspects themselves is constant in time, just like the aspect s themselves according to their modal structure, this does not detract from the temporal character of this order as such. It is always an element of the tempora l world order, contained in God s plan of creation, and may in no way be regarded as having the character of eternity, or in any way as an order that would transc end time. In the subjective duration of time, this time order was related to the genes is of the temporal world [xiii], and it is still in the most universal sense rel ated to the development process of the human individual in social life. This dev elopment process is indeed a cosmic temporal process and it cannot be understood as purely biological. It is undeniable that life can only develop after the physical-chemical cond itions for it have been formed in time, that feeling first develops after a peri od of completely unconscious embryonic life, in which all actual [actueele] inde pendent feeling processes are lacking, that the logical function of thought firs t develops itself after the coming into existence of an actual sensory life of f eeling, that the historical cultural function first can actualize itself after a rudimentary unfolding of logical thought, that the linguistic function [32] dis plays its first development before the social function, etc. etc. [page 200] But it should be remembered that the time order of the modal aspects is only related to subjective duration within the individuality structures of concrete creatures, and that these individuality structures themselves determine and firs t make possible the individual development process. Time duration is proper not to the modal aspects and individuality structures themselves, but only to their subjective realization. They themselves are only orderings of time [tijdsordenin gen]. [xiv] The said relation to subjective time duration undoubtedly characterizes the before and after in the order of the aspects as an order of time. Time order and time duration are always necessary correlata. [unreferenced citation from Dooye weerd s own work]. In the general theory of the law-spheres, this cosmic time order of the aspect s tructures (law-spheres) is investigated in the following way. In the analysis of these modal structures, it appeared that in each of them there is present a mod al meaning nucleus, which in its original meaning is proper only to the related law-sphere, and which guarantees the modal irreducibility and the modal sovereig nty in its own sphere of this aspect of reality. The same cosmic time order, whi ch externally holds the aspects in a continuous coherence and correspondence, al so brings this coherence and order of succession to expression in their internal structure. All law-spheres that precede other law-spheres according to the cosm ic time order, display in their internal modal structure meaning-moments which r efer back, and which in the general theory are called modal retrocipations or an alogies [xv]. These retrocipations or analogies, unlike the meaning nucleus, do not carry an original modal character, but in them the modal nucleus of meaning rather refers back to the modal nuclei of the modal aspects that are earlier in the cosmic time order. On the other hand, law-spheres that are followed by later law-spheres in the cosmic time order display in their internal modal structure meaning-moments that refer forward, and which in the general theory of law-spher

es are called modal anticipations. These anticipations as such do not carry any original meaning character, either, but rather the modal nucleus in them refers forward in time to the meaning nuclei of the later aspects in the cosmic order. It is apparent that in this state of affairs there must exist two boundary aspec ts of temporal reality, of which the first has no analogies [retrocipations] in its modal structure, and the second displays no anticipations. [page 201] These boundary aspects are those of quantity and of faith, since there is no law -sphere that precedes the aspect of quantity, and no law-spheres that follow the aspect of faith. The point of refraction and the two directions in the modal time order. In all other modal meaning structures, the modal meaning nucleus is really the i nternal point of refraction of cosmic time, in which two time directions are del ineated: the referring back and the pointing forward. The Philosophy of the LawIdea calls the first direction the foundational and the second direction the tra nscendental direction of time. The modal meaning nucleus qualifies the retrocipations and anticipations within the same aspect structure. The retrocipations and anticipations therefore do not take on the meaning of the modal meaning-nuclei to which they respectively refe r either backwards or forwards. In this way, the (physical) space of movement of the general theory of relativit y is not space in the original modal meaning, but rather an analogy of the origi nal modal meaning of space in the meaning of movement, which [analogy] is founde d in the original meaning of space. It is because of this that in the general th eory of relativity the properties of this space are dependent on those of matter a s a function of gravity. This is something that would certainly have no meaning for geometrical (non-physical) space. In this way we also find in the irrational and differential functions of number modal anticipations to the meaning of spac e and movement. [xvi] The time structure of the psychical and of the logical aspects. In this way we find in the modal structure of feeling [33], in the [page 202] moment of sensation [zinnelijkheid], an analogy of the meaning-nucleus of organi c life. And we find in the moment of emotionality or movement of feeling (to whi ch in awareness are ordered the objective images of movement in the external worl d [34]) an analogy of the original meaning-nucleus of the aspect of movement. And in the subjective feeling of space, which is objectively answered by the sensor y space of awareness, there is an analogy of the original meaning nucleus of spa ce. [page 203] And in the moment of sensory multiplicity (both in a subjective as well as objec tive sense) there is an analogy of the original meaning-nucleus of quantity. In contrast to this, in logical feeling, historical feeling, linguistic feeling, so cietal feeling, aesthetic feeling, juridical feeling, love feeling and faith fee ling (the feeling of trust in a fixed ground, and, in coherence with the logical

anticipation, the feeling of evidence or of certainty), we find clear anticipat ions in the modal psychical sense. [35] In this way the philosophical analysis of the modal structure of logical thought has just as irrefutably demonstrated the time character of this structure, and thereby has also demonstrated the internal untenability of attempts to find in t he logical aspect an Archimedean point for philosophic thought that transcend ti me. We find in this modal structure [of logical thought], in accordance with the cos mic time order of modalities the following: A. the following analogies [retrocipations]: 1. the analogy of [page 204] number in the moment of logical ambiguity, which is inherent in each concept as sunthesis noematoon; 2. the analogy of space in the moment of logical thought space, wherein we juxta pose the logical multiplicity of conceptual characterizations, in order to there after sum up these characteristics in the unity of a concept; 3. the analogy of movement in the logical movement of thought, to which we earli er directed our attention; 4. the analogy of the biotic meaning nucleus in the logical life of thought; 5. the psychical analogy in the conceptual representation (the pre-theoretical i mage of thought), which is still inertly bound to the sensory feeling impression s, but nevertheless fixes logical characteristics in the image. B. the following anticipations: 1. the historical anticipation in logical formative control [36], which can only reveal itself in theoretical thought because of its systematic-theoretical char acter (in contrast to naïve, pre-theoretical thought, which in its concepts still inertly depends on sensory impressions); 2. the linguistic anticipation in logical symbolic thought (whereby theoretic th ought frees itself from being restrictively bound to the sensory representation) ; 3. the social anticipation in the moment of the opening up of logical intercours e, in which the logical process of thought has to continually defend itself in i ts arguments over against counterarguments (which is just as much proper only to theoretical thought); 4. the economic anticipation in the moment of logical economy of thought (which is lacking in naïve thought, and which according to its structure may only be unde rstood as a theoretical deepening of the principle of sufficient ground); 5. the aesthetic anticipation in the moment of logical (systematic) harmony; 6. the juridical anticipation in the moment of the logical ground of justificati on (which in argument and counterargument in the intercourse of thought must jus tify itself);

7. the moral anticipation in the moment of theoretical eros (Plato); 8. the pistical anticipation in the moment of logical certainty, as this reveals itself in the logical axioms, which points forwards to a presupposition of fait h. [xvii] [page 205] In the coherence of the meaning-nucleus and the analogies [retrocipations], the modal aspect structure still only reveals itself in a closed or restrictive func tion; in contrast, the anticipations reveal themselves in a deepened or opened u p function [37]. The opening up process is itself a process of cosmic time. The criterion for distinguishing the directions of time referring back and referring forward within the modal structure of an aspect. The opening up process carries an essential time character within the modal stru ctures of reality. Because of this time character, we also possess a criterion t o determine whether the non-original meaning moments in this structure are of ei ther an analogical or an anticipatory character. As we have seen, if they are to hold as real directions of time, the directions of referring backward and referring forward in the order of succession of the me aning moments must always be related to a genetic duration of time. Well now, it can be demonstrated that in concrete temporal reality, the modal me aning structure still reveals itself in a closed function, before the opening up process begins in the anticipatory direction of time. And on the other hand, th e opening up can never begin before a modal function has realized itself in its c losed form [gestalte]. So in inorganic things, the modal function of movement is realized in a still cl osed structure. On the other hand it reveals itself in an opened up structure in the directed movements within a living organism, which can develop itself within the time order of creation only after the inorganic created things. However, eve n in movements that are still closed, a temporal relation of meaning with the nu merical and spatial aspects is still expressed. In the movements that are direct ed, or led by the destination of life, [page 206] the unfolding process takes hold of the whole modal structure in its closed func tion, that is to say, the unfolding concerns both the meaning nucleus as well as the modal analogies. In this way the feeling function is first opened up in a closed form in the sensor y feelings, before the life of feeling opens itself out to the normative aspects . The animal-like life of feeling certainly knows a greater or lesser differenti ation in being restrictively bound to the biotic differentiation of the sensory organs, but it knows no real unfolding of the normative feelings. By this, the o rder of succession between the analogical and the anticipatory moments in the mo dal structure of the aspect of feeling is also established. [xviii] Similarly, the modal structure of the logical aspect first realizes itself in a closed function, and this is in pre-theoretical thought, in which we meet with a ll the analogical meaning moments, but not yet any single modal anticipation to the later aspects. [xix] In naïve logical thought there is no mention of logical control of the content of

thought by a systematic concept, nor of a symbolic thought, nor of an economy or logical harmony of thought, nor of a juridical anticipation in the weighing of logical grounds for justification and their counter-grounds, nor of a theoretica l eros (moral anticipation), nor of a logical axiomatics. [xx] In the same way we can establish in the historical aspect, in the linguistic asp ect and the later aspects, which modal meaning moments are of an analogical and which are of an anticipatory character. So for example in a primitive order of l aw, the whole analogical structure of the modal juridical aspect is realized, in cluding the economic analogy [38] (cf. the legal action against each excessive p rosecution of subjective legal interests in the primitive talio principle.[39] [page 207] But this talio principle still lacks any moral anticipation. Primitive law is ru led by the principle of Erfolgshaftung [liability based on consequences], which lo oks only to the external consequences of the deed. The anticipatory juridical id ea of fault, in which the juridical causality and injustice deepens itself, is s till unknown. That the whole primitive society moves in such a closed form [gestalte] in a ll of its modal aspects, in spite of the undeniable fact that here life stands u nder a typical undifferentiated leading of faith, is a state of affairs that is subjected to a detailed investigation by the WdW. [xxi] The key to explaining this fact can be found in the transcendental boundary character of the pistical [faith] function. This means that in the truly primiti ve society, the falling away of faith has reached a transcendental boundary poin t in the deification of the unopened up natural forces (cf. the belief in mana). By the leading of such an apostate faith, all earlier normative functions neces sarily remain in a closed form, because through the deification of the natural for ces, they remain rigidly bound to their pre-logical substrate functions. We may for example compare the rigid binding of contracting parties to the words of an agreement (think of the stipulations of the primitive Roman jus civile [civil la w]), without a place remaining in any sense for the application of the opened up legal principles of good faith, fairness, moral cause, etc. Here the magical vi ew of the spoken word by which one can put someone in his power plays the all-contro lling role! Compare here also the rigidifying power that tradition exercises over cultur e. Each change from the old morals is regarded as a sacrilegium [sacrilege]. [unr eferenced citation from Dooyeweerd s own work]. The universality in its own sphere of each modal aspect of time. And so each modal aspect in its modal time structure is in fact a mirror of the whole cosmic order of time in all of its modal points of refraction. The Philosophy of the Law-Idea calls this state of affairs [page 208] the universality in its own sphere of the said aspects, which is merely the othe r side of their sovereignty in its own sphere or modal irreducibility. This also explains the apparent success of all isms of immanence philosophy such as mathematicism, mechanicism, biologisim, psychologism, logicism, historicism, etc., etc. All such isms essentially sprout forth from the implied necessity in the immanenc

e standpoint of seeking the root-unity of aspects in a definite aspect of tempor al reality that has been abstracted by theoretical thought and absolutized. The meaning character of temporal reality. Above all, the meaning character of created reality reveals itself in this state of affairs [xxii]. Nowhere in time do we find an absolute resting point, a self -sufficient point to hold on to. In the whole of temporal reality, each aspect refers outside of itself towards t he temporal coherence of the modal aspects, which already expresses itself in th e modal aspect structure. And in the transcendental boundary aspect of time, tha t of faith, faith points above time towards its religious root, which in turn de monstrates its non-self-sufficient character by its religious attitude of depend ence with respect to its Divine Origin. The meaning character of created reality guarantees the tendency to the Origin o f all of creation, and through which the creature finds no rest in himself. This tendency towards the Origin is concentrated in the human heart. Augustine said, Et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requescat in te [Our heart is restless until i t rests in Thee] [40]. To the words cor nostrum [our heart] we could add et mundus in corde nostro [and the world in our heart]. [xxiii] The perspectival structure of cosmic time and the sense of the transcendent. Only by this meaning-full relatedness of temporal reality to a supratemporal cre aturely centre and to the Divine [page 209] Origin does the perspectival structure display itself in cosmic time, which is e xperienced by man in relation to concrete events as past, present and future. This perspectival structure presupposes a directedness of time, which as we have seen, already comes to expression in the modal structure of temporal reality, a nd which according to God s creation order can only find its final point of direct ion [richtpunt] above time. To the degree that man's understanding of the transcendent is weakened, so also is weakened his self-consciousness and his ability to experience the perspectiva l structure of time. Among the so-called primitive peoples this is revealed to an even stronger degre e. The lack of an opened up historical sense of time in primitive people has bee n sufficiently demonstrated by ethnological investigations [41]. And yet the perspectival structure of time may not be limited in the historicist ic manner to the historical aspect. It is proper to cosmic time as such and expr esses itself in the historical aspect of past, present and future only as a sepa rate modality. IV The subject-object relation in the time duration. We have here described meaning character of temporal reality and therewith of time itself which meaning character is not to be closed off. In order to throw even mo re light on this meaning character, it is necessary to go into more detail with respect to the subject-object relation within time, to which current philosophy

cannot do justice. Witness the fact that one here meets in turn with both subjec tivistic and objectivistic conceptions of time. [42] [page 210] The subject-object relation is a fundamental relation in the structure of tempor al reality, and it may by no means be confused with the epistemological relation of subjective theoretical thought and its Gegenstand [43]. From the time of Kan t, this confusion has generally worked its way into immanence philosophy. Furthermore, in a truly rationalistic way, the object in the sense of Gegenstand h as then frequently been identified with the law-regularity in our knowledge (cf. Kant s description of the Gegenstand of our experience). [xxiv] In order to demonstrate the impermissibility in principle of such identification of object and Gegenstand, it is sufficient to point to the fact that the subjectobject relation is completely trusted in naïve experience, whereas an abstract Gege nstand remains completely foreign to the naïve attitude of thought. The subject-object relation appears both in the modal structure as well as in th e individuality structure of temporal reality. [xxv] We will first look at this relation within the modal aspect structures. So already in the spatial aspect such a relation exists between a subjective spatial figure and its points. The spatial point has no subjective (actual) ext ensiveness in any dimension, but is nothing other than an objective analogy of t he irrational (infinite) numerical function within the aspect of space. The moda l spatial time order reveals itself in the points as an objective moment (point of time) of simultaneous extensiveness. Objective magnitude (a numerical analogy ) of a spatial figure also applies to points. We similarly find the subject-object relation in the aspect of movement in t he relation of the subjective (actual) movement and its actual path towards its objective space of movement, which latter exists merely in the relation to possi ble subjective movement, and whose characteristics are dependent on that of move ment. (Cf. the curving of space in the general theory of relativity). In the biotic aspect, the relation between the subjective function of life a nd its biotic object, which itself is only the object [voorwerp] of the operatio ns of life, [page 211] is that of subjective life to the objective living space. Cf. the relation o f eating to what is eaten; of breathing to the inhaled air. In the psychical feeling aspect, e.g. in the relation between the subjective feeling of space and the objective sensory awareness of space (space of seeing, touching and hearing), in which the sensory objects appear to awareness. In the logical aspect in the relation between the subjective concept and the objective-logical characteristics of a thing, etc., etc. In the historical aspect in the relation between the subjective cultural wor k and the object of culture (e.g. the soil). In the linguistic aspect in the relation between the subjective significatio n and the objective sign (e.g. a letter, a light signal, an auditory signal, a f lag), etc., etc. [unreferenced citation from Dooyeweerd s own work].

In truth, full temporal reality has in all aspects that succeed the first bounda ry aspect, both modal subject functions as well as object functions. In the modal structure of the subject-object relation we find a one-sided (not r eversible) relation of dependency between the object functions and subject funct ions. That should be well understood. The modal object is in its existence in no way dependent on a concrete, individual subject function within the same law-sp here. The objective-sensory properties of a blooming rose in their real existenc e do not depend on an individual subjective awareness from A to B. But they are certainly dependent on possible subjective awareness [44]. In other words, the s aid relation of dependency is a structural one, and not an individually subjecti ve one. The modal object functions are then not in the least a product of the subject fu nctions. In that case they could not have any objective existence. A dreamed col our is fundamentally different from an objectively perceived colour. The former has no real, but only what we may call an intentional or subjective supposed obj ectivity. In the final analysis it remains of a subjective character. [45] [page 212] The said subject-object relation necessarily comes to expression also within tim e, and indeed in the relation between subjective and objective time duration. Objective time duration never coincides with subjective time duration. So for example, the duration of what is called presence time (the specious present ) in subjective sensory awareness is different than that of the objective sensory phases of the perceived event which correspond with present time, e.g. in the ca ving in of a house, the falling of a stone, the firing of a shot, etc. [46] What is simultaneously perceived in the present time (as a momentary duration of fee ling), can objectively take place in succession. Yet we can perceive the objecti ve duration of an event in the psychical aspect of reality only by means of the sensory feeling of duration or our subjective awareness, on which occasion the s o-called measurement of time serves to establish as nearly as possible its objec tive duration. We can also for the sake of the so-called measurement of time objectify a subjec tive duration of feeling in the mathematically approached duration of time of th e sensory object function of an event. An example of doing this whenever we measu re the subjective duration of a feeling of pain by means of the objective-sensory duration of the images of movement, which the hands of a clock describe on the face of the clock. From dream psychology it is known that the objective (or rath er the objectified) pace of a dream is usually exceedingly fast, while it does n ot make this impression at all in the subjective duration of feeling. [page 213] We are not really measuring the inner subjective duration of feeling itself, but only its objectification in the psychical aspect of clock time. The subjective duration of feeling does not allow its inner character to be measured. That is t he kernel of truth in Bergson s view of time. For all measurement of time (i.e. me asurement of duration) rests on objectification, in contrast to subjective estim ation of time. And therefore it does not concern a purely modally objective meas ure of time, but much rather an objective measure of time in an individuality st ructure, which as such can never carry an exact, i.e. abstract, mathematical cha racter. By this we have made the transition to the individuality structures of time, and in this what we have called clock time will ask for our special attention.

V The individuality structures of time and the metaphysical idea of substance. In contrast to modal structures, the individuality structures of temporal realit y are not structures of the how or the mode of being, but rather of the concrete what of reality. As we have earlier remarked, they are structures of time of individual totalitie s, such as things, concrete events or actions, social forms (like family, state, church, business) etc. etc. However, unlike the modal aspects, they are not points of refraction of cosmic t ime, but rather true structures of totality, which overarch and enclose the moda l aspects in their cosmic continuity. In that regard they are found on a deeper level of the horizon of time than the modalities. A concrete thing, like this tree in front of my house, is more than the sum of i ts modal functions in number, space, motion, organic life, etc., etc. It is abov e everything an individual temporal whole of relative durability, which lies at the foundation of all its modal functions [xxvi]. As of old, metaphysics usually spoke here of substance. [page 214] The Philosophy of the Law-Idea has however broken in principle with the philosop hical idea of substance, and and has done this for good reasons. The idea of substance wanted to philosophically account for an undeniable given of naïve experience, namely that of the relative durability or constancy of a thin g, in spite of the exchange of its parts and of its sensorily perceptible shapes and qualities. But in its idea of substance, metaphysics was misled by the imma nence standpoint, and turned itself against the true given of naive experience. It went searching for an abstract essence of things that could only be accessible to theoretic thought. In this way metaphysics came to its truly theoretical construction of substance as a Ding an sich [thing in itself] closed in on itself. Over against this was then posited the subjective perception and apperception of human consciousness. The metaphysical idea of substance, which moreover led to the most differing con ceptions all according to the closer theoretical precision of the immanence standp oint was therefore in all of these forms nothing other than the absolutization of a theoretical abstraction. [47] This idea always rested on the shutting off of the cosmic horizon of time, and i n a theoretical breaking apart of reality into a noumenon and a bare phenomenon. The Ding an sich, however more precisely it may be understood, is nothing except a theoretical abstraction from out of temporal reality, an abstraction, which was hypostatized to a self-sufficient substance. This appears already in the definiti on of substance that was current in medieval scholasticism and that was accepted by Descartes, as a res, quae ita existit, ut nulla alia re indigeat ad existendu m [the thing which exists and does not need anything else for its existence]. Since the Philosophy of the Law-Idea has now broken with the immanence standpoin

t and the absolutization of the theoretical synthesis that is rooted in it, it c an also not maintain the philosophic idea of substance. For it is just this idea of substance, and its closing off the true reality of a thing in a defined modal aspect of reality, which, in the development of [page 215] immanence philosophy, has appeared to be one of the great obstacles to theoretic ally doing justice to the real time structures of reality. It really speaks for itself that modern functionalism, which in an anti-metaphys ical spirit wants to replace the idea of substance with the idea of function, ha s not in the least brought any gain in this regard. In the idea of substance, me taphysics intended at least to give an account of the totality structure of thin gs. In contrast, the anti-metaphysical functionalism remains wholly caught in th e modal aspect structure of temporal reality, and furthermore thoroughly misinte rprets this structure from out of the immanence standpoint (cf. e.g. the transce ndental-logical functionalism of the Marburg school of Neo-Kantianism, etc.). In order to acquire a correct insight into the givenness of naïve experience conce rning the relative constancy of a thing, in spite of the exchange of its parts a nd of its sensorily perceptible shapes and qualities, it is above all necessary to give an account of the fact that all individual totalities given in time can only exist in a typical time structure. This structure is however the structure of an individual whole and not only a mere modal structure. A modal structure as such is indifferent with respect to the individual totalities which together fu nction in it. [xxvii] The idea of causality in classical physics was a truly modal idea of function, i nsofar as it was indifferent with respect to the individual nature of things, wh ose actions this physics wanted to understand in the law of causality according to the physical aspect. In respect to its extent, Newton s law of gravity held bot h for a falling pencil in my room as well as for the movements of the heavenly b odies. It is just this that distinguished this modal idea of causality from Aristotle s p hysica, which sought to explain motion from out of the internal nature of things . And the internal nature was sought in the substantial form as the internal teleo logical principle of a thing, by which is naturally seeks to reach its perfectio n. The individuality structure of temporal reality is [page 216] already hereby radically distinguished from traditional metaphysics in that it, as a time structure of an individual whole, in principle overarches and encloses all modal aspects of reality without exception, whether in their subject-functi ons or object functions. Therefore the radical difference between minerals, plants, animals and humans (a s to their temporal existence) cannot be sought in the supposition that these cr eatures function in a mutually differing number of modal aspects. A purely material substance is found in temporal reality just as little as a purel y spiritual one is found in the sense of anima rationalis [rational soul]. The horizon of time allows no break [caesuur] between the modal aspects, and als o no dichotomy between material body and spiritual soul in the current metaphysical sense.

There is in reality only one fundamental dichotomy [principieele caesuur], that between the whole temporal existence and its supratemporal religious root, a dic hotomy that comes into effect in the temporal death of man. [xxviii] The individuality structures and their typical grouping of the modal aspects. So what is the basis of the fundamental difference in the individuality structur es of temporal reality? Undoubtedly, this difference is based in an internal totality nature of these st ructures, which in its deepest ground remains inaccessible to theoretical analys is for the same reason that cosmic time in its continuity does not allow itself to be theoretically analyzed. The internal nature of an individual totality simp ly forces itself on our experience. As soon as one tries to theoretically analyz e such a totality, he is referred to the modal aspects, in which this totality f unctions, but to which it can never be reduced [opgaan]. The totality, just like cosmic time, remains presupposed; as a whole it precedes and can never be const ructed retrospectively out of elements! The philosophic idea of substance has then only seemingly penetrated to a deeper level of reality behind the modal horizon of theoretical analysis. [page 217] As soon as metaphysics tried to theoretically define the substance of things, it h ad to take refuge to modal distinctions, whereby the modal aspect in which the e ssence or the being of the substance was sought, was then absolutized to the uni fying ground of determination for the thing. [48] Also the dialectical idea of totality, as it was applied in German idealism, led in the final analysis because of its immanence standpoint to an absolutization of a certain aspect of totality. One need only think of the concept of the spirit of the people [volksgeest], which was viewed in its essence as the historical potential of all of culture, whereas c ulture then included all normative aspects of temporal society. Can theoretical analysis really teach us nothing about the individuality structu res of temporal reality? Undoubtedly it can, just as theoretical analysis of the modal aspect structures can, in the final analysis, give us theoretical insight into the cosmic order of time, insofar as the latter reveals itself as an order of its modal points of refraction. But the conditio sine qua non for a really f ruitful and accurate analysis is that one sets at the basis of such an analysis the idea of individual totality as a transcendental limiting concept. The issue is namely this, that, just as the comic time order of aspects expresses itself i n the modal aspect structures, just so does the individuality structure of a thi ng or of a concrete event or of a concrete social form come to expression in the modal aspects of the individual whole. The first thing that we notice here is the fact that the modal functions are gro uped in a typical manner. This typical grouping does not detract from the cosmic time order of the aspects, [page 218] which also maintains itself within an individuality structure of reality. The in dividuality structure of reality has just as little effect on the modal irreduci bility, the modal sovereignty in their own spheres of the aspects. Even within t

he individuality structure of a tree, the modal numerical function is irreducibl e to the spatial function and the movement function, and none of these three fun ctions allows itself in a so-called holistic sense to be reduced to modalities of the organic life function or the (objective) psychical function of the thing. However, when in our theoretical analysis we follow the cosmic time order of the modal aspects within the internal structure of the tree, then we notice that it first makes sense to speak of the tree in the biotic aspect, and at the same ti me that the organic life aspect is the last modal aspect in which the tree still functions as subject. In all of the later aspects it has no subject-functions, but only modal object-functions. The organic life function is the typical destin ation function or the qualifying function in the internal structure of the tree. This destination function also opens up within the individuality structure the earlier modal functions of the thing in an anticipatory direction towards the ty pical life destination. Thereby we can speak of internally directed movements wi thin the movement aspect of the tree (e.g. the movement of metabolism and growth ), in contrast to the external movements that are carried out by the tree, whene ver it for example is struck by a gust of wind. But these internal movements as such have not themselves become biotic movements . They have only opened up their biotic anticipations under the typical leading of the destination function of the tree. It is the individuality structure of the tree and not the time order of the moda l aspects that guarantees this typical grouping of modal functions within an ind ividual whole. The individuality structure is a typical structure of cosmic time. If the tree i s affected in its subjective life function, then it can no longer exist as an in dividual whole. However, one cannot say that this life function as such is the e ssence or the substantial being of the tree, for the modal biotic function is no t the totality principle of the tree, but [page 219] just the reverse: the totality structure has determined the life function to be the directing and guiding function for all other functions. The totality is in o ther words not itself of a modal-biotic character, but it spans all aspects of t he tree equally in their typical grouping. None of these aspects can be lacking without the tree ceasing to be a tree. The individuality structure also gives a complete account of the relatively durable character of the tree in the changing of its parts and sensory qualities. As long as the tree functions in its typical individuality structure, it remains the same thing. If it loses this structure, for example if it is felled and saw n into planks, then there come into existence a number of other things of a radi cally different structure. Why the individuality structures are also really time structures of reality. But it is not the structure itself that comes into existence and that perishes i n time. For it is as such constant, a foundational law-regular framework within which individual totalities exist in a definite individual time duration. It nev ertheless remains a time structure of individual totality, since it has no meani ng without a relationship to subjective (respectively objective) time duration. The individual time duration, to which it is related, is determined by it in a l aw-regular way. So for example the duration of existence of a plant, by reason of its structure

type is bound to the typical life duration of a plant, or consider the duration of existence of a plastic [xxix] work of art in its possession of its typical ae sthetically qualified objective form, or the duration of existence of a state in its possession of an independent public legal organization founded on an indepe ndent organization of the power of the sword, etc., etc. The differentiation of individuality structures and the enkaptic structural interlacement. In the theory of individuality structures, the Philosophy of the Law-Idea has de monstrated the undeniable diversity of structural types of a totality character in time. [page 220] Just like the modal structures, these structural types do not stand separately n ext to each other, but they are grouped in a vast order by the cosmic time order , and are interwoven with each other in what we have called enkapsis. We can disti nguish radical types, genotypes [stamtypen], and variability types. In the radical types, which delineate whole realms of individuality structures, ar e what are called radical functions ; they are the typical structural functions tha t characterize the individuality structure [49], but are merely modally determin ed. So we can say that the radical type of the plant realm is biotically qualified [ or destined], that of the animal kingdom is psychically destined with a typical biotic foundation, that of the realm of art works is objectively-aesthetically q ualified and founded in a typical objective cultural form, etc. etc. [xxx] In the genotypes of a realm, these radical types are differentiated in an ever fur ther descending [afdalende] individualization. Radically different individuality structures are interwoven in the [page 221] cosmic time order in what I have called enkapsis. [xxxi] This enkapsis leaves unaffec ted the internal character of the interwoven structures, and in this respect enk apsis is fundamentally different from the simple part-whole relation, which is r uled by a single structural principle. So for example, the marble material that the artist uses to represent his aesthetic conception retains its internal chara cteristics even in the enkaptic relation in the work of art. But it is not merel y a natural material part of the artwork. The only parts of Hermes are the differe nt bodily forms in the aesthetically destined marble [e.g., an arm of the bodily form; the physically destined marble is not itself a part in this sense]. In the internal structure of the natural material (i.e. the aggregate of limestone crys tals), the physical-chemical functions retain their leading and qualifying role. The enkaptic relation of the work of art concerns only the external form of the marble, in which the physical-chemical actions must be bound so that they no lo nger play the leading role here, in order that the marble can become the materia l expression of the aesthetic conception in this enkaptic function. One can cert ainly speak of an enkaptic of interwoven totality, built up out of radically differi ng structures, provided that one does not in this way apply the part-whole schem a in a wrong way by calling the natural material a part of the work of art. Rath er, both natural material and work of art are parts of the enkaptic structural w hole a marble image, whose (cultural) form serves as the junction of the interwove nness. In the variability types we see the typical characteristic that have their origi

n not in the simple internal structure itself, but in the interwovenness with ot her individuality structures. These include for example, the wood and marble var iability types of the plastic work of art. The ecclesiastical state and the stat e church are variability types of the genotypes state and church respectively. T he arctic fox and the polar bear are variability types of the already well diffe rentiated genotypes fox and bear. The enkaptic construction of the human body. According to the Philosophy of the Law-idea, the human body is also enkaptically built up out of an interlacement of individuality structures. [page 222] It [the body] is in this sense the enkaptic structural whole of man s individual t emporal existence, which is itself interwoven with many social structures. In pl ace of the distinctions of body, soul and spirit, which is often defended in modern ps ychology, and which in the final analysis are nothing other than abstract comple xes of functions of man s temporal existence, we then see three mutually interwove n individuality structures of the body (the biotically qualified soma, the psych ically qualified soma and the pistically qualified body [49a], in which the indi vidual structural whole of all modal functions can always be seen. The soul, as the transcendent spiritual religious centre of human existence, remains simple, indivisible and imperishable. The soul animates [bezielt] and impresses the huma n character on the entire body in its temporal structure [xxxii]. But the soul a s such cannot be grasped by theoretical investigation, but only in its temporal revelation in the perishable body, because it is the presupposition of all theor etical activity. However, it is clear that the enkaptic structure of the human b ody in our sense can give an account of the fact of experience that we are able to govern and also able to lead in a definite direction our psychical feelings and p erceptions, biotic impulses and physical-chemical movements only within definite structural boundaries. For in this structural interlacement, the bodily structu res we have distinguished also retain their internal sovereignty in their own sp heres. We govern the pre-logical functions of the biotic, and psychically qualif ied soma structures only insofar as they enkaptically function in the so-called spiritual structure of the body (qualified by the faith function). [xxxiii] [page 223] The meaning for psychology of the distinction between modal and individuality structures. The distinction between act and modal function. The distinction between modal and individuality structures is of fundamental val ue, particularly for psychology as a special science. Knowing, willing and feeli ng are still frequently coordinated by psychology as functions (or in the termin ology of faculty psychology, faculties ) of the soul . By viewing the acts of knowing and willing as faculties or functions [instead of acts that function in all aspe cts], any possibility of an objective delimitation of the area of research for p sychology is lost, and the door is opened wide for psychologism in all possible fo rms. The Philosophy of the Law-Idea begins by sharply distinguishing between the part icular modal aspect that is psychology s field of research as a special science, a nd the individuality structures, which express themselves within this modal aspe ct. The modal aspect provides the objective delimitation of the field of researc h. However, this aspect possesses at the same time universality in its own sphere , so that the modal delimitation never forces us to refer what are really psychol ogical issues of investigation to other special sciences.

The first benefit of the said distinction is the insight into the correct relati on of acts and their modal aspects. [50] Feeling is not an act, but a modal function of an act. In contrast, knowing and wi lling are really acts, which as such are not limited to a particular modal subje ct function, but are immediately related to the central root of temporal existen ce (the selfhood ). Real acts of the selfhood always reveal themselves in time in individuality struct ures, and function equally in all aspect of temporal reality [51]. Whenever we k now or will, this concrete action concerns not only an abstract soul (as a suppose d substantial complex of rational-moral functions), but much rather our whole te mporal existence in its enkaptically interwoven [page 224] individuality structures, although we always proceed from out of the selfhood as centre of our existence. However, psychology as a special science can only investigate these acts in their individuality structures only according to the modal psychical aspect, just as f or example jurisprudence as such can regard a social structure like state or chu rch only according to the juridical viewpoint. And yet the special sciences also need to put the idea of the totality structure at the foundation of their inves tigations. VI. The problem of so-called measurement of time. In the present connection and on the basis of the preceding discussion, we want to give throw more light on the problem of the so-called measurement of time and its place in the whole problem of time. Now the neo-Platonist Plotinus is the first one who pointed to the internally co ntradictory character of the concept measurement of time in the then current objec tivist view of time. As we have earlier seen, Aristotle had tried to define time as the measure of motion (arithmos kineseos kata to proteroi kai husteron). However, if time itself were really only the measure of motion, how could it the n [itself] be measured by motion? In modern time this problem came to a critical stage by the appearance of the th eory of general relativity. It is indeed impossible to bring this to a satisfactory solution so long as imma nence philosophy does not properly distinguish between the modal and individuali ty structures of cosmic time, and does not see them in their mutual coherence. From our previous considerations, it is evident that the cosmic time order as su ch does not allow itself to be measured. For all measurement occurs in this time order and is first made possible by the time order. We can only measure time duration in the subject-object relation, and there the measure of time is itself a duration of time in the subject-object relation. For the measure of time must be objective in relation to all subjective measurement . [page 225]

As time duration, an objective measure of time cannot exist in itself, but only in a structural relatedness of possible subjective measurement of time duration, w hereas each real action of measurement itself has its own subjective time durati on. It is very imprecisely expressed when one describes the measure of time itself a s a measurer of time. An objective measure cannot function as a subjective measu rer. Real measurement of time duration is an action, which presupposes the subjective concept of measure and of number; an objective measure of time is merely an obj ect of this concept. However, all concrete time duration is time duration in an individuality structu re. A purely modal time duration does not really exist. Even the modal aspects o f a concrete time duration remain aspects of a duration of time in an individual ity structure. As a consequence, a concrete time duration can also only be measu red by means of a measure of time in an individuality structure. An experimentally useful measure of time must be objective-sensorily (objectivepsychically) perceivable and must necessarily include an objective-sensory image of movement in an image of space that is provided with a numbered division of d istance. This modal sensory object function of the measure of time is concretized by the individuality structure of the measure of time. What does this mean? In everyday life we as modern westerners measure time with th e help of a clock, while we derive the division into days, months and years from the time duration of the revolution of the earth around its axis and around the sun. With this measure of time we construct our time calculation, whereby not t he measure of time itself, but merely the free mathematical operation carries wi th it an exact mathematical character. We thereby simply follow the time order i n the modal meaning of number, in accordance with which the division of the imag es of movement is ordered. In this way arises our modern clock time. The various clocks, as particular measures of time are then regulated in accordance with th e universal measure of time of a chronometer, and it in turn is regulated by the most universal measure of time by what is called the sidereal day, which rests upon astronomical perceptions. It is clear that this clock time, as well as calendar time, has been formed by m an himself for the sake of the needs of [page 226] human society. We use them in practice as a universal objective ordering schema, in which we localize all events and actions in past, present and future accordi ng to their simultaneity or degree of succession. The artificial objective measu re of time, although as a sensory perceivable measure of an objective sensory ch aracter, functions in an individuality structure of time, which itself includes all modal aspects of reality. This individuality structure of our societal time (measure) is however enkaptica lly interwoven with a natural individuality structure of what is called astronomi cal time, i.e. the daily duration of the movement of the heavens, and this latter structure remains the typical foundation of the former, and upon which the form er is based. The measure of time of our societal time is read off an instrument, a cultural o

bject, and this subjective measurement is naturally related not only to our sens ory perception, but no less to our logical function, our historical, our linguis tic function yes, the whole complicated structure of human existence, including th e transcendental selfhood. As we have seen, the objective (experimental) measure of time is one-sidedly dep endent on possible subjective measurement by a person. It exists only in structu ral relatedness to measuring. Can such an objective measure of time possess a purely modal mathematical exactn ess? Of course not. The sensory perceivable side of a clock face with its number ed divisions of distance is not a spatial figure in the original (geometric) sen se, but an objective sensory image of space, in which the objective sensory imag es of the clock hands, brought into correspondence with the mechanism, describe the images of movement. The subjective paths of movement of these clock hands ar e sensorily objectified in a spatial image, which is bound to the instrument its elf. As we earlier saw, in original space as simultaneous extensiveness in [page 227] dimensions, there can be no place for movement in its original meaning. On the c ontrary, in the objective sensory image of the clock face and the clock hands mo ving themselves thereon, there are only objectified sensory analogies of space a nd movement, and only in the sensory space of perception can we see images of mo vement. The sensory image of space is indeed a structural condition for the sens ory image of movement, because in the cosmic time order the aspect of movement i s founded in the spatial aspect and not the other way round. Neither the images of division of distance, nor the objective sensory duration of the moments in th e images of movement of the clock hands carries as such an original mathematical character. In the objective sensory duration, the moments are originally subjec tive moments of movement that have been objectified, and whose mutual equality o f duration is broken by a minimal increase in speed of movement. Even less is th e objective-sensory duration of the revolution of the earth a precisely equal on e [to other revolutions]. One can aim at a definite degree of exactness in the measure of time, but its ob jective-sensory perceivability already excludes that one will reach an exact, i. e. a purely modal mathematical character. Naturally this also holds in the use of universal measures of time, such as the chronometer and the sidereal day used in astronomy (i.e. the duration of the revol ution of the earth on its axis compared to the fixed stars), or of more primitiv e measures of time such as hourglasses, sundials, etc., etc. The fact that the d uration of time that is being measured, functions in the individuality structure of a real event, and that the experimental objective measure of time must be a sensory (objective-psychical) perceivable measure, disallows in principle that p hysics as an experimental mathematical natural science should work with a theoretica lly constructed, purely modal objective-mathematical duration of movement in the formulating of the mathematical-physical laws. This is of course not to say tha t physics should give up its mathematical foundation. What Newton referred to as absolute, mathematical time was such a constructed, objective-mathematical durati on of movement of an abstract modal sense. It was not time itself, but an object ification of a [page 228] punctual constructed mathematical duration of time in the modal sense of movemen t, a purely modal objective possibility in the sense of movement, which formed t he foundation for the classical principle of inertia.

The said objective-mathematical duration of movement is in the whole no real dur ation of time, but a mere thought, a theoretical abstraction, which is construct ed from out of the modal time order of movement in synthetic relation to that of number and space. Newton s absolute mathematical time stood and fell with his conception of absolute space and absolute movement, whereby the three dimensional Euclidian space function ed as the completely static system of coordinates of absolute motion. From the outset, mathematical time was not useful as an experimental measure of time since it was theoretically abstracted from each individuality structure of time. The discrepancy that this caused between the formulation of physical laws of motion and the experimental measurement of time has contributed the crisis in the foundations of classical mechanics. The physical time of motion is now as such a pre-psychical modal aspect, but the experimentally useful measure of time remains a sensorily perceivable on in an individuality structure. This individuality structure naturally expresses itself in the aspect of motion and the spatial and numerical aspects, so that the mathematical formulation of t he measure of time must also take account of these typical structures of time. T he general theory of relativity has done this by its relativizing of the measure of time in relation to its acceptance of a constant in the speed of travel of l ight, and by giving up a privileged coordinate system. This also relativized the concept simultaneity in the modern meaning of movement. In the mathematical found ations of this physical theory it was not the time that was geometrically antici pated, but only the subjective duration of travel of light as a fourth dimension in what has been called Minkowski-space. Similarly in the curving of space, the dep endence of objective-physical world space on the fields of gravity came to expre ssion in a geometric way. [page 229] Hoenen s critique on Einstein s denial of an absolute simultaneity. The Thomistic natural philosopher Dr. P. Hoenen, professor at the Gregorian Univ ersity in Rome has tried to show a logical error in Einstein s relativizing of the physical concept of objective simultaneity. He posits to two systems of relativ ity theory, which move in each other s direction. To each of these is bound a syst em of unmoving coordinates. According to Hoenen, absolute simultaneity is given by itself in the moment that the arbitrary points P and Q as arbitrary moments o f movement, become congruent with each other. Einstein has confused a clock, a c arrier of time, with the movement itself of his two systems. And, if we look at this in the light of the evident principle of the instantaneous resulting of dist ances, then it will in fact appear that there exists an (absolute) objective simu ltaneity. For this proposition he gives the following example: Suppose that a material poi nt moves itself along a path that is perpendicular to a line AB. We take that mo ment in which the point in motion crosses the line AB in a point P, that lies at a distance a from point A. We now see that the moving point immediately, in the same moment, finds itself at a distance a from point A, and also conversely, th at A finds itself at the same distance from the moving point. Just prior to this , the distances were different, but by contact with the moving point with P, the re results a new distance momentarily from that contact. This same is now supposed to hold with respect to points P and Q in the example first referred to, of systems moving towards each other of relativity theory in

the moment in which point P of the first system coincides with Q of the second s ystem. If we now take an arbitrary point A from the second system, then according to th e principle of the instantaneous resulting of distances, point P has in the same m oment the distance QA from A (QA is constant) and conversely A has the same dist ance from P, all in this one moment. The distance does not have to be measured; it is there. And what holds for an arbitrary point of the [page 230] second system holds for all points. The writer [Hoenen] admits that this objective simultaneity cannot be measured b y anyone perceiving from a distance, because for that signals are necessary, whi ch come from a distance. That is not supposed to detract from the existence of an absolute objective simu ltaneity, but only to concern our subjective possibility of perception. However he says that we do have intellectual insight into the existence of absolute obje ctive simultaneity. Critique of Hoenen s critique. In light of our preceding discussions, this argument is to a high degree instruc tive of the consequences of the objective idea of time of Aristotle and Thomas Aqu inas, and of the modal shiftings of meaning of which it is guilty. In the exampl e of the moving material point, which intersects a line AB in a point P, it seem s that it is proceeding from the objective sensory spatial awareness, in which t he path of movement and spatial lines function only in objective analogies. For no movement is ever possible in space in the original meaning, and therefore a f ortiori there is no spatial intersection of a path of movement and a perpendicul ar line standing on top of it. It has however been forgotten than an objective sensory measure of time has no e xistence an sich [in itself], but only in a structural relation to possibly sensor y perception. The whole subject-object relation has here been shut out. Now it cannot be objected that the complete objective simultaneity, which presen ts itself in the intersection of lines in a spatial plane, is carried over to th e objective simultaneity in the aspect of movement and in the objective sensory image of movement. The question is really whether it is possible for there to be an objective absolute measure of time in the aspect of movement, independent of a moving system. Only in that case could we then speak of a complete simultanei ty in the meaning of motion. And this holds in a corresponding way for the objec tive sensory image of movement in the psychical aspect of reality. [52] [page 231] Hoenen, following the tracks of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, is of the opinion that this is the case. In this he proceeds from the view that time is possible numbering of motion accor ding to its topological and metrical structure, or even a system of concrete numb ers with ordinal and cardinal values, which is given by reality itself in the su ccession of elements of a movement, which make possible a numbering according to the series of successive number. [53]

So from this standpoint he can say that in each arbitrary movement even according to Augustine, in the revolution of the wheel of a potter absolute objective time r ealizes itself, although the one universal time realizes itself only in the dail y movement of the heavens. Hoenen says, If the movement of the clock is not completely unifrom and in practice it is n ot then it is imperfect as a measuring instrument; but its motion remains the poss ible carrier of a different numbering (even a changeable numbering), in which a true uniform movement may correspond to equal differences of succeeding numbers. Throughout, the motion remains a real time, although it is imperfect as a measu ring instrument, like all our instruments. [54] What do we make of all of this? From the system of concrete numbers, which is gi ven in reality itself in the succession of the parts of a motion, which as real movement can never take place outside of an individuality structure of time, we are unexpectedly taken over to a merely thought system of numbers, serving for t he numbering of the mathematical equal parts of a truly equal movement, the mathem atical concept of a pure modal possibility of movement that, as we have seen, ca n never serve as an objective measure of time for concrete movements. A true equal or uniform movement is according to Newton s conception a movemen t in which no forces from outside operate and [page 232] in which therefore the principle of inertia can reveal itself completely ind ependently of the force of gravity. However in reality, the inert mass, i.e. the resistance against acceleration, is never without heavy mass, i.e. gravitation. As is known, in the relativity th eory both are identified and this implicitly means the giving up of the so-calle d absolute motion as a real movement. What physics allows to hold as real unifor m motion is in reality never an exact simultaneity, but only one whereby the dev iations from the mathematical concept of simultaneity, at least in macro-events, can be disregarded because of their inconsiderable measure. In micro-events (e.g. the motion of an electron), exact measurement of time is impossible in principle because of Heisenberg s uncertainty principle. [unreferen ced citation from Dooyeweerd s own work]. It cannot be denied that we have a concept of a mathematically defined motion, j ust as little as we can deny the concept of complete objective spatial simultane ity of points in spatial extensiveness. These are however modal concepts, in whi ch there is a conscious abstraction from the individuality structures of reality . They may in that sense be structural conditions for the physical measurement o f concrete motions, but as an objective measure of time of real duration of move ment they are in principle unusable. As we saw, Hoenen acknowledges the impossibility of measuring with a measure of time (the abstract numbered movement ): We find enclosed in Einstein s formulas themselves that if we had signals of in finite speed, i.e. if we momentarily could perceive from a distance, we should be able to establish absolute simultaneity; in the same way, now that distances re sult with infinite speed, i.e. instantaneously, this simultaneity exists; we have intellectual insight of it, although we cannot experimentally establish which ev ents are simultaneous. Just as we cannot absolutely precisely perceive the exist ing accurate relations of length. [55]

The existence of a structurally modal, i.e. merely possible simultaneity, is how ever something fundamentally different than the existence [page 233] of an absolute individual simultaneity of concrete events. We can have intellect ual insight into the former from out of the modal structure of the related aspec t, independently of experimental measurement. But we can never have this insight into the latter, because it is never a mere modal aspect, but rather concerns a concrete event within an individuality structure of time. In the latter case it is evidently false to draw conclusions from the modal concept to the concrete r eality, because it rests on a fundamental confusion of structures of time. The movement of the heavens as a universal measure of time is given as such only in physically qualified individuality structures (which moreover, as we know, h ave their typical object functions in the post-physical aspects); the instrument al clock time of our modern society, although enkaptically interwoven with this n atural individuality structure of time, has nevertheless its own internal individ uality structure of a normative-social qualification, and a typical historical f oundation. For this reason, its objective measure of time is also normatively established, so that all clocks must direct themselves to that measure of time, and the physi cal relativity of the measure of time is compensated practically by a normative universal measure. The positivistic conclusion, what in principle can not be measured does not exist is in its universality undoubtedly incorrect. This we can concede to Hoenen with out reservations. Undoubtedly, Einstein also went too far when he later gave up any limitation to the physical aspect of movement of his relative concept of simultaneity. But in the present case, the in principle in fact relates to the numbered simultan eity of motion itself, which was proclaimed to be the measure of time. And as a mathematical concept of an objective mathematical analogy in the modal aspect of movement, this can in fact not exist as a measure of time for concrete movement s within an individuality structure of time. After the foregoing discussions, it will now be clear that the clock time, in whic h as we have seen, two individuality structures are interwoven with each other, simply does not affect the internal nature of the other structures of time, [page 234] and a fortiori cannot be identified with cosmic time. [56] Insofar as it appears as empirical special science with a modally delineated are a of investigation (and not as a speculative metaphysics), psychology will have to give an account of both the modal time aspect, in which the psychical phenome na it investigates function, as well as of the individuality structures of time, which express themselves within this aspect. And in its use of clock time, it will have to remain conscious of the internal b oundaries of the latter. Discussions like the one between Einstein and Bergson simply pass each other by, since the one party absolutizes the objective-physical and the other the subjec tive-psychological aspect of time.

The one cosmic order of time, which equally holds for all things and events does not imply, as Newton supposed in his rationalistic view of time, a real uniform objective duration of time, separate from any individuality structure of realit y. All concrete time duration, even that of the measure of time, remains bound t o an individuaity structure, and is determined by it. The problem of time can first be set on the correct foundation when one has seen that it essentially encloses within itself the problem of creaturely reality, a nd that the manner of posing the problem is wholly determined by what is in the deepest sense the religious point of departure of the thinker. Dooyeweerd's Footnotes to the Text (continued) [27] JGF: There is no footnote 27 in the original document, due to a numbering e rror in the original text. [28] Also within the modal aspects! In this way the arithmetical and spatial rel ations first acquire subjective differing durations within concrete things, even ts, etc. For example, five people find themselves at the same time for a period of five minutes in the same square space. After the five minutes have elapsed, o ne leaves to go to an adjoining room, so that after this first departure now fou r remain. The first numerical and spatial relation lasted only five minutes. The modal aspects of this duration of time follow the modal orders of time: the dur ation of number follows that of the numerical aspect; the spatial duration follo ws that of the spatial aspect (of simultaneous extension). In the structures of the modal aspects of number and space we find only modal ti me order, and no subjective duration. The same holds for the logical aspect of t ime. That some do not hold the logical prius and posterius to be real figures of time, can be explained in this way: they have thought that they could understan d the subjective logical movement of thought, in which the logical aspect of tim e reveals itself as logical duration in subjection to the logical order of time, completely separately from the logical time order, as a kind of psychical natura l event, which only asks for a causal explanation. In a logical discursive process of thought there is however implied a subjective logical time duration, in which the logical order of time subjectively differently realizes itself (one person makes logical conclusions faster and more accurately than another), and in which one can also argue non-logically (but not a-logically). Whenever one cuts off t he logical meaning from the subjective duration of the thought, one is in fact e liminating the thought process itself, and one can no longer speak of a thought duration. And such logical meaning is eliminated whenever one thinks he can sepa rate the thought duration from the logical order of time. Things have a logical duration in an objective sense (compare p. 17 following in the text) [JGF: p. 218?]in accordance with their objective-logical characterist ic, which in their temporal individual existence in fact come into existence and disappear with things, in contrast to the constant individuality structures (wi th the therein implied logical types), in which they function. The objective-logical function of a thing may in no way be identified with the s ubjective logical concept, nor with the constant individuality structure, which first makes possible the individual coming into being and disappearance of the t hing in time, or with the constant structure of the logical aspect, in which it functions with its objective-logical characteristics. Of course the subjective c oncept that I have formed of a certain thing, is independent of the continued ex istence of it. Moreover, this holds just as much for sensory representation. But the current logical object function of a thing is with the thing as a whole jus t as perishable in time as its objective historical, economic, aesthetic or juri dical function. Just as a thing by its perishing ceases to be beautiful, economi

cally valuable, a cultural article or object of law, so also and just as much do es it thereby lose its objective-logical characteristics. A building that collap sed into a heap of rubble no longer retains the logical characteristics of a bui lding. The subjective concept has it its subjective-logical duration and is just as per ishable in time. In human society, the contents of such a concept are objectifie d in linguistic symbols, whereby it also remains preserved for posterity. A conc ept objectified in this way, in its acceptance by a relatively constant communit y of things, receives a social-logical duration of validity, which is independen t from individual acceptance, and ends only when the community changes its manne r of thinking. However, a concept is never timeless, as idealism supposed. The matter stands totally differently whenever we bring into play the truth vali dity of judgments. The Truth is essentially not of a logical, but of a supratemp oral religious character, since it carries a totalitarian and central character. The judgment Socrates was a man, is not true in itself. Its truth depends on the me aning in which one understands the word man. It is certainly untrue whenever one h as a false unbelieving view of being a man for example when one understands him to b e merely a higher kind of animal. And the judgment 2 X 2 = 4 is also not true in i tself, since it immediately acquires a false meaning whenever we separate the tr uth validity of this judgment from God s creative sovereignty. [29] The Archimedean point, as we have seen above, is the concentration point fo r thought, from out of which the thinker must understand the modal aspects of re ality in the theoretical view of totality. This Archimedean point is the point o f departure for philosophical thought and must transcend time and its modal poin ts of refraction. [30]Also the identification of subject and substance in scholastic metaphysics h as disturbed the idea of subject. [31] Duration order.

is here simply made into a dependent reflex of the mathematical time

[32] That the linguistic function first unfolds itself after the rudimentary log ical development of the child is also acknowledged by A. Messer: Psychologie, 5t h ed (1934), p. 245, where he remarks: daß verschwommene Vorstellungen, die beim Erkennen als Begriffe funktionieren, im Kinde schon vor dem Besitz der zugehörigen Worte in großer Zahl vorhanden sind. [ that indistinct representations, which function as concepts in knowing, are present in large numbers in the child even before the possession of the related words.] Even in adults, it can happen that der Begriff schon da sein, während er auf das Wort sich noch besinnt. [The concept can already be there, while he is still thinking of the word]. [33] The modal meaning of feeling definitely includes more than psychology gener al understands under it. Undoubtedly what has been called Empfindung or sensory aw areness also falls under it. Sensory awareness of a visual, tactile or other typ ical structure, according to its modal character, is viewed just as pleasure or displeasure are viewed as a phenomenon of feeling. Ever since Tetens, the prejudic e has worked its way into psychology to deny the nature of feeling to sensory aw areness, merely because of its normal subject-object relation. Only the apparent ly pure subjective feelings of pleasure and displeasure are acknowledged as havi

ng this character [of feeling]. As is known, Tetens was himself not consistent i n his distinction of Gefühl and Empfindung, insofar as he ascribed both to the same fa culty of feeling or Empfindung. Kant was the first to be consistent in this line, when he no longer classified Empfindungen under feeling, but under the faculty of kno wing. Undoubtedly, a one-sided epistemology and doctrine of reality oriented to the na tural sciences played an essential role in this. The modern psychological view o f Empfindung as (relative) einfache Wahrnehmungsinhalt [(relatively) simple content of awareness] (cf. A. Messer, Psychologie, 5th ed. (1934), p. 152) derives from the atomistic association psychology, which sought to build up all of consciousn ess from out of elementary elements. It has however still not succeeded in providing a real modal difference between f eeling and Empfindung. Just as there is also no mention of this in the naïve experien ce, as it has found its expression in what has been called the psychology of ever yday life. Neither the criterion of subjectivity, nor that of polarity and affect ivity, nor that of the so-called actuality (Külpe) is suitable to really modally d elineate feeling from Empfindung. The first and the third of these criteria are al ready excluded from consideration since they are not oriented to the aspect stru cture, but in general to the subject-object relation. But the second criterion i s also not useable in this regard. One need only to think of the awareness of pa in and of temperature, which are classified as Empfindingen, although they undoubt edly have a polar and affective character. Moreover, the modal feeling moment of emotionality (movement of feeling) may not , as does Messer for example, be confused with the typical affectivity of the fe eling of pleasure and displeasure. In a modal sense the subjective feeling of co lour is also proper to the moment of movement of feeling. Otherwise we could not be aware of the greater or lesser intensity of colours, for this awareness pres upposes a sensory movement of feeling. On the other hand, logical feeling for in stance is only with difficult able to be classified in the schema of the affecti ve feelings of pleasure and displeasure. The lack of insight in the modal structure of feeling is also the cause that in the schema of spiritual feelings (or essentially normative feelings), as they ha ve been worked out by Messer following Jodl, such as formative (cultural) feelin g, the linguistic feeling, the societal feeling, economic feeling etc. have been left wholly outside of consideration. And except for what are called Persongefühle [personal feelings], only the logical, aesthetic, ethical and religious (Sachgefüh le!) [objective feelings!] have been included. [34] See the discussion at p. 17 of this text [page 211?] concerning the modal s ubject-object relation. [35] Schopenhauer: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung I, section. 11, (Sämtliche W erke, vols. 1-2, p. 87), 86 sums up such anticipatory feeling functions next to the retrocipatory (sensory), in order to show that the concept feeling durchaus nur einen negativen Inhalt hat, nämlich diesen, daß etwas, das im Beußtsei n gegenwärtig ist, nicht Begriff, nichtt abstrakte Erkenntnis der Vernunft sei: übri gens mag es sein, was es will, es gehört unter den Begriff Gefühl, dessen unmäßig weite Sphäre daher die heterogensten Dinge begreift, von denen man nimmer einsieht, wie si zusammen kommen, so lange man nicht erkannt hat, daß sie allein in dieser negat iven Rücksicht, nicht abstrakte Begriffe zu sein, übereinstimmen. If Schopenhaueer had recognized the principle of modal sovereignty in its own sp here (see p. 25 below) [page 218?], then he would have held this statement in hi s pen.

A. Messer (op. cit.) p. 127 approaches close to the negative view of Schopenhaue r: Man darf also in Scherz sagen: Was man nicht definieren kann, das sieht man als ein Fühlen an. [One may also say in jest,

What cannot be defined is regarded as a feeling. ]

Why the meaning nucleus of the feeling aspect does not allow itself to be more c losely defined is made clear in the theory of the law-spheres. The modal meaning nucleus is always as such the irreducible moment of meaning in the modal struct ure. But in this respect the aspect of feeling is not at all an exception. The s ame holds even with respect to the meaning nucleus of the logical aspect! On the other hand, the lack of insight into the modal structure of the feeling aspect is avenged where men acknowledge to feeling an internally undefined universality a nd in the line of Felix Krueger s developmental psychology accepts that feeling is the original undifferentiated origin of all other experiences such as thinking an d willing (See Messer, op. cit., p. 119). [36] The modal meaning nucleus of the historical aspect (as to its subject-side) is analyzed in the theory of the law-spheres as free formative control. (culture) . [37] This also determined the correct relation between naïve thought and theoretic al thought. Theoretical thought cannot be separated from naïve thought, but is in essence a deepening or opening up of pre-theoretical thought. However, this open ing up, according to the nature of logical analysis, is only possible by the pat h of theoretical abstraction and detachment [distantieering]. [38] The economic analogy is also essential to the structure of the aesthetic as pect. No beautiful harmony can reveal itself without taking into consideration t he principle of aesthetic economy. To lay it on too thick is ugly even in a prim itive work of art. On the other hand, the temporal meaning relation with the eco nomic aspect can only reveal itself in the anticipatory direction in the logical , historical, social and linguistic aspects. Primitive language for example lack s any symbolic economy. In the subjective development of the child the linguisti c function undoubtedly comes to its unfolding before the economical. [39] This is the economic analogy according to the law-side (normative side) of the juridical aspect. On the subject-side, this analogy reveals itself in subjec tive law and the figure of the legal object. The legal object is nothing more th an the juridical objectification of an economic valuation (from which it follows for example that the free air cannot be a legal object). [JGF: the talio princi ple, literally the law of the tooth, is represented by an eye for an eye and a toot h for a tooth. Dooyeweerd s point is that this principle limited the extent of reve nge] [40] Confessions L. I c. 1. [41] Cf. among many studies that of Leenhardt: Le temps et la personnalité chez les Canaques de la nouvelle Calédonie, Revue Philosophique 62 (1937), pp. 49ff. [42] The irrationalistic conceptions of time are always subjectivistic and view every objective duration of time as a conceptual abstraction that falsified real ity. [43] Just as fatal for insight into the subject-object relation is the identific ation of the idea of the subject with the metaphysical idea of substance. See p. 21 following in the text.[JGF: p. 213].

[44] The same state of affairs presents itself in the relation of subjective spa tial extensiveness and a point. From this is derived the internal antinomy of th e attempt to construe actual extensiveness as a continuum of points. The subject-o bject relation is here turned around in an internally contradictory manner. [45] In the final analysis, the reflection of a subjective mood or feeling on th e objects of our environment remains just as much of a subjective character. A. Messer, op. cit. p. 129 classifies these objects as Objection der Gefühle [objects o f feeling; the reference should be to Objekten ]. This clearly appears from the fac t that the qualities of feeling that are reflected in this way on these objects vary completely with our mood. However, a living room or a landscape are example s that can also possess an objective mood that works upon our subjective mood. F inally, subjective feelings can really objectify themselves in facial expression s, in words or gestures, in a cry of jubilation, in crying, etc., etc. This real ly does not primarily concern a subject-object relation within the modal feeling aspect, but much rather in the linguistic aspect. Such an objective expression of feelings functions as a symbolic sign and must be interpreted. [46] As is known, the term specious present was introduced by E.R. Clay and popula rized in the language used by psychology, especially by W. James in his Principl es of Psychology (vol. I, pp. 609ff). According to recent experiments, the objec tification of present time in clock time gives a variation of from one half a se cond to 4 seconds, from which it is apparent that the duration of this awareness time greatly differs in various individuals and is strongly influenced not only by the intensity of attention and interest, but also by fatigue, alcohol, narco tics, etc. [47] Here again the theoretization of reality avenges itself, which finds its or igin in the philosophic immanence standpoint, the seeking of the Archimedean poi nt of philosophy in theoretical thought. [48] Cf. e.g. the Aristotelian distinction between anima vegetiva, anima sensiti va and anima rationalis, whereby the substantial difference between the plant so ul, the animal soul and the human soul was sought in respectively the biotic asp ect, the feeling aspect and the logical aspect of reality, whereas the higher fu nction then included the lower function in itself and stamped a new character of being on the lower function. Cf. also Descartes definition of the body substance as res extensa and of the soul as res cogitans. [49] Differing radical types do not have one, but two of these radical functions . Apart from the typical qualifying or destination function, they have a typical founding function. A typical founding function is present in all individuality structures whose destination function does not possess any original typicality, but which refers back to an original typicality within an earlier modal aspect o f reality. The natural individuality structures that are typically founded inclu de all those that are interwoven in such a way with other structures that withou t these other structures they could not exist. So the psychically qualified anim al body is typically founded in a biotically qualified bodily organism. The form er may temporally cease to operate while the latter remains functioning; the rev erse is not possible. In Volume three of my De Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee, where the theory of individuality structures and structural interwovenness is extensiv ely discussed, is therefore incorrectly denied a typical founding function to th e radical type of the animal realm. All things formed by man are typically founded. [JGF: i.e., they exist in a rela tion of enkapsis]. So for example, a plastic work of art like Hermes by Praxitel es is typically founded in an objective material form, which is realized in free historical giving of form by the artist. The aesthetic individuality of this He rmes is always that of this incomparable form of a god, which has been represent ed in marble material by free controlling forming.

All human social structures are also typically founded. Marriage, household and family are typically biotically founded in sexual relations and respectively blo od ties. State and church on the other hand are typically historically founded i n an historical organization of power (respectively an organization of the power of the sword, and that of the power of the Word and sacraments). Cf. regarding the things mentioned my Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee Vol. III. [49a] [Dooyeweerd's numbering] The nervous system and the whole sensorial appara tus clearly fall outside the internal boundaries of the biotically qualified (ve getative) soma-structure. They belong in part to the second, and in part to the third structure of the body. [JGF: Note: Dooyeweerd does not intend to distingui sh here between soma and body. The three individuality structures are all of the bod y. Dooyeweerd later adds a fourth individuality structure: the act structure. Se e his 32 Propositions on Anthropology. ] [50] Act and action can be distinguished as internal and internal-external activity. Therefore act does not differ from action in that an act takes place in the interna l life of a [supposed] abstract psyche, or of an abstract psyche and spirit. For even in the act, our biotically qualified soma is also active. The distinction I [inter nal and external] is based only on the fact that the act according to its tempor al side takes place wholly in the internal enkaptical structural whole of the an imated [bezielde] body, whereas it is first projected outwards [naar buiten] in ac tions. [JGF: the qualification that this description is with respect to the tempo ral side of an act is due to Dooyeweerd s view that all acts come forth from out of our supratemporal heart centre]. [51] This state of affairs also explains how for example it is that the will is understood differently in jurisprudence and ethics than it is in psychology. On the other hand, feeling as such never has different modal aspects. Feeling as su ch is a modal function. [52] Of course there exists mutually objective simultaneity of sensory parts of space in an objective sensory plane. But this simultaneity remains relative to t he plane. [53] Philosophie der anorganische natuur, pp. 283-84. [54] op. cit., p. 292. [55] op. cit., p. 306 [56]This is implicitly also conceded by Hoenen, where he (op. cit, p. 279) remar ks that: the time, in which an event takes place and which is the measure for that eve nt s duration is something extrinsic, in contrast to the intrinsic flowing duration of the event. This holds however only for the measure of time. Hoenen s error is in identifying the measure of time with time.

St. Augustine to Gandhi: The Sexual Dilemma by Peter Holleran "Kill the snake of desire in the beginning; or watch out: your snake will become a dragon. But everyone considers his own snake to be just an ant: if you do, seek knowledge of your real state from one who is a lord of the heart. Until copper becomes gold, it doesn't know that it's copper: until the heart becomes a king, it doesn't recognize its poverty." (Rumi. Mathnawi II: 3472-3474, version by Camille and Kabir Helminski, Rumi: Daylight) When the story of "I

comes to an end, abberrant desires based on the avoidance

of the yawning chasm of emptiness diminish. What arises thereafter in the selfradiance of reality is an individual matter. It is a given in non-dual discussio ns that the realization of our true nature should erase a radical separation bet ween the body and the spirit, the lower and higher selves, the soul and God. Thr oughout history, however, man has struggled with these opposites, alternately fe ared as the world, the flesh, and the devil. The gnostic, and, in general, yogic , views, in particular, requiring a radical ascent or separation from incarnatio n, has prevailed until most recently, when an influx of newer teachers from the East, as well as the rise of psycho-therapeutic techniques such as Primal and Bi oenergetics in the West, have led to the idea that a benign incarnation is possi ble in this very life and body wherein the war of the opposites ceases. Perhaps this is easier said than done. In this essay I have chosen St. Augustine and Moh andas K. Gandhi as two archtypal historical examples from the West and the East where the sexual impulse has been dealt with in what some would consider a negat ive, or ascetic way: on the one hand by the creation of a compatible philosophy, and on the other by the clandestine use of yogic techniques of sublimation, out of either fear or need. Ironically, Augustine, an articulate opponent of astrol ogy who dismissed its influence upon human beings (but whose life pretty much di sproves his belief) was born under the sign of sex, death, and self-transformati on, Scorpio, while Gandhi also had an important Scorpio influence in his chart. St. Augustine (354-430) tells us in his famous Confessions of how he went fro m a life of conscious depravity to a devout catholic life of repentance and auster ity. While his mother was a Christian, his father was not, and Augustine did not receive baptism into the faith until he was thirty-two years old. He passed thr ough many experiences and suffered the events of his life before going through a crisis of religious conversion. When he was finally baptised, his mother, to wh om he was very close, rejoiced, for this was an event she had prayed for and loo ked forward to for many years. At the age of eleven Augustine was sent for study to Madouros, Algeria, twent y miles south of his birthplace, Thagaste. Madouros was a stronghold of paganism ("paganism" meaning all who were not Christians), and apparently his visit ther e had a strong negative influence on him. At sixteen he went to rhetoric school in Carthage, and he later wrote that it was there that his moral corruption was made complete. A year or two later he fathered a child with an unnamed woman, an d several years afterwards he abandoned them both. From 376 to 383 he taught phi losophy in Carthage, and then left for Rome and Milan where the woman and child (Adeodatus, or given by God ) followed him. When they left Rome he took up with ano ther woman. Finally, in the summer of 386, he had a spiritual crisis and convert ed from Manicheanism to Christianity. He was baptised on April 24, 387, much aga in to the delight of his mother, who died soon afterwards with her mind finally at peace. Her death, which influenced him deeply, is related by Augustine in one of the most moving passages of the Confessions. A chastened man, he resigned hi s job as a professor and returned to Thagaste, where he started a religious comm unity. For thirty-four years, from 396 until his death in 430, he was Bishop of Hippo, a nearby seaport. The Rule of St. Augustine became the standard reference manual for many Chris tian religious orders. As a spiritual advisor, perhaps his best advice, in my op inion, was the following warning to his fellow renunciate monks: Dear brethren, rather than you should say or think yourselves to be different or better than other men, I would that you should return to the world. In spite of this insightfulness, Augustine arguably did more than any other C hristian leader to glorify the monastic state while damning that of the househol der. He struggled with the desires of the flesh long before his conversion (sayi ng, O Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not just yet ) (1), and he never q uite got over the conflict with the body. Born under Scorpio, a sign of internal

warfare, he might have struggled to find a unity between the spirit and the fle sh, but only succeeded in driving them farther apart, denouncing Manicheanism an d Neo-Platonism, but in the same breath upholding very similar views. He was amo ng the first Christians to equate sexual desire with original sin, saying, Everyo ne who is born of sexual intercourse is in fact sinful flesh." (2) This is a far cry from Ramana Maharshi for whom the concept of original sin was the assumptio n of identification with the individual I -thought or ego itself, or even from the early Hebrews for whom man was a psycho-physical unity breathed to life by God a nd commanded to go forth, be fruitful and populate the earth. Hilton Hotema wrot e: The founders of Christianity considered carnal copulation to be the cause of the fall from grace. They taught the unmarried would attain greater glories in h eaven, some of them saying that those of either sex who indulged in coition, eve n though in wedlock, could not enter heaven at all, for the condition of wedlock did not free the body from the evil effects of sin. The argument that carnal copulation was necessary to perpetuate the race was met with the statement, that if Adam and Eve had not yielded to temptation, God would have provided some other mode of reproduction that would have dispensed wi th the co-operation of the sexes, and thus the world would have been peopled wit h passionless, innocent beings. Such was the doctrine taught by Justin, Gregory of Nyassa, Augustine, and other early Church fathers. (3) In a famous controversy with Augustine, Julian of Eclanum argued that sex in marriage was a good, wholesome, and normal thing. Augustine exercised his eccles iastical power and overruled him, having Julian deposed and exiled. Largely as a result of the work of Augustine, by the time of the Middle Ages the Latin word c oncupiscentia , which had meant strong desire , had come to mean tainted sexual desire . Theologian Paul Tillich wrote that Augustine never overcame the Hellenistic and especially the Neoplatonic devaluation of sex. (4) Nicholas Berdyaev was far less gracious, saying that Augustine s writings on sex remind one of treatises on cattl e breading. (5) In short, Augustine, wise as he may have been in many ways, did much to make sex sinful and the body a curse for future generations of Christians. To the ori ginal early church, including the much misunderstood St. Paul, the body was a te mple of the Holy Spirit, and was to be respected and honored as such, rather tha n as a tomb ( soma sema ) as the gnostics generally held it to be. It has even been argued that Jesus himself was neither celibate nor ascetic, being a member of th e Nazarene, and not the Nazarite, branch of the Essenes. (6) (7) While in general speaking old school and recommending chastity or at least a re sponsible and reasonable self-control, both Ramakrishna and Paramhansa Yogananda in our time recognized the negative aspects of repression of the sex impulse, w hich is that of producing a devitalized self-conscousness and brittle asceticism . Ramakrishna, to Abhedananda, who asked him to remove his lust, rebuked him and said he should see all women as embodiments of the Divine Mother and also said that if he did take away his sex desire he would find life insipid. Yogananda told a close disciple that if he did likewise (assuming it were even possible), the disciple would feel like he was losing his best friend. It is quite possible that the recommendations of Augustine and other ascetic philosophers derive, at least in part, from a fundamentally emotional problem, w hich is represented in the body-mind by a fundamental shock whereby the born-bei ng recoils from life, by varying degrees creating a split between the sexual, fe eling, and cognitive centers. According to psychologists Alexander Lowen, Arthur Janov, Wilhelm Reich, and others, the average (ie., neurotic) individual is spl it into body and mind, as it were, by a central contraction or tension in the co re of the bodily being, often felt at the level of the solar plexus or diaphragm

. This may begin natally or even prenatally, but generally is well in place by t he age of around five. An unnecessary dichotomy is then created in one s feeling b etween the spirit (felt to be interior to the body) and the body itself, which p erception is then held in place by belief systems, shallow breathing, the stored early life imprints, and, in general, the inability for the life-energy to flow freely in the system. Lowen states: If we can conceive of the body as being divided in its midsection by a ring o f tension in the diaphragmatic area, the two poles would become two opposing cam ps rather than opposite ends of a single pulsation that moves between them. Now it is a fact that some degree of diaphragmatic tension exists inmost people. I p ointed out earlier in connection with the loss of belly feeling, hara, due to a restriction of deep abdominal respiration. It is also true that some degree of sp litting is common to most people in western society. The effect of this splitting or dissociation of the two halves of the body is a loss of the perception of un ity. The two opposite directions of flow become two antagonistic forces. Sexuali ty would be experienced as a danger to spirituality, just as spirituality would be viewed as a denial of sexual pleasure. (8) David Boadella, Director of the Center for Biosynthesis, argued that there wa s a second primary ring of tension at the level of the root of the neck, which, al ong with the tension in the diaphragm, effectively cuts off feeling at the heart . He called these two areas of tension the linchpins of the entire process of bodi ly armoring. (9) When, through feeling-opening, however achieved, the contractio n at these levels dissolves or relaxes, the philosophy and repressive viewpoints held in place by these contractions, operating below consciousness, dissolve al so. The body may then be seen, not as a wild, untamed beast, a radical opponent of the ego-self, but a presentation of spirit, and a fit base for the development of more advanced stages of spiritual awakening, where the root contraction or mi sidentification of egoity even prior to or at the heart of the body-mind itself is transcended. Some of these early pioneers in feeling therapy went too far, however, and in their exuberance at discovering the depth of the possibilities of bodily releas e, denied the validity of extra-corporeal spiritual experience altogether. This was the mistake of Janov's initial primal theory, which reduced all such experie nces to the conceptualization of birth trauma. Mickel Adzema, in a very importan t and illuminating article, A Primal Perspective on Spirituality, argues convinc ingly that such is not the case at all, nor the conclusion of all who successful ly undergo such therapies. The mysticism, when present, that develops among many when their neurotic split is healed, however, is generally not one of suppressi ve dissociation from the body and the world, but a natural expansion of the expe riential dimension, in which the sexual, emotional, psychic, and spirit realms a re not at war with each other. Whereas the general historical motivation behind much of mystical pursuit has been, as Reich maintained, a diversion of life ener gy to the head because of an inability for individuals (and even entire cultures ) to experience sexual pleasure (or, stated more specifically, correctly, and ap propriately, whole-bodily pleasure, which has a natural ease, economy, and truth fulness). In Love s Body, Norman O. Brown argued that to have a soul separate from the bod y is to have a body separate from other bodies . When such bodily recoil relaxes, the stress-created feeling of an inward self dissolves as well, along with the e xclusive and fear-driven motivation to escape the domain of the descended life. We then begin to be capable of love, and through that disposition, with basic su bjective egoity handled, a more natural form of spiritual practice can develop a nd deepen, leading potentially to the eventual realization that, rather than the soul or self existing exclusively within the body, the body, mind , and world a lso arise within the infinite Soul or Self. That is where the fulfillment of non -dual realization leads. But first the house of need-driven aggitation with its su

bconscious roots must be set at rest, or at least reasonably so, or one may neve r be able to perceive and believe the great Truth. This is why traditionally kar ma yoga including forms of devotion were advocated as preparation for instructio n in advaitic philosophy. Many among the modern such teachers, on the other hand , stress getting the non-dual insight first, arguing that that is sufficient, an d the only means, free of egoic delusion, for the purification of the psyche and embodiment of the spirit to occur. Both schools have their persuasion. PB wrote that, while certain limiting forms of psycho-therapy were not adequa te for dealing with karma, emotional purgation was required to prevent egoity fr om invading one's spiritual quest. He states: "Again, what is the use of taking a few small sections of the past, such as c hildhood or adolescence, and attempting to deal with them only, when the true pa st of the ego contains innumerable subconscious memories of former lives on eart h and numerous tendencies which arise from episodes belonging to vanished histor y? The only thorough and complete way to deal with the ego is not only to deal w ith its surface manifestations, but to get at its own hidden existence on the on e hand, and to work by aspiration, meditation, and reflection upon the Overself on the other hand." (10) "Without some kind of inner purgation, they will merely transfer to the relig ious or mystic level the same egoism which they previously expressed on the mate rialistic one." (11) "So long as the little self feels itself wise enough to make all its decision s and solve all its problems, so long will there be a barrier between it and the Higher Power." (12) "Your handicap is the strong ego, the "I" which stands in the path and must b e surrendered by emotional sacrifice in the blood of the heart." (13) "Until he learns that his enemy is the ego itself, with all the mental and em otional attitudes that go with it, his efforts to liberate himself spiritually m erely travel in a circle." (14) "The ego is full of subterfuges to keep him from getting away. These go all t he way from sheer megalomania to the suggestion that it does not exist. It resen ts criticism, however truthful, but accepts praise, however undeserved." (15) "One of the ego's chief delusions takes the form of believing that its advanc ed planning, its reasoned management, and its apparent solutions of problems are more important than they really are." (16) PB realized - as have the best among schools of deep feeling therapy - that t he unconscious is not a wild untamed beast with a mysterious will of its own, bu t merely deeper aspects of the ego itself - the so-called shadow of Jung include d: Jung thought he had found, in what he called the unconscious, the source which twisted, negated, or opposed the ego s ideals. This source was the shadow. He nee ded to go farther and deeper for then he would have known the shadow to be the e go itself. (17) To say that the ego keeps us captive is only one way of stating the problem. T hat we are infatuated with it, is another way. (18) The ego will accept discipline and even suffering rather than let itself be ki lled. (19)

The ego finds every kind of pretext to resist the practice required of it.

(20)

The ego lies to itself lies to the man who identifies himself with it, and lie s to other men. (21) Nevertheless this must all be uncovered and undone not only for the spirit-fo rce to be allowed entry, but for his consciousness to be recast in the image of the Overself: "[A] reason for the need of the Long Path's preparatory work is that the mind , nerves, emotions, and body of the man shall be gradually made capable of susta ining the influx of the Solar force, or Spirit-Energy." (22) "The Overself will overshadow him. It will take possession of his body. There will be a mystical union of its mind with his body. The ego will become entirel y subordinate to it." (23) These last quotes portray something of the profound transformation the quest promises, even if such ultimate stages are transcended in turn at some point, as the non-dualists attest. The aforementioned idea of Norman O. Brown, that a split occurs after which o ne feels he has a soul (or ego-soul) separate from the body, and simultaneously a body separate from other bodies, relates well to the teaching of contemporary non-dualists that a "personal story" begins at about the age of two with the dev elopment of consciousness-bifurcating language. Whether simple cognitive underst anding and observation will obviate the problem, as the more advaitic teachers c laim, or whether preverbal 'shock' to ones feeling nature must be undone, or bot h, has been discussed elsewhere [see the latter part of The Integrationalists an d the Non-Dualists on this website]. That subject is very important, beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say, that idea of "shock", especially "vita l shock" was a big part of Adi Da's [aka Da Free John] much popularized argument on the "self-contraction." Advaitist James Schwartz , however, writes that any "self-contraction" is not of Consciousness itself coming into abrupt contact wit h matter, which is not philosophical, but possibly a contraction of, not only th e physical, but also the subtle body, due to such an event. [See "Satsang Topics " : Third Rate Teachings On Enlightenment]. Once a relative loosening of the contraction in the feeling domain is achieve d, in any case, it may be easier to engage the more subtle exercises of jnana or advanced philosophical insight. Many contemporary individuals and even spiritua l teachers thus find some type of psychological work, whether deep feeling thera py, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), or others, a useful complement to spiritu al meditation, study, and contemplation. This is not to suggest that the points made in the article Goo-Goo Eyes in th is website are irrelevant, nor that the reproductive soul , or aspect of the soul d esiring re-embodiment, may not, will not, or must not eventually face its death (as Anthony Damiani pointed out), but only to offer a balancing viewpoint. And i n regard to this matter, we need not be too impatient or anxious to see such a d emise. I once said to a friend, who was spiritually inclined, "you know, they sa y that it takes a long time for the desire for sex to die out," and he replied, "why would you want it to?" I said, "I guess that's why they say it takes a long time." But is there, from a non-dual perspective, such a thing as true desire? Or do the Four Noble Truths reign supreme? In the words of Charles Henderson Blake: "Why do you desire to give up desire? What drove you to this laughable quanda ry? A desire for happiness? Wanting to be up on the universe? Better than everyo

ne? Nature spins to chase tail! Peace be still. Soon dead and never...Seduced by words like TRUTH and PURE. Blinded by that tertiary lust that scoops you out of your body and emotions. Poor oyster without shell! Easy prey for the hucksters that shucked you!" For those of us in their fifties, sixties, seventies, and beyond, who have be en on the quest for years, and where time is getting short, it may in fact be wi sdom to recognize that that one is about as good as he is going to get, that one may not get any "better", and that the only left to do at this point is surrend er, or to "Be As You Are", as Ramana often said. Perhaps we would be better off forgetting the words of the old teachers, and just trust in the heart. For those starting out, in their twenties and thirties, the aid of various therapies may be a more viable resource. When all is said and done, however, there is still no inherent reality to a dream character who achieves improvement. As Wei Wu Wei p ut it, while discussing Buddhism: Since Bodhidharma, the recurrent menace that has overshadowed the Supreme Veh icle has been man's infatuation with himself. Whenever the succession of great M asters weakened in power or in quality the self-flattering mirror-polishing doct rine re-emerged. Hui neng and Shen Hui rescued the doctrine, but today it needs saving again, for, in the West at least, we are nearly all busy polishing our mi rrors, or perfecting the hansom-cab as I have termed it, instead of understandin g that neither the polisher nor mirror, perfector or cab, has ever or could ever exist...As long as we do not perceive the fatuity of a phenomenon telling itsel f how marvelous it is, we will never come to the knowledge of that which we are when we have understood that, as phenomena, we are not." (24) To round out this discussion, the reader is directed to an excellent work by Paul Vereshack, called Primal Therapy, Spirituality, and the Experience of Sudde n Illumination (Satori), which attempts to compare and contrast these two distin ct but complementary levels of work, what they attempt to achieve, and the realm s in which they are operative. He is also directed to an interesting new book, T ouching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body, by Reginald Ray, student of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, for a discussion of awakening, the relationship o f unresolved karma and the body, and the interplay of somatic bodywork within th e tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism. Paul Brunton had this to say about St. Augustine and spiritual healing: "The truth that it is not the ego which is instrumental in the higher forms o f healing is made evident to every practising healer throughout his career. When Saint Augustine was dying, a sick man came to him and begged to be cured. Augus tine replied that if he possessed any powers he would have used them upon himsel f. However, the visitor said he had been told in a dream to ask Augustine to cur e him by the laying on of hands. The saint yielded and followed the instruction. The man was healed." (25). St. Augustine, rest in peace...... The legendary Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1947) began his career by being educated in England to become a lawyer. His confidence in the exisiting legal process was undermined, however, when he was introduced prejudice against non-whites in Sou th Africa. His struggles against the injustice there were the background for an even greater struggle he was to undertake, that of leading the masses of India t o independence from British rule. Gandhi developed and championed the use of non -violent means, "passive resistance" and "civil disobedience", believing they we re the most righteous and effective way to bring about social change. He also ar gued that the strength of India was in self-sufficient village life, and for his advocacy of a return of the spinning wheel he was accused of standing in the wa y of India's progress. Indeed, when asked what he thought of western civilizatio

n, Gandhi said, "I think it would be a good idea." The partitioning of the count ry after independence set Hindu against Muslim, and Gandhi became the target of misdirected hatred. He was killed by an assassin's bullet while repeating the na me "Ram". Asked just before he died who his assassin was, he pointed to the sky, thus confirming even in death his firm belief in the omnipresence of God. Gandhi once met the professed avatar Meher Baba on a train and there has been speculation that Baba assumed the role of guru for him, but Gandhi was not outs poken about it. In fact, he seemed to make a point that since there were not eno ugh gurus for everyone (that is, for the masses, with whom he identified), that such would be the case for him as well. Sawan Singh privately remarked that for all of his selfless service, Gandhi was not ready for the higher path, which req uired submission to a master (Interestingly, Sawan Singh's successor, Kirpal Sin gh, inferred in a letter that he himself had initiated the equally famous Pandit Nehru into the path of Shabd Yoga). Some feel that for all appearances an India n yogi name Kavi Rajchandra was Gandhi's guru, but his relationship to him was n ever the traditional one. Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yo gi, claims that he initiated Gandhi into the practice of Kriya Yoga on August 27 , 1935. (1) Whatever the case, there is little doubt that Mahatma Gandhi was a s aintly character dedicated to the service of humanity: his speech, writings, and deeds prove it. Ramana Maharshi admitted that Gandhi was being guided by a high er power. In his own words Gandhi felt "the indefinable mysterious power that pe rvades everything." PB wrote that "In the personal presence of Gandhi one felt that he was being used by some t remendous impersonal, almost cosmic power. But the feeling was noticeably differ ent in kind from that one experienced with, say, Sri Aurobindo or Ramana Maharsh i. It may be that in Gandhi's case the inspirer was the energy of Karma, shaper of India's destiny!...Gandhi spoke more slowly than any other man I have ever me t. It was as though he were waiting to receive each word from some other source or as though he were thinking out the full meaning of each word before uttering it." (2) Gandhi preached the virtues of ahimsa, or non-violence, and brahmacharya, or chastity, but the latter was something he struggled with throughout his life. Wh ile massaging the legs of his dying father he was seized with thoughts of passio n, and retired to another room to consort with his wife. News of his father's de ath was brought to him a few moments later, while he was still in bed, and he wa s filled with guilt and remorse. He felt that if he had been a better man he wou ld have been at his father's side. This strengthened his resolve to lead a life of brahmacharya, and at the age of thirty-seven he took a solemn vow. For the ne xt thirty years he held to this vow, and to a life of self-control in general, i ncluding simple diet, non-violence (ahimsa), and sublimation of the emotions. He felt specifically that the traditional yogic recommendation of the conservation of sexual energy and reproductive fluids was essential not only for spiritual g rowth but for success in his social and political goals. It was with some sense of defeat, therefore, when he found himself one day in a state of erection, as h e thought he had conquered his sex impulses. [For a contemporary consideration of brahmacharya, including the thoughts of Georg Feuerstein and others, see Life Without Sex?, from The Yoga Journal.] To prove to himself that he was the master of desire, in what some would say was tempting fate or the higher power, Gandhi began to sleep naked with his gran d-niece Manu, after she confided to him that although she was nineteen years old she had never felt the awakening of sexual desire normal for girls her age. The y slept chastely together for some time, after which Gandhi expanded his circle to include more young women. They often massaged his naked body and he sometimes tended to them when they were ill. Although he did not keep this practice a sec ret, scandalous reports began to circulate, and advisors urged him to stop these

provocative activities [Just imagine how explosive this might have been, as com pared to the reaction (April, 2007) over actor Richard Gere merely kissing an In dian actress on the cheek in public]. Gandhi found that sleeping on the same pallet, or even in the same room, with young women, especially virgins, helped counter the debilitating effects of his long fasts and demanding political efforts. This was supposedly an accepted or not-so-accepted yogic practice whereby older men rejuvenate themselves by absorb ing shakti or life-force from youthful members of the opposite sex. At the age o f sixth-seven he had a nocturnal emission, however, furthering a sense of defeat over his sex drive. [For an insightful account on this whole affair see Was Gandhi A Tantric? by Professor Nicholas Gier.] Gopi Krishna gives an interesting interpretation of this phenomenon. (3) He f elt that Gandhi was not conscious of the real reason behind his seeking the comp any of women, which was actually related to the kundalini process. Gopi Krishna claimed that it was the impulse of the kundalini that drove Gandhi to take his v ow of celibacy as well as throw himself into creative social and political activ ity, but that the very same kundalini, at a different cycle in its process, moti vated him to associate intimately with women. (4) Gandhi, under stress from his relentless activity and moral idealism (which wouldn t allow him to admit the grea ter dimension of his sex drive), required the internal secretions generated by s exual stimulation in order to nourish his overtaxed brain. This may be a bit of a reductionistic stretch by Gopi Krishna, who made a car eer out of promoting the kundalini, but it is not without its merits. However, i t falls into the category of a somewhat out of date physiological view propounde d by certain schools of yoga. If the internal yogic circuitry is not open and fu ll, some sexual exchange, at least in the sense of a polarized play between male and female, may appear necessary or useful to harmonize the body-mind and stimu late vital energy. The effect of the sexual release of both life-energy and (in the male) vital-chemistry tends to be ennervating, causing a loss of ojas, so th e yoga philosophy argues for the conservation and conversion of such energy by c hanneling it up the spine to the brain, or more correctly, up the subtle energy channel called the sushumna nadi to the sahasrar or crown center. The more ancie nt yogis taught that the vital-chemistry itself also was channeled up the spine, but this is not correct. It is conserved and recirculated via the general circu lation, thereby nourishing the body as a whole, in particular the glandular and nervous systems. The male sexual fluid is rich in hormones, zinc, and lecithin ( phosphatidyl choline), all of which play a role in the health of the nervous sys tem, and the brain itself has a high percentage of lecitihin in its composition. Thus, there is a physiological reason behind the yogic recommendation for a con servative sexual practice, but not because fluids are transmitted directly up th e spine through the yoga, but, again, because they are conserved and redistribut ed through the bloodstream. It may be argued that there is a benefit for both me n and women to conserve and rejuvenate the life-force or spirit-current through conversion or relative conservation of genital orgasm, while only men lose vital chemical and hormonal substances thereby. The older views were strictly male or iented and failed to make this distinction. An example of this traditional point of view was given by Zipruanna (saint or mad yogi, depending on one's point of view; Swami Muktananda found him atop a dung heap): A man should respect his generative organ; he should restrain and control it a s much as possible...all the seminal fluid in the testicles starts to flow upwar d towards the heart. It is heated in the gastric fire and passes right up to the brain, where it strengthens the sensory nerves. By its strength, the yogi s memor y and intelligence are increased. (5)

The issue is complicated and essentially calls for wisdom, and not simply an ascetic strategy, which in most beginning seekers in this modern era often leads to devitalization, separation, and un-love. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, a disci ple of Swami Sivananda, stated: With a weak mind which can not sustain a little bit of cheerfulness, a little bit of excitement, which can not sustain the death of a man or the separation of husband and wife, how can it sustain that terrible force of the flow of SHAKTI? (6) One perhaps even more important reason for a reasonable amount of self-contro l, however, is that, until one is emotionally transformed at the heart, the heat of spiritual discipline will bring core feelings to the surface for integration , maturing his capacity to feel and thus love, and excessive stress-release thro ugh sex can interfere with this process. And of course there are always the issu es of over-identification with the body, forgetting one s ultimate aim, and sensit ivity to the movement of grace. For the jnani these latter issues would be more important than those of yogic conductivity. So intelligence and sensitivity are required, as with all life functions. Gopi Krishna most likely would say that Gandhi gained strength from the pract ice of celibacy (and prayer and self-discipline), but that it was not enough to carry him through his strenuous ordeal as leader of four hundred million Hindus, and so he sought the healing, balancing force of female energy. He was perhaps grappling with an issue that he did not fully understand [but who does?] and wit h an ideal that the traditional Indian wisdom and his personal capacity did not equip him to fulfill. He therefore chose the path of sublimation of sexuality, w hich many tread with confidence. Paul Brunton wrote that more people have attaine d God who have given up sex than those who have practiced it. But for many it is not so simple. As a man of destiny, however, Gandhi necessarily made practical d ecisions for the sake of his work. We should neither decry or sanctify him for i t, as he was undoubtedly moved by forces beyond those of the ordinary man. And l et s face it, he had the Scorpio burden, as did Augustine. Martin Luther, also a S corpio - in spades, humorously confessed at the age of sixty-eight that the Old A dam was still raising its ugly head. So these guys had a hard time! Luther made t he best of it, however, fathering six children, and counselling the young that G od took delight in the sex act and the passions were o.k. and that hypocrisy and depravity were often the result when they were denied. It is not a matter of de nial, but of self-understanding and self-transformation. Unfortunately, for many modern gurus who may not have Gandhi s ethical base the practice of sleeping toge ther, etcetera, that he engaged in, but in many of their cases a whole lot more than that, consist of a form of psychic vampirism of a despicable kind, in the n ame of either a new-age liberation or an inflated form of trans-moral non-dual s pirituality. The Gandhi Nobody Knows [LINK] After the adulatory film Gandhi was released in 1983, the film critic Richard Gr enier wrote one of the all-time best take-downs, which is available here in the Commentary archives. In a nutshell, here's what you didn't know about the guy: Gandhi was overall obstinate, intolerant, and tyrannical. Many of his contem poraries believe his erratic behavior actually delayed Indian independence. Gandhi was greatly concerned about the rights of Indians in South Africa, bu t not at all about South African blacks. Gandhi's concern for low-caste Hindus was minimal. Like many Hindus, Gandhi believed one's caste was indelible in this life, and that karma affected status only following reincarnation. (His first "fast unto death" was in response to a

British proposal to increase the status of "Untouchables.") Gandhi was unconcerned with indigenous movements outside of India, and was o pposed, for example, to a similar rise in Arab nationalism amid the decline of t he Ottomon Empire. Gandhi advised Jews and Czechs to commit mass suicide in the face of the Naz is, and exhorted the British to surrender, all based on the mistaken notion that Hitler was "not a bad man," and could be persuaded via nonviolence. Gandhi sent a correspondingly naive letter to Hitler himself. Oddly, when World War II started, Gandhi contradicted himself by endorsing P oland's military resistance, referring to it as "almost nonviolent." Undermining British efforts considerably, Gandhi made preparations to allow incursion of the Japanese army into India via Burma, after which he intended to "make them feel unwanted." While Gandhi championed nonviolence to throw off English control, he often a bandoned the ideal during the bloody partition of 1947, during which roughly 1 m illion people were killed in religious violence. The great Indian poet Tagore regarded Gandhi's direct confrontations with th e British as so reckless and fanatical that any claims to being "nonviolent" wer e disingenuous. While Gandhi's core followers used nonviolent tactics, the multi tudes of hangers-on that vastly outnumbered them were not so controlled. Gandhi was greatly concerned with the bowel movements of those around him, a nd constantly gave and received enemas. A large portion of his writings concern excretia. Gandhi was ignorant on matters of nutrition, subjecting himself and others a round him to dangerously unhealthy diets, primarily as a function of his obsessi on with bowel movements. Gandhi was fanatically opposed to all but the most minimal sexual activity n ecessary to procreate. Like many Hindus, he believed semen to be a precious bodi ly fluid stored within his skull, and that any emission diminished him. When he had a nocturnal emission, "he almost had a nervous breakdown." Gandhi slept naked with teenage girls, ostensibly to test his vow of chastit y. Gandhi was greatly opposed to all modern technology above the level of spinn ing wheel, effectively enshrining poverty as an ideal. But oddly for such a ludd ite, he hand-picked Nehru as India's first Prime Minister, a Fabian Socialist co mmitted to rapid industrialization. Gandhi allowed his wife to die of pneumonia rather than be treated with an " alien" penicillin shot, but had no similar qualms being treated soon afterwards with quinine once he contracting malaria. He also had no problem having his appe ndix removed by British doctors. To top it off, Gandhi treated his sons monstrously.

"Spiritual self-realization is the main thing. Study of the teachings concerning cosmical evolution and the psychical evolution of man are but intellectual acce ssories- -things we may or may not take on our journey, as we like. That part of man which reasons and speculates-- mortal mind--is not the part which can disco ver and verify the existence of God. We are not necessarily helped or hindered o n the divine path by taking up the lore of science or by becoming versed in the ways of sophistry. Once we live out our spiritual life in the heart, the rest si nks to second place." (Paul Brunton, Notebooks), Vol. 5, Part Two, 2.204) "The "Eye of Shiva" did not become entirely atrophied before the close of the F ourth Race. When spirituality and all the divine powers and attributes of the De va-man of the Third had been made the hand-maidens of the newly awakened physiol ogical and psychic passions of the physical man, instead of the reverse, the Eye lost its powers. But such was the law of Evolution, and it was, in strict accur acy, no Fall." (3) There is evolution in outward appearance but unfoldment in inward reality ... T he living, intelligent human entity pre-exists elsewhere, and takes up its physi cal 'residence on earth only when that is ready for it. From the moment this spe cific unit of life separated from the cosmic Life, through all the different exp eriences whereby it developed, and through all the different kingdoms of Nature, its spiritual identity as man was predetermined." (4) "The realms of development between Adam and Abraham are perhaps a thousandfold that of the time represented in all the remaining Old Testament: Almost every wo rd signifies millenia." ( 8 ) The Bible, he argues, is truly historical only from the time of Moses. It is not a single, inspired text, therefore, but a multi-level product of many minds minds and many ages. As if all this talk about evolution were not enough, Paul Brunton, \whom many consider to be one of our most reliable, rational, and sober writers on philoso phical matters, has this to say, most likely a remnant from his days studying th e occult: "Because evolution is not merely a physical matter of size and shape, because it is primarily a mental matter of intelligence and consciousness, philosophy f inds the ant nearer to man than is the Panther." (9) "Nor is it, after all, necessary that anyone should believe in the Occult Scienc

es and the old teachings, before one knows anything or even believes in his own soul....Your experience is limited to a few thousand years, to less than a day i n the whole age of humanity and to the present types of the actual continents an d isles of our Fifth Race. How can you tell what will or will not be?" (11) "In Hindu cosmogony, the beginning of the major evolutionary cycle for this ea rth, known as a Kalpa, is given as 1,960 million years ago. In theosophical term inology, this would be identified as the arrival of the life wave on this earth at the beginning of what is called the earth chain. (In The Secret Doctrine, Bla vatsky postulated that the physical earth is the densest of seven foci or "plane ts" collectively called a chain, around which the life wave travels seven times in this particular evolutionary cycle.) In some Hindu calendars, it is said that this date is the beginning of cosmic evolution, but in occult chronology it ref ers only to our earth-chain. (14) "Theosophy does not say that all hominids gained self-consciousness at precisely the same period in far-past time. The process of lighting the fires of mind in man, which began 18-19 million years ago among the karmically ready stocks, undo ubtedly went on for millions of years thereafter for the less-ready, and cannot really be said to have utterly ceased until the door' into the human kingdom was losed' by nature at the midpoint of the fourth root-race, said to have been reac hed around 8 or 9 million years ago. Thus, a really enormous latitude is allowed for individual variation in development of the human mind and its physical focu s - the brain - within the whole of the hominidae, or family of man: that is to say, among its different genera." (16)

c

"In the brain, near the eyes, there is a point which coincides with a very def inite point in the etheric head. These points were apart in ancient times; the e theric point was outside the brain. These two important points have drawn togeth er and only when this occurred did the human being learn to say "I" to himself." (18) " .. the pupil had to be brought into a sort of lethargic condition, into a kin d of death-like sleep which lasted about three and a half days. During this time the etheric body protruded from the physical body and was loosened from it. Wha t the astral body then experienced was impressed upon the ether body. Then when the etheric body was redrawn into the physical body, the pupil knew what he had experienced in the spiritual world." (21) " .. this holding fast to the separate individuality (resulted in a tendency that) became imprinted upon the soul in such a way that it now appears again in another incarnation as the feeling of personality. That this feeling of personal ity is so strong today is the result of the embalming of the body in the Egyptia n period. So we see that' in human evolution everything is correlated. The Egypt ians mummified the bodies of the dead in order that people of the fifth epoch mi ght have the greatest possible consciousness of their own personality." (22) The evolution of man, Steiner said, has consisted in the gradual incarnation of a spiritual being into a material body. It has been a true descent of man from a sp iritual world into a world of matter. The evolution of the animal kingdom did no t precede, but rather accompanied the process of human incarnation. Man is thus not the end result of the evolution of the animals, but is rather in a certain s ense their cause. In the succession of types which appears in the fossil record - the fishes, reptiles, mammals, and finally fossil remains of man hmself - the stages of this process of incarnation are reflected...Steiner asks us to conceiv e of the form of man as originally an Imagination , an archtypal Idea created by ex alted spiritual beings, and existing spiritually, devoid of physical substance. Physical evolution records the preparation of a physical vehicle fashioned in th e image of this archtype, in which the spirit of man could live.....[The effect of this evolution] has been that man has lost direct awareness of the spiritual

worlds out of which he is born. But he has gained self-consciousness....This rep resents the deepest incarnation of the human spirit into the body. The descent o f man is now complete...But evolution has now reached a turning point. The ascen t of man is beginning....How has this transformation of the evolutionary process been achieved? Through the Incarnation of the true Archtype of Man, in whose im age we are created and whom we call the Christ. (25) The mere perception and reflections of impressions had matured into the power of retaining experience in memory and expressing it in sounds, which is the basis f or language. The one original language split into different groups.

"Don't Worry, Be Happy" Meher Baba and the Concept of the Avatar By Peter Holleran

This essay could be considered one more in a "wrapping up of the traditions" series, summarizing old views to make room for the new, in the ever evolving wor ld of spiritual teachings we live in. The concept of an avatar is unique from the days of ancient Hinduism, but one that must be tackled head-on afresh to see if there is anything salvageable in it for those of us living in the twentieth-first century. The starting point of this essay will be to discuss the case of the mysterious Meher Baba. Then we wil l further attempt to demystify or examine the concept of avatar as far as is hum anly possible. The reader will not be amiss if he realizes that this is all a ra mbling within the limits of the mind, with no concrete answers therefore possibl e, and we may remain as ignorant as we began - if we are so lucky. While similar to the teachings of the saints in that he posited a cosmology o f a seven-storied creation, perhaps the most unique aspect of the teaching of Me her Baba (1894-1969) was in his claim to be an Avatar, indeed, the Avatar of the age, which he defined as God-become-man, in contrast to a Perfect Master, which is man-become-God. In actual practice the distinctions seem to blur, in as much as, while Baba stated that a Perfect Master was, in a sense, more valuable than the Avatar, since he could take one to the God-state, while the Avatar could no t, but presumably had other duties. Baba did in fact appear to function as a Mas ter as testified by many devotees. He held that there were always five Perfect M asters on Earth who prepare for the descent or advent of the Avatar, a somewhat unique and unusual claim.. These Perfect Masters in his time were Sai Baba of Sh irdi, Upasani Baba (1), Narayan Maharaj (1), Tajuddin Baba, and Hazrat Babajan. At the age of twenty Merwan (Meher Baba) was said to have received a kiss on the forehead between the eyes by the old woman Hazrat Babajan, giving him the key t o self-realization. For nine months he was in super-consciousness, lost to the w orld. Sri Upasani Baba brought him back to normal consciousness by hitting him o n the head with a rock. Meher Baba stated that it took seven more years for him to stabilize this realization with ordinary life. Thus, by this example, it seem s that even the avatar, however perfect he may be, must regain his enlightenment after taking a human birth. This would contradict any historical legends claimi ng such beings born fully developed and awakened. After this Baba spent many years travelling the length and breadth of India s eeking out Masts (pronounced "Must"), somewhat extraordinary individuals, consid ered mad in their relationship to this world, but awake to the invisible realms within. Baba considered it part of his mission to find such people and help remo ve their spiritual obstructions. Many of them were essentially people who had no t fulfilled earlier stages of practice, where bodily integration, ego developmen t, and character building occur, and were stuck in an ascended state of one degr ee or another, without critical intelligence or the ability to function. Baba wo uld tend to these individuals in a loving, motherly way, while working on straig htening out their subtle neuro-anatomy. For several decades Baba maintained a vow of silence, communicating with the use of an alphabet board. He said, in God Speaks, that he would incarnate once m ore in seven hundred years. "Don't worry, be happy" became one of his more wellknown sayings - and, who knows, perhaps his greatest legacy? Baba's level of realization is difficult to gauge, because certain aspects of his teaching are outside the mainstream of the traditional dharmas of the Hindu or Buddhist traditions. The Avatar theory, for instance, in which Baba claimed that he was the Ancient One, must (if it is meant to be taken in an exclusive se nse, and not simply as an ecstatic proclamation) remain a mystery to the modern global mind, and may easily tend to confuse the universal truth and authenticity of the spiritual path with the enigmatic and occult. It keeps reappearing from time to time in the various traditions, however, and there may be some smoke beh

ind that fire, but we hold that it is usually a human addition to Truth, and not Truth's dispensation to man. We are so far no closer to understanding what avatar means, but first, some m ore of Meher Baba's philosophy. In terms of cosmology and metaphysics, Baba taught that there were seven hier archical planes of consciousness and creation, and that full realization came wh en one re-entered all of the lower six planes while retaining the consciousness realized in the seventh. This is certainly an advance over non-transcendental sc hools that hold that God-Realization is attained only in the highest spiritual r ealm. Baba is rightly critical of ascended forms of trance meditation: "The aspirant who enters into trance-meditation may temporarily forget all hi s limitations while immersed in its light and bliss. But though the prisoner may have forgotten the prison, he has not escaped from it. ... the aspirant becomes conscious of all his failings as soon as he regains normal consciousness. The a scending forms of trance-meditation may bring the aspirant increasing occult pow ers but not that unending state of knowledge and bliss that is continuously acce ssible in Nirvikalpa Samadhi to the Siddha." (2) The question is, how to go up and come down and NOT still be deluded. Meher B aba defines Nirvikalpa samadhi rather uniquely, as "divinity in expression", the "I-Am-God state while retaining body and mind but without attachment or identif ication", and "uninterrupted spontaneous self-knowledge of a God-Realized being. " (3) This is certainly an unusual definition of Nirvikalpa, which commonly refe rs to a state of bodily abstraction and mindless absorption, generally in an asc ended mode. Baba's view sounds more like the philosophic definition of sahaj. Bu t he is even more confusing, in as much as he goes on to describe Sahaj in a sim ilar fashion, such that it is difficult to distinguish the two: "Divinity in act ion", "effortless and continuous state of Perfection of the Sadguru". This is no t incompatible with the philosophic definition of Sahaj, but it could be made mo re precise. Baba's use of the term Nirvana is the closest he comes to describing traditional nirvikalpa samadhi (and in this use he was much like Sri Aurobindo who also described Nirvana in such a manner) : "absorption in divinity, consciou sness withdrawn from body or mind. This is not traditional Nirvana as described i n Mahayana Buddhism, and will no doubt be confusing to many. Perhaps with his novel definition of Nirvikalpa as the "I-Am-God state while retaining body and mind, but without attachment or identification", Baba is refe rring to the Witness position of consciousness, known while one is in the embodi ed condition, yet prior to the realization of Sahaj. This would allow his defini tion of Sahaj to be uniquely descriptive of the realization where all arising co nditions are known to be only modifications of the one divine reality. Baba beco mes unnecessarily occult, however, when he claims: "Sahaj Samadhi comes to the very few souls who descend from the seventh plane of consciousness as Sadguru, while it is the very life of the Avatar." (4) He is doubly confusing, moreover, when he then states: "Ultimately the aspirant has to realize that God is the only Reality and that he is really one with God. This implies that he should not be overpowered by th e spectacle of the multiform universe. In fact, the whole universe is in the Self and springs into existence from th e tiny point in the Self referred to as the OM Point. But the Self as the indivi dualized soul has become habituated to gathering experiences through one medium or another, and therefore it comes to experience the universe as a formidable ri val, other than itself.

Those who have realized God constantly see the universe as springing from thi s Om Point, which is in everyone. (DISCOURSES, p. 190) If the 'Om Point' is equivalent to the 'I-thought', or the place from where t he 'I-thought' arises, Baba sounds close to the view of Ramana Maharshi. Ramana, however, held with the Brihadarankaka Upanishad that the "'I' comes before Om", i.e., "I becomes the name." The sages of Sant Mat hold that the power of Om ari ses from a plane lower than that of the absolute as well as the 'I'. At first glance, Baba's view appears similar to the philosophic view of the s ages, whereby formless absorption leads to re-entry into the plane of manifestat ion while simultaneously abiding in consciousness itself. Yet on closer inspecti on there is an important distinction between the two. With Baba one needs to asc end to the seventh plane and then descend to the first while retaining the reali zation of the seventh. It may be argued that this is really equivalent to realiz ing Nirvikalpa samadhi and then coming down from that without losing its form of consciousness. Yoga masters such as Swami Sivananda [for a short sketch of his life and teachings, see the second half of the article Kundalini:Up, Down, or ? ] have argued that this is possible. It is here suggested that this is generally not the case. The usual result is that one descends from Nirvikalpa samadhi and does not retain its bliss and consciousness, although ones ego is 'dented' to v arying degrees. Ramana was adamant about the fact that even repeated episodes of Nirvikalpa samadhi would not give jnana. [Even so, there were devotee s of Ramana who experienced Self-realization after an ascended trance state; see the story of Janaky Matha ]. The conclusion about such things is that much depends on the prior metaphysical understanding of the individual, as well as what actually hap pens during such experiences, as to what he derives from Nirvikalpa samadhi. Adi Da argued that even in the highest ascended realization (Nirvikalpa ), at tention is generally still extended outside of the Heart as a gesture towards an independent object, and must, in the manner of Ramana and Lakshmana Swamy, eventu ally resolve in its source at the heart-root for Self-realization to occur and s ubsequently allow the awakening to Sahaj, or open eyes. (Nirvikalpa could also be bypassed by going directly to the Witness position and thence to Sahaj; others h ave since argued that even passing through the Witness is not absolutely necessa ry in every case). The experience of Nirvikalpa samadhi can mark a significant t urning point in the course of sadhana for one rightly prepared and rightly orien ted, however, for it gives the aspirant an intuitive certainty of the fulfillmen t of the process of realization, and greatly increased powers of concentration, most useful for spiritual inquiry. The significance of nirvikalpa samadhi thus l ies not in the event itself, but in its result. Sant Darshan Singh said that Meher Baba s disciples did not go to higher planes , implying that Meher did not either, or have the power to do so. [Some might sa y here, "so what? Does an avatar - or anyone else - have to have that ability?" What is the relationship between that and realization itself? Saints and mystic yogis teach exploitation of the possibilities of ascent in the sushumna nadi in the spinal line up to the sahasrara, while sages like Ramana and Adi Da maintain ed that realization is not attained until one descends into the Heart from the h ead via the amrita nadi or Atma Nadi which then regenerates in all directions fr om the Heart, with the sushumna assuming an unnecessary and secondary position. They consider the sahasrar a reflected 'lunar orb" from the "solar" light of the Heart. All of the worlds are such a reflection as well]. Paul Brunton and V.S. Iyer flat-out considered Meher Baba to have been a spir itual fraud. In 1930 Meher said to Brunton: ""You know that you are a human being, and I know that I am the Avatar. It is my whole life!" (5)

Meher s language was not precise enough for us to easily and clearly understand his position on when and how direct cognition of the Self is realized. Unfortun ately Baba is gone and can not be asked to explain himself further. Such mystica l vagueness is often the inheritance of one such as he, born as he was under a P iscean sky, but in any case, he won the hearts of many throughout the world. The concept of Avatar is a diffiicult and vague one to illucidate. When righte ous declines, said Krishna, I come to reestablish the dharma. There are, as far I c an see, two main views on avatars. One is found in the Sant Mat tradition, begin ning with Kabir, where the Sants are agents of the "Positive Power, commissioned directly by Sat Purush to bring souls back to God from their current bondage the lower three worlds, or the domain of Kal, the "Negative Power", with avatars be ing agents of Kal, who come with certain purposes to help maintain order in the created realms; and, two, the conventional Hindu idea that avatars are special i ncarnations of the divine, be it Vishnu or Shiva, that periodically appear at cr ucial ebbs in the state of the world, to establish a new dispensation or dharma for that age. Both of these views were evident in Meher Baba s teachings, for, as stated, he said that the Perfect Master was even more valuable than an Avatar, i n that he could take one to the God-state, whereas the avatar could not, and two, the Avatar was God-become-man, as opposed to man-become God. Neither of these views are philosophical, says Brunton, if viewed as they are commonly understood. Philosophy, he says, proclaims that the divine itself does not compress itself into a human form in the case of an avatar any more than it does so with each individual man. Indeed, Krishna, in Discourse 7, Shaloks 24-2 5 of the Bhagavad-Gita, may have revealed the true mystery behind such fantastic claims for an avatar: "Not knowing my transcendent, imperishable, supreme character, the undiscerni ng think me who am unmanifest to have become manifest. Veiled by the delusive my stery created by my unique power, I am not manifest to all; this bewildered worl d does not recognize me, birthless and changeless." (6) This appears more as a non-dual confession rather than the dogma that an abso lute Godhead had limited himself to a human form. After granting Arjuna the stup endous Cosmic Vision, an ego-threatening form of savikalpa samadhi (7), Krishna resumed his ordinary mortal form and then said," Now, I will teach you." Teach w hat, one might ask? - advaita vedanta, according to philosopher V.S. Iyer. (8) " Through Buddhi (Reason or discrimination) you will come to me," said Krishna. A god like Brahma or Vishnu or Shiva, however, might possibly incarnate, but this is hopelessly complicated because the parts of this triune God are supposedly in actuality personifications of aspects of the Divine itself. In Sant Mat, mor eover, even Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, as gods, reside below the home of the San ts - Sach Khand, or Sat Lok. Sant Kirpal Singh once referred to Krishna, great a s he was, as being at one with Kal, the Negative Power: "Blessed indeed is the man who is ready for immediate transformation into God , for to such an individual he [a Sant] at once reveals his Godhood, as Krishna revealed his oneness with Kal to Arjuna, when through ignorance he hesitated to do his duty as a Kshatriya prince." (9) The latter raises a few problems, such as what to do with Krishna s dictum, Few know me in truth, or few know me as I am, and, through knowledge (Buddhi) you will come to me. The multilevelled greatness of the Bhagavad-Gita seems to be taken do wn a notch if Krishna is just an agent of the Negative Power. According to Hindu ism, the Buddha was also an avatar, and maybe Jesus, too, as is Kalki, the comin g tenth avatar of Vishnu. If Jesus and Buddha were avatars, then according to th

e terminology of the Sants, as given above, they couldn't have taught Surat Shab d Yoga, as the mystics of that path sometimes assert. Paramhansa Yogananda once implied to a disciple that he himself was an avatar, saying that it would take s uch a being to do the work he did spreading the teachings of Kriya Yoga far and wide. Yogananda's guru, moreover, was known as "Jnanavatar Sri Yukteswar". Sri R amakrishna was hailed by the woman who was his first teacher as an avatar, a cla im which he then vigourously denied, but later near his death he told Vivekanand a that he was Krishna. What is the ordinary individual to do with all of these c laims? It is much easier to believe that an avatar is a Bodhisatva or enlightened be ing who incarnates with a special purpose for the benefit of humanity than that God himself so incarnates. [ on the other hand, who could possibly incarnate tha n God - which admitedly is only a concept to us - wherefore how could we possibl y say no either?] The entire claim appears wrapped up in spiritual story-telling . For an example of the confusion caused by the term avatar , just consider how man y persons today claim to be the Kalki avatar - many - with their stated missions different as well? Paul Brunton spoke eloquently on the philosophical conception of the avatar: Philosophy displaces the belief in Divine Incarnations by belief in divinely i nspired men. Although it refuses to deify any man into being fully representativ e of the Infinite Consciousness, it affirms that any man may approach nearer to and be uplifted by that Consciousness. The popular Hindu belief that God reincarnates himself periodically as an Ava tar is a Puranic one, which means that taken literally it is sheer superstition [Note: this shows V.S. Iyer's influence on PB] . If it is to be correctly unders tood, it must be taken as really being an oversimplification of psychological tr uth for the benefit of simple minds. Hence it is inevitably misleading if its su rface interpretation is taken to exhaust its entire significance. If the Divine Essence could really subject itself to the limitations of human existence, this could only be achieved at the cost of impairing its own infinit ude and absoluteness. But even to comprehend the hint of a hint about it, which is all that we may hope to do, is enough to show how utterly impossible such sub jection would be. The notion that the infinitude of Deity can be compressed and contained within a special human organism is unphilosophical. Whether such an av atar be Krishna in India, Horus in Egypt, or Jesus in Palestine, there has never been any ground for raising one above the others, for the simple reason that th ere have never been any avatars at all. And if the doctrine of divine incarnatio ns is irrational, the sister doctrine of predicted and messianic second advent i s partly a wish-fulfilment and partly a miscomprehension. If a divinely inspired being first appears visibly in the flesh of his own body, his second appearance is invisibly in the heart of his own worshippers. The downfall of every faith began when the worship of God as Spirit was displ aced by the worship of Man as God. No visible prophet, saint, or saviour has the right to demand that which should be offered to the Unseen alone. It is not tru e reverence but ignorant blasphemy which could believe that the unattainable Abs olute has put itself into mortal human form however beneficent the purpose may b e. The idea that God can enter the flesh as a man was originally given to most r eligions as a chief feature for the benefit of the populace. It was very helpful both in their mental and in their practical life. But it was true only on the r eligious level, which after all is the elementary one. It was not quite true on the philosophical level. Those few who were initiated into the advanced teaching were able to interpret this notion in a mystical or metaphysical way which, whi lst remote from popular comprehension, was closer to divine actuality. They will never degrade the Godhead in their thought of it by accepting the popular belie

f in personification, incarnation, or avatarhood. It is a sign of primitive igno rance when the humanity of these inspired men is unrecognized or even denied, wh en they are put on a pedestal of special deification. The teaching that Godhead can voluntarily descend into man's body is a misunderstanding of truth. The iron y is that those who try to displace the gross misunderstanding by the pure truth itself are called blasphemous. The real blasphemy is to lower the infinite Godh ead to being directly an active agent in the finite world. Nothing can contain the divine essence although everything can be and is perm eated by it. No one can personify it, although every man bears its ray within hi m. To place a limitation upon it is to utter a blasphemy against it. The infinit e Mind cannot be localized to take birth in any particular land. The absolute ex istence cannot be personified in a human form. The eternal Godhead cannot be ide ntified with a special fleshly body. The inscrutable Reality has no name and add ress. It cannot be turned into an historical person, however exalted, with a bod y of bones nerves muscle and skin. To think otherwise is to think materialistica lly. The notion which would place the Deity as a human colossus amongst millions of human midgets and billions of lesser creatures shows little true reverence a nd less critical intelligence. (10) It may be possible, one may posit, that the One may "birth" a perfect soul wi th no previous incarnations as an ordinary mortal to evolve through. This may be a reasonable Plotinian explanation for the concept of avatara. Who really knows ? The problem is, "reasonable" and $4.00 will get us a cup of coffee at Starbuck s. "Concepts, concepts, concepts," says the great Nisargadatta. The legends of Krishna and other divine avataras born already enlightened, be ing lost in the mists of time, are of precious little help to us now. Anthony Da miani states: "Anyone who is born into a physical body has to go through the search of find ing himself all over again. Remember, the first link in the nidana chain is avid ya [ignorance]. He has got to go into a physical body, he's got to to get acquai nted with the brain, he has to go through the whole mess like everyone else [def initely the case with Meher Baba, who needed a guru(s); also, according to the S ants, every Master must have a Master]. He may be perfectly aware of who he is a nd what he is until that moment when he is in the body. As far as I know, there is no awareness in the sense of an unbroken thread of continuity of Soul awarene ss. It's broken when you are born [Not necessarily so, according to the confessi on of awareness of "the Bright" by Adi Da, although such awareness gets broken b y the age of two when egoic identity gets established]. Then you have to institu te the search for self-discovery. In the case of a sage, of course, it's more im mediate, and the prevalence is something that is obvious to those that are spiri tually oriented. But everyone has to go through that. I might make the exception of the avatar, but I don't understand anything about avatars." (11) In conclusion, the process and teachings of enlightenment may, one dares to s ay, be evolving along with the cosmos and require new definitions of divinity an d avatara to serve us in the modern era. Perhaps Everyman is the new avatara wit h unique avataric work to do. If so, may each of us stand forth as consciousness with his own unique gifts to share. As John Wheeler said: " 'Enlightened beings' are fine as far as they go, but they are still appeara nces that come and go in the only real light there is - your own awareness. Peop le search for enlightened ones, not realizing that they could not even appear wi thout one's own being. So being is the source." (12) Swami Tapasyananda of Ramakrishna Mission, in his book, Bhakti Schools of Ved anta, pg. 50, on commentating about this phenomenon, said:

"The avatar doctrine has been excessively abused by many Hindus today and we have the strange phenomenon of every disciple of a sectarian Guru claiming him t o be an avatar. Christianity has therefore limited the Divine Incarnation as a o ne-time phenomenon. The theory has strong points and equally strong defects but it surmounts the gross abuse of the doctrine indulged in by many Hindus." Thus, if followers respect and revere the guru, it is only proper if they are using him as a conduit to God, and respect him as a teacher. However, Swami Siv ananda has said that a guru can be likened to God if he himself has attained rea lization and is a link between the individual and the Absolute. Such a guru, acc ording to his definition and interpretation, should have actually attained union with God, inspire devotion in others, and have a presence that purifies all. Su ch a case is limited in contemporary times. As early as the seventeenth century, a Vaishnavite saint, Raghavendra Swami, in his last speech before departing from the mortal world, warned about the dang ers of fraudulent gurus by saying: "The search for knowledge is never easy. As the Upanishads say it is like wal king on the razor's edge. But for those who have strong faith and put in sustain ed effort and have the blessings of Shri Hari and guru this is not difficult. Al ways keep away from people who merely perform miracles without following the sha stras and yet call themselves God or guru. I have performed miracles, and so hav e great persons like Shrimadacharya. These are based on yoga siddhi and the shas tras. There is no fraud or trickery at all. These miracles were performed only t o show the greatness of God and the wonderful powers that one can attain with Hi s grace. Right knowledge (jnana) is greater than any miracle. Without this no re al miracle can take place. Any miracle performed without this right knowledge is only witchcraft. No good will come to those who perform such miracles and also those who believe in them." "I do not seek from the Supreme Lord Moksha attended with the attainment of eigh t powers or even the absolute release. I would like to be present in all beings and undergo the sufferings for them, so that they may be free from misery." Rantidevi

Upasani Baba - on Tapas and Such By Peter Holleran "When God becomes very impatient to have somebody, he at once throws in his w ay all sorts of insurmountable difficulties, one after another, in quick success ion; the person simply gets tired and disgusted with everything. In fact it is G od who meets him first in the form of all the ailments and difficulties." Upasani Baba (1870-1941) was blessed by Narayan Maharaj and Sai Baba of Shird i, and was himself important in the spiritual development of Meher Baba. Like many future saints he had a spiritual disposition early in life. After o nly three years of elementary school he dropped out, regarding conventional educ ation worthless and essentially good only for the purpose of finding a respectab le job, which he had no real interest in. Instead of engaging in sports and soci al affairs young Kashinath (later known as Upasani Baba) would spend his time in such things as fasting, breath-control (pranayama), and meditation. One day he entered a small grotto, determined to fast until death (a Hindu tradition called prayopavesha). After many days of fasting he commenced meditation and became lo st in samadhi (spiritual trance) for several months (1). After this episode he t ook on the responsibilities of an outwardly conventional life, marrying and prac ticing folk medicine for ten years. Abruptly, a mysterious, undiagnosible breathing ailment began to affect him, threatening his life. An experienced yogi advised him that his distress was a si de effect of the awakening of higher yogic or spiritual processes, and that he s hould seek out the help of the Moslem saint, Sai Baba of Shirdi. Upasani was hes itant in visiting a non-Hindu, and he went first to Narayan Maharaj. According t o Meher Baba Narayan "completely enlightened" Upasani in just two days. "You hav e been colored inside and outside," said Narayan, "now nothing remains." (2) It was Sai Baba, however, who did the work of transforming Upasani into a spi ritual Master. He praised Upasani to his own disciples, saying, "Such is his wor th: The whole world may be put on one scale, and he on the other." Upasani endur ed many trials and much suffering during his years with the saint of Shirdi. His fame increased, and in 1917 he built a small hut on the corner of a graveyard n ear Sakuri which became his permanent residence. Thousands of devotees started t o arrive and the graveyard was gradually converted into a small township. One of the original efforts of Upasani Baba was to champion the revival of wo men's spirituality. He practiced the ancient Vedic tradition of kanyadin, or the dedication of young women, Usually virgins, to God by marrying them to the spir

itual Master. The kanyas were celibate, similar to Catholic nuns who considered themselve "brides of Christ", but even so Upasani came under harsh criticism and animosity for this unorthodox practice. At one time he was even brought into co urt and accused of murder, a charge which was never substantiated or proven. Upa sani held that women were innately capable of faster spiritual evolution than me n, and that their social role was to save the world from the destruction and cha os caused by men and the cumulative effect of centuries of male-dominated societ y. Vivekananda came to feel the same in his later years. According to Upasani, m ale devotees needed to develop the feminine qualities of devotion and purity to progress spiritually. He allowed women to perform various Vedic forms of ritual worship without the help of male priests, something which was strictly orbidden by Brahmanic orthodoxy and which created violent antagonism. The ashram at Sakur i, known as the Kanya Kumari Sthan, became headed by a female successor, Godavar i Mataji. The institution of the Kanyadin is still upheld, but has achieved a de gree of social acceptance, perhaps because the guru is a woman. While advising his disciples that association with the Satpurusha ("Divine ad ept," or "Master of Truth") was the simplest and, in fact, the only way to reali ze God, Upasani cautioned them against relying on him merely to relieve them of their problems. He said: "When God becomes very impatient to have somebody, he at once throws in his w ay all sorts of insurmountable difficulties, one after another, in quick success ion; the person simply gets tired and disgusted with everything. In fact it is G od who meets him first in the form of all the ailments and difficulties. Ailment s and difficulties are very essential for a person who is sincerely desirous of attaining Godhead. Even a Satpurusha cannot take you to God. From my personal ex perience I can tell you that the greatest pain and difficulty - physical and men tal - alone are able to take anybody straight to God." (3) And of himself he said: "Anybody who finds...a Satpurusha should stick to him with all faith and devo tion. If anybody has the same faith in this Cage (referring to himself), then he should take me as everything...Even if you take me as a bad person and try to r emember me as a fool, an ass, as a sweeper or as one in any other lower denomina tion, you are bound to attain a higher status...Remember well that whatever stat e you reach, I am always there." (4) Upasani, like many Masters, was very emphatic that one should make strenuous efforts at spiritual practice while one yet has time, and not postpone it until old age, when one will likely have little inclination or energy for the process: "People do not indulge in religious austerities in the early years of their l ife. They behave without self-restraint in their youth when they should have ado pted a righteous way of life. Thus, wasting all their vitality and energy, by vi olating all principles of right living, they try to seek God in their old-age, w hen their bodies become disease-ridden. To approach God when you become invalid is like going to a grocer to purchase corn for a used-up coin. One should be trained to do Satkarmas (spiritual actions) since one's childho od. What Satkarmas can one do in one's old age? When all the indriyas (sense org ans) lose their power it is no use making efforts for Satkarmas. It is like sowi ng a seed in the hot summer." (5) For more on this theme of tension or tapas on the spiritual path, see The Mys tic Missal, April 2010 issue. (If you are reading this after July 2010 please se arch archives.) [Ed: With this yogic point of view Upasani could be considered somewhat at odds

with modern non-dual teachers, who feel that, contrary to the paths of yoga, in the path of jnana the inability to make strenuous efforts or the age of the aspi rant do not constitute insurmountable impediments. "Expect the unexpected," said PB. Nevertheless, time is still of the essence, according to Bob Ferguson (TAT, "Why Don't We Get it?"): "Only through the simple process of self-observation can this thing called th e "self" be seen. We may need years of looking at it, seeing why it does what it does, thinks what it thinks, until we know it well enough to cease to believe i n it. All of our energy, for all of our life, has been poured into this thing: o ur personality, the little self, the ego. A few moments of seeing, while of monu mental importance, will not cause its complete demise. This demise is what we fe ar most; for it is seen by the thought-pattern we call "us" as death. At some po int, the initial joy of seeing will turn to the pain of ego-death, as the Truth becomes known. It will not be pleasant. In fact, the pain and horror felt by the ego as it faces its own death, will be felt as yours."]. Also see this revealing story of Upasani Baba. Notes 1. Some say it was a year. 2. Narayan Maharaj (1885-1945) was considered a "Master's Master". He worked for a time with the young Meher Baba, and it is said that he gave Upasani Baba Divi ne realization with a piece of food he had blessed. At the age of seven Narayan renounced all worldly goals and two years later he left home never to return. He began to have nightly visions of the sage Dattatreya (the ancient author off th e Tripura Rahasya and an incarnation of Vishnu), and received spiritual initiati on from the latter (disguised as a wandering monk) when he was sixteen. Narayan settled down in a place near Kedgaon called Bet. He had a vision of a sacred spo t in an inhospitable area one mile away, where the land was thick with thorn bus hes and wild hogs. One day a party of Englishman were boar hunting in the area, and a professor A.G. Woodhouse met Narayan, who spontaneously produced a spring at his feet in order to quench the professor's thirst. This impressed professor Woodhouse, who subsequently had a long article published in the Times of India , which gave Narayan worldwide publicity. Thousands of seekers began to arrive in Kedgaon, and a small temple complex was built that became known as Bet Narayan Maharaj. Narayan had many wealthy patrons and disciples who insisted that he live in k ingly splendor, and that is just what he did. He had several luxury cars, a larg e personal guard, and the finest of clothes. One of his spiritual contributions was to re-instate the sacred art of puja (ritual worship) on a grand scale. At o ne ceremony of empowerment he had two thousand priests performing pujas at the s ame time. Narayan offered his devotees a traditional path of communion with God through the spiritual agency of a living Master. He gave out no elaborate philos ophy but taught a way of faith, devotion, and surrender. Narayan allowed his dev otees to worship him in any way they liked, but for those who were capable he pe rmitted them to contemplate his human form as the Divine itself. Those close to Narayan reported that he seemed to be engaged in transcendenta l work to effect the outcome of World War Two. He followed all phases of the war , and mysterious wounds would appear on his body several times a day. When he he ard that the British had landed in Japan, on September 3, 1945, he said, "The wa r is over. My work is finished." Later that evening he entered mahasamadhi while sitting quietly in his chair.

Narayan Maharaj had no earthly guru, and he left no successor. He apparently was not concerned with establishing a lineage of spiritual transmission that wou ld endure after him. Shortly before he died, according to his devotee Krishna Jo gletkar, Narayan remarked, "I came to you with nothing, and I leave you with not hing." His following of thousands dispersed and the ashram became a quiet place. See Narayan Maharaj for more biography.

Mary Baker Eddy and the Neo-Vedantic Origins of Christian Science: Its influence on New-Age thinking, and fundamental misunderstanding.

by Peter Holleran "The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand-fo ld."

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Aristotle

It is by now a well-researched fact that the mind can affect the body. Since the late-nineteenth century a wealth of teachings have come out of the western t radition that collectively can be labelled under the banner of the New Thought mov ement. The Power of Positive Thinking, The Magic of Believing, Success Philosoph y, Tony Robbins, a myriad of New-Age seminars, and Christian Science itself as a n early, primary example are all based on the metaphysical idea that thought is a reality which can influence the physical dimension. In the nineteenth century this was the radical new idea. In the twentieth century modern physics went one step further making matter interchangeable with energy, which then became reduce d to mere potentialities, which themselves were inseparable from consciousness. This type of thinking is now no longer controversial among those considering the mselves intelligent and well-informed. Generally, however, the benefits desired and derived from the popular applica tion of such philosophies still accrue in large measure to the ordinary personal ity. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, even for questors, if the ego is fully understood from all angles in its spiritual context. It is certainly be tter to be positive than to be negative. As Henry David Thoreau once said, If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to l ive the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in comm on hours. What is generally meditated upon in these schools, however, is more or less s till confined to the egoic-bodily-based dimension, reliance upon which does not always stand up against the often hard paradoxes of life. Thus, Christian Scienc e, it may be maintained, remains essentially a more sophisticated form of downtow n religion, despite the spiritualistic form of some of its arguments. What is a r elatively valid practical idealism is made into an absolute one by the human ego . The results in life are sometimes beneficial, sometimes (as we shall see) disa strous, but almost always limited. Finally, in these schools the specific exerci ses of visualization and affirmation recommended are not usually engaged and ack nowledged within a total path of self-understanding, or a sadhana of self-transc ending spiritual practise, especially in relationship with a realized teacher, a dept or master. This is certainly their greatest liability, however much good th ey may do within their limited sphere. Perhaps the fundamental questions to ask are: As you think, so you become, yes, o.k., but what you are you talking about - and is truth what you believe it to be ? As Sri Nisargadatta said: "You think you are a person who was born, has parents and memories, and will someday die. You are not." I have found myself pondering quotes like that while attending seminars on making money, and get a funny feel ing inside. It is an artful dance to keep two sides of reality in mind at the sa me time. Not impossible, but difficult. One usually must stand aside to make roo m for the other. The purpose of this article will be to examine the origins, in particular, of Christian Science, the weaknesses in its metaphysical foundations, and its hist orical rationalizations, as an example of what may be found in similar groups an d doctrines up to the present day. Who knows, it might even save you a few bucks spent pursuing a miracle cure or financial mirage touted by the next late-night TV or internet guru. But then, you can't take it with you, so go ahead, it will at least be a learning experience. The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, summarized her thoughts on spiritual philosophy in the following comments she made about the writing of bi ography:

Our material, mortal history is but the record of dreams, not of man s real exis tence, and the dream has no place in the Science of Being...Mere historical inci dents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of truth. (1) To the Christian Scientist, God is the only reality, the world being an illus ion. This appears at the outset to be very similar to the philosophy of Vedanta espoused by Indian sages, and, indeed, at an early phase in her work Mrs. Eddy a cknowledged this very thing and even quoted from the Bhagavad-Gita in the 24th e dition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. As we shall come to see , however, there are major differences between the two doctrines, with profound consequences for day to day living. Mary Baker experienced a series of disappointments in life before she underwe nt the change of mind that led her to the formulation of Christian Science. Afte r one year of marriage her first husband died of yellow fever in 1844. She was f ive months pregnant at the time. Never of good health, four years later she rele ased her son to the care of the family nurse. She remarried to a man named Danie l Patterson who promised to take care of her and her child. He never intended to live up to his word, however, and let the child be taken to Minnesota where he was told that his mother had died. They were not to be reunited until the boy wa s thirty-four years old. She divorced and married a third time, to Asa Eddy, who m she was with from 1877 until his death in 1882. In 1866 she discovered the science of metaphysical healing she was to name Ch ristian Science. For twenty years she had been trying to trace all physical effe cts to mental causes, both as a patient and an assistant to a prominent mesmeris t. She searched through various systems, in particular homeopathy and magnetic h ealing, to find the roots of disease. Nothing satisfied her, and after the loss of her parents, husband, son, and her health, she faced despair: The trend of human life was too eventful to leave me undisturbed in the illusi ons that this so-called life could be a real and abiding rest. All things earthl y must yield to the irony of fate, or else be merged into the infinite Love....P reviously the cloud of mortal mind seemed to have a silver lining, but now it wa s not even fringed with light....The world was dark.. (2) A fall on an icy road left her near death, a victim of a spinal injury and co ncussion which the medical science of the day was unable to treat. She read a pa ssage from the Bible, however, in which Christ healed a man afflicted with palsy , and she purportedly had a miraculous, spontaneous recovery. Thus it was when the moment arrived of the heart s bride to more spiritual exist ence. When the door opened, I was waiting and watching; and, lo, the bridegroom came! The character of the Christ was illuminated by the midnight torches of the Spirit. My heart knew its redeemer...agnosticism, pantheism, and theosophy were void. Being was beautiful, its substance, cause, and currents were God and His idea. I had touched the hem of Christian Science. (3) She then withdrew from society for three years to ponder my mission, to search the scriptures, to find the Science of Mind. The first edition of Science and He alth was published in 1875, and the Christian Science Journal was started in 188 3. Her essential philosophy had four tenets: one, God is All; two, God is Mind a nd God is Good; three, matter does not exist; and four, death, sin, evil, and di sease do not exist. All consciousness is Mind and Mind is God. Hence there is but one Mind, and th at one is the infinite good. (4)

I believe in matter only as I believe in evil, that it is something to be deni ed and destroyed to human consciousness, and is unknown to the Divine. (5) The less consciousness of evil or matter mortals have the easier it is for the m to evade sin, sickness, and death - which are but states of false belief - and awake from the troubled dream, a consciousness which is without Mind or Maker. ( 6) The Christ for Mrs. Eddy was in truth a principle or Divine power of which sh e felt Jesus was the most perfect embodiment, but which all men could come to kn ow. If one banishes from his mind all thought of duality, divisiveness, differen tiation, disease, sin, and imperfection, these things will cease to exist and on e will realize the One Mind or God which is forever free of all limitations. The Soul, moreover, is divine or spirit: Soul is sinless and immortal, in contradiction to the supposition that there c an be sinful souls or immortal sinners. (7) The only required discipline for the Christian Scientist is to be ever vigila nt in holding to the belief, or more properly, the consciousness, of infinite pe rfection. To grant any attention to imperfection, or matter itself, is to delay the course of healing and wholeness. And now we see the practical consequences o f this apparent version of the perennial philosophy: I beheld in ineffable awe our great Master s purpose in not questioning those he healed as to their disease or its symptoms and his marvelous skill in demanding neither obeidience to hygienic laws, nor prescribing drugs to support the divin e power which heals. (8) There is a big assumption here that the master Jesus never spoke of health la ws or hygiene, which a wealth of evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls would now co ntradict. Nevertheless, disregarding that argument for the moment, for the Chris tian Scientist, according to Mrs. Eddy, faith is the true healing force, but it is a faith that must not even acknowledge the existence of that which is to be h ealed, ie., sickness or disease. For one would then actually be concentrating on the negative (disease) while hoping for the positive (health). This faith requi red is profound and not the usual possession of the ordinary man. Mrs. Eddy admi ts that it takes a real crisis before one can move into this disposition for rea l: ..until he awakes from his delusions, he suffers least from sin who is a harde ned sinner. The hypocrite s affections must first be made to fret in their chains; and the pangs of hell must lay hold of him ere he can change from flesh to Spir it, become acquainted with that Love which is without dissimulation and endureth all things. (9) The only conscious existence in the flesh is error of some sort - sin, pain, d eath - a false sense of life and happiness. Mortals, if at ease in so-called exi stence, are in their native element of error, and must become dis-eased, disquie ted, before error is annihilated. (10) This sounds like solid spiritual reasoning, and in a like manner she distingu ishes the common variety of faith-cure from the more spiritual cure she felt was a chieved through the method of Christian Science: Why are faith-cures sometimes more speedy than some of the cures wrought throu gh Christian Scientists? Because faith is belief, and not understanding; and it is easier to believe, than to understand spiritual truth. It demands less crossbearing, self-renunciation, and Divine Science to admit the claims of the corpor eal senses and appeal to God for relief through a humanized conception of His po

wer, than to deny these claims and learn the divine way - drinking Jesus cup, bei ng baptised with his baptism, gaining the end through persecution and purity. (11 ) There is so much good in these thoughts of Mary Baker Eddy that one finds it difficult, at the outset, to find fault with her. The conception of a Divine Min d as the One Reality, the rejection of the notion of eternal heaven or hell for the individual soul, the recognition that each person must gain insight into his essentially dis-eased condition before spiritual conscious can awaken, that a c risis of faith may precede true healing, the understanding that the consciousnes s of perfection is a higher healing force than the egoic faith of the mortal min d, all of these were a great advance over the dominant religious thinking of her time. Her service was to help people who were ready to move away from the mater ialistic view that dominated nineteenth-century thought. Though she chose to interpret her views solely in Christian terms, using the Bible as her scriptural source, it is a fact, however, that many of her ideas we re influenced by the philosophies of India. As mentioned, in the 24th edition of Science and Health she admitted the harmony between Vedanta philosophy and Chri stian Science. Swami Abhedananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, wrote: Mrs. Eddy quoted certain passages from the English edition of the Bhagavad-Git a, but unfortunately, for some reason, those passages of the Gita were omitted i n the 34th edition of the book, Science and Health...if we closely study Mrs. Ed dy s book, we find that Mrs. Eddy has incorporated in her book most of the salient features of Vedanta philosophy, but she denied the debt flatly. (12) In the later editions of Science and Health, the 8th chapter was entirely supr essed...perhaps to show that the founder of Christian Science did not draw the w ater of truth from any other fountain than the Christian Bible..But Mrs. Eddy he rself was fully aware that the truths she claimed to have discovered were discov ered and taught by the Hindu sages and philosophers centuries before Jesus the C hrist appeared on earth. (13) Swami Abhedananda s fellow monk, Swami Vivekananda, while in the United States was even more outspoken: They are Vedantins; I mean they have picked up a few doctrines of the Advaita and grafted them upon the Bible. And they cure diseases by proclaiming Soham, Soh am , I am He!! I am He! - through strength of mind...The Christian Science is exact ly like our Kartabhaja sect: Say, I have no disease , and you will be whole; and sa y, I am He - Soham - and you are quits - be at large. This is a thoroughly materiali stic country. The people of this Christian land will recognize religion only if you can cure diseases, work miracles and open up avenues to money; and they unde rstand little else. But there are honerable exceptions. (14) It is a fact that much of the the popularity of Christian Science was due to stories of success in producing cures from disease, but that in itself, of cours e, is not proof of the truth of the philosophy itself . As it works out in pract ise, it is essentially idealistic and a denial of common sense (to which the Chr istian Scientist would undoubtedly agree) and yet here is where the Vedantin is distinguished. For the Indian version of the God-Is-One philosophy is not contra ry to anything and allows relative levels of reality. If absolute faith in the p erfection of the Divine precluded human responsibility and human means of medica l treatment, then none of the great masters who we can read about would ever hav e availed themselves of modern forms health care, or even biblically recommended use of certain herbs, etc. Yet this is not the case, nor do true spiritual teac hers advise their disciples to ignore the obvious and forsake what is in their p ower to effect because of the belief in the inherent perfection of the Divine. T he perfection that Christian Science believes in, therefore, is an idealized conce

ption of perfection, created by the mind. It does not allow room for the dualiti es of pleasure and pain, life and death, health and sickness, good and evil. Of course, it tries to deny that these even exist, but simply to deny that somethin g exists does not make it vanish into non-existence. Swami Abhedananda further e xplains the difference between the two positions of Christian Science and Vedant a: By these words (unreal, maya, illusion) Vedanta philosophy does not mean negat ion, but means phenomenal or relative existence, or reality conditioned by time and space...Christian Science absolutely negates the existence of maya or phenom enal appearance like the vijnananavadin Buddhists landing in subjective idealism , which is quite contrary to Vedanta, as expounded by Sankara and his followers. ..Christian Science, by denying the existence of matter and mortal mind, denies the existence of the phenomenal world and reduces it into nothingness. This remi nds us of conclusions reached by some of the nihilistic philosphers of India and Europe...This difficulty does not arise in Vedanta philosophy, because it does not deny the existence of matter, mind, and everything that are on the phenomena l plane...Christian Science taking its stand on the Bible, cannot clarify most o f its doctrines backed by reason and science. So if we compare the liberal doctr ine contained in the Christian Science with those contained in Vedanta, we find the Christian Science does not see any harmony between the absolute Truth and th e scientific truths discovered by so-called mortal mind, but Vedanta, on the con trary, sees perfect harmony underlying all laws and phases of Truth which human minds have discovered. Christian Science is notably uncharitable towards everyth ing not sanctioned by its founder, while Vedanta philosophy declares that truth is universal and can not be monopolized by any man or woman of any country. (15) The world as maya or illusion does not have transcendental existence (paramar thika satta), but it does have relative existence (pratitika satta), and, prior to self-realization, it may be considered a presumption to assume otherwise. Eve n in sahaj samadhi, with the full realization of emptiness , within and without, th e so-called emptiness is not the nothing of Christian Science but the fullness of re ality. As pointed to in the Heart Sutra, form is emptiness, emptiness is form . Eve rything does not vanish into the soup , such that disregard of human needs is appro priate. Enlightened masters grant the body its due and do not demand supernatura l cures or healing power, although undeniably spontaneous cures do occur through their (often unknowing) influence, such as in the classic example of the woman who touched the hem of Christ's garment and that have occurred in the company of Ramana Maharshi and other saints and sages. The debate about whether or not a realized soul feels pain has been going on for thousands of years, or about as long as the debate over videha-mukti versus jivan mukti (whether there is absolute liberation only after death or while aliv e). The positions of the realizers are contrasting and always paradoxical. Mahar shi said: "A jnani is as indifferent to death as to life. Even if his physical conditio n should be the most wretched, even if he should be stricken with the most painf ul disease and die rolling on the ground, shrieking in pain, he remains unaffect ed. He is the jnani." (16) Avalokitesvara, in the Heart Sutra, proclaims: "Thus, Sariputra, all things having the nature of emptiness have no beginning and no ending. In emptiness there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no d iscrimination, no consciousness itself. There is no eye, no ear, no nose, no ton gue, no skin, no mind. There is no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch , no mental processes, no objects, no knowledge, no ignorance. There is no endin g of objects, no ending of knowledge, no ending of ignorance. There is no enligh tenment, nor path to enlightenment: no pain, no cause of pain, no ending of pain

. There is no decay and no death. There is no knowledge of enlightenment, no obt aining of enlightenment, and no not obtaining of enlightenment. Why is there no obtaining enlightenment? Because enlightenment is in the real m of no 'thingness,' and in No-Thingness there is no personality to obtain enlig htenment. As long as a man pursues enlightenment, he is still abiding in the rea lm of consciousness. If he is to realize enlightenment, he must pass beyond cons ciousness, beyond discrimination and knowledge, beyond the reach of change or fe ar. The perfect understanding of this, and the patient acceptance of it, is the highest wisdom, the essential heart of wisdom. All Buddhas of the past, present and future having attained the highest Samadhi, awake to find themselves realizi ng the heart of wisdom." (17) It might be said that the arguments in teachings like Christian Science assum e a reality for the ego which can only be possible for one who has transformed a nd transcended the ego. Even then it fails to understand that the divine grace m ay not grant physical perfection (health, happiness, wealth) to the personality or bypass the laws of karma in the case of anyone who merely believes that shoul d happen. The divine grace works towards the spiritual realization of the being, not strictly personal comfort. Where in Christian Science is there emphasis on spiritual practise, reorientation of the character, physically, emotionally, men tally, and morally, and inquiry into the nature of the self? Where is there room or recognition of the transforming influence of a true spiritual master, if suc h a one can be found? Where is there, most importantly, in this or in any simila r teaching or path, the ultimate doctrine of the unreality of the self, and the reality of emptiness, the void, or no-self? Not the reality of no world, no body , no mind, or no sense of self, but the fundamental truth of Vedanta and Buddhis m, the reality of no separate, independently existing self - which alone transce nds the realm of opposities, perfection/imperfection, health/illness, pleasure/p ain, and birth/death? Of course, there isn t, such things were unknown to nineteen th-century America, and so the practitioner of Christian Science, New Thought, o r various New-Age philosophies is left to struggle to achieve a perfect faith wi th his ego by rejecting or re-interpeting a universe which insistently intrudes upon his consciousness. He never wakes up from the dream because his path essent ially is to dream the perfect dream. Another misunderstanding in the argument of such teachings is that they often assume that the finite human mind is the sole creator of its experience. What a bout the Cosmic or Universal Mind, or World Mind as termed by Paul Brunton? Our primary task as spiritual aspirants as given by the ancient wisdom is to attune our individual hearts, minds, wills, and souls with that greater Mind, "God", wi thin which we live, move, and have our being, to surrender all to the sole reality which IS, and not to assume micro-god status through a trick of thinking or bel ief. One can say that it is all ones own dream, or, as Ramana Maharshi termed it , "a manifestation of the Self", but the Self for Maharshi, as pointed out by Ad yashanti, was realing his way of naming or describing that which is no-self! In other words, it is not merely a personal dream that one can or should manipulate by mere thinking or visualizing. The question is not so much whether to do so i s wrong, but rather, is it the Truth? It may appear to be for a while, until one is buffetted by the winds of karma and drawn up short, his faith sorely tried. This reality, or relative reality, of karma, including unfructified karma fro m past lives, is not so easily dismissed by the power of positive thinking , howeve r useful that may be for ones future destiny, which it most probably is, i.e., as you think, so you become . By aligning their (borrowed) teachings solely with the Bible, however, Mrs. Eddy and her followers are forced to deny the concepts of reincarnation and karma - but just because a few old men at the point of fist-fi ghting chose by majority rule at the councils of Nicea in 325 A.D. (see Madame B lavatsky's take on this) and Constantinople in 553 A.D. to eliminate these ancie nt doctrines from the official teachings of the Church does not mean they are fa lse. A similar situation almost occurred after the death of the Buddha, wherein

it has been stated by one source that the chief reason for calling a first counc il to bring an end to doctrinal disputes was the overhearing of a conversation b y Mahakassapa, chief disciple of the Buddha, in which an aged monk Subhadda open ly said to other monks: "Do not grieve, do not lament. We are happily rid of the Great Sramana (Buddh a). We used to be annnoyed by being told: 'This beseems you, this beseems you no t.' But now we shall be able to do whatever we like, and what we do not like, we shall not have to do." (18) Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the ancient dharma was not totally u ndermined and altered as it appears to be with Christianity. Brunton writes: The greatest limitations of these cults, whether Christian Science or new Thou ght, is their refusal to admit any limitations at all. They would part the unive rse from God s control and put it under their own. (19) "New Thought and Christian Science should correct their errors, for some of t he things which they label as "negative" may not be so at all. It is divine love which sanctions losses, sicknesses, poverty, and adversities. They are not to b e regarded as enemies to be shunned but rather as tutors to be heeded. Through s uch blows the ego may be crushed and thus allow truer thoughts to fill the empti ed space. Even pleasure and prosperity may deal a man worse blows than the so-ca lled negatives can deal him if their end effect is to close the mind's door to l ight." (20) The New Thought or Christian Science claims, where correct, are true only of t he adept, for he alone has fully aligned himself with the Spirit. (21) Many new-age seminar leaders teach that the root cause of all physical ailmen ts is negative thought and feeling. That there is some basis for a connection is undeniable. Even so, many of the greatest Masters to have graced this planet in the past century succumbed to the dreaded disease cancer. Are we to suppose in their case this was simply a result of negative thinking or emotion? That seems unreasonable. Thus, by this example also the one-dimensional explanations of man y of the "positive affirmationists" are exposed as incomplete or inadequate. Because such believers are not usually engaged in an actual self-transcending process, aligned with true spiritual sources and doctrines oriented towards rea lity itself, their activity generally remains that of egos thinking about God, a ssuming perfection, but not actually being in contact with such at a profound le vel. They imagine an absolute perfection and then look for its manifestation in the phenomenal world. When it is not found, a crisis of disillusionment is inevi table. This idealism, although seemingly admirable and in some cases even useful , can create a form of immunity from life and the lessens of experience, which i s not merely unprofitable but an example of anything but a scientific attitude. Again, PB writes: Their total optimism is immune to the shocks and disturbances, the thrusts and disappointments of experience. It sees only what it wants to see: not the world in which it actually has to live, but the one in which it would like to live. T he lessons of suffering are not assimilated; each adverse experience leaves them exactly where it found them. (22) As Andrew Patterson writes, in The Religion of the Reality Makers, "In its wisdom, the authentic part of ourself, the "I" that is truly the real ity maker, does not always do it to fulfil our dreams and desires. Sometimes it

does it in a way that drags us, kicking and screaming, to the altar of authentic ity, where we can learn to sacrifice who we think we are and what we think we de serve. This is authentic spiritual awakening." The ego can never be understood if it avoids experience and its obvious lesso ns, or interprets all experience as a product of it s own thinking, before finding out if that is actually so. As the Roman philosopher Epictetus once said, no man can begin to learn what he thinks he already knows. To deny the law of recompens e or the law of opposites in this world, especially before transcending the ego, therefore, is an error. The Christian Scientist, or hopeful New-Ager, would hav e life be all good, all health, all love and light, all beautiful, before realiz ing the transcendental condition that alone offers and authenticates such a trut h. Even so, there is still pain. Zen Master Bankei said: Caught up in the suffering of attaching to your illness, you start thinking on e thing or another: I ought to be well by now. Maybe the medicine s not right; perh aps the doctor s no good... and so on. Clinging to the [hope of] recovery, you swit ch the Buddha Mind for anguished thoughts so that illness besetting your mind be comes worse than the original sickness. It s as if you re chasing after something th at s running away. Even as you gradually do recover your [physical] health, the me ntal sickness of chasing after [it] is gaining the upper hand. That s what s meant b y attaching to things and making yourself suffer. At the same time, it there s anyone who tells you he can undergo not only illne ss but every kind of suffering without feeling any pain, that fellow is a liar w ho still hasn t realized the marvelously illuminating dynamic function of the Budd ha Mind. If there s anyone who tells you he feels absolutely no pain at all, I dou bt if he knows the difference between feeling pain and not feeling it. there s sim ply no such thing as not feeling pain....So just go with the illness, and if you r e in pain, go ahead and groan! But, whether you re sick or not, always abide in th e Unborn Buddha Mind (23) Melvyn Wartella goes a little farther and gives an example that would put any one to the test. While agreeing with Bankei, that ideally one can divorce suffer ing from pain, he suggests further that one can separate pain from perception: We will experience pain in various forms as long as we are living in a physica l world. Suffering is more from the belief we can escape from it than from the c onditions we claim to be suffering under. The body needs to know when there is a malfunction, a cut, burn, etc., in it. We would not have survived to evolve wit hout that protection. However, when the ego image arose in the mind, it not only felt it was in control, but that it needed to get away from pain in any form. T he suffering is in the feeling there is someone to escape. Some years ago, I needed to have three teeth filled. I thought it would be in teresting to put my insight into suffering to the test. Two of the fillings were of average size, the third was large. I told the dentist not to use any pain me dication. I just remained aware of what was taking place with out naming it as p ain or anything else. I was not surprised when it was quite comfortable. There w as sensation, but without trying to escape, it was not suffering. (24) To that I say, go for it! Anthony Damiani, in philosophical terms, explained pain and suffering in this way: We have a very intimate connection with our body, and until our time is over w ith that body we will experience the states that the body has to go through. Thi s body is part of the world, part of the whole circuit, and the changes that are going on in the cosmos change the body. There is always a reaction, and in orde r to experience the World-Idea the soul must identify with that body. Do you thi nk Nature went through all this trouble of developing this wonderful brain so th

at you could say, No, nothing doing ? That s how the soul finally becomes aware of it self, through the experiences it gets through body after body.... The Buddhists say everything is illusion. But they don t say that about pain. T hey say suffering is real. They don t try to minimize it, it is real. As a matter of fact, that is one of their cardinal doctrines. Life is suffering. And the soo ner you find that out, the better. ....pain is real. It s part of the World-Idea and even the sage has to know pai n. Even the Buddha died in pain - after eating some food that was poisoned or ba d. But you have to remember, a sage s experience of pain isn t like yours. When we h ave pain, we feel that the self is completely negated. If I get into pain, for e xample, I feel like God abandoned me, left me to my own devices. I know nothing but a denial of my self. A sage doesn t experience the denial of the self, but he will experience the pain. There are some schools of thought, like the positive thinking schools, who sa y that pain or evil doesn t exist. Those people are crazy. After all, that s one of the ways in which the ego gets instructed. You will notice that when a person is in pain he becomes humble. Ordinarily he is not humble. Get a little pain and y ou ll learn humility fast. But let the pain go away, and the arrogance comes back. (25) Christian Science would make of man a God conceived in man s image. Its asserti on of what should be, even as ones everyday experience and observation dictate o therwise, carried to its extreme becomes spiritual arrogance and is destined to lead to disappointment, sooner or later - which is actually a good thing. For if one, because of such idealistic attachment to a perception of how things should be, cannot simply observe how things are in fact, including his own feeling, re activity, and egoity, how can he ever come to spiritual understanding or knowled ge? In the final analysis, the belief system of Mary Baker Eddy in its most stri ct form is an opiate that serves to quell the arising of any discomfort before i t has a chance to reveal its hidden meaning. It prevents true observation and se lf-understanding, cornerstones of any spiritual discipline. Christian Science pr esumes upon God to take care of what are most commonly human responsibilities (a lthough, in fairness, some of the more irrational Hindu saints and yogis have ac ted in a similar manner). There also appears to be a denial of any divine influe nce in the evolution of man s faculty of intelligence. Christian Science touches upon the higher philosophy at many points, but upon close examination remains vague and lacks metaphysical clarity. Such vagueness, unfortunately, gets passed on to its followers. Sant Kirpal Singh wrote: ..the line between healing through auto-suggestion and hypnotic suggestion, an d healing (as Christian Science claims) through the power of Truth is not always easy to draw...But of one thing one can be certain: that even if the cures effe cted by Christian scientists spring from a spiritual source, the agents are not it conscious masters, are not in direct and conscious contact with the higher po wer, but act as its unconscious instruments. (26) One more note: very few among those who profess to be Christian Scientists pr actise, or are capable of practising, at the highest level. The majority of its adherents, moreover, like those in most formal religions, have only a superficia l familiarity with both its basic tenets as well as its origins. And for the nai ve, the trusting, and those needing to believe, this type of faith can be danger ous. I have in hand an article from People Magazine exploring the controversial subject of faith deaths , in particular the case of 11 year-old Wesley Parker, who died of diabetic coma because his parents threw away his insulin after an evange list prayed and said that God had healed him. We wanted to believe, said the boy s f ather. When a urine test showed up positive (indicating spilled sugar and thus a

need for insulin), it was interpreted as a test from Satan . Finally, when the boy died, his father s first reaction was, Nothing to get excited about. He s going to r ise from the dead. Later, when the shock of the event hit them, the parents confe ssed, Many times we ve prayed, Lord, why couldn t we have learned another way that thi s kind of faith is wrong, that it s not really faith at all, but presumption? (27) No teacher is without his or her detractors, and for better or worse Mary Bak er Eddy was no exception. Nearly all the significant events of her life have bee n contested, and not without some reasonable evidence. Mrs. Eddy began studying with the mesmerist, Phineas Quimby, in 1862. Although he presumably restored her to health and she once held him in high esteem, she later came to repudiate any indebtedness to his name. Quimby s written work, the so-called Quimby Manuscripts , contain many parallels to Science and health. Indeed, two biographers attest t hat Mrs. Eddy borrowed heavily in the writing of her book: We may say at once that, as far as thought is concerned, Science and Health is practically all Quimby. (28) James Henry Wiggins, literary advisor to Mrs. Eddy, reported to his executor, Livingston Wright, that the manuscript of Science and Health that was presented to him for editing was so poorly written, grammatically incorrect, with numerou s passage contradicting previous passages, and many errors in historical and phi losophical references, that he felt it needed to be written over again from scra tch. (29) Mrs. Eddy said that except for a few corrections it was complete the way it was. Since she made it Church policy to have any revisions require sanct ion by the Leader, after her death no changes or reformation of her doctrine has been allowed, and the Church is very authoritarian. Commentaries and lectures o n the teaching are not a part of group meetings; instead, readings of Mrs. Eddy s works are given, and her writings are generally taken as sacrosanct. This is lit tle different from any custodial religion, in the words of one writer, where belie f is a large part of the doctrine. Mrs. Eddy s famous accident and conversion experience have also been called int o question. Dr. Alvin Cushing of Springfield, Massachusetts, the physician who a ttended her in 1866, testified in a sworn affidavit on August 13, 1904, that he never said her injury was incurable, nor did Mrs. Eddy ever say or intimate that on the third day of her illness she miraculously recovered through the same hea ling power employed by Christ. (30) In her later life her followers resisted facing the inevitable facts of pain, decay, and death, and shielded her from the eyes of the public. Ill health over took her, however, as Buddha said was the fate of all, which she nevertheless in sisted on attributing to malicious animal magnetism from her enemies. Mrs. Eddy be gan to use morphine when metaphysical healing did not work, and some have said t hat she was addicted to the drug. (31) [Without going into names, there have b een more than a few present day gurus of note whose lives appear to have followe d or degenerated along much the same course as exemplified by the rationalizatio ns surrounding Mary Baker Eddy over one hundred years ago. For their devoted fol lowers the assumed "perfection" of the master, unfortunately, covers alot of sho rtcomings or sins. Much of the problem, with the consequences of lost time and w asted lives, would be avoided if the word "perfection" were thrown into the tras h bin, for in the world of human beings, there is simply no such thing]. Mrs. Ed dy justified her actions in the following manner: If from an injury or from any cause, a Christian Scientist were seized with pa in so violent that he could not treat himself mentally - and the Scientist had f ailed to releave him - the sufferer could call a surgeon who would give him a hy podermic injection, then, when the belief of pain was lulled, he could handle hi s own case mentally. (32)

What she seems to be saying here is that if you really need Christian Science , it is not practical to use it, and that the only way to get rid of the "belief in the pain" is to first get rid of the pain itself! When her third husband, Asa Gilbert Eddy, died of organic heart disease in 18 82, she told the newspapers that the real cause of his death was mentally adminis tered arsenic that had been transmitted by their adversaries. (33) Finally, a c lose associate of hers, Adam Dickey, reported the following astounding conversat ion in his memoirs. Close to death, Mrs. Eddy said to him: If I should ever leave here, will you promise me that you will say that I was mentally murdered? To which Dickey replied,

Yes, Mother. (34)

"If I should ever leave here?" Who did she think she was - Sri Aurobindo?! He , too, in a similarly manner as proposed by some, and debated by other new-age f ringe characters sought to conquer death by perfecting a yoga of immortality, bu t got old and died like everyone else. As Ramana Maharshi said, "When the meal i s over, the leaf plate is thrown away". Or, as Paramhansa Yogananda similarly re marked, "When the wisdom dinner has been eaten from the plate of life, one may b reak the plate or keep it: It no longer matters." (35) In conclusion, Christian Science and other such New Thought and even New Age schools can, because of thei r idealism, prevent one from moving beyond the presumption of the egoic self. Ha rd thinking, pondering, considering, examining, feeling, and even being frustrat ed with the paradoxes of bodily life throw the ego into bold relief where it can be seen, understood and its separative hold released. To avoid this ordeal (as mere mind schools often seem to promise) is to suffer the life one would idealisti cally deny. To affirm and presume the principle of perfect health and wholeness is a good first step. But one must then make use of any available ordinary means to asist the physical and etheric dimensions of the being to balance, purify an d rejuvenate themselves by conforming to the laws of nature associated with thos e dimensions, and even then, one may or may not achieve total success. As the sa ying goes, "keep it real."

George Gurdjieff - Mysterious Trickster by Peter Holleran One must do everything one can and then say

God have mercy!

Early in life George Gurdjieff (1877-1949) was filled with a burning desire f or self-understanding that moved him to travel widely throughout Asia seeking hu man beings in communion with truth. Some of his most important contacts were in Afghanistan where he spent a long time in a monastery in Bukhara and imbibed the teachings of the Naqshbandi order of Sufis.(1) He also claimed to have rediscov ered the ancient "Sarmoung Brotherhood", whose teaching contained esoteric knowl edge that had been forgotten by most of the human race. [For more on this see Th e People of the Tradition on this website]. Osho summarizes Gurdjieff's early life and period of seeking: "Gurdjieff remembers that when his grandfather was dying -- he was only nine years old -- the grandfather called him. He loved the boy very much and he told the boy, "I don't have much to give to you, but departing from the world I would like to give you something. I can only give you one piece of advice that has he lped me; it was given to me by my father, and he was also dying when he gave it to me. I am dying. You are too young, you may not be able to understand it right now, but remember, a day will come when you will understand. Whenever you find yourself capable of following my advice, follow it, and you will never be in mis ery. You can avoid the hell of life." "And what was the advice? Just this sutra -- not exactly in these words. He s aid to Gurdjieff, "Remember one thing: if you want to do any bad thing, postpone it for tomorrow; and if you want to do something good, do it immediately -- bec ause postponement is a way of not doing. And bad has not to be done, and good ha s to be done. For example," the old man said, "if somebody insults you and you f eel angry, enraged, tell him that you will come after twenty-four hours and answ er him." Gurdjieff remembers, "That advice transformed my whole life. Although I was too young, only nine years old, I tried it just out of curiosity. Some boy would insult me or would hurt me or would say something nasty, and I would remem ber my old dying grandfather and I would tell the boy, 'I will have to wait; I h ave promised an old man. After twenty-four hours I will answer you." "And it always happened," Gurdjieff remembers, "that either I would come to c onclude that he was right, that whatsoever he had said LOOKED nasty but it was t

rue about me.... He was saying, 'You are a thief,' and that is true, I am a thie f. He was saying, 'You are insincere,' and that is true -- I am insincere." So h e would go and thank the boy: "You pointed out something true about me. You brou ght up a true facet of my being which was not clear to me. You made me more cons cious about myself. I am immensely grateful." Or, after twenty-four hours' think ing, he would come to conclude that, "That man or that boy is absolutely wrong. It has nothing to do with me." Then there is no point in answer-ing; he would no t go back to the boy. If something is utterly wrong, why become enraged? This is a big world, millions of people are there; you cannot go answering everybody, o therwise your whole life will be wasted. And there is no need either." "Gurdjieff, when he was very young, only twelve years of age, became part of a party of seekers: thirty people who made a decision that they would go to the different parts of the world and find out whether truth was only talk or there w ere a few people who had known it. Just a twelve-year-old boy, but he was chosen to join the party for the simple reason that he had great stamina, he had great power." "One thing was certain about him: whatsoever he decided, he would risk all fo r it. He would not look back, he would never escape even if he had to lose his l ife he would lose his life. And three times he was almost shot dead almost, but he pulled himself back into life somehow; the purpose was still unfulfilled. Tho se thirty people traveled all over the world. They came to India, they went to T ibet and the whole Middle East, all the Sufi monasteries, all the Himalayan mona steries. And they had decided to come back to a certain place in the Middle East and to relate whatsoever they had gained; after each twelve years they were goi ng to meet. At the end of the first twelve years almost half of them did not ret urn; they must have died somehow, or forgotten the mission, or become entangled somewhere. Somebody must have got married, fallen in love. A thousand and one th ings can happen people are accident-prone. Only fifteen people returned. And aft er the next twelve years only three people came back. And the third time only Gu rdjieff was there, all the others had disappeared. What happened to them nobody knows." (1a) The one central principle that Gurdjieff obtained from his studies was that m an is asleep, spending his entire life in self-forgetfulness, helplessly bound t o a mechanical existence. Man is a machine whose life is nothing more than a ser ies of reactive emotional responses-to definite stimuli. When a man asked how he could become free from these binding mechanisms Gurdjieff responded by saying t hat he had just made the first step towards developing free will. The "Work" he proposed aims at Self-Remembrance, which produces an ordeal of struggle between essence (Self) and personality. In this process there is an ine vitable production of psycho-physical friction or "heat" (tapas) as an assault i s made on the egoic defense mechanisms. One must be willing to endure intentiona l suffering as the ordeal of passage is made from personality to essence. (2) Gu rdjieff believed, furthermore, that hard physical work was necessary to purify b ody and mind in order to facilitate this process. He exhorted his students to co ntinually press beyond the limits of their endurance until they achieved their s piritual "second wind". Late in life, concerned with the perpetuity of his work, Gurdjieff wrote thre e books (All and Everything (also published as Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson ), Meetings with Remarkable Men, and Life is Real only Then, When "I Am"). His m odus operandi was, in his words, to "bury the dog." By this is meant that he bur ied the details of his teachings like rare jewels for the serious student to dig up and make his own, somewhat similar to the technique of the Pythagoreans. Ind eed, much of Gurdjieff's teachings have been argued to have been borrowed from t he Greeks [see Digging Up The Dog: The Greek Roots of Gurdjieff's Esoteric Ideas by George Latura Beke. He writes:

"When asked to define his teaching, the world-traveler and mystic seeker Geor ge Ivanovich Gurdjieff characterized it as "esoteric Christianity." Where did th is esoteric Christianity come from? According to Gurdjieff, "Everything Christia n came from old Greek, then they spoil. All, all comes from Greek..." Although G urdjieff spent time in Tibet, and has often been linked to the Sufis he encounte red on his travels, his esoteric ideas had their roots in his own backyard, wher e his Greek father, a bard steeped in the ancient oral tradition, recited thousa nds of lines of ancient sagas from memory. Reading Gurdjieff's magnum opus, "All and Everything," the informed reader cannot fail to notice the many corresponde nces between ancient Greek texts and Gurdjieff's ideas. The ancient Greeks carri ed the torch of esoteric knowledge for well over a thousand years, and Gurdjieff lays out many of their teachings, encrypted in the Pythagorean method he liked to refer to as "burying the dog." (3) The reader will also like to read the chapter on Greek influences in Gurdjief f's writings from G. I. Gurdjieff: Armenian Roots, Global Branches]. Gurdjieff's literary method, as he explained to his editors, was to bury every nugget of info rmation. To gain any true understanding, we are forced to dig. When we dig, we w ork; we labor and toil, and finally find. And then, every hard-won nugget become s our own, an integral part of our understanding, which we will not forget. The ideas he was concerned with were not meant to come into our possession without e xceptional efforts, continuing efforts of the kind that only those who valued th em most would ever put forth. Thus, his writing is rather difficult and dense, a nd his teachings are better known and understood through the works of his studen ts Ouspensky, Bennett, and Nicoll. These three are still difficult; the followin g, however, is but one example of the often impenetrable and difficult-to-compar e-with-other-school nature of Gurdjieff's own writing: "First of all, it must be said that in the outpourings of various occultists and other will-less parasites, when they discuss spiritual questions, not everyt hing is entirely wrong. What they call the "soul" does really exist, but not eve rybody necessarily has one. A soul is not born with man and can neither unfold n or take form in him so long as his body is not fully developed. It is a luxury t hat can only appear and attain completion in the period of "responsible age," th at is to say, in a man's maturity. The soul, like the physical body, is also mat ter only, it consists of "finer" matter. The matter from which the soul is formed and from which it later nourishes and perfects itself is, in general, elaborated during the processes that take place between the two essential forces upon whic h the entire Universe is founded." [Here he may be referring to what the Hindus call Purusha-Prakriti.] In the first chapter of Beelzebub's Tales, Gurdjieff made his teaching intent ions clear: To destroy, mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, a bout everything existing in the world." (4) The Gurdjieffian practice has many elements in common with the basic work req uired in all authentic spiritual traditions, in particular that of the Sufis, bu t it some respects tends to be rather open-ended, and in any case is now bereft of the guidance and grace of a fully-illumined teacher. The emphasis it places o n insight could be balanced, completed, and reconciled with the teaching of the life-current or spirit-energy as given by the adepts in the high-Hindu, Buddhist , and Christian traditions, as well as the direct seeing or self-inquiry of cont emporary non-dual teachers. Still, the fierce way Gurdjieff worked with disciple s is reflected by that of many teachers. One in particular was his method of crea ting situations. This was a method, consciously brought about, to duplicate what

life in general is trying to do unconsciously, wherein, for example, two discipl es with certain conflicting traits are made to work together for the purpose of revealing hidden tendencies that stand in the way of their becoming awake. On on e such month-long occasion out of thirty students only three remained after the teaching period was over, among them Gurdjieff s chief disciple, Ouspensky, who sa id he would never leave him under any conditions. For more on this see Gurdjieff s Meditations to Disciples by Osho. Pema Chodron tells an amusing story of Gurdjieff's particular manner of teach ing: "There was a man in his community who was really bad-tempered. Nobody could s tand this guy because he was so prickly. Every little thing caused him to spin o ff into a tantrum. Everything irritated him. he complained constantly, so everyo ne felt the need to tiptoe around him because anything that might be said could cause him to explode. People just wished he would go away." "Gurdjieff liked to make his students do things that were completely meaningl ess. One day there were about forty people out cutting up a lawn into little pie ces and moving it to another place in the grounds. This was too much for this fe llow, it was the last straw. he blew up, stormed out, got in his car, and drive off, whereupon there was a spontaneous celebration. people were thrilled, so hap py he has gone. But when they told Gurdjieff what had happened, he said, "Oh no! " and went after him in his car." "Three days later they both came back. That night when Gurdjieff's attendant was serving him his supper, he asked, "Sir, why did you bring him back?" Gurdjie ff answered in a very low voice, "You're not going to believe this, and this is just between you and me; you must tell no one. I pay him to stay here." (4a) At one time John Bennett believed that Pak Subuh was the "Awakener of Conscie nce" mentioned in All and Everything who was supposedly destined to complete the work of Gurdjieff. Their teachings are very different, however (which is perhap s why he was to be the completion), and Bennett is not joined in this view by th e majority of Gurdjieff students. Gurdjieff evidently had yogic powers of a sort, but controversy exists over h is morals and ethics, no doubt due to his use of "crazy-wise" methods. Many stud ents were pushed to extremes of discipline, and a few went over the edge. This m ight be looked upon as the mark of a good teacher, using forceful means for the benefit of his disciples, but many thought otherwise. Rom Landau wrote: "Some of his pupils would at times complain that they could no longer support Gurdjieff's violent temper, his apparent greed for money, or the extravagance o f his private life." (5) John Bennett said that "(Gurdjieff) spoke of women in terms that would have better suited a fanatica l Muslim polygamist than a Christian, boasting that he had many children by diff erent women, and that women were for him only the means to an end." (6) Every teacher has his detractors, particularly those teachers who make bold, dramatic use of the energies of life for teaching purposes, but it is not our in tent to criticize character. Teachers can make mistakes, however, and the ways o f anyone teacher are not necessarily the way for all students. Gurdjieff used st rong and shocking means to reveal his students to themselves, and he particularl y liked to hit upon the "sex nerve" and the "pocketbook nerve". He said that "no thing shows up people so much as their attitude toward money", and through casua l incidents he delighted in awakening people to the hypocrisy of their gentile w

ays. He liked to keep people on the edge of financial ruin, creating one disaste r after another, saying that if they felt too comfortable they would not grow. The "crazy-wise" teaching methods have a long history, and must always be see n in context. What works for some, my not work for others, and cannot be imitate d. What is most important to remember about a teacher, says Arthur Deikman, is t his : "Teachers will be imperfect. What you need to be able to count on is them doi ng their job." (6a) Gurdjieff apparently had yogic powers, and it is said that he purposely helpe d to delay the death of his wife a few more days because she was close to enligh tenment. Through his help it is claimed that she would not need to come back to this world because she did in fact attain awakening. As mentioned earlier, Gurdjieff (because of his obscure writing style) is bet ter understood through his interpreters. Indeed, when writing All and Everything , Gurdjieff continually changed his wording in this long book whenever he saw th at disciples understood what he had written! Again, this was an example of his " burying the dog." He felt that the work was more useful when one was kept in a s tate of confusion on the level of the mind, forcing one to dig deeper for the tr uth. John Bennett summarizes his basic form of arqument: "You think you know who you are and what you are; but you do not know either what slaves you now are, or how free you might become. Man can do nothing: he is a machine controlled by external influences, not by his own will, which is an i llusion. He is asleep. He has no permanent self that he can call 'I'. Because he is not one but many; his moods, his impulses, his very sense of his own existen ce are no more than a constant flux...Make the experiment of trying to remember your own existence and you will find that you cannot remember yourselves even fo r two minutes. How can man, who cannot remember who and what he is, who does not know the forces that move him to action, pretend that he can do anything?" (7) The "Fourth Way" was Gurdjieff's term for the way taught in his system. Accor ding to him, there are three traditional paths, those of the faqir, the monk, an d the yogi. The faqir works on disciplining the physical body with harsh austeri ties. The monk works on his emotions with prayer, fasting, and meditation. The y ogi attempts to discipline his mind and alter his state of consciousness. The fou rth way" is that of simultaneously working on the other three dimensions (which correspond with the three bodies: physical, emotional or astral, and mental (whi ch Gurdjieff called the spiritual) while applying the process of self-observatio n to make oneself less mechanical. This is the way of the "cunning man", who thu s surpassed the faqir, the monk, and the yogi and came to know the true I " which was the presiding ego, the 'divine' body, the owner of the other three bodies. With this language, almost theosophical in character, one can see the possible l imit of Gurdjieff s teachings in encompassing the higher non-dual philosophy. How many of Gurdjieff's followers found the Self, as opposed to the "I" or 'ego-soul '? How many knew the 'I AM'? Did Gurdjieff himself attain such realization? Anth ony Damiani suggests that the Gurdjieff work did not produce realization of the subject, but only an objective "fourth state," perhaps a purified ahamkara: "If you go to a higher level than this one, it will still be a content of con sciousness [rather than consciousness itself]; and if you go up to an even highe r level, or even to the level of being itself, there will always be a content of consciousness. Unfortunately this is an idea which neither Ouspensky or Gurdjie ff could grasp. Although Ouspensky talks about the fourth state of consciousness , he fails to understand that it could be analyzed just as at the empirical leve

l or any level....This is true of all the seven levels of existence, even if you live in the angelic world. So if someone comes from another level of existence and said, "Yes, but your analysis doesn't hold for my plane of existence" I woul d say, "Is it a content? Is it an experience for you? Is it a world that you are perceiving? Is there a perception taking place? You know it? Yes? Then it's sub ject to the same analysis." That's how it cuts through everything and that's why this teaching is direct and the most comprehensive one you will find. This teac hing has been around for thousands of years and it won't disappear." (8) The important purpose of the Gurdjieff work was to reveal the chief defense m echanism that prevents the waking state from manifesting. E.J. Gold, a contempor ary teacher sympathetic to the Fourth Way school explains: "Each individual has a particular defense mechanism called the chronic (Gurdj ieff's 'chief feature') which is triggered off whenever the machine (the egoic b ody-mind) is threatened with awakening. The nearer the waking state, the more profound the manifestations produced by the defense mechanisms. Then, when the waking state no longer threatens, the de fense mechanism tends to subside." And again: "The machine has developed an automatic defense mechanism against the waking state, which often takes the form of some chronic negative emotion such as anger , sarcasm, cynicism, self-isolation, fear, paranoia, hysteria, resentment, envy, pettiness, jealousy, vengefulness, greed, piety, boredom, grief, loneliness, an xiety, helplessness, stupidity, hatred, compulsiveness, and so on, so that it ca n continue to function with significance and importance according to the expecta tions of others." (9) The "chronic" or "chief feature" binds up a great deal of life-energy and kee ps one "asleep" to his essential self, or essence. Gurdjieff felt it was imperat ive for a true teacher and school to provide the "shocks" necessary to reveal to an individual this chief feature, as it is nearly impossible to do so by onesel f. (Gold says that one way to get a glimpse of the chronic is to observe one's f irst reaction when someone forceably awakens you in the middle of the night. The "cranky animal" is the machine in its survival mode). Paradoxically, one who is correctly working on himself in the Gurdjieffian fa shion will go through a period when he appears anything but more peaceful and lo ving, as his chief defense mechanism is being brought to consciousness. Gold sta tes that such a person is "about as pleasant to live with as an angry camel." Th is is, however, a healthy advance over the mediocre existence of the ordinary ma n, whose sole purpose is to maintain the effort of self-enclosure and self-survi val, which is another description of the sleeping state of the machine. The work must go on even after a glimpse of awakening, as the defense structu res are so strong. Says Gurdjieff: "As soon as man awakens for a moment and opens his eyes, all the forces that caused him to fall asleep begin to act upon him with tenfold energy and he immed iately falls asleep again, very often dreaming that he is awake or is awakening. " The process that Gurdjieff partially understood and the means he employed wer e intended to produce a crisis of self-understanding where one can become respon sible for his egoic fixated behavior patterning. The insight or glimpses thus ga ined serves as the enlightened means for a greater, more encompassing spiritual process that is then truly possible. Then grace becomes the prime mover in one's

case, and the strenuous, muscular efforts which Gurdjieff advocated become seco ndary and unnecessary. Gurdjieff did not, it appears, acknowledge this full scop e of the spiritual process, although he may himself have had glimpses. It is har d to tell because of the cryptic nature of his life and teachings. Another thing needs mentioning. As PB pointed out: "There is one important quality that seems to be missing from the Gurdjieff-O uspensky training, and that is the heart element of love." (10) All were not capable of withstanding the unrelenting demands and idiosyncraci es of the Gurdjieffian hard school. His work, nevertheless, has much practical v alue, and all said here barely scratches the surface of his doctrines. When he d ied in 1949 he left no one appointed successor, but many groups continue to meet to study his teachings and engage the Work. Interesting, Gurdjieff was a merchant adventurer at some points in his colorf ul life. He said that anyone who successfully employed at least 20 other people must be considered at least partially enlightened and a type of guru. Self-made wealthy people may not be saints or mystics or intellectuals or even especially thoughtful or moral. But they've proven one thing: they can create and conserve wealth. And they've thereby eased everyone's path to further accomplishments. For an excellent summary of many aspects of Gurdjieff s work with disciples, pl ease see the very enjoyable and reader-friendly writing by Osho entitled George Gurdjieff s Teachings.

The Two Krishnamurti's

by Peter Holleran J. Krishnamurti, U.G. Krishnamurti, Shree Atmananda, Papaji, and Ramana Mahar shi are all examples of spiritual teachers - considered sages by many - who had, early in life, many yogic, mystical, and spiritual experiences, but who went on to disown their value in favor of simply the tacit realization of consciousness . Only Ramana generally welcomed diverse practices among his disciples other tha n pure jnana or self-enquiry, realizing their lack of preparation or affinity wi th such a path, and also acknowledging the effectiveness of other paths such as bhakti or devotion. May it not be true that all of these teachers benefited from their earlier experiences and practices, even if they later reputed their value ? If not, perhaps thousands of years of teaching and guru-disciple interaction h ave been of little value, and the current non-dualists are right, all one has to do is understand, with no change, preparation or purification of any kind is ne cessary. The first two of these figures denied the need for a teacher at all, ev en though they curiously assumed that very function by their very denial. In thi s essay we will examine the life of the two Krishnamurtis in this light, examining paradox and contradiction for the sake of our understanding. Jeddu Krishnamurti (1896-1986), by far the most well-known of the two, was a dark and brooding young man when, at the age of twelve, he was spotted by the Th eosophist Leadbeater who noticed something portentious about his aura. Leadbeate r suggested to Krishnamurti s father (himself a local Theosophist) that his son mi ght be the new messiah and would be better off raised under the care of Emily Lu ytens (wife of the illustrious Edwin Luytens, the architect of New Delhi), who bec ame his new mother . Under the Theosophists (the primary influence which was Leadbe ater) Krishnamurti led a sheltered and unusual life. He was not particularly spi ritually inclined but was somewhat of a romantic, often stating that he was half in love with easeful death. With the unexpected early loss of his brother (his cl osest companion, who was also raised by Theosophists along with him) Krishnamurt i was dealt a terrible, crushing blow. His mind took a serious turn, and he grew to feel that he was being used by the Theosophists for political purposes. Hail ed by Annie Besant as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ (a move which prompted R udolph Steiner to break away from her and form the Anthroposophical Society), Kr ishnamurti, in 1929, denounced the claim, dissolved the Order of the Star , denied that he was a guru, spiritual master, or avatar, and from then until the end of his life never admitted to having disciples. In a statement he then wrote he ann ounced that his role was henceforth to be a free thinker, not a master, and that truth was a pathless land. While he had numerous mystical/kundalini experiences w hen he was with the theosophists, he apparently never associated with a genuine

physical spiritual teacher of higher caliber, and his later repudiation of the s cripturally-praised relationship between master and disciple seems to have been, at least in part, a reaction to the aberrant circumstances of his upbringing an d his association with the morally dubious Leadbeater. In the short but powerful work, At the Feet of the Master (of which Leadbeater may have been the author) , he respected the tradition of the guru-disciple relationship (1), but later ma de a complete about-face and affirmed and energetically argued that it was unnec essary and even counter-productive for one to have a guru or master. Krishnamurt i really did have teachers, and even served in that capacity for others (in spit e of his protestations to the contrary), yet he made a career out of criticizing what he saw (not without some justification) as an insidious oriental instituti on. It was undoubtedly his contact with certain inner resources, however, that in itiated, on August 17, 1922, and continuing through 1924 and for several decades after that, what he called the process . This was essentially years of mystical ex periences and psycho-physical transformation with apparent kundalini manifestati on and acute pain in his head and spine (see "The pathless journey of Jiddu Kirs hnamurti" for more about these experiences). JK s experiences with inner masters did not end when he disbanded the order of the Star and left theosophy, as many may suppose, but both that and the process co ntinued throughout his life. Of 1948, when he was about fifty-three years old, L uytens writes: "K had been out for a walk with them when he said he said he felt ill and mus t return to the house. He asked them to stay with him, not to be frightened by w hat ever happened not to call a docyor. He said he had pain in his head. After a time he told them he was 'going off'. This 'going off' was what has always happ ened in the past during 'the process'. K left his body in charge of what we used to call the physical elemental - a childish entity who regarded K with great re verence and awe. His face was weary and full of pain. He asked them who they wer e and whether they knew Nitya (K's brother who died years before). He then spoke of Nitya, told them that he was dead, that he loved him and wept for him. He as ked whether they were nervous but did not appear at all interested in the reply. He stopped himself from calling for Krishna to come back: 'he has told me not t o call him'. He then spoke of death. He said it was so close 'just the thread-li ne' how easy it could be for him to die, but he would not like to because he had work to do. Towards the end he said: 'He is coming back. Do you see them all wi th him spotless, untouched, sure now that they are here he will come. I am so ti red but he is like a bird always fresh . The next evening Pupul and Nandini again waited for him in his room while he w ent for a solitary walk. When he returned at about seven he was 'the stranger' o nce more. He went to lie down. He said he felt burnt, completely burned. He was crying. He said: 'you know I have found out what happened on that walk. He came fully took charge complete charge. That is why I did not know if I have returned . I knew nothing. They have burned me so that there can be more emptiness. They want to see how much of him can come'. Later Krishnamurti commented: 'that was a very narrow shave. Those bells nearly tolled from my funeral. There is a fair amount of material like this throughout the biographical tr ilogy by Luytens, with the aim of preparing and experimenting with Krishnamurti being a 'channel' for the 'other', presumably Maitreya, which there is also some discussion of what Krishnamurti thought of that idea later in life, and even an interesting story suggesting that that was indeed 'the other'. Unfortunately, K rishnamurti had no physical teachers to work with him and confirm or prepare him further. Krishnamurti, or "K" as he preferred to be called, later seemed to deny the v

alidity, necessity, or legitimacy of these experiences (referring to them as mer e "incidents"), and subsequently the entire process of spiritual agency of a aut hentically realized master as well. If he did feel that his own particular exper iences were necessary and useful for the more mature phases of his spiritual dev elopment, he nevertheless held to his argument that submission or resort to the help of a guru was not. Incidentally, the article in the above mentioned link su ggests that after mystical visions in his early years, for most of his life the most significant aspects for him spiritually were an open mind and a benign, pro tective and guiding 'sense of presence'. Only at the age of eighty-five did he a ppear to have a deeper experience or glimpse of what Paul Brunton (PB) might cal l the Overself, but this, in the way he described it, is unclear. For the last f ew years of his life he said that he could feel the Presence with him all the ti me.. In short, the style and nature of teaching advanced by Krishnamurti through t he years was a useful critique of Theosophy with its generally inferior and subj ective mysticism, but it can be argued that it didn t go far enough, and assumed a capacity in its listeners that was beyond their present ability, in order for i t to be effective to the point of true realization. He had a purifying influence on the spiritual and occult milieu of his day, yet lacked a comprehensive scope . His students, by and large, were led into a practice of what he termed choicele ss awareness , generally limited to an intellectual or cognitive discipline, but w ere not informed or aided in actually progressing through advancing stages of sp iritual practice. Of course, this is one thing that Krishnamurti might claim he was deliberately trying to discourage, the very idea that there is such a thing as progress. His chief and honorable purpose was to get people to move beyond th e conceptual faculty of the mind, beyond prejudices and preconceptions, into a m ore perceptual mode of awareness. This is valuable, no doubt, but it is only the beginning, and in itself liable to fall into a talking school of practice. The spiritual process as considered by most saints and sages is an active ord eal and one needs help for it. In marked contrast to the intensity of the experi ences of his early manhood, and in spite of the diligence required to actually c reate a spiritual practice solely on the basis of his communicated arguments, ma ny people acquire the view, from attending lectures and reading books, that inte llectualizing and philosophical contemplation are sufficient practice for the re alization of truth. For some few with the requisite background this may indeed b e so. Yet for many, unfortunately, it is not. For instance, the witness attitude r ecommended by him is essentially that of a bodily-based personality observing it self and nature, and not that of consciousness, as the witness self, senior to t he body-mind itself, in a mature stage of practice, such as taught by Ramana Mah arshi. Such an advanced stage generally requires many supportive means for its f ulfillment. Even so, Krishnamurti had the benefit of an early yogic awakening th at undoubtedly gave him more free energy and attention for the contemplative exe rcises that he advocated for the majority of his followers. Yet he didn't teach how to reach that stage. Thus Krishnamurti might be considered as a pratyekabudd ha, or one who was awakened but not able to fully teach others or guide them to enlightenment because of his own lack of development as well as passage through all of the stages of development in one lifetime. As PB wrote: "There are men of enlightenment who cannot throw down a bridge from where the y are to where they once were, so that others too can cross over. They do not kn ow or cannot describe in detail the way which others must follow to reach the go al. Such men are not the teaching masters, and should not be mistaken for them.. .The man of enlightenment who has never been a learner, who suddenly gained his state by the overwhelming good karma of previous lives, is less able to teach ot hers than the one who slowly and laboriously worked his way into the state - who remembers the trials, pitfalls, and difficulties he had to overcome." (1a) The true witness attitude traditionally requires a freeing of attention from

the limiting nature of the five sheaths or coverings over the soul and its groun ding in the heart-root where it originates. This is rarely achieved without a gr eat deal of maturity and help. To release the conceptual mind and its reactivity into choiceless awareness leads to identification with the transcendental witness self only in the fullest maturity of practice, which is not just a mental exerc ise, but a life in which the body-mind is submitted to that which sustains and t ranscends it. Otherwise non-duality is reduced to mere talk. It is not our intention to pidgeon-hole spiritual teachers or adepts, for suc h a task is fraught with peril. He who tries to distinguish a Saint from a Saint starts headlong for hell. rpal Singh (2)

- Ki

The extent of any other man s enlightenment is not easily measurable, much less so in those cases where the other is no longer alive or has never been met. - Pau l Brunton (3) On the other hand, our discrimination is all the protection we have, and must be used to its fullest capacity. It has also been said, By their fruits ye shall know them. Krishnamurti nearing his death, hooked up to an I.V. morphine drip be cause of a painful cancer, lamented that not ONE of his students had understood what he was saying. According to the book, One Thousand Moons, the author, Asit Chandmal, a friend of Krishnamurti, asks: Has even one single human being been t ransformed as a result of applying your teaching? Krishnamurti answers: the ques tion brings tears to my eyes..." Before he died he said into a tape recorder: Whe re did I go wrong, no one got it. He confessed, moreover, what I find quite unusual in light of the general nat ure of his teaching, that he himself had failed in what he considered essential for spiritual development, which was a transmutation of the brain cells, somethi ng I would expect more to hear from someone like Sri Aurobindo than J.K. Brunton was of the opinion that while Krishnamurti saw through much of the se lf-deception and exploitation in religion and mysticism, he yet was grappling wi th the truth and would not finish his sadhana until he accepted a genuine guide. (4) On the other hand, he also once remarked that what Krishnamurti taught was absolutely correct, but relatively inaccessible for 99% of his followers. Yet he no doubt helped many people, and the Dalai Lama praised him saying, "Krishnamur ti is one of the greatest philosophers of the age." Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj wen t so far as to say, "People who don't understand Krishnamurti don't understand t hemselves." He was an iconoclast and an individual of extreme self-reliance; thi s was his genius, but perhaps also a limitation. For many listeners, "choiceless awareness" by itself easily leads to an intellectual effort, or even no effort, which becomes no practice, and no realization, the path vague, and the "pathles s path" a concept the ego easily can hide within. The advice to keep the mind 'o pen', and with any effort to control it seen as making it dull, is good advice but only for one who has developed some preliminary ability to cultivate a cent er of awareness. To simply relax the mind as a primary discipline prior to havin g developed mindfulness or self-remembrance to a significant degree is to risk l anguishing in the subconscious with little real progress made. That is why nobod y - or very few - 'got it'. Uppaluria Gopala (U.G.) Krishnamurti (1918-2007) was raised by his maternal g randparents in Masulipatam, South India. His grandfather was also a Theosophist and the boy was exposed to the teachings of many philosophies, religions. occult ists, gurus, and pundits from his early childhood. (For a moment, just imagine h ow different that would be from the majority of baby-boomers who spent our forma tive years mostly watching TV!) In this respect he was similar to J. Krishnamurt

i (no relation). Between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one he practiced differ ent kinds of yoga, including spending seven summers in the company of the reknow n Swami Sivananda at his ashram in Rishikesh, and experienced many forms of tran ce states, but felt that none of them were the equivalent of liberation or moksh a. This in itself is an astounding insight to have at such a young age. He once met the great Ramana Maharshi and asked the sage to give him all that he had, but Maharshi replied, I can give you, but can you take it? This shocked U.G. and cause d him to question, what is it that has, and why can t I take it? He felt he had to p ursue his own uncharted course and find the answer to this question, and he left R amana, although he later admitted that the encounter changed the course of his l ife and had put him on the right track . This is revealing in that U.G. would come to argue that no one could help anyone realize truth, but how did he know whethe r the invisible transmission from Ramana was not the agent of grace for him? Why didn t he stick around for a while and see? When his grandfather died U.G. inherited a large sum of money, which gave him the relative freedom to continue his search. He became active in the Theosophic al Society and gave lectures for ten years [Why? Was it just for the money? - as by all impressions U.G. didn't believe in these kind of teachings anymore]. In the late 1940 s he began to involve himself with J. Krishnamurti (in later years h e lived near him in Switzerland, and an amusing play went on with people going f rom one Krishnamurti to another) and listened to J.K. for seven years before act ually meeting him personally. After a number of daily dialogues between the two U.G. came to the conclusion, to his great disappointment, that the "other Krishn amurti" could no more communicate what he wanted to know than Ramana Maharshi, a nd he left him also. He later derided J.K., referring to him as the old maid , a vi ctim of distorted thinking , a complete fraud , and a Victorian has-been spouting pure hogwash. In his mid-twenties U.G. married and eventually had four children. He felt as soon as the day after the wedding that he marriage had been a mistake. He spent much of the fortune that he received from his grandfather on medical treatment for his eldest son, and secured his wife a job with the World Book Encyclopedia so he could wander alone. He moved to new York, then London, and then Paris. Fin ally, broke and alone, he described himself thus: I was like a leaf blown about by a fickle wind, with neither past or future, n either family nor career, nor any sort of spiritual fulfillment. I was slowly lo sing my will power to do anything. I was not rejecting or renouncing the world; it was just drifting away from me and I was unable and unwilling to hold onto it . (5) At this point U.G. entered the Indian Consulate office in Geneva and threw hi mself upon their mercy, asking to be repatriated to India. A secretary in the Co nsulate, Valentine deKerven, felt sympathy for U.G. and lived with him and supor ted him for the next four years. During this period U.G. did nothing. I slept, re ad the Time magazine, ate, and went for walks with Valentine or alone That was a ll. The two lived as migrating householders, spending their summers in the Swiss valley of Saanen, where J.Krishnamurti held talks and gatherings. Since the age of thirty-five U.G. began having painful headaches, having larg e amounts of coffee and aspirin to deal with the pain. According to biographer T erry Newland U.G. began to look younger at this time. By the time he was forty-n ine he looked like he was seventeen or eighteen, after which he aged again. He b egan to have periods of what he called headlessness" and developed various occult abilities, which he called man s natural powers and instincts. In his forty-ninth year U.G. began to feel an upheavel within himself that la sted six years and ended in what he called the calamity . He described this as bein g a simple withering away of the will , culminating in a death experience that subs

equently produced physical changes in his entire system. Ironically, it was his hearing a talk by J. Krishnamurti on the free man that appeared to catalyze this f inal event. He felt that J.K. was describing him.. Afterwards he thought: I have searched everywhere to find an answer to my question, is there enlighten ment?, but have never questioned the search itself. Because I have assumed the g oal, enlightenment, exists, I have had to search, and it is the search itself wh ich has been choking me and keeping me out of my natural state. There is no such thing as spiritual or psychological enlightenment because there is no such thin g as spirit or psyche at all. I have been a damn fool all my life, searching for something which does not exist. My search is at an end. (6) All those who seek shall find, said Christ. So U.G. did much seeking and he fou nd is answer, but it was not what he was expecting. Nevertheless, his search was fruitful. The apparent collapse of the structure or identification with a separ ate self released great force into U.G. s body. "It was a prelude to his clinical death on his forty-ninth birthday, and the be ginning of the most incredible bodily changes and experiences that would catapul t him into a state that is difficult to understand within the framework of our h itherto known mystical or enlightenment traditions. His experiences were not the blissful or transcendental experiences most mystics speak of, but a physical tor ture triggered by an explosion of energy in his body that eventually left him in what he calls the natural state ." "For seven days, UG s body underwent tremendous changes. The whole chemistry of the body, including the five senses, was transformed. His eyes stopped blinking ; his skin turned soft; and when he rubbed any part of his body with his palm it produced a sort of ash. He developed a female breast on his left-hand side. His senses started functioning independently and at their peak of sensitivity. And the thymus gland which, according to doctors is active throughout childhood and then becomes dormant at puberty, was reactivated. All the thoughts of man from t ime immemorial, all experiences, whether good or bad, blissful or miserable, ter rific or terrible, mystical or commonplace, experienced by humanity from primord ial times (the whole collective consciousness ) were flushed out of his system, and on the seventh day, he died but only to be reborn in undivided consciousness . It wa s a terrific journey and a sudden great leap into the primordial state untouched by thought." (6a) Kundalini experiences occurred, and several times a day he experienced a shut -down of all bodily processes, in which the heart rate and body temperature decr eased dramatically and his entire body would get stiff. Just when the shutdown w ould appear to be almost complete his system would kick on again until everything was functioning normally. For a year afterwards U.G. did not or could not speak, but then he began spea king tirelessly. He insisted that the calamity happened without his voliton and de spite his religious and spiritual background [how did he know this?] , and that it could not be used as a model to be duplicated by others. Because of the physi cal changes in his body U.G. sometimes argued that enlightenment was more of a p hysiological than a psychological event. On this he was right in a sense, since it is the psyche itself that is transcended, but enlightenment or realization, i f scriptures and the confession of realizers be our guide, is not merely a physi cal transformation, but a total psycho-physical and spiritual realization in or of consciousness. It is commonly said to be the realization of Consciousness its elf, with oftentimes secondary effects in the body-mind, which may vary from ind ividual to individual. As Wei Wu Wei states (which is an important aspect to not e but which we feel is still only part of a total transformation): "Nothing happens to anything, nothing is changed, there is no psycho-somatic

event at all; mind is unaffected. It is just the recovery of clear vision. It ha s no objective existence: it is a purely subjective adjustment. It is not phenom enal: it has no direct body-mind impact. It is entirely noumenal: its existence is intemporal, and it does not manifest phenomenally. It is essentially imperson al - the impersonalisation of a pseudo-individual psyche. It is a looking in the right direction: it is a sudden understanding that there is no I subject to tim e." (6b) It is a little hard to take U.G. s assertion seriously, however, that it is a c ompletely random process, with no help available from anyone, including spiritua l masters, saints, or sages, whom he felt, like J.K., were for the most part fra uds. Who knows, however, perhaps his search would have ended much sooner if he h ad stayed with Ramana Maharshi? Perhaps not. In any case, it is obvious that U.G . had alot of help, including those who instructed him in his early practices as a youth, the grace of God in the form of his grandfather who left him alot of m oney, the nice lady from the Consulate who supported him for years, the presence of Maharshi and the teaching influence of J.Krishnamurti. Nevertheless U.G. sta ted: I discovered for myself and by myself that there is no self to realize - that s the realization I am talking about. It comes as a shattering blow [perhaps, if y ou are not expecting it]. It hits you like a thunderbolt [perhaps again, or it c ould fall as the gentle rain from heaven ]. You have invested everything in one bas ket, self-realization, and, in the end, suddenly you discover that there is no s elf to discover, no self to realize [no self that you can think about] - and you say to yourself, What the hell have I been doing all my life! That blasts you [bu t 'who' says this? 'Who' gets blasted?]. All kinds of things happened to me - I went through that, you see [again, 'wh o' went through this?]. The physical pain was unbearable - that is why I say you really don t want this. I wish I could give you a glimpse of it, a touch of it then you wouldn t want to touch this at all [that s the purpose of practice, and, as Ramana Maharshi said, the company of the sage, so that you will gradually get u sed to it and will not fear such a state, which is your real nature, the Self, o r no-self, take your pick: the reality]. What you are pursuing doesn t exist; it i s a myth. You wouldn t want anything to do with this." "My interest is in pointing out the utter impossibility of doing anything wha tsoever to attain the natural state..To those who come because they seriously wi sh to understand me, all I can say is that I have nothing to say [sounds like he said alot]. I cannot help anyone at all, and neither can anyone else. You do no t need help; on the contrary, you need to be totally helpless - and if you seek to achieve this helplessness with my help, you are lost." "It is total surrender, throwing in the towel, throwing in the sponge - and w hat comes out of this is jnana (wisdom)...All those to whom this kind of thing h as happened have really worked very hard [exactly], touched rock bottom, staked everything. It does not come easily. It is not handed over to you on a gold plat ter by somebody (7) [but why 'stake everything' if it is 'something no one wants' , and is 'not attainable?' U.G. leaves one with nothing - which supposedly was h is intention]. It is difficult not to agree with U.G. on certain points, and his candor is r efreshing. Two things might be said, however. One, if no one can help you, as he claimed, then why did he even bother to teach? If no one can help you, furtherm ore, then why did his encounter with Ramana Maharshi put him on the right track ?, and why did his awakening just happen to coincide with a talk by J. Krishnamurti that seemed to describe his own state so closely? U.G. seems to have been unnec essarily obscure here, and it may simply be because his own background did not f ully prepare him, nor was he purified enough to handle, the events of his awaken

ing without great upheavel and trauma, nor did he understand it fully in order t o be able to teach others in an effective rather than enigmatic manner. For Rama na there was no such agony or bewilderment. Moreover, scriptures agree that the ego must realize its helplessness, but also that there is certainly help for suc h a revelation. Effort and grace coincide, and the traditions proclaim that the company of enlightened sages, if one can find one, may be an agent of grace that helps in effecting realization in a prepared individual. Such grace does not wo rk in a capricious fashion, but in a divinely synchronous and spontaneous one, w ith much of it effective on levels that are unconscious to the waking mind of th e practitioner. It is therefore possible that U.G. s awakening was a result of a delayed recept ion of the transmission from Maharshi. It is true, no one can help you as an ego , but to argue that divine help is not available for the ego s undermining, or the Being coming to Self-Recognition, is unwarranted. All we need do is compare U.G .'s meeting with Ramana with Papaji's account of his own realization through the Maharshi's grace. [Papaji also had many mystical experiences throughout his ear ly life and did much sadhana before coming to the sage. He was ripe. His mind ha d achieved devotional one-pointedness and he could see the form of his ishta-gur u Krishna at will. He then reached a state of mental calm, and received a final stroke from Ramana that totally transformed his being. True, he said that if he had heard of Ramana's inquiry "Who am I?" when he was six years old it would hav e saved him years spent in devotion, but who knows how it might be for someone e lse?] Yes, no one gets enlightened. As Adyashanti has said, only enlightenment g ets enlightened. Or in PB s terms, the Void Mind knows itself. But, is even that t rue? The ego is said to die in the heart and the Self is realized. Is it the Abs olute Self that is thus realized, however, or the Soul? The awakening is paradox ical but not as bereft of articulation as U.G. can make it out to be. Thousands have travelled this road before him and left their testimony. U.G. continues: I have no message for mankind, but of one thing I am certain, I cannot help yo u, I cannot help you solve your basic dilemma or save you from self-deception, a nd if I can t help you, no one can. (8) Of course U.G. or anyone else as an ego can t help solve anyone s basic dilemma o f false identification, of feeling separate, but the dilemma can be revealed, if the disciple becomes willing to allow this revelation, after reaching the end o f his tether, and with all available help. We see that both of these men were gifted with an early life rich in contact with sources of remembering truth. They both also had yogic and mystical process es of a dramatic nature arise either spontaneously or by way of practices of one sort or another. They both finally reached a point of seeing jnana or true know ledge as not being the possession or experience of the ego and conceptual mind, and both also went on to teach that the idea of a teacher was bogus, and therefo re by inference, one might come to assume that so is grace as well. The only con clusion I can draw from all this is that their understanding, while genuine, and even useful, was yet incomplete. [The needed balance is found in the work of Pa ul Brunton on the "Long Path" and the "Short Path." Both of these teachers benef itted from the former, but upon graduating to the latter, unnecessarily denounce d the former as bogus, whereas the two approaches taken together are required in most cases. See The Long and Short of It on this website]. Yet all teachers are worthy of our gratitude, and the testimony and company o f spiritual friends everywhere our blessing. There is help to be found at every step. As Kirpal Singh even said, there are books in rivulets, and sermons in ston es. To tell you the truth, I kind of like these guys.

Sri Aurobindo and the Integral Yoga:

"The Ultimate Construction project"

by Peter Holleran Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was an Indian patriot, philosopher and spiritual ma ster. His written works encompass many areas, from the political and spiritual r enaissance of modern India to the intricacies of yoga and the descent of what he called the "Supramental Consciousness . This western-educated visionary and yogi attempted to create a synthesis of various yoga traditions and ideas of social a nd spiritual evolution. His work has parallels with the ground-breaking syncreti sm of Paul Brunton as well as the vision of contemporary non-dualist teachers in attempting to outline a spirituality that does not deny the world as traditiona l yoga and mysticism tended to do. His is, therefore, an important work in the h istory of spiritual philosophy, an analysis of which constitutes the purpose of this essay. Many thanks go to Alan Berkowitz and Don Maslow for critical input a nd editorial help. At the age of seven Sri Aurobindo's father sent him to England for schooling, where he was placed in the care of a Protestant minister and his family who wer e given strict instructions to keep him and his two brothers ignorant of their I ndian background. He remained in England for fourteen years during which time he helped organize a group known as the Indian Majlis that advocated Indian indepe ndence. He returned to India in 1893 and became professor of Sanskrit and modern Indian languages in Baroda, and eventually Vice-President of Baroda College. In 1906 he moved to Calcutta where he became active in the independence movement i n Bengal. He came to the realization early on, however, that the fate of the Ind ians was not the fault of the British, but of themselves: "Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our purblind sentimentalism." (1) In 1910 he left politics to work solely for the fulfillment of his vision of human unity through the spiritual development of the system he called "Integral Yoga". Aurobindo was critical of the popular interpretations of yoga and spiritu ality, and felt that they were incomplete, being based almost universally on a m odel of spiritual development that had the ascent of consciousness (or a radical separation of consciousness from the body) as its goal. To Aurobindo only a com plete divinization of the body and world would fulfill the hidden meanings of th e ancient Vedic wisdom, which he felt it was his mission to uncover for mankind. Aurobindo's spiritual adventure began in earnest after a meeting he had with a yogi named Vishnu Bhaskar Lele. The two spent three days together in a solitar y room during which time Lele told him, "see the thoughts entering from the outs ide. Fling them back, do not let them enter." The result of this was that Aurobi ndo had a change of consciousness in which he experienced, in his own words, the "divine Silence". In 1933 he wrote a beautiful poem, "Nirvana", describing this state. In 1938 he wrote another called "Liberation". While using the term Nirva na, he later affirmed that this was only the beginning of his realization: "I had experience of Nirvana and Silence in Brahman long before I had any kno wledge of the overhead spiritual planes." (2) Whether this initial breakthrough was a realization of Nirvikalpa or Jnana Samad hi (two forms of absorptive, ego-less trance), or some type of Satori, is diffic ult to know. It sounds very much like what many sages describe as the inner Void where the "I" has temporarily disappeared. Again, this is poetry, not philosoph y. What is certain is that Aurobindo later argued for a state or condition that

was superior to the realization of the traditional mystical or yogic variety; he attested to the need for, not merely the ascent of consciousness and celestial union with the Divine, but the descent of Divine light, and a transformation of the body. Aurobindo, with his earlier confession, then, either de-emphasized wha t he called "Nirvana" and "knowledge of Brahman", placing more value on the even tual transformative process that he felt divinized the body-mind, or he was ackn owledging the primacy of first achieving direct insight of the inner being (ie., the experience, in his case, of "silence in Brahman") before the possibilities of ascended yoga (i.e., "knowledge of the overhead spiritual planes"), and, as h e proposed, the subsequent descent of the divine light into the earth plane. [Pr oblematic at the outset is this idiosyncratic use of the word Nirvana , which has n o correlation with the traditional meaning. This will be discussed further on]. It is fairly clear, however, from his poem, "The Inner Fields", that Sri Aurobin do believed in an emanationist philosophy similar to that of Plotinus and Sant M at, in which there were reflections upon reflections of inner planes, with each higher realm more immediately expressing the beauty and divinity of the ultimate Reality. Aurobindo, nevertheless, criticized mystical ascension as incomplete, and arg ued for the necessity of what he called the "Supramental" transformation, which entailed the fulfillment of a simultaneous process of both ascent (of consciousn ess) and descent (of divine light). A detailed analysis and comparison of his te aching is required at this point, because at first glance it has parallels with that of other sages. There are, however, significant differences as well. Before I begin my comentary and analysis, here is a summary from the Sri Aurobindo Soc iety on the differences between the vision of Sri Aurobindo and that of traditio nal yoga, and which also contains much useful advice. [One thing that becomes cl ear from this synopsis is that despite his integration of all traditional forms of yoga, for Aurobindo the path of Bhakti was the best way to invoke the Divine Shakti, which then creates and fulfills one's sadhana. He spoke of constant reme mbrance leading to Union, and also advised, for the jnana aspect, to always keep aware that one is not the body, vital, or the mind but an eternal, immortal ent ity that contains and at the same time transcends the universe. This sounds nondual, except for the entity part. I may be nitpicking, but the idea or suggested idea that there is an 'entity' or a 'something' that achieves Union seem like t he weak points in the philosophy, more of which will be discussed later. At the same time it is conceded that these may be only semantic difficulties in accurat ely communicating Sri Aurobindo s thought. In Buddhism, however, the notion of an entity would generally be taken apart. For PB and Plotinus, however, there is no difficulty in positting a transcendental Divine Soul that paradoxically knows i ts individuality from within the Absolute or Universal Soul or being, a point as it were within the World Mind, where a sutra-atma would still be philosophically acceptable within a non-dual context]. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo (which he also referred to as synthetic, S upramental, or purna yoga) advocated a total transformation: physical, vital, me ntal, and spiritual. In the big picture which he envisioned, moreover, this tran sformation was for the purpose of not merely individual, but cosmic, salvation. The liberation of the individual was, for Aurobindo, an illusion; what was requi red was the divinization of the totality of the cosmos, and to literally bring t he Kingdom of God on earth. Liberation of the spirit from the cycle of birth and death was not sufficient for the perfection of man's spiritual realization, he felt; rather, the very cells of the body must be brought into contact with the d ivine light. The rare phenomenon of the divine body (jyotir maya deha - "radiant or luminous body") was to be the goal of all yogic endeavor. Until that was ach ieved, said Aurobindo, realization was not perfect. At the outset it may be stated that to even discuss this material is now diff icult, because both Aurobindo and his companion, the Mother, are gone. So much i n his teaching sounds similar to what is described in other teachings, yet also

different , and any argument one puts forth may run into a wall of semantic diff iculty. For instance, saying that the cells of the body must be brought into con tact with the divine light may be taken as presuming that they are not already i n such contact, and further, that there exists a someone who must do this or achie ve it, and finally, that the divine light must literally come down . Ramana Maharsh i denied all of these assertions. He seemed to subtly poke fun at yogis, for ins tance, who talked of nectar dripping down from the sahasrar. Compared to realizati on of the Self he felt that was of no value. The teachings of mentalism of PB an d Atmananda for the most part denied it, if not as possible, as not necessary. F or a sage like Atmananda, for instance, liberation is not merely going beyond bir th and death, but rather, going beyond the delusion of birth and death. (from Spi ritual Discourses) Therefore he would see no need to attempt to transform the ce lls of the body, to create a divine body, or have the body dematerialize into li ght - although all these things are possible and have in fact been reported in t he yogic literature, and may even be part of man's evolutionary future. On the o ther hand (and there always seems like an on the other hand , doesn t there?) PB spok e of preparatory practices as necessary for the influx of a higher power into th e body: Another reason for the need of the Long Path's preparatory work is that the mi nd, nerves, emotions, and body of the man shall be gradually made capable of sus taining the influx of the Solar force, or Spirit-Energy." (3) And he further asks: "Most Short Path teachings lack a cosmogony. They evade the fact that God is, and must be, present on the plane of manifestation and expressing through the e ntire universe. Why?" (4) In the Neo-Platonic tradition, moreover, philosophers such as Iamblicus expre ssed a tremendous concern with theurgy - practices to bring about a divine desce nt of the Gods onto earth - using rituals to make a certain kind of influence de scend. In the modern sense these rituals may be as simple as petitionary prayer, o r invocation, and meditation. So why, we must ask, could there not be a further spiritualization of the body, and endless spiral of spiritual evolution within the manifest play even after enlightenment, as PB himself once proposed? Such would not be incompatible with a non-dual position. This form of naive criticism only comes in, it will be suggested, when it is assumed that the higher stages, such as proposed by Aurobindo, are stages achieved or fulfilled by the ego, and not the Soul. It must be noted, moreover, that even some non-dual teachers have desc ribed a post-awakening cellular transformation similar to that mentioned by Sri Aurobindo. Even an apparently other-worldly path such as Sant Mat uses such langua ge at times and speaks of the Divine permeating every pore of one s body. Sant Kir pal Singh said: The consciousness is first tuned inward so as to contact the Inner Sound Princ iple, and then as it comes down saturated in the divine it is turned without, co nverting the preparation into an Amrit. It is only a competent Master (a true Kh alsa with full refulgent light in him) who can, by his glance of grace, prepare the Amrit, and whoever partakes of It becomes truly intuned. (5) Papaji describes his realization in terms of both a bodly transformation as w ell as an awakening from a dream. Perhaps the system of Sri Aurobindo was not metaphysically airtight, but in a s much as he was attempting to subjectively describe a process that was often by passed or ignored in popular yoga, leading to something like sahaj, wherein the world is not denied or negated, then much of what he said will have clear value. Let us see, however, if we can break it down for our better understanding.

There are three main stages, a "Triple transformation", in the progression of the Integral Yoga: the Psychic, the Spiritual, and the Supramental. Psychicizat ion "joins the depth of the being with the surface". The Psychic Being, accordin g to Aurobindo, resides behind the heart and must be brought forward in order fo r the divine force to be enabled to descend and progressively liberate the head, the heart, and the navel. Right here it seems that he is saying that bringing forward the psychic being which lies behind the heart does not in itself liberate the heart, mind, or navel, but somehow produces an equanimitous condition which itself is conducive to the descent of the divine force which will then affect such liberation. This seems t o mean a relative yogic purification and not to be confused with final liberatio n or enlightenment as spoken of in the scriptures. That is, there are stages of evolution on the way to enlightenment, if you will, that must not be confused wi th ultimate or final enlightenment itself but are preparation for it. I realize that some contemporary non-duals will scream at me for saying that. So be it. I am simply presenting a doctrine and my interpretaton could be wrong. Sri Aurobin do appears to be saying, however, that there is a point in one s path where the So ul, or higher part of the Soul, to use the terminology of the ancients, which Sr i Aurobindo calls the Psychic Being , begins to guide one onwards. The Psychic Being is the highest part of the emotional being, the 'deputy' of the Jivatman (which he said resides above the head), the 'flame born out of the divine', the 'concealed Witness and Control', and the 'hidden guide'. Through s elf-surrender to the divine by mind, heart, and will the Psychic Being will open , and the surface ego-consciousness will be replaced with the self-consciousness of the Psychic. The opening of the Psychic Being brings "not knowledge but an e ssential or spiritual feeling - it has the clearest sense of Truth and a sort of inherent perception of it." To Aurobindo this stage of bringing forward of the Psychic is a most crucial one for on it rests the entire process that follows. H e also considers the Psychic Being an "indestructible spark of the divine", and that by which we exist as individual beings in the world. The transformation of the Psychic is essentially an emotional transformation. To me this seems to be s aying that the King within , the Divine Soul, takes a hand in the work of liberatio n when the jiva or ego-self is truly serious. The emanent of the Soul, its lower part, to use Plotinus term, must try as hard as it can, make all necessary effor ts, before the Higher Will , as Anthony Damiani put it, comes down to complete the wo rk. This implies more advanced stages to come after the process of heart-awakeni ng and spiritual glimpses begins during Psychicisation. These develop on the bas is of a heart-surrendered ego-I, and are not therefore personal attainments by a willful separate self, but processes of evolution guided by the Soul and the No us. This may be something, therefore, that Short Path advocates and radical advait ists may dismiss since it is not in their experience. But that does not mean tha t it is not real. While I do not necessarily fully agree with it, the Kheper web site offers an interpretation of Psychicisation that is worth considering. Among other things, he equates the Psychic Being with the "Immortal Ego" of Theosophy , "higher manas", and other terms in various traditions. While "Psychicization means the joining of the depths of the being to the sur face, "Spiritualization" means the uniting of the manifested existence with what is above it." (6) Once Psychicization is achieved, a process of ascent of consc iousness is initiated, with an accompanying or simultaneous descent of divine li ght. This entire process, once again, can be considered one in which the Soul come s forth to guide and watch over the aspirant. Aurobindo said [the following exce rpt is passage is long but worth reading]: A the crust of the outer nature cracks, as the walls of inner separation break down, the inner light gets through, the inner fire burns in the heart, the subs

tance of the nature and the stuff of consciousness refine to a greater subtlety and purity, and the deeper psychic experiences, those which are not solely of an inner mental or inner vital character, become possible in this subtler, purer, finer substance; the soul begins to unveil itself, the psychic personality reach es its full stature. The soul, the psychic entity, then manifests itself as the central being which upholds mind and life and body and supports all the other po wers and functions of the Spirit; it takes up its greater function as the guide and ruler of the nature [note: Anthony Damiani's reference to the King within ] . A guidance, a governance begins from within which exposes every movement of the l ight of Truth, repels what is false, obscure, opposed to the divine realisation, every region of the being, every nook and corner of it, every movement, formati on, direction, propensity, desire, habit of the conscious or subconscious physic al, even the most concealed, camouflaged, mute, recondite, is lighted up with th e unerring psychic light, their confusions dissipated, their tangles disentangle d, their obscurities, deceptions, self-deceptions precisely modulated in the psy chic key, put in spiritual order. This process may be rapid or tardy according t o the amount of obscurity and resistance still left in the nature, but it goes o n unfalteringly so long as it is not complete. As a final result the whole consc ious being is made perfectly apt for spiritual experience of every kind, turned towards spiritual truth of thought, feeling, sense, action, tuned to the right r esponses, delivered from darkness and stubborness of the tamasic inertia, the tu rbidities and trubulences of the rajasic passion and restless unharmonised kinet ism, the enlightened rigidities and sattwic limitations or poised balancements o f constructed equilibrium which are the character of ignorance. This is the first result, but the second is a free inflow of all kinds of spi ritual experience, experience of the Self, experience of Ishwara and the Divine Shakti, experience of cosmic consciousness, a direct touch with cosmic forces an d with the occult movements of universal Nature, a psychic sympathy and unity an d inner communication and interchanges of all kinds with other beings and with n ature, illumination of the mind by knowledge, illumination of the heart by love and devotion and spiritual joy and ecstasy, illuminations of the sense and the b ody by higher expereince, illuminations of dynamic action in the truth and large ness of a purified mind and heart and soul, the certitudes of divine light and g uidance, the joy and power of the divine force working in the will and the condu ct... But all this change and all this experience, though psychic and spiritual in essence and character, would still be, in its parts of life-effectuation, on the mental,vital and physical level; its dynamic spiritual outcome would be a flowe ring of the soul in mind and life and body, but in act and form it would be circ umscribed within the limitations - however enlarged, uplifted and rarified - of an inferior instrumentation. It would be a reflected and modified manifestation of things whose full reality, intensity, largeness, oneness and diversity of tru th and power and delight are above us, above mind and therefore above any perfec tion, within mind s own formula, of the foundations or superstructure of our prese nt nature. A highest spiritual transformation must intervene on the psychic or p sycho-spiritual change; the psychic movement inward to the inner being, the Self or Divinity within us, must be completed by an opening upward toward a supreme spiritual status or a higher existence. This can be done by our opening into wha t is above us, by an essent of consciousness into the ranges of overmind and sup ramental nature in which the sense of self and spirit is ever unveiled and perma nent and in which the self-luminous instrumentation of the self and spirit is no t restricted or divided as in our mind-nature, life-nature, body-nature. This al so the psychic change makes possible for as it opens us to the cosmic consciousn ess now hidden from us by many walls of limited individuality, so also it opens us to what is now superconscient to our normality because it is hidden from us b y the strong, hard and bright lid of mind, - mind constricting, dividing and sep arative. The lid thins, is slit, breaks asunder or opens and disappears under th e pressure of the psycho-spiritual change and the natural urge of the new spirit

ualised consciousness towards that of which it is an expression here... If the the rift in the lid of mind is made, what happens is an opening of vis ion to something above us or rising up towards it or a descent of its powers int o our being. What we see by the opening of the vision is an Infinity above us, a n eternal Presence or an infinite Existence, an infinity of consciousness, an in finity of bliss, - a boundless Self, a boundless Light, a boundless Power, a bou ndless Ecstasy... [The spiritual transformation] achieves itself and culminates in an upward as cent often repeated by which consciousness fixes itself on a higher plane and fr om there sees and governs the mind, life and body; it achieves itself also in an increasing descent of the powers of the higher consciousness and knowledge whic h become more and more the whole normal consciousness and knowledge. A light and power, a knowledge and force are felt which first take possession of the mind a nd remould it, afterwards of the life part and remould that, finally of the phys ical conscousness and leave it no longer little but wide and plastic and even in finite. For this new consciousness has itself the nature of infinity: it brings to us the abiding spiritual sense and awareness of the infinite and eternal with a great largeness of the nature and a breaking down of its limitations; immorta lity becomes no longer a belief or an experience but a normal self-awareness; th e close presence of the Divine Being, his rule of this world and of our self and natural members, his force working in us and everywhere, the peace of the infin ite, the joy of the infinite are now concrete and constant in the being; in all sights and forms one sees the Eternal, the Reality, in all sounds one ears it, i n all touch one feels it; there is nothing else but its forms and personalities and manifestations; the joy or adoration of the heart, the embrace of all existe nce, the unity of the spirit are abiding realities. the consciousness of the men tal creature is turning or has been already turned wholly into the consciousness of the spiritual being. (LD 941-947) So far, so good. Aurobindo, then makes the argument, however, that only now c an the supramental transformation begin, something that must happen, on earth, a nd for man s furher spiritual evolution to complete itself: Neither life or mind succeeds in converting or perfecting the material existen ce, because they cannot attain to their own full force in these conditions; they need to call in a higher power to liberate and fulfill them. But the higher spi ritual-mental powers also undergo the same disability when they descend into lif e and matter; they can do much more, achieve much luminous change, but the modif ication, the limitation, the disparity between the consciousness that comes in a nd the force of effectuation that it can mentalise and materialise, are constant ly there and the result is a diminished creation. The change made is often extra ordinary, there is even something which looks like a total conversion and revers al of the state of consciousness and an uplifting of its movements, but it is no t dynamically absolute. Only the supermind can thus descend without losing its full power of action; for its action is always intrinsic and automatic, its will and knowledge identic al and the result commensurate; its nature is a self-achieving Truth-consciousne ss and, if it limits itself or its working, it is by choice and intention, not b y compulsion; in the limits it chooses its action and the results of its action are harmonious and inevitable...As the psychic change has to call in the spiritu al to complete it, so the first spiritual change has to call in the supramental transformation to complete it. For all these steps forward are, like those befor e them, transitional; the whole radical change in the evolution from a basis of ignorance to a basis of Knowledge can only come by the intervention of the supra mental Power and its direct action in earth-existence. (LD 950-951) Before going further, it must again be emphasized how important this issue of

Psychicizaton is to all that comes after it in the Integral Yoga. Ascent into t he suble planes without the grounding in this higher feeling nature, and moreove r, as Aurobindo said, surrender of the heart, mind, and will which induces the bri nging forth of the Psychic nature, one will run into trouble ascending into the overhead subtle planes, which he terms The Intermediate Zone. Alan Kazlev, in hi s article The Wilberian Paradigm A Fourfold Critique: Towards a Larger Definitio n of the Integral, Part Two, found in the Journal Antimatters, published quarter ly by Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Podicherry, India, discus ses these concepts and argues that without the development and purification brou ght about by the Psychic Being one can end up with a diluted form of spiritualit y in which a teacher, while possessing a greater or lesser degree of non-dual rea lisation, even total self-realisation on the mental or consciousness level, [one ] nevertheless retain ego, and can often have a destructive and abusive effect o n their disciples and devotees. To understand how this can be so, we need to loo k at the Intermediate Zone. The Intermediate zone, in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy , refers to a dangerous and misleading transitional spiritual and pseudospiritua l region between the ordinary consciousness of the outer being and true spiritua l realisation. To quote the master of Integral Yoga: "These things, when they pour down or come in, present themselves with a grea t force, a vivid sense of inspiration or illumination, much sensation of light a nd joy, an impression of widening and power. The sadhak feels himself freed from the normal limits, projected into a wonderful new world of experience, filled a nd enlarged and exalted;what comes associates itself, besides, with his aspirati ons, ambitions, notions of spiritual fulfilment and yogic siddhi; it is represen ted even as itself that realisation and fulfilment. Very easily he is carried aw ay by the splendour and the rush, and thinks that he has realised more than he h as truly done, something final or at least something sovereignly true. At this s tage the necessary knowledge and experience are usually lacking which would tell him that this is only a very uncertain and mixed beginning; he may not realise at once that he is still in the cosmic Ignorance, not in the cosmic Truth, much less in the Transcendental Truth, and that whatever formative or dynamic idea-tr uths may have come down into him are partial only and yet further diminished by their presentation to him by a still mixed consciousness. He may fail to realise also that if he rushes to apply what he is realising or receiving as if it were something definitive, he may either fall into confusion and error or else get s hut up in some partial formation in which there may be an element of spiritual T ruth but it is likely to be outweighted by more dubious mental and vital accreti ons that deform it altogether." (7) Sri Aurobindo suggests that the awakening of the Soul or Divine Center (the " Psychic Entity"), is an understanding that is absent or not acknowledged in many non-dual paradigms. He explains: "The other parts of our natural composition are not only mutable but perishab le; but the psychic entity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all essential possibilities of our manifestation but is not constitu ted by them; it is not limited by what it manifests, not contained by the incomp lete forms of the manifestation, not tarnished by the imperfections and impuriti es, the defects and depravations of the surface being. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame. This spiritual s tuff is immaculate and luminous and, because it is perfectly luminous, it is imm ediately, intimately, directly aware of truth of being and truth of nature; it i s deeply conscious of truth and good and beauty because truth and good and beaut y are akin to its own native character, forms of something that is inherent in i ts own substance. It is aware also of all that contradicts these things, of all that deviates from its own native character, of falsehood and evil and the ugly and the unseemly; but it does not become these things nor is it touched or chang ed by these opposites of itself which so powerfully affect its outer instrumenta

tion of mind, life and body. For the soul, the permanent being in us, puts forth and uses mind, life and body as its instruments, undergoes the envelopment of t heir conditions, but it is other and greater than its members." (8) Kazlev summarizes that this stage of realization is not the Paramatman, not Sh unyata, not any Transcendent Absolute Reality. It is the Inner Divine center, al though it is often due to the lack of spiritual development in many veiled and h idden from the surface personality and ordinary consciousness. One can find anal ogies in other spiritual teachings; the Inner Guide or "Man of Light" in some He rmetic and Sufi beliefs, some interpretations of the Neshamah or higher Soul in Kabbalah, the Higher Manas in Blavatskyan Theosophy (and equivalents in Neo-Theo sophy), the "Holy Guardian Angel" in contemporary occultism, the, to some extent , "good heart" in the 14th Dalai Lama's teachings. The Psychic Entity' of Sri Aurobindo might be compared with a term of master D askalos, who used the words, Permanent Personality . According to a colleague of mi ne: This refers to the aspect of the soul or higher self which is its 'shakti' or active expression, entering into greater involvement with the temporary personal ity (the mental/emotional/physical self), and participating in guiding the incar nated personality acting as the 'voice' of conscience, orchestrating experiences , influencing the working out of karma, and seeking to train and awaken the pers onality. The permanent personality works in conscious cooperation with the Archa ngels of the elements that create and maintain our bodies and oversee the workin g out of karma. Yet the permanent personality is also illuminated by the deeper aspects of the soul of which it is an expression or agent, this deeper aspect re maining in a state of greater nondual illumination, so that the permanent person ality acts as an 'agent' of Christ-consciousness." In the Sanskrit terminology of Vedanta, the permanent personality can be under stood as a combination of the vijnana-maya-kosa (the higher mental 'discriminati on' body) and the ananda-maya-kosa (the higher buddhi or intuitive body). This m eans that the intuitive soul or higher self of each person, when engaged in the worlds of separation and working through the illumined higher mind, takes the fo rm we might call the 'permanent personality'. Likewise, in another set of termin ology from the Sanskrit traditions, the permanent personality may be understood as a union of the buddhi (pure soul intuition) and higher manas (the discriminat ing, rational intellect). The self or level of consciousness that is formed of t his union is sometimes called buddhi-manas, which is synonymous with 'permanent personality'. It is the part of the mind that is an expression of the soul. When manas or mind is linked to desire and the emotional body, it is called kama-man as or the heart of the temporary personality or lower self. The 'permanent personality' is, of course, a relative term, as there is nothin g ultimately permanent in human nature except our nondual essence or Buddha-natu re. The permanent personality accumulates relative wisdom and other virtues over numerous incarnations and maintains continuity of awareness throughout all our lives, including the phases of experience in between. It is concerned with harve sting the fruits of each incarnation and integrating these into the realization of the inner being. When it has succeeded in unifying the outer or temporary per sonality with itself, it then surrenders its will and consciousness to the soul or atman that has always remained in a state of nondual presence or 'sahaja sama dhi'. At this time the refined discriminating wisdom and spiritual intentionalit y of the permanent personality is deeply liberated into Self-realization. The presence of the permanent personality is very subtle in our experience, sp eaking in a 'still, small voice', and is contacted in the quiet, spacious levels of our awareness, being essentially a union of our intuitive and higher mental nature.

PB hinted at this, perhaps, in the following passage: Freed at last from this ever-whirling wheel of birth and death to which he was tied by his own desire-nature, what happens to him can only be an opening up to a new better and indescribable state, and it is so. He as he was vanishes, not into complete annihilation and certainly not into the heaven of a perpetuated eg o, but into a higher kind of life shrouded in mystery. (8a) It is also possible that PB meant something higher, like Atman, with this com ment. A.E. Powell, who wrote The Etheric Double, The Astral Body, The Mental Body, and The Causal Body, a series based upon the theosophical writings of Annie Besa nt and Leadbeater, and by association Madame Blavatsky, said this: "The heart is the centre in the body for the higher triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, so that when the consciousness is centered in the heart, during meditation, it is most susceptible to the influence of the higher self or Ego [i.e., the "highe r triad"]. The head is the seat of the psycho-intellectual man: it has various f unctions in seven cavities, including the pituitary body and the pineal gland. h e who in concentration can take his consciousness from the brain to the heart sh ould be able to unite kama-manas to the higher manas, through the lower manas, w hich, when pure and free from kama, is the antahkarana (the "inner organ"; the l ink between the personality and the higher self). Then he will be in a position to catch some of the promptings of the higher triad." (8b) To say this slightly differently, in the general post Blavatsky 'neo'-theosop hical schema, the 'Monad' or pure life essence emanates from beyond all seven pl anes. When this spirit passes through the archtype of the Human Idea (a term of Daskalos as well as PB), it individualizes, or becomes self-conscious. This indi vidualized being has three aspects - atma-buddhi-manas. The atman is the part th at stays closest to the monadic essence and retains a growing nondual realizatio n, yet individualized. The buddhi is spiritual intuition, and the higher manas i s the aspect of this being that can participate in and guide the incarnation. Fo r Alice Bailey, this threefold being is the soul or higher self. When master Das kalos talked of this presence and emphasized its higher aspect beyond the bodies (atman) he called it the soul, and said it was on the first of the 'causal plan es' of nondual consciousness. Below that it had bodies, and when talking of the aspect of nature of this being to 'look downward' at the incarnate personality, it was the 'permanent personality'. The permanent personality, then, was the par t of the higher self that participated in time/space/incarnation, and acted as a source of inner wisdom and guidance, though often unrecognized, for the persona lity. In Aurobindo's system, the psychic entity may be equivalent to the permane nt personality, whereas the Supermind, for instance, might be more like traditio nal Atman or Soul. There are inherent problems in comparing these systems, but i t seems worth the effort. In Integral Yoga, in any case, "Psychicization" is when the Divine Center or Heart Consciousness comes to the front and leads the being, transforming and gui ding the lower nature as it goes. Continues Sri Aurobindo: "The soul, the Psychic entity, then manifests itself as the central being whi ch upholds mind and life and body and supports all the other powers and function s of the Spirit; it takes up its greater function as the guide and ruler of the nature. A guidance, a governance begins from within which exposes every movement to the light of Truth, repels what is false, obscure, opposed to the divine rea lisation: every region of the being...even the most concealed, camouflaged, mute , recondite, is lighted up with the unerring psychic light, their confusions dis sipated, their tangles disentangled, their obscurities, deceptions, self-decepti

ons precisely indicated and removed; all is purified, set right, the whole natur e harmonised, modulated in the psychic key, put in spiritual order."(9) This Heart or Divine Soul Consciousness, argues Kazlev, is precisely what is absent in abusive gurus, and others who, by emphasising the non-dual above all e lse, bypass the work on transforming the personality via the help of the Divine Soul, and one possible result of this is their becoming unknowingly trapped by t heir own egos, and, for would-be mystics, lost in the Intermediate Zone itself. Sri Aurobindo was well aware of these dangers: "Some of these experiences can come by an opening of the inner mental and vit al being, the inner and larger and subtler mind and heart and life within us, wi thout any full emergence of the soul, the psychic entity, since there too there is a power of direct contact of consciousness: but the experience might then be of a mixed character; for there could be an emergence not only of the subliminal knowledge but of the subliminal ignorance. An insufficient expansion of the bei ng, a limitation by mental idea, by narrow and selective emotion or by the form of the temperament so that there would be only an imperfect self-creation and ac tion and not the free soul-emergence, could easily occur. In the absence of any or of a complete Psychic emergence, experiences of certain kinds, experiences of greater knowledge and force, a surpassing of the ordinary limits, might lead to a magnified ego and even bring about instead of an out-flowering of what is div ine or spiritual an uprush of the titanic or demoniac, or might call in agencies and powers which, though not of this disastrous type, are of a powerful but inf erior cosmic character." (10) In actuality, most non-dualists teach very clearly of the dangers, delusions, and, in their opinion, relative lack of value in experiences of subtle realms o r states as compared to that of the simple presence of the One Mind itself. It i s argued by some, however, that such non-duality often tends towards excess redu ctionism. Kazlev takes the position that many non-dual teachings promise only pa rtial realizations, shells that might look good on the outside but have no light within, in contrast to what he calls Divine Soul-centered realizations such as Auro bindo's that are free of the perils of the Intermediate Zone. Is this position t rue? The non-dualists, of course, will argue that it is not. Personally, I do no t know which is true, whether it is either, neither, or both. There are, however , two distinct points here. Yes, one who has opened his heart may be free of the delusions of the Intermediate Zone, but so also might one who had achieved a ge nuine non-dual awakening. Simply because there may be teachers of either non-dua lity or mysticism who have succumbed to the temptations and ego-inflating inner experiences of the subtle planes does not mean that their philosophy itself is f alse. That must be argued on more specific philosophical grounds, not the failin gs of particular teachers. Continuing, after the process of Psychicization fulfills itself, four levels of "Spiritualisation" then awaken progressively: Higher Mind, Illuminative Mind, Intuition, and Overmind. Aurobindo describes the manifestation of the Higher Mi nd as that of conception, spiritual ideas, 'luminous thought'; that of Illuminat ive Mind as direct inner vision, sight, 'spiritual light'; that of Intuition as more than sight or conception, 'a power of consciousness', 'truth-sight'; and th at of Overmind as 'a delegated light from the supramental gnosis'. The Overmind is 'a delegate of the Supermind Consciousness', its 'delegate to the Ignorance'. Further: "When the Overmind descends, the predominance of the ego-sense is entirely su bordinated and finally lost; a wide feeling of a boundless Universal self replac es it." (11) Ken Wilber correlated these levels with stages in his early spiritual schemat a as follows: Illuminative Mind (psychic), Intuitive Mind (subtle), Overmind (ca

usal), and Supermind, or the Supramental Consciousness (ultimate stage; Sahaj or Turiya). One can see here that psychic for Wilber had little correlation to the t erm Psychic Being as used by Aurobindo. Can we then dissect the work of Aurobindo further to better determine what he means by his use of these descriptive levels ? We will try, while continuing to offer links to the Kheper's interpretations f or comparison. Perhaps Higher Mind is what is spoken of elsewhere as higher manas , which might b e the same as the rational soul of the Greeks, such as Plotinus; Illuminative Mind m ight be equivalent to buddhi ; Intuition a direct faculty from the Overmind; and the O vermind itself what PB refered to as the Overself or ther World-Mind in Individual -Mind - as experienced in trance and the absence of the World-Image. It may be th at Aurobindo was attempting to re-cycle standard Hindu concepts and present them to a Western audience. While the Overmind is the summit of the usual realization in yoga, in the vie w of Aurobindo, for him it did not go far enough. This could be the traditional causal stage, the inner heart-realization of the Witness self, or the anandamaya kosha in the heart center, where the world is not yet re-incorporated into the realization for it to be considered the full awakening into Sahaj. The Overmind could be the Void-Mind as experienced within at the furthest reach of subjectivi ty. Its realization might also be considered Nirvikalpa Samadhi. [The only diffi culty here is that he uses the words the descent of the Overmind , which is somewha t non-traditional. Does it descend only to someone who is in meditative trance, or in normal waking consciousness? Various writings of Aurobindo and the Mother suggest that it often occurs in the latter.] According to Aurobindo, the descent of the Overmind "would not be able to transform wholly the Inconscience ... a basis of Nescie nce would remain; it would be as if a Sun and its system were to shine out in an original darkness of Space and illumine everything as far as its rays could rea ch so that all that dwelt in the light would feel as if no darkness were there a t all in their experience of existence. But outside that sphere or expanse of ex perience the original darkness would still be there." (12) Now we have other terms to grapple with: "inconscience" and "nescience". And n escience, said the great Sankara, is not explainable. This might be equated with th e concept of "Matter" of Plotinus, a catch-all phrase for what he considered as something inexperiencable and untouchable by consciousness, but a necessary basi s for 'Evil'; or, it may just be Aurobindo's way of assigning a label to the as yet unillumined earth plane. It confuses things considerably. Leaving this for n ow, however, Sri Aurobindo further says that while the Overmind would transform each man it would not "bring about a radical change in the evolutionary process of terrestrial existence." (13) This would also be the case with the yogi s typica l experience of Nirvikalpa samadhi as well. With the descent of the Supermind, h owever, there can be the realization of the supreme divine reality in ascent as well as the manifestation of divine consciousness in material existence. The des cent of the Supermind creates the 'Gnostic Being', in which the will of the Spir it, rather than the unconscious and the subconscious, controls the movements of the body. The mind is replaced with a consciousness of unity and the body is tra nsformed into "a true and fit and perfectly responsive instrument of the spirit. " (14) [The language here, while meant to be revolutionary, is almost identical to that used by Babuji Maharaj, a Radhasoami guru mentioned below in note 20]. A ccording to Aurobindo, all opposition between matter and spirit is gone when thi s gnostic transformation finally occurs. "Supramentalisation" might possibly be the equivalent of the development of w hat PB termed the philosophic sage. Without something like the Supermind stage the world would still not be understood as divine when the yogi or mystic comes out of his trance. Samsara and Nirvana, the World and Brahman, would not be realize

d as One. PB wrote: "The highest contribution which mysticism can make is to afford its votaries glimpses of that grand substratum of the universe which we may call the Overself . These glimpses reveal It in the pure unmanifest non-physical essence that It u ltimately is. They detach It from the things, creatures, and thoughts which make up this world of ours, and show It as It is in the beginning, before the worlddream made its appearance. Thus mysticism at its farthest stretch, which is Nirv ikalpa samadhi, enables man to bring about the temporary disappearance of the wo rld-dream and come into comprehension of the Mind within which, and from which, the dream emerges. The mystic in very truth conducts the funeral service of the physical world as he has hitherto known it, which includes his own ego. But this is as far as mysticism can take him. It is an illuminative and rare experience, but it is not the end. For the next task which he must undertake if he is to ad vance is to relate his experience of this world as real with his experience of t he Overself as real. And this he can do only by studying the world's own nature, laying bare its mentalistic character and thus bringing it within the same circ le as its source, the Mind. If he succeeds in doing this and in establishing thi s relation correctly, he will have finished his apprenticeship, ascended to the ultimate truth, and become a philosopher. Thenceforward he will not deny the wor ld but accept it. The metaphysician may also perform this task and obtain an intellectual under standing of himself, the world, and the Overself. And he has this advantage over the mystic, that his understanding becomes permanent whereas the mystic's rapt absorption must pass. But if he has not passed through the mystical exercises, i t will remain as incomplete as a nut without a kernel. For these exercises, when led to their logical and successful issue in Nirvikalpa samadhi, provide the vi vifying principle of experience which alone can make metaphysical tenets real. From all this we may perceive why it is quite correct for the mystic to look undistractedly within for his goal, why he must shut out the distractions and at tractions of earthly life in order to penetrate the sacred precinct, and why sol itude, asceticism, meditation, trance, and emotion play the most important roles in his particular experience. What he is doing is right and proper at his stage but is not right and proper as the last stage. For in the end he must turn meta physician, just as the metaphysician must turn mystic and just as both must turn philosopher- -who is alone capable of infusing the thoughts of metaphysics and the feelings of mysticism into the actions of everyday practical life. Two things have to be learned in this quest. The first is the art of mind-sti lling, of emptying consciousness of every thought and form whatsoever. This is m ysticism or Yoga. The disciple's ascent should not stop at the contemplation of anything that has shape or history, name or habitation, however powerfully helpf ul this may have formerly been to the ascent itself. Only in the mysterious void of Pure Spirit, in the undifferentiated Mind, lies his last goal as a mystic. T he second is to grasp the essential nature of the ego and of the universe and to obtain direct perception that both are nothing but a series of ideas which unfo ld themselves within our minds. This is the metaphysics of Truth. The combinatio n of these two activities brings about the realization of his true Being as the ever beautiful and eternally beneficent Overself. This is philosophy." (15) A key difference between Aurobindo and PB, however, and a not insignificant o ne at that, is that for Aurobindo the process of "Spiritualisation" actually div inizes the world, rather than just ushering in for the sage the realization of t he always already, ever-present divinity in the Nous or Divine Mind. This is a m ajor philosophical difference, which we will try to elaborate more on later. [In certain places, followers of Aurobindo rather loosely refer to the Supramental as the Nous, which is not what PB or Plotinus would mean by the term, for there could be no understanding in its traditional usage of "bringing the Supramental

light, or light of the Nous, down into the world". Such a descent could only tak e place through the medium of the Soul, the eternal emanent of the Nous. This, i n essence, is something that I feel that Aurobindo apologists such as the Kheper do not fully grasp when, as a reader who studies his links will note, criticism s of the realization of Ramana Maharshi as "Monistic" are made in statements suc h as, "Supramentalisation means physical Divinisation: the culmination of the as cent along the vertical dimension toward the totally Transcendent or "higher" Ra diant Source of Being, and the drawing down of that Source into the physical org anism, as opposed to the simple realisation of that Absolute in the heart-centre ."] My sense is that such a criticism may have some merit when applied against t he early realization and teaching communication of the Maharshi, but fails to tr uly grasp what he meant by the Heart, and what PB meant by the Overself, in thei r more mature stages. Here the advaitist will also likely object, saying where is this opposition be tween the world and God that Aurobindo is trying to close? It doesn t exist, excep t in the mind. Only right understanding is necessary to know this. If what Aurobi ndo is trying to say is that with the so-called descent of the Supermind one rea lizes sahaj samadhi, the natural state, turiya, well and good. Yet the feeling c an t help arising that he meant something more. His writing is difficult, at times abstruse and repetitive, but speaks of a hidden revelation in the Vedas which h e had newly rediscovered. An article by Sat Prem (author of Sri Aurobindo and th e Adventure of Consciousness), called "The Secret of the Veda , paints an elegant, almost poetic, picture of this divine adventure and these hidden truths, but I still fail to understand it.... Did Aurobindo really find something new , or was his language unclear and perhaps imprecise? Would he have written differently a bout the process of Psychicization, for instance, if he were alive today, and ha d access to the past fifty years of advances in body-based psychotherapeutic tec hniques? [Actually, an Integral Psychology has been developed by some of his dis ciples that attempts to unite humanistic-existential growth psychotherapies with the principles of Integral Yoga. This hyperlink is also good for a further intr oduction to the concepts of Integral Yoga, and provides many more links to the s ame]. Would Aurobindo s terminology or approach have been different if he had been privy to the worldwide interchange between Zen masters, Lamas, Gurus, Masters, Advaitists and other teachers that we have today, and also the close exchange of ideas provided through the Internet? Is it possible that the secret he felt was imbedded in the Vedas really something newly rediscovered? Again, I don t know. B ut talk of a Supermind...mmmmm...reminds me of watching TV as a kid: able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, more powerful than a speeding locomotive, ben d steel in his bare hands, change the course of mighty rivers, ...look....it s Sup er-Yogi ! - and who, disguised as Clark Kent-Ji, mild-mannered sadhu for a great metropolitan ashram, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the . ...Divine Plan! Sorry, I just couldn t help that. Help me God, I am just a poor, co nfused writer and would-be lover of yours, who means no disrespect. This is real ly hard stuff to get through. The voluminous work of Aurobindo represents one of the most creative efforts that India had produced in years, and his letters on yoga are still useful and a live. There are so many good points in his teaching that it is a painstaking tas k to find disagreement with it - or, as mentioned, even understand it. His persp ective approximates the higher dharmas in many ways: the advocacy of a stage bey ond ascent in which the world is not excluded from realization; the emphasis on the need for a guru and grace; the insistence on beginning the path by bringing the 'Psychic' or intuitive-feeling being forward, to allow the subsequent spirit ual process to unfold relatively uncontaminated by egoity, and, particularly, fo r Aurobindo, secure against the dangers of premature exposure to the subtle dime nsions, even for those who have had non-dual awakenings or true spiritual glimps es; and his confession that such awakenings or intuitions of the divine, Brahman , or the Soul can be had without access to the higher planes. All of these point s are a positive advance over the one-dimensonal and often escapist mystical str

ategy that is found so frequently in the East and the West. It could be that Sri Aurobindo was grappling with the difficulties in integrating and modernizing a profusion of ancient doctrines, much like PB. To recap, our best guess is that by the process of Psychicisation is meant th at the Psychic being or higher Soul at some point takes an active role in the in struction and guidance of the ego and the ego responds and submits to it. It rep resents an insertion of a higher point of view into the ego and conscious recept ion of grace. it is yet a step towards liberation, but not infrequently punctuat ed by moments of awakening. The acknowledgement of the Psychic Being presupposes such a thing as a Soul, which many advaitists, Zen students, and other non-dual ists may be quick to deny any role or even existence. This is unnecessary, howev er, when it is recognized that Soul, as the term was used by the ancients, repre sents a transcendental and eternal principle and is not a fixed entity or mental construct lending itself to such criticisms. [See The Integrationalists and the Non-Dualists and PB and Plotinus: The Fallacy of Divine Identity on this websit e for extensive discussion of this topic]. There appear, nevertheless, to be essential differences between the communica tion of Aurobindo and respected teachers such as Ramana Maharshi and Paul Brunto n, not the least of which is Aurobindo s arguing for an eventual attainment of the immortality of the body. PB strongly criticized Aurobindo as well as Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Science) for this claim or attempt, which he saw as philosophically flawed. The body is part of the world of change and must perish, no matter how high ones spiritual attainment. In a future Golden Age it may hav e a much longer life span, perhaps even thousands of years, but it will still no t become immortal. For the students of Aurobindo his emphasis on 'bringing down the light' and the need for 'divinizing the body' may encourage in less-evolved souls an egoic motivation that may actually hinder the real spiritual process fr om maturing. This was a criticism of Ramana Maharshi's. Further, while there can be an embodiment process that occurs after awakening, to the degree one's remai ning vasanas or egoic habit-energies do not resist it, this is a natural enfoldm ent and not something that one can or must try to do. Such would be the ego retu rning to take control of the process of deepening or being absorbed, if you will , further into the awakened or 'unborn' state. The task in front of the beginner on the way is to understand himself and sur render. The rest is in the hands of the Master, whether that be understood as an adept, consciousness itself, one s true nature, or God. Sri Aurobindo and Ramana both said this, but often appeared to understand it in quite different ways. Once a man came to Ramana Maharshi from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and told him that he had been advised to keep his mind blank in order that the Divine power might come down from above. He asked for the Maharshi's advice and was given the following answer: "Be what you are. There is nothing to come is needful is to lose the ego. That which is, That. You are not apart from it. The blank is the blank. What do you wait for? The thought, s to see and the desire of getting something, e ego says all these and not you. Be yourself

down or become manifest. All that is always there. Even now you are seen by you. You are there to see "I have not seen," the expectation are all the working of the ego. Th and nothing more." (16)

On the other hand, Ramana, when describing his initial and now-famous death e xperience, said that a great power took him over. So it may be that his above oftrepeated statement ( there is nothing to come down , etc.) was not completely genuin e - or genuinely complete, depending on point of view. Without the continued guidance of a living guru, or at least an enlightened t eaching, the concern with transformation in place of the ordeal of practice lead

ing to Self-Realization easily becomes another egoic project, concern, worry, or burden. After true Self-Realization, say sages, transformations spontaneously o ccur, but one's orientation to them is very different, for one is no longer boun d by the illusion of the ego, and also of the concomitant illusion of independen tly existing matter, that is, matter existing outside of consciousness or Mind. Here is where the doctrine of mentalism comes in. Anthony Damiani said that he gua ged someone s spiritual understanding fundamentally by whether they grasped mental ism or not. In it the principle of Consciousness become one's primary vantage po int. One sees that Consciousness is the case, and that the universe exists only in or as Mind or Consciousness. It therefore does not need to be divinized; it i s the Divine. "If they only realized it," says the Lankavatara Sutra, "all things are in Ni rvana from the beginning." Even so, processes of transformation continue after r ealization, but they are spontaneous and not goal-oriented. It is not necessary that the body become immortal. Aurobindo, like countless beings before him, died . Paul Brunton was of the opinion that to attempt to bypass this inevitable even t is fruitless. He states: "But we succeed only in fooling ourselves if we imagine it will ever be possi ble for rnan to eliminate this fundamental process of birth, decay, and death wh ich holds sway throughout the universe. Man can never master it but will always be mastered by it. Through learning to understand it he may modify its workings in various ways and thus improve his position. But he can never outwit a process which carries the very planet on which he dwells along with it. Why he cannot d o so is revealed by metaphysical enquiry which shows its value by saving him fro m time-wasting and fruitless effort." (17) Damiani, a student of Brunton's, humorously said, "Anybody could have told him, "look, you are going to die just like me," and he did. When your time comes, you'll go. And when your time comes to come back, you'll come back." (18) It appears that Sri Aurobindo was on the forefront of a twenty-first century spirituality, yet legitimate questions remain: How does Integral Yoga answer the epistemological and metaphysical questions of Advaita Vedanta? How true is it t hat the special interpetation of the Vedas by Sri Aurobindo is correct, and that it is radically new and necessary that one must work to help bring the divine l ight down? He certainly gave the impression of seeming to speak of bringing the light way down to achieve something that had never been done before, and wrote a poem about it called The Golden Light. Regarding this latter point, however, Sa nt Kirpal Singh used some of the same verses in the Vedas to support the teachin gs of Surat Shabd Yoga or Sant Mat, i.e., the teaching of Agni, the fire or inne r light or flaming-sound which that school feels emanates from the Godhead. He s poke often of the "Master-Power working overhead," and also the Radiant Form of the guru descending to the eye-focus of the disciple (as opposed to simply being a product of one s mind-or-soul-projection), and often quoted Christ, If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light, all without specifically mentio n the illumination or awakening of the very cells of the body. Yet he neverthele ss described a final transmission from his guru, Sawan Singh, shortly before the latter's death, which bespeaks of this possibility: "Hazur steadily kept gazing for three or four minutes into my eyes, and I, in silent wonderment, experienced an indescribable delight which infused a beverag e-like intoxication down to the remotest corners of my entire body - such as was never before experienced in my whole life." (19) The gurus after him have claimed to have had similar experiences. It seems to me, therefore, from this and also from being in the presence of at least one su

ch character, that even in that school, where the path of ascent is generally em phasized, other interesting things do happen. Babuji Maharaj, of the Radha Soami Satsang, Agra, made the following comment, which seems particularly directed to someone destined for the role of a Master, and not necessarily for the average disciple. This parallels the confession of Aurobindo himself that the sacrifices and trials he and the Mother had to underg o were not required of their followers : It is usual that the awakened Saint or Gurumukh (beloved disciple of the Guru) must go through a period of great physical depression and weakness. This is bec ause the entire constitution of the body has to be transformed in order that it may be in harmony with the spirit in its awakened condition and be fitted to per form the work before it. This period of depression may continue over a number of years, but it is usually followed by a high degree of bodily health. This physical change is absolutely essential for making appreciable spiritual progress. The capacity of the body to undergo it constitutes the limit of useful ness of the body. There have been exceptional jivas (souls) endowed with bodies capable of enduring in one life the whole requisite transformation without break ing. But in (such) cases the immediate physical effect of the transformation was a low and depleted bodily condition which continued for quite a number of years . After the changes have been effected, complete physical vigour usually comes b ack, though with a body very different in its constitution. One of its acquired characteristics is its softness and freshness like that of a babe. (20) But whether it does or doesn't is not the seeker's concern. Again, in terms o f advaita, Buddhism and Zen, the very body is itself generally considered a thou ght, or an appearance to consciousness, so why try to tranform it? and who could d o such a thing? It seems that must be settled first, before assuming a greater p roject is necessary, or what form it must take. That was Ramana Maharshi s standar d answer to anyone who questioned what happened after realization. First surrende r, then see, he would say. Aurobindo was known to give similar advice, although t here is no doubt he spoke of a super-structure to be erected, and then radically and deeply illumined on that basis. His grand and unique quest might be summed up as he envisioned it in the poem, "A God's Labor". This is poetry, however, not metaphysics. Other questions present themselves. Why would such a transformation be necessary for enlightenment to be universall y, rather than only personally, effective, as Aurobindo criticized as limitation s of most other realizations? Ramana felt that the realization of the Self alone had a universal effect, more than any lesser shakti or power could achieve. To him, a sage sitting in a cave could do the greater good to the world than an unr ealized person without moving an inch. He was criticized for this point of view, and both Aurobindo and PB seemed to agree that as presented it was incomplete, if not out-of-date. The understanding is also different: for Maharshi there cert ainly could be evolution, but it would be seen as happening within a dream. Cont emporary teacher Leo Hartong poses the possibility of awakening to the dream, ra ther than the more traditional from the dream. Aurobindo and PB might very well agree. Even advaita recognizes the relative existence of koshas or sheaths, and levels of soul and reality. They are just understood as ultimately not different from consciousness. Within this understanding there would be no reason for ther e not to be evolution, even forms of spiritual evolution. Still, I wonder what a sage like Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj (1888-1936), gur u of Sri Nisargadatta, would say about the Divine Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, conside ring the following words of his: "One who has got the purest knowledge of the `Truth' thinks that being `bound and free' is all a joke....What is the meaning of "liberated"? That is only a w

ay, in which people talk. All the bondage is for him, who says he is the body. O ne who is a Dhyani (Realised) is free from the sense of `I'. For him 'bound and liberated' is only a delusion. 'Bound' and 'liberated' are only concepts express ed. A concept is never true. One who has understood Maya (Illusion) is free from all fear. The one who says, "I will practise yoga after I become Brahman- then I will do something" is like the one going in search of water in a mirage." (fro m Amrut Laya) Personally, I must confess that I haven t succeeded at understanding Aurobindo (and seriously doubt anyone else has or ever will either), much less actually at tain the heights - or depths - of what he proposed. It seems like too much work, when all that many want is a simple response to human prayer. Not only I admit confusion, but a researcher and author of a major book on Sri Aurobindo confesse d to me that if you asked one hundred people at Auroville today what Aurobindo t aught you would likely get one hundred different answers! Further, after my aski ng him many, many probing questions he finally admitted that he didn't know anyt hing about Aurobindo! Because the issue of Self-Realization in his teaching is vague, at least in m y tentative opinion, it follows that there might be vagueness regarding the ulti mate nature of the universe, and its relationship to the Self or Consciousness, and even the entire affair of the yoga. Of course, my not being up to the task d oes not mean that what he said is not the truth. It is just that his writings ar e quite difficult to wade through, and contain unique usage of various technical terms. The very use of the word Nirvana and silence in Brahman in his initial descr iption of realization prior to his gaining experience of the overhead spiritual p lanes , for instance, is not quite like the traditional understanding of Nirvana a s given in Buddhism or Brahman in Hinduisim. If important terms like these are n ot clear, then whatever follows based on use of those terms will also not be cle ar. That much can be assumed from basic logic. "The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand-fold," said Aristotle. The quest for the en-light-en-ment of matter of Sri Aurobindo (which, dependi ng on the interpretation of his teaching), seemed to depend on the descent of th e Supermind along with the vijnanamaya kosha. While Maharshi on more than one oc casion quoted scripture to the effect that "the light of the Self is always shin ing in the intellectual sheath", this concept of Aurobindo - the "descent of the intellectual sheath" (if the person who confronted Ramana with this understood him correctly) is unusual: what exactly is meant by the descent of a "sheath"? I n response to this idea, however, Maharshi remarked, "Self-knowledge can shine very well in the [ordinary] human body, so there is no need of any other body." (21) The concept of the illuminated transformation of the physical body into a 'di vine body' (while existent in the literature, i.e., the "Rainbow Body" in Tibeta n Buddhism, and cases such as the saint Ramalingar, who was said to have transla ted out of this world, body and all, in a blaze of light), as something philosop hically necessary, seems to stands in stark contrast with the view of the advait ic sages which, again, asserts that matter as such does not independently exist, but is only an apparent (although not illusory) modification of Consciousness. Brunton argued, the evidence of the senses not withstanding, that nothing is eve r experienced outside of Mind or Consciousness, and that matter is only an egoic conclusion or interpretation of a mentalistic phenomenon. His philosophy of Men talism would uphold the view that Consciousness is primary, while matter is seco ndary and either non-existent , or simply epistemologically unknowable, as a som ething outside of our direct awareness. He states: "Those who have not had the inward revelation granted them, who have not awak ened what the Hindu yogis call antardrishti, a kind of clairvoyant insight, ofte

n believe that mentalism is rnere theory and that its talk of the world's unreal ity is mere verbalism. Even some among the seers have not seen this, although th ey have seen much else that fleshly eyes cannot. Sri Aurobindo in India, for ins tance, disputed mentalism, although his neighbour and contemporary, Ramana Mahar shi, fully accepted it. Rudolph Steiner likewise disputed it ...This situation i s strange, but among the sages with whom I found the deepest penetration into th e nature of things... some observed that the capacity to receive and understand the mentalist doctrine was the sharpest of all tests to which a truth-seeker cou ld be subjected." Consciousness presents its own products to itself, fabricating an entire world in the process. Mind makes and sees the picture. (22) There may be the dual principles of Purusha and Prakriti, as the Samkhyas tea ch, or Soul and Matter as Plotinus describes, but both Prakriti or primal matter (non-being) are assumptions of a something we can know nothing about. Some then what is the Nescience that Aurobindo sought to illuminate? Damiani explains mentalism in great detail in his book, Looking Into Mind, fr om which a few quotes are selected to expand on this point: Your mind thinks your body. It doesn t need it. It can get along without it. No , it s not flying anywhere. It needs you physically? Not really. It can get along without you. It puts you to bed every night, and says, Go to sleep. ...sometimes in mystical development a person experiences himself as the Witn ess-I and then the world is inside him and he is not in the world, but the world is within him....Not inside the chest but inside the mind. You see, the difficulty is that all your life you believe in the existence of a world of things, a reality which is non-mental. And when reason confronts you with the fact that you can t know anything except your own ideas, you try to excu se yourself by saying, Well, regardless, there is something out there. it is true that I can know only my ideas, but my ideas are telling me about something out there [i.e., matter]. You have to remember that if for many many lives we believed in a real world out there, outside of us, you are not going to be able to abolish a belief which has grown into you...with a stroke of the pen. It is going to take a lot of eff ort. Because these beliefs are ingrained, inborn, innate.....the mental habits a re almost impossible to break....When you start attacking beliefs, whether yours or someone else s, you are undertaking a Himalayan task. You just have no idea ho w deeply rooted these beliefs are. When you experience the world as a dream, you know you are getting closer to its reality. It is not the reality yet, but you know you are getting closer. It is an intuitive understanding that dawns - that the mind projects the world, the n experiences the world that it projects. And all that it could project are its own ideas... ...as long as you experience the world as stiff, hard, rigid, you will always think of it as non-mental [i.e., an appearance to consciousness], as a material thing. But if, while you are looking at that very world, you start experiencing it as a dream, as shadowy, as unreal, then you are getting closer to the mental processes that produce that idea. (23) PB concludes: The existence of the world is not a testimony to the existence of a divine cre ator, but to the constructive capacity of the mind. (24)

The Vedantic scriptures describe this a little differently: Brahman is Realit y, with creation due to the mysterious veiling power of maya and from that Iswar a (creator God). This allows the jiva some room for bhakti, tempering the appare nt coolness of mentalism. Of course, there is more to PB's interpretation of men talism than this [for an exhaustive study see Part One and Part Two of "Paul Bru nton: A Bridge Between India and the West" by Annie Cahn Fung]. It is no dry the ory but a living one with ample room for devotion to the source of one's being. There is a World Mind with a World-Idea projecting a master image simultaneously through all individual minds or Souls. There is an Absolute Soul or Intelligenc e which is "more real the life of the soul than the soul itself," as Christian m ystics have said. But every 'thing' arises in and to consciousness, awareness, o r the Soul, be it thought, image, sensation, feelings, sounds, smells, etc.: " His first mental act is to think himself into being. He is the maker of his o wn I. This does not mean that the ego is his own personal invention alone. The who le world-process brings everything about, including the ego and the ego s own self -making. (PB V6, 8:2.15) That s mentalism in a nutshell. That s the whole mentalistic doctrine. The Soul has for its content the World-Idea, and it actualizes that o r projects that World-Idea out from within itself. And included in that World-Id ea is the ego and the process that it s going to go through. (25) The ego is a structure which has been built up in former lives from tendencies , habits, and experiences in a particular pattern. But in the end the whole thin g is nothing but a thought, albeit a strong and continuing thought. (v6, 8:2.44). ..All the former tendencies that you have are actualizing themselves as this tho ught... (26) This philosophical test , as PB wrote, is what many, especially those of advaiti c or non-dual schools, feel stands as a dividing line between cosmological and t ranscendental levels of understanding or realization. Whether the doctrine of me ntalism feels right to us is one thing; whether it is right is another. Some of the implications of accepting it as true are as follows: while a yogi, mystic, o r saint might see the universe as the divine play and revel in the energies of t he spirit as they are felt in relation to the body-mind, or even see or merge wi th the expanse of divine light in savikalpi samadhi, the sage "recognizes" the u niverse in and as the divine and experiences the bliss and radiance of the energ y of the spirit as consciousness itself, prior to but not necessarily separate f rom the body-mind. From this position there is no "concern" at all with bodily t ransformation. It may happen, but if one dies before it is appears to have compl eted itself there is no problem or sense of lack or dilemma. In the case of the completed sage, of course, while he may have no such concern , acting as he does fr om the intelligence of the Nous, he or she can still be a force for change in th e world from the basis of his realization. And presumably the deeper or greater the degree of his sacrifice or transformation the more good he can do by virtue of his alignment with the World-Idea issuing forth from the Divine Mind. The big question for many is, was the quest for bodily enlightenment which Sri Aurobindo championed really a new and unique expression of realization, or inst ead in large measure a sophisticated but unnecessarily complicated expression of a stage of egoic evolution in relationship to the frontal (psychic) dimension o f the body-mind, the human heart, so often left out of yogic maps of spiritual g rowth? That is, in Taoism, for instance, they speak of not only the spinal chakra system, but also a descending circuit in the front of the body-mind, a complete circuit, as it were. The heart center has, therefore, a causal or root-egoic kn ot (the heart on the right of early Ramana Maharshi s teachings, and perhaps the Ove rmind state of Aurobindo), but also a frontal knot , which prevents the flowering o f love and recoil-less living on the human plane. Unless this frontal dimension is purified and opened, any awakening up to and including Nirvikalpa samadhi wil l not allow the stablization of true awakening, which ultimately transcends the

body-mind but does not negate it. I think what Sri Aurobindo would say, however, is that what I just described accounts for the preparatory stages up to Psychici sation , and that indeed there are profound higher and deeper stages. What I get as of most value from Aurobindo s work is this transformation of the human heart, that forms a sound basis not only for exploration of the inner rea lms, but for the abiding intuition of consciousness itself, or the realization o f sahaj. It also prevents the fall from the heights spoken of many times in script ure. Michael Murphy, in his new age classic, Golf in the Kingdom, humorously des cribed this perspective: Ye must have a sturdy place to swing from, before ye open up so wide, herwise ye ll be swept away.

he said, ot

This is pure Aurobindo, and it is not surprising that Murphy, co-founder of t he Esalen Institute, is on the board of the Sri Auroville International Centre o f Education. [In one of many conferences that Esalen has held on issues of consc iousness, mind, the brain, survival after death, and human evolution, Murphy des cribes Aurobindo's model of the soul, in this instance, interestingly, equating the Supermind with the Nous, which may or may not be exactly what philosophers s uch as Plotinus meant by the Nous, but which it is important that a discussion a bout Sri Aurobindo get specific about. This, however, is outside the scope of th is article [translation: it is beyond my ability to figure out!] [On a side note, it is interesting that while much of the work coming out of these and other such conferences argues for a non-local, or non-brain view of th e mind, at the same time they do not explicitly endorse the view of mentalism wh ich rejects the concept of matter altogether. This is consistent, since Aurobind o seems to have believed in matter. That said, this is a huge topic in itself]. In 1920 Aurobindo was joined in his work by the French woman, Mirra Alfassa ( 1878-1973), who became known as "The Mother". Aurobindo considered her as an ava tar and the Divine Shakti, to whom his devotees should call on for grace. [That was good, because Sri Aurobindo himself only held public darshan once a year, so one was chiefly reliant on his books, all relatively dense except Letters on Yo ga[. Before meeting Sri Aurobindo the Mother had a long history of mystical expe riences and occult associations, most importantly with one Max Theon, with possi ble theosophical connections, from which seemingly were derived much of her (and Sri Aurobindo's) cosmological schemas. She assumed direction of Aurobindo's ash ram in 1926 (when he retired into lifelong silence) and continued to do so after his death in 1950. For many years she held darshan once a day, but from 1962 un til her death she continued this practice only four times a year, spending much of her time with close disciple Sat Prem dictating her inner experences and cellu lar transformations, fully described in a thirteen volume work called The Agenda. Sat Prem and Luc Venet give a summary of much of this, with many quotes from th e Mother, in Life Without Death. In 1969 she founded the model community Aurovil le. For a fascinating, even rivetting account of the powerful transmissions she received from Sri Aurobindo and the development of her inner experiences see her autobiographical Notebook on Evolution. Considering a long previous history of spiritual experiences, her following first meeting with the sage seems all the m ore significant: "Before meeting Sri Aurobindo, I had achieved everything necessary to begin h is yoga. It was all ready, organized, systemized a superb mental construction . . . which he demolished in exactly five minutes. I had tried to achieve complete mental silence the kind of mental stillness Sri Aurobindo speaks of; when you h ave it anything can pass through your head without causing the least ripple but I had never succeeded. I had tried, but I couldn t do it. I could be silent when I wanted to, but the moment I stopped my concentration, the clatter returned and everything had to be started over again. That s all I had told him (not in great d

etails, just in a few words). Then I sat down beside him and he began talking wi th the person accompanying me. They talked about the war (he already knew, five months ahead, that the first World War would break out), yoga, the future, and a ll kinds of things. They talked and talked and talked great speculations. I wasn t in the least interested. I was simply sitting beside him on the floor, with a t able in front of me, at eye level, as a sort of little protection. I don t know ho w long it went on, but suddenly I felt a great Force come into me a peace, a sil ence, something massive! It came in, swept everything blank in my head, descende d, and stopped here in the chest. When they finished talking, I got up and left. Then I noticed that my mind was completely blank of thoughts. I no longer knew anything or understood anything. I was absolutely blank. So I gave thanks to the Lord and thanked Sri Aurobindo in my heart. All the mental constructions, all t he mental, speculative organizations were completely gone. A big void. And such a peaceful, such a luminous void! Afterward, for at least eight or ten days, I k ept very still, not to disturb it. I didn t speak, and I especially refrained from thinking, holding this silence close to me and saying to myself, Oh, make it las t, make it last, make it last. . . . From the outside, it must have looked like t otal lunacy. But I was living in my inner joy. I spoke as little as possible, ju st mechanically. Then gradually, as if drop by drop, something else began to eme rge. But it had no limits. It was as vast as the universe, wonderfully still and luminous. There was nothing left in the head, but everything began to be seen f rom above the head. And that has never left me. I went to Japan; I did all sorts of things, had all possible kinds of adventures, even unpleasant ones, but it n ever left me." From 1928-1950 Aurobindo did not speak, communicating instead by writing note s on small slips of paper. He led a private life and came out of seclusion once a year to give darshan to his followers. The question naturally arises, how well could most interact or relate to a teacher one only saw briefly for darshan onc e a year, for over two decades? It was the Mother who took over that active role . With Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, being in their company was considered essen tial to one s sadhana: To a follower who later asked, What is the best means for the sadhaks [disciple s] to avoid suffering due to the action of the hostile forces? Aurobindo [Sri Aur obindo on Himself and on the Mother (Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1 953] replied: Faith in the Mother and complete surrender. [Physical nearness to the Mother, e.g., via living in the ashram] is indispen sable for the fullness of the sadhana on the physical plane. Transformation of t he physical and external being is not possible otherwise. (Aurobindo, 1953). While sounding like traditional guru devotion, it must be mentioned that ther e are potential dangers in such pronouncements. Firstly, if a disciple is not cl ear on what enlightenment is, how does he know if his guru is enlightened, or if his sadhana will lead him in the right direction - especially with such a compl icated schema as the Integral Yoga? Secondly, if his progress, absent such under standing, is made to depend on total surrender to an other who supposedly knows more and is greater than himself, how will he ever become rid of the belief in a separate self, which such devotion - certainly in the absence of a living guru, and sometimes in their presence - may only further reinforce? If one does not u nderstand what or whom he is surrendering to, this may be a problem and real imp ediment to further growth. Many were afraid to leave Auroville for fear of becom ing prey to the "negative forces", which at one point included the Trungpa "furi es" and even people like PB, according to one source. In Sant Mat it is called K al, and in Christianity, Satan. Such negative programming is rampant in spiritua l ashrams and religious organizations. Sri Aurobindo himself never achieved the supramental transformation. Only the Mother, whom he considered an avatar, professed to have done so. Sri Aurobindo

said that in The Mother he found surrender to the Divine down to physical body i tself, the cells of the body (not merely the mind and emotions), the likes of wh ich could not be found in any human being. When he died the Mother related that Sri Aurobindo gathered in his body a great amount of supramental force and as so on as he left his body. She was standing beside him as he lay on his bed, "and i n a way altogether concrete -- concrete with such a strong sensation as to make one think that it could be seen -- all this supramental force which was in him p assed from his body into mine" (27). After his passing The Mother fully took up her promise to Sri Aurobindo to at tempt the physical transformation. On 29 February 1956 ("Golden Day") she announ ced an experience in which she had a vast cosmic golden form and broke open the golden door that separated the Universe from the Divine, allowing the Supramenta l force to stream down to Earth in an uninterrupted flow. (28) She later (24 Apr il) announced "The manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a prom ise but a living fact" (29). For the next twenty years she engaged in further ex periments to increase this transformation. The names given to some of these even ts in the Agenda are quite grandious. Here are but a few in the early years, whi ch were supposed to have intensified even more into the 1970's: *February 1956 - The experience of the first Supramental manifestation (of the n ew truth consciousness Force) on earth. *September 12, 1956 - The experience of the Supramental being of a future supram ental race entering her body. *February 1958 - The vision of a Supramental ship in which beings of this race i n the subtle plane were preparing for the supramental existence. *October 1958 - The experience of being the Supreme Lord, the Divine itself. *November 1958 - The experience of springing from the current unconscious state of human mind to the new Supramental truth consciousness, which is also the gene rating power of all creation. *July 24-25 1959 - The first penetration of the descending Supramental force int o her body. *May 24, 1960 - The physical disintegration of the ego, and the Supreme Lord man ifesting in her. Like Sri Aurobindo, however, the Mother also died - without achieving bodily immortality. The question now arises, since they are both gone, what are their d isciples or future practitioners to do in order to pursue the Integral Yoga, whi ch was said to depend so much on their personal company? When he died Sri Aurobindo's body - as in most hagiographies - was said to ha ve been suffused with golden light, and, like that of Paramahansa Yogananda and several Christian saints, it remained undecayed until it was interred in a Samad hi site four days later. Of his first meeting with him the poet Rabindranath Tag ore said: "At the very first sight I could realise he had been seeking for the Soul and had gained it, and through this long process of realisation had accumulated wit hin him a silent power of inspiration. His face was radiant with an inner light. " Many testified to feeling a powerful transmission and profound peace in his c ompany. One dares ask, nevertheless, have any self-realized devotees come out of Auroville? Is the Supramental state, described as Union, however evolved and pr ofound, itself Enlightenment or Self-Realization? In answering the latter questi on, I think Buddha would say, "no," but, then, perhaps not. Unfortunately, there seems no way of getting a resolution on this without the various sages sitting down together and debating with each other. Today, if they were still alive and willing, this could easily be done, and how grand a convocation it might be.

Still, there is little question that Aurobindo's contributions to the histori cal evolvement of yoga and our understanding of spirituality are of much importa nce. At the very least they caused many to rethink their understanding of the pa th and its goal, and have led to a less dissociative, world and life-denying app roach. But the important question remains for the earnest student to decide, is everything that he and the Mother said true? One area that I contemplated omitting from this article as of somewhat lesser importance, but decided to include explore anyway because it kept gnawing at me from time to time. This is regarding the numerous accounts of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother being psychically active in altering world affairs. Howard Murphet r eported that Sri Aurobindo remarked, at the outbreak of World War II, that if th e Nazis won the war it would set the Divine Plan back one thousand years. His di sciples claim that he and the Mother used occult powers or yogic siddhis to infl uence the outcome of the war. [Narayan Maharaj and various other spiritual figur es were said to have done likewise, so they are not alone on this.] But one migh t ask, if all is the One, if God is the One, doesn t that One include the Nazis? W ho can fathom a fixed, unchangeable Divine Plan ? This question suggests there may be an inherent dualism in such a philosophical system as that of Sri Aurobindo, where forces of light must do battle with forces of darkness. I am not sure if this is a correct interpetation of his position, but how else is one to understa nd such statements? And, of course, all this could be reconciled within a non-du al context, where no position is excluded, but, nevertheless, consider the follo wing. from Stripping the Gurus own:

by Geoffrey Falk, with some additional comments of my

Sri Aurobindo put all his [e.g., astral] Force behind the Allies and especiall y Churchill. One particular event in which he had a hand was the successful evac uation from Dunkirk. As some history books note, the German forces refrained for inexplicable reasons from a quick advance which would have been fatal for the All ies. (Huchzermeyer, Wilfried (1998), Mother: A Short Biography (Silver Lake, WI: Lotus Press). Other admirers of Aurobindo regard that Allied escape as being aided by a fog which the yogi explicitly helped, through his powers of consciousness, to roll in over the water, concealing the retreating forces. Aurobindo s spiritual partner, the Mother, the wartime labor via metaphysical means:

is likewise believed to have advanced

Due to her occult faculties the Mother was able to look deep into Hitler s bein g and she saw that he was in contact with an asura [astral demon] who is at the origin of wars and makes every possible effort to prevent the advent of world un ity (Huchzermeyer, 1998). When Hitler was gaining success after success and Mother was trying in the op posite direction, she said the shining being who was guiding Hitler used to come to the ashram from time to time to see what was happening. Things changed from bad to worse. Mother decided on a fresh strategy. She took on the appearance of that shining being, appeared before Hitler and advised him to attack Russia. On her way back to the ashram, she met that being. The being was intrigued by Mothe r having stolen a march over him. Hitler s attack on Russia ensured his downfall.. . (Apart from the war), Mother saw in her meditation some Chinese people had re ached Calcutta and recognized the danger of that warning. Using her occult divin e power, she removed the danger from the subtle realms. Much later when the Chin ese army was edging closer to India s border, a shocked India did not know which w

ay to turn. The Chinese decided on their own to withdraw, much to the world s surp rise. Mother had prevented them from advancing against India by canceling their power in the subtle realms.... The Mother further believed herself to have been, in past lives, Queen Elizab eth of England the sixteenth-century daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Also, Catherine of Russia (wife of Peter the Great), an Egyptian Queen, the mother of Moses, and Joan of Arc. [the talk around the ashram as to the prevous incarnati ons of Aurobindo included Michaelangelo, Napoleon, and even Krishna - the latter a bit of a problem since according to Sri Aurobindo not only Swami Vivekananda but Lord Krishna himself had appeared to him while he was in his jail cell. If s o, was this a case of his giving darshan to himself?] [Suchlike claims were also made of Paramahansa Yogananda. He was said to have been William the Conqueror i n a previous life, and he himself said that Hitler had been Abraham Lincoln]. The Mother's diary entries reveal that even during her illness she continued through her sadhanas to exert an occult influence on men and events (Nirodbaran, 1990). "[The Mother] is the Divine Mother [i.e., as an incarnation or avatar] w ho has consented to put on her the cloak of obscurity and suffering and ignoranc e so that she can effectively lead us human beings to Knowledge and Bliss and Ananda and to the Supreme Lord" (Aurobindo, 1953). In the person of [the Mother], Aurobindo saw the descent of the Supermind. He believed she was its avatara or descent into the Earth plane. As the incarnate Supermind she was changing the consciousness on which the Earth found itself, an d as such her work was infallible.... She does not merely embody the Divine, he instructed one follower, but is in reality the Divine appearing to be human. (Mi nor, Robert N. (1999), The Religious, the Spiritual, and the Secular: Auroville and Secular India (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press). India s independence from British rule followed soon after the end of WWII. Aur obindo himself marked the occasion in public speech: August 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age....August 15th is my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast significance . I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on the work with which I began li fe, the beginning of its full fruition (in Nirodbaran, 1990). [End of Geoffrey Falk material] To be blunt, all such talk of helping the Divine Plan , if engaged strictly thro ugh occult means on the subtle planes, without inspiration directly from the Nou s or Divine Mind or Intelligence, coming from a much higher level, would smack o f the very Intermediate Zone that Sri Aurobindo warned so much about. He would no doubt argue that he did not fall into that category. Certainly, if we take the t eachings of a sage such as PB or Plotinus, if there is a Nous, or Divine or "Wor ld-Mind" with its "World-Idea" - an evolutionary paradigm for the cosmos - which a sage could tap into through his oneness with his own Divine Soul, being a dir ect and inseparable emanent of that Nous, which is far above the Intermediate Zo ne, then he could certainly be a unique force for change in the world. This coul d include using any and all means on any and all planes of manifestation, or eve n by silent contemplation in the Void. He may not know he is such a vehicle, and if he is truly realized this is possibly even likely, and a mantle of safety an d protection. As PB stated: The catalyst which by its presence enables chemical elements to change their forms does not itself change. In the same way the illuminate may be used by high

er forces to affect, influence, or even change others without any active persona l move on his part to bring about this result. He may not even feel, see, or kno w what is happening, yet he has started it! (30) Even a person of lesser spiritual realization but relatively noble intention could be an agent of destiny - consider one such as Gandhi. No man, however, no matter how highly evolved, is omniscient. The entire history of high spiritual t eachings argues against any one person having, or even being able to have, the a bsolute knowledge or omniscience of the Divine Mind. (And certainly, from the po int of view of God, if one might imagine such a thing, 'one thousand years in th e Divine Plan', as mentioned above, might be a very minor thing). In a conversation PB told his assistant Paul Cash that there is no time when we can expect to have the Overself at our beck and call, but that we can be in a condition of being at the Overself's beck and call, and that is the condition w e should strive for. When Paul said to him that while he thought that a sage did n't know everything, he possibly could know anything if he wanted to, PB humorou sly responded, "It's not even that good!" So omniscience is out. Enlightenment d oesn t guarantee knowledge of everything about everything, or even anything about anything, except the awareness of Being itself. It doesn t in itself necessarily g ive one the ability to scan the Halls of Knowledge, the Akashic records or anyth ing of that sort. Getting bogged down in the details and time frame of a so-call ed divine plan on earth, moreover, sounds more like something ET s and lower demig ods, or religious-fanatic politicians, would play around in. During WWII, it wou ld have been very politically correct to have been on the right side, fighting pu re evil , but in hindsight, can one always recognize what was the right thing to d o? To put this in philosophical perspective, in the framework of Plotinus, for i nstance, we have three Primal Hypostases: the One, the Nous, and Soul, which are all considered to be eternal and beyond time. The One encompasses everything al l at once and is beyond being and non-being. It s emanant, the Nous, Intellectual Principle, or Divine Mind, is considered a contemplative producer , as likewise is it s subsequent emanent, Soul ( subsequent still being atemporal). To reach or attain union with, or realization of, Soul is itself beyond intellectual knowledge and perception, beyond the great vision of light and all subtle planes, and makes o ne, as PB wrote, the feeblest of creatures , with no longer the consolation or conc eption of being a conscious co-worker of a great divine plan (which doesn't prec lude one from being a co-worker of such a plan, but is still worth contemplating ). For here one has entered or dissolved into the Void-Mind, the transcendental ground, the Cloud of Unknowing . The Nous or Divine Mind contains all of its ideas, including its "World-Idea", with all of its history, in one single potentiality and actuality, all at once. In the light of all of the above, therefore, to suggest that any godman can kno w or consciously do battle with forces arrayed against the Divine Plan must, at th e very least, be suspect. He may do battle with what he perceives is evil, but w ho can totally fathom the mind of God? It has been well said that the victors write the history books. So much about WWII and world events that we think we know has come under challenge in recent years. The social-political-cultural "Matrix" is being exposed. It is not as eas y as it may seem to know who to influence and who to support in every instance f or the greater good in the end. But, for the purposes of argument, assuming we k now which side and what leaders had God on their side in WWII, from a psychically simpler point of view, I can t help supposing, wouldn t it have been alot easier for Aurobindo to simply tweak the dreams of the assassin of Archduke Ferdinand? There would have then been no WWI, no Versailles, no onerous reparations against Germ any, no grounds for the rise of Hitler, and thus no WWII. It seems much more com plicated to engage in psychic warfare on the battlefields one at a time. Or why

not have tweaked the dreams of Winston Churchill, influencing him not to jail Rudo lph Hess, who had secretly flown over to England to negotiate a plan to end the war several years early by getting the top brass of the German military to go ag ainst Hitler? That would have been much simpler and saved millions of lives. Or why not tweak the dreams of the Wall Street bankers, who financed Hitler before an d during much of WWII, just like they had done the Bolsheviks in WWI? Why not twe ak the dreams of FDR, telling him not to hand over eastern Europe to Stalin, thus preventing millions of more deaths, as well as the cold war? And how benevolent was it of the Mother to convince Hitler to attack Russia knowing he would lose? Maybe he would have destroyed communism, and later been able to make a peace wi th England, which he wanted to do but was not allowed to do so by the allies. Wh o can say that might not have led to a greater good? There is little doubt Hitle r took the ball he was given and ran with it, and was negatively influenced by t he occult and perhaps mentally deranged, but are we so sure that is also not the case with the "other side", and that the motivating forces behind world events are much more complicated? In any case, it seems so much easier to just manipula te one person or two than have an elaborate and involved campaign of dealing wit h evil forces for years and years. Not so dramatic, however, and not so exciting or capable of keeping ones disciples entertained. If there is any Divine Plan, God or the Nous has it well in hand. It is alway s and already accomplished even without any superhuman help. Still, the true sag e is our benefactor. Here is an example of how we all are involved in "the plan" , moreover, and don t need any special psychic or special divine power to do so. A t one time in my small chiropractic practice I saw only thirty patients a week, but nevertheless three were of special note: one was chairman of the Board of Ch evron who knew and had dinner with David Rockefeller (chief spokesmen for the Tr ilateral Commission and the New World Order). Another was a reporter who spent a lot of time in Russia and personally knew Boris Yeltsin when he was still Premie r; a third was the film editor of Terminator 2, who was working at the nearby Lu cas Ranch when Arnold Schwarzeneggar was there. Talk about six degrees of separa tion! Here I was standing only one step away from the current and future sources of global power. Who knows how I affected the trend of world affairs by a casua l word or two? [Please don't blame me if it is screwed up now!] Another, perhaps even better example: on my drive up nearby Mt. Tamalpais to a favorite trailhead, I often pass an older man standing on the side of the road just smiling and waiving at each car that goes by. Four hours later on my retur n he is still there. I have seen him on numerous occasions. That appears to be t his man s avocation in life. I don t think he lived there and was just conveniently standing outside of his house, which still would have been remarkable. He was al so a long way from any homeless encampment. Now, in my mind, he (and other fools on the hill ) may possibly be having as much influence on world peace and cooperat ion with a divine plan as any Aurobindo. Maybe more. Who can tell? In fact, seei ng him there totally un-self-consciously waving and greeting everybody made me f eel ashamed at myself for not having the guts to do what he did. We are all bodh isattvas in disguise and unawares. All is One...... O.K., enough on the divine plan. PB admired Sri Aurobindo's letters on yoga a nd felt they contained much value, but he also, like Ramana, took issue with sev eral aspects of his philosophy. He wrote: "There are some points in Sri Aurobindo's teaching which do not accord with t he highest teachings of philosophy. Three of these are: his rejection of idealis m in the Berkeleian sense [mentalism], his advocacy of the Incarnation doctrine [avatar theory], and his acceptance of the possibility of mystical union with Go d [mysticism, not true non-duality or what PB termed "philosophy"]. On the first point, it is impossible to escape from the truth that mind is the only reality we have ever known or can ever know, and therefore there is no place for matter in the scheme of things. In the second case, how can the infinite mind become co

nfined in the finite flesh of no matter how divine an incarnation? In the third case, God as the Ultimate Reality is incomprehensible, intangible, absolute, and unthinkable. No human capacity, regardless of its power of stretching out, can so transcend its finite limitations as to achieve direct union with it. What the mystic does achieve, however, is union with his own individual divine soul--whi ch is quite another matter. Still, Aurobindo is the most outstanding of recent I ndian yogis." (31) "He must learn to face the startling fact that the human ego carries itself e ven into his loftiest aspirations for the Divine. Even there, in that rarefied a tmosphere, it is seeking for itself, for what it wants, and always for its own p reservation. This is merely to enlarge the area of the ego's operations and not, to use Aurobindo's word, to divinize it." (32) Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo, when asked by visiting disciples of their opinions of each other, usually responded in a noncomittal and respectful fashio n. Ramana once simply said that as both of them advocated surrender, one should surrender first and then see what is the truth. To the assertion that Sri Aurobi ndo advocated Self-Realization and then a further divine transformation, Ramana would usually say, "realize the Self, then see what comes afterwards." However, as reported by David Godman, in The Power of the Presence, Part One, at other ti mes both sages made more directed statements about each other's philosophy. Both remained firmly in different camps, Ramana adhering the strict vedantic ajata ( "non-becoming") doctrine of Sankara ("There is no creation and no dissolution. T here is no bondage, no one doing spiritual practices, no one seeking liberation, and no one who is liberated. One who is established in the Self sees this by hi s knowledge of Reality." (33), while Aurobindo maintaining what he felt was a tr ue Vedic position that there was an evolution of consciousness and matter, with self-realisation just the beginning. These two points of view, were there not contributing semantic difficulties, could perhaps be reconciled through PB's concepts of the Long Path and Short Pat hs, as well as his view of that of an ever-spiraling spiritual evolution even af ter the attainment of sahaj or enlightenment. However, there are significant sem antic difficulties that need clarification: (1) What does Self-Realization mean for Sri Aurobindo, and how is it compared to what Ramana meant by the term ? (2) Sri Aurobindo numerous times essentially equated nirvikalpa samadhi with realiz ation of the "silence of Brahman", or "Nirvana", which is certainly a non-tradit ional usage of the latter term, at least according to non-dual Mahayana Buddhism . Aurobindo appeared to use the term more like what the yogis meant by kaivalya; and (3) It is also unclear what Aurobindo meant by the term "Brahman", which he equates with "The Absolute", and which he places even above the Supermental lev el. He writes about this in his poem called "Ascent". It seems like he is trying to identify the Absolute and Brahman with the One of Plotinus and the ancient G reek philosophers, but his attempt at delineating various eternal dimensions or hypostases in the Absolute looks quite different and not nearly as precise. This has caused various interpretations and cosmological schemas among his followers . For instance, Michael Murphy equates the Supermind with the Nous, and the Khep er website says Overmind is the Nous. The Mother lists seven higher planes and f ive lower planes, while Sri Aurobindo had four higher and three lower. Again, mu ch of this may have been due to the influence of the occultist Max Theon on the Mother and through her on Sri Aurobindo. The following remarks were reported by Swami Madhavatirtha, a prolific author , who spent time with Aurobindo until 1926 before leaving, his questions unsatis fied, and then with Ramana in 1944. Q: "Sri Aurobindo wants to bring the power of God into the human body." M: "If, after surrendering, one still has this desire, then surrender has not be en successful. If one has the attitude, 'If the higher power is to come down, it

must come into my body', this will only increase identification with the body. Truly speaking, there is no need of any such descent. After the destruction of t he I-am-the-body idea, the individual becomes the form of the absolute. In that state, there is no above or below, front or back." (34) David Godman recounts in his bookThe Power of the Presence, Part One, an inte resting interchange that went on over the differences between the philosophies o f Sri Aurobindo and that of Ramana. Madhavatirtha writes that Maharshi said that the transition from dreaming to waking cannot be called an evolution from a low er to a higher state; it is a total negation of the one state in the other. Just so, "even if the jiva enters Supermind, it will remain in the mind, but after s urrendering the mind there will be nothing left but Brahman." (35) Q: "In the ashram of Sri Aurobindo it is believed that if we surrender to Guru o r God, the authority of the individual goes away. In exchange we get the support of a bigger authority and a divine power shines in us." M: "To expect to receive a bigger divine power after surrender is not the true a ttitude of surrender." (36) Q: "What about the 'Over-mind', the 'Super-mind', the 'Psychic', and the 'Divine ' of Sri Aurobindo's terminology?" M: "Realise the Self or the Divine. All these differences will disappear." (37) On the other side, Sri Aurobindo answered questions from disciples about Rama na: D: "Ramana Maharshi does not believe in the descent [of the Supermind]." SA: "In Maharshi's case he has received the thing in the heart and has worked wi th it, so he does not feel the descent." (38) [Ramana admitted that he had little or no experience of the "overhead planes" , although he did have frequent samadhis and various psychic experiences such as seeing the sages who lived within Arunachala Hill. His body many times dissolve d into its constituent elements as the pranava body, similar to the rainbow or l ight body as mentioned in Tibetan Buddhism, as reported by devotees and chronicl ed by David Godman]. Aurobindo clearly would not accept that Ramana was speaking from full Self-re alization or God-knowledge. (39) SA: "So far as I know he does not believe in the ascent or the descent...Maharsh i is very much of a Vedantist. He does not believe in what we believe or in the descent, etc...Because he is a great man, does it follow that everything he thin ks or says is right? Or because he lives in the light, does it follow that his l ight is absolute and complete? The 'Truth-Consciousness' is a phrase I use for t he Supermind. He may be, and is, in a true consciousness, but that is a differen t matter...Living in the true consciousness is living in a consciousness in whic h one is spiritually in union in one way or another. But it does not follow that [by] so living one will have complete, exact and infallible truth about all ide as, all things and all persons. Maharshi realises the Divine in a certain aspect and he has the knowledge of what is necessary for his path. It does not follow that he will have knowledge that [is] beyond what he has reached or is outside i t." (40) PB, while critical, was in essential agreement with Aurobindo in the sense th at he found limitations in Maharshi's presentation of the doctrines, although no t necessarily in the scope of his consciousness or enlightenment. PB felt that R amana's teaching itself did not always represent pure non-duality, and he was th erefore, in PB's language, not a philosophic sage, but nevertheless still a sage . So it was perhaps a bit presumptious for Aurobindo to suggest that the realiza tion of Ramana was limited or of a lesser variety than his own.

In spite of their apparent disagreements, both sages affirmed that divine rea lization is possible in this very world, and not merely somewhere else. The Moth er, reflecting on Sri Aurobindo s vision, said: , r s e

Sri Aurobindo came to tell us: "One need not leave the earth to find the Truth one need not leave the life to find his soul, one need not abandon the world o have only limited beliefs to enter into relation with the Divine. The Divine i everywhere, in everything and if He is hidden, it is because we do not take th trouble to discover Him." (41) Similarly Maharshi remarked:

"What is meant by liberation? Do the heavenly worlds and heavenly bliss exist somewhere else in the sky? Are they to be experienced in some other world and s ome other body after leaving this world and the body? The heart alone is the sup reme world. Tranquility, in the form of supreme silence, is alone the supreme bl iss or the happiness of liberation...The cessation of all worries is the attainm ent of the supreme truth. By the state of inner consciousness the great life of supreme bliss can be attained at all times in this very world and in this very b ody." (42) So one can see that this issue remains unresolved. Perhaps a good example of this is shown by the following three quotes. Adyashanti writes: "Once you see reality, once you know it, you know the whole of it But, at the same time, reality is like a bud that keeps opening. The petals keep revealing t hemselves. It's not as if that bud becomes something that it wasn't before. It j ust keeps showing its potential." (43) Stephen Harrison suggests we not rule out the possibility of evolution within the non-dual awakening: Realization of the absolute is not the end, but the beginning of inquiry into that absolute. Recognizing the limitation of the conditioned state is not the en d of the state. Our question becomes the investigation of that conditioned state , and its transformation. This integration of the absolute and the relative, the conditioned and the unconditioned, is a kind of evolution of consciousness whic h is taking place in all of us, but which is taking place outside of time...Can that realization come into our everyday life?...Can the body itself undertake th e transmutation necessary for it to be the vehicle for this energy, for it to be this energy, rather than the expression of disease, aging, and death?...This mo vement can only take place without us, that is, without the psychological me. (44) Finally, Melvyn Wartella expresses a similar thought: The ego has served its purpose. It has developed a mind that can express itsel f. One that can see very abstractly and with great complexity. It can see with s ubtleties that are very profound. It took millions of years to evolve this capac ity, but in a timeless reality, it has been instantly. Now Life, that wonder of pure awareness and wisdom, has a vehicle to use that will accelerate the evoluti on of humankind to undreamed of levels. It is already complete. We just do not s ee it clearly. As each of us comes to see and understand what we are, we become a voice for Wisdom. Not that we will not make many mistakes along the way. We ar e breaking down millions of years of conditioning to find the freedom that has a lways been here. At first, you will wonder if what you feel and think is coming from Life, or is it conditioning. It all becomes clearer as we use our new found connection with Reality. Enlightenment is just a first step towards a full retu rn to Life. However, it is a powerful step that takes us out of the dream of ego and opens our Heart to that which has always been and always will be.... I can

well see the possibility of infinite evolution of what we are. All of that both has nothing to do with Enlightenment, and everything to do with it. Enlightenmen t is awakening to the facts, not the dreams of life. Evolution beyond that can b e accelerated to a great degree by the removal of the ego sense/dream. So, Enlig htenment is very important, but also just another step forward into an infinity of creation we can hardly imagine now. It is all very wonderful." (45) Sri Aurobindo did write that the difficult ordeals he and the Mother had to g o through as pioneers were not necessary for others, and that anyone with the wi ll and desire could pursue the path that he revealed. Of his own sadhana Aurobin do wrote: "I transformed my nature from what it was to what it was not. I did it in a s pecial manner, not by a miracle and I did it to show what could be done and how it could be done...If it is not so, then my Yoga is useless and my life was a mi stake - a mere absurd freak of Nature without meaning or consequence. You all se em to think it a great compliment to me to say that what I have done has no mean ing for anybody except myself - it is the most damaging criticism on my work tha t could be made. I also did not do it by myself, if you mean by myself the Aurob indo that was. He did it by the help of Krishna and the Divine Shakti. I had hel p from human sources also. (46) At one point, believe it or not, Sri Aurobindo even said that achieving the p rocess he outlined is simple! But how to do it today, and where are such 'divine ' and 'human sources' to be found? Is there not, moreover, a simpler way, not re quiring superhuman ability or intent? A way our heart yearns for, and for which we have waited for so many lives? "Don't get too technical. Simplicity and realization are synonymous. You don' t need to read Advaita, get into all kinds of concepts and meditations, and thin gs we have to do. Just calmly realize there is nothing to realize. Be free of th e whole thing." - Robert Adams, last American disciple of Ramana Maharshi. ................................................................................ ........................................................................... Afterword: Here is an interesting view that has come to my intention which suggests that David Godman and I may have been mistaken regarding the incompatibility of or d isagreement between Ramana Maharshi's and Aurobindo's teachings. I am indebted t o Don Salmon for this. I quote his letter verbatum: "Kapali Sastry was a disciple of Ganapati Muni for a number of years, Muni be ing among Maharshi's most illustrious students. At one point, Sastry wrote a co mprehensive commentary on Maharshi's "Sat Darshana Bhashya". In it, he included a number of terms coined by Sri Aurobindo, as well as much of Sri Aurobindo's " integral" philosophy. Maharshi went over the entire commentary and gave it a st rong seal of approval! The other point is that Sri Aurobindo was never seeking the purely physical p rolongation of life in the body. He made this point many times but people still claim that the fact that he died was proof of the error of his thinking. He wa

sn't seeking anything, in fact, but that's a different letter. The main point is that Sastry, a student of both Muni and Maharshi for many y ears, and later a student of Sri Aurobindo, saw no fundamental contradiction bet ween their teachings, remained a profound admirer of the Maharshi after going to study with Sri Aurobindo, and Sastri's own commentary on Maharshi's teaching complete with Aurobindonian ideas and even Aurobindoian terminology - was appro ved by Maharshi. David Godman's citations of apparent disagreements in conversations Maharshi had with disciples is different. From what I've seen, many of Sri Aurobindo's cu rrent and past disciples took his teachings in an almost purely materialistic (n on mentalist) way; and Maharshi was simply pointing this out." Sri Aurobindo, moreover, referred to Ramana as having brought "glory of India ", and that he was "a Hercules among yogis." Summary This much must be said. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother actually admitted that t hey had not succeeded totally in their endeavors, and may have not fully underst ood what it was they were trying to achieve regarding the 'bringing down of the light'. In Aurobindo's view, he had believed he needed to 'bring down', 'infuse' and even 'force' the Supermind 'into matter', into the inconscient and subconsc ient of the planet. This, it can be argued, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the very nature of Supermind, which is, above all else, a point of view that includes what can be called the 'tantric' and 'nondual' views, where one more e ssentially 'reveals' Supermind itself within the so-called physical and other le vels by a change of point of view or realization. One does not bring down or for ce Supermind, just as one does not bring Buddha-nature into manifestation - one awakens to the realization of the nondual view, or at least the tantric view, wh ich is probably more essentially what the Supermind is, a strong awakening to th e tantric view (which, when richly realized, is a strong foundation, and based o n a strong foundation, of the nondual vision). So, ironically, Aurobindo was try ing to birth the Supermind (tantric/nondual) state by using a pre-Supermind ment ality to force it into manifestation. We give them credit for participating in e arly stage experiments that were inspired by a nascient intuition of an emerging new global spiritual sensibility. But they failed to deeply understand what tha t vision is, how to 'birth' it, the stage humanity is at in this awakening, and what their role in all that really was. On the other hand, the neo-advaita scene is often jumping the gun, believing that everyone is ready to leap over the traditional and tantric sensibilities an d embrace the pure nondual. By the 'tantric view' we do essentially mean the use of kundalini practices, working with chakras and all that, but rather the under lying sensibility of seeing matter as not the enemy, and seeking to transform an d include our humanity, desire, sexuality, nature, and so on in our spirituality , rather than judge and reject. It can be that various forms of practices like k undalini yoga, Taoist yoga, Tibetan Buddhism, or kaballah are a potential natura l outgrowth of this view, but they are not necessary to give expression to the ' tantric intuition'. We only need grow into the essential vision of what is happe ning. No one has adequately addressed the subject so far, which is central to un derstanding emergent spirituality. Appendix: A Summary of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo

1. "Psychicisation": Bhakti yoga leads to awakening of the Psychic Being; Divine force descends to open the head, heart, and navel. 2."Spiritualisation": Ascent of consciousness to and simultaneous descent of div ine light from the: Higher Mind, Illuminative Mind, Intuitive Mind, and Overmind ("the predominance of the ego-sense is entirely subordinated and lost; a wide f eeling of a boundless universal self replaces it"; Cosmic Consciousness) [This could mean what PB called the Overself consciousness, or it could be a hig h form of savikalpa samadhi, or even nirvikalpa samadhi. It is confusing: if one s consciousness ascends, how does one see or know that divine light has at the same time descended? Is he describing a higher plane samadhi that meets somewhere in the middle of the hierarchical schema of worlds; then the ascending consciousne ss (or attention?) could seem to meet divine light coming down. At other times t he Overmind is clearly described as descending into oneself outside of a trance state]. 3. "Supermentalisation": Descent of the Supermind; transformation of the Inconsc ient; the Gnostic Transformation; the manifestation of divine light on the plane of matter; "the mind is replaced with a consciousness of unity and the body is transformed into a true and fit and perfectly responsive instrument of the spiri t. Many questions remain. This could mean the realization sages call Sahaj - or it could be a feeling of unity or merger, without the true non-dual insight, but wi th a yogically advanced free-flow of kundalini-shakti in the body. Also. some of the non-dual teachers, as well as shabd yogis, talk of experiencing a bodily, e ven cellular, change after their enlightenment or illumination, so how is this s upposedly radically new transformation as described by Aurobindo any different? Ken Wilber once equated the Supermental descent with a process of transformation that continues in Sahaj samadhi, but Aurobindo does not describe exactly what s ahaj is; more specifically, he is vague on when and how Self-Realization itself occurs, and also what occurs after the process of ascent has fulfilled itself. H is language is hard to transcribe with the traditional uses of these technical t erms. When does one know who or what one IS? When is the Soul , the Nous, or the Buddhistic or Advaitic awakening of no-self realized? That is, when does one awak en from the dream of a separate self? What is the practice or inquiry for this? If all along during the Integral Yoga one retains a belief in matter that must b e divinely transformed, when is the concomitant belief in a separate self let go of? Sri Aurobindo says that with the descent of the Supermind the mind is replac ed with a consciousness of unity , but what does that exactly mean? The manomaya a nd koshas certainly don t just go away. And the entire process was declared to dep end on physical association with Sri Aurobindo and/or the Mother. Without an exi sting lineage, what does one do now that they are gone? The Path of Ramana and Other Sages - in general: Basic practice: bhakti or surrender and/or inquiry into the existence of self-ex isting separate self, seeing its non-existence, and subsequent realization. "Tru th," as contemporary teacher Adyashanti says, "is a deconstruction project." Any spiritual 'superstructure' arising from the ashes of that is a product of the S oul and the Nous, not the ego. "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in v ain who build it." (Jesus) Possible variations along the way: 1. Emotional conversion at the heart, followed by a feeling of relative happines s, life and fullness in the body

[Note: this may occur after various forms of awakening, rather than before. It t hus varies in each individual case. If it happens after awakening, then the awak ening may take an indefinite period of time to stabilize, depending on one s karma and integrity. As Adyashanti once remarked, and I paraphrase from memory, everyb ody is a sage from the neck up; study non-dual teachings for a few years, no pro blem; but from the neck down, what a mess. That takes time to catch up. In any ca se, this is a profound transformation of the human being; for more see The Depth s of This Thing on this website] 2. Ascent or absorption of attention up the "spinal line" culminating in Nirvika lpa samadhi; the experience a separative I or smaller self merging into a higher S elf or God; followed by - or completely bypassing this yogic pathway, so difficu lt and perhaps unnecessary for contemporary man to achieve - simply 3. Falling into the heart-root on the right via attention absorbing itself into the aham sphurana , or the current of the Self, in the realization of jnana or jnan a-nirvikalpa samadhi, the experience of no-self or the inner void. Or, it may bypa ss this also, and simply fall away through surrender, understanding, or spiritual exhaustion , in the 4. Awakening to Sahaj samadhi, in which there is no radical difference between i nside and outside, and the Heart is realized as the source of one s being without dimensions or reference to any specific locus in the body-mind whatsoever; the f ruition of mystical development and metaphysical understanding, i.e., the full r ealization of mentalism and the flowering of the Soul; there are many ways to ac complish, and further, this some say this is the end, others say it is the begin ning.......

Paramhansa Yogananda and Kriya Yoga

By Peter Holleran "You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God's creative p rinciple works in you." Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was perhaps the equal of Swami Vivekananda i n widely disseminating Indian yoga to the West. The Kriya Yoga path he taught wa s essentially an emanationist mystical path with similarities to both kundalini and shabd yoga. This essay will dissect its philosophy and practice and compare and contrast it with both shabd yoga and the path of jnana as espoused by sages such as Ramana Maharshi, Paul Brunton (PB), and others. Yogananda was born Mukund Lal Ghosh into a devout Hindu family. His parents w ere disciples of Lahiri Mahasay, the modern exponent of Kriya Yoga. The young bo y Mukunda used to meditate with his mother in front of a picture of their guru, and on many occasions the image of the photograph would take on living form and

sit beside them. At the age of eight Mukunda was healed of cholera when, gazing upon Lahiri s picture, he was enveloped in a blinding light which filled the entir e room. His mother died when he was eleven, and she left a message for him sayin g that Lahiri had told her that one day Yogananda would carry many souls to free dom and that he had actually been spiritually initiated or baptised by him durin g infancy. Yogananda was, like so many great souls, a very mischievious, fun-loving, and strong-willed youth. He was also possessed of numerous yogic abilities from a y oung age. Once, while walking along a road with his brother and a friend, Yogana nda (known as "Medja" by his friends and siblings) decided to have some fun. The group was overwhelmed by the horrible smell of some rotting, maggot-ridden rice wafting in their direction. Yogananda boasted that since he realized that God w as in everything he could therefore eat some of the rice without coming to any h arm. His friend, Surenda, mocked him, saying that if Yogananda could eat the dis gusting mess, then so could he! Whereupon Yogananda calmly picked up a handful o f the putrid rice and ate it as if it were the most delicious of treats. His fri end ran, fearing his upcoming fate, with Yogananda in hot pursuit, but he couldn 't outrun the future saint. Yogananda shoved a handful of the rice in Surenda's mouth and the boy promptly vomited and nearly passed out. Yogananda rubbed his c hest, smiling, and Surenda recovered and conceded his defeat. Yogananda lived in a rich spiritual milieu and met many holy men before accep ting kriya yoga initiation from Sri Yukteswar. He liked to go to the temple at D akshineswar and engage in devotion to the Divine Mother and Ramakrishna. Here he said that the radiance of Divine Light from the image of the Mother's body fill ed his own body, mind, and soul. Later he spent time with brother disciples of t hat great saint. He also received instruction as a youth in shabd yoga technique s from the brother of his brother-in-law, Charu Chandra Basu, who was a Radhasoa mi initiate, and practiced meditation on inner light and sound for some time wit h rapid and spectacular results, although he later always considered it compleme ntary to his devotion to the Kriya yoga as taught by Lahiri Mahasay, and which h e considered a superior path. One personage of particular importance to Yogananda was Master Mahasaya, or M ahendra Nath Gupta (otherwise known as "M , the author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakr ishna), who blessed Yogananda with several breath-stopping mystical experiences, including his first experience of samadhi, similar in nature to the touch that Ramakrishna gave to Vivekananda: "I experienced that the Center of the Supreme Heavenly Abode was actually a p lace deep within myself and that the place of experience within was spawned by t he Same. It was as if the entire creation was emanating from my Being and the ra diance of an incredibly beautiful Light was spreading through the Sahasrar. 'It is His river of nectar flowing through the world'. A flow of liquid nectar was r ushing through body and mind - waves upon waves. I heard the Onkar Sound, the So und of Brahman - the thunderous Pranava resonance - the First Pulse of the creat ion of the Universe. Suddenly, my breath came back into the lungs. Oh, if I coul d only express how my heart was filled with disappointment. I cannot tell you. T hat Great Being of mine was completely gone. Again I came back and was imprisone d by this insignificant and miniscule physical cage - this thing that cannot con tain that Colossal Person of the Atman. Like the prodigal son described in the B ible, I left my Immense Abode of the Cosmos, and again entered this tiny 'pot' o f the body." (Swami Satyananda Giri, A Collection of Biographies of 4 Kriya Yoga Gurus, Yoga Niketan, 2004, p. 255) Yukteswar commissioned Yogananda to spread the teachings of Kriya Yoga to the West and in 1920 he sailed for America. Except for a brief period in the 1930's , Yogananda remained in America for thirty years, teaching and initiating over 1 00,000 people into Kriya Yoga, and establishing the Self-Realization Fellowship

(SRF) on the Mount Washington Estates in Los Angeles. One of the first Indian te achers along with Swami Vivekananda to come to America, Yogananda's intention wa s not, as he put it, to "Indianize" Westerners, but to awaken them to their own inherent spirituality. "Being a Westerner," he said, "is no excuse for not seeki ng God. It is vital to every man that he discover his soul and know his immortal nature." A vital, energetic individual with a free spirit, Yogananda visited many famo us people in search of spiritual influences and kindred souls. The Autobiography of a Yogi tells of his meetings with RabindranathTagore, Luther Burbank, Calvin Coolidge, Therese Neuman, and Ramana Maharshi. He also saw Anandamayi Ma, Mahat ma Gandhi, and many other notable figures. While at the ashram of Ramana he met Paul Brunton and also an advanced disciple of the sage known as Yogi Ramiah. Yog ananda considered Ramiah to be a fully enlightened soul. (1) Interestingly, it w as to Maharshi that Yogananda sent a young inquisitive Robert Adams, when the la tter questioned him on the limits of kriya yoga for attaining Self-Realization, and why he bothered to teach it. Yogananda s response was, I am doing very well, th ank you, doing things the way I am, but nevertheless recommended that Adams see R amana. Towards the end, Kriyananda recounts: "During this last period of his life, he was very much withdrawn from outward consciousness. He hardly seemed even to have a personality. Truly, as he often told us, "I killed Yogananda long ago. No one dwells in this temple but God..I w on my liberation many lifetimes ago." To the monks...he said, "When I see that G od wants me to be born again in another body to help others, and when I see that I am to re-assume a personality, it seems at first a bit like donning an overco at on a summer day; hot, and a bit itchy. Then," he concluded, "I get used to it ." (2) When Yogananda died his body remained in a state of perfect preservation twenty days afterwards, when his casket was finally sealed. This example of c super-regeneration was evident in the case of a number of saints, such as Catherine of Sienna, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, as well as Aurobindo.

for yogi St. Sri

His death itself was quite dramatic: Paramhansa Yogananda had often voiced this prediction: I will not die in bed, b ut with my boots on, speaking of God and India. On March 7, 1952, the prophecy wa s fulfilled. At a banquet in honor of the Ambassador of India, Binay R. Sen, Par amhansaji was a guest speaker. He delivered a soul-stirring address, concluding with these words from a poem he had written, My India : Where Ganges, woods, Himalay an caves and men dream God - I am hallowed; my body touched that sod! He lifted h is eyes upward and entered mahasamadhi, an advanced yogi s conscious earth-exit. H e died as he lived, exhorting all to know God. (3) Rajarski Janakananda (James "Saint" Lynn) succeeded Yogananda as president of SRF. Upon his death in 1951, Sri Daya Mata assumed the leadership, a position s he still holds. Swami Kriyananda was forced to leave SRF in 1962 and he started his own community, the Ananda Fellowship in Nevada City, California, in the late 1960's. Roy Eugene Davis, ordained by Yogananda in 1951, started CSA, the Cente r for Spirtual Awareness, where he has blended Kriya yoga with a form of advaita in a refreshing manner different from the other ordained teachers of Yogananda. (His description of the stages of realization seems to differ somewhat from tho se of both Yogananda and his predecessors as well, as will be delineated later). As with many spiritual movement when the teacher dies, there were power struggl es and controversies, none particularly earth-shaking, however, compared to othe r groups. Yogananda left no clearly agreed upon successor-guru, recognized no se

lf-realized disciples, and, in fact, according to Sri Daya Mata, before his passi ng on Paramahansaji said that it was God s wish that he be the last of the YSS/SRF line of gurus. This means that henceforth disciples would have to establish a re lationship with him in their hearts as there would be no new master for a direct human guru-shisya relationship. Nevertheless it appears that Daya Mata, Kriyana nda, Roy Eugene Davis, and others unmentioned were commissioned to teach Kriya y oga. Swami Sivananda felt highly of Yogananda and issued this tribute: A rare gem o f inestimable value, the like of whom the world is yet to witness, Paramhansa Yo gananda has been an ideal representative of the ancient sages and seers, the glo ry of India, while His Holiness the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, revered spirit ual leader of millions in South India, wrote of Paramhansaji: A bright light shin ing in the midst of darkness, so comes on earth only rarely, where there is a re al need among men. We are grateful to Yogananda for spreading Hindu philosophy i n such a wonderful way in America and the West. (4) The Autobiography of a Yogi is a wonderfully human account of a great soul an d a fascinating story of a spiritual oddysey. To have a complete picture of Yoga nanda's life it should, however, be supplemented with The Path: Autobiography of a Western Yogi (now retitled The Path: One Man s Quest on the Only Path There Is, by Swami Kriyananda. In this book, imbued with devotion, are given many, many d etails of day by day life with the Master, whereas in Yogananda's book we are fo r the most part introduced to the various people he has met. Little is revealed therein of the specifics of the sadhana which Yogananda undertook nor of the rea lization he gained. Even so, Autobiography of A Yogi is one of the most influent ial spiritual chronicles of the twentieth century and with its writing the autho r did countless people an immense service. Yogananda's most famous book is somew hat short on a detailed description of the nature, methods, stages, and goal of the Kriya Yoga path, especially as it compares with others, although I will try to explain it as best I can based chiefly on the above-mentioned book by Kriyana nda, The Essence of Self-Realization and also The Second Coming of Christ by Yog ananda. The path as outlined by Yogananda appears to be different than that desc ribed by his guru, Sri Yukteswar, in the latter's book, The Holy Science, which sounds much more like shabd yoga. The specific details for actual kriya practice are given out in the lessons that members of the Self-Realization Fellowship su bscribe to. Further complicating the picture is that Yogananda actually gave out different practices and even yogas to different individuals as the particular c ase demanded. Kriya Yoga, essentially, is a form of yoga practice employing breathing techn iques and meditation to free consciousness from the physical, astral, and causal bodies. It is not absolutely clear, to my understanding, from Yogananda's writi ngs, whether the goal is dissociation with these bodies or only disidentifcation from them, of first one, then the other, a common two-part sadhana. In his auto biography and early writings Yogananda suggests that God-Consciousness takes pla ce when the soul or disembodied attention has actually separated from these thre e "coils" and, correspondingly, from the three worlds (physical, astral, and cau sal or ideational). Thus divested, he calls this state of the soul "God or Cosmi c Consciousness", and seems, as far as I can tell, to mean something like tradit ional Nirvikalpa samadhi. Yet he also describes two states before this. The firs t is to become "superconscious", attuned with Aum, the vibratory power of creati on on all levels, and feel the universe as ones own body. The second is to achie ve "Christ Consciousness," which is realization of oneness with the all-pervadin g, still Christ Consciousness, the Kutshtha Chaitanya, within and transcendent o f the Aum vibration, the 'pure reflection in all things of the consciousness of God the Father beyond creation'. This is the definition of a Master according to Yogananda. It is jivanmukta, but not yet total liberation. The further achievem ent of Nirvikalpa beyond manifest creation is defined as "the samadhi-meditation state of oneness with God both beyond and within vibratory creation at the same

time." (5) Thus state must then be brought down into the physical body and real ized simultaneously while embodied: "The stages of enlightenment are, first, to be conscious of the AUM vibration throughout the body. Next, one's consciousness becomes identified with that AUM vibration beyond the body, and gradually throughout the universe. One then beco mes conscious of the Christ Consciousness within the AUM vibration - first withi n the physical body, then gradually in the whole universe. When you achieve onen ess with that vibrationless consciousness everywhere, you have attained Christ C onsciousness." "The [next] stage lies beyond vibration itself, in oneness with God the Fathe r, the Creator [through the Holy Ghost] beyond the universe. When, still in that highest state of consciousness, you can return to the body without losing your inner sense of oneness with God, that is complete freedom. All true masters, eve n those who are not yet fully liberated, live in that nirbikalpa samadhi state. That is what Jesus Christ had. It was what he meant by perfection, in saying, 'B e ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt 5:48). T o be a Christlike master, one must have attained that state." (5a) In short, he calls the final state "the complete union of body, Holy Ghost, C hrist Consciousness, and God the Father, perceived as one in Spirit." (5b) Part of the difficulty in understanding all this is that Yogananda appears to have us ed the word "nirbikalpa" where sages like Ramana Maharshi used the term "sahaj", and "sabikalpa" where others used "nirvikalpa." Yogananda states: "There are two stages of samadhi. In the first, the conscousness merges into the Infinite during meditation. The yogi cannot preserve that state, however, on ce he comes out of his meditation. That state is known as sabikalpa samadhi." "The next state is called nirbikalpa samadhi. In this state of consciousness you maintain your divine realization even while working or speaking or moving ab out in this world. Nirbikalpa is the highest realization. Once attaining that, t here is no further possibility of falling back into delusion." (5c) Here Yogananda seems to reverse the traditional usage of the terms Sabikalpa and Nirbikalpa. However, the difficulty clears up if we understand the first usage to refer to traditional Nirvikalpa samadi, and the second to refer to Sahaja or Sahaja-Nirvikalpa samadhi]. "I made this distinction in a chant I once wrote: "In sabikalpa samadhi yoga I will drown myself in my Self. In nirbikalpa samadhi yoga I will find myself in my Self." (The Essence of Self-Realization, 1990, p. 196) The aforementioned three stages of Self-realization (Superconsciousness, or attu nement with the vibratory current of Om, Christ Consciousness, and Cosmic Consci ousness), Yogananda equated with the Hindu version (AUM-TAT-SAT) of the Christia n Trinity (Holy Ghost-Son-Father). Yogananda states: "In my perceptions, just as I feel my own consciousness in every part of my p hysical form, I feel you all to be a part of me. Everything that is living I fee l within this body. I know the sensations of all. It is not imagination; it is S elf-realization. This consciousness is far beyond telepathy. It is awareness of the perceptions of every being. That is the meaning of Christ Consciousness." (6 )

In his poem Samadhi, from Songs for the Soul, he gives hints of his realizati on. And further he writes: "When he reidentifies with his soul as individualized ever-existing, ever-con scious, ever-new Bliss, he then merges with the all-pervading ever-existing, eve r-conscious, ever-new Bliss of Spirit - even as a droplet returns to the sea. St ill, that individuality is never lost; that portion of Spirit eternally retains its "memory" of that individualized existence." (7) This latter paragraph is consistent with Shabd Yoga wherein the purified soul merges further, losing its identity in the absolute, and then returns to be sou l, and the idea of a "memory" of the individualized life is consistent with PB's idea of an ever-spiralling spiritual evolution, even after sahaj is attained, o r Sri Nisargadatta's assertion that in liberation every 'I am' is preserved and glorified.' Fortunately there is so much good in the devotional writings of Yoga nanda that in my opinion it makes up for any difficulty I have with his sometime s unique use of traditional terms, and I find a growing appreciation for his gre atness the more I read his writings and stories about him. It makes me long for the presence of my own guru. It would certainly, however, be interesting for a current teacher of Kriya yo ga to debate with a master of the Radhasoami school as well as disciples of the Maharshi, for the former gurus attest to the existence of at least four more pla nes beyond the causal, which in each case is defined as the mental or ideational seed-realm, and thus still in the domain of the manamaya and vijnanamaya koshas , while the latter consider the causal realm as the transcendental root or sourc e of attention and ego-self along with the anandamaya kosha in the right side of the heart. In fairness, Yogananda used the term astral to refer to what traditi onally would include prana, manas, and buddhi, while causal is ideational-consci ousness, self-awareness, and intelligence. Christ Consciousness is both transcen dental to and immanent in all lower bodies and worlds, the abode of perfected sa ints, the first individualization or 'spark' of the Spirit as soul, while God-Co nsciousness is transcendental to all cosmic vibration and above that. He also sp oke of not one, but various causal worlds, as did Yukteswar. Yogananda also said that the heart was the center of consciousness and perception in the body, whic h was in contact with the spiritual eye center in the head. So he is perhaps not so far apart from either the Sants or Maharshi. He spoke of "having killed Yogananda," "there is only God now in this body," and "I won my liberation many lifetimes ago," so he certainly seems to have gone beyond separation and ego. Kriya yoga as popularly presented is a modern form of Raja Yoga, and as such is a mystical school advocating ascension of the soul to the realms of light abo ve, while also teaching of their integration as true liberation. Thus, there is a jnana component. Sri Yukteswar was in fact referred to as "Jnanavatar" Sri Yuk teswar. In practice, among personal students, Yogananda actually taught all of t he classical yogas, even self-inquiry, and had one disciple in particular, Sri G yanamata, who he said achieved liberation through the path of knowledge and by g race. Nearthe end of her life she asked him for nirvikalpa samadhi and he said, "you don't need that. If you are in the palace already why do you want to explor e the gardens?" Yogananda, like Swami Muktananda, speaks with special praise in Autobiography of A Yogi of the causal realm, the "abode of the siddhas", but in that famous book didn t mention or emphasize the merits of Nirvikalpa samadhi, whi ch is the fulfilment of this ascending process [although elsewhere he certainly did, and his guru, Sri Yukteswar, certainly did so also], although his yoga syst em was based in vedanta like most ancient yogas. The famous book was written to

get a wide audience of western beginners "hooked" with fascinating spiritual tal es. Perhaps, also, the more advanced teachings were reserved for an inner circle , such as in Ramakrishna hiding a copy of the Ashtavakra Gita strictly for Swami Vivekananda. The writings of Paramhansa Yogananda are overflowing with great heart-devotio n, and have done much good to many, many people - including even Robert Adams, w ho felt jnana without bhakti was dry and lifeless. God tries us in all ways; He exposes our weakneses, that we may become aware o f them and transmute them into strengths. He may send us ordeals that appear ins upportable; He may sometimes seem almost to be pushing us away. But the clever d evotee will say: No, Lord, I want Thee. Nothing shall deter me in my search. My h eartfelt prayer is this: Never put me through the test of obliviousness of Thy P resence. [Note: The test of a saint]. Do not expect a spiritual blossom every day in the garden of your life. Have f aith that the Lord to whom you have surrendered yourselves will bring your divin e fulfillment at the proper time. (8) The moment when Divine Mother beats you the hardest is the time you should cli ng tenaciously to Her skirt. (9) Yogananda s principle guru, Sri Yukteswar (1855-1936) [he also took instruction from Swami Kebalananda, another disciple of Lahiri Mahasay] was described by hi s famous disciple as being a strict disciplinarian, an uncompromising taskmaster , and a man with forceful and candid speech. Yogananda felt that Yukteswar would probably have been the most sought-after guru in India if his methods and manne r had not been so severe. Alas, such has been the fate of many true teachers. Ne vertheless, Yukteswar was revered by those who understood his ways. It is worth noting that his reprimands and rebukes were not directed to casual visitors, but only to those who were devoted to him and to his discipline. Yogananda expresse d gratitude for Yukteswar's "humbling blows", confessing that the hard core of e go is "difficult to dislodge except rudely." Yukteswar was also an excellent ast rologer. He cast charts for both Satyananda and Yogananda and gave them each a p rotective amulet. He told them that it made no difference whether they believed in such things or not for the scientific principles would work irregardless. Yuk teswar was fond of discussing astrology with eminent practitioners of the art, a nd to this end he would forward full-fare round-trip tickets to coax them to vis it him. If they could not come then he would visit them. One of his most importa nt theories was that the precession of the constellations in the 25,000 year Grea t Year cycle was due to our sun being part of a binary sun system with perhaps Si rius as its companion star. This is being born out by much contemporary research . Yukteswar also correllated this with the Hindu system of Yugas, and found erro rs in the calculation of those. Most importantly, he discovered that confusion w ith a greater or Maha-Yuga cycle led many people to conclude that we are in the dark Kali (Iron age)Yuga, whereas in fact we have been in the ascending phase of the Dwapara (Silver Age) Yuga since 1699 A.D.. Yukteswar established several Self-Realization Fellowship centers (known, in India, as Yogoda Satsanga - YSS) and appointed two successors: Satyananda for th e East (10) and Yogananda for the West. He died on Mar 9, 1936, and in June of t hat year appeared in a "physically rematerialized body" to Yogananda and at leas t one other disciple. (11) Sri Yukteswar shared the general yogic view, and the view of Kriya yogis in p articular, that the ajna chakra or third eye is the most important bodily center for spiritual realization. He said that "the essence of religion, pure consciou sness, and the Supreme Lord reside in the "Cave" in between the eyebrows." (12)

Kriya teachings, somewhat uniquely, for I have seen it nowhere else in the liter ature, argue that the vibratory pranic or cosmic life-energy enters the body at the medulla oblongata (brain stem), which is "the main switch that controls the entrance, storage, and distribution of the life-force." (13). They consider the medulla as the twin pole of the ajna or agya chakra, Christ center, or spiritual eye. The prana then goes upwards into the higher brain and downwards from there to the various bodily centers (chakras). In the yogi much of it is stored in th e sahasrara at the top of the brain. This is,as mentioned, a highly unique view. The shabd yogins would say that both the the prana as well as the attention or surat, both enter the body from the top of the head, not the medulla. Yogananda called it the "mouth of God", where the Aum vibration enters the body. He also s aid that the seed-atom or matrix for the coming incarnation is implanted at conc eption in the medulla, while most yogic and vedantic schools say it is implanted in the heart. Swami Kriyananda, in his rendition of Yogananda's commentaries on the Bhagava d-Gita, interestingly states: "The sun in the body represents the light of the spiritual eye - or, alternat ively, the sahasrara (the "thousand-petalled lotus") at the top of the head. The moon represents the reflection of that light in the ego, or agya chakra (the me dulla oblongata), and therefore represents the human ego itself. Ego-consciousne ss is, in fact, centered in the medulla." (14) That, too, is a unique view. For Ramana Maharshi, in contrast, the center for Self-Realization is the tran scendental Heart (the "sun"), all-pervading yet felt or intuited prior to realiz ation relative to the body as being in the heart on the right side, and from whi ch the light above the crown (reflected in the brain - the "moon") emanates and, upon Realization, is recognized, free of egoic illusion. Ramana therefore would object to this Kriya interpretation of the sun and moon as rendered from the Bh agavad-Gita. Ramana also simply said that the source of the pranas is the same a s that of the mind, which is the Heart, and did not concern himself with any of the bodily centers, although he did mention them, but tended to dismiss in advai tic fashion as existing in the mind and irrelevant for realization. [This, in my opinion, is an extreme view, and not the highest non-dual viewpoint, which woul d include all manifest structures of the body-mind within its realization]. The Kriya path posits the physical, astral, and causal bodies/worlds, and tea ches that when the attention is withdrawn from the outer body it enters three pr ogressively deeper "astral" nadis: the vajra, the chitra, and then the brahmanad i. [The classic "ida" and "pingala" nadis are considered as more superficial, mo re to due with the breath, than the other nadis, which are deeper and luminous w ith astral light]. This is also a unique interpretation of the nadis: "Passing through the chitra, the energy and consciousness enter the innermost channel, the brahmanadi, which constitutes the spine of the causal body. [this is interesting; one has not yet left through the top of the physical head, but h e is supposed to be in the spine of the causal body] It was through the brahmana di that Brahma, the Creative aspect of AUM, in His aspect of Creator of individu al beings and their three bodies, descended into outward manifestation. It is th rough this final channel of brahmanadi, therefore, that the soul must once ascen d in order to become again one with the Spirit. As the yogi withdraws his energy up through this final channel, he is able to fully offer his separate, individu al consciousness to infinity...The opening of the brahmanadi is at the top of th e head. On reaching this point, the yogi becomes reunited with omnipresence, for the last sheath has been removed that closes him off from infinity." (15) Vedantist V.S. Iyer, court philosopher of the Maharaja of Mysore, teacher of

Paul Brunton and Ramakrishna monks Nikhilinanda and Siddeswarananda, by contrast , had this to say about this sort of view, from the point of view of truth: Some yogis teach that Brahman is in the top chakra of the skull; that therefor e we must ascend there. This is childish. (Collected Works, Vol. 1, ed. Mark Scor elle, 1999, p. 105) We will hear more from Iyer later. Ramana Maharshi also adamently opposed thi s view. This also appears a problematic and contradictory teaching for the shabd yogi n, for according to that school a successful exit at the top of the head would o nly leave the soul at the threshold of the astral world, with astral and causal bodies intact and yet to be transcended. Therefore, the shabd yogin would not ag ree that "the last sheath has been removed." It is, of course, a traditional kun dalini and raja yoga teaching that nirvikalpa samadhi and infinite consciousness is attained when one reaches the sahasrara, but there seems to be a big jump in logic here. There is much explaining needed regarding the subtle channel or "br ahmanadi" between the agya chakra and the sahasrara. What exactly happens to the astral and causal bodies? How indeed are they transcended by the life energies, consciousness or attention passing from the agya chakra to the sahasrara, the s ahasrara being defined as at the top of the head? If the sheaths are so transcen ded by this process then it seems that the astral and causal worlds would also h ave to be transcended, which then either suggest that such worlds are within the "brain-core", and not outside of it, or that this path is integral in methodolo gy, such that when one did leave the body,all of the sheaths interpenetrating, h e may have already in effect transcended the astral and causal worlds. But if th at were the case then there would be no subtle or heavenly realms after death ei ther, and that can't be the case. What exactly, then, are the Kriya yogis saying ? Yogananda's teaching is sometimes more than a little confusing. If we accept Kriyananda's rendition and (sometimes) Yogananda's teaching about leaving throug h the crown of the head and entering directly to Christ Consciousness at the Sah asrar, then how do we interpret his more common teaching that one must penetrate through the spiritual eye the gold ring (signifying the vibratory astral world) , the blue field (signifying Christ Consciousness (and sometimes also meaning th e causal world), and then the "white star" (signifying the gateway to God or Cos mic Consciousness)? For instance, for the Sants of the shabd yoga school the whi te star is only at the threshold of the astral plane. The Kriya teachings involve the use of traditional Hatha Yoga means including asana (right posture) and pranayama (breath control), as well as the traditiona l Raja yoga components of pratyahara (abstraction of attention from the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (contemplation), and samadhi (transcendental ab sorption), with the goal being ascended absorption at the ajna center, passage t hrough the central brightness within the spiritual eye, and finally Nirvikalpa S amadhi, beyond the three bodies and worlds. Its practice of concentration of att ention on the lights and sounds in the brain core is similar to that of Shabd Yo ga, although the latter claims to take the soul much higher with a much less ard uous sadhana. Kriya Yoga, on the other hand, makes claims for bodily transformat ion and rejuvenation that the latter does not. Sometimes this tends to get overemphasized at the expense of the goal of realization itself. From an interview w ith Paramhansa Yogananda: The technique I had already received from two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya Fathe r and my tutor, Swami Kebalananda. But Master [Sri Yukteswar] possessed a transf orming power; at his touch a great light broke upon my being, like the glory of countless suns blazing together. A flood of ineffable bliss overwhelmed my heart to an innermost core...."

"The Sanskrit root of kriya is kri, to do, to act and react: the same root is found in the word karma, the natural principle of cause and effect. Kriya yoga is thus union (yoga) with the Infinite through a certain action or rite (kriya). A yogi who faithfully practices the techniques gradually freed from karma or th e lawful chain of cause-effect equilibrium." "Kriya yoga is a simple, psychophysiological method by which human blood is d ecarbonized and recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transm uted into life current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers. By stopping t he accumulation of venous blood, the yogi is able to lessen or prevent the decay of tissues. The advanced yogi transmutes his cells into energy." "The kriya yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upwards and down wards, around the six spinal centers (medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacra l and coccygeal plexuses), which correspond to the 12 astral signs of the zodiac , the symbolic Cosmic Man." "Elijah, Jesus, Kabir, and other prophets were past masters in the use of kri ya or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will." "Kriya is an ancient science. Lahiri Mahasaya received it from his great guru , Babaji, who rediscovered and clarified the technique after it had been lost in the Dark Ages. Babaji renamed it, simply, kriya yoga. The next to the last paragraph above could pose a problem, as the "similar te chnique" used by Jesus and Kabir, according to the Sant Mat gurus, would be Shab d Yoga, not Kriya Yoga! The Kriya organization promoted a theocentric myth that their yoga was a special dispensation to the "New Age" from the legendary immort al master "Babaji", which presentation, like Theosophy, is representative of muc h occult mythology which became the manner of many early twentieth-century commu nications of traditional oriental esotericism in the Western world. To complicate matters Babaji was supposed to have been Krishna in a previous incarnation, which wouldn't set well with some of Sri Aurobindo's disciples, who felt that he had been Krishna in a previous life. Ramakrishna also claimed to h ave been Krishna. Kriya yoga thus appears to be a popularized and even theistic version of an assortment of hatha, raja, and nada yoga techniques that have been taught since ancient times. Its domain is clearly experiential mysticism in the manifest realms, with a goal of the unmanifest, finally integrated with the wor ld. As was the case with Sri Aurobindo, Paramhansa Yogananda was said to have bee n spiritually active in influencing world events, in particular the Korean War. Yogananda stated: "When South Korea was invaded by the north, I myself put the thought into Pre sident Truman's mind to go to its defense. That situation was a threat to the wh ole world. Had South Korea fallen, the communists would have gone on to Japan, a nd would then have come up and taken the Aleutian Islands, from where they would have invaded Alaska and North America. The whole world, ultimately, could have been swept up into the materialistic philosophy of communism. For these reasons it was very necessary that South Korea be defended. That is why I have called th is a holy war." (16) Yogananda also commented on the role of sages in influencing the outcome of W WII. As Swami Kriyananda recounts: "When Hitler first rose to power, Paramhansa Yogananda, for several reasons,

saw some hope in that accession. One of those reasons was the unfairness of the Versailles Treaty, which had forced germany into virtual destitution. He also sa w, as he told a few people, that Hitler had been, in a former lifetime, Alexande r "the great" of Greece, who had shown an interest in the yogis of India. When H itler allowed himself to be seized by ambition for power, however, that ambition distorted his potentially spiritual leanings. At that point, several masters be gan to work against him [Aurobindo, the Mother, Narayan Maharaj, and Meher Baba, to name a few who were claimed to have done so].....They..put the thought in Hi tler's mind to make mistakes that led to his eventual destruction. They suggeste d to him from within, for example, to divide his forces and fight both in the ea st and in the west, and also in Africa. This they did by feeding the confidence he felt in his own ability to win "everywhere." Militarily, there was no need fo r Germany to divide its fronts. That self-division proved, for it, a fatal error ." (17) Yogananda said that Mussolini had been Marc Anthony in a past life, Stalin wa s Genghis Khan, and Churchill had been Napoleon (this might have been a small pr oblem, as Sri Aurobindo was also said to have been Napoleon). When asked the sam e about FDR, he quipped, "I've never told anybody...I was afraid I might get int o trouble!" (18) Yogananda said that "the divine purpose behind the Second World War was to li berate the 'third world' countries, most of which were British colonies." Suppos edly a part of this was karmic retribution against Churchill: as Napoleon "he wa nted to destroy England. As Churchill he had to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire." (19) Apparently, for Yogananda, as well as for Sri Aurobindo, the thought that the world bankers as well as secret societies and major power-elite actually funded the Russian Revolution, triggered WWI, orchestrated the Versailles Treaty and i ts inevitable repercussions, and also financially supported Hitler until several years into WWII, never crossed their mind. Whatever the divine plan was for the fate of the nations involved in these major conflicts, there was another plan t hat the sages and masters seem not to have been privy to, that of the Illuminati , who appeared to have achieved all of their major goals, to wit: the breakup of Germany as a major power, the fomenting of unrest in the Middle East, the hando ver of eastern Europe to the communists in order to create a Cold War, with the subsequent creation in the public mind of a need for a global governing body, fi rst materialized in the incipient United Nations, and in dialectical fashion thu s move a few steps closer to accomplishing their long-cherished New World Order. This topic is discussed in more detail within the article Sri Aurobindo and the Integral Yoga on this website. Divine plan or no divine plan, one obvious irony is that if the masters had not influenced Hitler to split his forces, but rathe r cooperated with his desire to make peace with England, he might have been able to prevail in his goal of stopping world communism and thereby avoid the conseq uences for humanity of both the Korean conflict and the Cold War - the outcome o f which Yogananda said he had favorably influenced. "Who can fathom the mind of the Lord?", saith the psalmist. Kriya Yoga is somewhat difficult to describe because there have been differen ces and modifications of the practices as it has been passed down from Lahiri Ma hasay to Sri Yukteswar to Paramahansa Yogananda. Supposedly this has been to spe ed up and make more scientific the process to the attainment of Christ Conscious ness and God-Realization. The above link opens into an extensive amount of mater ial suggesting contradictions within the Kriya teachings, and cultic aspects of the organization, including scare tactics such as the threat of lifetimes wasted if you ever leave the guru and the fellowship (all too common among religious g roups, invading the Radhasoami Mat, Auroville under the Mother, as well as Mormo nism, Jehovah's Witnesses, fundamentalist Christianity, and many more), and the

need to take an SRF loyalty oath, that the reader mself. Here we will give Yogananda the benefit of the great devotional inspiration derived from his ual to draw his or her own conclusions about guru

will be left to explore for hi the doubt, out of respect for writings, leaving each individ politics.

Essentially, again, kriya yoga employs asana and pranayama techniques to move the subtle life energy up and down the spine, attempting to purify karmas assoc iated with each of the six spinal chakras, with the hoped for result that this l ife force eventually collects at the third eye (ajna chakra) and from there proc eeds to the sahasrar, which Kriya considers the doorway to the infinite. When th e life-force collects at the ajna, a circle of colored rings appear, predominant ly a golden ring around a blue sky, with a brilliant white star in the center. C oncentration on that star leads to passage beyond it and beyond the "three coils ", to eventual Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Repeated attainment of Nirvikalpa Samadhi eve ntually is supposed to lead to realization of the same in daily life, which, as stated, is called Cosmic Consciousness in the terminology of Yogananda. It is, ess entially, realization of Nirvikalpa samadhi in the midst of daily life. How that is achieved is not entirely clear. The assumption is that repeated i mmersion in nirvikalpa will bleed through into ones daily life and eventually an d naturally create sahaj, although that specific word is not used or explained. Here is what PB said on this basically yogic and Indian version of sahaj samadhi , versus its Ch an and, in his language, philosophic version: The Indian notion of sahaja makes it the extension of nirvikalpa samadhi into the active everyday state. But the Ch an conception of sahaj samadhi differs from this; it does not seek deliberately to eliminate thoughts, although that may oft en happen of its own accord through identification with the true Mind, but to el iminate the personal feelings usually attached to them, that is, to remain unaff ected by them because of this identification." "Ch an does not consider sahaja to be the fruit of yoga meditation alone, nor o f understanding alone, but of a combination seemingly of both. It is a union of reason and intuition. It is an awakening once and for all. It is not attained in nirvikalpa and then to be held as long as possible. it is not something, a stat e alternately gained and lost on numerous occasions, but gradually expanded as i t is clung to. It is a single awakening that enlightens the man so that he never returns to ignorance again. He has awakened to his divine essence, his source i n Mind, as an all-day and every day self-identification. It has come by itself, effortlessly. (20) [Note: do not be misled by the last sentence of this quote. Elsewhere PB says a man must work hard for this, but only that the final stage, that of irreducib le insight into reality, comes effortlessly by grace]. It is not clear whether the final realization for the Kriya yogin is the same as realization herein defined. It appears to be in the category of the former o r Indian version wherein something like nirvikalpa is attempted to be held onto as long as possible. Yogananda also wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi that final liberation for a saint is usually attained from a higher astral world after deat h rather than from the physical plane. This concept has its counterpart in Sant Mat and even Buddhism, which speaks of a realm called Sukhavati from where the b odhisattvas attain their enlightenment. PB gives a warning on the yogic view of the stabilisation of ecstasy as a cha racteristic of the goal, if not the goal itself point of view: "The philosopher is satisfied with a noble peace and does not run after mysti cal ecstasies. Whereas other paths often depend upon an emotionalism that perish es with the disappearance of the primal momentum that inspired it, or which diss

olves with the dissolution of the first enthusiastic ecstasies themselves, here there is a deeper and more dependable process. What must be emphasized is that m ost mystical aspirants have an initial or occasional ecstasy, and they are so st irred by the event that they naturally want to enjoy it permanently. This is bec ause they live under the common error that a successful and perfect mystic is on e who has succeeded in stabilizing ecstasy. That the mystic is content to rest o n the level of feeling alone, without making his feeling self-reflective as well , partly accounts for such an error. It also arises because of incompetent teach ers or shallow teaching, leading them to strive to perform what is impracticable and to yearn to attain what is impossible. Our warning is that this is not poss ible, and that however long a mystic may enjoy these 'spiritual sweets,' they wi ll assuredly come to an end one day. The stern logic of facts calls for stress o n this point. Too often he believes that this is the goal, and that he has nothi ng more about which to trouble himself. Indeed, he would regard any further exer tions as a sacrilegious denial of the peace, as a degrading descent from the exa ltation of this divine union. He longs for nothing more than the good fortune of being undisturbed by the world and of being able to spend the rest of his life in solitary devotion to his inward ecstasy. For the philosophic mystic, however, this is not the terminus but only the starting point of a further path. What ph ilosophy says is that this is only a preliminary mystical state, however remarka ble and blissful it be. There is a more matured state -- that of gnosis -- beyon d it. If the student experiences paroxysms of ecstasy at a certain stage of his inner course, he may enjoy them for a time, but let him not look forward to enjo ying them for all time. The true goal lies beyond them, and he should not forget that all-important fact. He will not find final salvation in the mystical exper ience of ecstasy, but he will find an excellent and essential step towards salva tion therein. He who would regard rapturous mystical emotion as being the same a s absolute transcendental insight is mistaken. Such a mistake is pardonable. So abrupt and striking is the contrast with his ordinary state that he concludes th at this condition of hyper-emotional bliss is the condition in which he is able to experience reality. He surrenders himself to the bliss, the emotional joy whi ch he experiences, well satisfied that he has found God or his soul. But his exc ited feelings about reality are not the same as the serene experience of reality itself. This is what a mystic finds difficult to comprehend. Yet, until he does comprehend it, he will not make any genuine progress beyond this stage." (21) Another difference between emanationist paths, such as Kriya yoga, and philos ophic paths, such as described by PB and as given in Advaita Vedanta and various forms of Buddhism, lies with the concept of matter. Kriya is a firm believer in matter as crystalized or condensed Consciousness. Even astral matter, which Yog ananda terms "lifetrons", falls into this category. To the philosophic sage, all experiences, high or low, no matter how they are subjectively perceived, as den se or ethereal, are ideas in the mind - and ultimately, Mind - but to Yogananda this was the wrong way of perceiving things. He said: "The human body - and all things else - are naught but a mass of condensed en ergy; and energy is "frozen" Cosmic Consciousness, or God. We should not call it mind. Mind is different. To say that everything is mind is incorrect. It is Cos mic Consciousness that causes us to be aware of different things, to have a cons ciousness of so-called matter and a consciousness of Spirit...You will know that the cosmic golden cord that binds the atoms is the tender consciousness of Spir it. It is with this cord that He binds the atoms to become the flower, or the hu man body." (22) Thus, Yogananda is not a mentalist. He even criticizes the great Sankara of c onfusing "mind" with subtle matter. To Yogananda "thoughts" or "ideas" only begi n in the causal plane. "In the causal world, he knows that everything is made of idea-forms, or thou ghts...he knows himself as soul (jiva), a manifestation of Para-Prakriti: Pure N

ature." (23) For Yogananda, proceeding downwards from pure Spirit, it is on the causal pla ne that the first individualization of the soul takes place. it further limitati on to an egoic form of life occurs on the astral plane. The raical advaitist might say at this point, "has anyone ever seen 'Para-Pra kriti'? Can you prove its existence?" The answer is no. Then why use the term an d suppose it leads one to truth? As a yogi Swami Yogananda - as well as Sri Auro bindo - took issue with the advaitins and their epistemology of Drik-Drysam-Adva itin, that everything seen or experienced (Drysam) is a presentation to and inse parable from the seer (Drik), Atman or Brahman. In this view everything is menta l, even the soul, which reduces to a thought or concept in Mind. Yogananda might possibly be classified as a parinama-vada vedantist, in which the Mind projects out various levels or stadia, or even a modified advocate of Sam 'khya, believi ng in two primary substances: consciousness and matter (i.e., maha-prakriti, the primordial field of nature). Indeed, Roy Eugene Davis describes Yogananda's sch ema of manifestation as Sam 'khya, although, it seems, it is without the extreme dualism of classical Sam 'khya, for Yogananda accepted vedanta and posited a su preme Spirit, which produced Maya or cosmic illusion, which itself then generate d a transcendental Trinity of Father-Christ Consciousness-Holy Ghost, with the l atter producing the 'Aum' vibration responsible for creation of all of the manif est worlds. Yogananda, however, would not likely have agreed with the strict aja ta-vada vedantist who is a firm adherent to the doctrine of non-causality and th at all is Mind; that 'things' are not produced by Mind, they are Mind. V.S. Iyer , teacher of Paul Brunton, had this to say about Yogananda: "Swami Yogananda of Los Angeles visited me. He kept on saying "I am Brahman. All this is Brahman." I smiled but kept quiet. I ought to have said to him, "How can you prove that you are Brahman?" He would have replied, "I know, practice m y method of yoga and you too shall know. To that I would have said, "How can you prove that your method is the correct one?" Such mystics will not reason." (24) PB states, and this is generally the view of advaita vedanta, as well as Rama na Maharshi and sages such as Atmananda and Nisargadatta: "The Theosophic doctrine that the physical world is an externalization of an astral plane or even the higher Platonic doctrine that it crystallizes a world o f divine ideation is given to beginners as a help to give them a crude grasp, a first step towards the theory that the world is an idea, until they are mentally developed. When their mind is mature they are then told to discard the astral p lane theory and told the pure truth that all existence is an idea." "How hard for the average mind to grasp this central fact, that the World-Ide a is the world-creation. The one does not precede the other. The second is not a copy in matter of the first. Man has to work, with his senses and his intellect , when he wants to convert his ideas into objects, but the World-Mind does not n eed to make an effort in order to make a universe, does not in reality have anyt hing to do at all, for Its thought is the thing. Some mystics and most occultist s have failed to perceive this. Their realization of the Spirit did not bring th e full revelation of the Spirit. This is because they have not thoroughly compre hended...its utter emptiness. Nothing can come out of the Universal Mind that is not mental, not even the material world which men believe they inhabit and expe rience." (25) Even so, and while it is epistemologically consistent, even PB appears to hed ge on this point a little bit, when he states: "It is not quite correct to assume that we are the manifested forms of the pe rfection from which we emanate. More precisely, we are projecteds of a denser me

dium from the universal mind, appearing by some catalytic process in natural seq uence within that medium. The cosmic activity provides each such entity-projecti on with an individual life and intelligence centre through an evolutionary proce ss, whereby its own volitional directive energies are, ultimately, merged with t he cosmic will in perfect unity and harmony." (26) This form of mentalistic insight, however, that all arises in and as Mind, is how a sage like Papaji could make the enigmatic statement, "nothing ever happen ed." Yogananda would consider the causal body to be made of mind or mental "stuf f", but it would still be, from his point of view, a subtle stuff, more subtle t han the astral lifetrons, or the physical body, but still an actual condensation of Consciousness (which to the philosophers is Mind), rather than an appearance within or apparent emanation of Consciousness. This becomes more than mere hair -splitting when one goes deeply into the doctrine of mentalism, and affects the very nature of the identity of Self or Soul and Ego. Similar problems emerge whe n studying the teachings of Sri Aurobindo. Are the differences in these teaching s mere words? We will let the reader decide. [For more on this teaching of PB, s ee the article Elvis Was Not A Mentalist on this website]. For the shabd yogin, separating from the "three coils" of the physical astral and causal bodies, would not, as in kriya Yoga, lead the soul directly to the P urushottama, or nirvikalpa, but first to the "super-causal" dimension, where the soul is essentially aware of itself as a self-existing eternal 'entity' beyond mind and illusion (a 'drop' of consciousness), but still covered by a thin layer of anandamaya kosha, and confronting a dark void (Maha-Sunn) which it cannot cr oss to enter the eternal realms without the superior light of the Master. The he lp of the guru is needed to pass from there to Sach Khand, which is considered t he Spiritual realm or true home of the Sants, and from which one then gets progr essively absorbed by the Sat Purush past Alakh and Agam Loks, and into the namel ess and formless Godhead known as "Anami". Further, in The Second Coming of Christ, Yogananda refers to all of the sound s as 'astral sounds', whereas for shabd yoga they lead beyond the causal and sup er-causal planes to Sach Khand or the home of the soul. Kriya as such [with the caveat, as mentioned, that Yogananda taught all of th e yoga paths] differs markedly from the path Shabd Yoga, in that the latter teac hes the aspirant to bypass the path of the prana (motor) currents and to instead concentrate the sensory currents at the third eye, ignoring the centers below. Kriya wants to bring both energy and consciousness up to the top of the spine.Th e upward course from there appears the same, in that one is to pierce through th e big star, but in Kriya what comes after that, again, is simply said to be pass age beyond the three worlds, while in Shabd Yoga a hierarchy of seven planes bey ond is taught, with the Master or Master-Power being one s chief aid in transcendi ng from one plane to the next on to the highest goal. In Shabd Yoga, moreover, o ne is taught to cross the sun, moon, and then the big star leading to the first inner plane, although, to be fair, the experience of disciples vary. Lahiri Maha say states: In the kutastha [soul center] there is darkness surrounded by tiny star with the effulgence of the sun is in the center, which to Purushottama [the Supreme Being]. Purusha [the Cosmic Man] in s Purushottama. When one goes through the door of the kutastha he hottama.

a golden ring. A opens the door the kutastha i realizes Purus

This sounds similar to the shabd yoga teaching of the soul upon reaching Sach Khand beholding and then merging in the Sat Purush, but, again, seemingly ignor es the many intermediate regions before the Supreme. I say seemingly because in the book, The Holy Science (SRF, 2006), by Sri Yuk

teswar, the Kriya path appears almost identical, once pratyahara is achieved, wi th that of Sant Mat. He even uses the term Surat Sabda Yoga (!), and stages of T rikuti, Daswan Dwar (the "door" between the material and the spiritual regions), Sunn, Maha Sunn, Alak, Agam , and Anami. Seven stages or planes of creation are mentioned (Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Swarloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Sa tyaloka), which correspond with traditionally delineated yoga stages which are e ven listed in Sant Kirpal Singh's The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga, p. 54 (bhu r, bhuva, swah, maha, janah, tapah and satyam). The involvement with pranayama and kriya techniques, which Shabd Masters argu e is a waste of time, are considered in the Kriya teachings as essential prepara tion to attain the state of pratyahara, whereby one can then catch the sound cur rent and ascend further by attuning with the radiant form of the guru. In shabd yoga the boon of pratyahara is supposed to be given by the master at the time of initiation, with simple concentration at the spiritual eye from that point on a ll that is necessary. On the kriya path, the assumption is that more is required to become capable of concentrating there. From that point, in any case, the pat h is almost identical with shabd yoga proper, at least, according to The Holy Sc ience. What I find even more intriguing is how Sri Yukteswar explains the inner phenomena of the great divide between the material and spiritual creations, in t erms of passage beyond the" Atom" at the heart where the ego or sense of a separ ate self originates. I recommend this short book; to me it is metaphysically and cosmologically more revealing than that found in later books on that path). Paramhansa Yogananda in his lengthy commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita [which he felt appropriate to write inasmuch as he considered Babaji to have been Krishna in a former life, and he Arjuna] summarizes his views on the process of realiza tion. Yogananda was adamant that his viewpoint was more practical than that of t he strict non-dualists. He said: "Other Gita interpretations..are not fully rounded, as scriptures ought to be . Even Swami Shankaracharya's commentaries were one-sided in the sense that they completely rejected duality, though duality, for people living in the world, is a daily reality. [This doesn't seem to be entirely correct; Sankara rejuvenated religion at all levels throughout India, not just advaita]That is why Krishna s ays in the Gita that the path of yoga is higher than the path of wisdom, which S hankaracharya taught. [Iyer disagreed, saying that Krishna taught gnana yoga as the highest] The path of yoga accepts actual human realities, and works with the m as they are, instead of dismissing them as non-existent. They are illusory, ce rtainly, but for all that duality exists, as a dream exists. It just isn't what it appears to be." (27) This is consistent with Yogananda's view on karma: "Why live a bad dream by creating bad karma? With good karma, you get to enjo y the dream. Good karma also makes you want, in time, to wake up from the dream. Bad karma, on the other hand, darkens the mind and keeps it bound to the dreami ng process." (28) I have noticed in Yogananda s later writings, after he met Ramana Maharshi, ref erences to a different viewpoint than he emphasized in his early years: Look upon this world as a dream, and then you will understand that it is all r ight for you to lie down on the bed of this earth and dream the dream of life. Y ou won t mind, because you will know you are dreaming...Dismiss this phantasm of d isease and health, sorrow and joy. Rise above it. Become the Self. Watch the sho w of the universe, but do not become absorbed in it. Many times I have seen my b ody gone from this world. I laugh at death. I am ready anytime. There is nothing to it. Eternal life is mine. I am the ocean of consciousness...When you truly w ant to be released from this earth dream, there is no power that can stop you fr

om attaining liberation. Never doubt it! Your salvation is not to be achieved it is already yours, because you are made in the image of god; but you have to k now this. You have forgotten it. (29) "The truth is, nothing is really created anyway! The Spirit simply manifests the universe. Ultimately, nothing causes anything, for nothing, in actuality, is even happening." (30) "Evolution is only a suggestion to the mind. Everything, in reality, is going on in the present tense. In God's consciousness there is no evolution, no chang e, no 'progress'. it is always and everywhere the same one reality." "The simple thought that you are not free..keeps you from being free. If you could only break that simple thought, you would go into samadhi...Samadhi is not something one needs to acquire. You have it already. Just think: Eternally you have been with God. For a few incarnations you live in delusion, but then again you are free in Him for eternity! Live always in that thought....Evolution..is o nly a suggestion in the mind. Everything, in reality, is going on in the present tense. In God's consciousness there is no evolution, no change, no 'progress.' It is always and everywhere the same one reality." (31) When asked by Roy Eugene Davis how many of the saints he had written about in Autobiography of a Yogi had attained liberation, Yogananda replied: "Not many. Many saints are satisfied to experience the bliss of God-communion and don't aspire to liberation of consciousness." He then emphatically said, "Y ou must go all the way!" (32) Sri Yukteswar, while elaborating a seven-storied creation and the need to asc end to its heights, speaking of the last two stages wrote: "In this state man comprehends himself as nothing but a mere ephemeral idea r esting on a figment of the universal Holy Spirit of God, the Eternal Father, and understanding the real worship, he sacrifices his self there at this Holy Spiri t, the altar of God; that is, abandoning the vain idea of his separate existence , he becomes "dead" or dissolved in the universal Holy Spirit; and thus reaches Tapaloka, the region of the Holy Ghost." "In this manner, being one and the same with the universal Holy Spirit of God , man becomes unified with the Eternal Father Himself, and so comes to Satyaloka , in which he comprehends that all this creation is substantially nothing but a mere idea-play of his own nature, and that nothing in the universe exists beside s his own Self. This state of unification is called Kaivalya, the Sole Self." (3 3) These views, however, are still closer to the Sant Mat view than the ajata do ctrine of Maharshi, or the 'nothing ever happened' viewpoint of Papaji. And it i s hard to get away from the view that for Kriya Yoga, the goal is some form of h eaven, even as it points to an integral view. Yogananda writes: "Heaven may be said to consist, overall, of three regions: where the heavenly Father lives in vibrationless Infinity; where Christ Intelligence reigns - omni present in but transcendentally untouched by vibratory creation - and in which t he angels and highest evolved saints reside; and the vibratory spheres of the id eational causal world and lifetronic astral world. These heavenly realms, vibrat ory and transcendent, are only figuratively "above" the gross vibrations of eart h "below": They are in fact superimposed one on the other, and the finer screene d from the denser through the medium and intervention of the "firmament," vibrat ory etheric space, hiding the astral from the physical manifestation, the causal from the astral, and the transcendent Christ and Cosmic Consciousness from the

causal. Without this integration - producing a physical instrumentality empowere d by astral life, guided by individualized intelligence, all arising from consci ousness - there could be no meaningful manifestation." (33a) A kriya practioner gives a detailed description of the basic, and quite compl icated, kriya techniques. One thing that is distinctive is that sounds that are to be listened to beginning at the third eye by the shabd yogi (who says it is a waste of time and effort not to start at the top) are listened to progressively beginning at the muladhara chakra by the kriya yogi: The sounds of the chakras are discribed as: root chakra--hissing, 2nd chakra-crickets, 3rd chakra--pan flute or deep throated whistling, 4th chakra--tinkling bells or heavy gong, 5th chakra--high pitched whistling, 6th chakra--glorious t rumpets, crown chakra--thunder followed by the AUM. The final sound they listen to is thunder, heard from the ajna chakra to the sahasrar. Sometimes the big bell is listed as heard at the heart chakra. In shab d yoga, in contrast, the big bell comes from overhead and pulls the soul up abov e the lower centers into the astral world. Also, in kriya yoga, the pineal pland or third eye center is spoken of as linked with the medulla oblongata, and coll ection of the pranas between the two is considered necessary for lift-off to the s ahasrar. Kriya places attention to the mechanics of energy in the body, and speaks of cleansing the karmas in the "pranic centers" (bodily chakras), but does not plac e much emphasis on jnana. It is possible that the preliminary techniques employe d by the Kriya practitioner may allow easier integration of the physical body wi th the God-state once that is realized. On the other hand, it may be additional, unnecessary work! Further, the Sant Mat masters, at least in some lineages, spe ak of granting the practitioner an experience of the light and sound at the time of initiation. Yogananda mentioned it, but his successors do not. Both this pat h and Surat Shabd Yoga, finally, speak of final passage of consciousness through the heart of the cosmos into a divine realm or domain. The differences to be ma de explicit are in what happens before and after passing beyond that central lum inosity or "White Star." Only in Sant Mat, in this writer's opinion, is what lie s afterwards made clear (as far as possible), and even then, according to sages or jnanis, a question exists regarding the finality of ones understanding, espec ially when returning to the realms of creation. For as PB emphasizes, once again , "Enlightenment, philosophically found, is both an experience and an understan ding." (34) It is both of these, simultaneously, as one single insight. Would passage thr ough the various inner regions into a Divine Domain, then, be complete enlighten ment - even when coupled with the experience of the "cosmic body" as one's own w hen re-entering the planes of manifestation? To be as accomplished of a mystic t o be faced with such a question is no small achievement, but is it liberation it self? We would answer that it could be - but it would depend on what happens alo ng the way. As PB forthrightly states: "When you awaken to truth as it really is, you will have no occult vision, yo u will have no "astral" experience, no ravishing ecstasy. You will awaken to it in a state of utter stillness, and you will realize that truth was always there within you and that reality was always there around you. Truth is not something which has grown and developed through your efforts. It is not something which ha s been achieved or attained by laboriously adding up those efforts. It is not so mething which has to be made more and more perfect each year. And once your ment al eyes are opened to truth they can never be closed again." (35)

As mentioned earlier, Roy Eugene Davis has been teaching Kriya Yoga for over fifty years, and, IMO, uses different terminology in describing the stages of th e path than his Master did. He also says that Yogananda did not teach only Kriya Yoga, but Bhakti and Jnana as well to those qualified for such approaches, much as Ramakrishna had. Davis says that in the Kriya school it is taught that not o nly Lahiri Mahasay, but Sankara, the vedantin, himself was initiated by Babaji ! Yogananda himself felt that Sankara had achieved Christ Consciousness. Davis teaches standard Kriya practices, but also visualization techniques, an d advaitic practices. This is refreshing from my point of view. He advises disci ples, no matter what level of experience they have achieved, to understand that enlightenment can happen at any time, and that it is not an "attainment": "The very idea that this ideal state is to be attained or acquired is a delus ion, an invalid belief. Self-realization is not a state or condition to earn or possess. It is a realization to which we awaken, to discover that, at our core, we have always been enlightened, knowledgable, and free." (36) (Actually, as we have seen, despite all of his esotericism, in later years Yo gananda said much the same thing). Davis teaches that the soul is an individualized ray or unit of God's conscio usness. He says: "It would not be accurate to say that we are God, for we are not. What is tru e is that "God is us." Our role is to consciously know ourselves as we really ar e, as spiritual beings in relationship to God. When we are fully conscious of wh at we essentially are, and what our true relationship with God is, we are Self-r ealized." (37) There is a subtle dualism implied here, akin to the Muslim idea of "fellowshi p with God" rather than "union" or "Oneness" with God. For those familiar with t he works of PB, Davis is in good company on this. PB wrote: "The Sufi term "companionship with God" is more accurate than the Christian-H indu "union with God"...It is humbler to admit, with Muhammed, "I am a servant o f God, I am but a man like you," than arrogantly to assert with the Advaitin, "I am the infinite Brahman." It is better to say modestly with Jesus, "the Father is greater than I," than to announce with the Sufi Mansur: "I am God." (38) For those familiar with the philosophy of one such as Plotinus this is not ne cessarily a problem, or an impediment to a non-dual position. Much of it hinges on ones definition of Soul or Atman, which has been dealt with in depth elsewher e on this website, and is beyond the scope of this article. Davis does say that when the 'individualized soul' becomes fully awake, it knows itself as the non-d ual Self. The interpretation by Davis of the Kriya cosmology is as follows. The reader will have to refer back to earlier portions of this article to see where this va ries from the schema put forth by the other Kriya gurus. In his introduction to his book Self-Knowledge, a transliteration of Sri Sank ara's Atma Bodhi, a classic advaitic text, he diagrams the sequential processes of cosmic manifestation as follows. He follows more or less of a Samkhya schema which he considers consistent with Sankara's commentaries as well as Kriya tradi tion. Krishna Prem, widely recognized even by Ramana Maharshi as highly knowledgabl e on Indian philosophy, and who studied Sankara in the original Sanskrit, also a ccepts in his Gita commentary the idea that Sankara followed the basic Samkhya f

ramework - from Parabrahman to Atman and Mula Prakriti, Mahat, Buddhi, Manas and the whole scheme of Indriyas and adhibhutas and the so-called external or mater ial world of "purely" adhibhuta. For Sankara, however, the word Samkhya basicall y meant one who 'discriminated the real from the unreal'. Being an advaitin, he nowhere accepted the strict Samkhya dualism as such, nor did he accept the yogic view that samadhi was the sufficient means for liberation. Davis seems to be in agreement with these views. As Michael Comans states: "At the beginning of his commentary upon the Gita, Sankara makes a significan t statement concerning the relation of Sankhya to Yoga.[45] He says that Sankhya means ascertaining the truth about the Self as it really is and that Krsna has done this in his teaching from verses 2.11 up until 2.31. He says that sankhyabu ddhi is the understanding which arises from ascertaining the meaning in its cont ext, and it consists in the understanding that the Self is not an agent of actio n because the Self is free from the sixfold modifications beginning with coming into being. He states that those people to whom such an understanding becomes na tural are called Sankhyas. He then says that Yoga is prior to the rise of the un derstanding above. Yoga consists of performing disciplines (sadhana) that lead t o liberation; it presupposes the discrimination between virtue and its opposite, and it depends upon the idea that the Self is other than the body and that it i s an agent and an enjoyer. Such an understanding is yogabuddhi, and the people w ho have such an understanding are called Yogins. From this it is clear that Sank ara relegates Yoga to the sphere of ignorance (avidya) because the Yogins are th ose who, unlike the Sankhyas, take the Self to be an agent and an enjoyer while it is really neither. They are, therefore, in Sankara's eyes, not yet knowers of the truth."] (39) Cowen's view is debatable; Sankara was a great yogic adept as well as a champ ion of non-dualism. In spite of his advaita, Davis inserts many comments in his writings purporti ng to illustrate that Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita primarily espoused Kriya Yoga as the means for realization. But as Krishna points out, in shloka 10, chapter 10, "I give Buddhi Yoga, the Yoga of discrimination, to those ever-devout who wo rship me with love, by means of which they come to me." (40) In any case, according to Davis, in the Kriya cosmology first there is the Tr anscendant, Absolute Reality, infinite and without attributes. Then there is the 'Radiant Field' of the Absolute with three constituent attributes, i.e., the th ree gunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas [Unlike Yogananda, he abandons tradition b y not positing 'Maya' arising prior to that of the 'Radiant Field']. Emanating f rom this is the 'Field of Primordial Nature' ('OM', the creating vibratory curre nt responsible for creation of all the lower worlds), with time, space, and fine cosmic forces. Then there is the 'Field of Cosmic Mind', which is the: "Field of individualized units of pure consciousness produced by the blending of the Radiant Field (Oversoul) and the characteristics of the Field of Primord ial Nature. Souls have Self-Awareness, intellect, mind, and ego (a sense of self -identity)" (41) Finally, there are the causal, astral, and material realms. The progression to Enlightenment, then, proceeds through the following stages (keeping in mind, as he says, that "awakening", being beyond time and space, ca n happen at any time in the process): The first stage is Superconsciousness, which is described as awakening to 'hi gher realities and the experiencing of subtle and refined states of consciousnes s'. Then comes Cosmic Consciousness, which, in short, is an awareness of oneness or wholeness, the realization of the 'omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscienc

e of the universal Consciousness'. Supposedly this is a realization beyond the c ausal level. Then comes God-Consciousness: "The reality of God is known as God is - as the only expressive Being, Life, Power, and Presence from which the worlds and souls emanate...The soul is libera ted from all former restrictions." (42) Finally, there is Enlightenment: "Flawless realization (with knowledge) of the allness of Consciousness: from the field of pure Existence-Being (that which is Absolute, unmodified, or pure), to God, Cosmic or Universal Mind, the primordial field of unmanifest nature, an d the causal, astral, and matter realms. When established at this stage there is no other level to experience and nothing more to know. Fully enlightened souls live in the world only to fulfill evolutionary purposes and to assist souls to t heir higher good." (43) To conclude, he writes: "Grace is the enlivening life (spirit) of God supporting and transforming cre ation. It expresses throughout the field of nature and from within every soul. I t directs the course of evolution and awakens souls from their sleep of mortalit y." (44) With the latter statement one can find no argument. Final thought: there is a very good reason that the teachings and cosmology o f Yogananda were presented as he did. He had been told by his guru, Sri Yukteswa r, to try to show how the teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita and the teac hings of Christ were essentially the same. That was a basic part of his mission. This he did by writing, in the last few years of his life, two large, two-volum e books on each, published by the Self-Realization Fellowship. When Yogananda in itially went to the West, moreover, he was encountering an audience that was lar gely Christian, and also influenced by such books as William Bucke's "Cosmic Con sciousness," William James, "The Varieties of Religious Experience," etc. So it is only natural that he, unlike Yukteswar, simplified what was an ancient Purani c-Vedic seven-tiered cosmology into one with three bodies, along with the terms Christ Consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness. He was speaking to a population o f diverse understanding and making things less complicated for their benefit, mu ch as Swami Viekananda had done with his 'neo-Vedanta' and various yoga teaching s. So as we try to compare and contrast Kriya, Sant Mat, and various yoga teachi ngs, we should keep in mind the times and climes in which these great souls spok e. There are differences, to be sure, and some valid questions - for which the t ime is right to seek answers - but the basic foundations are very similar. ________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________ Autobiography of a Yogi. Complete on-line book. The Path: One Man's Quest on the Only Path There Is, by Swami Kriyananda. Cons idered a companion biography to Autobiography of a Yogi, includes many accounts of the Master's interactions with devotees. A really good read, imbued with devo tion and the spirit of the quest. Medja: The Early Life and Family of Paramahansa Yogananda. Wonderful book for the amusing and interesting childhood and early manhood of the future yogi-saint . Written by his younger brother. Recommended. ________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________ 1. Paul Brunton wrote highly of the enigmatic Yogi Ramiah in A Search in Secret India. He elsewhere confessed, moreover, that on one occasion Yogi Ramiah affirm ed to him "You have learned all about yoga. There is nothing more for you to lea rn about this practice." (The Notebooks of Paul Brunton(Burdett, New York: Larso n Publications, 1987) Vol. 8, 5.34) Swami Kriyananda (Donald Walters) quotes Yogananda as implying that he felt that Ramana's disciple Yogi Ramiah was more realized than Ramana himself: "I also met another fully liberated soul," he told me. "His name was Yogi Ramiah . He was a disciple of the great master, Ramana Maharshi. It does happen, occasi onally, that a disciple becomes himself more highly advanced than his guru." (Sw ami Kriyananda, Conversations with Yogananda (Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity P ublications, 2004), p. 108) The only other saints Yogananda recognized as liberated were Babaji, Sri Yuktesw ar, Lahiri Mahasaya, and two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Pranabananda an d Ram Gopal Muzumdar. Walters elsewhere relates that he felt Yogananda was relat ively quiet in his meeting with Ramana because he realized they each had two ver y different roles to play, and he didn't want to call attention to himself. Neve rtheless, the following interesting conversations occured between Walters and Yo gananda: "He once told me, "When I met Yogi Ramiah, in Ramana Maharshi's ashram, it was a true meeting of souls. We walked hand in hand around the ashram together. Oh! I f I'd remained in his company another half hour, I could never have brought myse lf to leave India again! He represented everything that is, to me, the true Indi a. It is why I love that country so much." "Paul Brunton, whom I met there, was another disciple of Ramana Maharshi's. Brun ton once told me that, during meditation one day, Yogi Ramiah had materialized b efore him and asked him to send him my photograph. He wanted to put it in his ro om. It is sitting there still." I asked Master, "If Yogi Ramiah was fully libera ted, did he have disciples also?" "He must have had," the Master replied. "One m ust free others, to become completely freed oneself." "How many does one have to free?" I asked. "Six," was his reply." (Ibid, p. 225-226) [This comment is inte resting in light of Radhasoami guru Baba Faqir Chand's comment that Baba Sawan S ingh had told him that his own disciples would become his guru]. "Sri Yogi Ramiah, whom I (Walters) met in 1960 in India, said to me, "Always ask yourself, 'Who am I?" This was the fundamental teaching of his great guru, Rama na Maharshi. "That wasn't what my own Guru taught us," I replied. Sri Rama Yogi [the name Ramiah was called at that time] smiled wryly. "If all the disciples of the great masters really understood what their gurus taught, there would not be the bickering one finds everywhere in religion!" I reflected, then, that of cou rse the Master had said repeatedly, "Know who you really are. You are not this l ittle ego: you are the infinite Self." (Ibid, p. 228)

The Enigmatic Kabir by Peter Holleran "If I say He is one, the question of two arises." Kabir (1398-1518) was a famous weaver-saint and a contemporary of the great G uru Nanak. Although a Muslim from one of the lowest castes in India, Kabir came to rival the Brahmans in influence, with many thousands of Hindu disciples. In f act, the Kabir panth sect today has one million members in Northern India who ho

nor him as their founder. When Christian missionaries came to convert them they found, to their frustration, that the Kabir panthis were unable to comprehend ho w Christ was in any way superior to or even different than Kabir. According to h is Anurag Sagar, perhaps less well-known than the Bijak, Kabir is said to have i ncarnated in all four ages or yugas. Al-Kabir is also one of the ninety-nine nam es of God in Islam, meaning "the great." Beloved by those of many spiritual pers uasions, the essence of his teachings, especially as detailed in the Anurag Saga r, is the subject matter of this essay. According to Evelyn Underhill, "Kabîr belongs to that small group of supreme mystics--amongst whom St. Augusti ne, Ruysbroeck, and the Sûfî poet Jalâlu'ddîn Rûmî are perhaps the chief--who have achieved that which we might call the synthetic vision of God. These have resolved the pe rpetual opposition between the personal and impersonal, the transcendent and imm anent, static and dynamic aspects of the Divine Nature; between the Absolute of philosophy and the "sure true Friend" of devotional religion. They have done thi s, not by taking these apparently incompatible concepts one after the other; but by ascending to a height of spiritual intuition at which they are, as Ruysbroec k said, "melted and merged in the Unity," and perceived as the completing opposi tes of a perfect Whole." A favorite among many non-dual teachers, there is no denying, however, that K abir preached the glory of communing with the Name or Word of God, the Divine li ght and sound current, given through direct contact with the Satguru: Hold your tongue, avoid loose talk, stay with the tester. Remember the Word from the guru s mouth. (1) When one merges in the Master s words He will be attached to the Lord s Name; When he is attached to the Lord s Name His delusions depart, his fears end. When the moon becomes one with the sun The unstruck melody resounds within; When the melody of the bagpipes resounds The soul shares the throne with the Lord." (2) "Apply yourself, 0 friend, To the practice of ShabdThe Shabd from which even The creator came into being; Imprint that Shabd In your heart, 0 friend." (3) Thus, it is clear that Kabir expounded the virtues of shabd yoga and was a ma ster of that school, giving testimony to various sights and sounds seen and hear d in the realms within. Tradition holds that Ramanand was his guru, but Ramanand was not a shabd-Mast er, and so the debate continues on the reasons Kabir had for taking Ramanand as his guru and also where he learned the path of shabd yoga. Kabir makes reference in some of his verses to one Sheikh Taqi, so it is possible that he had a Sufi master, but 'Taqi' is a name that could be applied to any realized soul, so we c an not be sure of this. It is not unlikely that Kabir did submit himself to a Su fi teacher, for many saints in that tradition practiced the path of shabd yoga. Hazrat Nizamuddin and Khwaja Muinuddin were two such examples. There is reason t o believe, however, that Kabir wanted to be a disciple of Ramanand in order to g ain respect among the people of Banares. When Kabir began to teach about God-rea

lization through the practice of the Word or Shabd, he was ridiculed by the orth odox Hindus, who wanted to know where he got his 'new' theories, and the Muslims labelled him an infidel. In their eyes he had no guru as well. Kabir therefore employed a clever means in order to get the orthodox Ramanand to accept him as his disciple. He knew he could not ask him directly and hope o f being accepted, so one morning he lay down on the steps leading to the river w here Ramanand took his morning bath. When the guru tripped over Kabir's body, in fear of his life he cried out, "Ram! Ram!" Kabir claimed that Ramanand had thus transmitted to him his mantra and had to accept him as a disciple. In due cours e, as evidenced by his later poems and writings, Ramanand converted to the path of the saints, or shabd-marg, and changed his stance from that of an orthodox Hi ndu to one who admitted low-caste devotees (Ravidas, Dharma, Sadna) into his fol d. Ramanand followed in the footsteps of other saints like Jaidev, Namdev, Tukar am, and Mirabai who at first were worshippers of divine incarnations (Vishnu, Ra ma, etc.) and who later adopted the path of Shabd. The Adi Granth, an immense co mpilation of devotional poems by Saints and devotees of that persuasion, which w as compiled in 1604 by Guru Arjan Singh, the fifth Guru in the line of Sikhs fro m Guru Nanak, contains the following verse: "0 Satguru, I sacrifice my all to you, you who have cut the chains of my conf usion, my delusion. The Lord pervades all, says Ramanand, and the Guru's Shabd e radicates a million karmas." (4) Kabir, author of the famous Bijak ("the Seedling"), is considered the greates t of all Hindu lyric poets. His verses are often bold and searing, exposing the hypocrisy of organized religion and ritual. "Saints, I see the world is mad. If I tell the truth they rush to beat me, if I lie they trust me. I've seen the pious Hindus, rule-followers, early morning bath-takerskilling souls, they worship rocks. They know nothing. I've seen plenty of Muslim teachers, holy men reading their holy books and teaching their pupils techniques. They know just as much. And posturing yogis, hypocrites, hearts crammed with pride, praying to brass, to stones, reeling with pride in their pilgrimage, fixing their caps and their prayer-beads, painting their brow-marks and arm-marks, braying their hymns and their couplets, reeling. They never heard of soul. The Hindu says Ram is the Beloved, the Turk says Rahim. Then they kill each other. No one knows the secret. They buzz their mantras from house to house, puffed with pride. The pupils drown along with their gurus. In the end they're sorry. Kabir says, listen saints: they're all deluded! Whatever I say, nobody gets it. It's too simple." (5)

The last four lines are the kind of hooks that grab the attention of those wh o would portray Kabir as a radical non-dualist. Yet in his Anurag Sagar (Ocean of Love), Kabir paints for us an elaborate gno stic panorama of creation. One cannot understand Kabir if he has not become fami liar with this book. It should be mentioned that the reknown saint, Hazur Baba S awan Singh Ji Maharaj, at first attracted to advaita, considered Anurag Sagar as essential for understanding the difference between Sant Mat and other paths, so its reading should not be missed. In the article Sophia's Passion: Sant Mat and the Gnostic Myth of Creation, Neil Tessler writes: The several creation myths developed by the Masters serve to describe the rela tionship between the Absolute in its non-attributive formless essence, known in modern Sant Mat as Anami or Radhasoami, and its manifested attributes....These a ttributes first appear in their purest and most realized form as the primordial "creation", known in the East as Sach Khand or in Gnosticism as the Pleroma or F ullness, (terms which will both be used synonymously throughout this paper). Cre ation is, however, a misnomer, for Sach Khand is not created as such, but rather it is the expansion into distinct being of the eternally perfect and fully elab orated attributes of the Absolute. These cosmic attributes are known as the Sons of Sat Purush in the East and the Aeons in Gnosticism. Sat Purush or the Only-B egotten is the Aeon that is the Being, the mind, as it were, of the Absolute; pu re consciousness and consciousness on all planes, thus also the bridge to creati on proper. As Hans Jonas has written, "The Only-Begotten Mind alone, having issued from him directly, can know the Fore-Father: to all the other Aeons he remains invisible and incomprehensible. ' It was a great marvel that they were in the Father without knowing Him.' (Gospel of Truth 22.27) The number of these eternal emanations of the divine varies according to refe rence. The gnostic version described by Hans Jonas gives four Aeons with their c onsorts to make eight, "the original Ogdoad", who then further elaborate to make another seven pairs for a total of thirty. The Kabiran version gives sixteen wi th Sat Purush being the first emanation. The myths now run in two distinct directions, at least in the gnostic forms. The Kabiran version and one gnostic version tells us that there was an Aeon that cherished a desire for its own creation as an inherent part of its nature. We c ould say that the potential for separation from God is in itself an Aeon. This l eads ultimately to a creation existing in negative polarity with eternal Sach Kh and, spinning the attributive universes that exist in Time. This separative Aeon , known as Mind or Time (Kal), is Sat Purusha's first expansion in the gnostic v ersion and fifth in the Kabiran version. Kabir's Anurag Sagar states that "He is created from the most glorious part of the body of Sat Purush". Thus Sat Purush is cosmically linked to the "lower" creation, which eventually develops through Kal's activity. In this we are warned away from value judgements, and reminded that this entire process is under Divine Will (Hukam). In the path of the masters, or Sant Mat, creation is explained as follows. As Nanak says in his Jap Ji (the introductory section of the Adi Granth), "There is One Reality, the Unmanifest-Manifested; Ever-Existent, He is Naam, the Creator, pervading all; Without fear, without enmity; the Timeless; the Unbo rn and the Self-existent; Complete within Itself. Through the favour of His true Servant, the Guru, He may be realized."(6) Within that reality there are three lower regions: physical, astral, and caus al, which constitute the trigunatmic egg of Brahm in Hinduism, followed by a sup racausal realm and then Sat Lok, or the region of Truth. [In Theosophy the causa

l region is divided up as devachan into a mental and causal region]. It is claim ed in Sant Mat that when a soul transcends the three lower regions, it is beyond the cycle of transmigration, or birth and death. However, between the third and fourth region there is a vast region of pitch blackness called Maha-Sunn, where even great soul are suspended until attracted and liberated by the great light of the Living master of the age when he passes through that region periodically. In the supracausal region, after a dip in the pool of Manasarovar (manas-sarova r, Sanskrit for "lake of mind"; Cosmic mind, Hiranyagarbha are equivalents), to which there are eighty-four steps representing the 8,400,000 species of creation and its karmas that the souls have passed through during aeons of time, the sou l sheds its causal body, and now has only a thin veil, the anandamaya kosha, cov ering it. It is upon gaining access to this region that the soul is said to cry out, "Oh Lord, I am of the same essence as Thou art." The anandamaya kosha or bl iss sheath, says Kirpal Singh, is almost an integral part of the soul itself. It is said that here in the supracausal region, or Par Brahm, that the soul first truly awakens to itself. In the supracausal region one is also said to be beyond the Universal Mind. Upon entry into Sach Khand, the first division of Sat Lok, the soul sheds even the anandamaya kosha, and is now in its true, eternal home, whose glory is beyond description. Here is where the reader must bear with the paradoxical nature of describing Sat Lok, which comprises four regions. As we are now beyond mind, matter, and il lusion (maya), according to the saints, human language fails to capture the natu re of this place. As paradoxical as it may be to some advaitists, in Sant Mat th ere are more than just one soul, although the advaitic expression, "not-two" may perhaps also aptly apply, so inadequate is our language. As Paul Brunton descri ptively wrote of life in the Overself, "He as he was vanishes, not into complete annihilation and certainly not into the heaven of a perpetuated ego, but into "a higher kind of life shrouded in my stery." (7) The first region is Sach Khand, where resides Sat Purush, the effulgent expre ssion of God, visualized as a Person, which in Sant Mat is the person of one's M aster or Satguru, whose radiant form had previously guided the soul through all the lower regions. A story of Kabir illustrates this: "When Queen Indra Mati had completed her course of spiritual discipline and r eached Sach Khand, she found her Master Kabir, in the seat of Sat Purush (the Tr ue God). Seeing this, she said, "Master! Why did you not tell me before that you were Sat Purush yourself? I would have believed you." Kabir, smiling, replied, "I could not have convinced you then." (8) This sort of experience did not only happen centuries ago. The following is a n bridged letter from a devoted Kirpal Singh initiate, somewhat long, written up on the death of Master Darshan Singh, when Master Rajinder Singh became his succ essor. Some, particularly the philosophically inclined, such as the advaitists, will no doubt scoff and consider this all imaginary and not reality - whether ac tually experienced or not. Others may be blown away. Please note that, as far as we know, these were not ordinary visions within the braincore, but those of one who purportedly had frequent transports up and through the crown of the head an d into the inner realms: Dear Brothers and Sisters, When Master placed us in meditation he told me to look carefully at his form, which began demonstrating the radiation, which supports all of creation; that i s streams of light, energy and love poured out of Master intermingling into rays of sustenance maintaining all of existence. The rays encapsulated and sustained each particle of existence as well as the entire physical universe including in

ner planes. Then Master Darshan told me the living Master sustains and loves all of exist ence from the tiniest particle to its totality. As he spoke, he showed me the sm allest possible particle of matter, a squiggle-like note of light, completely su rrounded by Master s radiation and love. There was no way to penetrate this cocoon . The only possible means of reaching physical matter is through the offices of the living Master because if this protecting shell were disturbed, the matter wo uld cease to be. Then Master Darshan told me dozens and dozens of times that masters have equa l love for all souls no matter what the soul s current state because each soul con tains the Godhead and Master could do nothing but love it. He then showed me one of the Lords of the Planes and told me of Master s great love for this soul who w as due for a human birth and the good fortune of initiation in his next life. He continued that although his love for this soul was great, it was no greater tha n when the soul was mired in sin and showed me truly horrifying past lives of th e soul that was now the Lord of a Plane. I saw him as a man wallowing in the tor ture and degradation of his fellow man. In one life he even tore apart other men and ate them raw. Then I saw him in a hell where he existed as a bacteria-like creature around the edges of a pool that emitted a steamy atmosphere of vomit an d ammonia. Yet even there, Master showed me how the Master s love was unflagging a s he sustained the soul in its punishment. Then Master Darshan held out a bug, I believe an ant, toward me and said he l oved this creature as much now as before. He showed me this soul when it had, in its turn, inhabited the body of a Lord of a Plane during a previous existence a nd many subsequent existences which led the soul into its present form. Master s aid over and over again that he loves every soul, that the living Master always loves every soul and that the world could never be without a living Master. Then he showed me each of the masters in turn from Nanak and Kabir to the present li ving Master manifesting this power and love. Then Master Darshan s form changed in to that of his son, Raji, and he said that Raji was his successor; that when he left, Raji would be the Master and administer existence with the same love that Master Darshan has shown. Next Master Darshan showed me two more areas that the masters control, the di stribution of karma and guidance of souls through the inner planes. I saw initia tions where Master Darshan approached the bar of justice, which looked like a ro ugh granite block, and physically removed the record of a soul from the care of the Lord of Death, who bowed obsequiously to the Master. Then in some cases, Mas ter Darshan kept the entire record himself, in others he physically gave the res t of it to Raji s form, and in still others he kept some himself, gave some to Raj i, and some to other subsequent masters. As he did so, Master Kirpal and Hazur e xplained over and over that only the living Master can administer a soul s karma a nd that when one master leaves his body, the subsequent one takes over his dutie s in assisting initiates on the physical plane. Then Hazur and Master Kirpal sho wed me initiation ceremonies from the time that they were the living Master. Haz ur entrusted Master Kirpal with the care of disciples; Master Kirpal entrusted M aster Darshan and so forth. Then Master Darshan told me that Raji would guide souls across the inner plan es just as the other masters had done and he showed me Raji s Radiant Form transve rsing plane after plane as the Lords and inhabitants of each region paid him, an d the souls he escorted, homage. Finally we came to a throneroom which Master Da rshan told me to observe carefully and tell him what it was. He confirmed it was the throneroom of God where evolved souls are received. He told me to look at G od s throne and tell him whom I saw. I saw Master Kirpal come out and sit in the t hrone. He told me to watch carefully and turned into Master Darshan, then Raji, then quickly to Hazur and one after the other hundreds and hundreds of masters m

ost of whom I couldn t identify and finally back to Master Kirpal and then Master Darshan and Raji over and over again. Another place the masters repeatedly took me was to the courtyard of the mast ers where protected souls who leave the earth plane go, and deliberately contras ted it to the judgement place of the Lord of Death. The masters insisted I caref ully note the shinning material and beauty of the courtyard where Master Kirpal sat on a throne on a raised platform. The important element in the place was the brimming over love with which the masters inundated the entire area. This light , love and music formed an atmosphere so uplifting and joyous that each arriving soul immediately perceived the masters solace and love for it. In conjunction with this courtyard, the masters took me to the judgement plac e ruled over by the Lord of Death. The stark, lifeless stone of his cold area co ntrasted totally with the love and light of the masters courtyard. When the Lord of Death stood behind the Book of Judgement which was on an alter-like slab in f ront of him, he radiated complete, accurate justice. Master Kirpal and Swami Ji were usually the ones that would point out that the Lord of Death was entirely f ree of any animus just as surely as he lacked mercy and compassion. The souls ju dged by him found no comfort. Frequently at this point the masters again showed me what would happen to a soul at the time of initiation. The living Master, Mas ter Darshan, would enter the actual judgment place and approach the Book of Judg ment at which point the Lord of Death would step back and relinquish his control over it. The living Master would then remove the records of the initiate from t he book. If the initiate s life on the earth plane was going to extend beyond that of the living Master, the living Master discussed the disposition of his karma with his successors each successor acquiring control of the parts that would occ ur while he was the living Master. The Master who was explaining to me what was happening would always emphasize that an initiated soul was henceforth free of a ny dominance by or debt to the Lord of Death. The masters controlled the karma o f an initiate and dispensed it with the complete love of the courtyard. Again, I have no words to adequately convey the difference to the soul between the auste rity of justice and the love of the masters, nor can I articulate how important and precious this boon is. Another area the masters repeatedly took me to was to a beautiful throne that guarded a passageway to Sach Khand. Usually I went there with Hazur, Gurus Nana k or Kabir, or Swami Ji and after saying the names for a while, they directed me to look at the throne where Master Kirpal was sitting. They explained that he w as sitting on the throne of God and he would change into Hazur, the living Maste r and then Raji and then to hundreds of other masters and back to himself. Then one of the masters would explain that the only possible way to traverse the path way into Sach Khand was under the guidance of the living Master of the time. Wit hout this guidance, no soul could pass Master s throne into Sach Khand. They were exceptionally emphatic about this. Master has repeatedly said that seeing is believing and that we should all se e for ourselves. I offer this letter not in an attempt to tell anyone else what to believe, but to share what Master has shown me. Before one dismisses the above visionary tale outright, as well as the story of Kabir and Indra Mati before it, he is first referred to the great Lankavatara Sutra, in which the Blessed One states: "Thus passing beyond the last stage of Bodhisattvahood, he becomes a Tathagat a himself endowed with all the freedom of the Dharmakaya. The tenth stage belong s to the Tathagatas. Here the Bodhisattva will find himself seated upon a lotuslike throne in a splendid jewel-adorned palace and surrounded by Bodhisattvas of equal rank. Buddhas from all the Buddha-lands will gather about him and with th

eir pure and fragrant hands resting on his forehead will give him ordination and recognition as one of themselves. Then they will assign him a Buddha-land that he may possess and perfect as his own. The tenth stage is called the Great Truth Cloud (Dharmamegha), inconceivable, inscrutable. Only the Tathagatas can realise its perfect Imagelessness and Onen ess and Solitude. It is Mahesvara, the Radiant Land, the Pure Land, the Land of Far-distances; surrounding and surpassing the lesser worlds of form and desire ( karmadhatu), in which the Bodhisattva will find himself at-one-ment. Its rays of Noble Wisdom which is the self-nature of the Tathagatas, many-colored, entranci ng, auspicious, are transforming the triple world as other worlds have been tran sformed in the past, and still other worlds will be transformed in the future. B ut in the Perfect Oneness of Noble Wisdom there is no gradation nor succession n or effort, The tenth stage is the first, the first is the eighth, the eighth is the fifth, the fifth is the seventh: what gradation can there be where perfect I magelessness and Oneness prevail? And what is the reality of Noble Wisdom? It is the ineffable potency of the Dharmakaya; it has no bounds nor limits; It surpas ses all the Buddha-lands, and pervades the Akanistha and the heavenly mansions o f the Tushita." (from The Lankavatara Sutra, Chapter 11, trans. D.T. Suzuki, as condensed in The Buddhist Bible, by Dwight Goddard) The idea of the 'throne of God' features prominantly in the Christian Bible a s well: "And he showed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." - (Revelation of St. John) There must be some fire behind this smoke, therefore these descriptions are m entioned here. The epistemological considerations [i.e., how we know what we kno w, and how one knows what is real or truth] relating to the nature of the above accounts and such experiences in general will be dealt with below, allowing the reader to make his or her own conclusions. After taking a deep breath, however, we will first complete our discussion on the cosmology of the path of the Master s. In Sant Mat, without the intervention and help of the Living Master, access b eyond the trigunatmic "egg of Brahm," or the lower three worlds, physical, astra l, and causal, is not considered possible, although one may be duped by the Nega tive Power who has created worlds upon reflected worlds to deceive "even the ele ct." Sant Kirpal Singh affirmed that to gain access to the planes beyond the thr ee lower regions one must be ushered into them. In Sach Khand, the soul is said to be magnetically attracted to the Sat Purush, which progressively merges the s oul into the Absolute God via Alak, Agam, and Anami Loks. Descriptions given of Sach Khand with fountains of bliss, nectar, infinite light and love, etc., are a ttempts to portray something of the life inherent in the soul in this region. It is not just a state, however blissful or peaceful, as in nirvikalpa samadhi, bu t a Divine, eternal domain. Plotinus, also, attempted to describe such a place a nd the life of the inhabitants therein: "A blissful life is theirs. They have the Truth for Mother, Nurse and Nutrime nt; they see all things: not the things that are born and die, but those which h ave Real Being and they see themselves in others. For them all things are transp arent and there is nothing dark or impenetrable, but everyone is manifest to eve ryone interiorly and all things are manifest to the most intimate depth of their nature. Light is everywhere manifest to light. There, everyone has all things i n himself and sees all things in others, so that all things are everywhere and a ll is all and each is all, and the glory is infinite." (v. 8, 4) Now, contemporary teacher Adyashanti argues in his book, Emptiness Dancing, t hat the experience of merger (with God) is a very nice experience for a separate

self to have, but it is not liberation, which is realization of the One. There is already only One, he says, and there is no separate self to merge with it. I would argue that this is probably a valid advaitic criticism for lesser forms of mysticism, but that it is not the last word when applied to the teachings of th e Sants at the level of the soul. In Sach Khand, it is true, Sant Mat describes there being a progressive merger of the soul via the Sat Purush into Absolute Go d, but it must also be remembered that at this level the coverings of mind, matt er, ego, and illusion are supposed to be gone and one is beyond oppositions and duality. He is in an ineffable realm where human langage is wholy inadequate. "M erger" is a word, a concept as well, pointing to a mysterious process, so non-du alists take note when dismissing the soul too easily. Perhaps one can - and need s - to have awakenings and experience at every level of the soul for realization to be full, and for karma to be undone; that is, for full liberation to be achi eved. What would that mean for one's satori, realization, or non-dual awakening limited to the earth plane? Would it necessarily survive the after death states, or might one cycle back on the winds of karma in spite of it? The non-dualist a nswer is sometimes, "such is an invalid question, as there is no left to care ab out it." According to Plotinus, however, the Soul is a Divine emanant, an Eterna l existant, and one must go through it to gain a glimpse of the Nous, what to sp eak of the One. Further, in the process described in Sant Mat, the ego is said to die at ever y level quit by the soul (or more correctly, the outward expression of the soul, which is the attention). That is to say, one does not just have passive mystica l experiences by a separate self on the way to Sach Khand; no, the physical egoself dies when transcending to the astral realm, the astral ego dies when going to the causal realm, and the causal ego-self dies in like fashion. The ego, as t hey say, "takes a bath," at every level. As one long-time initiate, Ed Wallace, said to me thirty-five years ago, "you die, then you are born again - it's so pe rfect!" So there is said to be no such separate ego-self left in Sach Khand, eve n though the language employed by the Sants speaks of a divine merger which begi ns to take place there, between a soul whose own luster is that of sixteen suns and an infinite ocean of love-bliss. So my challenge to the non-dualists is "see , and then say"; let us not forstall our conclusion before such specific knowled ge is gained. The whole of the path may or may not so simply be reduced to one o f "eliminating psychological suffering", as some teachers maintain. Here is the point of view of one who has realized his soul in Sach Khand (whi ch Sant Rajinder Singh speaks metaphorically of as the office of the Master) and me rged in and out of the God-state of Anami Lok. In a January talk on "Timelessness ", Sant Rajinder Singh said that time as an illusion. He states that everything is going on all at once, and that there is no past and no future and no present as we know it. This approaches non-dual language to me. The vedantist has an arg ument for this. V.S. Iyer writes: There is only one Mind - let us call it the Overmind. Every individual human bei ng is an inlet to the one Mind. In Sanskrit the latter is called Sarowar mean ing t he lake hence the name of the sacred Tibetan lake Manasarowar, meaning the lake of the mind. If we imagine individuals to be pipes running out of this great lake o f the Overmind, then whatever goes only a little way into the lake becomes consc ious of the minds nearest him; whoever goes to the deepest extent can then tap a ll minds. This is the secret of telepathy. Insensibility to the body, or tempora ry insensibility of the personal ego, permits the individual to enter the Univer sal Mind, as in hypnotic states, trance, etc. The medium who gives up the ego to that extent gets rid of the obstruction to entering into the Universal Mind. Sh e may then ascertain the past or predict the future, because both are equally pr esent in the Overmind. However, she does this only temporarily and she does not contact the Divine Self, only the eternal infinitude of time. There is no limit to the Overmind, just as space has no limit. The notion that the mind is enclose d in the head is a mistake. There is but one Mind operating through a multitude

of individuals and appearing different in each. This applies also to animals. To tap this Mind to its deepest extent is simply dependent on the amount of concen tration one has. [this is certainly an understatement, as if such an attainment w as a piece of cake; nevertheless, Iyer affirms that it is a product of yoga and not the highest, and that a sage may have no such ability but still know Brahman , the realization of which requires something other than only concentration.] The One Universal Overmind is the source of genius. It is NOT Brahman. It is r eached by forgetting the personal I , then concentration. It is because the mind is not confined to the brain box, but stretches far outside the body that certain kinds of psychic phenomena are possible. Similarly, because past, present and fu ture exist simultaneously in the Overmind prediction is possible. (Commentaries; see note 26). To the vedantist, the non-dual realization is beyond time and timelessness, t ime and eternity. It does not automatically grant one the power of prediction or transvision, unless one has pursued a yoga that grants one such a power. One do es not necessarily see the past, present, or future all at once; rather, he is b eyond time per se, inasmuch as that is a mental concept, and simply knows Consci ousness itself. Iyer states: "All the Indian systems of philosophy such as yoga, vaiseshika, nyaya, tarka, and samkhya excet our teach that the Atman has a separate thing called mind. On ly Advaita teaches that Atman is mind, none other than it...Patanjali is ABC. Hi s goal is deep sleep. The occult powers (siddhis) which yogi develops are powers belonging to a state equivalent to dream state.: hence they have the value of d ream faculties. To the jnani they are but mental creations as much as other idea s and not Brahman. He looks upon them as he looks upon ordinary powers." "The moment you know that everything is Brahman, you have omniscience. You ha ve no right to say God is omniscient. He alone may say so. How can you know that God is so?...You get omniscience when you see everything is in Brahman, is in A tman. It does not mean reading the future as that entails changing past unto fut ure, hence causality [nor does it mean knowing everything, only knowing everythi ng as Brahman] ...The Gnani, by constant thinking, has arrived at seeing the Man y when he sees the One." (Commentaries) To Sant Rajinder Singh's remarks above we might add the following from the sa ge Ashtavakra, as time, space - and causality - go together, all being categorie s within Mind: "For me who is abiding in my own glory, where is the past, where is the futur e, where is even the present, where is space, or where is even eternity?" "Where is distance, where is proximity; where is exterior, where is interior, where is grossness, and where is subtlety for me who abide in my own glory?" "No form can exist outside Mind. Within and without apply only to the body. B ut the body is in the mind. So these terms become meaningless." "Where is death or life, where are the worlds or the worldly relations, where is dissolution or concentration for me abiding in my own glory? "Where are the elements, where is the body, where are the organs, and where i s the mind; where is the void; where, too, is despair for me who is taintless by nature?" "Where are prarabdha karmas, where is liberation-in-life, and where is libera tion-at-death for me, the ever undifferentiated?"

"What is existence or non-existence, unity or duality? What need is there to say more? Nothing emanates from me because it is non-different from myself. Ther e are no two." (9) This could explain how the Master Power can seemingly manifest any and everyw here at the same time, being not limited to time and space, and why the Masters never refer to themselves as the doer, nor do they consider themselves as the do er, yet a mysterious influence pervades their company. Continuing, Sant Rajinder Singh, the current Master in the lineage of Sant Ki rpal Singh and Sant Darshan Singh, tells us that in the Kabirian story when Kal desired a kingdom of its own, up to that point there were but two regions in exi stence: Sach Khand, made of pure spirit and Par Brahm or the supracausal plane, made of spirit with a thin veil of illusion as previously described. Both of the se are beyond dissolution (pralaya) and grand dissolution (mahapralaya). When Ka l, the Negative Power (function or principality), as a result of great penances and pleasing Sat Purush desired his own realm, the three lower regions came into being. The purpose of Kal is to keep souls entrapped in these regions. To this extent, God granted Kal three boons: one, that when souls died they would not go immediately back to God - otherwise Kal's domain would soon be depopulated; two , souls would forget all their previous lifetimes; and three, that God would not do miracles to in order to make souls go back to God, but only by allowing His agents, the saints, agents of the Positive Power, through the process of satsang (discourses, fellowship, and spiritual transmission), reconnecting them with th e eternal Light and Sound of God of which they had become unaware of. (10) Kal can be looked at personally, as the embodiment of Satan, the Negative Pow er, or impersonally, as the world of time and space, or the entrapping web of th e mind. All of this appears so fantastic that it is no wonder it was proclaimed: "O Kabir! In every age the path of the saints is a strange path." Kabir so endlessly extolls the virtues of the Master of the Shabd, Naam or di vine light and sound current that it is hard to see how one can miss it, as so m any writers do: "All holy ones are worthy of reverence, But I adore only one who has mastered the Word." (11) "Kabir comes from the celestial abode of the Lord and holds a direct commissi on from Him." (12) "The Master is greater than God. Ye may very well think over this dictum. Devotion to God keeps a person entangled on this side; but devotion to the Guru leads him across to God." "Without Word one can have no escape (from bondage). Word personified is the Master and he can manifest It in us. God may turn His back and one may not mind, but if the master does so, none can bring about reconciliation." (13) Give thy body and mind to him who has no desire of his own; With no thought of the self, be established in him; After the mind, what then remains? Not even the body; Having given the body and the mind, no burden

remains to be carried; He who takes pride in this sacrifice will yet have punishment; For who can part with the seed-mind within? O Kabir! How can that mind be subdued and surrendered? Along with body and mind part thou with the seed-mind; O Kabir! Only after hearing the master, one becomes fearless; Place the seed-mind at the altar of the Lotus Feet of the Master. O Kabir! Now one sees nothing but the Luminous Form of the Master! (14) "The world is but a fictitious bondage, and Kabir centered in Naam is forever free." (15) "I wish and long for the dust of his feet [Charan Kamal - the inner vision of the Master's feet] - the dust which has created the universe; His lotus feet are the true wealth and a haven of peace. They grant ineffable wisdom and lead one on the path Godward." (16) Kirpal Singh wrote: "This lustrous form of the Master always accompanies a spirit on the various planes, ending with Sach Khand or the Home of Truth. When his luminous form desc ends to the focus of the eyes, a devotee has nothing more to strive for. Herein lies the devotion of the devotee. Half his success has been achieved, and hereaf ter the Master's astral form takes over charge of the spirit with full responsib ility for leading it to the final goal. Even the saints adore this form and deri ve ecstatic delight from it." (17) Thus far, it should be obvious that a comparison of the teachings of Kabir wi th that of modern advaita or non-duality is well-nigh impossible. Kabir appears entirely beyond their scope and persuasion, his non-duality of another order alt ogether, in accordance with the teachings of the Sants. It may be said therein t hat all planes are concurrent with each other, the lower contained within the hi gher, and the manifest inseparable from the unmanifest. So there is non-duality, albeit on a grand scale. Sant Rajinder Singh has updated the language of Sant M at to the extent of saying not only the above, but that in fact one does not rea lly "leave the body", go "in" and "up", but only appear to do so due to our cond itioning in the physical world where we are led to believe in time and space. In truth, all realms, the Uncreated - as well as created - are beyond time and spa ce. With language like that one might think that it won't be long before Sant Ma t merges with contemporary non-duality, with the question becoming, "why meditat e at all?!" The answer to the advaitist, would, at the very least, no doubt be a variation of their traditional one, that the power of concentration gained will strengthen and purify one's Buddhi so one can discriminate the real from the un real and have viveka, in everyday life, before death, and on the inner planes, a fter death. Therefore, they continue to proclaim this path of the soul, "ancient , eternal, and authentic," as Kirpal Singh once said. So, while within this tradition, where the goal has generally been proposed a s the highest inner region a soul attains through mystical ascent, the final rea lm, an "infinite ocean that has no shores," beyond light and sound, is spoken of in paradoxical language such as the "wonder region", "unknowable", unnamable", and "inaccessible". Some Sants have claimed a state even beyond that, inasmuch a s the realization must be carried into everyday life. Kabir, it will be admitted , poetically describes the state of Sahaj in a manner that implies that this reg ion may not be only a region at all, but rather an absolute transcendental condi tion that is neither born nor dies and which, he says, is beyond trance.

We still, therefore, have this tale of Kabir s to deal with. The saint went to a lot of trouble to write it. The modern day sants are adament about its veracit y, as they are that their form of mysticism goes far beyond all others. Therefor e we rest content in simply pointing out the basic advaitic arguments: all of th ese planes and experiences only exist within Mind, or consciousness, no matter h ow ecstatic they may be. The Atman, the seer, the knower, is real; whatever is s een and known is not real, until it is known as an idea and then thereby dissolv ed into the mind, then the world becomes known as Brahman. Iyer even states: ""Even if you see God [i.e., Sat Purush] before you, it is only a thought." ( 18) Personally, I don't think ultimately the sants would disagree: one goes beyon d the vision of the Sat Purush, they say, by being absorbed into it. On the othe r hand, it is a legitimate question to ask, "who sees the vision of the Sat Puru sh and the "throne of God" in Sach Khand, that is, in what mind is that image ap pearing? It is difficult to answer in the terminology of Sant Mat, because in th at school one is already 'beyond' the individual and universal mind in Sach Khan d. Yet philosophy demands a mind to perceive an apparent object or image. So how can we answer this? The true Self, the Atman, according to sages like V.S. Iyer , Sri Nisargadatta, Robert Adamas, or Ramama Maharshi is beyond all perceptible phenomenon; do we say, then, that an image of a throne is "caused" by a universa l mind, or an individual mind, itself arising from the Self or Atman? This probl em is no different than that of ordinary physical perception: is there a univers al, more "real" image, or a multitude of individual, somewhat variable images? C an we know? It is beyond the scope of this article to explore this epistemologic al and metaphysical problem in depth; suffice it to say that there is a likeliho od, as good an explanation as any, that, as far as the apparent individual is co ncerned, a collective mental habit-energy that constitutes a mind is responsible for the image of "the throne"; and that in any case upon awakening it is seen a nd known that Ultimate Reality lies beyond it. What, says the religionist, isn't the image of a throne and even God himself a manifestation of Infinite Intellig ence, perhaps an archtypal presentation, even if it be a 'cosmic dream', and not just an individual self-creation by mental habit-energy? Good question. Most li kely unanswerable, but good. One might try, however, and say that the bliss and numinosity of the image may be due to the felt proximity of the Overself, while the particulars of the dream itself are mentally formulated. But the brain aches , so we will move on. Where is a good trepanner when he is needed? Ancient teacher Yog-Vasishta once said "it is the mind that conceives of birt h and death and migration to other worlds," Sant Mat, would counter by saying th at the teachings of vedanta and even great yogis such as Yog-Vasishta, were limi ted to the trigunatmic egg of Brahm, or the three lower worlds only, as likewise is the vibratory power of "Om." That would make sahaj realized on earth not the highest realization, and give credence to the teachings of the sants about the soul or principle of consciousness needing to reach the highest abode in the man ner they prescribe for ultimate liberation and God-union. For the vedantist this logic is weak, for they would again refer us back to t he seer, the Atman, as the only uncontradictable, never-changing substratum of t he whole show. "How do you know?" is the question they will always return to, qu estioning the roots of one's knowledge, not the mere facts of ones experience. R elating to the above initiate's series of visions, it might be asked, "How do yo u know there is a separate soul?" "How do you know you are seeing God?" "How do you know you are seeing such and such a past Master (one of whom was supposedly already the reincarnation of another) ?" "How do you know you are seeing such a thing as 'matter', which the rays of the Creator and the Masters are supposedly sustaining?" [i.e., need for prove there is such a thing as matter, which there isn't, therefore one is only seeing ideas, which dissolve into Mind, along with the notion of a creator God]. And most importantly, "Who is the seer itself here

?" "Who or what is the "I" seeing this entire show?" As scientist Carl Sagan once said, "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." If one is claiming to see into the Mind of God (as language like "th e boon that God is now extending to mankind" implies), there needs to be some ob jective proof other than mystic revelation. Iyer writes: "The 'I' is the fallacy behind "I have seen God." Your I becomes the authorit y and therein lies the error." "The yogi who wrongly thinks there is a Brahman to be got, may attempt to do so, and may think he sees it, but all the time he is under the delusion of duali ty, thinking Brahman to be something different." (19) Such a vision should at least, one would think, be corroborated by the testim ony of the living, physical Masters involved, for one to be even inferentially c ertain of its veracity and truth. Otherwise the vision, in our humble opinion, s ays as much about the mind of the experiencer than of what was experienced, and may easily be contradicted by someone else's vision. It may have confirmed in he r or others' minds who the successor guru was; such may have been its main purpo se. Any more is speculation. Iyer wrote: "Epistemology is the enemy, the devil of yogis, mystics and religious teacher s because it pries into the truth, the source and the validity of the knowledge they claim. Therefore it is the most difficult part of philosophy." (20) "Creation stories in Upanishads and Bible and Koran are for children who can believe fully, but for those who doubt them the higher truth may be taught, i.e. , non-creation because of non-causality." [i.e., All is Mind, Brahman, or the no n-dual Absolute] (21) For the pure Vedantist, there is, in truth, no personal salvation, satisfacti on, or liberation for the jiva (ego-soul), only the freedom of realization of th e One, Atman or Brahman. Jnana is realization of truth, or emancipation from ign orance - not necessarily freedom from birth and death itself as the mystics or r eligionists claim but rather primarily emancipation from even the idea of birth and death. This may seem rather cold and distant for most seekers, but one such as Iyer would consider the claims and beliefs of the mystics to be second-tier t o truth itself. As the Ashtavakra Gita proclaims, "you must be desirous of knowi ng the truth; even if it seems to you the most bitter, distasteful or unpleasant thing, consider the truth as nectar." Only a person with an extreme rational co nsciousness, perhaps only having already gone through a yogic or mystical path, can appreciate such a concept. For most it is a painful endeavor to reach such a point. Which is why such texts have traditionally been kept hidden until the ch ela or disciple was considered ripe enough to face them. In any case, one can not give away the power to question and still be a man, whose glory is that of a thinking, reasoning being (man = manas]. According to a strict rendering of Anurag Sagar as well as Soami Shiv Dayal Singh's Sar Bachan , however, such philosophers must be agents of Kal for leading believers astray, with this faith holding more to the mystic dictum that "the mind is the slayer of the real," rather than that Buddhi is the way to discriminate the truth from untruth. In this regard we have the words of Goethe, "Be but contemptuous of rea son and highest gifts of man, and you have given yourself over to Satan." So whi ch to believe? What, after all, is true faith (shradda)? Iyer writes: "1. The love of truth, the determination to get at truth, come what may; 2. A strong mind; 3. To be a hero in the face of God's wrath." (22) And further:

"Truth may be as bitter as poison, but you must like it as nectar. Those who cannot do this are unfit for Vedanta...The right kind of seeker will accept and search for truth whether it brings bitterness or sweetness, whatever it tastes l ike, for its own sake. He must be prepared to find God as impersonal, and to los e his individuality for the sake of truth." (23) Which is one reason why such teachings as advaita have traditionally been str ictly guarded, or held in reserve, leaving the masses to religion and mysticism, which are beneficial in their own right, as stepping stones to the investigatio n of ultimate truth, which is most subtle. For Iyer and other vedantists, yoga a nd samadhi are only means to prepare the mind for calm inquiry into truth. Jagat Singh, interregnum guru between Sawan Singh and Charan Singh of the Bea s lineage once remarked, "95% of spirituality is clear thinking," suggesting tha t there have been advaitins among the sants from time to time. I will but mention one incident with a master of Sant Mat that I feel gives s ome validity to the above possibility, but also a glimpse into the strange and w onderful world of the saints. Once, in 1973, a disciple of Kirpal Singh, Judith Vanier (now Judith Lamb-Lion), confessed in his company and with his permission to having been taken to Sach Khand during her initiation. Sach Khand or Sat Lok is where one is supposed to have self-realization on the path of the saints, the halfway house to God-realization, and where one realizes his or her identity as a pure soul. After this experience, this person still asked Kirpal Singh, in wo nderment, "WHO am I?" to which he replied, "WHO is asking?" This Maharshi type o f interchange implied to me at the time there is more left unsaid by some of the se saints. It is also of note that the self-inquiry was only proposed by Kirpal Singh to one who had fulfilled the traditional steep requirements for advaita an d had a calm, concentrated, inquiring mind. Kirpal himself was surely an enigmatic saint. Besides frequently referring to himself as "Mr. Zero," when asked if he still meditated, his reply was, "when y ou get your PhD, do you have to go and learn the ABC's?" As previously stated, a ccording to Ashtavakra, the sage may go into samadhi for refreshment or enjoymen t, but he need not do so to regain his contact with the real. Kirpal Singh, impl ied as much to me when I heard him say, "I, too, like to cut off from the outsid e and go in and enjoy, you see." Another time, when he once asked me with a probing, peculiar look on his face , "do you want anything, my friend - do you want to leave the body?", I replied, in a mood of resignation more than from any great insight, because at the time I certainly did want that very thing, "no, nothing." His response was immediate and animated. He exclaimed, "You're an emperor, you're a prince, I'll kiss your feet - God is nothing!" Finally, near his death when he casually mentioned to so meone he would be going soon, and they asked, "where are you going?", he said, " oh, where we all go." So there were hints to me of something beyond mysticism go ing on. The episode with Judith, moreover, was quickly followed a few days later by Kirpal Singh catalyzing in me a nowadays run-of-the-mill non-dual realizatio n, one of those "non-events" outside of the mystic arena, in which I saw that th ere was no character called Peter! I had woken up out of the path of Sant Mat as I knew it. This was most perplexing in a sense, being in an ashram full of seek ers. Kirpal recognized it right away and started called me a new man, something I didn't quite understand at the time. Unfortunately, Peter came back, but has b een going away in fits and starts ever since, apparently dying a slow death. Bew are, friend, coming around such saints. You may not leave with what you expected ! Kirpal Singh apparently ascertained the state of my mind and acted accordingl y. Years earlier, however, he had answered more indirectly, telling me by letter

, in response to such vedantic type questions, that vivek or discrimination woul d simply come automatically as one progresses on the path, and that I should jus t drop them for now, and start from the beginning as a trusting child. A fundame ntalist vedantic like Iyer would disagree, saying that even at the highest level of indefinable mystical experience often given the term anubhava, the inquiry o r question of whether that is truth must be engaged. Feelings and experience mus t be placed under the microscope of Buddhi or Reason by the razor-sharp mind aft er passing through a yogic discipline. It is not that Iyer would categorically d eny that the saints have such experiences, quite the contrary, but he would rele ntlessly inquire as to their final reality. It will be suggested, nevertheless, that there is another kind of faith, available to common humanity, than that of the one given by Iyer: faith in the inherent goodness of God to lead one on the right way. Paul Brunton, student of Iyer, and who held to non-dualism, neverhele ss wrote: "The self-love which the ego unvaryingly displays or cunningly disguises, in all circumstances and through its yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows alike, is si mply a complete extroversion of the love which the World-Mind bears for itself, and which it reflects towards the whole universe. The ego, as a projection which is ultimately traceable to this divine source, carries with it what is nothing less and nothing other than divine love. But personalized and narrowed as it the n becomes, this holy force is no longer recognizable for what it really is...It comes to this, that if God did not love himself, man could not do the same nor c rave for love from his fellow man or give it to woman. And if God did not love m an, no man and no woman would love God, seek God, and deny himself or herself fo r God." (24) Further: "When he finds out that all his efforts at self-improvement are movements aro und a circle, that the ego does not really intend to give itself up in surrender to the Overself and therefore only pretends to do so, he realizes that left to himself he cannot succeed in really changing his inner centre of gravity. Help i s needed from some outside source if he is to free himself from such a hopeless position." (25) Even Ramana held out there were two ways to Truth, inquiry or surrender, jnan a or bhakti. So despite the imprecision in language, according to strict vedanti sm, the experiential truths spoken of by Kabir and the Sants remain to be 'dispr oven' by them. Certainly we are talking about far more than punditry. Just the o ne metaphor of the "soul being attracted to the Sat Purush like metal filings to a magnet", and also the promise that "once the aspirant reaches the radiant for m of the Master within, he has nothing more to do by himself or for himself," mu st make one ears take note. Something great may be hidden herein. Other scriptural evidence strongly suggests this path, although apparently st arting in duality, is genuine and complete, inherently non-dual and leading to n on-duality, and not contradicted by Vedanta. In the Rig Veda we read: "In the beginning was Prajapati, the Brahman, with whom was the Word and the Word was verily the Supreme Brahman." Maulana Rumi says, in his Jap Ji: "There is a way, O Nanak, to make His Will our own, His Will which is already wrought in our existence." (26) That way was known by the Muslim mystics or Sufis as Sultan-ul-Azkar, or comm union with the ultimate Sound Principle, the Word, the inherent expression of th e One Unmanifest-Manifest. Rumi, Shamas Tabrez, Hafiz and many others spoke of t

his practise. Further, in the Buddhist Surangama Sutra, it talks of realizing th e Supreme, wonderful and perfect Samadhi of Transcendental Consciousness called th e Diamond Samadhi," and attaining the "supreme purity of mind-essence and its ins trinsic brightness shining in all directions," by means of Intrinsic Hearing. Manj usri summarizes the views of an august assembly of Bodhisatvas, Mahasatvas, and Arhats thusly: This is the only way to Nirvana, and it has been followed by all the Tathagata s of the past. Moreover, it is for all the Bodhisatvas and Mahasatvas of the pre sent and for all in the future if they are to hope for perfect enlightenment. No t only did Avalokiteswara attain perfect enlightenment in long ages past by this Golden Way, but in the present, I also, am one of them....I bear testimony that the means employed by Avalokiteswara is the most expedient means for all. (27) Thus, I humbly submit to being agnostic whether or not the possibility that t he Sat Purush that is visualized and merged into in Sach Khand, for instance, as admittedly being an appearance to consciousness or Mind, as is likewise the Sou nd Current itself, is a special divinely ordained one, built into the structure of the worlds by the Mind's inherent Intelligence. Even though one may be passin g through a cosmic dream all the way to the end, this may still offer a way out. This way of looking at the problem gives a different perspective, however, does it not? Yet we must not rely solely on appeal to scriptural authority; how do we know the Vedas and ancient rishis were right, and their ideas and experiences the tr uth? We must not simply assume anything, truth must be proven afresh on its own terms. How do we know the diamond samadhi , being a state, however great it sounds, i s the truth? The argument of the shabd or logos as a fixed, divine idea, power, or appeara nce is problematic to the vedantist, since, as Iyer similarly points out in his criticism of Plato: Plato s doctrine of archtypes, ideas that are unchanging , is self-contradictory . It is the very nature of ideas to be ever-changing. His archtypal world was an imagination. (28) Thus, if the ideas of and within the worlds are ever-changing, so might this creative principle, as an appearance, be ever-changing. It is not so, according to the Sants, who regard it as an eternal verity. Iyer, however, states: Vedanta regards the d-idea of religion.

Logos

idea of theosophy in the same way as it regards the Go

To those who assert that this world is the expression of a divine power I retort , How do you know? (29) [i.e., because you feel or experience it to be so?] Tough questions, no doubt. Was Ramana wrong, then, to say that at the time of his famous death experience, he "was taken over by a great power?" Therefore, I say that it is an open question at best whether the teachings of the vedantist or contemporary non-dualist has definitively refuted saint Kabir and his Anurag Sagar. Actually, Kabir is somewhat of an enigma, as are many such saints. On the one hand he penned the elaborate, fantastic Anurag, spoke of crying buckets of tear s for God, and elsewhere complains, "nobody gets it; it's so simple!" So I will forewarn the reader that in the end we may leave this subject as ignorant as we began, perhaps even more so - which might even be a good thing, depending on one 's point of view.

Papaji was an example of a religious-mystic devotee of Krishna who eventually passed on to the view of non-duality. For years he had repeated a mantra, achie ving the near-constant vision of his beloved Krishna. He then went to see Ramana Maharshi, but was not enamored of his teachings, preferring his religious devot ion and the presence of his beloved Krishna. This went on until Ramana apparentl y catalyzed an awakening in Papaji that swept away his dualistic practice. Soon afterwards he had a vision of all his previous incarnations in form, from an amo eba on up to man, followed by a final vision of Ramana's form, and then the nondual realization of the Self. Hereafter, he was known by his famous saying, "not hing ever happened," the title of a series of books by David Godman. He essentia lly became an embodiment of the ajatavada or non-causality, non-creation viewpoi nt of vedanta. Huang Po, the great Ch'an Master, also expressed this viewpoint: "Our original Buddha-Nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any trace of obje ctivity.... Even if you go through all the stages of a Bodhisattva's progress to ward Buddhahood, one by one, when at last, in a single flash, you attain to full realization, you will only be realizing the Buddha-Nature that has been with yo u all the time; and by all the foregoing stages you will have added to it nothin g at all. You will come to look upon those aeons of work and achievement as no b etter than unreal actions performed in a dream. That is why the Tathagata [the B uddha] said: I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled Enlightenment." (30) The late American sage Robert Adams, a disciple of Ramana Maharshi who also s pent time with Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Muktananda, had these strong words to say on the subtle and celestial realms: "When you die what happens? What do you want to happen? Who dies? The ego die s. The body dies, but you never die. You'll live forever. Nothing really happens . I know you've heard all kinds of stories about going to different realms and p lanes of existence. This is all part of the dream. You create these things yours elf. You create all these different planes. The subtle plane, the mental plane, the causal plane. All these things you read about in the Yoga text are of the mi nd. They all belong to the mind. So you believe in these things. You go accordin g to what you believe. It's all created by you. You create your world after you die....Unless these people find a proficient teacher who can lift them up out of the mind, they will be involved in mind-stuff for thousands of years. For the m ind likes to play games with you. It likes to make you believe that you reincarn ate and that you go through astral planes and mental planes and causal planes, t hat you have lived before thousands of times, that you've had various experience s thousands of times. These things are true for the person who believes in their mind. Just as a dream is true as long as you're dreaming." (31) Do we, however, personally create these realms, even as we dream our way thro ugh them? Do we also create the realms beyond, such as Sat Lok? How do we do so? and how do we know? The last word, therefore, may not have been spoken about Ka bir and his Anurag Sagar, and we will set all this talk to rest, letting the rea der come to his own conclusions, but not before offering the following possibili ties on Kabir's engimatic stances: first, Kabir simply adapted his teachings for the class of mind he was dealing with. The simple folk would never understand n on-duality, so he constructed an elaborate fairy tale to keep them on the straig ht and true path of morality and devotion. Second, perhaps Kabir was privy to the viewpoint suggested by the Brihadarany aka Upanishad, which Ramana quoted, that "the first name of God is 'I'. 'Aham nama abhavat' ['I becomes the name']. Om came later." (32) Let us explain. According to the non-dual teachings of vedantists such as Iye

r or Robert Adams, all of causality hinges on the ego or "I". Since that comes a nd goes (disappearing in samadhi or sleep) it is not real, but only an idea; the refore, by inquiry into the nature of the "I" the entire "inner tour" of the sai nts (signified by "Om", the vibratory current of light and sound, the purported "cause" of all creation) might be bypassed. This is essentially the position tak en by today's non-dualist teachers. Maybe Kabir knew this, maybe not. His commen ts about the whole affair being "too simple" suggests that it is possible he did . Even here, however, the shabd yoga Master would have a retort, namely, that Om s ignifies the power of Brahm on downwards, responsible for the creation of the lo wer three worlds only, and that the shabd goes much higher. The true individuali ty of the soul, or the I , they might say, only appears in the supracausal realm, f irst spiritual plane above the three-fold egg of Brahm or Hiranyagarbha, therefore , the Upanishad was right but not of the highest. The vedantists like Iyer would say all spiritual realms are really mental, and all talk of Hiranyagarbha just an cient imagination. So the argument goes on and on. Third, Kabir may have had different stages of development, which his writings suggest; or fourth, someone else wrote the famous Anurag Sagar. This last possi bility has actually been suggested before, but is beyond the scope of this artic le to research. For now, drink deep from the following verses of the wonderful s aint: I ve filled he vessel of my body with water luminous and pure..... I drink it, yet thirst for more. My mind turned inwards. It plunged into the sea of love and bliss. And it bathes with joy.... Searching for Him, O friend, Kabir lost himself. When the drop has merged into the Ocean, how can the drop be found? ... The Ocean has MERGED INTO THE DROP. NOW HOW CAN THE OCEAN BE FOUND? "Where there is neither sea nor rains, Nor sun nor shade; Where there is neither creation Nor dissolution; Where prevails neither life nor death, Nor pain nor pleasure; Beyond the states of Sunn and trance; [Note: A redundancy; In Sant Mat teachings, as previously stated, Sunn or Mah a Sunn is a dark void between the causal and spiritual regions, so is obviously only know n through trance.] Beyond words, 0 friend, Is that unique state of Sahaj. It can be neither weighed Nor exhausted, Is neither heavy nor light; It has no upper regions Nor lower ones; It knows not the dawn of day Nor the gloom of night; Where there is neither wind Nor water nor fire, There abides the perfect Master. It is inaccessible, It is incomprehensible, It is, and it will ever be; Attain it through the Master's grace." (33) "I have stilled my restless mind and my heart is radiant, for in Thatness I have seen beyond Thatness,

in company I have seen the Comrade Himself, Living in bondage, I have set myself free, I have broken away from the clutch of all narrowness, I have attained the unattainable, and my heart is colored with the color of love." (source unknown) Similar sentiments are expressed in his poem, The Abode of the Beloved. No ego can realize this state; because of this Kabir is a favorite of those o f both the mystic and non-dualist persuasions. Elsewhere he gives his point of v iew, however, of the prerequisite for this condition: "Love grows not in the field and is not sold in the market, Whosoever would have it, whether king or beggar, must pay with his life. Carry your head upon your palm as an offering If you would step into the Wonderland of love." (34) And, as the premier bhakti of his age, he proclaimed: No one has been united to his Beloved through mirth. Whoever has attained comm union with him has done so after shedding many tears. If it were possible to mee t the beloved while laughing and in a state of comfort, why should one suffer th e anguish of separation? The people of the world are happy. They eat and sleep. Kabir alone is unhappy. He is awake and is crying. He also warned: "So what if you have dropped illusion? You didn't drop your pride. Pride has fooled the best sages, Pride devours all." - Bijak For Kabir, finally, liberation must be had while alive: "O friend! hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live, understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides. If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliverance in death? It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with Him because it has passed from the body: If He is found now, He is found then, If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death. If you have union now, you shall have it hereafter. Bathe in the truth, know the true Guru, have faith in the true Name! Kabîr says: "It is the Spirit of the quest which helps; I am the slave of this Spirit of the quest." (trans. R. Tagore) On this point, that liberation must be gained while alive, Kabir and the veda ntists appear in agreement. However, it must be pointed out that this is not the only view in the traditions. Paramhansa Yogananda said that most souls reach th eir final liberation from the higher planes, and this is given out as a possibil ity in certain Buddhist sutras, random comments by Paul Brunton, as well as the teachings of the Sants, especially if one has love for ones Master. So like in a ll things one must keep an open mind. Some things are "revealed not to the world ly wise but unto babes," as the Bible tells us. At the time of his death both Hindus and Muslims claimed his body, but when t hey went to remove the cloth that covered it they found only flowers in its plac

e. Thus, even in death Kabir worked to bring the two religions closer to the tru th.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: "In reality you are not a thing, not separate. You are the infinite potential ity. Because you are, all can be. The universe is but a partial manifestation of your limitless capacity to become....There is absolutely no difference between me and others, except in my knowing myself as I am. I am all. I know it for cert ain and you do not....The diversity is in you only. See yourself as you are and you will see the world as it is - a single block of reality, indivisible, indesc ribable. Your own creative power projects upon it a picture and all your questio ns refer to the picture....All this is temporary, while I am dealing with the et ernal. Gods and their universes come and go, avatars follow each other in endles s succession, and in the end we are back at the source. I talk only of the timel ess source of all the gods with all their universes, past, present, and future." (I AM THAT (Durham, North Carolina: The Acorn Press, 2008), p. 121, 123) "To take appearance for reality is a grievous sin and the cause of all calami ties. You are the all-prevading , eternal and infinitely creative awareness - co nsciousness. All else is local and temporary....Only that which makes perception possible, call it Life or Brahman, or what you like, is real....My guru taught me to doubt - everything and absolutely. He said: 'deny existence to everything except your self'....You cannot talk of reality as an experience. Once this is u nderstood, you will no longer look for being and becoming as separate and opposi te. In reality they are one and inseparable, like roots and branches of the same tree. Both can exist only in the light of consciousness, which again, arises in the wake of the sense 'I am'. This is the primary fact. If you miss it,you miss all." (Ibid, p. 42, 75, 104-105); Once you realize beyond all trace of a doubt that the world is in you and not you in the world, you are out of it. Of course your body remains in the world an d of the world, but you are not deluded by it. All scriptures say that before th e world was, the Creator was. Who knows the Creator? He alone who was before the Creator, your own real being, the source of all the worlds with their creators. ...Even the idea of God as the Creator is false. Do I owe my being to any other being? Because I am, all is. (Ibid, p. 207-208) "The world is what it contains and each thing affects all others...Every effe ct has innumerable causes and produces numberless effects. It is useless to keep accounts, nothing is traceable...[Karma and retribution are] merely a gross app roximation: in reality we are all creators and creatures of each other, causing and bearing each other's burden...Most of our karma is collective. We suffer for the sins of others, as others suffer for ours. Humanity is one. Ignorance of th is fact does not change it. We could have been much happier people ourselves, bu t for our indifference to the sufferings of others." (Ibid, p. 415, 465-466) "A gnani [does not] claim to be something special. All those who proclaim the ir own greatness and uniqueness are not gnanis. They are mistaking some unusual development for realization. The gnani shows no tendency to proclaim himself a g nani. He considers himself to be perfectly normal, true to his real nature. Proc laiming oneself to be an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipotent deity is a clear sign of ignorance." (Ibid, p. 193) "Q: We are told there are many levels of existence. Do you exist and function on all the levels? While you are on earth, are you also in heaven (swarga)? M: I am nowhere to be found! I am not a thing to be given a place among other things. All things are in me, but I am not among things. You are telling me abo ut the superstructure while I am concerned with the foundations. The superstruct

ures rise and fall, but the foundations last. I am not interested in the transie nt, while you talk about nothing else." (Ibid, p. 327) Life will escape, the body will die, but it will not affect me in the least. B eyond space and time I am, uncaused, uncausing, yet the very matrix of existence ....I am not a person in your sense of the word, though I may appear a person to you. I am that infinite ocean of consciousness in which all happens. I am also beyond all existence and cognition, pure bliss of being. There is nothing I feel separate from, hence I am all. No thing is me, so I am nothing. (Ibid, p. 222) "In the light of consciousness all sorts of things happen and one need not gi ve special importance to any. The sight of a flower is as marvelous as the visio n of God...See everything as emanating from the light which is the source of you r own being [not the source of the universe outside of ones self]. You will find that in that light there is love and infinite energy." (Ibid, p. 197) "Neither God nor the universe have come to tell you that they have created yo u. The mind obsessed by the idea of causality invents creation and then wonders 'who is the creator?' The mind itself is the creator. Even this is not quite tru e, for the created and the creator are one. The mind and the world(s) are not se parate. Do understand that what you take to be the world is your own mind...All space and time are in the mind. Where will you locate a supramental world? There are many levels of the mind and each projects its own version, yet all are in t he mind and created by the mind." (Ibid, p. 502) Paul Brunton: He could keep on collecting inner, mystical, or psychical experiences for year s, for undoubtedly they are very fascinating. But to whom? To the ego: but that is not the point of this quest. Ramana Maharshi told me [PB] that he had thousan ds of such experiences. The essential point is to treat them as incidental and t o rise into Overself awareness and stay there. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Vol . 11, 14.07) If he continues to gaze at the mental images which he thus sees in his vision , rapt and absorbed as he is, he may eventually mesmerize himself into a firm be lief in their external reality. But whether they be Gods and saints or lights an d colours, these strange visions which pass before his eyes are partly creations of the mind itself. (Ibid, 15.2) Those to whom the higher power has to reveal itself through visions seen clair voyantly, or sounds heard clairaudiently, or teachings impressed mentally are he lped in this inferior way only because they lack the capacity to recieve in a su perior way. And this remains just as true if the vision is of their respected Sp iritual leader, the sound none other than the mystic Sanskrit syallble OM, and t he teaching fully descriptive of the seven planes of progressive being. If they had possessed the capacity to receive by pure insight without any reference to t he method by which we receive through the agency of five bodily senses and the i ntellect, they would not have needed such occult experiences, which are in a sen se semi-materialistic. (Ibid, 15.28) It would be a gross error to believe that all visions are to be regarded with caution, let alone suspicion. There is one which is a complete exception to this rule. This is the vision of Light. (Ibid, 15. 33) The faith which is already in the heart, the image which pre-exists in the min d, these are drawn upon and used by the man s soul to give him the experience of a nd message from itself. (Ibid, 15.35)

The Overself can never be seen or heard, touched or tasted. Therefore no visio ns of a pictorial kind, no voices of a psychic kind, no musical sounds of a mysti cal and cosmic kind, no outer form or manifestation of any kind which comes to yo u through the senses can be the real authentic experience of it. (Ibid, 15.36) God will appear to us in Spirit alone, never in Space. To see him is to see th e playing and posturing of our own mind. (Ibid, 15.41) A mystic experience may come with a seen vision of the spiritual Guide or a fe lt - not heard - voice communicating a message, teachings, or guidance, or it ma y come with none of these things as intellectual insight into the Real. (Ibid, 15 .42) When it is said that the mystic s own mental construction is responsible for the visions he sees, whether these be of a living guru distant in space or a dead o ne distant in time or a scriptural God, it is not meant that such construction i s a voluntary activity. On the contrary, it is both involuntary and subconscious . This is the psychological explanation of such phenomena, but what is the metap hysical one? This is that the mystic, not having evolved to an understanding of the formless, timeless, matterless character of true being, nor to the capacity to concentrate on it, is given a spaced-timed-shaped image on which to concentra te. What gives him this image? It is his own Overself (Soul). (Ibid, 15.104) Whether the mystical experience represents a revival of ideas previously acqui red or a genuine penetration into a spiritual world is not to be answered by a b rief yes or no, for it does in fact involve both these elements. This is of cour se why so many mystics' reports frequently contradict each other. The visions th ey see and the intuitions they acquire contain forms or thoughts which have prev iously been put into their minds by teachers, traditions, environment, or readin g. The intellect contributes a personal element whereas the deeper level of mind contributes that which is common to all these experiences. If it were possible for a mystic to free himself of all pre-possessions, both conscious and subconsc ious, he might gain the pure experience of this deeper level wherein neither int ellect nor emotion would interfere. The philosophic discipline seeks to achieve this. If the different revelations made by mystics do not agree on several points, h ere is a warning that first, although a mystic may honestly describe what is rev ealed to him, this is no guarantee of its perfect truth, no safeguard against it s being partly mistaken or even wholly biased, and second, the spiritual authori ty of no man should be so exaggerated as to deify his statements. (Ibid, 9.3-5)

St. Teresa of Avila - to Hell and Back A Second Look at the Dark Night and the Mystics of the Church By Peter Holleran Abstract: Beginning with contemporaries St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, the Christian mystic path seems to follow a similar pattern: a novitiate of prayer, devotion, and visionary spiritual experiences, followed by an often tum ultuous dark night period, followed in turn by a reconciliation and unitive phas e. Whether it be these two greats, or St. Francis de Sales, Jean-Perre deCaussad e, Jacob Boehme, and others on up to the present, this pattern is uncanny, almos t to suggest a 100th monkey phenomena or spiritual/ cultural miasm that called for th very similar experiences among such figures. This article will explore a number of issues related to this, such as: one, w hether these mystics would have been spared much pain if they were living in our contemporary culture, where new paradigms such as quantum physics, deep feeling psychotherapy, as well as access to the world s spiritual traditions both in book form (including the highest non-dual texts such as the Ashtavakra Samhita, Mund

ukya Upanishad, Lankavatara Sutra, or the works of Sankara), and readily availab le teachers, are present as countervailing influences to the strict orthodoxy of Church doctrine, within which at least in public most of these mystics had to c onform; two, whether many of the extreme experiences of many of these mystics ca n indeed fit into a pattern similar if not identical to experiences shared by pe rsons who have engaged in new approaches such as Primal therapy, re-birthing, pa st-life hypnotherapy, or the LSD or holotropic breathwork of Stanislav Grof, and whether these new disciplines as well as the mysticism of these European saints at times touch upon a similar transpersonal dimension in their work; three, whe ther we are now past the stage where the guidance of these mystics is still usef ul, or whether in fact not that much has changed in the past 500 years in the re alm of real spirituality, and we, in fact, have much we can learn from them. St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), unlike Catherine of Siena, did not have an i nclination for mystic raptures as a child. She was raised in luxury, with a penc hant for mischief and a fondness for fine "dress and ornaments". At the age of s ixteen she was sent to an Augustinian convent for boarding school. There she lea rned to delight in the lifestyle of the nuns, and at twenty-two took her vows in the Carmelite Order. For the next two decades she went through a "stormy sea", a difficult ordeal of emotional-spiritual transformation, in which she vacillate d between a desire to serve God and a desire to serve self. She endured many phy sical ailments, food cravings, and much emotional turmoil before she was firmly grounded in the life of the spirit. In 1567, while gazing upon a statue of Jesus , she had a conversion experience that changed her life forever. In her Autobiog raphy she wrote: "Until now the life I was describing was my own, but the life I have been liv ing since is the life God has lived in me." In later years Teresa manifested extraordinary spiritual phenomena, including profound mystical rapture and even episodes of bodily levitation. (1) The Autob iography communicates in detail the specific character, nature, and stages of a wide range of spiritual experiences. She wisely points out the actual source of those experiences by telling us that "such great gifts come through abandoning e verything to God and dying to oneself." Christopher Basche, in the excellent A Reappraisal of St. Teresa s Hysteria, at tempts to draw parallels with St. Teresa s extreme experiences and those of negati ve NDE s (Near-Death Experiences) as well as perinatal experiences of those who en gage in deep regressive feeling therapies. His purpose was to legitimize both fi elds of endeavor to the psychological community, by making the point that both a reas of experiences are gateways from the personal to transpersonal realms. This has perhaps little directly to do with intuiting consciousness itself, or non-d uality, as is currently in vogue, but his depiction of the saint s ordeals has muc h to teach us. The reader may take note, that St. Teresa initially wrote her aut obiography not intending it for publication, but in order to give her superiors a detailed description of what she was going through so they could assess her co ndition, so there is little doubt it is an honest account. Basche writes: Description of Teresa's symptoms "As a young novice at the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in Avila, Tere sa suffers serious fainting spells, fevers, and heart troubles. On a trip to Bec edas for treatment, she is given a copy of Osuna's Third Spiritual Alphabet from which she learns the prayer of recollection, experiencing quickly the "prayer o f quiet" and even brief "union." (2) In Becedas she is diagnosed as having "shru nken nerves," and her condition deteriorates steadily for three months. "The pai n in my heart," she writes, "which I had gone there to get treated, was much wor se; sometimes I felt as if sharp teeth had hold of me, and so severe was the pai n they caused that it was feared I was going mad." (3) Pains rack her from head

to foot unceasingly. One particular fit leaves her comatose for four days and so deathlike that a grave is prepared. Though she survived, her condition is pitif ul: "My tongue was bitten to pieces.. . . All my bones seemed to be out of joint and there was a terrible confusion in my head. As a result of the torments I ha d suffered during these days, I was all doubled up, like a ball, and no more abl e to move arm, foot, hand or head than if I had been dead, unless others moved t hem for me." (4) Teresa eventually returns to Avila uncured. After eight months her condition begins to improve, but she does not fully recover from her paralys is for three years." "As Teresa's experience in prayer deepens in the years following her illness, she begins to receive various "divine favors." First, entering the third and fo urth degrees of prayer-the prayer of union and the prayer of divine union-is its elf counted as a supernatural gift. Second, Teresa begins to experience visions and voices which instruct her in, among other things, the processes of her deepe ning spirituality. A third favor Teresa calls by several names: rapture, elevati on, flight, or transport of the spirit. In these experiences she leaves her body in some type of spirit-form and is taken usually to "heaven," where various the ological and spiritual truths are revealed to her. However problematic Teresa's narratives of out-of-body experiences are to the Western intellect, she insists that they happened just as she describes them." "She also insists, quite to our surprise, that these out-of-body experiences are "much more beneficial" to her spiritual development than mystical union. (5) [In Chapter XXII of her Autobiography Teresa goes into great detail in explai ning the superior grace and benefits of raptures or transports to higher levels, apparently outside the bodily domain, and how much more humility they produce i n the soul than the earlier stages of prayer, including what she terms the praye r of union. In this she sounds a bit like the Indian sage, Sri Autobindo, who co nfessed that he had his experience of nirvana and silence in Brahman even before his knowledge of the overhead planes"; she would also find company with the teac hings of a mystic path such as Sant Mat. Teresa writes of the prayer of union, t he highest of these stages of prayer, in language that suggests something like s avikalpa or even nirvikalpa samadhi, but still praises raptures and ecstasies ab ove this. As she had her famous hell experience after all of these, to be followed by even further trials, and finally an unshakable peace, it is worth quoting so me of her writings on these levels of prayer. On the fourth degree of prayer, th at of union, she says: The way in which this that we call union comes, and the nature of it, I do not know how to explain....the soul becomes conscious that it is fainting almost co mpletely away, in a kind of swoon, with an exceedingly great and sweet delight. It gradually ceases to breathe and all its bodily strength begins to fail it; it cannot even move its hands without great pains; its eyes involuntarily close, o r they remain open, they can hardly see....It is futile for him to attempt to sp eak: his mind cannot manage to form a single word..for in this condition all out ward strength vanishes, while the strength of the soul increases so that it may have fruition of its bliss...But this state in which they [ones faculties] are c ompletely lost, and have no power of imagining anything - for the imagination, I believe, is also completely lost - is, as I say, of brief duration although the faulties do not recover to such an extent as not to be for some hours, as it we re, in disorder, God, from time to time, gathering them once more to Himself...I was wondering what it is the soul does during that time, when the Lord said the se words to me: It dies to itself wholly, daughter, in order that it may fix itse lf more and more upon me; it is no longer itself that lives, but I. As it cannot comprehend what it understands, it is an understanding which understands not. The benefits that it receives are more numerous and sublime than any which pro ceed from the prevous states of prayer; and its humility is also greater, for it

clearly sees how by no efforts of its own it could either gain or keep so excee dingly and so great a favour...For now it sees with its own eyes that of itself it can do little or nothing, and that it hardly even gave its consent to whathas happened to it, but that, against its own will, the door seemed to be closed up on all the senses so that it might have the greater fruition of the Lord. (6) As desirable as the latter may be, Teresa places raptures far above it: It is much more beneficial than union: the effects it produces are far more im portant and it has a great many more operations, for union gives the impression of being just the same as the beginning, in the middle and at the end, and it al l happens interiorly. But the ends of rapture are of a higher degree, and the ef fects they produce are both interior and exterior....The Lord gathers up the sou l, just (we might say) as the clouds gather up the vapours from the earth, and r aises it up till it is right out of itself..and the cloud rises to Heaven and ta kes the soul with it, and begins to reveal to it things concerning the Kingdom t hat He has prepared for it. I do not know if this comparison is an exact one, bu t that is the way it actually happens." In these raptures the soul seems no longer to animate the body, and thus the n atural heat of the body is felt to be very sensibly diminished, it gradually bec omes colder, although conscious of the greatest sweetness and delight. No means of resistance is possible, whereas in union, where we are on our own ground, suc h a means exists; resistance may be painful and violent but it can almost always be effected. But with rapture, as a rule there is no such possibility; often it comes like a strong, swift impulse, before your thought can forewarn you of it or you can do anything to help yourself; you see and feel this cloud, or this po werful eagle, rising and bearing you up on its wings." "You realize, I repeat, and indeed see, that you are being carried away, you know not wither. For, though rapture brings us delight, the weakness of our natu re at first makes us afraid of it, and we need to be resolute and courageous in soul...For, happen what may, we must risk everything, and resign ourselves into the hands of God and go willingly wherever we are carried away, for we are in fa ct being carried away, whether we like it or no....Occasionally I have been able to make some resistance, but at the cost of great exhaustion, for I would feel as weary afterwards as though I had been fighting with a powerful giant. At othe r times, resistance has been impossible: my soul has been borne away, and indeed as a rule my head also, without my being able to prevent it; sometimes my whole body has been affected, to the point of being raised up from the ground. (!) This has happened only rarely, but once, when we were together in choir, and I was on my knees and about to communicate, it caused me the greatest distress. I t seemed to me a most extraordinary thing and I thought there would be a great d eal of talk about it; so I ordered the nuns..not to speak about it. On other occ asions, when I have felt that the Lord was going to enrapture me (once it happen ed during a sermon, on our patronal festival, when some great ladies were presen t), I have lain on the ground and the sisters have come and held me down, but no ne the less the rapture has been observed...[At times Teresa s agonies and ecstasi es were so violent that reports were that her room shook and the other nuns were frightened]. These effects are very striking. One of them is the manifestation of the Lord s mighty power: as we are unable to resist His majesty s will, either in soul or in body, and are not our own masters, we realize that, however irksome this truth m ay be, there is One stronger than ourselves, and that these favors are bestowed by Him, and that we, of ourselves, can do absolutely nothing....The soul soars u pward, far above itself and above all created things....The soul, then, it seems to be, not in itself at all, but on the house-top, or the roof, of its own hous e, and raised above all created things; I think it is far above even its own ver

y highest part....I believe myself that a soul which attains to this state neith er speaks nor does anything of itself, but that this sovereign King takes care o f all that it has to do. Oh my God, how clear is the meaning of that verse about asking for the wings of a dove [Psalms liv, 7] and how right the author was - a nd how right we shall all be! - to ask for them! It is evident that he is referr ing to the flight taken by the spirit when it soars high above all created thing s, and above itself first of all; but it is a gentle and a joyful flight, and al so a silent one....If I were to spend years and years imagining how to invent an ything so beautiful, I could not do it, and I do not even know how I should try, for, even in its whiteness and radiance alone, it exceeds all that we can imagi ne." (7) This sounds very close to an experience of ascended savikalpa or perhaps even nirvikalpa samadhi, although of the latter we can not be certain. ] Basche continues: Admirers of Teresa have tended to sidestep her testimony on this point, howeve r, no doubt because it is incompatible with their preconceptions both about real ity and about mystical union." [That's an understatement; I'll bet that no one i n either primal therapy or re-birthing therapies have levitated!] "Coming after the three preceding favors is a fourth which Teresa is told to value more than the others because it will purify her soul of its imperfections. She begins to experience various pains that come upon her without warning. Whil e sometimes subtle, these pains at other times are so overwhelming "that the sou l is unable to do either this or anything else. The entire body contracts and ne ither arm nor foot can be moved." (8) These convulsive spasms disjoint her bones until she genuinely thinks she is going to die, even coming to pray for the rel ease death would bring. They are accompanied by chills-, fluctuations in pulse, and occasionally a ringing in the ears. She speaks of being wounded in the heart with an arrow dipped in a drug which causes self-hate, and on other occasions w ith a spear tipped with burning iron. ["Beside me on my left hand appeared an angel in bodily form....He was not ta ll but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest ranks of angels, who seem to be all on fire....In his han ds I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated my en trails. When he pulled it out I felt that he took them with it, and left me utte rly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me ut ter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one can not possibly wish it to cease, nor is one's soul content with anything b ut God. This is not a physical but a spiritual pain, though the body has some sh are in it - even a considerable share." (9)] "She also describes being thrown as fuel on a fire. Though the agony is overw helming, it is also paradoxically sweet: "No words will suffice to describe the way in which God wounds the soul and the sore distress which He causes it, so th at it hardly knows what it is doing. Yet so delectable is this distress that lif e holds no delight which can give greater satisfaction." (10) Teresa never was a ble to understand how such distress and bliss could coexist in the soul." (11) Conclusions "The five points of comparison developed above-physical symptoms, psychologic al content, ego-death, blending of pain and ecstasy, and progression of symptomo logy-are sufficient, I believe, to establish the interpretation proposed. They w arrant the conclusion that Teresa's convulsions were not hysteria, whatever that was, but perinatal symptoms which emerged spontaneously as her consciousness op

ened through her practice of prayer. The perinatal stratum of consciousness is t he frontier between personal and transpersonal consciousness. It is the sediment ed core of the personal unconscious, the basement wherein are stored undigested fragments of a primitive sort concerning survival, bodily integrity, and by exte nsion one's basic value and one's ultimate helplessness against life's destructi ve forces. The sudden presence of perinatal symptoms in Teresa's life signals th e emergence of these primitive systems into consciousness. It was only after she had exhausted them that she was able to enter the seventh mansion, the abiding presence of God, from which she was never again removed. [She wrote in Chapter XXXII about her transport to hell, which occurred after all of the previous favors had been granted her. Indeed, she commented that suc h experiences purified her more, and were more important to her spiritual life, than all of the previous ones. It is worth noting that these experiences occurre d when she was well advanced along the spiritual road. For those making psycholo gical parallels, it is true that in that discipline as well, especially in the d eep feeling therapies, that the deepest, darkest secrets lying buried in the psy che usually remain inaccessible until well into the therapeutic process: "The entrance, I thought, resembled a very long, narrow passage, like a furna ce, very low, dark and closely confined; the ground seemed to be full of water w hich looked like filthy, evil-smelling mud, and in it were many wicked-looking r eptiles. At the end there was a hollow place scooped out of a wall, like a cupbo ard, and it was here that I found myself in close confinement. But the sight of all this was pleasant by comparison with what I felt there....My feelings, I thi nk, could not possibly be exaggerated, nor can anyone understand them. I felt a fire within my soul the nature of which I am utterly incapable of describing. My bodily sufferings were so intolerable that, though in my life I have endured th e severest sufferings of this kind....none of them is of the smallest account by comparison with what I felt then, to say nothing of the knowledge that they wou ld be endless and never ceasing. And even these are nothing by comparison with t he agony of my soul, an oppression, a suffocation and an affliction so deeply fe lt, and accompanied by such hopeless and distressing misery, that I cannot too f orcibly describe it. To say that it is as if the soul were continually being tor n from the body is very little, for that would mean that one's life was being ta ken by another; whereas in this case it is the soul itself that is tearing itsel f to pieces. The fact is that I cannot find words to describe that interior fire and that despair which is greater than the most grievous tortures and pains. I could not see who was the cause of them, but I felt, I think, as if I were being both burned and dismembered; and I repeat that the interior fire and despair ar e the worst things of all. In that pestilential spot, where I was quite powerles s to hope for comfort, it was impossible to sit or lie, for there was no room to do so. I had been put in this place which looked like a hole in the wall, and t hose very walls so terrible to the sight, bore down upon me and completely stifl ed me. There was no light and everything was in the blackest darkness. (12) Teresa was not the first nor the last to experience a visionary transport tri p to a hell realm. A Sant Mat initiate wrote the following, which is a brief exc erpt from a much longer letter: Then Master [within] told me dozens and dozens of times that masters have equa l love for all souls no matter what the soul s current state because each soul con tains the Godhead and Master could do nothing but love it. He then showed me one of the Lords of the Planes and told me of Master s great love for this soul who w as due for a human birth and the good fortune of initiation in his next life. He continued that although his love for this soul was great, it was no greater tha n when the soul was mired in sin and showed me truly horrifying past lives of th e soul that was now the Lord of a Plane. I saw him as a man wallowing in the tor ture and degradation of his fellow man. In one life he even tore apart other men and ate them raw. Then I saw him in a hell where he existed as a bacteria-like

creature around the edges of a pool that emitted a steamy atmosphere of vomit an d ammonia. Yet even there, Master showed me how the Master s love was unflagging a s he sustained the soul in its punishment. In the concluding chapters of her book St. Teresa talks about further great r evelations and visions she received from the Lord and the great profit they were to her soul.] Basche continues, writing as it were for the professional psychological commu nity: Teresa's seizures, therefore, represent not regressive pathology but rather pr ogressive symptomology accompanying the emergence of higher states of consciousn ess. They are the growing pains of expanded consciousness, the psycho-physical s ystem's throwing off its poisons as it moves to more wholistic stages of conscio usness. I suspect that much of the ill health reported by many mystics may be pe rinatal in origin. Should subsequent studies confirm this hypothesis, much of th e so-called "pathology" associated with mysticism would turn out to be not degen erative at all but progressive. This cannot but have an uplifting effect on our assessment of mysticism in general. In a related topic in a second article, A Perinatal Interpretation of Frighte ning Near-Death Experiences (an interview with Kenneth Ring by Christopher Basch ) - which has a link to third article, about perinatal experiential phenomena an d its significance as a gateway to spiritual dimensions, the author writes: A frightening NDE is not an alternative NDE but an incomplete NDE. It is not n ecessarily a reflection of the individual's moral character but represents inste ad an encounter with some of the deepest structures of the psyche, structures th at are universally distributed among persons. Why one person is carried through these structures while another is not has more to do with the strength and inten sity of the NDE itself than with the person undergoing the experience, and these are influenced by many factors, most of which probably have yet to be identifie d. NDErs who have had similar experiences might be interested to know that Teres a considered this and her many other frightening experiences in the out-of-body state to be especially beneficial and helpful to her spiritual development! She did so not because she harbored masochistic tendencies but because she had come to understand that these ordeals were a kind of purification process. Through th em something negative was being lifted from her soul. By submitting to them and following them wherever they took her, she found that her experiences of mystica l union deepened. Teresa was not alone in experiencing such ordeals, nor in recognizing their p urifying function. In fact, the descent into hell is simply an extreme instance of a large set of arduous experiences that are a rather common feature of the my stic's journey. In the Christian tradition, these difficult experiences are call ed the "dark night of the soul," and Teresa's close friend, St. John of the Cros s, is perhaps their most well- known chronicler. The Vissudhimagga a Buddhist ma nual of meditation practice, calls them the "Higher Realizations." Collectively these experiences represent a series of particularly harsh purifications aspiran ts must undergo as they slowly uncover the transcendent core of their being. In a fourth article, An Interview with Christopher Basch, he concludes with t he statement that there may be countless permutations on these transformative them es and episodes, for spiritual seekers and mystics, those in deep therapies, as well as NDErs. [End of Basche material]

Other experiences of the dark night The depictions of a dark night period in the European mystical tradition follow such very similar lines that one would not be totally amiss in suggesting there was some form of mass suggestion going on among the mystics of the Church. Pers onally, I feel that would be an exaggeration of the truth, but it is not impossi ble. An in depth reading of their works, however, would, I believe, lay that not ion to rest. Personally, I feel these souls were in many respects ahead of their times. In my own article The Dark Night of the Soul, I quoted a select group of these mystics, as well as contemporary writer Paul Brunton, for their views on this ordeal. St. John of the Cross wrote: The Divine assails the soul in order to renew it and thus make it Divine; and, stripping it of the habitual affections and attachments of the old man, to whic h it is very closely united, knit together and conformed, destroys and consumes its spiritual substance, and absorbs it in deep and profound darkness. As a resu lt of this, the soul feels itself to be perishing and melting away, in the prese nce and sight of its miseries, in a cruel spiritual death. (13) "The soul must needs be in all its parts reduced to a state of emptiness, pov erty and abandonment and must be left dry and empty and in darkness. For the sen sible part is purified in aridity, the faculties are purified in the emptiness o f their perceptions, and the spirit is purified in thick darkness.....All of thi s God brings to pass by means of this dark contemplation; wherein the soul not o nly suffers this emptiness and the suspension of these natural supports and perc eptions, which is a most afflictive suffering (as if a man were suspended or hel d in air so that he could not breath), but likewise He is purging the soul, anni hilating it, emptying it or consuming in it (even as fire consumes the mouldines s and the rust of metal) all the affections and imperfect habits which it has co ntracted in its whole life. Since these are deeply rooted in the substance of th e soul, it is wont to suffer great undoing and inward torment, besides the said poverty and emptiness, natural and spiritual...Here God greatly humbles the soul in order that he may afterwards greatly exalt it; and if he ordained not that, when these feelings arise within the soul, they should speedily be fulfilled, it would die in a very short space; but there are only occasional periods when it is conscious of their greatest intensity. At times, however, they are so keen th at the soul seems to be seeing hell and perdition opened." (14) "It is well for the soul to perform no operation touching spiritual things at this time and to have no pleasure in such things, because its faculties and des ires are base, impure, and wholly natural; and thus, although these faculties be given the desire and interest in things supernatural and Divine, they could not receive them save after a base and natural manner, exactly in their own fashion ...All these faculties and desires of the soul..come to be prepared and tempered in such a way as to be able to receive, feel and taste that which is Divine and supernatural after a sublime and lofty manner, which is impossible if the old m an not die first of all." (15) "And when the soul suffers the direct assault of this Divine Light, its pain, which results from its impurity, is immense; because, when this pure light assa ils the soul, in order to expel its impurity, the soul feels itself to be so imp ure and miserable that it believes God to be against it, and thinks that it has set itself up against God. This causes it sore grief and pain, because it now be lieves that God has cast it away...the soul now sees its impurities clearly (alt hough darkly), and knows it is unworthy of God or of any creature. And what give s it the most pain is that it thinks that it will never be worthy and that its g ood things are all over for it. This is caused by the profound immersion of its spirit in the knowledge and realization of its evils and miseries, for this Divi

ne and dark light now reveals them all to the eye, that it may see clearly how i n its own strength it can never have aught else...When this Divine contemplation assails the soul with a certain force, in order to strengthen it and subdue it, it suffers such pain in its weakness that it nearly swoons away..for sense and spirit, as if beneath some immense and dark load, are in such great pain and ago ny that the soul would find advantage and relief in death." (16) "It is clear that God grants the soul in this state the favor of purging it a nd healing it with this strong lye of bitter purgation, according to its spiritu al and sensual part, of all the imperfect habits and affections which it had wit hin itself with respect to temporal things and to natural, sensual and spiritual things, its inward faculties being darkened, and voided of all these, its spiri tual and sensual affections being constrained and dried up, and its natural ener gies being attenuated and weakened with respect to all this (a condition which i t could never attain of itself, as we shall shortly say). In this way God makes it to die to all that is not naturally God, so that, once it is stripped and den uded of its former self, he may clothe it anew. And thus its youth is renewed li ke the eagle's and it is clothed with the new man, which, as the Apostle says, i s created according to God." (17) And just when the soul thinks its trials are over it is once again filled wit h "spiritual pain and anguish in all its deep affections and energies, to an ex tant surpassing all possibility of exaggeration...The spirit experiences pain an d sighing so deep that they cause it vehement spiritual groans and cries, to whi ch at times it gives vocal expression; when it has the necessary strength and po wer it dissolves into tears, although this relief comes but seldom." (18) Paul Brunton wrote: "The Dark Night is not the result of any physical suffering or personal misfo rtune: it comes from a subtler cause. It induces a depression of enormous weight ...The sombre loneliness experienced during the Dark Night of the Soul is unique . No other kind of loneliness duplicates it either in nature or acuteness... It creates the feeling of absolute rejection, of being an outcast...A terrible inne r numbness, an unbearable emptiness, is a prominent feature of the spiritual dar k night...The situation is really paradoxical and beyond correct appraisal by th e conscious mind, certainly by the suffering ego. He is being made to learn, by the severest experience, that the divine reality must not be confused with his c onscious reactions to it, nor with his mental reactions to it, nor even with his emotional reactions to it, that it belongs to an unknown and unknowable realm t hat transcends human faculties and defies human perceptions" 19) "Beware what you pray for. Do not ask for the truth unless you know what it m eans and all that it implies and nevertheless are still willing to accept it. Fo r if it is granted to you, it will not only purge the evil out of you but later purify the egoism from your mind. Will you be able to endure this loss, which is unlikely to be a painless one?" (20) "Whoever invokes the Overself's Grace ought to be informed that he is also in voking a long period of self-improving toil and self-purifying affliction necess ary to fit him to receive that Grace....If he offers himself to the divine, the divine will take him at his word, provided the word is sincerely meant. The resp onse to this offer when it comes is what is called Grace...Many who ask for Grac e would be shocked to hear that the troubles which may have followed their reque st were actually the very form in which the higher power granted the Grace to th em." (21) Jean-Pierre deCaussade, in a letter to one under his spiritual direction, wro

te: "I know how much suffering this operation entails. The poor soul feels as if it would become utterly annihilated, but for all that, it is only nearer the tru e life. In fact the more we realise our nothingness the nearer we are to truth, since we were made from nothing, and drawn out of it by the pure goodness of our Lord. We ought therefore to remember this continually, in order to render by ou r voluntary annihilation a continual homage to the greatness and infinity of our Creator. Nothing is more pleasing to God than this homage, nothing could make u s more certain of His friendship, while at the same time nothing so much wounds our self-love. It is a holocaust in which it is completely consumed by the fire of divine love. You must not then be surprised at the violent resistance it offe rs, especially when the soul experiences mortal anguish in receiving the death-b low to this self-love. The suffering one feels then is like that of a person in agony, and it is only through this painful agony and by the spiritual death whic h follows it that one can arrive at the fullness of divine life and an intimate union with God." (Book Seven, Letter IX). Teutonic mystic and visionary Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), who wrote much extoll ing the glory of communing with the Eternal Word or Music and Spirit of God thro ugh inner meditation, practicing "holy abstraction and ceasing from self-thinkin g and self-willing" [see "Jacob Boehme and His Teachings," in Sat Sandesh, July, 1976], nevertheless, in The Way to Christ, Treatise Eight, in a way guaranteed to raise the hair on the back of ones neck, wrote of pain, fear and desolation o n this path: "The soul's will groaned for God but the outgoing senses that were to press i nto God were scattered and were not able to reach the power of God. This frighte ned the poor soul still more in that it could not bring its desire to God, so it began to pray more strongly. But the devil in his desire...awakened the evil ch aracteristics so that false inclinations rose up and went in where they had earl ier found happiness. The poor soul wished to go to God with its will, and was in much anguish, but its thoughts all fled from God to earthly things, and did not want to go to God . The soul groaned and cried to God, but it appeared to it that it had been comp letely cast out from before God's face, as if it could not gain one glance of gr ace, and stood in vain anguish as well as great fear and dread. The soul, yearned only for the first fatherland from which it originally came , yet it found itself far away from it, in great rejection and misery, and it di d not know what to do. It thought it would enter into itself to pray more ferven tly, but the devil came into it and held it so that it might not enter greater i nclination and repentance. The devil awoke earthly lust in its heart so that these inclinations upheld t heir false natural rights and defended themselves against the soul's will and de sires because they did not wish to die to their own will and lust but to keep th eir temporal pleasure and they held the poor soul captive in their false desire so that it could not awaken itself no matter how much it groaned and sighed for God's grace. 'Your ability is completely gone, even as a dry twig cannot gain sap and spro ut by its own ability so that it might enjoy itself again among the trees, likew ise you cannot reach God by your own abilities; you cannot change yourself into your first angelic form, for you are dry and dead to God as a twig without life or sap. You are only an anxious and dry hunger.' And as it stood in such groans and tears it was drawn to the abyss of horror as if it stood before hell's gate and was to perish immediately...in such concer n it began to sigh inwardly and to cry to the mercy of God. And then it began to sink itself into the purest mercy of God... [But] the divine light..grew faint and only glimmered in the internal ground as a mould-fire so that reason saw itself as foolish and abandoned. It did not k now how this happened, or if it was really true that it had tasted of the divine

light of grace; yet it could not stop from thinking this... The reason of its will was broken and the evil inherited inclinations were mo re and more killed and this caused much pain to the nature of the body making it weak and sick, yet this was not a natural illness but a melancholy of the earth ly nature of the body. Thus the false lusts were broken." My article attempted to give reasons for this phenomenon that transcend the l imitations of tradition and culture. It argued that the dark night (even today, in whatever form it may take - and the permutations are endless) serves several purposes: to advance one from a noviate of self-effort and visionary phenomena t o a realization of that which transcends visions and other such spiritual phenom ena to a transcendental realization deep in the heart; that it serves to bridge what Paul Brunton called the efforts of the Long Path and the more easeful surrend er of the Short Path, or, in other contexts, between prayer/concentration/meditati on and infused contemplation, or effortful yoga and knowledge (gnan). It also se rves as a forceful learning process between "hiding out" in the transcendant wit ness position after an initial awakening, "drunk on emptiness," and growth into a fully abiding realization. It was argued that in some form a dark night period may be inevitable for almost all due to the factor of egoic, spiritual blindnes s, that is, a naive conceit not only that one is a doer who can achieve his own enlightenment, but a basic ignorance that one, even after a first awakening, is yet bound by invisible hoops of egoic conditioning that bind consciousness to th e dream state. In Christian terms, these would be the "roots of the Old Man, whi ch must be fully eradicated for a living, enlightened peace to be fully realized . As Guru Nanak sayeth, "truth is above all, but higher still is true living." Yet the reader may still be left with the question that we posed at the outse t, what if these mystics had lived today?, and which will be further addressed in the concluding segment of this article. Teresa's life (continued) When St. Teresa died her body was reported to emit an undeniable fragrance li ke fresh flowers, and on one occasion some priests dug up her body to steal reli cs, and the fragrance permeated the convent floors alerting the nuns that her gr ave had been opened! (This phenomenon of the subtle magnification of the aura of a saint has parallels in many traditions. When Kirpal Singh was alive, whether I was meditating some distance away or sitting in his presence, I would catch th e sweet scent of roses; after his death I no longer found this to be the case. P erhaps this was because his body had been cremated).The body of St. Teresa, acco rding to hagiographers, did not decompose for many years after her death. (22) Teresa became dismayed at the worldly influences impinging on cloistered life , and so she started her own order, the Reformed or 'Discalced' Carmelites, whic h engaged a stricter rule, including fasting and abstinence from meat. Over the next thirty years she founded seventeen convents and many monasteries. She was a n advisor to the King of Spain and a close friend of St. John of the Cross and S t. Ignatius Loyola. Thus, she was an active nun who, after her experience of uni on, did not succumb to quietism or the lure of the cave. Perhaps she was in sahaj, b ut we can only guess. Nevertheless, what an example she set, and in what a time and place. In the midst of her life in God, Teresa sometimes transcended the bounds she set down for others. Once some of her nuns noticed an unusual aroma coming from the kitchen. Upon investigation they found her enjoying a feast of roast duck. T heir sensibilities offended, they asked the saint how she could do such a thing, to which she replied, "When I pray, I pray, and when I eat duck, I eat duck! An unconfirmed story I have come across also suggests that late in life Teres

a: fell in love with a young man. A simple human thing like this would surely ha ve been kept a secret from the Church, suppressive as it has been of life and se xuality. The Christian tradition in general has been at war with bodily life, an d St. Teresa felt compelled to suppress her rnore obvious spiritual ecstasies, m aking her nuns swear not to reveal them to anyone. To be open about such things during the time of the Inquisition was to risk severe persecution. Whoever threa tened to take power away from the Church by advocating that common people take a "deeper walk with the Lord" did so at their peril. St. John of the Cross, Fenel on, and Michael de Molinos all faced prison terms, not so much for questioning t he sacraments of the Church, but for promoting the practice of quiet meditation, which was certainly what the Master Jesus taught when he said that one should " pray to the Lord in secret, not as the pharisees and scribes." It has certainly been true, as the philosopher Will Durant once wrote, that "The Church has perse cuted only two groups of people. Those who did not follow the teachings of Jesus and those who did!" As the title of her book, The Interior Castle, suggests, St. Teresa taught a path of devotional interiorization of attention, with true ascent to cosmic cons ciousness (but not likely Nirvikalpa samadhi) generally and at best being consid ered a real possibility only after death, even while suggesting mystic union wit h God as the goal. That definitely would have to be kept a secret from the Churc h, as it would blaspheme the holy Trinity. So would a non-dual realization of Sa haj. Nevertheless, her ecstatic signs showed a profound submission to the spirit , and she, along with St. John of the Cross, was an excellent psychologist of th e soul. She also insisted that her followers be intelligent, exclaiming, "May Go d preserve us from stupid nuns!" For St. Teresa to have made the transition to something like jnana, jnana-nir vikalpa, or sahaj samadhi would have required that she give up the position of t he independent Soul desiring to unite with a God conceived as an objective other . This would have been unacceptable to the Christian tradition she was a part of , and to realize that there is only a non-dual God would, as mentioned, have bee n nothing short of heresy. Further, for her to recognize that the visionary phen omena that she considered Divine were in fact merely subtle manifestations of he r own brain and mind would have been virtually impossible, given the scientific and religious world view of the time, as well as her personal circumstances and character. She did, however, (like St. John of the Cross) speak of a state highe r than that of ecstasies and raptures, but it is not clear exactly what that is in terms of the stages given in yoga, or if her sense of union had any of the ch aracteristic signs of a non-dual realization. It appears, likely, at first glanc e, that she did not, as the following confession regarding of one of her ecstasi es suggests: "Oh, what it is for a soul which finds itself in this state to have to return to intercourse with all, to look at this farce of a life and see how ill-organi zed it is, to spend its time in meeting the needs of the body, in sleeping and i n eating. It is wearied by everything; it cannot run away; it sees itself chaine d and captive; and it is then that it feels most keenly the imprisonment of life into which we are led by our bodies and the misery of this life....Oh, were we but completely detached and were our happiness not fixed on things of earth, how the distress caused us by living all the time without God would temper our fear of death with the desire to enjoy true life!" (23) On the other hand, even a non-dual sage like Sri Nisargadatta spoke in a simi lar manner, seemingly disparaging life in the body: My world is just like yours. I see, I hear, I feel, I think, I speak and act i n a world I perceive, just like you. But with you it is all, with me it is almos t nothing. Knowing the world to be a part of myself, I pay it no more attention than you pay to the food you have eaten...Self-forgetting is inherent in self-kn

owing. Consciousness and unconsciousness are two aspects of one life. They co-ex ist. To know the world you forget the self - to know the self you forget the wor ld. What is the world after all? A collection of memories. Cling to the one thin g, that matters, hold on to the I am and let go all else. This is sadhana. In real ization there is nothing to hold on to and nothing to forget. Everything is know n, nothing is remembered. "As he gets older he [the gnani] grows more and more happy and peaceful. Afte r all, he is going home...The reel of destiny is coming to an end - the mind is happy. The mist of bodily existence is lifting - the burden of the body is growi ng less from day to day....I would be very happy to have you back home. Really g lad to see you out of this foolishness...of thinking that you were born and will die, that you are a body displaying a mind and all such nonsense. In my world n obody is born and nobody dies...Only the waking up is important. it is enough to know the 'I am' as reality and also love." (24) Teresa wrote of many favors she received from her Lord after her attaining pr oficiency at the various states of prayer, etc., which led her to lead an active life of service in the world, thus leaving her cave in order to help others. She told the sisters, "You may think, my daughters, that the soul in this state should be so absorb ed that she can occupy herself with nothing. You deceive yourselves. She turns w ith greater ease and ardour than before to all that which belongs to the service of God." (25) And just as she wrote that there were states higher than the prayer of union , e specially that of 'contemplation of the humanity of Christ,' - which might be ta ken to mean passing from the state of the transcendant witness to that of full p articipatory enlightenment (in which the world is not excluded from ones realiza tion), the great sage Sri Nisargadatta also said: In pure consciousness there is light. For warmth, contact is needed. Above the unity of being is the union of love. Love is the meaning and purpose of duality . (26) [He might even have been accused of being a Christian when he said: "To me you are your own God. But if you think otherwise, think to the end. If there be God, then all is God's and all is for the best. Welcome all that comes with a glad and thankful heart. And love all creatures. This too will take you to your Self." (27)] Fellow traveller Madame Guyon wrote a capsule summary of the Christian path i n a way that suggests a realization beyond mysticism itself: "The life of the believer is like a torrent making its way out of the high mo untains down into the canyons and chasms of life, passing through many experienc es until finally coming to the spiritual experience of death. From there, the to rrent experiences resurrection and a life lived in concert with the will of God while still going through many stages of refinement. At last the torrent finds i ts way into the vast, unlimited sea. Even here the torrent does not totally come to be one with the vast ocean until it has once more passed through final deali ngs by the Lord." (28) "Final dealings by the Lord - after coming to a spiritual experience of death , and reaching the vast, unlimited sea." That sounds quite profound. Like Madame Guyon, we cannot truly know St. Teresa s final condition, of course, and if it ha d non-dual characteristics, she nevertheless kept it a secret, as did St. John, evoking her realzation more in poetry than strict metaphysics and philosophy. He

r surrender to, love for, and absorption in the radiant power of God, and perhap s even more tacit realizations in consciousness beyond that, were, however, an e xample of the qualities that are awakened in a mature spiritual practitioner. On the nature of visions Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), born Caterina Benincasa, living much earlier than St. Teresa, was an example of a much younger soul who, while perhaps more i mbalanced that Teresa (not eating and sleeping, making her more prone to visions and other phenomena), nevertheless went on from her solitude to lead an active life of service. She was the twenty-third child of her parents. At the age of fi ve she had a vision on a hillside of Jesus sitting on a throne, surrounded by Pe ter, Paul, and John. When she was seven she left home to find a hermitage in the wilderness but, overcome with fear and loneliness, claims that she was "carried in a swoon by her Lord back within the city walls." After this Catherine dedicated her life to Christ, swearing off meat to subsi st on bread and herbs. She refused offers of marriage when she was twelve, and e ven cut off her hair when challenged to prove the sincerity of her desire for sp iritual life. She practiced self-imposed austerities, as indicated, from a young age, often sleeping no more than two hours out of forty-eight ("the most diffic ult of all ways of overcoming self," she once wrote - as well as a quick and eas y way to produce psychosis, one might add, and hallucinations or visions (29). T his passion for discipline at such an early age is reminiscent of the great Swam i Vivekananda. At sixteen she entered the Order of Mantellates (female Dominican s) and in the solitude of her prayer cell frequently went into ecstatic raptures . In Divine Dialogues she confessed that she was often "listening to choirs of h eavenly music and smelling the flowers of paradise." Raymond of Capua, her biogr apher and confessor, said that in her ecstasies "her limbs became stiff, her eye s closed, and her body, raised in the air, often diffused a perflune of exquisit e sweetness. After a mystical marriage to Christ, which took place in her cell in 1366, Ca therine left the solitary life of prayer to become a servant of the sick and nee dy, spiritual advisor to kings and popes, as well as spiritual guide to a group of devoted followers who gathered around her. During the Black Death, which deci mated the population of Europe, she led a band of men and women to attend the si ck and dying, often burying the infected corpses with her own hands. For many ye ars she tried to unify the discordant factions of Christendom, and,while she was successful in getting the Pope to return from Avignon to Rome, she could not pr event the great schism. Catherine died in 1380 after many months of intense austerities, during which time she did not eat. She was only thirty-three years old. Divine Dialogues consists of spontaneous outpourings of ecstatic speech trans cribed by Catherine's attendants whenever she would go into such states. "How glorious," says the Voice of the Eternal, "is that soul which has indeed been able to pass from the stormy ocean to Me, the Sea Pacific, and in that Sea , which is myself, to fill the pitcher of her heart." Saint Catherine is a good example of an emotionally sensitive contemplative c haracter overcoming herself to the point of engaging self-transcending service. Her liabilities were obvious, but many of them were a product of the religious t radition she was a part of. For example, a chief error of the conventional Chris tian perspective is the valuing of visionary phenomena. Yet the greatest of Chri stian mystics have held that such "sweets" are only a "lure" for beginners, and must be passed beyond for genuine growth of the spirit. Saint John of the Cross

plainly stated: "Many souls to whom visions have never come are incomparably more advanced in the way of perfection than others to whom many have been given." Saint Bernard confessed that God had very often entered his soul during conte mplation, even though he had never seen any vision, never heard any inner voices , and never received any supernatural revelation. Many visions are not really re ceived by the individual, in fact , but are actually concretizations of his own mind. As the Indian yogi, Swami Rama Tirtha stated of his own visions of Krishna which appeared to him with his eyes open as if outside his own body: "This marked a particular stage of the mind-concentration and it was really t he materialization of my own imagination, the precipitation of my own mind." (30 ) The mystical inspiration behind the vision is real, but the form it takes is limited and it can be a mistake to worship or value it for its own sake. It may also a mistake to conceive of it as a direct visitation or communication from Go d Almighty, instead of, at its best, as an emanation from the Higher Self, calle d forth in response to a devotional gesture, and a foretaste of a realization wh ich one is as yet unable to comprehend. Paul Brunton wrote: "A part of the source of these visions is to be traced back to the suggestive power of the thought-form already implanted in the mind, but the other part, th e sudden and dramatic and total change of heart and shift of outlook, has still to be accounted for. What is the secret? It is contact with the Overself, Grace. " (31) When it is said that the mystic's own mental construction is responsible for t he visions he sees, whether these be of a living guru distant in space or a dead one distant in time or a scriptural God, it is not meant that such construction is a voluntary activity. On the contrary, it is both involuntary and subconscio us. This is the psychological explanation of such phenomena, but what is the met aphysical one? This is that the mystic, not having evolved to an understanding o f the formless, timeless, matterless character of true being, nor to the capacit y to concentrate on it, is given a spaced-timed- shaped image on which to concen trate. What gives him this image? It is his own Overself. (32) And further: Whether the mystical experience represents a revival of ideas previously acqui red or a genuine penetration into a spiritual world is not to be answered by a b rief yes or no, for it does in fact involve both these elements. This is of cour se why so many mystics' reports frequently contradict each other. The visions th ey see and the intuitions they acquire contain forms or thoughts which have prev iously been put into their minds by teachers, traditions, environment, or readin g. The intellect contributes a personal element whereas the deeper level of mind contributes that which is common to all these experiences. If it were possible for a mystic to free himself of all pre-possessions, both conscious and subconsc ious, he might gain the pure experience of this deeper level wherein neither int ellect nor emotion would interfere. The philosophic discipline seeks to achieve this. If the different revelations made by mystics do not agree on several points, h ere is a warning that first, although a mystic may honestly describe what is rev ealed to him, this is no guarantee of its perfect truth, no safeguard against it s being partly mistaken or even wholly biased, and second, the spiritual authori ty of no man should be so exaggerated as to deify his statements. (33)

According to Brunton, it is one's own soul that provides the experience of bo th the image and the ecstasy in mystic visions. It is essentially a subjective c reation, although not necessarily that of the personal ego. A Master or sage can also trigger or activate one's soul, so to speak, but the content of ones exper ience is ultimately derived from the intelligence of the soul or higher self, wh ich is rooted in the divine. In some cases, however, a Master can impress one wi th his own image-making faculty, and in that case the image one receives is more directly related to his influence. In the Sant Mat tradition it is said that th e master at the time of initiation plants a copy of his astral body in the disci ple, which remains to look after and guide him, both here and hereafter. They ev en appear to those who have never seen or heard of them before. This cannot be a ttributed to one's culturally preconditioned mental tendencies. Sant Rajinder Si ngh said: A Master can appear and guide anyone, much before they even hear about him or they have seen him. (34) Such a Master, imbedded in the realm of truth, the Soul or Overself, beyond t hat of even the Universal Mind, can project his visionary form or gurudev. In ei ther case, however, the experience arises on the same metaphysical plane and mus t be understood and eventually passed beyond, although certainly not suppressed: Visions are better than no visions, said Ramana Maharshi, and the Master's radian t form is so beautiful that "even the Saints take delight in it," said one of th e Sikh gurus. The visions of some mystics, and phenomena like the stigmata of Theresa Neuma nn, appear only in that particular (Roman Catholic) tradition. Eastern orthodox monks do not report the stigmata. This shows the power of the subconscious worki ngs of the personal mind, but it does not covers the entire spiritual spectrum o f such experiences. Visions, as stated, are often projections of one's own mind, but not all visi ons are merely brain phenomena. Visions in the brain, experienced at the ajna ch akra, are more vivid than those in dream, which are projected from the throat ce nter, according to various yoga traditions such as Sant Mat . Some visions come from beyond the gross personality and the brain and may be projections of a deep er personal mind. The visions that are a direct reflection of a spiritual Master s influence (his conscious attention or intentional regard), might be considered to be true visions. In any case, however, on an ultimate level, all visions are forms of mind itself, although not necessarily the personal mind, and no visions are themselves the Absolute. The best of the early mystics, however, were well aware of this. St. John wrote, thus making a distinction between beginners and p roficients on the Way: "Those who have the less clear vision do not perceive so distinctly as the ot hers how greatly He transcends their vision." Concluding Thoughts Is the dark night of the soul still necessary, or was it a passing phase in m ankind's long trek upwards? It is true, the European mystics had some limitation s to overcome: one, their cultural worldview; two, the influence of the Church; three, the unavailability of easy access to all of the world s spiritual tradition s, including the most advanced non-dual texts; and four, lack of practical acces s also to genuine spiritual adepts, Masters, or Satguru s, with both knowledge and transmission power. The scientific milieu of the day was confining, and nuclear physics with quantum mechanics and Heisenberg s Uncertainty Principle, etc., were unknown, so science offered no clues at a higher way of looking at the universe of mysticism. Heaven was still somewhere far away, and not recognized as part o

f the human body-mind, or as within the Soul. Rather, it was considered generall y as a place for the soul to go toafter death only, in the next life. Great mystic s who felt otherwise had to be very circumspect in their choice of words or they faced harsh punishment for heresy. Therefore much of what they said was couched in poetic language or left out of their papers, only to be gleaned indirectly f rom their writings. These great saints had no access to the Avastatreya (analysi s of the three states) of vedantists like V.S. Iyer, or the doctrine of mentalis m of Paul Brunton. They likely never heard that All is Consciousness or in Consci ousness, as a sage like Sri Nisargadatta would say.That they attained the heights they did, therefore, was remarkable, and as part of our collective spiritual he ritage and subconscious their lives are worth studying. St. Teresa was getting a n idea of consciousness, as evidenced by a remark she made in her Autobiography as to whether her experiences were of the mind, the soul, or the spirit - or if they all meant the same thing (reference misplaced). Hints are given here and there of access to a higher viewpoint. Jacob Boehme, thousands of miles form India, spoke of the five gnostic keys, very similar to the five names corresponding to the presiding deities of the major planes of cre ation such as is given to the initiate in Sant Mat. Meister Eckhart spoke of a pr imordial ground where distinction never gazed, while the following by St. John of the Cross reads more like a satori or pre-satori description given by a Zen Bud dhist, where one stands outside of the ego, than the report of an ordinary yogi or mystic, who, still identified with his ego, stands outside of the body: "For this night is gradually drawing the spirit away from its ordinary and co mmon experience of things and bringing it nearer the Divine sense, which is a st ranger and an alien to all human ways. It seems now to the soul that it is going forth from its very self, with much affliction. At other times it wonders if it is under a charm or spell, and it goes about marvelling at the things it sees a nd hears, which seem to it very strange and rare, though they are the same that it was accustomed to experience aforetime. The reason of this is that the soul i s now becoming alien and remote from common sense and knowledge of things, in or der that, being annihilated in this respect, it may be informed with the Divine. " (35) Evelyn Underhill gives her opinion of their highest realization in her classi c work, Mysticism: "The self which comes forth from the night is no separated self, conscious of the illumination of the Uncreated Light, but the New Man, the transmuted humani ty, whose life is one with the Absolute Life of God." (36) Essentially, we can only guess if any of these mystics had a radical realizat ion of consciousness itself, like Nisargadatta or Ramana Maharshi. How they woul d have been able to even recognize it is a very real question. Further, as writer and philosopher Laurens van der Post, in his memoir of his friendship with Carl Jung, said, "We live not only our own lives but, whether w e know it or not, also the life of our time." No doubt this to a significant e xtent was true of these great figures.The question also arises for us, would the y have been able to bypass their extreme ordeals if they had lived today, and kn own all that we know? It seems a reasonable assumption, but again we cannot dete rmine that with any certainty. They surely seemed to have achieved the opening o f the heart and transformation of the will. Whether they also had enlightenment of the mind we may never be able to determine, but inasmuch as the former are pe rhaps even more difficult to achieve than the latter, it is not out of the quest ion. But that their sufferings could have been greatly shortened or altered if the above hypothetical situations had been present in their times, there may be lit

tle doubt. St. John was brilliant, as anyone who has read his Dark Night of the Soul can ascertain. It was even more remarkable in that he himself confessed to have read only four or five books in his entire life, one of which one was Contr a Haereses, and confined his writing by his proclaimed intention "not to depart from the sound sense and doctrine of our Holy Mother the Catholic Church. (37) No doubt he needed to cover his bases to avoid even more harsh treatment than the prison term he served, and where he produced some of his best work, but he hardl y undertook a broad philosophical study. Considering how great were the writings he and the other mystics did make, however, it seems convincingly the case that the divine Overself, working through the Christ, was a real and not imaginary M aster for them. I venture this was true for St. Teresa as well. An excellent psychologist of the soul, Teresa counselled that "It is a great grace of God to practice self-examination, but too much is as bad as too little, as they say: believe me, by God's help, we shall accomplish more by contemplati ng the Divinity than by keeping our eyes fixed on ourselves." There are many more lessons that we may gather from her life and writings, am ong which are: one, be content with whatever God gives you, never presuming to b e worthy of more, or to seek to elevate ones spirit when it is not so elevated b y God, or to seek for spiritual experiences when they are not the will of the Go d or grace, or to deny or resist them when they are, maintaining a sense of humi lity above all (Chapters XII, XX, and XXII). This is the insight of a wise perso n. Speaking similarly of the attitude of the sage who has already had appercepti on (a glimpse of the soul or Self), Ramesh Balsekar writes: "When the mind is quiet and falls into meditation, any attempt at resisting i t is an act of volition, an act of violence [i.e., Teresa spoke of her painful, failed attempts at resisting rapture]. If meditation happens, welcome it, enjoy it. If meditation does not happen, do not hanker after it." (38) And two, be not hesitant in seeking out wise counsel, even if it be other tha n your primary director (teacher, guru), among learned and even so-called non-re ligious persons (Chapter XIII). Teresa writes: Let us not make the mistake of saying that learned men who do not practice pra yer are not suitable directors for those who do. I have consulted many such; and for the years past, feeling a greater need for them, I have sought them out mor e, I have always got on well with them; for, though some of them have no experie nce, they are not averse from spirituality, nor are they ignorant of its nature, for they study Holy Scripture, where the truth about it can always be found.... I have said this because some people think that learned men, if they are not spi ritual, are unsuitable for those who practice prayer. I have already said that a spiritual director is necessary, but if he has no learning it is a great inconv enience. It will help very much to consult learned men, provided they are virtuo us; even if they are not spiritual they will do us good and God will show them w hat they should teach and may even make them spiritual so that they may be of se rvice to us... Anyone, I repeat, who surrenders his soul to a single director, and is subject to him alone, will be making a great mistake, if he is a religious, and has to be subject to his own superior, in not obtaining a director of this kind...I am often amazed that learned men, and religious in particular, will give the benefi t of what they have gained with so much labour, and at no cost to myself save th e labour of asking for it. And to think that there may be people who have no des ire to reap such benefits! God forbid it be so! (39) The time has come when such guidance has now become available, through books, through the internet, and through the help of a multitude of teachers. Even so, one such teacher, Eckhart Tolle, while proclaiming a new, less dark path of bec

oming more conscious, wrote in The New Earth that the way of the cross (i.e., suff ering) is still the way of evolution for ninety percent of spiritual seekers, ju st as it was in centuries past: "Why is the suffering body of Christ, his face distorted in agony and his bod y bleeding from countless wounds, such a significant image in the collective con sciousness of humanity? Millions of people, particularly in medieval times, woul d not have related to it as deeply as they did if something within themselves ha d not resonated with it, if they had not unconsciously recognized it as an outer representation of their own inner reality - the pain-body. They were not yet co nscious enough to recognize it directly within themselves, but it was the beginn ing of their becoming aware of it. Christ can be seen as the archtypal human, em bodying both the pain and the possibility of transcendance." (40) But he also wrote: People with heavy pain-bodies usually have a better chance to awaken spiritual ly than those with a relatively light one. Whereas some of them do remain trappe d in their heavy pain bodies, many others reach a point where they cannot live w ith their unhappiness any longer, and so their motivation to awaken becomes stro ng, (41) And for the other ten percent of seekers, Eckhart states, a more direct way o f seeing, 'the power of now', presence, or consciousness is becoming more readil y available and accessible. This is a huge measure of cultural progress. In the ancient texts, it is often said that only one in a million is so qualified. So i t appears there is hope on the horizen for humanity after all. There is a complete resemblance between the interior voices and clairvoyant visi ons of mystics and the auditory and visual hallucinations of lunatics, hysterica l women patients and other mentally deranged persons. The yogis who hear the Aum sounds internally or smell unaccountable perfumes are suffering from sense-hall ucinations as much as the insane. The man of brains however rejects the truth of both these types of subjective experience although he accepts the fact that the y were really experienced. Mystics see visions of gods and goddesses and adepts according to their own va sanas (impressions remaining unconsciously in the mind from past karma). [These quotes imply Iyer would not deny that a practitioner of surat shabd yo ga, for instance, actually sees and hears internal phenomena, only that they are not reality. It is hard to dismiss such a path outright, however, by saying its followers are suffering from sense-hallucinations. To label all of the inner realm s as sense hallucinations seems unwarranted, to put it mildly. Even Ramana said th at having visions is better than no visions , inasmuch as it indicates deepening co ncentration. Iyer, it seems, almost always speaks from an absolutist point of vi ew. Elsewhere, however, he advocated repeated experience of (gnan, or even yogic ) nirvikalpa samadhi for westerners, to give them the concentration power to eng age the higher inquiry into truth. Sri Nisargadatta, Ramana and PB (himself heav ily indebted to Iyer) seem more balanced in their advaita, in that they would no t deny at least the relative reality of the inner realms, nor call them merely ha llucinations . PB stated: "Those who consider the mystical experience as being a p rivate hallucination or a piece of wishful thinking, are themselves in error." ( Notebooks, Vol. 11, 1.54) Perhaps if Iyer had the full experience of such he wou ld have felt differently and tempered his punditry somewhat.]

Swami Brahmananda - Bhakta Supreme by Peter Holleran Swami Brahmananda (1863-1922), born Rakhal ("the shepherd boy"), was the seco nd-most famous disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, and considered by many to be his spi ritual son. As a child he was fond of "playing church" with his companions, in w hich he would mold a clay image of the Divine Mother and worship Her. He loved m usic and enjoyed singing the praises of the lord. Two of his more favorite pasti mes, which he continued throughout life, were gardening and fishing. Rakhal did not do well in school as he neglected his studies, more often than not, in favor of prayer and contemplation. He met his close friend, Naren (later Vivekananda) , at a local athletic club where he two would wrestle together when they were bo th twelve years old. Their temperaments were very different, for Naren was alway s the supreme rationalist, not content without getting to the bottom of things, while Rakhal was from birth more devotionally inclined. Of course, this was all

but on the outer level, for Ramakrishna said that the two were both born with Go d-knowledge and belonged to the class of the "Ever-perfect." When he was still in his teens Rakhal met Sri Ramakrishna, who recognized him as the pure-hearted companion he had prayed for and seen in a vision. He called Rakhal his "mind-born son", after having received a vision of the Divine Mother who placed a boy in his lap, saying, 'This is your son - not an ordinary son, b ut an all-renouncing, mind-born son'. Ramakrishna had another vision in which Kr ishna was dancing on a lotus with a young boy. Immediately afterwards Rakhal wal ked in the room, and Ramakrishna was wonderstruck, as 'Rakhal' was not only the boy he had seen in his vision, but the name of the playmate of Krishna in Vrindi van! Ramakrishna later confessed to having been an incarnation of Krishna. Rakha l was therefore one of his closest friends from lifetimes past. Rakhal began spending much of his time with Ramakrishna, and his father, in a last-ditched attempt to save him for a worldly life, had him locked in the hous e. This was to no avail, however, for at the first chance the boy slipped away t o be with his Master. Several days later his father went after him, but this tim e, seeing the unusual affection with which his son greeted him, had a change of heart and let him stay. In his early days with Ramakrishna Rakhal was in ecstasy much of the time, an d practised many hard ascetic disciplines. Even so, he once begged his Master fo r the power of transcendental vision. Ramakrishna was silent at first, and then spoke to Rakhal very harshly, causing him to be angry and hurt. Later on Ramakri shna revealed that there had been a purpose in provoking his pain and anger, say ing that "medicine acts only after the sore has been opened." At other times he spoke of the need to "lance the boil." Shortly thereafter Rakhal went into samad hi (in this instance, superconscious trance) for the first time. After Ramakrishna's death, Rakhal (now Brahmananda) plunged himself into spir itual practices, saying that what Ramakrishna freely gave him before he now want ed to win through is own efforts. One of his practices was known as the 'python discipline', in which he would only take food that would come to him of itself. He became the first head of the Ramakrishna Monastic Order, taking direct charge of many of his Master's disciples, and also went on pilgrimages and spent much time in contemplation. Swami Prabhavananda tells us that, while Brahmananda developed spiritually un der Ramakrishna's guidance and grace, perpetual samadhi was not his possession u ntil ten years after his Master's passing, as a result of intense spiritual effo rt fueled by profound dispassion towards the world, and the final touch of an ag ed Vaishnava saint in a temple in Vrindiban. (1) In this respect he was similar to Swami Vivekananda who also spent significant time with another guru, Pavhari Baba, after Ramakrishna s death. During this period Brahmananda described himself as, even in periods of norma l consciousness, having "a fullness of God in his heart, and all around him natu re vibrating with joy." Elsewhere he referred to the Mandukya Upanishad for his view on samadhi: "The knot of the heart, which is ignorance, is loosed, all doub ts are dissolved, all evil effects of deeds are destroyed, when he who is both p ersonal and impersonal is realized." This hints that he may have gone beyond nir vikalpa to jnana or even sahaj Samadhi, but of the this we cannot be certain. Th e fact that he said he had a 'fullness of God' in his heart, even in periods of 'normal' consciousness, suggests that most of the time he was not in normal cons ciousness, and was, perhaps, defined by the tendency for mystical ascent common among Indian yogis. Even so, of nirvikalpa samadhi he remarked, some say that tha t state is the end of spiritual experiences, but I believe it is the beginning." (1) This is a true insight into the limits of yogic realization. According to v edantist V.S. Iyer, true realization is not seeing God in everything, as yogis of

ten proclaim, but in seeing everything as the Self. A fullness of God in ones hea rt must then yield to seeing both the self and world as Brahman. Sages such as P aul Brunton ("PB") and Ramana Maharshi, therefore, might have taken this pronoun cement of Brahmananda one step further and said that the true beginning of spiri tual life is not the initial attainment of nirvikalpa, but the realization and ' non-attainment' of sahaj, which is the union of the mystic with his divine Soul and the recognition of the world and Self as non-separate. This second feat, say s PB, is the harder of the two. There is an ongoing debate in non-dual circles over whether it is necessary t o achieve nirvikalpa samadhi, in either its yogic (trance) or gnanic (open-eyed) form before realizing sahaj, some saying yes, while others saying no. In any ca se, V.S. Iyer tells us: "The self, the awareness, was present before and after the Yogi enters Nirvik alpa samadhi. When he says or thinks anything, the Atman is there first. It is a lways there whether he has got duality or not. Hence he talks nonsense by saying that Nirvikalpa samadhi can produce Brahman."(2) Every Yogi has to come out of Nirvikalpa Samadhi and immediately duality confr onts him again. His peace goes, for it depended on the non-duality of samadhi-sl eep. Hence no yogi attains true peace, but imagines it. When you see the second thing and though seeing it know it to be none other th an Brahman, then you get Gnana. On the other hand, Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the non -seeing of the second thing; hence cannot yield Gnana, for the yogi does not see and does not know what the world is. That Atman remains as the sole real factor, means that there should be realiza tion of Brahman as the sole entity and not a mere absence of the cognition of th e world; otherwise there would be no such thing as emancipation in life. Nirvikalpa Samadhi helps one to renounce attachments, it is a corrective medic ine to remove the disease; hence it is for seekers only who are still on the dis ciplinary level. For peace of mind does not necessarily indicate truth; I can ge t it by taking opium or hemp....No Hindu Sastric text says that Nirvikalpa Samad hi can get you gnana. It comes after samadhi, using the latter as a preparation. Hence Patanjali s claim for realization through yoga is merely bait to seekers to adopt his preliminary state, but it is not literally true. Yoga cannot give gna na...By shutting your eyes in Samadhi you do not know the universe. Hence the un iverse can t be known as Brahman through Yoga alone....there must be inquiry so th at you can find non-duality whilst you are awake...When can you say there is no error in your knowledge? When you see all beings in yourself; then there will be no doubt - says the scripture. Hence you must see the beings and objects, if yo u are to see them in yourself. But sleep and samadhi does not show them to you. Yoga can never give you the fundamental thing, that the world is an idea. Only Vedanta can give it. Nirvikalpa Samadhi is unquestionably the same as deep slee p [except entered into voluntarily], and all ideas are refunded back there too. For you must learn what ideas are, when all the ideas of the world-existence go back into your mind through Yoga. Then you learn this. [But] how are you to lear n that all this world is Brahman if you stop at Nirvikalpa Samadhi? Without perc eiving the world, and having a duality before you, it is impossible. You can t shut your eye to the world as in samadhi of yoga and see supreme reali ty. You can know it only by keeping the mind clear and open. The yogi must add d iscrimination to his quest, says Shankara. (3) Brahmananda was a great soul, held in the utmost respect by Vivekananda as we ll as his own disciples. Of all Ramakrishna s disciples he most embodied the devot

ional ideal of bhakti. His mind was frequently withdrawn from the world, and he had the "bewildered gaze," a phrase used in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to des cribe the Master's eyes. While Vivekananda (known in the fellowship as 'Swamiji' ) spread the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna far and wide, Brahmananda (known as 'M aharaj') spiritually initiated many souls. Vivekananda said, "In spirituality he is the greatest of all of us." Swami Brahmananda was President of the Ramakrish na Order for twenty-five years until his death in 1922. What is interesting about the three noble figures in this series: Ramakrishna , Vivekananda, and Brahmananda, was their unquenchable desire for truth, and the ir unhesitation in seeing other teachers for further training. In the case of th e latter two, even after being initiated by their root guru, Ramakrishna, they w ere enamored and achieved further realization and understanding through meeting other saints and, in the case of Vivekananda, even ordinary people. These charac teristics are those of true seekers.

Swami Vivekananda - Vedantic Pioneer by Peter Holleran "Science and religion are both helps to get us out of bondage, only religion is the more ancient and we have the superstition that religion is holy." The illustrious Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) combined in himself a tough-mi nded adherence to discriminative non-dualism (Advaita Vedanta) with a fierce dev otion to the Divine Mother in her aspect as the goddess Kali, an inheritance fro m his master, Sri Ramakrishna. His passionate oratory and incisive writings cont inually warned against religious narrow-mindedness and complacency, and one-side d world views of both east and west. He spoke of a fusion of ideals, and his pio neering work set the stage for many eastern teachers to spread the dharma in for eign lands. Before his birth Vivekananda s mother had a dream in which Lord Shiva promised to be born as her son. Narendra, as Vivekananda was then known, showed unusual signs of spiritual development from his early boyhood. When he went to sleep he would see a light appear between his eyebrows that eventually spread to envelop his entire body; then he would lose consciousness. Only years later (when questi oned by Ramakrishna as to whether he saw a light before he fell asleep) did he c ome to realize that his experience was not the common occurrence for everyone. According to Swami Nikhilinanda, young Naren began meditating at age seven an d claimed to have experienced his first samadhi by age eight. He considered hims elf a brahmachari or celibate student of the Hindu tradition who worked hard, pr actised ascetic disciplines, held holy things in reverencial regard, and enjoyed clean words, thoughts, and deeds. (1) On their first meeting together, when Vivekananda was eighteen, Ramakrishna asked him to sing and himself became absorbed in samadhi. Therein he saw that Na ren was a sage whom he had called forth from a subtle plane to join him in this world. After he came out of trance he confessed, amidst profuse tears:

Ah, why have you taken so long to come? I have been waiting for you for such a long time! My ears are well-nigh burnt with listening to the profane talk of wo rldly people. Oh, I am panting to unburden my mind to one who can appreciate my innermost experiences....Lord, I know that you are that ancient sage, Nara, the incarnation of Narayana - born on earth to remove the misery of mankind. (2) Ramakrishna later revealed that he and Vivekananda had been born together ma ny times before, trading roles; sometimes he was the master, and Vivekananda the disciple, and sometimes Vivekananda was the master and Ramakrishna the disciple . Restless and fun-loving as a boy, Vivekananda was active in athletics, music , and debating. He was extremely intelligent, and was later called an unsheathed sword by Ramakrishna, in reference to his razor-sharp discrimination and forthrig ht boldness. He came to speak of the sad plight of his country with its dyspeptic babajis , and he affirmed the virtues of what he called practical religion : The Vedanta, therefore, as a religion must be intensely practical. We must be able to carry it out in every part of our lives..For, if a religion cannot help man wherever he may be, wherever he stands, it is not of much use: it will rema in a theory of the chosen few. (3) When he met Ramakrishna he was extremely sceptical: having been schooled in philosophy (not only did he attain a mastery of the Hindu classics and western p hilosophy, but he had almost verbatim familiarity with the Encyclopedia Brittann ica) Vivekananda doubted the claims of the saint, and even went so far as to que stion whether his visions were only caprices of the brain. He was also not keen on advaita vedanta. His Master never ceased praising his virtues of purity and str ength of character, however, and encouraged him to ask questions and debate issu es. He put an end to much of his scepticism, however, by granting him spiritual experiences of a profound sort on several occasions. On Vivekananda s second visit , Ramakrishna placed his foot on his body, with the result that the room vanishe d and Vivekananda felt like he was about to merge into a void; this apparently f ar surpassed any of his childhood experiences: I was terribly frightened and thought I was facing death, for the loss of ind ividuality meant that. Unable to control myself, I cried out, What is this that y ou are doing to me? I have my parents at home! He laughed at this and stroking my chest said, All right, let it rest now. Everything will come in time. No sooner h ad he said this than that strange experience vanished. I was myself again and fo und everything...as it had been before. All this..revolutionized my mind. I thou ght what it could possibly be. It came and went at the mere wish of this wonderf ul man! (4) On another occasion Vivekananda was remarking to a friend that it was absurd to say that everything was God. Although he had studied Vedanta and been active in the Brahmo Samaj he mocked the Advaita philosophy when Ramakrishna taught it to him. His understanding was quickened, however, when by a touch of his Master he was catapulted into a state of continual God-communion for days on end. He f ound himself helplessly swooning in the vision of everything as God (an exhalted form of savikalpa samadhi). Even so he would not accept Ramakrishna as an avata r. As his love for his Master grew, so did his yearning for spiritual realizatio n. At one point he asked Ramakrishna to put him in nirvikalpa samadhi for three days and nights without a break, but the sage answered him with a rebuke, saying : You fool! There is a state much higher than that...I thought you would grow l ike a huge banyan tree, sheltering thousands from the scorching misery of the wo

rld. But now I see that you seek your own liberation. Ramakrishna, like most genuine gurus, tested his most intimate disciples, wi th Vivekananda being no exception. Swami Lokeswarananda writes: The Master was greatly pleased with Narendra s inquiring mind. Sri Ramakrishna a lso tested Narendra in an unusual way. Without explanation, whenever Naren visit ed Sri Ramakrishna, the Master would not speak to him, although he spoke with ot her devotees. Every time Naren came to visit Sri Ramakrishna, the Master ignored him. When he arrived, Sri Ramakrishna did not even greet him; similarly when he left, Sri Ramakrishna was silent. This continued for nearly a month. At last Sr i Ramakrishna said, Why do you still come here when I do not speak to you? Narendr a replied, Do you think I come to listen to you? I love you, and that is why I co me. At his response the Master said, I was testing you. Only a great person such a s you could endure such treatment. Anyother person would have gone away. Narendra s attitude was: I love you and so I come to you, But this does not mean that I wi ll accept all of your words. (5) Ramakrishna predicted that once Vivekananda recognized his true spiritual ide ntity he would leave his body by an act of will. It is alleged that he therefore kept the keys to higher consciousness away from Vivekananda so that the later cou ld accomplish his teaching mission. This assumes he had the power to do so; afte r my time spent with Sant Kirpal Singh, I have to agree that such a thing is def initely possible, whether by the Master himself or the higher power working thro ugh Him). Three days before passing away Ramakrishna looked Vivekananda in the e yes and transferred a current of force to him and said: O Naren, today I have given you my all and have become..a penniless beggar. B y the force of the power transmitted by me, great things will be done by you; on ly after that will you go from where you came. (6) Before he died Ramakrishna had given Vivekananda the experience of nirvikalp a samadhi, but his faith was still not complete. The day before Ramakrishna s maha samadhi (death) he had the thought: if, in the midst of his agonies, the Master s ays that he is God incarnate, then I will believe him. In that very moment Ramakr ishna turned to him and confessed his avataric status by saying: O my Naren, are you still not convinced? He who was Rama, He who was Krishna, He himself is now Ramakrishna in this body; not in your Vedantic sense, but act ually so. (7) Despite this rendition from the disciples of Vivekananda, the fact is that o f all of Ramakrishna's disciples only Vivekananda was singled out for training i n pure advaita from the Ashtavakra Gita which Ramakrishna hid from the view of a ll others. Vivekananda appeared to have a stability quite unlike the emotionally sensit ive Ramakrishna, who continually passed in and out of different spiritual states . Yet his speech and writing were on fire with religious dedication, and as a ma n he was possessed with abundant vitality. Even as a boy he would not be restrai ned: In my childhood I used to observe an inexhaustible force arising in me, overf lowing my body, as it were. I used to become restless and could not keep quiet.. .If I had nothing to read, I would turn to making mischief. If I had been made t o sit quietly for three or four days, I d had either become seriously ill or have gone mad. (8) After Ramakrishna s death he took over leadership of the Ramakrishna Order, an d for several years, fueled with dispassion for the world, he led the life of a

wandering monk. He later came to question the usefulness of such a life, however , and near the end confessed that more and more, the true greatness of life seems to be that of the worm doing its duty, silently and from moment to moment. He ha d a ruling passion for service, and sometimes rebuked his own disciples for thei r incorrect ideas about spiritual life: You are sentimental fools! What do you understand of religion? You are only g ood at praying with folded hands O Lord! How beautiful is your nose! How sweet yo ur eyes! and all such nonsense...and you think your salvation is secured and Sri Ramakrishna will come at the final hour and take you by the hand to the highest heaven..As if God is such an easy thing to be achieved!...You think jnana is dry knowledge to be attained by a desert path, killing out the tenderest faculties of the heart! Your bhakti is sentimental nonsense, which makes one impotent. You want to preach Ramakrishna as you understand him which is mighty little. Hands off! Who cares for your Ramakrishna? Who cares for your bhakti or mukti? Who car es what your scriptures say? I will go into a thousand hells cheerfully if I can rouse my countrymen immersed in tamas to stand on their own feet and be men ins pired with the spirit of karma yoga... I am not the servant of Ramakrishna or an yone, but of him only who serves and helps others without caring for his own bha kti or mukti. (9) And again: What I want to propagate is a religion that will be equally acceptable to all minds, it must be equally philosophic, equally emotional, equally mystic, and e qually conducive to action. (10) After six years wandering throughout ssion henceforth would be to inspire his saddened by the wretchedness and poverty y emphatic that the condition of India s

India Vivekananda concluded that his mi countrymen from their lethargy. He was he saw everywhere, and he was especiall women needed to improve.

In 1893 he journeyed to Chicago to represent India at the World Parliament o f Religions. He arrived without a ticket, but happened to meet someone who knew a professor at Harvard University who wrote him a recommendation. He gave a shor t, impromptu speech, beginning with the words, Brothers and sisters of America, an d seven thousand people rose to their feet and applauded. He enthralled the crow d with his charged words., and thus began a nine-year period of teaching and mis sionary work on three continents. The message he carried on his travels was relig ion is realization, not talks nor doctrines nor theories, however beautiful they may be. (11) V.S. Iyer wrote: "Swami Vivekananda often used the word religion when he meant pure philosoph y. [Note: this may have been one reason for the use by other vedantists of the t erm "Neo-advaita" in reference to the work of Swami Vivekananda]. This was partl y because in those days the West was much more religious and could be more easil y reached - by a pioneer propagandist like him - through religious terms and par tly because of this difficulty of translating abstract Sanskrit words into Engli sh. Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda lived the life of realized beings; the ir knowledge of things was so profound, that they could express grand truths in such simple ways drawing common illustrations from the life around: "Here and hereafter are words to frighten children." "It is a child's talk that a man goes to Heaven." "We never come or go. We are where we are."

"Religion cannot give a better explanation of the universe than through God and Heaven and all that; that is why religion is failing." "It is better that mankind should become atheists rather than believing blin dly in 200 million Gods." "No amount of books will purify you. Thinking and thinking correctly (i.e., reason) is of the highest value. The glory of man is that he is a thinking being . I believe in reason, having seen the evils of authority, Vedas, etc. Why was r eason given to us if we are only to believe? Is it not blasphemous to believe ag ainst reason?" (12) According to Narasingha P. Sil, at one point Swami Vivekananda claimed to be the reincarnation of the great Sankara. (13) Despite all this, Swami Vivekananda had a very devotional nature which was t he equal to the strict rationality of his Vedanta. This was evidenced by his rea ction to a significant vision he had in 1896 while sailing on a ship from Naples to Colombo: "One night, somewhere between Naples and Port Said, he saw in a vivid dream a venerable, bearded old man, like a rishi of India, who said: 'Observe carefull y this place. You are now in the Island of Crete. This is the land where Christi anity began. I am one of the Therapeutae who used to live here.' The apparition uttered another word, which the Swami could not remember. It might have been 'Es sene,' a sect to which John the Baptist belonged. Both the Therapeutae and the E ssenes had practised renunciation and cherished a liberal religious outlook. Acc ording to some scholars, the word Therapeutae may be derived from the Buddhist w ord Sthaviraputtra or theraputta, meaning the sons or disciples of the Theras, o r Elders, the superiors among the Buddhist monks. The word Essene may have some relation with Isiyana, meaning the Path of the Lord, a well-known sect of Buddhi st monks. It is now admitted that the Buddhists at an early time had monasteries in Asia Minor, Egypt, and generally along the eastern part of the Mediterranean . The old man in the dream concluded his statement by saying: 'The truths and ideas preached by us were presented as the teachings of Jesus. But Jesus the per son was never born. Various proofs attesting this fact will be brought to light when this place is dug up.' At that moment it was midnight the Swami awoke and a sked a sailor where the ship was; he was told that it was fifty miles off Crete. The Swami was startled at this singular coincidence. The idea flashed in his mind that the Acts of the Apostles might have been an older record than the Gos pels, and that Buddhist thought, coming through the Therapeutae and the Essenes, might have helped in the formulation of Christianity. The person of Christ migh t be a later addition. He knew that Alexandria had been a meeting-place of India n and Egyptian thought. Later, when the old sites in Crete were excavated, evide nce was found connecting early Christianity with foreign sources. But Swami Vivekananda never refused to accept the historical Christ. Like Kr ishna, Christ, too, has been revealed in the spiritual experiences of many saint s. That, for Vivekananda, conferred upon him a reality which was more real than historical realities. While travelling in Switzerland, the Swami one day plucked some wild flowers and asked Mrs. Sevier to offer them at the feet of the Virgin in a little chapel in the mountains, with the remark, 'She too is the Mother.' One of his disciples, another day, gave him a picture of the Sistine Madonna to bless. But he refused in all humility, and piously touching the feet of the chil d said, 'I would have washed his feet, not with my tears, but with my heart's bl ood.' "(14)

Vivekananda went to America twice. The first time, from 1893-1896, he toured many cities including Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, New York, teaching and lecturi ng day in and day out. Women in particular were attracted to him. One who became one of his closest disciples later confessed disappointment when he told her he had no such powers such as to grant samadhi or spiritual experiences. His skill was chiefly in spreading the message of vedanta to the masses. In doing so he s ometimes had to water down the teachings of non-duality and mix in some yoga as well, paradoxically spreading the notion that super-conscious samadhi was more i mportant than the advaita vedanta he learned from his studies of the Ashtavakra Samhita under Ramakrishna. This adaptation of his was in keeping with the aim of vedanta which is to benefit all by giving them what they are capable of making use of. The second trip (after going to Europe in 1896 and India in 1897) took h im to the west coast, where he spent considerable time in Los Angeles and San Fr ancisco. Stopping again in Europe, he returned once more to India, where he dire cted his attention to the instruction of young monks under his charge. He undert ook a grueling mid-winter sojourn to the Himalayas, and the cumulative effect of all of his strenuous endeavors undermined his health. Vivekananda said that he had experienced, in 1898, a vision of Shiva Himself , and had been granted the grace of Amarnath, the Lord of Immortality, not to die until he himself willed it. (15) On the last day of his life he meditated thre e hours in the morning, taught a Sanskrit class for three more hours, and then w alked two miles. In the evening he sat again for meditation. Hours later he lay down with his gaze fixed between the eyebrows and left his body; a heavenly glow was on his face. At the age of thirty-nine, Swami Vivekananda fulfilled his own prophecy that he would not live to be forty. Upon his death, Swami Brahmananda said, It seems like the Himalayas have disappeared. Some of his last thoughts were embodied in these forceful words: It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body - to cast it off l ike a worn garment. But I shall not cease to work. I shall inspire men everywher e, until the world shall know that it is one with God. V.S. Iyer felt that with this universal attitude Vivekananda embodied the id eal of the vedantic sage. The following by Paul Brunton found within his copy of Iyer's Comentaries is worth noting: "When the time of death approaches for a gnani he expresses the will to retu rn to earth again and again and be reborn. Now he has achieved liberation from a ll his Karma. Why then should he take on the old bondage of the human body again ? Answer: Because he realizes his unity with all mankind, he considers their wel fare as his own. Therefore when that further incarnation comes to a close he wil l again express his determination to be reborn a second time. This process will go on ad infinitum, with the result that the gnani is born again and dying again just like all other human beings. So from the external viewpoint he is to share the same joys and sorrows as all unenlightened men for countless number of inca rnations despite the fact that he has achieved Nirvana. The definition usually g iven by Pundits and yogis in India of the word Moksha as meaning liberation from the cycle of transmigration pertains to the lower or purely religious sphere. T his doctrine is on the lower level because it is based on the reality of the ego . The Vedantic interpretation of the world is "liberation from ignorance." Simil arly the word Nirvana is interpreted in Buddhist countries as meaning release fr om the cycle of births and deaths. This too is the popular interpretation, not t he philosophical which is precisely the same as the Vedantic. it is quite true t hat Buddha constantly taught that man should seek release from transmigratory ex istence but we must remember however that what a sage knows is known only to him self in its fullness and that he gives out to the public only so much as they co uld grasp and no more. Of course, the gnani will have a different attitude towards his pleasures an

d pains from that of the ordinary man by reason of his refusal to identify himse lf with the body. Thus Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda expressed the desir e to be born again and again for the salvation of humanity. Buddha too has told of numerous previous births wherein he descended to help mankind. Thus the start ling fact must now emerge that all the sages in the history of mankind who had e ver attained Truth, Moksha or Nirvana by virtue of such attainment have identifi ed themselves with the whole of mankind and its sufferings and have therefore, a ll without a single exception, willed to return to earth in constantly repeated births and deaths. This they have done without a necessity or compulsion on thei r part, but solely in order to serve others because of their feeling of unity wi th them and pity for their sufferings. This does not mean that all the sages of history are at the present moment living on this earth because they need not nec essarily be reborn immediately after each death. They may need a period of rest and recuperation after each incarnation and therefore some may be on earth, and others not, but the latter will surely be reborn later. The sage will not hide himself in the cave or forest or on top of the Himala yas far from the people who need help, because he knows that he must go amongst them in order to remove their ignorance and set an example to place higher ideal s before them and to work for their material welfare. Those who say that sages c an give this help by telepathic or by spiritual thought-waves from a distance ar e refuted by the evidence of all history." (16) It is interesting that Vivekananda at one time questioned whether he had rec eived sufficient spiritual transmission and wisdom from Ramakrishna. During his wandering after the latter s death, Vivekananda spent time with a great saint and raja yogi named Pavhari Baba. As the people in the area believed he lived solely on air he acquired the name Pavhari Baba , meaning air-eating father . The disciples of Vivekananda tried to lure him away, imploring him to return and guide them. O ne brother monk even went so far as to seek out Vivekananda and accuse him of ab andoning Ramakrishna for Pavhari Baba. This infuriated the Swami, who sent the m onk away. He later wrote: My motto is to recognize good no matter where I may come across it. This lead s my..brother to think I may lose my devotion to the Guru. [This is an idea] of lunatics and bigots; for all gurus are one, fragments and radiations of God, the Universal Guru. Oh, it is as if hell-fire were burning [me] day and night...I feel quite help less as to what to do. The Babaji throws out honeyed words [and so I stay]...my brother-disciples think me very cruel and selfish. Oh, what can I do? Who will s ee deep down into my mind? Who will know how much I am suffering day and night? ( 17) Just before his initation into raja yoga by Pavhari Baba (note: others say i t was only hatha yoga in order to cure a stomach ailment; see "Touched by God" b y Swami Chetanananda) Vivekananda had a series of visions of Sri Ramakrishna in which it was implied that he did not need to take initiation from another guru. Lokeswarananda writes: The night before he was to take initiation, Swamiji (Vivekananda) saw Sri Rama krishna standing before him. The Master did not say a word - he just looked at h im, but he appeared to be troubled and unhappy. This happened again and again. S ri Ramakrishna would appear before Swamiji, not saying a word. Finally Swamiji c ame to his senses, and felt ashamed. He gave up the idea of being initiated by P avhari Baba. As he wrote in a letter about this incident, I am not going to any o ther person. No one is equal to Sri Ramakrishna. (18) Still, he hung on for a time, torn between his allegiance to the guru-less di sciples of Ramakrishna and his desire for a living source of spiritual transmiss

ion. Brahmananda, the second most famous of Ramakrishna's disciples (of whom Ram akrishna said both were born with God-knowledge and were of the class of the "Ev er-Perfect" or Isvarakotis), also sought out another guru after his Master's dea th, an aged Vaishnava saint in a temple in Vrindiban. [While such a practice of visiting and studying with other teachers was and is normal in the Ch'an and Tib etan Buddhist traditions, in Hindu circles one's loyalty and fidelity are more l ikely to be questioned]. Although he had frequent spiritual experience under Ram akrishna, after ten more years of intense spiritual effort and a final touch by the Vrindavan saint Brahmananda said he achieved perpetual samadhi, such that, e ven in periods of normal consciousness, he had a "fullness of God in his heart, and all around him nature vibrating with joy." He referred to the Mundaka Upanis had for his view on samadhi: "The knot of the heart, which is ignorance, is loos ed, all doubts are dissolved, all evil effects of deeds are destroyed, when he w ho is both personal and impersonal is realized." Of Nirvikalpa Samadhi he remark ed, "some say that that state is the end of spiritual experiences, but I believe it is the beginning." [Others, such as PB, might say that Sahaj was the true be ginnning] Vivekananda embodied the ideal of the celibate yogi, and for a time after th e death of Ramakrishna he was outspoken about the virtues of such a path. A numb er of importent incidents in his life, however, modified his position regarding the absolute nature of differing moral systems, and his views on women, which so me have accused of being misogynistic and provincial (see Sil, Narasingha P., Sw ami Vivekananda: A Reassessment). In 1891 the Maharaja of Khetri, who was a disc iple of Vivekananda, brought a dancing girl in to please him. When the swami sta rted to leave in disgust, the girl began to sing a devotional song by the Vaishn avite saint, Suradas. This profoundly moved Vivekananda, who stayed to instruct the Maharaja, letting the girl fan him. He later said that this incident transfo rmed him greatly. (19) Another time, while staying with a family of six brothers in Tibet who shared one wife, Vivekananda was brought up short when, after tryi ng to explain the evil of their ways, he was answered, What selfishness, to wish to keep one woman all to oneself! (20) Thus, Swami Vivekananda seemed perhaps to be softening from his strenuous, m asculine approach to spiritual life, as exemplified by his words at the Parliame nt of World's Religions in years before, where he had said, " The whole object of the Hindu religion is, by constant struggle, to become perfect, to become divine, to reach God, and see God...", and his arguments elsewhere against the notion that spirituality was for weak lings, either moral or physical, in which he stressed the importance of the deve lopment of a strong body as a foundation for spiritual life: Physical weakness is the cause of at least one-third of our miseries..First o f all our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends, that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to Heaven through f ootball than through the study of the Gita. You will understand the Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a little stronger. You will understand the might y genius and the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little strong blood in you. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman, when your body stands firm on your feet and you feel yourselves as men. (21) In other words, he seemed in his travels to preach little of the more easefu l approach to sahaj samadhi that Ramakrishna appeared to have tried to teach him through his readings from the Ashtravakra Gita. Perhaps the time was just not r ight yet for such a message to be widely spread. The groundwork had not yet been laid sufficiently nor would his audience have been receptive to it. Vivekananda said that social life in the West was like a peal of laughter but

underneath a wail and a sob, while in India it was sad and gloomy on the surfac e, but underneath carelessness and merriment. His life work was to bring forth t he ancient Vedic dharma as a universal religion to unite all in the way of truth . Click here for the The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Postscript: James Schwarz (http://www.shiningworld.com) has an interesting discussion on the development of the different yogas. Much of it in the modern age, he said, is due to the neo-vedanta of Swami Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Mission, whic h V.S. Iyer, with respect, termed "vedanta yoga" as opposed to true classical "v edanta philosophy." This was because the Mission placed greater emphasis on atta ining super-conscious samadhi than was found in traditional vedanta. This very i mportant topic is discussed in the excellent article, The Question of the Import ance of Samadhi In Modern and Classical Advaita Vedanta, by Michael Comans, PhD. Schwartz himself writes: "I do not know at what time Bhakti came to be considered a separate path, pe rhaps four or five hundred years ago when Chaitanya was alive. It is not clear, however, that Chaitanya thought of himself as a Bhakti Yogin. The name suggest s that he didn t, in so far as it means Consciousness which suggests that he was a j nani. In Vedic culture the choice of name reveals one s spiritual inclination or path or identity. It is a fact that people love to define themselves in very li mited ways so that as the spiritual world developed ritualists wanted their own special yoga and affixed the word yoga to bhakti to distinguish themselves from th e intellectuals and the doers. It may also be that because of the many possible meanings that a single Sanskrit word can have people thought that Bhakti was a y oga because in the Bhagavad Gita one Chapter is called Bhakti Yoga. However, usa ge determines the meaning of yoga in this case as topic. So the meaning is that C hapter 12 considers the topic of bhakti." "By the time we get to Vivekananda, bhakti has been enshrined alongside jnan a and karma as one of the major paths. Vivekananda also included Raja Yoga as a separate path but Raja Yoga is based on Patanjali Yoga and Patanjali yoga is ka rma yoga. It is for doers who want to achieve Self realization by exhausting th eir vasanas (chitta vritti nirodha). This is the first English formulation of f our paths and constitutes what is called in India as Modern Vedanta and in the Wes t as Neo-Vedanta. Swami Chinmayananda who had huge impact on Indian spirituality in the last half of the last century was perhaps the most famous Modern Vedantin although the Swamis in the Ramakrishna Mission were also Modern Vedantins owing to their respect for Vivekananda. Now the Ramakrishna Mission is basically Bhak ti Yoga." "If you read the Narada Bhakti Sutras, which is the definitive Pauranic text on Bhakti, but is considered to belong to the tradition of jnana yoga, there is no mention of Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti is considered to be of two types: guna bhakt i and para Bhakti. Guna bhakti is devotion according to the psychology of the i ndividual and Parabhakti is synonymous with jnana." Kabir: Everyone knows that the drop merges in the ocean. That is bhakti. But few know that the ocean merges in the drop; that is parabhakti.

The word SAMADHI [1] became a part of the vocabulary of a number of Western inte

llectuals toward the end of the first half of this century. Two well-known write rs, Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood, were impressed by Eastern and speci fically by Indian thought. Huxley made a popular anthology of Eastern and Wester n mystical literature under the title "The Perennial Philosophy" (1946), and in his last novel, "Island" (1962), words such as moksa and samadhi occur untransla ted. In both these works, Huxley uses the words "false samadhi, " implying that the reader was already conversant with what samadhi actually is. Conveniently gl ossing over any emphisis regarding the Hindu goddess Kali-Ma, Isherwood wrote an account of the life of the nineteenth-century Bengali mystic Sri Ramakrishna Pa ramahamsa and his disciples (1959), and he published as the second part of his a utobiographical trilogy an account of the years he spent with his own guru, Swam i Prabhavananda of the Ramakrsna Order, in "My Guru and His Disciple" (1980). Wh y these writers were drawn toward Eastern spiritual thought, and to the Vedanta teachings in particular, is not the subject for discussion here. But perhaps one significant reason is that with the decline in organized religion after World W ar I, these writers found in the Vedanta, as presented to them by the followers of Sri Ramakrsna and his disciple Swami Vivekananda, a spirituality which emphas ized the authority of firsthand experience as the only way to verify what was pr esented as the Truth. The Vedanta, as they saw it, was a "minimum working hypoth esis," which could be validated through cultivating a certain type of experience , and that experience was seen to be a mystical, super-conscious state of awaren ess called samadhi. Isherwood edited a book of articles titled "Vedanta for the Western World" (1948 ). In his introduction he emphasizes the centrality of having a direct, personal experience of Reality, which, he says, the Christian writers call "mystic union " and Vedantists call "samadhi." Isherwood raises the question as to how Reality can be experienced if it is beyond sense perception, and he answers the questio n in terms of samadhi experience: Samadhi is said to be a fourth kind of consciousness: it is beyond the state s of waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. Those who have witnessed it as an ext ernal phenomenon report that the experience appeared to have fallen into a kind of trance. The hair on the head and body stood erect. The half-closed eyes becam e fixed. Sometimes there was an astonishing loss of weight, or even levitation o f the body from the ground. But these are mere symptoms, and tell us nothing. Th ere is only one way to find out what samadhi is like: you must have it yourself? Huxley and Isherwood did not find Indian spirituality by journeying to India--ra ther it was India which found them; and the variety of Indian spirituality with which these Englishmen came into contact in California in the late 1930s was tha t of the Vedanta Society, founded by Swami Vivekananda and his followers, who we re monks of the recently established (1886) Order of Ramakrishna. If we seek to locate the source of the orientation of spiritual life around the cultivation of samadhi experience, which has become one of the principal characteristics of mo dern Vedanta, it must be traced to Sri Ramakrsna himself. Ramakrsna was not a Ve dantin in the orthodox sense of one who has received instruction centered on the exegesis of the sacred texts (sastra), which are generally in Sanskrit, from a teacher (acarya), and who then consciously locates himself within that specific body of received teachings (sampradaya). Ramakrsna, as is well known, affirmed t hat a variety of diverse disciplines and traditions within Hinduism, and even ou tside of Hinduism, were valid in that they were all efficacious means toward the same spiritual goal. However, as has been pointed out, it would be most correct to locate. Ramakrsna's teachings within a Tantric paradigm. [3] (The time spent under the direction of Totapuri, who was said to be an Advaitin, was much short er than the time spent studying Tantra, and the information available on Totapur i is very meager, so it is difficult to be sure whether he was actually an Advai tin rather than a follower of yoga) Tantra is an expressly experience-oriented d iscipline and it relies upon yoga techniques, particularly those of Hatha Yoga, [4] to bring about a samadhi experience. Ramakrsna frequently underwent trance-l

ike states, which are referred to in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna as samadhi ex periences. A typical description in the Gospel would be the following passage: At the mere mention of Krishna and Arjuna the Master went into samadhi. In t he twinkling of an eye his body became motionless and his eyeballs transfixed, w hile his breathing could scarcely be noticed. [5] Ramakrsna has himself linked the occurrence of samadhi with Kundalini Yoga, whic h is referred to in the treatises on Hatha Yoga and is fundamental to Tantra sot eriology. For example, Ramakrsna is recorded as having remarked: A man's spiritual consciousness is not awakened unless his Kundalini is arou sed. The Kundalini dwells in the Muladhara. When it is aroused, it passes along the Sushumna nerve, goes through the centres of Svadhisthana, Manipura, and so o n, and at last reaches the head. This is called the movement of the Mahavayu, th e Spiritual Current. It culminates in samadhi. [6] From the above we should be able to see the importance that the samadhi experien ce had in the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrsna. Such an experience-oriented v iew of spirituality was a legacy which passed from Ramakrsna to Vivekananda. Viv ekananda was receptive to this view, for it seemed to agree with what he had stu died of the British empiricist philosophers and the positivist Auguste Comte, in sofar as they by University of Hawaii Press had stressed the centrality of empir ical experience. Vivekananda extended the empiricist epistemology that all knowl edge is derived from sense experience into the domain of metaphysics, for he tho ught that since experience is the basis of all knowledge, then if a metaphysical Reality exists, it, too, ought to be available for direct experience? And from his association with Ramakrsna he gathered that samadhi was the experience requi red in order to know God. In his writings he placed much emphasis on the necessi ty of attaining samadhi. He loosely translated samadhi as "super-consciousness," [8] and he stated in his work Raja-Yoga, a commentary in English on the Yogasutr as of Patanjali, that samadhi experience was the acme of spiritual life: Samadhi is the property of every human being--nay, every animal. From the lo west animal to the highest angel, some time or other, each one will have to come to that state, and then, and then alone, will real religion begin for him. Unti l then we only struggle towards that stage. There is no difference now between u s and those who have no religion, because we have no experience. What is concent ration good for, save to bring us to that experience? Each one of the steps to a ttain samadhi has been reasoned out, properly adjusted, scientifically organized , and, when faithfully practised, will surely lead us to the desired end. Then a ll sorrows cease, all miseries vanish; the seeds of actions will be burnt, and t he soul will be free for ever.[9] Vivekananda was attracted to Ramakrsna for reasons somewhat similar to those tha t initially attracted Huxley and Isherwood to the Vedanta taught by the follower s of Vivekananda: they all sought some direct, experiential verification of the propositions of religious metaphysics, and they all came to believe that the key to such verification lay in the attainment of a samadhi or "super-conscious" ex perience. This legacy of Ramakrsna, the search for an extra-ordinary experience in order to validate spiritual life, not only extended to the West via the Ramak rsna Order of monks that Vivekananda helped to found, but it also become a domin ant view within the Western-educated Indian middle class through the spread of R amakrsna-Vivekananda literature. The modern Indian philosopher, Sarvepalli Radha krishnan, an eloquent advocate of the importance of experience in religion, has described samadhi in the following manner: "In samadhi or enstatic consciousness we have a sense of immediate contact with ultimate reality.. It is a state of p ure apprehension.. "[10] At this point the reader may wonder whether we are not stating the obvious, for

is it not precisely because samadhi is so important that modern Vedantins such a s Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan gave it such emphasis? It is certainly important to modern Vedanta, but the question can be legitimately raised as to what impor tance it has in the Upanisads, the very source of the Vedanta, and in the classi cal Vedanta such as in the works of Sankara, the most famous of all the Vedanta teachers. That is the topic which we shall now address. The first point to be noted is that the word samadhi does not occur in the ten m ajor Upanisads upon which Sankara has commented.[11] This is not a matter to be lightly passed over, for if the attainment of samadhi is central to the experien tial verification of the Vedanta, as we can gather it is, judging by the stateme nts of some modern Vedantins such as those cited above, then one would legitimat ely expect the term to appear in the major Upanisads which are the very source o f the Vedanta. Yet the word does not occur. The closest approximation to the wor d samadhi in the early Upanisads is the past passive participle samahita in the Chandogya and Brhadaranyaka Upanisads.[12] In both texts the word samahita is no t used in the technical meaning of samadhi ,that is, in the sense of a meditativ e absorption or enstasis ,although the closest approximation to this sense occur s in the Brhadaranyaka. In the first reference (BU 4.2.1) , Yajnavalkya tells Ja naka: "You have fully equipped your mind (samahitatma) with so many secret names [of Brahman, that is, Upanisads]."[13] Here the word samahita should be transla ted as "concentrated, collected, brought together, or composed." In the second occurrence (BU 4.4.23), Yajnavalkya tells Janaka that a knower of Brahman becomes "calm (santa), controlled (danta), withdrawn from sense pleasure s (uparati), forbearing (titiksu), and collected in mind (samahita). This refere nce to samahita is the closest approximation in the Upanisads to the term samadh i, which is well known in the later yoga literature. However, the two terms are not synonyms, for in the Upanisad the word samahita means "collectedness of mind ," and there is no reference to a meditation practice leading to the suspension of the faculties such as we find in the literature dealing with yoga. The five m ental qualities mentioned in BU 4.4.3 later formed, with the addition of faith ( sraddha), a list of six qualifications required of a Vedantic student, and they are frequently to be found at the beginning of Vedantic texts.[14] In these text s, the past participles used in the Upanisads are regularly changed into nominal forms: santa becomes sama, danta becomes dama, and samahita becomes samadhana, but not the cognate noun samadhi. It would thus appear that, while Vedanta autho rs understood samahita and samadhana as equivalent terms, they did not wish to e quate them with the word samadhi; otherwise there would have been no reason why that term could not have been used instead of samadhana. But it seems to have be en deliberately avoided, except in the case of the later Vedanta work, Vedantasa ra, to which we shall have occasion to refer. Thus we would suggest that, in the Vedanta texts, samadhana does not have the same meaning that the word samadhi h as in yoga texts. This is borne out when we look at how Vedanta authors describe the terms samahita and samadhana. Sankara, in BU 4.2.1, glosses samahitatma as samyuktama, "well equipped or connected." In BU 4.4.23, he explains the term sam ahita as "becoming one-pointed (aikagrya) through dissociation from the movement s of the sense-organs and the mind."[15] The term occurs again in the Katha Upan isad 1.2.24 in the negative form asamahita, which Sankara glosses as "one whose mind is not one-pointed (anekagra), whose mind is scattered."[16] In introductor y Vedanta manuals, samadhana is also explained by the term "one-pointed" (ekagra ).[17] The word samadhana can thus be understood as having the meaning of "one-p ointed" (ekagra). In the Yogasutra, "one-pointed" (ekagra) is used to define con centration (dharana),[18] which is the sixth of the eight limbs of Yoga and a pr eliminary discipline to dhyana and samadhi. We may see, then, that the Vedantic samadhana means "one-pointedness" and would be equivalent to the yoga dharana, b ut it is not equivalent to the yoga samadhi. The word samadhi first appears in the Hindu scriptures in the Maitrayni Upanisad (6.18, 34), a text which does not belong to the strata of the early Upanisads[1

9] and which mentions five of the eight limbs of classical Yoga. The word also o ccurs in some of the Yoga and Sannyasa Upanisads of the Atharvaveda.[20] Samadhi would thus seem to be a part of yogic practice which has entered into the later Upanisadic literature through such texts as the Yoga Upanisads as a result of w hat Eliade calls "the constant osmosis between the Upanisadic and yogic milieus. "[21] The diverse teachings of yoga were systematized in Patanjali's Yogasutras, where it is explained that the goal of yoga is to restrain completely all menta l fluctuations (vrtti) so as to bring about the state of samadhi. Samadhi itself has two stages, samprajana samadhi, or an enstasis where there is still objectconsciousness, and asamprajatasamadhi or nirbijasamadhi, where there is no longe r any object-consciousness. Asamprajnatasamadhi became known in later Vedanta ci rcles as Nirvikalpa Samadhi.[22] The point to be noted about yoga is that its wh ole soteriology is based upon the suppression of mental fluctuations so as to pa ss firstly into samprajnatasamadhi and from there, through the complete suppress ion of all mental fluctuations, into asamprajnatasamadhi, in which state the Sel f remains solely in and as itself without being hidden by external, conditioning factors imposed by the mind (citta). When we examine the works of Sankara, however, we find a very sparing use of the word samadhi.[23] In the Brahmasutrabhasya he makes three references to samadhi as a condition of absorption or enstasis.[24] In the first (2.1.9) , he implici tly refutes the idea that samadhi is, of itself, the means for liberation, for h e says: Though there is the natural eradication of difference in deep sleep and in s amadhi etc., because false knowledge has not been removed, differences occur onc e again upon waking just like before.[25] What Sankara says is that duality, such as the fundamental distinction between s ubject and object, is obliterated in deep sleep and in samadhi, as well as in ot her conditions such as fainting, but duality is only temporarily obliterated for it reappears when one awakes from sleep or regains consciousness after fainting , and it also reappears when the yoga arises from samadhi. The reason why dualit y persists is because false knowledge (mithyajana) has not been removed. It is e vident from this brief statement that Sankara does not consider the attainment o f samadhi to be a sufficient cause to eradicate false knowledge, and, according to Sankara, since false knowledge is the cause of bondage, samadhi cannot theref ore be the cause of liberation. The only other significant reference to samadhi in the Brahmasatrabhasya occurs in the context of a discussion as to whether age ntship is an essential property of the self. According to Sankara's interpretati on, sutras 2.3.33-39 accept agentship as a property of the self, but sutra 2.3.4 0 presents the definitive view that agentship is not an intrinsic property of th e Self but is a superimposition. The word samadhi occurs in 2.3.39 (samadhy-abha vacca), and here Sankara briefly comments, "samadhi, whose purpose is the ascert ainment of the Self known from the Upanisads, is taught in the Vedanta texts suc h as: 'The Self, my dear, should be seen; it should be heard about, thought abou t and meditated upon'" (BU 2.4.5) .[26] Sankara shows by the phrase atmapratipat tiprayojana ("whose purpose is the ascertainment of the Self") that he acknowled ges that the practice of samadhi has a role in Vedanta. However, these two refer ences do not in themselves present a conclusive picture of Sankara's thought, fo r in the first reference it is evident that he does not consider samadhi to be a sufficient means for liberation, while in the second he has clearly given it a more positive place as a means for liberation. This second reference, however, h as to be treated with some circumspection as it forms the comment upon a sutra w hich Sankara does not consider to present the definitive view. Another reference to samadhi, where it again seems to have a more positive value, occurs in the c ommentary upon the Mandukyakarika of Gaudapada, where in verse 3.37 the word sam adhi is given as a synonym for the Self. Sankara glosses the word samadhi in two different ways, and in the first he says "samadhi = because [the Self] can be k nown through the wisdom arising from samadhi."[27] Thus we can see that, accordi

ng to Sankara, samadhi has a role to play in Vedanta, but yet the first referenc e (2.1.9) indicates that this role is perhaps more circumscribed than the modern exponents of Vedanta would have us believe. We will attempt to resolve the matt er through a wider examination of Sankara's thought, particularly in regard to h is use of yoga. The first specific mention of yoga is in the Katha Upanisad, and there is a vers e in this Upanisad which details a type of yoga meditation: The discriminating person should restrain speech in the mind, he should rest rain the mind in the cognizing self, he should restrain the cognizing self in th e 'great self' and restrain that 'great self' in the peaceful Self.[26] Sankara introduces this verse with the comment that the Upanisad here presents " a means for the ascertainment of that [Self]."[29] In his commentary upon Brahma sutra 1.4.1, Sankara refers to this Katha verse with the remark that the sruti"s hows yoga as the means for the apprehension of the Self."[30] In his commentary upon Brahmasutra 3.3.15, he again refers to this verse when he says that it is " just for the sake of the clear understanding of the Self that the sruti enjoins meditation, viz. 'the discriminating person should restrain speech in the mind.. .. "[31] It is therefore evident that Sankara considers the verse above to prese nt a method of yoga meditation leading to Self-knowledge. As to his understandin g of this Katha verse, he has explained it succinctly in his commentary on Brahm asutra 1.4.1: This is what is said. 'He should restrain speech in the mind' means that by giving up the operations of the extemal senses such as the organ of speech and s o forth he should remain only as the mind. And since the mind is inclined toward s conjecturing about things, he should, by way of seeing the defect involved in conjecturing restrain it in the intellect whose characteristic consists in deter mining and which is said here by the word 'cognizing self'. Then bringing about an increase in subtlety, he should restrain that intellect in the 'great self', i.e. the experience, or the one-pointed intellect. And he should establish the ' great self' in the peaceful Self, i.e. in that supreme Purusa who is the topic u nder consideration, who is the 'highest goal'.[32] Aranyaka Upanisad 2.4.11, which forms part of the well known Yajanavalkya-Maitre yi dialogue, Sankara briefly describes a method of contemplation which is simila r to the one mentioned in the Katha 1.3.13. It is as follows: [text]..as the skin is the one goal of all kinds of touch [commentary] such as soft or hard, rough or smooth.... By the word 'skin', touch in general that i s perceived by the skin, is meant; in it different kinds of touch are merged, li ke different kinds of water in the ocean, and become nonentities without it, for they were merely its modifications. Similarly, that touch in general, denoted b y the word 'skin', is merged in the deliberation of the Manas [mind], that is to say, in a general consideration by it, just as different kinds of touch are inc luded in touch in general perceived by the skin; without this consideration by t he Manas it becomes a non-entity. The consideration by the Manas also is merged in a general cognition by the intellect, and becomes non-existent without it. Be coming mere consciousness, it is merged in Pure Intelligence, the Supreme Brahma n, like different kinds of water in the ocean. When, through these successive st eps, sound and the rest, together with their receiving organs, are merged in Pur e Intelligence, there are no more limiting adjuncts, and only Brahman, which is Pure Intelligence, comparable to a lump of salt, homogeneous, infinite, boundles s and without a break, remains. Therefore the Self alone must be regarded as one without a second.[33] We can see that the type of yoga which Sankara presents here is a method of merg ing, as it were, the particular (visesa) into the general (samanya). For example

, diverse sounds are merged in the sense of hearing, which has greater generalit y insofar as the sense of hearing is the locus of all sounds. The sense of heari ng is merged into the mind, whose nature consists of thinking about things, and the mind is in turn merged into the intellect, which Sankara then says is made i nto 'mere cognition' (vijanamatra); that is, all particular cognitions resolve i nto their universal, which is cognition as such, thought without any particular object. And that in turn is merged into its universal, mere Consciousness (prajn ana-ghana), upon which everything previously referred to ultimately depends. The re are two points which ought to be noted concerning Sankara's presentation of y oga which differ from the model we find in Patanjali's Yogasutra. The first conc erns method. Sankara does not say that all thought forms must be restrained in t he manner of the cittavrttinirodha of the Yogasutras. While in other places Sank ara has mentioned that meditation involves the withdrawal of the mind from sense objects,[34] he has also made it clear that control of the mind (cittavrttiniro dha) is "not known as a means of liberation."[35] Rather, Sankara's method invol ves thinking, although it is thinking of a certain type, leading from the involv ement in particulars to a contemplation of what is more general and finally to t he contemplation of what is most general, that is, Consciousness. Thus Sankara's method of yoga is a meditative exercise of withdrawal from the particular and i dentification with the universal, leading to contemplation of oneself as the mos t universal, namely, Consciousness. This approach is different from the classica l Yoga of complete thought suppression. The second point is one of approach, for nowhere does Sankara present the AtmanBrahman as a goal to be reached. On the contrary, his approach is that the Atman -Brahman is not something to be acquired since it is one's own nature, and one's own nature is not something that can be attained. This approach has its corolla ry in his method of negation: the removal of superimpositions in order to discov er what is already there, although concealed as it were by all sorts of false id entifications based ultimately upon the ignorance of who we really are. Such an approach is different from that of the classical Yoga of the Yogasutras, where a goal is presented in terms of nirvikalpasamadhi, which one has to achieve in or der to gain liberation. That Sankara's method is one of negation in order to "re veal the ever revealed" is evident throughout his whole discussion of the role o f action in the matter of liberation. In Brahmasutra 1.1.4, an opponent argues t hat the role of scripture is injunctive--it is to enjoin a person either to do s omething or to refrain from doing something--and the role of the Upanisads, too, after presenting the nature of Brahman, is to enjoin meditation upon Brahman as a means of release.[36] Sankara replies that if liberation is to be gained as a result of an action, then liberation must be impermanent. He specifies that act ions can only be of four kinds: an action can produce something, or it can modif y a thing, or it can be used to obtain something or to purify it.[37] He takes u p each action in turn and argues that liberation is not something that can be ei ther produced, attained, modified, or purified by any action whether physical, o ral, or mental. His main argument is that if liberation is an effect of some kin d of action, then liberation would have a beginning and would be time-bound and hence noneternal, and that such a consequence would go against the whole traditi on that teaches that liberation is eternal. Sankara's view is that liberation is nothing but being Brahman, and that is one's inherent condition, although it is obscured by ignorance. He says that the whole purpose of the Upanisads is just to remove duality, which is a construct of ignorance;[38] there is no further ne ed to produce oneness with Brahman, because that already exists. Sankara's frequ ent use of the phrase "na heya naupadeya" (cannot be rejected or accepted)[39] a long with the word Atman indicates that the Self cannot be made the object of an y kind of action whatsoever. Sankara has summarized all this in his commentary o n the Brhadaranyaka: ... liberation is not something that can be brought into being. For liberati on is just the destruction of bondage, it is not the result of an action. And we have already said that bondage is ignorance and it is not possible that ignoran

ce can be destroyed by action. And action has its capacity in some visible spher e. Action has its capacity in the sphere of production, attainment, modification and purification. Action is able to produce, to make one attain, to modify or t o purify. The capacity of an action has no other scope than this, for in the wor ld it is not known to have any other capacity. And liberation is not one of thes e. We have already said that it is hidden merely by ignorance.[40] Thus we can see that the perspective of Sankara is fundamentally different from that of the yoga tradition where, although the purusa is presented as not someth ing to be acquired, liberation is nonetheless a real goal to be attained through a process of mental discipline, which necessitates the complete suppression of all mental activity. That there is a certain ambivalence toward yoga on the part of the followers of Vedanta can be seen in Brahmasutra 2.1.3, "Thereby the Yoga is refuted," which o ffers a rejection of yoga following upon the rejection of Sankhya philosophy. Th e problem as Sankara sees it is that yoga practices are found in the Upanisads t hemselves, so the question arises as to what it is about yoga that needs to be r ejected. Sankara says that the refutation of yoga has to do with its claim to be a means of liberation independent from the Vedic revelation. He says, "... the sruti rejects the view that there is another means for liberation apart from the knowledge of the oneness of the Self which is revealed in the Veda."[41] He the n makes the point that "the followers of Sankhya and Yoga are dualists, they do not see the oneness of the Self."[42] The point that "the followers of Yoga are dualists" is an interesting one, for if the yogins are dualists even while they are exponents of asamprajnatasamadhi (nirvi-kalpasamadhi), then such samadhi doe s not of itself give rise to the knowledge of oneness as the modem exponents of Vedanta would have us believe. For if it did, then it would not have been possib le for the yogins to be considered dualists. Clearly the modem Vedantins, in the ir expectation that samadhi is the key to the liberating oneness, have revalued the word and have given it a meaning which it does not bear in the yoga texts. A nd, we suggest, they have given it an importance which it does not possess in th e classical Vedanta, as we are able to discerm it in the writings of Sankara. The matter to be decided is what place samadhi, and yoga in general, holds in Sa nkara's thought. We suggest that his commentary upon the Bhagavadgita contains c ertain programmatic statements that are of general assistance in determining his views on the place of samadhim and yoga in the Advaita scheme of liberation. In the Gita, Sankara very frequently glosses the word yoga when it occurs in a ver se by the word samadhi, thereby indicating that on many occasions he understands yoga to mean the practice of a certain discipline wherein samadhi is the key fa ctor, as in verse 6.19, "...for one who engages in yoga concerning the Self" (yu njato yogam atmanah), which Sankara glosses as "practices samadhi concerning the Self" (atmanah samadhim anutisthatah).[43] It is evident that he considers sama dhi as a state wherein normal distinctions are obliterated, as is evident from h is statement in 18.66, "the evils of agent-ship and enjoyership etc. are not app rehended in deep sleep or in samadhi etc. where there is discontinuation of the flow of the erroneous idea that the Self is identical to the body."[44] Here, as in his commentary upon Brahmasutra 2.1.9, Sankara links deep sleep and samadhi, and it is evident that he recognizes samadhi to be a state wherein distinctions are temporarily resolved, as they are in deep sleep. At the beginning of his commentary upon the Gita, Sankara makes a significant st atement concerning the relation of Sankhya to Yoga.[45] He says that Sankhya mea ns ascertaining the truth about the Self as it really is and that Krsna has done this in his teaching from verses 2.11 up until 2.31. He says that sankhyabuddhi is the understanding which arises from ascertaining the meaning in its context, and it consists in the understanding that the Self is not an agent of action be cause the Self is free from the sixfold modifications beginning with coming into being. He states that those people to whom such an understanding becomes natura

l are called Sankhyas. He then says that Yoga is prior to the rise of the unders tanding above. Yoga consists of performing disciplines (sadhana) that lead to li beration; it presupposes the discrimination between virtue and its opposite, and it depends upon the idea that the Self is other than the body and that it is an agent and an enjoyer. Such an understanding is yogabuddhi, and the people who h ave such an understanding are called Yogins. From this it is clear that Sankara relegates Yoga to the sphere of ignorance (avidya) because the Yogins are those who, unlike the Sankhyas, take the Self to be an agent and an enjoyer while it i s really neither. They are, therefore, in Sankara's eyes, not yet knowers of the truth. Sankara again clearly demarcates Sankhya and Yoga in his comments on verse 2.39, where Krsna says, "O Partha, this understanding about Sankhya has been imparted to you. Now listen to this understanding about Yoga.... "According to Sankara, 'Sankhya' means the "discrimination concerning ultimate truth, " and the 'unders tanding' pertaining to Sankhya means a "knowledge which is the direct cause for the termination of the defect which brings about samsara consisting of sorrow an d delusion and so forth." He then says that Yoga is the "means to that knowledge " (tatpraptyupaya) and that Yoga consists of both (a) karmayoga, that is, perfor ming rites and duties as an offering to the Lord once there has been a relinquis hment of opposites (such as like and dislike) through detachment, and (b) samadh iyoga.[46] In 4.38, Sankara again explains the word yoga occurring in the verse as referring to both karmayoga and samadhiyoga.[47] It is evident that Sankara u nderstands the word yoga in the Gita to refer to both karmayoga and to the pract ice of meditation, that is, samadhiyoga. It is also evident that he considers yo ga to be a means leading to Sankhya-knowledge but that it is not the same as San khya-knowledge. In 6.20, Sankara says that one apprehends the Self by means of a "mind which has been purified through samadhi."[48] From the evidence of the above we suggest that according to Sankara the role of samadhi is supportive--or purifying--and is preliminary to, but not necessarily identical with, the rise of the liberating knowledge. As is well known, Sankara considers that knowledge alone, the insight concerning the truth of things, is w hat liberates. To this end he places great emphasis upon words, specifically the words of the Upanisads, as providing the necessary and even the sufficient mean s to engender this liberating knowledge. Sankara repeatedly emphasizes the impor tance of the role of the teacher (guru/acarya) and the sacred texts (sastra) in the matter of liberation. For example the compound sastracaryopadesa, "the instr uction on the part of the teacher and the scriptures," occurs seven times in his commentary on the Gita alone, along with other variations such as vedantacaryop adesa, and it regularly occurs in his other works as well.[49] The modem Vedanti n, on the other hand, has overlooked, possibly unknowingly, the importance which sacred language and instruction held in the classical Vedanta as a means of kno wledge (pramana) and has had to compensate for this by increasing the importance of yogic samadhi which is then put forward to be the necessary and sufficient c ondition for liberation. The contrast between the Vedanta of Sankara and some of its modem exponents is c lear enough. But it should not be thought that the modem emphasis on yogic samad hi is without precedent. As we have mentioned, there is evidence of yoga techniq ues in the principal Upanisads themselves although it did not then have a domina nt emphasis, and this is reflected in the approach of Sankara in his commentarie s. However, in the centuries following Sankara, Advaitins have exhibited a gradu al increase in their reliance upon yoga techniques. This can be shown by examini ng a few of the Advaita Prakaranagranthas, noncom-mentarial compositions by Adva ita authors. The only noncommentarial work that is widely accepted as the composition of Sank ara is the Upadesasahasri. In this work the word samadhi rarely occurs. The word samahita is used in 13.25, and we have previously argued that samahita (concent

rated) has a meaning equivalent to the word samadhana, one-pointedness of mind, but it does not have the same meaning as nirvikalpasamadhi.[50] Sankara mentions samadhi three times in the Upadeaasahasra,[51] but he does not extol it; on the contrary, speaking from the understanding that the Self is nirvikalpa by nature , he contrasts the Self and the mind and says: As I have no restlessness (viksepa) I have hence no absorption (samadhi). Re stlessness or absorption belong to the mind which is changeable.[52] A similar view is expressed in 13.17 and 14.35. In 15.14 Sankara presents a crit ique of meditation as an essentially dualistically structured activity.[53] Furt hermore, in 16.39-40, Sankara implicitly criticizes the Sankhya-Yoga view that l iberation is dissociation from the association of purusa and prakrti,[54] when h e says: It is not at all reasonable that liberation is either a connection [with Bra hman] or a dissociation [from prakrti]. For an association is non-eternal and th e same is true for dissociation also.[55] Thus it is evident from the above that Sankara implicitly rejects both the soter iology of yoga, namely, that liberation has to be accomplished through the real dissociation of the purusa from prakrti, and the pursuit towards that end, that is, the achievement of nirvikalpa or asamprajatasamadhi. However such a view became blurred in the writings of post-Sankara Advaitins. Th is can be briefly shown by examining some later Advaita prakarana texts. For exa mple, in the popular fourteenth-century text Pancadasi, we find a mixture of Ved antic and Yogic ideas. Towards the conclusion of the first chapter on the "Discr imination of the Real" (tattvaviveka) , the author explains the Upanisad terms s ravana, manana, and nididhyasana (vv. 53-54), and then proceeds to describe the cultivation of samadhi as the means whereby the mediate verbal knowledge derived from the Upanisads is turned into immediate experience (vv. 5962). However, in chapter nine, "The Lamp of Meditation" (dhyanadipa), meditation is prescribed fo r those who do not have the intellectual acuteness to undertake the Self-inquiry ; and in chapter seven (v. 265), the author repeats the verse of Sankara from th e Upadesasahasri("As I have no restlessness"), which was cited above. Therefore it would appear that the Pancadasi is an early example of a Vedantic text which is consciously making room for classical Yoga but which has not lost sight of Sa nkara's perspective.[56] The Vivekacudamani is a popular text in contemporary Vedanta circles and is ascr ibed to Sankara. However, it is highly unlikely that it is a genuine work of San kara, for the fact that there are no Sanskrit commentaries on this work by any o f the well-known commentators on the works of Sankara would indicate that the Vi vekacudamani is either a late composition or that it was not regarded as a work of Sankara by the earlier Advaitins.[57] In this text, samadhi comes in for cons iderable praise; for example: Reflection should be considered a hundred times superior to hearing, and med itation a hundred thousand times superior even to reflection, but the Nirvikalpa ka Samadhi is infinite in its results.[58] We can observe in this text how samadhi is treated as the indispensable requirem ent for liberation, and we can see in the following verse that samadhi is advoca ted for the same reason as is given in Yogasutra 1.1.4: "at other times [the Sel f] takes the same form as the mental modifications (vrttisarupyamitaratra)": By the Nirvikalpaka Samadhi the truth of Brahman is clearly and definitely r ealized, but not otherwise, for then the mind, being unstable by nature, is apt to be mixed up with other perceptions.[59]

As a final example of the use of samadhi in this work we cite the following vers e: Through the diversity of the supervening conditions (Upadhis), a man is apt to think of himself as also full of diversity; but with the removal of these he is again his own Self, the immutable. Therefore the wise man should ever devote himself to the practice of Nirvikalpa Samadhi for the dissolution of the Upadhis .[60] If we compare the idea contained in this verse with the ideas of the Upadesasaha sri, we find that nowhere in the Upadesasahasri does San-kara advocate the disso lution of the upadhi: On the contrary, his attitude throughout the Upadesasahasr i is to show that an upadhi is to be negated merely through the knowledge that i t is an object, for as an object it cannot be identical with the perceiver; and because an upadhi is essentially unreal (mithya), it cannot negate the nondual t ruth, and therefore no additional effort need be expended for its removal. As a final example of the increasing tendency to identify Vedanta and Yoga, we r efer to a late Vedanta text, the Vedantasara of Sadananda (fifteenth century A.D .). He, like the author of the Pancadasi, has added samadhi to the triad of srav ana, manana, and nididhyasana. What is of interest here is that he has reinterpr eted samadhi to make it conform to Advaitic ideas; for example, nirvikalpa samad hi is said to be the state where the mind is without the distinctions of knower, knowledge, and object of knowledge and has become totally merged in the "nondua l reality."[61] Furthermore, this text lists the eight limbs of Yoga practice me ntioned by Patanjali (Yogasutra 2.29), suitably reinterpreted to conform to the Vedanta. There are other, later Vedanta texts which also do this.[62] Thus we se e that through the centuries Vedanta has increasingly accommodated itself to Yog a, leading to the almost complete absence of a distinction between the two in mo dem times. Conclusion Although the importance of concentration is evident from the early Upanisads (BU 4.4.23), a form of yoga practice leading to the absorptive state of samadhi is only in evidence in the later texts. We have seen that Sankara does speak of a t ype of concentration upon the Self which is akin to yoga insofar as there is the withdrawal of the mind from sense objects, but he does not advocate more than t hat and he does not put forward the view that we find in classical Yoga about th e necessity of total thought suppression. We have seen that he has used the word samadhi very sparingly, and when he has used it, it was not always in an unambi guously favorable context. It should be clear that Sankara does not set up nirvi kalpasamadhi as a spiritual goal. For if he had thought it to be an indispensabl e requirement for liberation, then he would have said so. But he has not said so . Contemplation on the Self is obviously a part of Sankara's teaching, but his c ontemplation is directed toward seeing the ever present Self as free from all co nditionings rather than toward the attainment of nirvikalpasamadhi. This is in s ignificant contrast to many modem Advaitins for whom all of the Vedanta amounts to "theory" which has its experimental counterpart in yoga "practice." I suggest that their view of Vedanta is a departure from Sankara's own position. The mode m Advaitins, however, are not without their forerunners, and I have tried to ind icate that there has been a gradual increase in samadhi-oriented practice in the centuries after Sankara, as we can judge from the later Advaita texts. Zen master Tai-yung, passing by the retreat of another Zen master named Chih-huang, stopped and during his visit respectfully asked, "I am told that you frequently enter into Samadhi. At the time of such entrances, does your conscio usness continue or are you in a state of unconsciousness? If your consciousness

continues, all sentient beings are endowed with consciousness and can enter into Samadhi like yourself. If, on the other hand, you are in a state of unconscious ness, plants and rocks can enter into Samadhi." Huang replied, "When I enter int o a Samadhi, I am not conscious of either condition." Yung said, "If you are not conscious of either condition, this is abiding in Eternal Samadhi, and there ca n be neither entering into a Samadhi nor rising out of it." (source) Passing from 'concentration' to 'meditation' does not require the applicatio n of any new technique. Similarly, no supplementary exercise is needed to realiz e Samadhi, once the ascetic has succeeded in 'concentrating' and 'meditating.' S amadhi, 'enstasis,' is the final result of the ascetic's spiritual efforts and e xercises. The meanings of the term Samadhi are union, totality; absorption in, complet e concentration of mind; conjunction. The usual translation is 'concentration,' but this embarks the risk of confusion with dharana. Hence, the preferred transl ation is 'entasis,' 'stasis,' and conjunction. Patanjali and his commentators distinguish several kinds or stages of suprem e concentration. When Samadhi is obtained with the help of an object or idea (th at is, by fixing one's thought on a point in space or on an idea), the stasis is called samprajnata samadhi ('enstasis WITH support,' or 'differentiated enstasi s'). When Samadhi is obtained apart from any 'relation' (whether external or men tal) that is, when one obtains a 'conjunction' into which no otherness' enters, but which is simply a full comprehension of being one has realized asamprajnatasamadhi ('enstasis WITHOUT support,' or 'undifferentiated stasis'). It should be noted that in Vendanta circles asamprajnata-samadhi is sometimes refered to as nirvikalpa-samadhi. Vijnanabhikshu adds that samprajnata samadhi is a means of l iberation in so far as it makes possible the comprehension of truth and ends eve ry kind of suffering. But asamprajnata samadhi destroys the 'impressions [samska ra] of all antecedent mental functions' and even succeeds in arresting the karmi c forces already set in motion by the yogin's past activity. During 'differentia ted stasis,' Vijnanabhikshu continues, all the mental functions are 'arrested' ( 'inhibited'), except that which 'meditates on the object'; whereas in asampranat a samadhi all 'consciousness' vanishes, the entire series of mental functions ar e blocked. 'During this stasis, there is no other trace of the mind [citta] save the impressions [samskara] left behind (by its past functioning). If these impr essions were not present, there would be no possibility of returning to consciou sness.' We are, then, confronted with two sharply differentiated classes of states.' The first class is acquired through the yogic technique of concentration (dhara na) and meditation (dhyana), the second class comprises only a single 'state'-th at is, unprovoked enstasis, 'raptus.' No doubt, even this asamprajnata samadhi i s always owing to prolonged efforts on the yogin's part. It is not a gift or a s tate of grace. One can hardly reach it before having sufficiently experienced th e kinds of Samadhi included in the first class. It is the crown of the innumerab le 'concentrations' and 'meditations' that have preceded it. But it comes withou t being summoned, without being provoked, without special preparation for it. Th at is why it can be called a 'raptus.' Obviously, 'differentiated enstasis,' samprajnata-samadhi, comprises several stages. This is because it is perfectible and does not realize an absolute and irreducible 'state.' Four stages or kinds are generally distinguished: 'argument ative' (savitarka), 'nonargumentative' (nirvitarka), reflective' (savicara), 'su per-reflective' (nirvicara). Patanjali also employs another set of terms: vitark a, vicara, ananda, asmita which correspond roughly with the first four Jhana sta tes. (Y-S-, I, 17). But, as Vijnanabhikshu, who reproduces this list, remarks, ' the four terms are purely technical, they are applied conventionally to differen

t forms of realization.' These four forms or stages of samprajnata samadhi, he c ontinues, represent an ascent; in certain cases the grace of God (ishvara) permi ts direct attainment of the higher states, and in such cases the yogin need not go back and realize the preliminary states. But when this divine grace does not intervene, he must realize the four states gradually, always adhering to the sam e object of meditation (for example, Vishnu). These four grades or stages are al so known as samapattis, 'coalescences.' (Y.S., I, 41-) All these four stages of samprajnata samadhi are called bija samadhi ('samad hi with seed') or salambana samadhi ('with support):, for Vijnanabhikshu tells u s, they are in relation with a 'substratum' (support) and produce tendencies tha t are like 'seeds' for the future functions of consciousness. Asamprajnata samad hi, on the contrary, is nirbija samadhi, 'without seed,' without support. By rea lizing the four stages of samprajnata, one obtains the 'faculty of absolute know ledge' (Y.S., 1, 48) This is already an opening towards samadhi 'without seed,' for absolute knowledge discovers the ontological completeness in which being and knowing are no longer separated. Fixed in samadhi, consciousness (citta) can no w have direct revelation of the Self (purusha). Through the fact that this conte mplation (which is actually a 'participation') is realized, the pain of existenc e is abolished. Vyasa (ad Y.S., III, 55) summarizes the passage FROM samprajnata samadhi TO asamprajnata samadhi as follows: Through the illumination (prajna, 'wisdom') spontaneously obtained when he reaches the stage of dharma-megha-samadhi the ascetic realizes 'absolute isol ation' (kaivalya) -- that is, liberation of purusha from the dominance of Prakri ti. For his part, Vacaspatimishra says that the 'fruit' of samprajnata samadhi i s asamprajnata samadhi, and the 'fruit' of the latter is kaivalya, liberation. I t would be wrong to regard this mode of being of the Spirit as a simple 'trance" in which consciousness was emptied of all content. Nondifferentiated enstasis i s not absolute emptiness.' The 'state' and the 'knowledge' simultaneously expres sed by this term refer to a total absence of objects in consciousness, not to a consciousness absolutely empty. For, on the contrary, at such a moment conscious ness is saturated with a direct and total intuition of being. KHANIKA SAMADHI Khanika Samadhi is called momentary concentration (sequential momentary deep concentration) because it occurs only at the moment of noting and, in the case of Vipassana, not on a fixed object as Samatha-Jhana meditation but on changing objects or phenomena that occur in the mind and body. But when the Vipassana med itator develops strength and skill in noting, his Khanika concentration occurs u ninterruptedly in a series without a break. This concentration, when it occurs f rom moment to moment without a break, becomes so powerful that it can overcome T he Five Hindrances, thus bringing about purification of mind (citta visuddhi) wh ich can enable a meditator to attain all the insight knowledges up to the level of Arahat. (source) NIRODHA As Madhava (1) says, Nirodha [final arrest of all psychomental experience] m ust not be imagined as a nonexistence, but rather as the support of a particular condition of the Spirit.' It is the enstasis of total emptiness, without sensor

y content or intellectual structure, an unconditioned state that is no longer 'e xperience' (for there is no further relation between consciousness and the world ) but 'revelation.' Intellect (buddhi), having accomplished its mission, withdra ws, detaching itself from the Self (purusha) and returning into prakriti. The Se lf remains free, autonomous: it contemplates itself. 'Human' consciousness is su ppressed; that is, it no longer functions, its constituent elements being reabso rbed into the primordial substance. The yogin attains deliverance; like a dead m an, he has no more relation with life; he is 'dead in life.' He is the jivan-muk ta, the 'liberated in life.' He no longer lives in time and under the domination of time, but in an eternal present, in the nunc stans by which Boethius defined Eternity. NIRBIJA SAMADHI: the nondual state of consciousness which is unconditional b ecause all projected conditions have been seen through. Nirbija-samadhi has NO conditioning cause as they have all been transcended, and all conditional activity has been surrendered. The mind is now a radiant fo rmlessness empty of both specific and generalised projection, seen and seer. The nondual state of Nirbija-samadhi is often upheld as the ultimate state. However, nonduality is the polar opposite of duality. it is therefore also a fun ction of duality. Liberation is going beyond duality to transcendental awareness . Here the nonduality of duality, the duality of nonduality are experienced and transcended. This requires the cleansing process of dharma-megha-samadhi , where this conundrum is dramatically manifest. Nirbija-samadhi is NOT the result of a ccomplished practice. It only occurs within practice when there is spontaneous s urrender of the practice and practiser, which depends on the orientation underly ing practice. This results more and more frequently from exhaustion of the mispl aced faith in the activities available to the will, which in turn strengthens th e orientation to surrender. Nirbija-samadhi is a natural progression from sabija -samadhi once the sense of self has begun to lose its power. It often occurs spo ntaneously in life as a result of the direct and open spaciousness cultivated in the mind by practice. When all karmic imprints have been surrendered, Nirbija-samadhi alone remain s. Until then Nirbija-samadhi is a temporary possibility in the space between th e resolution of one perceptor and the firing of the next. When all karmic imprin ts have been resolved, dharma-megha-samadhi reveals irrevocably the dualistic na ture of infinte space, infinite consciousness, time and the self: this establish es the nondual embodiment of kaivalya or otherlessness. (1)

DHARMA-MEGHA-SAMADHI DHARMAMEGA: "Cloud of Dharma." In the very last section of the Yogasutra: wi thin the Kaivalya Pada it describes a condition immediately preceding kaivalya i tself called dharma-mega-samadhi. Accordingly, the text infers dharma-mega-samad hi contains and encompasses all that can be known, just as a cloud fills the sky . And just as rain quenches the thirsting earth, so this "cloud" pours down the rain of the Dharma and exstinguishes the raging fire of all kinds of instability . The only reference to dharma-megha-samadhi in classical Hindu literature, ou tside the commentaries on the Yogasutra, is a reference in Vidyaara.nya's Pa~nca da`sii. In I, 60 he mentions dharma-megha-samadhi as the highest stage to be rea ched in Yoga. Samadhi (not further qualified as dharma-megha-samadhi in the text ) is described as "that condition in which the mind gradually abandons the notio

n of meditator and meditation and is merged in the object of meditation." In tha t condition the mind is likened to a steady flame of a lamp in a well-sheltered place. By way of confirmation, a reference to Bhagavad Gita VI, 19 is inserted. The effect of this Samadhi is the destruction of all Karma accumulated over innu merable lives and the "growth of pure Dharma." The experts in yoga call this Sam adhi dharma-megha because it pours forth countless showers of the nectar of Dhar ma. Through this Samadhi the net of vasana is destroyed and meritorious as well as nonmeritorious Karma is rooted out. The borderline between the dharma-megha-samadhi and the kaivalya of Yoga, he n-chu-to and ken-chu-to in Japanese Zen, or between Bodhisattvahood and Buddahoo d at the stage of dharma-megha of Buddhism, is virtually imperceptible: it is on ly a question of fulfillment of a process, which from then on has only one direc tion. And here we may, possibly, discern a significant difference between the Yo gic (Hindu) and the Buddhist dynamics: the Buddhist texts emphasize the altruist ic aspects of this condition -- the possibility for the Bodhisattva to assist th e world in reaching the highest goal, the beneficial effects which "the rain of dharma" has with regard to the quenching of the firebrand of the Klesa of those still under their sway. The Yogasutra seems to be interested in the benefit of t he dharma-megha-samadhi for the sake of the yogin only: his Klesa and Karma are eradicted, his knowledge is infinitely enlarged, his kaivalya is secured, which means the attainment of his "being his true self." The Bodhisattva forgoes, for the time being, the complete bliss and the ultimate perfection of Buddhahood and accedes to the pleas of the devas to incarnate and make himself present in a bo dily form among humans for their benefit alone. (2) KEN-CHU-TO, Fifth Degree: Depending on context Ken means "both," and/or "perceive" -- meaning perc eiving the indepth realization of how both sho and hen are NOT separate but actu ally fully integrated-interdefused aspects of the same single, non-dual phenomen on -- refering to for example, albeit simply put, the interdefused non-dualism o f say hot and cold --- seemingly different, but in actuality, both related aspec ts of a single non-dual temperature spectrum. Thus then, it can be seen the repl acement in use of the word ken in lieu of the word hen, as say in ken-chu-shi ra ther than hen-chu-shi in the Fourth Degree carries within it's scope a much deep er meaning than a simple syntax variance or first letter change, the attributes again of hen not encompassing the full scope, being: relative, form-and-color, d ifference, manyness, and relative self. A fairly good example of that subtle letter change can be found in ZEN E NLIGHTENMENT: The Path Unfolds, wherein the Wanderling writes of his Mentor: ".. .ken-chu-shi was graciously accorded me by the person from which I sought guiden ce; he himself, having experienced full realization under the grace and light of Sri Ramana Maharshi some thirty-nine years earlier..." Notice his Mentor specif ically selected ken-chu-shi over hen-chu-shi, meaning he felt in the nunances of it all a deeper level of understanding was attained than what hen-chu-shi offer ed. However, notice as well his Mentor DID NOT grace him with hen-chu-to, and mo st significantly NOT ken-chu-to, apparently indicating in both cases that althou gh the Wanderling's attainment was deep, it was, at least at that time, not tota l. SEE ALSO: DARK LUMINOSITY

KAIVALYA:

KAIVALYA: (Sanskrit) "Absolute oneness, aloneness; perfect detachment, freed om." Liberation. Kaivalya is the term used by Patanjali and others in the yoga t radition to name the goal and fulfillment of yoga, the state of complete detachm ent from transmigration. It is virtually synonymous with moksha. Kaivalya is the perfectly transcendent state, the highest condition resulting from the ultimate realization. It is defined uniquely according to each philosophical school, dep ending on its beliefs regarding the nature of the soul. (3) Philosophers in their special way of analytical logic and reductionism have attempted to define kaivalya as an isolation rather than as union. Taken to its logical end (as is true with all fragmented thought), they wind up with absolute withdrawal or catatonia. Indeed, this is often how Western philosophers have "u nderstood" Samadhi. In one sense only can this absurdity be said to have any mer it. They are correct only in the sense that Nirbija-samadhi (as the ultimate int egration) is dependent upon first separating the cit-prana from separation itsel f -- from false identification with a separate self (asmita) which is called ego ism but rather it includes embracing the transpersonal non-dual all encompassing Integrity. So then an isolation from isolation (separation) in reality brings o n an integration (which is Nirbija-samadhi) when the yogic context is not corrup ted, but rather acknowledged and honored. Thus, within the scope of authentic yoga, kaivalya, or ultimate liberation, is not an escape from any "thing"; it is not an aversion, hatred, a fear, a disl ike, or even a desire in the common usage of the word (as all Klesas and Karma a re eventually burned up through yogic practice). It is not a relative isolation, avoidance, control over, repression, transcendence from, an overcoming of, nor denial of anything in any form. Kaivalya is not achieved through strife, from co ntrol over anything, aloofness, nor transcendence. Indeed transcendence has to b e given up as well. Simply one abides in the Uncolored Universal without strivin g. (4) SEE: JISHU ZAMMI: Samadhi of Self Mastery NOTE: There are a number of recognized named varieties and types of Samadhi. The three primary types are actually levels, states, or stages and are: Sampraj ana Samadhi [Access Concentration (upacara samadhi)], Asamprajata Samadhi [Absor ption Concentration (appana samadhi)] (also known as Nirvikalpa Samadhi) and Kha nika Samadhi [Sequential Momentary Deep Concentration]. Some of the other Samadh is that show up, and sometimes just different names for some of the above and/or varying degrees or cultural or religious designations of each other or the abov e, are Savitarka Samadhi, Savichara Samadhi and Asmita Samadhi. For example, the of two stages of Samadhi found in the yoga philosophy of Patanjali, Samprajnata Samadhi and Asamprajnata Samadhi, are virtually the same if not indistinguishab le from Savikalpa Samadhi and Nirvikalpa Samadhi as found in Vedanta. As well, m ost pundits pretty much agree that the like-level Samadhis Asamprajnata and Nirv ikalpa are the same as Nirbija Samadhi.(source)

A part of Infinite Consciousness becomes our own finite consciousness, with powe rs of discrimination and definition and with false conceptions. He is, in truth, Prajapati and Visva, the Source of Creation and the Universal in us all. This S pirit is consciousness and gives consciousness to the body. He is the driver of the chariot. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Maitri Upanishad 2.5. UPM, 99 What Is Our Individual Soul Nature? SLOKA 26

Our individual soul is the immortal and spiritual body of light that animates li fe and reincarnates again and again until all necessary karmas are created and r esolved and its essential unity with God is fully realized. Aum. BHASHYA Our soul is God Siva s emanational creation, the source of all our higher function s, including knowledge, will and love. Our soul is neither male nor female. It i s that which never dies, even when its four outer sheaths physical, pra?ic, instin ctive and mental change form and perish as they naturally do. The physical body is the annamaya kosa. The pra?ic sheath of vitality is the pra?amaya kosa. The ins tinctive-intellectual sheath is the manomaya kosa. The mental, or cognitive, she ath is the vijñanamaya kosa. The inmost soul body is the blissful, ever-giving-wis dom anandamaya kosa. Parasakti is the soul s superconscious mind God Siva s mind. Para siva is the soul s inmost core. We are not the physical body, mind or emotions. We are the immortal soul, atman. The sum of our true existence is anandamaya kosa and its essence, Parasakti and Parasiva. The Vedas expostulate, The soul is born and unfolds in a body, with dreams and desires and the food of life. And then it is reborn in new bodies, in accordance with its former works. The quality of th e soul determines its future body; earthly or airy, heavy or light. Aum Nama? Siv aya. How Is Our Soul Different from Siva? SLOKA 27 Our soul body was created in the image and likeness of the Primal Soul, God Siva , but it differs from the Primal Soul in that it is immature. While Siva is unev olutionary perfection, we are in the process of evolving. Aum. BHASHYA To understand the mysteries of the soul, we distinguish between the soul body an d its essence. As a soul body, we are individual and unique, different from all others, a self-effulgent being of light which evolves and matures through an evo lutionary process. This soul body is of the nature of God Siva, but is different from Siva in that it is less resplendent than the Primal Soul and still evolvin g, while God is unevolutionary perfection. We may liken the soul body to an acor n, which contains the mighty oak tree but is a small seed yet to develop. The so ul body matures through experience, evolving through many lives into the splendo r of God Siva, ultimately realizing Siva totally in nirvikalpa samadhi. Even aft er Self Realization is attained, the soul body continues to evolve in this and o ther worlds until it merges with the Primal Soul, as a drop of water merges with its source, the ocean. Yea, this is the destiny of all souls without exception. The Vedas say, As oil in sesame seeds, as butter in cream, as water in river bed s, as fire in friction sticks, so is the atman grasped in one s own self when one searches for Him with truthfulness and austerity. Aum Nama? Sivaya. How Is Our Soul Identical with Siva? SLOKA 28 The essence of our soul, which was never created, is immanent love and transcend ent reality and is identical and eternally one with God Siva. At the core of our being, we already are That perfect at this very moment. Aum. BHASHYA At the core of the subtle soul body is Parasakti, or Satchidananda, immanent lov e; and at the core of that is Parasiva, transcendent reality. At this depth of o ur being there exists no separate identity or difference all are One. Thus, deep w ithin our soul we are identical with God now and forever. These two divine perfe ctions are not aspects of the evolving soul, but the nucleus of the soul which d oes not change or evolve. From an absolute perspective, our soul is already in n

ondual union with God, but to be realized to be known. We are That. We do not be come That. Deep within this physical body, with its turbulent emotions and getti ng-educated mind, is pure perfection identical to Siva s own perfections of Parasa kti and Parasiva. In this sacred mystery we find the paradoxes of oneness and tw oness, of being and becoming, of created and uncreated existence subtly delineat ed. Yea, in the depth of our being, we are as He is. The Vedas explain, The one c ontroller, the inner Self of all things, who makes His one form manifold, to the wise who perceive Him as abiding in the soul, to them is eternal bliss to no othe rs. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Why Are We Not Omniscient Like Siva? SLOKA 29 The three bonds of a?ava, karma and maya veil our sight. This is Siva s purposeful limiting of awareness which allows us to evolve. In the superconscious depths o f our soul, we share God Siva s all-knowingness. Aum. BHASHYA Just as children are kept from knowing all about adult life until they have matu red into understanding, so too is the soul s knowledge limited. We learn what we n eed to know, and we understand what we have experienced. Only this narrowing of our awareness, coupled with a sense of individualized ego, allows us to look upo n the world and our part in it from a practical, human point of view. Pasa is th e soul s triple bondage: maya, karma and a?ava. Without the world of maya, the sou l could not evolve through experience. Karma is the law of cause and effect, act ion and reaction governing maya. A?ava is the individuating veil of duality, sou rce of ignorance and finitude. Maya is the classroom, karma the teacher, and a?a va the student s ignorance. The three bonds, or malas, are given by Lord Siva to h elp and protect us as we unfold. Yet, God Siva s all-knowingness may be experience d for brief periods by the meditator who turns within to his own essence. The Ti rumantiram explains, When the soul attains Self-knowledge, then it becomes one wi th Siva. The malas perish, birth s cycle ends and the lustrous light of wisdom daw ns. Aum Nama? Sivaya. How Do Hindus Understand Moksha? SLOKA 30 The destiny of all souls is moksha, liberation from rebirth on the physical plan e. Our soul then continues evolving in the Antarloka and Sivaloka, and finally m erges with Siva like water returning to the sea. Aum Nama? Sivaya. BHASHYA Moksha comes when earthly karma has been resolved, dharma well performed and God fully realized. Each soul must have performed well through many lives the var?a dharmas, or four castes, and lived through life s varied experiences in order to not be pulled back to physical birth by a deed left undone. All souls are destin ed to achieve moksha, but not necessarily in this life. Hindus know this and do not delude themselves that this life is the last. While seeking and attaining pr ofound realizations, they know there is much to be done in fulfilling life s other goals (purusharthas): dharma, righteousness; artha, wealth; and kama, pleasure. Old souls renounce worldly ambitions and take up sannyasa in quest of Parasiva, even at a young age. Toward life s end, all Hindus strive for Self Realization, t he gateway to liberation. After moksha, subtle karmas are made in inner realms a nd swiftly resolved, like writing on water. At the end of each soul s evolution co mes visvagrasa, total absorption in Siva. The Vedas say, If here one is able to r ealize Him before the death of the body, he will be liberated from the bondage o f the world. Aum Nama? Sivaya. The atman pervades all like butter hidden in milk. He is the source of Self-know ledge and ascetic fervor. This is the Brahman teaching, the highest goal! This i

s the Brahman teaching, the highest goal! He who with the truth of the atman, un ified, perceives the truth of Brahman as with a lamp, who knows God, the unborn, the stable, free from all forms of being, is released from all fetters. The ins pired Self is not born nor does He die; He springs from nothing and becomes noth ing. Unborn, permanent, unchanging, primordial, He is not destroyed when the bod y is destroyed. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Svetasvatara Upanishad 1.16; 2.15 & 18. VE, 711, 762, 566 There is a spirit which is pure and which is beyond old age and death; and beyon d hunger and thirst and sorrow. This is atman, the spirit in man. All the desire s of this spirit are Truth. It is this spirit that we must find and know; man mu st find his own soul. He who has found and knows his soul has found all the worl ds, has achieved all his desires. What you see when you look into another person s eyes, that is the atman, immortal, beyond fear; that is Brahman. Sama Veda, Çhandogya Upanishad 8.7.3-4. UPM, 121-122 Now, the teaching concerning the atman: the atman is below, it is above, it is b ehind, it is before, it is in the South, it is in the North. The atman indeed is all that is. He who sees, reflects and knows this he has joy in the atman, he pla ys with the atman, he unites with the atman, his is the bliss of the atman. He b ecomes free and is free to move in all the worlds. But those who think otherwise are ruled by others and their worlds are perishable. They are unfree in all the worlds. Sama Veda, Çhandogya Upanishad 7.25.2. VE, 740 There are five subtle elements, tanmantra, and these are called elements. There are also five gross elements, mahabhutas, and these are called elements. The uni on of these is called the human body. The human soul rules the body; but the imm ortal spiritual soul is pure like a drop of water on a lotus leaf. The human sou l is under the power of the three constituents and conditions of nature, and thu s it falls into confusion. Because of this confusion the soul cannot become cons cious of the God who dwells within and whose power gives us power to work. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Maitri Upanishad 3.2. UPM, 100 He who dwells in the light, yet is other than the light, whom the light does not know, whose body is the light, who controls the light from within He is the atman within you. Sukla Yajur Veda, B?ihadara?yaka Upanishad 3.7.14. VE, 708 The three impurities are a?ava, maya and the one caused by actions. Suprabheda Agama 2.1. SA, 102 Pure consciousness, taking form as knowledge and action, is present in the soul everywhere and always, for the soul is universal in its unfettered state. M?igendra Agama, Jñana Pada 2.A.5. MA, 60 When the state is attained where one becomes Siva, the malas the bonds diverse, me ntal states and experiences that arose for the individualized soul will all fade l ike the beams of the moon in the presence of the rising sun. Tirumantiram 2314. TM When jiva attains the state of neutrality to deeds good and evil, then does divi

ne grace in guru form descend, remove attributes all and implant jñana that is unt o a heavenly cool shade. The jiva is without egoity, and the impurities three ar e finished. He is Siva who all this does. Tirumantiram 1527. TM In the primal play of the Lord were jivas created. Enveloped in mighty malas wer e they. Discarding them, they realized themselves and besought the feet of their hoary Lord. Thus they became Siva, with birth no more to be. Tirumantiram 2369. TM A goldsmith fashions several ornaments out of gold. So God, the great goldsmith, makes many ornaments different souls out of the one Universal Spirit. Natchintanai,

Seek the Profit

NT, 11

The atman is eternal. This is the conclusion at which great souls have arrived f rom their experience. Let this truth become well impressed in your mind. Natchintanai, Letter 1. NT, 15

Karma and Rebirth Through the ripening of the fruits of his actions he does not attain any rest, l ike a worm caught within a whirlpool. The desire for liberation arises in human beings at the end of many births, through the ripening of their past virtuous co nduct. Sukla Yajur Veda, Pai?gala Upanishad 2.11. UPR, 913 How Do Hindus Understand Karma? SLOKA 31 Karma literally means deed or act and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction which governs all life. Karma is a natural law of the mind, just as gravity is a law of matter. Aum. BHASHYA Karma is not fate, for man acts with free will, creating his own destiny. The Ve das tell us, if we sow goodness, we will reap goodness; if we sow evil, we will reap evil. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant rea ctions in this and previous lives, all of which determines our future. It is the interplay between our experience and how we respond to it that makes karma deva stating or helpfully invigorating. The conquest of karma lies in intelligent act ion and dispassionate reaction. Not all karmas rebound immediately. Some accumul ate and return unexpectedly in this or other births. The several kinds of karma are: personal, family, community, national, global and universal. Ancient ?ishis perceived personal karma s three-fold edict. The first is sañchita, the sum total o f past karmas yet to be resolved. The second is prarabdha, that portion of sañchit a to be experienced in this life. Kriyamana, the third type, is karma we are cur rently creating. The Vedas propound, Here they say that a person consists of desi res. And as is his desire, so is his will. As is his will, so is his deed. Whate ver deed he does, that he will reap. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Is There Good Karma and Bad Karma? SLOKA 32 In the highest sense, there is no good or bad karma. All experience offers oppor tunities for spiritual growth. Selfless acts yield positive, uplifting condition s. Selfish acts yield conditions of negativity and confusion. Aum. BHASHYA Karma itself is neither good nor bad but a neutral principle that governs energy and motion of thought, word and deed. All experience helps us grow. Good, lovin g actions bring to us lovingness through others. Mean, selfish acts bring back t o us pain and suffering. Kindness produces sweet fruits, called pu?ya. Unkindnes s yields spoiled fruits, called papa. As we mature, life after life, we go throu gh much pain and joy. Actions that are in tune with dharma help us along the pat h, while adharmic actions impede our progress. The divine law is: whatever karma we are experiencing in our life is just what we need at the moment, and nothing can happen but that we have the strength to meet it. Even harsh karma, when fac ed in wisdom, can be the greatest catalyst for spiritual unfoldment. Performing daily sadhana, keeping good company, pilgrimaging to holy places, seeing to othe

rs needs these evoke the higher energies, direct the mind to useful thoughts and av oid the creation of troublesome new karmas. The Vedas explain, According as one a cts, so does he become. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad acti on. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Process of Reincarnation? SLOKA 33 Reincarnation, punarjanma, is the natural process of birth, death and rebirth. A t death we drop off the physical body and continue evolving in the inner worlds in our subtle bodies, until we again enter into birth. Aum. BHASHYA Through the ages, reincarnation has been the great consoling element within Hind uism, eliminating the fear of death, explaining why one person is born a genius and another an idiot. We are not the body in which we live but the immortal soul which inhabits many bodies in its evolutionary journey through sa?sara. After d eath, we continue to exist in unseen worlds, enjoying or suffering the harvest o f earthly deeds until it comes time for yet another physical birth. Because cert ain karmas can be resolved only in the physical world, we must enter another phy sical body to continue our evolution. After soaring into the causal plane, we en ter a new womb. Subsequently the old manomaya kosa is slowly sloughed off and a new one created. The actions set in motion in previous lives form the tendencies and conditions of the next. Reincarnation ceases when karma is resolved, God is realized and moksha attained. The Vedas say, After death, the soul goes to the n ext world bearing in mind the subtle impressions of its deeds, and after reaping their harvest returns again to this world of action. Thus, he who has desires c ontinues subject to rebirth. Aum Nama? Sivaya. How Should We View Death and Dying? SLOKA 34 Our soul never dies; only the physical body dies. We neither fear death nor look forward to it, but revere it as a most exalted experience. Life, death and the afterlife are all part of our path to perfect oneness with God. Aum. BHASHYA For Hindus, death is nobly referred to as mahaprasthana, the great journey. When t he lessons of this life have been learned and karmas reach a point of intensity, the soul leaves the physical body, which then returns its elements to the earth . The awareness, will, memory and intelligence which we think of as ourselves co ntinue to exist in the soul body. Death is a most natural experience, not to be feared. It is a quick transition from the physical world to the astral plane, li ke walking through a door, leaving one room and entering another. Knowing this, we approach death as a sadhana, as a spiritual opportunity, bringing a level of detachment which is difficult to achieve in the tumult of life and an urgency to strive more than ever in our search for the Divine Self. To be near a realized soul at the time he or she gives up the body yields blessings surpassing those o f a thousand and eight visits to holy persons at other times. The Vedas explain, As a caterpillar coming to the end of a blade of grass draws itself together in taking the next step, so does the soul in the process of transition strike down this body and dispel its ignorance. Aum Nama? Sivaya. How Does One Best Prepare for Death? SLOKA 35 Blessed with the knowledge of impending transition, we settle affairs and take r efuge in japa, worship, scripture and yoga seeking the highest realizations as we consciously, joyously release the world. Aum Nama? Sivaya. BHASHYA

Before dying, Hindus diligently fulfill obligations, make amends and resolve dif ferences by forgiving themselves and others, lest unresolved karmas bear fruit i n future births. That done, we turn to God through meditation, surrender and scr iptural study. As a conscious death is our ideal, we avoid drugs, artificial lif e-extension and suicide. Suicide only postpones and intensifies the karma one se eks escape from, requiring several lives to return to the evolutionary point tha t existed at the moment of suicide. In cases of terminal illness, under strict c ommunity regulation, tradition does allow prayopavesa, self-willed religious dea th by fasting. When nearing transition, if hospitalized, we return home to be am ong loved ones. In the final hours of life, we seek the Self God within and focu s on our mantra as kindred keep prayerful vigil. At death, we leave the body thr ough the crown chakra, entering the clear white light and beyond in quest of vid ehamukti. The Vedas affirm, When a person comes to weakness, be it through old ag e or disease, he frees himself from these limbs just as a mango, a fig or a berr y releases itself from its stalk. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Desireless, wise, immortal, self-existent, full of bliss, lacking in nothing, is the one who knows the wise, unaging, youthful atman. He fears not death! Atharva Veda 10.8.44. VE, 538 He, however, who has not understanding, who is unmindful and ever impure, reache s not the goal, but goes on to reincarnation. He, however, who has understanding , who is mindful and ever pure, reaches the goal from which he is born no more. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Katha Upanishad 3.7-8. UPH, 352 Go, my breath, to the immortal Breath. Then may this body end in ashes! Remember , O my mind, the deeds of the past, remember the deeds, remember the deeds! Sukla Yajur Veda, Isa Upanishad 17. VE, 831 Even as a heavy laden cart moves on groaning, even so the cart of the human body , wherein lives the spirit, moves on groaning when a man is giving up the breath of life. And as when a king is going to depart, the nobles and officers, the ch arioteers and the heads of the village assemble around him, even so all the powe rs of life gather about the soul when a man is giving up the breath of life. Whe n departing, by the head, or by the eye or other parts of the body, life arises and follows the soul, and the powers of life follow life. The soul becomes consc ious and enters into Consciousness. His wisdom and works take him by the hand, a nd the knowledge known of old. Then even as a worker in gold, taking an old orna ment, molds it into a form newer and fairer, even so the soul, leaving the body and unwisdom behind, goes into a form newer and fairer, a form like that of the ancestors in heaven, or of the celestial beings, or of the Gods of light, or of the Lord of Creation, or of Brahma, the Creator supreme, or a form of other bein gs. Sukla Yajur Veda, B?ihadara?yaka Upanishad 4.3.35; 37 & 4.4.2; 3. UPM, 138-139 O Maghavan, verily, this body is mortal. It has been appropriated by death. But it is the standing ground of that deathless, bodiless Self (atman). Verily, he w ho is incorporate has been appropriated by pleasure and pain. Verily, there is n o freedom from pleasure and pain for one while he is incorporate. Verily, while one is bodiless, pleasure and pain do not touch him. Sama Veda, Çhandogya Upanishad 8.12.1. UPH, 272 I pray Thee for undying love. I pray Thee for the birthless state; but were I to be born again, for the grace of never forgetting Thee. Still more do I pray to

be at Thy feet singing joyfully while Thou dancest. Tirumurai 11, Karaikkal Ammaiyar. PR, 132 Thus acting from the principle of maya itself down to the lowest level, karma, e ven when it manifests as good, is an obstacle still, because it is not toward li beration that it leads. Karma does not dissolve without its various fruits being tasted and consumed. M?igendra Agama, Jñana Pada 8.A.5-6. MA, 193-4 A twice-born, gone to the end of the Veda, knowing that life is impermanent, may abandon the body there by fasting to death according to prescription. After wor shiping the Gods and honoring the munis, the siddha may go to heaven, the eterna l realm of Brahma. Mahabharata, Anu. Parva 25.63-64. HE, 100 Even as the snake sloughs off its skin, even as the bird leaves its shell, even as in its waking state the jiva forgets happenings of the dream state thus does ji va from one body to another migrate until, with grace of Hara, it reaches where it is destined to be, and there experiences the two karmas, good and evil. Tirumantiram 2132. TM They germinate the seed. They plant the seedlings. But, poor in spirit, they do not think of their own fleeting life. Knowing nothing of karmic sorrows, verily they are consumed in the funeral pyre. Tirumantiram 2084. TM All suffering recoils on the wrongdoer himself. Therefore, those desiring not to suffer refrain from causing others pain. If a man visits sorrow on another in t he morning, sorrow will visit him unbidden in the afternoon. Tirukural 320, 319. WW The Life of my life, whose nature tis to hold the fire in His hand, essence of Tr uth of purest gold, who neither comes nor goes, the Mighty One who doth all soul s pervade in this great world, for those who thus meditate on Him, all future birt hs will end. Natchintanai,

Cure for Birth.

NT, 191

The Way to Liberation When the nets of dispositions good and bad are dissolved without any residue, wh en the accumulated deeds virtuous and vicious are completely destroyed to the ve ry roots, the past and the future alike, owing to the removal of all impediments , bring about the direct and immediate perception of Brahman as of the amalaka f ruit on the palm of the hand, then the knower of Brahman becomes one liberated w hile in life. Sukla Yajur Veda, Pai?gala Upanishad 3.2. UPR, 916 What Are the Four Stages on the Path? SLOKA 36 The path of enlightenment is divided naturally into four stages: charya, virtue and selfless service; kriya, worshipful sadhanas; yoga, meditation under a guru s guidance; and jñana, the wisdom state of the realized soul. Aum. BHASHYA Charya, kriya, yoga and jñana are the sequence of the soul s evolutionary process, m uch like the natural development of a butterfly from egg to caterpillar, from ca terpillar to pupa, and then the final metamorphosis to butterfly. These are four padas, or stages, through which each human soul must pass in many births to att ain its final goal. Before entering these spiritual stages, the soul is immersed in the lower nature, the a?ava marga, or self-centered path, bound in fear and lust, hurtful rage, jealousy, confusion, selfishness, consciencelessness and mal ice. Then it awakens into charya, unselfish religious service, or karma yoga. On ce matured in charya, it enters kriya, devotion or bhakti yoga, and finally blos soms into ku??alini yoga. Jñana is the state of enlightened wisdom reached toward the path s end as a result of Self Realization. The four padas are not alternative ways, but progressive, cumulative phases of a one path, San Marga. The Tirumant iram says, Being the Life of life is splendrous jñana worship. Beholding the Light of life is great yoga worship. Giving life by invocation is external worship. Ex pressing adoration is charya. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Nature of the Charya Pada? SLOKA 37 Charya is the performance of altruistic religious service and living according t o traditional ethical conduct and culture, by which the outer nature is purified . It is the stage of overcoming basic instinctive patterns. Aum. BHASHYA

Charya, literally conduct, is the first stage of religiousness and the foundation for the next three stages. It is also called the dasa marga, meaning path of serv itude, for here the soul relates to God as servant to master. The disciplines of charya include humble service, attending the temple, performing one s duty to comm unity and family, honoring holy men, respecting elders, atoning for misdeeds and fulfilling the ten classical restraints called yamas. Within a strong society, one performs charya whether he wants to or not. Young or rebellious souls often resist and resent, whereas mature souls fulfill these obligations most naturally . Right behavior and self-sacrificing service are never outgrown. The keynote of charya, or karma yoga, is seva, religious service given without the least thoug ht of reward, which has the magical effect of softening the ego and bringing for th the soul s innate devotion. The Tirumantiram explains, The simple temple duties, lighting the lamps, picking flowers, lovingly polishing the floors, sweeping, s inging the Lord s praise, ringing the bell and fetching ceremonial water these const itute the dasa marga. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Nature of the Kriya Pada? SLOKA 38 Kriya is joyous and regular worship, both internal and external, in the home and temple. It includes puja, japa, penance, fasting and scriptural learning, by wh ich our understanding and love of God and Gods deepen. Aum. BHASHYA Hinduism demands deep devotion through bhakti yoga in the kriya pada, softening the intellect and unfolding love. In kriya, the second stage of religiousness, o ur sadhana, which was mostly external in charya, is now also internal. Kriya, li terally action or rite, is a stirring of the soul in awareness of the Divine, over coming the obstinacy of the instinctive-intellectual mind. We now look upon the Deity image not just as carved stone, but as the living presence of the God. We perform ritual and puja not because we have to but because we want to. We are dr awn to the temple to satisfy our longing. We sing joyfully. We absorb and intuit the wisdom of the Vedas and Agamas. We perform pilgrimage and fulfill the sacra ments. We practice diligently the ten classical observances called niyamas. Our relationship with God in kriya is as a son to his parents and thus this stage is called the satputra marga. The Tirumantiram instructs, Puja, reading the scriptu res, singing hymns, performing japa and unsullied austerity, truthfulness, restr aint of envy, and offering of food these and other self-purifying acts constitute the flawless satputra marga. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Nature of the Yoga Pada? SLOKA 39 Yoga is internalized worship which leads to union with God. It is the regular pr actice of meditation, detachment and austerities under the guidance of a satguru through whose grace we attain the realization of Parasiva. Aum. BHASHYA Yoga, union, is the process of uniting with God within oneself, a stage arrived at through perfecting charya and kriya. As God is now like a friend to us, yoga is known as the sakha marga. This system of inner discovery begins with asana sittin g quietly in yogic posture and pra?ayama, breath control. Pratyahara, sense withdr awal, brings awareness into dhara?a, concentration, then into dhyana, meditation . Over the years, under ideal conditions, the ku??alini fire of consciousness as cends to the higher chakras, burning the dross of ignorance and past karmas. Dhy ana finally leads to enstasy first to savikalpa samadhi, the contemplative experie nce of Satchidananda, and ultimately to nirvikalpa samadhi, Parasiva. Truly a li ving satguru is needed as a steady guide to traverse this path. When yoga is pra cticed by one perfected in kriya, the Gods receive the yogi into their midst thr ough his awakened, fiery ku??alini. The Vedas enjoin the yogi, With earnest effor

t hold the senses in check. Controlling the breath, regulate the vital activitie s. As a charioteer holds back his restive horses, so does a persevering aspirant restrain his mind. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Nature of the Jñana Pada? SLOKA 40 Jñana is divine wisdom emanating from an enlightened being, a soul in its maturity , immersed in Sivaness, the blessed realization of God, while living out earthly karma. Jñana is the fruition of yoga tapas. Aum Nama? Sivaya. BHASHYA The instinctive mind in the young soul is firm and well-knit together. The intel lectual mind in the adolescent soul is complicated, and he sees the physical wor ld as his only reality. The subsuperconscious mind in the mystically inclined so ul well perfected in kriya longs for realization of Siva s two perfections, Satchi dananda and Parasiva. Through yoga he bursts into the superconscious mind, exper iencing bliss, all-knowingness and perfect silence. It is when the yogi s intellec t is shattered that he soars into Parasiva and comes out a jñani. Each time he ent ers that unspeakable nirvikalpa samadhi, he returns to consciousness more and mo re the knower. He is the liberated one, the jivanmukta, the epitome of kaivalya pe rfect freedom far-seeing, filled with light, filled with love. One does not become a jñani simply by reading and understanding philosophy. The state of jñana lies in the realm of intuition, beyond the intellect. The Vedas say, Having realized the Self, the ?ishis, perfected souls, satisfied with their knowledge, passion-free, tranquil those wise beings, having attained the omnipresent on all sides enter into the All itself. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Like the household fire, devotees seek the glory of the Lord even from afar and enshrine it in their inner chamber for enlightenment. The glory of our Lord is f ull of splendor, all-illuminative and worthy to be honored in every heart. ?ig Veda 7.1.2. RVP, 2341 For the great-souled, the surest way to liberation is the conviction that I am Br ahman. The two terms, what leads to bondage and what leads to liberation, are the sense of mineness and the absence of the sense of mineness. Yajur Veda, Pai?gala Upanishad 4.19. UPR, 923 He remains aloof, but not aloof, in the body, but not in the body; his inmost Se lf becomes the All-Pervading. Having purified his heart and accomplished his per fect thinking, the yogin sees: I am the All, the Highest Bliss. Sukla Yajur Veda, Pai?gala Upanishad 4.9. VE, 441 When the yogin unites his breath with Aum or is united with the All in manifold ways, it is called yoga. This oneness of breath, mind and senses, the renunciati on of all existence this is termed yoga. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Maitri Upanishad 6.25. VE, 776 When cease the five (sense) knowledges, together with the mind, and the intellec t stirs not that, they say, is the highest course. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Maitri Upanishad 6.30. UPH, 443 The initiation for the attainment of liberation can only be obtained from the gu ru. Without the help of the guru, no penance could ever be helpful in producing the desired result. The guru teaches the pupil. The guru becomes the object of g

lory for the disciple and enhances the pupil s dignity. Hence the disciple must ha ve immense regard for the guru. The guru is Siva Himself, and Siva is called the guru. Whether guru or Siva, both have been accepted as vidya. Chandrajñana Saiva Agama, Kriyapada, 2.7 It should be known that effort for yogic realization by yogis must proceed in ei ght steps: yama, niyama, asana, pra?ayama, pratyahara, dhara?a, dhyana and samad hi. Suprabheda Agama, 3.54-55. BO SA, 314 Never does a man attain moksha by his own skill; by no means other than the grac e of Siva, the dispeller of evil, is such an attainment possible. Paushkara Agama He alone is learned, he alone is fortunate and successful, whose mind is no long er unstable as air, but is held firm. That is the way to liberation, that is the highest virtue, that is wisdom, that is strength and that is the merit of those who seek. Devikalottara Agama, Jñana-achara-vichara 7-8. RM, 112 This Lord of Maya-world that has its rise in the mind, He knows all our thoughts , but we do not think of Him. Some be who groan, God is not favorable to me, but su rely God seeks those who seek, their souls to save. How is it they received God S iva s grace? you ask. In the battle of life, their bewildered thoughts wandered. Th ey trained their course and, freed of darkness, sought the Lord and adored His p recious, holy feet. Tirumantiram 22; 599. TM To see him, to adore him, to meditate on him, to touch him, to sing of him, to b ear his holy feet on humbled head they that render devotion to guru in diverse way s thus they indeed walk the San Marga that to liberation leads. Tirumantiram 1479. TM Self-control will place one among the Gods, while lack of it will lead to deepes t darkness. Tirukural 121. WW Listen while I tell you the path to liberation: truth, patience, calmness and di scipline of self, discrimination between the eternal and the passing; devotion t o the humble servants of the Lord; rising in the early morning and bathing befor e daybreak; repeating in the way prescribed the flawless Letters Five; worshipin g the guru s feet; applying holy ash; eating but when hungry; with the whole heart giving praise; studying the Sastras; seeing others as oneself; severing attachm ent to all property and wealth; speaking with fit courtesy; avoiding argument; d riving from the mind all thought of family and caste; being ever free of the sma llest like or dislike; living and abiding neath the Lord s eternal feet. Natchintanai,

Path to Liberation.

NT, 33

The Three Worlds The spirit of man has two dwellings: this world and the world beyond. There is a lso a third dwelling place: the land of sleep and dreams. Resting in this border land, the spirit of man can behold his dwelling in this world and in the other w orld afar; and wandering in this borderland, he beholds behind him the sorrows o f this world, and in front of him he sees the joys of the beyond. Sukla Yajur Veda, B?ihadara?yaka Upanishad 4.3.9. UPM, 134 Where Did This Universe Come from? SLOKA 41 Supreme God Siva created the world and all things in it. He creates and sustains from moment to moment every atom of the seen physical and unseen spiritual univ erse. Everything is within Him. He is within everything. Aum. BHASHYA God Siva created us. He created the Earth and all things upon it, animate and in animate. He created time and gravity, the vast spaces and the uncounted stars. H e created night and day, joy and sorrow, love and hate, birth and death. He crea ted the gross and the subtle, this world and the other worlds. There are three w orlds of existence: the physical, subtle and causal, termed Bhuloka, Antarloka a nd Sivaloka. The Creator of all, Siva Himself is uncreated. As supreme Mahadeva, Siva wills into manifestation all souls and all form, issuing them from Himself like light from a fire or waves from an ocean. ?ishis describe this perpetual p rocess as the unfoldment of thirty-six tattvas, stages of manifestation, from th e Siva tattva Parasakti and nada to the five elements. Creation is not the making of a separate thing, but an emanation of Himself. Lord Siva creates, constantly su stains the form of His creations and absorbs them back into Himself. The Vedas e lucidate, As a spider spins and withdraws its web, as herbs grow on the earth, as hair grows on the head and body of a person, so also from the Imperishable aris es this universe. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Nature of the Physical Plane? SLOKA 42 The physical plane, or Bhuloka, is the world of gross or material substance in w hich phenomena are perceived by the five senses. It is the most limited of world s, the least permanent and the most subject to change. Aum. BHASHYA The material world is where we have our experiences, manufacture karma and fulfi ll the desires and duties of life in a physical body. It is in the Bhuloka that consciousness is limited, that awareness of the other two worlds is not always r emembered. It is the external plane, made of gross matter, which is really just energy. The world is remarkable in its unending variety and enthralling novelty. Mystics call it the unfoldment of prak?iti, primal nature, and liken it to a bu bble on the ocean s surface. It arises, lives and bursts to return to the source. This physical world, though necessary to our evolution, is the embodiment of imp ermanence, of constant change. Thus, we take care not to become overly attached to it. It is mystically subjective, not objective. It is dense but not solid. It is sentient, even sacred. It is rocks and rainbows, liquid, gas and conflagrati on, all held in a setting of space. The Vedas affirm, The knower, the author of t ime, the possessor of qualities and all knowledge, it is He who envelopes the un iverse. Controlled by Him, this work of creation unfolds itself that which is rega rded as earth, water, fire, air and ether. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Nature of the Subtle Plane?

SLOKA 43 The subtle plane, or Antarloka, is the mental-emotional sphere that we function in through thought and feeling and reside in fully during sleep and after death. It is the astral world that exists within the physical plane. Aum. BHASHYA The astral plane is for the most part exactly duplicated in the physical plane, though it is of a more intense rate of vibration. Beings in the higher Antarloka are trained in technology, the arts and increments of culture to take up bodies in the Bhuloka, to improve and enhance conditions within it. It is in this more advanced realm that new inventions are invented, new species created, ideas unf olded, futures envisioned, environments balanced, scientists trained and artists taught finesse. We function constantly, though perhaps not consciously, in this subtle plane by our every thought and emotion. Here, during sleep and after dea th, we meet others who are sleeping or who have died. We attend inner-plane scho ols, there to advance our knowledge. The Antarloka spans the spectrum of conscio usness from the hellish Naraka regions beginning at the patala chakra within the feet, to the heavenly realm of divine love in the visuddha chakra within the th roat. The Vedas recount, Now, there are, of a truth, three worlds: the world of m en, the world of the fathers, and the world of the Gods. The world of the Gods i s verily the best of worlds. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Nature of the Causal Plane? SLOKA 44 The causal plane, or Sivaloka, pulsates at the core of being, deep within the su btle plane. It is the superconscious world where the Gods and highly evolved sou ls live and can be accessed through yoga and temple worship. Aum. BHASHYA The causal plane is the world of light and blessedness, the highest of heavenly regions, extolled in the scriptures of all faiths. It is the foundation of exist ence, the source of visions, the point of conception, the apex of creation. The causal plane is the abode of Lord Siva and His entourage of Mahadevas and other highly evolved souls who exist in their own self-effulgent form radiant bodies of centillions of quantum light particles. Even for embodied souls, this refined re alm is not distant, but exists within man. It is ever-present, ever-available as the clear white light that illumines the mind, accessed within the throat and c ranial chakras visuddha, ajña and sahasrara in the sublime practices of yoga and templ e worship. It is in the causal plane that the mature soul, unshrouded of the phy sical body s strong instinctive pulls and astral body s harsh intellectual strangleh old, resides fully conscious in its self-effulgent form. The Sivaloka is the nat ural refuge of all souls. The Vedas intone, Where men move at will, in the threef old sphere, in the third heaven of heavens, where are realms full of light, in t hat radiant world make me immortal. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Does the Universe Ever End? Is It Real? SLOKA 45 The universe ends at mahapralaya, when time, form and space dissolve in God Siva , only to be created again in the next cosmic cycle. We call it relatively real to distinguish it from the unchanging Reality. Aum Nama? Sivaya. BHASHYA This universe, and indeed all of existence, is maya, Siva s mirific energy. While God is absolutely real, His emanated world is relatively real. Being relatively real does not mean the universe is illusory or nonexistent, but that it is imper manent and subject to change. It is an error to say that the universe is mere il lusion, for it is entirely real when experienced in ordinary consciousness, and

its existence is required to lead us to God. The universe is born, evolves and d issolves in cycles much as the seasons come and go through the year. These cycle s are inconceivably immense, ending in mahapralaya when the universe undergoes d issolution. All three worlds, including time and space, dissolve in God Siva. Th is is His ultimate grace the evolution of all souls is perfect and complete as the y lose individuality and return to Him. Then God Siva exists alone in His three perfections until He again issues forth creation. The Vedas state, Truly, God is One; there can be no second. He alone governs these worlds with His powers. He s tands facing beings. He, the herdsman, after bringing forth allworlds, reabsorbs them at the end of time. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Even as airy threads come from a spider, or small sparks come from a fire, so fr om atman, the Spirit in man, come all the powers of life, all the worlds, all th e Gods, all beings. To know the atman is to know the mystery of the Upanishads, the Truth of truth. The powers of life are truth and their Truth is atman, the S pirit. Sukla Yajur Veda, B?ihadara?yaka Upanishad 2.1.20. UPM, 130 In the world of heaven there is no trace of fear. You, Death, are not there. The re one dreads not old age. Thirst and hunger transcended and sorrow overpassed, a man rejoices in the world of heaven. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Katha Upanishad 1.12. VE, 639 Now this atman is the bridge and the boundary separating these worlds. Day and n ight do not cross over this bridge, or old age, or death, or sorrow, or good wor ks or bad works; all evils turn back from it, for this world of Brahman is free from evil. Thus, after crossing that bridge, the blind man sees, the wounded one is healed, the sufferer is freed from suffering. Therefore, for the one who has crossed that bridge, even the night is transformed into day, for the world of B rahman is ever illumined. But the world of Brahman belongs only to those who fin d it by the practice of chastity and the study of Brahman. For them there is fre edom in all the worlds. Sama Veda, Çhandogya Upanishad 7.8.4. VE, 638 This universe is a tree eternally existing, its root aloft, its branches spread below. The pure root of the tree is Brahman, the immortal, in whom the three wor lds have their being, whom none can transcend, who is verily the Self. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Katha Upanishad 6.1. UPP, 36 These worlds, tiered one above the other from the lowest to the highest, make up the universe of transmigration. Knowers of Reality describe it as the place of effective experience. M?igendra Agama, Jñana Pada 13.A.2. MA, 286--132 All these visibles and invisibles, movables and immovables, are pervaded by Me. All the worlds existing in the tattvas from Sakti to p?ithivi [earth] exist in m e. Whatever is heard or seen, internally or externally, is pervaded by Me. Sarvajñanottara Agama 2.9-11 May God who, in the mystery of His vision and power, transforms His white radiance into His many-colored creation, from whom all things come and into whom they al l return grant us the grace of pure vision. He is the sun, the moon and the stars. He is the fire, the waters and the wind. He is Brahma, the creator of all, and Prajapati, the Lord of creation. Thou this boy, and thou this maiden; Thou this

man, and Thou this woman; Thou the God who appears in forms infinite. Thou the b lue bird and Thou the green bird; Thou the cloud that conceals the lightning and Thou the seasons and the oceans. Beyond beginning, Thou are in Thy infinity, an d all the worlds had their beginning in Thee. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.1-4. UPM, 91 The gross body with presence prominent, the subtle body that invisible takes sha pe and the causal body that by inference is all these bodies disappear when mergin g in the Lord s feet. Tirumantiram 2130. TM The Lord created the world, the dwelling place of man. How shall I sing His maje sty? He is as mighty as Mount Meru, whence He holds sway over the three worlds; and He is the four paths of Saivam here below. Those who tread the path of Suddh a Saivam stand aloft, their hearts intent on Eternal Para; transcending worlds o f pure and impure maya, where pure intelligence consorts not with base ignorance and the lines that divide Real, Unreal and Real-Unreal are sharply discerned. Tirumantiram 1419-1240. TM The universe, animate and inanimate, is His body. The universe, animate and inan imate, is His play. The universe, animate and inanimate, is He. The whole univer se, animate and inanimate, is a wonder. Natchintanai,

Who Can Know?

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O Transcendent One extending through both Earth and Heaven! Ever bright with glo ry! The King of Sivaloka! The Lord Siva presiding at Tiruperunturai! I have no s ustenance other than You. Tirumurai 8. TT, 159 There is no baser folly than the infatuation that looks upon the ephemeral as if it were everlasting. Tirukural 331. WW

Sin and Suffering Loose us from the yoke of the sins of our Fathers and also of those we ourselves have committed. Release your servant, as a thief is set free from his crime or as a calf is loosed from its cord. ?ig Veda 7.86.5 VE, 516 Why Is There Suffering in the World? SLOKA 51 The nature of the world is duality. It contains each thing and its opposite: joy and sorrow, goodness and evil, love and hate. Through experience of these, we l earn and evolve, finally seeking Truth beyond all opposites. Aum. BHASHYA There is a divine purpose even in the existence of suffering in the world. Suffe ring cannot be totally avoided. It is a natural part of human life and the impet us for much spiritual growth for the soul. Knowing this, the wise accept sufferi ng from any source, be it hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, famine, wars, disease or inexplicable tragedies. Just as the intense fire of the furnace purifies gol d, so does suffering purify the soul to resplendence. So also does suffering off er us the important realization that true happiness and freedom cannot be found in the world, for earthly joy is inextricably bound to sorrow, and worldly freed om to bondage. Having learned this, devotees seek a satguru who teaches them to understand suffering, and brings them into the intentional hardships of sadhana and tapas leading to liberation from the cycles of experience in the realm of du

ality. The Agamas explain, That which appears as , good fortune and bad, love and hate, effort and depraved, the rich and the poor, the well-founded is God Himself; none other than Him can we know.

cold or as hot, fresh or spoiled laziness, the exalted and the and the ill-founded, all this Aum Nama? Sivaya.

What Is Sin? How Can We Atone for It? SLOKA 52 Sin is the intentional transgression of divine law. There is no inherent or origi nal sin. Neither is there mortal sin by which the soul is forever lost. Through s adhana, worship and austerities, sins can be atoned for. Aum. BHASHYA What men term sin, the wise call ignorance. Man s true nature is not sullied by si n. Sin is related only to the lower, instinctive-intellectual nature as a transg ression of dharma. Still, sin is real and to be avoided, for our wrongful action s return to us as sorrow through the law of karma. Sin is terminable, and its ef fects may be compensated for by penance, or prayaschitta, and good deeds which s ettle the karmic debt. The young soul, less in tune with his soul nature, is inc lined toward sin; the old soul seldom transgresses divine law. Sins are the crip pling distortions of intellect bound in emotion. When we sin, we take the energy and distort it to our instinctive favor. When we are unjust and mean, hateful a nd holding resentments year after year and no one but ourselves knows of our int rigue and corruption, we suffer. As the soul evolves, it eventually feels the gr eat burden of faults and misdeeds and wishes to atone. Penance is performed, and the soul seeks absolution from society and beseeches God s exonerating grace. The Vedas say, Loose me from my sin as from a bond that binds me. May my life swell the stream of your river of Right. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Does Hell Really Exist? Is There a Satan? SLOKA 53 There is no eternal hell, nor is there a Satan. However, there are hellish state s of mind and woeful births for those who think and act wrongfully temporary torme nting conditions that lift the fiery forces within. Aum. BHASHYA Hell, termed Naraka, is the lower astral realm of the seven chakras below the mu ladhara. It is a place of fire and heat, anguish and dismay, of confusion, despa ir and depression. Here anger, jealousy, argument, mental conflict and tormentin g moods plague the mind. Access to hell is brought about by our own thoughts, wo rds, deeds and emotions suppressed, antagonistic feelings that court demons and th eir aggressive forces. Hell is not eternal. Nor is there a Satan who tempts man and opposes God s power, though there are devilish beings called asuras, immature souls caught in the abyss of deception and hurtfulness. We do not have to die to suffer the Naraka regions, for hellish states of mind are also experienced in t he physical world. If we do die in a hellish state of consciousness burdened by un resolved hatred, remorse, resentment, fear and distorted patterns of thought we ar rive in Naraka fully equipped to join others in this temporary astral purgatory. The Vedas say, Sunless and demonic, verily, are those worlds, and enveloped in b linding darkness, to which all those people who are enemies of their own souls g o after death. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Consequence of Sinful Acts? SLOKA 54 When we do not think, speak and act virtuously, we create negative karmas and br ing suffering upon ourselves and others. We suffer when we act instinctively and intellectually without superconscious guidance. Aum. BHASHYA

We are happy, serene and stable when we follow good conduct, when we listen to o ur conscience, the knowing voice of the soul. The superconscious mind, the mind of our soul, knows and inspires good conduct, out of which comes a refined, sust ainable culture. Wrongdoing and vice lead us away from God, deep into the darkne ss of doubt, despair and self-condemnation. This brings the asuras around us. We are out of harmony with ourselves and our family and must seek companionship el sewhere, amongst those who are also crude, unmindful, greedy and lacking in self -control. In this bad company, burdensome new karma is created, as good conduct cannot be followed. This papa accumulates, blinding us to the religious life we once lived. Penance and throwing ourselves upon the mercy of God and the Gods ar e the only release for the unvirtuous, those who conduct themselves poorly. Fort unately, our Gods are compassionate and love their devotees. The ancient Vedas e lucidate, The mind is said to be twofold: the pure and also the impure; impure by union with desire pure when from desire completely free! Aum Nama? Sivaya. Does God Ever Punish Wrongdoers? SLOKA 55 God is perfect goodness, love and truth. He is not wrathful or vengeful. He does not condemn or punish wrongdoers. Jealousy, vengefulness and vanity are qualiti es of man s instinctive nature, not of God. Aum Nama? Sivaya. BHASHYA There is no reason to ever fear God, whose right-hand gesture, abhaya mudra, ind icates fear not, and whose left hand invites approach. God is with us always, even when we are unaware of that holy presence. He is His creation. It is an extensi on of Himself; and God is never apart from it nor limited by it. When we act wro ngly, we create negative karma for ourselves and must then live through experien ces of suffering to fulfill the law of karma. Such karmas may be painful, but th ey were generated from our own thoughts and deeds. God never punishes us, even i f we do not believe in Him. It is by means of worship of and meditation on God t hat our self-created sufferings are softened and assuaged. God is the God of all o f the believers within all religions, and of the nonbelievers, too. God does not destroy the wicked and redeem the righteous; but grants the precious gift of li beration to all souls. The Agamas state, When the soul gradually reduces and then stops altogether its participation in darkness and inauspicious powers, the Fri end of the World, God, reveals to the soul the limitless character of its knowle dge and activity. Aum Nama? Sivaya. When, to a man who knows, all beings have become one with his own Self, when fur thermore he perceives this oneness, how then can sorrow or delusion touch him? Sukla Yajur Veda, Isa Upanishad 7. VE, 815 I glorify Him who is of wonderful radiance like the sun, who is the giver of hap piness, lovely, benevolent, and the One whom all welcome like a guest. He bestow s vigor upon the worshipers; may He, the fire divine, remove our sorrow and give us heroic strength and all sustaining riches. ?ig Veda 10.122.1. RVP, 4617 I go for refuge to God who is One in the silence of eternity, pure radiance of b eauty and perfection, in whom we find our peace. He is the bridge supreme which leads to immortality, and the spirit of fire which burns the dross of lower life . K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.19. UPM, 96 When a seer sees the creator of golden hue, the Lord, the Person, the source of

Brahma, then being a knower, shaking off good and evil and free from stain, he a ttains supreme equality with the Lord. Atharva Veda, Mu??aka Upanishad 3.1.3. UPR, 686 Only by a tranquil mind does one destroy all action, good or bad. Once the self is pacified, one abides in the Self and attains everlasting bliss. If the mind b ecomes as firmly established in Brahman as it is usually attached to the sense o bjects, who, then, will not be released from bondage? K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Maitri Upanishad 6.34. VE, 422 Words cannot describe the joy of the soul whose impurities are cleansed in deep contemplation who is one with his atman, his own Spirit. Only those who feel this joy know what it is. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Maitri Upanishad 6.34. UPM, 103 Even though he causes pain to his patient by applying certain remedies, the phys ician is not taken to be the cause of the suffering, because in the final analys is he has produced the good that was sought after. M?igendra Agama, Jñana Pada 7.A.18. MA, 184 If we have sinned, awake, asleep, knowing, unknowing, through evil nature, may A gni banish far from us all such hateful wicked deeds. ?ig Veda 10.164.3. VE, 488 Disputes, worldly associations and quarrels should be avoided. Not even spiritua l disputations should be indulged in, whether good or bad. Jealousy, slander, po mp, passion, envy, love, anger, fear and misery should all disappear gradually a nd entirely. Devikalottara Agama, Jñana Pada 77-78. RM, 116 And even if thou wert the greatest of sinners, with the help of the vessel of wi sdom thou shalt cross the sea of evil. Even as a burning fire burns all fuel int o ashes, the fire of eternal wisdom burns into ashes all works. Bhagavad Gita 4.36-37. BGM, 64 The virtuous wife, devotee true and jñani great those who do exceeding harm to shock these, their life and wealth will in a year disappear. Tirumantiram 532. TM O, my Lord, the five senses have taken possession of my body and driven me away from your holy feet. I am confused and troubled at heart, like the curd which is being churned. Bestow enlightenment upon me. Tirumurai 4. HY, 11 As the intense fire of the furnace refines gold to brilliance, so does the burni ng suffering of austerity purify the soul to resplendence. Tirukural 267. WW As a man s shadow follows his footsteps wherever he goes, even so will destruction pursue those who commit sinful deeds.

Tirukural 208. WW A physician takes various roots, mixes them together into one medicine and with it cures the disease. Likewise, the great, All-Knowing Physician, by giving to t he soul its body, faculties, the world and all its experiences, cures its diseas e and establishes it in the bliss of liberation. Natchintanai,

Seek the Profit

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The Goodness of All In him who is pure of mind, intellect and ego, the senses and their perceptions are pure, in fact, and he finds everything pure as well. Sarvajñanottara Agama, Atma Sakshatkara 62. RM, 110 Are Souls and World Essentially Good? SLOKA 46 The intrinsic and real nature of all beings is their soul, which is goodness. Th e world, too, is God s flawless creation. All is in perfect balance. There are cha nges, and they may appear evil, but there is no intrinsic evil. Aum. BHASHYA The soul radiates love, is a child of God going through its evolutionary process of growing up into the image and likeness of the Lord. Goodness and mercy, comp assion and caring are the intrinsic, inherent or indwelling nature of the soul. Wisdom and pure knowledge, happiness and joy are the intrinsic nature of the sou l. Can we believe the soul is anything but goodness itself, purity and all the r efined qualities found within superconsciousness? When God is everywhere, how ca n there be a place for evil? The soul is constantly one with God in its ever-pre sent Satchidananda state at every point in its evolution. How, then, arises the concept of evil and suffering? A?ava, karma and maya, the play toys of the soul, are the source of this seeming suffering. Like a child, we play with the toys o f a?ava in the playground of maya, fall and are bruised by karma, then run to ou r loving Lord for solace and release into spiritual maturity. The Vedas pointedl y state, As the sun, the eye of the whole world, is not sullied by the external f aults of the eyes, so the one inner soul of all things is not sullied by the sor row in the world, being external to it. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Why Do Some Souls Act in Evil Ways? SLOKA 47 People act in evil ways who have lost touch with their soul nature and live tota lly in the outer, instinctive mind. What the ignorant see as evil, the enlighten ed see as the actions of low-minded and immature individuals. Aum. BHASHYA Evil is often looked upon as a force against God. But the Hindu knows that all f orces are God s forces, even the waywardness of adharma. This is sometimes difficu lt to understand when we see the pains and problems caused by men against men. L ooking deeper, we see that what is called evil has its own mysterious purpose in life. Yes, bad things do happen. Still, the wise never blame God, for they know these to be the return of man s self-created karmas, difficult but necessary expe riences for his spiritual evolution. Whenever we are injured or hurt, we underst and that our suffering is but the fulfillment of a karma we once initiated, for which our injurer is but the instrument who, when his karma cycles around, will be the injured. Those who perform seemingly evil deeds are not yet in touch with the ever-present God consciousness of their immortal soul. The Vedas rightly ad monish, Borne along and defiled by the stream of qualities, unsteady, wavering, b ewildered, full of desire, distracted, one goes on into the state of self-concei t. In thinking This is I and That is mine one binds himself with himself, as does a bird with a snare. Aum Nama? Sivaya. What Is the Source of Good and Evil? SLOKA 48

Instead of seeing good and evil in the world, we understand the nature of the em bodied soul in three interrelated parts: instinctive or physical-emotional; inte llectual or mental; and superconscious or spiritual. Aum. BHASHYA Evil has no source, unless the source of evil s seeming be ignorance itself. Still , it is good to fear unrighteousness. The ignorant complain, justify, fear and c riticize sinful deeds, setting themselves apart as lofty puritans. When the outer, or lower, instinctive nature dominates, one is prone to anger, fear, greed, jea lousy, hatred and backbiting. When the intellect is prominent, arrogance and ana lytical thinking preside. When the superconscious soul comes forth the refined q ualities are born compassion, insight, modesty and the others. The animal instinct s of the young soul are strong. The intellect, yet to be developed, is nonexiste nt to control these strong instinctive impulses. When the intellect is developed , the instinctive nature subsides. When the soul unfolds and overshadows the wel l-developed intellect, this mental harness is loosened and removed. When we enco unter wickedness in others, let us be compassionate, for truly there is no intri nsic evil. The Vedas say, Mind is indeed the source of bondage and also the sourc e of liberation. To be bound to things of this world: this is bondage. To be fre e from them: this is liberation. Aum Nama? Sivaya. How Can a Benevolent God Permit Evil? SLOKA 49 Ultimately, there is no good or bad. God did not create evil as a force distinct from good. He granted to souls the loving edicts of dharma and experiential cho ices from very subtle to most crude, thus to learn and evolve. Aum. BHASHYA From the pinnacle of consciousness, one sees the harmony of life. Similarly, fro m a mountaintop, we see the natural role of a raging ocean and the steep cliffs below they are beautiful. From the bottom of the mountain, the ocean can appear om inous and the cliffs treacherous. When through meditation we view the universe f rom the inside out, we see that there is not one thing out of place or wrong. Th is releases the human concepts of right and wrong, good and bad. Our benevolent Lord created everything in perfect balance. Good or evil, kindness or hurtfulnes s return to us as the result, the fruit, of our own actions of the past. The fou r dharmas are God s wisdom lighting our path. That which is known as evil arises f rom the instinctive-intellectual nature, which the Lord created as dimensions of experience to strengthen our soul and further its spiritual evolution. Let us b e compassionate, for truly there is no intrinsic evil. The Vedas admonish, Being overcome by the fruits of his action, he enters a good or an evil womb, so that his course is downward or upward, and he wanders around, overcome by the pairs o f opposites. Aum Nama? Sivaya. Should One Avoid Worldly Involvement? SLOKA 50 The world is the bountiful creation of a benevolent God, who means for us to liv e positively in it, facing karma and fulfilling dharma. We must not despise or f ear the world. Life is meant to be lived joyously. Aum Nama? Sivaya. BHASHYA The world is the place where our destiny is shaped, our desires fulfilled and ou r soul matured. In the world, we grow from ignorance into wisdom, from darkness into light and from a) consciousness of death to immortality. The whole world is an asrama in which all are doing sadhana. We must love the world, which is God s creation. Those who despise, hate and fear the world do not understand the intri nsic goodness of all. The world is a glorious place, not to be feared. It is a g racious gift from Siva Himself, a playground for His children in which to interr

elate young souls with the old the young experiencing their karma while the old ho ld firmly to their dharma. The young grow; the old know. Not fearing the world d oes not give us permission to become immersed in worldliness. To the contrary, i t means remaining affectionately detached, like a drop of water on a lotus leaf, being in the world but not of it, walking in the rain without getting wet. The Vedas warn, Behold the universe in the glory of God: and all that lives and moves on Earth. Leaving the transient, find joy in the Eternal. Set not your heart on another s possession. Aum Nama? Sivaya. As one not knowing that a golden treasure lies buried beneath his feet may walk over it again and again yet never find it so all beings live every moment in the c ity of Brahman yet never find Him, because of the veil of illusion by which He i s concealed. Sama Veda, Çhandogya Upanishad 8.3.2. UPP, 121 He who knows the fine-drawn thread of which the creatures that we see are spun, who knows the thread of that same thread he also knows Brahman, the Ultimate. Atharva Veda 10.8.37. VE, 828 O Lord, lead us along the right path to prosperity. O God, You know all our deed s. Take from us our deceitful sin. To you, then, we shall offer our prayers. Sukla Yajur Veda, Isa Upanishad 18. VE, 831 Sin of the mind, depart far away! Why do you utter improper suggestions? Depart from this place! I do not want you! Go to the trees and the forests! My mind wil l remain here along with our homes and our cattle. Atharva Veda 6.45.1. VE, 489 He who, in the mystery of life, has found the atman, the Spirit, and has awakene d to his light, to him, as creator, belongs the world of the Spirit, for he is t his world. While we are here in this life, we may reach the light of wisdom; and if we reach it not, how deep is the darkness? Those who see the light enter lif e eternal; those who live in darkness enter into sorrow. Even by the mind this t ruth must be seen: there are not many, but only One. Who sees variety and not th e Unity wanders on from death to death. Knowing this, let the lover of Brahman f ollow wisdom. Let him not ponder on many words, for many words are weariness. Sukla Yajur Veda, B?ihadara?yaka Upanishad 4.4.13-14; 19; 21. UPM, 141-142 As water descending on mountain crags wastes its energies among the gullies, so he who views things as separate wastes his energies in their pursuit. But as pur e water poured into pure becomes the self-same, wholly pure so, too, becomes the s elf of the silent sage, of the one, O Gautama, who has understanding. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Katha Upanishad 4.14-15. VE, 861 When he knows the atman the Self, the inner life, who enjoys like a bee the sweetn ess of the flowers of the senses, the Lord of what was and of what will be then he goes beyond fear. This, in truth, is That. K?ish?a Yajur Veda, Katha Upanishad 4.5. UPM, 62 Turn away from confusion, ignorance, delusion, dream, sleep or wakefulness, for the Supreme is different from the gross body, from the subtle pra?a, from though t or intellect or ego. Meditate on consciousness and become one with it.

Devikalottara Agama, Jñana-achara-vichara 31. RM, 113 O, ye, my men! Try to get into the habit of meditating and praying to Siva, the Supreme. All your old sins will disappear as the filmy dew evaporates as soon as the sun rises. Tirumurai 5. HY, 13 Without virtue and penitence, devoid of love and learning, as a leather puppet I went around and fell. He showed me the love and the path and the way to reach t he world wherefrom there is no return. Tirumurai 8. HY, 40 Joy and sorrow both are maya. The atman, never from love divided, is the very form of knowledge. Therefore, these two will not touch you. Can a mirage wash away t he earth? At the gracious, holy feet of the true, all-knowing guru, to the limit of your power, let your heart grow soft and melt. Natchintanai, Joy and Sorrow

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Not one atom can move apart from Him. We do not know. Not all realize the Truth. Only some do. It is all His work. It is everywhere. It supports the thief as we ll. There is nothing strange. What is above is yourself and what is below also i s yourself. Words of Our Master. WM, 62 O man! Be a little patient and see! You will understand who you are. Do not grie ve over that which does not merit grief. Joy and sorrow are of the world. You ar e a conscious being. Nothing can affect you. Arise! Be awake! Open the door of h eaven with the key "Now my body is dead. They will carry this body, motionless, to the cremation ground and burn it. But do I really die with this body? Am I me rely this body? My body is now motionless. But still I know my name. I remember my parents, uncles, brothers, friends and all others. It means that I have a kno wledge of my individuality. If so, the "I" in me is not merely my body; it is a deathless spirit." The Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, "Ramana Maharshi and His Philosophy of Exi stence" of Sivadhyana and look! Everything will be revealed. Natchintanai, Sivadhyana.

NT, 13

"Now my body is dead. They will carry this body, motionless, to the cremation gr ound and burn it. But do I really die with this body? Am I merely this body? My body is now motionless. But still I know my name. I remember my parents, uncles, brothers, friends and all others. It means that I have a knowledge of my indivi duality. If so, the "I" in me is not merely my body; it is a deathless spirit." The Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, "Ramana Maharshi and His Philosophy of Exi stence" In 1912, at age 32, fifteen years after Sri Ramana's initial death experience, h e was once again confronted by Death, of which the following discribes the incid ent: "I could distinctly feel his (that is, Death's) clasp and his shivering and hear his words of lamentation and understand their meaning. I also saw the disco loration of my skin and felt the stoppage of my circulation and breathing and th e increased chilliness of the extremities of my body. My usual current of awaren ess still continued in that state also. I was not in the least afraid and felt n o sadness at the condition of the body. I had sat down near the rock in my usual posture and closed my eyes and was not leaning against the rock. The body, left without circulation or respiration, still maintained that position. This state continued for some ten or fifteen minutes. Then a shock passed suddenly through the body and circulation revived with enormous force, and breathing also, and th e body perspired from every pore. The colour of life reappeared on the skin." SRI RAMANA'S SECOND DEATH EXPERIENCE, by Arthur Osborne

'Now my body is dead. They will carry this body, motionless, to the cremation gr ound and burn it. But do I really die with this body? Am I merely this body? My body is now motionless. But still I know my name. I remember my parents, uncles, brothers, friends and all others. It means that I have a knowledge of my indivi duality. If so, the "I" in me is not merely my body; it is a deathless spirit.' Thus, as in a flash, a new realization came to Venkataramana. Usually a man wins God realization by performing tapas for years and years, without food and sleep ; he subjects the body to great suffering. But Venkataramana won the highest kno wledge without all these. The Fear of Death left him. Venkataramana became the B hagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. THERE WAS A TIME when the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi would frequently roam the holy hill of Arunachala, as well as climbing to the summit and making Pradakshi na (circumambulation), so that in the end, he knew every part of it. And then on e day, when he was wandering alone, he passed an old woman gathering fuel on the hillside. She looked like a common outcast woman, but she addressed the young S wami fearlessly, as an equal. Beginning with the rough cursing common to such pe ople, she said: "May you be put on the funeral pyre! Why do you wander about in the sun like that? Why don't you sit quiet?" "It can have been no ordinary woman," Sri Bhagavan said when he told the devotee s about it; "Who knows who she was?" Certainly, no ordinary outcast woman would have dared to speak to a Swami like that. The devotees took it to be a manifesta tion of Arunagiri Siddha, the Spirit of Arunachala. From that time Sri Bhagavan gave up roaming the hillside. When Sri Bhagavan first went to Tiruvannamalai he sometimes moved about in a sta te of trance. This did not completely end until about 1912 when there was a fina l and complete Experience of Death. He set out from Virupaksha Cave one morning for Pachaiamman Koil, accompanied by Palaniswami, Vasudeva Sastri and others. He had an oil-bath there and was nearing Tortoise Rock on the way back when a sudd en physical weakness overcame him. He described it fully afterwards. "The landscape in front of me disappeared as a bright white curtain was draw n across my vision and shut it out. I could distinctly see the gradual process. There was a stage when I could still see a part of the landscape clearly while t he rest was covered by the advancing curtain. It was just like drawing a slide a cross one's view in a stereoscope. On experiencing this I stopped walking lest I should fall. When it cleared I walked on. When darkness and faintness came over me a second time I leaned against a rock until it cleared. The third time it ha ppened I felt it safer to sit, so I sat down near the rock. Then the bright whit e curtain completely shut off my vision, my head was swimming and my circulation and breathing stopped. The skin turned a livid blue. It was the regular death h ue and it got darker and darker. Vasudeva Sastri, in fact, took me to be dead an d held me in his arms and began to weep aloud and lament my death. "I could distinctly feel his clasp and his shivering and hear his words of l amentation and understand their meaning. I also saw the discoloration of my skin and felt the stoppage of my circulation and breathing and the increased chillin ess of the extremities of my body. My usual current of awareness still continued in that state also. I was not in the least afraid and felt no sadness at the co ndition of the body. I had sat down near the rock in my usual posture and closed my eyes and was not leaning against the rock. The body, left without circulatio n or respiration, still maintained that position. This state continued for some ten or fifteen minutes. Then a shock passed suddenly through the body and circul ation revived with enormous force, and breathing also, and the body perspired fr

om every pore. The colour of life reappeared on the skin. I then opened my eyes and got up and said, 'Let's go.' We reached Virupaksha Cave without further trou ble. This was the only fit I had in which both circulation and respiration stopp ed." Later, to correct wrong accounts that began to be spread, he added: "I did not b ring on the fit purposely, nor did I wish to see what this body would look like after death, nor did I say that I will not leave this body without warning other s. It was one of those fits that I used to get occasionally, only this time it t ook a very serious form." What is, perhaps, most striking about this experience is that it was a repetitio n, heightened by actual physical demonstration, of that certainty of endurance t hrough death which had constituted Sri Bhagavan's spiritual awakening. It recall s the verse from Thayumanavar, the Tamil classic which Sri Bhagavan often quoted : "When overpowered by the wide Expanse which is without beginning, end or middl e, there is the realization of non-dual bliss." It may be that this marked the final completion of Sri Bhagavan's return to full outer normality. It is hard to give any impression of how normal and how human he was in his mode of life and yet it is necessary, for the description of his p revious austerity may leave the idea of someone grim and forbidding. On the cont rary, his manner was natural and free from all constraint and the newcomer immed iately felt at his ease with him. His conversation was full of humour and his la ughter so infectious, so like that of a child, that even those who did not under stand the language would join in.

In an elaboration and/or for clarification or additional insights into what Osbo rne has presented in the above article regarding the Maharshi's second death exp erience, the following, from the works of Peter Holleran titled The "Lost Years" of Ramana Maharshi, is offered: "In 1912, when he was thirty-two, he (the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi) went through a lesser-known second death experience which seemed to mark his complet e return to normal outward activity. He remarked numerous times that the current of the self he had realized at aged sixteen had never changed, but while this n ew experience may not have upstaged his previous realization it did serve to rei ntegrate him with his bodily vehicle and with life. This is how he described wha t happened. While walking back from Virupaksha Cave one day he was suddenly over come with physical weakness. He lay down and the world disappeared as if a brigh t white curtain was drawn across his vision. His breathing and circulation stopp ed and his body turned a livid blue. For fifteen minutes he lay as if in a state of rigor mortis, although still aware of the Self within. The current of awaren ess that was his daily experience persisted even with the shutdown of all bodily systems. Then suddenly, he explained, he felt a rush from the Heart on the righ t to the left side of his chest and the re-establishment of life in the body. Af ter this he was more at ease in everyday circumstances, and began to increasingl y associate with those seekers who gathered around him."

Ramakrishna Paramahansa - God-Intoxicated Saint

by Peter Holleran Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886) was perhaps the most famous Indian s aint of the nineteenth century. He felt a passion for God from his early boyhood . As a youth he was subject to fits of divine emotion and was frequently lost in contemplation. As a small boy he first went into samadhi while crossing a and s eeing a flock of white geese silhoutetted against a dark sky. He was also known throughout his district for his purity, sense of humor, and talent for mimicry. His father died when he was seven, which profoundly impressed him with the imper manence of life. At the age of sixteen, to help support his family, he became pr iest of a temple in Dakshineswar, and his devotion and meditation increased to t he point that he appeared like a madman. His first vision of universal conscious ness came, as is not infrequently the case, after an episode of utter despair: I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I was overpowered with a great restlessness and a fear that it might not be my lot to realize Her (the Divine Mother) in this life. I could not bear the separation from Her any longer. Life seemed to be not worth living. Suddenly my glance fell on the sword that was kept in the Mother s temple. I determined to put an end to my life. When I jumped up like a madman and seized it, suddenly the blessed Mother revealed h erself. The buildings with their different parts, the temple and everything else vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite Ocean of Consciousness..within me there was a steady flow o f undiluted bliss.. (1) Ramakrishna went through alternations of anguish and ecstasy as his divine m oods increased. The transformation of his body-mind was marked by numerous physi cal symptoms: a burning sensation, oozing of blood through his pores, loosening of the joints, and a shutdown of physiological functions. Such changes sometimes occur when the human vehicle is penetrated or infused with divine force. A tang ible glow or golden radiance may also be apparent on the body of a yogi passing through the fires of ecstasy. Romain Rolland wrote: The yogis of India constantly note the effect of the great ecstasy caused by an efflux of blood. Ramakrishna could tell as soon as he saw the breast of a rel igious man, whom he was visiting, whether or not he had passed through the fire of God. (2) Ramakrishna practised the disciplines of many spiritual traditions, testing them and in each case finding that they led to the same goal of divine communion . It was not, however, until he met Totapuri, a wandering sannyasi (renunciate), that he was initiated into the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, and in a dramatic episode realized a state beyond duality. He said that he sat for meditation, and when the familiar, gracious form of the Divine Mother (Kali) appeared before hi m that he used his discrimination like a sword, clove her in two, and soared beyon d the relative plane, losing himself in samadhi. The language which Ramakrishna used to describe this well-known incident appears to imply that he realized nirv ikalpa samadhi (formless, egoless absorption or distraction from the sense of se lf in the highest reach of ascended meditation), whereas previously his universal vision , although cosmic in scope, could be considered savikalpa samadhi ( samadhi with form , or spiritual consciousness where the subject-object distinction persis ts). Ramakrishna at one stage was in nearly-continuous nirvikalpa samadhi for a p eriod of six months. A friendly sadhu would beat him with a stick to bring him d own to normal consciousness so he could eat a little food, then he went back int o samadhi. His hair got matted and flies would go into his nose and mouth. After this the Divine Mother told him to remain in bhavamukha (conscious residence so

mewhere between the sixth and seventh chakras) in order to be able to teach peop le. It seems, as evidenced by communications between Ramakrishna and his devotees , that he may have gone beyond this traditional yogic experience and realized th e superior state of sahaj samadhi (the natural state, non-exclusive of the body and the world), even though his personal tendency for mystical ecstasy remained. When Swami Vivekananda requested that Ramakrishna put him in a trance for three days at a time, his Master rebuked him with the words, You fool...there is a sta te even higher than that. (3) After Swami Turiyananda remarked that he desired to be liberated, Ramakrishna accused him of having a mean concern and being full of fear for seeking Nirvana for himself. Turiyananda was the devotee of Sri Ramakri shna who most embodied the ascetic ideal, enduring the severest disciples all of his life. Yet this extreme approach to spiritual practise was criticized by the master. When Turiyananda asked Ramakrishna how he could become free of lust, fo r instance, the sage replied that this was the wrong attitude, and that rather t han seeing the vital force as evil one should direct it to God. When the young m onk further confessed that he could not stand to even be near a woman, Ramakrish na rebuked him by saying he talked like a fool, and that he should see women as ma nifestations of the Divine Mother. While he was often inclined, despite having u ndergone a tantric sadhana at one time, to speak negatively of "women and gold", the saint also made the interesting comment that if he gratuitously took away d esire from a disciple the latter would then find life insipid. Ramana Maharshi once expressed that too much had been made by people of Ramak rishna's exclamation to Vivekananda, "I see God as clearly as I see you," which tended to place emphasis on the idea of God in the third person as an "absolute other", while ignoring God in the first person as the Self in the heart, as he f elt the Bhagavad-Gita affirmed. Ramana felt that a primary requirement for sahaj samadhi or the natural state was first to realize God as the ultimate subject r ather than the ultimate object as mysticism often seeks. In other words, realiza tion of the "who" comes before realization of the "what". He repeatedly emphasiz ed that to see anything requires a seer, and it is the nature of the seer that o ne must realize. Once that is done it will become clear that even the mystical e xperience of perceiving infinite light or seeing everything as God implies a res idue of ego, and must be gone beyond for realization of the Self. Please see Tal ks with Ramana Maharshi for more on this point. Nevertheless, the sage thought highly of Ramakrishna, and along with Dakshinamurti had a picture of the great Soul in his sitting room. And it is also interesting that despite his emphasis o n non-dual jnana, Maharshi used to weep before the images of Tamil saints prayin g to God for the devotion that they had. Moreover, the following anecdote confir ms Ramana's respect for the great saint: "In one article the famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung contrasted Sri Ramakr ishna and Sri Bhagavan and saw in this succession the progressive advance from b hakti to jnana. On hearing this, Bhagavan promptly sat erect and protested again st the comparison, saying: "When one has reached the mountain-top, no matter fro m which side and by which path, one knows and understands all other paths. What is there that Sri Ramakrishna did not know?" (3a) Paul Brunton wrote that Master Mahayasa ("M"), whose diary became The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, privately confessed to Brunton s friend, Swami Desikananda, t hat the Gospel only contained elementary and not advanced teachings, and that Ra makrishna stopped disciples from discussing more esoteric subjects like Advaita Vedanta when Mahayasa was near because he knew that the latter was keeping a jou rnal. Swami Lokeswarananda wrote: "Because not all of Sri Ramakrishna's teachings are included in the Gospel, i t is necessary to read Swami Saradananda's Sri Ramakrishna The Great Master, alo ng with the works of Swami Vivekananda, and the reminiscences compiled by the ot

her monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. One should study all these writings, but particularly those of Swami Vivekananda. The words of Sri Ramakrishna are th e scripture; the words of Swamiji are the bhasya, the commentary. If we study bo th the Gospel and the works of Swamiji, we will be able to have a perfect pictur e of Sri Ramakrishna." (4) V.S. Iyer, an important influence on Brunton, felt that Ramakrishna was indee d a gyani who taught mysticism to those less qualified for the ultimate truth: "Ramakrishna practiced meditation with yogis, and he said that all these wer e progressive steps and did not condemn them. Yet with Vivekananda he taught tha t religion and yoga were not the end, for they can never directly lead to Brahma -gnana. Teachings other than Vedanta are for beginners only. There are stages in comprehending truth. Hence Sri Ramakrishna taught Vedanta--the highest truth--o nly to Vivekananda. All his other disciples were taught Yoga, mysticism or theol ogy. He kept a Vedanta treatise (Ashtavakra Gita) hidden under his pillow when o thers came to talk, but when he was alone with Vivekananda he brought the book o ut and taught him from it." (5) Along these lines, Iyer was of the opinion that Ramana Maharshi was of lesse r stature , whose teaching of finding the source of the "I-thought" as the Self within was not complete philosophic truth. Iyer felt that inquiring "What is the world?" and "What am I?" were a better approach than Ramana's "Who am I?", and led to realization of self and world, first as ideas, then finally as Brahman (M ind), whereas "Who am I?" alone led to an exclusive subjective realization more characteristic of a mystic than a sage. It is this writer's opinion that this cr iticism may have had merit directed to Maharshi's initial communication of his r ealization, before his "second death experience" at the age of 32, when he began to integrate more fully with the external world, but not to that in his later y ears, when the Self within and the Self without were without doubt fully realize d to be one. Thus, there is likely to be some truth in both of these positions. The term Self for Maharshi really meant "no-self" (non-ego), or the non-dual sel f, and therefore may not have been so different from the Brahman of Ramakrishna. Indeed, Ramakrishna himself told Vivekananda that 'God could be seen', yes, but also that the personal and the impersonal God were the same Being, and that the advaita (jnana, absolute monism or non-qualified non-dualism) of Sankara and the vishisht-advaita (bhakti, or qualified non-dualism) of Ramanuja were both t rue, yet could only understood through realization. Paul Brunton sums up the par adox nicely: "For us who are philosophically minded, the World-Mind truly exists. For us it is God, and for us there is a relationship with it - the relationship of devo tion and aspiration, of communion and meditation. All the talk about non-duality may go on, but in the end the talkers must humble themselves before the infinit e Being until they are as nothing and until they are lost in the stillness - Its stillness." (6) In any case it is likely then that Ramakrishna's reported ideal of the unive rsal oneness of all religions derived from his early sadhana and applied to the more exoteric and not esoteric doctrines. Even so, as evidenced by his unique in teraction with each devotee, it was as if the many and varied contemplative prac tices he himself had engaged during his sixteen years of sadhana were undertaken as a bodhisattva in order to generate the evolutionary energy or facility neede d to further the spiritual realization of his intimate companions throughout tim e. And it was not really true that he always preached a negative asceticism desp ite his sometimes traditional yogic talk of the dangers of "women and gold." He had, as mentioned, practiced tantra and was in love with the Divine Mother. Lex Hixon, in Great Swan: Meetings with Ramakrishna, beautifully relates an episode showing how Ramakrishna really felt:

Visitor: "Honored sage, should we take the way of monastic renunciation after ou r social and family responsibilities are completed?" Ramakrishna: "The path of monastic discipline is not necessary for everyone who longs to awaken. The passion for external renunciation is like a bolt of lightni ng. It may strike at any time. It is not a reasoned choice. But why not renounce all sense of limitation, even the limitation of monastic forms? Why not enjoy a ll possible dimensions of human experience as already merged in God? Can one get completely inebriated on just a few pennies worth of wine? Fill up the whole pit cher!" This radical response surprises the questioner, who had already tacitly assumed a traditional, pious answer. He gazed, speechless, at the laughing sage, and the n asks with astonishment: A spiritual practitioner should lead a worldly life? Ramakrishna: "Why not? What is there to fear or avoid when Divine Reality is kno w to be all-embracing Relatively few persons have the destiny to drop social and personal connections entirely in order to enter the external state of sannyasa wandering aimlessly in the ecstasy of knowledge and love, taking no direct resp onsibility for educating or serving society in pragmatic ways." Visitor: "Master, what does it mean to say that a person has reached the end of worldly enjoyments?" Ramakrishna: " To come to the end of worldly enjoyments is to EXPERIENCE Divine Bl iss flowing through EVERY ACTION, EVERY PERCEPTION." Visitor: "How can I get rid of sexual passion?" Ramakrishna: "Why get rid of it? Turn its powerful energy in another direction. Lust is blind, but the Great Delight conferred by the Goddess is ever-pure and r esplendent." The new questioner is also disconcerted by such a radical response delivered wit h such wonderful laughter. This seeker has been conditioned by the teaching that cultivates liberation by categorically rejecting what ever appears as ignorance , limitation, or bondage. Intrigued by the relaxed, all-embracing tantric attitu de of the Goddess-worshiping sage, drawn deep into inquiry by this magnet of Div ine Mother s Knowledge and Love, this visible form of the dancing Kali-the seeker cries in consternation: Please, most revered Master, why would a benign Deity pro ject the power of ignorance and limitation? Ramakrishna melts into laughter, his eyes swimming in ecstasy, his body, like bu rnished gold, glowing with heavenly light. This response emanates directly from Mother Mahamaya, beyond reason, religion, philosophy. Now our Master is weeping tears of pure love: It is ALL Her Play, Her delirious Play. OM KALI, OM KALI, OM KALI! Visitor: "Beloved Paramahamsa, who is really to blame for sexual obsession and i ts bondage? Men or women?" Ramakrishna: "You are male, so I will speak to you about women. To women, I give the same teachings about the spiritual danger and the spiritual potential of me n. A women who has awakened in her body and mind the energy of transcendent wisd om, which is the brilliant healing and enlightening presence of the Goddess, can be a tremendous blessing for a male practitioner - as a tantric consort, as con secrated wife, or simply as the inspiring friend of his soul. But a woman who ha s developed exclusively her biological and social drives is filled with a subtle energy that can be detrimental to the progress of a male aspirant. Eventually -

without either person recognizing any danger-she can stifle his aspiration by d rowning him in the forces of the limited ego world. Precisely the same facts mus t be explained to women concerning men...The brilliant feminine energy of wisdom , which incarnates through the bodies and minds of both men and women, cultivate s the refined taste for sweet spiritual companionship, for knowledge of oneness, for tears of pure love, for ecstatic union with various revealed forms of Divin ity, and for refreshing renunciation of all deceptive, habitual expectations. By contrast, the energy of limitation consists of the random, compulsive play of t he mind and senses with their objects - an instinctual drive for experience that lacks both subtlety and harmony and causes the heart to forget the delight of D ivine Reality, the communion that is natural to the human soul. But, both curren ts - the energy of wisdom and the energy of limitation - are simply Mother s Energ y. When only God exists, who is there to praise and whom to blame? (7) Recent books such as Stripping the Gurus by Geoffrey Falk have gone so far a s to accuse Ramakrishna of a tendency towards pedophilia, but this seems overdon e and disingenuous. Iyer dismissed this issue by tackling it head-on: Sri Ramakrishna when a young man exclusively worshipped the Mother, and showe d unconscious sex complex in its most innocent form, of course, but that was the lowest stage which he outgrew later. Psychoanalysis is therefore true to a degr ee. (8) It can truly be said that Ramakrishna can not be understood except by realiz ing that he went through various stages of sadhana and in turn taught at several different levels for different degrees of intellect: devotion for the masses, y oga and mysticism for his intimate disciples, and vedanta only for Vivekananda. Iyer wrote: "Master Mahasaya could not understand philosophy (Vedanta), so Ramakrishna m ade no attempt to teach him Advaita, but told him to go on practicing religion, thus lifting him up along the path fitted to him. This shows the practical wisdo m of Ramakrishna." (9) Yet it was Master Mahasaya who was to give a young Paramhansa Yogananda a br eath-stopping samadhi experience years later, as reported in Autobiography of a Yoga. As Yogananda recalled: "I experienced that the Center of the Supreme Heavenly Abode was actually a place deep within myself and that the place of experience within was spawned by the Same. It was as if the entire creation was emanating from my Being and the r adiance of an incredibly beautiful Light was spreading through the Sahasrar. 'It is His river of nectar flowing through the world'. A flow of liquid nectar was rushing through body and mind - waves upon waves. I heard the Onkar Sound, the S ound of Brahman - the thunderous Pranava resonance - the First Pulse of the crea tion of the Universe. Suddenly, my breath came back into the lungs. Oh, if I cou ld only express how my heart was filled with disappointment. I cannot tell you. That Great Being of mine was completely gone. Again I came back and was imprison ed by this insignificant and miniscule physical cage - this thing that cannot co ntain that Colossal Person of the Atman. Like the prodigal son described in the Bible, I left my Immense Abode of the Cosmos, and again entered this tiny 'pot' of the body." (10). If a 'second-tier' disciple of Ramkrishna could do that, one who was not qua lified to study advaita, think of the stature of the living sage himself! Think also of the lesson this might demonstrate on the difference between a pure saint with grace-bestowing powers and a sage adept only in self-knowledge, "invisible even to the gods," and "trackless like a fish in water." Swami Vivekananda, con sidered the most advanced of Ramakrishna's pupils, had no such powers, his 'powe r' being limited to knowing Truth itself. Of 'M' Brunton wrote:

"A venerable patriarch has stepped from the pages of the Bible, and a figure from Mosaic times has turned to flesh." (11) Iyer continues: "I admire Ramakrishna as the only Gyana yogi because he had this universal s ympathy. His samadhis are no test of his Gnan; they were merely a discipline. Th is is the final test: do I see everything in me?" "I admire Ramakrishna because he said to his God, Mother, "Take Yourself awa y, I want Truth." That showed he placed truth higher than his concept of it, his God higher than his idea of it." "Sri Ramakrishna danced for those who wanted dancing, who could not grasp Ve danta." "I justify Sri Ramakrishna's references to his conversations with Mother, Go d, etc., as due to his adapting his conversation to people around him. In the ea rly stages of his discipline, no doubt he had visions of the Mother, but later t hey disappeared, but still he found it convenient to refer to her as real becaus e the minds of his hearers could grasp that easily, whereas Non-duality was beyo ng their brains, except Vivekananda's." "Sri Ramakrishna talked of his visions and conversations with the Mother (De ity). This was because the Mother (Shakti) was worshipped in Bengal...He did thi s in order to help people who came to him, who had to be spoken to in an intelle ctual language they can understand. This does mean he had psychic visions or con versations internally - he was living in a far higher world than that - but that he deliberately used association of ideas familar to his hearers." (12) "Why did Ramakrishna still spend so much time in yoga-trances after he becam e a Gnani? Reply: If I am a Gnani with a black body, I know that body is only an idea, but he cannot throw it away even then, Similarly, Ramakrishna had the hab it of going into trance, and although he became a Gnani he had to continue the h abit. It made no difference to him because he knew that samadhis also were Brahm an. Therefore a Gnani may practice yoga provided he knows its limited value, kno ws that per se it does not lead to Brahman but rest." (13) "The Upanishads do not say teach many, only a few. Hence Ramakrishna taught only Vivekananda. Do not regard all the other historic disciples as his initiate disciples. They understood his religion, his yoga, or his dancing, not more. Th ey were merely devotees. The higher philossophy falls flat on those who lack the capacity to understand it." "It is true that Ramakrishna and Sri Sankara advocated the necessity of taki ng Sanyas, but they did so in order to make the Sanyasins devote their whole liv es to the service of mankind, whereas other advocates of sanyas merely propogate it in order to make selfish ego-centered ascetics who withdraw from society and let it go to the dogs." (14) Notably, it was Iyer who had a major influence on monks Nikhilinanda and Sid deswarananda of the Ramakrishna Mission who were responsible for bringing the te achings to New York and Paris. Iyer was court philosopher to the Maharaja of Mys ore who funded their mission to the West. In an inspired mood "M" once wrote of Ramakrishna: "The Master was like a five-year-old boy always running to meet his Mother. The Master was like a bonfire from which other lamps were lighted.

The Master was like a celestial vina always absorbed in singing the glory of the Divine Mother. The Master was like a big fish joyfully swimming in calm, clear, blue waters , the Ocean of Satchidananda. The Master was like a bird which had left its nest in a storm and then, perc hed on the threshold of the Infinite, was joyfully moving between the two realms, singing the glory of the Infinit e." (15) Swami Lokeswarananda wrote: "Swami Brahmananda said that the Divine Mother has the key to the knowledge of Brahman. The door cannot be opened without the key of Mother's grace. Whether we take the path of knowledge or the path of devotion, we must first propitiate maya. Sri Ramakrishna said, 'One must propitiate the Divine Mother, the Primal Energy, in order to obtain God's grace'.....We should never be egotistical about maya,thinking, 'Maya has no power over me'. We must always remember that if may a is not gracious, we forget God." (16) Ramakrishna appreciated the bold approach. He said: "You...must force your demand on the Divine Mother. She will come to you with out fail." (17) "Sri Ramakrishna said to Mother Kali, 'You will not give me your vision? Then I will cut my throat.' The Mother was helpless; what else could she do? she was forced to appear before him...Regarding this, Sri Aurobindo once remarked that Sri Ramakrishna was 'taking, as it were, the Kingdom of heaven by violence.' " ( 18) Vivekananda felt Ramakrishna was the incarnation of both Sankara and Chaitany a, having both the mind of the former and the heart of the latter. In 1885 Ramakrishna developed cancer of the throat and died one year later. ( Swami Nikhilananda went so far as to speculate that this disease was due to his constant ascended samadhis that may have put excessive kundalini pressure on his throat center. Paul Brunton pointed out that it is odd that this was the same l ogic often given to explain certain forms of spiritual healing). Iyer saw in Ram akrishna's attitude to his throat cancer another example of his universal vision as a true gnani: "When Vivekananda asked Sri Ramakrishna to get his ulcerated throat cured, b y asking the Mother, so that he could eat again...Ramakrishna did so. She replie d, "Why are you thinking of eating in this body alone? Ramakrishna is already ea ting through millions and millions of mouths." This means that when realizing on e mind is in all these bodies, we free ourselves from the separate body limitati on." (19) Before he died he went through a final period of showering spiritual blessin gs and samadhis on his devotees. His disciples carried his mission far and wide, establishing monastic orders and teaching centers in many lands. Swami Brahmana nda and Swami Vivekananda were most influential in passing on his transmission a nd teaching, the latter most responsible for the spread of yoga philosophy and v edanta, the former through spiritual initiation of devotees. Iyer wrote: "Ramakrishna, whom I regard as the only Gnani in modern times, realizing tha t he could not travel far through lack of knowing English and education, trained one man - Vivekananda - to go in his place. None of the other pupils were fit f or the highest vedanta and were trained for yoga only, etc., but Vivekananda was given the full truth and bidden to go out and spread it." (20).

Ramakrishna sparked a renaissance of Indian spirituality among his countryme n who were in danger of rejecting their rich heritage due to the influence of mo dern western education and philosophy.The Ramakrishna order was instrumental in spreading the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta and Yoga and also ecumenicalizing the teachings of Christ for a spirit-starved western world. Of the coming age, Ramak rishna said that many saints would arise, "like grapes in clusters." Ramakrishna actually had two principle human spiritual guides. The first was a woman known as the Bhairavi Brahmani (the "Brahman nun"), and the second was Totapuri (the "naked man"). When the Bhairavi Brahmani met Ramakrishna, who had already had many mystical experiences but lacked theoretical and practical knowl edge for their steady realization, she burst into tears and greeted him with the words, My son, I have been looking for you for a long time. (21) It was she who t ook him under her wings and taught him various sadhanas, including tantric pract ices, leading to spiritual-communion. Through her help Ramakrishna gained posses sion of the nineteen attitudes or emotions of the soul in love with its Lord: serv ant and master, son and mother, friend, lover, husband, and so on. It was also t he Bhairavi Brahmani who gained Ramakrishna public recognition as an Avatar thro ugh her discussions with the pandits at Dakshineswar, although Ramakrishna, alwa ys a simple man ("M" once said "The Master was like a five-year-old boy always r unning to meet his Mother"), disliked any such attention on him, although in the end he did confess his avataric status to convince a doubting Vivekananda by re ading his mind and saying "He who was Rama, and He who was Krishna, is now in th is body as Ramakrishna - though not in your Vedantic sense." Along the way he dr opped hints here and there, saying, "I'll let the cat out of the bag before I di e". He also taught that the avatara was bound to incarnate for the salvation of all. Of himself he said, "I am not free. I will have to come to earth again." (V ivekananda, who at first did not believe in the concept of avatara, and argued s omewhat like PB, that the infinite divine can and does not compress itself into a finite man, said: "God is infinite; we cannot even so much as say that the thi ngs or persons we perceive are parts of God. How can Infinity have parts? It can not." The Master refuted these arguments by saying, 'However great and infinite God may be, His Essence can and does manifest itself through man by His mere wil l." Sri Krishna says, "I am birthless, deathless, and the Lord of all beings; ne vertheless, I, by controlling my prakriti, take birth through the power of my ma ya.") (22) For three years the Bhairavi Brahmani guided the young saint, but eventually he required further help which she could not give. The ascetic Totapuri then ca me to Ramakrishna as a messenger of the impersonal God. He purportedly had attaine d Vedantic realization of non-dual truth after forty years of spiritual practise , yet his young disciple supposedly accomplished this feat in just three day. Wh ether this was the true non-dualism of sahaj or not is unclear, as it is recorde d that Totapuri pressed a piece of glass between Ramakrishna's eyebrows and said "concentrate here!", after which Ramakrishna "soared beyond the relative plane into samadhi," and Totapuri then watched spellbound as Ramakrishna sat for days on end in nirvikalpa samadhi. So perhaps the true realization of advaitic non-du alism or sahaja came later. Totapuri was so greatly impressed, however, that, co ntrary to his custom of never staying more than three days in one place, he rema ined in Dakshineswar for eleven months during which time the roles of master and disciple became reversed. It was Totapuri, the proud, viril ascetic, who regard ed the Divine illusion or Maya as non-existent, and no match for his indominable will power, who came through the influence of his disciple to see the very same Maya as the Mahashakti or active aspect of Brahman itself. Perhaps equivalent t o a 'radical non-dualist' of his day, tears came to his eyes as Ramakrishna sang devotional hymns in his presence, and the divine siddhi activated through Ramak rishna worked a great transformation in the aged master, who it is said left him an enlightened man realizing that Brahman and Shakti are one. A similar story w as told about the great Sankara and his encounter with Mother Maya or the suprem

e power. Ramakrishna said: When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive, neither creating, nor preservi ng, nor destroying, I call him Brahman, or Purusha, the impersonal God. When I t hink of Him as active, creating, preserving, destroying, I call Him Shakti or Ma ya or Prakriti, the impersonal God. But the distinction between them does not me an a difference. The personal and the impersonal are the same Being, in the same way as milk and its whiteness, or the diamond and its lustre, or the serpent an d its undulations. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. Th e Divine Mother and Brahman are one. (23) Find God, he adds, that is the only purpose in life. To this end, moreover, he s tressed the need for a living teacher. As Paul Brunton wrote: "If "dead" illuminati can help the world as readily as those who are among u s in the flesh, I would like to ask those who believe this why Ramakrishna utter ed the following pathetic plaint as he lay dying in Cossipore: "Had this body be en allowed to last a little longer, many more people would have become spiritual ly awakened." No, it is more rational to believe that a living illuminate is nee ded, that one who has flung off the physical body has no further concerns with t he physical world, and that he whose consciousness is in the real, uses the worl d (in the form of a body) to save those whose consciousness is in the world." (2 4) Ramakrishna's lila or love play with his disciples is exemplified in the sto ry of Girish. Indeed, Girish was the least likely to become a disciple of the sa ge, being an actor with a strong desire for the bottle and little inclination fo r discipline, yet Ramakrishna won him over by love. Swami Lokeswarananda wrote: "Girish used to boast, 'I am Girish Ghosh of Baghbazar. There is no sin that I am not guilty of. If I had known that Sri Ramakrishna would be so gracious as to forgive them all, I would have committed many more.' There is no doubt that S ri Ramakrishna took on the sins committed by Girish, for he once said, 'Because I accepted Girish's sins, I have this disease.' The Master was referring to the throat cancer which eventually took his life." (25) As Girish was good hearted but dissolute, Ramakrishna made him a special offe r: "Girish gradually became a close devotee of Sri Ramakrishna. Slowly he began to understand that Sri Ramakrishna was an avatara, and he surrendered himself co mpletely to him. Sri Ramakrishna offered to bear Girish's entire responsibility, saying that Girish could give him 'the power of attorney'. Girish accepted the offer, thinking that he would no longer have to do anything; Girish thought that Sri Ramakrishna would do everything for him. But as Girish said later of the ba rgain, 'Now I understand that giving the power of attorney is very difficult. On e must think at every step of the way, 'Am I depending completely on Him, or are my actions springing from egotism?' Before giving him power of attorney, I woul d say God's name once or twice every evening. Now I find that I am always rememb ering Him.' " (26) And that's how it goes when one strikes a bargain with a saint.

Those Amazing Christians

by Peter Holleran - A Potpourri of Interesting, Colorful Characters -

St. Catherine of Sienna - Born Mystic Saint Catherine of Sienna (1347-1380), born Caterina Benincasa, was the twent y-third child of her parents. At the age of five she had a vision on a hillside of Jesus sitting on a throne, surrounded by Peter, Paul, and John. When she was seven she left home to find a hermitage in the wilderness but, overcome with fea r and loneliness, claims that she was "carried in a swoon by her Lord back withi n the city walls." After this Catherine dedicated her life to Christ, swearing o ff meat to subsist on bread and herbs. She refused offers of marriage when she w as twelve, and even cut off her hair when challenged to prove the sincerity of h er desire for spiritual life. She practiced self-imposed austerities, as indicat ed, from a young age, often sleeping no more than two hours out of forty-eight ( "the most difficult of all ways of overcoming self," she once wrote). At sixteen she entered the Order of Mantellates (female Dominicans) and in the solitude of her prayer cell frequently went into ecstatic raptures. In Divine Dialogues she confessed that she was often "listening to choirs of heavenly music and smellin g the flowers of paradise." Raymond of Capua, her biographer and confessor, said that in her ecstasies "her limbs became stiff, her eyes closed, and her body, r aised in the air, often diffused a perfume of exquisite sweetness." After a mystical marriage to Christ, which took place in her cell in 1366, Ca therine left the solitary life of prayer to become a servant of the sick and nee dy, spiritual advisor to kings and popes, as well as spiritual guide to a group of devoted followers who gathered around her. During the Black Death, which deci mated the population of Europe, she led a band of men and women to attend the si ck and dying, often burying the infected corpses with her own hands. For many ye ars she tried to unify the discordant factions of Christendom, and, while she wa s successful in getting the Pope to return from Avignon to Rome,she could not pr event the great schism. Catherine died in 1380 after many months of intense austerities, during which time she did not eat. She was only thirty-three years old. [Jesus, Swami Rama T irtha, and Sankara also died at thirty-three]. Divine Dialogues consists of spontaneous outpourings of ecstatic speech trans cribed by Catherine's attendants whenever she would go into such states. "How glorious," says the Voice of the Eternal, "is that soul which has indeed been able to pass from the stormy ocean to Me, the Sea Pacific, and in that Sea , which is myself, to fill the pitcher of her heart." Saint Catherine is a good example of an emotionally sensitive contemplative c haracter overcoming herself to the point of engaging self-transcending service. Her liabilities were obvious, but many of them were a product of the religious t radition she was a part of. For example, a chief limitation of the conventional Christian perspective is in its valuing of visionary phenomena. Yet the greatest of Christian mystics have held that such "sweets" are only a "lure" for beginne rs, and must be passed beyond or understood rightly for genuine growth of the sp irit. Saint John of the Cross plainly stated: Many souls to whom visions have never come are incomparably more advanced in t he way of perfection than others to whom many have been given." Saint Bernard confessed that God had very often entered his soul during conte mplation, even though he had never seen any vision, never heard any inner voices , and never received any supernatural revelation. Many visions are not really re ceived by the individual, in fact , but are actually concretizations of his own mind. As the Indian yogi, Swami Rama Tirtha stated of his own visions of Krishna who appeared to him with his eyes open as if outside his own body: "this marked

a particular stage of the mind-concentration and it was really the materializat ion of my own imagination, the precipitation of my own mind." (1) The mystical inspiration behind the vision is real, but the form it takes is limited to a particular tradition and state of mind, and it is a mistake to wors hip or value it for its own sake. It is also a mistake to conceive of it as a di rect visitation or communication from God Almighty, instead of as an emanation f rom the Higher Self, called forth in response to a devotional gesture, and a for etaste of a realization which one is as yet unable to fully comprehend. As Raman a Maharshi once said, however, visions are better than no visions, in that the ind ividual may be getting closer to an experience of the Self. Brunton states "A part of the source of these visions is to be traced back to the suggestive power of the thought-form already implanted in the mind, but the other part, th e sudden and dramatic and total change of heart and shift of outlook, has still to be accounted for. What is the secret? It is contact with the Over-self, Grace ." (2) It is one's own soul that provides the experience of both the image and the e cstasy in mystic visions. It is all a subjective creation. A master or sage can trigger or activate one's soul, so to speak, but the content of one's experience is derived from the soul. In some cases a Master can impress one with his own i mage-making faculty, and in that case the image one receives is more directly re lated to his influence. In either case, however, the experience arises on the sa me rnetaphysical plane and must be understood and passed beyond (although it nee d not be suppressed). Not all visions are products of the brain. Some arise from a deeper personal mind and are projected through the brain. Some may, as stated , be impressed on the mind of the disciple by a Master, although they still appe ar through the medium of the disciple s own soul. None of them, however, are absol ute truth, or other than mental in nature. "Those who have the less clear vision do not perceive so distinctly as the ot hers how greatly He transcends their vision," said St. John of the Cross, thus m aking a distinction between beginners and proficients on the Way. It is possible that this young fourteenth-century saint transcended attachmen t to visionary phenomenon: "After a certain day when she underwent an experience wherein God seemed to t ake out her heart and carry it away, Saint Catherine of Siena remained peaceful and contented for the rest of her life. She could not describe the inner experie nce but said that in it she had tasted a sweetness which made earthly pleasures seem like mud and even spiritual pleasures seemed far inferior." (3) She was only nineteen years old. 1. Paul Brunton, The Wisdom of the Overself (York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, I nc., 1984), p. 417-425 2. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1987), Vol. 14, 5.96 3. Ibid, Vol. 16, Part I, 3.81 St. Teresa of Avila - Spiritual Ecstatic St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), unlike Catherine of Siena, did not have an i nclination for mystic raptures as a child. She was raised in luxury, with a penc hant for mischief and a fondness for fine "dress and ornaments". At the age of s ixteen she was sent to an Augustinian convent for boarding school. There she lea

rned to delight in the lifestyle of the nuns, and at twenty-two took her vows in the Carmelite Order. For the next two decades she went through a "stormy sea", a difficult ordeal of emotional-spiritual transformation, in which she vacillate d between a desire to serve God and a desire to serve self. She endured many phy sical ailments, food cravings: and much emotional turmoil before she was firmly grounded in the life of the spirit. In 1567, while gazing upon a statue of Jesus , she had a conversion experience that changed her life forever. In her Autobiog raphy she wrote: "Until now the life I was describing was my own, but the life I have been liv ing since is the life God has lived in me." Teresa manifested extraordinary spiritual phenomena, including profound mysti cal rapture and even episodes of bodily levitation. (1) Her Autobiography commun icates in detail the specific character, nature, and stages of a wide range of s piritual experiences. She wisely points out the actual source of those experienc es by telling us that "such great gifts come through abandoning everything to Go d and dying to oneself." When she died her body emitted an undeniable fragrance like fresh flowers, an d on one occasion some priests dug up her body to steal relics, and the fragranc e permeated the convent floors alerting the nuns that her grave had been opened! (This phenomenon of the subtle magnification of the aura of a saint has paralle ls in many traditions. When Kirpal Singh was alive, whether I was meditating som e distance away or sitting in his presence, I would catch the sweet scent of ros es; after his death I no longer found this to be the case. Perhaps this was beca use his body had been cremated).The body of St. Teresa did not decompose for man y years after her death. (2) Teresa became dismayed at the worldly lnfluences impinglng upon cloistered li fe, and so she started her own order, the Reformed or 'Discalced' Carmelites, wh ich engaged a stricter rule, including fasting and abstinence from meat. Over th e next thirty years she founded seventeen convents and many monasteries. She was an advisor to the King of Spain and a close friend of St. John of the Cross and St. Ignatius Loyola. In the midst of her life in God, Teresa sometimes transcended the bounds she set down for others. Once some of her nuns noticed an unusual aroma coming from the kitchen. Upon investigation they found her enjoying a feast of roast duck. T heir sensibilities offended, they asked the saint how she could do such a thing, to which she replied, "When I pray, I pray, and when I eat duck, I eat duck! An unconfirmed story I have come across also suggests that late in life Teres a fell in love with a young man. A simple human thing like this would surely hav e been kept a secret from the Church, suppressive as it has been of life and sex uality. The Christian tradition in general has been at war with bodily life ever since St. Augustine, and St. Teresa felt compelled to suppress her more obvious spiritual ecstasies, especially because of their sensuous nature, especially th e most famous one where her heart was pierced by a sword, making her nuns swear not to reveal them to anyone. To be open about such things during the time of th e Inquisition was to risk severe persecution. Whoever threatened to take power a way from the Church by advocating that common people take a "deeper walk with th e Lord" did so at their peril. St. John of the Cross, Fenelon, and Michael de Mo linos all faced prison terms, not so much for questioning the sacraments of the Church, but for promoting the practice of quiet meditation, which was certainly what the Master Jesus taught when he said that one should "pray to the Lord in s ecret, not as the pharisees and scribes." It has certainly been true, as the phi losopher will Durant once wrote, that "The Church has persecuted only two groups of people. Those who did not follow the teachings of Jesus and those who did!"

As the title of her book, The Interior Castle, suggests, St. Teresa taught a mystical Christian path of devotional interiorization of attention, with true cos mic consciousness , but not likely nirvikalpa samadhi, generally and at best being considered a real possibility only after death. Nevertheless, her ecstatic sign s showed a profound submission to the spirit, and she, along with St. John of th e Cross, was an excellent psychologist of the soul. She also insisted that her f ollowers be intelligent, exclaiming, "May God preserve us from stupid nuns!" Some have questioned the nature of St. Teresa s ecstasies, as well as that of o ther medievil mystics, seeing in them the evidence of pre and peri-natal experie nces, such as experienced in Primal therapy and the holo-tropic breath-work of S tanislov Grof. See A Reappraisel of Teresa of Avila s Suppossed Hysteria. For insta nce, near-death or hellish experience may be a re-experience of near-death in th e birth canal, etc. It is also quite possible that the mystical and psychologica l experiences may be mixed and overlayed on one another in any given individual. An understanding of this would have been nearly impossible during St. Teresa s li fetime, but it calls for investigation. For St. Teresa to have made the transition to the Witness self, moreover, wou ld have required that she give up the position of the independent soul desiring to re-unite with a God conceived as an objective other: This would have been una cceptable to the Christian tradition she was a part of, and therefore need to be kept secret, and to realize that there is only God, in the ultimate stage of th e path, would have been nothing short of heresy. Further, for her to realize tha t the visionary phenomena that she considered Divine were in fact subtle manifes tations of her own brain and/ or mind would have been difficult given her circum stances and character. She did, however, (like St. John of the Cross) speak of a state higher than that of ecstasies and raptures, but it is not exactly clear h ow that compares with the stages given in yoga. Some of this difficulty is that her books, such as The Autobiography and The Interior Castle were written at dif ferent stages of her spiritual life. It needs mention that her ecstatic mystical experiences diminished in later life as she settled into a more stable peace in the midst of an active life of service. Her surrender to, love for, and absorpt ion in the radiant power of God were an inspiration to all and an example of dev otional qualities awakened in a mature spiritual practitioner. 1. Powers like this are well-documented in the yoga tradition of India; for a de tailed description of their origin and nature see the yoga sutras of Patanjali. 2. This is one of the signs of super-regeneration that sometimes occurs in advan ced stages of spiritual practice. Teresa shared this sign with Catherine of Sien a, John of the Cross, and Paramahansa Yogananda. St. Philip Neri - the Fire of Grace St. Philip Neri (1515-1595) was the founder of the Congregation of the Orator y and became known as "the Apostle of Rome". He renounced a desire of traveling to the Far East (fired by the letters of St. Francis Xavier and the Jesuit missi onaries from India) when a Cistercian monk, Vincent Ghettini, admonished him, "R ome is to be your Indies." He became the spiritual guide of many souls, includin g bishops and popes. He preached in the market place, cared for the sick, and pe rformed miracles, including raising a young boy from the dead. St. Philip was ve nerated as a saint during his lifetime and did much to sanctify the city of Rome . One of the most interesting psycho-physical events in the history of the west ern religious tradition occured to Philip when he was twenty-nine years old. Whi le praying during the Feast of Pentecost he experienced a "tangible fire of Divi ne love," and saw "a ball of fire enter his mouth and sink down into his heart."

He thereafter felt a burning in his heart and throat that continued throughout his life, causing him to keep his windows open and his cassock unbuttoned in ord er to cool off. Special permission was granted from the pope in order for him to bypass the required dress code for priests. During this initial event St. Phili p developed a palpatation of the heart that became so violent at times that it s hook his chair, bed, and even his entire room. He felt his heart swell until the re was a lump the size of a man's fist on his chest. After his death two ribs ov er the heart were found to be broken and arched outwards and had apparently been that way for half a century. Many people testified to being healed of various a ilments, physical and spiritual, after enjoying one of his super-charged embrace s. St. Philip was a very humorous individual, and spared no effort in making him self look ridiculous or contemptible. He had a wonderful ability to relieve othe rs of their depressed spirits, and he even kept books of jokes in his room for t he benefit of those who came expecting him to look saintly. He could see into th e hearts of others and provoke conversions in recalcitrant individuals. All in a ll, he was one of the most interesting characters in the history of the Catholic Church, and the devorional Christian tradition. St. Philip Neri was canonized on March 12, 1622, along with four others: Isad ore of Madrid, Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, and Teresa of Avila. ******************************************************************************** ********************************* St. Seraphim of Sarov - the Descent of the Spirit St. Seraphim (1759-1833) is generally considered to be the greatest of the Ru ssian saints. He became a monk at nineteen, a deacon at twenty-seven, and a prie st at thirty-four. Then followed many years of asceticism and relative seclusion as he cultivated the inner life. For five years he lived in a cell, never leavi ng it or seeing anyone, and for three years he is said to have subsisted on gras s alone. He left his cell in 1825, at the age of sixty-six, and entered on a per iod of spiritual "elderhood" in which he offered his guidance and spiritual help to others. Seraphim was seen in a bodily transfigured condition on numerous occasions. O ne of his disciples, Ivan Tikhonovich, related: "Father Seraphim became silent and bowed forward slightly. His eyes were clos ed and his head was bowed. He gently massaged his breast around the heart with t he palm of his right hand. His face began gradually to change and to give forth a wonderful light. Finally it became so bright that it was impossible to look at him. Such joy and heavenly rapture were expressed on his face that he could be called an earthly angel or a heavenly man." (1) A famous "Conversation" between Seraphim and his friend, Nicholas Motovilov, describes this transfomation on another occasion, and also describes the "transm ission" of the Holy Spirit (kundalini-shakti) from master to disciple: "We are both together, son, in the Spirit of God! Why lookest thou not on me? I replied: "I cannot look, father, because lightning flashes from your eyes. Your face i s brighter than the sun and my eyes ache in pain!" Father Seraphim said:

"Fear not, my son; you too have become as bright as I. You too are now in the fullness of God's Spirit; otherwise you would not be able to look on me as I am .. " After these words I looked in his face and there came over me an even greater reverential awe. Imagine in the center of the sun, in the dazzling brilliance o f his midday rays, the face of the man who talks with you. You see the movement of his lips and the changing expression of his eyes, you hear his voice, you fee l someone grasp your shoulder; yet you do not see the hands, you do not even see yourself or his figure, but only a blinding light spreading several yard around and throwing a sparkling radiance across the snow blanket on the glade and into the snowflakes which besprinkled the great elder and me. Can one imagine the st ate in which I then found myself? (2) Seraphim engaged many methods in his years of practice, including the "prayer of the heart", but he taught that such secondary means as fasting, almsgiving, petitionary prayer and other Christian acts were of use only if they led one to acquire the Holy Spirit of God, which is a direct spiritual experience. Accordin g to St. Seraphim, one should gather the mind into the heart, which will then be warmed by the grace of the Lord "when the Spirit of God descends to man and ove rshadows him with the fullness of His outpouring." (3) This is a clear description of the spirit or kundalini shakti in its descendi ng phase. The teaching and practice of the Russian mystics generally exemplify t his stage, although some of them (including St. Seraphim) appear to have gone fu rther (see "Theophane the Recluse"). The 'Jesus Prayer' ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me") is pra ctised in all Orthodox Churches (Greek, Russian, Syrian, Bulgarian, Nestorian, C optic, etc., but perhaps nowhere as much as on Mt. Athos, Greece. In the fourth century Father Chrysostum of Constantinople taught one to "pray truly to finally lead to a state where the mind is always in the heart," while Gregory the Sinai te wrote, "lead you mind down from your head into your heart, and hold it there. " St. Seraphim died on January 2, 1833. He was found, his cell on fire, kneelin g before an icon. Thus in death as in life his disposition was that of full devo tional submission to the forms of his Beloved. While there have been great saints in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Ort hodox churches, the general acceptance of mystical experience has been greater i n the latter. This may be, in part, because the Eastern church does not labor as much under the burden of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas as its Western counterpar t, and is therefore more disposed to allow the intrusion of the spirit in the wo rld and the body-mind of man. Whereas mystics in more western countries have alw ays risked charges of blashphemy for claiming to have communed with and received the divine life and light in their own bodies, since Church doctrine held that God and the flesh were eternally separate except in the person of Christ. The or iginal Niceo-Constantinopolitan Creed, which the orthodox Church upholds, mainta ins that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father to the Son ( et in sanctum, qui e x patre filioque procedit ), however, thereby allowing for the possibility of spir itual transmission via Guru-Kripa (or Shaktipat). In the Roman Catholic Church ( to combat the 'Arian heresy' that held that Christ was human and not divine) alt ered the credo, wording it slightly differently to 'the Holy Spirit proceeds fro m the Father and the Son' suggesting a more aloof Trinity, where belief in Jesus is more important than contemplative submission. This is the famous 'filioque c lause', the essential cause for the Great Schism between the Roman Church and th e other Orthodox Churches in 1054 A.D. that still exists to this day.

1. Valentine Zander, St. Seraphim of Sarov (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Semi nary Press, 1975) 2. Franklin Jones, The Spiritual Instructions of Saint Seraphim of Sarov: A Sidd ha or Master-Yogi of the Eastern Christian Tradition (Los Angeles, CA: The Dawn Horse Press, 1973), p. 51-52 3. Ibid, p. 54 ******************************************************************************** ****************************** Theophane the Recluse - the Prayer of the Heart Theophane (1815-1895) was the son of a parish priest. He studied in seminary and then spent four years at the Theological Academy of Kiev (1837-1841). During the next twenty-five years he was successively a priest, professor, rector, and Bishop. His heart, however, was not in such active roles but rather in a life o f silent contemplation, and his last three decades were spent in seclusion, in p rayer and writing. Theophane was undoubtedly the most prolific of the nineteenth century Russian monastics, and most certainly the most highly educated. He tran slated a number of Greek spiritual works (including the Philokalia and "The Way of the Pilgrim") and wrote commentaries on the epistles of St. Paul. He is most well-known, however, for the correspondences he maintained with many people in a ll parts of Russia. The guidance they received from him has been published in te n volumes and is imbued with his love of the orthodox church Fathers as well as an awareness of contemporary problems. Theophane's habits were those of utter simplicity. He lived in two barely fur nished rooms, and his diet consisted of tea and bread, with an occasional egg. H e taught that true prayer consisted of "standing before God with the mind in the heart. "On the first moment after awakening, as you come to yourself, descend into t he heart." (1) The heart as the seat of spiritual practice and transformation is a central t eaching of the eastern Fathers, with which Theophane is in complete accord. "In the fourth century that best known of the Fathers, Chrysostom of Constant inople, taught the method of "praying truly which finally leads to a state in wh ich the mind is always in the heart." And in a later century, Gregory the Sinait e wrote: "Lead your mind down from your head into your heart, and hold it there. " (2) Theophane wrote: "In the beginning when someone turns to the Lord, prayer is the first exercis e. He starts to go to church and to pray at horne either with a prayerbook or wi thout one. But his thoughts wander all the time. It is impossible to control the m. But wiith exercise in prayer his thoughts begin to settle down and prayer bec omes purer. Nevertheless, the atmosphere of tlle soul remains unpurified until a spiritual flame appears in his heart. This little flame is the work of divine s piritual grace which is common to all and is nothing special. This flame appears as a result of a certain measure of purity in the moral life of a man who is ma king progress. When this little flame appears or when a continuous warmth is for med in the heart, then the whirling of thought stops ... In this state prayer be comes more or less unceasing. The prayer of Jesus ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of Go d, have mercy upon me") serves as an intermediary. This is the limit which praye r practiced by man can attain without special grace. I believe that all this is clear to you. Later on in that state infused prayer, which is not the work of ma n, comes as a gift. A prayerful spirit comes and summons one down into the heart

, just as one person might take another by the hand and draw him forcibly from o ne room into another. The soul is bound by an external force and remains willing ly while the prayerful spirit is with it. I know two degrees of this infused prayer. In the first degree a soul sees ev erything and has a consciousness of self and of the external world. It can judge and rule itself. It may bring this state to an end if it wants to. This, too, m ust be understandable to you. The Holy Fathers, particularly St. Isaac the Syria n, indicated a second degree of gratuitously given or infused prayer. Beyond the prayer which I have just described, St. Isaac mentions another prayer which he calls ecstasy or rapture. Here, too, a prayerful spirit comes, but the soul led by it enters into such contemplation that it forgets its external location. It d oes not meditate but contemplates. It has no more power over itself and is unabl e to end this state at will...In some people this prayer has been accompanied by a luminous radiance of the countenance and all around the person...The holy pro phets were in this state when the spirit carried them away." (3) This describes a fairly advanced level of mystic realization, and compares wi th passages from St. Teresa of Avila. Theophane recognizes the limited significa nce of the initial visions of subtle light, as well as the limited efficacy of t he prayer with the Name (also known in Hinduism as or mantram yoga) . He seems t o point to the absorption of the attention or mind into the heart, yet the exper ience as described by Theophane and other Russian mystics only approximates the position of the jnana samadhi. These practitioners do not generally transcend th e "causal body" in the right side of the heart in the manner of the advaitic sag es but, rather, enjoy subtle perception of the causal domain of the heart, in th e form of interior light visualized therein or in the heart chakra in the center of the chest. Furthermore, the Jesus Prayer is essentially an exercise of prayer to God (co nceived as an "other"). It has contemplative implications when it becomes deep a nd constant, but its use assumes the bodily based point of view, of "me" and "Go d", eternally separate. The Russian (and Greek) Orthodox mystics finally reach a state where there is only light, and where the ego appears to be lost in its in finite and universal blaze, but this ecstatic state is not the highest according to the Indian teachings, but, rather, one step removed therefrom: "Where the Greek Orthodox Church regards the Light experience as the highest point reachable by man, the Indian Philosophic Teaching regards it as the last s tage before the highest. For anything which is "seen" implies the existence of a "seer" as separate from it. This is not less so even in the case of the Holy Li ght. Not seeing but be-ing is the final experience according to this Teaching. " You have to go beyond seeing and find out who is the 'I' who experiences this li ght," said Ramana Maharshi to a disciple." (4) The Eastern Church fathers in general saw visionary phenomena as something to be ignored as one tried to contact the uncreated light through the Prayer of th e Heart: "In solitude and retirement the Hesychast repeats the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jes us Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The Hesychast prays the Jesu s Prayer 'with the heart' with meaning, with intent, 'for real'. He never treats t he Jesus Prayer as a string of syllables whose 'surface' or overt verbal meaning is secondary or unimportant. He considers bare repetition of the Jesus Prayer a s a mere string of syllables, perhaps with a 'mystical' inner meaning beyond the overt verbal meaning, to be worthless or even dangerous. This emphasis on the a ctual, real invocation of Jesus Christ marks a divergence from Eastern forms of meditation. There is a very great emphasis on humility in the practice of the Jesus Praye

r, great cautions being given in the texts about the disaster that will befall t he would-be Hesychast if he proceeds in pride, arrogance or conceit. It is also assumed in the Hesychast texts that the Hesychast is a member of the Orthodox Ch urch in good standing. While he maintains his practice of the Jesus Prayer, which becomes automatic and continues twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the Hesychast cultivat es watchful attention (Gr. nepsis). Sobriety contributes to this mental askesis described above that rejects tempting thoughts; it puts a great emphasis on focu s and attention. The Hesychast is to pay extreme attention to the consciousness of his inner world and to the words of the Jesus Prayer, not letting his mind wa nder in any way at all. The Hesychast is to attach Eros (Gr. eros), that is, "yearning", to his pract ice of sobriety so as to overcome the temptation to accidie (sloth). He is also to use an extremely directed and controlled anger against the tempting thoughts, although to obliterate them entirely he is to invoke Jesus Christ via the Jesus Prayer. The Hesychast is to bring his mind (Gr. nous) into his heart so as to practis e both the Jesus Prayer and sobriety with his mind in his heart. The descent of the mind into the heart is taken quite literally by the practitioners of Hesycha sm and is not at all considered to be a metaphorical expression. Some of the psy chophysical techniques described in the texts are to assist the descent of the m ind into the heart at those times that only with difficulty it descends on its o wn. The goal at this stage is a practice of the Jesus Prayer with the mind in the heart, which practice is free of images. What this means is that by the exercis e of sobriety (the mental ascesis against tempting thoughts), the Hesychast arri ves at a continual practice of the Jesus Prayer with his mind in his heart and w here his consciousness is no longer encumbered by the spontaneous inception of i mages: his mind has a certain stillness and emptiness that is punctuated only by the eternal repetition of the Jesus Prayer. This stage is called the guard of the mind. This is a very advanced stage of ascetical and spiritual practice, and attempting to accomplish this prematurely, especially with psychophysical techniques, can cause very serious spiritual and emotional harm to the would-be Hesychast. St Theophan the Recluse once remarked that bodily postures and breathing techniques were virtually forbidden in his y outh, since, instead of gaining the Spirit of God, people succeeded only "in rui ning their lungs." The guard of the mind is the practical goal of the Hesychast. It is the condi tion in which he remains as a matter of course throughout his day, every day unt il he dies. It is from the guard of the mind that he is raised to contemplation by the Grace of God. The Hesychast usually experiences the contemplation of God as light, the Uncr eated Light of the theology of St Gregory Palamas. The Hesychast, when he has by the mercy of God been granted such an experience, does not remain in that exper ience for a very long time (there are exceptions see for example the Life of St Sa vas the Fool for Christ (14th Century), written by St Philotheos Kokkinos (14th Century), but he returns 'to earth' and continues to practise the guard of the m ind. The Uncreated Light that the Hesychast experiences is identified with the Hol y Spirit. Experiences of the Uncreated Light are allied to the 'acquisition of t he Holy Spirit'. Notable accounts of encounters with the Holy Spirit in this fas hion are found in St Symeon the New Theologian's account of the illumination of

'George' (considered a pseudonym of St Symeon himself); in the 'conversation wit h Motovilov' in the Life of St Seraphim of Sarov (1759 1833); and, more recently , in the reminiscences of Elder Porphyrios (Wounded by Love pp. 27 31). Orthodox Tradition warns against seeking ecstasy as an end in itself. Hesychasm is a tra ditional complex of ascetical practices embedded in the doctrine and practice of the Orthodox Church and intended to purify the member of the Orthodox Church an d to make him ready for an encounter with God that comes to him when and if God wants, through God's Grace. The goal is to acquire, through purification and Gra ce, the Holy Spirit and salvation. Any ecstatic states or other unusual phenomen a which may occur in the course of Hesychast practice are considered secondary a nd unimportant, even quite dangerous. Moreover, seeking after unusual 'spiritual ' experiences can itself cause great harm, ruining the soul and the mind of the seeker. Such a seeking after 'spiritual' experiences can lead to spiritual delus ion (Ru. prelest, Gr. plani) the antonym of sobriety in which a person believes hims elf or herself to be a saint, has hallucinations in which he or she 'sees' angel s, Christ, etc. This state of spiritual delusion is in a superficial, egotistica l way pleasurable, but can lead to madness and suicide, and, according to the He sychast fathers, makes salvation impossible." [from Hesychasm, in; wikepedia] Conceding that some of these Church Fathers did pass from the lesser experien ce of visionary phenomena to the intuitive realization of consciousness itself a s in jnana samadhi, the subtle error of their approach, in many cases, is that t hey conceived of the ultimate goal as "within". They did not, generally, advance from realization of the inner Self (a profound and necessary , yet transitional , transcendental stage, to realization of the all-pervading universal Self. They did not appreciate the "hidden teaching beyond yoga. Thus, they were inclined to view life as somewhat of a problem, to be dealt with negatively through ascetic ism and psychic inversion, which is understandable given the time and place wher e they lived along with their traditional background. In case anything be omitte d, however, here is more on the the Jesus prayer, including its various stages. All of this is not to say, in any way whatsoever, that these saints were not mature spiritual practitioners, on fire with divine love, endowed with keen insi ght into human nature, and far along on the road of self-sacrifice, which many o f them most certainly were. Far from being dry ascetics, moreover, many of the s o-called "Orthodox" saints were exaggerated personalities, like the "Fools for C hrist", who made liberal use of life's energies to express their communion with God. 1. Put Ko Spaseniju, Kratkij Ocerk Askitiky (Moscow, 1908) (quoted in: The Art o f Prayer: An Orthodox AnUlology (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd, 1976) 2. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, inc., 1987), Vol. 10, 6.19, p. 227 3. Solvanie pisem (collected letters), 6 volumes (Moscow, 1898-1899) (quoted in: The Art of Prayer, op. cit. 4. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, op. cit., Vol. 14, 4.206 ******************************************************************************** ******************************* Father John of Kronstadt - The Power of Prayer Father John (1829-1908) was a Russian Orthodox priest who was much loved by t he people and became revered as a living saint. His popularity was so great that thousands thronged to his church to hear him speak. At one point his congregati on increased such a size that it was impossible for him to grant interviews for private confessions, and so he instituted what became known as the "general voca l confession", which the entire assembly of the church would shout out their sin s and beg him to intercede for their forgiveness. It was said that this event wa

s at the same time both terrifying and liberating. Father John's innovative conf ession became the stimulus for the modern liturgical and Eucharistic reformation of the Orthodox Church. As a boy Father John was emotionally drawn by the sermons of the church and t he religious life, but his intellectual capacity was slower to develop. At the a ge of ten an important event occured which was to change this forever. Distraugh t over his inability to read and the sorrow he had caused his parents, who went to great expense to provide for his education, he ardently prayed to God: "Suddenly it was as if a veil had fallen from my eyes, as if my reason had wo ken up, and I clearly pictured the teacher, his lessen, and I remembered what he had been talking about. I felt easy and joyful in my soul ... never did I sleep so peacefully as that night. As soon as day dawned, I jumped out of bed, seized my books and, oh joy! - I read with greater ease and I understood everything." (1) This conversion experience made a great impression on young John who went on to attend seminary school and later the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg. F or fifty-three years, while marrying and raising a family, he served as curate a nd rector of St. Andrews Cathedral, a church he once envisioned in a vivid dream . He worked hard to improve the living conditions at Kronstadt, a naval base tha t was a dumping ground for beggars, tramps, and criminals from all of Russia, an d he also founded a house of industry with workshops and schools funded by contr ibutions from all parts of the country. Father John's sermons drew large crowds who we!re captivated by his radiant p ersonality. He was a gifted healer of both physical and spiritual ills, with mys tical insight and the ability to see into the minds and hearts of others. He was a staretz or holy man in the tradition of St. Seraphim of Sarov, although it is unclear whether he had the initiatory power or spiritual transmission of the la tter. Father John was also a prophet, forseeing the fall of the Czarist governme nt. His greatest work was My Life in Christ, a book of over one thousand pages. When he died over 60,000 people paid him their respects. Referred to in the Greek and Russian traditions as the sacrament of renewal, the act of confession serves to free attention from the body-mind, or self, so t hat it can be turned to the Divine. First confess, it is asserted by many Christ ian sects, and then receive communion. Get things straight with your neighbor be fore you sit down to pray. There is a profound psychological reason behind such advice, for one whose attention is bound up in negative emotional concerns can s carcely be considered to be in a position to transcend himself. One must be rest ored in relationship to others and to the power of life itself before his prayer will be effective. Such prayer, moreover, must be followed by sincere action to rectify whatever wrong was acknowledged in confession before it can be said to be complete. Indeed, such change of action is a powerful prayer itself. Father John s general vocal confession was meant to serve to bring the dark sid e of oneself out of the shadowy realm of subjectivity, in order that it might be released. The ego-I arises chiefly in relationship, the field of the body-mind, and every ego-I is also an addict, committed to separation through wrong thinki ng and emotional reactivity. The idea behind confession is that one must voice o nes seemingly hopeless conviction as an egoic addict, totally dependent on the p ower of grace, before one can be a conscious recipient of that grace, or even be come a truly human presence in the world. Many groups, such as Alcoholics Anonym us and other twelve step programs understand that the most basic principle of tans formation lies in the recognition of ones total dependence on a power greater th an ego, and that without this nothing can be achieved, nor will addiction be era dicated.

The Catholic church exhorts one to confess his sins, but traditionally in rel ative secret, behind a partition, and not face to face. This has some value, but perhaps even better is the practice of confession in relationship, whereby one is refreshed in feeling, through reflection of oneself to others, and not simply through a ritual expiation via a priesthood. To truly confess sin is to serve t o move beyond the disposition of sin itself, which is nothing other than the ego itself, and not only one of its particular forms. The etymology of the word sin s, in this regard, highly revealing. During the Middle Ages when archery contest s were held there was an individual whose function was to examine the targets an d shout out the results. Those whose arrows fell outside of the bull's-eye evoke d the cry, "He sinned, he sinned!" They had simply missed the mark. They had not done anything wrong, per se, but they were off the mark. And so it is with us, in most cases. Sinful actions, then, are those performed in weakness or ignoranc e that are eccentric to the purposes of self-transcending realization. Until one conforms his entire life to spiritual practice and intention, moreover, all act ions lead to the same result. It has been said, "You haven't sinned, but you hav e been born." Only self-transcendence or true seeing lifts the man out of the pe rpetual machine of cause and effect (endless destiny-producing actions leading t o other such actions) that is the theater of ordinary human life. Only spiritual intuition frees one from identification with the "sinner" himself . To those mired in such identification, however, the release of "sins" through the act of confession serves to restore the being to equanimity, and that is a positive and necessary step. To be full confession must progress from the more o r less negative (or sober) estimation and assessment of oneself as an ego to the positive and faithful acknowledgement of the divine as the reality of love at ' the heart of the universe, including the body-mind. It is to perform an act of c reative affirmation of the Truth beyond self, thereby minimizing the reinforceme nt of the sense of separation and God-apart that is the liability with tradition al forms of religious practice. Truly, however, one often has to really hit bott om first, coming to rest in a dark cauldron where the divine alchemy takes place . Always, however, the Overself stands there with you, pulling one through and b eyond until one comes to self-understanding and true devotional surrender. 1. Bishop Alexander, Father John of Kronstadt (Crestwood, N. Y.: St. Vladimir's Press, 1979), p. 6 ******************************************************************************** ******************************** Padre Pio - Healer Saint Padre Pio (1887-1968) was one of the most controversial religious figures of the twentieth century. He has been hailed as a monk, a mystic, a stigmatist, and a charlatan. A spiritual enigma to many, he was subject to fits of spontaneous energy, claimed by some to be emotional hysteria, or even epileptic siezures, al ong with fevers as high as 125 degrees, believed to be medically impossible! "Some of Padre Pio's temperatures were so high that the mercury shot out of t he thermometer...One doctor, who was speaking to another doctor about Padre Pio' s high temperatures, stated: "When I took his temperature, it went right off the scale. I had to have a special thermometer sent down, and it registered 125 deg rees last night and 120 degrees this morning. He shouldn't even be alive." (1) For fifty years, beginning in 1918, he bore the marks of the stigmata on his body, and many spiritual healings were attributed to him. He received over five thousand letters a month from supplicants around the world desirous of his inter cession. While forbidden by his superiors to write or preach, his silent prayers where sent out for the benefit of all.

i

Many spiritual phenomena where associated with Padre Pio, including bilocatio n (for instance, coming to the aid of soldiers during war time), emanation of ce lestial perfume, miraculous cures (including, in one instance, restoring an eye to a man who had lost one in an explosion, and in another, bringing sight back t o a girl without pupils, another medical impossibility), conversions, prophecy, and the reading of hearts. The stigmata wounds that opened in 1918 never healed and he lost a quantity of blood every day. He ate only 300-400 calories of food consisting of a light lunch of vegetables, fruit, and occasional fish. "In 1945, Padre Pio's intake of food was measured at three and one half ounce s a day, yet he weighed more than 170 pounds." (2) Once he fasted for eight days and actually gained weight; he joked that perha ps he should eat more to lose weight! It was hard to account for his good health in light of the blood loss and sparse diet (yet there have been those, such as fellow stigmatist Teresa Neumann, who essentially ate nothing at all, for years. Such individuals have an unusually strong connection with the prana, or life-fo rce, and can to varying degrees "feed" directly from that source itself). Padre Pio began his day at 3 A.M., and held confessions shortly after dawn. T his lasted until the evening with hundreds of confessions heard each day. Such w as his popularity that people began lining up at 2 A.M., having often waited ten days to see him. Yet despite his acute perception of the state of mind in other s, Padre Pio confessed, "In other souls, through the grace of God, I see clearly, but in my own I see nothing but darkness." (3) This was but one of a number of sufferings he endured. Earlier in life, from 1915-1916, he had written in a series of Letters: "The heavenly Father has not ceased to allow me to share in the sufferings of his Only-Begotten Son, even physically. These pains are so acute as to be absol utely indescribable and inconceivable...My condition is becoming unbearable and I remain alive only by a miracle...The Lord caused me to experience the pains th e damned endure in the infernal regions...I am suffering immensely and I feel I am dying all the time." (4) When he died one hundred thousand people gathered for his funeral, mostly fro m Italy but many from around the world. His body was buried in the monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, a monastery that over fifty years before he had pre dicted would one day be built. He was canonized in 2002. Although not without hi s detractors, some even claiming he was a fraud, his life has left us with many amazing tales to tell. 1. Brother Michael Dimond, Padre Pio: A Catholic Priest Who Worked Miracles And Bore the Wounds of Jesus Christ On His Body (Fillmore, NY: Most Holy Family Mona stery, 2006), p. 42-43 2. Ibid, p. 44 3. Ibid 4. Ibid, p. 40-41 ******************************************************************************** ******************************** Teresa Neumann -

Breatharian

Stigmatist

Teresa Neumann (1898-1962) was the oldest and strongest of ten children. She worked hard doing farm chores and also working outside the home to help suppleme nt her father's modest income. In 1912 her parents placed her in the service of

a Mr. Martin Neumann (no relation) who owned a farm and an inn. Teresa ploughed, sowed with a drill, wheeled manure onto the field, and drove the wagon to town. On top of that she carried sacks of grain weighing 170 pounds. She was determined from childhood to remain a virgin, and no later than her f ifteenth birthday announced her intention to enter a convent. Her plan was to be a missionary sister to Africa, but events turned out otherwise. When the War br oke out her father was called into service and she had to stay home to help supp ort the family. On March 10, 1918 (the year in which Padre Pio received the stigmata), a fire broke out in a stable near the house of Teresa's employer. Teresa was handing b uckets of water weighing from thirty to forty pounds up to her employer who was standing on the wall of the stable, when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her s pine. She became stooped over and bent to the left, and was forced to stop all m anual labor. Shortly thereafter, while mounting the steps from a cellar, she fel l backwards and struck her skull. After two more falls in the same year her cond ition deteriorated to such an extent that she became paralyzed on one side and w ent blind. She also developed lung trouble culminating in pneumonia, and abdomin al derangement leading to appendicitis. Her entire body becarne covered with sup purating ulcers, and the skin of her left foot disappeared from ankle to sole, e xposing the bone. Attempts at medical treatment failed to produce improvement in any of her conditions. Between April 29, 1923 and November 19, 1926 a series of six extraordinary cu res took place, all of them attributed to the grace of St. Therese of Lisieux (1 873-1897). Teresa's blindness, abcessed left foot, paralysis and back ulcers, we akness, appendicitis, and lung trouble were miraculously and spontaneously heale d. On two of these occasions a Voice spoke to her saying that her cures were gra nted for the sake of others, and that she would suffer nuch more in order to sav e many souls. Over the next few years she began to manifest the various wounds s uffered by Christ in his Passion: the five wounds of the hands, feet, and side, the marks of the crown of thorns, the shoulder wound where he had carried the cr oss, and the marks of the scourging. Teresa would have a series of visions of th e Passion every week except Paschal time, lasting from 11 P.M. on Thursday to 1 P.M. on Friday. At this time her wounds would open and she would lose two liters of blood. From the moment she took Holy Communion she would be in ecstasy, unle ss she suffered in order to heal others, in which case she became weak and langu id like a dying person. These states occured on a regular basis until her death. Like a number of other stigmatists, Teresa Neumann abstained from eating food . She lived on one Communion wafer per week for thirty-seven years! Her experien ces were confirmed through photographs, as well as the testimony of many people, including Paramahansa Yogananda , who explained that she was sustained by prana or cosmic energy. Teresa shared the stigmata of Christ with Padre Pio and St. C atherine of Siena. It is an interesting phenomenon that the stigmata has only occured among Roma n Catholics. Paul Brunton asks the obvious questions: "Why do stigmata not appear among Hindu Yogis, Chinese Taoists, and Persian S ufis? Why do they not even appear among Protestant Christians and the Greek-Russ ian-Syrian Eastern Church? Why do they appear only in the Catholic Church which alone puts strong emphasis on meditation upon Christ's wounds?" (1) Lesser minds and religious cultists would perhaps see this as evidence in fav or of the exclusive truth of the Catholic faith, while the philosophic mind know s it as a product of a particular disposition of the subconscious mind, even, as one teacher put it, "a profound psycho-physical stress expressed through religi ous egoity." It represents an element of contamination of what would otherwise b

e genuine aspects of the spiritual process, namely, strength of devotion, concen tration of mind, and the manifestation of grace. The stigmata and other such phe nomena can occur without any spiritual practice or conscious understanding at al l, however, and their significance for others is simply the revelation that ther e are "more things in heaven and earth" than one might imagine from the ordinary point of view. Another interesting phenomenon found in many traditions, but in Christianity in particular, has been that of bodily incorruptibility. St. Francis de Sales, S t. Teresa of Avila, St. Charbel Maklouf, St. Louis Bertrand, and St. Bernadette Soubirous (the reknown Bernadette of Lourdes) were individuals from the Christia n tradition whose bodies did not decay for years (in some cases hundreds of year s, or not at all) after their deaths. A bright light was witnessed in the room w hen St. John of the Cross died, and his body gave off a scent of perfume. His bo dy was still intact at the time of his last exhumation in 1955. (1) St. Charbel (1828-1898), known as "wonder worker of the East" for the over twelve hundred ca ses of spiritual healing that he effected, is interred at St. Maron monastery in Lebanon. A fluid resembling blood and perspiration constantly exudes from his b ody accumulating in his casket to a depth of three inches each year. When he die d a bright light surrounded his tomb for forty-five days. The body of St. Louis Bertrand (1526-1586) remained incorruptible for 350 years until the time of its destruction during the Spanish Revolution in 1936. A more recent case is that of the Indian guru Paramahansa Yogananda, whose body remained in a state of perfec t preservation for twenty days after its death before his casket was finally sea led. This phenomenon is an illustration of the continued emanation of the curren t of spiritual force by such beings after death, whether connected or not to the physical body. For this reason the "samadhi site" (or burial place) of a saint or sage is highly valued by spiritual practitioners who find it an auspicious pl ace for devotional and meditative practice. Interestingly, Paul Brunton points out that in the Russian Orthodox Church su ch a phenomenon (the preservation of the body of a dead monk) is treated as poss ession by evil spirits! In such cases, at the Monastery of Russiko on Athos, for instance, "a stake is driven through the heart and the rite of exorcism perform ed."(3) [The Eastern Church went so far as to consider visionary phenomenon in a lmost the same light, as mentioned above in the section on Theophane the Recluse ]. And to be fair, the claims of incorruptibility among the religious are not wi thout their sceptics.

Papa Ramdas: Embodiment of the Name by Peter Holleran "Forget not the central truth that God is seated in your own heart. Don't be disheartened by failures at initial stages. Cultivate the spirit of surrender to the workings of His will in you and outside you, until you have completely surr endered up your ego-sense and have known He is in all and He is all, and you and He are one. Be patient." Swami ("Papa") Ramdas (1884-1963) was one of the most beloved saints of moder n India. As a child he often played truant from school and was averse to his stu dies. He was a voracious reader of books on his own, however. After failing to p ass his matriculation he went on to take courses in drawing and engraving, and h e eventually earned a degree in textile manufacturing. He joined his father-in-l aw in business but left after refusing to stoop to learning the "tricks of the t rade." Ramdas started his own business dyeing fabrics and printing sarees, but n ot being a businessman at heart the venture failed. In 1908 he married and five years later became the father of a baby girl. His employment fluctuated with ext ended periods of unemployment: for one reason or another he could not keep a pos ition for very long. Inspired by the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekan anda and Swami Ram Tirtha, Papa became thoroughly convinced that God alone can g ive one eternal peace and happiness. The path of pure devotion and self-surrende r shone forth for him with an irresistible appeal. Ramdas' sense of dispassion f or conventional life grew and he began to chant "Ram" for relief from business a nd domestic difficulties. When his father taught him the mantra "Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram, his spiritual fervor increased even more. He added the name Om to the

beginning mantra and felt its power increase three-fold. He began sleeping only an hour or two a night and eating but one meal a day, the name of "Ram" forever in his lips during al of his activities. Soon afterwards, in 1922, after an unsuccessful worldly career, Ramdas left h is home and family to becorne a wandering mendicant, without occupation or posse ssions. He wrote one letter to his wife and another to a friend who absolved him of all his debts. This period of his life is well described in his autobiograph y In Quest of God. His devotion and vairagya eventually led him to the feet of R amana Maharshi. Papa Ramdas, in his characteristic third-person manner, spoke of his visit with the sage as recounted by Dilip Kumar Roy in The Mountain Path, 1 965: Papa," I said, "would you mind telling us about your final Realization which t hey call 'Vishvarupa Darshan'?" He readily acquiesced and gave a long description of his burning aspiration an d yearning which had led him to Arunachala Hill, hallowed by the tapas of the pe erless saint Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. I can give here only the gist of his long narration... One day the kind Sadhuram took Ramdas for the darshan of a famous saint Sri Ra mana Maharshi. His ashram was at the foot of Arunachala. It was a thatched shed . Both the visitors entered the ashram and, meeting the saint, fell prostrate at his holy feet. It was really a blessed place where the great Bhagavan Ramana lived. He was yo ung then but there was on the face of calmness and in his large eyes a passionl ess look of tenderness which cast a spell of peace and joy on all those who came to him. Ramdas was informed that the saint knew English, so he addressed Ramana thus: Maharaj, here stands before thee a humble slave. Have pity on him. His onl y prayer to thee is to give him thy blessing. The Maharshi turned his beautiful eyes towards Ramdas and looked intently for a few minutes into his eyes as though he was pouring into Ramdas his blessing th rough those orbs, then shook his head to say he had blessed. A thrill of inexpre ssible joy coursed through the frame of Ramdas, his whole body quivering, like a leaf in the breeze. Now at the prompting of Lord Rama, Ramdas desired to remain in solitude for so me time. Sadhuram was ever ready to fulfil his wishes. Losing no time, he took R amdas up the mountain behind the great temple. Climbing high up he showed him ma ny caves. Of these, one small cave was selected for Ramdas, which he occupied ne xt day. In this cave he lived for nearly a month in deep meditation of Ram. This was the first time he was taken by Ram into solitude for his bhajan. Now he fel t most blissful sensations since he could hold undisturbed communion with Ram. H e was actually rolling in a sea of indescribable happiness. To fix the mind on t hat fountain of bliss, Ram, means, to experience pure joy He went on taking the Name (Ram) in an ecstasy of longing when, lo, suddenly his Lord Rama appeared be fore him and danced and danced. Did you see Lord Rama with closed eyes or open?

I interjected.

With open eyes, as Ramdas is seeing you, Papa answered. But it was not this mome ntary vision that Ramdas s heart craved. For he knew that a vision like this, was unlikely to last and so, when the Lord would vanish, Ramdas would revert to his darkness. Therefore he prayed for the great darshan, the Vision of visions, whic h comes to stay for ever so there is no more parting, namely the Vishvarupa Dars han, longing to see Rama always in everything; that is nothing less would satisf y Ramdas.

Papa paused and then resumed with a beatific smile: And it came one morning and the entire landscape changed: All was Rama, nothing but Rama wherever Ramdas lo oked! Everything was permeated by Rama -vivid, marvellous, rapturous the trees, the shrubs, the ants, the cows, the cats, the dogs even inanimate things pulsate d with the marvelous presence of the one Rama. And Ramdas danced in joy, like a boy who, when given a lovely present, can t help breaking out into a dance. And so it was with Ramdas: he danced with joy and rushed at a tree in front, w hich he embraced because it was not a tree but Rama Himself! A man was passing b y, Ramdas ran towards him and embraced him, calling out: Rama, O Rama! The man got scared and bolted. But Ramdas gave him chase and dragged him back to his cave. The man noted that Ramdas had not a tooth in his head and so felt a little reass ured: at least the loony would not be able to bite him! Papa laughed out and we swelled the chorus. And then?

I asked, after the laughter had subsided.

"Papa said, The bliss and joy came to be permanent, like a torrent rushing down hill till it finds a placid level of limpid purling stream. This experience is c alled sahaja samadhi, in which you can never be cut off from the consciousness o f being at one with the One who has become all, in which you feel you are one wi th all because you have perceived that all is He, the One-without-a-second. Finally we end with a comment made by Swami Ramdas

about forty years later.

Ramdas went to Ramana Maharshi in a state of complete obliviousness of the wor ld. He felt thrills of ecstasy in his presence. The Maharshi made the awakening permanent in Ramdas. Some people told Ramdas: illumination like that.

You went to Maharshi and you got illumination. Give us

Ramdas said, You must come to Ramdas in the same spirit and in the same state a s he went to Maharshi. Then you will also get it. Where was his heart? How inten se was his longing? What was the world to him at that time ? If you come in that state it is all right. (1) One year after his meeting with Ramana, according to Ramdas, an absorption ex perience of nirvikalpa samadhi near Mangalore fully erased his personal identity , so that only Oneness prevailed. He went in and out of this state for some year s until it became fully stabilized. His writings give the impression that he rea lized the permanent condition of Sahaj, the 'natural state', but this is not cle ar. Ramdas was not a philosopher, but a bhakta. He did say, however, "the only t hing a man must renounce if he wishes to attain the Supreme Truth is the notion of individuality - nothing else." His great devotion and gratitude to Ramana is clear in this beautiful poem he wrote. He further taught: "One kind of samadhi consists in sitting down in a definite posture and, by m editation, merging oneself in the Infinite, entirely forgetful of the world outs ide. But one should not be satisfied merely by attaining the condition for onese lf. One must impart the knowledge of it to humanity. This, one can do by moving in the world, realizing it to be the lila of God - in which all things and creat ures are only forms assumed by God in His world-play...This realization which oc curs when the ego is entirely obliterated constitutes the state of the other kin d of samadhi.

The former one is necessary for attaining this one. Realize God as love and th e universe as God. Realize God both with form and without form and with and with out attributes. Formless God without attributes is inexpressible. Formless God w ith attributes is Love, Light, Bliss, Truth, Wisdom and Consciousness. God with form is the universe and all in it." (2) As his reknown expanded an ashram was formed in 1931 that is still in existen ce today. In practice Ramdas taught his disciples the path of devotional surrender to G od accompanied by the repetition of the name of Ram, of which he was the living example. Perhaps only Papaji repeated the name of his chosen ideal for a longer period (twenty-five years) than Ramdas did prior to attaining realization throug h Ramana s grace. For Ramdas, repetition of the Name was the most potent method fo r realizing God. He knew it was not the way for all, yet he said that even follo wing some other way, the mantra can be used "as a fan to make the flame burn bri ghter" : "People do not know what the Name of God can do. Those who repeat it constant ly alone know its power. It can purify our mind completely. No other sadhana can do that. While the other sadhanas can take us only to a certain stage, the Name can take us to the summit of spiritual experience. (3) To Ramdas nama-japa was not an isolated technique, however, but a central par t of a comprehensive life of spiritual discipline. "It is not sufficient if you simply repeat the name of Ram," he said, "you must also be kind and loving to al l." (4) One must "see Ram in all objects and things," and "undergo all difficulties a nd sorrows in a spirit of resignation and renunciation." (5) Further, "Ramdas do es not want anybody to lead only a contemplative life. They must serve their fel low beings in a spirit of perfect selflessness in order to relieve their distres s." (6) He also recommended a host of traditional observances, such as minimizat ion of food, speech, and sleep, the cultivation of strict chastity (brahmacharya ), elimination of all desires, and the avoidance of worldly associations. One ne ed also be willing to weep and cry bitterly to God for the removal of obstacles that prevent one's receptivity to divine grace. Nevertheless, mantra-japa is a time-honored practice. Exactly what is it that makes it effective? One reason is in its potential to concentrate the mind, to slow it down and have it occupied, so to say, with only one thought instead of t he thousands that it usually is plagued by (!) , and thereby creating the instru ment of quiet mind capable of either deep concentration, discernment or enquiry into subtle truths and states of consciousness. Swami Rama further states: "The Svetesvatara [Upanishad] declares that the sages of ancient lore receive d these sounds in profound meditation and contemplation...The sounds are like se eds which contain all the potentials to become manifest. I sow a seed in the soi l which you are, your job is to allow the seed to grow by nurturing it, that is, remembering it. Fifth percent of the work is the tradition's job, fifty percent is your job," "Mantra is representative of the ultimate reality, it introduces you, no, it leads you, to the soundless sound, the very foundation of love and life. For all things in the universe have come from sound, even light. To grow into this stat e, you also need to embrace two qualities described in the scriptures. First, de velop devotion to practice itself, abhaysa. Second, foster the attitude of non-a ttachment, " "Many things will come up in your meditation as they do in the world. Along t

he way, you will get hunches, ideas, symbols, fantasies often mixed together in your mind. You must stay centered in your mantra and go beyond name and form to the silence." "The sacred sounds of mantras are eternal; they are not invented and unless t he initiator is truly linked with a living tradition, then any mantras dispersed are impotent." (7) The name as a representation of sound in the lineage of the Sant Mat or the K riya lineage of Paramhansa Yogananda will eventually resolve into transcendental sound or shabda-brahman, also acknowledged by Anandamayi-ma and other saints, w hich inner sounds will lead one to the greater Silence deep within and also a fo rm of sahaja without. Ramdas made no bones of the fact that he was a vishista-advaitin, in other wo rds, one who believed in maintaining duality so he could remain distinct from Go d and enjoy the worship of him. While he sometimes spoke advaita, he said it was better to joyously embody dvaita, or duality within unity, than a dry and pedan tic non-dualism: Papa: Ramdas is not a pure advaitin. He believes in the co-existence of dvait a and advaita. The jivanmukta retains a higher subtle individuality; he moves ab out and acts in the world realising that he and God are one. Ramdas in this body is active in doing things. Whatever he may do, he is at the same time conscious that he is the eternal and all-pervading Reality. So, in that state there is se paration and unity simultaneously." S.: Is there no state when the jivanmukta can lose his individuality in the O ne and be free of birth? Papa: That is possible. That is what the jnanis do. They do not believe in th e existence of a higher individuality at all. As soon as the lower individuality is dissolved, they cease to exist as separate entities. There cannot be any reb irth for them. Adi Sankaracharya was one of that type. (8) He may or may not have been aware that there is some debate over whether Sank ara was actually a strict Advaitin or a lover of Krishna. Although known chiefly for the philosophy of non-dualism, Sankara built many shrines to the Divine Mot her and produced a volumn of devotional poetry that comes close to exceeding tha t of his spiritual philosophy: "Adore the Lord, adore the Lord, O fool! When the appointed time (for departu re) comes, the repetition of grammatical rules will not, indeed, save you." (9) He also said: "Among the contributary factors of liberation, devotion stands supreme, and i t is the search for one's own true nature that is meant by devotion." And from his final message to a disciple in his Vivekachudamuni ("The Crest J ewel of Discrimination"): Gurus and scriptures can stimulate spiritual awareness, but one crosses the oc ean of ignorance only by direct illumination, through the grace of God. (10) The case has been made by Vedantins that Sankara created the concept of highe r and lower Brahman, and bhakti worship of a personal God, solely as a concessio n to the common folk; yet, on the other hand, there are those who maintain that Sankara was really a worshipper of Krishna himself, with the concept of an imper sonal Brahman and the doctrine of maya taught only to drive out the 'atheistic' Buddhists. This alternate view holds that Sankara as a Krishna devotee really be lieved that the impersonal Brahman was only the outer effulgence of Bhagavan, th

e Supreme Person of God as the Vedas had taught, rather than the other way aroun d. This debate has been raging for over a thousand years. Ramanuja and Chaitanya , both sages - the latter a great siddha who won many debates with the Buddhists of his time - refuted Sankara's mayavadin doctrine and propounded the teaching that absolute God was not the impersonal Brahman but the Supreme Person of the V edas, with Brahman its attribute and the soul an eternal individual. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Above all else, Ramdas affirmed the necessity for one to accept a human Guru: "God Himself comes in the form of the Guru to liberate you. lt is said that e ven God cannot grant Moksha, but only the Guru can. To give Moksha is the right of the Guru." (11) Even the Name gets its power from the Guru, and without his grace its effecti veness is limited: "When you get the Name from your Guru, the effect of it on the mind is marvel lous. Guru infuses into the Name, when he gives it, his own spiritual power. In other words, he transmits his power through the mantra to the disciple." (12) The progression of events in the spiritual process was, for Ramdas: "First, the repetition of Ram's name; then the realization of his presence in all things and beings; lastly the state of samadhi, in which names and forms ar e dropped - a state of bliss and peace - and the Eternal is attained." (13) In the last two stages of this progression the mental vehicle must obviously be stilled and resolved into its source, and thus a means other than japa must e nter the picture. Therefore, the use of the Name may only be useful up to a cert ain stage, even by Swami Ramdas' own admission. Further, while we can not know f or certain, the stage of sahaja beyond the state of inner samadhi, where inner a nd outer are reconciled in a non-dual realization of the natural state, is not cle ar from Ramdas confession, which was one of seeing God everywhere . In itself this i s a stage of devotional joy. However, his statement that formless God with attrib utes is Love, Light, Bliss, Truth, Wisdom and Consciousness, speaks of a very hig h state. (14) [It is not, however, exactly like the view of Ramanuja and Chaitan ya suggested above, in that Ramdas does not seem to make a clean break with Sank ara but only a provisional one: he essentially admits that Brahman without attri butes is higher than Brahman with attributes, but was not entirely comfortable w ith the situation!]. On the outward indication of a man of God, Ramdas said: The signs of a man who has realized the Truth are six: (1) He is conscious tha t he is immortal, not subject to birth, growth, decay and death. This knowledge abides with him at all times. (2) He has no fears. Fear comes only when we think we are the body. When we know we are the Immortal Spirit, then fear leaves us a utomatically. (3) The sense of sin is absent in him. (4) He feels he is reborn i n the Spirit and a new life has dawned in which there is only Peace, Bliss and I mmortality. (5) He has no reason to be unhappy on any account. Bliss will be pou ring out of him. (6) He attracts everybody towards him. He is ever gentle, cheer ful, loving and smiling. "He qualified his statement thus: This is only the external sign. The other fi ve signs are known to him only. (15)

Ramdas had the habit of referring to himself in the third person, saying "Ram das recommends this," "Ramdas believes that," "Ramdas observes this," etc. He wa s a God-intoxicated saint who spoke from the heart with ecstatic speech. Curious ly enough, Rarndas was fond of reading detective stories in his afternoon rest p eriod. In this he was similar to Swami Rudrananda who enjoyed reading Agatha Chr istie novels. Free of the inner self and its accompanying mortal seriousness, to Ramdas the world was divine play. Ramdas was a skillful and well-respected master. It was said of him that "Ram das plays football with the planets." Some of his well known disciples includes Mataji Krishnabai, Swami Satchidananda, Swami Mudrananda and Yogi Ramsuratkumar (nice story of this reknown yogi-saint here). A wonderful biography of Swami Ramdas by his disciple Swami Satchidananda, co ncise and full of devotion, is a welcome accompaniment to this one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The liberation and peace of an individual is surely based upon his or her cont ribution towards the collective human happiness and harmony.

The attainment of Samadhi is not a sufficient cause to eradicate false knowledge , and since false knowledge is the cause of bondage, Samadhi cannot therefore be the cause of liberation.

NIRVIKALPA SAMADHI Also know as asamprajata-samadhi. Nirvikalpa samadhi: (Sanskrit) "Enstasy without form or seed." The realization o f the Self, Parasiva, a state of oneness beyond all change or diversity; beyond time, form and space. Nir means "without." Vi means "to change, make different." Kalpa means "order, arrangement; a period of time." Enstasy: A difficult term that embraces both ecstasy and profound attainment of wisdom, the state of enstasy is, in fact, that state of Nirvana when one rec ognizes The Void, the absolute reality that everything is nothing. Kalpa: (as a period of time) A Maha Yuga is 4.32 million years, ten times as long as Kali Yuga. Twenty seven Maha Yugas is one Pralaya. Seven Pralayas is on e Manvantara. Finally, six Manvantaras is a Kalpa. That is, one Kalpa is 27x7x6 = 1,134 Maha Yugas. This works out to 1134 x 4.3 million = 4.876 billion years. Sri Ramana is asked to clear up the difference between Samprajnata-Samadhi and N irvikalpa Samadhi. Ramana responds with: "Holding on to the supreme state is Samadhi. When it is with effort due to menta l disturbances, it is Samprajnata. When these disturbances are absent, it is Nir vikalpa. Remaining permanently in the primal state without effort is Sahaja."

SAHAJA SAMADHI The explanation of the distinction between Sahaha Samadhi and Nirvikalpa Samadhi is a difficult one. The following on Sahaja Samadhi is extrapolated from the wo rks of Ed Fisher: The Baghavan Sri Ramana Maharshi distinguishes Sahaja Samadhi from Nirvikalp a Samadhi by saying: In Sahaja Samadhi the mind is "dead", "resolved into the self, like a ri ver discharged into the ocean and its identity lost." Ramana also says: "the trance has no good unless vasanas (latent ideas and f orms of the mind) are destroyed." But Ramana holds a strong bias to the early Up anishad and Vedanta that essentially dismiss the Advaita experience of non-duali ty as anti-thetical to their doctrine which may account for his disparaging the "trance" and "ecstasy" of Nirvikalpa Samadhi and placing it in a lower status th an HIS version of a Sahaja Samadhi with duality and content. In an effort to explain Ramana's distinction between Nirvikalpa and Sahaja i t may be he assumes it is not the quality of the "experience" (which may range f rom a Near Death Experience to Nirvikalpa Samadhi) that determines rank in the S amadhi hierarchy --- but to what degree vasanas are permanently destroyed, or (a s in his own case) already highly evolved --- upon re-entering phenomenal life. This appears to determine the level of Enlightenment one manifests after the Adv aitic experience- which can range from remaining in a state of relative ignoranc e to becoming a jivanmukta like Ramana. Ramana's vasanas were already highly evolved at the time of his experience, so upon re-emergence from whatever experience he attained his vasanas further ev olved via intense intellectual perception of religious texts to the degree he co uld function as a jivanmukta. Thus for Ramana it is more the quality of Enlighte nment one retains after the transcendent experience as to what name and rank he awards the level of the original experience --- and thus in my view (i.e., Fishe r) arbitrarily applies the term 'Sahaja Samadhi'. In short --- I assume Sahaja does not enter into defining the quality of the ultimate state of a samadhic experience where Nirvikalpa is supreme- but distin guishes any level of advaitic experience which results in the experiencer becomi ng imbued with highly evolved vasana enabling his/her permanent Enlightenment as a jivanmukta.

SAMADHI: (Sanskrit) "Enstasy without form or seed." The realization of the Self, Parasiva, a state of oneness beyond all change or diversity; beyond time, form and space. NIRVIKALPA:- Nir means "without." Vi means "to change, make different." Kalpa me ans "order, arrangement; a period of time." Nirvikalpa Samadhi is generally considered to incorporate the following four Jha nas within its scope: 8) Eighth Jhana: jhana beyond perception and nonperception (nevasannanasanna ) Saijojo. 7) Seventh Jhana: jhana of pure emptiness (akinci, lit. "nothingness") Ken-C hu-Shi. 6) Sixth Jhana: jhana of pure expansive consciousness (vinnana). 5) Fifth Jhana: jhana of boundless space (anantakasa). Enstasy: A difficult term that embraces both ecstasy and profound attainment of wisdom, the state of enstasy is, in fact, that state of Nirvana when one recogni zes The Void, the absolute reality that everything is nothing. Kalpa: (as a period of time) A Maha Yuga is 4.32 million years, ten times as lon g as Kali Yuga. Twenty seven Maha Yugas is one Pralaya. Seven Pralayas is one Ma nvantara. Finally, six Manvantaras is a Kalpa. That is, one Kalpa is 27x7x6 = 1, 134 Maha Yugas. This works out to 1134 x 4.3 million = 4.876 billion years. Kalachakra: the Wheel of Time: 1. The Outer Wheel the cosmic time cycle. While each Kala comprises a year, an unit of Chakra is the time taken by the sun to move across twelve constellati ons and for the Kala to repeat 21,600 times. 2. The Inner Wheel the life force. Channels and energy circulation within th e individual person. While each Kala comprises a day, a unit of Chakra is the ti me taken by the various internal energies to pass the Twelve Wheels and for one to breathe 21600 times. 3. The Other Wheel shatters the Ten Fetters of life and death, enables the p ractitioner to transcend the cycle of Rebirth, and gain spiritual purity and ema ncipation, thus achieving the Kalachakra Buddhahood . The Other Wheel is based on t he mutual interaction, circulation and spiritual union between the Outer Wheel a nd the Inner Wheel.

"Holding on to the supreme state is Samadhi. When it is with effort due to menta l disturbances, it is Savikalpa. When these disturbances are absent, it is Nirvi kalpa. Remaining permanently in the primal state without effort is Sahaja." Ramana Maharshi on Samadhi Question : What is samadhi? Ramana Maharshi : The state in which the unbroken experience of existence-consci ousness is attained by the still mind, alone is samadhi. That still mind which i s adorned with the attainment of the limitless supreme Self, alone is the realit y of God. When the mind is in communion with the Self in darkness, it is called nidra [sle ep], that is, the immersion of the mind in ignorance. Immersion in a conscious o r wakeful state is called samadhi. Samadhi is continuous inherence in the Self i n a waking state. Nidra or sleep is also inherence in the Self but in an unconsc ious state. In sahaja samadhi the communion is con-tinuous. Question : What are kevala nirvikalpa samadhi and sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi? Ramana Maharshi :The immersion of the mind in the Self, but without its destruct ion, is kevala nirvikalpa samadhi. In this state one is not free from vasanas an d so one does not therefore attain mukti. Only after the vasanas have been destr oyed can one attain liberation. Question : When can one practise sahaja samadhi? Ramana Maharshi : Even from the beginning. Even though one practises kevala nirv ikalpa samadhi for years together, if one has not rooted out the vasanas one wil l not attain liberation. Question : May I have a clear idea of the difference between savikalpa and nirvi kalpa?

Ramana Maharshi : Holding on to the supreme state is samadhi. When it is with ef fort due to mental disturbances, it is savikalpa. When these disturbances are ab sent, it is nirvikalpa. Remaining permanently in the primal state without effort is sahaja. Question : Is nirvikalpa samadhi absolutely necessary before the attainment of s ahaja? Ramana Maharshi : Abiding permanently in any of these samadhis, either savikalpa or nirvikatpa, is sahaja [the natural state]. What is body-consciousness? It is the insentient body plus consciousness. Both of these must lie in another consc iousness which is absolute and unaffected and which remains as it always is, wit h or without the body-consciousness. What does it then matter whether the body-c onsciousness is lost or retained, provided one is holding on to that pure consci ousness? Total absence of body-consciousness has the advantage of making the sam adhi more intense, although it makes no difference to the knowledge of the supre me. Source: Be As You Are, David Godman Sri Chinmoy on Samadhi Sahaja samadhi encompasses the other samadhis savikalpa and nirvikalpa and it goes beyond, beyond. Samadhi is like a big building with many floors. When one is in sahaja samadhi, he is the owner of the whole building. He has the height of nirv ikalpa, and the heights far above that, and at the same time he has achieved the perfection, wealth and capacity of all the other floors. On the one hand he has encompassed within himself all the Doors, and on the other hand he is above the m. Nirvikalpa is like one height, say the thirtieth floor; it is very high, but it has only its own limited capacity. It cannot bring any of its capacity to the basement. If one has nirvikalpa, he is afraid to go down into the basement, bec ause he may not be able to go back up again. But sahaja consciousness is above t he thirtieth floor and, at the same time, it can be in the basement also. Sahaja samadhi will not be satisfied with thirtieth floor; it will be satisfied only w hen it touches the basement, the first floor, the second floor, all the floors. The power of sahaja samadhi is such that it can take one to any floor. Source: The Summits of God-Life: Samadhi and Siddhi, Sri Chinmoy. Swami Chidananda on Samadhi The word Samadhi is used to mean trance as a practice, as a technique, being one o f the eight Angas of the Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali. It is a Sadhana; it is some thing that is practised. But, quite often, the same word Samadhi is also used in t he sense of the culmination of Yoga or the ultimate objective or goal of Yoga; t hen it denotes a state of superconsciousness, a state transcending all mind-acti vity. Therefore, it will not be wrong to say that in the Yoga Shastra the term a s such is used to mean both a practice as well as a state of superconsciousness. As a practice or a technique, it is referred to by various names as Asmita Sama dhi, Savitarka Samadhi, Savichara Samadhi and so on. In English sometimes, write rs have been in the practice of alluding to these as the lower Samadhis. When th e Arurukshu Yogi a Yogi who has already climbed sufficiently well up on the ladder of Yoga and has reached a very high state goes on practising Samadhi, diligently and with great exertion, without giving up, without tiring, with sustained zeal, with Vairagya and great regularity, with great tenacity of purpose, for months and years, then he ascends into higher and higher states of Samadhi. The Samadhi in such a high state is referred to as Nirbija Samadhi or Nirvikalpa Samadhi or Asamprajnata Samadhi. When the word Samadhi is used in this way to refer to the N irbija Samadhi or Asamprajnata Samadhi, then it means the superconscious state. They even go so far as to say that it is a state of non-dual consciousness. That

is a matter of opinion. When the term Samadhi is used to indicate the Savitarka S amadhi or the Savikalpa Samadhi or other lower Samadhis, then it means trance wh ich is a technique and a practice. When one reaches the level of the Asamprajnat a Samadhi or the Nirvikalpa or Nirbija Samadhi, sometimes the Yogi goes on pract ising such a state until he becomes so much established in that state of conscio usness that even when he comes back into the waking state, down from the deep in ward state, where he is not aware of the body or the time or the surroundings, e ven when he comes back into the normal state, his awareness continues to be qual ified by the same state of non-duality. In other words, he is so much establishe d in that state of spiritual consciousness or awareness that even while he is mo ving and acting, he still remains in that state of inner awareness, and they cal l this the state of Sahaja Samadhi. Sahaja means natural. So, in Sahaja Samadhi, the state of non-dual consciousness becomes to the Yogi his natural state, and not a state which he tries hard to reach and then reaches only to come back to t he waking state after a while. Rather, the state of non-dual consciousness becom es normal to him. The Yogi thus gets established in Sahaja Avastha. But, the Sah aja Avastha is a rare phenomenon and is itself the fruit of intense practice of the other stages and gradations of Samadhi. It is only after intense practice of Savitarka Samadhi, Savichara Samadhi and Asmita Samadhi and the continued pract ice of being in a state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi that the Nirvikalpa Samadhi become s natural to the Yogi, that it becomes continued and unbroken in all the three s tates, namely, waking, dream and deep sleep. Thus, in the Sahaja Avastha, even i n the waking state, even in the midst of activity, the Yogi rests in non-dual co nsciousness. Source: THE PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY AND PRACTICE OF YOGA, Chapter 16, Swami Chida nanda FOR THE RECORD: In clarification, the two stages of Samadhi found in the yoga ph ilosophy of Patanjali, Samprajnata Samadhi and Asamprajnata Samadhi, are virtual ly if not totally indistinguishable from Savikalpa Samadhi and Nirvikalpa Samadh i as found in Vedanta.

After telling the person that the self is existence, consciousness, and bliss, h e is asked When will the realization of the self be gained? and he replies, "When the world which is what is seen has been removed, there will be realization of t he Self which is the Seer.

How is one supposed to understand the words "....has been removed?". What kind of removal is it? Is it the yogic view that complete destruction of the unconsc ious tendencies, vasanas, allows you to gain the self? Or is it the Vedantic view re moval of the notion that the world is separate from the Self?

In Ramana s teachings you will find both ideas. The first is called the vasana ks haya theory of enlightenment by the Vedantis and manonasa by the Yogis. Most Bu ddhist traditions espouse this view. The word world is actually a psychological t erm in Yoga. It does not mean the physical world. The physical world is the Se lf. It has no personal meaning. But the world that Ramana says has to be remove d is the psychological projections that make up one s own world, i.e. ignorance. T hese projections are based on an incorrect understanding of the Self, on a belie f that the Self is separate, inadequate, or incomplete. Ramana s teaching, which is Upanishadic teaching, is called vichara, enquiry. The purpose of enquiry is knowledge, not the physical removal of the mind. If he had been teaching Yoga as a means of liberation he would not have encouraged enquiry because Yoga is commi tted to experience of samadhi, not understanding that one is the Self.

Nisargadatta on the Basics There are so many who take the dawn for the noon, a momentary experience for full realization and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride. Humility and silence are essential for a sadhaka, however advanced. Only a fully ripened gnani can allow himself complete spontaneity." "You seem to want instant insight, forgetting that the instant is always precede d by a long preparation. The fruit falls suddenly, but the ripening takes time.. .Whatever you do for the sake of truth, will take you to truth...Only be earnest and honest. The shape it takes hardly matters...The very facts of repetiton, of struggling on and on and of endurance and perseverance, in spite of boredom and despair and complete lack of conviction are really crucial."

"Devotion to your goal makes you live a clean and orderly life, given to the sea rch for truth and to helping people, and realization makes noble virtue easy and spontaneous, by removing for good the obstacles in the shape of desires and fea rs and wrong ideas...The entire purpose of a clean and well-ordered life is to l iberate man from the thraldom of chaos and the burden of sorrow." "Just keep in mind the feeling 'I am', merge in it, till your mind and feeling b ecome one. By repeated attempts you will stumble on the right balance of attenti on and affection and your mind will be firmly established in the thought-feeling 'I am'. " Questioner: "Then what is needed?" Nisargadatta: "Distrust your mind, and go beyond." Questioner: "What shall I find beyond the mind?" Nisargadatta: "The direct experience of being, knowing and loving." Questioner: "How does one go beyond the mind?" Nisargadatta: "There are many starting points - they all lead to the same goal. You may begin with selfless work, abandoning the fruits of action; you may then give up thinking and in the end give up all desires. Here, giving up (tyaga) is the operational factor. Or you may not bother about anything you want, or think, or do and just stay put in the thought and feeling 'I am", focussing 'I am" fir mly in your mind. All kind of experience may come to you -- remain unmoved in th e knowledge that all perceivable is transient, and only the 'I am' endures." "Whatever name you give it: will, or steady purpose, or one pointedness of mind, you come back to earnestness, sincerity, honesty. When you are in dead earnest, you bend every incident, every second of your life to your purpose. You do not waste time and energy on other things. You are totally dedicated, call it will, or love, or plain honesty. We are complex beings, at war within and without. We contradict ourselves all the time, undoing today the work of yesterday. No wonde r we are stuck. A little of integrity would make a lot of difference." "Collect and strengthen your mind and you will find that your thoughts and feeli ngs, words and actions will align themselves in the direction of your will." [This is a long way from the approach that says just see you are awareness and t hat there is no one in control] "You aily mise lack

need purity of heart and mind, which comes through earnest application in d life of whatever life you have understood. There is no such thing as compro in Yoga...Nothing can block you so effectively as compromise, for it shows of earnestness, without which nothing can be done."

"Begin by disassociating yourself from your mind. Resolutely remind yourself tha t you are not the mind and that its problems are not yours...Go on pondering, wo ndering, being anxious to find a way. Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention. Don't look for quick results; there may be none wi thin your noticing. Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change, there wil l be more clarity in your thinking, charity in your feeling, purity in your beha viour. You need not aim at these - you will witness the change all the same. For , what you are now is the result of inattention and what you become will be the fruit of attention." "Clarify your mind, purify your heart, sanctify your life - this is the quickest way to a change of your world...Problems created by desires and fears and wrong ideas can be solved only on the level of the mind. You must conquer your own mi nd and for this you must go beyond it...To go beyond the mind, you must have you r mind in perfect order. You cannot leave a mess behind and go beyond. The mess will bog you up. 'Pick up your rubbish' seems to be the Universal law. And a jus t law too."

"just remember yourself. 'I am', is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond . Just have some trust. Commonsense too will tell you that to fulfill a desire y ou must keep your mind on it. If you want to know your true nature, you must hav e yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed. ..To help others, one must be beyond the need of help." "It is not the worship of the person that is crucial, but the steadiness and dep th of your devotion to the task. Remember, wonder, ponder, live with it, love it , grow into it, grow with it, make it your own - the word of your Guru, outer or inner. Put in all and you will get all. I was doing it. All my time I was givin g to my Guru and to what he told me...It is easy, if you are earnest...When you are concerned with truth, with reality, you must question every thing, your very life. By asserting the necessity of sensory and intellectual experience you nar row down your inquiry to search for comfort...Question every urge, hold no desir e legitimate. Empty of possession, physical and mental, free of all self-concern , be open for discovery...Have your Guru always in your heart and remember his i nstructions - this is real abidance with the true." [Very traditional] Questioner: "How can the absolute be the result of a process?" Nisargadatta: "You are right, the relative cannot result in the absolute. But th e relative can block the absolute, just as the non-churning of the cream may pre vent butter from separating. It is the real that creates the urge; the inner pro mpts the outer and the outer responds in interest and effort...Spiritual practic e is will asserted and re-asserted." [So apparently effort at times is required] "Meet your own self. Be with your own self, listen to it, obey it, cherish it, k eep it in mind endlessly. You need no other guide. As long as your urge for trut h affects your daily life, all is well with you. Live your life without hurting anybody. Harmlessness is a most powerful form of Yoga and it will take you speed ily to your goal. This is what I call Nisarga yoga, the natural yoga."

Step by Step To The Temple of Total Ruin: Lessons from Milarepa Peter Holleran One day in the Hall I was browsing a notebook of extracts on yoga. Bhagavan [ Ramana Maharshi] spoke to me in English: What is that book? I answered him. He sai d quietly, Read Milarepa. I read the book. (1) It thrilled and stirred deep places in my heart. Somehow, I feel Bhagavan had seen that it would be so. (2) Milarepa (1040-1123) is perhaps the most famous saint in the history of Tibet an Buddhism. He emerged from a background as a powerful black magician to eventu ally become a great saint and guru. In this respect he was somewhat similar to S t. Ignatius of Loyola and Brother Lawrence who had been mercenaries before being transformed into saints. The basic story goes like this. Marpa s father died and an evil uncle stole all of his father s lands and left him and his mother destitut e. Milarepa was furious and, partly through his mother s coaxing, becomes a black magician, conjures up a hailstorm and earthquakes through the casting of spells and incantations, destroys all of his uncles crops and kills thirty-five people, including his uncle's children. Filled with remorse and fear, he sought out a d ivine teacher to help him atone for his evil deeds. He was told to go to Marpa, as he was the only one powerful enough to help eradicate his evil karma. The ord eal which his guru Marpa (1012-1097) put him through can be considered an archty pal example of the aspect of 'fierce grace' in the guru-disciple relationship, o r guru yoga in Tibet, and which brought Milarepa to the brink of hopelessness. Yet this was a proximate cause of his eventual enlightenment. The traditional "lions at the temple gates" signal to the aspirant that he da re not come closer if he is not willing to be eaten alive. Such was the unspoken assumption that Marpa maintained in his relationship with Milarepa. To the reca lcitrant human ego, truly enlightened teachers can be dangerous. They try their best to be sensitive, but they mean business and there are no guarantees of succ ess. Every now and then someone unprepared by traditional standards can't take t he heat and goes schizophrenic or even commits suicide. I've seen it happen.You ve probably seen it happen, too. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche warned one who would app roach such a teacher: "My advice to you is not to undertake the spiritual path. It is too difficult , too long, and it is too demanding. What I would suggest, if you haven't alread y begun, is to go to the door, ask for your money back, and go home now,this is not a picnic. It is really going to ask everything of you and you should underst and that from the beginning. So it is best not to begin. However, if you do begi n, it is best to finish." (3) "One must make a very direct and personal relationship with the guru. You mig ht give twenty-million dollars to your spiritual friend whom you love dearly, bu t that is not enough. You must give your ego to him. You have to surrender the r eal core of you, the juicy part. Even if you give everything you have - your car , your clothes, your property, your money, your contact lenses, your false teeth - it is not enough. How about giving yourself, who possess all these things? Yo

u still hang out. It is very clumsy. Particularly in the vajrayana, teachers exp ect you to give yourself - it is not enough to strip off your skin and flesh and pull your bones apart and your heart out. What do you have left to give them? T hat is the best gift of all." (4) "We must allow ourselves to be disappointed, which means surrendering of me-n ess, my achievement. We would like to watch ourselves attain enlightenment watch our disciples celebrating, worshipping, throwing flowers at us, with miracles a nd earthquakes occurring with gods and angels singing and so forth. This never h appens. The attainment of enlightenment from ego's point of view is extreme deat h, the death of self, the death of me and mine, the death of the watcher. It is the ultimate and final disappointment. Treading the spiritual path is painful. I t is a constant unmasking, peeling off of layer after layer of masks. It involve s insult after insult...The real function of the spiritual friend is to insult y ou." (5) Chittaranjan Naik likewise poetically summarizes the 'end-game' on the path o f knowledge: Traditional advaita says that when you have prepared well, a disguised person will come to you at a Crossroad that you cannot now see. He will carry with him a sword that will slice clean through your neck. His is an act of Love. He is a mercy-killer! He will kill Death that Life may shine through. He is your Self pe rsonified in the mystery of Maya...Who says there is no path to liberation? It i s not a path made of clay and earth. It is a path that leaves no trace. That you cannot point out a traceless path is no fault of the path. (6) Whether it be the Guru or God to which one has pledged his troth - or even li fe Itself, which teacher Richard Rose said in this day and age would provide one with all the koans , or challenges and confrontations, that he needs - one must ex pect to endure a profound process before fully enjoying the fruits of self-knowl edge. Paul Brunton (PB) wrote: "The sugar cane yields its sweet juice only after it has been crushed relentl essly in a mill. The human entity yields its noblest traits and truest wisdom on ly after it has been crushed repeatedly in the mill of anguish." (7) "Beware what you pray for. Do not ask for the truth unless you know what it m eans and all that it implies and nevertheless are still willing to accept it. Fo r if it is granted to you, it will not only purge the evil out of you but later purify the egoism from your mind. Will you be able to endure this loss, which is unlikely to be a painless one?" (8) "Whoever invokes the Overself's Grace [for those unfamiliar with PB's unique terminology: Mind, World-Mind, World-Idea, Overself, found within this paper, pl ease click here ] ought to be informed that he is also invoking a long period of self-improving toil and self-purifying affliction necessary to fit him to recei ve that Grace...If he offers himself to the divine, the divine will take him at his word, provided the word is sincerely meant. The response to this offer when it comes is what is called Grace...Many who ask for Grace would be shocked to he ar that the troubles which may have followed their request were actually the ver y form in which the higher power granted the Grace to them." (9) "The Overself knows what you are, what you seek, and what you need...We somet imes wonder whether we can bear more, but no experience goes too far until it cr ushes the ego out of a man, renders him as helpless as the dying person feels." (10) For twelve years Marpa postponed Milarepa's entreaties to be given esoteric t eachings, and instead had him single-handedly build multi-storied stone towers a

nd houses, first in one location, then in another, tear one down, build another, for a total of eight times. Each stone was large and very heavy, such that Mila repa was bent over from the strain of carrying them. And each time he would fini sh a house, guru Marpa would say. "This is not exactly what I meant," or, "bette r re-build it over there." Each one took many months to build. Milarepa had open wounds on his back from carrying the bricks, and he suffered frequent beatings from his guru. During this time Marpa s wife had compassion on him for his sufferi ngs, and would periodically sneak him a bit of meat and vegetables to augment hi s diet of thin gruel. Even so, he was determined to learn the lesson of humility and abject dependence on divine Grace in the form of his guru, which is what he had voluntarily signed up for. For if he had not given his consent, the guru wo uld not have been free to do what he felt was necessary for him to do. Once, near the breaking point, Milarepa convinced Marpa's wife Dagmema to for ge a note saying that Marpa wanted him to study with and get initiations from a neighboring lama, and she even stole the guru's staff and precious jewelry for M ilarepa to take with him. He received some teachings from the lama, but after da ys of practice the expected results were not forthcoming. He needed to learn the hard way that without the guru's blessing his teaching and secret instructions are not fruitful. Marpa found him out anyway, and sent word to the lama for Mila repa to return, whereupon he received the initiation he had asked for. Not the w hole teaching, just some basics. Marpa again set him to work again building towe rs, but eventually Milarepa, at his wits end and practically near death, finally had enough, and set out to kill himself [some stories differ, saying that Milar epa never lost faith in his guru, and just ran away disconsolate]. Whereupon, Ma rpa s wife went after him and said, look, I know my husband, this (ninth) house wil l be the last, and he will give you the teaching. After completing the ninth hous e, Marpa finally gave Milarepa a meditation technique and told him to go to a ca ve and sit until he had perfected the practice. He lamented, however, that if he had been able to plunge his spiritual son Milarepa into utter despair a ninth t ime he would have saved him years of suffering to eradicate all of his impuritie s, and that he would have become an even higher master than he eventually did [T his suggests that there are stages or degrees of enlightenment, which is consist ent with the Tibetan Buddhism tradition]. Thus is the depth of solicitude and de dication a true sage or master has for those who are marked as his own and who c ome to them in full surrender. Because the guru was unable to finish his work, h owever, Milarepa needed to spend thirteen difficult years engaging a variety of practices in order to receive the final teachings of Mahamudra. During his time in the cave, Milarepa had only thistles to eat and became so gaunt and green that he acquired the name the Green Yogi . He would return to Marpa from time to time and receive further instruction. At one point Marpa said it was time for Milarepa to have a tantric consort, i n order to test his realisation in life. In Tibetan tantrism, a consort is not a conventional romantic partner, but someone to practice an impersonal advanced y ogic discipline with. As it turns out, Milarepa became attached to the lady in t he natural way, which was undermining his practice, as it was considered in thos e days. Marpa, being clairvoyant, knew this was happening and summoned for Milar epa and his consort to come visit him. When they reached Marpa, he gave Milarepa his final test, saying that henceforth he would take the woman, leaving Milarep a s head reeling and heart crushed. He did, however, see his mistaken attachment, and was sent out by Marpa for further practice to deepen his realisation. It was to take another fifteen years. One day Milarepa had a vision of his mother and sister and was filled with th e desire to return home to reconcile with them after so many years. He asked Mar pa permission to leave, and, both men realizing that they would never see each o ther again, Milarepa left. When he reached his former home he learned that his m other had long since died. Grief stricken and deeply impressed with the imperman

ence of life, he retired once more to a cave where he engaged in intensive auste rity and meditation. After this he achieved his highest enlightenment. Through p erseverance in the practice of Mahamudra and the Six Yogas of Naropa, passed on by Marpa, he is said to have achieved profound realization of the ultimate natur e of reality. Milarepa had become a great adept, and he had only praise for the compassiona te work of his guru, whom he called "kind Marpa." He wrote many works of prose a nd poetry, and is known for his "100,000 songs". he was a supreme yogi-siddha-sa int, with many advanced capacities. An example of one is recounted by Chogyal Na mkhai Norbu as follows: "When..one goes beyond the dualistic level, anything is possible. Near the ca ve of Milarepa there lived a very scholarly Tibetan monk who saw himself as bein g very intelligent. he believed he could overcome everything with his intellect, but the strange thing was that everyone went to receive teachings from Milarepa who had never studied anything, and no one came to see this monk. The monk was very jealous, and went to Milarepa to debate with him. he wanted to expose him w ith a few well-chosen words of argument, so he asked: 'Is space material or imma terial?' Milarepa replied: 'It's material'. The monk thought to himself: 'Now I' ve shown him up as a complete idiot!' and was preparing to debate some more in t he same way, when Milarepa picked up a stick and began banging on empty space as if it were a drum. The monk then asked: 'Is a rock material or immaterial?' Mil arepa replied by passing his hand through a rock. The amazed monk became his dis ciple." (10a) What can we learn from all of these stories about Milarepa? Mariana Caplan wr ote: "What is not understood is that a real teacher will never threaten the free w ill of a human being because they know that it is a gift from God...Before the m aster tests a human being, he or she has to give permission to be tested. He or she has to say, "Yes," Because certain things can't be done to a human being, sp iritually, without the human being saying, "Yes, do with me as thou wilt"...The human being has to be turned inside out, has to be burnt to ashes, and a master can't do that to a human being unless they say, "Yes." They don't have the right to. because everybody is free. The disciple, at each place along the way, is gi ven a choice: do you want to continue, do you not want to continue? The teacher is there to open your heart, to tear you apart and feed you to the lions of love . But not everybody wants that." "There are some souls who come into this world already surrendered to God. Th ere is a desire to be with God that overrules any human desire. But those people are rare. Most people say they want, but they don't want. This is the whole str uggle with the spiritual path - do they want to surrender, or do they not want t o surrender?" "It is said that even until the last initiation, the teacher does not know wh at choice the disciple will make. The disciple can say yes, or the disciple can say no. It has to be like that." (11) This is why Milarepa had to permit Marpa to do whatever it took in his own ca se, with a minimum of grumbling. Even so, it was hard. This is why Marpa had to give Milarepa a final test, and then yet another, and why life had to deal him o ne last blow. There is a Hindu aphorism that sums up Marpa's role towards Milarepa: "Whoever seeks me finds me Whoever finds me knows me

Whoever knows me loves me Whoever I love I kill." Only the soul wants this, which is why the path can be so hard. Today we in the West have seen so many guru scandals and phonies that we have strong authority issues. Perhaps the traditional model will no longer work in t he same way as it did in the East. But the saints and sages keep on coming, beca use they see how dark the ignorance of humanity really is. The chief factor, and the shield against falling into deception, is to first become a true disciple, or candidate for discipleship. It means a certain sincerity and maturity, intell igence and discernment. The flames of longing still need to be fanned, however, and a realised master is a primary means to bring the necessary reaction to its fruition: "When someone asked Rumi [if it was possible to know the Truth without a teac her], he said that it was possible, only that the journey that would take two da ys with the teacher would take two hundred years without. How do you find your w ay through the desert when there is no road?" (12) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The shaikhs of the Path have declared the following about the necessity of hav ing a master, He who has no spiritual master has no religion. - Dr. Javad Nurbakhs h O Friend! sit near one who knows the condition of thy heart. Rest a while unde r the shade of a tree that is laden with fresh and fragrant flowers. Loiter not in the market place from shop to shop, as idlers do. Go straight to one who has a store of honey with him. - Maulana Rumi --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Anthony Damiani spoke on two factors that determine when one is truly "on the path" : "Once he gets a Glimpse, he recognizes the illusory nature of the ego but als o its tyrannical sway. Then usually what a person does is offer that ego to his higher self. In other words he wants to be of service to the higher power and al l he can do is pray and ask that that be given for him to do. Make sure you know what you're asking for, because this is a big thing. Once you do that, I'm not saying it's granted, but then there comes a series of lives where egoism is real ly crushed, or you go through a training where you get rid of it, or you come ac ross a master who will help you get rid of it." (13) Swami Rudrananda spoke very directly on the reason for there being comparativ ely few who advance in the spiritual way: "The basic reason that real growth does not occur is that no one wants to fee l pain. We are animals in that respect, conditioned to seek out things that brin g us pleasure, and to avoid those which hurt. Pain must occur in the growth proc ess. When we avoid pain, we avoid growth. That is what stops ninety percent of t he people dead in their tracks." (14) Countless teachers have said the same thing:

You cannot realize God unless you suffer for him. Many aspire for God-realisat ion, but few are prepared to pay its price. (15) - Sri Upasani Baba Suffering is the way for realisation of God.

- Ramana Maharshi

"The spiritual being will be born in the human soul, provided one willingly t akes upon oneself the burden and pain caused by Divine Love." - Meister Eckhart The body is like Mary. our Jesus is not born. If origin on the same secret without a share of him. -

Each of us has a Jesus, but so long as no pain appears, pain never comes, our Jesus goes back to his place of path he had come, and we remain behind, deprived and Rumi

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The following dialogue occurred between Prince Chandragarbha and his guru, th e great Atisha. It is an example both of the keen regard Tibetan teachers have f or the law of cause and effect or karma and as an anecdote to spiritual hubris o r immaturity. "O guru! On entering samadhi, I perceived (a state of voidness) like a cloudl ess sky, radiant, pure and clear. Is that the nature of the Dharma, O guru? Then , after coming forth from meditation, I was troubled by no attachment, but longe d to be of benefit to sentient beings. I recognize the reality of karma, even th ough all objects are revealed as illusions. O guru, is my practice without error ?" The guru answered: "Fortunate man. You are a product of accumulated merit. As a bhikshu I do not exaggerate or pervert the truth. Although at the time of con centration one perceives that all objects share the voidness of the sky, one mus t lift up all beings through compassion after the concentration has been perform ed. This is an exposition of two truths (absolute and relative)." (16) Indeed, in Tibet, the 'two truths', or karma (based on dependent origination) , and emptiness (all things are devoid of inherent self-nature), are to be under stood and applied together. This will be discussed in detail in the upcoming ess ay "Emptiness Is Empty" on this website. For now, know that for the Buddhists, e specially starting with Nagarjuna, this is a core teaching inherent in all schoo ls of the 'essence' of the primordial state of reality: "Having realized that all phenomena are empty, We still rely on the doctrine of karma and effects. Among all amazing things, this is the most amazing, Among all astonishing things, this is the most astonishing." "Because the doctrine was That it was difficult for Thus, the Conqueror, upon At first turned away from

so profound, he [Buddha] realized men to understand. attaining buddhahood, teaching the doctrine." (16a)

Similarly, in "The Sutra of the Wise and Foolish" or "Ocean of Narratives" we read: "Do not disregard Thinking they are Because even tiny Can set fire to a

small misdeeds, harmless, sparks of flame, mountain of hay.

Do not disregard small positive acts, Thinking they are without benefit,

Because even tiny drops of water, Will eventually fill a large container." (17) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The fearless Marpa (1012-1097) left Tibet three times and traveled the perilo us journey to India to receive more of what became part of the Vajrayana teachin gs. Thus, Marpa was instrumental in bringing tantric meditation instructions to Tibet [to add to what Atisha had earlier brought there along with Mind-Training or insight practice. Already a well-established practitioner of Tantra in India, his place of birth, Atisha made a decision to renounce the search for magical p ower and develop compassion and selflessness. At the age of thirty he took Buddh ist vows and traveled to faraway Sumatra, where he stayed for twelve years. It i s said that such was Atisha's gratitude to Dharmakirti that he was unable even t o hear his name without bursting into tears].Under the guidance of Naropa (10161100), Marpa was able to visit the greatest siddhas of India and to receive thes e teachings. Not only did Marpa copy down the tantric practices, but he translat ed them from Sanskrit into Tibetan and spent years practicing until he had thoro ughly mastered them. This was fortunate because soon afterwards there was the Mo slem invasion of India and most of these teachings were destroyed there. The dha rma secured by Marpa continues to be practiced in Tibet to this day. Tilopa and Naropa were the first two lineage holders of the Kagyu tradition. Marpa was the third, the fourth was Milarepa, then Rechungpa, Gampopa, and the s ucceeding Karmapas. The study of the biographies of the great saints is valuable especially when one is discouraged or faced with doubt about one's spiritual practice. Just imag ine the hardships they endured in order to even obtain the teachings: there were no bookstores, not even a printing press; there were no cars or trains; all exc ept Milarepa travelled thousands of miles, through jungles, deserts, torrid plai ns, and snowy mountain ranges, to find their teachers and receive instruction. A tisha journeyed from Bengal to Tibet, then south to Sumatra where he found his p rinciple teacher, then back to Tibet a second time. Marpa, as mentioned, made th ree long journeys to India in order to receive spiritual instruction and blessin g from his guru, Naropa; Naropa in turn had been required to confront emotional and physical limitations, pain, and even death in his commitment to self-transce ndence under his guru, Tilopa (988-1069); this included jumping off a temple roo f and stealing food from a wedding banquet at the bequest of his guru and suffer ing beatings from the angry guests. Tilopa, who himself had no human guru but di d associate with Nagarjuna and other teachers, is said to have literally chained himself down in a cave for twelve years to meditate, and later earned his livel ihood pounding sesame seeds during the day and working in a brothel at night. (1 7a) The gist of these great souls' unique struggles can be seen as the equivalent of modern day preparatory practices such as Ngondro (refuge and prostrations, m antra, mandala offering, and guru-yoga), samatha, or vipassana to ripen and tran scend karma and lead to the advanced end-game practice in one's respective schoo l, be it Dzogchen, Vajrayana, Mahayana, Theravada - or whatever other tradition one follows. In Tibetan Buddhism, before the time of the ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje (1560-1603), such fixed preliminaries did not exist. Each of the masters had their own way of preparing the ground'. There is a saying in Tibet that the preliminary practices are more important than the actual or pinnacle practice, whether that be the 'open-minded' non-dual contemplation of Dzogchen or the higher tantras and Mahamudra of Vajrayana, the reason being that without them one cannot usually experience the true depth of

the 'pinnacle or more direct practice. The outrageous and idiosyncratic ordeals of these great historical beings are basically archtypes of the 'preliminaries' that even today one must pass through in one form or another to be equipped with the 'organ' or 'vehicle' capable of receiving the liberating insight or 'seed o f enlightenment' from the guru. As Dzogchen Ponlop put it, these preliminaries a re the 'storyline' that prepares us to get the 'punch-line', that is, the pointi ng out instructions that introduce us to the actual practice of the nature of mi nd. (17b) Naropa was born into a high family and became a student (which required a ten -year course) and then professor at the famed Nalanda University. According to l egend: One day, so it is said, when Naropa was sitting in the shade of a large banyan tree, studying his books, an ugly old woman come up to him. She asked him if he could understand the words which he was reading. 'Yes, of course,' he replied, thinking that she was just some old illiterate peasant woman. At this she cackle d with laughter. Then she asked him if he experienced the meaning of what he was reading. Again, he replied, 'Of course.' The old hag burst into tears. "Why do you cry?" Naropa asked. She then explained to him that first she was overjoyed w hen he said he could comprehend the words, but she wept when he also claimed to really know the meaning. 'You, having not experienced Enlightenment, cannot poss ibly really know the actual meaning,' she explained. 'Yet, being a scholar, you mistakenly believe that intellectual comprehension equals genuine Enlightened ex perience.' Naropa had to admit that she was correct." "How can I realize Enlightenment," he asked. "My brother is the great yogi Ti lopa," she explained, "and he can guide you on the path of direct mystical exper ience." As with many tales in the lives of an initiate, the legend of Naropa describes how he went through twelve painful trials to receive the mystical teachings of the "Way of the Yogi" from Tilopa. Each trial that Naropa had to undergo demonst rated some aspect of the teaching and also broke through Naropa's pride. Though he suffered tremendously during these trials, Naropa persevered to the end and w on through to Enlightenment in only a few years. (18) All these gurus, as mentioned, were of the Kagyu lineage, also known as the pr acticing order or 'fast-track' where the emphasis is strongly on the necessity of meditation and the guru-disciple relationship in order to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. Dzogchen is another extreme and perhaps the most pure form of the 'fast-track', for those who are qualified. In all of the Tibetan schools, gu ru-devotion or guru-yoga is the most essential factor. In brief, in the Vajrayan a tantra schools, one identifies with the guru in order to receive his transmiss ion of wisdom. There is a subtle element of dualism involved in practice. In Dzo gchen, however, one unites with the 'state' of the teacher, the one who first di rectly 'introduces one to the view', or the non-dual state. It is a school all i ts own, but also engaged by select practioners of other lineages. A brief note o n that tradition will be given later. The biographies of Milarepa (nice read - also extensive links to his teaching s) (19), Marpa (20), and Naropa (21) serve as archtypes of the sacred ordeal tha t a true devotee enters into when he submits to the guidance and grace of such a n Enlightened being, or, as in the case of Tilopa, when he commits himself heart , mind, and soul to the sacred quest with Life and the divine Itself as his teac hers. Curiously, though the way be steep and hard, the outcome is mirthful: of all spiritual masters, the Tibetans are among those who seem to laugh the most.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A critical part of this process are times of crisis, either provoked by the s killful means of a guru or by life Itself. That is, by the ego s confrontation wit h the not-self in a thousand different ways it sees its fundamental conceit to exi st as a separate entity humiliated. This, repeated often enough, allows fundamen tal insight to arise or manifest. There is a chance one might find his soul. Thi s does not only happen when one is in a relaxed mode, but often when he is in ext remis , when all of his resources are exhausted or defenses are galvanized toward survival and thus then capable of being seen, understood, and released - if he c an stay mindful and conscious of the process. It is a mark of some maturity to e ven reach this place. Surrender of self is a gradual, sometimes subtle, and comp lex affair. Robert S. deRopp states: This seeing is the essence of the alchemical process called nigredo, the blacke ning. It involves confronting those forces in oneself that are mainly responsible for one s inner slavery, forces referred to [by Gurdjieff] as the chief feature. One who has seen his chief feature and learned to separate from it is on the way to real liberty (the whitening or albedo). But this work of discovering the chief feature can be as rough on the teacher as it is on the pupil. The teacher has to maintain a role that may be unpleasant and difficult. He must put up with abuse from the person he is trying to help. For few come easily to the meeting with their chief features. It is a real showd own, at which Dr. Jekyll meets Dr. Hyde, at which all the rotting monsters in on e s personal cesspool come crawling out into the light of day. (22) This is really preliminary but often necessary work before the higher spiritu al process that the teacher wishes to bestow or initiate one into begins. It is not for everyone; for some, grace falleth as the gentle rain from heaven. But it i s the kind of scenario portrayed in symbolic form by Milarepa s struggles. Some people simply need tough teachers. A disciple of a Hasidic master confes sed, "I need a guru who will flay the living flesh off my back rather than one w ho will flatter me." The Rinzai school of Zen was known as the "shouting and bea ting school." A Hebrew mystical saying is, "there is nothing so whole as a broke n heart." The true guru, whether he be gentle or harsh, subtle or direct, will i nfluence one on the subconscious and unconscious levels, restructure you, and at times, while always supporting you from beneath, may "mess you up." Those who a pproach such persons should be apprised of this fact and allow their egoism to b e undermined. Probably, however, in this day of the universal communication of ' spiritual secrets', the shock value of any such techniques has been diminished. The guru needs to be more subtle to accomplish his task. Yet the intention of th e spiritual friend is wholly benign: "The master's anger and kindness are the thunderstorms and sunshine of life's new spring. From them grows forth the rose of the disciple's sincerity and purity." - Ru mi The Vajrayana tradition, of which Milarepa is the epitome, teaches and employ s many mystic and tantric practices, but ultimately points to the non-dual dharm a of Mahamudra in which the phenomenal realms and the realization of consciousne ss itself are known non-separatively. The actual practice of Mahamudra itself ca n be quite complex, but essentially employs forms of deity contemplation and act ivation of the central kundalini channel in the body, sometimes tantric sexual p ractice (but only after one has full control over the subtle energies of the bod y) as well as a graded series of meditation, composed of two essential parts, sa

matha ('tranquility', 'calm abiding') and vipasyana ('special insight'), which a re also basic to the two main sutra schools of Buddhism. It is essential to have a guru to engage Mahamudra successfully. It is not ju st a technique, but a complete life of practice. Lama mKas grub dGe legs dpal bz ang (1385-1438) , a disciple of the great Tsong kha pa, wrote sarcastically of t he 'quietist' practitioners of his time and their illusions of attainment and la ck of insight, especially those who didn't have the necessary foundation method and understanding of 'emptiness': "But the great meditators of today, who are inexperienced at guarding against mental excitement or lethargy, even if they attain single-pointed concentration on the nature of the mind, by meditating on silence and blankness as their obje ct, they are in actuality accumulating a subtle form of mental lethargy. By accu stoming themselves to this for long periods of time, the dispersion of air (rlun g) within their bodies gives them a certain type of lightness and ease in action . It seems as though they are abiding like space in the midst of space, or as if , having pushed their minds into a state of nakedness, they are emerging from th e skin of a snake. It appears to them as though they are making their home on th e pinnacle of Mt. Meru and that they are no longer solid as before, but are now like a rainbow. This leads to extreme elation and to thinking that one has trave rsed a variety of stages and paths, causing these masters to claim that the teac hings of the Mahamudra, which perceives the nature of the mind are the most impo rtant and profound instructions of the Buddha, that they are the teachings which will allow one to attain the state of buddhahood in this very life." "In response to this the great lord Tsong kha pa and most of his followers ha ve stated that the single pointed equipoise on the nature of the mind is only a slight mental avoidance of the self of the person or the self of phenomena and i s only a slight break in the proliferation of conceptualization in regard to oth er things. Hence, they say it does not eliminate on the least either the delusio n or the self-grasping that has arisen innately from beginningless time in samsa ra, since it does not in the least negate the object that appears in grasping at true existence." (23) The guru is of essential importance in the Vajrayana tradition, more so, perh aps, than in any other school of Buddhism. Patrul Rinpoche says: The Guru Yoga is the essence of all paths...Total openness and devotion to a r ealized teacher is the most sure and rapid way to progress...To meet a perfect t eacher is more valuable than gaining a kingdom. Look how those with no devotion treat the teacher as their equal. (24) The teacher you have met by the power of your past actions, and whose kindness you have received, is the most important of all...Obey him in all things and di sregard all hardships, heat, cold, hunger, thirst, and so on. Pray to him with f aith and devotion. Ask his advice on whatever you may be doing. Whatever he tell s you, put it into practice, relying on him totally. (25) "The greatest of all teachers is the one with whom we are linked from former lives...For without the right conditions created by your former actions, you wou ld never have had the good fortune of meeting an excellent teacher." (26) The great first-century sage, Asvaghosa, said: What need is there to say much more. Do whatever pleases your Guru and avoid d oing anything he would not like. Be diligent in both of these...Powerful attainm ents follow from doing what your Guru likes. (27) A modern Hindu sage, Swami Gnanananda, was an example of a teacher whose trea

tment of his disciples varied widely depending on the level of their spiritual i ntimacy or deeper connection with him. In this respect he was much like kind Mar pa : There were many occasions when the Swami would start a devotee on the road to introspection. This he would do by being indifferent to him, by admonishing him in the presence of others. This was designed not only to fathom the devotee s fait h but also to deflate his ego and subject him to relentless self-probing. The Sw ami would impose the discipline on those who were very close to him and who he t hought deserved his consideration and spiritual ministrations. The cravings and mental oscilllations of the past had to be erased and obstructive old paths and habits made to fade away and die, if the unmortified affections of the heart wer e to be sublimated to a congruous harmony. The more he chastened a devotee the m ore likely it was that he was very close to him in spiritual kinsmanship. The mo re he treated a devotee with cool indifference or a frigid look, the more likely it was that he was brooding over the welfare of the devotee. (28) Anandamayee Ma spoke of this same process: "It is not right to compare and reason saying: "Such and such a person has do ne sadhana for so many years and yet has not got anywhere." How can you judge wh at is happening to anyone inwardly? Sometimes it seems that a person who does sa dhana seems to have changed for the worse. But how do you know that this tendenc y has not always been in him and has now com out so that it may be dealt with an d purified as a result of his endeavors? To say: "I have done so much sadhana bu t have not been transformed," is also the wrong attitude. Yours is only to seek God and call out to Him unceasingly and not look to the result of what you are d oing." (29) In the case of Milarepa, Marpa's wife Dagmema would relate that when her husb and would come home at the end of the day he would often be in tears from having to put his disciple through such terrible ordeals for the sake of his own purif ication. Such is the solicitude of a saint. A rare saint, for a rare disciple. M ilarepa's attitude was, "Do what you like with me, cut my body to pieces, only d o not let me be separated from you." Yet that was exactly what he had to endure on many occasions when he would be kicked out when Marpa's other disciples were all invited in. For their own benevolent reasons the greatest gurus will often a ppear to ignore their most beloved disciples for the sake of their ultimate grow th. In this day of self-awakened and self-proclaimed teachers, there is something to be said about the power of a lineage of masters, whose grace flows from one to the next in an unbroken stream, with each humbly deferring to his teacher as the source of grace, and himself being backed up by those who came before him. I n the Mahayana text, the Lankavatara Sutra it says: "What is this twofold power that sustains the Bodhisattvas? The one is the po wer by which they are sustained to go through the Samadhis and Samapattis, while the other is the power whereby the Buddhas manifest themselves in person before the Bodhisattvas and baptise them with their own hands...This is in order to ma ke them avoid the evil ones, karma, and passions, to keep them away from the Dhy ana and stage of Sravakahood, to have them realise the stage of Tathagatahood, a nd to make them grow in the truth and experience already attained. For this reas on, Mahamati, the fully Enlightened Ones sustain with their power the Bodhisattv a-Mahasattvas...Thus it is said: The sustaining power is purified by the Buddhas ' vows; in the baptism, Samadhis, etc., from the first to the tenth stage, the B odhisattvas are in the embrace of the Buddhas." (30) Once again, this does not grant one a guarantee, only a more or less reasonab le chance of success. On the other hand, what if the lineage is teaching an inco

rrect or incomplete teaching? There is no way of getting around a reasonable deg ree of self-reliance. One hidden benefit of a lineage, however, is that a true master remains a tru e disciple, deferring all benefit of grace to his own master. Very rarely does a true master consider himself as surpassing his guru. If he does so it is done r especfully. This not only grants humility, but ensures the power of the lineage. My own guru, Kirpal Singh, being absolutely the competent master when assuming the guru function for his disciples, and without denying his own spiritual statu s, would also say: "I know my own worth; I am a mere pipe; unless my Master send s his Grace, I am nothing." Ramana was clear about the necessity of treating the Master as the representa tive of the Divine, and not as an equal - the raft to carry us to the other shor e. He often referred to the "Tattvopadesha" by Sankara, which states: "Keep advaita within the Heart. Do not ever carry it into action. Even if you apply it to all the three worlds, O Son, it is not to be applied to the Guru." Kirpal Singh wrote about his Master, Sawan Singh: "When Baba Sawan Singh once wrote that he did not even yearn for Sach Khand ( literally True Region, or the home of the Soul, a division of Sat Lok) but only pr ayed that he had Love and faith at the Satguru s holy feet, Baba Ji was extremely pl eased and replied that such self-surrender was indeed the highest karni (disciplin e) and assured him that he who had such a love for the Master would certainly rea ch Sach Khand, and passing through Alakh, Agam, and Anami-Radhasoami, get merged in the Wonder Region. (31) And Kirpal Singh once exclaimed to Sawan Singh: " Hazur! The peace and security that I have in sitting at thy feet here cannot be had in higher planes... My heart was filled with anguish; I could not speak a nymore and sat staring - Hazur encouraging and caressing me all the time. (32) It must be repeated once again that it is grace which is the saving factor on the path. For the truly sincere, it makes up for their inadequacies, for no one is perfect. Without it we are helpless and there is no way of reaching the othe r shore. Contemporary teacher anadi states: "We are not only reaching for the inner wholeness, we are being reached by It as well. In truth, it reaches us, but our responsibility or freedom, if you lik e, is to be available. We have to surrender. This surrender is not emotional but existential. We must surrender into now, into the heart of the now, which is th e mystery of God." "To meet your creator you have to cry. The tears in your heart will wash your heart, so it becomes innocent, as it always has been. As you have to wake up to the state of presence and to being, so you have to wake up to your soul, which is in the heart. You are a soul - this is your true image, the divine spark from the eternal fire, which journeys in the dimension of time towards the timeless. ..You are moved; you are touched by the beloved; you are seen by the Friend...an d you are blessed." (33) It goes without saying that one embarking on such a path must make a thorough examination of a teacher before making any commitment: if you find peace in his company, if he embodies the precepts, has basic integrity, if despite his appar ent flaws you feel an unbreakable connection with him, if he transmits the power of the heart, and of emptiness, conveys the teachings openly, with intelligence and discrimination, then one may be reassured of his competency and ability to

guide you successfully. Of course, there are good teachers and there are master-teachers. The sincere seeker will always find what his soul needs; that is the law. While a good teac her may be a step or more ahead of you, and able to give reliable and useful adv ice, and have some insight into ones character and development, the master-teach er can read ones soul. He is the agent for the divine in this world. He may not be humanly perfect, and even seem to have perceptible flaws, yet is in a special class of his own. "Gold is gold," were the short but sweet words my master to s ay. In olden times such a master, while acting very human much of the time, was viewed as having spirituality literally "in his blood," developed over the cours e of many lifetimes, as the following anecdote attests. The peerless sacrifice of the sage or "completed one" is dramatically depicte d in a story called "In Praise of the Blessings of the Monk," from the Buddhist text Sutra of the Wise and Foolish, or The Ocean of Narratives, a series of Jata kas or rebirth stories. A householder called Majestic Being who was one hundred years old desired to become a monk, but was turned down by Sariputra, the wisest and most senior monk of the Sangha, as well as by Mahakasyapa and others, who b elieved he was too old to study, meditate and engage in discipline. The man wept and cried out in despair, asking what sins did he commit that he be denied beco ming a monk, whereupon the Enlightened One appeared to him in all radiance and a sked the reason for his sorrow. Upon hearing Majestic Being's story He spoke thu s: "Do not let your mind be troubled, householder. I myself shall ordain you. Sa riputra has not, during countless aeons, exerted himself in the austerities. Nor has he, for hundreds of aeons, brought forth virtues. Sariputra has not, in pre vious births, allowed his head, eyes, bones, marrow, flesh, blood, skin, feet, h ands, ears, and nose to be cut away and offered them freely. Sariputra has never given his body to a tiger, has not been burnt in a pit of fire, has not had his holy body pierced by a thousand iron pins, has not had his body burnt by a thou sand torches. Sariputra has not given away his lands, his cities, his wives, son s, men and women slaves, elephants, chariots, or his seven precious jewels. Sariputra has not, during the first countless kalpas, honored a hundred-thous and kotis of Buddhas. Nor did he, during the intermediary countless kalpas, hono r ninety-nine thousand Buddhas. Nor, during the final countless kalpas, has he h onored a hundred-thousand Buddhas, become a monk in their presence and become pe rfect in the Precepts and the Paramitas. Sariputra is not one who zealously teac hes the Dharma. How can he say that this one may become a monk and that one may not? I alone have authority to endow one with the Dharma and to extol the Six Pe rfections. I alone have put on the armor of patience. I alone sit on the Vajrasa na at the tree of Enlightenment. I alone have overcome the hosts of Mara and att ained the bliss of a perfect Buddha. There is no one like me. Therefore, follow me and I shall ordain you." (34) As the inner dimensions are literally infinite, so are the dimensions of the master's heart. There is another important reason, in this time of ordinary awakenings, for t he continuing need for a teacher. There are many states beyond the mind, beyond concepts, and the ability to discern the nature of ones realisation is not inher ently self-verifying, despite the common assumption that claims otherwise. Some say that self-verification is the inherent nature of consciousness. Yet the grea t Zen masters and Sufis didn't think so. Self-knowing is an element of conscious ness, but what if the realisation of consciousness is not all there is to enligh tenment? This, of course, would be a non-traditional view, but there are also ma ny intermediate states that can pass for a final one. Buddhist teachings, attest that there are, in fact, many stages of the path after the realisation of 'no-s elf'. On the inside, moreover, there are formless, yet created realms, where one

has no way of knowing what state he is in, whether that be the state of presenc e-awareness, the state 'beyond consciousness', 'emptiness', the experience of on es soul, God, and so on. It is easy to simply say, 'all is consciousness or awar eness,' but is it true? In the graduated form of the mystical path of Sant Mat, moreover, there is said to be a great void of darkness called Maha Sunn between the created and the uncreated realms, where the soul, having shed all its coveri ngs or sheaths, still can only cross this region with the master's help. In all of these cases only a master who has plumbed the depths of these levels of exper ience will be able to confirm ones state and help one go further. Going it alone is risky. Yet life is not without risks, and many choose, for instance, based on Buddha's last advice, 'be a lamp unto thyself,' not to avail themselves of hierarchically superior help out of fear of being misled. They don 't realise that Buddha might not have meant by his statement the sort of prematu re spiritual independence that is common in the West, but instead was telling hi s disciples that they need not seek another guru after his death, and that his S ambhogakaya and Dharmakaya forms, as well as teaching and sangha (community of p ractitioners) would continue to guide them, as had been traditional before him. In this day and age when one can find all of the world s wisdom teachings in bo okstores or on the internet, which is a highly positive development in that it i s leading to a rejection of provincial and partial views of the enlightenment pr ocess, and the rejection of static concepts for more dynamic ones suitable for a modern age, it is easy to forget the sacred ordeal, the means employed, and the many sacrifices made by great ones in the past to attain precious knowledge in pursuit of liberation, and upon whose shoulders we stand today. Some things have changed, but some things remain the same. Patrul Rinpoche states: The Dharma is nobody s property. It belongs to whoever is the most interested. T he Buddha himself obtained the teachings at the price of hundreds of hardships. ( 35) It is true that, by and large, today we are not Milarepas, and there are few Marpas. Life itself has become a master, or at least companion, teacher, to a gr eater extent than in the past. As Gangaji said: "If you are serious in your resolve to be vigilant, then your tested. Once you consciously say, "Okay, I am ready. I am ready to appear and test my confidence in what is true, what is real," you will be thrown to the ground time and again. You are playing , life itself." (36)

resolve will be for everything then of course with the master

Yet the ancient, authentic, and eternal guru-devotee relationship stills stan d as a touchstone and singularly effective means to truth. The problem, however, is what it has always been, namely, the existence of few such saints and master s, but, also, comparatively few earnest disciples. There is some justice here in that everyone gets what they need and want. "There is food for the hungry and w ater for the thirsty." "You are dealing in diamonds, said Kirpal Singh; if that is the case, would o ne not be willing to go to any length to unearth them? (Oh, they're in your pock et already? No need to read further then). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------While we are on the subject, Baird T. Spalding wrote the following on the pra ctice of black magic:

"Before one can practice black magic, or become an anti-christ, he must first become versed in the powers of the Christ consciousness. He gets the Christ pow er and uses it erroneously. The outcome of such practice is self-destruction, an d with the destruction of individuals given to the practice of the black art, th e art passes with them." (37) This would explain how a soon-to-be famous adept, Milarepa, was both born wit h great spiritual background, but also free will, and fell from his appointed de stiny until undergoing drastic penance under the skillful surgeon Marpa. It woul d also explain how increasingly we are seeing people who have had at least an in itial awakening while in prison, such as Satyam Nadeen or John Sherman, or how c haracters like Ignatius Loyola or Brother Lawrence became great saints. Saints a ren't born in a day, yet had free will to exercise, for good or bad, up to the p oint of merging into the universal will. [Prison, it seems, may be a good 'conce ntration camp'. Sri Aurobindo had nirvikalpa samadhi while in prison, and St. Jo hn of the Cross reached some of his highest states there]. Spalding also issues a similar warning for those who choose to be teachers, w hich is well to keep in mind, and may be why Kirpal Singh once said, "that man w ho wants to be a guru, I feel sorry for him": "The most painful, if not the quickest method of self-destruction, is the mis use of spiritual knowledge. The individual tempted to use this spiritual knowled ge to influence, control or gain advantage over others should remember that ever y edict which goes forth from his own mind or mouth passes through his own being , and becomes a fiat of power within his own nature, working upon himself exactl y as he had intended it for another." (38) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Mahamudra tradition employs the Kalachakra teachings, essentially a combi nation of non-dual contemplation, guru devotion, and mystical meditation. (39) T he extreme simplicity of his essential teaching, however, Tilopa expressed in a few words in his Song to Naropa: Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happenin g now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Rela x, right now, and rest. Don t meditate. Keep your mind in its natural state. Longchenpa (1308-1364) also proclaimed: "Desiring happiness is the illness of attachment. It is through the absence of desire, that one gains happiness. Buddhahood does not happen by being made t o happen. It is unsought and naturally indwelling, and so is spontaneously prese nt. Rest nonconceptually in this effortless, natural abiding state." (40) The sage Astavakra, in his famous Gita, similarly wrote: This is your bondage, that you practice meditation. These are, of course, ultimate non-dual statements traditionally meant for pr oficients or ripe souls, those who are able to recognise and "rest nonconceptualy in the effortless, natural abiding state." Usually there is first some kind of p reparation to humble and chasten the aspirant, in Milarepa s case quite a severe p urification. Milarepa was a tough case, needing a tough guru. Why didn t Marpa jus t give Milarepa the advice of Tilopa mentioned above? First, because while it wa s an essential gem it was not the whole of the teaching, which, besides the awak ening and cultivation of insight, entails quite literally a transformation of th

e entire body-mind, making it, in Milarepa's case, fit for the higher tantras, a nd second, because if he had initiated Milarepa into the mystical practices, giv en Milarepa s background, the forces activated might have again been used negative ly, and lastly, because Milarepa had evil karma that needed purgation. In this day of easy access to a proliferation of teachings, both with or with out a teacher the emphasis is more and more on getting insight first, and purifi cation later. As the world enters the Age of Aquarius, the 'pain-body' and the ' crucified savior' archtype predominate in the preceeding Age of Pisces is dimini shing, with more and more aspirants incarnating already suited for more direct p aths of inquiry and understanding, employing the higher mind and its full reason ing and intuitive powers without the hindrance of dogma or other restraints. 'Go d does not teach by words, but by pains and contradictions,' said the great deCa ussade several hundred years ago. For many this still holds true, but for many o thers God instructs by receptivity to guidance from within, leading one to ask q uestions, to find material that helps one ask the right questions, and to get an swers until the intellect is satisfied, after which it can naturally, and not pr ematurely, step aside, its work finally done. In other words, the questioning in tellect is an essential tool in the process of enlightenment, of evolution; one cannot go beyond the asking of questions before one has even formulated the righ t questions, good questions, questions so good they contain the seed of their ow n answer within them. As Anthony once said, to be able to formulate a real questi on is already quite a feat of knowledge. Don t believe the yogis, therefore, who say that the mind is your enemy; withou t the mind one can t become enlightened. Adyashanti said that one should question 'right down to the marrow.' For, ultimately, the mind is part of the Soul, which , through guidance by Universal Intelligence, uses the mind, along with other fa ctors, to help itself understand and awaken. This is the positive aspect of the mind. Emerson wrote: Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. PB and Damiani refer to this process as the World-Mind or World-Idea working out its meaning and becoming conscious in you. The guidance, on the level of the mind, helps one to work with ideas, develop ing more and more abstract concepts, ultimately the most abstract concepts, such as those of God and liberation, until one recognizes for real that truth lies b eyond the mind. In this unstoppable process the individual is moving towards the universal, the whole, of which it formerly thought itself only a part. An evolu tion is occuring, and today new forms of spiritual teaching are also emerging. T he primary forms of discipline, it seems, have become non-resistance, non-judgem ent, not-knowing, openness, study, reason, self-forgetting, and self-understandi ng, rather than penance or self-abnegation, endless hours of meditation, self-di scipline and social isolation. Such self-abnegation occurs naturally as one beco mes saturated in the wisdom teachings and applies them practically in life. The faculty of Buddhi, long relegated to the trash-bin of oriental mysticism, is bei ng restored to its rightful place as a guide to spiritual independence. The hear t is also coming out of hiding. The overall intelligence of man is being stimula ted to a higher octave, for those receptive to the influence. Tilopa s disciple, Naropa, spoke of the mystical practice of meditation in the tradition of these saints which accompanied their non-dual contemplation and kee ping of moral precepts: The actual practice of the light as the path is the emptying of consciousness from every content. Outwardly this is a process of dying, while inwardly it is a

n increase and gathering of the light, passing through the non-effulgent state o f unknowing into the radiant light which cannot be predicated in any way...provi ded one is fully aware of the various phases in this process...The attainment of the goal is an access to a sphere of life larger and more powerful and divinely inspired than the normal conscious life. Not only does it make us happy, it als o sheds its light through us on others who, awakened by it, may also follow its path. 41) In the following the yogic/ mystical process of 'dying while living' and 'pho wa' or 'transference of consciousness by first closing the nine 'outgoing' bodil y gates to exit the body via the crown center is clear; it should be noted that for one who has already accomplished the goal of Dzogchen or Mahamudra practice, the realization of non-duality, the phowa exercise is superfluous. For such a o ne there is no longer any body-identification, no 'in' or 'out' to be concerned with: The nine openings open on samsara But one opening opens up to Mahamudra. Close the nine openings and open up the one; Do not doubt that it leads to liberation. (42) Milarepa received the yogic Mudra teaching of withdrawing his subtle energy a nd consciousness into the central channel through his encounter with the goddess Tseringma while on pilgrimage near Mt. Everest and Chhubar. (43) Along with the non-dual contemplation, the secret Vajrayana tradition used a form of kundalini awakening in the sushumna or brahma nadi, merging the internal or microcosmic k undalini with the terrestrial or macrocosmic kundalini flowing along the 'Axis Mun di', (also referred to in esoteric traditions as the Tree of Life ) allowing the a dept to access supranormal abilities, as well as (in theory at least) gain the ' direct path' to the divine in one life. Ultimately, the development of the 'ligh t body' (divya deha or cinmaya) is a possibility, wherein the physical form of t he yogi disintegrates or reduces his body to the essence of the elements and he dissolves into Light, vanishing into the sky and completely transcending the cos mos. The 'rainbow body' is another possibility, in which a similar process takes place leaving a phenomenon behind which is said to exist until all beings are f ree of samsara, and is visible and of help to advanced practitioners. This is re al, although rare, and not necessary for ordinary enlightenment. It is more a ch aracteristic of the Dzogchen school, where it is sometimes considered a characte ristic of Total Realization. To simply realize truth, the kundalini doesn t have to raise even one inch! How ever, that doesn't mean it has no significance, or that there isn't more to the depths of spirituality. The more radical practices of Mahamudra are inheritances from the Siddha tradition of India, which Marpa brought back to Tibet on his lo ng sojourns. According to philosopher Ken Wilber, in The Atman Project , there i s a spiritual progression of mankind from the stage of the shaman-mystic-yogi, t o the saint, then the sage, and finally the Siddha, considered the crown of evol ution. The Siddhas were tantric practitioners who practised kundalini yoga and a long with insight practice as well developed such complete non-dual enlightenmen t that they attained natural control over the forces of nature and creation. Cap abilities such as the rainbow body or light-body might be considered by some to be within the scope of Patanjali's ancient description of yogic siddhis or power s, including the ability to make the body very small or even disappear, but they are, rather, advanced stages in the tantric and Dzogchen non-dual development, or in some instances, rare manifestations of the Christ Power, such as in the ca se of Jesus. They are not necessary for ordinary enlightenment, as mentioned, wh ich, however, may only be an initial step towards the higher stages progressivel y taught in these traditions. For instance, according to the Buddha the higher r ealizations are only possible when one is freed from karmas. The liberated Arhat is only the fourth of seven such initiations or stages.

In the Siddha tradition, the ability to take up ones body and reappear anywhe re and anytime at will, without death and reincarnation, is a sign of the true r esurrection. Unique individuals who manifested the so-called light-body or simply disappea red body and all were Tamil Siddhas Manicka Vachagar, Thirugnana Sambanathar, Mu ruga Nayanar, Thirumoolar, and others (44), including also, according to traditi on, Sankara, Ramanuja, Tukaram, Jnaneshwar, Madhya, Chaitanya, Kabir, Tsongkappa (founder of the Tibetan Yellow Hat Sect, that of the Dalai Lamas) and Lord Kris hna. According to the Bhagavata, the latter performed agni-yoga-dharana, or the process of 'radiating inner fire' and transforming his physical body into a subt le form before departing from this world. Thirumular called this svarupa or form , 'self-illuminating manifestness.' Ramalinga Swamigal in the nineteenth century recorded in detail how he so tra nsformed his body. In 1874 he entered his room and disappeared in a flash of vio let light. Historically, Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus are reported to have done the same. Jesus is said to have appeared to his disciples for forty days after his d eath before ascending 'bodily into heaven.' Various saints in the Sant Mat tradi tion and others have appeared, not only in subtle but in physical bodies in more than one place at a time. Ramana Maharshi de-materialised and re-materialised i n front of his disciples on a number of occasions. No doubt all of these things are possible. To the Siddhas such a transformation was considered jivan mukti, o r liberation in life. Yet other sages, such as the advaitins, maintain that this is not a necessity for liberation, and most certainly is not the only way to re ach liberation. If such a superhuman achievement were the case, then in this day and age we are all certainly doomed! It does remain, however, one among many po ssibilities of spiritual development for souls destined for a unique form of ser vice, whatever that might be. Just a brief note on Dzogchen will be given here. Called "the Great Perfectio n", Dzogchen is the pinnacle practice of the Tibetan Nygmapa school, but conside rs itself outside of tradition, and almost primordially present in Tibet (even b efore Buddhism) and also according to one tantra (df. - scripture) present in th irteen solar systems other than our own! The Mahayana sage Nagarjuna who elabora ted the 'emptiness ' teachings of that school, was also a tantric adept and is l isted in various lists of ancient Dzogchen lineages. He is said to have derived many teachings from the nagas (spiritual beings who are said to live under water ). Unlike Theravada, Mahayana, or even the tantras (df. - practices) of Vajrayan a, true and not preparatory Dzogchen practice starts at the level of non-dual re alization, and ends with the infiltration of non-dual realization to the deepest levels of body-mind. The 'Total Realization' consists of the practitioner disso lving his body into the essence of its elements, creating a Light Body, of benef it for other advanced practitioners. He has realized the already existing primor dial essence of all three 'bodies': the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakay a. That is, he not only can experience everything the dualistic, samsarically bo und individual experiences, except from an enlightened point of view, but he can manifest enlightened bodies at these three levels if he chooses after death for the benefit of all beings. During life the greatest adepts may be able to appea r and disappear at will, having spontaneously and without motivation developed n umerous siddhis that can be employed for spiritual purposes. As in various class ic yogic schools, including the Sant Mat tradition, the warning is given not to pursue these for their own sake, or in a motivated fashion, but they are allowed to arise on their own and can be used while abiding in the non-dual view. It is important to understand that the Great Transfer/Rainbow Body of Dzogche n (also found in some Taoist and Hindu teachings) is not a siddhi like the demat erialization/bi-location capacity so often demonstrated by various masters. That is a power that derives from the ability to manipulate the elements - not just

the physical elements per se, but to be able to translate matter/energy in and o ut of the various planes. For instance, if one visualizes an orange clearly in o ne's mind, and then with adequate concentration, infuses this elemental that one has formed of an orange with the earth element, it will precipitate in the phys ical world. This is one basic method of materialization. Conversely, if one take any physical object, or one's own body, and through mind-power concentrates on removing the earth element from it, then it will dematerialize, though it will n ow continue to exist in the astral plane, all objects and beings always having a n astral counterpart to their physical form. This is a siddhi that is based on w ill-power and knowledge of the elements. But the Great Transfer of Dzogchen is n ot a siddhi. It is the expression of so fully integrating nondual realization in to the human form that it is transformed at a more fundamental level directly in to soul. The great adepts in the tradition who achieve such 'Total Realization', at the time of death, usually retire for seven days (sometimes more), when thei r body shrinks and disappears into its elemental light essences, leaving only th e hair and nails behind, these being considered its impurities and used as relic s by the common people. This means that one has not only to have attained sahaja samadhi or stabilize d nondual realization in the ordinary state, but also so illuminated the lower b odies with this realization that all karma is liberated, and the body itself (wh ich is a product also of Nature) is also liberated. It essentially means that th e Primordial Shakti-Holy Spirit-Wisdom/Energy inherent in the body is profoundly assimilated into the Self-Realized Soul of the practitioner. The realization of the Body of Light certainly seems to demonstrate a level o f integration of nondual realization that is profound and unique. However, all g reat masters, obviously, do not do this. Some may not have trained to do so, oth ers may choose not to do so. The Buddha seems to have been a case of the latter. He died an ordinary death, perhaps to avoid deification by drawing attention to a body of light. Yet he certainly knew about it, as the tradition was ancient e ven in his time. Another cause of someone not taking the Body of Light is that t hey may make the choice to direct the energies that are needed to achieve it int o service to others, the spirit of bodhisattvahood, which will diffuse the focus of their realization, so that it is not so concentrated on their body, so that the Body of Light is not possible. It is possible that in the future as mankind evolves the phenomenon may become more common without such extreme focus necessa ry. Most masters who achieve the Body of Light do so under special circumstances, particularly as a result of having practiced certain Dzogchen practices that fa cilitate such a deep integration. There are probably other masters who do not di e by way of the Body of Light for whom it would have been relatively accessible had they known about and/or wanted to do those types of practices. There are oth ers whose realization was apparently so advanced that they appeared to have not even need to practice the special realization-integration practices of Dzogchen and similar lineages in order to take the Body of light. Ramalingar appears to b e such a case. Dzogchen even distinguishes the Illusory Body called Gyula achieved through t he Higher Tantras of Vajrayana, from the juli or Light Body achieved as a matter of course in the fulfillment of Dzogchen practice. The tantric practice employ effort at channeling the subtle winds, or pranas, and from the point of view of non-dual Dzogchen such effort is not a sign of the highest practice or realizati on. A Dzogchen practitioner, however, is free to use any other secondary practic e he needs in order to maintain the non-dual view, and he is advised to use the wisdom of his own awareness to do so. And it is also recognized that the 'highes t practice' is the one most suitable for the individual at any particular time i n their development. Few can practice Dzogchen, as it, in a sense, starts at the non-dual goal and simply takes it deeper and deeper. On this path one absolutel

y needs a master to give one 'Introduction to the View', that is, transmit the n on-dual vision. if one is not capable of receiving the view, he needs another le vel of practice according to his capacity. In both Bonpo and Tibetan Buddhism (w hich over the centuries have 'interpolinated'), Dzogchen is considered an advanc ed practice that is always based on a foundation of other teachings, as Namkhai Norbu would say, Sutra and Tantra (or, loosely, Mahayana and Vajrayana). In thei r view, almost no one is ready from the start to skip over the other stages of p ractice and just start with Dzogchen practices. Included in the other stages are the four elements of Ngondro, then other practices like vipashyana (vipassana) and various forms of tantric practices, which can include kundalini-yoga like ap proaches like the Six Yogas of Naropa and Deity Yoga. These are all preliminary to Dzogchen, and include the foundational Mahayana heart practices of cultivatin g generosity, compassion (including the Chod and Tonglen), bodhichitta (relative and absolute bodhichitta), and guru yoga. True Dzogchen practice really begins with a ripe enough disciple getting a transmission or 'introduction to the view' of rigpa so that the practitioner can now access nondual contemplation and stab ilize and integrate it. (44a) Whether the 'Total Realization', or the 'Fruit', on the Dzogchen path, is the highest form of realization possible, surpassing, say, that of the Sants, who c an also project both Light Bodies and Nirmanakaya or 'physical' bodies while ali ve, and a Sambhogakaya form in higher planes, but who do not bother consciously disintegrating into the elements at death, is surely up for discussion. There ap pear to be many possibilities of spiritual evolution within the purview of non-d uality. Along with an advanced understanding of Buddhism, the Tibetan tradition, a mi xture of Buddhism, the Bonpo tradition, and tantric teachings of the Siddhas, ha s brought us many possibilities and superstitions as well, so one needs to exerc ise clear discrimination as to what is essential and not strive for the impossib le when liberation lies veritably 'in the palm of your hand.' Even the Dalai Lam a has said that some the Buddhist teachings are very old and need updating. On t he other hand, he has a Dzogchen teacher, Namkhai Norbu, and spiritual friendshi ps across the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As Vajrayana uses kundalini yoga, a word on that form of energy is warranted. Kundalini energy can be blind; it is not always connected with intelligence. Th e transmission of awakening which a true master assists, however, is always guid ed by wisdom. Its reception to an extent depends on the co-operation of the reci pient, and as such may be limited by a closed mind or closed heart, but it works only for the positive. Especially the opening of the heart takes time. It is mo re complicated than the awakening to consciousness. anadi states: "Awakening of the heart is not automatic and in the case of most masters, it takes place years after the initial self-realisation. Even kundalini awakening d oes not necessarily open the heart automatically. Evolution is a complex process and not merely a one-time event. (45) There are levels to the heart. There is the human, emotional center, where pe rsonal pain is stored and must be healed. Then there is the energetic psychic he art center, which corresponds to the heart chakra mentioned above. Behind this l ies the true heart, initially locatable in the center of the chest as the causal h eart-root, but which is really to become known as all-pervading and formless bei ng. Ramana Maharshi was the modern champion who re-discovered this ancient truth . This is ones very own soul. Behind even this deep heart lies the universal heart , the over-soul, the soul of all souls. Despite the fact that the heart chakra i

s described in the yoga literature as a lotus with eight (sometimes twelve) peta ls, it is to this deeper domain that the Mundukya Upanishad refers when it state s that the divine self, who understands all, and whose glory is manifest in the u niverse, lives within the lotus of the heart. (46) This has traditionally been re ferred to as either the Atman or the one 'Self.' anadi, however, differs from th e traditional view. That which is most often found in the 'cave of the heart' is not simply the Self , he says, but rather, in unabashed religious language, the so ul and God: "Many students cannot grasp the difference between self-realisation and soulrealisation. Self-realisation refers to going beyond oneself and merging with th e universal beingness. Soul-realisation is awakening to that very one who has tr anscended itself. To realise the Self is to go beyond, to realise the soul is to discover oneself from the inside. These, are, in truth, two sides of the same p henomenon...The ultimate containment takes place when our sense of identity rest s fully in the beyond; and at the same time, the one who rests, which is me, rea lises herself from inside of herself." (47) He concludes with the following: It is difficult to pinpoint what is the soul, for she is so subtle...that s why, in some traditions, the soul is negated. They couldn t distinguish between the ex perience of the Self and that of the soul. To see the difference, a new sensitiv ity and understanding must be awakened. The realisation of the soul is equally s ubtle or even more subtle than God-realisation. (48) [More on this teaching can be found in Dual Non-Dualism on this website]. To finish this section, we offer a verse by poet-saint Kabir that Ramana was particularly fond of quoting: Some say the drop merges into the ocean (-bhakti), but few know that the ocean merges into the drop (-para-bhakti). [For those who might wish to take a break before proceeding with our principl e themes, there are a few things of interest to mention about this concept of th e "cave of the heart." See note (49) ] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In some of the higher Tibetan tantras, the practitioner attempts to drop into the central channel at the level of the heart in order to experience the Yoga o f Clear Light; this is one of the practices of the six yogas of Naropa. In Sufis m, Ruh is the heart on the right side, also known as the center of the spirit, o r the breath of Allah [note: might this be the heart on the right spoken of by R amana where one feels the "aham sphurana"?], while Sirr is the heart in the midd le, known as the secret or innermost heart, the heart of the heart, where Allah manifests his mystery to himself. ["To Sirr, with love."] While the awakening of the heart chakra is a good thing, it is far from the d eeper realisation of the higher stages. All of ones chakras can in theory be ope ned without one having advanced spiritually beyond the psychic level. On the oth er hand, it is unlikely that one will be aware on the deeper levels with all of the chakras remaining closed. It is interesting to note that among some esoteric schools that formerly taug ht the activation of the kundalini from the muladhara up to the sahasrara in the traditional yogi/ kalachakric manner, a safer, gentler technique is now being e

mployed. Early in her sadhana Sufi master Irina Tweedie was told by an Indian Su fi: By our system it [kundalini] is awakened gently...we awaken the chakra, and leave it to the King to awaken all the other chakras.

King , the heart (50)

Safer and easier it may be, but read her spiritual diaries entitled Daughter of Fire to see what Ms. Tweedie went through in the course of her discipleship. It is sobering indeed. When expressing her belief that one could attain liberati on without a teacher through one's own efforts, her guru Bhai Sahib said, "Not i n a hundred years!" Irena was forced to endure many hardships and tests and was repeatedly, for instance, kept outside, like Milarepa, in the pouring rain and h ot sun while other disciples were invited in to see the master. Bhai Sahib said, "You want everything but are not prepared to make sacrifices, to pay the price. .People are not prepared to give anything up. If you want to go anywhere you wil l have to take the train or the plane, you are expected to pay the fare, is it n ot so?" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It is more or less common knowledge in the higher traditions that in the pres ence of a sage or master, unconscious egoic tendencies in oneself are brought in to the light of day to be eradicated once and for all. It is not something the g uru usually needs to do intentionally. It is just the nature of the workings of grace. Not everyone can stand such a rough shake-down. Those who do are usually treated especially affectionately by the guru thereafter. Life itself or the Wor ld-Idea are also working towards the same end, but in not so concentrated a fash ion, and one must take advantage of the opportunities as they arise. Damiani sta tes: In the presence of the sage, a past habit which is still alive in you is broug ht up to the surface and now you have to overcome it once and for all...All thes e things within you that are blocking you from getting to the truth get activate d when you get into the presence of a sage. It s not that he comes personally ther e and shovels around [but he might]; it just happens naturally, like a catalytic reaction. Ramakrishna called this

lancing the boil .

These parts of ourselves that can t serve the higher purpose have to be taken up , brought up into the daylight, into your consciousness. They have to be underst ood for what they are and then they must be disowned, discarded, or completely d issolved. So very often when a person is neurotic, if he starts meditating, thin gs are going to get worse, not better. Because these problems start coming out i nto the open. Those of us who have been at it a few years begin to recognize tha t. You know, Why is everything going wrong? What s going on? But that s exactly what t o expect and it s good, because if these things are not brought out they will alwa ys stay in what the psychologists call the unconscious, the subconscious. And wh en the right opportunity comes, they ll spring out and you ll find out, I am not at a ll the way I thought I was. I m really a grub, something horrible. But all the time we thought we were 99% gold. So these things happen, very naturally. It s to be e xpected. (51) PB likewise wrote: "The more earnestly he takes to this quest, the more will his latent evil qua lities be stirred up and then make their appearance in his character or conduct. He, as well as others, may be surprised and perturbed at this result..Ordinaril

y they are suppressed in self-defense by the conscious mind, and their existence hidden because it has quite enough to deal with. But the candidate for illumina tion has flung out a challenge to vigorous war." (51a) Sant Darshan Singh said: "Remember He has taken a vow never to leave or forsake us until he takes us t o our eternal Home. But we should also realize that we must go through the stage when we feel abandoned, when we must feel that the Master has deserted us. This is one of the features of the path of mystic love. We must go through this stag e without a grumble on our lips, for this stage is in reality a gift from the Ma ster himself to help us grow. Ultimately, it is for our benefit, for our own sal vation. There is a divine purpose behind everything the Master does. We may have to spend a lifetime of tears to get his love. We cannot demand the gift supreme from our Beloved. The gift descends at the appointed hour." "In order to make something of great value and beauty of the lovers, the Belo ved sometimes shakes up the hearts. Not all the lovers can withstand it. Many he arts become crushed and broken in this process. But those who are able to submit to the Beloved's shake-up, and who surrender to it, are not broken - instead th ey come out whole and give forth the sweetest taste. Such lovers who have surren dered to the Beloved's treatment, be it gentle or vigorous, are the most fortuna te... Hazur Baba Sawan Singh once said that when a saint takes a disciple under his wings, he is keen to compress twenty lifetimes into one. But if we desire to compress twenty lifetimes into one, we must pay for it. (52) In Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion we read: "Marpa scolded and even beat Je-tzun Mi-la re-pa many times. This was not bec ause he personally disliked him, but because out of compassion he saw the needs for skillfull means that were forceful. Thus if your Guru is wrathful to you, tr y to see this as a method he is using to tame your mind and lead you to Enlighte nment. As a Buddha, how could he possibly hate you?" (53) Maulana Rumi penned this wise counsel: "When God loves a servant He afflicts him; if he endures with fortitude, he c hooses him; if he is grateful, He elects him. Some men are grateful to God for H is wrathfulness and some are grateful to Him for His graciousness. Each of the t wo classes is good; for gratitude is a sovereign antidote, changing wrath into g race. The intelligent and perfect man is he who is grateful for harsh treatment, both openly and in secret; for it is he whom God has elected. If God's will be the bottom reach of Hell, by gratitude His purpose is hastened." (Discourses of Rumi (Fihi ma Fihi)) A true spiritual master or sage will usually be able to tell what is appropri ate and how much an individual can take, but there are no guarantees. Relationsh ip with the true satguru is not therapy, and should not be understood as such. T he guru worth his salt, while the embodiment of wisdom and love, is out to break a spell, a hypnotic state that the seeker comes to him in. How many are ready f or this? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Patience, perseverance, and faith in the divine Providence or one s spiritual g uide are essential qualities for everyone, especially the questor, to have at su ch times. It is also helpful to gain perspective on the meaning of one s experienc e. The wisdom of those who have gone before us on the spiritual path is our pole

-star in navigating treacherous waters. PB writes: "Eventually we reach a point, a very advanced point, where the ego sees its o wn limitation, perceives its helplessness and dependence, realizes that it canno t lift itself up into final illuminations. It should then surrender itself wholl y to the Overself and cast its further development on the mercy and Grace of the power beyond it. It will then have to go through a waiting period of seeming in activity, spiritual stagnation, and inability to feel the fervour of devotion wh ich it formally felt. This is a kind of dark night of the soul. Then slowly, it begins to come out of this phase, which is often accompanied by mental depressio n and emotional frustration, into a higher phase where it feels utterly resigned to the will of God or destiny, calm and peaceful in the sense of accepting that higher will and not in any joyous sense, patiently waiting for the time when th e infinite wisdom will bring it what it once sought so ardently but what it is n ow as detached from as it is detached from worldly ambitions. After this phase t here will come suddenly unexpectedly and in the dead of night, as it were, a tre mendous Realization of the egoless state, a tremendous feeling of liberation fro m itself as it has known itself, a tremendous awareness of the infinitude, unive rsality, and intelligence of life." (54) Damiani states: That s a subject all by itself - the spiritual value of pain and suffering. But first of all, pain is real. It s part of the World-idea and even the sage has to k now pain. Even the Buddha died in pain - after eating some food that was poisone d or bad. But you have to remember, the sage s experience of pain isn t like yours. When we have pain, we feel that the self is completely negated. If I get into pa in, for example, I feel like God abandoned me, left me to my own devices. I know nothing but a denial of my self. A sage doesn t experience the denial of the self , but he will experience the pain. There are some schools of thought, like the positive thinking schools, who say that pain or evil doesn t exist. Those people are crazy. After all, that s one of t he ways in which the ego gets instructed. You will notice that when a person is in pain he becomes humble. Ordinarily he is not humble. Get a little pain and yo u ll learn humility fast. But let the pain go away, and the arrogance comes back. So, very often we are put through pain to learn certain lessons. I can t say wha t they are in general, because every case is individual. But it always has a spi ritual function. (55) And: Meister Eckhart said, The horse that will bear us quickest to perfection is suf fering. Nothing will open your eyes like when you suffer. (56) Anyone who has been on the quest for a number of years will sooner or later fi nd the world that he lives in, the world that he knows, blowing up in his face. Everyone who has been on the quest a few years has that experience automatically . It s very rare that things go along smoothly for too long a time. For almost eve ry questor, that s to be understood, in the sense that it can t be helped. It s in our very nature, because of the way we are and the way our whole past history is. O ur whole history is of such a nature that when we want to get to the highest par t of our being, when we want to touch the soul within us, certain changes have t o be made. The way we are is not good enough, some changes have to be made. And usually things happen so that these changes are brought about in the person. (57) PB likewise informs us: When the ego is brought to its knees in the dust, humiliated in its own eyes,

however esteemed or feared, envied or respected in other men s eyes, the way is op ened for Grace s influx. Be assured that this complete humbling of the inner man w ill happen again and again until he is purified of all pride...Out of this ego-c rushing, pride-humbling experience he may rise, chastened, heedful, and obeisant to the higher will. (58) To which Anthony adds: Of course, anyone who gets crushed is not going to consider it as grace.

(59)

anadi concurs with Damiani, and even goes so far as to say that without suffe ring one cannot know one s soul, even though he reach the so-called absolute state : Any experience, even the experience of your absence refers to you [PB said that even the experience of the great Void was just another experience, albeit a prof ound one]... However, when there is suffering, this painful experience refers to you in a very acute way. It hits your integrity. No longer is it merely a neutr al experience, like seeing a tree or hearing a bird. This experience hurts and y ou know it, for you are in pain! That s why suffering points much stronger to the existence of the soul than anything else. Even happiness does not touch you as d eeply as suffering. Deep suffering really shakes you. When you experience a thri lling joy, like falling in love, for example, you immediately feel your soul. Bu t pain somehow moves deeper layers of your soul. Evolving individually, making all efforts possible, you will reach the point w here you become ready to receive grace. You cannot receive grace until you have made enough effort and have suffered enough. That is the rule, the law - that yo ur suffering and your effort make you available to grace. This is because the so ul, in order to receive grace, has to have a certain essential quality in the he art to be able to appreciate the gift of transformation. There has to be a certa in sincerity of the heart. If enlightenment was just given to you, without the striving to reach it - it would not be a real meeting. You are in a process of meeting the ultimate. The r eal meeting comes from the space of this burning desire of the Soul which does e verything to return to her eternal home of the beloved. Your sufferings, your di fficulties, your doubts...all these elements allow you to grow. They allow you t o reach clarity, to deepen your sensitivity and to awaken true sincerity; these are the major characteristics of the soul. Afterwards, when you reach awakening, the meeting with the light and love of the creator has real significance. It is the true meeting of the soul with the beloved. It is more than becoming enlight ened - it is a meeting, the supreme meeting. (60) The Prophet Muhammed wrote: "If Allah touch thee with affliction, none can remove it but he." - Qur'an 6: 17 Which is where faith, humanity's best wealth, and through which one is said to cross the flood of the world (61), comes into the picture. When one has achieved faith, then he can be led to hopelessness. With it may come feelings of despair or impending doom; these need be allowed to arise. They will anyway, barring he roic efforts to avoid them. Better not to fight the inevitable. Yet the death fe lt at the 'edge' of the void is ultimately illusory, for the void is already the case. Emptiness is 'empty', the void is 'empty', no-mind is 'empty'. The true m eaning of all of these is simply being oneself. It is not a state. Fundamentally , reality exists, beyond all categories of thought. That in fact is what is mean t by emptiness. Yet no doubt the passage through fear and despair feels real. To some extent it can be mitigated by the grace of the guru, but the experience aw

aits every true disciple. One is reminded on the verse in the Shrimad Bhagavata Purana (11.8.44 ): "Hope indeed is misery greatest, Hopelessness a bliss above the rest." All teachings say much the same thing. It may be their hidden teaching, or on e may read of it on the internet. It doesn't matter. It is so clean that knowing won't spoil it. To become 'hopeless' is a stage that no one can really wish for , or even desire. Yet it is where the spiritual path is leading. Ultimately, as we stumble and scrape our shins, we are being led to a final surrender. Very rar ely will it happen all at once. We may pass through states of freedom from ego, joys of union and oneness, or a falling away of our precious spirituality. Surre nder is tricky business, profound and with many depths. It is not as if there is annihilation, or the path need be envisioned as an Aztec blood-sacrifice! It ca n be graceful, and in the future may be even more so. In the end, though, we bec ome the entirely unexpected, yet somehow familiar. No words are adequate. There is generally an impasse one must face sooner or later. The consensus is that it has to be earned. The point of no return. The master wears you down. You can't w in. There's nothing else one can do but assent. Or endure. Or show up. You don't know what it is, but you must want it more than anything else. That is the mean ing of the story of Milarepa. Meanwhile, know that one is indelibly stamped as God's own, that here is nowh ere else to go or be, that all is already accomplished in the now, only needing recognition and acceptance. "How to get the fly out of the fly-bottle?" asked Wi ttgenstein; "Look," he replied, "it's out!" Or, as Hakuin proclaimed, "When all the effort you can muster has been exhausted and you have reached a total impass e..it will suddenly come and you will break free. The phoenix will get through t he golden net. The crane will fly free of the cage." When one has done all he ca n do, and lies nose-bloodied on the floor, what remains is only the mind's convi ncing, through the saving help of grace. The world is full of remedies, but you have no remedies until God opens a wind ow for you. Though you are unaware of that remedy now, God will make it clear in the hour of need. - Rumi Have faith, then, dear child, you were meant to be here, and everything is wo rking out for the best. Every cloud has a veritable silver lining. As promised: B lessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall recei ve the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. (James 1:12) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Milarepa wrote in a song of praise: Lord, from the sun-orb of Thy Grace, The radiant Rays of Light have shone, And opened wide the petals of the Lotus of my Heart, So that it breatheth forth the fragrance born of Knowledge, For which I am ever bounden unto Thee; So will I worship Thee by constant meditation. (62) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know God will not give me more than I can handle. I just wish that he didn t t rust me so much. - Mother Teresa (63)

Cave of the Heart The reference to the 'cave of the Heart' has several interpretations. However , in simple terms, in some ancient yogic schools the 'cave of the Heart' is call ed the 'seat of the soul' in the body. This has precedent in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita. Teacher anadi dissects this cave into several layers: persona l, psychic or energetic, and spiritual, i.e., the soul, and deeper still, the 'b eloved' or the 'creator.' [The Hindus might say Atman and Paramatman]. St. Augus tine called it imtima mea, the 'inward dwelling,' a 'shared bedroom,' a 'closet of intimacy,' an 'abyss,' and asked, "whose heart is seen into?" However, there is also reference made, in the Vivekachudamani of Sankara, to the 'cave of the i ntellect, buddhi,' or buddhi guha, and also guha hitam, or 'the secret abode of the infinite'. There appears to be a close connection between these two caves. I n Kaballah they mention the mothering, discriminative intelligence of the heart (Binah). Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon said that 'the head and the heart are not w ater-tight compartments.' Even modern research suggests that the heart has its o wn nervous system, is an organ of perception and memory, and is in close communi cation with the brain. (1) In ancient Egypt the god Ptah created the world from the 'imagination of his heart,' [similar to PB's 'presence of the World-Mind in the heart'] and Islamic philosopher Ibn Arabi also taught that to imagine is an ability of the heart. So we must then also think somewhat 'imaginatively' when considering this mys terious topic. Buddhi, in Samkhya terminology, is similar to the yogic vijnanama ya kosha, or the intellectual sheath. Some say that here in the cave of buddhi i s where one finds the Atman, others say that Brahman is found there ( "buddhau g uha yam brahmasti"). Advaitists generally consider them both to be pure consciou sness, so when Atman is realised, Brahman is also. The Upanishads say 'knowledge of Brahman is the same as 'becoming Brahman' (brahmavid brahmaive bhavati) wher eas Sankara said that 'knowledge of Brahman' leads to the 'experience of Brahman ' (anubhava avasanamn brahma vignanam ). We will not argue yes or no on these po ints. Sankara, the great jnani (as well as bhakta and tantrist), in his Vivekach udamani, wrote: "In the cave of the intellect is the Brahman, which is neither existent nor n on-existent, the transcendental non-dual Truth. One who dwells in this cave, bec oming one with the Truth, for him there is no more entry into the bodily cave," (2) The process of finding the Brahman for Sankara and the advaitists is an epistemo logical one, where the five sheaths are analyzed to extract the Truth; it is oft en mistakenly understood to be an ontological 'peeling of the onion' to find the Self essence underlying them. But the non-dual Truth includes the sheaths and i s not an 'essence' underlying or deep within them. Such is more often the yogic interpretation of the five sheath doctrine. Sankara didn't mean the methodology of 'neti, neti' ('not this, not this') to be taken ontologically, that is, as ne gating the not-Self, but only as an epistemological exercise in order to affirm by investigation what is the Self. This is how it was presented in the Tittireya Upanishad, one of the sources for Sankara's teaching. Each succeeding level of investigation includes the previous one, until none are seen as other than the b lissful nature of the self. There are no references in this Upanishad that consi der them in any way as not real. The vision is wholistic, not eclusive. Ramana Maharshi, modern master of the Heart, would frequently quote scripture saying that 'the Self is always shining in the intellectual sheath.' In Samkhya philosophy, generally adopted by the yoga schools, buddhi being the closest upa dhi, or 'limiting adjunct,' to Atman, is the filter of the light of the Atman to the mind and senses. Buddhi creates the 'I'-thought or ego, and the 'luminous r eason' (susksma buddhi) is the means to enlightenment, while the undeveloped bud

dhi is the proximate cause of our ignorance and identification with the ego-I. W hen we do not know ourself as Atman, we mistake ourself to be the 'shining ego i n the buddhi.' The shining nature of buddhi, being easily mistaken for the light of the Atman, means that only discriminating knowledge can get us out of this p redicament. This means, strangely enough, that the buddhi must discriminate itse lf out of existence, in a manner of speaking, to get out of its own way. When th e 'buddhi gets enlightened, Self-realisation takes place,' according to Swami Ra naganathananda. anadi calls this the second level of enlightenment: awakening no t only to the experience, but to the understanding of the experience as well. An d further, out of the meeting of intelligence and sensitivity, which produces th e understanding, comes the fruit of the understanding, which is the appreciation of the experience. The heart is involved. This is an added dimension over and a bove the experience itself. Now, here's where the Advaitic reasoning gets a little confusing. We won't try t o solve the problem of how the ever-free Self or Atman becomes deluded by its ve ry own adjuncts or bodies (koshas), etc., that is too great a task at this point . While the Upanishad considers the Buddhi to be closest to Atman, in between Budd hi and Atman lies undifferentiated Maya. In yoga they sometimes refer to this in the microcosm - as the anandamaya kosha or bliss sheath. This is equated by S wami Ranganathananda with the causal body, also in the heart, and which is activ e in deep sleep. During sleep, the vignanamaya kosha, the sheath of knowledge or intellect, lies dormant in seed-form, and there is thus no knowing possible. Th e bliss sheath is active, yet being of the nature of maya, the undifferentiated, is veiled by tamas, and one has no actual direct experience of bliss while slee ping. One can only infer such a quality upon awakening by saying, 'I slept sound ly,' etc. The Mandukya Upanishad says that Turiya is what recognizes the state o f deep sleep, but only when we are in the waking state. This point is debated: s ome say there is no awareness during ordinary deep sleep, while others say that Mind or the Self is always aware; this is similar to the dilemma faced in the Ti betan tradition with the dawning of the 'emptiness-luminosity' at the point of d eath, everyone experiences it, but most pass into unconsciousness almost immedia tely]. Some contemporary teachers of 'consciousness' say we are actually aware o f the experience or quality of sleep, while we are sleeping, but is this reasona ble? Are we, prior to enlightenment, aware of anything during sleep, or are we e ssentially deconstructed in the absolute unconsciousness? In other yoga schools, they equate the causal body with the 'bliss sheath in the heart.' Swami Yogeshwaranand Saraswati writes: "A stream of rays pertaining to the life-force arises from the bliss sheath (the causal body in the heart) and goes to the astral body (manomaya and vijnanamaya koshas in the brain) and from there to the physical body." (3) Ramana said it was the Heart itself whose light went upwards to the head and the n into the bodily centers below. He spoke of the light of the moon (sahasrar) be ing the borrowed light of the sun (the Heart). Yet, as mentioned, in the bliss sheath the intellectual sheath lies dormant duri ng sleep. Even though the bliss sheath is the closest to Atman, it has no way of reflecting the intelligence and inherent self-shining nature of the Atman . Onl y the intellectual sheath, the vijnanamaya kosha , or Buddhi, can do so, and it can do so only in the waking state. The bliss sheath, being the causal body of t he soul and of the nature of the primal Undifferentiated, is characterised, para doxically, by 'darkness and vacuity,' inasmuch as it is covered by the veiling p ower of tamas. The so-called bliss sheath is so fine, like a delicate silken cov ering, that it is said to be almost an integral part of the soul.

Since the bliss-sheath is embedded in the other sheaths, in waking life one can have positive experiences that give one a feeling of bliss. But there is no 'kno wing' in the human body without the vijnanamaya kosha. The 17th century Hindu saint, Sri Samartha Ramadas, in his treatise on gnana yog a, Atmaram, said, "The bliss-attainment of a yogi is maya." (quoted in The Noteb ooks of Paul Brunton) This makes sense inasmuch as the bliss sheath is an initia l product of maya itself. The bliss is really from the Soul, but the jivatman (v ijnana-maya-atman, or the jiva in the intellectual sheath) co-opts it for itself . Now here I am stepping beyond the limits of my theoretical knowledge, but will t ry to explain to the best of my understanding. In Sant Mat, where they mystically try to peal off these sheaths one by one by m erging with the creative logos in the form of the luminous sound current that pe rmeates all creation, they finally reach a stage where the Soul has shed the phy sical, astral, causal (in their school the manomaya kosha or manas) and the supe r-causal body (vijnanamaya kosha) and is now only vested with the extremely fine anadamaya kosha or bliss sheath. However, the soul is now macrocosmically also in a region known as Maha Sunn, a void which separates the created from the Uncr eated worlds, and which is said to be characterized by dense darkness which the Soul cannot penetrate without the help of the Satguru, whose roots are in Sat, o r the realms of Truth. The soul at this stage has shed mind, ego, and intellect, and can do no more for herself. This dense darkness of Maha Sunn (which even sa int Kabir mentioned) seems to correspond with the "darkness and vacuity" of the causal body or bliss sheath mentioned by Ranganathananda. For the saints, the 'heart-lotus' in the body is at 'the seat of the soul' betwe en the two eyebrows, not in the heart center. [This is also the focus of attenti on in the waking state; in dreams attention is said to go down to the throat, an d in deep sleep to the navel]. Even so, Sant Kirpal Singh would sometimes point to his chest and say, "the Master reside here." This same double reference is fo und in the Gita where Krishna says "I am the Heart in all Beings," but the yogi is also to meditate "with the mind in the heart, and the life-force in the head, established in concentration through yoga." He is encouraged to die that way, t oo. The same is held in Tibetan Buddhism where the yogi is exhorted to go out th rough the crown of the head. The only way I can reconcile these apparently different positions is by taking a non-spatial, non-bodily oriented point of view of the highest realisation in th ese particular paths. Then the awakening at the heart and the third eye would on ly indicate separate awakenings within the total I Am. But I'm not sure they wou ld all agree with this assessment. All schools, whatever the tradition, are in agreement that the human form in the waking state is the precious circumstance where enlightenment can occur. As Chr ist said, "work while it is day, and not at night, when no man can work." Or one can just assume there is no-doer, and take his chances.

Kundalini: Up, Down, or ? by Peter Holleran Some say that for spiritual realization the kundalini or serpent power must a scend up the spine and reach the sahasrar chakra at the top of the head and merg e therein. Others teach, no, that the kundalini and the mind must then also desc end from the sahasrar back down into the formless heart on the right. Still othe rs say that the kundalini or shakti is eternally ascending and descending within the body-mind in a circle, and nothing need be done with it or to it in order t o realize prior consciousness itself. In this article we will examine these diff erent views and try to make sense out of all of the seeming contradictions. Lakshmana Swamy (b. 1925) is believed by some to be a Self-Realized devotee o f Sri Ramana Maharshi. His point of view on the kundalini or serpent power is, n ot surprisingly, similar to that of Ramana, but radically different from that ta ught in most yoga paths. His view that the mind must die in the heart is quite o pposed to those schools that teach the kundalini must merge in the sahasrar for realization to occur. Lakshmana has taught that the life force or attention must descend via a terminal pathway from the sahasrar into the causal heart center f or realization of the Self, which Ramana originally said was felt intuitively fr om the bodily point of view to be on the right side of the chest, 'two digits fr om the midline.' As will be shown, however, this view is not exactly the same as that of Ramana in his full maturity, nor that of most contemporary non-dualist teachers, who do not teach that full inner trance absorption in the heart on the

right or anywhere else is required for awakening or enlightenment. After we hav e discussed the life and realization of Lakshmana Swamy we will offer a brief li fe sketch of Swami Sivananda, as an example of one who disseminated the traditio nal yogic view that the kundalini must reach the sahasrar for realization. With small modifications, this general view is similar to that taught by Swami Muktan anda, Paramahansa Yogananda, at times Ramakrishna, and also Swami Shiv Dayal Sin gh of the Radhasoami school. As a child Lakshmana never had any interest in either school studies or relig ion, although he did have an aptitude for line drawings. He was active in sports at school, yet liked to spend much time sitting quietly by himself. His schoolm ates were very fond of him because of his keen sense of humor and ability to mak e everyone laugh. At the age of seventeen Swamy had an experience which dispelled his scepticis m of spirituality. He felt an "evil force" descend upon him, like a weight crush ing his chest. He spontaneously began to repeat the Rama mantra ("Rama, Rama"), which had the effect of dispelling the force. After this he made it a habit to r ise at 3 A.M., go for a swim, and engage pranayama (breathing exercises) and jap a (mantra repetition) until 5 A.M. He grew increasingly dispassionate, and resis ted all efforts by his family to get him married and settled into a normal life. He entered college, but after his first year he had a spiritual experience in w hich he saw a "sudden flash of light within. The divine light shone in its full magnificence. (1) Swamy tried to repeat the experience but was not successful, an d he felt more and more the need of a human guru for further guidance and grace. Swamy heard of Ramana Maharshi from one of his college professors, who was a disciple of the sage, and after twice failing his second year exams he began to intensify his meditations. In 1948 he met Ramana at his abode in Tiruvannamalai, and shortly afterwards experienced the permanent death of his 'I"-thought in Ra mana's company. "There was 'a lightning flash and a flood of divine light shining within and without.' Sri Ramana' s face was smiling 'with more radiance than that of innume rable lightning flashes fused into one. In that ineffable bliss tears of joy wel led down in unending succession, and they could not be resisted.' Finally, the ' I'-thought went back to its source, the picture of Ramana Maharshi disappeared a nd the Self absorbed his whole being." (2) Lakshmana spent the next year in trance samadhi most of the time and let his body waste away for want of attention. Finally he moved near his family in order that his physical needs be taken care of. For two or three years he spent most of his time in the hut provided for him, eating little and speaking less. People heard that he was a great ascetic and began gathering around him, and he eventu ally consented to give his darshan, first only once a year, then, from 1951-1972 , twice a year. In 1974, Swamy met Mathru Sri Sarada (1959- ), a young girl whom he had seen in a vision twenty years before. Within four years, she, too, accor ding to their report, realized the Self, and during the period of her sadhana Sw amy was much more available for darshan. The story of Sarada' s realization cont ains an account of an interesting phenomenon, one which may be unique in the lit erature of the spiritual traditions. "Just before Sarada realized the Self her 'I '-thought tried to escape by bre aking her skull. If I (Swamy) had not been present the experience would have kil led her. The 'I '-thought would have broken her skull and escaped to the higher regions where it would have been born again." (3) Sarada said that this was like an axe trying to split her head open from the inside. She put her head on Swamy's feet in surrender and her 'I'-thought "subsi ded forever." It was a year after this before she was able to function normally

in the world again, as she had lost all interest in it and was continually on th e verge of dropping the body. It was only her love for Swamy that brought her ba ck to the world. At the present time she helps Swamy look after devotees. Whatev er one is to make of Sarada's realization experience, it is certain that the pec uliar dramatic nature of it is rare. Neither Ramana Maharshi nor Lakshmana Swamy felt the 'I'-thought threaten to break their skull in its flight from the Heart . Others, however, have reported experiences of pain and pressure in the head du e to the force of the kundalini energy, and these accounts are worth examining. Two points must be made regarding the nature of the kundalini phenomenon befo re proceeding further. One, as mentioned in numerous places in this book, the te stimony of the ancient sages who authored the Vedas and Upanishads is that the p rimary locus of spiritual realization is associated with the heart, and not with the sahasrar as claimed by contemporary exponents of kundalini yoga and other s imilar yogic traditions. Secondly, many yogis mistake the trance states associat ed with the ascension of attention to the ajna chakra (the center behind the eye s in the brain core) for the passage of attention, to the sahasrar (which is abo ve the brain core). They explore the sky of mind in the braincore, the blue pearl of Muktananda, or the cosmic blue of Yogananda, etc., and do not pass to egoic d issolution at the heart or at the sahsrar. If Sarada had been directed towards yogic ascent she would have followed the (apparently) awakened kundalini (in her case) to the crown of the head and, inde ed, experienced her 'I'-thought being reborn into further destiny on the subtle planes. with the help of her guru her 'I'-thought became "cauterized" in the hea rt, thus providing her with the right foundation for true and radical ascent at some future time. Her tendencies for ascent were strong, as evidenced by the fac t that even after her heart-realization she had difficulty staying in the body. This may be the remnants of a karmic liability, or it may illustrate a common di sposition in those newly self-realized. Many individuals spend significant time after initial self-realization in states of internal absorption. This was the ca se with Sarada, Swami, Ramana Maharshi, Meher Baba and others.This is because th e first awakened Self tends to assciate the manifest realms with bondage, but un til the Self is realized under all conditions true lasting and full realization is not achieved. In other words, the very revulsion or turning away from experie nce that accompanies the intuitive awakening of Self-Realization is a tendency t hat could delay entry into the ultimate stage. It is not clear if Swamy or Sarad i have made this transition, despite their concession to continue living in the world. It appears, in the case of Sarada, that, perhaps, due to her young age, brevi ty of sadhana, and other reasons karmically unique to her, that a dramatic and p ainful transition occured, during which she was fortunate to have had the immedi ate help of her guru. Yet this does not necessarily have to happen. Heart-commun ion with the master can enable one to avoid many of the dangers and obstacles, a s well as 'shoals and sandbanks' in the sea of spirituality. However, sometimes it is the inherent character liabilities of an individual that prevent that tran smission of the heart or hridaya-shakti of a sage or master from being effective and sufficient. An example of this is found in the practice of Ganapati Muni, a famous disciple of Ramana Maharshi, who experienced rare and remarkable yogic p henomena, yet was not successful in attaining Self-Realization. Ganapati Muni me t Maharshi after twenty years of fruitless spiritual efforts, and inunediately r ecognized that he was no ordinary man but rather a great sage of the highest typ e. It was Ganapati who gave him the name Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and became his most ardent supporter. He chose to do much of his spiritual practice away from Ramana's direct company, but after two years he returned to Ramanasramam to be w ith the sage. Along the way he experienced a spontaneous, forceful awakening of the kundalini-shakti (which he confessed was not caused by any intention on his part, but, rather, was the "result of the grace of his Guru and God"), and which began a strenuous, two-week ordeal in which he endured the yogic phenomenon kno

wn in the Taittirya Upanishad as vyapohya sirsha kapale, or "the breaking of the skull". Ganapati began to experience a flood of energy through his body at all times, with a stream of bliss piercing his head making him completely intoxicate d He felt totally out of control of his body and went to Maharshi for guidance. The sage blessed him with a pat of the hand on his head and said not to worry. "That night Ganapati suffered terribly. There was an unbearable burning sensa tion throughout his body...It looked as though his head would break into pieces at any time. He suffered unbearable pain. Suddenly a sound was heard, something like smoke was seen. The Kundalini had caused an aperture at the top of his skul l... After that experience for ten days something like smoke or vapour was found emanating from the orifice at the top of the skull. By that time the burning se nsation subsided. The play of force became bearable. The long story of suffering , pain and agony ended. The body was filled with the flow of cool nectar of blis s. The face of the Muni reflected an ethereal splendour. His eyes bore the efful gence of the supernatural. After this extraordinary experience of kapalabheda, t he Muni lived for fourteen years.... " (4) This event awed the disciples of Ganapati Muni, who were knowledgable about t he practices of kundalini yoga but were unprepared for such a rare and unusual p henomenon. There are few references to the "breaking of the skull" in the tradit ional literature, and it is essentially unknown in the teachings of contemporary yogis. What references there are, particularly in the Tibetan tradition, usuall y mention that such an experience can happen to a yogi only at the time of death . In spite of the unusual nature of Ganapati's transformation, Maharshi affirme d that he had not attained enlightenment. When asked whether the Muni was realiz ed after his death, Ramana replied, "How could he? His sankalpas'(inherent tende ncies) were too strong." In other words, in Ganapati Muni's case the overwhelmin g awakening of the kundalini was yet not sufficient to unlock the "knot of self" that was still alive at the heart. He had not yet realized the causal heart or the all-pervading, formless Self. Another disciple of the Maharshi reported the awakening of the kundalini with radically different results, including the awakening of his heart center. See: Nothing Existed Except the Eyes of the Maharshi by By N. R. Krishnamurti Aiyer . J. Krishnamurti wrote of a process of several decades in length during which he suffered intense pain inhis head and spine, yet he, apparently failed to comp lete the full course of yoga. In his case, he repudiated his early yogic experie nces, arguing principally for what he termed "choice less awareness", and in so doing confused (at least for his listeners) the profundities of advanced practic e of identification with the Witness consciousness with a basically cognitive ex ercise in releasing the conceptual mind. Many teachers have warned about the dangers of the premature awakening of the kundalini energy. Great heat can be created in the body, with possible damage t o the brain and nervous system. In order to be prepared for the circulation of s piritual energies in the body-mind, the aspirant must be purified of ego, and eq uipped with the enobling virtues of humility and self-surrender. This is accompl ished through self-understanding or clear seeing and the accompanying opening of the feeling being. Then the energy can move freely without obstruction generate d by false identification with the ego. The teaching of Iakshmana Swamy is very similar to that of Sri Ramana Maharsh i. Three points in particular, however, are arguable. One, Lakshmana Swamy holds that a living guru is essential for liberation. He maintains that without such a teacher the most one can hope to attain is mental concentration, or an "effort less, thought-free state" (perhaps similar to that proposed by J. Krishnamurti),

but in order for the mind to be "pulled into the Heart and die there", a living guru is necessary. The current non-dualists would disagree here on the point of the mind needing to be pulled into the heart, in a yogic sense, in order to die . They say there is no need for the mind to die, but only for clear seeing to ar ise. Nothing needs to be changed, and no experience is required for awakening. N or is a guru necessary n all cases. If the experience of the "death of the mind in the Heart" is not had while your guru is alive, however, according to Swamy, then one will need another guru to accomplish it. Swamy gives the example that, in his own case, he had experience of the Self briefly through his own efforts b ut needed a guru to make it permanent. He does allow that there may be a few rar e exceptions to this, such as his guru, Ramana Maharshi, who apparently became r ealized without the help of a human guru, but he maintains that in most cases it is not possible. There are others, however, who do not agree with Lakshamana Sw amy on this point. Paul Brunton asserted that a human guru is required until the disciple transcends the gross personality, but that at a certain point ones ind ividual Overself takes over and bestows its grace, leading attention across the threshold into the Heart. Kirpal Singh taught that once a disciple is initiated by a true Master that even if that Master should die he would still help the irl dividual and be his gurudev once the disciple was capable of transcending body-c onsciousness, and that he would still help the disciple in many ways even if the latter did not know it. He held that the company of another Master would be use ful for spiritual development but was not necessary for initiatory purposes. San t Darshan Singh has said, however, that in such a case where a guru has passed o n his successor may have to take on some of the disciple's karmas, if that is ne cessary, for to do so requires a body. (5) A second distinguishing feature of the teaching of Lakshmana Swamy is the not ion that a jnani (self-realized sage) could not continue to exist after death on the subtle planes because his 'I'-thought is dead, and since it is the 'I'-thou ght which takes on a new form, it would not be possible for the jnani to do so. This was also Ramana Maharshi's view, at least on one occasion. Clearly, however , the testimony of other sages is that just as a Realizer, can assume physical f orm in order to do spiritual work, so can he take on (or retain) subtle 'bodies' for the same purpose. Furthermore, it is not quite correct to say that the mind has to die for realization to be the case, but only that identification of the conscious Self with the mind must cease. It is a potential limitation of the pra ctice of the jnana paths to assume that complete cessation of the mind is necess ary for (or the equivalent of) realization. The Tripura Rahasya ( a favorite tex t of Ramana Maharshi) argues that cessation of the mind is only the case in the middle class of jnanis, but not in the highest. (6) The highest stage the hidden teaching beyond yoga position, allows for more creativity than that which dwells on the Witness position, even "allowing" creation (or manifestation) itself to b e as it is. Annihilation is not required, only realization. Nothing need be anni hilated except ignorance. Thirdly, Lakshmana s viewpoint on kunalini differs markedly from that of the co mmon yoga tradition. This is discussed fully in the section below on Swami Sivan anda. In brief, Lakshmana says that kundalini is the mind and as such arises from the Heart and not from the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine as is most commonly supposed. This view is understandable if kundalini is here equated with t he more general term, shakti , which is the manifest power of prior consciousness, or shiva , which is not limited to the energies within the gross body-mind. Ramana also said something similar to Lakshmana here when he remarked, it is wrong to sa y the Self is down here (the muladhara) or up there (the sahasrar); in other wor ds, to think is not your nature. (Talks) All of the chakras and worlds are ultima tely in the imagination, and therefore cannot be the way to realization itself. The Russian contemplatives (see St. Seraphim of Sarov and Theophane the Reclu se in Those Amazing Christians) spoke more often on a descent of the spirit or g race, as opposed to the kundalini traditions of India which emphasize the ascent

. This can be understood if one allows for a full circle of conducted energy in the body-mind. The Taoist sages taught this full circuitry. Baha u'llah also spo ke of a descent of grace: "During my days I lay in the prison of Tihran...I felt as if something flowed from the crown of my head over my breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipi tated itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of m y body would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments my tongue recited what no man could bear to hear." (7) The force, after awakening or insight into the Overself consciousness, is fel t as coming just as much if not more from "without", as a form of baptism, than from within. This, makes sense in the light of PB's comment in The Wisdom of the Overself, "the Overself's without is our within." One standing in that position will find such experiences safer and less deluding, having already undergone th e "second birth," or awakened to the witness consciousness, as they may then be experienced from a more impersonal point of view, beyond or apart from the sense of encasement in the body-mind. There is also then less chance of "getting frie d," as many practitioners have reported. None of this has to happen; it is just that it does happen, and these are som e of the possibilities thereof. John the Baptist, whom some say was a prophet, while others that he was Jesus ' initiatory guru, said: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you w ith the Holy Ghost, and with fire." (Matthew 3:11). In this instance, it can be assumed that "water", a universal symbol for the emotional nature of man, represents the purification of baser feelings and anima l passions. This is the necessary conversion of heart to prepare the individual for the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, which represent the initiation by the higher process of kundalini-shakti, or spirit-power, as is common in the yog ic traditions of the East, and which was presumably the province of Jesus the Ch rist (or such a one as he). PB hinted at the different stages of this baptismal process when he stated: "There is, further, a difference between the baptism by the Holy Ghost and th e baptism by fire. The baptism by the Holy Ghost arouses and awakens the potenti alities of the dynamic Life-Force, raising its voltage far above the ordinary. T his process is usually accompanied by thrills, ecstasies, or mystical raptures. it represents the first awakening on the spiritual level as it filters through t he partially cleansed emotional nature. Baptism by fire represents the next and highest stage after this event, when, the thrill of the new birth has subsided a nd when, in a calmer and steadier condition, the intelligence itself becomes ill uminated in addition to the feelings, thus balancing them." (8) Thus, the kundalini as it arises from the Muladhara is really only an apparen t rnovement, perceived to ascend (or descend), only after body-identification ha s already been assumed. According to some sages, the truly significant arisal of kundalini, life-energy, and mind occurs at the heartroot, prior to body-conscio usness, and it is to that locus, if any, that one's attention needs to be direct ed, not to its apparent extensions in the circuitry of the body-mind. And in the highest stage, even this locus, conceived objectively, as an exclusive site of realization, is transcended. For one who is involved in a kundalini practice or experiences, Paul Brunton has written these words of instruction and warning, pointing out the need for pr

eparation and purification: "Why did so many primeval cultures in Asia, Africa, and America worship the s erpent? A full answer would contain some of the most important principles of met aphysics and one of the least known practices of mysticism - raising the force s ymbolized under the name of the "serpent fire." The advanced occultists of Tibet compare the aspirant making this attempt to a snake which is made to go up a ho llow bamboo. Once aroused, it must either ascend and reach liberty at the top or it must fall straight down to the bottom. So he who seeks to play with this fie ry but dangerous power will either reach Nirvana or lose himself in the dark dep ths of hell. If a man seeks to arouse kundalini before he has rid himself of hat e, he will only become the victim of his own hatreds when he does raise it from its sleeping state. He would do better to begin by self-purification in every wa y if he is to end in safety and with success...The intense fire of love for the higher self must be kindled in the "mystic" heart, kindled until it also shows a physical parallel in the body, until the latter's temperature rises markedly an d the skin perspires profusely. Deep breathing is an important element in this e xercise. It provides in part the dynamism to make its dominating ideas effective . The other part is provided by a deliberate sublimation of sex energy, through its imaginative raising from the organs in the lower part of the body to a purif ied state in the head." "The strange phenomena of a mysterious agitation in the heart and an internal trembling in the solar plexus, of sex force raised through the spine to the hea d in intense aspiration toward the higher self accompanied by deep breathing, of a temporary consciousness of liberation from the lower nature, are usually the forerunners of a very important step forward in the disciple's inner life. A two fold trembling may seize him. Physically, his diaphragm may throb violently, the movement spreading like a ripple upward to the throat. Emotionally, his whole b eing may be convulsed with intense sobbing...The agitation of his feeling will c ome to an end with the calm perception of his Soul. The kundalini's activity bei ng primarily mental and emotional, the diaphragmatic tremors and quivers are mer ely its physical reactions. The necessity for keeping the back erect exists only in this exercise, not in the devotional or intellectual yogas, for such a strai ght posture permits the spinal column to remain free for the upward passage of t he "serpent fire." The latter moves in spiral fashion, just like the swaying of a cobra, generating heat in the body at the same time. If the trembling continue s long enough and violently enough, a sensation of heat is engendered throughout the body and this in turn engenders profuse perspiration. But all these symptom s are preliminary and the real mystical phenomena involving withdrawal from the body-thought begin only when they have subsided. This exercise first isolates th e force residing in breath and sex, then sublimates and reorients it. The result s, after the initial excitement has subsided, are (a) a liberating change in his consciousness of the body, (b) a strengthening development of the higher will's control over the animal appetites, and (c) a concentration of attention and fee ling as perfect as a snake's concentration on its prey. It is a threefold proces s yielding a threefold result. In those moments when the force is brought into t he head, he feels himself to be liberated from the rule of animality; then he is at the topmost peak of the higher will. Power and joy envelop him. The attainme nt of this state of deep contemplation and its establishment by unremitting dail y repetition bring him finally to an exalted satisfied sense of being full and c omplete and therefore passion-free and peace-rooted." (9) For a more traditional view on the kundalini we may look at the life and teac hings of Swami Sivananda (1897-1963). He was born, by his own confession, into a family "of saints and philosophers". He was a very mischievious boy whose prank s often brought angry hearts of embittered villagers to reconciliation. He was a n excellent gymnast and would frequently arise at three or three-thirty in the m orning and sneak out of the house to pursue his training. He admitted that he co

uld fool his parents, who did not look too favorably on his gymnastics, by putti ng a pillow on his bed and covering it with a blanket to make it appear as if he was still asleep. Sivananda studied at Tanjore Medical Institute, and, in his own words, "was a tremendously industrious boy" at the school. He spent all of his free time lear ning from the doctors and professors, and at the end of his first year he had ad mittance to the operating theater and was able to answer questions that even sen ior students could not. After graduation he traveled to Malaya and was the manag er of a hospital on a rubber estate for seven years, and subsequent to this he w orked three more years at the Jayore Medical Clinic. Sivananda was well-liked by his patients, but his mind wasn't on business and he often forgot to charge for treatment or medications [that s my kind of guy]. He started a popular medical jo urnal called The Ambrosia which he ran for four years. In order to maintain it a t a high quality he let his own financial reserves dwindle, but Sivananda didn't care: his overruling passion was to disperse knowledge that would aid the sick and needy. Medical work drove home to him the fact of pain and suffering in this world, and, remembering the verse, "the day on which one gets vairagya (dispassion), th at very day one should renounce the world," in 1923 he left Malaya for India and began a rigorous life as a wandering mendicant. Through hot sun, cold rain, bar e-headed and bare-footed, sometimes with food, sometimes without, Sivananda went from place to place in search of a spiritual guide or true Guru. He met many yo gis. and sadhus on his journeys, including the sage, Narayan Maharaj at whose as hram he spent a few days (Narayan Maharaj was said to have enlightened Upasani B aba with a piece of food, and was one of five allegedly perfect masters that wor ked with and prepared the way for the 'avatar' Meher Baba). Sivananda arrived at Rishikesh in 1924 and took initiation from Viswarananda Saraswati of the Sringe ri Math of Sri Sankaracharya. He stayed in Rishikesh and practiced intense auste rities and meditation, even though his Guru moved elsewhere. Sivananda considere d moments spent in idle pursuit and without purpose as time highly wasted. Throu ghout his life a favorite motto of his was "Do it now!" Along with a life of strict austerity (tapas), Swami Sivananda was very activ e in service to the sick, the poor, and other sadhus in his vicinity. On the adv ise of another mahatma in the area, he opened a medical dispensary for just that purpose. He tended the deathly ill without fear of contagion, taking no special precautions and not even bothering to wash his hands after treating a diseased person. He was a fearless servant of mankind. For his personal sadhana he maintained a rigorous, exacting daily schedule. T o ward off the spiritual aspirants who came to him in ever-increasing numbers he had a barbed-wire fence erected around his hut, and he locked the gait. He also had the ever-increasing number of personal disciplines that he assumed recorded in a notebook which he called "The Whip". He was a strong man and kept up a dai ly routine of physical exercise as well as up to sixteen hours of meditation. In 1936 he started the Divine Life Society to spread yoga teachings throughout the world. He went on a tour of India and Ceylon in 1950, and in 1953 convened a Wo rld Parliament of Religions. He was a friend of Sant Kirpal Singh who continued such endeavors. Overall he wrote more than three hundred books, often published at phenomenal spead: up to three two-hundred page books a month! Sivananda was a highly respected guru, perhaps because he gave out a pure, undiluted yoga teach ing, with little accompanying dogma, and also because he demanded much of his st udents. Sivananda was an outstanding example of a karma yogin as well as a supreme re alist: "Service gives me joy, I cannot live without service even for a second."

"I never said or did anything to tempt people with promises of grand results like Mukti (liberation) from a drop of Kamandala water, or Samadhi by mere touch . I emphasized the importance of silent meditation for a systematic progress in the spiritual path. Invariably, I asked all aspirants to purify their hearts thr ough selfless service to mankind." (10) The specifics of his sadhana in his own case are not clear; apart from mentio ning that he spent alot of time in meditation, and served the general community of renunciates where he lived, his autobiography gives few details of what actua lly occured spiritually during the years 1924 to 1929, when he achieved his real ization. His writings provide, however, a complete elaboration of yoga philosoph y and practices. The book, Kundalini Yoga, in particular, presents his view on r ealization: If he reaches the spiritual center in the brain, the sahasrar chakra, the yogi attains Nirvikalpa samadhi or (the) superconscious state. He becomes one with t he non-dual Brahman. All sense of separation dissolves. This is the highest plan e of consciousness or supreme Asamprajnata samadhi. Kundalini unites " with Siva . The yogi may come down to the center in the throat to give instructions to the students and do good to others (Lokasamgraha)." (11) Brahmarandhra means the hole of Brahman. It is the dwelling house of the human soul. This is also known as Dasamadvara, the tenth opening or the tenth door. The hollow place in the crown of the head known as anterior fontanelle in the new-bo rn child is the Brahmarandhra. This is between the two parietal and occipital bo nes. This portion is very soft in a babe. When the child grows, it gets oblitera ted by the growth of the bones of the head. Brahma created the physical body and entered (Pravishat) the body to give illumination inside through this Brahmaran dhra. In some of the Upanishads, it is stated like that. This is the most import ant part. It is very suitable for Nirguna Dhyana (abstract meditation). When the Yogi separates himself from the physical body at the time of death, this Brahma randhra bursts open and Prana comes out through this opening (Kapala Moksha). A h undred and one are the nerves of the heart. Of them one (Sushumna) has gone out piercing the head; going up through it, one attains immortality (Kathopanishad). "Sahasrara Chakra is the abode of Lord Siva. This corresponds to Satya Loka. This is situated at the crown of the head. When Kundalini is united with Lord Si va at the Sahasrara Chakra, the Yogi enjoys the Supreme Bliss, Parama Ananda. Wh en Kundalini is taken to this centre, the Yogi attains the superconscious state and the Highest Knowledge. He becomes a Brahmavidvarishtha or a full-blown Jnani ." (12) This is the traditional yogic view where the highest realization takes place in an ascended form of samadhi (Nirvikalpa); however, it is generally the case t hat when an individual returns to bodily consciousness from this samadhi he feel s a sense of limitation, depending on his background. Some yogis, therefore, as Sivananda mentions, only allow their consciousness to descend as far as the thro at center, where they are able to communicate with others while still feeling re latively free of the body. If they were not already feeling identified with the body, however, they would have less need to ascend to regain or maintain their r ealization, so say the sages. Thus the urge towards ascent is motivated by ident ification with the body-consciousness, in most cases. Compare this position of Swami Sivananda with that of Ramana Maharshi; Lakshm ana Swamy, and even Shiv Dayal Singh: none of them would agree that the kundalin i unites with Siva (Divine Consciousness) in the sahasrar, but for different rea sons.

Shiv Dayal Singh (and the path of Sant Mat, or shabd yoga) holds that the sah asrar is but the first of many ascending inner stages on the path to Self and Go d-Realization. It is definitely not Satya Loka, which is far above it. Sant Mat maintains that even the realization of advaita only takes one to the second plan e of Brahm, and that there are various lower regions that are faint reflections of higher and truer ones, such as Sat Lok, which must be reached. This path is d ifferent than all the rest. The other sages generally have testified that the se parate ego-consciousness must , at least provisionally, trace a course from the sahasrar down, via the terminal course of the sushumna nadi, to its root in the Heart (intuited from the bodily point of view to be on the right side of the che st; but in itself, as Ramana said, all-pervading) for true Self-realization to o ccur. In that case the realization must remain after one comes out of his samadh i. Lakshmana Swamy interprets the kundalini-shakti in a rather unique manner, as mentioned above. He says that it is actually equivalent to the mind, which aris es from the Heart and ascends to the brain through the channel called the amrita nadi ("current of nectar", or "current of immortality"). By this interpretation , Siva and Shakti, or Siva and the kundalini-shakti, do not unite in the sahasra r when said kundalini rises; rather, the kundalini-shakti (or mind) must return to its source (or its original locus relative to the bodily self) , which is the heart centre, and die there. Kundalini-as-the-mind, according to Lakshmana Swam y, arises from the heart, therefore, and not from the Muladhara chakra at the ba se of the spine as yoga maintains. The arising of kundalini through yoga practic e is only apparently such; it is actually a mental or imaginary phenomenon, only appearing as substantial to the non-Heart-realized individual. Swamy's use of t he word "imaginary" is interesting and it was similarly used by Ramana Maharshi. It simply means, "in consciousness", or "Mind". Paul Brunton used the philosoph ic term "mentalism" to the same effect. It is not meant to obliterate the distin ction between gross and subtle phenomena, although that may in fact be the inten tion of some teachers, but its basic meaning is that all phenomena arise in cons ciousness (or to and as consciousness), and the true vision of things is general ly not had without the transcendence of the ego in the heart. This can be, as st ated above, attained with the provisional descent of the mind into the heart, or simply through clear seeing that all is mind in ordinary life (i.e., outside tr ance).This grants the true understanding of the kundalini energies as well. Swamy states: "The kundalini tradition is not speaking from the highest standpoint because it does not teach that the mind must go back to the heart for the final realizat ion to occur. When you speak of the kundalini rising to the sahasrar you are spe aking of a yogic state which is not the highest state. At the moment of realizat ion the 'I' -thought goes down the channel (amrita nadi) and is destroyed in the heart. After realization neither the amrita nadi nor-the heart-center are of an y importance. The jnani then knows that he is all-pervading Self. (13) [Here he does acknowledge the higher point of view, although he insists that the Witness position must be achieved first. All sages are not in agreement on t his point]. The true Kundalini-Shakti is a profoundly transformative and potentially diso rienting process, serving to repolarize the energies and attention of the being to the crown (sahasrar); this in itself, however, according to sages, only prepa ratory to the advanced forms of inquiry that lead attention to its root in the H eart. Ramana Maharshi and Lakshmana Swamy speak of the Amrita Nadi as arising ou t of the Heart and projecting to the sahasrar above, and then simultaneously to the body-mind as a whole. In realization, Lakshmana, as mentioned, speaks of att ention or mind as going down the channel of amrita nadi into the heart, after wh ich he says that the Self is reached, and the heart and amrita nadi are then sup

erfluous or non-existent. In Ramana's case, one gets the feeling that in the rea lization of sahaj, the amrita nadi, after realization of the transcendental Self in the Heart, reappears as a regenerated pathway of the Heart and its Light, fo rever known as inseparable. This causal pathway is generally not acknowledged in the yoga schools. A mode rn exception to this, however, is Swami Yogeshwaranand Saraswati. He argues: "A stream of rays pertaining to the life-force arises from the bliss sheath ( The causal body in the heart) and goes to the astral body (manomaya and vijnanam aya koshas in the brain) and from there to the physical body." (14) Even among the Greeks one finds this view: "Aristotle regarded the heart and not the brain as the thinking or control ce ntre of the body. He also spoke of certain very fine thread-like tendons that we nt from the heart to all the larger tendons of the body as in a marionette. Henc e the notion of one's "heart-strings' being tugged." (15) Ramana once said "You doctors say that the heart is at the left side of the c hest. But the whole body is the heart for yogis. Jnanis have their hearts both w ithin and without." A devotee of his, Ranaky Matha, claims to have had her liber ation under Bhagavan's grace when her kundalini rose to the sahasrara, after whi ch she realized the One, Universal, Transcendental Self as Heart-Light and Amrit a Nadi as a "pillar of light", rising up to the sahasrara and above, as sometime s described by Ramana. She once almost had the experience of Ganapati Muni of th e kundalini trying to break out of the top of the skull but it subsided when she cried out to Ramana. Maharshi said of her that she was born realized, that he w as only the causal (karana) guru for her. See Sri Janaky Matha for an inspiring account of this bhakta devotee of Sri Bhagavan. For advanced Tibetan Buddhists, kundalini practice can be both preparatory fo r non-dual realization, or part of the progressive, fully integrating stages of such realization leading to attainment of the Light Body or Rainbow Body whereby the practitioner reduces the physical body into the subtle essence of its eleme nts, leaving nothing behind but the hair and nails, considered to be impurities. In this tradition, such is considered to be a sign of Total realization. Such p henomena are not due to conventional yogic siddhi, but rather transmutation due to radical non-dual realization wherein even the physical body is so permeated. [For more on this see Step By Step To The Temple of Total Ruin: Lessons from Mil arepa on this website. On the other hand, most non-dual philosophies, such as Advaita, teach that th ere is nothing to attain but the ever-present Self or consciousness. Kundalini-S hakti may appear to rise, or the devotee may appear to ascend through the chakra s, but really this is only an appearance, or even a play of attention. The ascen ding motion, for the Tibetan Buddhists, however, is part of a greater process, i ncluding descent, ascent, and non-dual identification with consciousness itself. It is of no concern for the average devotee on the path, for whom it is enough that he knows through understanding that whatever it is that ascends, or what th e process of ascent is altogether, can only be observed or known properly from t he point of view of consciousness. The ego-soul may appear to ascend, but such i s only an illusion based on identification with the bodily self. This identifica tion is undermined through spiritual insight into the all-pervading Soul or Self , which is, as far as words permit, also of the nature of no-self, in that it is r ealized as the empty-fullness of reality and not a fixed entity. If the ego-soul is an illusion, therefore, based on mistaken identity, how can it really be sai d to ascend? Yet it appears to, up to a point where it is no more, but ascension is really one of the powers of the emanated Soul, and right and proper in its t ime and place in a total spiritual process. However, from the point of view of r

eality such 'ascension' is still only apparent. [Yet, since reality has no 'poin t of view', such language itself is only in the realm of relativity, and not the total truth!] The initial task, therefore, may be said to not be to manipulate or pursue th e experience of subtle energies for their own sake, but, rather, through profoun d self-understanding or surrender, according to the sages, to permit consciousne ss itself and/or the divine spirit-current to carry away all exclusive, fixed id entification with the body-mind itself. The summary point in this discussion is that the apparent ascent of consciousness in the chakra system and the rising of the kundalini is part of a larger process, and is even illusory from the point of view of realization itself. There is, however, much more that can be said on this topic, for we have but scratched the surface.

Sant Mat: A Comparative Analysis of the Path of the Masters: Part One

by Peter Holleran

"Not only does loving devotion raise the soul to God, but God, too, is drawn down from the transcendental regions and reaches for the devotee and takes His a bode in his heart. " - Sant Kirpal Singh, Sat Sandesh, July 1983 Believe nothing you have read or anything you have heard, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with common sense and reason. - Buddha

Dedication: For the Hungry It is because of the freedom given me by my initiating Master, Sant Kirpal Si ngh, that I write this article, asking and searching for open dialogue on what r emains for some a glorious yet mysterious path. I would not for the world take i t upon myself, nor is it my intention, to cause one soul to entertain unnecessar y doubts, but I figure that if you, dear reader, have gotten this far, you have your share of inquiries and may find some benefit in what is discussed herein, a nd that the day and age has arived to speak more plainly on such matters. What f ollows is largely not for the beginner but rather for the seasoned questor who s till has real questions regardless of his efforts, devotion, and experiences on this path. As there are now hundreds of thousands of followers in the many branc hes of Sant Mat, or Radhasoami tradition, with different gurus within each, offe ring similar but not always identical teachings [perhaps the two most predominan t branches today descending from Sawan Singh (Beas) to either Maharaj Charan Sin gh (Beas) or Sant Kirpal Singh (Delhi), but also major branches in Peepalmandi ( Dadaji), Soamibagh, and Dayalbagh)], there are undoubtedly many seekers who harb or unasked and unanswered heartfelt questions. This is not due only to internal discrepencies and controversies among or between the various lineages of Sant Ma t, but also because of the challenge of a more radical, direct approach dissemin ated by a host of emerging Buddhist as well as non-dual teachers, the latter lar gely descending from Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta. Hopefully this article will bring the different schools of thought a little c loser together, and thus, in some small way, justify the ecumenical efforts of m y Master in founding The World Fellowship of Religions and Unity of Man Conferen ces several decades ago. This is an exploratory essay and not in any respect an attempt to "prove" or "disprove" Sant Mat or any other path. In fact, its underl ying assumption is that Sant Mat is on essence true and authentic, with yet nume rous questions arising for the discriminative seeker. We take a diplomatic appro ach, well-aware that there are those who feel Sant Mat is, aside from its claims of being all about love, still a cult, especially with its 'perfect master' ide ology and exclusivity as regards other paths, and is therefore failing to keep u p with the times and an ongoing transmission of intelligence and grace that is s aid by many to be infusing our planet at this time without prejudice for any per son or dharma. Some accuse it of being divisive, negative, and a few, even 'hate ful' and close-minded in this respect. For instance, they argue, why don't the r espective masters of the different lineages within Sant Mat get together in a fo rum and debate and discuss their differences, and, equally importantly, why do t hey not do the same with leaders of other paths, rather than merely congregate o n the stage with those leaders and individually 'sell' their particular brand of spirituality without cross-pollination and sharing of input as done in the time of the ancient rishis and as sponsored throughout Indian history by its great a nd noble maharajas, and universities such as Nalanda? Since Sant Mat is one of t he largest spiritual movements in the world today, it is necessary to enter into a comparative dialogue and analysis of its claims to bring all aspects into the light of awareness. We hope that this discussion will help move it forward so a

s to remain a viable way in its own right, where possible, and to change as requ ired by the evolving needs and understanding of the human race. It is also recognized that mystical experience enters a realm where the discu rsive intellect does not go, yet, it is still subject to some extent to reason o r buddhi, the highest faculty of the mind, the closest to Atman itself. Therefor e, If you are content where you are, wonderful, you may read no further. Otherwi se, read on, with full attention and an open mind intent on truth. This article is at times dense, as well as somewhat exhaustive; the reader, however, can dete rmine if it is of value. We are well-aware of critical articles and websites by various authors and re searchers regarding succession issues, purported scandals, and the like in the m ultiple branches of the Sant Mat or Radhasoami tradition. We have purposely omit ted reference to those, except, with some hesitation, for two links at the end o f this article, in order to keep this discussion on the relative merits of the p hilosophies alone. Each seeker is free to explore the other material, come to hi s own conclusions, and decide for him or her self what is useful or not. These s ources are not altogether unimportant, but simply tangential and at a lower leve l than that which we want to discuss here. For those who have read this article before, Part Two represents entirely new material. All three parts, however, are one consistent whole, and have been rewritten since this article was first released. Those who have read it years ago will note that the autobiographical material was removed and transferred to the Biography section of this website. On the positive side it is lauditory that by and large many of the masters of Sant Mat, at least, the ones I have known and loved, are examples of clean livi ng, selfless service, loving others, personal discipline, profound depths of inn er meditation and illumination, not accepting money for their spiritual work, an d, compared to many paths, relatively free of gross scandals, i.e., drugs, money , and sex. On these points most unbiased observers would agree. The goal propose d and promised is lofty and celestial. The loved poured out by the greatest of t hese masters is real. The questions I have relate to the philosophy itself and h ow it relates to ultimate realization as described in other traditions and schoo ls. Introduction Sant Mat teaches an emanationist philosophy/theology of creation that believe s the fallen soul must retrace its journey back from realms of varying densities of matter to those of pure spirit. As we shall see clearly in Part Two, this is only one way of interpreting the truths of Sant Mat. There is a more inclusive, nondual way of looking at it, although that is not the way it is generally diss eminated to the millions of its followers, many of whom are simple villagers not so inclined to question at that level. This is a burden, in our opinion, some o f the the Masters aware of these truths lovingly carry until such time as they c an speak more plainly. The technique, believed superior to other paths and unique to itself alone, i s to concentrate at the ajna chakra (third eye) and withdraw the attention from the body, catch the inner light and sound current, and ride that upwards to the fifth and, by their system, first divine and indestructible, plane, Sach Khand. Some Sants, such as Darshan Singh and Rajinder Singh, have actually described th e supercausal realm, Bhanwar Gupta, as a true spiritual realm (beyond mind and m atter), where the soul first experienced its individuality on the downward path, and on the upward path (with but a thin veil of anandamaya kosha remaining, alm ost an integral part of the soul itself, said Kirpal Singh) first cries out "aha

m brahm asmi", i.e., "oh Lord, I am of the same essence as thou, or "Thou Art Th at", etc.), with Sach Khand being refered to as the True Region, or the realm of Truth or Spirit, the first primal expression in full effulgence of the nameless One. This also sometimes referred to as the region of Oneness or Kaivalya. Para m Sants go further, being progressively absorbed by the Sat Purush into three mo re planes, Alakh, Agam, and Anami, where there is less and less light and sound until merger in Anami, the nameless and formless. This is sometimes called mahak aivalya. [Some schools of Sant Mat teach that Radhasoami is a stage beyond Anami. The suggestion, through use of the terms "wonder region," or that it is not a region , but the "source and reality of All", etc., is that this may refer to a non-dua l Atmic realization, but it is not made clear, and is difficult in any case to c ompare to the teachings of other paths. To thicken the plot, Agam Prasad Mathur (aka Dadaji, a direct spiritual descendant of Rai Salig Ram, himself a disciple of Soamiji (according to most sources the modern day originator of the path of S ant Mat or Radhasoami Mat), has stated that beyond Anami is Radhasoami Dham and Dayal Desh, and that these teachings were edited out of the Sar Bachan of Soamij i in the translation of that book by the Beas group under Sawan Singh. Agam Pras ad Mathur therefore was saying that the Beas lineage descending from Jaimal Sing h - another disciple of Soamiji - through Sawan Singh did not have the full trut h. This rather significant alleged difference is little known among radhasoami s atsang circles]. Sant Mat is adamant and unique among the traditions in maintaining that the V edantins are wrong in their assertion of Brahman as the ultimate reality. This i s a major point whose truth or not is at the heart of this entire article: "In the Radhasoami faith, the ultimate reality is Radhasoami. In Hinduism and its branches the ultimate reality is Brahman and Isvara. Brahman is considered to be the highest reality in Vedanta. The founders of Radhasoami faith, however, came forward with a new concept. According to them, The Brahman of Vedanta is l imited to the second grand division of the creation whom they call "spiritual-ma terial region". They hold that the Brahman is not the true Supreme Being or the highest reality because he is not perfectly free from mind and matter. They asse rt that though spiritual components predominate in Brahman, there is Maya latent in the seed form and a Supreme Reality having the least admixture of Maya canno t be styled as the highest truth. They envisaged the highest and the first grand division of creation as the region of the true Supreme Being who is absolutely spiritual and totally free from mind and matter. Such a Supreme Being they have named as Radhasoami." (website of Dadaji Maharaj) In Sant Mat the soul is said to die or be absorbed at each succeeding inner regio n. There is no talk of insight, prajna, or satori such as discussed in Buddhism and other schools. The goal is merger of the soul in the Oversoul, which absorpt ion they say begins in Sach Khand and ends by stages in Anami. On this path, the Godman is all in all. The Sants speak endlessly of the need to first achieve fa na-fil-sheikh (annihilation in the Master) as a prelude to fana-fil-Allah (annih ilation in God). Ths consists in developing rapt concentration through loving re membrance of the human master and the Master-Power within, to the point of reach ing the Master's inner Radiant Form. That, once attained, will, by magnetic attr action, escort the emanated soul to the Sat Purush, which in turn further absorb s the soul into the Absolute. On this path of love and devotion, at each stage t here is allegedly both deeper penetration into the Essence within as well as gre ater interpenetration between the inner and the outer, to the ultimate point of no-difference... In The Crown of Life (1970), Sant Kirpal Singh speaks movingly of this process: "This relationship of love between the Satguru and his shishya, the Godman an d his disciple, covers many phases and developments...With his greater effort an

d the greater grace from the Master, the disciple makes increased headway in his inner sadhanas, leading finally to complete transcendence of bodily consciousne ss. When this transcendence has been achieved, he beholds his Guru waiting in hi s Radiant Form to receive and guide his spirit on the inner planes. Now, for the first time, he beholds him in his true glory, and realizes the unfathomable dim ensions of his greatness. Henceforth he knows him to be more than human and his heart overflows with songs of praise and humble devotion. The higher he ascends in his spiritual journey, the more insistent is he in his praise, for the more i ntensely does he realize that he whom he once took to be a friend, is not merely a friend but God Himself come down to raise him up to Himself. This bond of lov e, with its development by degrees, becomes the mirror of his inward progress, m oving as it does, from the finite to the infinite.....once it has reached the po int where the disciple discovers is teacher in his luminous glory within himself , all analogies are shattered and all comparisons forever left behind; all that remains is a gesture, and then silence...." (p. 185-186) The following few paragraphs were part of an earlier article; they may be dif ficult to understand for those without a philosophic background or familiarity w ith the thought of Plotinus and Paul Brunton (PB). Nevertheless, they are retain ed here for those who may find it clarifying. Others may simply skip directly to the "Points for Discussion". Paul Brunton and Plotinus teach that an emanent of the individual or unit Sou l has penetrated or assumed a body, and it may be traced back to the Individual Soul from which it emanated and evolved through a long process of evolution. The Absolute Soul, which continually births Individual Souls, is inherent in the In tellectual Principle, the Nous, which is forever looking towards its prior, the One. The Absolute Soul is then the first of three degrees of penetration of the silent Void-Mind (Absolute Soul, Intellectual Principle, and the One) for one wh o has already realized his Soul. In PB s terms that would be Overself, World-Mind (God), and Mind (Godhead). All of these higher principles are in the silent Void beyond perception, name and form, light and sound. Thus, Anami of Sant Mat would as it is described as "without attributes" appear to represent the first degree of merger of the Soul into the Absolute Soul, but not the One per se, in Plotinu s' classification. This need not lessen the greatness of such a state, only to o utline its potential difference as described and the ultimate goal as stated in other schools. I will be the first to admit his may be entirely wrong. Meister Eckhart said: God is infinite in his simplicity and simple in his infinity. Therefore he is everywhere and is everywhere complete. He is everywhere on account of his infini ty, and is everywhere complete on account of his simplicity. Only God flows into all things, their very essences. Nothing else flows into something else. God is in the innermost part of each and every thing, only in its innermost part." "When the soul enters the light that is pure, she falls so far from her own c reated somethingness into her nothingness that in this nothingness she can no lo nger return to that created somethingness by her own power." "Blessedness consists primarily in the fact that the soul sees God in herself . Only in God s knowledge does she become wholly still. There she knows nothing b ut essence and God. Between that person and God there is no distinction, and the y are one. . . Their knowing is one with God s knowing, their activity with God s ac tivity and their understanding with God s understanding." "I have occasionally spoken of a light in the soul which is uncreated and unc reatable... This light is not satisfied with the simple, still and divine being which neither gives nor takes, but rather it desires to know from where this bei ng comes. It wants to penetrate to the simple ground, to the still desert, into

which distinction never peeped, neither Father, Son nor Holy Spirit. There, in t hat most inward place, where everyone is a stranger, the light is satisfied, and there it is more inward than it is in itself, for this ground is a simple still ness which is immovable in itself. But all things are moved by this immovability and all the forms of life are conceived by it which, possessing the light of re ason, live of themselves. This seems to be speaking of the Soul s merger into or glimpse of Intellectual Principle, its prior, where the Soul is no longer herself. Could this be Anami o f the saints, or is there a further realization that most of them have missed? B e it noted that Dadaji (Agam Prasad Mathur) claimed that Sant Kirpal Singh visit ed him several times to ask him about this very matter. This is for most of us a rather abstruse point and I promise that the bulk of this article will not be s o technically demanding. If there is a further stage beyond Anami, called Radhasoami , "Dayal Desh" or wh atever name be given to the non-dual Reality, then there may be some line of com munication between these teachings, but, as mentioned, it is left a mystery in t he teaching of Sant Mat where, like in other mystical schools, reasoning on such things is also unfortunately many times discouraged, simply because during the practice of concentration/meditation/dhyana the mental process is temporarily se t aside. But that does not justify the denigration of the intellect and reasonin g about these matters altogether, especially when so many sages appear to disagr ee with the interpretation of their inner experiences. Francis Wickes issues a w arning: Thinking hard hurts. It turns the sharp point of truth back upon the thinker. I t pricks the bubble of ego complacency blown up by thinking easy. Its sharp woun d forbids the forgetfulness which is the goal of evasive thinking. If one can fo rget the inner experience and its challenge can be evaded, the ego can remain co mfortably unborn in the womb of the already known. (1) The most difficult and basic question must be asked at the outset, where is th e proof the path of inversion leads to the non-dual Brahman? Vedanta says that, b eing non-dual, the One, no effort can lead there, that something more than mere yogic concentration must take place to realize it. V.S. Iyer states: When I am told to go and practice Yoga and then only I shall know its truth, I reply, How do you know that Yoga leads to truth? This at once involves epistemol ogy of which every yogi is ignorant and which he has never taken into considerat ion. Yet it is the very foundation of knowledge; without knowing epistemology a man who mentions truth or knowledge simply does not know what he is talking abou t...Vedanta s atitude to mystics is, granting that, if we place ourselves in your p osition, if we follow up the yoga-practices you prescribe we shall have the same mystic experiences you have had, how are we to know even then that those experi ences are the truth? We shall still be faced with that question even after the e xperience. Hence the need for inquiry, whether before or after into What is truth ? What he is saying is that how do we know that duplicating the death process, in and of itself, through shabd yoga, for instance, leads to the truth, and not just higher states? This is not a call for every seeker to become a great schola r, or even be literate, but if even great sages have disagreed on the nature of their enlightenment, however, where would ordinary souls like us be without The Courage to Question? In the Secret Sayings of Jesus it is said: "Let him who seeks not cease in his seeking until he finds; and when he finds he will be troubled, and if he is troubled, he will marvel, and will be a king over the All."

Paul Brunton (PB) gives his definition of the term shraddha, traditionally me ant as faith in the revealed truth of the scriptures: "that faith in the existence of truth, that determination to get at truth, co me what may, which would make one a hero even in the face of God's wrath." And finally, we have these words from scientist Carl Sagan: "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." Points for Discussion 1. It is quite a challenge to compare or reconcile the teaching of Sant Mat with any other system than gnostic or mystical schools; their doctrine says that Bud dhism, Advaita, and all other yogas are on a lower level, either: (1) because, a s they claim, their inner experience progressively reveals this, or (2) because the modern founder of the school, Swami Shiv Dayal Singh (Soamiji), once said so , perhaps in reference to the quality of so-called jnanis and vedantists he came in contact with who were available for comparison at the time - which he mentio ned to be largely pundits and not practitioners - but not necessarily, I humbly suggest, from an in-depth study of high Buddhist, Hindu, and other writings or a ssociation with sages of the caliber of Ramana Maharshi. Descriptions of the mea nings of "Brahman", and "Gyana", are also different than those given in other sc hools. Soamiji wrote, in Sar Bachan (Prose) (1978 edition): There will be no salvation for Vachak Gyanis (those who only talk Gyan), for t hey only talk. In the case of true Gyanis, the Sthool Karmas (gross karmas) only are destroyed, but not the Sukshm Karmas (subtle karmas), as they can be destro yed only after reaching the region of the Saints. It must be born in mind that o nly Saints can lead to salvation in this age, because there can be no salvation unless all Karmas, both gross and subtle, are destroyed, and the Gyanis do not k now the technique of destroying karmas. (p. 138) This may be so. One famous zen master said, first enlightenment, then the bad karma is dealt with. There may be few who achieve this. Yet many will argue that a gyani or sage like Ramana Maharshi or Shree Atmananda were examples of those w ho both taught and achieved the transcendance or eradication of not only gross a nd subtle, but causal or root karmas as well. Kirpal Singh, in his book, The Cro wn of Life: A Study in Yoga mentioned that Jnana Yoga was a true path, but a ste ep one and not suited for the average person, but he did not deny its efficacy a nd even said it was a short-cut for those who had the qualifications for it (In fairness, he also pointed out the pitfalls for those who did not). Soamiji wrote: Whoever seeks the Sat Guru will surely find Him, for the Sat Guru is an incarn ation eternally present on this earth. (p. 139) However, he then seems to contradicts himself by claiming: Saints are the Incarnations of Sat Purush, and to serve Them is to serve Sat P urush. They did not manifest themselves in the first three Yugas - but They have now incarnated themselves in this Kali Yuga for the redemption of the Jivas. It then gets more complicated when claims are made by other gurus in these li neages that Kabir, a key figure in Sant Mat history, incarnated in all four ages.

Example is often given that Jesus Christ was a perfect master and taught Sura t Shabd Yoga, as well as Buddha (as suggested in the Surangama Sutra where it me ntions attaining the diamond samadhi through the faculty of intrinsic hearing ), but at other times these past masters are spoken of as incomplete and only reaching to the third plane in realization. Specifically, Charan Singh and Kirpal Singh d iffered on this. In addition, the path of Sant Mat is sometimes held to have ori ginated with the medievil saints, not with Jesus or more ancient masters. Moreov er, Sant Mat teaches that all masters must have a master, but whether Shiv Dayal Singh, the modern founder of the line, for instance, had a master in Tulsi Das is yet a matter of controversy. Agam Prasad Mathur claimed that Soamiji had no g uru, whereas the Beas lineage claims that he did. Nanak did not have a master, a s far as we know. Shiv Dayal Singh didn t give proof for his claim of the inherent superiority of Sant Mat, he merely stated it was so. Of course, one could say, what proof coul d he give? - one must realize it for oneself. Yet for the beginner at least, in deciding if one will take up this path, it comes down to whether you believe Soa miji s cosmology and ontology.. I am not saying whether it is absolute true or not , only that it is an article of faith on this path. Sant Mat would say there are inherent and inevitable paradoxes and mysteries on the path that make descripti on of the inner truths ineffable. True enough, but then that makes comparison wi th paths of jnana, for instance, impossible, and, in fact, comparative reference s are mostly only given to that of various saints and mystics within the Sant or Sikh tradition itself. Some of the differences in the traditional uses of various terms, i.e., brahm, p urusha, prakriti, gunas, etc, can be gleaned by the perceptive student from the following description of the four grand divisions of the cosmos according to The Path of the Masters, by Julian Johnson: Sat Desh, the Highest Region Beginning now from Above, and going downwards, we come first to Sat Desh (Sat, T rue, and Desh, country: True Country or Far Country). Many other names have been applied to it, such as Nij-Dham, Sat Lok, Mukam-e Haq and Sach Khand. These nam es are usually applied to the lowest section of Sat Desh, but occasionally to th e entire grand division. This is the region or plane of pure spirit. All enjoyin g the greatest conceivable happiness, its inhabitants are pure spirits in such c ountless numbers as no man can estimate. It is the supreme heaven of all heavens ... It is known to Saints only, who alone can enter it. It cannot be described. In substance and arrangement it is wholly unlike anything known in this world. N either can the human mind imagine it. This section is so vast in extent that no sort of understanding of it can be conveyed to human intelligence. No mind can g rasp it. All that the Saints can say of it is that it is limitless. It is the on ly region which the great Saints insist is practically limitless. We may say, al though no mind can grasp the thought, that it embraces all else, and is both the beginning and the end of all else. It is the great center about which all other worlds revolve. Anything which we might say about it would be incomplete and on ly partially true, so declare the Saints. If the entire physical universe with i ts countless millions of suns and their planets were all gathered together in a single cluster, each sun being a million light-years distant from any other sun, yet this entire ensemble would appear no more than a few dark specks floating i n the clear and luminous sky of Sat Desh. In that happy country, a sun such as o urs, but a thousand times larger, would appear as a tiny dark spot, so very grea t is the light of that world. This region is the grand capital of all creation, the center of all universes, and the residence of the Supreme Creator-Lord of al l. From this center of all light, life and power, the Great Creative Current flo ws outwards and downwards to create, govern and sustain all regions. It passes o ut from this region somewhat like the radio emanations going forth from a great broadcasting station. It is the Audible Life Stream, the most important factor i

n the system of the Masters. This Stream permeates the entire system of universe s. A thing of great importance to us is that the music of this ever- flowing cur rent, the stream of life, can be heard by a real Master and also by his students who have advanced even a little on the Path. And let us reiterate that unless a Master teaches his students how this current is to be heard, he is not a Master of the highest order. This grand headquarters of all creation is the region of immortality. It is unch angeable, perfect, deathless. It is for ever untouched by dissolution or grand d issolution. So are its inhabitants. This region will be referred to many times i n this book. It is subdivided into four distinct planes, each having its own cha racteristics and its own Lord or Governor. But the difference between these subd ivisions is very slight. From above downward they are named: Radha Swami Dham (m eaning home of the Spiritual Lord). It is also called Anami Lok (meaning nameles s region). The next plane below the highest is Agam Lok (Agam, inaccessible, and Lok, place). The third plane is Alakh Lok. (Alakh, invisible and Lok, place). T he last of these higher planes is Sach Khand (Sach, truth and Khand home). The l ast one is also called Sat Lok, the true place. By the Mohammedan Saints it has been called Mukam-e-Haq, meaning of the same as above, the Home of Truth. The light of all four of these regions is so very intense that it is impossible for any mortal to get an understanding of it. It cannot be described. The great Swami Ji sums up his statements regarding is region by saying simply that "It is all Love. BRAHMANDA, THE SECOND GRAND DIVISION The second grand division from above downward is Brahmanda, (meaning, the egg of Brahm, as said before). This refers to its shape and also to the Governor or Lo rd who is its ruler. This Brahm is supposed by most of the old rishis to be the supreme being of all creation, because they knew of no one higher. But the Saint s know that there is not only one Brahm, but countless numbers of Brahms, who ar e governors over so many Brahmandas. For it must be understood that there are co untless Andas and Brahmandas, each circling about the supreme region in its own orbit. And each of them has its own governor or ruler. Brahm was the highest God known to the ancient rishi or yogi, and so the name of Brahm is retained by the Saints to designate the ruler of the "Three Worlds," including the physical uni verse, the Anda and lower portion of Brahmanda, named Trikuti. The upper portion of Brahmanda is called Par Brahm. As said before, this grand division is mostly spirit in substance, but is mixed with a certain amount of pure, spiritualized matter. It is the finest order of m atter, and that includes mind. This is called the "spiritual-material region," b ecause spirit dominates the region. The substance of that division gradually bec omes less and less concentrated as we descend toward the negative pole of creati on. The lower portions become coarser in particle, and more and more mixed with matter. In the lower end of Brahmanda mind is supreme. It is practically all min d, for mind itself is material of the finest order. Of course, even mind is mixe d with spirit substance to some slight extent, otherwise it could not exist. All worlds become a shade darker as we descend, because there is less and less of s pirit substance in the composition. Trikuti, the lowest section of Brahmanda, is the home of Universal Mind. It is from that region that all individual minds ar e derived, and to that region all minds must return when they are discarded duri ng the upward flight of the spirit. Brahmanda is extremely vast in area when com pared with the physical universe, but small when compared with the first grand d ivision. It is itself subdivided into many distinct regions or planes. Some ment ion six subdivisions; but as a matter of fact, there are scores of subdivisions in that one grand division, almost numberless subdivisions, each constituting a separate and distinct world. Divisions and subdivisions shade into one another s

o imperceptibly that it is not easy to say just where one ends and another begin s. This accounts in part for the many different descriptions of those regions, a nd the great variety of names assigned to them. Anda, The Lowest of the Heavens It lies nearest to the physical universe. Its capital is called Sahasra dal Kanw al, meaning a Thousand-petalled Lotus [right here Dr. Johnson substitutes the co mmon yogic terminology of sahasrar for sahans (dal kanwal) to give justification for the far superior nature of the Path of the Masters; but as we shall see, Sa hans Dal Kanwal, is described by Soamiji himself as being an eight-petalled lotu s, not a thousand]. Its name is taken from the great cluster of lights which con stitute the most attractive sight when one is approaching that world. This great group of lights is the actual "power house" of the physical universe. Out of th at power house flows the power that has created and now sustains all worlds in o ur group. Each of those lights has a different shade of tint and they constitute the most gorgeous spectacle as one enters that magnificent city of light. In th at city of splendors may be seen also many other interesting and beautiful thing s. Also, here may be seen millions of earth's most renowned people of all ages o f our history. Many of them are today residents of this great city and country. Naturally they are quite happy. It is far superior to anything ever seen on this earth. Yet this is but the first station on the upward Path of the Masters. This region constitutes the negative part of all the superphysical zones. That i s, it lies most distant from the positive pole of creation. This region is somet imes classified as a part of Brahmanda, but the Saints prefer to consider it as a separate grand division of creation. It has many distinctive features of its o wn. Lying nearest to the physical universe, it forms the port of entry for all t he higher regions. All souls who are passing to still higher regions must pass t hrough it. The great majority of human souls at the time of death pass to some s ub-plane of this region. But very few, comparatively, go direct to this central portion of the Sahans dal Kanwal region. It is through all of these regions that the Masters and their disciples must travel on their way to higher worlds. This section of creation is not immortal or imperishable. Neither are its inhabitant s. Many of its inhabitants believe that they have attained immortality because t heir lives there go on for extremely long periods. All below that is subject to death and dissolution. There are two kinds of dissolutions. The one, simple diss olution" which reaches up to the lowest section in Brahmanda, the region called Trikuti; this occurs after many millions of years, and the other, the grand diss olution" which occurs after immeasurably long periods of time and extends up to the top of Brahmanda. Of course, both of these dissolutions include the entire p hysical universe, every sun, moon and planet in it. At that time every star and its satellites are wiped out, and then follows a period of darkness equal in dur ation to the life of the universe. When the period of darkness has expired, a ne w creation is projected, and the heavens are once more alive with sparkling star s. With each new creation begins a new "Golden Age" for each planet and its inha bitants. But between minor dissolutions there are also periods of renewal for th e life of each planet when Golden Ages succeed dark ages. There is a general ide a, finding its way into most religions, that this world is to come to an end. An d so the Masters teach. But the end is a very different proposition to what it i s generally supposed to be. It will come at a time when all worlds of the physic al universe will be dissolved, and after periods of darkness and silence, new wo rlds will take their places. The inhabitants of all of those worlds to be dissol ved are drawn up to higher regions in a sort of comatose state to be replaced up on these worlds when they are ready for human habitation. They will then begin a new life here under more favorable conditions. These periodic dissolutions come to the physical universe after many, many hundreds of millions of years. No man need worry now, lest that time is near at hand. It is many aeons away yet.

The Grand Division of Pinda -- The Physical Plane/Multiverse of Dark Matter and Light The fourth grand division, beginning from above, is called Pinda. It is the gros s material or physical universe. Here coarse matter predominates, there being bu t a small percentage of mind and a still smaller amount of spirit. Our earth is a small and insignificant member of Pinda. It embraces all the suns and their pl anets known or unknown, to astronomy. It extends out into space far beyond the r each of any telescope. Astronomers have never been able to count these worlds; a lthough as their instruments become more perfect, the range of their observation s is extended. Who shall set limits or indicate bound to those starry depths? Wh o can number the numberless? Who can circumscribe the boundless? To the farthest extent of space wherever there is a material sun or a speck of dust they are al l included in this fourth grand division which the Masters call Pinda. In this division, coarse material predominates. Permeating this coarse material are many finer substances, including mind, and last of all there is a modicum of spirit to give life to all the rest. In this lowest of all divisions of creatio n there is but little light and a very low grade of life when compared with Brah manda. But if compared with Sat Desh, this world is pitch darkness and the life here, in comparison to that, is scarcely cognizable at all. Its substance is coa rse, clumsy, inert, and full of all manner of imperfections. These imperfections , as said before, are due to the paucity of spirit at this pole. This condition of negativity is the soil out of which all evil grows. However real it may seem to us, negativity is the absence of reality, and the absence of reality is the a bsence of spirit. Food is a reality to us, but hunger is also a real condition t o our consciousness. But hunger is due to the absence of food. In its last analy sis, all pain, longing, all desire is only a cry of the mind and soul for more l ight, more spirit. In like manner, evil is due to, the absence of spirit. And th e reason we have so small a percentage of spirit substance at this end of creati on is because this is the negative pole of all creation. Pinda is the extreme ne gative pole. It is consequently so far depleted of spirit that it lies in a stat e of semi-death, a condition of heavy inertia over which broods deep shadow. Out of this condition rise all the manifold difficulties experienced by mortals on this plane of life. As one leaves this lowest plane and begins to ascend towa rd the positive pole of creation, the light increases, and hence more life, more beauty and more happiness. This is all entirely due to the increase in the perc entage of spirit on the several planes. Love, power, wisdom, rhythm, perfection of every sort take the place of negative conditions which prevail in the lower s ections of the universe. It should be said here, with all possible emphasis, that just in proportion to t he degree of spirit substance prevailing in any region, world, person or thing, will its perfections be manifest. And vice versa, in proportion to the lack of s pirit, imperfections will show themselves. In proportion as matter predominates, those states which we call evil will manifest. A depletion of spirit, is theref ore, the one fatal disease of the physical universe. Out of that state all other diseases spring up. In the last analysis, we believe there is but one disease i n the world -- spiritual anemia. [Notice that Julian Johnson uses the term "sahsra dal kanwal and "thousand-pe talled lotus" to describe the first inner region. As will be shown, Soamiji used the term "Sahans dal Kanwal" and said this region had only an eight-petalled lo tus. This has significance in comparing other schools of yoga with Sant Mat]. Continuing, we have a more lyrical description of creation by Huzur Maharaj:

A current issued forth from the feet of SOAMI [Lord]. It is the Prime Current and the Creator of the entire creation. The Name of that ADI DHARA. (Prime Current) is RADHA [Soul]. THAT alone is the d oer and dispenser of every activity. The Source or Origin or Fountain-head from whom the Prime Current emanated, is A DI SOAMl (Absolute Lord) of all. Where that current halted in its descent, the creation of Agam Lok [Inaccessible Plane] was brought into being. Agam Lok is a vast sphere. It encompasses all the creation. The entire creation below is being cradled just in a small nook of Agam Lok. On completion of the creation of Agam Lok, a current issued forth from there. It descended and halted, and evolved the creation of Alakh Lok [Invisible Region or Plane]. When the sphere of Alakh Lok was formed in the above manner, the current descend ed, and created Sat Lok. Sat Lok [Plane or Realm of Truth] is the Dham (Abode) of Sat Purush, and is inha bited by Hansas. Each of the Hansas [souls] has a dweep (island) to himself. They are absorbed in the Darshan [Vision] of Sat Purush. Up to here is the creation of Sat (Truth) or pure spirit. Neither Maya nor cruel Kal exists here. There is neither any desire nor any work. All are absorbed in the Darshan of Sat Purush and feed on Amrit (ambrosia). All live in perfect harmony and enjoy rapturous bliss. There is no trace of pain and anguish due to Kal [god of time-death- illusion] and there is no burden of Karma. For a considerable period of time the creation remained like this - a region of Truth and pure bliss. Time, The "Fall" of Kal, the Gnostic "Demiurge" or Universal Mind Then, from the lower portion of Sat Pur (Sat Lok) emanated a Shyam (blue) curren t. It came down and underwent considerable expansion and ramification. It remained constantly engaged in the Sewa (service) of Purush but, inwardly, it was cherishing some other desire. It disclosed its mind thus, "0 Sat Purush [God]! 0 Merciful One and Giver of all things! Grant me the sovereignty of a separate region, and furnish me with the seed of Surat. Life here is not suited to me. Your region is not agreeable to me ." Hearing this, Purush replied, "Get out from this place. You are a nuisance here. Go and evolve a creation for yourself in the lower part of the pre-creational n eutral zone. Take your seat there and rule over that dominion."

The name of that current is Niranjan. It has all the characteristics of Kal. Purush evolved another current with a yellow hue. Its name is Adya. By the order of Purush, this other current was sent down. It associated with Nir anjan. In Sunn, they came to be known as Purush and Prakriti, and in Trikuti, as Maya a nd Brahm. They halted in Sahas-dal-kanwal, from where the three Gunas (qualities) came int o being. Here, Adya assumed the form of Jyoti, and Niranjan assumed a dark blue complexio n. They first brought into being Brahm-srishti. Then, the creation of Triloki (three worlds) was evolved. Niranjan then engaged himself in Dhyan (contemplation) of Purush (Sat Purush). Jyoti took upon herself the burden of looking after the creation. The three Gunas or gods became her assistants. They evolved the rest of the crea tion. -- Huzur Maharaj, from "Prem Bani Radhasoami", Volume Four, Agra, India This appears to be a derivation from the Sar Bachan of Soamiji, and, in turn, possibly the Anurag Sagar of Kabir, of which we will hear more about later. In the first description of the inner regions given above, it is noteworthy that Ju lian Johnson uses the term "Sahasra dal Kanwal" and equates it with the Sahasrar a or thousand-petalled lotus as traditionally mentioned in yoga, particularly ku ndalini yoga. Sar Bachan Poetry, Part II, p. 277, by Soamiji, however, clearly s tates that Sahans dal Kanwal is a region of an eight-petalled lotus - followed b y a lotus of twelve petals in Trikuti, thirteen in Sunn, and ten at Maha-Sunn. I t is also of interest that further on in Sar Bachan, on page 394-395, it is stat ed that there are twelve "kanwals" or ganglia or lotuses in the human microcosm. Six are the traditional chakras in the spine from the coccyx or muladara up to the eyes or ajna chakra. The next three would be unique although not unheard of in the literature outside of Sant Mat, and appear to be centers deeper within th e brain, although the impression given is that one is to believe that they are o ut of the body altogether. But is this so? Soamiji says that the seventh Kanwal is Sahans dal Kanwal, the eighth is in T rikuti, and the ninth is at Daswan Dwar (considered the tenth door or tenth orif ice, the other nine being the lower, external bodily orifices). This will sugges t to some that the tenth orifice is at the brahmarendra or top of the head, and that the other preceding kanwals are experienced as the attention moves through the structures of the brain (including the "sky of mind" in the braincore) befor e passing out or beyond through the corona radiata into what may be the true sah asrara. Are kanwals or chakras seven through nine actually between the midbrain to the top of the brain, and experienced as attention curves through the ventric les and corpus collosum before passing out through the corona - or not? This beg s for elucidation. Sant Rajinder Singh has said that one will have proof that th ere is life after death when one reaches the third inner plane. This seems like it would only would make sense if the first two inner regions are really experie nced before death in the domain of the braincore itself, otherwise why wouldn t on e have proof that there is life after death when he reaches the first inner plan e? I have an answer, but will give it shortly. Radhasoami gurus Huzur Maharaj an d Maharaj Saheb in their writings both added the interesting but confusing comme

nt that the doorway to the lower subtle regions was in the gray matter while the doorway to the "purely spiritual" regions was in the white matter. Rumi, too, s aid, "in the folds of thy brain lie wonderous regions." Soamiji stated: "I give out details of the ganglia, I have seen within my bod y. Twelve Kanwals (lotuses, ganglia) are found in the human microcosm." What are we to make of this, then, in light of the statement of the sage Ramana Maharshi , that "the light in the brain is but the reflected light of the Heart" ? Yogis like Swami Sivananda taught that spiritual illumination comes when the kundalini or shakti passes through the lower chakras, purifying one of gross att achment, and then finally rising into the sahasrara. The Kriya yoga of Paramhans a Yogananda held to a similar idea of purification and also considered the sahas rar not as an actual chakra per se but the doorway to the infinite. Some argue t hat Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the end result of this process, while there have been traditional tantric gurus who have argued that through the union of Shiva and Sh akti a non-dual awakening may even ensue from such an experience. I ask a questi on, therefore, at the outset of this article: Is the sahasrara or thousand-petal led lotus the same as the eight-petalled lotus of Sahans Dal Kanwal in Sant Mat, or does it really represent something more comprehensive than that? Soamiji goe s on to list the tenth kanwal as in Maha-sunn, the eleventh at Bhanwargupha, and the twelfth at Sat Lok. These are all still considered in the "human microcosm" . Is it possible, then, that the highest reach or depth of the true Sahasrara is really Sat Lok, with further absorption into the wordless and formless state of Anami actually traditional ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi? If it isn't, why isn't it? Personally I don t think it is, but the explanation is complex. We will get to it later. This is not to diminish the realization of Anami, but rather to sugge st categorizing Nirvikalpa in its traditional yogic profundity. While it may not represent final enlightenment, it is still said to be no small thing. Can it be that there are semantic differences between the traditions that cloud our under standing? The answer to this is, "yes," and will be addressed as we go along. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. There is much ground to cover before r eturning to this important topic. 2. Despite the promises of Soamiji, "Unless I see with my own eyes, I will not b elieve the sayings of the Master, and Know yourself by yourself, and do not rely o n the sayings of anyone else, therefore, much still seems to be expected to be be lieved without argument from the beginning. It is common in Sant Mat to say that all Masters speak of the same path and that its teaching is the same as many teac hings throughout the ages. This makes the path sound like the highest and also h elps legitimize it. It is said that Jesus, Buddha, and other classic figures all taught the same thing. But one can easily reach the conclusion they did NOT tea ch the same thing, at least not as historically recorded. In none of the schools of high Buddhism is shabd yoga taught, nor is there undisputed evidence that Je sus did so, other than a few oblique references in the gospels that are interpre ted to suggest that he did. I am not saying they did one way or the other. There is obviously subtle light and sound experiencible within. That is not at issue. The point, however, is that one must assume that Jesus and Buddha taught this s pecific method of yoga in private only to a select few in order to justify such a claim.There is actually some evidence of this, in the apochryphal gospels of J udas and Mary. There is also the problem that any number of mystical schools, su ch as Kriya Yoga, also attempt to gain legitimacy by claiming Jesus as one of th eir own. If someone adheres to a particular ideology, he tends to defend it in the ter ms of that ideology itself instead of from a position of intellectually neutral comparative analysis. If one is a follower of another path, or if an initiate is decided to be seen as not a good satsangi, for instance, it it sometimes argued t hat their practice or thoughts the work of Kal or the negative power instead of

tackling the criticisms themselves. This is no longer a justifiable position as mankind gets less and less provincial in its communication with each other. The teachings must be able to withstand debate from without and not just within. Oth erwise, I ask, what is the purpose of having conferences like the World Fellowsh ip of Religions and Unity of Man, such as were held by my guru, Sant Kirpal Sing h? I say this with all due respect; it is time for the light of truth to be shed on the Path of the Masters - as well as all other paths (and non-paths ). It is no w time for philosophy (the love of truth ), and no longer the time for religion and theology. In order to proceed further on the path, one must get to square one, or what the Buddha called Right View , or otherwise no matter how far one appears t o advance he may not reach the highest truth. Shabd gurus do make a point of encouraging people to examine the path critica lly, but then once that is done and the seeker has "made up his mind", he or she is advised he should follow the master's instructions, etc., and not worry abou t thinking anymore. But for many this is not enough. How many initiates, moreove r, truly make an in-depth investigation of the path as it compares with others b efore making their decision? Even if one has, a true path must be able to withst and any new arguments that arise, for how can one be certain that he has examine d all the issues in his initial study? Must one ignore new questions or criticis ms that arise just because he has committed himself to a path? If, on the other hand, one relies only on his immediate feelings in making such a decision, such feelings are unfortunately subject to error as well as change when later held up against the light of reason and experience. So understanding, even just intelle ctual understanding, can not be bypassed. Seeking is supposedly about discovering truth. Therefore, it appears someone must ask the questions raised below, and I risk the wrath of the faithful and ev en God if need be to do so. It was never my intention to be in such a position. I would rather just revel in inner bliss and a simple guru-devotee relationship. Yet my master confounded my assumptions, called me his friend, and in the end s aid I was a new man and that I should tell everyone so. Therefore, as Ramanuja o nce shouted from the rooftop while saying what he was told not to say, I don t care if I go to hell if it will help one soul find the truth. I do hope that more tha n a few as well as my heart-friend will find me unworthy of damnation for this i nvestigation. There has, before we finish with this section, also been an ongoing controver sy among Sant Mat teachers (beginning with Faqir Chand) whether it is actually t he Master who "gives" anyone a contact with the inner light and sound, or whethe r he merely points out the technique for the disciple to find out what is alread y there. I believe both of these may be the case, depending on the lineage one i s a part of and the guru s competency therein. In the line of Kirpal Singh, it is claimed that it is the Master Power, directly or indirectly, which can and will (at initiation) actually drag the attention of the initiate within to grant him experiences, and many can attest to that first hand. Personally, I believe they can and do. In other lineages within Sant Mat, this is not promised, and there a re apparently some masters who are only competent to give meditation instruction s, but no transmission . This will all be discussed further below. 3. This promise of an experience at initiation (as a boost on the way, and as pr oof of the guru s competency) was started by Kirpal Singh, and most initiates of t hat lineage (Darshan Singh, Rajinder Singh) do experience something, even before their official initiation (which is said to be the moment of thought-transferen ce from the Master, not necessarily the actual time of the official initiation), sometimes shortly after, which promise is not the case with initiates in the Be as or Agra line. I believe there is a divine siddhi involved, at least in the Ki rpal lineage, whereby the Masters, whether consciously, or unconsciously through their own inner attunement, can temporarily invert the attention of their disci ples, but does that guarantee the ability to grant or produce eventual enlighten

ment, or that the guru himself is completely is enlightened? It would certainly elevate him beyond the ordinary teacher, that is not in question. And this is no t meant to disparage or criticize this path, only to seek understanding. Many te achers on other paths, like Ramakrishna and Yogananda, have been able to give te mporary experiences of the preliminary inner stages of mystic light and sound; S ant Mat claims that they will only be able to take their disciples so far, and n ot to the highest, which requires a Divine commission. This may be true, but, ag ain, it is a matter of faith on this path. 4. There is a controversy within Sant Mat that begs for a more adequate expla nation. This pertains to the role and nature of the Master s subtle radiant form. There may certainly be paradox and divine mystery involved, but there is no reas on for obscurity. For example, Sawan Singh said since the physical master could not possibly be in contact with thousands of disciples at one time, therefore he creates an "astral duplicate" that resides in the third eye of the initiate and which looks over him and only reports , as it were, to the master when something r eally important needs personal attention. The Master Power, not the physical mas ter, is otherwise constantly looking after the disciple once he is initiated. One is sometimes advised to seek the company of one s guru s successor, but conti nue contemplating only on one s own guru s form, when it appears. Sant Mat in genera l claims that the form is real , and that all true masters are one and may appear. There have been some spiritual schools which denigrate or lessen the value of su ch a form by arguing that it is only a mental projection from the disciple's own mind or soul, saying that Christians see Jesus, Hindus see Krishna, etc. That, however, doesn t mean such an ishta as mentioned on the Path of the Masters is not r eal, or is a product of the gross imagination of a disciple, but the question do es arise whether it is a product of the deeper mind and ultimately the soul or O verself of the disciple, and not necessarily God or the guru directly. It would ce rtainly have to be a lofty definition of Soul to account for the radiant form of a living who appears of Himself. Yet PB describes the philosophic view: "It is the mystic's ego which constructs the image of his teacher or saviour, and his Overself [divine Soul] which animates that image with divine power. Thi s explains why earnest pupils of false teachers have made good progress and why saviors dead for thousands of years still seem to help their followers." "Only when well-advanced does he learn that the help he thinks he got from a gur u came often from the Universal Being. It was his own personal thoughts which su pplied the guru image, but the power which worked was from that Being." (Noteboo ks. Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.183,189) The key words here are, only when well-advanced. Of course, this is a paradox. Supposedly at the highest level Mind, God, Soul, and Master are all One. There c an certainly, moreover, also be telepathic and transcendental help from the mast er even without the presence of the form, and even whether or not one is recepti ve or aware of it. Even the master may not necessarily be aware of it, and yet s till be a conduit for such help. Again, PB explains: "The conscious personal mind of the teacher may know nothing of the help that is radiating from him to one who silently calls on him from a long distance, ye t the reality of that help remains." (Ibid, Vol. 2, 6.744). This was precisely Baba Faqir Chand's position. Furthermore, PB affirms that the blessing of the attention of a sage, given even once, is so profound that it s effects may manifest over the course of some years: "The guide may send his blessing telepathically only once but if it is powerf ul enough it may work itself out through a hundred different experiences extendi ng over several years. Because he identifies himself with the timeless spaceless

soul, his blessing may express itself anywhere in space and anywhere in time. M oreover he may formulate it in a general way but it may take precise shapes unco nsciously fashioned by and suited to a recipient's own mentality and degree of d evelopment....Just as the sun does not need to be aware of every individual plan t upon which it sheds its beneficent life-giving growth-stimulating rays, so the master does not need to be aware of every individual disciple who uses him as a focus for his meditations or as a symbol for his worship. Yet each disciple wil l soon realize that he is receiving from such activities a vital inward stimulus , a real guidance and definite assistance. This result will develop the power un consciously drawn from the disciple's own higher self, which in turn will utiliz e the mental image of the master as a channel through which to shed its grace." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 6.752, 784) Not only Faqir Chand, but Sant Rajinder Singh has in so many words affirmed t hat this is more or less how it works. Only in rare instances does the incarnate master personally involve himself in the disciple's personal inner life, but hi s own higher self is like a grand switchboard into which the many, many disciple s are plugged into. The help or grace goes "over the head" of the adept as it we re, but it is no less real. PB writes: "With a teacher, it is the inward relationship that matters. What, then, is g oing to happen when there is only one Teacher and many thousands of students? Ho w can all the wishes, dreams, and thoughts reach him, yet leave him time for his work? Obviously, it cannot be done. So Nature steps in and helps out. She has a rranged a system very much like a telephone swithboard. The incoming "calls" are plugged into the subconscious mind of the Teacher. The "line" itself is compose d out of the student's own faith and devotion; he alone can make this connection . Then, his wishes, dreams, and thoughts travel along it to the subconscious of the teacher, where they are registered and dealt with accordingly to their needs . In this way, they do reach the Teacher, who can, at the same time, attend to h is work. Sometimes Nature deems it advisable to transfer a particular message to the conscious level. In such a case, it may be answered on either the conscious or subconscious level. Occasionally, too, the teacher deliberately sends one ou t when he is guided to do so." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, , Part 1, 5.273) The latter could account for visions of a Master's form that appear to people who have never even heard of the Master before, but were destined to meet. This happens with frequency in Sant Mat. To be sure, once again, there does seem to be a difference between a form whi ch comes of itself in meditation, and stands before the Master's charged words, than simply a subconscious manifestation of a disciple's (culturally or religiou sly) conditioned mind (again, such as when Christians tend to see visions of Chr ist, and Hindus of Krishna, etc.). The Kirpal lineage of Sant Mat Masters' forms have appeared to many who had never even heard of them before. This would contr adict the theory that it is just a manifestation of one's subconscious mind in e very instance. If a true Master is indeed a mouthpiece of the Absolute Soul, or God, however, due to the purity and depth of his realization, then his Gurudev o r radiant subtle form is certainly a glorious thing which could be imprinted or arise within and attract the soul and mind of his chela or disciple, and which t hus is inherently divine and even non-dual. This could be considered a true visi on. Baba Faqir Chand, a Sant Mat guru who was a disciple of Shiv Brat Lal, and wh o was recognized by Sawan Singh, discovered that many miracles and appearances o f his form to his disciples occurred without any awareness on his part. He concl uded that the form was a product of the disciple's imagination or faith, and not the Master, and he taught likewise, changing the teachings of Sant Mat at the b ehest of his guru and with the blessing of Sawan Singh. Perhaps Faqir's most rad ical departure from the teaching of Sant Mat was in his claim that all visions w

ere "phantasmagoria", akin to the after-death appearances that the Tibetan Book of the Dead warns are products of one's own mind. Faqir went from considering th e things he saw inside as objectively real to seeing them as subjective mental c reations, and he increasingly asked the question, "who" sees the visions, and "w ho" hears the sounds?" He apparently never got the full fruit of the enquiry in the form of firm knowledge of the Self, but what he wrote, however, is interesti ng: On the basis of my experiences I say that solution to all our worldly afflicti ons is beyond the mental realms. Go even beyond the state of thoughtlessness. Sp irituality begins from thoughtlessness or the state of Mahasunna. I am indebted to those who consider me as Guru. They helped me to go beyond the mental realms. Now my Sadhana is of the Surat and not of the mind. But you cannot reach this s tage so easily because you have the desires for name, fame, and wealth. Therefor e, the teachings of the saints are not for the public in general. Do you think t hat the present method for initiation adopted by the Gurus is for the well-being of mankind? Decidedly not. These Gurus are doing this all for their own name, f ame, and centers. This method of initiation would ruin those who get it because they are not aware of the thoughts of their subconscious mind. They do not know the power and the secret of their thoughts. O man, your own mind is your Guru and the follower. Understand this secret fro m the Sat Sang of the realized man. Entertain noble and constructive thoughts an d make your life. None can help you. Even a saint who dwells in light and sound cannot do anything for you. I dwell in light and sound, but I cannot do anything for you. After a long struggle, I have reached the stage of complete surrender to Him. It is all your faith. This life is a bubble of consciousness. This bubble is the creation of His wil l and it will vanish at His will. I am nothing, but still, I am everything. I ha ve been a son, brother, husband, and father, but I do not ensnare myself in this world of attachments. This is the essence of all the religions, but none tries to understand it. What is to happen must happen, so why make hue and cry? Saints live in the state of forgetfulness. For me, the spontaneous form is that I am a bubble of consciousness. I do not claim that I am a God. He who claims himself as Brahma is not a practical man. H e may be intelligent and well-read. If someone is really Brahma, let him do some good to the suffering humanity, or at least save himself from sorrows and pain. None can do it. All harvest the fruit of deeds. (from Truth Always Wins by Baba Faqir Chand) Many have argued, based Faqir's book, that the master's form is therefore a p rojection of the disciple's own mind, yet I feel this concluson is unwarranted i n many cases. Many people who never heard of a certain master before have had th eir inner darshan, and this does not seem to be simply a projection of their inn er desire or pre-conditioned mental tendency. The true guru's radiant subtle for m can appear where and when he wishes, and, it is claimed, God or the Sat Purush can project it in the same manner. Sant Darshan Singh, without refuting Faqir C hand's principle critiques, felt that he was misguided about Sant Mat. But other s no doubt feel the same way towards him, so what's a poor boy to do? There is also the vast issue to explore of the teaching that there are reflec tions of higher regions in lower ones, which each have seven sub-levels, that ca n deceive those without the highest insight or help of one who has accessed such regions. Neither Faqir Chand nor the Kriya lineage speaks of the help of the in ner guide to the extent that the teachers of Sant Mat do. It is, however, beyond the scope of this article to get into this fascinating issue in depth. Dr. I.C. Sharma, successor to the radical and iconoclastic Faqir, didn t follow

the latter's thinking that the form is 'merely a subjective vision', i.e., a pe rsonal creation, but that it was important to visualize and concentrate on it in the lower planes as long as one realized it wasn t the be all and end all. In oth er words, the stages are necessary. Sant Kirpal Singh said (in Godman, p. 108) o f the gurudev or radiant form of the master, that "even the Saints adore this fo rm and derive ecstatic delight from it." And it is part of the humility and divi ne physics of the lineage that all masters defer to their own master, even after their realization. This helps keep the transmission of the lineage pure. So eve n though a Master is merged in the light beyond any form of his master, and in t he great Beyond beyond that, he still gets charm from his master's subtle form. And why not? He gets charm from all forms as well. While he is a Master now, in his own right, for conventions sake and an outward show of humility these master s usually defer to their own master as the doer and source of grace. Still, PB wrote on the terminal stages of the path of devotion: This last stage, where the presence and picture of the Master are displaced by the pictureless presence of the disciple's own spirit, is accurately described in the words of Jesus to his disciples: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ... when he, the Spi rit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." Any other interpretati on of them leaves them without reasonable meaning...When a man has at last found himself, when he has no longer any need for an outside human Symbol but passes directly to his own inner reality, he may stand shoulder to shoulder with the te acher in the oldest, the longest, and the greatest of struggles. "The teacher is a support needed by the disciple to help him progress through successive stages of the quest, as they are stages of thinning illusion. When h e stands on the threshold of reality, then the last and thinnest illusion of all must be left behind, the support of any being outside himself, apart from himse lf, for within him is the infinite life-power." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 6.590; Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.285-286; Vol. 2, 6.859)) Therefore at some point the disciple must stand on his own two feet. As PB wr ote: "In the end he must inwardly walk alone - as must everyone else however belov ed - since God allows no one to escape this price." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 3.325) However, for one so graced to be taken under the wings of a saint, that is a long way off, although in some sense a form of self-reliance is a necessity even from the beginning. Sant Mat holds that in Sach Khand you are not strictly speaking seeing a mere vision but "God as a person" as the Sat Purush. When one gets absorbed in the S at Purush then henceforward all is formless, but until that point one is said to see ones Master as God as a Person. The advaitists, of course, disagree, but so lely on philosophical grounds, as they have not had this experience, nor do they have a conception other than a unidimensional one of experience beyond the conc eptual mind. But the advaitists believe that the impersonal subject of experienc e is the absolute; they don t recognise that there are more than one type of exper ience beyond the mind , and, according to some teachings, 'two' impersonal subjects : soul and the universal subjectivity, God, the I AM. This still doesn't answer the question of how can one see a form in Sach Khand. Sri Nisargadatta said, As long as you think yourself to be a person, He too is a person. When you are all, you see Him as all. (I AM THAT, p. 88). The discerning reader will spot a flaw a problem with this more or less traditional statement. 'Who' is the one who 'see s Him as all?' It can't be the all that does so. There is a resort to dualistic language here because Sri Nisargadatta only recognized the impersonal absolute, and not the personal (but subjective) soul principle. This was a common approach

among the ancient scriptures. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it says: "When to the knower of Brahman everything has become the Self, then what shou ld one see and through what?" (II.iv.14) There are numerous problems with this type of languaging. First, everything c annot become the Self, and even if it did, then 'who' knows that? This is a rela tive world of polarities, of which absolute/relative is the first and fundamenta l one. By siding only with the absolute, or the impersonal, as many teachings do , a true non-dual picture of reality is not found, in which nothing is to be neg ated but rather all is included in a greater understanding or perspective. Rathe r than finding truth, a traditionally expected conclusion is reached. Many myste ries, however, cannot be explained under this type of view. Vedantist V.S. Iyer, a well-respected pundit, teacher of Paul Brunton, and Ra makrishna Order monks Nikhilinanda and Siddeswarananda, wrote that "even if you see Sat Purush, it is just a thought" and "He who says he sees the Sat Purush in side in meditation is no sage." Iyer's view, however, also seems to be a rather limited way of viewing the entirety of relative reality, which is more multi-dim ensional than he may have realized. He was a philosopher presuming to speak for sages. But who says a sage can't see or experience or be absorbed into the Sat P urush? The promise of seeing the Master in Sach Khand is a radical conception in deed, as in Sant Mat the mind in the sense as manasis supposedly left off at the level of the causal plane, two realms below Sach Khand, and all kosas left behi nd upon entry into Sach Khand, with it and and Sat Purush supposedly inherent et ernal realities, the full effulgence of the Nameless One. While advaita admits o f no creation or causation (ajata), it does allow, however, says even Swami Nikh ilinanda, for the Effulgent Nature of Reality to appear as if there were creatio n, and from the position of Reality there is no separation between the Real and its manifestation. Kirpal said that Sach Khand and Sat Purush was the fullest ex pression of the Absolute God. A further quote from him will come later, as well as a non-dual portrayal of the Sant Mat path and cosmology in Part Two. Ramana also spoke of God as a person, the "first person" or "I" in the Heart, but nevertheless beyond the vision of light. Scripture tells us, No man sees God and lives. Iyer continues his line of thinking: "Ideas never reach Atman. The mind never knows it. He who says he has a visio n of the highest or describes it as supra-mental, etc., does not understand Atma n, because it is free from imaginations." (Commentaries, Vol. 1; see note 29). According to Iyer, it may not be a personal vision at the level of a dream or a product of one s personal mind, but it is still in the realm of the imagination , albeit at the highest level. Even if it is the great vision of light, there is still a perceiver; when the perceiver is gone, then who sees what, and who has merged with what? This is an important question. And it is where, however, it is necessary to bow to the fact that there is Atman and there is Paramatma. The un iversal projection is not a product of the soul, but of Paramatma. So it is not just imagination. Epistemological considerations just do not apply so rigidly he re. The Sants would say that beyond the ego the soul sees and cognizes by virtue of her own light. The Sat Purush, chief principality of Sach Khand, absorbs the soul (not the ego, but the soul, freed from all coverings or koshas) further on into the Nameless One. And despite Soamiji's lyrical descriptions of Sach Khand , any sense of separation or bifurcation of the mind into percever and perceived , as in the lower orders of creation, is supposedly non-existent here. Thus much of the descriptions of Sat Lok are likely metaphorical ones for what are essent ially intuited, formless essences, or energy 'signatures' at best, and not human ly conceivable visionary sights.The Sants insist this is a purely spiritual real m, with mind and matter left far behind.

Sant Darshan has written that after traversing the physical, astral, and caus al planes," the soul no longer has mind, but perceives and understands with its own light." Yet, one might ask, can the soul by its own light perceive and under stand anything other than Itself, without a vehicle (i.e., kosha) to do so? Appa rently so. Anthony Damiani, however, gives the traditional philosophical argumen t: Any mystical state, any dream state, any wakeful state is a content and an obj ect of consciousness. Different ones are going to demonstrate different characte ristics, and there s going to be an infinite array of possibilities, but the point to be grasped is that every one of them is an idea to consciousness and that th e mind puts forth its own ideas and then experiences them....If you go to a high er level than this one, it will still be a content of consciousness; and if you go to an even higher level, or even to the level of being itself, there will alw ays be a content of consciousness....That s why it is so important to grasp this p rinciple firmly. Hold on to it, because with it you will be able to analyze all experience and tear apart any misconceptions you have....This is true of all the seven levels of existence, even if you live in the angelic world. So if someone came from another level of existence and said, Yes, but your analysis doesn t hold for my plane of existence, I would say, Is it a content? Is it an experience for you? Is it a world that you are perceiving? Is there a perception taking place? You know it? Yes? Then it s subject to the same analysis. That s how it cuts through everything and that s why this teaching is direct and the most comprehensive one y ou will find. This teaching has been around for thousands of years and it won t di sappear. (1) Mystical experiences are still on a penultimate stage of the imagination. You become aware of that. And no amount of superlatives will take you away from that stage....it s still not [ultimate] reality." (2) PB wrote The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga prior to reaching the jivanmukta [lib eration in life] stage. And the statement he makes there is that through persona l feeling and intuition he had already grasped the fact that the mystical level is not dominated by reality, and is not that reality. But it would only be a per son who has disciplined and developed an extreme rational consciousness who woul d be able to see through the superlative effulgence of the mystic state, and see its shortcomings. (3) The great Sankara said in his commentary to the Brahma Sutras: "The highest beatitude is not to be attained through Yoga." [although yoga is a useful preliminary to concentrate the mind and prepare it for inquiry into Tr uth] Why do some high paths, such as the Tibetan school of Dzogchen, teach that th e goal of meditation is not to go inside? Surely they know of the existence of t he tenth door and the inner realms. Why did a venerated master such as HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche say not to strive for advanced states and inner bliss? "We should realise that the purpose of meditation is not to go "deeply into o urselves" or withdraw from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual , unconstrained by introspection and concentration...The everyday practice of dz ogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything abo ve and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to r each some "amazing goal" or "advanced state." There is a reason for this, too, which we shall reveal shortly when we attemp t to tie all of this together.

On the positive side, even Ramana Maharshi said that "visions are better than no visions," in so far as they indicate an increasing depth of concentration, b ut that they must be gone beyond before true Self-Realization. All school say th at. In Sant Mat the only "visions" or perceptible phenomena to be paid attention to in meditation are the Light, the Sound, and the Master's Form, which itself must stand before repetition of the five charged words given at initiation. Thes e five charged words are an ancient tradition or dispensation in many traditions that are said to be the 'open-sesame' to the succeeding inner regions. Except t hat in the last two regions up to Sach Khand the mental vehicle which would repe at these names is left behind, thus only the Naam itself and the Master's Light would assist the soul.Thus, the Form is an extremely important aid at deepening concentrative absorption towards the final goal. This, too, extends only through the lower three planes, after which the realms are, first, archtypal, or formle ss-form, and then formless. Thus, once again the Master's grace itself is the sa ving element. The allegory given by Soamiji in the beginning of this paper is ju st that, an allegory, for upon reaching Sach Khand, or the station of Atman, the re can, according to philosophy, be no form, and no one to answer a Sat Purush w ho asks one how he has gotten there, saying," by the grace of a saint." Any othe r explanation makes no sense according to standard yoga psychology. But such psy chology - and philosophy - can be wrong. Kirpal Singh states: "In the lower planes [the Form] continues, but absorption comes at every plan e. When you devote your whole attention into the Form of the master, you sometim es become absorbed; but that continues in further stages. Absorption is better. It does become that Light. You are Light; you become one; you forget; but you ar e conscious all the same. It does come at every step. Ultimately, it becomes One , and there is no form when you are absorbed into Sat Naam. Then, Sat Naam takes you to the stages where there is final absorption. Otherwise, the Form continue s to work in the radiant Form on the different planes." (Sat Sandesh, Feb. 1975, "A Thief in the Form of a Friend") Somewhere I read that the form of the Master changes from plane to plane but resumes human form upon reaching Sach Khand, where one meets the so-called "God as a Person", but in the above quote, when examined closely, he does say that th ere is no form when you are absorbed into Sat Naam, leaving the possibility open that until you are actually absorbed into Sat Naam, or the Sat Purush, one stil l might see the Master's Form in Sach Khand, but the philosophical criticism sti ll begs for an answer. How can there be form when all the kosas are shed and one is supposedly beyond mind and maya? This must be a formless realm. Kirpal told the story of Kabir's disciple Indra Mati seeing him on the throne in Sach Khand, and then asking the saint why he didn't tell her before that this would be, and Kabir said, "because you wouldn't have believed me." One might question, was th is the real Sach Khand, or one of its reflections in a lower plane? For that is also a possible experience. All of the higher planes have their reflections in t he lower, and visions of them can be seen from there. Ishwar Puri, a disciple of Sawan Singh, speaks of this, among other illuminating topics, such as Chakras/S leep/Marked Souls/Perfect Masters/Faith. All this being said, one can also say that in a truly non-dual universe, beyo nd the polarities of form and formless, a vision in Sach Khand can be possible; why not? This is an unfathomable, trancendental region. Further, what is a master? He is a vast unfathomable presence, an embodiment of the Shabd-Brahman, who is simultaneously in Sach Khand and on earth at the sa me time. Once faith in him is firm, there is little else to really do to secure salvation/liberation. The question of further lifetimes becomes a mute point. We , too, are in Sach Khand, a non-dual 'realm'/state of consciousness, although we just don't know it. In fact, all of the planes are interpenetrating and concurr ent, and spiritual progress cannot be esily guaged according to the inner experi ence. Ishwar Puri, in another delightful and insightful talk, speaks of a series

of exchanges by letter between Baba Jaimal Singh and his master Soamiji. Jaimal Singh was a high saint, but after initiation did not have any visions or ascend ed experiences in his meditation. He wrote Soamiji explaining his situation. Soa miji sent a reply saying, "I am happy your soul is soaring in the higher planes. " Jaimal was perplexed, and wrote back, saying, "You must have sent that letter to the wrong person, I have had no inner experiences at all!" Again, Soamiji sen t a reply, "I am happy to hear your soul is roaming the higher regions." Finally , Jaimal went to see Soamiji, who lived three hundred miles away. Jaimal was a s olider at the time and had to get leave. When he saw Soamiji the saint revealed what he had meant in his letters. "At the time of my writing the letters you wer e in a state of intense longing to see me, were you not?" "Yes," said Jaimal. "W ell then, that is the same as if your soul went to the highest regions." The mor al of the story is that, for karmic reasons, sometimes the saints shut down the door to inner access so certain things can be paid off in this life, and that th e master is always with us, 'closer than the vein in our neck', as an old Persia n saying goes. Spiritual progress (which is a kind of illusion) goes along on 'p arallel tracks' at the same time, and we are no judge of how it is working out. The old saying of the Sants that after the time of initiation the soul will take a maximum of four lives to reach Sach Khand is only for those who are backslide rs or leave the path, otherwise the rule is one life, not four! You go where you are attached, and if you love the master you will go where he is. Since he is e verywhere transcendentally present, that is your destiny also. For the reader wh o has the time, here is one more talk by Ishwar Puri, in which he speaks of the secret of the path, the nearness of the master, the ultimate mystery and 'illusi on' of the soul and the Creator, and other related matters. [Disclosure: I have no personal connection with Ishwar Puri, I just like much of what he has to say] . 5. According to Arran Stephens, author of the book Journey to the Luminous, Dars han Singh, Kirpal s successor, claimed that when Faqir Chand was asked to describe the various inner planes he did not name their proper order and specifically co uld not or did not give the proper answer to the question of how many steps led to the pool of sanskaric purification named Manasarovar in the third plane. Of c ourse, Faqir claimed this very thing, that there was no fixed ordering to all of the planes. This may be wrong, but it is a complex issue. Darshan also said Faq ir Chand was in error when implying that the luminous form of the Master was not 'real', or a direct manifestation of Reality. The subtle Gurudev is said to lead directly to the Satguru or Satpurush, the true or divine form in Sach Khand. In Buddhism similarly there are the Sambhogak aya and Dharmakaya forms of the Buddha, active in the realms of form and the for mless. Yet in general, Buddhism and Advaita argue that anything visible is not t he reality, so, for instance, Sach Khand would not be considered spiritual in thei r sense of the term, as there must be a perceiver to see the sights and sounds t here. Again, the Sants are adamant that the light and sound there is spiritual, beyond the mind or manas, and the soul paradoxically and transcendentally sees b y her own light; there is no duality there, but an enigmatic comingling unity. T hese type of words are poison to the ears of the advaitist. Some other yoga scho ols, however, use this terminology of spiritual planes.This is not to detract from the value or validity or even necessity of such higher realizations, only one s hould understand that in such yoga schools the word spiritual is sometimes (but not in Sant Mat) being used to mean realms of the higher mind or vignanamaya kos ha in contrast to realms of the lower mind or manas where there still must be so me means of dualistic perception. Yet in the higher traditions there is still me ntion of the logos; even Buddhism speaks of the heavenly Avalokitesvara whose sw eet sounds will take one back to the soul s true home. Sach Khand, however, to the advaitist sounds like a celestial subtle plane, due to the language used to des cribe it. The Sants counter that they are hindered in their description by the l imits of words, and must picture these realms in the language of metaphor. For t he sages the word spiritual implies both a formless, subjective realization, and

the non-dual nature of reality within and without. Brunton, however, writes: "Those who find that beyond the Light they must pass through the Void, the un bounded emptiness, often draw back affrighted and refuse to venture further. For here they have naught to gain or get, no glorious spiritual rapture to add to t heir memories, no great power to increase their sense of being a co-worker with God. Here their very life blood is to be squeezed out as the price of entry, her e they must become the feeblest of creatures." (4) Ramana enigmatically referred to scripture that said that the gyani is "invis ible even to the Gods," and "trackless like a fish swimming through water." This appears in contrast to the saint or sant satguru, whose luminous radiant form i s described as "blazing a path of light for miles and miles through the subtle r ealms," although it need not be so, if we understand the non-dual nature of the reality such a Sant has realized. Ramana, upon dying, famously said: where can I go; I am here? Interestingly, ne aring the end Kirpal Singh said he would soon be going, and one disciple asked, "where are you going?", to which he replied, "Oh, where we all go." Paramhansa Y ogananda likewise remarked, "All paths are paths to God, because, ultimately, th ere is no other place for the soul to go." (Journey to Self-Realization, p. 51) 6. Sant Rajinder Singh, as mentioned, has said that one will be assured that the re is life after death when one reaches the third plane. This is interesting, bu t does that in itself imply that the first two inner planes are then not after-d eath planes but reside in the brain and are thus still within the body? I don t th ink so, but interestingly, the Sar Bachan Radhasoami (Poetry) : Part Two appears to say so. After Sahans Dal Kanwal and Trikuti, one enters the Banknal and then goes through Daswan Dwar (the tenth door ) to reach the third inner region of Sunn : Surat moves onward and opens the door. It enters Banknal (crooked tunnel) and gets across. It passes through high and low valleys. It turns up the pupil of th e eye. (p. 118). Turning up the pupil of the eye and entering the tenth door or aperture (the othe r nine being the bodily openings: eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and two below) im plies attention finally leaving the body. Babuji Maharaj of the Agra branch said that within the folds of thy brain there are many beautiful regions, etc. He may have been quoting Maulana Rumi, who likewise said, Within the folds of thy brain there are wonderful gardens and beauty spots. Should you like to enjoy them, hie to a Murshid (Master) for instruction. (5) Maharaj Saheb, a Sant Mat guru afte r Rai Salig Ram, even more explicitly said, In the fissure between the two lobes of the brain there are twelve apertures, which provide the means for communion with the six subdivisions of Brahmand and with the six subdivisions of the purely spiritual region. The apertures appertai ning to Brahmand are to be found in the gray matter, and those appertaining to t he purely spiritual region, in the white matter. (6) First off, this passage is somewhat confusing, as it suggests that someone wh o has an accidental death would have no access to the spiritual regions because he had no chance to pass through the apertures in the white matter of the brain. Some Buddhist schools teach this also and advocate phowa initiations to make su re the conscious exits the body through the top of the skull. But can this reall y be the truth? Other Sant Mat masters have said that a true disciple in such a case is immediately with the Master within, so this cannot truly be an impedimen

t]. The suggestion definitely, however, is that the path of Sant Mat initially t akes place in a passage through the brain, the most direct route being via the c entral channels in the white matter (i.e., via the corona radiata), culminating in the God-light or purely spiritual region(s) that manifest when one truly pierces the crown center in ascended samadhi. This implication or interpretation is some what uncommon in the Sant Mat or Radhasoami literature, which generally assumes a gnostic position considering all of the subtle realms to be outside, or above and beyond, the body, while Saheb seemed to be suggesting that, as experienced i n meditation, they are actually in the braincore, with only the alleged truly sp iritual realms beyond the limits of the body. Sometimes Sant Mat writers claim t hat the third eye is between and behind the eyebrows (i.e, near the pineal gland , with the pituitary more towards the center of the head), while the so-called " tenth door" leading to Daswan Dwar, the third region, is at the crown of the hea d - where the fontanelle is in an infant. So, this would suggest that only the h ighest inner planes, such as Bhanwar Gupta and Sach Khand are truly out of the b ody, as the spatial descriptions of a lower region where the crooked tunnel (Bankn al) is found seems to suggest the passageway in the braincore itself. This would also mean that Sahansdal Kanwal, the first inner station in Sant Mat, may not b e the exact equivalent of the thousand-petalled lotus of the true Sahasrar as de scribed in traditional yoga sutras, but yet a region in the sky of mind in the b raincore, which would, however, truly be felt to be outside of or interior to th e body for the normally extroverted individual. This is certainly highly enjoyab le; as Sawan Singh once said, "if you go in an inch, it is better than a trip ar ound the world," but its actual nature should be clarified, so adequate comparis ons can be made with other schools. For instance, in the Kriya Yoga as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda, the "spiri tual eye" is visualized at the ajna or agya chakra, but passage between the agya chakra and the sahasrara at the top of the head is said to culminate in nirvika lpa samadhi and transcendance of the astral and causal bodies . The actual passagew ay is said to be a subtler form of the sushumna called, in their school, firstly the vajra and chitra nadis (luminous astral nadis, the "spine of the astral bod y"), and then the "brahmanadi" (or the "spine of the causal body"). Thus, in the kriya school, the implication is also that the astral and causal worlds, at lea st before death, are somehow within or cotermionous with the physical body or br ain itself. Rajinder Singh solves this dilemma for us by asserting that the plan es do interpenetrate one another, but certainly exist on their own after the sev erance of consciousness from the physical body. Soamiji also interestingly but confusingly describesTrikuti as being within t he sushumna, the central yogic channel that culminates in the sahasrar, an addit ional implication that this region may not be outside of the body. That is, howe ver, contradicted by many, many near-death experiences (NDE s). Sant Kirpal Singh, in his book Godman, quotes Guru Nanak: "The Master exhorts the jivas to listen to this music in the Sukhman, the art ery between the two eyebrows; Then be established in Sunnya (the Region of Silen ce), with the result that all oscillations of the mind would cease. When the cha lice of the mind thus turns into the correct position, it will get filled with t he Elixer of Life, making the mind steady and self-poised. The ceaseless music o f eternity becomes a constant companion." (7) The upturning of the chalice of the heart is standard mystic terminology, but the standard reference to the region of Sunn is to the third inner plane. Is th at then also experienced only in the brain, at least, so long as one is alive? T he importance of these questions lies in establishing the true uniqueness of sha bd yoga as contrasted with other traditional yogic explanations. The exposition of this in the Kriya Yoga in the lineage of Paramhansa Yoganan da is even more confusing. [for more on this, see Paramhansa Yogananda and Kriya

Yoga: A Comparative Analysis ]. In that path, as in Sant Mat, the aspirant is t o focus at the spiritual eye, located between and behind the eyebrows, which is said to actually extend from that subtle center backwards to the medulla. Howeve r, they do not start their sadhana at that center, but do kriyas and concentrati ons at the lower centers of the sushumna - in which there are said to be contain ed three spines (physical, astral, and causal). They also concentrate at sounds heard at these lower centres. Some yogic traditions speak of the bell at the sol ar plexus, then the flute at the heart, and increasingly more subtle sounds as y ou approach the sahasrara. This is quite different and may reflect even a differ ence in the way realization is conceived than in Sant Mat, where the loud pealin g of the Big bell begins at the topmost chakra - with sounds below considered me re reflections of the higher ones. However, it could also possibly be argued tha t the Kriya system, with the acknowledgement of three overlapping spinal nadis ( the vajra, the chitra, and the brahmanadi), corresponding to the three interpene trating created bodies, and given an intimate multidimensional relationship betw een the seven chakras and the seven planes, may be a more 'integrative' path. Of course, this is refuted by Sant Mat which argues that it is in reality a lower system of practice. According to Yogananda, "The spiritual eye is perceived as a golden aura surrounding a sphere of blue , in the middle of which is a five-pointed start of white light...The point of o rigin of the single eye is in a subtle spiritual center in the medulla oblongata (at the base of the brain where it joins the spine). The energy from this singl e eye divides at the medulla and pours through the brain into the two physical e yes, through which the world of duality is perceived. The spiritual eye with its three lights, or three different rays - one within the other like an extending telescopic lens - has all-seeing spherical vision. Through the gold ray, the dee ply meditating yogi beholds all matter and the mass of radiation (the vibratory cosmic energy) permeating the universe. Penetrating the blue light {the reader m ay recall references to the "blue pearl" by Swami Muktananda], the yogi will rea lize the Christ or Krishna Consciousness - the Kutastha or infinite intelligence of God - which is present in all creation. Piercing the tiny five-pointed white star, the yogi experiences Cosmic Consciousness - the transcendant consciousnes s of God that underlies all creation and that is also beyond the realms of manif estation in Infinitude. The yogi in Cosmic Consciousness perceives that all crea tion, including the microcosm of his body, is a projection of the fivefold rays of God's Cosmic Consciousness." "The tricolored rays of the spiritual eye, through a complex transformation k nown to yogis, form the physical body of man the microcosm. The golden rays of c osmic energy, for example, are strongly inherent in the vital red blood, and are manifested in the electric current that flows through the nerves. The blue rays are a predominant factor in the gray matter of the brain, which provides a medi um for the expression of thoughts through sensory-motor activity - just as on th e universal scale Christ Consciousness provides the medium that upholds all of n ature's activities. And the white rays are the predominant factor in the white m atter of the brain, in which God's transcendant Cosmic Consciousness is insulate d." (Journey to Self-Realization, p. 92-94) The last sentence in this quotation is most interesting, and similar to the c omments above of Maharaj Saheb that relate the "spiritual Regions" to the white matter of the brain. In his first book, A Search in Secret India, Paul Brunton w rote of similar comments given him by Radhasoami guru Sahabji Maharaj of Dayalba gh: "The innermost parts of our brain centres are associated with subtle worlds o f being; that, after proper training, these centres can be energized until we be come aware of these subtler worlds; and that the most important centre of all en ables us to obtain divine consciousness of the highest order..The most important of these centres is the pineal gland, which, as you know, is situated in the re

gion between the eyebrows. It is the seat of the spirit-entity in man....It is t he focus of the individual spirit-entity which gives life and vitality to man's mind and body...Since the human body is an epitome of the entire universe, inasm uch as all the elements employed in the evolution of creation are represented in it on a miniature scale, and since it contains links with all the subtler spher es, it is quite possible for the spirit-entity in us to reach the highest spirit ual world. When it leaves the pineal gland and passes upwards, its passage throu gh the grey matter of the brain brings it into contact with the region of univer sal mind, and its passage through the white matter exalts its consciousness to l ofty spiritual realities." (p. 244-245) Paramahansa Yogananda's guru, Sri Yukteswar, in ,uses the same terminology of the Sants, even speaking of practicing shabd yoga once the preliminary kriyas i n the lower chakras are successful, but also alters the order of the inner plane s. He has Mahasunn coming before Daswan Dwar, whereas the Sants have it afterwar ds. This may or may not give possible credence to Faqir's radical claim that the planes are not necessarily experienced in a fixed order. Yukteswar then lists t he regions of Sat Lok: Alak, Agam, and Anami, much like the Sants. But he also s peaks of a more integral realization beyond this, where non-duality (the Father) is established all of the time. This is not explicitly described in the Sant Ma t literature. The basic ordering of the planes, nevertheless, follows a traditional seven-f old patterning. To complicate matters, it is sometimes said that there also are seven sub-planes in each. [The word "seven" is a common theme in ancient Vedic t heology: seven rivers, seven sisters, seven delights, seven thoughts, seven flam es, seven rays, seven tongues, seven mothers, etc]. In the Puranas, from which t he sage Ramanuja bases his cosmology, there are listed first seven netherworlds (atala, vitala, nitala, tatataya, mahatala, sutala and patala), and then seven h igher worlds, beginning with our Earth-realm or Bhur, followed by Bhuvar-loka, S varga-loka, Mahar-loka, Jana-loka, Tapo-loka, and finally Satya-loka. Sri Aurobi ndo's mystic researches as well as investigation of the Rig Veda revealed a simi lar schema, with three lower worlds (Earth, Antariksha or the middle region, and Heaven (Dyaus), corresponding to body, life, and mind, divided from the higher divinity by an intermediate region known variously as Truth Consciousness, Great er Heaven (Brihad Dyau), the "Wide World," the "Vast" (Brihat), or the "Great Wa ter," or "Maho Arnas"; this is the fourth Vyahriti mentioned in the Upanishads a s "Mahas", most likely corresponding to Vijnanamayakosa / Buddhi. This could wit h some certainty be considered to correspond with Daswan Dwar, where the "lake o f mind" or manasarovar is located. This may possibly be the origin of the Biblic al passage where the 'waters divide the firmament from the Earth'. The higher su preme worlds embodying Sat, Chit, Ananda are not as such named in the Vedas. Aur obindo says, however, that in the Puranic and Upanishadic systems the seven worl ds correspond to seven psychological principles or forms of existence: Sat, Cit, Ananda, Vijnana, Manas, Prana and Anna (Being, Consciousness, Bliss, Intellect, Mind, Life, and Body). He says that "both systems depend on the same idea of se ven principles of subjective consciousness formulating themselves in seven objec tive worlds." (The Secret of the Veda, p. 45) As mentioned, Sri Yukteswar has a slightly different ordering of the planes. He lists them alternately as: (1) the Puranic schema already mentioned, or (2) G ross, Sunya (Ordinary Vacuum), Mahasunya (the Vacuum), Dasamadwara (the Door), A lakshya (Incomprehensible), Agama (Inaccessible), and Anama (Nameless). In yet a third classification he lists the various levels as Annamayakosa, Pranamayakosa , Manamayakosa, Jnanamayakosa, Heart/Citta/Buddhi, Anandamayakosa, Son of God/At man, Chit-Ananda, and Sat. In Sant Mat there are sometimes listed five planes (i.e., Guru Nanak in his J ap Ji lists Dharm Khand (Realm of Action), Gian Khand (Realm of Knowledge), Sarm Khand (Realm of Ecstasy), Karm Khand (Realm of Grace), and Sach Khand (Realm of

Truth), and sometimes eight or nine: Physical, Astral, Causal, Mahasunn, Bhanwa r Gupta (Supercausal), with Sat Lok divided into four planes, Sach Khand, Alakh, Agam, and Anami. The latter division is reflected in many systems, where the ex perience of the Great Void or Void-Mind [in this case, Sat Lok] encompasses thre e levels of deepening realization or penetration beyond Atman. Theosophy generally uses a nine-fold schema: Physical, Etheric, Astral, Lower and Higher Mental, Buddhic, Atmic, Monadic, and Logoic. Clearly, it is reasonable to suggest that these modern systems basically foll ow the Puranic pattern. What is of most interest, however, was, as pointed out b y Sri Aurobindo, that the planes all interpenetrate. That is why a non-dual real ization is the final goal. In Sant Mat it is not mentioned publically so much, b ut Yukteswar and the Yogananda school frequently spoke of the realization of jna na along with the higher states. [This issue will be discussed in detail later i n this paper in section #14, where it will be suggested in what ways Sant Mat ca n be considered to be a jnana path]. Sri Aurobindo wrote: "The triple principle was doubly recognised, first in the threefold divine pr inciple answering to the later [post-Vedic, or Upanishadic era] Satchidananda, t he divine existence, consciousness and bliss, and secondly in the threefold mund ane principle, mind, life, and body, upon which is built the triple world of the Veda and Puranas. But the full number ordinarily recognised is seven. This figu re was arrived at by adding the three divine principles to the three mundane and interpolating a seventh or link-principle which is precisely that of the truthconsciousness, Ritam Brihat, afterwards known as Vijnana or Mahas. The latter te rm means Large [this could mean Universal Mind in the Sant Mat classification] a nd is therefore an equivalent of Brihat. There are other classifications of five , eight, nine and ten and even, as it would seem, twelve; but these do not immed iately concern us." "All these principles, be it noted, are supposed to be really inseparable and omnipresent and therefore apply themselves to each separate formation of Nature . The seven Thoughts, for instance, are Mind applying itself to each of the seve n planes as we would now call them and formulating matter-mind, if we may so cal l it, nervous mind, pure mind, truth-mind and so on to the highest summit, param a paravat...So also the seven rivers are conscious currents corresponding to the sevenfold substance of the ocean of being which appear to us formulated in the seven worlds enumerated by the Puranas. It is their full flow in the human consc iousness which constitutes the entire activity of the being, his full treasure o f substance, his full play of energy." (Ibid, p. 98) "The sevenfold waters thus rise upward and become the pure mental activity, t he Mighty Ones of Heaven. They there reveal themselves as the first eternal ever -young energies, separate streams but of one origin - for they have all flowed f rom the one womb of the super-conscient Truth - the seven Words of fundamental e xpressions of the divine Mind, sapta vanih...The Force rises into the womb or bi rthplace of this mental clarity (ghrtasya) where the waters flow as streams of t he divine sweetness (sravathe madhunam); there the forms it assumes are universa l forms, masses of the vast and infinite consciousness...This is also his own ne w and last birth. He who was born as the Son of Force from the growths of earth, he who was born as the child of the Waters, is now born in many forms to the go ddess of bliss, she who has the entire felicity, that is to say to the divine co nscious beatitude, in the shoreless infinite." (Ibid, p. 120-121) These last two paragraphs are examples of the philosophical poetry of Sri Aur obindo; they use Vedic imagery and are not meant to stand alone in total clarity without further study of his work on the Veda. What they are meant to show is t

he ancient nature of the seven-fold schema of worlds, and also the big picture o f a non-dual realization, uniting all of the planes in a conscious experience. Still, we have yet to fully understand this matter of "inside" and "outside". Ramana Maharshi said: "Leave out the body-consciousness (the idea that I am the body) and then wher e is 'in' and where is 'out'? All life-consciousness is One throughout." (Face t o Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Laxmi Narain, ed, 2007, p. 276) What then does it truly mean to be outside the body? If one takes the view of t he jnanis or sages who state that it is closer to the ultimate truth to say that all bodies and worlds arise within the Soul or Mind, and it is a fact that whil e alive in the gross plane all bodies, sheaths, or koshas interpenetrate, then t hat would certainly not preclude one having experience of the subtle regions onc e the gross body disintegrates at physical death. Some sages maintain, that whil e that is true, that as the physical, subtle and causal bodies interpenetrate in consciousness while one is alive, one can do sufficient sadhana while in the gr oss body, bypassing the need for ascent. Sant Rajinder Singh, in fact, has start ed to speak in this manner about the various inner planes: he ot ly a

"Most religions believe that there are higher regions of existence soul goes after it dies...The question is, where are these realms? zones in outer space delineated by borders. All these realms exist with this one. The reason we are not aware of them is because they different frequency or vibration." (Sat Sandesh April 2003).

It rence dies. ached s and

to which t They are n concurrent operate on

is plausible to assume that there can be a relative 'up' or 'down' in refe to the subtle bodies just as there is in relationship with the physical bo At some point, however, the words will become meaningless, once one has re the realm of the great cosmic archtypes, between the the three lower world the higher divine realms.

If all of this is truly so then some of the aforementioned contradictions and discrepencies are overcome. If all of the planes exist concurrently, they must all exist in consciousness, or the soul, and then the 'direct path' of the sages is somewhat exonerated. In this vein, Sant Jagat SIngh, guru between Sawan Singh and Charan Singh, sa id, "90% of spirituality is correct thinking." Sant Kirpal Singh, my guru, once asked me, "do you want anything, my friend? - do you want to leave the body?", t o which I answered, "no, nothing." He became animated and exclaimed, "You're an emperor, I'll kiss your feet - "nothing" is God!" Further, when someone asked hi m. "Master, do you still meditate?", he replied, "If you get your PhD do you sti ll have to learn the ABC's?" Very mysterious language coming from these gurus, a nd obviously something to be revealed to only a few to avoid confusion for the u nripe mind. Other saints have acted likewise. Lord Krishna, after giving Arjuna the Cosmic Vision, as recounted in the Bhagavad-Gita, then said, "Now I will tea ch you." Ramakrishna gave visions and samadhis and devotional exercises to his d evotees, but instructed or taught only one disciple, Vivekananda. This he did th rough the help of his copy of the non-dual Ashtavakra-Gita which he kept hidden from the others, including his chief biographer, "M", or Master Mahasaya. More recently, when asked why he did not teach non-duality, Gurinder Dhillon, successor guru to Charan Singh, and another master in the Radhasoami lineage, a nswered, "because the disciples would not understand it." Kirpal Singh and many others thought highly of Ramakrishna, often capitalizin g on his oft-repeated phrase to Vivekanda, "Yes, I see God as clearly as I see y ou - even more so!" But the implication most often is that Ramakrishna had not t

ranscended the causal plane, the uppermost limit of the lower three worlds. Many in Sant Mat would likely argue that his realization was limited to the region o f Brahm, with Nirvikalpa samadhi achieved there, but not to the higher regions a bove that. The sometimes conjectured equating of Nirvikalpa samadhi with the pla ne of Anami Lok is not right, as Nirvikalpa samadhi can be achieved from any pla ne. The realization of Anami Lok is much deeper and richer than standard yogic N irvikalpa, as it not only grants a non-dual vision but also knowledge and discri mination garnered from passage through all of the planes. Swami Sivananda, whom Kirpal Singh respected, used the following language whe n writing about the kundalini. This is very interesting because speaking from a different yoga tradition he used several terms identical to some of those used i n Sant Mat, with a different explanation. He, too, like Yogananda, and Ramakrish na [when he was talking to the yogis - but not Vivekananda] - argued that merger of the attention into the sahasrar produced liberation: "Brahmarandhra means the hole of Brahman. It is the dwelling house of the huma n soul. This is also known as Dasamadvara, the tenth opening or the tenth door. Th e hollow place in the crown of the head known as anterior fontanelle in the newborn child is the Brahmarandhra. This is between the two parietal and occipital bones. This portion is very soft in a babe. When the child grows, it gets oblite rated by the growth of the bones of the head. Brahma created the physical body a nd entered (Pravishat) the body to give illumination inside through this Brahmar andhra. In some of the Upanishads, it is stated like that. This is the most impo rtant part. It is very suitable for Nirguna Dhyana (abstract meditation). When t he Yogi separates himself from the physical body at the time of death, this Brah marandhra bursts open and Prana comes out through this opening (Kapala Moksha). A hundred and one are the nerves of the heart. Of them one (Sushumna) has gone ou t piercing the head; going up through it, one attains immortality (Kathopanishad) . Sahasrara Chakra is the abode of Lord Siva. This corresponds to Satya Loka. Th is is situated at the crown of the head. When Kundalini is united with Lord Siva at the Sahasrara Chakra, the Yogi enjoys the Supreme Bliss, Parama Ananda. When Kundalini is taken to this centre, the Yogi attains the superconscious state an d the Highest Knowledge. He becomes a Brahmavidvarishtha or a full-blown Jnani." (Kundalini Yoga, p. 32-33) [The entire concept of the chakras and the need to go to the crown of the hea d is nonsense to the Vedantists and Gyanis, even Ramana Maharshi, who see all th is as a mental creation only. V.S. Iyer, who we have quoted before, says that he 'feels the same way about the Logos doctrine of the Theosophists as he does of the Shabda-Brahman of the Sants: that it is just a thought'. This will be gone i nto in more detail in Part Two, but suffice it to say that in sticking to such a strict position of non-causality (ajata) and absolutism is, in my opinion, a ra ther linear and short-sighted way of viewing the entire relative nature of reali ty, which itself is a mystery as inexplicable as the so-called 'absolute'. If I say 'a door is just a thought,' I will still walk around it. The Shabda-Brahman is a Universal Liberating Presence within relativity with immense capacity of gr ace, whether or not one conceives it to be the 'Creator'. It is built into the u niverse, and is a bridge for unenlightened souls from the relative to the absolu te. There may be different ways of approaching it, with more or less non-dual un derstanding, but to deny its power outright in order to fit into a tight-knit ph ilosophy appears absurd]. The aforesaid yogic views, as stated, would also be highly refuted by the San ts; they generally use the term Daswan Dwar in a different meaning than the yogi s, in that it is refered to the third inner plane, not a brain structure. This i s important to keep in mind. But as we have seen, Babuji Maharaj, Maharaj Saheb, and Sahabji Maharaj spoke differently about it.

Despite these discrepencies and apparent contradictions, I suggest thatthe is sue can be resolved if it is accepted that there are simply two uses of the word , 'Daswan Dwar', or the 'tenth door'. In the common yogic and (sometimes) Sant M at usage, it at one time means the crown center, and at other times it refers to a passage on the third inner plane, essentially the 'gravitational' dividing li ne between the more material-mental and more mental-spiritual regions. Those tea chers that don't recognize the higher meaning of the term would in most instance s likely be of lesser realization,although, not necessarily. Like Sivananda, Ramakrishna at times spoke in the traditional yogic manner of reaching the higher centers for liberation [when he was not teaching Vivekanand a non-duality]. He said: "The mind ordinarily moves in the three lower chakras. But if it rises above them and reaches the heart, one gets the vision of Light....Even though it has r eached the throat, the Mind may come down again (from utterly unworldly consciou sness - PB). One ought to be always alert. Only if his mind reaches the spot bet ween the eyebrows need he have no more fear of a fall, the Supreme Self is so cl ose." He goes on to say that reaching the thousand-petalled lotus of the sahasrara at the crown of the head is liberation or God-consciousness. This is what Swami Sivananda said also. The great Tibetan adepts Marpa and Naropa also spoke of med itating to reach the thousand-petalled lotus. Now, to my mind, the thousand-peta lled lotus of the sahasrara (which is the definition of sahasrara) cannot be the same as the Sahans Dal Kanwal of the Sants, which only has eight petals. Just t he way these great yogis or saints describe their attainment does not sound remo tely like the beginning stage of the inner journey as portrayed by the Sants, bu t something far more significant. I am not saying that it is realization, sahaja samadhi, the natural condition, but only a profound state nevertheless. Words, moreover, are no doubt poor substitutes for reality. Ramana considered even this world to be nothing but spiritual. This, again, can only be true, how ever, if the concepts of matter as well as the ego-soul or ego-self is rejected in favor of the view and insight that "all is a perception or appearance to Mind ". But why must it be one or the other, as the vedantins would have it? Isn t real ity more rich than that? In Sant Mat, the various planes are described as contai ning differing amounts of matter and spirit, from gross material, material-spiri tual, spiritual-material, to purely spiritual. For Ramana, Buddhism and Zen, any thing perceivable ("things") or conceivable ("thoughts") could be considered ment al , all arising in and as Mind. To them, the concept of matter is really no more than a guess, with no proof. This doesn't mean one may not experience or feel a difference while passing through different planes, etc., but only that the same epistemological discipline must be applied when discussing each of them and thei r relationship to truth. Mystics in general have no interest in doing this, assu ming what they see and feel is real. To sages and philosophers, however, such an endeavor is important if not crucial if ones interest is in truth, and not just bliss or peace. It is, they say, essential for a full understanding of concepts such as "soul," "spiritual", and "consciousness." 7. Plotinus, Paul Brunton, Ramana Maharshi, and Buddhism teach that the Reality itself is neither within or without, that the highest inner trance state (ie., n irvikalpa) is still a subjective realization, a partial realization only, which must also be integrated or realized in the normal waking state as well as 'sahaj samadhi', if truth be ones goal. This, they say, grants non-duality. That is, t he "drop appears to merge into the ocean" in nirvikalpa, but the "ocean merges i nto the drop" in sahaj. That would appear to make Radhasoami or Anami Lok of the Sant Mat tradition appear to be only a halfway house on the philosophic path (i n as much as it is, as described, similar to nirvikalpa - nameless and formless,

without attributes), whereas Sant Mat considers Sach Khand as the halfway house of Self-Realization, with Anami as God-Realization. I, for one, have difficulty reconciling the two positions. Sant Darshan Singh, a blessed soul, peace be upo n him, answered a similar question regarding gyan or jnana by simply stating tha t gyan masters reach the highest human states of realization or samadhi, but tha t only Sant Mat takes one to the highest. Once again, this begs for more elucida tion. Exactly how and why is this so? Hang in there, for a possible answer will be given in a little while. [Interestingly, on a side note, one of Sant Darshan' s favorite books was Somerset Maughan's, The Razor's Edge, which is supposedly t he story of a seeker's visit with the sage Ramana Maharshi]. 8. Scriptures and teachers seem to be in agreement that the waking state or eart h life is the most important gift for realization, that enlightenment must be ac hieved or realized here and now, not after death. Few outline exactly why that i s so. For instance, Kirpal Singh said one can make more progress HERE than after death. He casually mentioned sometimes that that is the case because the inner planes are so deceiving, bewitching, and also consoling, that the spiritual prog ress that can be made here in a few months would take hundreds of years up there . Others have pointed out that here ones experiences are so vivid, etched in sto ne, as it were, while up there they are, without the anchor of the body, too viv id and subject to distraction. There is the quote from the Buddhist sutra, The T ransmission of the Lamp, which says that one can be lost for many, many kalpas i n the bliss, not just in the inner realms, but the inner void itself. This sugge sts there is something special about the waking state, and that it is not only t o be dismissed as illusion, to be dualistically left behind in search of some pe rmanent spiritual place. The "Radhasoami state" seems to imply a realization tha t would encompass this perspective. Brunton, a philosopher-sage, clearly states that all yoga is only preparatory for inquiry, and that realization is achieved in the full waking state. Brunton's teacher, V.S. Iyer, argued that the waking s tate is essential for Self-Realization because only here (not in nirvikalpa or s leep) is the faculty of Buddhi (Reason) active - which is not merely intellect a s yogis frequently misinterpret it, but the highest faculty of the mind which di stinguishes the real from the unreal. "Through Buddhi will you come to Me," said Krishna in the Gita. For the vedantist, realization requires, among other thing s, as stated, the faculty of buddhi in the waking state, not in trance. This is because, according to the vedantic argument, our beginningless ignorance began i n the waking state and there it must end. This is definitely not the teachings o f the sants, as reflected in Sar Bachan of Soamiji or Anurag Sagar of Kabir. For them our ignorance or fall began in the supracausal realm. This and the very co ncept of creation itself are major and important differences between the two sch ools. For more on this topic, the reader is directed to see The Enigmatic Kabir and come to his own conclusions. 9. Ramana said that ones samskaras or inherited egoic tendencies must be scorche d one by one as they arise and traced to the Heart while alive. This is the veda ntic position. It is much different from Sant Mat which teaches that the samskar as are only removed, one, by the master s grace at the time of initiation, and, tw o, after the soul passes through an "inner" pool of Mansarovar or Amritsar on th e supracausal plane [more on this later]. If the latter view is true then nothin g besides Sant Mat makes sense. The suggestion of the sages on the importance of the waking state, however, is that realization consists in seeing truth without excluding the waking state. Nanak said, "Truth is above all but higher still is true living." If that is not just a metaphor, what is its true meaning? What Tr uth was he talking about - the truth of the inner reality found at the innermost level of trance - like Anami Lok or Nirvikalpa samadhi - or the Truth of sahaj? Certainly nothing can really be above Truth. So truth must in some sense includ e life. Which brings one back to the argument that realization must be had while alive - not in meditation alone. This has not generally been discussed in so many words by Sant Mat masters, t

o my knowledge, although they do certainly mention this world as a place to pay off karmic debts. To their credit, however, it might be argued that the non-dual ists who often criticize them lack a cosmogony, or theory of creation, in fact a s they deny it, holding strictly to the ajata theory, and many of these teachers may only be privy to having had a glimpse of reality, however long it lasts, an d not full realization. That is apparently clear among Papaji disciples, many of whom were declared enlightened by him, when it became clear that that was just not the case. A glimpse, even if it lasts five years, is not the same as fully g rown union with ones Soul, which, according to Paul Brunton, may entail a number of successive lives of spiritual APPLICATION , even AFTER nirvikalpa has been a ttained, or re-attained, in any particular life. That would also suggest, on the other hand, and to be fair, that simply traveling to Sach Khand or even Anami o nce would not grant ultimate and permanent enlightenment by itself, although San t Mat teachers, where they allude to it, which is infrequent, appear to differ o n this point. Some sages say that the longer one dwells in the Void the deeper o nes realization becomes and the more one understands it, especially if one has s ome metaphysical background to accompany the mystical fulfillment. So it would s eem the same arguement for repeated immersion would apply to mystical merger in Anami Lok. Sant Darshan Singh, in his biography, mentioned that by a certain dat e he had been able to achieve the ability to go there at will, implying that bef ore he had gone there, but not at will. Obviously, the former is a higher accomp lishment than the latter. The idea of will is a tricky one, however, as there ar e sages like Ramana Maharshi who speak of losing the will or vikalpa to do anyth ing, that the Self does all, which would include the inherent wisdom of knowing when retracting the emanant of the soul into itself was of use for its divine pu rpose. Kirpal Singh would say that he did not do anything, and that if his Maste r did not send his grace, he was nothing. Taking him at his word, one might assu me that would apply to when he might be absorbed into Anami, hold initiation, or even going to the grocery store. When one loses the personal will, what does it mean to speak of having the ability to do something at will? In Sant Mat it is also mentioned that there is a plane named Maha Sunn, betwe en the created an uncreated realms, where the soul, divested of all the koshas e xcept the anandamaya kosha or bliss sheath, which some yoga schools equate with undifferentiated maya, can go no further under her own power, and depends on the superior light and power of the Master of the Beyond to ferry one across to Sat Lok, the home of the soul and where she regains her primordial freedom. This is a unique feature exclusive to Sant Mat. 10. Here is an anecdote that brings questions to my mind. I am giving all of the questions first, after which there will be the resolution and explanation to he lp resolve some of the questions. I realize so far this may seem very pedantic t o many; to others perhaps not so. Anyway, in Ramana's case there was a disciple, Palanaswami. When Palanaswami died, Ramana said that his eyes opened, which to him signified that his "I-thought", as he put it, or ego or soul, escaped into a nd was "reborn in the higher planes". To Ramana that signified that Palanaswami must take another birth before realizing the Heart (Self or Soul, source of the feeling of "I", not to be confused with the heart chakra), that if Ramana had be en there he could have "pinned his ego down in the heart," thus scorching his sa nskaras there, never to be reborn again. One other case in particular worth exam ining occurred to the famous disciple of Ramana, Ganapati Muni. It was Ganapati who gave the young Venkataram the name Ramana Maharshi. He was a teacher in his own right, and had spent twenty years in yogic sadhana. A few years after meetin g Marharshi he experienced a spontaneous, forceful awakening of kundalini-shakti (which he confessed was not caused by any intention on his part, but was the res ult of the grace of his Guru and God ), and which began a two-week ordeal in which he endured the yogic phenomenon known in the Taittirya Upanishad as vyapohya si rsha kapale, or the breaking of the skull [Click here for an explanation and warni ng about this type of event by a modern day teacher, Igor Kufayev; it is not nec essary according to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, nor is it the inevitable e

xperience on the path of kundalini yoga, and certainly not required nor desirabl e on the path of the Sants. The only other account we have come across in the li terature of anything like what happened to Ganapati Muni is the ordeal that U.G. Krishnamurti went through - and which also is not something to emulate - nor ma y it even be duplicatable. It certainly is not necessary for spiritual realizati on. But as it has happened we account for it here]. Ganapati began to feel a flo od of energy through his body at all times, with a stream of bliss piercing his head making him completely intoxicated. He felt totally out of control of his bo dy and went to Maharshi for guidance. The sage blessed him with a pat of the han d on his head and said not to worry. That night Ganapati suffered terribly. There was an unbearable burning sensati on throughout his body...It looked as though his head would break into pieces an y time. he suffered unbearable pain... Suddenly a sound was heard, something lik e smoke was seen. The Kundalini had caused an aperture at the top of his skull.. .After the experience for ten days something like smoke or vapor was found emana ting from the orifice at the top of the skull. By that time the burning sensatio n subsided. The play of force became bearable. The long story of suffering, pain , and agony ended. The body was filled with the flow of cool nectar of bliss. Th e face of the Muni reflected an ethereal splendor. His eyes bore the effulgence of the supernatural. After this extraordinary experience of kapalabheda, the Mun i lived for fourteen years... (8) In spite of the unusual nature of Ganapati s transformation, Maharshi affirmed that he had not attained enlightenment. When asked after his death whether the M uni was realized, Ramana replied, How could he? His sankalpas (inherent tendencies) were too strong. In other words, in Ganapati Muni s case the overwhelming awakenin g of the kundalini was not sufficient to unlock the knot of self that was still al ive at the heart. "Ganapati Muni used to say that he could even go to Indra loka and say what Indra was doing, but he could not go within and find the "I." Sri Bhagavan added that Ganapati Muni used to say that it was easy to move forward, but impossible to move backward. Then Sri Bhagavan remarked: However far one goes , there he is. Where is moving backward?" (9) Of course, this "escape into the higher planes" warned about by Ramana and La kshmana Swamy is exactly what is considered advisable by Sant Mat. So there is a major difference here. My teacher in Ithaca, NY, Anthony Damiani, once told us that both he and his wife Ella May heard the big bell overhead in meditation, an d he confirmed to us that we could go with it, because it would "take you up." T he big bell is the prominent sound of the Naam one hears on the threshold of the astral world. He also said that experience of the subtle planes would completel y devalue our experience here. However, he said he didn't pursue following the b ell sound higher because "it wasn't where he wanted to go." I didn't understand at all what he meant at the time. He also said that he "didn't want holiness," w hich I didn't quite understand either. He held out for the completion of his inn er concentration and mind's tracing itself to the Heart, which gave him stable r ealization of the witness self, (after a period of application), which he descri bed as "peace, peace, peace." He acknowledged the possibility of spiritual ascen t, and eventually different possibilities of spiritual evolution, but wanted to realize the heart-root first, which, he said off-handedly, would "take your head off." He said to those of us who were into shabd practise to "get this (the wit ness) first." The idea is that, without such prior realization of true conscious ness, entering the inner realms would be deluding. In Sant Mat this possibility of delusion is also asserted, however the major point they emphasize is that wha t is required is the "sheet anchor" of the true Master's Radiant Form or Light t o guide one without danger through the maze of possible inner experiences as qui ckly as possible to reach Sach Khand and the formless realms beyond. To achieve this, the agency and help of a qualified adept is necessary, and the soul, merge d with the form of the master can go, undercover, as it were, directly to Sach K hand, the first plane of Sat Lok, without danger of gettiong lost on the way.

Here is what Ramana commented about sounds w that the soul is not exclusively within the thin the soul, or better, the Self, but it is s a refutation of the claims and path of Sant

like the bell. It reflects his vie body, but the body and mind are wi unusual and does not stand, imo, a Mat:

A disciple Mastan wrote: "For some time I was meditating at night for about a n hour, I used to hear the sound of a big bell ringing. Sometimes a limitless ef fulgence wold appear. In 1922 when I visited Bhagavan at his new ashram at the f oot of the hill, I asked about this. He advised me, "There is no need to concern ourselves about sounds such as these. If you see from where it rises, it will b e known that it arises on account of a desire (sankalpa) of the mind. Everything appears in oneself and subsides within oneself. The light, too, only appears fr om the same place. If you see to whom it appears, mind will subside at the sourc e and only reality will remain." (The Power of the Presence, Part Three, David G odman, ed., 2002, p. 32) The sound of the bell is a sankalpa within the mind? Ramana by this quote and others seemed to have had an uncompromising view of the nature of all visionary or auditory phenomena, including the big 'vision' that constitutes the world it self, namely, that they all arose in the Self or what the Buddhists would call M ind. That there was a great universal or absolute Mind that projected a relative ly objective world-image, and an individual mind or soul that participated in an d, within limits, co-created that image, was not in his world view. Ramana's tea ching on the nature of visions is illustrated by the following excerpt from the rare and out-of-print book, Conscious Immortality: Conversations with Ramana Mah arshi, by Paul Brunton: "The sights and sounds which may appear during meditation should be regarded as distractions and temptations. None of them should be allowed to beguile the aspi rant. Q: Do the appearance of visions or the hearing of mystic sounds come after the c oncentrated mind is still and blank or before? A: They can come both before and after. The thing is to ignore them and to still pay attention only to the Self. Forms which interfere with the main course or c urrent of meditation should not be allowed to distract the mind. Bring yourself back into the Self, the Witness, unconcerned with such distractions. That is the only way to deal with such. interruptions. Never forget yourself. Intellect is the astral body. It is only an aggregate of certain factors. What else is the as tral body? In fact, without intellect no Kosa is cognised. Who says that there a re five Kosas? Is it not the intellect itself? Q: There are beautiful colours in meditation. It is a pleasure to watch them. We can see God in them. A: They are all mental conceptions. The objects or feelings or thoughts, i.e. al l experiences, in meditation, are all only mental conceptions." "When Sundaresa lyer, a local teacher, described yogic experiences, including vi sions of light, ringing of bells etc. which he was having, Maharshi replied, " t hey come, and they would pass away. Be only the witness. I myself had thousands of such experiences, but I had no one to go to and consult about them." Q: Can we not see God in concrete visions? A: Yes, God is seen in the mind. The concrete form may be seen. Still, it is in the devotee's own mind. The form and appearance of the God-manifestation are det ermined by the mentality of the devotee. But the finality is not that for it has the sense of duality. It is like a dream vision. After God is perceived, Vichar a commences. That ends in the realisation of the Self. Vichara is the final meth od. Q: Did not Paul Brunton see you in London? Was it only a dream? A: Yes, he had the vision. Nevertheless he saw me in his own mind. Q: But did he not see this concrete form?

A: Yes, but still it was in his mind. Keeping God in your mind as everything aro und you becomes Dhyana. This is the stage before realisation which is only in th e Self. Dhyana must precede it. Whether you make Dhyana of God or Self, it is im material, the goal is the same. Q: St. Theresa and others saw the image of Madonna animated. It was external. Ot hers see the images of their devotion floating in their mental sight. This is in ternal. Is there any difference in degree in these two cases? A: Both indicate that the person has strongly developed meditation. Both are goo d and progressive. There is not difference in degree. The one had conception of divinity and draws mental images and feels them. The other has the conception of divinity in the image and feels it in the image. The feeling is within, in both instances. Q: In the spiritual experience of St. Theresa, she was devoted to a figure of Ma donna which became animated to her sight, and she was in bliss. A: The animated figure prepared the mind for introversion. There is a process of concentration of mind on one's own shadow which in due course becomes animated and answers questions put to it. That is due to Manobala (power of mind) or Dhya nabala (power of meditation). Whatever is external, is also transitory: Such phe nomena may produce joy for the time being. But abiding peace, i.e. Shanti, does not result. This is gotten only by the removal of Avidya (ignorance)." Ramana, however, also said that listening to the sound was good, but better i f done in junction with vichara or self-enquiry. This would be like combining sa madhi and vipassana or insight practices in Buddhism. But to call the sound of t he bell a sankalpa or tendency in the mind seems an unwarranted conclusion and d iminished view of the complexity of reality. Not only that, but as he did so man y times, Ramana said contradictory things to different people, including regardi ng the nature of and meditation on the sound. In , he spoke favorably about it a s 'the current' that takes you home': "M. Meditation on nada is one of several approved methods. The adherents clai m a very special virtue for it. ..Just as a child is lulled to sleep by lullabies, so nada soothes one to the state of samadhi. Similarly, just as a king sends his state musicians to welcome his son on his return from a long journey, so also nada takes the devotee into t he Lord s Abode in a pleasing manner. Nada helps concentration...Nadaupasana (meditation o n sound) is good, but even better if associated with investigation (vichara). In t aht case, the nada is made up of chinmaya and also tanmaya (Knowledge and Self). (2001 edition, p. 102) V.K. Iyer sought more light on nada (sound). M.: He who meditates on it feels it. there are ten kinds of nadas. After the fin al thundering nada the man gets laya. That is his natural and eternal state. Nada, jyoti (ligh t), or enquiry thus take one to the same point. (The former are indirect and the last is direct ). D.: The mind becomes peaceful for a short while and again emerges forth. What is to be done? M.: The peace often gained must be remembered at other times. That peace is your natural and permanent state. By continous practice it will become natural. That is called the 'current'. That is your true home. (p. 218) it must be remembered that Ramana rarely if ever told anyone what to do, in t

erms of practices. He permitted them all within his ashram, and said that you ei ther inquire, or surrender to God. Shabd meditation would generally fall under t he latter category. Another unwarranted conclusion, in our view, is the following explanation fro m Dzogchen Buddhism, where uniting the inherent nature of one s mind or "child lum inosity" with the "Ground Luminosity" or "Clear Light" while alive, as well as w hen it dawns at the time of death, is considered the most important means for li beration, but that for those not so advanced it is advised to practice phowa tra nsference, or directing consciousness so that the soul leaves the body through t he crown of the head as the only means for passing directly to the pure buddha r ealms [see, The Tibetan Book on Living and Dying, by Sogypal Rinpoche]. This i s different from the perspective of Sant Mat, where it is assumed that, not only does everybody pass out of the body through the crown of the head (barring trau matic accidents), even if you do pass out of the body via the crown, your direct access to the purely spiritual (or buddha) realms is not automatically assured, but depends on the grace of the spiritual master and/or one's prior progress on the path. However, one is assured that one's master will be there to guide one at the time of and after death itself. The stage by stage of dissolution during the death process, as well as recognition of and responsibility for it by a disc iple on the Dzogchen path, is therefore, it seems, bypassed by initiates into Sa nt Mat, where the Master's radiant form comes for the disciple at the time of de ath, assuring a smooth passage, leaving the body behind like a fallen leaf. This would obviate a three-day or forty-nine day vigil or waiting period after physi cal death as advised in Tibetan Buddhism as well. Indeed, the promise given by t he Sant Mat lineage at least since the time of Kirpal Singh has been that the Ma ster takes complete charge of the sanchit or storehouse karmas of the disciple a nd at death takes him to a suitable inner plane to progress further, even escort him to Sach Khand and beyond, a glorious promise much like the one proclaimed i n the New Testament: "Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hu nger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. For I have come down from he aven. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and b elieves in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the las t day." (John 6: 35, 38, 40) And as Sant Darshan Singh affirmed: "In spite of our blemishes, our shortcomings, our enslavement to the world an d worldly desires, the Master has taken us to himself. The Master belongs to the realm of immortality, and in taking us to himself he takes us within the ambit of eternity." (Spiritual Awakening, Chapter 8) 11. Also somewhat curious was a comment by Ramana s that when the soul or "I-thoug ht" merged in the heart there was a sound like the tinkle of a bell that the jna ni could hear that indicated liberation. He indicated that that was the case wit h his mother, whose soul he guided at death until it merged in the Heart, but th at it was not the case with Palanaswami whose "eyes opened at death meaning his soul had escaped to be reborn in a higher plane" instead of merging once and for all in the Heart. So what for Sant Mat was an escape and a boon was for Ramana a failure to attain self-realization. I don t know in what way if any the tinkle o f a bell sound relates to the naam or shabd in Sant Mat or not. Many in Sant Mat hear the tinkling of bells all the time. The words of Ramana do not suggest it is the same, because Ramana did acknowledge the existence of inner sounds or nad a as a concentration method favored by its adherents to lull the mind into samad hi. He didn t speak of it as a way into higher planes, however, which he looked on as a kind of unnecessary detour - and devotees remarked that his eyes looked li ke two stars, and that he appeared to return from a far-off place when he came o ut of inner absorption. He, however, like Anandamayi Ma, seemed to go inside int

o full trance less and less as he got older. Shree Atmananda said that once you realize that your own nature is happiness, you will never again be attracted by the goal of happiness in samadhi. You might enjoy it for refreshment, but not fo r realization. Now, returning again to what Sant Rajinder said, that one would have certaint y of life after death once he reached the third plane, my question remains, why wouldn't one get assurance of life after death after reaching the FIRST inner pl ane? The suggestion was that the first two planes were not outside the body. In addition, it may also be asked, how can there truly be any "up" or "down" or spa tial sense except in relationship to the body? V.S. Iyer said that inside and ou tside apply only to the body, and since the body is a perception in the Mind, su ch concepts become meaningless. So how can one truly go up AFTER leaving the cha kra system by passing into and through the brain? Where is up once the body is d ead and you are in a mental realm(s)? Sant Mat would argue that there is still a sense of up and down in relationship with the other bodies or coverings of the soul, such as the astral and causal, as they are in the realm of space and time or Kal, and this is entirely possible and a reasonable explanation within the do main of relativity. Coming back to my question about how, and in exactly what way, is this life t he most important for realization, and in precisely what way can one make more p rogress here, one asks, "Why is the waking state considered so important?" Kirpa l quoted Jesus about how after death "no man can work", so one had better work n ow. PB said that this world is more valuable than after death states because onl y here are lessons etched so strongly on the ego, whereas after-death realms are more dream-like. Sant Rajinder Singh has said that souls are supposed to be lit erally 'lined up' waiting a chance at getting a human body, as there are current ly not enough suitable bodies available in which to make appreciable spiritual p rogress. The Sant Mat masters do say that one can work from the subtle planes after de ath, but, again as mentioned, that it can take a much longer time than here. Bud dhist scriptures generally say that the personality disintegrates back to the el ements, after the death of the body, and that the ego-soul does not survive, cer tainly not after the so-called "second death", where the subtle elements dispers e. Kirpal once joked said, "we have to make the most use of the man-body, and th at is - to get out of it!" I think he was speaking somewhat tongue in cheek, bec ause I saw more in Him than that would imply. But for the spiritual beginner tha t can make intuitive sense. Certainly advaita would disagree. And I think Kirpal would have disagreed also, at least in the sense that there was purificatory wo rk to do here. A disciple, Rameshwar Dass, relates in Ocean of Divine Grace, p. 97-98: I told Maharaj Ji, "My friend told me that You would give me a glimpse of my Divine Home. But that has not been my experience." "As for taking you up there," He said, "it could be done, but in your present condition you will not be able to stay there; nor when you come back would you be able to carry on with your no rmal life on earth." I personally feel that there is more to it than that, which is that before eg o-death or ego-transcendance such higher planes cannot be experienced totally wi thout a sense of illusion. The master would not disagree with that. And, for som e it is possible that only the final experiential stages may become known after a lifetime of striving in apparent darkness. This need not be cause for despair, if one practices with the right view. The vedantic answer as to why the waking state is important is expressed by I yer in the following quote:

"Gnan is to see that all things are the mind's own creations, that none are d ifferent from yourself, that none are other than the mind itself, and that there fore there is no second thing. But this you can get only by analyzing world duri ng the waking state itself and finding it to be like a dream. This is why truth must be understood when awake, not in blank trance, when facing and seeing the w orld, not in negation of it." (Commentaries, Vol. 1 ; see note 29) A quote of Soamiji that seems out of place within even Sant Mat teachings was made by him on the day of his death: Life-long Bhajan and Simran is only for this reason: That one should not forge t at this time (at the time of death). (Sar Bachan p. 21) This also causes questions to arise. What was his true meaning here? Forget w hat? -Bhajan and Simran? -The image of his Master? It is said in many traditions that one s last thought is very important, but surely life-long bhajan and simran , according to Sant Mat, is for the purpose of achieving liberation in life, isn t it? And surely the general trend of ones mind over a lifetime is more important than any stray thought that crosses it at the time of death. What if, when one s t ime comes, as has happened even to great sages, one lapses into a coma, or has a n accidental death? Does then the inability to remember anything cancel out one' s progress, relationship with his guru, or, most importantly, one's enlightenmen t? The answer is, No. A dear friend of mine was killed instantly in a head-on coll ision with a truck on a snowy night, and later Sant Rajinder Singh in answer to a point-blank question by an intiate as to where our friend was today, replied, i n Sach Khand, because of his great attachment to Sant Kirpal. This remark by Soam iji was likely directed to one person at a particular time for its impact value, but, nevertheless, when placed in a source text like Sar Bachan can create conf usion. There is said to be an unbreakable grace-laden connection with one s initia ting Master in the path of Sant Mat. Once more, the waking state is valued in most traditions because they say rea lization must take place while here to be true liberation. Why? Perhaps one answ er is because it is very important both how we interpret or understand our exper iences across all of the states, and also that we do not live here or go within , i n ignorance. Also, the faculty of buddhi or higher reason is not active in sleep or trance, and in advaita it is said that it is, in fact, buddhi which gets enl ightened. The Self is always shining in the intellectual sheath, Ramana Maharshi o ften quoted from scripture, as the intellectual sheath or buddhi is closest to A tman and reflects its light. When it gets enlightened it stands aside and Atman is realized. Technically, the bliss-sheath is closest, but as it is made of undi fferentiated maya there is no knowing or enlightenment possible when it is activ e, such as in sleep. It is present when the soul is in Maha Sunn, as well, and a s we have seen, the soul is helpless there. Brunton states: "If the body does not become non-existent because, ultimately, it is a though t-form, neither does it become unimportant. For it is only in this body that we can attain and realize the ultimate consciousness...the physical wakeful state i s the only one in which the task of true self-realization can be fully accomplis hed.." (The Notebooks, Vol. 7, Part I, 1.5) As in Sant Mat, however, Brunton elsewhere admits that this may not need to b e achieved on earth but could occur on "other spheres." There is also permitted this exception in the Buddhist tradition for certain advanced aspirants of a deg ree of sainthood who had purified a sufficient number of the "fetters" or "defil ements". But the attainment would still not be achieved in a purely subjective s tate in their case, and the higher realms themselves, however blissful and howev er long one might stay there, which could be kalpas, may be considered "pure" bu t not necessarily eternal, as they are in Sant Mat. For example, one of the high

er fetters in Buddhism is "attachment to the formless realms". Tibetan Buddhism somewhat differently argues that only awakening to the "Grou nd Luminosity" of Mind while alive assures merger with the Clear Light when it i nitially dawns at the time of death. This is the great opportunity for liberatio n according to their teachings. If one cannot hold onto this realization at the time of death one then passes into the dawning of the "dharmata realm", which is the all-pervading creative radiance of Mind, similar to how the Sants describe Sach Khand. Failing to sustain awareness of that, one falls into identification with mind and ego once more and passes into the various intermediate realms of t he bardos, and eventually rebirth. Only through experience in the waking state w ith its sharply defined limits can one be prepared, through spiritual practice, for the dawning of Mind or the Clear Light at death. In Sant Mat the waking stat e is also valued to prepare one to be aware while in the bardos or inner planes, as well as for the working off of karmas, but the defining difference after dea th is the boon of the Master coming for the soul, sparing him the bewildering an d disintegrating experience of the withdrawel of the attention and pranas, a les s than auspicious exit into an undesirable lower realm, and even further rebirth s prior to liberation. There is no teaching about immediate recognition of the D harmakaya prior to passage through all the inner planes to Sach Khand and beyond . Nevertheless, there are hints here and there in Sant Mat about the non-necessi ty of experiencing all of the planes in a linear fashion. Kirpal said some initi ates may go directly to Sach Khand and not experience the other planes along the way, although, generally, they would, at least to some degree, as in a brief "m eet and greet" of the various deities presiding therein. He also said, "you are already there, you just don't know it." But he was very clear that a disciple of some degree of attainment, and even those without much in the way of that but w ho nevertheless had full faith, may not have to be reborn but could continue the ir sadhana on inner planes, at the discretion of the Master: "The initiates have a great concession: at the time of death, your Master wil l come to receive you, and not the angel of death. He usually appears several da ys or weeks before death to advise you of your coming departure from this world. I'm talking about those who keep the precepts! For those who do nothing with th e gift of Naam, he may or may not appear before they leave the body...In your fi nal moments, and much beforehand if you have gained proficiency in meditation, M aster's radiant form will take you to a higher stage where you can make further progress. At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her d ay of marriage! He may then place you in the first, second or third stage, or he may take you direct to Sach Khand. In some cases, where worldly desires and att achments are predominant, he will allow rebirth, but in circumstances more conge nial for spiritual growth." (Arran Stephens, Journey to the Luminous (Seattle, W ashington: Elton-Wolf Publications, 1999), p. 41) One enigmatic incident relating to the "distance" or relationship of Sach Kha nd to the earth plane (Pinda) is illustrated by the following. Sawan Singh, when asked how long it took him to go to Sach Khand, closed his eyes for a second an d then reopened them, saying that that was how long. In the yoga sutras, however , it is said that for concentration to mature into absorptive samadhi takes two a non-dual state, and Sawan was speaking from a higher, or perhaps, metaphorical , point of view. In the Gurbani, Sikh scriptures, Sach Khand is described as bot h an after death realm and a state of consciousness one can enjoy during earth l ife. Master Charan Singh clarified this point: "Maharaj ji, do the saints have a short-cut inside?" Charan Singh: "They have a short cut in the sense that they have immediate access to the Fa ther. After reaching sainthood, they do not have to pass through all those stage

s on their way to the Father. Christ also indicated that he could leave the body when he wanted to and he could take it up again when he wanted to, as he was al ways with the Father and he and the Father were one." (Spiritual Perspectives, V ol. 1 (Beas, India: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 2010, p. 446-467) This suggests that the Master is in a non-dual state, if the quote of Jesus a pplies; on the other hand, it can be interpreted to mean he can access the state of highest samadhi instantly, but he is not in a non-dual condition otherwise. Kirpal Singh remarked in another context that the Master can take some of the di sciples directly to Sach Khand without passing through the preceeding planes, se eming to imply the same thing. Sant Rajinder Singh said: "People often focus on what they want to do, but a bigger question is what they want to be. The world is caught up in doing this activity or that activity, but w hen we look at spirituality, the goal is in being. Doing involves activities of th e body and mind, but being involves connecting with our soul. Our soul is a part of God, a state of permanent love, bliss, and consciousness. It does not need t o do anything. When we stop our physical and mental activity and sit in silent m editation, we become our true self, or soul. When we identify with the soul, we will merge back into God and enter a state of eternal love and bliss." Again, this could imply non-duality or not. It could suggest the ancient conc ept of the Atman as a disinterested witness of all activity, or a greater vision . anadi also said that the true identity of the soul is one of eternal union wit h the Beloved or God; the question for Sant Mat is if one is in this state of et ernal love and bliss on all the planes, or only in Sat Lok. Kirpal Singh suggest ed it is always, when he answered the question, "Master, do you meditate?" by re plying, "Look here. If a man gets his PhD, does he have to go back and learn the ABC's?" The Waking State: Its Importance Buddha, Vedantists, the Ch an masters and others agree on the importance of wak ing earth life. Damiani says, further, that without the knowledge the World or W orld-Idea can teach the soul, one would be utterly incapable of understanding wh at one was experencing in the mysterious Void (beyond all the manifest planes). One could come out of his trance and still be confused about the relationship be tween world, self, and God, ie., not enlightened. This is as close as I have fou nd for a metaphysical reason for the importance of the waking state for realizat ion, or, since it is not a personal attainment, the Void-Mind awakening to itself or coming to self-cognition. The Lankavatara sutra said that one day all beings will get purifed and ascend the stages, but "if they only realized it, all thin gs are in Nirvana from the beginning." How can one realize that "all things are in Nirvana" by leaving some things out (ie., like the world) and only going with in? Obviously, one can't. This is the mistake of the yogis and ordinary mystics. The highest teachings always posit stages AFTER the mystical ones. The progress ion of stages in Buddhism, as stated, beyond those of the beginner, are from ecs tasy to peace to insight to Nirvana. Does Sant Mat recognize a stage after going within as far as you can go (as profound as that is), as the sages do? Personal ly, I think they do. Kabir, for instance, spoke of a stage "beyond Sunn and tran ce." Brunton writes: "After all, even the Void, grand and awesome as it is, is nothing but a tempo rary experience, a period of meditation. The realization of what is Real must be found not only in deep meditation, in its trance, but when fully awake." (Noteb ooks, Vol 15, Part 1, 8.187-188) And further:

"The mystic may get his union with the higher self as the reward for his reve rent devotion to it. But its light will shine down only into those parts of his being which were themselves active in the search for union. Although his union m ay be a permanent one, its consummation may still be only a partial one. If his intellect, for example, was inactive before the event, it will be unillumined af ter the event [this would say something about the idea of "perfect masters"]. Th is is why many mystics have attained their goal without a search for truth befor e it or a full knowledge of truth after it. The simple love for spiritual being brought them to it through their sheer intensity of ardour earning the divine gr ace. He only gets the complete light, however, who is completely fitted for it w ith the whole of his being. If he is only partially fit, because only a part of his psyche has worked for the goal, then the utmost result will be a partial but permanent union with the soul, or else it will be marred by the inability to ke ep the union for longer than temporary periods." "The Mystic may be illiterate, uneducated, simple-minded, but yet may attain the Overself. Thus he finds his Inner Peace. It is easier for him because he is less intellectual, hence has fewer thoughts to give up and to still. But Nature does not absolve him from finishing his further development. He has still to com plete his horizontal growth as well as balance it. He has obtained depth of illu mination but not breadth of experience where the undeveloped state of faculties which prevents his light from being perfect may be fully developed. This can hap pen either by returning to earth again or continuing in other spheres of existen ce; he does this all inside his peace instead of, as with ordinary man, outside it. When his growth is complete, he becomes a philosopher." "It is not that the mystic does not enter into contact with the Overself. He does. But his experience of the Overself is limited to glimpses which are partia l, because he finds the Overself only within himself, not in the world outside. It is temporary because he has to take it when it comes at its own sweet will or when he can find it in meditation. It is a glimpse because it tells him about h is own "I" but not about the "Not-I." On the other hand, the sage finds reality in the world without as his own self, at all times and not at special occasions, and wholly rather than in glimpses. The mystic's light comes in glimpses, but t he sage's is perennial. Whereas the first is like a flickering unsteady and unev en flame, the second is like a lamp that never goes out. Whereas the mystic come s into awareness of the Overself through feeling alone, the sage comes into it t hrough knowledge plus feeling. Hence, the superiority of his realization." "The need of predetermining at the beginning of the path whether to be a phil osopher or a mystic, arises only for the particular reincarnation where attainme nt is made. Thereafter, whether on this earth or another, the need of fulfilling the philosophic evolution will be impressed upon him by Nature." [The "philosop hic discipline" is the development and balancing of the faculties of feeling, kn owing, willing, and intuition, as well as the full inner mystical realization as well as metaphysical realization of non-dual Oneness]. (, Notebooks, Vol. 13, P art 2, 4.9,11-13) The understanding that everything is illusive is not the final one. It is an e ssential stage but only a stage. Ultimately you will understand that the form an d separateness of a thing are illusory, but the thing-in-itself is not. That out of which these forms appear is not different from them, hence Reality is one an d the same in all things. This is the paradox of life and a sharp mind is needed to perceive it. However, to bring beginners out of their earthly attachments, w e have to teach first the illusoriness of the world, and then raise them to a hi gher level of understanding and show that the world is not apart from the Real. That Thou Art unifies everything in essence. But this final realization cannot b e got by stilling the mind, only by awakening it into full vigour again after yo gic peace has been attained and then letting its activity cease of its own accor

d when thought merges voluntarily into insight. When that is done, you know the limitations of both yoga and enquiry as successive stages. Whoever realizes this truth does not divorce from matter--as most yogis do--but realizes non-differen ce from it. Hence we call this highest path the "yoga of nonduality." But to rea ch it one has to pass through the "yoga of philosophical knowledge." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 2.116) Maybe the jnanis and non-dualists are wrong, and the emanationists, such as t he Sants and sages like Plotinus, are right, that down here we only see as in a glass dimly, a poor reflection of the real - but up there "face too face." Maybe any non-dual realization must be made abiding on all planes after passing throu gh multiple "zero-points" or apparent "deaths". Even though the Real is not sepa rated from nature, or the hierarchy of planes, perhaps it is true that only the purified soul has a chance at realizing God, and that such must be attained thro ugh passing through and understanding successive levels of the cosmos. If the So ul is a permanent emanation of the Divine or the Nous, as Plotinus says, perhaps then, having a satori or deep awakening while on the earth plane does not in it self simply dissolve all that lies between 'Nature and the Nous', as many non-du al teachers imply while casually and with self-assurance bordering on its own fo rm of fundamentalism dismiss all discussion of cosmology and the Soul. In Sant M at as well as some of the gnostic traditions such as that of Plato and Plotinus, the true form of the Soul is known only in its own domain, and what we see and know down here is but a glimmer of the reality, even though it is paradoxically a manifestation of the reality and can be realized as such. Perhaps it can be sa id then that even if one intuits the Nous in the waking state, i.e., has the non -dual realization, the soul still naturally desires to seek its origin. Maharaj Saheb, in his discourse, "Ode to the Unknown God," said: "Radhasoami Dayal [the Merciful Lord of the Soul] has graciously assumed huma n form to grant redemption to the entire humanity, nay, He has made the reflecti on of His Form available even at the lower chakras. "Still lower down, He assumed the dark bluish form of Niranjan. Such is my be loved Radhasoami. Descending to the heart centre, He became subject to desires. Such is my beloved Radhasoami. He, however, reduces the evil tendencies of Indri -centres (lower centres pertaining to senses). Such is my beloved Radhasoami." ( quoting Swami Ji Maharaj, Sar Bachan Poetry, Book One)" In philosophical terms what he seems to be saying, in this instance, is that the Idea of Man, and the form of the Master-Soul, gets reflected from plane to p lane from Sach Khand on down. The higher up, the more it approximates the eterna l emanation from the Nous, even though the One is always existent and "there is nowhere that it is not." In any case, in Sant Mat it is said that after the soul reaches the radiant f orm of the Master on the threshold of the astral plane, most of its personal toi l is over and the rest is in the hands of the Master, who attracts the soul like iron filings towards a magnet. Likewise, upon reaching Sach Khand, the emanated soul is then in the hands of the Sat Purush, who absorbs the soul likewise by s tages in to the Anami, the nameless and formless absolute realm. So what we are talking about is far beyond the aegis of the personal will. Timothy Smith simila rly writes from the point of view of the Sam'khya tradition of this need for gra ce: "Finally, when the cosmos itself reaches a moment of perfect self-knowing, Bu ddhi, through the Grace of Ishvara and with the support of Prakriti, stands asid e, and a new Bodhisattva is born. With neither will nor ego-identity remaining, this is the moment of viveka turning upon itself and being turned upon itself. T his is the assimilation of mentalism and the fruition of epistemological discipl ine. The remaining ascent from Purusa to Âtman shall unfold in the mysterious remo

teness of pure, empty Being.... The higher tattvas [Buddhi, Aham'kara, Tanmatra] , starting with Aham kâra, are not the product of the individual Purusa alone, but a re the work of Îshvara, Shakti, and Shiva. As such they can not be truly dissolved by any individual act, including viveka." In The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga, it is implied that Surat Shabd Yoga fu lfills if not transcends the goal as elaborated in the Sam'khya school. This mak es a precise categorization of the terms Sat Purush and Anami even more compelli ng. In Sant Mat it is said that even a state of oneness, in which the mind merges in ITS own source in the causal plane, is a stepped-down manifestation of highe r spiritual realizations of oneness, with which it is often confused. Maharaj Ch aran Singh said: "Unless the mind returns to and merges in its origin, the soul cannot be rele ased from the negative power and cannot begin its real spiritual evolvement to G od-Realization." (Katherine Wason, The Living Master (Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1984) p. 136) The reader will refer to the schema of planes given before for a visual examp le of this. The mind is said to merge with the universal mind at the second main stage of the inner journey with soul travelling beyond on its own. This is much different than advaita. Katherine Wason writes: "The stage of Brahm is the apex of reality , the very height of spiritual att ainment, to one who has not a perfect Master who has gone beyond the reach of Br ahm. With the blending of self into Universal Mind and the expanded consciousnes s which embraces the furthest reach of the cosmos of the Universal Mind, it seem s that no stage can be further attained. For how is it possible even to conceive of a stage above and beyond Universal Mind, often called Unity itself? To merge into that which interpenetrates the entire universe would seem to constitute th e furthest limit of spiritual ascent. Yet for one initiated by a perfect Master, the now purer and far more powerful force of the Shabd lifts the disciple out of this appearance of Unity and trans ports him to the stage of Parbrahm - "beyond" Brahm. And here a greater, more gl orious dimension of consciousness is met. For each stage reflects the higher, an d a reflection - no matter how real and pure and beautiful it may seem - cannot but distort and vaguely hint at that which it reflects. Thus the appearances van ish and the Oneness of Brahm is known to be but a part of the Whole. In fact, th e sojourner directly comprehends that there is not only one Brahm, but others as well - that within each of these Brahmandi regions revolves the same vast, seem ingly limitless cosmic scheme, each with its own cycle of birth and death and li beration, each with its own Universal Mind and astral and material creation. At the third stage of the spiritual journey, the soul is pure, completely unfe ttered and free. The once slumbering spirit realises its true identity as a drop of the Supreme Ocean and for the first time wakens to the full wonder and glory of God...Now the soul is in the majestic realm of pure spirit-consciousness, an d awe and joy and wonder become increased beyond imagination. At each threshold of the stages of consciousness..the soul is flooded with the awareness that glor y of a greater dimension lies beyond...By the great Love and Light of the true L ord Himself, the soul, united with God-consciousness, expands and advances to th e three remaining regions". (Ibid, p. 306-308) 12. The concept of the void is necessary to mention here, because of the fact that in Sant Mat it is explained that there is a great void or region called Ma ha Sunn separating the materio-spritual regions from the purely spiritual ones, in which even great souls get suspended until the living master of the time brin gs his great Light through it to guide them out of it and "usher them into" the spiritual planes. This may be confused with the concept of the void(s) as given

in Buddhism. For it is unlikely the two are the same. It is even more confusing when it is recognized that in the consideration of the void or emptiness in Mahaya na Buddhism, emptiness itself is also empty . It is not considered to be a state as s uch but more often as a dialectical methodology of understanding the non-entitif ication of things. For more on this please see Empyiness Is Empty on this website. Nevertheless, there are void experiences in Buddhisim which are not considere d experiential as such, but as the absence of experiencing, while in Sant Mat th e plane of Maha-Sunn is referred to as a dark experiential void, like a form of dark space, that the soul passes through on the way to Sach Khand and the true V oid of Anami Lok. Once again, in Buddhism where reference is made to the void it is generally not to a phenomenal void but, rather, either a realm of the absenc e of ego, or, alternatively, as suchness, the only reality there is. In Maha Sunn, however, there is the experience of darkness, but in the true void there is no darkness and no "I", so this, it appears reasonable, would have to be at least w hat is called Sach Khand or perhaps even Anami in Sant Mat. When I publically as ked Sant Rajinder Singh to comment on Kirpal Singh's enigmatic comment to me, "G od is nothing," he did not adequately or directly answer, but only replied, "bec ause there is a void in Maha Sunn the soul has to cross." I had not asked about an experiential void such as Maha Sunn, but the Void of reality, of the soul and God. His answer was unsatisfactory to me. He may indeed be a pure soul and bene fiscent master, but this kind of lack of clarity in the teaching work is what th is paper is all about, and which must go for Sant Mat to remain competitive to h uman sensibilities in the coming age. All of these matters should be openly reve aled and discussed in a straightforward and plain matter with no obfuscation or mystical vagueness. The Void, therefore, or Sunyata, Suchness, whatever name one chooses to point to the non-conceptual truth, is not dark (another concept or experience), but t he clear light of Reality, the goal-less goal of all the paths. How could Sant K irpal Singh, for instance, in his time explain such a thing to his disciples oth er than on a one to one basis and not necessarily through words but through a po tent spiritual silence? Looking back now, I see the reason for Kirpal's exclamat ion to me, "God is nothing!" In Buddhism, God IS nothing, or the Void-Mind, whic h is really not nothing but the fulness (purna) of reality, or as Nanak put it, the "Unmanifest-Manifest". The void, unfortunately, is probably the most misunde rstood concept in Buddhism. It does not mean nothing as conceptually understood, but rather, non-conceptual reality. It is the REAL. The Dalai Lama appears to take a middle ground, emphasizing the importance of both achievements, concentration and insight: "This pattern of training in the path, training first in ethics then in medit ative stabilization and then in wisdom is not just a pronouncement of the Buddha but accords with the actual fact of experience in training the mind. In order t o generate the view realizing emptiness in any strong form, never mind that spec ial level of mind called special insight realizing emptiness, it is necessary th at the mind not be distracted, that it be channeled, that it be brought together and made powerful. Thus in order for the wisdom consciousness to be powerful an d to be capable of acting as an antidote, it is necessary for the consciousness itself to be channeled. Thus meditative stabilization is needed for wisdom." "In order to have meditative stabilization, in which there is a quieting of i nternal mental distractions, it is necessary prior to that to restrain coarser t ypes of distraction of body and speech. Thus one engages in practices of ethics that involve restraint of these coarser activities of body and speech in order t o lay the groundwork for meditative stabilization. Thus ethics is first, meditat ive stabilization second and wisdom is third in the order of the three trainings . This is certified by experience. (The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, P reliminary Teachings to the Kalachakra Initiation, 1989).

PB states: The Void must not be misunderstood. Although it is the deepest state of medita tion and one where he is deprived of all possessions, including his own personal self, it has a parallel state in the ordinary active non-meditative condition, which can best be called detachment...After all, even the Void, grand and awesom e as it is, is nothing but a temporary experience, a period of meditation...The awareness of what is Real must be found not only in deep meditation, in its tran ce, but when fully awake. (Ibid, 8.186-188) We prefer not to argue with these sages, but it seems necessary and inevitabl e. We no longer live in the Middle Ages or in a provincial setting. To call some thing a "Science" - whether the 'Science of the Soul', or 'The Science of Spirit uality', as the two largest branches of Sant Mat call themselves, means to submi t is to the test of peer-review and dialogue. The quantum nature and vision of s cience, and the democratic nature of social politics must also be brought into t he picture. A strictly 'top-down' approach may no longer be valid and sufficient . This may require major re-working of the dharmas as the years go by. In our hu mble, limited understanding what they say seems to make sense. Further, just as meditation may need a long time to be successfully cultivated, such insight appa rently also may need an equal time to be understood, seen for what it is, and pe rhaps most importantly, believed, in order for reality to positively reveal itse lf through grace. "The understanding of such deeply metaphysical writings calls for an effort on the reader's part to use his own mental energy as actively as the author had to use his own during their creation." - Paul Brunton 13. The Nature of the Planes and Bodies Okay. Now it is time to put much of this together so that we can understand i t, perhaps in a new way. The next few sections may be the most important part of this paper. How is Sant Mat unique, and how does it differ from Buddhism, Raman a, and other sages? What happens after death for the initiate? How is Sant Mat a non-dual path after all? In the next three sections I have had significant help from a sharing of ideas with a co-writer named Mark. That's the only satisfacto ry way of with dealing with this material, to get more than one mind working on it, it is so complex. Much of this is a reasonable summary based on a combinatio n of personal experience, best intuition, and a general consensus of views from many sources based on both study and personal contact. As always, the reader mus t exercise his discrimination and due diligence while reading this material. No claims are made for its complete perfection. The same process of sharing and che cking may some day be said of an evolutionary synthesis among the world's spirit ual traditions, which may be an eventuality we are only now seeing the beginning s of. First, here is a more concise but also intricately described and compiled ver sion of the Sant Mat schemata given towards the beginning of Part One this artic le, with some new points of interest, which one might do well to read. Besides t he usual advise to avoid the 'left-hand path', it also mentions that in higher r egions there is the possibility of being allured onto a 'right-hand path' which will lead one to higher places but which are essentially dead-ends. Hence the ne cessity of a living master who can guide the soul. All of the descriptions of tu nnels, left and right, etc., in higher regions, have made me at times wonder if these regions are in the folds of the brain, but on closer inspection, with what little experience I have had, has led me to a different conclusion. When one go es deep enough in meditation with the help of the shabda-brahman - the real high er Power, Enlightening Presence, Saguna Brahman, Adi Buddha, Cosmic Christ, or L

ogos built into the relative worlds, created and uncreated - one knows one is be yond the confines of the physical body. The 'silver cord' mentioned in the Bible remains uncut, and one can come and go at will. My limited experience is that these inner experiences are mostly non-physical . They are no less real than the physical world, in some ways more, being less v eiled, but still relative, until one sheds all coverings and reaches Sat Lok or Sach Khand. While relative experience they should not be called imaginary, as so me vedantins and Upanishads such as the Mandukya say, as they are real projectio ns of Isvara, the Creator or Sat Purush. To say, as the Mandukya does, that Hira nyagarbha and the dream state (taijasa) are identical in essence, does not seem to do justice to the actual experiential nature of reality. The true nature of a ll these phenomena is, of course, nondual - when realized as such - and so canno t be categorized one way or another - real/imaginary, inner/outer, up/down, desc ending/ascending. Phenomena like nadis or tunnels are part of relative experienc e, but referring to them in relative ways like imaginary can have a teaching val ue, but is only a tool rather than a 'true' picture of reality. In a certain sen se we can say that the sense of solidity of a door is 'imaginary', maya, unreal, illusion, but until a rather advanced level of realization, we had better open the door to pass into the next room. So from deeper levels all these things are not the deepest understanding - chakras, planes, ascending/descending, trances, karma, bodies, time, tunnels, etc. But just as walking through doors is not a re lative experience most of us are likely to transcend in the near future, so all this other stuff is a 'relatively' real part of experience. Some of it, though, is more subject to our personal beliefs than others, so experiences like what ha ppens during death is not entirely the same from person to person. Sri Aurobindo spoke of 'annexes to the subltle realms', that is, personal hells superimposed on the relatively real universal projections. So, some aspects are universal, an d some are personal. But overly simple dismissive statement such as calling the light and sound illusory, or, as Ramana once told someone, a 'deep samskara or t endency for experience', or similarly calling planes or tunnels maya, is awkward and incomplete metaphysics - not the most elegant way to honor both absolute an d relative dimensions of experience. A great Zen master was once asked 'how do y ou relate to the idea of karma?' (a relative principle) He said 'a Zen master do es not ignore karma?' Nor does he probably ignore doors and walls. The various higher planes are not contained in the brain. Yogis who say so ar e experiencing reflected versions of the higher planes. This is also the Sant Ma t position. But one does go through the brain-core, as Rumi mentioned in some of his lyrical verses, and many people experience visions of light and subtle audi tion there. But it is only a step on the way.The inner realms and bardos are def initely trans-physical. When one passes through the visions of light that are wi thin the reach of the brain, pierces the moon, star, and sun, and is then pulled up by the big bell sound, he exits the brahmarendhra at the top of the head and enters the astral world. This is not the thousand-petalled lotus and the end of the road, but just the beginning of the progressively real journey to the Godhe ad. It cannot be bypassed through trickery, or a non-dual realization that is so lely physical plane based. Such paths dismiss the soul in a cavalier way. True, these planes with corresponding bodies of one's own (astral and causal; or astra l, mental, and causal, depending on the system) are temporary and within the rea lm of space and time (in Sant Mat, Kal and Maha-Kal), compared to our formless i dentity on the spiritual planes beyond. That is why Sant Rajinder Singh says you will know for sure you survive death when you reach the third plane, Daswan Dwa r, in my estimation, as this is the plane of final rest for many initiates betwe en rebirths - for those who need to reincarnate. The average soul does not have access that far up, and is limited to experiencing one or the other of the astra l heavens before passing into unconsciousness before rebirth. To complete the de ath process, one must also drop the astral and causal bodies, which is normal. T his is known as the 'second death'. Therefore, to be beyond these bodies is to k now that something real survives, even if the knowledge is not permanent, when a

nd if one is reborn with a new body and brain. One of the great modern masters of these regions with a highly sophisticated knowledge of the workings of the planes, reincarnation, and so on, was the maste r from Cyprus named Daskalos. He made a point about this issue in an interesting way - he said 'the brain cannot think. The mind thinks. The brain is simply a r eceiving station where the mind imprints its thoughts in the physical body'. In other words, not only are these lower planes not enfolded in the brain, even the power of thought does not have its seat there, but rather is in the mind, which by a kind of vertical telepathy, imprints in the brain thought and reason. [Thi s might serve as an explanation for the possibility of animals becoming liberate d. While it is usually accepted in the yogic traditions that only in the man-bod y, with an advanced brain equipped with a self-reflective neo-cortex, is the pro cess of self-realization possible, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi felt that animals, t oo, could also attain salvation. If such a brain is not really necessary, and al though it might be the exception to the rule, dependent on a Master's direct inf luence, then that would account for the famous case of Lakshmi the cow abiding i n nirvikalpa samadhi and also reaching mukti, according to Ramana's own words]. Daskalos' teaches that the soul knows its deeper self behind the outer person ality of the three bodies, and comes to final rest between incarnations at the t hird inner plane. Reaching even the first inner plane can bring strong convictio n that one survives death, but at this level one has not yet fully dropped ident ification with the astral and mental (or causal) bodies, which are also not only temporary like the physical, but are also veils that usually obscure the consci ousness of the higher, formless 'bodies' beyond these, which include formless re alization of a continuity of experience beyond each cycle of incarnation. Hence the temporary bodies are ruled by Kal, a type of 'time' linked to form experienc e, while the supracausal planes are ruled my Maha Kal, which rules the meta-time of the higher self that remains conscious of the story of evolution from life t o life. So coming to that level of identity really drives home the relative trut h of this deeper level of our spiritual nature beyond temporary bodies, physical and subtle. That is likely why Rajinder Singh made the remark about the third p lane. Again, even when going to the lowest of these inner regions, if done so with real clarity and presence, one immediately feels one is in a realm with greater relative reality greater intensity of feeling, greater vividness of sensation an d perception, by comparison with which the physical world seems foggier, denser, heavier. When experienced in a way that reveals the relative nature of each rea lm, physical and astral, for instance, the physical by contrast seems less subst antial and more restrictive. From a nondual point of view this difference is rel atively inconsequential, for in the nondual view one no longer identifies with a sense of limitation versus freedom. But this non-duality must be realized on ev ery plane. That is the reason for the various jhanas or degrees of absorption combined with vipassana or cultivation of mindfulness and insight - in Buddhism. [This is not to say that the various samadhis and jnanas in Buddhism correlate to the planes in Sant Mat; after reading the above material, it seems likely tha t they do not. One big potential difference is that they are described without t he help of the shabda-brahman, the primal manifestation of the Sat Purush, and t he grace of the Master Power, or the human master who is at-one with that God-Po wer]. However, the Buddha himself warned that one can get attached to these higher experiences, and without understanding one may return without realizing the nondual truth. This is why traveling to a higher plane by itself is not necessarily wisdom - though it can be used to cultivate wisdom - for just because a higher, heavenly world allows greater freedom of expression and fulfillment of desire, does not mean that one no longer has desire or the dualism that desire is rooted in. That is why non-dual contemplation and cultivation optimally must occur at

each level. So the true nature of what these various planes really are, and how that relates to spiritual development, is quite complex. It is possible that the current systems that exist in our world for understanding them will be consider ed very primitive from the point of view of future cosmologies. Doubts can come up, and that is why it can be good to keep sharing our experi ences and such with each other (the general world 'sangha'), to reinforce our un derstanding. Kirpal was asked if he thought Anami was the highest plane, and he apparently said "I think so, but if you here of anything higher, tell me - I want to know about it". The following may not be higher, but it is a teaching worth mentionin g - and then perhaps forgetting. The teachings that Theosophists like Blavatsky say they received from higher bodhisattvas in various parts of the world like Ti bet, India and the Middle East, included a cosmology that said that, not only, a s many teachings say, are the divisions of the universe into great planes mirror ed in each plane so that each plane has many (usually said to be seven) subplane s, but that also this mirroring works in reverse, so that the various world or p lanes we know from various systems are actually the subdivisions of the cosmic p hysical universe. And in this view, there is another octave of 'planes' beyond t he highest normally spoken of, but that any contact with them will appear comple tely transcendental to our physical consciousness.This is very advanced, and wou ld be like trying to teach calculus to a one year old. If this is true, it is a good thing that one does not seem to need to ascend through all these world to h ave liberation, as liberation seems to almost move in a different direction, as if the planes were layed out in one direction, say vertically, whereas access to the Absolute is more of a horizontal awakening. There are states that feel more whole, transcendent, liberated, universal, and that they can be accessed in our ordinary state, and that the more we develop them, the more peaceful, free, com passionate and lucid we become. Kirpal himself, in his book Wheel of Life/Mystery of Death quoted Guru Nanak, saying: "He who goes beyond the Sat Lok, He knows the Incomprehensible and the Inexpressible. It is in the Nameless that the Saints live, The slave Nanak finds peace in Him." (10) This is enigmatic, as Sat Lok (composed of Sach Khand, Alak, Agam, and Anami - the Nameless) is usually spoken of in Sant Mat as the First Grand Division tha t came into being by Divine Will, and yet we are here advised to go beyond Sat L ok. We then also have the enigmatic words of Kirpal, who said to his master, Saw an Singh: Hazur! The peace and security that I have in sitting at thy feet here cannot b e had in higher planes. (10b) And: "When Baba Sawan Singh once wrote that he did not even yearn for Sach Khand ( literally True Region, or the home of the Soul, a division of Sat Lok) but only pr ayed that he had Love and faith at the Satguru s holy feet, Baba Ji was extremely pl eased and replied that such self-surrender was indeed the highest karni (disciplin e) and assured him that he who had such a love for the Master would certainly rea ch Sach Khand, and passing through Alakh, Agam, and Anami-Radhasoami, get merged in the Wonder Region. (10c) So there is a great mystery hidden in the words of these saints. Daskalos put it in another way:

"Suppose you ask me, "Where do you prefer to be, within the self-abundance of non-conceiving being, where we find what we call happiness, or within the trial s and tribulations of our phenomenal existence?" Believe me if I have a beloved person near me, to gaze into the eyes of, to smell and cafess the loved one's fe et, I would say I prefer that. Call it weakness, call it whatever you like, stil l it is an attribute of our beingness not of our existence. Maybe this is the sa me urge within the Absolute Beingness itself that brought about the creation of the worlds." (10d) I myself have felt deep wretching feelings well up in me as of late, with the words coming out, "I don't want to go to any planes, I don't want to go to Sach Khand, I just want to see you again!" So maybe it is something like that. I saw You and became empty. This Emptiness, more beautiful than existence, it obliterates existence, and yet when It comes, existence thrives and creates more existence! - Rumi There was a story about a great Zen master who preached all of his life about the unimportance and illusory nature of the material world. At his deathbed his disciples gathered around him for some words of wisdom and all he said was, "I want to live, I want to live." Dismayed, they asked him how he could say that. " Really, really, I want to live," he repeated before passing away. That was his f inal lesson. Let's look at this all again from another perspective. Part of the problem is that we have a bunch of terms from different traditions and individuals, some o f which are the same, but sometimes given different meanings, and other times th e words may be different, but with basically the same meaning. What a mess - atm an, rigpa, soul, monad, spirit, true nature, pure awareness, buddha nature, puru sha, wisdom mind, permanent personality, Self. Which of these is the same? Which are different? What are they all? Let's take soul. Some people use it to mean o ne's inner nature, i.e., mind and emotions. Other define it as the same as the a tman (Daskalos, Sant Mat). Some use it to mean the spiritual self that is in bet ween the atman and the outer ego. For purposes of illustration, let's say the th ree main lower levels of our nature are the self that arises from identification with our temporary bodies - physical, emotional/astral and mental/causal. This can be called the temporary personality, some say personality, or the empirical psyche. Then, again using Daskalos, there is the permanent personality. Some sys tems call this the soul or higher self or inner self. This is a state of conscio usness/identity that is made up of some combination of the higher mind (vijnanda maya) and intuitive (anandamaya), with some degree of atmic, depending on how ev olved the soul is. These bodies are not dissolved eventually at the conclusion o f each incarnation. Then there is the Atman in its pure nature. To me (Hindus se em to have differing definitions) this is the level at which our identity is alr eady in nondual realization. But here is the challenge. The Atman (or rigpa) lev el of our nature, though not veiled by the lower bodies and so not involved in d ualism the way the selfhood of those levels can be, is still subject to evolutio n in that the brightness and richness of its nondual realization can grow. So du ring the course of our evolution through lives and other experiences, the Atman' s realization evolves. So this aspect of our nature is paradoxical, somewhat, to the intellect. Because it is both realized in nondualism, but is part of relati vity at the same time, and so evolves. We have an even deeper nature beyond the Atman. This is the level of our natu re that realizes it's unity or participation in the Paramatman or Oversoul or Sa t Purush. The atman seems to be realized in this understanding, but higher plane s may represent quantum jumps in realizing this truth. Further, not to say that this covers all the levels, there is that aspect of our nature that is the groun

d or nondual nature of everything: the so-called Absolute. It is best to underst and this not as a plane or realm or level of identity in the normal sense. It is quite difficult to place these experiences into a conceptual model. This seems to be a general problem that many people don't want to acknowledge - for if it w as straightforward to translate experience directly into good models, then surel y there would be much more consensus about all this then there appears to be. One of many questions is: where do the lower 'selves' come from, and how do they relate to the Atman? We have outlined a possible schema in the article, "T he idea of Man." on this website. We do not claim it is entirely accurate, but i t mirrors much of the Sant Mat description, as far as it is describable in human language.Something like this 'happens'. A 'ray of spirit' emanates from a 'deep er source' from a higher plane, which is like a breath of spirit emanated or bre athed forth. It passes through different transcendental archetypes or Ideas in f ormless realms that condition its nature. If one of these emanations 'choices' t o pass through the 'Human Idea', it will form an Atman on the fifth plane. This Atman will be the individualization in the archetype of the Human Idea of that s pirit, which becomes the seed potential for that Intelligence or atman to become Self-Realized within Absolute Realization. In a qualified nondual cosmology, li ke Aurobindo's, this would be seen to serve a larger function of some idea like allowing God to know Itself, or evolving God in some way. In one understanding o f nondualism, there is a way in which these Ideas can have a relative truth to t hem, and yet they are not the Absolute truth, as this is beyond concepts of caus ality. There can be no improving that which is beyond perfection and imperfectio n. What does make potential sense is that the Cosmic Presence emanates these ra ys of 'spirit-potential' are vehicles of serving the collective liberation/reali zation of worlds. Once having passed through the Human Archetype or Idea, the atman is formed at the seed of our potential to become Buddhas or Christs. It is therefore, in its nature of remaining close to the source that emanated it, and having its sam e nature, it partakes of a pure form of nondual realization. But this realizatio n has the potential to interact with the local environment that it was emanated into, via the Human Idea, and both be actualized in its potential for realizatio n, as well as to illuminate the worlds it was emanated into. From here the atman 's own consciousness emanates into the anandamaya and vijnandamaya bodies, formi ng a formless spiritual identity that, while still more 'permanent', is able to participate in the relative experiences of time, space and form in the lower pla nes. This becomes the center of our nature that, although illumined by the nondu al atman deeper within its nature, is, at this stage, more naturally identified with an intuitive/discriminating wisdom orientation, and is more concerned in mo st people with cultivating spiritual qualities (character) and relative wisdom. In service to that process, this level of selfhood will repeatedly be offered op portunity by the Nature or the Holy Spirit, the Shakti aspect of the Cosmic Pres ence that works through nature, to incarnate in the lower worlds through a set o f three bodies. These form the temporary personality, which is fresh in each inc arnation as bodies, but the elementals of thoughts, desires and emotions we have created life to life will be carried over as part of the karmic patterning of e xperience that we are learning through. As bodies are provided in each life, jus t as the atman was formed by an emanation from Beyond through the Human Idea, an d the Atman emanated the permanent personality/soul, so the soul or higher self will emanate a ray of itself into the temporary bodies that make up the personal ity. And just as the Cosmic Presence that emanated the ray that became the Atman remains on its own plane, having both remained Itself and emanated a ray of its elf, so the Atman remains on its own plane, while a ray of its consciousness/bei ngness mixes with the first two bodies (ananda and vijnanda) and make a new leve l of identity that is the soul, so too the soul or permanent personality, in ema nating a ray that will mix with the lower bodies becoming the temporary personal ity, will also remain on its own plane as well. This is the same way as the fact that the sun can emanate rays and yet remain in the sky, so do our inner selves

. Each time the ray reaches a new plane, it is further veiled, and looses some l ight, and forms an identity our of identifying with that sheath and its world. I n its essence, there is one self, like a cord or thread that links all the appar ent selves together. From the point of view of the atman, their is only one self on all these planes, and they only appear to be different. But from the point o f view of the other selves, until the total nature is nondual realized, they wil l have their own understanding of what they are, which will cause them to believ e they are separate. The soul or permanent personality, is much closer to the At man and so has much less of this dualism, but still will not be fully nondual in its perspective until jivanmukti is achieved. As we grow from life to life, two things are happening. The quality of the el ementals (vasanas, samskaras) of thoughts, emotions and desires that make up our personalities are gradually refined. Old ones are transformed and purified, new ones are constantly created. And as we grow the overall trend will be the refin ement of these bodies and the consciousness in them, which is significantly cond itioned by the quality of the elementals that are part of them. The other proces s that is going on is the the inner selves, soul and atman, are gradually growin g in realization, which arises from the transformation of experience in a kind o f upward flow or enrichment. It is as if the experience of our personalities in incarnation is food for our souls, which digest this experience and turn it into wisdom, virtue, and nondual realization. Even in the average soul with dozen or more lives of experience, these higher levels of identity have accumulated a fa ir amount of wisdom and character, even if this is not entirely evident in their personalities. This is because there can be a lag between the point at which a certain stage of realization is reached inwardly, and adequate transformation of the karma in the personality will allows that realization to shine through. Als o, as the inner self comes to various stages of development, within its own worl d it can realize and express a particular level or understanding and quality of presence. But it is another thing altogether to express that realization in the denser bodies that make up the personality. They are not only filled with the heavier e lementals of thoughts, emotions and desires generally reflecting a lower stage t han the soul, but the natural state of the bodies themselves is less realized, a nd so it takes greater illumination from the soul to create a personality that h as a given level of realization and virtue than it does for the soul to actualiz e that stage in its own realm. So even the permanent personality of the average soul is a rather wise being, it is just not so deeply luminous that is can illum inate three more dualistic veils 'below' it and generate a physical personality that is enlightened. Once a personal leaves incarnation, they will be gradually re-assimilated back into their soul, while their unresolved karma (as elementals on all planes) goes back into the storehouse, into a quiescent state. During th is process more learning takes place as the assimilating aspects harvest wisdom from the incarnation. So, a triple process is going on in a human being. Their a tman is gradually gaining richer and richer nondual realization. Their soul is g etting wiser and more luminous, and the personality's karma is generally evolvin g (with various ups and downs) and the quality of the elementals that make up th e form level character is also generally improving. As this process proceeds fro m life to life, the awareness of each of these levels is will overlap the others more and more. At a certain stage, the soul will have become more nondual in it s realization, but not fully yet, and the personality bodies and energy/characte r will have become refined enough that it is much more profoundly mirroring the souls realization and will. This stage we could call 'man-making' (Sant Mat) or soul-personality integration. Daskalos, Psychosynthesis and Sant Mat, for exampl es, also call this stage Self-Knowledge, but they mean the self as soul, not Atm an. When this process is very far along, where the identities of the personality and soul are basically integrated, then the personality will experience itself a

s soul and not be identified with the bodies anymore, and much of the wealth of realization and wisdom of the soul will be actualizing in the personality. Due t o the inherent differences on the various sheaths, though, it will never be poss ible to fully express the soul through the personality, and so their will be muc h that the soul understands that the personality expression will never, in a giv en life, actualize of realize. But the essence of the realization of the soul le vel, which at this stage is a level of discriminating wisdom and virtue, illumin ated by, but not yet fully identified with, the fuller nondual realization of th e Atman. So even though the essential relative love/wisdom presence of the soul was first developed on the higher planes, it has now infused into the lower bodi es. In subsequent incarnations, the karma of the bodies may be rather good and s o more easily be made to actualize the soul realization, but this is not always the case. The next stage is that the soul, having fulfilled its 'job' of guiding , nurturing and illuminating the personality, and harvesting wisdom and characte r from the personality level of experience, will not be free to fully cultivate nondual realization culminating in jivanmukti. At this point not only will the n ondual realization of the atman be extended further, but will deeply illuminate not only the soul levels, but, since the soul and personality are essentially in tegrated, then the realization will extend further downward as well. As this is an even more rarefied realization, it must be very bright in the Atman to illumi nated all the way down to the physical body so that the outer personality goes b eyond soul consciousness into sahaja samadhi. The Atman was always in this state , thought the richness and intensity has continued to grow, and now the personal ity is more and more integrated into this state. Sant Mat would call this stage God-knowledge, Daskalos would say Theosis, Vedanta sahaja or jivanmukti, Buddhis t the arhat or nirvana, and Dzogchen various things like 'rigpa united with acti vity'. So why does all this happen? From an absolute point of view - it is part of the Mystery. Or - it just Is. It just sublimely, tragically, beautifully, bliss fulness, catastrophically, ecstatically, poignantly Is. From a relative point of view, a human being seems to be a composite entity, having an aspect of our nat ure elemental forces/beings provided by the Holy Spirit/Nature as both vehicles of experience and service, through which we not only learn, but also contribute to the evolution of the very lives that make up our bodies, as well as the world around us. As these energies mix with deeper parts of our nature, it forms a su ffering, deluded being that yearns for liberation, which is accomplished inevita bly through the process. We are also made up an emanation from a Cosmic Intellig ence, who seeds us with a ray of its own nature, out of a spirit of universal co mpassion and enlightenment, which acts not only as a source of grace acting from within our very own nature for our human personality, but also extends to becom e a source of upliftment for the whole. Humans are a multilayered sacred process though which various relative lives from particles of matter to elementals, sou ls, Atmans and the Cosmic Soul all interact and realize their nondual nature and serve collective evolution. The man in the soul, transcending angelic being and guided by intellect, pierc es to the source whence the soul flowed. There, intellect must remain outside, w ith all named things. There the soul is merged in pure unity. This we call the m an in the soul, and you should understand it thus: the man in the soul is he who has accomplished all this, so that he needs no further help. What he did hither to, God now works in him. God knows him as he knew Him, God loves him as he love d Him. Thus God performs all work, and the man in the soul is bare and empty of all things. You should know what a man is like who has come to this: we can well say he is God and man. Observe, he has gained by grace all that Christ had by n ature, and that his body is so fully suffused with the noble essence of the soul , which she has received from God and the divine light, that we may well declare : That is a man divine! Alas, my children, you should pity these people, for the y are strangers, unknown to anybody. All who ever hope to come to God may well b e mistaken in these folk, for they are hard for strangers to perceive: none can

truly recognize them but those in whom the same light shines. This is the light of truth. - Meister Eckhart Sach Khand and the Soul - are they nondual, or is only Anami or the One nondu al? This question arises because in Sant Mat teachings, Sach Khand ( a division o f Sat Lok, or the region of Truth) is described in terms that suggest the Soul, even after dropping all of its koshas or coverings - the usual perceptual appara tus in the created realms - and being of the nature of pure consciousness - whic h is essentially nondual by definition - still sees light and sound and scenes o f one sort of exhalted variety or another. Yet philosophical schools will insist that this can only be metaphorical, not literal. So this question is important in regards to those contemporary nondual teachings that maintain that everything that is not the One is just of the ego, that the Soul as such doesn't exist, an d also esoteric schools such as Plotinus and Plato, where the Soul, while not th e One, is definitely an eternal existent, and transcendant to the ego with all o f its intermediate regions. Let us, therefore, look at this in some detail. Sant Darshan Singh stated: After we cross the first three regions, the physical, the astral, and the caus al, we reach the fountainhead of the Water of Immortality. And when we drink at that fountain, our soul is purified. It shakes off the shackles of the mind. Then, in Sant Mat, after crossing the next region, the supercausal, the anand amaya kosha is shed, and one is pure Soul in a realm known as Sach Khand, the 'nat ive home' of the Soul. From there could be said to be the flight of the alone to the alone - or Soul to the One - of Plotinus, or, as mystic Daskalos put it, enlig htened ascent to infinity , or, in Sant Mat, absorption of the Soul into the Sat P urush which is imbedded in the Source termed Anami. So the question is whether in Sach Khand the Soul - as pure consciousness, wi th no bodies or koshas, beyond all created realms, mind and matter, as well as m aya - is really seeing lights and scenes and hear sounds, or is that only metaph orical? And, is Soul and Sach Khand nondual, or is only Anami or the One nondual ? First, let us propose a way of viewing the ancient aphorism, "Atman and Brahma n are One", such that the criticisms of advaita (and Buddhism) regarding the non -existence of the soul or any form of individuality are put in their proper plac e and ancient yoga paths such as Sant Mat are not negated in an often cavalier f ashion Atman and Brahman are One - but not the same: an attempt at clarification The claim that Atman and Brahman are One is a stumbling block in the debate bet ween advaitic schools and those that posit the reality of a Soul. It is even imb edded in some of the Upanishads, where the two in fact are often confused. Many advaitists claim that through inquiry one realizes the truth of Atman or Brahman , the terms seemingly used interchangeably as if it really didnt matter. Yet we suggest that this can have a large impact on how one visualizes and actualizes t he nature of both the path and reality. Why, one may rightly ask, have two words if there is not a distinction? While it is in one sense true to say that Atman is not the same as Brahman, in yet another sense, of course, nothing is differen t from Brahman. The way we would like to articulate it, however, begins by asser ting that Atman is the essence of, and beyond, the five koshas, and is the first level of self-nature that has as its foundation a direct realization of its ide ntity with Brahman. On a path of inversion or ascension , Atman would be on the fif th plane (i.e., Sach Khand in Sant Mat). Yet as all planes intepenetrate, it can said to be the reality of the subjective essence of all planes or modes of the individuated being. Atman is still individualized - PB calls it Overself ( individua l but impersonal ) while anadi calls it Soul ( individual impersonality ) - but it is

a type of individuality that realizes all is Brahman (that which includes both i ndividual and universal impersonality and its manifestation, and is techincally be yond even this classification). Brahman is the totality, and 'an Atman' is an in dividual locus of Nondual/Brahman realization. So looked at from one point of vi ew, they are the same, and from another, they are different. Thus those schools that speak of Self-realization and God-realization are not incorrect. Yet, the G od-Realization part has many depths. So, is Sach Khand or Anami the main locus of nondual realization? The followi ng is rather deep. My co-writer's comments are in italics: Sach Khand is nondual enough! Beyond the higher mental or causal plane, states are formless. This means that one does not have a body in the ordinary sense. B ut...one way to understand how higher planes relate to lower planes is that incr easingly higher planes are more essential than the lower. So anything that exist s or expresses on a lower plane will be found in essence on higher planes. This is because these are planes of universality, soul, archetype, Pure Ideas, Laws, Principles. The are realms of formless Mind, Divine Abstraction, Universality. S o space does exist there, but it is Space as a Platonic Idea, and it can be expl ored and realized through attunement and at-one-ment, rather than through senses or reason, which gives a more profound, intuitive realization of it. So, too, t he senses exist in essence form in these 'worlds', but there we do not have conc rete names or even distinct or discrete sounds as in the lower, individualized d imensions, but universal sound patterns that are the vibrations of the souls of beings and things and ultimately of the Sat Purush. The deeper the plane, though , the more apparently different experiences/ideas like senses, mind/understandin g, experiencer and experienced, are all collapsing into a more nondual type of e xperience. Light, for instance, isn't any longer a medium of sense contact with an object that is perceived to be separate - Light is the knowing of a being or principle, it is the Light and you are the Light and the L:ight is the Knowing o f it all at once. So light does not bridge a gap of separation between you and w hat is perceived, it is the very experience of the Knowing of it, and in that mo ment of Knowing you and it/they and the Knowing and the Light are all the same. So it is and isn't Light, as a human being knows it. It is the nondual essence o f Light. Or Sound. Or Feeling. Or Time. Or Space. And so on. And all of this ari ses as such because it is held in, and is inseparable from, the emptiness or suc hness which is the nondual nature of everything Known. To my mind, anyone talking any more concretely than this about the nature of e xperience in planes beyond the causal as having bodies, senses, locations, scene ry or whatever, is talking metaphorically. Granted, it is extremely difficult for us to describe or conceptualize the dif ference between Sach Khand and Anami, or Soul and the Absolute. But here is an a ttempt. All levels are 'expressions' or 'part of' the nondual or primordial real ity, but Sach Khand or Soul or Overself is a state of realizing this truth withi n Relativity. Sach Khand is a type of Anami or the One, but actualized or realiz ed within Relativity, at least to a greater extent than Anami itself, which is ' beyond' Relativity, but also the seed of the state of Sahaja Samadhi when actual ized in physical consciousness. The peace emanating from Sach Khand or the Soul is the blessed result of Divine Grace liberating one from the craving for separa te existence. Anami or the Absolute is radically transcendental and cannot be de scribed at all, but is certainly not 'inferior' to Sach Khand, which, as its dir ect, inseparable expression, cannot also not really be spoken of in human langua ge adequately. It is true, though, that often experiences of any of these states do not at once lead to profound transformation of our human nature. Hence, diff erent degrees of 'adeptship'. But actual mastery of access to these states, espe cially as attained in higher realms of existence, because it infuses our being a nd consciousness with such illumination, wholeness and love, can be very purifyi ng, inspiring and fortifying, and even add to our wisdom. Much depends on one's

prior understanding and overall maturity. For ultimately it is wisdom that is li berating, by whatever path we attain it." "To put this another way, Anami, as experienced exclusively in inversion, is a form of nondual realization that is not one that is being experienced as actua lized within the context of relativity. Sach Khand is, although it is actualized within the formless planes. Sahaja samadhi, however, is the form of nondual rea lization that is actualized on every plane of Relativity. Anami and Sach Khand a re both seeds of sahaja, while also the already existent presense of nondual rea lization that is eventually manifested as sahaja." "More concisely, Anami, Sach Khand, and sahaja samadhi are all forms of nondu al realization experienced in different contexts. Therefore, in their essence, t hey are the same. We can say, however, that sahaja represents an important stage in the individual's process of enlightenment as they illuminate all the bodies with nondual realization, culminating in its realization on all planes, not just Sach Khand and above. From the point of view of the human desire to attain libe ration, sahaja samadhi is 'better', not because it is different in its essence f rom Anami or Sach Khand, but because it represents the fulfillment of realizing nondualism at the level of human nature that expresses the liberation of human n ature from dualism and personal suffering. Realization of nondualism in inversio n in higher planes (such as Sach Khand and Anami) deeply transforms the essence of individuality that has inverted and absorbed itself into those levels as an ' inner' experience, but, until that same nondual realization is manifested, such experiences do not yet necessarily represent the stage for the individual of ill uminating the lower consciousness with enlightenment. Only to a degree. Not comp letely yet. So it is possible to, for instance, gain access in trance to experie nces of the nondual nature or essence of reality, but not yet have attained saha ja samadhi, because the latter requires integrating that into the lower planes. So the essence of nondual realization is the same at any level, but, from a rela tive point of view, we can talk about ways and stages of realization and actuali zation of it." "One more thing. Just as there is an individual who is ignorant (from a relat ive point of view), so only 'individuals' can be enlightened. Ignorance and enli ghtenment both happen to individuals. And therefore the Soul is not an 'obstacle ' but an intrinsic element of enlightenment itself, a necessary locus for this a ctualization, in contrast to what many nondual teachers may assert to the contra ry." Even in Sant Mat, then, there may be a 'stage' beyond Anami, which would be f ull integration of the relative nature, in thought, feeling, will, and intellige nce, with the Anami realization, as true and complete sahaj samadhi or its equiv alent as described in many teachings. This would be Nanak's, "truth is above all , but higher still is true living." This cannot just be handed over by a guru. I t is a product of long discipline and development. Even if it could be granted, in most cases one would not be able to bear the strain. Kirpal used to say to pe ople who even asked for just higher experiences, "If a parent was asked by his c hild for poison, would he give it to him?" The rapid infusion of light would rev eal so much of our dark nature that we would be overwhelmed with the worst in us , which must be faced gradually to be safely achieved. For any real enlightenmen t must be an integral one. Similarly, one longtime devotee who had done much int imate service asked Kirpal to 'take him up' to higher planes, and Kirpal replied , "well, that sort of thing could be done, but I am afraid that you would not be able to carry on here once you came back. Plus there is still some work the Lor d still wants to take from you." The message here is also that in Sant Mat much is veiled until the necessary karma is cleared, and the more karma you have volu nteered (knowingly or unknowingly) to be cleared, will determine when and how mu ch in the way of such experiences one will have in this life. The second point, as mentioned, is that it is wisdom that ultimately liberates consciousness, not

just experience - even seemingly of the highest kind. The meaning of any experie nce must be extracted, not just the having of the experience, which isn't always an automatic result. One must rationally and intuitively understand and embody one's experience for enlightenment to turn into liberation. There must be the mo ral development, both seeing the negatives in oneself, amending them, and also a ctualizing the positives, that is, aspiring towards one's sacred ideal. The good , the true - and the ancient Greeks would add the beautiful - must simultaneousl y become known. There is no having the one without the others. In fact, they are synonymous. So the path is a delicate and complex matter. Can we then even speak of the longing of the Soul as existing between Sach Kha nd and Anami, or from the Soul to the One, in the same way as the emanant of the Soul in the created realms 'longs' for its source in Sach Khand? Not really, as desire has been so illumined by the time one 'reaches' the state or realm (for it is both) of Sach Khand that from there to Anami it does not feels like longin g any more. Human terms are simply too difficult to apply there. The Sants simply call the force propelling the Soul onwards and higher "love" . Anami is the "ocean of Love", the "wonder region," yet, paradoxically, also de scribed as without attributes, in almost every school. For some it may seem rath er cold and impersonal to pass from Sach Khand to 'nirguna' Anami, or from relat ive Divinity to a transcendental Void. However, this great Void is the 'fullness of Reality', and such concerns are unjustified. The same trepidation may be sai d of the transition to each higher, more abstract and formless plane, such as fr om the lower to higher astral, or from the astral to the causal, and so on. This is due to one's attachment to the lower nature. It is not just our blemishes bu t our limited understanding that holds us back. But as one matures, the more sub tle qualities of the higher (which contain the essence of the lower, so nothing is really 'lost') becomes more appealing and attractive. "From what I do know, and also from various other sources I have read and enc ountered, it works like something like this: each plane can seem, especially the higher ones, when viewed from lower planes, like they are more 'empty', have le ss 'juice', are less appealing. This is due to one still being attached to some relatively lower level of experience. But however sublime the states may be, ade quate experience will eventually lead the practitioner to ripen into an attracti on to what is beyond, and to become 'disillusioned' with the lower planes, as th ey are more veiled and therefore reflect less of the fullness of the transcenden t reality. If one tries to approach a higher plane or realm before one is ripe, it may appear boring, confusing or even scary. But with adequate ripeness, it wi ll begin to appear more profoundly fulfilling, blissful, complete and sublime. B y the time one reaches Sach Khand, the veiling is so thin that the radical, prim ordial Reality is shining through so much that the sense of oneself as separate or needing anything else is deeply eclipsed by absorption in nondual Presence. F rom here to Beyond, human language fails complete to not only describe the State , but also to explain why one 'goes higher', or 'does' anything at that stage. P erhaps one could say that it is not one's individual will or longing or desire o r aspiration that leads one further, but the very nature and momentum of spirit and the Universal Will that brings the Spirit to Anami. But frankly, these are t erribly inadequate words. From another point of view we could say that, since so me very fine veils still remain, that the power of one's realization, and one's communion with the Transcendental, continue to fuel a process that inevitably le ads to higher and higher states of realization. For these are not simply realms of immense quiet and stillness and peace, but unimaginable realms of transcenden tal realization." While difficult to put into words, nevertheless the saints have tried to 'des cribe' it, albeit metaphorically. Plotinus also makes a lyrical attempt, which w e shall soon see, which puts a sublime feeling in the heart.

First, however, how do we reach there, knowing that our source in 'Sach Khand ' is also our True Nature? The sages have always placed a great emphasis on the developing of intense longing as preliminary. True, some teachers, both traditio nal and modern, say longing is a desire, and all desires are of the ego, and thu s to be eliminated. But previously one had a million desires, and now there is o nly one. And, as Paul Brunton wrote, "since the last act in this spiritual drama is played by the Higher Power, why not let it decide what to do concerning the matter?" (10dd) Sri Nisargadatta calls this earnestness', or the homing instinct . H ow to achieve such a quality, such a state - which is natural to our Soul - is w hat the quest is all about, to which there are many, many aspects. A simple anal ogy may be derived from the natural world. To get fruit, what must happen? First , there is preparation of the ground. Then a seed is planted - maybe many seeds. Then the tree begins to grow. To get fruit, first here will be blossoms. Before the blossoms appear, there must be rain. Need this be explained? Preparation of the ground is the building of an ethical base: self-control, kindness, truthful ness, patience, ahimsa, and the enduring of the furnace or tapas of psycho-physi cal purification, a key to which is faith and trust in the adept's influence. Th e sowing of seeds are good thoughts, words, and deeds. The rain are our tears of longing, born of the conscious experience of separation. No tears, no blossoms. As PB states: "It is better for his real progress that his eyes should fill with tears of r epentance than with the tears of ecstasy." (10ddd) The blossoms are insight and compassion for others. The fruit is the true man , and it falls when it is ripe, as we pass into a higher life. PB speaks of this quality of longing, of aspiration, as follows: Aspiration which is not just a vague and occasional wish but a steady settled and intense longing for the Overself is a primary requirement. Such aspiration m eans the hunger for awareness of the Overself, the thirst for experience of the Overself, the call for union to the Overself. It is a veritable power which lift s one upward, which helps one give up the ego more quickly, and which attracts G race. It will have these desirable effects in proportion to how intensely it is felt and how unmixed it is with other personal desires. (10dddd) This longing - in a rarified and essential form - may justifiably be said to be what 'carries' the Soul, already beyond time and space, to ultimate union wit h its own, higher Principle(s), its own Source. Potinus calls these the Nous and the One, in Sant Mat, Anami. However, it does not reside there permanently (aga in, limited language as she is also eternally one with it), but 'returns' as Sou l, since she is herself eternal. In fact, Soul and the One, or Anami, are so clo sely related that Kirpal once wrote that between a Sant (one who has access to t he fifth plane, or Sach Khand), and a Param Sant (one who reaches to the eighth plane - Anami) 'there is no difference except in nomenclature'. Was he purposely vague? I don't think so, just facing difficulty translating transcendental expe rience into human terms. Plotinus tries, however, and speaks of it beautifully: Suppose the soul to have attained: the highest has come to her, or rather has revealed its presence; she has turned away from all about her and made herself a pt, beautiful to the utmost, brought into likeness with the divine - by those pr eparings and adornings which come unbidden to those growing ready for the vision - she has seen that presence suddenly manifesting within her, for there is noth ing between: here is no longer a duality but a two in one; for, so long as the p resence holds, all distinction fades: it is as lover and beloved here, in a copy of that union, long to blend; the soul has now no further awareness of being in body and will give herself no foreign name, not man, not living being, not bein g, not all; any observation of such things falls away; the soul has neither time nor taste for them; This she sought and This she has found and on This she look s and not upon herself; and who she is that looks she has not leisure to know. O

nce There she will barter for This nothing the universe holds; not though one wo uld make over the heavens entire to her; than This there is nothing higher, noth ing of more good; above This there is no passing; all the rest however lofty lie s on the down-going path: she is of perfect judgement and knows that This was he r quest, that nothing higher is. Here can be no deceit; where could she come upo n truer than the truth? and the truth she affirms, that she is herself; but all the affirmation is later and is silent. In this happiness she knows beyond delus ion that she is happy; for this is no affirmation of an excited body but of a so ul be come again what she was in the time of her early joy [as Soul]. All that s he had welcomed of old - office, power, wealth, beauty, knowledge - of all she t ells her scorn as she never could had she not found their better; linked to This she can fear no disaster, nor even once she has had the vision; let all about h er fall to pieces, so she would have it that she may be wholly with This, so hug e the happiness she has won to. (10ddddd) He here gives the One attributes (i.e., happiness ), although elsewhere he does not. Such is the paradox these sages face in describing what can not truly be de scribed. So, study this with discrimination and see if it fits. We think the saints ar e being kind to us in their descriptions of these lofty states, which are truly beyond human imagination - when they say one will see 'God as a person', or that the master's form, after undergoing transformations in the different subtle pla nes, will be seen once again as a man on a throne in Sach Khand - but this analy sis correlates with the Buddhist explanation of the realms of form and formlessn ess, as well as with that of some traditional Hindu yoga schools. More on Sant Mat and Non-Duality Here is another way of looking at non-dual realization in terms of Sant Mat. In the state of nondual presence (atmic realization, rigpa), when integrated wit h human experience, there is awareness of the world as sensations, thoughts, des ires, emotions, and so on, and even advanced experiences like the Sat Purush. Bu t, as these phenomena arise, they are accompanied by a lucid wisdom, a direct sp iritual realization (beyond not only intellect but even intuition) that each phe nomena that arises in one's consciousness is actually buddha-nature (or whatever one wishes to call it - emptiness, the Tao, Brahman). So there is a kind of dua l perception where maya presents itself to nondual presence/ awareness, moment t o moment, as experiences of apparently separate phenomena, and remaining rigpa o r atmic vision means that one does not slip into experiencing this phenomena as of a separate nature from oneself. The witness is empty. The phenomena is empty. The Sat Purush is empty. Nothing but emptiness witnessing emptiness. The power of this realization liberates the phenomena that is arising as well, so that the karmic power driving some of these phenomena is liberated by the power inherent in the fact that one 'perceived them nondually' (to use a clumsy phrase). This state is different than nirodha, or internal nirvikalpa samadhi, in which all ph enomena have temporarily ceased arising. Many Vedantists immersion in this kind of nirvikalpa can have great power to enhance the clarity of one's nondual reali zation, but it has no power to liberate remaining karma/vasanas because they are not being allowed to arise so the can be liberated in the presence of nondual r ealization. They have been set aside in order to enter nirvikalpa trance. But it may be that this state does strengthen the state of rigpa or nondual presence w hen one does re-emerge. [That is the value of repeated immersion in the shabda-b rahman and higher planes]. In Dzogchen various stages of nondual contemplation are described that are de termined by the depth of power one has developed in the intensity of rigpa or at mic realization, so that, for instance, vasanas may need to arise repeatedly to be fully liberated, while in the more advanced stages the liberation of vasanas is instantaneous. Further, advanced Togal practices are employed to cause a more

enhanced expansion of nondual realization that is more like turning on a light in a room full of karmas, liberating many at once rather than in succession, as vasanas usually arise in human consciousness. But all this business of karmas/sa mskara/vasanas being liberated as they arise in nondual presence is really a rel ative and progressive view of what is happening. In the state of rigpa, there is not concept of changing, liberating, transforming, purifying. All phenomena ari sing are seen as a nondual energetic (shakti) display of one's own nature, selfperfected from the beginning, and not obscuring anything. At a higher stage, th e practitioner gains the ability to access the nondual view or realization, but only in meditation. The karmas that remain in one's nature are experienced as an obstruction that block out nondual awareness, but one has the ability to use on e's will to penetrate through the obscurations and enter 'the view' at will, non dual presence, rigpa. At an even higher stage, one is continously stabilized in nondual realization, but some personal karma remains. This would be just before Sach Khand, if one is practicing non-dual vision simultaneously with meditation. But one's point of view is that these karmas, arising in one's experience, are no longer 'in between' oneself and emptiness, causing obscuration. It is as if o ne has moved to the other side of the cloud of thoughts, emotions, sensations, e tc. that continue to arise, but now one experiences them as nondual, so they are no longer experienced as an obstruction to nondual realization. This is a harde r realization to attain than simply accessing nondual realization in trance, bec ause in the latter, one has set aside these apparent obscurations to make it eas ier to see behind them to emptiness. This can help gain access to the nondual st ate of presence, but it will not be stabilized in one's ordinary awareness until it has gained an intensity werein phenomena are no longer experienced as an ob struction to realization, and further, each moment of phenomena is fully expe rienced nondually, on all planes. This takes greater intensity of realization. In Sach Khand, personal karma has been exhausted, so that the intensity of nond ual presence is not only greater, but is more fully integrated with the lower b odies, releasing more of their latent potential for expression. This is probab ly why there has been debate in Vedanta about whether nirvikalpa or sahaj samad hi is Self- Realization. Technically nirvikalpa feels like liberation, and in a very real sense, is, because one is in a liberated state of presence. But one' s karma is not fully liberated until Sainthood is reached, so one could say that the bodies will express a higher degree of liberation at that stage, especially the causal body. As each plane is mirrored in every other plane, then Sach Khand, for instance , has a reflection in each form dimension. Every incarnate master who is in atmi c or nondual realization is a type of reflection of Sach Khand in the physical w orld. 'Shambhala' would be the planetary manifestation of a kingdom that reflect s Sach Khand in the physical world (though many believe, as makes sense to me, t hat this would be more 'etheric' physical, as that is the physical subplane that mirrors Sach Khand). Since each plane reflects a version of each other in a way that is conditioned by the reflected plane, the reflection of the lower planes in the higher is more difficult to comprehend, as it realized as the essences of lower manifestations. So, for instance, we do not have earthy objects in the fo rmless planes, but the Idea/essence of the earth element as a pure light/sound/I dea exists there. So, too, does Time exist there, but as a pure Idea, not as an sequence of events and a sense of duration. There is a reflection of Sach Khand on all three of the lower planes, and it is perfectly real. It is not someone's imagining of it. It is just as real as an y physical place, though in a certain relative sense, it is more real, as it vib rates with a much greater sense of Beingness, or Reality, and so leaves one with a more powerful sense of the 'substance' of it than physical experience does, b y comparison. But, when talking about journeying to higher planes, if we are tal king about the deepest meaning of moving plane by plane, withdrawing from each b ody in turn until reaching Atman/Sach Khand, then it would be more allegorical t o talk of form environments and such, even though that is very real too. The for

mless experience of Sach Khand, though to our ordinary human nature may sound un appealingly impersonal or abstract, is actually even more sublime in its purity than the form level reflection. But since the part of our nature that is attuned to that level is, whether form or formless, in a more nondual state, then the d ifference doesn't matter so much. In a sense the higher realms intermediate between the lower three worlds and the divine planes are the realms of Platonic Ideas and Ideal Forms, not forms in the material sense, but the abstract archetypes upon which manifestation is bas ed, as well as the primal causes behind manifestation. Some of the keys to under standing the realms to my mind are these: (1) From a nondual point of view, the essence of the realms must be the same. Ultimately the essence of all planes is Brahman or the Nondual. (2) At the level of dualism, again the nature of the planes is the same. So i f a lower plane can be said to be 'material', then in some essential way, all th e planes are material. And if some planes can be said to be planes of spirit, th en all planes must be spirit in some sense. Since one meaning of Spirit is the N ondual, which is not against or in contrast to anything, then when we say that t he higher planes are purely or deeply spiritual, then what does this mean? They are spiritual in two ways. They more readily reflect 'realization' of the Nondua l, so they seem more spiritual than the lower planes. But the lower planes can r eflect nondual realization as well, as in sahaja samadhi, so that is not a chara cteristic that is limited to the higher planes. The atman may be the part of us that always realizes its nondual nature, but all planes can do that. So another meaning of spiritual that can be applied to the higher planes is that they are m ore universal. This is a key understanding. The nondual and the universal are no t the same, though they are often confused. The universal is part of relativity and duality, for it gets its meaning in counterrelationship to the particular, t he individual, the specific. (3) All of the planes, then, represent a spectrum of states from what, to our dualistic perception, will appear at one end of the spectrum as a plane of almo st pure form, the material plane all the way up to a plane that is almost pure S pirit or Mind, ultra-universal. This last plane reaches into the very foundation s of the essence of mind and consciousness itself, like the notion of Unity, Pol arity, Selfhood, Infinity, or Eternality. These kinds of Pure Ideas, liberated f rom being perceived as being tied to any specific manifestation of them, form th e very highest planes - Luminous, Eternal, Infinite, Expansive, Liberated. But t hey are not the final nondual, because they are part of a spectrum of experience from form to formless, specific to universal, finite to infinite, which still p artakes of dualism, and so is not fully liberated, in the original Buddhist sens e. (4) The formless, Mind, universal planes are planes of greater wholeness, coh esion and unity, because the nature of Formless Abstraction is that is moves dee per and deeper into identification with Categories of Reality, Universal Ideas, Principles, Archetypes and Laws. We shift our focus from the realm of particular s that these Universals are the Soul of, the underlying Formative Patterns that hold all specific forms in shape, as well as provide the forces that interrelate forms as laws from Love and Gravity to Karma and Time, to the realm of Universa l, and we will feel timeless, blissful, whole, unified, silent, peaceful. This p rovides a powerful foundation for nondual realization, but is not the same. (5) It is easier to reflect nondual realization in our nature that exists in these higher planes, so if we journey to, or attune to, this higher level aspect of ourselves, we will not only be aware of the universals (sometimes, at first, only as simple qualities like silence and eternity), but we will also connect w ith a level of our nature that has already developed a good measure of nondual r

ealization. This can confuse people about the nature of these planes, making peo ple believe their inherent nature is nondual realization. That is kind of true, but not really. (6) The planes can be looked at as existing in a continuum divided into three main groups. The first set of planes is dominated by form, bodies, objects, ind ividuality, matter. The highest set is dominated by Spirit, Universality, Pure M ind. The third set of planes is in the middle between these two, and has a relat ively greater balance of spirit and matter, universality and individuality. (7) There are three form planes - physical, emotional and mental (this last is reall y a material form of mind, not true Universal, Abstract Mind. It is filled with images, words and other forms of mind that are very personal, earth bound, formbased.) (8) The highest three planes are planes of pure Mind - Universality. It is ve ry hard to name these planes. The lowest of these is the fifth plane counting fr om the densest, most material, and is the home of our Atman. (9) The middle plan e, making seven in all, is the plane of spiritual intuition. (10) All the planes have seven subdivisions that mirror the greater seven pla nes. So, for instance, the physical plane has seven subdivision, the highest thr ee being ethereal or energetic/pranic, and is the formative foundation for the d ense body. These three levels mirror the highest three planes, which in the larg er divisions are the 'ethereal, Universal Planes. This etheric or pranic aspect of the physical level of our bodies is where the seven chakras are to be found. These have a profound relationship to the seven major planes, but also have othe r levels of meaning and functioning. The other four planes are the planes of ear th, water, fire and air. They make up the dense physical body. (11) The next two planes are also planes of form, so they are realms of shape, form, bodies, envi ronments, objects, events, etc. They are also divided into the etheric aspect an d the dense aspect. They are the astral and mental. The dense aspect of the ment al plane can be called the concrete mind, as it is the aspect of our human intel ligence that visualizes and names forms. The etheric aspect of the mental plane can also be called the higher or abstract mind or mental body. In some systems i t is called the causal body. It is used by the higher self (atma/buddhi) for int eracting with the lower planes. (12) The fourth plane, the intuitive, is more formless, being in the middle, but still has what some have called 'formless form'. It is a meeting place betwe en the higher and the lower, and a plane where the levels of pure mind can inter act with form, and a level where our form-based human consciousness can begin to look directly into the more purely Universal planes. (13) Mirroring the larger pattern of dividing the planes into three groups, t his middle, soul/intuitive plane can be also divided into three levels. In Sant Mat the lower aspect, which is more 'tainted' with form, is Daswan Dwar, and the higher, etheric aspect is Bhanwar Gupha. This latter is the threshold to the hi gher trinity of planes. The exact mid-point, an point of profound equilibrium an d balance between the lower and higher, is the fourth sub-plane of the fourth pl ane. This is called Mahasunn is Sant Mat. The place of perfect balance is also t he point of darkness. (14) Beyond all the planes is the ground of them all - the Nondual, the Absol ute. This reality can be accessed in different ways. The part of one's nature th at is identified with the densest plane, the physical, and ascends through the p lanes, thus gathers experience and a more balanced relationship to all of them, and can then experience transcending them all 'through to the top', in which cas e the nondual will seem like it is another plane above the seven planes (or nine if you count the subdivisions of the intuitive). But it is also possible to pie rce through the planes directly to the nondual from any plane. Doing this will a

lso bring with it increasing access to all the other planes, as this liberates o ne from the dualistic identifications that give rise to the separate planes in t he first place, so they all become accessible from the base of nondualism. (15) In this schemata, the anandamayakosha is the same as the intuitive body. As this is a plane that still has a balance of spirit and matter, the matter as pect gives rise to 'bodiness'. But as it is relatively more formless, partaking deeply of the qualities of the higher planes, it does not have the kind of shape the lower bodies do. It is a formless body. Hence it blissfulness. This body is also beyond the vijnandamayakosha (discriminative sheath), so lacking the more dualistic judgmentalness of that sheath, the anandamaya is free of self-judgment , guilt, condemnation, and the like, which is another reason it is blissful. It is not the bliss of SatChitAnanda, though. The latter is the bliss of nondual aw akening. This sheath is the home of a very conscious aspect of ourselves. In the average person, it is not as nondual realized as the Atman, but it is wise and compassionate. If the average person where to immerse themselves in the anandama yakosha without actually transforming into the consciousness of that level of re alization, it would go into an kind of unconscious blissful sleep, deep sleep. T hat does not mean that this body is an unconscious body, but rather that is how the ordinary jiva or incarnated self would experience that level. But if one is raised to that level by transforming into the anandamayakosha-self, one would ex perience a great illumination and expansion of consciousness. It is only one vei l removed from the atman. Kirpal Singh said that it is almost like an integral p art of the Soul itself. A few words might be said about the Intuitive Body, midway between the lower three bodies and the spiritual planes above, as this is not discussed very much in any of the literature. Although not having a three-dimensional shape like the physical, astral and mental bodies, and also being beyond time and space as exp erienced in the psychophysical levels, the intuitive body does have a kind of for mless form and as such is still considered a body or sheath that covers the innermost Self, Spirit or atman. The intuitive body contains the pure archetypes, ideas a nd principles that form the foundational matrix for our more concrete personalit y and physical life. The intuitive body is also the more permanent aspect of our reincarnating identity, being the body where the seeds of karma generated in ea ch incarnation, as well as in our experiences in the astral and mental worlds, a re stored between incarnations. It is also the level of our nature where the ess ential wisdom and character developed through each incarnation is integrated and preserved. While each of the three more spatially manifested bodies (physical, astral and mental) have seven major chakras, along with the primary channels or nadis, that form the foundation of each body, the intuitive body contains a more essential version of these etheric centers that expresses as a single, multi-fa ceted and multi-dimensional chakra or lotus that is the essence of the intuitive body of a human being. This may be called the soul body and has also been called the egoic lotus . As this meta-body or lotus manifests on the lower planes, beginning at the etheric mental level, it differentiates into a more three-dimensional sh ape with seven spatially distinct chakras and numerous lesser centers and channe ls. The intuitive body has been called the karana sarira or causal body in yoga, t he ananda-maya-kosa in Vedanta, the soul or higher self, and the permanent perso nality (Daskalos). This level of consciousness and identity is but one level rem oved from the atman or liberated spiritual Self. (16) The vijnandamayakosha correlates to the higher mental body - the reasoni ng, discriminating, thinking body. When this sheath is illuminated with higher r ealization, it becomes a source of relative wisdom and moral discrimination. (17) The manomayakosha is a combination of the lower mind and the emotional b odies. It is also sometimes called the kama-manas, or desire-mind. (18) The pranamayakosha is the etheric physical body, with chakras, nadis, an

d meridians. (19) The annamayakosha is the dense physical body, the lower 4 subplanes. The body dependent on food. (20) Ultimately all the planes are actually interpenetrating, so that manifes t throughout the whole form dimension are the universal dimension. They have no meaning without each other. And, implicit within universals are their particular s that 'express' them. The two realities are mutually interdependent and co-aris ing. So, if one deeply investigates the physical realm, one will gradually disco ver the underlying univerals that the physical is founded on, and so will find t he univeral expressed in the particular, and the particular implicit in the univ ersal. We can separate them out in our consciousness for various purposes, but i n nondual awareness we grow in our appreciation of their profound interdependenc e. This is a basis for the jnana path. Karma, as such, is 'plane specific'. Any attachment or aversion to anything a nd a given plane forms a karmic link to that plane. One is liberated from a plan e by ceasing to be anything but purely equanimous towards it. This can be accomp lished in various ways, but results in the same thing. One must not only cease t o be currently tied to that plane, but must also neutralize past tendencies of a ttachment or aversion formed in relation to that plane. Since the physical is th e coarsest plane, it is generally easiest to develop equanimity towards that pla ne first, then refine our detachment and realization towards subtler worlds. Mor e advanced initiates are developing a most sublime form of nondual realization t hat comes from complete indifference even to the most sublime formless realms. T his, of course, is the hardest level of equanimity to develop. Since the three bodies are the ones that are the lower three vehicles that ar e temporary with each incarnation and define our human nature as beings manifest in form, when one has completed karma at those levels, one is fully liberated f rom human karma. There are two ways to define liberation, one, as a state of min d, and, two, as freedom from karma. At the fifth level (Sach Khand)one is both i n a nondual state of mind and has fully exhausted all three levels of human karm a. At the fourth level (Banwhar Gupta) one is also in a 'liberated' state of min d, sahaja, but the very subtle mental/causal karmas are not yet fully exhausted. But this is not so much karma that it obscures the ability of the individual to remain in a nondual state in which they no longer experience dualism, nor do th ey experience the remaining karma as a problem. Since they are in the nondual vi ew at the fourth already, they are liberated, though they have some remaining su btle or causal karma. The inner realization of a master is uneffected by whether or not they have karma yet to play out. But if there is some karma left, some i ntegration to achieve, it will contribute to conditioning the manifestation of t he body(s) of the master. Thus there may be greater degrees of Mastery despite r ealization of Sach Khand. In Sant Mat, there are apparently considered to be several levels beyond the Atman: Alak, Agam, and Anami, the latter variously also called Nirala, Radhasoam i, Maha Dayal, etc.. These levels are also recognized by many schools such as in Buddhism, some schools of Hinduism (Sri Yukteswar, for example), and certain sc hools of Western esotericism. They may have been referred to by even Zen Master Seng Ts'an as the "realms of Suchness." One reference speaks of Hakuin referring to eternal realms for the Srakakas and Pratyekabuddhas (Arhants), Bodhisattvas, and the Buddha, beyond the tradtional six cyclic samsaric realms of birth and d eath. The Tushita heaven is mentioned as the liberated abode where await the Bod hisattvas destined to incarnate on this earth as Buddhas. Shakyamuni was said to have waited there. This sounds much like Sach Khand. Beyond all planes of the relative universe is Brahman or the Tao, the nondual or primordial reality. The Nondual is beyond all these levels and yet is the es

sential nature of all levels. No level is closer to Nondual than another, althou gh some levels, particularly the subtlest three, are much more conducive to dire ct realization of the nondual or Absolute. We can group the highest planes toget her as formless planes that give easier access to increasingly liberated nondual realization. In these planes or levels one s awareness and being are not only inf used with direct perception of the Absolute, but also an awareness of one s relati ve Self or Atman (rigpa in Dzogchen) as liberated and luminous, and being of the same substance as the Absolute. Here one also encounters the Universal Presence or Logos, the essence of all awakened Being. But even the realization one has o n these planes grows, and so we must not equate these worlds with a particular l evel of developed enlightenment. The densest three planes are the most veiled. These are often called the real ms of separation or maya, not because they are intrinsically less divine, but be cause these realms are characterized by a perception that everyone and everythin g is separate, limited and imperfect. Remember, each of these worlds are really states of consciousness or understanding, even though the greater maya or veiledn ess of the densest realms gives rise to the illusion or appearance of concrete fo rms, beings and an objective universe. Once again, the intermediate or intuitive plane is a transitional realm, with two or three divisions, depending on classification, partaking of the character istics of both the higher and lower trinities. It is therefore a kind of doorway between the formless realms of nondual illumination, and the more concrete real ms of form, time, space and activity. We might also say that the subtlest three planes are planes of purely universal states, and the densest planes are the rea lms more dominated by awareness of particulars. The middle realm is the realm of intuitive awareness of the interrelation of the universal and the particular, t he unity in diversity. Even though the higher worlds, being less veiled, can make access to nondual realization easier to develop, this direct perception of the nondual can be had from any plane or world, because each level can be purified and transformed so t hat it can reflect the Absolute. And each level gives a new richness to nondual realization, so that until nondual realization is developed in all levels, one h as not yet developed the fullest, most balanced awakening. All of the planes and bodies interpenetrate. There is only one reality, altho ugh we must respect the apparently real distinction between the absolute and the relative, which have their own laws, until we achieve full transcendance. All p lanes are aspects of one truth, the truth of our individual nature and the natur e of the universe (the macrocosm being in the microcosm). In Tibetan Buddhism th ey speak of the three kayas: Dharmakaya (or body of truth), Sambhogakaya (or bod y of light), and Nirmanakaya, (or physical body). Everyone has these, but they m ay be experienced both from a dualistic or enlightened point of view. The totall y realized individual may manifest these bodies at will, for the sake of others. Thus, the Perfect Master has a human body, A Radiant form, and a Truth 'Body' o r Sat Purush. In the non-dual perspective or complete realization of the adept, all of these and their corresponding energies and/or worlds may be enjoyed separ ately and non-dualistically as spontaneous manifestations of ones own true natur e, while also knowing that they are not in essence separate from one another. Th ey represent unlimited possibilities for the completed, non-dually realized Mast er, who can therefore meet you and be with you at all times and anywhere, since, in truth, he is not separate from you either. One need only be open and availab le to this truth. That one must do, yet even if one lacks this capacity, even th en Grace will find a way to make itself own. That is one special gift of this Pa th. One initiate wrote: "Sant Kirpal Singh often repeated, If you knew how much I love you, you would be dancing all around kissing the ground and hugging the trees. How can we unders

tand these words correctly? The lucky souls who have been honored with the gift of this peerless heavenly Light and Celestial Music are the most blessed beings on this planet. Such like grace is unfathomable, and incomprehensible..It is a l ove that has no burden, knows no burden and beatifies everything it touches. It is a love which is eternal, everlasting and unconditional. It is in fact the Lov e of our Creator for us...I had the truly amazing blessing to be with His Holine ss Sant Kirpal Singh in Kashmir, India in 1973...As it happened the great Master had taken us on a picnic one afternoon to a remote spot near a sparkling river at the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. The scene could not have been more idyllic. The snowcapped Himalayas glistened in the distance, their scintillating presence encircling us like great ancient kings. We sat on the banks of a gushi ng river with water as clear and pure as a heavenly fountain. On either side lus h green grass and tall pine trees cloistered around us providing shade from the afternoon sun. Master Darshan who was then the gurmukh disciple of Sant Kirpal S ingh, began reciting some of his poetry in praise of Hazur Baba Sawan Singh. Sud denly a great wave of love descended upon us permeating every particle of our be ing. At one point he remarked, It is a great blessing to have a living Master. Mas ter Kirpal abruptly interrupted him and added, No it is the greatest blessing. His words were so charged with love everyone immediately fell into a kind of divine stupor. With those words a single tear gracefully fell from Master s eye and with it all creation seemed to weep. We too were carried off by this heavenly rain o f grace and every eye became filled with these precious pearls of divine love. T o this day, I cannot find words to express the immense love and grace I have fel t then and now. Having met these great beings of Light even once in my life woul d have been a blessing beyond my comprehension. But to have spent countless hour s, days, weeks, and months in their divine presence is a gift which is unfathoma ble. Each of these great Masters Param Sant Kirpal Singh, Gracious Master Sant D arshan Singh and His Holiness Sant Rajinder Singh is a gift to humanity so immen se it is beyond human description and reckoning. Each has brought such precious and wondrous gifts of love and compassion to each of us and to millions of souls . How can one repay such blessings? Such divine grace is worth sacrificing thous ands of lives and hundreds of thousands of hearts. I am constantly and continual ly in awe of their unending beauty, love and perfection." Each of these planes of consciousness has seven subplanes that mirror the maj or planes. The subtlest three subplanes of the form planes are called the etheri c aspect or dimension of each plane. The three lower worlds, being realms of for m, time and space, are populated by many forms of life, and are made up of count less worlds and landscapes. Just as the physical universe is made up of vast num bers of worlds such as subatomic realms, jungles, oceans, continents, planets, s olar systems, galaxies, and so on, so too the astral and mental planes comprise an even greater variety of these realms, all just as relatively real as the physic al universe. So, for instance, there are astral and mental dimensions that are e qually a part of the total reality of our planet, where there are events and dra mas transpiring that affect the totality of the Earth. The psychological worlds (astral and mental) are populated by countless beings, all inhabiting regions th at resonate with their karmic conditions. Subsequently, the various realms may b e categorized according to their level of consciousness and karma, which we find named in various traditions by such terms as heaven realms, hell realms, purgat ories, the realm of hungry ghosts , etc. Thankfully, on the path of Sant mat the in titiate is led straight through or beyond all of these bewitching and bewilderin g sub-regions. The advantage of the non-dual view One of the perks of the nondual view is that is collapses stark distinctions and appearances of separation. The notion of many planes to traverse to reach a certain realization or state has the disadvantage of reinforcing dualism, making it seem like these state, experiences, realizations are so far away. That is a common criticism of paths like Sant Mat. Even though the guru (the good ones) wi

ll remind us that "in Him we live, move, and have our being", that the planes in terpenetrate and so the eradication of karmas is possible continuously while in the physical form, that they are all even accessible to our intuition even thoug h the mystical faculty is not fully developed, we still are posed with a goal th at seems a long way off. Those on many so-called direct paths face the same real ity, only they don't know it. For instance, many nondual teachings like Zen or A dvaita help cut through these separations, but stably realizing the desired stat e takes a long time, in most cases years. Integrating the implications of nondua l realization with the relative level is an almost endless process and accounts for the many stages (who knows how many?) beyond jivanmukti. When one looks at t he careers of many spiritual teachers, especially it seems like for those of a n ondual bent, one may notice that it is often clear that this maturing of realiza tion that has to do with integration with relativity is very evident, at least i n their early stages of experience and teaching, and often problems in this area continue throughout the rest of their lives. Nondual spirituality in particular is very subtle and difficult to integrate maturely, and so many realizers have weak areas of this integration on various levels. Moreover, actually having not only authentic nondual realization, but one so integrated as to reveal all the l evels of the universe and our nature to us in a state of nondual presence, is ve ry difficult to actualize. The pointing out instructions can make it sound so ea sy - just rest in your nature state; surrender to your true nature; be here now; embrace choiceless awareness. But anyone who has really tried to do this, and h as any insight into what it actually does mean to realize these things will find that it is, for most people, a long path. An advantage to paths like Sant Mat i s that the process describes a series of experiences and attainments that are ha rder to delude oneself about whether they are happening or not! If you can't ris e above body consciousness, you certainly haven't reached a higher plane than th at either. Now, some people who are following more nondual paths will say that t hose types of experiences are not necessary, that you can attain realization wit hout them. Well, that may be true. Many masters say so. But a true test is that anyone with significant nondual realization theoretically should more easily dev elop the ability to traverse the meditative path described by Sant Mat, because significant nondual realization will express as freedom from believing you are a nything but buddha-nature, and so it should be easy with a small amount of pract ice for a true nondual realizer to drop body awareness and traverse the planes, if they want. Most say they don't want to, but I challenge them to consider the same if they are actually dying! An example of this is Dipa Ma. In her fifties she began doing vipassana. Wi thin a year or two she attained a high level of realization (obviously advanced from past life practice). Her teachers then wanted her to develop samadhi power and siddhis to demonstrate to other students that these aspects of the training were also possible in modern times, and that, since she was so gifted, they figu red she would develop in these areas to a high degree. They were right. Since fr om her vipassana practice she had advanced very far in transcending dualism and ego identifications, within a few months she mastered all eight jhanas, could en ter nirodha or nirvikalpa at will, and then proceeded to master all the traditio nal siddhis. She mastered the elements, so she could do things like imagine the ground was water, then dive into the 'ground' and emerge all wet. She could mani fest more than one body, levitate, read minds, travel into the past or future the whole works. She did not have any of these powers for samadhi or siddhi befo re the training, but it all came very easily because of the depth of her nondual realization. It may be the case that if a person does not have easy access to t hese kinds of states and abilities (whether or not they choose to develop them), than their nondual insight is limited, that it won't last through the after-dea th states, for instance. If an initiate of Sant Mat is really in the doldrums because of their suppose d 'spiritual density' - the result of the liability mentioned above - might reme mber this. Saguna Brahman (the Master, the Word, Shabd, Cosmic Christ, Adi Buddh

a) and Nirguna Brahman (the Absolute) are both inside but also right here. They are the true nature of our experience and being here and now - not only in some other world. It is possible to experience them that way also. It is a particular approach to go within and drop the veils one by one and experience a type of jo urney to uncover these Realities. But it is not necessary, say many sages. Becau se at a deeper level, it is really just a change of understanding of the nature of what is right here. So some folks might talk about it as a path, a journey, a quest, and so on, which draws on a spacial aspect that, if approached a certain way, will be quite (relatively) real and powerful. But to the jnani (in all of us) it is also to be realized through an awakening, a change of perspective, tha t can take place right here in the context of our ordinary experience. If we pur sue the first approach, we invert awareness and follow the sound current or a ma ntra (which will merge like a stream into the sound current eventually), or othe r methods. If we wish to realize it here and now without inversion, there are al so many methods. Some of the most direct and simple are to cultivate basic quali ties like awareness, presence, equanimity, contentment, peacefulness, calm, and so on. They are part of the basis for Sant Mat as well. By doing so, awareness i s gradually purified, karmas released, and the nondual will be revealed to us he re and now (and Saguna Brahman, too, if we are directed how to see it, or if it just comes naturally to us due to karma). In this approach, the same veils are ' cut through', but they are not set aside, but rather more like cleansed so that they reflect the nondual. So in this approach we can experience awakening an lib eration without the inversion. For many people that is the most suitable approac h, more natural or accessible. Anyway, it is worth considering this even if one is successful in their practice in Sant Mat. A little contemplation never hurt o ne's meditation, but will only make it stronger and more productive. A scan of some Sant Mat sites show them trying to correlate certain states an d practices with specific inner planes. For example, 'nirvikalpa samadhi' is equ ated with Parabrahm, 'bhakti yoga' below that (super-causal, anandamaya kosha), gnana yoga below that (mental plane) and so on. The problem of this type of topo logy where one identifies different paths with different planes and bodies is, p recisely, that it assumes an inversion path. It assumes that if one holds to a f orm like inquiry, which is presumed to be located on the intellectual plane (alr eady an uninformed view), then one cannot pass beyond that plane with that techn ique. But from the point of view that all planes interpenetrate, and any plane o r state can be 'realized' on any level (for instance, nirvikalpa samadhi can be realized from any dimension), then wherever one may hold a focus becomes a plane one is limited by. But the real heart of a path is the state of consciousness/r ealization it cultivates, which may use a seed or focus such as a verbal inquiry , mantra, breath, visualization, nada, formless awareness, etc. but that does no t mean that one's realization that unfolds is limited by the plane that the focu s is 'situated' on. If that were so, then it would not be possible to bring nond ual realization into the physical world, as the objects of physical consciousnes s would obstruct it. But they do not - not in sahaja samadhi. So this whole noti on is false. A path is only limited by the practitioner's ability to realize the whole in the context of whatever their path is - devotion, inquiry, discriminat ion, mantra, breath, vision, etc. Anything can become a doorway to everything if the practitioner opens to that realization. But this notion has definite meaning in the context of inversion paths, as on e does need to relinquish the content of one plane to ascend to the next, and so in that context, some paths are able to go higher. In Sant Mat, one must even r elinquish the Nada to get to Anami. In that sense, all paths are limited unless one makes the final move to drop the path and surrender to that which transcends all paths. So it is understandable why inversion practitioners believe this. Bu t what they do not understand is that not all paths use this approach. Ramana sa id it was usual to go from savikalpa to nirvikalpa to sahaja, but that it was al so possible to skip the inversion phases and go right into sahaja. And, of cours e, this is well known to all the Buddhist who use awareness/non-inversion practi

ces like vipassana, shikan-taza, zazen, mahamudra and Dzogchen. None of these re quire inversion or relinquishing an object of focus such as the breath. Of course, there is also the 'path of fire'. Whether set in motion by past li fe practices, the guru, or even the Sat Purush, once the 'fire' is activated, it can take one to the goal. Also, remember that Patanjali said liberation can res ult from meditation, kriyas, austerities, or the grace of the guru. So even all the above debate about inversion versus awareness modes of practice, is not the only way! Kirpal Singh, in referring to someone's comment about the noble spirituality of an old initiate, said, "Look here! If you spend your whole life by the fire, don't you think you will get some heat?" So guru-yoga, when by great fortunate i t becomes one's only option, or when it becomes activated within you, can accomp lish the whole thing without techniques or technology. One is reminded of a Tibe tan lady who spent her days watching her Lama eat his breakfast, someone who jus t wanted to watch his Rabbi tie his shoes, or the man who spent forty years simp ly fanning Ramana Maharshi. Of the latter the late Robert Adams remarked, "He's not coming back!" Shabd-Brahman as the Creator of the Worlds: A non-dual perspective Some with a non-dual bent, such as an ajatavada vedantin, would not agree tha t there is causality or Creation, per se, or a Creator. Yet saying that there is just an appearance or a thought does not do full justice to the mysterious natu re of relativity. This topic is too huge for this paper, but it is entirely poss ible to give due credit to the greatness of the Shabda-Brahman without the notio n of it as the Creator. For non-duality, beyond polarities, is incompatible with the notion of a Creator. Let's just say that the Absolute and the relative are intimately and mysteriously interwoven. Let's say also that there is a type of U niversal Presence within relativity that could be called Ishvara, Saguna Brahman , Adi or Primordial Buddha, Shabda-Brahman, or the Cosmic Christ. In this view, this Presence is the Universal personification/integration of all enlightened re alization throughout relativity. But it did not cause or 'create' relativity or Maya itself. This is, of course, just one view, and it is one of if not the most difficult principle to grasp for all but the committed non-dualist. It is the c osmic principle or Presence of the guru/savior/master/liberator. This Cosmic Pre sence does have vast creative capacity (reinforcing peoples misunderstanding tha t it is The Creator), and is active in profound ways throughout the universe, no t just inspiring beings towards awakening individually, but also expressing thro ugh cosmic hierarchies of buddhas, bodhisattvas, principalities, archangels, log oi, etc. to create environments (like Earth) and opportunities (like the human f orm) for beings to use to accelerate their awakening. The origin of the Universal Presence is as mysterious and transcendentally un answerable as all the other 'imponderables' like the why and how of relativity, or what is the self. Pure nondualism views relativity as having as its true natu re the nondual absolute. Therefore, questions about the cause of origin of relat ivity are ultimately trying to separate something nondual into 'beginnings' and 'endings', 'causes' and 'effects' (such as God and Creation). In the nondual vie w, these categories don't apply. They are much too small to come close to captur ing the infinite Mystery of the absolute and how relativity 'is' within and as t he absolute. So, from within this cosmic Presence within relativity arises the human Guru as well as the Shabda-Brahman, which is an enlightening agent for human beings. Within this greater Presence, mysteriously pervasive within relativity, are Cosm ic Enlightened Intelligences responsible for creating systems such as the planet s, the human forms, the elements, reincarnational sequences (in this instance,th e 'Lords of karma') and so on, but they did not create the Maya in the first pla

ce out of which all of this is built. This may all be mind-boggling, as it was t o me when I first heard of it. To sum, the Shabda-Brahman is an enlightened Pres ence within relativity that can appear to pull a ripe soul into itself, to such high levels that one becomes one and indistinguishable from it, and its non-dual saturating capacity. At its highest levels, we realize that the essence of the 'Name' is the truth of non-dualism, indistinguishable from the truth of our soul . We realize the nondual truth underlying it all, which is the foundation of the realization of Shabda Brahman. One can say that the Shabda Brahman (the 'nada' or Sound of God ), expresses the realization and presence of the universal Logos (the Word ), the Transcendent Pers onality or Primordial Buddha. Beyond this lies the Void or Nirguna Brahman. We m ight think of the nada, then, when fully realized, as the sound of nondual realiz ation , or the sound of the Christ Logos . Another way we can come to understand the nada is as the audible vibration or emanation of sat-cit-ananda, or transcendent Beingness, Consciousness and Bliss . This is also referred to as pranava, sphota, Naam, anahata nada ( the unstruck sound ), the music of the spheres , the sound current , the flaming sound , the sounding flame , the Celestial Sound, Bani, Logos and Kalma. T he fullness of awakened or Christ consciousness is manifest as the nada, and con tains and emanates such qualities a universal love, bliss, power, creativity, jo y, purpose, wisdom, illumination, clarity, harmony, equanimity, devotion and bea uty all arising from the ground of nondual Presence. The essence of the nada is the song of this universal Presence. it is all this, but doesn't have to be seen as the 'Creator' Itself! On lower planes, names are signifiers, pointers at things or beings. But at d eeper levels of experience, the 'name' of something is how the Beingness of some one or the Sat Purush vibrates to our transcendental soul hearing. At this level there is little distinction between 'name' or intrinsic sound vibration, presen ce/beingness and realization. They are merging and increasingly hard to our incr easingly nondual perception to separate into aspect or part. Name, form, mind, s oul, heart - all one in Sach Khand. The 'name' of the Primordial One is Shabd, T he Word, Logos. If we use our intuitive hearing to listen to the sound vibration of the 'realization' of the Sat Purush of Adi Buddha, we will hear the Shabd. W e will hear it according to our own realization. So at the beginning, we don't h ear it at all. Not enough spiritual development. Then we hear it and it just sou nds like an impersonal sound. It is like we are too far away, so we don't hear i t with much realization of what it really is. But at least we hear it! Then as o ur intuition grows, it becomes sweeter, more alluring, more blissful, more uplif ting. Our realization of what we are really attuning to be listening to the soun d current is growing. Eventually it will grow into a experience where the sound is not separable from the direct understanding of the Cosmic realization that th e 'name' is the Presence, is the Realization, is the Sat Purush, is one's own So ul. At a relative level, one way of looking at the nature of the Adi Buddha or Un iversal Enlightened Presence is that it fueled by the same process of awakening that underlying each person's individual Self-realization. It is the sum total o f all wisdom and virtue arising throughout relativity. One of the polarities we find in relativity is Universal - Particular or Personal. Just as we have person al, individual, particular expressions of Realization, there is also a Universal Personification of Realization. That is the Cosmic Christ, Adi Buddha, Sat Puru sh, Saguna Brahman, Universal Presence, as those terms are defined in a nondual context. As a Presence within relativity (just as a jivanmukti is), it has attri butes of being enlightened, omnipresent (hence 'universal presence'), loving, li berating, wise, creative, etc. Hence 'saguna'. It is the actualization of nondua l realization within relativity on a universal, personal/impersonal cosmic scale . On a relative level, the ripe soul will experience the Shabd as a power or cu

rrent drawing one into deeper awakening. How one concentrates on it will determi ne the way one experiences that unfoldment. If one does it in a Sant Mat style o r like Sri Yukteswar, then it will unfold as a journey through planes. If one do es it, for contrast, as in Dzogchen, then one will integrate the unfolding reali zation into the continuous awareness of body and mind rather than going into tra nce. The latter will inevitably come to those on the trance path also, but, as w e have said, by a gradual infusion of the trance states with the human level. Relativity is that dimension of reality that has some apparent veiling over t he Truth. And in the end, it is only at the level of relativity that the questio ns arises 'what is the Absolute? What is relativity? How do they relate? Why did it all happen? There can only be two ways to attempt to answer these questions - one is two look for the answer at the level at which the question is posed - a t a relative level. And there you will always get a relative answer! If you want an absolute answer, you must go to the level of the absolute, because that is t he Truth. There, the question is 'answered' by realizing that having the questio n was the problem. The question poses the issue in terms it can understand withi n its own current context. The final answer comes from liberation from the conte xt in which the answer arises - relativity, duality. So while in a way there is no path, there is a way out. Non-causality/non-creation is the most difficult problem in epistemology. Bha ktis usually want nothing to do with it! We have tried as best we can to show a way of easing into it, in the context of the practice of Shabd Yoga, to present Sant Mat in a favorable light to the non-dual spiritual schools such as Advaita, Zen, etc.. So, to summarize the non-dual view, where the polarity of Creator-Creation, o r Absolute God-Isvara is still only a relative one, the Shabda-Brahman can be th hook of grace as teacher Edward Salim e liberator or Principle of liberation, the Michael termed it, and not be the Creator at the same time. This is how to inte rpret the issue from a non-dual, non-creation level. Get it? Nothing essential i s lost by taking this view, it is just another way of looking at things. Kirpal Singh in The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga said that there was no cre ation per se for the Absolute, but championed the view of shabda-brahman being t he divine, ancient, eternal way provided for man by God. To offer a parallel, si mplified yet ancient schemata, we will refer to the explanation given by the gre at Paramahansa Yogananda, whose teaching, with minor modifications, is very much like that of Sant Mat. Yogananda's tradition was steeped in both yoga and class ical vedanta. He taught, in essence, based on Hindu and Christian scripture (and his own inner experience), that the ineffable absolute Spirit (Nirguna Brahman) produces a divine illusion (Maya) from its own desireless-desire or causeless-c ause - much as Sankara argued - thus becoming an as-yet-unmanifested Trinity of transcendant Father (Saguna Brahman/Isvara), Christ-Logos, and Holy Ghost (creat ive power of 'Aum' or shabda-brahman). So far, the Vedantins and ajatavadins sho uld be satisfied satisfied, because the veil of maya is cast by the Absolute in order for 'creation' to proceed. There is really no creation in or from the One, the ineffable Absolute, and all explanations or stories given for it becoming S aguna or a Trinity are only stories. We can not know why it 'heaved' and produce d something apparently other than itself as IT is, even though, in our exegesis, as yet only transcendentally (prior to manifestation). Thus, the domain of rela tivity is produced through Maya, which is none other than the supreme Spirit. Ho wever, this truth is only known to Isvara and those who know Isvara. The Christ-Logos is the pure reflection of the intelligence of the trancendan t Father of this Trinity within creation and is inseparable from and directs the Holy Ghost or Aum vibration in creating universes, and which is also itself a l iberating presence within creation. "No man can come to the Father except throug h Me," said Christ, which did not mean him personally or exclusively, but that n

o man could come to the transcendant Father beyond creation without attuning to the 'Son' or Christ Consciousness, its pure reflection within creation. Creation is thus a divine illusion with a divine liberating principle inherent within it . This is what Christ taught, according to Yogananda. (10e) As Isvara or God is itself one with Nirguna Brahman or the original Spirit, and not itself veiled by maya, realization of it (God) is the goal for man, 'beyond' which are mystery a nd paradox. [Sankara himself, says Yogananda, was one of the great siddhas who r ealized Christ-Consciousness, which may surprise many advaitins, who do not real ize that he was a great yogic adept and not just a champion of the talking schoo l of jnana yoga]. This is very similar to the teachings of creation in Sant Mat, with any apparent differences being in the description and enumeration of the v arious planes and bodies. Yogananda tended to simplify them, while his master Sr i Yukteswar, used a more elaborate explanation. Yogananda also distinguished bet ween maya and avidya. Often these are considered interchangable by philosophers, both Vedantic and Buddhist alike. However, maya for Yogananda is Universal or d ivine illusion, which 'allows' for creation, while avidya is individual ignoranc e which is responsible for man not perceiving or knowing the presence of the Chr ist-Logos and Holy-Spirit within creation. "He was in the world, and the world w as made by him, and the world knew him not." - John 1:10. To calm any heated brains, burdened with talk of levels and planes, we offer the following excerpt from the famous Lankavatara Sutra which should be a healin g balm, with which we will close this section: "Thus passing beyond the last stage of Bodhisattvahood, he becomes a Tathagat a himself endowed with all the freedom of the Dharmakaya. The tenth stage belong s to the Tathagatas. Here the Bodhisattva will find himself seated upon a lotuslike throne in a splendid jewel-adorned palace and surrounded by Bodhisattvas of equal rank. Buddhas from all the Buddha-lands will gather about him and with th eir pure and fragrant hands resting on his forehead will give him ordination and recognition as one of themselves. Then they will assign him a Buddha- land that he may possess and perfect as his own." "The tenth stage is called the Great Truth Cloud (Dharmamegha), inconceivable , inscrutable. Only the Tathagatas can realise its perfect Imagelessness and One ness and Solitude. It is Mahesvara, the Radiant Land, the Pure Land, the Land of Far-distances; surrounding and surpassing the lesser worlds of form and desire (karmadhatu), in which the Bodhisattva will find himself at-one- ment. Its rays of Noble Wisdom which is the self-nature of the Tathagatas, many- colored, entra ncing, auspicious, are transforming the triple world as other worlds have been t ransformed in the past, and still other worlds will be transformed in the future . But in the Perfect Oneness of Noble Wisdom there is no gradation nor successio n nor effort, The tenth stage is the first, the first is the eighth, the eighth is the fifth, the fifth is the seventh: what gradation can there be where perfec t Imagelessness and Oneness prevail? And what is the reality of Noble Wisdom? It is the ineffable potency of the Dharmakaya; it has no bounds nor limits; It sur passes all the Buddha-lands, and pervades the Akanistha and the heavenly mansion s of the Tushita." (10f) Does one get a sense from all of the preceeding that the depths of spirituali ty and actual nondual realization described herein makes much of contemporary te achings, and some traditional ones, seem like a very small slice of reality, a l ittle quiet mind and sense of presence, behind which lies unfathomable depths? S urely something to ponder thoroughly. Of course, many such teachers will say, "y ou are only making conceptual distinctions, just forget all these 'stories' and the problems of life and death will be solved." Yet, is it really so, or a all-t oo-common misunderstanding? What exactly is the Sat Purush?

To recap, in Sant Mat, the exfoliated soul, having left behind all koshas, is said to meet the Sat Purush in Sach Khand, the true Home of the Father, who abs orbs it into itself and 'takes' it to the nameless and formless realm, Anami Lok , which is technically not a region per se but Reality. The soul in Sach Khand h as gone past the realization in Bhanwar Gupta where it first (in the downward di rection) could be said to be felt individualized as a distinct soul, albeit vast and interdependent, with but one covering, the anadamayakosha. In Sach Khand on e could say that the soul realizes a nonduality of both both oneness and differe nce as the same, or indistinguishable. In terms of the three eternal Primal Hypo stases of Plotinus, one might say it realizes its inseparability and oneness yet distinctness within the Absolute Soul. The perfect Param Sant is generally said to have become one with the eighth plane consciousness or Anami, 'beyond' even the august realization of Sach Khand. The very word 'beyond' is limiting, as we are beyond time, space, and the mind at this point. Thus, in his 'Dharmakaya' fo rm or 'body of Sat or truth' the Master personifies the Sat Purush for his disci ple. Hence come the metaphors in the tradition of disciples seeing their guru on a throne in Sach Khand and being thus amazed that their very own master is 'God '. But how may we express this function of Sat Purush in a more non-dual way? Fo r certainly, how can 'pure consciousness' be said to 'move' or 'go anywhere'? It is quite mysterious, is it not? Here is our attempt: Sat Purush is the Eternal, Universal Guru All talk of this reality is limited, metaphorical, and of necessity stepped d own. It, in reality, is a vast, mysterious, transcendental reality that the indi vidual Soul will always be in awe of, growing forever in realization of It's nat ure, and empowered by. Do not go in for glib pseudo-nondual teachings that dismi ss it (or similar ideas/terms like Saguna Brahman, Ishvara, Narayana, Adi Buddha , Absolute Beingness, etc.) as a subtle 'maya', the last veil over the 'real tru th', and similar superficial condescensions. The true nature of the Sat Purush i s an eternal, transcendental Mystery. It's reality is fully compatible with nond ual understanding (though many people mistake it for a 'first cause' Deity), and It can, with a certain superficial simplicity, be defined as the sum total of a ll nondual realization throughout the universe, even transcending time, meaning all nondual realization that ever was or will be. And, of course, it is not 'loc ated' on some plane, but is equi-present to all planes, being the Perfection of Universal Nondual Presence. The individual only seems to first contact it in inv ersion paths such as Sant Mat in 'higher planes' as that reflects the individual 's experience of setting aside enough veils to be able to perceive it. But at de eper stages of realization, its Presence is throughout all planes. And, of cours e, each Soul is one with the Universal Soul (Sat Purush). Phrases like 'It takes you into the Nameless One' are our clumsy human ways o f trying to talk about stages of realization that are truly transcendental, and so fully transcend any words or descriptions about them. The Sat Purush is in a state of Nondual realization, so it 'showing us' our nondual Anami Reality is pa radoxically really only also bringing us to a deeper realization of It's own Emp tiness, which is not beyond the Sat Purush, but our deeper appreciation of that 'aspect' of It's nature and our's. Words so fail here, but those advaitins who a rgue that Sat Purush is 'just maya , or a concept', are seriously short-changing the path and reality, in our opinion. The Sat Purush is God and all that entail s, as far as man is concerned. Let us examine this issue of the soul, or individuality beyond ego - a stickl er for advaitists and traditional Buddhists - a little further. Although while e nwrapped in anandamayakosha (in Bhanwar Gupta) the Soul is very individualized i n its own Self/Soul realization, this is not an 'aloneness' per se, but a state of deep wholeness and interdependence consciousness. It is relatively formless a nd immersed in virtue, so that one feels great interconnection with others and a feeling of a larger Presence. It is beyond birth and death, a 'semi-eternal rea

lm', at least until a 'Grand Dissolution'. [Be it noted that in Buddhism they re fer to realms such as this as - beyond the six samsaric existences as the 'Pure Abodes' (suddhavasa), accessible after death only to non-returners [an?g?m?: a p erson who has abandoned the five lower fetters (sa?yojana) that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth, there to attain nirvana, never again to be compelled to r eturn to this world]. But in Sach Khand one is reborn into a more deeply trans-v irtue state of nondual Being that, while not the highest state, brings forth a m uch more immediate sense of our nondual nature, as well as our 'integration' wit h the Sat Purush. Mystics, in their physical consciousness, will emphasize diffe rent aspects of these states depending on their nature and training. Some emphas ize 'oneness with God', other nondual awareness, some both. But states beyond ev en this ("realms of Suchness" in Buddhism, or those for the Arhants, Bodhisattva s, and Buddhas') - or in Sant Mat, Alakh, Agam, Anami - and, in some lineages, R adhasoami or Dayal Desh beyond this - and ever-deepening, become increasingly di fficult to fully realize in a body, so that aspects will be 'missed', and the na ture of these states are typically oversimplified - 'no-self', 'differences tran scended', etc.. The whole affair is more subtle than that. Also, the notion that there is no individuality beyond ego or the mind is not so cut and dried (empha sis on 'dry'!) as it is in advaita and some Buddhist schools. Consider this: it is a given that the planes and bodies all interpenetrate ye t without co-mingling, so inversion is not necessary for non-dual realization. H owever, on an inversion or ascending path, for example, how could one pass 'upwa rds' into higher states like Sach Khand or Sat Lok and beyond, and be 'lead' any where, and have this result in growing spiritual attainment, if there was no ind ividual that this is happening to? There is a type of individuality on every pla ne, but beyond the mental plane it takes forms rather unfamiliar to humans in a physical body. Even the true nature of astral and mental consciousness and exper ience is a greater form of identity (traveling from one location to another by t hought, communication by telepathy, synaesthesia, etc). But the nature of indivi duality in each higher plane becomes more 'realized' and deeply interdependent w ith everything. And the levels at Sach Khand and beyond (and their correlates in other systems) include a direct perception of the nondual nature of everything as well. But nondual realization is so nondual that it does not negate or reject anything, including individuality (i.e., hence the saying 'samsara and nirvana are one'). In fact, nondual 'realization' requires individuality as a focus. Onl y 'individuals' can have nondual realization. Perhaps this is why some teachings , such as the Avadhuta Gita, say 'It' is beyond duality and non-duality, althoug h these are only concepts. The essence of the very nature of individuality at th ese 'levels' is that they are based in the realization that all relative phenome na and truths perceived are nondual in their nature, but without eclipsing any o f them. Individuality, universality, eternity, time, space, love, bliss, Shiva, Shakti, karma, Sat Purush, forms, bodies, planes, elements, realization - all th ese and more are realized as nondual in essence, and simultaneously illuminated by this realization at a relative level in a way that does not erase them, but i nstead reveals increasingly profound and subtle insights into the vast interdepe ndence of all these relative realities. There is no need to negate individuality , but only continually deepen our realization of its transcendental and mysterio us nature, deeper and deeper. At a certain stage of this realization it becomes apparent that the 'presence' of the experience of individuality does not obstruc t this endlessly deepening realization, but is basic to the experience of nondua l realization within relativity. So we do not get rid of the self or individuali ty, but rather go deeper into more profound realizations of what it 'really' is, outgrowing lesser, more limited, more superimposed understandings. Most teachin gs and practitioners that feel they have radically and finally transcended relat ivity and realized an Absolute have not really done so. "Satguru is ever-present, never think He is far away." - Sikh hymn

A few points on Simran, spiritual intuition, and hierarchies of 'inner' masters There are many masters who don't currently have bodies who have disciples and 'colleagues' in the physical world, so there is a need for 'inner' contact in s uch instances. In a few cases fellow disciples with more advanced access may als o be used as intermediaries for messages that those without such inner access ne ed to hear. Usually the person receiving such advice will be spiritually sensiti ve and equipped with the discrimination to appreciate that guidance; otherwise, such special communications will not be forthcoming. Another topic is that there is also a spiritual hierarchy so that even some a dvanced masters on earth may still have 'superiors' that are not in bodies yet f rom whom they receive inspiration. For instance, the Buddha posited eight levels to full liberation. The fourth level was that of the realized soul or Arhat, wh ich might be considered the equivalent of Sach Khand or Atmic realization. Above that were more advanced levels of mastery. Bhai Sahib (Irena Tweedie's guru) ta lked about receiving guidance from his 'higher ups'. Its just the way it is. But it brings up some issues - how do we know when it is true contact? This is very important. One can certainly use repetition of the Sant Mat mantras as advised by the ma sters to 'verify' the positive nature of the being one is in contact with, espec ially and mainly in the lower planes of form, and also especially for those who have not yet grown to spiritual maturity. This is something each person must det ermine for himself, keeping in mind - without paranoia - the traditional stories of even great yogis 'falling from the heights'. But there is eventually an even more essential method. Similar to the way we all grow in maturity as human bein gs, and as we do, we become better judges of character, so that when we met some one, for instance, we gain greater ability to see their strengths and shortcomin gs, we also overall learn to have a sense of the quality of their presence. Peop le would ask Ramana how, when chosing a guru, do you know if they are Self-reali zed?, and he would say things like, 'by how much depth of peace you feel in thei r presence'. In the inner planes it is even easier to do this, because people an d beings are less veiled than in physical bodies. So someone may try to present themselves as being enlightened, but if you have some basic intuitive ability to sense beyond surfaces and contact their inner nature, their character/motives/e nergy/presence - that cannot be faked. Peace, love, clarity, joy - these are not qualities the Negative Power, or others who would mislead or deceive, are able to fake. So the deepest way to know who you are dealing with is to develop enoug h soul awareness yourself so that you know soul when you see it, so to speak, an d then you can't be fooled. Moreover, at some level it is much easier and faster , more economical, to communicate without words.This is not a common ability, to be sure. Many people these days make these claims, but do not have real experie nces, or lack consistency, so that it is made a travesty. Simran is a temporary technique for stilling the mind, opening doors, purifyi ng energy, building positivity, and dispelling darkness and dark powers. Its val ue is largely transcended at higher stages when one has a greater knowledge of s oul, and finally, has the wisdom to clearly and unequivocally distinguish Truth and Maya. The Dark Power is a maya. When one is far enough along the path, one k nows what is what and is not easily deceived. Since Dark Forces have no access t o planes beyond the lowest three (up to the mind or causal), nor do the mental f aculties that could repeat a mantra then access to those above them, which in wi sdom terms means adequate insight into, and identification with, soul, means tha t the use of tools like simran as a method of discrimination are not only not po ssible, but are no longer needed, for your intuition is now trustworthy. Most of the people who think they can do this are not there yet. This is why it is safe st to tell people to use simran all the time. But at some point one must use one s own direct realization to make this determination.

Another point. Masters in their inner nature have a much greater depth of per spective than in their physical personalities. So if you contact a master direct ly in their higher bodies, they may know things that their physical personalitie s do not. For instance, any master who is fully honest will tell people that, wh en they have come into the student's meditation or dreams, for instance, that us ually the masters physical consciousness was unaware that this was happening. If they are advanced enough, they will be able to confirm that it did happen (or n ot). But that does not mean they were aware of it when it was happening. Bhai Sa hib acknowledged this, for example. There are many things masters know at higher level that are not known to their outer selves. This is because the veils of th e lower vehicles may have been thinned and illuminated by their spiritual develo pment, but they are still veils, and so diminish realization, power and understa nding in their bodies. A great master still brings through a lot of Soul/God Con sciousness into their bodies, but not anywhere near what they have on the inner levels. This is why masters who have reincarnated in bodies for centuries can be said to be so much more richly realized than a younger master, even if there in ner level of spiritual evolution is the same. Because it takes time to ground mo re and more realization. It is not just a matter of reaching a certain level but also of integrating that with the physical consciousness. There is a thing call ed the enlightenment of the intelligence. Some say this takes much longer than j ust reaching a certain inner state. This is part of the value behind a lineage, where the masters can, so to speak, watch each others back . One reason that some 'hidden' or 'ascended' masters also work through discipl es via inner contact is that they are expressing an aspect of their service/dhar ma on this planet that may not be what a specific personality they may also have in incarnation at the same time is designed to understand, due to the time or p lace. For instance, when a person leaves their body and has realization in a higher world, they are not always able to bring it back. For instance, it is possible for someone who was advanced enough and living a thousand years ago to go to hig her world and to realize The General Theory of Relativity. But when they went ba ck into a 1000 A.D. body and brain, they would not have the context for writing a paper on it like Einstein did. There was not advanced enough science and physi cs around to allow the brain to realize it. They may be able to have a mystical, poetic insight into it. But not the detailed, sophisticated version. This is al so true in spiritual science. The personality, karmic past, culture, spiritual l ineage, special training, etc. that are the context and co-creative conditions f or that body will influence what intuitive realizations can be brought back from higher planes, and in what way. Some realizations on those planes are so profou nd that masters can experience them there, but by the time they come down throug h the bodies it will be filtered into a profound, mystical, incomprehensible fee ling, with little content. Two thousand years from now future masters will be able to bring down much mo re of that realization. This is part of the mystery of how the relative and tran scendental levels or realization interact. Masters have penetrated the transcend ental so that they are Self-Realized, or God-conscious, but the relative aspects of their realization will be influenced by their own unique development in thes e areas, what they have studied intellectually and intuitively, what there linea ge understands and does not. This can be seen in how widespread outdated and lim ited and silly ideas are in various traditions made up of great masters. When th ey go to higher planes, they merge into levels of themselves that often have con trary ideas to what there outer personalities still participate in. We can think of it as one of the ways that masters take on the karma of the world. It is not just as taking on physical or psychological karma . They also take on the belie fs of humanity, their culture, their lineage, and gradual transform and illumina te it all. But some of it will not be transformed yet, but will influence their outer self. Much of these limitations are not what the inner master believes. On

e might call this a virus affecting a lineage. So in Sant Mat, for instance, we get outer masters saying things like "avatars go only up to the causal plane," o r "only our masters go to the highest," or even "Anami lok is the final plane." Whereas some sensitives have received inner confirmation saying things contrary to all of that. In Christianity, as another example, they say that Jesus was not a man who became God-realized, but God-incarnate come down to earth, but, how d o they know that? Who had the acuity of discernment to distinguish the Christ-Lo gos from the Solar Logos, or the planetary Logos, or simply an advanced realized Master? To use another analogy: what if a Master's higher self, as far as relat ive wisdom and knowledge, is like a professor in a university. On the higher pla nes, they have mastered half of the departments at the university, while at the absolute level they are Self-realized. So they have professorship in a large num ber of areas. In the human world, it is not only not necessary for them to bring through all this into their physical brains, but it is even impossible for some to come into our world at this time in history. It would be like trying to teac h the full spectrum of Tibetan Buddhist teachings to cave people. Not only is it not useful, it could not be done, because the level of development of the whole of humanity, the particular culture and tradition, would also influence what co uld be incarnated in their bodies as relative understanding. So much will always remain, for various reasons, on the higher levels of a masters consciousness. S o sometime even a living master will say one thing on the physical plane, but if you could ask the same question of their inner self, they would have another an swer! These ideas in their physical brains are part of the cross they carry in c hoosing to remain in the world for the good of others. They could just go on to higher planes and be an actualization of themselves that is freer of these burde ns.The inner self of a master is a vast presence that has many facets, that far transcends what any given personality they may have in this world can express. S o they might express other aspects of themselves through inspiring disciples who are more resonant with those other aspects. One may question why do many masters work behind the scenes. This is fairly e soteric. Take it with a grain of salt, if you will. It is one suggested explanat ion, but with some reasoning backing it up. A relevant issue is that having achi eved liberation, a person's will/individuality is deeply realized as non-dual, a nd from the relative angle is realized as inseparable from the Sat Purush or Adi Buddha. So at this stage it is said both that a person has a choice, or is assi gned by the Higher Will, a dharma of service, because the individual karma is ov er, and so is personal desire. There are, then, two paths: to return to Earth to serve humanity, or be assigned work somewhere else. [Some say there is a third: to be absorbed into the absolute]. When Sri Yukteswar appeared to Yogananda aft er he had passed on, he said he had been assigned to be a teacher on an astral p lanet. That is an example of the second possibility. There are many possibilitie s in this category, including working with humanity but from higher dimensions. Of those that are assigned to return to human incarnation, there is a limited nu mber at this stage who are allowed to do this. This is because there cannot be t oo many so as to cause a presence of liberated souls in the world that exceeds h uman karmic requirements. It is a pure expression of grace, but it must still fo llow laws that include not violating free will. It can also, according to Sant M at (and some other traditions as well), cause problems with the Negative Power, so there must be an arrangement. Too much influx of light too fast can stir up s ubconscious karmas faster than is possible for integration. These conditioning e lements of the human situation dictate how many of these masters can work openly , and how many must remain behind the scenes. Some are allowed to work openly (m ore than just one as many of the Sant Mat masters seem to believe - Kirpal, for one, did not believe this), and most of these have achieved the fifth or sixth s tages. There are only a couple dozen in the world beyond the sixth, and these al most always work unknown to the world, or little known, such as Babaji. Some who have appeared openly were Shankara, Padmasambhava and the Buddha. Alice Bailey' s 'Tibetan' was one who worked behind the scenes, though he was known to thousan ds of Tibetans. This was his assignment. It does not have anything to do with ho

w compassionate he was, as many mistakenly believe about these masters. Most of the masters Blavatsky studied, including her own master, were ones who in that l ife worked behind the scenes. Many of these masters cycle back and forth, some l ives working one side of the 'curtain', other lives the other side. Very high ma sters commonly don't take more public incarnations unless they are starting reli gions, reformers, or major lineage holders. There are masters who live in secret, such as in the Himalayas, central asia, or the Kunlun mountains of China, who are very, very advanced, but who do not c ome down themselves and interact with common people, but send 'representatives', who are high initiates themselves. Or they simply work in higher spheres. Many of the greatest Masters do not frequently incarnate unless they wish to purify o r start a tradition, such as Babaji, Nanak, Christ, or others. Nityananda said h e could do much more work from the subtle realms than he could in the physical. This is a vast area of investigation. 14. Sant Mat versus Buddhism It appears at first glance, and in popular versions of these teachings, that Zen and vipassana Buddhism do not emphasize or pursue trance, while shabd yoga a nd some vajrayana buddhist paths do. Vipassana per se is not a trance practice, but the Theravada/Hinayana schools that most purely reflect the Buddha's origina l teachings do include the jhanas or states of absorption, which are 'samadhi' o r 'trance' practices, to be followed or complemented by vipassana or insight pra ctices, which, in this tradition, alone can give final enlightenment. The practi ce of (tranqulity) or samadhi (concentrative absorptions or trance states) prepa re the mind by eradicating temporarily the various hindrances (restlessness, dul lness, etc.), but they return when the trance is over and one returns to the wor ld. It is insight practice that grants liberation. That, in fact, was how the Bu ddha won his enlightenment. As we have seen from an early exchange of letters be tween Sant Mat two initiates in Part One, both of who had gone far within but ap parently lacked relative wisdom, that samadhi, even at a deep level, can only do half of the job. However, it also does appear that if one goes deep enough, suc h as passing beyond the supercausal level in Sant Mat, or reaching the Heart-roo t as Ramana Maharshi taught, that such deep samadhi may have a more lasting and purificatory effect than the vipassana jhanas generally have. Absorption in the shabda-brahman is itself purificatory,and a special feature of this bhakti path. And in Sant Mat the factor of Grace is much more prominent a feature than in Bu ddhism, which must be taken into account. Still, it is unproven assumption that viveka jnana or discriminative wisdom is completed by the course of shabda medit ation, and whether or not the highest inner goal reached must also be combined w ith an insight practice or realization as its final 'capstone'. Similarly to vipassana, madyamika or mahayana Buddhism recognizes jhanas, or deepening states without full trance in order to find the ground or primordial c onsciousness. The jhanas of various schools of Buddhism, however, (in which they are variously called states of absorption, samadhis, concentrative states, tran quity states, jhanas, etc.) are in fact trance states. The preliminary state of access concentration described in some schools of Buddhism is not a trance state , and can be used as a doorway either into trance states (samadhi) or vipassana practice. The next four levels are called form-absorptions, because one is still aware of form, such as sensations, memories, thoughts, etc., though one's conce ntration is unusually deep, and the mind very still. The next four levels are ca lled formless absorptions. These are the levels of infinite space, infinite cons ciousness, nothingness, and the stage of neither perception nor non-perception. In some schools, depending on approach, the first four are considered deep medit ations, but not yet fully beyond body consciousness. In other school, all eight levels are considered trance states (no awareness of the body). All schools of B uddhism agree, though, that the last four are samadhi states of profound concent ration, bliss, and lucid, expansive awareness. Very unified and pure. The tradit

ional teachings, verified by modern practitioners, is that with the onset of the formless jhanas, the various bodily states nearly cease, such a breathing and h eart rate. The Buddha believed that these where powerful states to cultivate, and could lead to profound purification of character, expansion of consciousness, and sidd his, among other things. But he did not feel that one could achieve full enlight enment through this approach. The Buddha also said that none of these states whe re the highest 'Truth'. And he said it was especially important not to confuse t he various formless jhanas like infinite space, infinite consciousness, or nothi ngness, with the 'ground' or unconditioned reality. For the Buddha, all these levels where 'not It'. Yet he did describe a samadh i oriented practice that could give trance access to the 'unconditioned', which in this context he called nirodha, meaning cessation - the complete transcendenc e of all relative experience, form or formless. To access nirodha in trance one has to first master all eight jhanas and also be good at vipassana, which is qui te an achievement. Then one learns to enter each jhana one level at a time, and in each one in turn practice vipassana so as to cultivate the wisdom of seeing t he relative and incomplete nature of each level of samadhi. If one did this whil e progressing from one level of trance to another, upon reaching the highest jha na, one would simply rest in that level until a ripeness occurred that would all ow an effortless movement into nirodha. [This might be considered by some to be the same as nirvikalpa samadhi or anami, but it is not certain, for one can expe rience nirvikalpa samadhi from any plane. Vedantist James Swartz describes becom ing absorbed into Ramakrishna's belly on a subtle plane and going into nirvikalp a samadhi! See www.shiningworld.com]). Interestingly, the Buddha claimed that it was not possible to gain access to nirodha until one had reached the stage of e nlightenment called the 'non-returner' (one stage before the arhat), a stage whe rein one no longer had any physical karma and so would not need to return to the physical world out of karmic necessity. Many or all of the various jhanas would be accessible before this stage, but not nirodha. This matter of becoming free from karma is one that major emphasis is placed on in Sant Mat. They claim that no other school knows how to accomplish that, bu t the Sants do. Moreover, the notion of only reaching the higher jnanas after on e is free frmo karma should give great pause to the contemporary non-dual teache rs, who feel one can go from the empirical reality straight to the absolute real ity, suchness, or void-mind, solely through understanding. The question is what ground are they talking about - the ground of the mind, the ground of the soul, or the ground of the Oversoul or absolute Void-Mind - anami for the Sants? The p roblem is there are different voids, which are not just conceptual distinctions, although many modern as well as ancient non-dual teachers might have one think so. This is a problem that has been an issue and source of debate over the mille nnia. Hence, for instance, the Buddha mastered the jhanas and then felt, much to his teacher's dismay, that this was not the true or final 'void' or ground, but some still relative one. It is not beyond suspicion that, since many modern non dual teachers lack adequate understanding, training, and guidance to distinguish these states, they commonly confuse much of this, misjudging their own and othe r's level of realization. Some great mystics may conceivably reach Maha Sunn, for instance, and believe it is the Absolute Void or Dharmakaya (Reality), when it is actually a phenomen al void, although beyond the mental vehicles. Zen tries to get to the suchness - emptiness or reality much like mahayana, b ut without much in the way of metaphysics. Traditionally, there actually is a fa ir amount of sophisticated theory in the Zen tradition, but it is usually not of fered to students, unless they have progressed far and are being trained to teac h. Then it is considered useful and not a distraction. In modern times zen has d

egenerated significantly in many instances from the zen of the great patriarchs, especially in the moral arena. The problem lies in recognizing what one in fact experiences. Unless your mas ter is very great you may not be able to get clear verification. And, again, the re are different degrees of penetration into reality. Read and you will see that even after multiple outstanding satories he still had to practice thirty more y ears for enlightenment in that school. Same for Hakuin, two of the greatest Zen Masters. Sant Kirpal Singh had Zen masters come to the ashram, and they had tears in t heir eyes from laughing so hard with him, so he knew alot more than satsangis mi ght think he did. One may also be aware that this was true for Ramana. People ha ve the impression that his teachings were very simple, perhaps at times oversimp lifying and maybe not adequately honoring the various stages other less advanced yogis were at. Actually, a thorough study of Ramana shows that not only was he very learned, rich and sophisticated in his understanding and teachings, but fre quently said things that directly contradict what he said at other times, such a s whether one needed for the mind to "sink into the heart and die", or "just be who you are." Most teachers today opt for the later as it is easier. He was skillfull with other styles of spiritual practice that he never openly taught. There is a story, for instance, of an advanced tantric practitioner who came to Ramana because the kundalini had risen into the head chakras but he cou ld not 'get it' to reach the crown. Ramana took him into a private room, but som e students went to listen at the window, curious what Ramana would say to this y ogi. What they heard was Ramama becoming a a tantric adept and giving this yogi a sophisticated understanding of what was going on and how he need proceed, incl uding giving him a mantra to use for his case. In Dzogchen these days some try to keep the mind free and open, some calling that in itself enlightenment, the problem being that until one has been able to find a stable center of conscious-awareness to return to, letting the mind be op en can lead one to stagnate ina relatively subconscious state. I am thinking of the popular work by the venerable Dilgo Gyentse Rinpoche, Dzogchen in Ordinary L ife. This is a complex issue, but most true Dzogchen teachings that work with th is 'free and open' awareness are very aware of and have complex strategies for p reparing students to practice in this way, as well as ways to work the these pra ctices to remain balanced and alert. Dzogchen is generally taught in the context of the Nyingmapa lineage, and is considered the final of nine stages or tantras , all of which are preceded by preliminary practices. For the Buddha, vipassana was they practice he taught that was based in 'free and open' awareness. But he said that should first get a foundation in right conduct, then a preliminary fou ndation in deep concentration, and only then switch to cultivation vipassana, wh ich should then ideally be pursued alongside trance or samadhi practices. The th reefold foundation of practice he taught is therefore also somewhat sequential sila (morality), samadhi (various concentration, trance, and purification pract ices) and prajna (wisdom developed through vipassana). Unfortunately in the West, practitioners here generally developed their appro ach to various forms of Buddhism backwards - typically becoming enamored of vipa ssana and other 'higher' practices such as Dzogchen, while ignoring or tying to skip over the traditional order of approach as taught by the Buddha and others. Everyone likes the idea of doing the "keep the mind in its natural state" practi ce. They forget , for instance, that Dilgo Rinpoche he spent fifteen years in ca ves and meditated six hours a day for years afterwards and probably teaches diff erently to the monks who have taken vows than they are aware of. For a sobering description of the sadhana of the venerable vipassana master, Luangta Maha Boowo (1913-2011, and the skillfull interconnection of moral virtue, concentration/mi ndfulness, and wisdom/insight practice, see the free on-line version of his new

book, Samana, in particular the chapter "From Ignorance to Emptiness." In this s hort section he explains how the samadhi of emptiness [the theravada equivalent of nirvikalpa], as well as the stabilisation of that under the conditions of ord inary life, both advanced stages on the path, are yet, in essence, "fetters" to the Nibbana of the Buddha, the 'ultimate emptiness'. This is a worthwhile read. The power of 'free and open' awareness is that it is a particularly suitable practice for opening to nondual realization, for when awareness is balanced with equanimity, concentration and investigation (as is the method of vipassana), an d all levels of experience from physical to psychological to spiritual, are allo wed to arise without preference, this openness is actualizing nondualism in its aspect of not preferring one object of awareness to another, one plane to anothe r, etc. The danger of trance states is that they express an inherent preference for higher and higher planes, allowing for the danger of attachment to these pla nes. Vipassana is the antidote to this. Mahamudra is a pinnacle practice in some Tibetan teachings, just as Dzogchen is in others (particularly Nyingmapa and Kagyu). In all these traditions, an ope n focus meditation that integrates nondual awareness with all other levels of ex perience, including activity in daily life, is the final practice (if not employ ed in some form at other stages). In all lineages Mahamudra or Dzogchen is alway s preceded by various tantric practices (such as the Six Yogas of Naropa that Mi larepa and Marpa used, which is basically a form of kundalini yoga), or Deity Yo ga (also a tantric practice as used in Vajrayana), as well as various preliminar y practices such as Ngondro. So at the heart of all major Buddhist lineages is a practice that the Buddha taught originally as vipassana, and later was spun in various ways as zazen, shikan-taza, Mahamudra, Dzogchen, etc. all of which have at the essence to be fully present with all that is arising moment to moment, cu ltivation no attachment to any technique, plane, or viewpoint, which leads to re alizing sahaja samadhi or what the Buddha called 'nirvana with elements', meanin g the experience of nondual realization/liberation while fully aware of the rela tive level of experience. My main question has long been: does shabd yoga strictly and merely by invers ion even to the highest levels of mystical ascent realize the natural state of s ahaj samadhi spoken of by the great sages like Ramana, Ashtavakra, Sankara, Budd ha, etc.? I think there have been Sant Mat saints who have - like Kabir, Rumi, a nd Kirpal -, but that it is not a given just through the mystical process. Moreo ver, are the various trance or samadhi states as taught by the Buddha, for insta nce, or in other school such as Vedanta or Raja Yoga, not to mention the vast ar ray of other schools, more or less the same as the stages/states of Sant Mat? I believe some are, and some are not. One of the key differences is that what the various levels of trance accomplish, how they are experienced, and what one gets out of them, depends a lot on how one approaches them. For instance, the Buddha actually taught two types of trance samadhi practice. One was normal jhanas/sam adhis, the other jhanas in which one also cultivated vipassana within that parti cular trance state. A different approach, with different consequences. Plotinus said that we must "teach our souls." In other words, if we don't have the right doctrine or view, we won't understand the experiences we do have. The Buddha, as far as we can tell, used the term jhana in two ways - trance j hanas, but also what he called vipassana-jhanas. The former where absorptions le ading to samadhi trance, and the later simply designated the various stages to a bsorption or deep concentration in various states of contemplation/realization a s they arise doing vipassana. There were four of these basic vipassana-jhanas th at one progresses through stage by stage, culminating in a satori experience (a kind of fifth stage). [This occurs in each of the four archtypal stages or lifet imes he originally proposed: stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and ar hat]. Then one returns to the second vipassana-jhana, which would again ripen by doing vipassana through a deeper version of the second, third and fourth vipass

ana-jhanas a second time, culminating in a second satori or nondual awakening. A gain one would return to the second vipassana-jhana, ripen through more realizat ion stages culminating in a third satori (now one is a non-returner). At this po int one has completed physical karma, but is not yet in sahaja samadhi (though i t is a very peaceful, virtuous, conscious state with easy access in meditation t o nondual awareness). Proceeding through the vipassana-jhanas a fourth time culm inates in a fourth and final satori from which one does not 'come back out'. One is now an arhat, permanently established in what Ramana called 'external nirvik alpa samadhi', which he distinguished from internal or trance-based nirvikalpa s amadhi. One is jivan-mukti, liberated while embodied. Many adepts may have attai ned the non-returner stage and have access in samadhi to nondual awareness (and so believe they are fully enlightened), but are not fully liberated jivan-muktis (arhats) because they have not taken the final step to bring that nondual aware ness fully into waking awareness. of course, this is what Paul Brunton (PB), Atm ananda Krishna Menon and others have argued. For instance, PB wrote: "The Overself should not be reached merely in trance; it must be known in ful l waking consciousness. Trance is merely the deepest phase of meditation, which in turn is instrumental in helping prepare the mind to discover truth. Yoga does not yield truth directly. Trance does not do more than concentrate the mind per fectly and render it completely calm. Realization can come after the mind is in that state and after it has begun to inquire, with such an improved instrument, into truth." (10g) The result of this is a state that is constant, whether one is in meditative trance or not, and requires no further practice or even vigilance, as the condit ion, the natural state, maintains itself. Needless to say, this is the culminati on of a great maturity, and few have attained it. PB describes this condition in the following way. I offer this as another example of another ancient teaching that is something for meditators on trance-samadhi mystical types of paths to co nsider along with their devotional search for the soul, and for those teachers a lso to ponder if they need to seek further training in order to realize the cond ition known as "open-eyes." He states: "The "natural" philosophic attainment gives insight as a continuity whereas m editation gives it as an interruption. More, its attitudes are so relaxed, its o perations so effortless, its outlook so carefree, that those who have to work ha rd to get the temporary enlightenment know that nothing else in life has the sam e importance, the same value." (10h) "A tacit insight, nothing more," is a saying that has been attributed to the Buddha upon his enlightenment, after he had passed through the eight progressive jnanas of meditation and realized that they were not 'it'. And what does one get for his labors? The sense that he is a "conscious co-wo rker of the divine plan", as Kirpal Singh would sometimes say? Again there is pa radox. The answer is, "yes," if the meaning is that one sees the God-Power as th e real doer; and "no," if one if takes oneself as an independent agent. For what has one become when he reaches Sach Khand or Anami Lok, the great Emptiness? Ki rpal would even more often say that he was "nothing," a "mere pipe," helpless wi thout his Master's grace." As PB wrote: "Those who find that beyond the Light they must pass through the Void, the un bounded emptiness, often draw back affrighted and refuse to venture farther. For here they have naught to gain or get, no glorious spiritual rapture to add to t heir memories, no great power to increase their sense of being a co-worker with God. Here their very life-blood is to be squeezed out as the price of entry; her e they must become the feeblest of creatures." (10i) This is an important point to think over. It has the potential to draw togeth

er many different paths. For the Master is even more vulnerable than his discipl es! Continuing, in Theravada, in the first significant stage, one has the samadhi of emptiness; then he comes out of it and continues to inquire, investigate men tal states, etc., until he overcomes the attachment to the samadhi of emptiness and reaches emptiness in natural life. Then he goes beyond even this 'attachment ' to the final emptiness or the Nibbana of the Buddha, beyond all categories and concepts. According to anadi, each state must be realized, then cultivated, stabilised, and integrated. Then one can move on to the next true stage. That takes care of the argument of many newer teachers. In true Dzogchen, this liberation is the third of three stages - first gain s amadhi access to rigpa or nondual presence, then stabilize rigpa in non-trance m editation (like vipassana), then integrate it into daily activity. Ramana taught , similarly, that raising the kundalini to the crown chakra brought internal nir vikalpa samadhi, but not full jivanmukti. To do this on the kundalini path, one needed to bring the kundalini back to the heart and establish it there through t he channel he called the amrita nadi, an extension of the sushumna which curved back from the crown center to the heart. The kundalini, completing this deeper m ovement, established one as a jivanmukti. Of course, this is not what the Sants teach, and it is not clear proof that one is free of karma and totally non-dual realized throughout the planes by this approach. It is not clear that realizing yogic nirvikalpa is the half-way house to realization, in other words. Even Rama na went back and forth teaching this and also teaching the ever-attractive, "jus t be who you are." For example, he, like PB above, said: "We try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happines s lies elsewhere. This is the mistake. The Self is all-pervading. Our real natur e is liberation, but we imagine that we are bound, we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free. Birth and death pertain only to the body, they are superimposed upon the Self, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self. The universe exists within the Self. Discov er the undying Self and be immortal and happy. Be yourself and nothing more. Tho ughts change but not you. There is neither past nor future; there is only the pr esent. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it, therefore, experience takes place only in th e present, and even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is pu rely mental. All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can b e easier than that? Your true nature is that of infinite spirit." (Ramana Mahar shi, source misplaced) Ramana basically offered two paths to realization. One would be the trance pa th which would be savikalpa samadhi, to internal nirvikalpa samadhi, then to ext ernal nirvikalpa or sahaja samadhi. But he also taught that one could bypass the two internal stages of samadhi and go directly into sahaja samadhi. This could be done, by ripe souls, by doing self-inquiry in the spiritual heart. What is not commonly known, however, is that even Ramana, who never himself p racticed self-inquiry, but nevertheless was his preferred method (combined, it m ust be mentioned, with his potent transmission), also recognized the path of nad a or sound-contemplation as a legitimate way to the goal! Iyer sought more light on nada (sound). M.: He who meditates on it feels it. there are ten kinds of nadas. After the final thundering nad the man gets laya. That is his natural and eternal state. Nada, jyoti (light), or enquiry thus take one to the same point. (The former are indirect and the last is direct).

D.: The mind becomes peaceful for a short while and again emerges forth. What is to be done? M.: The peace often gained must be remembered at other times. That peace is your natural and permanent state. By continous practice it will become natural. That is called the 'current'. That is your true home. (10j) But back to Buddhism! Vipassana and other integrated presence practices are m ethods of direct realization of sahaja without need for trance states. In fact, the Buddha said that one of the fetters that remained after one achieved nirvika lpa samadhi (and becoming a non-returner), and that could be removed by doing vi passana, was attachment to higher planes. Because in a very profound sense, the nondual is not really one of the planes, it is the ground of all the planes, and so can be accessed from any level. It is just easier to initially access it in trance, which can give the illusion that it is a higher plane. [For a detailed discussion/recap of this concept of progressive stages, pleas e see The Depths of This Thing on this website]. So, can the path of Sant Mat bring one to sahaja samadhi? Yes, the difference is that, in the trance path, one must pass back and forth from internal states to outer consciousness many, many times, which leads to gradually integrating th e inner realization with ordinary consciousness. Eventually, the stage is reache d of internal nirvikalpa samadhi (for the Sants, anami, which may possibly be mu ch deeper than nirvikalpa as traditionally described) which, when experienced of ten enough and then returning to the physical world enough times, leads to nondu al realization being integrated with the physical body. I don't think it happens by itself necessarily, however, and I also realize it is not on the top of the list of concerns for most of us! But for a saint or a sage it would be. This poi nt merits further exploration: Shabd Yoga As A Jnana Path In Buddhism, we distinguish between spiritual experiences and spiritual realiz ations. Spiritual experiences are usually more vivid and intense than realizatio ns because they are generally accompanied by physiological and psychological cha nges. Realizations, on the other hand, may be felt, but the experience is less p ronounced. Realization is about acquiring insight. Therefore, while realizations arise out of our spiritual experiences, they are not identical to them. Spiritu al realizations are considered vastly more important because they cannot fluctua te. The distinction between spiritual experiences and realizations is continually emphasized in Buddhist thought. If we avoid excessively fixating on our experien ces, we will be under less stress in our practice. Without that stress, we will be better able to cope with whatever arises, the possibility of suffering from p sychic disturbances will be greatly reduced, and we will notice a significant sh ift in the fundamental texture of our experience. (10k) This is a common criticism of mystic paths, of which Sant Mat is one. But can we re-categorize it so that it reflects the aspects of a jnana path, rather tha n only an emanationist bhakti path? I believe we can. Sant Kirpal Singh wrote: By a process of self-analysis, He (a Sadh) has known the self or the spirit in Its real form - to wit, that it is of the same essence as God; and now He striv es for God-knowledge. Each spiritual path makes use of some constellation of spiritual qualities mo re than others. Some emphasize love, devotion, surrender, faith. Another may emp hasize self-analysis, discrimination, inquiry, wisdom and realization. Yet anoth

er may focus on compassion and service. And a fourth will emphasize esoteric tec hnical knowledge, skills, power and mastery. There are other leanings as well. M any paths have a variety of these facets, and different people may practice with in the same tradition with different approaches. A path and a specific practice is like a person it has a form or body(s), a s oul (virtue and relative wisdom) and a spirit (basic spiritual sensibility such as nondual, theistic, nature mysticism, etc.). So, when looking at a path or spe cific practice, we can understand the overall approach or practice by looking at the specifics of the form used (mantra, following the breath, visualizations, p ranayama and so on), but also we can understand the soul of the practice by look ing at the specific qualities that are emphasized, and also the deeper spirit or e ssence of the practice in terms of the spiritual vision, philosophy and ultimate goal of the path or practice. So, for instance, a path with the outer form of r epeating a mantra can be the expression of various orientations in that the inne r soul and spirit of the approach may differ. The same mantra (form) may be repe ated by one person with a quality of faith, surrender and devotion and with the underlying spirit of Theistic sensibility, seeking union with God. Another pract itioner may use the same mantra with an emphasis on technical precision, concent ration and discipline, with the aim of leading the kundalini to a particular cha kra, with the ultimate aim of impersonal liberation. Many combinations are possi ble with different forms, qualities and spiritual sensibilities, even when the o uter form of the practices are more or less the same. Since all qualities are interconnected, emphasizing some leaning will ultimat ely bring development in other areas as well. Someone emphasizing technical deve lopment or devotion will ultimately develop wisdom and realization. While someon e leaning towards discrimination and equanimity will ultimately develop love and compassion. But . it seems to generally be true that the fastest route to the dev elopment of specific qualities is to actively include them in our path. Shabd or nada yoga is a form of spiritual practice that is practiced in vario us contexts. In the Sikh tradition it is most commonly associated with a bhakti style emphasizing faith, simplicity, purity, surrender, devotion and love. In th at context it may not be a form of practice that is based primarily on using dis crimination, awareness or inquiry to cultivate wisdom and liberating realization , but it does, secondarily, lead to a powerful process of insight and awakening. It may be argued that if the context and attitude to practicing shabd yoga incl uded a stronger aspect of these qualities, then the wisdom fruits of this path m ay arise more immediately and richly. But that does not mean they are not inevit ably present in that approach already to some degree. There are other traditions that use nada/shabd yoga strictly in a context of nondual wisdom development, or in the context of raja yoga, or in the context of technical kundalini/tantric yoga approaches. Also these paths vary as to their core cosmologies, some being Advaita, other qualified, and even some with purely dualistic cosmologies. So in what way does shabd yoga act as a form of discriminating wisdom practic e, generating self-knowledge and culminating in Self-Realization? Through the fo llowing: (1) By meditating on the inner sound, the practitioner is first learning to c oncentrate. In this phase awareness moves back and forth between the sound curre nt and distractions of sensation, emotion, memories, plans, etc. This helps to d evelop a foundational insight, a discrimination between the sound current and th e personality/ego. This leads to greater self-knowledge about the contents of on e s personality, and the difficulties they pose to deeper concentration and peace of mind.

(2) Gradually, as concentration develops, attunement to the sound current rev eals soul qualities of peacefulness, awareness, concentration, detachment, love, surrender and so on. The movement of awareness back and forth during moments of distraction and periods of concentration continue to deepen the intuitive insig ht not only into the difference between soul qualities (which the sound current is now a focus for attuning to) and the lower bodies, but also gives rise to inc reasing insight into the value or desirability of soul-identification over ident ification with the lower bodies and ego. (3) Further, this growing insight and deepening attunement to soul throws int o greater relief the nature of the ego, its various expressions as anger, selfis hness, loneliness, pride, inferiority, sadness, attachment, manipulation and so on. The contrast between these states of ego and qualities of soul become cleare r and clearer as the practitioner gradually deepens concentration on the sound c urrent and loosens identification with the personality limitations. The dukkha o r unsatisfactoriness of the separate ego, and the deep spiritual satisfaction of soul grows clearer and clearer over time. (4) Eventually, enough purification of karma, release of attachment, and disi dentification from the lower bodies allows the consciousness to become absorbed enough in the sound current and inner soul qualities that the individual is able , in meditation, to withdraw from body awareness. This deepens the insight that one is not the body, because one is now directly aware of not only existing 'out side' of the body, but also of a finer astral body that one now finds oneself in . This expresses a clear moment or transition in self-knowledge, not the last, b ut an important turning point. (5) Through further meditation on the sound current, one gains further insigh t into one's higher nature, especially at this stage one's spiritual self or sou l as a center of formless identity, wholeness, peace, virtue and wisdom. Droppin g awareness of the physical body and extended meditation on the sound current al low for a greater participation in soul experience at this stage, more fully cla rifying the difference between soul and lower states of consciousness. (6) Eventually the practitioner of shabd yoga raises above the astral and cau sal bodies as well. These each lead to new levels of self-knowledge as the disti nction between one's lower and higher nature becomes clearer and clearer. At thi s stage, have moved beyond the causal level of our nature, the practitioner is i mmersed in a profound level of soul identification, which continues to deepen th roughout the process of moving through the mahasunn and Bhanwar Gupha. At this s tage the aspect of the soul that becomes more vividly aware of its union with th e Oversoul or Sat Purush comes to the forefront, deeply enhancing that dimension of one's spiritual understanding. (7) Rising above this plane and merging in the atman at the level of Sach Kha nd, the soul experiences final realization of the difference between itself and the lower bodies or sheaths. This wisdom is fundamental to the agency that has p rovided the capacity of the soul to realize this truth. (8) Inherent in this realization is the deepening Realization that the nature of the atman is inseparable from the Sat Purush. (9) Stages of ascent beyond Sach Khand refine this nondual illumined state fu rther and further. Therefore, even though in the Sikh tradition the qualities emphasized in the practice of shabd yoga are not jnani qualities per se but those deepening concentr ation that lead to movement from plane to plane, there is still secondarily and inevitably a growing realization/wisdom that comes from proceeding through these stages and experiences.

Returning to the lower bodies at the end of each cycle of meditation also ser ves to enhance the intuitive wisdom of the soul in its realization of the differ ence between these levels of its nature, continually enhancing the wisdom that l eads to awakening from false identifications, first by contrast and disillusionm ent, later by profound illumination. Practice over time furthers the ability of the soul to stage by stage bring m ore of this realization back into waking day to day consciousness, both by the d eepening inner realization in meditation, and by the gradual purification of the sheaths that also results from the process, allowing the soul to reflect more i ts realization in the lower bodies as they get saturated with the higher love, l ight, and wisdom. "Sound arises in the inner sky of pure consciousness, the heart-space in the head, the sky of the heart. What manifests is Life-Power, the One." - Nityananda [End of "Shabd Yoga As A Jnana Path"] Vipassana practices hold a key to efficiently integrate higher realization wi th the human personality and physical body, because one practices holding as dee p a realization as one can in direct relationship to those levels of experience, integrating that level of realization into the human aspects. Both aspects tran sform over time (the depth of one's realization and the various dimensions of ou r human nature - body, emotions, thoughts) eventually leading to integrated nond ual realization. So both the Buddha (and Ramana as another example) taught that it is possible to cultivate sahaja samadhi without cultivating trance states. So what is the value of trance states? One important one is that they are, fo r many people, the fastest way to develop a deeply peaceful, centered, concentra ted state of mind. And even vipassana (zazen, Dzogchen, etc.) will progress much faster with that foundation. The approaches normally used for vipassana allow f or reliable progress without significant samadhi power developed first, but it i s widely believed, and was considered by the Buddha, to be better with it. Deep concentration can and is developed within vipassana practice, but it is often ea sier to develop concentration when focusing on a specific subject (visualization , mantra, shabda) rather than while cultivating the open awareness at the heart of vipassana. There are also many other advantages and values of using samadhi/t rance practices. In fact, the Buddha had many of his liberated arhat disciples c ontinuing to expand and enrich their 'post-realization' states, to enhance their relative wisdom and expand their capacity for service. This included enhancing access to higher worlds, developing siddhis, and expanding relative knowledge. T his is, of course, totally consistent with Sant Mat. In light of all this, the teaching of Nisargadatta that after death one is si mply absorbed back into the absolute seems extreme. There is a special value unique to Shabd Yoga which the Buddhist style jhana, or vipassana, practices do not cultivate. And that is that the Shabd itself is a special focus of concentration. The Shabd is the Logos, Shabda Brahman, or, to translate into Buddhist terminology, the Sound of the Primordial or Universal B uddha. So to meditate on the Shabd is to directly attune to the Universal Presen ce of Nondual Enlightenment, a living, dynamic Presence that transmits realizati on directly into the meditator. In other words, most of the Buddhist versions of samadhi practice do not invo lve the immersion in a source of grace the way Shabd yoga does. This is a great advantage for the path of Sant Mat. But is it still a samadhi path, so it is not necessarily as efficient at bridging that realization back into the body. That is why combine Shabd Yoga with a vipassana-like practice or insight-contemplatio

n may be useful. [However, it must also be said that when one investigates what it takes to pursue the path of the Buddhist jnanas, in this current age Sant Mat looks like a breeze by comparison]. Also, the way one learns to move from plane to plane in each approach makes i t possible that the nature of the realization and transformation that is taking place at each stage and plane is not the same. In shabd yoga, it is not just 'tr ance', but an actual death and rebirth, in stages. So, for instance, reaching Sa ch Khand in Shabd Yoga is the result not just of samadhi but a transformation re sulting from communion with the Sat Purush that is not the same as what transfor mation has transpired for a Buddhist using the typical jhana practices and reach ing the same 'plane'. 15. After Death: What Happens? This is what is generally understood to take place after death for non-initia tes. First, the consciousness 'in the body' withdraws and is located now in the astral world. If it is a naturally more conscious individual, there will be some awareness that it has died. Karmic connections will tend to dictate who will be available to help after transition. For most souls these will be extended famil y members. For more advanced souls, mentors, elder initiates and masters. The mo re conscious the person, the more rich the process of transition, the higher the aspect of the astral world entered into. Very advanced initiates often skip ove r the astral and even some higher planes. It depends on many factors. Many souls will experience the first stage of transition as like a dream, and due to their confusion about what has transpired, they will carry over in the own subconscio us the elementals of this life (as in a dream) and continue experiencing a 'life ', believing they are still living in the physical, and will behave accordingly. This is not necessarily a painful state. They are working out astral karma, but not very quickly. For many of them it is not hard to convince them that they ha ve died, and then with that simple realization, their experience shifts and they move into higher astral worlds. For many normal souls, and 'junior' initiates, there will be awareness that dropping the body has taken place, and a more or le ss smooth transition will take place, in which the person will assimilate into a new life in the astral world. Whether the transition was more conscious or not, the fact of having dropped the physical sheath will gradually have its effects, for the lack of a dense body will cause various heavier desires to fall away, a llowing the soul to become more conscious and begin to have deeper understanding of what has happened and where they are. Depending on the person, this can take anywhere from seconds to years. Initiates will usually make this transition very quickly because of two facts - the grace of the master, and the power of their own consciousness, which by v irtue of the fact that they are initiates, generally means that they are not you ng souls who are likely to be more confused and take longer to awaken. Having dr opped the body will make it easier to expand into a more conscious experience of the next world, and the help of friends, family and sangha and guru all make th is inevitable. And if their level of consciousness is adequate when they die, th ey don't even need any help, but will simply make a conscious transition, unders tand what is happening, and typically have a very positive transition. Now, here is the key. A human soul has two basic parts. A part that exist in higher planes, which has different aspects, and an emanation from this part that forms another self on the lower planes, the incarnate self. They are the same s oul, in two levels of expression. The essence of the higher self is the atman, s pirit, Overself or rigpa. This part rests in nondual realization and does not 'd escend' into incarnation. This is the part of us that 'lives' in Sach Khand and is already illumined. Although the intensity of this realization can grow, it is still nondual realization. The atman's realization also shines into the anandam aya sheath 'below', creating a formless, higher dimensional 'body' that also has

a type of identity that remains close to the atman, but in the average person d oes not have as much nondual awareness. This body is also called the causal body in Vedanta, because in it are stored the seeds of the karmas that give rise to rebirths in the realms below. These two levels comprise not just planes or world s, but also we have a permanent form of identity on these planes, permanent in t hat they provide continuity from birth to birth. These levels of self do not get dropped after each incarnation ends. The bodies below these get gradually dropp ed after each birth (in some schools the basic divisions at these levels is phys ical, astral, mental. In the five body Vedantic system they are divided somewhat differently and are annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya kosas). These bo dies are temporary each life. The consciousness of the higher self, atma/buddhi, grows from life to life, assimilating wisdom, character (virtue), and nondual r ealization that is never lost, but 'remains in the higher worlds', so to speak. From life to life as the higher consciousness grows, the bodies generally get mo re refined, and reflect more of the higher realization that is developing in the higher self. Eventually the combined effect of extensive soul development in th e higher planes, and finer bodies developed in the lower planes (through transfo rming karma and 'upgrading' the elementals that make up one's manifest character ), allows the consciousness of the deeper self [this is similar to what Sri Auro bindo referred to as the 'psychic entity'] to shine through the lower bodies, gi ving rise to more and more illumined states of consciousness expressed in the lo wer bodies. After death, the individual in their astral body will become more permeable t o the higher self's consciousness, allowing more wisdom and virtue (and ultimate ly nondual illumination) to shine through, how much depending on the state of ev olution of the soul, but always more that the physical self experienced because there is now one less sheath to veil it. So the consciousness, now shedding its vasanas that had to do with being in a physical body, will be integrating more w ith the inner self. This, for most people is a gradual process. Eventually it is time for the second death where the astral is also shed. This allows the consci ousness to become even more permeable to the higher self, their consciousnesses merging even more. By this time the awareness of the person is no longer very si milar to what it was when they were in incarnation. They have significantly awak ened to remember much that their soul or higher self already knows on its own pl ane (anandamaya/atman). Finally, after some time, a third death will ensure, and the consciousness will fully assimilate back into the higher self, enriching th e higher self with experience. The aspect of the higher self that is the anandam ayakosa 'self' is somewhat veiled with dualism, yet it is mild. This self has di scriminating wisdom. One might call it 'enlightened dualism'. That is, it discri minates about virtue, distinguishes good and bad karma, strives for enlightenmen t, functions as true conscience, and tries to guide each incarnation, within the limits of karma. So each life enriches the relative wisdom and virtue of this l evel of our nature, even if it has not been a very good life karma wise for the outer personality. The inner self still harvests wisdom from the experience, bec ause its core nature does not fall into identification with the lower bodies, ma intains perspective, and assimilates wisdom. Since this self is pretty wise in m ost people, especially those on the path, one method of growth is to simply clea r the lower bodies of obstructions, allowing the inner wisdom and virtue to natu rally shine through. But that will only take one so far. This anandamaya self mu st eventually complete its process of becoming illuminated by the atman or nondu al self through both developing virtue and surrendering to nondual presence, whi ch are all interrelated. So the lower ego self, identified with the lower bodies , gradually integrates its identity with the anandamaya self, attaining what in Sant Mat is called Self-Realization (prior to God-Realization), which in Sant Ma t does not mean Atmic or nondual realization, but rather advanced virtue and rel ative wisdom realization, beyond the temporary bodies and bondage in the realms of Kal and MahaKal. Then the anandamaya self is fully liberated into nondual rea lization (in degrees).

So, in between lives a temporary version, in the ascending model, of this lar ger process takes place wherein the lower self is gradually assimilated into the higher, anandamaya self. As this gradual assimilation progresses, both selves a re enriched. The anandamaya self 'digests' the consciousness of the lower self, harvesting wisdom and virtue. And the lower self is infused with the much greate r realization of the higher self. So by the time it reaches Daswan Dwar, it is n o longer the incarnate identity it was, it is essentially transformed back into union with its self at the anandamaya level, reawakening to this much deeper lev el of awareness, like coming home, or as if it had been asleep, identified with the lower bodies. Not the home of Sach Khand, but still a much more spiritual an d wise level. The higher self is the ongoing accumulation of all the wisdom and virtue of all the previous experiences, both in physical and subtle realms. This level is sometimes (as in Vedanta) called the causal level because, though the higher self here is not consciously identified with all the unresolved vasanas o r karmas that are yet to be liberated, they do exist there now in seed form, to re-emerge in future births, sprouting forth through the lower bodies. So even th ough the higher self at that plane is not identified with these vasanas, it is l imited by the subtle veil their presence as seeds creates between its consciousn ess and deeper nondual awakening. So, does the consciousness of the individual that dies go back to Daswan Dwar ? In our tentative view, yes and no. No in the sense of not as it was. But yes i n the sense that it is gradually assimilated into that level, with the unresolve d vasanas return to seed form. The self that arrives at Daswan Dwar is, in a cer tain sense, not the same self that died, but a transformed and purified self. To learn to go to Daswan Dwar in meditation is to learn to 'die daily', so that th e mutual infusion of these levels goes forth during life, rather than after deat h. This way the lower self is gradually assimilated and transformed into the hig her self during life, and the lower karmas and experiences are transformed by th e soul, enriching its realization and preparing it for the final stage of assimi lation into the atman (and beyond). If Daswan Dwar has been reached during medit ation while still alive, then one does not need to gradually assimilate during t he after death stages, and will simply go to that level or beyond, or continue, like many do, to retain a lower body to be of service on those planes. Being an initiate ensures that one's master will be there when you pass over, and will guide you though these states. There is nothing to fear about all of t his. For initiates, death is a primarily a beautiful experience. There is a sens e of liberation (relatively) and often a feeling of revelation. Often, though, t here is a period first of gaining perspective on the past incarnation, which at first may be difficult, as we may have carried over the tendency to judge oursel ves too harshly for our human weaknesses and limitations. But eventually, usuall y fairly quickly both due the nature of the process and to the help of others, o ur consciousness shifts. We gain more perspective about why our life took the fo rm it did, we see the karmic patterns behind it, we see what we learned, what ka rma was worked out, and what hidden grace helped us, and greater understanding a nd compassion emerge. Then we come to balance and peace about our life, and we m ove on. If one cannot do a specific practice like absorption in the nada at the time of death, then simply remember the master, even repeating his name, for thi s will ensure one will recognize His presence more immediately. He will definite ly be there, but we may blind ourselves to this at first by our doubts, fears, a nd self-judgments. One experience of a practitioner, a Darshan Singh initiate, who will remain u nnamed, professed to having a numbers of higher plane masters before Him, whom D arshan recognized as real, and who has himself integrated various practices with one another, sheds light on a broader vision of this process. This is not advic e for anyone to follow, just food for thought for the curious or 'hungry'. One m ay take it at face value for him or her. We have tried to be impartial throughou t this paper and are not departing from that guideline now:

"Although I have used many spiritual practices, the heart of my path is nondu al transmission by grace. I was initiated by my lineage back into conscious awar eness of my dharma and relationship to them in 1982, at which time a 'process' w as started that involves, among other things, the transmission of Shakti/nondual realization in a sustained form ever since. This has been both a very inspiring and extremely demanding process, because, as you know, strong initiation brings up vasanas that are unresolved. In our lineage, this is done by degree. But onc e the disciple has reached the stage where surrender is adequate, a more profoun d transmission of fire/consciousness can be released. If adequate surrender is n ot developed yet, this can cause a backlash reaction from the ego that is counte r productive. So it needs to be gradual and regulated to the stage of developmen t. But even when surrender is more developed, the process of compressing that mu ch transformation into so short a time can be very stressful. So, I am very fami liar with various forms of the dark night, kundalini-process symptoms, etc. My t eaching cycles tend to correspond to when I have stabilized a new plateau. Altho ugh I do meditation practices and karma yoga, the real power of my awakening is from this transmission, which aims to directly actualize realization in day-to-d ay awareness, without the need for travel to higher planes. But I do meditate al so, emphasizing a vipassana-like practice because it most directly helps to surr ender to the transmission and integrate it into daily life. For other reason I o ften use other practices, especially meditation on the naam, but more as a suppl ementary practice. But the naam at this stage is also present in my awareness th roughout the day, and feels more like an integral part of my awareness and prese nce, rather than something only heard in meditation and experienced as something outside of myself. So an aspect of shabd yoga for me is attuning to the nada du ring activity as an energetic or vibratory aspect of the state of presence itsel f, rather than more of an inner and trance practice (though I also do that too, usually during the night). Although I do not currently emphasize trance practices, I have had many experi ences of those dimensions. In the early stages these were facilitated by my inne r teachers much of the time. During this stage I was introduced to various level s of the inner worlds. So, though I am not as masterful at accessing these plane s as people like Daskalos or the Sant Mat gurus, I do have some personal experie nce to base my 'opinions' on about these realms. But also we must remember that contact with so-called higher planes does not only happen in trance. These plane s are all interpenetrating vibratory/consciousnesses and can be attuned to while in one's body at any time. Since I am already have a strong connection with hig her planes by nature, much of my practice is geared towards integrating realizat ion in the lower planes, rather than trying to access higher worlds. So most of my contact with higher worlds is done in the context of remaining in my body, so that I do not over stimulate myself (the energy is already very strong and so t here is a danger of over stimulation), and so I attune to the realization, quali ty and experiences of other realms in a state of 'integrated presence' to keep b alanced. My inner lineage first showed me what this state of integrated presence could be like in 1984. To make a longer story shorter, I was with a client doing spiri tual counseling, he was talking about a relationship. I was starting to identify with him and judge his partner for her behavior. I noticed this and pulled back to a deeper state of presence. Then I felt a Greater Presence 'reach into me' a nd expand my consciousness. This began to emerge in me as a feeling of my deeper self 'incarnating' into my body. As my consciousness was expanding, I noticed t hat, to be in this state at my stage, my unresolved karma/vasanas had to be set aside temporarily to allow this sahaja state to manifest. I felt these energies being kind of pushed down my spine into my lowest chakras until they were pushed out the back with a pop. When this happened (it all took a short time) I simply snapped into a new state that it is nearly impossible to describe. The foundati onal aspect of this state was that everything just 'was'. The judgment I had fel

t a minute before was now replace with such a profoundly embracing state that th ere didn't seem to be room anymore to step back and judge anything. Also, I rema ined 'in my body', though in fact the nature of the body as I was aware of it in this state was radically transformed. For one, the presence of nondual realization was so pervasive that there was n o discernable boundaries any longer between planes. The various planes now stood revealed as a seamless continuum of consciousness that embraced what we would o rdinarily call the physical plane (which was now not material but a form of cons cious) through the subtle planes, into spiritual planes. Since all were illumine d from a nondual state, they were seamlessly integrated, none higher than anothe r, and certainly not stacked up, one on the other in a two dimensional fashion. They were part of a multidimensional wholeness that revealed patterns and beings and yet was nondual at the same time. In this state, I 'saw' the nondual nature , evolving soul, and personality/karmic aspects of not only the client, but also the woman who he was involved with, and others who were part of their story. I could see the karmic conditions of their lives, and the way their souls were 'in carnated' into them, how they mirrored their stage of evolution, and how it was all absolutely perfect, in the sense that their karmic situation in incarnation perfectly mirrored the stage of the soul's evolution and they were all, therefor e, incarnated in the right experiences for their spiritual evolution, like a glo ve perfectly fitting a hand. There was nothing to judge. These were not ideas I was having in my mind in that state. They were part of a multilayered, direct in tuitive/nondual realization of the nature of what was so. I was directly realiza tion these things through a profound oneness with them. In that state, I no long er had ordinary sensation, but yet was aware of the physical world, I did not ha ve emotions, but was aware of the psychological dimension, and I did not have or dinary thoughts, but had superconscious realization. As usual with these things, my description feels very inadequate. Gradually a reflective self-awareness beg an to emerge, and I slowly started to emerge from the state. I began to have a p art that was observing what was happening to me, and having thoughts like 'this is interesting', 'I wonder how long this will last', 'gee, I wonder if I can tal k while I am in this state, integrating it with behavior'. I could, for while st ill hold a certain level of this while talking with the client, but the thinking that emerged gradually drew my back out the state. I have been in various forms of these states many times since, including in trance as well, but I do not gra sp after them. They served to directly introduce me to the nature of more realiz ed states, that not only helped transform my consciousness in the moment, but pr ovided direct insight that helps to gradually surrender to higher realization ov er time." It must go without saying that this is but an example, and not a prescription for anyone to follow. Each must find his own way. He concludes with what seems to me a note of sanity for our day and age: "As we move towards a more scientific approach to evolving our understanding of the spiritual life, our experiences are our data, which we need to share with each other to expand our mutual base of experience and enrich understanding. We are the experiments, and so we need to share that with each other." "Satguru is ever-present, never think He is far away." - Sikh hymn 16. One point of clarification of a quote the astute reader may have picked up o n. My dear Sant Kirpal Singh once criticized devotee Russell Perkins for editing out a reference in his book NAAM, where a Buddhist monk said the sound of a bel l caused his awakening into satori (which was described as a samadhi, although i t was clearly a satori). Russell edited it to read that the person heard an INNE R sound, but Kirpal Singh said to leave the quote alone, because that s the way th e sutra read, but also said that the person was mistaken, and that he only THOUG HT it was an outer sound, for how could an outer sound DRAG one into samadhi? In t

his case, the monk went on to describe this satori as apparently initiating a se ries of deeper mystical experiences for him. Now, satori and samadhi are very di stinct experiences. As D.T. Suzuki explains: "When a man's mind is matured for satori it tumbles over one everywhere. An i narticulate sound, an unintelligent remark, a blooming flower, or a trivial inci dent such as stumbling is the condition or occasion that will open his mind to s atori. Apparently, an insignificant event produces an effect which in importance is altogether out of proportion....When the mind is ready for some reasons or o thers, a bird flies, or a bell rings, and you at once return to your original ho me; that is, you discover your now real self." (11) An example of a satori awakening was that of a nun Chiyono who studied Zen un der Bukko of Engaku. For a long time she was unable to succeed in her meditation . At last one moonlit night while carrying water in an old pail bound with bambo o, the bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail. At that moment Chiyono was set free, moving her to write this poem: In this way and that I tried to save the old pail Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break Until at last the bottom felt out. No more water in the pail! No more moon in the water! In the above instance, then, either one of two things was true. Either (1) Ki rpal Singh apparently did not recognize the way countless Zen practitioners achi eved satori through their ripe minds being awakened to reality in a moment throu gh an outer sight or sound, and strictly adhered to the Indian belief that only inner (trance) experience was spiritual, and didn t understand other schools or ex periences which contradict that and was using this monk's account only to suppor t the philosophy of Surat Shabd Yoga (all of which I am inclined to doubt, for a number of reasons: Kirpal was a scholar of the traditions, had read 300 biograp hies of different saints and sages and great men as a young man, and was friends with numerous Buddhist teachers), or (2) he said what he did because he didn t wa nt to confuse his meditating followers with more sophisticated, non-dual teachin gs. Ramakrishna was the same way when he was with Vivekananda in contrast to mos t of his followers. He put the advaita books such as the Ashtavakra Gita away wh en Master Mahasaya ( M ) was around because he knew the latter was keeping a diary a nd didn t want him to confuse many of his disciples who were not ripe enough to un derstand such things. My experience with Kirpal suggests this was the case. On the other hand, Kirpal was not wrong in pointing the initiate towards the stage of merger with the personal God within. For in many Soto schools of Zen, a fter attaining the 'absolute samadhi', or 'great death (corresponding to stage e ight of the ten famous oxherding pictures), in which one attains to the self-ess ence or full-void in meditation, with body and mind stripped away, upon coming o ut of this state, he is then open to the spontaneous arising of a final kensho o r satori, sometimes called the 'positive samadhi', where by he sees reality as-i t-is with 'open eyes'. This was Buddha's enlightenment. I believe the same can o ccur on the path of Sant Mat for one who has achieved Sach Khand or higher and t hen reawakens to the outer world in full consciousness. And such may in fact be a deeper realization. It is also sometimes taught in Sant Mat that one who achie ves full absorption in the Sound Current within and then comes out/down experien ces an amrit of bliss saturating every pore of his body and all of Creation know n as One. My experience with Kirpal suggests to me that he was in such a conditi on, the fruit of this noble ancient, eternal, and authentic path. And he was the refore doing his duty in teaching the all important first stage of devotion to t he majority of his disciples. Even Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita said, "To those whose minds are united with Me and worship Me with love, I grant that understand ing through which they may attain Me." It is something like that in all true pat

hs. 'Die', and then be 're-born', usually in stages, unto the true Self, beyond mind, matter, and illusion. The Concept of Perfect Masters The idea that a "perfect Master" never makes a mistake, or that every word he utters is absolute truth, is often a stumbling block for many initiates on the path. It must also be understood to generally be an erroneous conception of enli ghtenment. PB said: "It is pathetic for the philosophically minded, and especially for the inh eritors of the formerly close-guarded hidden teaching, to observe how followers of a mystical or religious guide take all his words without exception quite lite rally and all his revelations as incontestable truth. When Sri Ramakrishna said that a man must die within twenty-one days of achieving illumination, he said wh at other mystics are likely to contradict rather than confirm. And when he asser ted that hardly one man in a century attains the goal through following the phil osophic path, there is no support from the traditions of the hidden teaching for his assertion. All this is written despite my most respectful admiration and wa rm reverence for Ramakrishna and despite my unhesitating belief that he was a ma n of genuine spiritual self-realization. I do not select his statements for crit icism deliberately but only because they are the first ones which happen to come to mind. There are several other mystics, whom I and most of us honour, whose s ayings could equally have been drawn upon as containing examples of this kind of contestable teaching." (11a) A master on the path of Sant Mat is considered a "perfect Sant"if he can go a t will to the fifth plane Sach Khand (the "office of the Master") and lead other s there, and a "Param Sant" if he has further been absorbed into the eighth and final 'region-less region', Anami by the Sat Purush and is Its embodiment. He is also said to be "perfect" in the sense that his astral, mental, and causal bodi es are clear of worldly or egoic taint. He is also a conduit for what appear to be God-like powers, when so directed by the Divine Will. It doesn't mean that wh ile in his human body he never make what looks like a mistake, or necessarily ha ve absolute knowledge or wisdom regarding all doctrines, including those he has never studied, for instance and especially the path of jnana. He might "drop his fork" or spill food. He may make mistakes of fact from time to time when he spe aks, in spite of seemingly having total knowledge of his disciple's needs and ci rcumstances the rest of the time as it is required. He may even make teaching mis takes . This is only mentioned because some seekers have held the naive view that such should not happen if a Master is perfect. The Masters, it should be mention ed, would probably be the first to say they are not perfect, even while maintain ing the view that their own Masters were perfect. This is out of respect and hum ility. "Don't call me perfect," said Christ, "only God is perfect." It is a huma n concept, afterall. Let us leave it at that. None of these examples of so-calle d imperfection, where present, is evidence that a path or teacher is false or no t genuine. Osho states: "The experience of enlightenment is such that you can still commit mistakes. This is something to be understood. People ordinarily think that the man of enli ghtenment cannot commit mistakes. That is their expectation, but it is not reali ty." "The East has been very concerned for ten thousand years with the phenomenon of enlightenment. It certainly brings you great light, great clarity, great ecst asy and the feeling of immortality. But even though it brings so much, existence is so vast that your enlightenment is just a dewdrop in the ocean of existence. However transparent and clear your understanding may be, there is always a poss ibility to commit mistakes. And this has been recognized in the East. Even Gauta ma Buddha is reported to have said that existence is so vast, so infinite in all

dimensions, that even an enlightened man may commit mistakes. This is true reli giousness and humbleness. The idea of infallability is just ugly ego." "In fact the enlightened man becomes so humble that if you point out his mist akes he will accept them. He is so detached from his own personality, it does no t matter...He is not hurt. And he accepts that there are possibilities where he may become too one-sided, may lean into this multidimensional existence more tow ards certain dimensions, may become averse to the dimensions which are against h is own experiences and feelings. Existence contains all contradictions,and even at the highest point of enlightenment it is very difficult to contain contradict ions." "Man, after all, is man, asleep or awake. It is very difficult to conceive co ntradictions existing not as contradictions but as complementaries. The easier t hing seems to be to choose one side and go against the other. But that does not mean that the enlightenment is not complete; it simply means even an enlightened man can have a partiality. And it is because of the vastness of the universe." (11aa) Just think: if God is perfect, which is a concept, then there is pre-determin ation of everything. If that is so, there is no unpredictability, no 'uncertaint y principle', and therefore no freedom. Even the ancients distinguished between Providence (in essence, divine accidents') and Necessity (karma). There may be a divine World-Idea, as PB postulated, but its details are not prefabricated, onl y its general outlines. There are countless conscious beings that interact to ma ke it work out, in and out of time, and it therefore could be said to 'unfold pe rfectly in its imperfection'. Moreover, if we believe some of the more recent ch anneled information from beings like Seth and others, there may be alternate rea lities and/or possibilities, so if an original grand plan doesn't workout, it is not failure in any ultimate sense, but only requiring a readjustment to another track. Definitely hard to get the mind around all of this! In this regard, Sant Darshan Singh once said, "I am old-fashioned." Not as if 'old-fashioned' was the best, but he admitted he was a bit behind the times. Sa nt Kirpal Singh before him once said, "I don't appreciate art." Disciples no dou bt took that to mean that they shouldn't appreciate art, but it was simply a con fession of a preference or partiality of his. After apparently listening to a lo ng story from a disciple he said, "I don't think I heard half of it." The truth is he most likely tuned out, but the pressure was on the devotees to look for a sign of omniscience in it anyway. We say this is not a fruitful or mature attitu de to take. Having said all this, a perfect master may appear ignorant as the ca se may be when dealing with his disciples, saying one thing and then seemingly c hanging his mind a minute later, or speaking words to one disciple that are mean t for another, all part of his need and nature to be unpredictable in order to b reak the student's fixation with the dualistic mind and its expectations and ego ic tendencies. In advaita, or the view of many sages, "omniscience" does not mean knowledge of everything the mind can think of, but rather just the permanent and continuou s knowing of Reality. This is especially significant in that the highest form of knowing has so frequently been described as a kind of "unknowing" or "divine ig norance." A little story will illustrate this. In 1991 I met Sant Rajinder Singh for the first time when my friend William Combi pushed me up to the dias to mee t the saint. I was writing a book of biographies of spiritual teachers at the ti me, which William was quick to point out. I was a little embarrassed, and simply said, "I really don't know what I am doing," to which Sant Rajinder's instant r esponse, faster than anyone else could notice, was, "Join the club!" Rather than causing doubt to arise, for me it was an instiller of confidence in him and my own guru. To me this meant his knowledge arose spontaneously or intuitively as n eeded from deep within. Later, I have heard Master Rajinder say, "God-Power does

everything, I don't do anything." This also brings up the issue that when one is 'born', or when spiritually 'b orn again', on the quest or to its final goal, one is not born as an adult. He i s born as a babe, so to speak. Therefore, a new master must grow into adulthood. He is not automatically equipped with all power and knowledge. This is quite ev ident upon observation. It doesn't mean he is not perfect according to the afore mentioned criteria. But it certainly means he still grows in understanding and c apability. It must be admitted, however, that there is a paradox here. For the true mast er, as portrayed in Sant Mat in any case, is not the physical form, but the Mast er-Power or God-Power or Oversoul behind the 'breakwater' of the physical Master . And that Power is infinite, and can, for instance, manifest the Master's Radia nt or subtle form (and even physical form) to millions of people simultaneously, even beyond or over the head of the human Master's awareness, which is the more common occurence. It is also always capable of giving one the advice he needs i n any situation, according to the Divine will - even if the physical Master does not know it - and even if he Himself is not yet capable of acting in such a cap acity. This is, granted, hard to understand. But in a sense this may be consider ed an attribute of omnipresence and omniscience, if one likes. What it amounts t o is that the infinite Self knows everything because it is everything, but has a special focus in the Master, using him as necessary.. The concept that a human Master is omniscient and omnipotent, while useful pe rhaps at a particular stage of development of a disciple, is simply too often mi sconstrued. It need not be a stumbling block for anyone. If it is an aid for one s devotion, so be it. Otherwise, no one need be ashamed of admitting the obvious when it presents itself. It doesn't lessen the grandeur of a Master and his sco pe of influence to see him in his humanness, but, rather, should be a guide to s trengthen ones faith. If one is in internal conflict because of a discord betwee n his faith and his Reason, that is not too useful. Doubts must be cleared befor e one can move on. Sant Darshan Singh once replied to a disciple's question of w hether a saint always knows of the existence of all of the other other saints al ive in the world or on higher planes at the same time. Master Darshan replied, " Of course, saints are all-knowing." Now, to my limited understanding, for a true saint to know that there are other saints alive at the same time does not neces sarily imply being "all-knowing" - nor would he automatically know of the presen ce of ALL of the saints or liberated masters so existing. Would he even be able to distinguish between a saint and a sage? For there is a difference, inmost und erstandings. It is a little know fact that there is often a 'veil' of sorts betw een masters working in higher dimensions such that one master may NOT know what another is doing unless it is part of his own work and experience. This is diffi cult to explain, but has something to do with the fact that one can be conscious on a plane, but not yet be able too function on that plane, and further, one ma y function on a plane, but not fully understand on that plane, or be able to tra nslate perfectly what he actually knew while on that plane! it is somewhat like if a master in the tenth century had a vision of the future. Would he be able to explain the intricacies of nuclear physics to his audience? Not likely. It tale s time, then, to fully acclimate in those dimensions. As Master Darshan's statement, then, is different from Master Rajinder's enig matic comment to me above, I would like to explore this idea a bit further. The gist of the common understanding is that the ignorant soul 'knows nothing', but the 'Lord knows everything'. But this is the 'understanding' within the dream of a dreamer. So, of course, to the extent that it is true at all, it is of necess ity paradoxical. Ramana Maharshi once remarked somewhat sarcastically after certain guests lef t, "people think if I can not answer every question that I am not great, etc." T

he great Zen Master Dogen once said, "the life of a Zen Master is one continuous mistake." When further asked if he as enlightened, he replied, "I do not know." When questioned if he did not mean that literally, he said, "No, I really don't know!" Now that one can really make one think if he takes it too literally. One simply can't get ones mind around such a comment. Held in contrast with that of the "perfect master" and it can't help reduce one to an absolute state of ignor ance, which is a great achievement! Paul Cash, further, in an article he wrote a bout his time with Paul Brunton, who many consider to have been a sage, wrote th usly: "Once PB asked Paul what his idea of what it is like being a sage. Paul answe red that he thought one thing would be that one loves everybody. PB answered, "I 'm not that advanced; I don't love everybody." Another time the question of omni science came up: One afternoon I asked him, "What exactly is it about a sage's mind that makes that mind so different from the rest of us?" It was one of many questions I ask ed that he didn't originally seem to intend to answer. But I persisted and final ly he asked me, "Well what do you think it is?" I said that I had never been able to believe that it could be omniscience in the sense of knowing everything at once; but I didn't think it unreasonable to c onceive that when a sage wants or needs to know, he could turn his mind toward i t in a certain way and that knowledge would just arise. P.B. laughed heartily and answered, "It's not even that good!" "Well, how good is it?" "It has really nothing to do with knowledge, or continuity of intuition, or f requency of intuitions. It's that the mind has been made over into the Peace in an irreversible way. No form that the mind takes can alter the Peace." "You could say it's a kind of knowledge," he continued, "in this sense. If th e mind takes the form of truth, the sage knows it's truth. If it doesn't , then he knows that it's not. He's never in doubt about whether the mind has knowledge or not. But whether it does or not, his Peace is not disturbed." I asked if that meant that someone could go to a sage for help and the sage w ould be unable to help them. He replied that sometimes the intuition comes, some times it doesn't; he explained that when it doesn't come, the sage knows he has nothing to do for that person. The continuity of frequency of the intuitions has to do with the sage's mission, not with what makes a sage a sage. "You must understand," he said, "that there is no condition in which the Over self is at your beck and call. But there is a condition in which you are continu ously at the Overself's beck and call. That's the condition to strive for." As he spoke these words, he was the humblest man I had ever seen before or si nce. For all the extraordinary things about him, all the glamorous inner and out er experiences, all the remarkable effects his writings and example have had on others, that humility is what seems to be the most important fact about him." A great learning the 'world sangha' is experiencing in these times is the gr adual recognition that there is a significant difference between Self-Realizatio n and the development of relative wisdom. Being a 'true master' or a Sat Guru do es not mean relative omniscience, especially in the physical consciousness, whic h is more veiled than the higher bodies. So even though the physical consciousne ss of a jivanmukti is much more permeable to the higher planes and deeper realiz ation, it is still more veiled than say the same master while in their vijnanama

yakosha or anandamayakosha. So the full liberation of an adept, the 'true' natur e of their 'mastery', is only true in that they have been reborn fully into the light of a nondual realization that fully eclipses their tendency to act out of self-interest based on dualistic perceptions and, therefore, separative needs. B ut even this may be mildly tainted by the veils of the lower bodies, but usually , with a full master, not very much at all. But as far as their relative wisdom goes, that is very subject to conditioning from the state of the world at large, human culture at large, the gene pool they incarnated into, their personal karm ic history and education, the lineage they may be a part of, and the type of tra ining and practices they received. The relative aspect of an initiate's nature a nd understanding is a combined product of all these factors interacting with the ir inner realization. So they are only 'perfect' in their liberation, not in the re relative wisdom. Recognizing and accepting this fact is a great challenge for modern spiritual humanity, who have for a long time wanted to believe that masters are perfect i n all ways. It is a kind of long romance, and the fantasy is fading, and the pra ctical truth is emerging. And masters and disciples both need to adjust themselv es to this wiser and more mature understanding of the true nature of the situati on. Masters are both profound in their core realization, and human in their rela tive wisdom. It will take time for the great lineages in the world to adjust to these truths. My hope is that these examples will provide food for thought and help settle this matter of perfection for the reader, if not now, then soon. Again, perfecti on is a concept of the human mind. It really has limited usefulness. I can say t his with confidence because even sages will disagree on what it means. Yet, havi ng said that, I can also say that a perfect saint can 'read' your soul better th an you can, and is therefore able to give you better advice - when it is karmica lly or divinely appropriate - than most likely anything that we can say here. There is also something to be said about the power of a lineage of masters, w hose grace flows from one to the next in an unbroken stream, with each humbly de ferring to his teacher as the source of grace, and himself being backed up - and his 'imperfect' aspects 'backed-up' - by those who came before him, and whom he is at one with in the Divine reality. For from the point of view of truth, all Masters are One. An example of this sustaining power is given in the Mahayana te xt, the Lankavatara Sutra, where it says: "What is this twofold power that sustains the Bodhisattvas? The one is the po wer by which they are sustained to go through the Samadhis and Samapattis, while the other is the power whereby the Buddhas manifest themselves in person before the Bodhisattvas and baptise them with their own hands...This is in order to ma ke them avoid the evil ones, karma, and passions, to keep them away from the Dhy ana and stage of Sravakahood, to have them realise the stage of Tathagatahood, a nd to make them grow in the truth and experience already attained. For this reas on, Mahamati, the fully Enlightened Ones sustain with their power the Bodhisattv a-Mahasattvas...Thus it is said: The sustaining power is purified by the Buddhas ' vows; in the baptism, Samadhis, etc., from the first to the tenth stage, the B odhisattvas are in the embrace of the Buddhas." (11b) Something to think about. There is also the issue that, in general, Sant Mat schools say that it is a f ixed divine design that he Master is always a man. The reason given is usually b ecause, esoterically considered, all souls are female, and the divine is male. T his is not universally held to be true, however, even within Sant Mat. I believe that Sant Darshan Singh said that was the case, but I have heard Sant Kirpal Si ngh mention that there have been women saints (such as Mirabai and Rabia Basra, for instance). Then there was Anandamayi Ma, universally recognised as a great s

aint and spiritual master. There are other traditions, such as that of Tibetan B uddhism, where woman saints and siddhas have been held in great regard and many disciples of great male masters were sent to them for 'finishing school'. See th e book, Women of Wisdom, by Tsultrim Allione (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984) for the amazing story of one Ayu Khandro, a famous woman adept. Some may say, well, it is the divine will on the path of the Shabda that requires a male to be a mas ter, but it is suggested that the custom may be more traditional than divinely o rdained. In earlier ages when there was a matriarchal society no doubt the roles may have been reversed. And, even now, in some traditions the divine is conside red female, the Great Mother, and not male. So, while this may seem a minor poin t compared to the deep philosophy we have been covering, it nevertheless had to be mentioned to make our discussion complete. Returning to the discussion of the difference between the paths of jnana (the "direct" or "short" paths) versus paths such as Sant Mat (which might be called indirect" or "long" paths, I was privy thirty years ago to the confession of on e satsangi, Ed Wallace, with an ecstatic demeanor, and blood-red, tear-filled ey es, who said that after literally having to "drag himself to satsang" for five y ears he finally achieved by the grace of the Master entry into the first of the inner planes, the experience of which at first scared him, but which appeared to have had the result in him of a marked change of character. When asked, "Is it a place or a state," he answered me, "it's both; it's so perfect - you die, and are born again! And once you are through, you are through forever." Thirty years later, Ed confesses to witnessing Kirpal Singh coming on the inner planes to ta ke charge of numerous souls at the time of death, a testimony to the faithful di scharge of the promise of a Godman. Now, such a positive result may have been tr ue for him, but for others whose inner journey was a more gratuitous passage, a temporary gift, they often come out with the vividness of the experience fast re ceding, and all that is left is a dream-like memory, as the ego re-identifies wi th the body and consolidates its hold over the being again. That is certainly tr ue for nightime transports. But for others, such as the gentleman mentioned abov e, his confession was an inspiration to behold. Judith Lamb-Lion's tale of going to Sach Khand, a much higher state, at her initiation, however, was related to me in a much more calm and balanced way. Based on these two honest accounts of d eath-in-life on this path of ascent it should not be dismissed by the beginner o r seasoned advaitist or non-dualist student that the possibility exists of a pro gressive death and absorption of the ego-soul at succeeding inner plane after in ner plane leading to a progressively more integrated form of non-dual realizatio n that is valid in its own right. For that, in effect, is what the Sants and the greatest of the historical mystics are saying. An interesting take on this form of path is given by one Swami Satprakashanan da: Knowers of Saguna Brahman [God with form or attributes], according to Sankara, do not have full knowledge (jnana) and their souls depart from their bodies at the time of death, although they do not have to be reborn. The jnanis (knowers o f Nirguna Brahman - God without attributes), however, merge in Brahman, and thei r subtle bodies (souls) dissolve at the time of death....Knowers of Saguna Brahm an realize Nirguna Brahman and attain final liberation at the cosmic dissolution , along with Hiranyagarbha, the presiding deity of Brahmaloka. This is called Gra dual Liberation (krama-mukti), as distinct from Immediate Liberation (sadya mukti), achieved by those who realize Nirguna Brahman in this very life. (11c) This gradual liberation has also been discussed clearly by Swami Krishnananda , disciple of the reknown Swami Sivananda, whom Kirpal Singh respected. He argue s that one can reach Brahmaloka or union with Puroshottama and, thus purified, g ain a relative liberation, and then attain final, unconditional mukti from the a fter-death realms. Paramhansa Yogananda was of the view that most souls achieve final liberation from the higher regions after death.

Since a chief claim of Sant Mat is that Sat Lok itself is beyond both Brahmal oka and the three worlds , as well as cosmic dissolution and grand dissolution, and is eternal, it would most likely agree that the above statement only implies a relative liberation in Brahmaloka, although it would not disagree on the general concept of gradual liberation or the non-necessity of rebirth for as yet unlibe rated souls, which it, and even some schools of Buddhism, ARE also in agreement with. It is just that it may take longer on the inside than here on the physical plane. What does Self-realization and God-Realization mean in Sant Mat? This is an important source of much confusion when comparing systems. To clea r up a question of the different concept of Self-Realization in Sant Mat and som e other schools, in Sant Mat when the soul leaves the mind behind in Trikuti, th e realm of the universal mind or Brahma and the home of the 'individual mind', t he soul can be said to know itself. How does it know itself? It knows itself as free of the three bodies and of the same essence as God. It metaphorically utter s the famous Mahavakya, aham Brahm asmi, and, according to the Sants, is actuall y at the level from where the Vedic rishis derived that Mahavakya, but not a dec laration of ultimate realization. The soul, free of the mind or mental vehicle, now is said to glow 'with the light of sixteen suns'. This is the 'Self-Realizat ion' in the terminology of the Sants, which the reader can see is quite differen t from the vedantic realization of the Atman, for instance as given by Ramana Ma harshi. The soul is free from the need to incarnate in the physical world. Howev er, impressions of karma still are impressed upon the soul, and the soul has yet to know its place or dimension of origin. Three regions remain between the soul and the home of the Father, Sach Khand, the first eternal spiritual region of S at Lok. These are Daswan Dwar, when the karmic impressions are wiped clean, then Maha Sunn, or a great Void of vast and impenetrable darkness, for which the sou l needs the superior light of a master who has gone further in order to cross, f ollowed by Bhanwar Gupta. The Sants claim that the highest region that mystics o f the religions have gone to is Trikuti, and which they have mistaken for the hi ghest. Once in Sach Khand, which is 'God-Realization', there is progressive abso rption by the Sat Purush or the Father into the Nameless and Formless Absolute G od. The sound current of God, the soul, and the Father are all one in essence. A fter this level of realization things are turned in side out, in the sense that, as all planes ultimately interpenetrate, no longer is God only to be found with in, as such terms as 'within' and 'without' cease to have real meaning. Not only has the drop merged into the ocean, but the ocean has merged into the drop. The later, said Kabir, is 'para-bhakti'. It is an altogether higher order of experi ence. As the Zen Master Tozan remarked: "Everywhere I am able to meet Him; He is me now; I am not Him. When we understand this We are instantaneously with the Truth." (11d) Part of the confusion between Sant Mat and advaitic philosophies is that the latter may not realize that there is, in a sense, a void or zero-point not only between each successive plane of being, but also various void-like regions s alo ng the way that may be mistaken for 'emptiness' or ultimate realization. On the path of Surat Shabd Yoga meditation, one must first enter the silence, in order to contact the Sound of Brahman, which is the sound of the Greater Silence and t o which it leads. The advaitists think they have a short-cut, while the Sants ho ld that one must pass through all of the hierarchical and archtypal phases of cr eation and the mind, before the great nondual truth with all its great paradoxes may actually be realized. At least, most of them feel this way. We will return to this point later on. Important to note is that the soul, upon merging, retain

s its capacity to unmerge and become soul. it merges, yet is still in some sense separate. Charan Singh said, while this is so, nevertheless one is not conscious of one s consciousness, individuality, or even conscious itself, that all is the love and bliss of the Supreme Being . However, when one re-emanates, he continues to know this is so, but experiences it in a somewhat lesser way. For vedantic pundits such as Iyer, a strict vedantic analysis would hold that liberation is truly not release from the cycle of births and deaths, but knowle dge or gyan alone, that is, freedom from even the concept of birth and death. [I ronically, the mystic Paltu Sahib said that one 'listens to the sound while in g yan samadhi', thus implying that this practice and realization is a much higher one]. In any case, the point is that the sage, if he so chooses or is comissione d to do so, will perpetually return just like everyone else for the sake of othe rs. His freedom lies in that he knows all is Brahman, and his sympathies and ide ntification are with the benefit of all. That is why he will come back. He is no longer motivated by the hope of a personal salvation, bliss, or peace. Such is a much higher view than this one is presently capable of. Nevertheless, it compl ements the view of the saints - who also have this universal sympathy or compass ion, in their case having risen above the level of the Universal Mind - and is w orthy of contemplation. Incidentally, the term Brahman for the Sants signifies a lower level of realization than what the term connotes for the Vedantists, furt hering one's possible confusion. One point to be noted is that one may become certain by an inner psychic or m ystical experience that he is NOT the body, but he doesn t necessarily also know w hat the ego is, or what the world or God is, nor can he necessarily make sense o ut of the world when he comes out of meditation, without some other sadhana of p urification and metaphysical understanding or inquiry. That is because the mysti c believes that what he perceives or feels is real, and is apt to dismiss the di scriminative use of the mine prematurely. But what is the world, for instance? V edanta and Buddhism says that it is, and can only be known as, an idea, or a ser ies of sensations and perceptions arising within consciousness or Mind. Thus, th e body also is an idea, and the ego is an idea, or series of relatively fixed bu t changing ideas. [Sorry to say, but this concept is also paradoxical and not co mplete, because as the Sants point out, the soul and mind are also diffused with in the body, for when the conscious principle leaves the physical forms it dies and disintegrates. Thus, the body is in the soul and the soul is in the body. Ge nerally, to know the former the later must first be realized]. The mentalistic k nowledge of the body and world having been made ones own through inquiry, then o ne is fit to inquire into the soul or Atman, and then Brahman, the All. Otherwis e, upon returning from ones inner meditation, the lesser mystic is confronted by a world he does not understand, and he feels a need to return to his samadhi to maintain his peace. That is what is encouraged in most mystical schools in gene ral, where it is assumed that meditation alone is the only means necessary to re alize truth. That has always been strongly denied in Advaita and some schools of Buddhism, however, and other branches of philosophy, with strong warnings not t o be misled by the ecstasy and even absorptive oneness of trance states but to g o beyond them. Jagat Singh, as mentioned, said 90% of spiritual life is clear thi nking. I have wondered precisely what he meant by that. Could it be remotely simi lar to the following remark by Ramana Maharshi, who said, "Deliverance is just t he clarification of the mind, the understanding: 'I am ever in my own real natur e; all other experiences are illusory.' It is not something that has newly come about." (The Power of the Presence, Part Three, p. 193) Sant Mat generally, howe ver, teaches that vivek or discrimination will take place automatically by the p rogressive absorption that occurs from plane to plane on the way to the final go al of Anami. In my understanding, Brunton and other sages might be in disagreeme nt on that point, even though PB did say that he got the mentalistic understandi ng of the world after it was first made vivid by the mystical experience. Some of the difficulty between reconciling practice of "Long Paths" such as t

he progressive stages of mysticism with "Short Paths" such as Advaita or Zen, li es in: one, the fact that some form of "long" path of moral and concentrative de velopment is a requirement for successful pursuit of a "short" path of inquiry a nd insight, and, two, the form of the master or teacher one requires on either p ath. Brunton writes: "The Short Path [which it must be warned nevertheless requires its own forms of discipline and preparation] can succeed only if certain essential conditions are available. First a teaching master must be found. It will not be enough to f ind an illumined man. We will find peace and uplift in his presence, but these w ill fade away after leaving his presence. Such a man will be a phenomenon to adm ire and an inspiration to remember, not a guide to instruct, to warn, and to lea d from step to step. Second, we must be able to live continuously [or for a suff icient period] with the teaching master until we have finished the course and re ached the goal." (12) A great deal of misunderstanding among mystic paths also arises over their de finition or use of the term "mind". It is common to refer to mind as "the slayer of the real", and as something that must be destroyed or eliminated. Yet this i s strongly denied on paths of jnana or advaita vedanta, where the intellectual s heath itself is a primary means of realization of the Atman in the waking state. "It [the Self] is always shining in the intellectual sheath." In yoga, however, the goal is often conceived as kaivalya, or separation of consciousness from al l limiting adjuncts, but in advaita it is not. The One is to be realized, and th at necessitates self-cognition, not destruction of the mind. There is both Being and Knowing. Franklin Merrell-Wolff writes: "It is often stated in mystical literature that the activity of the mind is i n a peculiar sense a barrier to the Realization of the Higher Consciousness In general, the mystical and occult use of the word "mind" does not carry the same connation that western philosophy or the most authoritative usage gives the term. If for "mind" we substitute the word "manas," at once the mystic's statem ent becomes more correct. "Manas" is commonly translated as "mind" since there i s no other single English word that approximates its meaning. The word "mind" to day comprehends much more than the Indian philosophers and mystics mean when the y say "manas." Unless this distinction is born in mind, confusion is almost inev itable. For my own part, this confusion caused me some years of needless misunde rstanding. What I read violated what I felt intuitively and subsequently demonst rated to be the case. It was not the competent mystics and philosophers who were in error, but the translators and the western students of mysticism and occulti sm. I have entered into this point at some length, partly for the reason that in m y earlier studies the mis-translation of "lower manas" seemed to require of me a crushing of faculties of the soul that are vitally important for even the Reali zation itself, for I was quite familiar with what the word "mind" meant in weste rn usage. Others may be facing the same difficulty. Literally, to crush or suppr ess "mind," giving to that word the meaning it has in western thought, is to cru sh or suppress the soul. No true mystic means that, whatever he may seem to say as a result of not being familiar with the English term. Actually, with the mass of men, cognition is bound to egoism, but a divorce of these two is possible. Cognitive activity of a higher type is most emphatically not a barrier to Recognition, and if my experience is any criterion, may well p rove to be one of the most powerful subsidiary aids for those who can make use o f it. In any case, I must conclude that if by "mind," cognitive activity is mean t, then it is not true that the mind must be stilled in order to attain Recognit ion. But it is true that the cognitive action must be within a matrix of a high order of dispassion.

The higher affections, such as love, compassion and faith are also most emphat ically an aid. But upon this point I do not need to dwell, for here agreement am ong the mystics seems to be practically universal. Further, this phase of the su bject has been much clearly presented and better understood. This is the Road th rough Bliss, the Way most widely appreciated and most commonly followed by Those who have attained God-Realization. By means of pure cognition, it is possible to enter through Intelligence (Chit ). Or, again, one may Enter through various combinations of the higher affection s and pure cognition. Such a course is naturally the most perfect. The individua l may be more developed on the one side or the other at the time of the Entering . But once he is grounded in Higher Consciousness, there is a tendency for the n ature to unfold toward balance, so that finally a Man is symbolized by the "Grea t Bird" which has two wings equally developed. And these two are Compassion and Intelligence." (Chapter 77, "The Higher Consciousness and the Mind", from Experi ence and Philosophy: A Personal Record of Transformation and a Discussion of Tra nscendental Consciousness) James Schwarz (Ram) argues that one must think or use discernment before duri ng, and after enlightenment: "There is a strange notion that when one permanently experiences the Self the intellect is switched off for good and you just remain forever as the Self in s ome kind of no thought state. The fact is that the intellect keeps right on thin king from womb to tomb. God gave it to us for a good reason. Clear logical pract ical thinking is absolutely necessary if you are going to crack the identity cod e. It is called inquiry. You want to think before realization, during realizatio n and after realization. Realization is nothing more than a hard and fast conclu sion that you come to about your identity based on direct experience of the Self . Only understanding will solve the riddle....No experience will eradicate vasan as born in ignorance and reinforced with many years of negative behavior. Question: Is self-realization a discrete occurrence in time...or is the remov al of self ignorance a gradual process over time? Ram: It can be either or both. Usually one realizes who one is, falls again u nder the sway of ignorance, applies the knowledge again, realizes again and so o n. It goes on over and over until one day there is absolutely no doubt and the p rocess of enlightenment/ endarkenment stops for sure. Ignorance is persistent an d aggressive and one needs to practice the knowledge until the last vestige is r ooted out. I have a friend, a self realized person, who said, I realized the Self five hundred times before my seeking stopped to illustrate that point. (http://ww w.shiningworld.com) Obviously, during a process of dhyan type of meditation one tries to stop thi nking. That is where the mystic schools derive the admonition for one to still t he mind. This generally refers to manas, the discursive mind and intellect. Howe ver, outside of such a particular exercise philosophic schools argue that one ne eds the complementary practice of contemplation on the nature of the Self and re ality for realization to occur. This requires a faculty of cognition. I personal ly know of one disciple, Judith Lamb-Lion, who had gone to Sach Khand at her ini tiation, but still asked, "who am I?", to which Sant Kirpal replied, "Who is ask ing?" This was akin to Ramana's inquiry, but for the ripe soul only. And his res ponse to the question, "do you still meditate?", being "once you get your PhD, d o you have to go back and learn the ABC's?", suggested that he, the Master, enjo yed going inside for refreshment, but it was not necessary anymore for his reali zation. He admitted as such, that "I, too, like to go inside and enjoy." Maharaj Charan Singh confirms, much like the earlier reference to Sawan Singh' going to Sach Khand in the blink of an eye', that for a realized saint, it is not necess

ary for him to pass through the inner stages to be one with the Lord - and what is this but a confirmation of the actualization of non-duality through this eman ationist path? : "[The saints] have short cut in the sense that they have immediate access to the Father. After having reached sainthood they do not have to pass through all those stages on their way to the Father. Christ also indicated that he could lea ve the body when he wanted to and he could take it up again when he wanted to, s o he was always with the Father and he and the Father were one.. ["Does this mea n that he sees him through the physical eyes or does he mean that he sees him at the eye center?'] This is spiritual seeing. He is one with the Father. He is at his level. When he sees him within, he sees him everywhere in every part of cre ation. The Father is not a man. He is a power, a state of consciousness. So Chri st says he is always at that level, at that state of consciousness where the fat her is. Therefore he sees him everywhere and in every part of creation, within h im and outside of himself. Not with his physical eyes. That is a different eye. This involves a different understanding of the whole situation." (12a) PB writes: Sahaja Samadhi is not broken into intervals, is permanent, and involves no spe cial effort. Its arisal is instantaneous and without progressive stages. It can accompany daily activity without interfering with it. It is a settled calm and c omplete inner quiet....There are not distinguishing marks that an outside observ er can use to identify a Sahaja-conscious man because Sahaja represents consciou sness itself rather than its transitory states....Those at the state of achieved Sahaja are under no compulsion to continue to meditate any more or to practise yoga. They often do--either because of inclinations produced by past habits or a s a means of helping other persons. In either case it is experienced as a pleasu re. Because this consciousness is permanent, the experiencer does not need to go into meditation. This is despite the outward appearance of a person who places himself in the posture of meditation in order to achieve something....When you a re engaged in outward activity it is not the same as when you are in a trance. T his is true for both the beginner and the adept. The adept, however, does not lo se the Sahaja awareness which he has achieved and can withdraw into the depths o f consciousness which the ordinary cannot do.'' (25.2.138 & Persp. p.350)...It w ould be a poor thing for the sage if he had to sit down and squat in meditation in order to lift himself into peace. This is why he may or may not make a practi ce of meditation. For whether he meditates or not he always enjoys his inner pea ce.'' (unpublished, bv/255/3) PB gives a hint a the stage of sacrifice of the sage: The escape into Nirvana for him is only the escape into the inner realization of the truth whilst alive: it is not to escape from the external cycle of rebirt hs and deaths. It is a change of attitude. But that bait had to be held out to h im at an earlier stage until his will and nerve were strong enough to endure thi s relevation. There is no escape except inwards. For the sage is too compassiona te to withdraw into proud indifferentism and too understanding to rest completel y satisfied with his own wonderful attainment. The sounds of sufferings of men, the ignorance that is the root of these sufferings, beat ceaselessly on the tymp ana of his ears. What can he do but answer, and answer with his very life, which he gives in perpetual reincarnation upon the cross of flesh, as a vicarious sac rifice for others. It is thus alone that he achieves immortality, not by fleeing forever--as he could if he willed--into the Great Unconsciousness, but by suffe ring forever the pains and pangs of perpetual rebirth that he may help or guide his own.'' (13) 17. Instruction in a meditative technique is one thing. The gift of a brief e xperience of subtle light and sound is another. Establishment of the soul of a d

isciple in a position to fruitfully engage such subtle meditation via the master 's siddhi or power is yet another, and even greater gift. As far as the matter o f realization goes, however, Asvaghosa clearly states in his Fifty Verses of Gur u-Devotion: The more you wish to attain Enlightenment, the clearer you see the need for yo ur Guru to be a Buddha. (14) If it is ones own divine Soul which paradoxically and mysteriously gives him the inner image of his Master as well as grace (even if mediated through a Maste r), and at the ultimate level the true Master is one with ones own Soul and the Absolute Soul (both transcendental and of the nature of voidness - and thus far beyond what is commonly understood as soul in occult or mystic circles), then ce rtainly contemplation of a form which comes of itself in meditation, that is, no t through the discursive imagination, is an authentic practise and imbedded in t he divine structure of the worlds, and has been pronounced as such. Even Ramana Maharshi did not disparage it. The lotus feet of the guru, or the dust of the gur u s feet , the radiant gurudev, appearing in the disciple s heart is supposed to be a great vision, boon, and aid, during life and at the time of death and beyond. It is a cornerstone of Sant Mat. Even Kabir, in his devotional ecstasy, procaimed, now I see nothing but the radiant form of the master! An additional question, briefly mentioned before, however, is that the Sant M at lineages divide on whether one should continue contemplating only on one s init iating guru after that guru s death, and/or whether it is necessary to take his su ccessor as ones guru. This controversy began after the death of Shiv Dayal Singh . All recommend seeking the company of a true successor, but differ on what to d o with ones contemplative practice. Sant Darshan Singh also said that matters pe rtaining to the disciple's pralabd karma (current destiny) could only be handled by the successor, because that would required a physical body. Many initiates o f Rajinder Singh have seen the forms of the preceeding three masters before him coming to them unbidden during their meditations. This is an extremely important point that raises a number of issues. First of all, in Sant Mat, at least in the lineage after Sawan Singh and Kirpal Singh, t he dispensation has been offered or promised that once a disciple is initiated i t will take a maximum of four lives for him to reach Sach Khand or be so liberat ed. The Master is said to take it upon himself to erase the pool of sanchit karm as from time immemorial that the disciple would otherwise have to bear. This is significant, for, as taught in, for instance, Dzogchen Buddhism, it is these ver y tendencies, karmas, or habits of uncountable lifetimes that prevent our abidin g in the Ground Luminosity of Clear Light which dawns after death, if ever so br iefly for the average person. A question arises, however: if responsibility for exhausting the sanchit storehouse of karmas is taken over by the Master at the t ime of initiation, what would prevent an initiate from only needing one lifetime to realize the truth? The answer must be, only his creating more destiny or kri yaman karma by not living up to the teachings in this life. Even so, Sant Mat sa ys that the decision of a further birth into this earth realm lies in the hands of the Guru. anadi says that it also depends upon if the soul has reached comple tion of its inborn destiny during this life whether or not he need return. Kirpa l said that if one has no remaining desires towards this life one needn t return, depending on the grace of the Master. The spiritual Master is said to take charge of the sanchit or storehouse karm as of the disciple from yama or the lord or karma or death, thus guiding the dis ciple's future development, and also to be able to assume, as appropriate and in accordance with divine laws, some of their pralabd or fate karmas on his own bo dy. A body, as stated, is essential for this particular task. The latter asserti on is not a unique article of faith in Sant Mat. (See article, "Karma and Grace" on this website).The following beautiful account of the death of the Gyalwang K

armapa illustrates this phenomenon: "By the time that I saw him, His Holiness had already had many operations, so me parts of his body removed, things put inside him, his blood transfused, and s o on. Every day the doctors discovered the symptoms of some new disease, only to find them gone the next day and replaced by another illness, as if all the dise ases in the world were finding room in his flesh. For two months he had taken no solid food, and finally his doctors thought the life-supporting systems should be disconnected. But the Karmapa said, "No, I'm going to live. Leave them in pla ce." And he did live, astonishing the doctors, and remaining seemingly at ease i n his situation - humorous, playful, smiling, as if he were rejoicing at everyth ing his body suffered. Then I thought, with the clearest possible conviction, th at the Karmapa had submitted himself to the cutting, to the manifestation of all those diseases in his body, to the lack of food, in a quite intentional and vol untary way: He was deliberately suffering all of these diseases to help minimize the coming pains of war, disease, and famine, and in this way he was deliberate ly working to avert the terrible suffering of this dark age." (15) 18. Kabir s Anurag Sagar claims that Kal the negative power always produces impost er masters to fool the unelect , and that part of the search is for the seeker to f ind the gem among the dirt. Kirpal Singh said there is always at least one true master alive on earth, and clearly said that there may be more than one. Sant Da rshan Singh said on at least one occasion that there was only one. Shoonyo, succ essor to Dr. I.C. Sharma, said that there could conceivably be many.The founder of the modern Sant Mat or Radhasoami lineages, Shiv Dayal Singh, implied there c ould be more than one, with both Rai Salig Ram and Jaimal Singh becoming gurus a fter him. Sant Mat often mentions that contemporaries Kabir and Nanak were both perfect masters. 19. Returning to the main discussion - which is one of mysticism and emanationis m (including kundalini, Kriya, Sant Mat) versus non-duality, jnana, Ch'an, or Ze n, etc. - once out of the body (and from an absolute point of view, even while i n the body), don't ideas of high or low, inside and out, essentially lose their ultimate meaning, as they are only concepts or ideas in the mind? We have alread y discussed this in part, saying that the subtler bodies being still within spac e and time (Kal) have their relative dimensions, although ultimately there is no such thing. Sant Rajinder Singh succinctly explains that this is indeed the cas e even on that path: Q: Where are the inner realms? Master: When we withdraw our attention to the single eye, we become absorbed in t he inner Light and Sound. Then, after we meet the radiant form of the Master and rise above body-consciousness, we find inner realms. These inner dimensions or realms exist concurrently with our physical universe. For lack of better termino logy we speak of inner and outer, or higher and lower regions. These realms are not exactly descriptive because we are talking about states of consciousness. Th ey do not exist in time and space., but we have the illusion that our physical w orld is in time and space. The physical region with the earth, sun, planets, and galaxies exists simultaneously with spiritual regions. We measure time and spa ce in this physical universe because that is the only frame of reference that we know. But all these regions, from the physical to the spiritual, exist as state s of consciousness. When we talk about traveling to inner or higher regions, we are not actually traveling anywhere or going up or in. We are actually refocusin g our attention to a different state of consciousness or awareness. (16) From the point of view of Advaita, as mentioned, even the body is essentially nothing more than an idea or collection of sensations, perceptions, and beliefs in consciousness. Therefore, from the point of view of truth, does it matter, a

s some of the Tibetans maintain, how one leaves the body? What if an initiate is m urdered or killed in a horrible accident and is suddenly jerked out of the body, as has happened? I have already spoken of one such case. We are told that no ma tter how we die we will be instantly with the Master within. "The Master always resides in the disciple's innermost heart center," said Kirpal Singh. Saints and yogis have said that one can leave the body through different cent ers: the navel, the heart, or the head, etc. They generally feel that a consciou s exit via the head is most fruitful, and some have said that if one exits the b ody or dies via the anahata chakra, for instance, one may be lost until the next life in lower reflections of the true higher planes. In Sant Mat, barring the c ase of terrible accidents, all initiates exit the body through the crown of the head and are difectly in the presence of their Masters within. Sants argue for the superiority of the head or third eye (sixth chakra or div ya chaksu') over the heart as the main portal to the beyond, but generally do no t address the the causal spiritual heart spoken of by the sages. They simply say that the heart-lotus of the saints is between the eyebrows. That is their porta l into the Beyond. Whereas sages such as Ramana Maharshi say the entire inner jo urney through the subtle, psychic realms via the divya chaksu can be avoided by absorption of attention or mind via the jnana chaksu in the heart, the subjectiv e source of the separate self or ego. Traditionally, such as in the Upanishads, the heart is considered to be the seat of the soul in the body. Presumably this may account for the apparent exception-to-the-rule in the case of Lakhshmi the c ow, whom Ramana said attained mukti upon her death. If the soul is in the heart, the lack of a man-body or human form, chakra system, and lack of a third eye as located in the sixth chakra, may not always be an absolute impediment to libera tion. An objection might be raised that in the case of Ramana who by his own adm ission had little experience of the overhead planes, so cannot speak for the rea lizations of the Sants. That seems reasonably true. Comparisons between the two positions are therefore difficult. Sri Aurobindo made the same comment about Mah arshi when a disciple asked him questions concerning differences between their p hilosophies. Maharshi in turn criticized Aurobindo's experiences of the Supermin d, Overmind, etc., in effect saying they were all within the Self only. When suc h sages disagree, we should feel little doubt over seeking answers to our own qu estions. Sant Mat sometimes describes Sach Khand as the realm of Atman in exactly the same terms of infinite light as Maharshi spoke as the experience of atman reflecte d through mahatattva (cosmic consciousness); even more, according to Sar Bachan at least, scenes and sounds there, with gushing fountains of light. The disciple of Sant Mat eventually attains to a realm of no sound and no light (Anami), whi ch it calls Absolute God, but sages like Paul Brunton, Ramana, Nisargadatta woul d still almost certainly disagree with the idea that even that is the end of the path. Sahaja samadhi, which may or may not be the radhasoami state , still awaits the mature soul. It should be noted that Hazur Baba Sawan Singh was attracted to advaita, but after study of Kabir's Anurag Sagar decided the path of shabd was higher. In Sant Mat, the state of sahaj is supposed to happen more or less autom atically, through the infused power of the shabda-brahman. But that may or may n ot be true in any case. 20. Ramana, it must be noted, was of the view that all types of experience ar e unnecessary - even while many of his disciples had all sorts of classic yogic and mystical experiences in his company. He also made gentle fun of those of his disciples who wanted to see the light of a million suns. Brunton called that "the penultimate experience." A rare yogic text called it , great as it was, "maya". Interesting, isn't it, that Maharshi made fun of what most Sant Mat disciples w ould die for, and what, in fact, sound alot like descriptions of Sach Khand! Ram ana also said that one could not really say it was not light, however, that the metaphor was appropriate, but it was the invisible light of understanding.

The highest mystical experience is generally considered in the standard yogic literature to be nirvikalpa samadhi (samadhi without form, the source of subjec tivity), with anything perceptible still in the realm of the psychic or subtle. Thus Sach Khand would not be spiritual in this traditional understanding. It is de scribed in Sant Mat as the "full effulgence of the light of the Creator." Yet it is not Atman as traditionally defined, which is without attributes. Kirpal Sing h once did mention, however, that the description of Sach Khand as being that of millions of suns, etc., was in fact an allegorical description, but the questio n remaind, is it realization of Atman, and, if not, what is it? According to Sant Rajinder Singh, the Theosophical schema, in a addition to v arious subplanes in the astral world, outlines seven subplanes in devachan, the lower four constituting the mental plane, and the higher three the causal plane. In Sant Mat, the soul is free of birth and death when it reaches the super-caus al plane, where only a thin layer of the anandamaya kosha is said to cover the s oul. After that is Sach Khand, or Sat Lok. As mentioned, Dr. I.C. Sharma called Sach Khand the office of the Master , and Param Sants are said to go higher, to Ala k, Agam, and Anami. There is no doubt that these planes are intoxicating compare d to ordinary life in this sublunar earthly sphere. However, while Sach Khand ma y possibly be beyond dissolution and even grand dissolution of the lower created worlds, as these masters teach, it, once again, is paradoxical to call it spiri tual, in the philosophical sense, as there is said to be light and sound and vis ible beings there, living on their dweeps (islands) and enjoying nectar, as the Sa r Bachan of Soamiji says. We cannot ignore what Anthony Damiani emphasized, that no amount of superlatives will take away from [the] fact that if there is a perce iver and a perceived there, it is not the Reality." No matter how intense and hi gh the bliss and ecstasy, these must be gone beyond before the Soul is realized. This, however, is clearly not the case in Sach Khand. So someone is incorrect. The mystical experience of an ocean of light, however wonderful, is itself still the penultimate stage of the mystical path. The words "spiritual planes", howev er, is valuable within the sense it is used in Sant Mat. In Buddhism there is me ntion of glorious Dharmakaya realms, where only buddhas and bodhisattvas of the highest realization may dwell. Yet, once again, the highest mystical experience is supposedly beyond all obj ectivity, as the realization of ultimatesubjectivity, and can then, it seems, on ly be found in the Sant Mat experience in the Anami state or region - if that is understood and experienced as beyond subject/object distinctions as nameless an d formless would seem to imply. Some in Sant Mat, in fact, feel that not only is the Radhasoami state higher than Anami, but that it itself is just the beginnin g. Anami and even Radhasoami are described, however, in terms such as "the wonde r region," into which, according to Baba Jaimal Singh, Sawan Singh's Guru, the g urumukh disciple will "get merged", which, however, is supposedly beyond subject and object. This is a contradiciton only if we are talkng about a separate ego that merges into God. But we must remember that here we are talking of a process of the Soul, which is eternally in unity with the divine One, the I AM, and not that of an 'ego-soul wanting to 'save' itself. There is also a death as the ema nant of the Soul quits each inner plane. Even the mind is transformed until it m erges in the universal mind in Trikuti. This is a radical insight and requiring a radical shift in one s view of the world and sense of identity. Ramana called an approach of assuming the reality of an ego-soul that gets purified to finally e njoy or even get merged with an Oversoul or Paramatma a "deceitful stratagem," b ut he was not talking about the true soul. Here is what he said: "...devotion is nothing more than knowing oneself. The doctrine of Qualified Monism [i.e., Ramanuja] also admits it...Their traditional doctrine says..that t he individual soul should be made pure and then surrendered to the Supreme; then the ego is lost and one goes to the regions of Vishnu after one's death; then, finally, there is the enjoyment of the Supreme (or the Infinite)! To say that on

e is apart from the primal Source is itself a pretension; to add that one divest ed of the ego becomes pure and yet retains individuality only to enjoy or serve the Supreme, is a deceitful stratagem. What duplicity is this - first to appropr iate what is really His, and then pretend to experience or serve Him! is not all this already known to Him?"......"all lokas, even Brahma loka, do not release o ne from rebirth. The Bhagavad Gita says: 'Reaching Me, there is no rebirth...All others are in bondage'...so long as you think that there is gati (movement) - a s implied in the word gatva (having gone to) - there is punaravritti (return), a lso. Again, gati implies your Purvagamanam (birth) What is birth? It is birth of the ego. Once born you reach something; if you reach it, you return, also. Ther efore, leave off all this verbiage! Be as you are. See who you are and remain as the Self, free from birth, going, coming, and returning"....."People would not understand the simple and bare truth - the truth of their everyday, ever-present and eternal experience. That Truth is that of the Self. Is there anyone not awa re of the Self? They would not even like to hear it (the Self), whereas they are eager to know what lies beyond - heaven, hell, reincarnation. because they love mystery and not the bare truth, religions pamper them - only to bring them arou nd to the self. Wandering hither and thither, you must return to the Self only. Then, why not abide in the Self right here and now?" (17) Adyashanti argues similarly to Ramana: "The taste of no separate self is totally liberating. "No separate self" does not mean there is a spiritual experience that goes something like, "I have exte nded myself infinitely everywhere, and have merged with everything." That's a be autiful, wonderful experience for a separate self to have, but that's not what O neness is. Oneness is not merging. Merging happens between two and since there i s only one, then any experience of merging is one illusion merging with another, as beautiful and wonderful as that experience may be. Even when I experience ha ving merged with the absolute, with the infinite, with God, it simply means that my fictitious self has merged with another fiction. Mystical experiences aren't enlightenment." (18) "The merging experience is very pleasant and very beautiful, and you may or m ay not ever have it. If you have a particular type of body-mind, you might exper ience having it every five minutes. If you are another type of body-mind, you mi ght have it every five lifetimes. It means nothing whether or not this happens o r how often. I have met many people who can merge at the drop of a hat, and they are about as free as a dog chasing its tail in a cage. Merging has nothing to do with bein g free or actually having any idea what Oneness really is. Oneness simply means that everything is the One. Everything is That, and every thing always was That. When there is a very deep knowing that everything is One, then the movement of the me trying to find a past experience ceases. Movement i s cut off. Seeking is cut off. The seeker is cut off. Realization cuts everythin g off all at once. Every experience that you will ever have is the One, whether that experience i s merging or having to go to the bathroom. Even when it's beating a stick on the floor and saying, "This is it. This is the Buddha. This is enlightened mind. It doesn't get more enlightened than this!" It is all God. (From Consciousness -- E verything is That, by Adyashanti) Sant Darshan Singh, by contrast, described his ultimate experiences in the fo llowing manner: "He has taken me above body consciousness...to the higher planes, leaving the stars, the moon and the sun behind, making me one with him in his radiant efful

gent form. He has taken me into moments of eternity; beyond the limitations of t ime and space, and then, giving me a glance of love, a boost...he has taken me.. .into the highest realms of spirituality. On the way he has introduced me to the various Masters who have blessed this earth since time immemorial, and arranged for our conversation. We have conversed in a language which has no tongue...no words...no alphabet...in a language which is eternal. We have conversed in the l anguage which was in the beginning..which was made Word, in the language which [ divine] lovers even now speak. This is the language which will continue to the e nd of all time...And after taking me to our Eternal Home, Sach Khand, he has tak en me to higher realms known as Agam and Agochar, those regions which are fathom less...beyond human imagination. And after that we reached Anami, the ultimate v ast region which has no shores...no limitation...no name..." (19) "We cannot possibly reach our goal of union with God without the help and con stant guidance of an Adept. The distractions and pitfalls that line the way are unsurmountable, and one would be lost a thousand times even before one crossed t he first inner plane. But the Guru's task does not end even after the soul has r ealized its own essential divinity. He takes us to the region known as Sach Khan d, or the True Home. Here the soul comes face too face with its Creator and is f inally in the realm of the Absolute, the Unchanging Permanence. From now on the spiritual journey is the story of progressive merger, to a state where the creat ure cannot be said to behold the Creator for they have at last become one. Such indeed is the inner journey which the spiritual Adept makes possible and which h e enables us to traverse successfully." (20) And from Sant Kirpal Singh: "The soul has been imprisoned for ages and it is only through the kindness of the Master that it can be released. There is no other way." (Spiritual Elixir Chapter 20) Perhaps this metaphysical divide is not insurmountable. anadi offers what may seem to be a solution that will satisfy the bhaktis and the gyanis, or advocate s of both the Soul and the Self: "In transcendence the soul merges with the universal self - individuality dis solves into the ocean of universal being. To realize the state of oneness is to transcend self while remaining an indivisible part of that realization. Though d issolved, the soul continues to exist, but now in a new, transcendental way; the beloved allows her to return to a state of conscious unity with the undivided w hole so that she may continue her everlasting evolution as an angle of perceptio n within that unity. Oneness is not an inert entity, but the eternally recurring reunion of the soul and her creator within the space of totality, an everlastin g journey of love and individual expansion into the divine reality.... the soul in transcendence no longer owns her own her individuality - it is owned by her c reator....the soul no longer knows herself by her presence but by her absence." (anadi, book of enlightenment, p. 293-294) The methodology given at the outset in Sant Mat appears dissociative, as if i t teaches only inversion as the goal. However, this may only be temporarily so a s it is also the case in other oriental paths, where reunion with the subjective essence by separating from the gross plane is the initial attainment desired. T hen one is supposed to integrate what he previously detached from into a higher synthesis with the ultimate transcendental or universal I Am, the infinite Subje ctivity of the One. anadi recognizes this dilemma: "The outer world is not outside the universal I Am, but contained within its boundless space of pure being. Since creation dwells within the universal subjec tivity of the self, there is no way to experience oneness with the external real ity unless one becomes unified with the inner realm and the soul."

He says that, therefore, in initially creating and stabilizing a state of pre sence or conscious awareness, or depth of being, one may feel more dissociated t han when he started. Thus he teaches in somewhat of a traditional manner. There are other paths that do not each this way, claiming to be able to realize the ul timate reality without such a depth of meditation. anadi and Sant Mat, and gener ally PB, do not feel this is possible. In any case, the 'natural state' is bound less, with no 'in' or 'out': "Because the natural state is not external to the one who knows it, there is no movement of energy and no direction of absorption. Natural absorption is ever ywhere and nowhere at the same time. It is not within or without, up or down, he re or there. In natural absorption, no one is absorbed into nowhere. the natural state just is. This stateless state is neither the soul nor the beyond, but the ir undifferentiated unity." (Ibid, p. 145, 245) Some teachers of Sant Mat say that this discrimination comes automatically as one progresses on the path. Yet this does not appear to be universally the case . If we keep in mind, however, as Paramhansa Yogananda pointed out, that 'within ' the Holy Sound, so to speak, lies the 'Christ Consciousness', or the conscious ness of the Soul. If we recognize this, we will not get lost in the mystical sta tes as being objective to our essence. This is an important point, and holds the difference from 'relatively enlightened' mystical experiences and 'unenlightene d' ones. anadi further says: "It is the evolutionary level of intelligence that inhabits the inner state t hat determines whether its experience is translated as personal or impersonal. A seeker in touch with the light of pure subjectivity will recognize the sense of I Am inherent in the inner state, while one unawakened to the soul will experie nce the state beyond the mind as an external, objectified space of abidance. Wit hout the consciousness of I Am to illuminate it, the inner state is no more than an empty shell." (Ibid, p. 158) This would account for the trouble with the correspondence between the two in itiates mentioned earlier over their inner experiences. Both were clearly not in touch with the I Am principle, which is consciousness of the soul and not just the inner experience. In other words, as Ramana pointed out, listening to the sound is good - and w e add that the shabda-brahman IS a liberating presence within relativity, althou gh perhaps not the only one - but listening is better with vichara or inquiry, a s that keeps us conscious along the way. This does not mean the traditional shab d yoga practitioner must or should do mental inquiry along with his concentratio n practice, for that may hinder his absorption. It is only suggested that at int ervals in such a process, and especially during the day, contemplation/inquiry i n all its aspects is a useful accompaniment to meditation in order to both devel op discrimination and the ability to stay in touch with the I Am, the true soul principle, thus avoiding the pitfalls of ordinary mysticism which objectifies it s inner experiences and also finds a great divide between the world and the spir it. This is not always a problem in Sant Mat; it is, finally, a matter of the ev olution of the practitioner. For in the final analysis it is not the experience one haves, but the one having the experience that is of primary importance. In any case, the question of the difference between the ego as objective to t he soul, and the soul as itself impersonal individual subjectivity, but forever united yet simultaneously merging into the ultimate subjectivity, i.e.,God, vers us the view that there is only the ego and the absolute, is settled according to the Sants and anadi, but not for most advaitists or non-dualists. At this point I refer the reader back to sections 13, 14, and 15 of this paper for exegesis o n this important matter.

21. The branches among Sant Mat, as stated, are divided on whether Anami is the highest realm, or whether there is something beyond, called Radhasoami , which may or may not be a region, per se. This is where there is a lack of preciseness or limitation in our language. Some of this may be unavoidable, yet if Radhasoami i s not a region, but a more universal, transcendental realization, similar to tha t described by sages like Ramana Maharshi or the Buddha, beyond even the formles s state represented by Anami, then it should be made explicit. It may not matter much to beginners but overall it is important. And perhaps not all Sant Mat mas ters have attained the highest philosophic realization, but only the highest mys tic one. Even in cases where they have, because so much theologic tradition has been built up around Sant Mat, it might not be possible for the gurus to teach d ifferently, even if they have the radical insight, without undermining the faith of thousands, if not millions of disciples. And perhaps they help more people b y simply teaching the way they do. Perhaps it is more practically effective to t each an initial dualistic search, with more advanced instruction demonstrating h igher stages of the path being given by those of their gurus with the specific c apability. But, as Kirpal Singh was fond of quoting from Socrates, I love Truth m ore than Plato. At some point, Truth is better. In other passages Sant Darshan speaks more radically, however, about the true condition of the soul: "If we think that the Master is in one physical location, that is the most er roneous way of looking at things. The Master is always with us. He is nearer to us than our throat; he is within us. He is within our eyes; he is within our for ehead; he is within every pore of our body...The Master is with us all the time. We are caught in the tresses of the beloved and we cannot wiggle out of them. W e cannot even move our finger we are so tied up in our Beloved's tresses. Only i f we look inside ourself will we find our Beloved master with us. Our Master can even be with us physically all the twenty-four hours. He is not gone. He has no t left the earthly plane. He is here - now! [words similar to those of the dying Ramana Maharshi: "where could I go? I am here."]... We should call him from the core of our heart. He has not gone anywhere. He is with us; he is within us; he is without us; he is in every pore of our body. He enlivens us in our voice; he is in our breath; he is in our looks; we only fail to perceive him...Be one wit h him and he will be with us all the time. There is no magic in this room. it is only the oneness of our attention." (21) And, interestingly, Sant Rajinder Singh recently has also appeared to modify the language of Sant Mat to move one step closer to the advaita or non-dual posi tion, as well as that of modern science. While touring Budapest in 2007 one woma n expressed that when she sat for meditation she sometimes felt afraid. The Mast er responded by saying that we often feel fear because of the language used such as rising above body-consciousness. The words, he said, do not clearly define wha t is happening. The spiritual regions are going on concurrently with this physic al region. We are not rising out of the body, he explained, but are "tuning into d ifferent frequencies." This is a radical departure from the explicit message in all of Sant Mat to date, whose appeal to suffering seekers is exactly that the s oul does rise out of the body, exactly as at the time of death, with the ability to return guaranteed because the "silver cord" mentioned in the Bible remains i ntact. Examining the statement further, one can see the difficulty faced by the Teac her. If he in this instance is trying to tell someone that "we" are really not a "something" that goes anywhere, but that "we" only deepen in the experience of more and more dimensions within our self, then this traditional teaching as give n loses its comparative uniqueness. Moreover, saying that we are really not leav ing the body but "tuning into different frequencies", still leaves unanswered th e more basic question, " 'who' is doing the tuning in?" Without resolving that q

uestion first, the gyanis or sages say, self-understanding has not yet occurred and the potential for fear will remain, as well as the potential for misundersta nding one's experiences. If this is answered according to advaita, it will be ar gued that in fact there is no separate "one", no fixed entity, to tune into anyt hing (and also no fixed entity that is born or dies), in which case the motivati on to meditate in this specific manner itself is called into question and needs further argument. What is the goal one exactly is trying to achieve? This is now not so clear. Is this ascent a necessary and direct means to enlightenment, or, as traditions such as advaita would argue, are the practice and samadhis only p reparatory, in some cases, to final inquiry into the Self? If there is no leaving, or no one who leaves, the body in meditation, then is there any one who leaves the body at the time of death - and does this also nee d to be understood in a radically different way? Thankfully this matter is event ually taken out of our hands. Non-dualist or not, a power takes the soul out of the body at death.The teachings of the advaitists purporting to speak from the p osition of absolute truth, however, even deny incarnation itself, and speak radi cally differently about death and the state of consciousness of an "I" after dea th - or in life, for that matter - some denying it any intermediate reality at a ll. There may be limitations in their point of view, which they will admit is no t for beginners, but what they say must be considered. If the Masters say that t he body is just a thought, or perception arising in consciousness, however, whic h even the language, "we are not really rising out of it", suggests - or at leas t is compatible with - then the concept of "leaving" the body would also need to be re-explained, and the books possibly re-written, a difficult and perhaps tha nkless task for those charged with upholding a tradition with countless follower s at many levels of understanding. Sant Mat is a bhakti path, and few are likely to be interested in questions l ike these. Just sit in the silence, receive the love, and don t worry. I pray for a cool breeze from the Masters to soothe my overheated brain, and I, too, wish a bove all for pure love.... But such questions have been around in some form for hundreds of years and will not go away. They are not mere mental hair-splitting but inquiries that affect the very means, intention, and understanding of one's sadhana and the guru-disciple relationship. If the soul or power of the soul cal led the attention does not really rise up and leave the body during meditation, but only appears to, what are the meaning of heart-felt statements like the foll owing from Sant Kirpal Singh, quite representative of Sant Mat: "You cannot imagine with what longing the Master Power awaits you at the eye focus ready to receive you with open arms." As the reader will find under Biographies: The Death of a Dream and a Gift of Truth , I have a personal and not merely intellectual interest and need for such a nswers, having been cast down from the eye-focus by the Master Power many years ago for what I hope was my soul's own ultimate good, but which continues to stra in my faith and endurance to the limit. If I think of the fallen state of the so ul, I suffer immensely. If I inquire " 'who' wants to leave the body", or " 'who ' thinks he must leave the body", or "who thinks he is a 'thing' that must leave a body?", and the Soul responds with an intuitive glimpse, there is relative pe ace. So this entire article thus represents not just a philosophical investigati on but a continuing prayer to the Masters for guidance and grace. I respectfully ask, therefore, what exactly was the Master pointing to here? It seems to speak directly to the heart of Sant Mat as a distinct philosophy. 22. "Kal" - psychological, allegorical, philosophical perspectives. Is Kal the D emiurge or not? What is he and what does he represent? In the article Sophia's Passion: Sant Mat and the Gnostic Myth of Creation, N

eil Tessler within the framework of Sant Mat attempts to explain their teachings within classic creation stories wherein the realms of creation allotted to Kal , t he negative power (himself an eternal emanation of the Sat Purush or creator God , actually said to be created out of the finest hair of the Sat Purush ), are lower than the highest, uncreated Heaven of Sach Khand. While Kabir's Anurag Sagar is very interesting, beautiful and enigmatic, it is debateable whether it should n ecessarily be a taken as a metaphysical and literal description of conditional a nd absolute realities. It should be mentioned, however, that the reknown saint, Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj, considered Anurag Sagar as essential for unde rstanding the difference between Sant Mat and other paths, so its reading should not be lightly dismissed. Again, see the biography of Kabir on this website for more on this. Tessler writes: The several creation myths developed by the Masters serve to describe the rela tionship between the Absolute in its non-attributive formless essence, known in modern Sant Mat as Anami or Radhasoami, and its manifested attributes. As Kirpal Singh has written, "In one there is always the delusion of many, and the totali ty does signify the existence therein of so many parts. The ideas of a part and of the whole go cheek by jowl, and both the part as well as the whole are charac terized by the similarity of the essential nature in them. The essence of a thing has its own attributive nature and the two cannot be se parated from each other. Just as the essence is both one and many, so is the cas e with its attributive nature." [Kirpal Singh, The Crown of Life; A Study in Yog a] These attributes first appear in their purest and most realized form as the pr imordial "creation", known in the East as Sach Khand or in Gnosticism as the Ple roma or Fullness, (terms which will both be used synonymously throughout this pa per). Creation is, however, a misnomer, for Sach Khand is not created as such, b ut rather it is the expansion into distinct being of the eternally perfect and f ully elaborated attributes of the Absolute. These cosmic attributes are known as the Sons of Sat Purush in the East and the Aeons in Gnosticism. Sat Purush or t he Only-Begotten is the Aeon that is the Being, the mind, as it were, of the Abs olute; pure consciousness and consciousness on all planes, thus also the bridge to creation proper. As Hans Jonas has written, "The Only-Begotten Mind alone, having issued from him directly, can know the Fore-Father: to all the other Aeons he remains invisible and incomprehensible. ' It was a great marvel that they were in the Father without knowing Him.' (Gospel of Truth 22.27) The number of these eternal emanations of the divine varies according to refer ence. The gnostic version described by Hans Jonas gives four Aeons with their co nsorts to make eight, "the original Ogdoad", who then further elaborate to make another seven pairs for a total of thirty. The Kabiran version gives sixteen wit h Sat Purush being the first emanation. The myths now run in two distinct directions, at least in the gnostic forms. The Kabiran version and one gnostic version tells us that there was an Aeon that ch erished a desire for its own creation as an inherent part of its nature. We coul d say that the potential for separation from God is in itself an Aeon. This lead s ultimately to a creation existing in negative polarity with eternal Sach Khand , spinning the attributive universes that exist in Time. This separative Aeon, k nown as Mind or Time (Kal), is Sat Purusha's first expansion in the gnostic vers ion and fifth in the Kabiran version. Kabir's Anurag Sagar states that "He is cr eated from the most glorious part of the body of Sat Purush". Thus Sat Purush is cosmically linked to the "lower" creation, which eventually develops through Ka l's activity. In this we are warned away from value judgements, and reminded tha

t this entire process is under Divine Will (Hukam). This last statement is important, because how many nevertheless do think of K al in value judgements? But how can this be the true perspective when one has re alized Oneness? Answer: It is the paradoxical nature of reality. As Rabia of Bas ra said, however, In love with God, I have no time left to hate the devil; My love to God has so possessed me that nothing remains but Him. Here is an illustration where the editors or assistants working on Kirpal Sin gh's book, Godman may possibly have stretched a bit to maintain the traditional dualistic negative power/positive power dichotomy. One must keep in mind that Ki rpal Singh wrote this book, as a devotional gesture to his guru, Sawan Singh, wh en he was still a disciple, twenty or more years before he was a Master, althoug h it was not published until 1967. Speaking in glowing terms of the oneness of t he Master and God or God-Power and how such a state is possible, Kirpal states: In discourse 7 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna thus sets to rest this ques tion: "Not knowing my transcendant, imperishable supreme character, the undiscerning think me who am unmanifest to have become manifest. Veiled by the delusive mystery created by my unique power, I am not manifest to all; this bewildered world does not recognize me, birthless and changeless." Then he writes: "Blessed indeed is the man who is ready for immediate transformation into God , for to such an individual he at once reveals his Godhood; as Krishna revealed his oneness with Kal to Arjuna..." (22) Krishna, previously implied to be one with God, is here relegated to the less er avataric status or "oneness with Kal" the negative power as considered within the Sant tradition. All very confusing. Explainable, no doubt, but still confus ing - certainly for a Hindu who would consider Buddha or perhaps Christ or even Ramakrishna to have been avatars. I am certain that Kirpal or his editors had so und esoteric reasons for using this phraseology, but in any vision of Oneness, w hether it be the oneness of the soul, or the oneness of the ultimate, "Kal must be t aken back into one's being and no longer projected outside. It must, however, be kept in mind that Kal may not really be a person or being, i.e., satan, but a p rinciple, but who can apparently manifest in form. Judith Lamb-Lion, disciple of Kirpal Singh, described a mystic encounter where she met Kal, who "was black an d had feathers. She removed a feather and saw light and God behind him and no lo nger was afraid." This is also essentially what the Tibetan Book of the Dead tel ls one to do: recognize everything as a projection of one's own mind. This non-r eactivity and acceptance must be habitually practiced every day, however, to be effective at the time of death. What this all suggests is that the dualistic vis ion of the cosmos, described metaphorically in many spiritual and religious teac hings, is ultimately to be transcended. Yet within relativity, up to at least th e causal pane, respect must be given to the polarity of positive and negative po wers. Yet for the initiate of a Saint there is no reason to fear. The key is, ho wever, as Zen Master Dogen wrote, to strive to always be in the nondual state: "Birth and death continue and both are within samadhi. There is endless sight and sound...All are part of the constant movement of the Sea of Truth..If someo ne does not know that everything is in samadhi, he cannot understand the fundame ntal Truth. Therefore the power of the devil was destroyed." (22a)

The more positive aspect of the Kabirian myth is where the aeon Kal is not in herently evil or sinful, but power is granted to Kal as a concession by the Sat Purush so that the cosmic play will go on for some time and souls will not immed iately return to the Forefather as soon as they are incarnated for the first tim e, but be trapped in the lower worlds until rescued by the manifestation of the Positive Power, the Sant Satguru. Needlessly to say, advaita (i.e., sources like the Mandukya Upanishad) do not accept such cosmological theories of creation at all, except as a temporary expedient for the ignorant. Which isn t to say that th ey are not more true than not, in a complete, non-linear view of reality. Kal is one of those topics that has many layers. Kal can take many forms, but certainly can and does manifest as a personification. The name Kal in that trad ition (and names and images of him will be related to cultures and traditions) b eing based on 'time' is probably based on the experience that Kal has power of a person to the extent that they have karma (cause and effect is a time-based not ion), unless they are free enough from karma that through an act of will/aspirat ion and/or grace, they are freed to move beyond the realm of Kal, which, of cour se, Kal does not have. Kal has no power beyond the causal plane (or sometimes sp oken of MahaKal to the supercausal plane) because this is where a level of duali sm ends, an aspect of which is the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong. This concept is transformed in such a way in planes beyond that it no lon ger reflects a separation into such crude categories, which are not relatively w rong at the level in which they operate, by can be transcended if the consciousn ess is advanced enough. At this point, and with enough freedom from Karma, the i ndividual can pass beyond Kal's dominion. This can be experienced in various way s, including by the sheer power of a realization that transcends Kal (as long as one has also balanced enough of one's karma as well). Kal is a stickler for not releasing anyone from his classroom unless they have paid their dues. Some even say he is still a bit resentful. One person described an experience in which he was was seeking to pass beyond him. He said he was rising up, but waves and wav es of judgmentalness came down upon him, pushing him back. Then he realized he d id not have to give into these beliefs, that he was unworthy, not ready, etc. As this soul force arose within him he ascended back and Kal then personified and confronted him face to face, much as described by Judith Lamb-Lion previously. H e was very testy and demanded to know what he felt gave him the right to pass be yond him, as he was limited to this realm and had longed to be free of it for a very long time. This person said nothing but held his ground, his state of prese nce, and he dissolved and let him pass. In the next plane above there is not jud gmentalness, within oneself, collectively or as a personified figure. Kal at thi s level is more like the notion of a wrathful deity, not one serving the dissolu tion of ego as in Kali. More like some of the Old Testament Deities. In this sen se, Kal is fulfilling a natural function, embodying an aspect of the personifica tion of karmic law. We say personification because some experience that there ar e other beings gradually taking over Kal's work on our planet. Enlightened being s who bring more compassion and wisdom to the dispensing of karma. Kal seems mor e like a kind of bureaucrat who plays it strickly by the book, does not care abo ut the individual, does not care about the enlightenment of the individual or th e world, but simply does his job. And it seems that he is rather impersonal in d oing so, unless you try to get free from his realism, and then he can get jealou s. At least that seems to be the experience of some. One of the key aspects of passing beyond Kal, besides the Grace of the Master , which is the chief factor, is settling enough karma, which arise from judgment s/desires/aversion, so that one's nature is beginning to be free enough from jud gment so that one can rise above the Lord of Judgment. But also one's state of c onsciousness in that moment must transcend judgment to actually pass beyond. Thi s can, of course, happen in two ways according to which style of practice one is doing (this is assuming that the main power of a moment of transcending Kal is not grace, which also can liberate a person at least temporarily, as in peak mom ent, but also permanently). But if at least part of the power of a path is the i

ndividual's own effort, then this must take the form of having the ability to en ter a state of presence beyond judgment. This is one of the ways intuition is d efined, as the next basic level of consciousness beyond the judgmental mind. Thi s does not mean that intuition cannot 'evaluate' things. But this is done more h olistically, with a great dose of understanding, acceptance and compassion. Anyt ime someone is expressing these qualities, they are passing to some extend beyon d Kal, inner and outer Kal. In an inversion path, one uses method to move beyond judgment such as the sound current, inquiry, grace, etc. And one will experienc e this process as a liberation from a basic level of dualism, judgmentalness, an d separation. If one is doing a practice like vipassana, even if ones eyes are o pen and one is just sitting on the couch, or driving a car, waking down the stre et, the context does not matter. If one can be very present (not distracted, day dreaming, anticipating), if concentration is strong but relaxed, and one is bas ically or fundamentally accepting of one's experience moment to moment, not wish ing one was not experiencing what is there, a situation, a feeling, a memory, an d so, then one is integrating a state of mind beyond Kal in one's ordinary state . It is really not that hard to do this for short periods of time, or especially when the contents of our experience are not to challenging - ones we are inclin ed to judge, such as pain, loss, mistakes, blame from others, and so on. Then ou r freedom from Kal is tested! Also, even without these challenges, which varying in strength from person to person and moment to moment, to sustain this level of presence for increasing p eriods of time (not just a minute or two here and there) will cause all the karm a that is unresolved in our subconscious and conscious mind to be stirred up to be released. Because all of that stuff was created by judgmental consciousness/i ntentions and in incompatible to this state of presence. Also, we separate ourse lves unconsciously from this karma by repressing it, which is also a form of jud gment! So if we enter into a non-judgmental state of mind, even to a partial deg ree, our repressions will begin to be lifted to that extent, and the karma will begin to flow to the surface. If we enter into a fully trans-judgmental state of mind, our subconscious will become profoundly open, and we will be flooded with all our unfinished business. Most people have a decent amount of karma yet to r esolve, so it would be overwhelming to release it all so strongly. So, they must not try to sustain such a profound state of presence to too great a degree or f or two long periods of time if they do not wish to get swamped in painful karma. Developing increasingly non-judgmental presence liberated karma not only by d e-repressing the subconscious/storehouse karma, but also by a mechanism whereby, as karma arises as elementals of desire, aversion, thoughts, emotions, judgment s, attachments (they are all judgmental!), then these elementals get their life, their ongoing vitality to be active or become active again through the judgment al/desire energy that we charged them with in the first place, whether we create d them consciously or unconsciously (which is most common). They will resurface periodically if they are active in this life to get recharged. If we experience them (as sensations in our bodies, emotions, desires or thoughts) and we remain aware and equanimous toward them, then they will fail to be re-energized, their vitality will be discharged and they will be neutralized. Even if our equanimity is not profound, they will be somewhat de-energized, and their vibrations upgra ded according to the state of mind we had in that moment. Awareness and equanimi ty are key qualities, but these qualities are inherent in others as well such as forgiveness, compassion, love, surrender, openness. But often it is not possibl e for many of us to hold these qualities, but at least we can shoot for trying t o be present, enduring our karma, and being as accepting as we can. Then we reso lve our karma (and our relationship to Kal, if we wish to think of it that way) and by freeing our karma and cultivation non-judgment (however we approach that) , then we move beyond Kal, whether we remain in this realm or not. When an individual is initiated, them some masters will be able to replace Ka l's function as becoming responsible for the working out of one's karma. But tha

t does not mean we are 'free to go'. The master must still basically abide by th e rules of the game, as they are ultimately there not as reward and punishment, but to serve an educational process. Those who have more consciously signed on t o a spiritual path and will share in the process or working out their karma can be 'transferred' to another system where the lineage of enlightened souls can fu lfill Kal's role, but with greater personalized skill, wisdom, compassion and gr ace. As our planet becomes more evolved, some say, this system will spread to ef fect more and more people, that a new order in this regard is being 'negotiated' in our times, and one of the implications of a new level of planetary conscious ness emerging gradually at this time. We are not all ascending because it is 201 2! Kal will not get on board with that plan! Nor would anyone who really underst ands the beauty of the system. But it is natural for it to move from stage to st age, system to system. Now that we have discussed Kal from a more or less psychological and philosop hical perspective, let us examine him/it from a theological/spiritual one. Many advanced systems of nondual teachings like various forms of Hindu tantri c lineages (Kashmir Shaivism, for instance, or Swami Rama's lineage), many forms of Mahayana and Vajrayana, Taoist schools, Shankara, and Blavatsky-Theosophy et c. embrace cosmologies that include various personifications of Cosmic Intellige nces, including benefic and malefic beings. As a general classification, many tr aditions that would even be considered advaitists in particular and nondual trad itions in general embrace, on a relative plane, the undeniable presence of a 'ne gative power', although theories of what they are and their origin may differ. N amkhai Norbu, for instance, describes doing practices designed to ward off and n eutralize 'Dark Forces', Yogananda told Kriyananda at one point that the Forces of Darkness were 'thinning the herd' (their sangha), which would leave a healthi er, stronger group when finished. One can glibly say its all one, there is not g ood or bad, but that is just 'bad' nondual philosophizing. Having said that, the drama between this type of polarity of light and dark, good and evil, does not extend beyond the causal plane. But below that it is a 'real' one and can't be i gnored. Some think that the more one gives weigh to the thought of Kal, the more real he becomes, which would be true if Kal was not already real. But if Kal in some way or another represents something that is relatively real, then ignoring it m ay sometimes be like seeing a truck coming down the street and thinking that if I don't feed the idea, it will go away. On the other hand, undo dwelling on thes e things, not to mention paranoia and such about them, or delusions of heroic pa rticipation in battles and all, that is feeding or relating to the issue in prob lematic ways. The initiate has only to place his attention and heart with the Ma ster; his days cavorting with Kal are over. Kal, Karmas, and Non-dualism Kal does make sense even in a nondual context. One way to look at the idea of dealing with Kal, karmas, vasanas, or samskaras is through the notion that basi c spiritual cosmologies or sensibilities can be categorized into three general t ypes. The most basic is the type that distinguishes human experience, especially human traits, into good and bad, the foundation of morality and right choice on the path. Understandings of what these values are, why we should believe in the m, and how to practice them vary widely from one tradition and individual to ano ther. But they are all based on a simple distinction of good and bad (or unwhole some, sin, evil). A basic sign of the maturity of a version of this level of spi ritual understanding is how much this quality of discriminating wisdom is balanc ed with other qualities like acceptance, understanding, compassion, mercy and fo rgiveness. And how true is its understanding of the actual karmic significance o f a given action or motivation. This is a vast subject, just understanding the i ns and outs of this aspect.

The next level can be called transformation, and is more 'esoteric', and in I ndia and is most commonly associated with tantric teachings, including Tibetan B uddhism. In this view, the key thing that is different is that although the prac titioner must have a clear foundation in the first level of distinguishing virtu e from vice, ignorance from enlightenment (this cannot be over-emphasized), the distinction here lies in how that aspect is viewed that is considered 'evil', ba d, unwholesome, problematic, a hindrance, obstruction, ego, or fetter. In the fi rst stage view, these energies are seen as needing to be renounced, neutralized, detached from, let go of, and so on (less mature versions harshly judge, condem n, or damn these energies or those deemed to have too much of them). In the tant ric view, however, these negative attributes are seen as not needing to be rejec ted or let go of, but rather can be transformed, which process alchemically rele ase the soul within them, their hidden qualities, which subsequently enrich the practitioner. It's a bit like recycling or composting - no need to discard, lets get something out of it. Only with the tantric vision, we get wisdom and virtue out of it, not just recycled unwholesomeness. As a person matures on the path, they may transition to a more tantric vision (and sometimes corresponding practices) if either this naturally emerges, or th ey are taught this point of view. And it becomes not just a theory or philosophy , but something that is intuitively experienced. But there must be maturity. Cho gyam Trungpa warned that tantra was a dangerous practice to teach, particularly the popularized version of sexual tantra (which traditionally required proficien cy in kundalini yoga), especially in the West. In the third stage, which few people reach in a given lifetime, one can gain access to the non-dual view, at least in meditation, in which nothing is being p erceived as needing to be changed, rejected, fixed, transformed, healed, or conf ronted (such as postiive and negative powers). Not that these were wrong views, but just that when the time is ripe, one can transition to allowing the last sta ges of realization to happen through resting in the non-dual view, which not onl y liberates one from further karmically unwholesome actions, but also transforms karma/elementals that remain as they arise in one's consciousness, as the power of non-dual realization illuminates the arising phenomena in each moment. As th ey say in Dzogchen, each vasana or samskara is 'self-liberated' as it arises in awareness. But the practitioner themselves does not focus on the need for this t o happen, since, being in the non-dual view, they are already 'there' and feel n o need to liberate karma. But on a relative level that can be said to be what is naturally happening anyway. In mature practitioners in the non-dual traditions that understand this type of process, one will continue to appear to function in the world as one who on a relative level is still mindful of the discriminative moral and tantric levels of experience (typically, except for the historical 'crazy' adepts), as a deep n on-dual realizer is in a state that is not against these relative levels of one' s nature. Just as they do not reject the body, but allow it to play out its natu re, so they do not reject the personality of the practitioner, continuing to be mindful of morality, relative good and evil, dark forces, spiritual practices, t he drama of gurus and students, everything. Nothing need be rejected of other st ages and aspects of the path once non-dualism has been realized. There is no nee d to reject 'the path' (as folks like Krishnamurti claimed to), or 'teachers', o r practices, or effort, and so on. Non-dual realization rejects nothing. It seam lessly integrates with and illuminates all of that. So inwardly the non-dual sta ge of the path is one of not identifying with all of that, while a mature actual ization of it (rather than a personality that is not yet fully illuminated by no n-dualism, and so has various reactions of misunderstandings about it) allows th e outer expression of spirituality to go on as before. This also insures that yo u don't get realizers who think they have transcended everything falling back si nce there are still tendencies or vasanas that are not yet liberated that could

pull them back. Namkhai Norbu made a succinct observation when he say that 'the highest pract ice is not the deepest one that one can conceive of or has heard of, but rather the practice that is most suited to one's stage'. That is to say, 'the highest v iew for each individual is not necessarily the non-dual, but rather the one that is most organically emerging for them, and can therefore most powerfully be int egrated in their experience and practice. One of the most basic problems with th e western non-dual scene is that many of the people running after that vision do not understand it well, are misapplying it in counterproductive ways, and reall y would be more skillfully practicing if they focused on one or both of the othe r two views as the primary vision, and cultivated non-dualism as a philosophical context and goal, rather than a current focus. Many are attempting to practice over their heads. Anyway, that's how I tend to see it. But, who is to say? Maybe I am just arguing for my own limitations.... Kal: a few additional theological considerations As to how this all started, the Masters in all traditions generally steer dis ciples away from such questions, considering them as 'not conducive to edificati on,' 'first get out of the house before it burns down,' but let's be daring. The re are two gnostic views, one positive and one negative. [Also two Garden of Ede n views, which Garden of Eden story is found throughout the world. Only in Judai sm and Biblical Christianity, interestingly - very interestingly -is eating of t he tree of knowledge considered negative - no wonder there is so much guilt in t hat tradition and people! Everywhere else it is considered to be a good thing]. In gnosticism, which would include Kabir's Anurag Sagar (which there is even deb ate as to whether he actually wrote it - the Beas lineage has always made a big deal of its truth; Sawan recommended all satsangis read it), there are two views . One, we did something wrong and 'fell' down to this world as punishment, and, two, there was 'no fall,' the whole affair was one of getting knowledge and real ization. Sant Mat, publically at lest, tends to hold to the view that we disobey ed God and fell from a certain inner plane - after which the Sat Purush cut a de al with Kal (who was made from him and works under his authority) to keep souls from immediately returning home: the guru could not do miracles, only hold satsa ng, etc., to win over souls to the path of truth, which ultimately is the triump h of non-dualism over dualism - which from the highest point of view might be vi ewed as still a relative teaching. Charan Singh, interestingly, answered someone saying that when we first 'came down' here, we had no karma, that God sent us here. Why, he couldn't say. The a nswer of Charan Singh may be slightly different than the punishment theory of Sa wan Singh, although it is not uncertain. Some versions of the Kal story have sug gested that the souls had a choice if they wanted to stay in Sach Khand or go do wn to explore the lower world, and 90% said they wanted to go. This suggests tha t the lower realms already existed before the 'disobedience,' and the giving of authority over the lower worlds to Kal. Thus, in this view Kal or MahaKal would not be Isvara or the creator of maya or relativity itself, but a power within re lativity. Here is a link presumed to be based on Kirpal Singh's view of Kal, yet with s ome of the problems mentioned so far. The reader having mulled that over, we continue. The type of view that Kal or even Sat Purush is the Creator of maya or relati vity itself is actually dangerously close to falling into dualistic scenarios th at try to give meaning to relativity. This is inconsistent with radical nonduali sm, although many who have aligned themselves with non-dualism fall into this tr ap. Ken Wilber for instance has suggested that the nondual is transcendentally l

onely and so projected relativity so that it would have something to love/relate to. This is not non-dualism, at least not according to the Dzogchen school. In Dzogchen they use a metaphor of a mirror. The essence of the mirror is emptiness , its nature is to continuously reflect, and its energy is the reflections that constantly appear and disappear in the mirror. The reflections are spontaneous m anifestations that are inseparable from that which reflects them and from that w hich is the basis for reflection itself. There is no creation as is commonly (du alistically) understood. There are dozens of these concepts in various cosmologi es, many of them embraced by those who in other ways consider themselves non-dua list. They just don't seem to realize that such creation or emanation or project ion scenarios are not really compatible with their non-dualism. At first people beginning to see this will often feel a loss, another thing to let go of. But if one completes the process of surrendering these attempts to make positive sense of the whole thing and just settle more deeply into transcendent Being, one may find that this state is even more sublime, empowering, liberating and loving th an the other scenarios. This is the opinion of some, and a difficult point, perh aps the most difficult point in philosophy and religion, one which the reader mu st deeply ponder for him or her self. A 'problem' with the view of Kal as the Creator of maya and relativity is, ba sically, that it is based on a Creationist view (!), which does not make sense f rom a pure nondual perspective, but the above one is even more odd than others. It seems to take the view that all the universe came from a transcendent Realit y in two manifestations, Sat Purush, the Positive Power, and Kal, the Negative P ower. In this view, Sat Purush's nature is to liberate beings, draw them back to God, and Kal's function is to create the world of maya, and then try to keep be ings trapped there. What is not clear in this philosophy is the notion that Kal is under Sat Purush's power, both of which are 'created' by the Transcendent Rea lity beyond. So what is their view of why all this would happen? The answer give n is the usual one of 'lila', or divine play. And that may be as good as any for now. But why would the Negative Power be under the control of the Positive Powe r? Would that not mean that basically they are one? One gets the sense that, as Sant Mat arose in India in the context of India's Advaita traditions, yet is a b hakti movement that traditionally favors more dualistic or qualified Advaita vie ws, that there is a mixing together in Sant Mat of elements of each in a not alw ays very coherent or integrated fashion. If this being is the 'Creator of Maya' as some schools of Sant Mat seems to believe, therefore, it may not be considered to make sense to a nondual-oriente d intuition. That does not mean that this being does not exist, but, viewing thi ngs in a non-dual light, things may inevitably be more complex than some of the Sant Mat philosophy suggests. However, it may not be as contradictory as all tha t. Kal is not strictly the creator of maya, but the 'regent' in charge of it. Th erefore, if by 'Creator' with a capital 'C' they mean (and they do) the Primal R eality from which and within which all of the play of emanated levels of being a nd worlds takes place, that is, a Prime Reality which in its aspect of Supreme P ower 'creates' out of itself both consciousness and phenomena - and, in a 'deleg ated', emanated fashion, souls, archangels, gods, beings of all types, higher an d lower worlds, etc. - then there is room in this teaching to portray a most inc lusive form of non-dualism, and the word 'Creator', stripped of its Middle easte rn associations of a tribal God creating something out of nothing, is acceptable . End of Kal discussion Two metaphors, therefore, seem to exist for the path to Truth. The most ancie nt is the emanationist one of the "ladder" or "ascent" to the highest or deepest realm of consciousness. The non-dual metaphor currently in vogue is that of the "bottom falling out of the bucket" or "the bubble of ego bursting" wherever one finds himself. Is it necessary to fulfill both of these "paths" for complete Tr

uth to be realized? Is there a choice? Is one more important than the other? Doe s the "Radhasoami" realization in Sant Mat produce a non-dual enlightenment? It seems that in some cases it may, in some case maybe not, as they seem to some ex tent, some of the time, to derive from different antecedent causes. The Gyan sam adhis so criticized as only as "the highest human realizations" by the Sant Mat masters may not automatically become the experience of these Masters just becaus e they fulfilled the complete course of inner inversion, and, therefore, only th e rare Master in that lineage may have the means to make an accurate comparison, in my humble and hesistantly introduced opinion. On the other hand, Paltu Sahib , as mentioned earlier, spoke of listening to the sound while 'poised in Gyan Sa nadhi'. And further, however, does the 'non-dual' enlightenment in traditional o r popular Buddhism, Zen or Advaita last any longer than the body, unless the dee p course outlined by the Sant Mat or completed Dzogchen Masters is fulfilled? Realization certainly doesn't seem to remain unbroken in its continuity, in e ither case, except for the most exceptional being, as even the masters and sages who choose to return to help others temporarily sacrifice their enlightenment w hen they assume a new body, and must spend some time regaining it (Sant Kirpal S ingh called it a "refresher course"), although in their case the regaining is re latively assured. 23. Once again, there is still supposed to be light and sound beyond Sach Khand, and if so the three higher regions beyond Sach Khand (Alak, Agam, and Anami, on ly the latter which is described as formless), can not by definition be equivale nt to the three higher degrees of penetration into the Void Mind mentioned by Pl otinus (Soul, Intellectual Principle, and the One), and by Paul Brunton as Overs elf (Soul), World Mind, and Mind, all of which are formless, egoless, dimensions . If the light and sound there ('Sar' and 'Sat' shabd) are really the 'essences' of the perceptible light and sound, and inseparable from ones own self-essence, then this makes sense, but other wise it raises more questions. 24. The very way Sach Khand is described is paradoxical, however, so its claim t o be a spiritual region may not be dismissed outright. Our language is a poor guag e of reality, in the final analysis. Sach Khand, as a divine realm where souls s ee by their own light and recognize other souls and their Creator, is very much like the following description given by the great Sufi, Ibn Al Arabi: A final spiritual intuition will show you our forms manifest in Him, so that s ome of us are manifest to others in the reality, know each other, and distinguis h each other in Him. There are those of us who have spiritual knowledge of this mutual recognition in the reality, while others have not experienced the plane o n which this occurs. I seek refuge in God lest I be of the ignorant. (23) And also by Plotinus, on the realization of the Nous or Intellectual Principl e, the image of which is the Soul: "A blissful life is theirs. They have the Truth for Mother, Nurse and Nutrime nt; they see all things: not the things that are born and die, but those which h ave Real Being and they see themselves in others. For them all things are transp arent and there is nothing dark or impenetrable, but everyone is manifest to eve ryone interiorly and all things are manifest to the most intimate depth of their nature. Light is everywhere manifest to light. There, everyone has all things i n himself and sees all things in others, so that all things are everywhere and a ll is all and each is all, and the glory is infinite." (v. 8, 4). So far be it for this poor one to speak of what he knows not , but if clarifi cation can be given to bridge the contradictions within the traditions, I ferven tly ask that it be granted, by experience if not in words. 25. Generally, in Sant Mat there is no recognition or proposal of what Paul Brun

ton called "Short Path" practices to cultivate insight, as complementary to conc entration practice, and to supplement the often long and dreary years of attempt s at purifying the ego-soul so it can go "within" - such attempts which can in s pite of themselves - without love for the guru - often reinforce the identificat ion with the ego itself - prior to actual experience of the higher realms themse lves, which through the power of the Word will progressively annihilate the eart h-bound soul's fetters until it shines in its primal glory.. This is less likely for those who make themselves accessible to the company of a true master and de velop love for him. Sometimes in Sant Mat this is difficult, due to the great nu mber of disciples. This is one reason many are turning to non-dual teachers for what they feel is to be more direct, accessible, and practical guidance. The Upa nishads themselves were the product of a few students sitting at the feet of the master until all doubts were resolved. This turning away from the path could be unfortunate, however, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Again, however, Paul Brunton explains that the mystical schools above all are the most likely t o offer one method for all, whether that is suitable for an aspirant or not. The re are several reasons for this: "The average teacher takes from his own personal experience what helped him m ost or what his own teacher led him to, and passes it on to the student as being "the Path," the only way to God, the sole method of arriving at truth - whether this particular way or method suits the individual type or his degree of develo pment or not. He almost forces it on the student, even if it is contrary to the latter's entire temperament or need. The poor student finds himself locked up in his teacher's personal opinions and practices, as if nothing good existed outsi de them." "It is the mark of a well-qualified teacher that he adapts his advice to fit each disciple individually. If everyone is recommended to practise the same meth od irrespective of competence, his personal history and temperament, his grade o f development or capacity, his character-traits and tendencies, in a number of c ases it will be largely ineffectual." (24) Again, the antidote is to go in all humility to the Master-Soul and tell him your problems; if he is a true master the help will be there. 26. So at some point sages say that one must move from the practise of pursuing concentration on a projected ultimate object (i.e., God), with attention extende d outside of the heart, and inquire or find the subject, and then the ultimate S ubject. Supposedly this happens automatically through Naam bhakti. Zen Master Ba ssui (1338-1500), however, echoed Ramana: "What is this mind? Who is hearing these sounds? Do not mistake any state for Self-realization, but continue To ask yourself even more Intensely, What is it that hears?" There are hints here and there that even some of the Sant Mat masters recogni zed this. As mentioned previously, a disciple I knew, Judith Lamb-Lion, who conf essed in Kirpal Singh s company and was acknowledged by him to have gone to Sach K hand at her intiation, still asked him in private, WHO am I? to which Kirpal repli ed WHO wants to KNOW?" It should be mentioned that Kirpal did not suggest this in quiry or practice to just anyone. This was a ripe soul who had also been taken t o Sach Khand, and for whom the question still arose. Therefore we are talking of very high spiritual states. This would make sense of Ramana's comment: "It is said in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the first name of God is 'I' . 'Aham nama abhavat' ['I becomes the name']. Om came later." (25) 'Om' here refers to the creative vibration or life-current, similar to Naam o r Shabd in the Sikh or Sant tradition - except that, in the teachings of the San

ts, the scope of "Om" is attributed to that of the lower three worlds only, whic h are the purview of the vedas and vedantic sages. Sar Shabd and Sat Shabd are s aid take one much higher and lead to liberation. Ramana was quite adamant that e ventually the quest into the truth of the Self is alone the direct path to the r ight awareness of the Self or realization. He affirmed that meditation is a prel iminary aid to this quest for breaking up the idea of the body as the self, but that in all yogas, or stages of yoga, other than that of enquiry, it is assumed that there is an entity called 'the soul' pursuing that quest, which he says is a false assumption. In summary, for Ramana all yoga and meditation is just preli minary to the ultimate path of vichara or enquiry, wherein the source of the app arent ego-soul is realized as the Self. However, as shown in Part One, he also d id concede that meditation on the sound could 'take you home'. In addition, as p reviously argued, the view that the subject discovered through inquiry is the ul timate Subject, instead of the Soul, is a traditional assumption of advaita veda nta, which may not be true. It may simply be a traditional inheritance we have r eceived from an age when the teachings of truth were presented in only impersona l terms. Here is an example of how Ramana would direct his listener from a relative to an absolute viewpoint: Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Individual human souls are not the only beings known." Question: "And the sacred regions Kailasa or Vaikuntha, are they real?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "As real as you are in this body." Question: "Do they possess a phenomenal existence, like my body? Or are they fic tions like the horn of a hare?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "They do exist." Question: "If so, they must be somewhere. Where are they?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Persons who have seen them say that they exist somewhere. So we must accept their statement." Question: "Where do they exist?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "In you." [Didn't Baba Sawan Singh say much the same thing? "Everything, including the Creator, is within you." ] Question: "Then it is only an idea, which I can create and control?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Everything is like that." Question: "But I can create pure fictions, for example, a hare's horn, or only p art truths, for example a mirage, while there are also facts irrespective of my imagination. Do the Gods Iswara or Vishnu exist like that?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Yes." Question: "Is God subject to Pralaya (cosmic dissolution) ?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Why? Man becoming aware of the Self transcends cosmic diss olution and becomes liberated. Why not Iswara who is infinitely wiser and abler? " [In Sant Mat, Iswara is situated lower in the scheme of creation than the Sat Purush]

Question: "Do devas (angels) and pisachas (devils) exist similarly?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Yes." Question: "These deities, what is their status relative to the Self?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Siva, Ganapati and other deities like Brahma, exist from a human standpoint; that is to say, if you consider your personal self as real, t hen they also exist. Just as government has its high executive officers to carry on the government, so has the creator. But from the standpoint of the Self all these gods are illusory and must themselves merge into the one reality..." (26) "Truly there is no cause for you to be miserable and unhappy. You yourself im pose limitations on your true nature of infinite being, and then weep that you a re but a finite creature. Then you take up this or that spiritual practice to tr anscend the non- existent limitations. But if your spiritual practice itself ass umes the existence of the limitations, how can it help you to transcend them?" ( 27) While that is so, the ego is not the soul. To realize the soul one must trans cend the ego and co-operate with its death. So what the jnanis say is only halftruth and not gospel. 27. Sant Darshan Singh said in one of his books that one doesn't get the first g limpse of true happiness until after transcending the fourth plane. In the highe st and most true sense this may be so. At the fourth plane the soul stands with only the anandamayakosha veiling it. No doubt there is great bliss as one ascend s to such a heavenly realm, and as the ray of the soul returns to its origin it partakes more directly of the nature of that source. Still, one may find it diff iculty to accept or simply agree with that comment, no matter how pure and illum ined Sant Darshan Singh was, which as far as I can tell few have walked the eart h with as much sanctity as he. It is simply that other sages have disagreed with it. Therefore the question arises. True, it is certainly harder to be happy her e, and it appears that there is a limit to human happiness, due to its transcien cy, but it also seems that the communication of such a view could reinforce suff ering, in so far as the more one believes or thinks he must get out of the body, the more fixed the belief in the reality of the body becomes, for one thing. Ja panese Buddhist Master Fuji, who sat with Kirpal Singh a number of times, was in obvious ecstasy, with a smile as wide as the room, while in this very plane. Ki rpal was often that way, too. There is also the example of the emotion-filled ex clamation Kirpal made to His master, "Huzur, the peace and security found while sitting at your feet can not be had in higher planes!" Unless this was just a de votional gesture one must question the nature of happiness itself. Does it shine forth while being without ego in the moment, or is it only attained in some far -off inner plane, in the psychological depths of consciousness? If one believes strongly in the reality of the body and world as real, which the very drive to g et out of the body must reinforce (not that one should never pursue it), then ne cessarily one will project his ideal of happiness in that direction only and not recognize it any other way. According to some, that very disposition is a big s tumbling block to liberation. Again, we refer to Brunton who wrote: "The notion that the truth will be gained, that happiness will be achieved, t hat the Overself will be realized at the end of a long attempt must be seen as a n illusory one. Truth, happiness, and the Overself must be seen in the Present, not the future, at the very beginning of this quest, not the end, here and now.. ...It is an error, although a reasonable one, to believe that attainment comes o nly when the whole distance of this path has been travelled. This is to make it depend on measurement, calculation - that is, on the ego's own effort, managemen t, and control. On the contrary, attainment depends on relinquishment of the ego

, and hence of the idea of progress which accompanies it. it is then that a man can be still; then that he can, as the bible promises, "know that I am God." (28 ) Ramana also declared: "What is meant by liberation? Do the heavenly worlds and heavenly bliss exist somewhere else in the sky? Are they to be experienced in some other world and s ome other body after leaving this world and the body? The heart alone is the sup reme world. Tranquility, in the form of supreme silence, is alone the supreme bl iss or the happiness of liberation...The cessation of all worries is the attainm ent of the supreme truth. By the state of inner consciousness the great life of supreme bliss can be attained at all times in this very world and in this very b ody." (29) Even Master Darshan spoke enigmatically about this, in apparent contradiction to his words mentioned above. In Love's Last Madness (p. 75) we find: "Eternal rapture is within reach in this ephemeral world: Devote your life to serving in the tavern." In this case some of the Sant Mat gurus would generally be honorably and laud ibly classified according to the Lankavatara Sutra as "Transformation Buddhas", but not necessarily "Dharmata Buddhas" (such as Hui-neng), that is, those who do not publically teach the ultimate truth of the One Mind, but methods to help th e most people they can from the level at which they find them. Many of the great est sages in history have mixed mysticism with philosophy, trying to help as man y people as they could, such is their great compassion and universal vision. As vedantist V.S. Iyer wrote: "In Brahma Sutras Sankara says that Brahman is the cause of the world, wherea s in Mandukya Upanishad he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will be fr ightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed." (30) As Hung-Jen (eighth century) said: Throughout the canon, the Tathagata preaches extensively about all types of tr ansgression and good fortune, causes and conditions, and rewards and retribution s. He also draws upon all the various things of this world, mountains, rivers, t he earth, plants, trees, etc. to make innumerable metaphors. He also manifests i nnumerable supernormal powers and various kinds of transformations. All these ar e just the Buddha s way of teaching foolish sentient beings. Since they have vario us kinds of desires and a myriad of psychological differences, the Tathagata dra ws them into permanent bliss according to their mental tendencies. Understand cl early that the Buddha Nature embodied within sentient beings is inherently pure, like a sun underlaid by clouds. By just distinctly maintaining awareness of the True Mind, the clouds of false thoughts will go away, and the sun of wisdom wil l appear." (31) Comments like Sant Darshan's, however, that 'the Buddhists only go to the thi rd plane' seem rather ludicrous. Did he know all Buddhists? Or make a deep study of the Buddhist teachings? The answer must be, "Not likely." To say that the Bu ddha, a planetary bodhisattva or the highest order, only had access to the level of the causal plane, speaks to ignorance at the level of relative knowledge. Th e Buddha went to great lengths discussing the realms of form , the formless real ms,and the realizations 'beyond' these. It is highly unlikely that he would be f ooled by a visionary experience on an intermediate plane such as the causal - as

defined by the Sants (which would be 'the mental ' or higher mental' according to theosophy). We have it on reliable authority that in higher planes Master Dar shan was in full agreement with the doings of ascended masters that he so critic ized. Further, how could a master know everything there is to know of the vastne ss of the inner regions, and of the advanced beings there, without spending much time and specific 'research' therein? It is not so cut and dried a matter of si mply visiting and understanding everything. The inner regions are not only verti cal but horizontal - and perhaps 'quantum'! So these kinds of divisive quotes by Sant Mat teachers seem destined to go if the teaching is to have a future. The following quote is going to hurt. PB states: "The sage has conquered separativeness in his mind and realized the ALL as hi mself. The logical consequence is tremendous. It follows that there is no libera tion from the round of births and rebirths for the sage; he has to go through it like the others. Of course, he does this with full understanding whereas they a re plunged in darkness. But if he identifies himself with the All, then he can't desert but must go on to the end, working for the liberation of others in turn. This is his crucifixion, that being able to save others he is unable to save hi mself. "And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, `And he was numbered with the transgressors.' Why? Because compassion rules him, not the ego. Nobody is li kely to want such a goal (until, indeed he is almost ready for it) so it is usua lly kept secret or symbolized. Again: "For this is my blood of the new testament , which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (32) Ramana Maharshi and others, even Darshan Singh, have said the same, that they would come back again and again to help apparent other souls. As Kirpal said, "one bulb is replaced with another." Sant Mat believes the Sa tguru is an incarnation eternally present on the earth, "giving food for the hun gry and water for the thirsty," as Christ said. There is some merit to the concept of a lineage, where each master watches ea ch other s back, so to speak, thus maintaining the purity of the transmission, eve n when a paerticular master is not fully developed. A teacher or Master may in f act still be a true and effective agent of Grace without the ability to advise o ne in all areas of life or practice; in such cases, one will inevitably be moved out of inner necessity to exercise and develop his intelligence in many matters and seek guidance, with all due love and respect to the primary master of his h eart, from other sources as required, and without fear or paranoia about "Kal" o r anything else. In traditional devotional paths this independence and self-reli ance has usually been considered taboo, but in the age we are living in that is increasingly becoming a no longer viable or believable point of view. The Divine Mind seems to be leading us on a path of evolution and to develop all of ones f aculties is part of that evolution. And there is a higher purpose behind this. To teach outside the religious and cultural expectations of tradition when ne eded requires skill, knowledge, and courage. Sant Kirpal did so, with some. Sant Darshan Singh, to his credit, seemed to be moving in that direction, but once a dmitted, bless his soul, that he was old-fashioned . Perhaps he was referring to pe rsonal moral codes and such, perhaps not. I was not his personal disciple so I c annot say. He did write that when all is said and done, one must come to the poi nt of surrender. With that there can be no argument. But there is no question th at the public message of Sant Mat in general continues to be simply go in and up . For some this works, but for many, apparently not so well. There are many, many souls who have meditated faithfully for years and been disheartened with the res ults. This may not all be attributed to a lack of patience and perseverance or t he difficulty of the ordeal, although that can t be ruled out. Hazrat Inayat Khan told a story of a man who had meditated for years and was disheartened with his

progress.The man s father told him that he practiced for forty years with the same result and was told to pray for a miracle. One day the miracle occured and he b roke through into the light. In Sant Mat a big emphasis is placed oon the stage of man-making and the working off of karma. It is sometimes said that ninty-five per cent of the grace is withheld until the time of one s death, and that is when one will see the full glory of one s Master. Still, some cash in hand is promised e ven from the beginning. In the July 2007 issue of Sat Sandesh magazine Sant Rajinder spoke about how we should meditate because we will see the glorious inner realms and have bliss and peace, and that another benefit is that we will see our relatives and realiz e that they, too, are in a better place of peace and joy. Now, at first glance, forgive me, when I read this I felt like saying, "What is this, how could he say such a thing? Doesn't it contradicts everything Sant Mat teaches about life aft er death, especially for the uninitiated? Kirpal Singh's book, Mystery of Death, does not promise that everyone just by dying is in a better place, at least not for good. You have some vivid but dream-like experiences for a while (with thos e not under the protection of the master and not very 'conscious' during life, p assing in and out of the dream), perhaps as taught in certain schools do some pa st-life processing and even current karmic integration, but then eventually pass into a pleasant sleep, and then are reborn until you get it right or wake up. O ne isn't in the clear just by dying!" But after further contemplation, realizing the promise of the masters for protection of your dear ones for up to seven gen erations, I was also reminded of a story about Ramana Maharshi. A man came to hi m distraught about a son who had passed away. He wanted Ramana to tell him if he would see his son again when he died. Ramana didn't answer him, and the man rel entlessly implored him to promise him that he would again see his son when he di ed. Finally after a long time Ramana said, "yes." When the man left, Ramana turn ed to one of his advanced devotees and said, "what could I say? If I had said "n o" the man's faith would have been shaken to its roots." Sri Nisargadatta, in the midst of speaking about the point of view of the jna ni, also confessed to using such consoling words when dealing with souls of less understanding: "Q: Imagine you are ill -- high fever, aches, shivers. The doctor tells you the condition is serious, there are only a few days to live. What would be your firs t reaction? M: No reaction. As it is natural for the incense stick to burn out, so it is nat ural for the body to die. Really, it is a matter of very little importance. What matters is that I am neither the body nor the mind. I am. Q: Your family will be desperate, of course. What would you tell them? M: The usual stuff: fear not, life goes on, God will protect you, we shall be so on together again and so on. But to me the entire commotion is meaningless, for I am not the entity that imagines itself alive or dead. I am neither born nor ca n I die. I have nothing to remember or to forget... Q: How does the jnani fare after death? M: The jnani is dead already. Do you expect him to die again? Q: Surely, the dissolution of the body is an important event even to a jnani. M: There are no important events for a jnani, except when somebody reaches the h ighest goal. Then only his heart rejoices. All else is of no concern. The entire universe is his body, all life is his life. As in a city of lights, when one bu lb burns out, it does not affect the network, so the death of a body does not af fect the whole." How many of us are interested in hearing the truth of the self for its own sa ke? Let us not judge masters too prematurely, for their message is given to many , many people of different background, understanding, and readiness. Paul Brunto n wrote, and this may sting, too:

This goal must not be mistaken, however, for the orthodox Hindu or Buddhist go al of liberation from the cycle of rebirths. The philosophic aspirant seeks libe ration only from mental and emotional bondage to the experiences of these rebirt hs. He does not hate earthly life nor desire to disappear utterly in the univers al life. Unlike the ordinary Oriental ascetic or mystic he is content to come ba ck to earth again and again, provided he can come back with wisdom, understandin g and compassion, and participate effectively and selflessly in human affairs. F or he knows that death and birth, earth and heaven, are but changes in idea, and that in reality there is one unchanging existence which is birthless and deathl ess and everlasting. The world is for ever changing, but the flow of changes is itself permanent. Therefore we can find the Eternal here in this world as well a s in the supra-mundane realm... Ultimately we may continue to exist no longer as finite beings, only as the Ab solute itself. The person is absorbed into its impersonal source. This deprives immortality of all human meaning. The instinct of self preservation holds us all in so powerful a thrall that we demand its satisfaction even after we have reno unced the transient mortal life. For then there is no impress on the universal l ife, nothing to show in the vast void of the Absolute that the individual has ev en existed at all. But we as egos shall not pass into nothingness when we finish this pilgrimage from outward existence to inward Essence. We shall pass inwardl y into a state where we shall not be involved in time space change as humanly kn own, a state where they become meaningless terms. This state is as undeniable by a being in it as it is impenetrable by those who stand outside it. But it exist s. It is not annihilation, it is the fullness of being. From this final standpoint there can exist no such process as the cyclic whirl of reincarnation. All births on earth are then seen to be appearances of one an d the same thing. The thing is known to be the reality, and its appearances are known to be its shadows. But before this high level is reached man thinks in his ignorance that he has a wholly separate existence from all other men, that he i s a finite individual who must be born again and again on earth until he attains the being of the Overself, and that the Overself and he are two things, separat e and apart. (unpublished essay) Rajinder Singh also has said that merger in God is not the annihilation of on es identity, but rather immersion in all the love, joy, and wisdom of God. . So I sense that Sant Rajinder was speaking to someone or some particular gro up of people in his talk for which such a consoling message was a help. Sort of like "Mr. Rogers". Watching Mr. Rogers (God rest his soul) was a humbling experi ence. A cynical person like myself could never pull off what he did. He was incr edible. So, too, the Masters have their amazing play and often there is little t o say about why they do what they do. Sooner or later master-teachers say almost everything, to one person or another. In this instance, however, was such a sta tement of Sant Rajinder's the literal "truth" ? The answer is, for the Sant Mat initiate, it is said that their close relations and loved ones (even to seven ge nerations past) are also given the boon of the Living Master s help, and are not a t the mercy of Kal, or the angel of death, the Lord of the three worlds within w hich souls recycle endlessly until they meet the Master. We are fully aware that some will cringe at what seems like the exclusivity o f such a teaching, while others will shed tears of joy. From the point of view of the higher philosophy, it is all illusion. But it i s as real as we seem to be. "Nobody is born or dies at any time; it is the mind that conceives its birth and death and its migration to other bodies and other worlds." - Yoga Vasishta 28. Once more, there is the issue of purification of vasanas or egoic tendencies

to clear up. The Sant Mat answer to this is rather unique. In the lineage they say the sanchit karmas, that is, the vasanas, tendencies, and karmas, from time immemorial are eradicated forever by the Master at the time of initiation (at le ast, in the Kirpal lineage this is said). The pralabd karmas, those making up th is lifetime, are left alone, otherwise one would die at the time of initiation. The kriyaman karmas are those one accumulates from day to day by wrong living, a nd are kept to a minimum by meditation, moral actions, selfless service, and eat ing a vegetarian diet. If one does this adequately with full faith then at the t ime of death when the Master takes one through the pool of Manasrovar in the sup racausal plane where one sheds his causal body, all ones karma from time immemor ial is wiped out forever. Otherwise the accumulated kriyaman karma may require a nother birth to be purified. This will, no doubt, raise the hair on the neck of the confirmed vedantists, who may not even believe in the concept of karma. So b e it. To them it might be said, "see you next life." Sages like Ramana Maharshi speak differently about this issue of karmas and s amskaras: they say it is an (often long and drawn out) affair that must occur in the waking state, whereby the vasanas of egoity are scorched by checking them i n consciousness as they arise and returning consciousness to its source. This mu st go on even after an experience of nirvikalpa, or formless inner trance. The c onsciousness must become stabilized under all conditions. One can easily see tha t this is a very different view. Vedantist Iyer gives a philosophic interpretati on of the bath in Manasarovar (Sanskrit: "manas-sarovar", or "lake of mind"). Fo r Iyer, the world in front of us, including the body, is the lake of mind that o ne must be immersed in until he has firmly established that all is an idea, or a mental appearance. The epistemological argument goes: reality of matter is a gu ess; we can only known what appears in consciousness; therefore, everything is a n idea. This understanding, he says, effectively dissolves the world into Mind, and one realizes in his understanding that he is Atman. Then through further inq uiry Atman is known to be the same as Brahman. This, he says, is equivalent of t he religious pilgrimage to Lake Manasarovar where one takes his ritualistic bath before going on to Kailas. For Iyer, Kailas signifies Atman. Iyer makes no ment ion of the mystic interpretation given in Sant Mat. Of course, because he was no t a mystic, nor had he access to those transcendental realms, so, as great a pun dit as he was, his view was sort of one-dimensional. 29. When I sat before Ki rpal Singh, one disciple complained that she couldn t still her mind. On this path concentration (dhyan) is the sine qua non. Kirpal replied, that s all of our probl em! Some would take that as a matter-of-fact reply, the point being that achievin g stilling of the mind was difficult for everyone. Yet perhaps there was an addi tional meaning to Sant Kirpal s remark. At the time my dhyan was being demolished. L ater, I remembered this incident when I read the following words of the chinese master Hung-Jen: The triple realm is an empty apparition that is solely the creation of the ind ividual mind. Do not worry if you cannot achieve concentration and do not experi ence the various psychological states. Just constantly maintain clear awareness of the True Mind in all your actions. (33) In the Dzogchen tradition the same approach is taken. Not concentration, but letting the mind be open and vast as the sky, neither rejecting or accepting tho ughts. The only problem is that if one relaxes the mind prematurely, he will go into the subconscious mind and stagnate. That is why in most traditions the deve lopment of mindfulness or concentration, among other practices, such as the cult ivation of the virtues, service,character building, are preliminary exercises or practice, and Sant Mat and even Dzogchen are no exceptions. Pure Dzogchen is a pinnacle practice for one who is already established in a steady state of non-du al contemplation; therefore, it is quite avanced. My experience with Sant Kirpal Singh was unique and led me to feel that he hi mself may in a sense have transcended the conventional teaching of his lineage a

nd realized Sat and Sahaj, for instance, independent of exclusive inversion. He once asked me if I wanted anything, if I wanted to leave my body, and when I rep lied (unknowingly, without much intelligence at the time, as I was a young man), no, nothing, he immediately got excited and said, You're an emperor, I ll kiss your feet, God is nothing! A couple of days later I had a satori or kensho type of exp erience at his ashram, which he seemed to recognize and acknowledge, even though I didn t yet know what had happened at the time. It was not mystical or psychic, or even an experience, but an instant of realization of the ego or person's unre ality, even while in the body. Nothing had changed, and everything negative in m e remained to be purified, but yet, everything was different. It was one of thos e infamous "non-events" the non-dualists are so fond of talking about. I knew th is was something that never arose in any of my inner meditations before that mom ent, and could not have arisen as long as my attention was only rivetted on inne r phenomena or their expectation. Kirpal, as stated, after giving a long and det ailed description of the path to the final goal, once said, "you already are the re, you just don't know it." To me this confirms he had a more complete realizat ion than that conventionally elaborated in Sant Mat, and that Kirpal, like Rumi and Kabir, was among the highest gurus in that lineage. This is really the case in many traditions, where the secret or innermost teachings are transmittable bu t unteachable. Ramana spoke of a tiny orifice in the heart which is normally closed, but whe n opened led to realization of the Self and happiness, here and now. This causal "knot" (granthi) is not automatically opened by the path of ascent, it seems, b ut rather the knot at the ajna doorway is opened. That is, the divya chakshu is op ened, but not necessarily the jnana chakshu that Ramana talked about. That may or may not open depending on one s background, prior understanding, etc. Otherwise th e ego on the path of ascent "takes a bath" and is purified of gross attachment, but still remains intact as an ego-soul for some time until the soul shines in i ts pristine glory. Further, on return to the world ignorance to a degree reasser ts itself, perhaps not in all, but in many cases. In Sant Mat, it is indetermina te when the knot at the heart opens. It is likely that the greatest of these Mas ters, such as Kabir, Nanak, Kirpal, and a few others knew the Truth, but this ma jor distinction between the teachings regarding the heart versus the third eye ( ajna center) is simply not given much recognition. Rather, the path of the sages is just dismissed as a lesser path, and left at that. This leaves many experien ces unexplainable. On the other hand, it is likely possible for the jnana chaksh u to open, on the path of knowledge, without the divya chakshu or the heart chak ra opening to any significant degree. Perhaps for both to open would be best. 30. Siddhis, and a discussion of Sant Mat's place among other traditions: a prop osed model First, I acknowledge that I had help on this section, from the same person, Mark Sullivan, who helped me with Part Two of this three-parts series of articl es. It is common knowledge in many traditions that powers will arise spontaneousl y as the result of spiritual practice. In addition, one can engage in specific p ractices (again which many major traditions teach, but not all) to develop siddh is. Jack Kornfield says in Living Dharma (Living Buddhist Masters) that of the d ozen or so teachers he studied with in Asia, virtually all of them were also rep uted to have not only mastered all the jhanas, but also the various siddhas as w ell, most teachers and bodhisattvas finding that siddhas, when used without ego, enhance ones ability to serve. Of course, great debate rages about the appropri ate place of siddhas on the path, but most traditions embrace a willingness to c ultivate them when motivation and wisdom are mature enough. Although the development of siddhis or supernormal powers are warned against in all traditions of authentic spirituality as something not to be cultivated by

yogic means for their own sake, there is also a belief that on certain paths th at the siddhis are not only possible from 'ordinary' practice, but that also by a certain stage they will all be fully available spontaneously. Sant Mat would b e an example of this. Sri Nisargadatta's way would not, as he acknowledged that such powers 'require further training,' (I AM THAT) - although, even in his case , as in many holy persons, seemingly miraculous things happened around him. Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda's guru, asserted this view of the automatic dev elopment of the siddhis in the Holy Science, but many others schools and teacher s have also said something equivalent. In particular, the more 'tantric' orienta tions that embrace the notion that the deepest realizations are those that will come from fully integrating realization into the lower bodies, transforming them profoundly so that gradually various phenomena will arise like: glowing, change s in need of food or sleep, slowing or stopping aging, unfoldment of siddhas, an d the Body of Light. Not everyone will get all of these at advanced stages. Many people have also intentionally rejected their development. You may have heard t hat when Ramakrishna began to glow significantly, he asked Kali to make it go aw ay, for he wanted people to seek beyond the surface. The Buddha is reputed to ha ve rejected the development of many signs of deep transformation as he did not w ant to be deified. The Sants are said to be bound by the Sat Purush not to win o ver souls through the display of miracles, although it still manages to happen f rom time to time! Ramalingar allowed these phenomena to arise, but became disapp ointed when his followers become focused on him and his 'divinity', telling them that they should not, that he was just one of them, and to not get distracted f rom their own awakening. he then locked himself inside of a room and disappeared ! So clearly we cannot use the emergence of these signs or not as a sign of real ization, for many without them are very realized. Many and perhaps any genuine path can lead to these developments, but some ar e more likely than others. Paths including a tantric or transformational and des cending/integrating approach, as well as an interest in service, tend to be ones more likely too. One of the reasons for this is that the siddhis are powers lat ent in human nature, and are generally part of our body (including subtle ones) nature, as opposed to our consciousness aspect. They are Shakti rather than Shiv a manifestations. Those paths having a strong leaning towards Shiva or realizati on, consciousness, wisdom paths, are among those less likely to as easily genera te siddhis spontaneously. But paths that include or emphasize the Shakti aspect such as Hindu tantric/kundliini paths, Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, Qi gong (which has spiritual levels), Daskalos (a western Greek master with extensive knowledge and teachings about the inner realms), and such, work more directly with bodily energies on various levels, and are therefore more likely to awaken their laten t powers. Coming back to Sant Mat, not only would Sant Mat masters be likely to have siddhis (even if they chose not to display them openly) because not only do they achieve the levels of realization where they would come spontaneously, but they also approach the path by a method that has elements in common with classi c tantric paths. This is a vast topic, and a risk of misunderstanding is taken b y treating it so cursorily here, but the inner light and sound, in some of the m ore esoteric tantric traditions, are considered Shakti/kundalini expressions. So those that meditate on them will be attuning to the Shakti or emanatory aspect of the Absolute. Now we propose a model for comparing/classifying different teachings and scho ols. Imagine a triangle with the Unnameable, Inexpressible Absolute, the Tao, th e Dharmakaya, Anami on the top, then Shiva and Shakti on the bottom left and rig ht. These are the 'relative' principles of Consciousness and Energy, Purusha and Prakriti, that for now we may consider as 'emanating' or manifesting from the A bsolute. Some paths lean one way, some the other, and some are more balanced. Sh iva paths emphasize wisdom, discrimination, realization, mind, knowledge, consci ousness, awareness, awakening, and enlightenment. These, in what might be consid ered a 'watered-down' form, are currently very popular in the Western world amon g many of the newer teachers of non-duality. Shakti paths (first introduced in a

major way the West in the 1960's-1970's) emphasize energy, body, feeling, passi on, phenomena, love, and so on. Most advanced tantric inclusive paths like Tibet an Buddhism or Swami Rama's lineage, marry these two aspects in a more integral approach. If the emphasis is on things like realization, wisdom and inquiry, the n siddhis are slower to develop because that aspect of our nature is being detac hed from, or 'seen through'. But with Sant Mat, not only is the leaning towards devotion/love/surrender, but the form of the practice is to attune to the essenc e of the nature side or Shakti. In the difference between mind and body (shiva a nd shakti), mind has insight, realizes, while body feels and does. In our feelin g aspect, in our senses, we emphasize three major senses to experience nature, w hether physical or subtle - we touch, or see or hear. So there are two types of Shakti practice - active, such as pranayama or tai chi, and receptive, which wou ld be sensory. We know that Sant Mat does not prefer to emphasize the active, mo tor currents, so the emphasis in on the sensory currents. These are reflected in the three meditations of that tradition - gazing, bhajan and shabd (the one act ive method is simran). The finest manifestation of shakti is inner light and sound - where meditatio n on these will lead to unity with the Positive Power, or the Shakti aspect of G od. Then the Sat Purush or Positive Power will take one beyond into the Realizat ion/Shiva aspect within, with the Eternal then spontaneously revealing itself as It is, and also, if allowed, re-integrating itself deeper and deeper into all o f the bodies and planes as it descends. It is as if the light and sound are the outer form of Saguna Brahman, with its pure Realization (Nirguna) aspect being ' behind' that, just as our minds and souls are within our bodies. This leads to t he pure, complete non-dual realization. So, tantric traditions also use the ligh t and sound, but rather than having a bhakti emphasis and so focusing primarily on these are expressions of Deity, they also include seeing them as kundalini an d may work with them in other contexts as well. For instance, Swami Veda Bharati , a successor of Swami Rama, taught that in the Himalayan Advaita/Tantric lineag e that he and Swami Rama were part of, the first stage of initiation was raja yo ga practices like yama, niyama, asanas, and pranayama, along with mantra initiat ion. The second initiation, after adequate purification, would begin work with k undalini. He said that in their tradition 'the kundalini is a force of divine li ght and superconscious sound', and that beyond that stage, meditations would foc us on 'light, sound, and chakras'. The third initiation would be their equivalen t of direct transmission of nondual realization as in Dzogchen, leading to advan ced meditation. He described this stage as beginning with direct transmission 'the tremendous explosion of consciousness on a cosmic scale that takes place in such initiations has to be experienced to be believed, and the power to confer such Light resides only in a few hands. The initiation my be given by the touch of the hand, with a glance, or with a burst of mental energy. The degree of the height and intensity of initiation depends on the disciple's ability to withstan d, contain and later slowly assimilate into his nervous energy the shock of the divine energy.' During this stage meditation on inner light and sound transition s to being beyond the body, and continues into higher worlds. There is also a fo ur stage of initiation as well, which they don't talk about openly. The goal in this tradition is sahaja samadhi, and comes from a blending of Advaita/realizati on and shakti/kundalini approaches. Again, in a path like this the siddhis are m ore likely to arise at an earlier stage, especially since they are latent in the body/feeling/shakti level, and they are using practices that attune to these in various ways including chakras and subtle light and sound. Sant Mat may not explicitly embrace the tantric philosophy, and many of the e lements that are associated with the various and many more tantric styles (chi g ong, Taoism, Vajrayana, hindu forms) such as breathing practices, chakras, and s o on. But they do meditate on what these traditions (at least many of them) woul d consider to be a manifestation of Shakti or kundalini (which does extend into the subtle world all they way up to its emanating source, whether we call it Mah aShakti, the Holy Spirit, Sat Purush, or Shabd Brahman. So, in the context of th

is perspective, an advanced practitioner of Sant Mat would be expected to inevit ably also develop all the siddhis because not only do they get them from adequat e God-consciousness in general, but also that they are absorbing themselves in t he Positive Power that is Shakti that is the source of all the power of nature, normal or paranormal, physical or subtle. How a master manifests their realization, however, will in considerable part be dependent on the type of path that they are practicing/embodying for that inc arnation. Each path has its strengths as well as areas that are less developed. So it becomes very tricky to compare masters of different paths. And just becaus e a path does not explicitly focus on some element like nondual wisdom does not mean its adepts will not come into that realization in a round-about sort of way . It may not be the most efficient way to be directly initiated into that aspect of spirituality, or to cultivate it. But it is not necessarily going to be tota lly lacking, though it might be given a different spin depending on their philos ophy and approach. To fully compare paths requires working from a comprehensive understanding of spirituality as a context, one that will allow us to put each path in perspecti ve. In doing so there are many, many components that have to be evaluted in orde r to look at each path and how it is a unique combination of various components. Then in that context we can also have a better understanding of what 'type' of masters are the product of that path. This is further complicated by the fact th at people will bring to a given path components that are built into their own na ture, which are not strong or explicit on that path, and so give their own uniqu e spin to that path. For instance, clearly Sant Mat is not particularly a jnani path, yet some within it (both masters and students) have that inclination in th eir nature. So they bring that to their involvement with Sant Mat, which some pe ople feel enriched by, and others confused or threatened by. So there is the bas ic soul or nature of a given path, and then there are those who bring a differen t spin to it, so they that break the mold. They may be reformers, or outcasts! O r both. Some of the components that one might use to evaluate and compare paths would include: primary philosophy (like Dvaita, Advaita, Vishishtadvaita); and Shiva leaning, Shakti leaning, or balanced; jnani, bhakt, tantric, karma, etc. Also wh ether emphasizing inversion, integration or both. Outstanding virtues emphasized like wisdom, discipline, technical skill, love/compassion, devotion, surrender, creativity/expression, equanimity/detachment, and so on. At another level there are more comprehensive archetypes that underly a spiritual path, which bring to gether some of these different characteristics. Although Sant Mat includes elements from the Shakti aspect, it is not as rich in that area as Dzogchen or other rich tantric paths, so the emergence of siddh is may not be as efficient (also less dangerous therefore), and generation of th e Body of Light is unlikely, and so on. But, another component of a path is the depth to which they appreciate the central component of grace, and it significan ce on the path. Tibetan Buddism/Dzogchen does deeply appreciate this, but there are many facets to it, to this wonderful attribute of the divine. Shabd yoga is a profound and unique contribution to the appreciation of this aspect. But the t radition of the realized guru's grace is a very ancient and universal one. None of the existing traditions have it all, and they all need to be matured further, part of which comes from blending with other truths. There is a profoun d place, for instance, for 'inversion' practices in a larger, planetary spiritua lity. And the Buddhist versions are a good contribution to these, but perhaps no t their greatest strength. Sant Mat may understand certain truths about this muc h better than Buddhism. The central strength of especially Mahayana Buddhism is its penetrating insig

ht into nondualism, its appreciation of the power and greater enlightenment embo died in balancing love and wisdom, and its middle path and integrated presence ( rather than trance) approach to spiritual development. On the other hand, the si gnificance of the inner light and sound is profound. It is one of the great unde r-appreciated truths in our times. Sant Mat is carrying a relatively clean, simp le but profound version of that truth in the context of the world's spiritual tr aditions. That is its world Dharma. There are other pieces that are not as well expressed in Sant Mat, or perhaps some at all, really. But that does not diminis h the beauty of what it does express. In the centuries ahead there will be an in creasing blending of these truths into a greater world spirituality. 31. Conclusions I humbly implore the Masters that any remaining mystique surrounding Sant Mat should be let go, that they speak openly and plainly, as was done in ancient da ys, for the good of all. The Tripura Rahasya states: "The best among sages can, without hesitation, give complete answers on matte rs relating to Realization and the sublimest truths. He seems to be spontaneousl y animated when discussing matters pertaining to jnana (knowledge) and is never tired of their exposition." (34) Similarly, the sage Yajnavalkya has been taken as a model of the ideal teache r since the earliest times: "He exemplifies a major characteristic of the guru, namely, to teach fully, h olding nothing back. Although different teachers use different methods, the auth entic guru holds nothing in reserve; he teaches all that he knows and experience s. According to the texts, Yajnavalkya exposed principles relentlessly until und erstanding took place. These early teachers, though their teaching was frequentl y obscure and esoteric, were not part of a closed society. There was no fear of a free exchange of ideas even among the teachers themselves. Above all, they wer e concerned for the lineage of sacred wisdom and the necessity of its transmissi on." (35) V.S. Iyer writes: "Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words. He was no fool in writing...[He] stressed the great importance of freeing our use of words from all ambiguity...Sankara himself has warned us not to use ambiguous words." (36) In contrast, the history of the Radhasoami movement, unfortunately, since the time of Soamiji has often been one of being encouraged not to ask difficult que stions (although I have to admit that my master, Sant Kirpal Singh, said, "bring me your worst question!"). Yet too often the advice is, "we shouldn't ask such things," "we can't know such things," etc.. I will give but one example to illus trate my point, a very important one, in my opinion. In Sant Mat, there is menti on of there being "marked souls," those with a moharchap on their foreheads, ind icating they are to be chosen for initiation and eventual return to Sach Khand. There is even at least one mention in the New Testament of such a stamp on the f orehead of the elect. The following is a statement with references by an angry B eas follower about this topic and its consequences. One will see its essentially drastic message: "MISSION STATEMENT OF THE RADASWAMI MASTER AND THE INTENT OF HIS GOD." "In this argument we want to look at the "Mission" that the Masters claim to be given by God and also look at certain defining characteristics of that God w hich we can infer from statements by the Masters. We will use two quotes from R

adhasoami (RS) books as the source documents: The first is from the book "The M aster Answers" by Charan Singh from 1984. The second is data attributed to Sawa n Singh from the book "With the Three Masters - Vol. II" (1967) Pages 68 and 17 6. Q. 310. The first question referred to the Supreme Lord as sending us down h ere: Now sometimes in the Radha Soami literature, may be in some of the discuss ions, I forgot which, we have referred to as being prodigal Sons, which indicat es that we came down here by our own choice, rather than being sent down by the Supreme Lord. Will you comment on that? A. How could we have a choice, when w e were with the Lord? Choice comes through the mind, and there is no mind ther e. We have been sent. We have been given mind, to be pulled to and function in this world. But we had no mind there. The question of our choice did not arise there. If the universe had to be created, some souls had to be sent, whether t hey liked it or not. It is not advisable to discuss many things. For example, you may have heard or you may have read but I do not want to give much importa nce to it that some souls were quite willing to come, and others were quite rel uctant to come. Generally, it is said that saints come for those souls who wer e reluctant to come into this world, and that is considered to be one-tenth of the number of souls sent here. So, only one-tenth will make their way (p.310 T HE MASTER ANSWERS (1964 Charan Singh) back to the Lord and nine-tenths will stay back here to carry on the universe. That is why everybody will not be attract ed towards the Lord. Some souls are required for the universe to go on, unless the Lord wants to finish this whole play. Otherwise, if all the souls were to go back to Him, there would be an end to this universe. So the Saints come for those marked souls. The one-tenth are the marked souls for which the Masters c ome, to take them back to the Lord. They are known as the marked souls. I did n ot want to discuss this question. (below dated June, 1945 and attributed to Saw an Singh)" "Last night Huzur said, The real secret is that when this creation was cre ated for the first time it was most beautiful and fascinating. It was shown to all the souls and they were asked whether they would like to live in Satlok or go down to this new creation. Eight-ninths of the souls said they wanted to go down to the lower creation, and only one-ninth of the souls said they wanted to stay at the feet of the Lord. This the all-merciful Supreme Father asked the souls who did not want to go down, to do so, and to enjoy the new creation. He added, however, that He would call them back later on. So it is this group com prising one-ninth of all the souls that is now going back to Satlok. Since the creation is infinite, this one-ninth part is also infinite, and some of these souls will always be in this world to be taken back. The rest of the eight par ts will always remain here as a part of this creation." "On June, 1945, someone asked why this universe was created. Huzur replied, This can be understood only after reaching Sat Lok, but the perfect Saints poss ess this secret, which is not to be found in any books, that this entire univer se was shown to all the souls on the day it was created. Eight-ninths of the s ouls said that they would like to live forever in the material. world; but the remaining one-ninth said that they did not want anything else except God. At t his the Supreme Lord said, "All of you go down to the material world. Those who have asked for me only, I shall come to take them back in the form of perfect Saints." I said that it was really surprising that these souls liked this mate rial world in exchange for the bliss of Sat Lok. Huzur replied, "These souls w ere then not in Sat Lok, but were in a passive or dormant state. They liked thi s material world because they had not seen any other universe." The Masters cla im that their "mission" is to find "marked souls" and bring them back to God. I t is further claimed that each Master has been assigned a specific number of the se "marked souls" [marked with a "moharchap" on their foreheads] to locate and return. This is their stated mission throughout the many RS books. Many RS books contain glossaries, but the term "marked soul" is not defined in any of them. S o, just what is a "marked soul". From the above quotes we can see that a "marked soul" is a soul which came from Sach Khand. It is a statement of fact or citiz

enship - marked souls are citizens of Sach Khand and so have the right to retur n there. You cannot earn the right to be a "marked soul". You either are or are not. Either way you cannot change it. The concept of karmas or good or bad wor ks has nothing at all to do with being a marked soul. The Masters then state th e number of marked souls at about 10% of all souls. So, what if you are not a "m arked soul". Well, if you are a member of the 90% of non-marked souls, accordin g to the Masters, there is no hope for you regardless of how good you are. In t he model for the Universe as given in the above quotes, non-marked souls never r each God. When they are not being "used" to animate life forms in the creation, they are "stored" in a "dormant state" until needed. I do not believe that I c an find, in the language that we use here to communicate with one another, the words to adequately express the gravity of what is being stated in the above quo tes. Please read them carefully." "We begin at a point where the material creation had not yet been conceived. Souls lived in the Spiritual realms. Now it is time to create the lower or mate rial worlds. It is desired that these worlds be populated by animate creatures which necessitates that these creatures have souls. The souls used for this pur pose are not souls from the spiritual planes. They are souls from "a dormant st ate" - souls who "had never been in Sat Lok". These souls are destined to "alwa ys remain here as part of this creation". They will have lifetime after lifetim e - hopes and dreams - good and bad times, but the most they can hope for (alth ough they do not know this) is to be put back into "a dormant state". They will never reach God - they will never see God. Saints will not help them. Only the special 10% who came from an active existence in the Spiritual planes have the right (divine right ?) to return to those high planes. They have the passport "the mark" by definition or divine right or whatever. It is irrelevant what th ey have done or do now or will do in the future. None of this has any effect on the fact that they are "marked souls" and therefore have the right to access t he Spiritual worlds. Similarly, those 90% who are "not marked" have no right an d no hope of gaining any right regardless of anything they may do. Now, this is a simply horrible model for the Universe and for God's intentions. If true, we m ight as well all hang it up because we are dealing with a God which is vastly d ifferent from what is generally believed. This is a model for a totally non evo lving Universe - a stagnant place where souls spin around but accomplish nothin g ruled by a God who creates souls for "utility" and not out of Love that they might develop and grow and achieve fulfillment. It also suggests an elitist or " master race" type attitude on the part of the Masters. The Masters and their st udents, of course, are members of the "marked soul class" and the "masses" or t he general population is the "non-marked soul class" which is doomed and does no t count. To accept this RS model, then, is to worship a God who does NOT have " unconditional love" but who instead has very conditional love for specific soul s and no regard for others. The most likely possibility here is that the god of RS is not the ultimate God but rather one of the many "gods" which are worshipp ed by the various sects in India. In fairness, I wrote to Gurinder Singh and ask ed him to explain or clarify the quotes used above. As usual, he refused to giv e any meaningful answer and simply stated that "our limited minds cannot unders tand these things". He also added some advice saying, "I would advise you not t o activate the mind unnecessarily". It is good advice, of course. If you are a mindless zombie you will have no trouble accepting anything. However, my "limit ed mind" has no trouble seeing what is being said in the above quotes- and I do not agree with it and I do not feel that the "god" being described here is the ultimate and "for real" god." In Sant Mat, while there is Absolute God, there is its expression, a personal God, the Sat Purush, of whom it has been said from time to time that the "Mauj" or divine will has been 'changed'. Soamiji mentioned this theological concept o n at least one occasion. In more modern times, the following statement was made to a friend of mine by Sant Darshan Singh. Things have seemed to be loosening up in recent years - perhaps out of necessity, it is hard to tell - see this provo

cative explanation of Sant Mat 2.0 - and the following is a much more universal proclamation which is in line with that of many saints (although not sages, who language things differently): "I was with Master Darshan in his living room at the ashram in 1988 when he s aid ecstatically to maybe forty of us, In fact all the souls in the universe are destined to go back to God! I do not know if the mauj has changed since Master Sawan Singh made the statements above, but I think that may be the case, since t he living master can ask for these things and the inner circle of past masters w ill listen to the living master." This is what Paramhansa Yogananda also had proclaimed, that "eventually all s ouls will go back to God - because there is nowhere else to go!" "What we call the will of God is not a capricious whim of a playful deity, bu t the expression of an absolute necessity to grow in love and wisdom and power, to actualize the infinite potentials of life and consciousness." (37) And, as Ishwara Puri said in one of his talked linked to in Part One, "the ma ster doesn't so much seek out 'qualified' souls, He himself qualifies the souls! " And the concept of being marked only means that one is destined to be under th e care of a particular master, not that one is 'chosen' by God Himself. Ultimate ly, if one wants God, he is 'marked'. As Kirpal Singh once said, "I tell you, th e man in whom the need to solve the mystery of life has arisen is fit." We suggest that this line of thinking must be raised to a higher octave, that whoever is interested in their spiritual nature is 'marked', and destined for r apid transformation. Not only special souls who have worked very hard, but the e ntire race. Take this with more than a grain of salt, but some of the more outra geous remarks by some of these masters is very much in line with some of the new er channeled information we have been receiving. Such as: one of the last things Kirpal Singh said was that there were to be no more progression yugas as in the past, that we were going directly into a Golden Age; Agam Prasad Mathur offered the rather far-out prophecy that in 2020 extraterrestrials were going to come t o earth to assist mankind in the coming shift (we have our doubts about that one , 'ET's being said to have only come here in etheric form, not physically); and Sri Yukteswar (Paramhansa Yogananda's guru's guru) whose 'researches' found that the traditional timing of the yugas was incorrect, but not obsolete. Whereas Hi ndu cosmology has us still in the Kali Yuga for several hundred thousand years, Yukteswar said that he had found there to be an ascending and descending cycle o f yugas on a much smaller set of intervals. According to him, we are now for the past few hundred years been in the ascending phase of the Dwapar Yuga, or Bronz e Age, which will bring in many advanced forms of technology of an electro-magne tic variety - but not a Golden Age per se. Along with all of these kinds of pred ictions, we must consider the channeled information that is in synch with the qu antum discoveries of cutting edge science, which expands our conceptions of spir ituality to include such things as multiple Big Bangs and simultaneous creations , expanded dimensions of consciousness both vertically and horizontally (as in h igher order group consciousnesses), the energetic interdependence of matter and spirit, the evolutionary consciousness of the bodily cells as well as the larger body of Gaia, the solar system and beyond, as well as talk among new age circle s of 'the end of karma', a coming 'planetary and individual shift' to a higher r ate of vibration (the evidence showing itself now as a form, not of apocalypse, but a of 'global healing crisis'), and much more. Nor must we forget the ultimate non-dual nature of realization in all paths: Our being here is our eternal being. Many people imagine here to have creature ly being, and divine being to be yonder. It is a popular delusion. -Meister Eckha rt

We say then, with our limited understanding and countless faults, that it is time for secrecy and old language to be abandoned. The truth must be made plain. There are inevitable mysteries and paradoxes on the path to be sure, words as s uch being but pointers towards wordless truth, but also many 'unnecessary myster ies and paradoxes' due to philosophical provincialism and doctrinal obscurity. E ven under genuine teachers, many initiates have suffered from a lack of clarity and understanding. All this being said, Sant Kirpal Singh often said that if one wished to be co nvinced of the greatness of this path, he should go see an initiate dying. Many have attested to the Radiant Form of the Master coming for them at the time of t heir passing. However, this has been true not only in Sant Mat but in other path s, and not even every Sant Mat master promises this. Hopefully, blessed assuranc e is granted the faithful soul even before this final event. The promise given b y true Sants is that for the devoted disciple indeed there is not only such assu rance but also much help. Sant Kirpal Singh said: "Satguru is the fountainhead of grace. Strange are the ways in which he works his grace. With just a single kindly look he may bless a jiva forever." (38) "Having received the protection of a God-realized man, do you think he would ever forget you? The Master always holds his disciples in the innermost heart ce nter." (39) Just do not refuse this possibility of grace to your non-initiate brother. Go d is in charge, and no one is lost!

Sanchit is the store karma; Pralabdh is the fate karma; and Kriyaman is the fru it karma. Store karmas are the results of actions of past lives, which have not yet be en paid for nor assigned. Fate karmas constitute that portion of the results of actions in past lives which have been allotted to our present life, and on account of which this human body has been given to us, that is, for undergoing the results of good and bad karmas according to our fate. Kriyaman constitutes the new karmas resulting from actions which we perform in this life. In other words, while undergoing our destiny (fate karmas) we are daily incurring new karmas as well, the results of which will be undergone in th e next life as fate, or part as fate and part as Sinchit, in some future life. Our own actions are responsible for the good and the evil, the pleasure and the pain that we undergo, as well as for our being born into this world in a high or a low specie.

A Personal Experience with Sant Kirpal Singh

by Peter Holleran "A special transmission outside the scriptures; Not dependent upon words o r letters; Directly pointing to the mind; Seeing into one's Nature and recognizi ng Buddhahood." - Bodhidharma "A man's whole destiny may hang upon one event, one decision, one circumstanc e. That single cause may be significant for all the years to follow." - Paul Bru nton (PB) (1) "We are people of little faith and fail to recognize and appreciate the hand which guides and which sustains. Hazur (Baba Sawan Singh Ji) used to say that on ce a saint has taken a soul under his wing, he is keen to compress the progress of twenty births into a single one. And if we desire to pack the accomplishments of twenty lives into a single one, we must pay for it." - Sant Darshan Singh The following is highly personal and unique. It was written over the course o f several decades, and represents the unfinished story of a soul, and thus is bo th a confession and prayer in written form. Some of it may surprise, frighten, o r confuse an initiate on the path of Surat Shabd Yoga, the yoga of the 'Celestia l Sound Current' (for whom this tale may be of particular interest), or alternat ely arouse pity for my own situation and dilemma. None of these results are inte nded! For others, satiated by their experience, weary of struggle or burdened wi th doubt, there may be a gleam of recognition and perhaps the answering of a que stion or two. Essentially, however, one should take this account as an example o f the skillful means of a true Master in the early 1970's adapting his teaching and teaching methods to those who came to Him, and also of how things may work o ut differently than one expects, and what the meaning of that may be, in the mys terious play of God. In the end it is but one story, written with that of many i n mind. It runs fairly long, but hopefully the reader will find it of value. In this I hope in some small way to tell my tale in the manner of Sufi master Irena Tweedie, who wrote in the introduction to her book, The Chasm of Fire: "Keep a diary," said my teacher. "One day it will become a book. But you must write in such a way that it should help others. people say, 'Such-and-such thin gs did happen thousands of years ago because we read in books about them.' This book will be a proof that such things as are related do happen today, as they ha ppened yesterday and will happen tomorrow - to the right people, in the right ti me and the right place." (1a) The Beginning When I first came to the 'path', in 1970, it promised a way out of a life tha t, after a few carefree years (when memories and perceptions of celestial glory had not yet completely faded, and I still perceived a luminosity in the external world), seemed to become after about the age of nine or ten only inner pain and a dark enclosure of depression for the most part. I remember having a particula r inner tightness before falling asleep at night and also in dreams, even at a v ery early age, maybe four or five, as if I could not cry out for help, for fear of something or other. This despite having a faith in God and feeling movement o f the soul in the dream state and other times, and generally having a happy, out going and natural curiosity about nature and other people throughout my early li fe. I remember specifically looking at the adults around me, and sensing a grayn ess to their beings, a flatness, and then and there making a pledge to myself, l ike Peter Pan (one of my favorite characters from a play with Mary Martin) that I would 'never grow up' and become like that. I, in the innocence of childhood,

still wondered why they couldn't see things as I still saw them and just be happ y. I also sensed early on that I was here [not because of karma, as I was later 'taught'] but only to love and help people. But, while I never grew up (!), I did inexorably become a lot like 'them', to my as yet unconscious horror. The real quickly became stifled and frustrated. I believe the feeling of tightness or inner clenching I described may have starte d at a deep layer in the body at birth, or even before, or simply because of it, although no conscious memories or efforts to recall them have as yet been succe ssful. My astrologer said he had yet to meet a Pisces who wanted to be born. My physical birth was a late-night Caesarian due to a medical emergency known as pl acenta previa, undoubtedly a rude shock to the system. This feeling, I believe, covered over in later years by a fear of my father that kept me bottled up even more inside, became built into my body as a chronic emotional state, something I still deal with more than I would like. Although I loved my parents, sister, an d grandparents very much, after the age of ten I began to go dead inside. There was no fun anymore. I didn't know exactly how it happened, but the grandparents had died, their homes which were a great source of joy now gone, my father becam e angry and aloof, with periodic bouts of alcoholism, smoking and drinking in th e dark, by himself, and my two parents basically just living together without af fection. My older sister moved out, and I was essentially alone, except for a mo ther's love, in a tense household. The silences at dinner were deafening. It is amazing to look back and realize how a child often doesn't even recognize all of this, yet still suffers it internally. I distinctly remember one day at a friend's house at the age of ten having a subtle shift, a new sensation in my chest, one of dryness, implosion, restrictio n, a feeling of being cut off from feeling, which stayed with me thereafter. Thi s, I later came to see, was a definite shift into neurosis. Also significant was a day in the fall walking home from school when a new sense of being all alone, almost cosmically alone, arose inside, which I can compare to the Japanese mood known as a-wa-re, a bittersweet sense of sadness at the transient nature of thi ngs. This was a feeling of spiritual nostalgia, signified lyrically by PB's word s: "The dying autumn leave induce sad thoughts such as: we are only passengers t ravelling through this world." (1b) While I sensed it as a feeling emanating from former lives, at this young age it nevertheless combined with my sense of psychological enclosure, and remained thereafter and later even crystalized into a form of identity. I could retreat there and not suffer so much not being part of the crowd - whatever crowd I want ed to be a part of. Besides discovering a genuine desire for truth, I believe th ese feelings were a primary motivation for my studying philosophy in college, lo oking for answers to a primarily personal dilemma. I thus conclude that I escape d into my head to avoid the feelings in my body. The mystical teachings, in a mo re sophisticated but similar manner, seemed to justify such an approach in fact, which I now know is not the right way to begin spiritual life. There was alot of obsessive sexual desire that arose as a teenager, which was not true desire, but only a response to inner pain and contraction of life ener gy and emotion that I could not deal with, understand, or to a great extent even acknowledge or recognize. For the astrologers out there, a satisfactory explana tion for this is a natal configuration of Moon in Scorpio square Pluto in the ei ghth house, a fixed square representing strong tendencies from previous lives th at were now to be dealt with and come to peace with once and for all. Although t his obsessive sexual craving was to go away in a seemingly miraculous fashion wh en I learned to meditate, it was still lying coiled inside waiting for resolutio n, as I was all too painfully to learn a few years later, when my ability to med itate was taken away. But sometimes I believe that several years of compulsive m

asturbation as a teenager drained away any chance I had left at relatively easil y accessing and resolving the volcanic emotional energies that had become bottle d up inside of me yet were still so close to the surface. My father's gruff and angry disposition, while not physically violent or abusive, kept the lid on my s elf-expression, and basically, I didn't know what was really happening to my psy che as I grew into my teen years. Four planets in Pisces - Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars - also made for an escapist disposition that was probably not all too p leased with the prospects of existing in a physical body - although, being in th e third house, were to give me the inherited disposition towards all of this wri ting. At Cornell, which I entered in the fall of 1967, I soon became interested in studying philosophy. The discipline at that institution, while the most prestigi ous philosophy department among the Ivy League schools, was a really distorted, snooty, holier than thou approach which was called "doing philosophy." This was exemplified by course titles such as "philosophy of literature," "philosophy of history", philosophy of mathematics," "philosophy of language," and even "philos ophy of logic." The king among philosophers virtually worshipped by the departme nt was Ludwig Wittgenstein. Not the pursuit of truth, but linguistic analysis wa s the name of the game. To a naive young student this all was quite intriguing a nd intimidating. I was convinced these professors knew something that I didn't, and that we were involved in a real quest for knowledge. We studied Bertrand Rus sell, A. J. Ayer, E.G. Moore, and the "British empiricists" (Berkeley, Locke, an d Hume). This heady approach to a noble subject was epitomized by a thirty-five page article that appeared in the philosophy department's journal entitled, "The Meaning of the Word 'The'." In addition, the only professor teaching courses th at closely symbolized anything like real philosophy - that of the ancient Greeks - was denied tenure as being not "rigorous enough". By my junior year I had ama ssed fifty-five credit hours in philosophy, enough for two majors, and was heade d towards a career path in the same. All of this came crumbling down at a rapid rate when two factors entered my life. Aside from the fact that a little hashish and a few acid trips made this type of analytical game seem somewhat empty (!), I happened onto the writings of Pau l Brunton (PB), in particular, A Search in Secret India and the Wisdom of the Ov erself. This was like a nuclear bomb in my thinking. India, oh India! Even the s ubjective idealism of Bishop Berkeley, which I had tediously studied, was given new life by Paul Brunton's doctrine of mentalism. The world was in our minds, an idea, and a projection of God or Mind itself, which could be realized. What ama zing thoughts! There was a philosophy that was real, and rooted in truth, and mo re than just the endeavor of some pipe smoking arm-chair intellectuals! Second, after dozing off one day in an easy chair in the student lounge, I aw oke to find a copy of The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga by Sant Kirpal Singh in my lap, along with information on public "satsangs" being held nearby on the pa th of Sant Mat, or the "Path of the Masters". The picture on the frontspiece of this book struck me as a numinous image of what a man of God would look like. My world did a 180 degree turn. I coasted in my last year and a half at Cornell ta king painting and drawing, music, and "Independent Research in Mathematics 590", which was really astrology at the downtown American Brahman spiritual bookstore , courtesy of a very liberal mathematics professor associated with Wisdom's Gold enrod Center for Philosophic Studies, who will remain unnamed in case he is stil l teaching. After thus awakening to the possibility of spiritual realization and studying many eastern doctrines, including Sant Mat, I became very disciplined and chann elled all of my energies and neurosis into that spiritual path as I understood i t. Meditation on the inner light and sound appealed to me, but I now realize tha t a major part of that appeal was because, as opposed to other teachings, such a s Zen or Vipassana, Shabd Yoga promised a way OUT of the body, and thus perfectl

y fit my need for release, based on a felt discomfort IN the body. I am not sayi ng it is not a legitimate path, since we all leave the body one day, only that m y pain was a major reason for my decision to pursue it. I have since come to rea lize that all seekers do not feel that way, nor is their experience of the path felt that way, nor even do all paths speak of the way or the ultimate goal in th ose escapist terms. One morning in early 1970 I made a conscious decision to give up sex, drugs ( which I had only experimented with a handful of times, and see as having been a part of my search, like many of my generation), and become a strict vegetarian. This became easy, even overnight easy, as I felt an influx of ascending grace en ter my being once I made contact with Kirpal Singh, which was long before I ever saw him in person. I didn't fully appreciate his gift, assuming that my apparen t initial successes at that path was largely due to my own efforts. Soon afterwards while reading in the college library at Cornell one day I dis covered that all of a sudden my attention seemed centered in a different part of my head, more abstracted and interiorized, deeper towards the center, so that o ne-pointed inner concentration became possible. I began to take up a meditation practise and some inner light began to appear once in a while, and some inner so und, too. In Surat Shabd Yoga, or various Radhasoami paths, the light and sounds are considered to be the two primal manifestations emanating from God, responsi ble for the entire creation of all the worlds, and concentrating ones attention on them led one back to the Godhead, with the help of a master of that path. In the late '60's and early '70's, it appeared to be the premier spiritual path amo ng seekers and Sant Kirpal Singh the supreme Master of the time. At my actual initiation by Kirpal Singh in December, 1970 (conducted by the m aster's representative Ruth Seader, whose son Richard was my roommate at college for a year), I didn't experience much of any inner light, but the Masters say t he real initiation is the thought transference from the Master, and a fair amoun t of things started to happen. Several significant sleep experiences of sound in cluding a loud pealing of the big bell overhead (which I know heralds the thresh old of death and passage to the astral plane (the first of many inner planes of consciousness the soul passes through on its 'journey' back to itself in its pri stine purity) but in its ecstatic quality intuitively felt like a flashback to t he time of my birth or thereabouts) and a transport without sight over what soun ded and smelled like a meadow of celestial bees, and a sound current that, in da ily life, was always there, offered hope for the future. I also once had an audi ble preview of a hell realm experience, wherein I sensed my soul or attention be gin to be dragged DOWN, wherever that is, and I heard ball and chain ghoulish so unds and groans coming from that place, if indeed it was a place. "Simran" (mant ra repetition of the "five charged names corresponding to the deities of the fiv e major inner planes) and desperate calling on the Master seemed to bring me bac k from the brink, awakening in a sweat. I actually had quite a few somewhat frig htening experiences when upon falling asleep I felt an inner, downward pull befo re quickly reawakening. Later reading confirmed to me that while such things as 'hells' do exist, but are generally considered to be lower astral realms, and ge nerally subjective states at that, a few mystics actually talk of them being 'be low' the earth - wherever that means. I and many others also noted the smell of the archtypal rose, especially late r when in Kirpal Singh's presence. There was also one spontaneous experience of partial withdrawal from the body in meditation during the day where I felt, not that I was going anywhere, but just that I was resolving into myself. Most medit ations were not of this quality where the ego was so quiescent, but this time I had a glimpse that inner experience would not truly be happening to "me" , just a dropping away of vehicles or koshas (the various bodies or coverings of the so ul) while the real Self remained unchanged. That insight was remembered as uniqu e, and planted a seed of inquiry in my mind regarding the concept of "soul trave

l" as sometimes understood in such mystic paths as Sant Mat. My current understa nding is that the value of such an exerience lies not in the experience in itsel f, in its repeatability, but in the wisdom gained thereby in terms of the transf ormation of one's sense of identity. I realize that in a real sense there is now here to go and no one to go anywhere. But that is now, not then. I applied myself diligently to the teachings and meditation, as best as I und erstood them, many hours more than the minimum, as much as five and sometimes ev en ten hours a day, and felt His presence in many subtle ways. Looking back, I t hink there were nights when I would sit at the foot of my bed meditating and lat er wake up in the bed. As naive as it sounds I sometime believe that the Master must have carried me. I realize now, however, how unprepared I was for initiation according to trad itional criteria and that it was only His grace for accepting me. But the dispen sation then was, contrary to that of the ancients, "initiation first, purity lat er". Nevertheless, I longed to develop love for the Master as described in the w ritings of the saints and to become receptive to Him. During Kirpal Singh's 1972 U.S.A. tour I felt His radiation and grace and received many loving glances, bu t still, had great difficultly going inside, and remember having an awful feelin g in my body, which by that time I had had for years. The inner knot was so stro ng that the only times I ever had any apparently fruitful meditations, especiall y in the mornings, were if I would almost fall asleep thereby forgettng the body momentarily. Only His inward-drawing spiritual grace provided any relief in the form of my bypassing the karmas of this body and feeling any better. And that experience r e-enforced the teachings of this path that maintained that going within was the only way to feel good and have any peace. In the meantime, however, the teaching provided little at all in the way of a sadhana or practise to deal with the kar mas of the body and psyche which were causing most of my pain, teaching only a m editation to bypass all of that, which in turn, however, I now see, made appreci able genuine spiritual progress difficult. This has been, in fact, warned about in the mystic literature for centuries, but I didn't know of any of that at the time. As mentioned, I had never felt good in the body itself, which many people do seem capable of, despite its impermanence. In retrospect I realize that at th e time I had little real love or true feeling and was very self-centered, due to some kind of core wound and despite my best spiritual efforts. It is also obvio us that my ego had only taken on another cloak, a spiritual one, that in itself would prevent any real awakening (jnana), true meditation, or even feeling. But back then such insights didn't exist for me. Books like "Cutting Through Spiritu al Materialism" by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche had not yet come out, nor had the no n-dualists arrived, nor had various the 'body-centered' therapies appeared. Before my initiation, and off and on afterwards, I was a visitor, as mentione d, to the American Brahman Bookstore in Ithaca, New York, where Anthony Damiani (later founder of Wisdom s Goldenrod) held regular classes and meditations with students from Cornell and the surrounding area. I had read Paul Brunton's works to date, including The Search in Secret India, The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga, and The Wisdom of the Overself, and many other texts such as Ashtavakra Gita, Ta lks with Ramana Maharshi, etc., which raised many questions in my mind even at t hat stage about the nature of realization, the distinction between the heart cha kra and the causal Heart center on the right side spoken of by Ramana that was s aid to be the root source of the individual self or "I-thought" , the idea of me ntalism (in short, that all is a manifestation within Mind), the relationship be tween the traditional forms of samadhi or trance states, particularly nirvikalpa (ascended formless absorption) and sahaj (the "natural state"), the hierarchy o f planes of creation spoken of in Sant Mat, the nature of the ultimate goal itse lf, and even the Zen concept of makyo, or that all lights and sounds are psychic illusion and not to be given attention to. There seemed many valid questions in

my mind that might determine the nature of the sadhana or practice to be adopte d and the understanding to be cultivated, even though I as yet had achieved noth ing spiritually. As I could not resolve these myself I wrote to Kirpal Singh and sent a few pages of questions, numbered sequentially. I asked about everything above, as well as Ramana, Aurobindo, the nature of lights and visions, sahaj, th e Void, and more. He replied as follows (excerpted): "Vivek or discrimination will come to you on its own as you progress on the P ath and not by intellection. No body has ever solved nor can solve the riddle of life logically or philosophically. You have to resolve it by dissolving yoursel f into it. That in brief is the secret of success on the Path - and it will be e nough for you to understand and assimilate it. It does not mean that there is no answer to your enquiries. but natural unfoldment is better and more stable than worldly exposition, for words, as you know, are too poor to expound the Worldle ss Word in all its details and any attempt to do so is likely to make confusion worse confounded in the brain already at a feverish white-heat pitch. Maulana Ru mi, in his famous Masnavi goes to the extent of saying: It is not fitting that I tell thee more, For the Stream-bed cannot hold the sea. I, for one, do not mean to striffle your honest questions re your personal di fficulties on the Path...All I wish to convey to you is that it is not possible to know everything of the Divine Path when you hardly know yet what you are and who you are. Self-Realization is just a half-way house in the Path of God-Realization. Whe n you have grasped the human in you, you will automatically know what is what an d be able to understand and reconcile what other Mahatmas and other great souls like Shankaracharya, Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi and Shri Aurobindo and Baba Ja imal Singh said, each in his own good time and on particular occasions. Unless y ou rise to their stature and visualise the times and climes in which they spoke, the time and tenor of the people whom they spoke, you will just be making hazar dous guesses only on the level of your intelligence. Unless you see the Midnight Sun, nothing will be clear to you. I would, in your overall interest, advise you to unburden yourself of all the mental load on your head and like a little child start afresh and do things, ca refuly avoiding all the shoals and sandbanks in the Sea of Spirituality lest you get bogged in the way. Cosmic and Super-cosmic consciousness are much higher st ates. Self-consciousness comes first and foremost. It is the foundation and the bed-rock and must, therefore, be strengthened to raise the super-structure there on. Self-enquiry for instance is just the same thing as self-knowledge . In both , one has to go deep into the essence lying below the ego-consciousness. The lig hts and sounds to be avoided as taught by some sages [this referred to my questi on of the Zen concept of "makyo"] are those of the elementals, arising from conc entration on the bodily centers below the eyes, and associated with different el ements of which the body is composed. Again, the eye-focus is the seat of the soul. Some call it the heart-centre b ecause the heart is the central organ in the body, maintaining and sustaining th e entire system. The heart-lotus of the Saints is the Aggya-chakra above the whi te sepulcher of the body. Do you not realise that when a person wakes up after s leep, eyes are the first to awaken and become conscious of the surroundings and gradually the consciousness travels below bringing into activity the lower sense organs? [Ramana Maharshi stated things differently, saying that first there i s a moment of awakeness (reality), then the birth of the 'I'-thought, then the l

ight of the Self travels upwards to the brain or shasrar from the Heart, before manifesting as, or spreading downwards to, the body and world] Yes, any chakra can be used as the means of concentration but why not use the highest - the one lying above the body where you are sitting at the intersectio n of the physical and subtle, the time and the Timeless and push headlong above instead of descending to one or the other of the centres below the eyes and then start afresh from below? The Void, the 4 different types of Samadhis with varying stages in each, the Nirvana and so many other terms are highly technical for you at this stage to gr asp fully. As a novitiate one should be content with the simple problems just as two and two make four and take them for granted. As to why and wherefrom of eac h thing, it will come in due course like an open book. I may like you to be patient and persevering for the present. Your all encomp assing desire for understanding will surely have its chance one day.... With all love and kind thoughts, yours affectionately, Kirpal Singh." While this reply certainly was a realistic assessment of my condition as far as it goes, it did not directly answer my questions, especially the chief ones r egarding the path of ascent versus the path of jnana or direct Self-Knowledge, o r the transcendental Heart versus the Sushumna (the subtle yogic channel paralle l to the spinal column), the ajna-chakra (or "spiritual or third eye"), and the higher worlds. The "Self-enquiry" of the Maharshi is obviously a very specific p ractice and not simply "the same thing as self-knowledge", which Kirpal did not really explain. The letter was mildly disappointing. As the reader will see as t his confession unfolds, however, he might have more accurately answered me in th e words of the poet Ranier Maria Rilke, for this is how things were to turn out on my path with Him and afterwards: "I would like to beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer." He never answered my questions, but would eventually lead me to question the questioner. But that time was still a ways off. [Upon re-reading the letter thirty years later the question on the 'elemental s', however, became somewhat clearer in light of the following passage I came up on from the book, The Magus of Strovolos. The reader can skip this section if he likes: " 'Daskale,' I asked, 'do the psychonoetic planes and subplanes have an objec tive existence independent of the individual's subjective perception of them?' ' I have said before that the psychic worlds have trees, mountains, oceans, rivers , everything that exists on the planet, everything that has ever existed and eve rything that can exist. What you consider as the real world is actually the shad ow or the reflection of other more luminous worlds within which everything mater ial that is considered real exists. In the various planes and subplanes of the p sychic worlds there exist not only whatever exists on this planet which was crea

ted by archangelic forces, such as water, mountains, forests, but also whatever humans have created either while they are still alive or after they depart. The psychic world is a much richer world. However, most persons who live there perce ive it through the elementals; that they themselves create. In the psychic world s, for example, there is no sun that rises and sets every day, unless we create one ourselves. But the sun we create will be within our individual subjective ps ychic world, not the external one. Therefore, when a human being abandons his gr oss material body, he begins to live simultaneously within two planes of existen ce, the real psychic plane and his own subjective psychic world. Most human bein gs are so engrossed within their own subjective shell that they are unaware of t he nature of the psychic plane within which they vibrate. It is as if, for examp le, we are on a journey but because of our passions and psychic turmoil, we are oblivious to the beauty of the countryside outside. And let me say something tha t may seem blasphemous. On the basis of my own personal experience what may be c onsidered an intolerable hell is, in reality, a most beautiful space, assuming t hat you can coordinate your consciousness with the real psychic plane. It is our predisposition that will let us or prevent us from perceiving that beauty.' Das kalos went on to say that the evolution of the Researcher of Truth implies the d evelopment of the ability to distinguish between the real psychic world and the subjective psychic environment that people build around them with the elementals they bring along when they enter there. What is ugly in these psychonoetic plan es is what each individual hides within his subjective shell, his own psychic wo rld, which gives him vibrations of evil, hatred and vulgarity. 'Where is this sh ell?' someone interjected. 'You mean in terms of space? Again, everywhere and no where. But a person who constructs his own shell and lives in it, perceives it a s having clear limits within which he is confined and is allowed to act." (1c) Although this passage suggests that the problem of elementals is not restrict ed solely to 'concentration on centers below the eyes', it does gives a clue as to why the gurus in Sant Mat advise meditation only on the light and spiritual f orms which remain before ones inner gaze after repetition of the five charged na mes given by the Master at initiation: these would be considered objective visio ns, free of contamination by the elementals of one's own (and other's) subjectiv ity. If one intends to pursue experience in higher planes before Self-Realizatio n, he needs such a means to avoid complete bewilderment and confusion.] In spite of the fact that my major queries remain unanswered, I nevertheless accepted the wisdom of trying to relax the white-heat pitch in my brain and row in one boat on the path of Sant Mat. The archtype of the great Guru, the great L ight and the great Ecstasies, obviously far beyond my present experience, were t oo much for the still, small voice inside calling for a counterbalancing rationa l as well as intuitive understanding, as well as my lack of ability to feel in a truly human way, and I shelved it for a time. But I kept hearing its whisper he re and there in episodes that spoke to me, some involving my guru. When members of the future Wisdom's Goldenrod joined me in seeing Kirpal Singh when he came o n tour in 1972, I noticed how different his responses were to our questions. Gar y Borgida, a friend of mine, went up to him and asked, or rather expressed uncer tainty, about whether he should take initiation or not. Kirpal briskly dispatche d him with, " you have to make up your own mind!" To another, who respectfully a sked for his grace, he said, "you are drowning in it already." I thought that wa s interesting, and a hint at recognizing their budding advaitic or non-dual unde rstanding. [Ramana Maharshi once replied to a devotee with almost the exact same words: "D: Does Bhagavan feel for us and show Grace? M: You are neck-deep in wa ter and yet cry for water. It is as good as saying that one neck-deep in water f eels thirsty, or a fish in water feels thirsty, or that water feels thirsty."] T o others who pointed out that T.S. Khanna, devoted representative of the master, had commented that PB was a rogue , and Ramana Maharshi, just a yogi, Kirpal Si ngh was quick to point out that he himself never said such things. All these lit tle things percolated below the surface of my mind thereafter.

Paul Cash, a student of Damiani's and co-editor of the voluminous Notebooks o f Paul Brunton series, told me an interesting story of a conversation he witness ed between Richard Seader and Anthony, circa 1969. Richard's mother Ruth had dis covered the path and told Richard of Master Kirpal. Richard had heard that there was a man in downtown Ithaca who had a spiritual bookstore who knew something a bout these matters. He asked his friend Paul Cash to go with him to ask if he th ought he should take initiation from Kirpal Singh. As Paul told me: "Richard was at that time of at least two minds about whether to go through w ith his scheduled initiation. He asked Anthony if he knew of Master Kirpal. Anth ony [an advanced student of philosophic matters and one who had attained stabili zed awareness of the Witness state, a major transitional state on the way to rea lization of sahaj samadhi - but which he also described as "peace, peace, peace" ], asked Richard why he wanted to know. Richard gave his explanation, and then t he fun began (at least for me, if not for Richard). I'd never seen anything like it. Anthony was at once totally critical and totally kind. Everything he asked Richard was pointed and challenging, but delivered with a constructive energy. It started with Anthony pretty much bombarding Richard with something to the effect of, "What makes you think he's a Master? How would YOU know a Master if y ou bumped into one on the street? ....and so on. He went up and down Richard's a ssumptions like a guy scraping paint off a house. HOW would your mother KNOW? Ho w would YOU know if your mother knew? ...etc. Don't you know how many phonies th ere are out there and how much harm they do?" ..... Not much later Richard seemed befuddled, with no more comebacks, and no more answers, just one huge question looming - or at least it seemed to me. Then Anthony told him, in the kindest, warmest voice I'd ever heard, "Well, t his time you're lucky. You've stumbled across the real thing. If he's willing to take you in, you should accept and count yourself very fortunate." - or words t o that affect." This simple story has relevance because of the way Sant Kirpal was to treat m e, which, I am now certain, was with awareness of, or sensitivity to, my backgro und with Anthony and the teachings of sages like Ramana and PB, and the kind of path I was being readied for in this incarnation. But enough of this, for now ou r high drama begins in earnest. A Prophetic Dream One night in early 1973 I had a peculiar dream. Out of nowhere I suddenly fel t to be in an empty space, all alone. A hole in my solar plexus or abdomen opene d, and a stream of what was intuited as my life-essence proceeded to gush forth from within. The sense of aloneness was epiphanic, and the words, "I am going to die!" spontaneously came out of my mouth. This dream was very strange and I for got about it. Somewhat later that year I began to feel something happening to me . I can only describe it as an inner rotting . It was as if my attention or soul current was slowly but surely beginning to be diffused out into the body from i ts habitually more collected position and I felt like I was being drained. There was nothing I was doing to cause this to happen. It was as if a bathtub plug ha d been pulled, and the water began to run out. [Even today, the process seems to have been continued. I couldn't - and can't - get back "in". There seems to be no 'inside' anymore]. My life was as disciplined, if neurotically so, as ever, I didn't start drinking, partying, having sex or watching alot of TV. If anything , I redoubled my efforts at meditation, but no matter how hard I tried, I could feel myself over the course of several months being dragged down and out, at fir st somewhat imperceptibly, then quite obviously and painfully. When I say "down and out" , it is not like I had achieved going very far " in and up" , but at le

ast, the yogic stage of pratyahara or withdrawal from the senses had been achiev ed to a degree through His grace and my efforts, and meditation or dhyana (one-p ointed concentration) had a chance. Now it started to become impossible, althoug h that conclusion was as yet too horrible for me to accept. Therefore, in August of that year I went to Sawan Ashram, Delhi, India, thinking that this disaster was something that the physical company of Master Kirpal would remedy. Little di d I know what lay ahead. The Play Begins How little I knew of the ways of the Masters! Nearly every preconception I ha d about the path and the guru was undermined over the course of the next three m onths. I will try to recount some of the events of that time now, however inadeq uate my understanding and interpretation may be. My first meeting presaged the theme of the entire stay: there was no place to hide. A small group of westerners including myself arrived one evening at Dehra Dhun, Master's retreat in the foothills of the Himalayas. We sat at His feet, a nd I placed myself in the back and was painfully shy and very quiet as he spoke one after another to each new guest. I was embarrassed at my lack of spiritualit y and the feeling I had done something wrong to have become in such an arid stat e after several years of devoted meditation, and I guess inside I just didn't fe el he could possibly love me the way I felt at the time. I had no insight then t hat this was a core psychological feeling of mine as well. When everyone had bee n greeted and spoken to except me, he kind of looked over the head of the small group and asked, "is there anyone else? any one else new here?" - as if he didn' t know. Someone pushed me forward, and he effusively said something like "hello, " or "welcome, my friend", etc, etc.. Little did I know what was to unfold in th e days to follow. Those whose only introduction to the word 'guru' is from the popular media ma y not appreciate what that term really applies. There has been so much fraud and abuse even, that it has become almost a dirty word these days. Yet a true guru or spiritual master , and there are very few, is not a mere man, although he is that, too, usually a very refined and noble man (or woman), but rather a vast pr esence, one who has died to self or ego in a major way so as to be a conduit for superior spiritual forces. He may or may not have extraordinary powers, or he m ight, but he possesses the ability to guide and even liberate ripe souls from th eir hypnotic, unenlightened state, through the divine power flowing through him, and the consciousness he embodies. This doesn't happen gratuitously or as if by magic, but through a mature relationship between the prepared disciple and a ma ster with knowledge, integrity, and spiritual agency. Such a relationship endure s beyond this life. That, anyway, is the orientation I carried with me during my experiences recounted here. The process that had been going on for months, to my increasing shock, only c ontinued in His company, even at the daily satsangs or gatherings. We were taugh t to gaze in the Master's eyes ("eyes are the windows of the soul") and the radi ation would drag us within, into better and deeper meditations. Indeed, that had been the experience of most, including myself. My present experience, however, was the exact opposite: I was dragged OUT more and more, to an even more arid an d helpless condition. My eyes began to burn. There was no one I could talk to, a ll signs pointed to something terribly going wrong, and who could I blame? I was n't doing anything to cause this, and the Master wouldn't do such a thing, as fa r as I understood the teaching, and my faith was being sorely tried because, if he didn't know what was going on, what hope was there for me? This went on for t he entire three months I was there. For one who had begun to enjoy some fruits o f inner meditation and communion, this was an extremely uncomfortable state to b e pushed into. Even before initiation I could meditate, but now it was nearly, a

nd soon to become totally, impossible. In the midst of this, there developed quite a drama about my case in the Mast er's company. Some incidents and the Master's words were amusing in retrospect, but the overall process for me at the time was torture and the soul's worst nigh tmare. Yet the Beloved gave me much attention, and kept saying, "my friend, I ha ve so much love for you, won't you let me help you?" He kept calling me his spec ial friend, which at the time, Russell Perkins (long-time devotee , editor of Sa t Sandesh magazine and manager of Sant Bani Ashram in New Hampshire), who was pr esent, thought to be significant, as the Master was said to be careful with his use of words. (Interestingly, I think I also read a conversation of Him saying o nce, "I have no friends." I know the Masters eventually say everything, dependin g upon who they are talking to, but I have thought about that remark from time t o time, considering it unusual). He also said to the people there that I was in a 'hospital', something I thought odd to say but now see as very appropriate, an d also has been a frequently used metaphor by many spiritual masters of the past . One of the first things to happen soon after arriving at the ashram, which I hear is not uncommon, was that I got very sick with some form of dysentery. This had me prostrate on my back for several days with another crippling blow to my meditation. Dr. Moolraj gave me some pills big enough for a horse. People around me told me just concentrate within , etc.,etc to avoid the pain. Though somewha t delerious, I remembered a story of some devotee who tried to leave his body to avoid such karmas, and how his guru made him come down to endure them in the bo dy. I recently located this reference in The Wheel of Life (Sant Bani Press, 198 0 edition, p. 21, 31-32), by Kirpal Singh: "The moment [a competent spiritual Master] accepts an individual as His own, He takes in His own Hand the process of liquidating the endless process of Karma coming down from the untold past...all Karmic debts are to be paid and their ac counts squared here and now, and the speedier it is done, the better, instead of keeping any outstanding balances to be paid hereafter. In the time of Hazrat Mi an Mir, a great Muslim devout and mystic, it is said that one of his disciples A bdullah, when down with an ailment, withdrew his sensory currents to the eye-foc us and closed himself safely in the citadel of peace. His Master Mian Mir when H e visited him, pulled Abdullah down to the body consciousness and ordered him to pay what was due from him for he could not indefinitely evade the payment by su ch tactics." Now Mian Mir was no small mystic. When the great Sikh guru Arjan Dev was bein g tortured to death on hot plates, his close friend Mian Mir offered to 'raze th e entire Mogul empire to the ground!' with his esoteric powers. The great Guru r eplied, "Don't you know that I also could do it? But the path of the saints is t he path of sweet surrender. Ours is the path of 'sweet is thy will.' " (Darshan Singh, Satsandesh, S.K. Publications, Bowling Green, VA: June, 1984, pp. 2-3). S o Mian Mir had received schooling in divine mercy, and also knew the best ways t o eradicate karmas. When they relayed my reply to Sant Kirpal I was told that He laughed. Now, I do not know why he laughed, whether from delight at recognition of my insight or of my ignorance. I tend to believe, however, based on my intuition of the meani ng of my entire stay there, that he knew what I was feeling and was not disappoi nted with what I said. [This period of illness made me ponder two different approaches to dealing wi th pain. One is a yogi way of withdrawing from one's outer senses in order to av oid it, and the other being the way of the jnani, or sage, of experiencing but n ot identifying with it. I was capable of neither, but still thought about the im plications of these two points of view. I had seen Sant Kirpal groaning in pain,

but also read stories of his operations where he willfully withdrew his soul to avoid the need for anaesthesia. Ramana Maharshi, on the other hand, suffered ne ar the end of his life, but said that he no longer had the will or vikalpa to do anything about the pain. He said there was suffering but that he was not identi fied with the one who suffered. This is an arguable point. Both Ramana and Sri N isargadatta near the end of their life showed signs of intense pain, Ramana with vocal groans at night when the crowds left, and Sri Nisargadatta who admitted t hat his pain was intolerable. Nevertheless, Ramana said: "A jnani is as indifferent to death as to life. Even if his physical conditio n should be the most wretched, even if he should be stricken with the most painf ul disease and die rolling on the ground, shrieking in pain, he remains unaffect ed. He is the jnani." (2) That seemed to suggest a higher stage than yogic withdrawal from the body or world, although still somewhat out of reach for mere mortals like myself.] The Master at the satsang gatherings in regards to my meditations repeatedly kept asking me if things were hopeless yet, and if not, to just keep trying. "Go ing strong, my friend? Going strong? No? Feeling weak? Feeling withered? Hopeles s? Is it hopeless yet? No? Not hopeless yet? Well then, if there's hope, keep tr ying!" He was to use a flower as a metaphor for my meditation by asking me if my flower was going strong, or was all withered. I will explain the meaning of thi s shortly. He said everything lovingly and with a twinkle in His eyes, but that did little to lessen the inner pain I was experiencing. The flower had been some thing he had given out one day to anyone who promised to sit all night in medita tion, and I hesitated, because I feared the task was impossible for me, as I had become spiritually so dry inside by that point, but when he asked me to take a flower, I accepted. But I really feared the oncoming of the night. After an hour or two meditating I lay down for a minute to rest my back, but then fell asleep and woke up the next morning! Ordinarily this would not raise too many eyebrows , but to my inner state at the time it was then a big deal. I was afraid of goin g to the gathering that morning. At satsang he eventually got around to me and a sked me what happened and when I told him I had fallen asleep he said, "you are making a mockery of the path!" (When I got back to my room, the flower, fresh ev en that morning, indeed had prematurely withered markedly). After this particular satsang was over, one or two months into my three-month stay, I remember standing there like a lost puppy, absolutely crushed and dejec ted, and I then remember Him motioning to the remaining gathering to get out of the way, separating those in front of Him before he took his leave for the day, opening a corridor as it were between Him and me, then stepping forward and tell ing me, with the sweetest, most imploring look on his face, "I have so much love for you, my friend." It brings me sweet and bitter anguish to remember moments like this, because at the time, I could feel no comfort in His words. If it were just a matter of the Guru playing with my head, that would have not been so bad , and in retrospect sweetly remembered, but my soul was getting undermined at th e same time in a profound way, and my suffering was undeniable. After that meeti ng, I even stayed in my room some mornings, because I felt like garbage, and wit h no experience in meditation but increasing barrenness and aridity, felt impure and unworthy. (I realize now how all of my attention was on me, but that was ju st the way it was. I didn t know any better.) Perhaps more basically, however, a s mentioned before, I was becoming somewhat afraid of attending the gatherings, anxious over what might happen next. Satsangis would return and tell me that the Master had asked them where his friend was that day. I also felt the sting of h is repeatedly referring to me as "Peter the Great." It is difficult to convey how painful this all was, even though some of it is wonderful to recall and I know I have grown thereby. I felt the death of all I had strived for and dreamed of for the previous four years, and felt and longed

for unknowingly all of my life. This is not to justify my apparent suffering, un derstanding tells me it is largely due to ego, or self-contraction due to earlylife wounding, but because of spiritual blindness I could not see any of that th en. The meditation teaching as given about "going within" also seemed to justify and reinforce my distress, considering my inner state at the time. Then He began to daily ask to see my diaries, our daily "yamas and niyamas" c hecklist, another point of contention and confusion for me. The keeping of the d iary was supposed to function as a kind of preliminary exercise in raja yoga, wh ereby one keeps a watch on the thought processes and the outflow of attention th roughout the day in order to achieve more fruitful inner meditations. This restr aint, or sila, is a prerequisite for successful attainment in this form of yoga, and the diary was to be a support for that, as well as a means at the end of th e day for remembrance of the Master. Such a daily scorecard has been practiced i n many schools as far back as the Pythagoreans. During the course of my ordeal, however, I came to have a radical view of the so-called scientific diary form, i n that I felt that when carried to the extreme, which a neurotic personality can do (and I did), it can serve more to keep attention fixated on the ego and its pursuit of perfection. During this time the Master's play with me over my diary had the effect of making me sick of self-analysis in a fundamental way. Indeed, much later in my stay I became privy to the Sach Khand (Sat Lok, a high spiritua l state) initiation experience of one western disciple, who confessed to me that after that the diary form was the first thing she tossed in the garbage, a some what heretical concept to me at the time. I was soon to do go through an experie nce that led me to do the same. Another advanced initiate recently told me the s ame thing, that he was told to forget about the diary. Bear in mind, that this i s not advice for anybody, just some observation. I came to feel, and this is sol ely my opinion, that for some the vipassana approach might be more fruitful and "conscious" than, as one western initiate put it, the "Simran / diary approach": " What I like and find myself interested in is the paying attention to one's own responses within to any given situation. For example if I feel myself beginn ing to get irritated or angry with somebody. I like the idea and hope to employ this method to learn to recognize this arising as it is arising within me. Rathe r than adopting the simran model of suppressing the anger, of shoving it down or afterwards marking off on a diary that I got angry today...I'd much prefer to j ust develop that ability to pay greater attention and then find healthier ways b y which to defuse any anger...to learn from it and then let it go." [Again, this is not an attempt to offer my experience or that of others as ex amples of what any particular person should do, only to point out how some have looked at the matter. What it boils down to is that at some point one is suppose d to move beyond the state of a beginner and to exercise his native intelligence . "Learn the rules so you will know how to break them," said the Dalai Lama. Thi s is essentially the Dzogchen understanding. For instance, in Namkhai Norbu's bo ok Dzogchen: the Self Perfected State he writes: "In Dzogchen, the way of behaving is the key to the practice, not because the re are fixed rules as to what one should and should not do, but because the prin ciple is that one must learn to become responsible for oneself, working with one 's own awareness. It is important, in Dzogchen, to know exactly where one is aim ing to arrive, but at the same time one must not ignore one's own capacity. If o ne discovers that one's own capacity is not sufficient to enable one to live wit h awareness, then it would be better to follow some rules until one's awareness is more developed. If, for example, I like to drink but I know that alcohol is b ad for me, then I can simply try to stop drinking. But if, as soon as I see a bo ttle of alcohol, I experienced such a strong desire to drink that I can't contro l myself, this means that I need to a precise rule to follow to govern that situ ation. To recognize this is also part of our awareness. Dzogchen is said to be a teaching for those with a higher level of capacity. This higher capacity means

that one has those qualities that are necessary to enable one to understand and apply the teaching." He is suggesting then that there are three basic levels of both 'presence' an d practice. At first one may need formulaic restrictions to avoid negative karma s or create positive karmas, but the next stage is to allow the cultivation of i ntuitive wisdom/discrimination, and for that some freedom is required. One may m ake some mistakes but it is all part of finding oneself and learning how to use ones energy wisely and creatively. The third, most advanced stage is nondual awa reness or rigpa, where intuitive wisdom/discrimination continues to arise but on e is no longer identified with it, nor does one perceive it as arising as an exp ression of our need to improve, fix, or change anything. Yet it still arises. So outwardly we might continue to be perceived by others as engaging in discrimina ting awareness and choice, and in a certain sense this is true, but to our inner state of realization we no longer perceive it that way. Naturally, this is a ve ry high and difficult stage to integrate. In sum, to modify the recommendations of a master is a matter, in the beginni ng, between the student and his master. Later, if not sooner, it becomes a matte r of ones own wisdom and understanding. It might also be mentioned that the use of the diary on this branch of Sant Mat is explained today in somewhat softer an d psychologically less repressive terms than in previous years, and as something the initiate is supposed to approach intelligently and not to 'beat himself up with'. However, the form is the same as it has been for forty years now, and its very nature with check marks and columns for every flaw of human character almo st guarantees that this will happen. Which may still be a learning experience. B ut for many of us in the West, who have been beating ourselves up so much for so long, and trying so hard to be 'good enough' or 'perfect', exercising extreme w illfulness to 'transcend our humanness', the relaxation of such an egoic struggl e is long overdue - and actually an option offered by the masters, if only one w ould believe or allow it. However, for some, depending on their place on the lea rning curve, a long battle with the ego may not at the outset be inappropriate. As for myself, I had a naturally introspective mind, and my 'failings' and thoug ht patterns were always on my mind, so recalling every so-called lacuna at night was more unproductive than not, but I had to learn this the hard way. Others wi thout such introspection, it may be argued, may have to start somewhere, and suc h a method has some value. For certain, one must start with a commitment to spir itual values, and a rigorous self-examination (Sant Kirpal used to say, again an d again, "don't spare yourself"), but the liability with this as an unbending ap proach is the activation of the super-ego function that can be soul-crushing and counter-productive at a certain stage, the timing which of course varies from i ndividual to individual. But, imho, its days are fading fast as humanity is coll ectively getting more aware and sophisticated psychologically. Some may think th is is dangerous advice. Others will naturally welcome it. This does, of course, assume a basic moral sense and discrimination is in place. But the direct feedba ck mechanism of this particular form of diary and the teacher, moreover, no long er exists. Kirpal used to read them every three months and write back personaliz ed recommendations to each disciple; due to the hundreds of thousands of initiat es today this no longer happens. So one is more or less forced to become intelli gent. In that respect, 'bad' is not always 'bad', and 'good' is not always 'good '. Why not create one's own diary, something that personally means something to you, that speaks to your heart and and feels useful? "Because then you are only relying on the wiles of your own mind and ego and one will not be an obedient de votee," some will say. This can be as true today as it has been for thousands of years. On the other hand, much is changing. And fear has no place in real devot ion. And that of course is a two-edged sword, for it has been written, : "Fear o f the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Yet a question is, how many years must o ne keep that fear in place before he comes into some spiritual independence and trust in himself, in his own Being? How many years will one attempt to 'empty th e ocean with a teaspoon' before he surrenders in despair of the whole matter?]

Anyway, my story serves as an example. Because I was perhaps too hard on myse lf or too mechanical with the filling out of the diary, and because being at the ashram and considering what was happening to me, I was now trying desperately t o avoid being bad or losing any more "face," I was scrupulous with every stray t hought, and did become very neurotic about the diary. Under chastity in deed , f or instance, I put down checks for every glance or looking at someone in an unch aste way, every stray thought, or even just casually looking in the eyes of othe rs (this was considered unchaste and to be avoided so as to avoid any negative v ibrations received thereby. It sounds crazy but that was part of the teachings, which, with all due respect to my Master who taught in his own time in a way tha t fit his own purposes, I have come to regard as dissociative Indian baggage bas ed on a teaching of exclusive inversion, unsuitable and neurotic for westerners and increasingly, humanity as a whole. Aside from its unpracticality, if we neve r look into someone's eyes how can we share our being and love? There may be som e exceptions, such as to psychically protect oneself from a degrading influence, like a violent socio-or-psychopathic personality, but even then how often are w e in a position to judge who is 'high' and who is 'low'?). Anyway, Kirpal brough t the large amount of check marks to the attention of the entire sangat and accu sed me of polluting the ashram , as if I was an active pervert or something! Min d you, I had been completely continent and celibate for several years at that po int, and was trying to meditate 5- 6 hours a day, and more at the ashram. But I was a very shy person, who didn't speak up for himself, and I failed to explain what my diary entries really meant. [Even here, it is obvious how even the gurus have been changing and adapting their advice as the confrontation of East and West follows its natural course. T his is but inevitable, for the karmas of westerners have been quite different th an those of easterners. In the West we have signed on for incarnation and self-a ctualization, while in the East the disposition has been to dismiss or sublimate the self into a greater whole. These differences have been significant. Due to globalism in some areas this is rapidly changing, and even more then the teachin gs cannot remain the same. The old ways are thus increasingly not suitable for t he mind and psyche of modern man. The 'horizontal' dimensions of soul-growth are being recognized as equally legitimate in their own right alongside the 'vertic al'. The 'Spirit' and the 'flesh' are not so opposed anymore. Kirpal used to rep eat a favorite slogan of his (with a chuckle more often than not), "chastity is live and sexuality is death". My young friends and I believed this - as far as t he pursuit of internal yoga was concerned - but privately joked among ourselves, "sexuality is life and chastity is death!", thus in my opinion intuitively feel ing the need for a more integrated and tantric, less obsessive and more whole-bo dily loving point of view. Interestingly, but inevitably, one could follow the p rogression of points of view on sex and relationships among the succeeding gurus in this line. Whereas Kirpal would say, "I don't like divorce," "I had my own r oom you see" (with laughter), "have one or two children and then live as brother and sister," Darshan Singh in turn would say, "try to work it out as best you c an," "don't sleep with her before marriage" (!), "have sex once or twice a month ," but also finally, "I am old-fashioned." Rajinder, the current master, who has lived most of his adult life in Chicago, has argued with some awkwardness in re ply to opinions about love-making, "well, these are ancient teachings," but also , "if the relationship is unworkable it is better to separate." More and more I see that people are left to themselves to come to sane terms and self-understand ing in these areas. A rejection of the old rigidness and a recognition of the di fficult and creative ordeal that incarnation actually is has infiltrated even Sa nt Mat]. But back to an earlier time and place when another game was being played out. My true anguish at the time lay in the contradiction between the Beloved Master 's words and my assumption that He must know all my inner thoughts and desires, and that if he was one with God as the teaching proclaims he should have known w

hat the diary meant. I no longer think it works exactly like that, but still I f elt he must have known what was really in my heart, yet he acted in this respect much like an ordinary man who knew nothing at all. But true Masters see things way down deep in our hearts that we do not see and say things that are appropria te to bring up hidden tendencies for removal. He had expressed the same advise i n several responses to my submitted diaries in the mail before, where I had made the same mistake, always pointing out my failures in chastity in deed , which w ere never really the case, except as latent tendencies, and actions prior to ini tiation, before I tried my best to take his teachings to heart. Only years later did I find through my study that this type of apparently contradictory behavior and speech of true masters - most notably in the Zen tradition, but in others a s well - such as speaking ill or accusing a devotee of things he hadn't done, or saying the opposite of what he previously had said, in order to break up the fi xity of mind of his disciple, was fairly common. But its effectiveness lies in i ts very unpredictability! At times his repartee was more obvious, and even I didn't fall for it, althou gh it still made me uncomfortable. One day he asked me how I had spent the day b efore. I told him meditating nine hours, and shopping one hour. He responded lou dly, "What! Meditating one hour and shopping nine hours - this is wrong!" Others started to speak up in my defense, assuming he hadn't heard me properly, saying , "No, Master, he..." , but Kirpal insisted, "NO. Meditating one hour and shoppi ng nine hours - that's not right!" Our daily lila, or play, went on, as he continued to press me into a corner. So then I tried another approach in trying to be a good satsangi or disciple. He must have called me to the front of the group practically every other day for s crutiny over my lack of progress in meditation. It was very embarrassing to say the least. After the experience of putting down too many checkmarks in my diary I tried to be realistic and only enter the more obvious failings. Therefore, at the next occasion my diary looked alot cleaner. This time, however, after examin ing the diary in front of the morning gathering, he exclaimed, "What, this looks very good, hardly any failings at all - you think you are a saint! You think yo u are perfect. You don't need any help. You want to be MY boss. You don't want t o be my disciple. You want to be my master. That is the WORST sin!" I know the t raditions say that realized souls often speak to us, and everyone present, at ma ny levels, but to appreciate His skillful means one must truly try to imagine th is situation. I was young, just 24, and hadn't studied much of the traditions, a nd didn't know what he was talking about or what was happening, and most of all, was in inner pain. I knew something was going on, but had to try hard to fight the mind's impression that he just didn't understand me, which, however, my hear t could not accept. Today, with the light of perspective, the words of Paul Brun ton come readily to mind, accurately measuring the hidden tendencies or attitude s that Masters try to bring up to consciousness: "The student must begin with the lowest opinion of himself if he is to end one d ay with the highest. On no account should he fall into the common blunder of dee ming himself more advanced than he really is, for this will lead to failure....T he student must beware of the cunning disguises of the retreating ego. He must b eware of its self-flattery pretending to be the Overself's flattery. He must bew are of any 'mission' to which he is appointed." ! (Essays on the Quest, p. 184-1 85) Anthony Damiani also states: "In the presence of a sage, a past habit which is still alive in you is broug ht up to the surface and now you have to overcome it once and for all." (Anthony Damiani, Looking Into Mind, p. 134-135) Seeing others offer poems and writings to the Master, I tried to do the same.

I composed my best devotional poem and waited until he walked by and he stopped and said, "Eh? What's this?" I said, "a poem, Master." He handed it back to me and said forcefully, "No poems. Meditate!" Then, to assuage some of the despair at the fruitlessness of my meditations, I offered to do some seva (service) in t he mail room. The next day Kirpal asked me how I had spent my time the day befor e and I said, "doing some service, etc." He turned it right back on me and said, "how can you help others if you can't help yourself?!" The walls were closing i n on me as the double-bind of self-effort increased. Now I couldn't even try to be good or useful! Another time in answer to a question of proper meditation tec hnique he sort of squinted his eyes and turn his head slightly aside and said, " meditation must be done corrrectly....some people sit for years." That hit me li ke a bombshell. More hopelessness. At one satsang, I dared ask a question that had been weighing on me for some time. I had always had difficulty relaxing enough to let go and be unaware of my breathing in meditation. Indeed, the breathing is still a painful, core problem for me. Sant Kirpal just told me I was doing it all wrong, that I should not pa y any attention to the breathing. That didn't really help, but when I said, "no one else seems to have this problem," he immediately leaned over, placing his et ched-in-granite forehead (with "Om" sign clearly visible, much like in some phot os of Ramana Maharshi) directly in my face, and said forcefully, "What do you ca re about anybody else - what do you care?!!!" By doing so, I now feel, he was no t so much answering my question or helping me with my perceived difficulty, but continuing a central theme of my visit, which, I believe, was to drive me back i nto myself, instead of looking outward for answers or help . His words burned th emselves deep within, and I remember them to this day seemingly as needed in one moment or another. I later read the following words of Sri Atmananda (Sri Krish na Menon): You first listen to the Truth direct from the lips of the Guru. Your mind, tu rned perfectly sattvic by the luminous presence of the Guru, has become so sensi tive and sharp that the whole thing is impressed upon it as if it were a sensiti ve film. You visualize your real nature then and there. But the moment you come out, the check of the presence of the Guru being removed, other samskaras rush i n and you are unable to recapitulate what was said or heard. But later on, whene ver you think of that glorious incident, the whole picture comes back to your mi nd, including the form, words and arguments of the Guru, and you are thrown afre sh into the same state of visualization you had experienced on the first day. Th us you constantly hear the same Truth from within. This is how a spiritual tattv opadesha helps you all through life, till you are established in your own real n ature. (3) One long-time devotee from Florida, Jerry Astra Turk, seeing my dejection, sa id to me, "honey, one day you are going to love Him more than you can believe." It was she who had earlier exclaimed to Kirpal Singh, "Master, I don't care if I ever see light within, I just want to be with you." He smiled," she said, "beca use that's what he likes." Russell Perkins had also mentioned the same thing to me, that the only reason he felt one should come to the Master was simply to BE with Him, and not for any benefit, even spiritual, that one might receive. While such a point of view is certainly paradoxical, I would give anything to be able to feel the same in my heart. It was that very confession that Kirpal had made to his Master when he said, "Huzur! The peace and bliss to be had at your holy f eet cannot be had in higher planes!" There is one other incident I must recount before proceeding further. It will give an idea of how the Master Kirpal worked with people at times, which was ac tually quite shocking to me. There was a man from the United States I heard abou t first while doing seva working on some of the foreign correspondence (I addres sed and stuffed envelopes, and don t remember now what I was doing reading someo ne's letter to the Master, but, in any case, I did read this one). It was a sad

tale. This man wrote that he was severely depressed, had no girlfriend anymore, didn't play his music anymore, had no contact with inner light and sound, and wa nted to come to India so Master could help him. I forgot about his letter until a month or so later, when during a gathering Master Kirpal was interrupted to ta ke a phone call. I was told that normally he did not take calls, but this time h e did. I immediately sensed it was from this man. The Master spoke loud enough t hat anyone present could hear him (although I don't know if they all did) saying , "No, no, no, don t kill yourself, relax, take a warm bath, then sit and the Ma ster's radiant form will appear to you." That was that, and I had a renewed (but false) hope that the Master would make everything right , both for that man as well as for myself. This episode somewhat forgotten, a few weeks later this man dragged himself o nto the ashram, unannounced, and took up residence in the room next to mine. The next morning he confronted Sant Kirpal directly, although disrespectfully, but, still, in obvious desperation, saying, "You said if I took a warm bath the Mast er's form would appear to me, but it didn't happen!" Master immediately responde d forcefully, "You lie!" That remark floored me, because, unless the Master's fo rm really did appear to him, I KNEW the man was NOT lying. This was doubly confl icting to me, because I believed that Masters never lie, and Kirpal obviously di d. I had heard nothing of skillful means regardings a guru's behavior up to that point, so had no where to go with my troubling thoughts. The next day the man again challenged the Master, and at one point Kirpal sai d, "If I give you a contact (or re-contact) will you promise to meditate for two hours a day?," to which the man replied, "yes." The Master had him sit down and then went over and pressed two fingers in the man's eyes and asked him if he sa w any light. Now, I had seen and heard of Master doing this form of initiation b y touch (diksha) many times before, with people having anything from an experien ce of golden light to a full transport into higher plane samadhis, so I knew tha t was possible. In the traditions the touch of the Master's hand was supposed to be a great boon. However, in this case it was plain He had witheld His grace. ( I know this both because of the man's replies and because the same experience ha ppened to me some days later when in response to my unfruitfull meditation repor ts Kirpal pushed his fingers hard into my eyes and said "fix your gaze!" (knowin g full well by that point I had no inner gaze left, although many will perhaps f ind it difficult to believe that, and then asked if I saw light, which I didn't, which was very humiliating). Anyway, Kirpal asked the man, "do you see anything , any flash of light?" , to which the reply was a gruff, "no, nothing." The Mast er then said, "nothing? is it pitch black... total black.....or maybe a little g ray?" "I don't know," said the man. "Not pitch black, maybe a little gray?" "May be," said the man. "All right then, go on with it!" said the Master. This was ob viously not very impressive or satisfying, regardless of the man's lack of recep tivity and still confrontational but obviously stressed-out condition. "Are you going to give me the sound now?" he said, again with a touch of arrogance, as we ll as frustration, pathos, and despair. "Later," I think was the Master's reply. At this point I and those present thought the man was going to be helped, becau se that was how we were taught to believe it worked. The next morning, however, the Master asked the man how long he had meditated the day before, to which he r esponded, "five minutes." Now, I must say that I did not know what the man's ent ire story or past had been, or what he was feeling when he came to the ashram, a lthough now, I myself, who once meditated up to ten hours a day, can identify wi th having difficulty sitting for five minutes. In any case, Sant Kirpal responde d with an apparent mini-tirade of how bad the guy was, how he (also) was mocking the path, etc.. I started to get scared. It all seemed just and divine retribut ion. I mean, how could the Master be anything but loving, therefore, this guy, a nd me, too, must have been just no good. The next morning the roommate of this man came over to my room and said that the guy had swallowed a bottle of pills and didn't look good at all, was repeate

dly vomitting and passing out. The Master and doctor were called and came over, and we then thought, He will fix everything. He will help him. The ambulance cam e and took him away, and the next morning, at the gathering, Master informed us, with a tender, but if I may dare to say it, almost chagrined look on his face, "Well, our friend died." On the way to the hospital he developed problems breath ing and passed away. Oh God, I thought, the Master called him His 'friend', too. In my entire stay we were the only two he called 'friend'. And I was the only one there who had s een the entire play between this man and the Master: first his letter, then the phone call, and then his presence at the ashram. Later on that same morning the Master shifted gears and shocked me by saying that that man and I were 'two bird s in the same cage'. I really started to get scared at that point and was fast l osing all hope. My mind was in a real dilemma trying to make sense out of the en tire chain of unexpected events. Even now, especially in moments of doubt, I som etimes feel fear arising just recalling that moment. I asked a spiritually advan ced woman friend - I knew she was not exactly ordinary because she had confessed in the Master's presence and with His permission to having been taken to Sach K hand at her initiation - her thoughts on the matter of the poor soul who committ ed suicide, and why hadn't the Master helped him, etc.. Of course, we have a deg ree of free will, which a true guru will not interfere with, but she ventured wh at to me was an astounding idea, suggesting that perhaps it was possible that Ki rpal knew that the man's physical vehicle had little use left for his present in carnation, and that He had in a sense pushed him into his decision, but would of course still be taking care of him in the Beyond and/or in a future life. That did little to comfort me, but did stretch my mind to new dimensions regarding th is path... I only recently learned that the man had been in and out of VA hospit als for months with mental problems and was overwhelmed with his feeling of spir itual "density". Things continued like this for a while longer, then I remember one day in des perate resignation praying something to the effect, "please, do whatever You hav e to do for me to eventually be able to come to You, if that be Your will." My i nner "rot" was appoaching a critical point. When I confessed this later near the end of my stay to the woman who had become my confidant, she told me that the M aster, contrary to what I was feeling at the time, had answered all of my prayer s. I quoted to her a verse of Paramhansa Yogananda, where he requested God "neve r to put him through the test of the obliviousness of His presence," which she s aid was the "test of a saint." I knew very well I wasn't a saint, not even close , but her words were revolutionary to me anyway. She was a great friend at the t ime, and helped me understand many delicate points. She always humbly let me kno w when she could tell me no more. She also spoke lovingly of Kirpal at all times and and always humbly deferred to Him on spiritual matters. [Her story was very interesting and quite classic. Essentially, she was denied or had her initiatio n placed on hold for some reason, and then went into the ashram garden and wept, saying "why don't you want me?!" or something to that effect. Gyaniji saw her a nd came over and said to her, "don't worry, dear, those who cry for the Master g et the Master." The next day she sat for initiation, and, as reported, Kirpal to ok her with Him all the way 'in his lap' to Sach Khand, said by the saints to be the soul's true home in Sat Lok. He acknowledged the story, as the jaws dropped among the small group gathered at his feet, mine included. Several dignitaries were also in the audience]. I described to her my unusual spiritual 'descent' and aridity and impossibili ty of meditating, with a bit of wry humor characterizing my subjective state by saying, "my nose is where my third eye used to be." She just laughed. Thirty yea rs later when I close my eyes I can barely tell where my head is, so actually th at doesn't seem so bad! There was one other satsang of significance to me that I will mention. Please

note that I was getting very reticent about even being seen at satsang, because inevitably I would be called to the front for one thing or another and get ques tioned. But this particular day I was getting close to giving up, I now see, and the Master asked me, with a strange look on his face, almost as if he was tryin g not to reveal what he was up to, "do you want something, my friend?" , and aft er a short pause, "do you want to leave the body?" [The latter question scared m e, first because of that man killing himself, and also my remembering a story in one of the books about a devotee begging Master Sawan Singh to take him up to h igher planes but being repeatedly refused, until finally the saint relented, and upon returning from a higher plane the man cried and said it was like a thousan d lightning bolts tearing him apart, and then the man died a short while afterwa rds, and I feared the same could happen to me; on another occasion, a long-time devotee and sevadar of Kirpal asked for the same favor, and Kirpal replied, "wel l, that sort of thing could be done, but I am afraid you wouldn't be able to car ry on here when you returned; moreover, would a father give his own son 'poison' ?" Part of me knew I was not 'ready for that. And part of me - a deeper part - k new that that was not the direction of my soul's trajectory at the time]. The fi rst question, "do you want anything, my friend?," however, seemed to ask for me to finally place before Him all my problems in one final heap, and the second, " do you want to leave the body?", well, all I can say, again, is that in retrospe ct I think a deep part of me knew that really wasn't what my heart wanted, and/o r knew that wasn't what I needed, and, also, too tired of fighting, I simply rep lied, "no... nothing." In an instant He sat up and shouted, animated and very ex cited, smiling, "Nothing?!! Nothing is God! You are an emperor! I'll kiss your f eet!" You see, the Master knew something that I didn't; as Ashtavakra said in hi s famous Samhita: "With whom can I compare that great-souled one who is content with Self-knowl edge and does not hanker even after liberation?" I was, however, in somewhat of a shocked state, as I had been for months, and his words went way over my head, but were imbedded forever in my heart, to pond er again and again over the years. [Kirpal also frequently referred to himself a s "Mr. Zero", a hint at his true nature.] But somewhere deep down a process of u nderstanding was beginning. My yearning to escape this world and my present cond ition, although difficult to give up or feel beyond, was beginning to seem, in t he depths of my unconscious understanding, somehow inappropriate. The Master cer tainly didn't seem to be concerned about it, in my case or, I was coming to feel , even in his own. While risking getting ahead of myself here, I refer the reader to the followi ng passage from Paul Brunton concerning the state of the adept. The godman, if h e be of the highest, is the embodiment of the Light, truly, but he is also beyon d the Light, standing in the utter humility of Emptiness, as well as the non-dua lity of Consciousness and matter: "This is the true insight, the permanent illumination that neither comes nor goes but always is. While being serious, where the event or situation requires i t, he will not be solemn. For behind this seriousness there is detachment. He ca nnot take the world of Appearances as being Reality's final form. If he is a sha rer in this world's experiences, he is also a witness and especially a witness o f his own ego - its acts and desires, its thoughts and speech. And because he se es its littleness, he keeps his sense of humor about all things concerning it, a touch of lightness, a basic humility. Others may believe that he stands in the Great Light, but he himself has no particular or ponderous self-importance. (3a) So, unknowingly, I threw myself and its concerns at the guru's feet. I didn't realize it, but Rumi wrote of this test in his famous Mathnawi: "Having died to self-interest, she risks everything and asks for nothing; Lov

e gambles away every gift God bestows." (The Pocket Rumi, p. 212) There is a story that somebody went to Ramana Maharshi and said, "Bhagavan, I don't want anything. I only want moksha (liberation)." Ramana did not say anyth ing but continued to do whatever he was doing. After some time everyone got up t o go except for that man. Ramana got up too and was about to go. He said to the man, "If you don't want anything that is moksha," and went away. Years later I read the following passages from the book, Journey to the Lumin ous, by long-time Kirpal devotee Arran Stephens, where the author, I believe, st umbled perhaps without full awareness onto an inner secret of Sant Mat, or at le ast of satsang in relationship wth Sant Kirpal: "An important meeting was called at Sawan Ashram, attended by many distinguis hed and learned Indian initiates, including the managing committee. The Master i nvited presentation of their original ideas on how best to further the spiritual mission. During their learned dissertations, I was mentally criticizing, 'Oh, h e doesn't meditate...This one doesn't keep a diary..That one doesn't even see th e Light...How can they hope to further the great cause?' Towards the end I was u nable to restrain my impetuosity and asked to speak a few words. When Master nod ded, I stood, heart pounding, and announced, "All these fine talks and lectures are very well and good, but unless we practice what we preach, unless we go with in and experience the divine Light and Sound ourselves on a regular basis, up to and including meeting the Radiant Form, I doubt we can effectively further the Master's Cause." The author readily admitted his faux pax and continued: "While there may have been a grain of truth in that, my delivery smacked of p ride and intolerance...My insensitive pronouncement had the effect of dropping a bomb on the august assembly...Master stood. He said, "It appears that our Weste rn friend is not in the full know of things." (4) At one point in my stay I corralled Russell Perkins in the courtyard of the a shram and asked him to tell me his story. I was pleasantly surprised ten years l ater to see that he had written a book, The Impact of a Saint, detailing most of what he had told me. Since then I have read that book maybe half a dozen times, and I must confess to being in dear Russell's debt for getting me through many trying times, bringing me to tears and increasing my longing with his moving tal e of his own ordeals with Kirpal, and also inspiring me to pen my own story whic h is before you now. I was not that close to Russell, but always considered him my brother. He may not know this, but we often do not know who we touch. I also want to say before moving on with my story that in the turmoil after K irpal's death amidst the confusing controversy over his 'successorship', many di sciples went this way and others that way. Russell chose to follow Ajaib Singh f or a time, and continued to do so after others chose to follow Kirpal's son Dars han. I know that Russell must have taken some heat for this decision, and rumors even spread that he had somehow fallen off the path by, to my mind, only doing what he felt was right in his heart. For as it is said, "Hafiz, there is no one in this world who is not looking for God. Everyone is trudging along with as much dignity, courage and style as they possibly can." To such talk then I dare to say, dear Russell, if you are reading these words , know that you are beloved by Kirpal and are going home. Believe this. Anyway, after asking for his story, I also asked him, off-handedly, whether m aybe I was going insane. Russell had worked in a mental hospital and told me pro

bably not, that in fact most insane people think everyone else is insane! Much l ater I read that Ramana Maharshi said that "jnana is a form of madness." As the date for the end of my stay approached, dear Gyaniji, the Master's ass istant who had known Him since the 1920's, dragged me upstairs to see Kirpal abo ut my departure. I didn't want to go, feeling I would be bothering Him about som ething unimportant. But Gyaniji insisted. The Indian devotees were anything but shy, quite naturally and intimately relating to the Master, unlike many westerne rs who often held him at arm's length out of a sense of awe. When I entered Sant Kirpal's room, he was lying down facing the other way, groaning in pain. Gyanij i told him I would be leaving soon and Kirpal turned around, assuming his usual radiance, and looked at me with the most imploring, sweetest look, saying, "you WANT to go?" In my heart I said "no, I never want to leave you, I will never lea ve you" , but outwardly I simply replied, dejectedly and with resignation, "well , the visa is up." He then nodded or jerked his head a bit as he often did, adju sting his turban, almost as if he was returning from some divine plane or loka, and said matter of factly, "yes, you should go", as if it was time for me to go back to my normal life. This was a depressing thought, for I felt much worse off than before I had come to India, and had no idea how I would make it in the wor ld. I felt I had lost everything and life had no meaning. [One small thing I noticed while I was in the Master's bedroom which I will m ention now. There was a bottle of fish oil on his night stand. Being vegetarians I mentioned that to Gyaniji and he said, "yes, I know, but it is very good for health." I didn't pursue the conversation further. My being allowed to see this was something that I remembered over the years and have pondered over how much i ntuition I should use on such health matters. It is possible that perhaps someon e left it there and Kirpal did not use it. This of course I do not know. He did not seem to be very directive with his disciples, even to the point of permittin g a loud, blaring TV to be on in the room next door where he would give morning satsangs. Ramana Maharshi was accused of being like this, too, even to the point of getting sick eating ganja given to him by a devotee on one occasion. So I di d not know the true meaning or significance of what I was allowed to witness the re. To some initiates of Sant Mat this tale of the fish oil may seem incredulous , but to many practitioners on other paths it would be nothing much at all. One satsangi who read this article said he didn't believe this story one bit! All I can say is, it was true, but really not a big deal for anyone but me. I didn't t ake it as a sign to become a non-vegetarian, but, at the very least it made me m uch less righteous in my judgement of those who are. Through the years I have ob served the attitude and behavior of other masters on this issue. Sri Ramakrishna ate meat. His disciple Brahmananda loved to fish. The Dalai Lama, while quoting sutras on the Buddha teaching vegetarianism, didn't become one himself until 19 65, when he was already thirty years old. That suggests to me that it is hard to live on vegetables in cold Tibet! Dr. Sharma, successor to Baba Faqir Chand, sa id he was o.k. with eggs. Many years of study by various authorities whose opini ons I respect argue there are some people who need small amounts of animal prote in in their diet to be in optimal health. Of course, this is only in regards to physical and mental, not spiritual health. Therefore, despite all these contrari es, I still am inclined emotionally towards the Sant Mat position of vegetariani sm, for several reasons (compassion, karma, health, ecology), but, however, simp ly no longer feel the right to judge anyone (including myself) for their choices . As Kirpal once remarked, "to hurt someone's feelings because they eat meat is worse than eating meat itself," and, "more important than what goes into your mo uth is what comes out of it." Bodies are also very different, and I do not harbo r as dogmatic of a position as I used to on this part of the teaching. If someon e wants to eat eggs, it is not for me to cast blame. It does seem to me that unf ertilized eggs, if available, would be less karmic than fertilized, although I k now both are still taboo on this path, as well as in conventional yogic teaching s where eggs are considered as creating 'heat' in the body, inflaming passions, and so on. Certainly, paying double for eggs from pasteurized chickens is a heal

thier and more humane practice than buying caged and corn-fed eggs. But again, t his story and explanation is not a recommendation for anyone; my personal feelin g is that people need to make up their own minds about these things without too much rigidity or righteousness. Many factors go into this view. For instance, if the ascending yoga were acti vated strongly in my being I would probably be eating all raw. As I am not so su stained by the internal solar energy, however, and am on all accounts more on a 'descending and incarnated' path than before, I find it more difficult to mainta in good health on a base of lots of grains and beans. I don't eat meat, but I do take plenty of grass-butter, raw cheese, and lots of monosaturated fats: coconu t, avocado, walnuts, and olives. Don't misunderstand, I have paid serious dietar y dues for most of forty-odd years. My metabolism has changed, however, and afte r much consideration I made the decision to alter my regime - come what may - ev en in the face of God's wrath, if it comes to that - or any judgement by fellow travelers on the path. It is a decision subject to change, and not lightly made nor without much internal conflict. I am acutely sensitive of the karmic as well as health implications of this issue - even eating milk products requires a cow to be kept pregnant all of the time, and her calves are taken from her to marke t - but that is a subject for another time, with in fact many aspects to conside r [i.e., the issue of cruel as well as environmentally wasteful factory-farming versus a possible practical interim need to support small, humane local organic farmers as a way to eliminate the former, the nature of animal death and sacrifi ce and interdependence with humans, what to do with the billions of farm animals now living: who will support them when they are no longer needed, and should we just breed them out of existence?, etc.]. To dedicated fundamentalist vegetaria ns and vegans the issue is cut and dry, but is it really? These appear to be rea sonable questions to ask at this stage of our collective evolution. As before, n one of this is a recommendation for anyone. Ultimately each must consult his rea son, intuition, and conscience on the matter. He will not go wrong simply follow ing what his Master has told him, until such time as he is guided otherwise]. While we are on the subject, as long as we have covered self-introspection, s ex, and diet, the same change of attitude goes for drinking alcohol. The main pr oscription on this path is against intoxication or even dulling ones consciousne ss, but if a few sips of wine are good for the heart, and, as some initiates hav e confessed to me, also relaxes them enough to benefit their meditation - as als o appears to be so regarding sex for certain body-mind types, who over the years have chipped away at my puritanical righteousness and preconceived notions of w hat is the best way to live for all - I say, what's wrong with that? The great I bn 'al Arabi had four wives. Two of the highest initiates I know have six and se ven kids, and most of the masters have had several. I seriously doubt these peop le made love only six or seven - or three - times, and for procreation only! Wha t about love and delight? Is incarnation in itself so bad? Or only carnation?! O ne can make the case against dissipation of subtle life energies (for the male, ojas), but that is a highly individual thing, and also needing adjustment in the interests of domestic harmony among those at different levels. Love must be the prevailing factor. Further, while it is not my way, but are we to condemn or look down upon mill ions of wine-consuming Frenchmen? Or the respected Swami Chinmayananda, who woul d have an occasional scotch?! I certainly will not. These are just my personal o bservations, and, in order to cover myself (!), not a recommendation for anyone else. It is part of everyone's learning, discrimination, and fearless investigat ion to find out what works and is true for them. After all, who is getting reali zed? Somebody else? The development of discriminative intelligence is one of the most, if perhaps not the most, important aspect of spiritual maturity. Obedienc e and devotion is a good start, and can take one far, but that very devotion wil l eventually demand understanding. What one loves also wants to be known. Fools do not generally get enlightened, and the masters are not fools, but by and larg

e the flower of human intelligence. And speaking of food, many of us would-be ascetics at Sawan Ashram would find our desire to spend long hours in meditations interrupted by frequent calls to the Master's veranda for parties and food - lots of sweets and goodies, much mor e than our stomachs desired. As Shivas Irons said in Michael Murphy's book, Golf in the Kingdom, "crazy for God my Master might have been, but a dry and lonely one he never was." In retrospect it was as if in his last year on earth Kirpal w as opening the floodgates of grace and freedom for his chelas, if they would but accept his offer]. Continuing this story, the apparent end result of my stay with Him, in summar y, was that all feelings of any inner faculties at all were deadened and as if t otally removed, more so than I had ever felt in my whole life, long before I had even heard of the path. Meditation in the prescribed form became - and has rema ined thirty years later - impossible. I don't know anyone who can believe me on this. It was far more than just not being able to see light anymore like some ha ve temporarily experienced, but a painful and shocking total extroversion and pe rception of spiritual abandonment, an extremely bitter pill. It was as if He had slowly over the course of several months made my soul sink through my head and lashed or welded it firmly to my eyes and face, and later my whole body, with ev en the possibility of inversion a long-forgotten dream. This was hard to believe , and I continued to fight it and try to regain what I once had (indeed, for sev eral more years), but it was no use. I continued to feel like I was being pushed out , and into a twisted and knotted up body that I had been only too willing t o leave behind. And, as I had never felt good inside until the beginnings of wha t I had been led to consider to be spiritual life had been awakened in me throug h His grace, my condition at the time was devastating. On top of this dear William Scotti confronted me in the midst of my self-poss ession with the cutting observation that he knew a man who had not seen light in thirty years who had more love than me. He didn't know my inner condition, just my outer struggling and immaturity, but that observation made me sink very low. Of course he was right, and it has only become more clear throughout the years. Perhaps that itself is some form of progress. His brother, Richard, on the othe r hand, made a very strange remark one day. I don't agree with what he said, it is so absurd to even consider, but the fact that he would even think to say it s eemed strange to me. He was there alot of the time I was and saw much of what wa s going on. While witnessing some of the interplay between the Master and myself , he said to me, "He's making you into a satguru." I only mention this for the s ynchronicity and completeness of this story. Perhaps in some eon to come it will mean something. I hope not, for that is a sacred burden I do not wish to carry. The very thought is insane. Richard also said to me, regarding meditation and s elf-improvement, that if he had to "do it himself" (ie., advance spiritually) he might as well die. He, too, at the time was, in his own way, feeling the limits of his helplessness and incompetency, which he later made into a beautiful devo tional talk, considering the times, to the sangat back home. My attempts at self -effort had not yet received enough mortal blows to feel the depth of what he wa s saying, however, and I was not yet ready to give up to what only appeared as h opelessness, but now, many years later, I am beginning to appreciate his words. Kirpal then started calling me a "hard nut to crack," and a "good actor". The "s tory of me" was facing its nemesis, although this was years before we began to h ear of ideas like that. It would be years as well before I realized that such wa s but the beginning. The End Game There is, fortunately, a culmination to my story up to this point in the form of an insight that arose in a moment the day before my stay at the ashram ended

. Some may find this rather boring, as it is more ordinary than mystically or ph enomenally fantastic. It changed nothing, yet it changed everything. I was playi ng with a young boy in the inner courtyard, having given up hope for a life of m editation or anything else. Due to return to New York in a few days, I was adrif t about my future. At that moment, my woman friend walked over to me and said en igmatically, "it's a nice day to die, isn t it?" I thought, huh? when it hit me: something had changed. We silently looked at each other, and I realized that ev erything was different, but yet, at the same time everything was the same, and h ad always been the same. There was nothing mystical or psychic about the experie nce, or change of state. In fact is wasn't an experience or change of state in t he usual sense at all. It was as if my self-identity had shifted or been made va gue. Only months later did I understood this moment as a kensho, satori, or tran scendant shift of some degree. It wasn't really an event. She said, "you've just been through the eye of the needle, you have a hole in your head," and things l ike that. All the while I was in a mesmerized condition, mindlessly pondering a newness I didn't understand, but also knew was the only real thing I had ever kn own, and it had always been the case. The relationship between me and the world of others had undergone a fundamental shift, no matter how much and for how long my mind would tend to discount it. My friend also said, "not a bad world, isn't it?," which I thought an amazing thing at the time to say by one who had confes sed to soaring on the highest inner planes. What baffled me no end was that, as there were no visible signs, no light or sound or anything identifiable by even another mystic, how could this person Judith have known about this BEFORE I did? ! Indeed, how could even a sage have known before I did? That was perhaps the mo st remarkable thing about this. We talked for a while, and she told me many thin gs about myself and the Master, some of them strange and also enigmatic, which I also thought about for years, like, "You were in a hypnotic state"...."Master s peaks with forked tongue, and has a hard time keeping a straight face"...."Kirpa l is a Sat Master, and not the usual saint or mystic"...."Master would rather ha ve a disciple who is a simple jerk-off than a self-righteous seeker".... and als o "Kirpal ended an age." She quoted me from the sage of the golf links, Shivas I rons, telling his golfing pupil, "Fuck our ever getting any better." How cool fo r a person spiritually awakened and at a sacred ashram to engage in such street talk! It was definitely liberating in 1973. The line, "Kirpal ended an age", how ever, really had me thinking. What did she mean? I later leaned towards understa nding this as (1) the ending of an age of fascination with the internal, 'gnosti c' goal of mysticism as being the whole of spirituality and realization, rather than a natural and inevitable dimension or part of it, along with (2) the soften ing of life-negative asceticisms of the past that were part of even the so-calle d 'positive mysticism' of Sant Mat (in my current way of thinking sort of an oxy moron, mysticism as such being part of a negative-positive polarity of earth and spirit, neither inherently superior to the other, depending on one's perspectiv e), and finally that henceforth things should be explained in a more straight fo rward fashion. All teachings must sooner than later become reconciled. Many on t his path may disagree with me and feel I am way off base. Be assured I came to t his view dragging my heels, but that it is more and more the view of a majority of both old and new seekers on many paths. This is not a call for 'immorality' o r anything of the kind but rather for: more love, acceptance, and understanding; less judgement and the abandonment of formulaic concepts and the pursuit of an artificial or idealistic goal of perfection. Be/become truly human. Enter the he art of darkness as necessary and reclaim all of yourself, then walk hand in hand with the Master in the Great Work - and Play. In addition, Kirpal said that in the coming 'golden age' many more saints wou ld appear. [Sri Ramakrishna also had stated: in the not too distant future Chris ts would grow like grapes on a vine, in clusters.] What could that have meant in light of the general Sant Mat claim that there is one perfect master on earth a t any one time? Did he mean they would all be saints from within the Sant Mat tr adition, or was he proclaming a universalization of that path to include other m ethods and schools? I tend to feel he meant the latter. I had once pointed out t

o Judith that Buddhist Master Fuji, who had sat with Master Kirpal on the dais, had tears of laughter streaming down his face, with a smile as wide as the room, and she said to me, "that smile comes all the way from Sach Khand." I thought t o myself, "what did she mean? Master Fuji doesn't do shabd yoga." Kirpal handed Master Fuji a collection of his books, with both of them laughing as if at some big joke, while Fuji's disciples were sternly chanting and beating their drums. The scene was surreal. Further, as evidence that Kirpal was indeed a "Sat" Master, or Master of Trut h, and not just a master-yogi, Judith told me that after her initiation experien ce of being transported to Sat Lok, well-nigh the highest one could go into the matrix of light at the summit of the cosmos, she still had not attained final cl arity of her ultimate identity while in this world, which Ramana Maharshi said w as grounded in the Heart on the right side. She said she asked Kirpal after this lofty experience, in true perplexity, "WHO am I?," to which he replied, in the manner of Ramana, "WHO wants to know?" This form of inquiry or ultimate question ing was not something he gave out to everyone, but in my opinion to ripe souls o nly. My guess is that this advaitic inquiry was something the hundred thousand i nitiates under his care were not yet ready for, and for him to publically alter the teachings in any such way would undermine their faith. He had the burden of an existing lineage to uphold with thousands of disciples, many simple Indian fo lk. In Sant Mat, I have come to believe, this inquiry would for the moment have to remain a hidden teaching. Another woman I knew who came upon Him alone once s aid He gazed at her for some time and then simply said, "what you see is you," a nother non-dual confession and pointer. It was seeming that these saints definit ely guarded their treasures carefully, only giving out what was needed and appro priate for each disciple according to their development. Judith also said to me, "you'll find out sooner or later that you are just pi nching yourself," which fits in nicely with current and historical non-dual thou ght about the origin of separation, that it is ongoing, and where one's identity as a "fallen soul" is not the absolute truth, but more of a form of egoic nosta lgia for what is really a unified whole of Self, soul, body-mind, and world. It is so simple, but something that can take a long time to be made permanent in on e's life and not just seen intermittently. Even after an awakening, the body-min d must undergo a change or transformation as Consciousness or Being is given a f ree rein to move into one's life. At any rate, when I went to Satsang later that day at the Master's house, he looked right at me and said, "well, my friend, are you a new man today, are you a new man?! Are you going to go home and tell everyone you are a new man?" That was it; no explanation, no hand holding, just a cryptic remark and a mostly word less communication. I was speechless, still uncomprehending at the level of the mind what had happened. But this time Kirpal no longer asked me to "keep trying" . It was as if He recognized my earlier sadhana had come to an end and could nev er be taken up again in the same form. I was not enlightened, but had received a true glimpse. Papaji spoke in a similar manner about his time with Ramana, and on how a genuine master works: "When I came and sat in front of the Maharshi, he didn't tell me to keep on t rying because he could see that I had reached a state in which my sadhana could never be resumed again. 'You have arrived,' he said. He knew I was ready for rea lisation and through his divine look he established me in his own state." "The real Master looks into your mind and Heart, sees what state you are in, and gives out advice which is always appropriate and relevant. Other people, who are not established in the Self, can only give out advice which is based on eit her their own limited experience or on what they have heard or read. This advice is often foolish. The true teacher will never mislead you with bad advice becau se he always knows what you need, and he always knows what state you are in."

Sri Nisargadatta made a remarkable observation which I later came upon that r elated to my question about how someone else could recognize such a change befor e I did: "With some, realization comes imperceptibly, but somehow they need convincing . They have changed, but they do not notice it. Such non-spectacular cases are o ften the most reliable." (I AM THAT, p. 291) He also mentioned the price for such a realization: "When you don't require anything from the world and nothing from God, when yo u don't desire anything, when you don't strive for anything, don't expect anythi ng, the divine will enter you, unasked and unexpected....The wish for truth is t he best of all wishes, but it's still a wish. All wishes must be given up, that the truth can enter your life. (source misplaced) This awakening was entirely unspectacular and ordinary. It was not really som ething special, although the mind tried to make it so. In fact it was really'not hing', not any special 'no-thing' at all. In fact, 'nothing' seems to sum it up better than anything else. Hsi Yun stated long ago: "Obtaining absolutely nothing is called receiving transmission from mind to m ind." (E.A. Burtt, The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha (New York: Mentor, 1955), p. 203) That was it exactly. I purposely leave out any exclamation point, but it was the greatest day of my life. Many, many years later I read these words from Adya shanti: "The funny thing about enlightenment is that when it is authentic, there is n o one to claim it. Enlightenment is very ordinary; it is nothing special. Rather than making you more special, it is going to make you less special. It plants y ou right in the center of a wonderful humility and innocence. Everyone else may or may not call you enlightened, but when you are enlightened the whole notion o f enlightenment and someone who is enlightened is a big joke." (source misplaced ) Paul Brunton spoke enigmatically about this shift: "The authentic thing does not enter consciousness. You do not know that it ha s transpired. You discover it is already here only by looking back at what you w ere and contrasting it with what you now are; or when others recognize it in you and draw attention to it; or when a situation arises which throws up your real status." (Paul Brunton, Notebooks, Vol 16, Part 4, 2.139) And Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253) said: "Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment." In my case no-thing had changed. I was still contracted and in pain; as one Z en monk once said, "Now that liberation is first seen, I am just as miserable as ever." A glimpse of truth is not the end. It was, however, like a spoke had bee n removed from my innermost being. I told Judith that for the first time in my l ife I actually felt that realization was possible, and not just an unattainable dream, because I was intuiting it right then at some level. I knew this wasn't f ull enlightenment, but I believe it was what in the early Buddhist tradition is considered 'stream-enterer' (sotapanna), a point of no return and the 'seed' of an undeniable conviction or shraddha that enlightenment is actually possible. Ju dith simply said that I "could believe, or not." Adyashanti seems to concur that

this is most important: "Enlightenment depends to a large extent on believing that you are born for f reedom in this lifetime, and that it is available now, in this moment." (The Imp act of Awakening, p. 8) This was not the case before, no matter how much I thought and felt that I de sired the Truth. The glimpse I had been given , at the expense of the death of a ll mysticism or even inner comfort, was that the one, the ego-identity, that use d to go within, and wanted to go within, was unreal, or perhaps better said, unr eal in itself, but merely an appearance in consciousness. And I knew that such a form of insight does not automatically come from mystical experience alone, but from another process altogether. I forget the context, but I remember saying so mething to Judith to the effect that I now saw the Master was more than a mystic , that He was truly a sacrificial being, that He, in fact, had died , and she sa id, "Yes, He has died many times." That penetrated my being in a new way, in tha t I felt it meant more than just that he had died daily in meditation, as was of ten repeated on the path; I recalled Kirpal himself saying to us one time, " wha t more do you want, I have given you my life's breath." The phrase from Light on the Path comes to mind about the feet being bathed "in the blood of the heart," and also the quote of Paul Brunton, paraphrasing Huang Yang-Ming, that on the w ay to becoming a sage one will die a hundred deaths and suffer a thousand suffer ings. I thought again of seeing Kirpal groaning in pain on his bed, then becomin g radiant and glowing only a moment later. The image of Him as a rag doll in the hands of God, squeezed dry as if from taking on the pain and suffering of the w orld, only to burn it up within and then turn gracefully to emanate light and lo ve. He often had said, "I know my own worth. I am a mere pipe. If my Master does n't send His grace, I am nothing...You people think I am lying. I tell you what I see. God is doing everything. I do nothing. It is all God's grace and compassi on. " How profound the words, "the Master has died many times," seemed to become . The sage is the summit, the crown of human evolution, and the agent of the Lor d in this world. For despite the simplicity suggested by teachers of non-duality , the Idea of Man calls for its fulfillment. The peerless Al Ghazali wrote: "Know, 0 beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvelou sly made and for some great end." Judith said that the path to real enlightenment which I had been granted was a gift in the form of a "reward-punishment" , that "God was economy and pressure ," "that out of thousands of disciples Kirpal would be lucky to have even one to make it to Sach Khand or be enlightened" [i.e., in this very life, for it must be remembered that the Sant Mat promise is within a maximum of four lives all in itiates will attain it; this notion of four lives, moreover, is not entirely arb itrary, for with due modifications for a bhakti-type of path, it is similar to t he four stages proposed by the Buddha: stream-enterer, once-returner, non-return er, and Arhat. These relate to the notion of the purification of the elements an d the bodies that envelop the soul. In Sant Mat the first life is said to about fully developing devotion; for more on this theme see "The Depths of This Thing" on this website]; she also said that I had volunteered for the trip (at first w ithout knowing it, but upon reflection I felt it must have been on the day of my silent prayer for Him to do whatever it took to allow me to come to Him, but ev en later, in retrospect, I think most likely through a prayer made before this l ife). Her remark produced an immediate question in my mind, as my math was prett y good: if she had been to Sach Khand, and as she promised that I would get ther e , well, that already makes two, not one, and there must undoubtedly be many ot hers much more capable or qualified than I. But the point was well-taken: true e nlightenment and transformation was a big deal, requiring everything from both g uru and disciple. Yet, at the same time, there is also much precedent that it is truly a kind of 'foolishness' and "nothing special":

Shih-t'ou: "My ignorance far exceeds yours." Sri Nisargadata Maharaj: "I do not claim to know what you do not. In fact, I kno w much less than you do." Lao Tzu: "I alone have the mind of a fool, and am all muddled and vague. The peo ple are so smart and bright. While I am just dull and confused. Those who say, d o not know; those who know, do not say." I think this paradox may never go away as long as the body lives. I asked man y more questions, but at one point Judith simply said, "I can tell you no more," as if she recognized the limits of her knowledge or permission to speak. After all, even though she had gone to Sach Khand or Sat Lok once didn't mean that she knew everything. Personally, from my grasp of the teachings, I no longer think even the Masters know everything, as we sometimes naively understand it, and tha t that is a preconception we get from reading the occult and mystic traditions, particularly from India, which unfortunately some teachers reinforce by repeatin g dogma of their lineage. It may seem to be that way sometimes, but I think it w ould be more accurate to say that knowledge comes spontaneously to them as requi red for the situation. Or they may simply act and say things from the position o f Truth without conscious awareness of knowing anything, although some times the y DO know. To assume omniscience on their part, however, is both a misinterpreta tion of the word, which simply means knowing Reality, not necessarily every poss ible 'thing', and therefore to attempt to improve upon an already fully magnific ant truth: their divine realization, and its being an agency of grace. Still, th ese are multidimensional beings, and the greatest among them are truly great, al though they are not likely to say it. Judith had told me, as I went in and out o f doubt with my new experience, "you can either believe it - or not," and that, "Master saved your life," something I have had to think long and hard about for years. In the pit of trial I have often felt quite the opposite. Thankfully, tha t feeling doesn't last too long. Later I thought it particularly remarkable that Kirpal Singh also recognized this shift which I still barely noticed or believed, and also pondered what he m eant by telling everyone that I was a new man . As it wasn't mystical or psychic per se, the words "only a jnani can recognize a jnani" come to mind. Not that I was a jnani, far from it, but that I felt to a small degree initiated onto that path or made privy to some of its secret. This has been my assumption; I am rea dy to admit I interpreted my experience incorrrectly, but it did appear to have a self-verifying quality - once it was pointed out and verified. Reading scripture I found out that the "Old Man" is spoken of alot, as someth ing that has to die, while the "New Man" is one reborn. None of my character had changed, however, or inner pain diminished as yet. I simply saw, in a moment of reality, something profoundly different from the world of mystic India, saints and yoga that I was accustomed to. It was quite ordinary, but forever changed my outlook on things, appreciated even more as the years go by. That morning in th e courtyard I was made a promise. My friend said "IN THIS INCARNATION YOU WILL K NOW ALL TRUTHS." I started to ask, "what do you mean, do you mean intellectually ," etc., and she once again forcefully repeated "IN THIS INCARNATION"... I asked how long it would take and she said, "the rest of your life." It was a magical time and in the heady atmosphere of the sacred place I believed what she said; i t felt like the words just automatically came from her mouth. Whether she was co nveying to me His truth, or just being nice, however, it has gotten me through m any a rough patch since then, of which there have been many. For the real purgat ion was only starting, and is yet to be complete, and in some respects is worse than ever as I write. [Hopefully, the period of my complaining will be over by t he time this is read!] I took her words to be coming from Kirpal Singh, as she s eemed to be speaking for him - calling herself his 'donkey', his messenger, etc. - and when he told everyone I was a new man he gave me a penetrating glance tha

t seemed to say, "yes, it is real, and you are mine now, and yourself as well." Sat Sandesh magazine (August 1973 issue) coincidentally came out that day wit h a Bible passage on the back saying "I no longer speak to you as servants, but as friends." My friend pointedly said that that quote was for me. While gazing a t each other I noticed tears in her eyes. She noticed that I noticed, and withou t my asking said that there was no emotion behind those tears, that it was just the "purification of the ascending force." She also said there was no thinking g oing on when she was talking, giving me an insight into her natural samadhi cond ition at that time. We spoke further of the soul, and gazing out at the world ar ound us she said, "isn't this the Soul?" thus giving me my first glimpse of a no n-dual perspective. As I now write, the following words of Ch'an master Hakuin c ome to mind: "Not knowing how near the Truth is, people seek It far away, -- what a pity!. ..As the eternally quiescent Truth reveals Itself to them, This very earth is th e lotus-land of Purity, And this body - is the body of the Buddha." And the great Huang Po: "People neglect the reality of the 'illusory' world..On no account make a dis tinction between the Absolute and the sentient world...All the visible universe IS the Buddha...Full understanding of this must come before [one] can enter the way." (Wang Ling Record) And the Buddha himself: " All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Wanting nothing With all your heart Stop the stream. When the world dissolves Everything becomes clear. Go beyond This way or that way, To the farther shore Where the world dissolves And everything becomes clear. Beyond this shore And the farther shore, Beyond the beyond, Where there is no beginning, No end." (The Dhammapada) Yet to make this real, for enlightenment to become deep and profound, the mas ters would say that more than a mere "cognitive" shift is required (as some curr ent radical non-dualists at times assert); rather, a complete transformation or surrender has usually been said to be necessary: "When all the desires that surge in the heart Are renounced, the mortal becomes immortal. When all the knots that strangle the heart Are loosened, the mortal becomes immortal, Here in this very life." - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.6-7 Zen Master Ummon made the statement that the first real step along the path o f Zen was to see into our void nature, but that getting rid of our bad karma cam e afterwards. That further work is more easier said than done. It is a delicate matter, and rather a 'specialty' on the path of the Masters. More of this will b e said in Part 2 of this autobiography.

Master Kirpal called me his friend many times during the three months of my b eing beaten into the ground , and how much love he had for me. Of course, I had hardly been in a condition to feel it, or understand his ways. But after this su rprising finale to my stay I became convinced he 'knew' more than he publically taught. Years later, upon reading Irena Tweedie's account of her years of trial with her Master, Bhai Sahib, I was struck by the uncanny similarity between both my e xperiences and hers and the things her Guru said: "Trainings are different...Some are trained according to the System, and it i s a long way. Some are trained according to their liking. Some are trained accor ding to the will of the Guru." "If one chooses the way of the System; if it is done according to the way of the System, then it takes a long time. if one chooses the Way of Love, relativel y, it does not take long. But it is difficult. Life becomes very sad. No joy. Th orns everywhere. This has to be endured. Then all of a sudden there will be flow ers and sunshine. But the hard road has to be crossed first. People will hear on e day that you have been turned out; and not only that, but other things, too. A nd it is not the disciple who chooses which road to take, but the Master." "There are , of complete ire, the path for the few. "

two roads: the road of dhyana, the slow one; and the road of tyaga renunciation, of surrender. This is the direct road, the path of f of love...The path of dhyana is for the many, the path of tyaga is How many would want to sacrifice everything for the sake of Truth?

And what is generally considered the most precious thing on such a path? - ce rtainly meditative sweetness, absorption, samadhi, is it not? Yet Tweedie was to ld: "You will get an experience of dhyana but it is not your path. You are traine d in a different way; your way is the other way; in full consciousness." (4a) All true Satgurus offer these two paths, but only they know which is best for their tested disciples. And in many ways Kirpal had as much of the Sufi in him as that of the Sikh. [We will hear more from Bhai Sahib on the 'Path of Fire' in Part 2]. The last day at the ashram was spent in a bit of a surreal daze. India, gurus , inner experiences, light and sound, all seemed unreal. The scene at the ashram appeared strange and foreign, and still is. As I see it now, years later, becau se the 'me' had started to disintegrate, the reality of all the rest was now in question. Because this was not completely explained yet to the satisfaction of t he mind, however, the tendency to continue the search, although hopeless, was st ill all too firmly in place. At the last darshan, as a group of us filed out, I felt in my self the subtle movement to resume this posture or "form" of a still ignorant seeker who wanted something from the master, and without either of us s aying a word Kirpal reflected this back to me immediately with an impatient, "do n't-you-get-it-yet?" look, which was uncomfortable, but I now see as compassiona te. It was almost as if he were mentally transmitting these words of Hafiz: "What is the difference between your experience of existence and that of a sa int? The saint knows that the spiritual path is a sublime chess game with God an d that the Beloved has just made such a fantastic move that the saint is now con tinually tripping over joy and bursting out in laughter and saying, "I surrender !" Whereas, my dear, I am afraid you still think you have a thousand serious mov es. !"

What the Master had done could very well be explained with these words of ved antist V.S. Iyer: "The Guru begins his work by asking the candidate what knowledge he already h as. Then the sage may sometimes indirectly create a doubt in order to ascertain if a candidate is fit for higher knowledge." In my case, the "doubt-creating question" had been, "do you want something, m y friend? Do you want to leave the body?" If I had answered, "yes," it would hav e been proof that I was not ready for the next step forward, and that the noble experiment of the Master was going down the wrong track and had failed on two co unts: one, I still wanted something, and, two, I wanted to leave the body - and the world - the principle domain where true realization is to be attained, accor ding to many sages - although not according to some - but not all - of Sant Mat doctrine. It would have also been a failure to intuitively acknowledge the truth spoken by the modern Buddhist vipassana master Munindra who said, "If you're no t happy in the body, you're not happy out of the body." The is as true in Sant M at as in any other tradition, but not the carrot-on-a-stick held out for beginne rs. A fuller recognition of that was as yet in the future, however, but I was be ginning to get the point. Thankfully, such failure was not the outcome, although I take no credit for any profound understanding on my part but give all praise to the Guru for his marvelous, kind actions. In a moment of still not accepting the possibility of such a state, however, and still feeling a need to 'do something' about the ongoing mental chatter, I r emembered an earlier exchange where someone had said to Kirpal, "Master, I just can't stop my mind," to which he replied, in a light-hearted but enigmatic way, "well, that is a problem for all of us!" Today, as I write, that led me to think of a saying of Ramana to a disciple, "there is room even when it's crowded," me aning that our natural state is there whether thoughts arise or not. Yet if all is Brahman, that includes thoughts, too, both inner and outer things. Hung-Jen s imilarly remarked: "The triple realm is an empty apparition that is solely the creation ndividual mind. Do not worry if you cannot achieve concentration and do rience the various psychological states. Just constantly maintain clear s of the True Mind in all your actions." - (The Northern School and the n of Early Ch'an Buddhism by John R. McRae 1986)

of the i not expe awarenes Formatio

Huang Po stated: "Our original Buddha-Nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any trace of obje ctivity.... Even if you go through all the stages of a Bodhisattva's progress to ward Buddhahood, one by one, when at last, in a single flash, you attain to full realization, you will only be realizing the Buddha-Nature that has been with yo u all the time; and by all the foregoing stages you will have added to it nothin g at all. You will come to look upon those aeons of work and achievement as no b etter than unreal actions performed in a dream. That is why the Tathagata [the B uddha] said: I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled Enlightenment." (John Blofeld, trans., The Zen Teachings of Huang Po, New York: Grove Press, 195 8, p131) "There is absolutely nothing which can be attained." (Wang Ling Record, p. 12 5) "I assure you that one who comprehends the truth of 'nothing to be attained' is already seated in the sanctuary (bodhimandala) where he will gain his Enlight enment." (Wang Ling Record, p. 128)

Wei Wu Wei (Terence Gray) gave an description of satori that uncannily mirror ed my experience - which wasn't an experience, but more of a shift in 'center of gravity': "Nothing happens to anything, nothing is changed, there is no psycho-somatic event at all; mind is unaffected. It is just the recovery of clear vision. It has no objective existence: it is a purely subje ctive adjustment. It is not phenomenal: it has no direct body-mind impact. It is entirely noumenal: its existence is intemporal, and it does not manifes t phenomenally. It is essentially impersonal - the impersonalisation of a pseudo-individual p syche. It is a looking in the right direction: it is a sudden understanding that the re is no I subject to time." (Ask the Awakened, 2002, p. 174-175) Though such a glimpse can be unfathomably deepened, and many tests lie ahead for us all, I remain convinced that it was this very taste, or "direct transmiss ion from mind to mind", that I had received from Kirpal Singh. He had asked me w hat I wanted, I said "nothing," and he gave me "no-thing" ! It was many years la ter that help came from many sources to confirm, as I felt earlier, that this wa s the 'path moment' called 'Stream-Entry', a point of no-return and radically di fferent from - but not opposed to -samadhis, jhanas, or the fruit of concentrati ve meditation, yet still only a beginning to a radical point of view that, in my understanding, would have to be further stabilized under many conditions over t ime, and brought into both the feeling nature and also the will - the "truth is above all, but higher still is true living" of Guru Nanak. One last gift of prasad (or 'blessed food"), and Kirpal's usual "remain in co ntact," and we parted. But this time there was an irreconciliable quandary. "Rem ain in contact" - with what? The "path", which as such had been taken from me? W ith light and sound, which likewise had been removed? With a physical guru himse lf who would die within a year? Or with the enigmatic presence that was as yet a fragile thing, and which a mountain of karma would throw up doubts and challeng e the acceptance of over many, many years? Indeed, the words "remain in contact" were something I many times wished I had asked clarification of, rather than ac cept as an injunction I could no longer understand. To this day the words bring, if intuition and insight are in the forefront, acceptance; otherwise, pain and anguish present themselves. If I had only had the forthrightness to ask what he meant, whether that meant "remain in contact with the Master Power" (through the succeeding Masters), and what to do when I could not meditate anymore, I might have been saved years of wandering and searching, because my experience, to my l imited understanding, had been so un Sant-Mat-like. There are moments when, like Rumi, I have wandered like a madman searching for my Shamaz Tabriz. Yet perhaps it was best I did not know, I might have botched it, as the years of wandering and searching were useful and heaven-sent for garnering self-knowledge. As the taxi to the airport was late there was time for another brief farewell darshan, and devotee Leon Ponce asked me if I was going to go and say good-bye again, and I think that I then said the first spontaneous thing I ever had in my life, which was simply, "no, once is enough." He looked at me like I was from M ars. It doesn't sound like much, but at the time this was a little remarkable to me, as the experience of not thinking or judging the correctness of my thoughts before saying something was quite new, as was the absence of motivation to rush to "get more grace" from the Master. [That was then. If it was today, I would g o back one more time.] A little story of Rinzai, however, comes to mind: "When Rinzai (Lin-chi) was meekly submitting to the thirty blows of Obaku (Hu ang-po), he presented a pitiable sight, but as soon as he had attained satori he was quite a different personage. His first exclamation was, "There is not much

after all in the Buddhism of Obaku." (The Gospel According to Zen, 1970, p. 41) This is a common way of speaking in the Zen tradition. I feel it adds a neces sary dimension to appreciating the depths of the spirituality of Kirpal, but tha t he was even more complete than that. Wei Wu Wei, speaking of the manner of the Ch'an masters and sages like Ramana , similarly wrote: "Those who were qualified to teach, those few, like the Maharshi, said that s ilence was more efficacious, but in the early stages teaching can only be given via a series of untruths diminishing in veracity in ratio to the pupil's apprehe nsion of the falsity of what he is being taught."..Truth cannot be communicated; it can only be laid bare....the masters never explained anything, knowing that it was essential that the understanding should come from within and not from wit hout." (Ask the Awakened, 2002, p. 23, 85) [Interestingly, while on the subject of Zen, I later came to find out that Pa ul Repps, author of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, had become an initiate of Kirpal.] Kirpal never explained anything to me, and repeatedly asked me questions for which any answers were usually cast aside as inept; he made spectacular play aft er play for which I had no counter-move or retreat, what a wonder, what a great Master! The next day I was on a plane for New York, 24 years old, shell shocked and n ot knowing exactly what happened, but knew something was not the same, nor would ever be the same. But the mind needed a long time to digest what had happened. This was for the most part before the advent and proliferation of the current cr op of non-dualists and the teachings of no-seeking, abandoning the search, etc., so I felt quite on my own. As I said, Kirpal left me with his usual fairwell wo rds, "remain in contact," as mentioned before, but that was the last thing that I felt I had anymore, meditation was dead, and I didn't know what he meant, at t he level of the mind in any way - except to remain held by the enigmatic no-thin g-ness that presented itself to my consciousness - and I was to be in a real sen se without the consolation of a spiritual "home" or sangat apart from that since then, and never had a chance to get further explanation from Him. This was no d oubt a goad to true self-understanding. Disciples of Sant Mat uninitiated into s uch a path may not understand what I am saying, nor do I feel overly compelled t o speak about it. It would make no sense to most, and I am not yet 'done', but a work in process. I still have doubts, but within an undercurrent of trust in Be ing, interspersed with many moments of 'unknowing certainty'. This had never bee n there in my former days as a seeker. Among Kirpal's last words to me were "convey my love to your parents," and, " do you need any money?" The first statement conveyed a task I as yet had no inkl ing of its difficult and profound nature, given that I had been raised in a dysf unctional family and bore the wounds of a neurotic upbringing, being especially emotional distanced from my father for quite some time, and which I will speak d irectly as to how I tried to heal the wounds with him later, while the latter so unded strangely like a mirroring of something my father might in his own manner of true solicitude might have said to me. Imagine, Him asking me if I needed som e money! Strange indeed, yet refreshing in light of the many scandalous and self -aggrandizing reports about gurus that we have seen. In the meantime, I had my h ands full just becoming re-acquainted and comfortable with my body. The Years Pass "Do not question me about the grief of fruitless waiting; That is a long stor

y, not simple in telling." - Sant Darshan Singh When I first got home, I began to notice that the old familiar places: the ne ighborhood streets, ponds, and streams, the maple tree outside my bedroom window I had literally grown up with, our house, were not the same as they were. They were, but yet they weren't. They lacked the quality of home they used to have, a nd in fact lacked any real identifying quality at all. I felt like a stranger in a strange land, which I spent weeks getting used to. I certain level of my 'sel f' that I had invested in all of them was gone. It was 'empty' in a way, but int eresting - certainly not boring. Without going into too much more detail on thes e perceptual changes, however, I will say that after my return to the States I b egan what subjectively was experienced as a long and even more terrifying and de pressing descent back into my body and world. The sense of being drained spiritu ally continued for years, at times beyond belief, immense inner exhaustion with no outward reason, and after a relatively short time, perhaps a couple of years, amidst disbelief, I gave up trying to meditate formally for good, surrendering to the unknown process that was taking over what seemed like the remnants of wha t was left of my 'spiritual' life, the mind slowly dying to its attempts to resu rrect the path as it had known it. Within just a few months of my return, the se nse of normal support for my breathing mechanism were even undermined, and a new difficult struggle began. Merely sitting comfortably was impossible. The nature of my sleep changed also. The sense of going inside at all at night gradually w as eliminated, and externalization became more profound. My soul felt literally like a glove that had been turned inside out. It was also as if I had been throw n back to what I had been since birth, with the unhealed effects of all its atte ndant psychic wounds intact, but without even any natural spiritual capacity rem aining to distance myself from them, and this would become the battleground in t he years to come. Or perhaps it was simply unloosed suffering for its own divine purpose. I know for sure that if the six-month initial period of this in 1973 alone ha d been concentrated into just a few days I would not have hesitated to jump off a bridge outright, the shock and pain would have been so unbearable. Which is pe rhaps a hidden reason why the Master had with an apparent-to-the-ego harshness c ompared me with the other man at the ashram: a deep-seated tendency to hate the body, indeed, to having been born, was being brought out to be eradicated or pur ified. One can only guess about such things, but that is how it has seemed at ti mes. In any case, the unconscious was to become conscious, and not merely left b ehind by a celestial yoga. This was not my choice. I was deeply 'rotting', and a s one contemporary teacher has said, 'no one choses to rot, the rot chooses you. ' Perhaps even the Masters do not ultimately have the ability to 'cause' - or 'p revent'- such a thing, but only be the chosen agent in their capacity as God in ones Soul or very Being. Which is why I have wondered if successive masters in t his lineage have understood what I represent as a case the few times I have appr oached them for advice or confirmation. How can they and why should they know? T his kind of change is virtually invisible. Admonitions to just 'keep the diary' and 'meditate' fall, not merely on deaf ears, but on a mute and uncomprehending countenance. Kirpal himself had said: "Wonderful are the ways in which a true saint tests those who come to them." Indeed. And Sant Darshan Singh wrote: "Once we come to a Master, where is the question of losing faith? Remember he has taken a vow never to leave or forsake us until he has taken us to our etern al Home. But we should also realize that we must go through the stage when we fe el abandoned, when we feel that the Master has deserted us. This is one of the f

eatures of the path of mystic love. We must go through this stage without a grum ble on our lips, for this stage is in reality a gift from the Master himself to help us grow. Ultimately, it is for our benefit, for our own salvation. There is a divine purpose behind everything the Master does. We may have to spend a life time of tears to get his love. We cannot demand the gift supreme from our belove d. The gift descends at the appointed hour...In order to make something of great value and beauty of the lovers, the Beloved sometimes shakes up the hearts. Not all the lovers can withstand it. Many hearts become crushed and broken in this process. But those who are able to submit to the Beloved's shake-up, and who sur render to it, are not broken - instead they come out whole and give forth the sw eetest taste. Such lovers who have surrendered to the Beloved's treatment, be it gentle or vigorous, are the most fortunate." (from Spiritual Awakening) Whether such a process of mining the depths of the psyche is necessary for al l I do not know. The Buddha, however, suggested that in some form such was the c ase: If its root remains undamaged and strong, a tree, even if cut, will grow back . So too if latent craving is not rooted out, this suffering returns again and a gain. (Dhammapadda, 338) Likewise, C. G. Jung stated: "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." Why does it often seem that troubles and tribulations follow our pleas for he lp? It has been said that it is precisely because we have asked for speedier dev elopment. Negative karmas as such of lifetimes arise to be purified, which is tr uly a 'reward-punishment' as Judith had said. But there is also a positive purpo se invoked, if one knowingly or unknowingly has offered himself in service, whic h, if accepted, may require several lifetimes of preparation - lifetimes which m ay come under 'compression'. It is not that over the succeeding thirty years there were no experiences of note. On several occasions the knot at the heart was loosened, and without leavi ng the body , the body-mind itself seemed to expand to take up the space of its environs, and conscious lovingly engulfing me without the dilemma of personhood. This was much different than the ajna chakra or 'third eye' and spinal line exp eriences I had under shabd yoga, before my grace-enduced "calamity" with Kirpal Singh put an end to those. These later experiences were spontaneous gifts and no t the result of any effort or intention. But most of the time the sense of enclo sure, albeit with a hole in the head still there, remained the case, as if there was still work to be done here. Sense desires long ago left behind came back with a vengeance, and it took a number of years for that to mellow out, to put it mildly. And there was a real b attle. It was as if my suppressed body craved deep in its cells what it had deni ed itself and what had been replaced by spiritual comfort but which now was no m ore. I learned what real physical need was, likely the degree of touch an infant needs in the first few days of his life, like water to a man dying of thirst in the desert. I wanted - needed - the juice of life. There were years of intense pain. Aside from that, every attempt I made to resurrect or reconnect with the path as I had known it met with total failure. I wish I could tell you that the road was smooth. It wasn't. I had many a temper tantrum where I threw down my book c ases and ripped up the Master's books - in fact, many of my spiritual books (mos t of which I bought back later!) - and photos, too, in frustrated despair. In my heart I remained a devotee, but to all outward appearances often I was not. Thi

s, I believe, is not an uncommon way of relating between a child and his parents , when trust is not completely undermined. I felt freedom to act like this at ti mes, for I knew that my master did not - could not - hate me for it. Fortunately , I received guidance, consolation and some confirmation of my dilemma over this in the writings of the eighteenth-century mystic Jean-Pierre deCaussade: "For the soul that desires nothing else but the will of God, what could be mo re miserable than the impossibility of being certain of loving Him? Formerly it was mentally enlightened to perceive in what consisted the plan for its perfecti on, but it is no longer able to do so in its present state...God and His grace a re given in a hidden and strange manner, for the soul feels too weak to bear the weight of its crosses, and disgusted with its obligations...The ideal it has fo rmed of sanctity reproaches it interiorly for its mean and contemptible disposit ion. All books treating of the lives of the saints condemn it, it can find nothi ng in vindication of its conduct; it beholds a brilliant sanctity which renders it disconsolate because it has not strength sufficient to attain it, and it does not see that its weakness is divinely ordered, but looks upon it as cowardice.. ..This is, without a doubt, a death-blow to the soul, for it loses sight of the divine will which, so to speak, withdraws itself from observation to stand behin d it and push it on, becoming thus its invisible principle, and no longer its cl early defined object..." "This soul has made its way, like others, at the beginning; like them it knew what to do, and did it faithfully; it would be vain now to attempt to keep it b ound to the same practices. Since God, moved by the efforts it has made to advan ce with these helps, has taken Himself to lead it to this happy union, from the time it arrived at the state of abandonment, and by love possessed God; in fine, from the time that the God of all goodness, relieving it of all its trouble and industry, made Himself the principle of its operation, these first methods lost all their value and were but the road it had traversed. To insist upon these me thods being resumed and constantly followed, would be to make the soul forsake t he end at which it had arrived to re-enter the way which led to it." (Abandonmen t to Divine Providence, Chapter III, Section I, IV) Or as Rumi said: "This affliction is not because you are despised. When you were green and fre sh, you were watered in the garden; that watering was for the sake of this fire. " (The Pocket Rumi, p. 161) Even meditation made me more extroverted, impossible as that may seem to be, whether in a successor Master's company or not. Here it was that I had never com pleted the course of inner meditation and succeeded in experiencing what the the osophical classic The Voice of the Silence described as the "voidness of the see ming full" (i.e., the spiritual realm), but now I was being forced into the "ful lness of the seeming void!" (i.e., the world). Fortunately, this kind of thing is not unheard of. A similar process seems to have been described as "embodiment" by contemporary non-dual teacher Adyashanti , although he has since made clear to avoid any confusion that this itself is no t something a "me" can do, and that, in fact, the re-assumption of identificatio n with a me will stop such a process: "After sudden Awakening to the Self, there begins a process of gradual embodi ment of the transcendental into the human personality...This process of embodime nt is a continual stripping away of every remnant of attachment and ego. It is a movement of continual surrender to the vast implications contained within true spiritual Awakening. It is a phase of spiritual unfolding fraught with many dang ers, self-deceptions, and misunderstandings....As the opening progresses, the bo dy must readjust. When space opens up, it provides room for the body to re-harmo

nize and to return to its natural state. During this process, some people's bodi es experience a real shake-down. This can be quite dramatic because energy that has been trapped on the various levels - physical, mental, emotional, and spirit ual - is released. This trapped energy is what keeps you off-balance and in a st ate of suffering...This energy has to break loose before it can re-harmonize and get into the proper flow. This bursting out can feel exhilarating or terrible; it can be tremendously powerful or mild. The harmonization may take weeks, month s, or years. It may be very strong or imperceptible. Everyone is different; it j ust depends on how out-of-whack you've been...Having a profound awakening can be like taking the lid off of a jar. All the karma that has been repressed, all th e karma at the bottom of our misery that we aren't conscious of, comes flying ou t because there is finally space in which it can emerge. When it hits you in the face, you wonder where your Freedom went and what went wrong. But understand th at this is a consequence of the Freedom; it is not a mistake. Everything wants t o come up into and be transformed by the Freedom. If you let it come up into thi s Aware Space, which is Love, it will re-harmonize." He further writes, on what has become known as 'spiritual bypass': "You Are Life Itself. If you want to be free, you cannot hide from anything. Many spiritual seekers are using spiritual practices as a means to avoid many as pects of themselves. The problem with this is that as long as you are avoiding a nything, you are not living in truth. You are avoiding truth. No one ever became enlightened by avoiding truth. If you want to be free, then you must face yours elf and face your life as it is. Do not use spirituality or spiritual experience as something to hide behind. As long as you are avoiding parts of yourself, or life in general, then even very profound spiritual experiences and revelations w ill have very little permanent effect on you. Do not simply seek to transcend li fe, but realize that you are all of Life. You are Life itself." (5) Adyashanti has since spoken of, in words very similar to those of Primal ther apy pioneer Arthur Janov, and other body-oriented psychotherapies, of the need f or one's insight to penetrate the many layers of somatic 'imprinting' to make an y enlightenment last, that is, to make it 'stick'. In my opinion, he sometimes u nderestimates or downplays how long that can actually take, which well might be an entire lifetime, or more, depending on how deep grace wants to take you in yo ur realization. If one digs carefully enough, one will find something of this me ntioned in most great spiritual traditions, even seemingly purely mystical ones, in spite of any 'carrot' that they might dangle in front of beginners to keep t hem interested in simply enduring the ordeal of practice. This is furthered clarified by the writing of neo-Gurdjieffian, E.J. Gold: "In our little glimpses of the awakened state, because they are only glimpses , and therefore momentary and incomplete, we should remember that our experience s of these states are imperfect...Secondly, we should realize that, because the machine [physical and emotional bodies] was not fully awake during these glimpse s of awakening, the machine still exerted its will, and because the machine was not fully awake, and vestigial traces of the sleeping state remained somewhat ac tive to a greater or lesser degree, we inevitably experienced some discomfort wh ich would not be a part of a complete waking state."(6) This confirms that the proccess of awakening may first take place in the head , and only later descend and infiltrate the heart or the emotional body. This pa rt may be far more difficult and painful due to all the knots we tend to carry i n that area. Even so, we can see how different all this is from the conventional description of the path in Sant Mat. The Sants yearn for the soul to ascend and reach Sach Khand and merge therein; the sages, on the other hand, say they no l onger have a separate self to care about any such thing, and also sometimes spea k of a "downward" practice whereby the enlightened state penetrates deeper into

the life vehicle. I feel both goals may be our final destiny, yet mysteries and paradoxes abound, which I spent years grappling with, and I remain in a cloud of unknowing even today. Which isn't as bad as it may sound. It is relieving, real ly. "When you ain't got nothing, you've got nothing to lose." Nevertheless, I have sometimes pondered how useful such information and guida nce might have been in those early years. But everything is at it should be. Per haps the "me", the ego would have corrupted such knowledge to delay its own demi se. Most likely it would. God knows what is best. What is certain is that the re sult of a heartfelt prayer is profound. "Never be too proud to pray," Anthony Da miani once said. But if the higher Self takes you at your word, be prepared. Eve n Adyashanti spoke of going through a period where his Zen practice was in essen ce reduced to nothing but a constant prayer to a God he didn't even believe in, saying, "I can't do it, speed this process up, as fast as you can, whatever it t akes, make me an instrument of thy will." Doubting his motives, he asked his t eacher about his condition and received the reply, "no, such a prayer is the pra yer of the buddha, it's o.k." I found a great description of the process leading up to that moment in the c ourtyard, as well as the many years afterwards, in a little-known gem of a book, which I highly recommend, called Do You See What I See? by Jah Jae Noh (Edwin S mith): "How, then, does the student finally come to truth? Since everything a studen t does is unconsciously aimed at avoiding truth, it is only through constant con frontation with truth that the student finally understands, accepts. In effect, truth simply outlasts the student. No matter what the student tries to do, truth keeps on coming at him until he finally wears out and surrenders. But this proc ess obviously requires that the student persists. It requires that the student b e dedicated, sincere...Since everything he does only avoids truth, he surrenders to That Which Is, Reality, Truth, God. He allows himself to be done by Reality. His activity is to not inhibit the process of Truth..He does all this in the fa ith that it is alright.....Among sincere students, any method will serve to prom ote spiritual realization. Among the insincere no method will serve. Thus, metho dology is irrelevant to realization. Methods are illusory, serving only to pacif y and gratify the mind. That which accounts for the realization of some and not others is readiness. Readiness is the activity of surrendering at each moment to the flow of guidance, until that form appropriate for realization is presented. ...It is the dedication and sincerity of the individual which acounts for even t he possibility of realization..All methods are merely activities performed while waiting for divine presence to make itself known to you." (7 ) Not only was it impossible to go back to the old way of following the path, b ut my growing understanding was saying that it would, in fact, be wrong and frui tless to do so. The genie was out of the bottle, and there would be no point in trying to stuff it back in. This may well be the case for others also at a parti cular point on their journey. As Paul Brunton wrote: "The philosophic approach does not limit the seeker rigidly to a single speci fic technique. While it asks him to follow the basic path and fulfill the fundam ental requirements which all beginners must follow, it also points out that this is only general preparation. A point is reached when he is ready for more advan ced work, and when the personal characteristics and circumstances which are part icularly his own must be brought in for adjustment if he is to receive the great est benefit. No two seekers and the surrounding conditions are ever exactly alik e and, at a certain stage, what is helpful to one will be time-wasting to anothe r." "It is a common error, among the pious and even the mystics, to believe that one path alone - theirs - is the best. This may be quite correct in the case of

each person, but it may not necessarily be correct for others, and then it is on ly correct for a period or at most a number of lifetimes." "Each man's path is his unique one, with its own experiences. Some are shared in common with all other seekers but others are not; they remain peculiar to hi mself. Therefore a part - whether large or small - of what he has to do cannot b e prescribed by another person, be he guru or not. In the groups, organizations, schools, there is too much rigidity in the instruction, the rules, and the expe ctancy aroused of what should happen at each stage." "There is a way suited to the particular individuality of each separate perso n, which will bring out all his spiritual possibilities as no other way could." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 5.198-203, 218) After this I greatly expanded my study of the traditions as well as reading e verything new that I could, which became a consuming passion, spent time with ot her teachers, not so much searching for another guru, as in any case none I foun d came close to what I saw in Kirpal, but for deriving benefit wherever I might find it, much as in the tradition of disciples of the Ch'an Masters of old or Ti betan Buddhists who wandered about, in attempting to more fully understand and t est their experience, condition and practice. My confidant had said to me that I would need another guru, and while I took that with a grain of salt, it stayed in my head and I thought of it from time to time. I eventually was to spend seve n years in the community of Adi Da (aka Da Free John), from 1984-1991, attracted at first by his teaching of "radical understanding" in The Knee of Listening an d The Method of the Siddhas, which I came upon soon after arriving back in the S tates in 1973, and much of which seemed to mirror my own experience, particularl y his talks on the guru undermining the disciple, and the contrasting models of spiritual growth of the 'ladder' versus the 'dropping out the bottom of the buck et.' It seemed to propmise a free-flowing investigation of the truth based on wh at appeared to be genuine wisdom teaching that reconciled many divergent dharmas . I had sensed that he might be that "other guru" that my friend had said I woul d need, and did receive several heart - and body/mind - expanding experiences, b ut finally left for several basic reasons: one, a growing sense of needing space to find my own way; two, a glaring discrepancy between the brilliant written te aching and the sociopathic and even criminal actual goings on within the inner c ircle of the guru to which I was fortunately never willing to do what was requir ed to get involved with, and never even knew about that much until after I had l eft; and three, a feeling that there was still a heart connection with Kirpal. D o not misunderstand me, it is not that I ever felt that I had left Him. That not ion was not really possible anymore. I just didn't practice shabd yoga anymore, although not because a part of me (but only a part) didn t want to, but mostly bec ause I simply could not, and also felt my awakening process, at least for a time , proceeding in another dimension. I had gone to Adi Da because it seemed right for me at the time, and the furt her working of grace on my path. One disciple of his had even claimed as early a s 1975 that he had a vision on the grounds of their sanctuary in northern Califo rnia in which Kirpal had appeared and said that "He liked the vibrations of the place." This person supposedly had never even seen a picture of Kirpal before th at time, which I took as a good sign about my decision, and that I was on the ri ght path. I was in a bit of a dilemma, to a degree, because the successor gurus to Kirpal appeared and were still teaching Sant Mat, and I would not outright in validate them nor reject them in my heart, although I had little interest in app roaching them, as for as far as I was concerned, grace was leading me in another direction, whereabouts unknown, but certain.. But as far as Adi Da was concerne d, I eventually, like many others, felt that changes in his teaching and charact er made it impossible for me or others to freely pursue the same 'radical path o f understanding' that he himself had undergone, and which had initially drawn me to associate with him. I also felt little attraction to the guru-devotional cul

t that arose in his teaching work, and in fact one day found myself throwing wit h full force a heavy paperweight at his murti photo, smashing it to bits, in fru stration at not being able to do such a practice. That was the beginning of conf irmation that this was not my path! More importantly, however, the changes in hi s character also drove home to me the biblical phrase that, "Lucifer masquerades as an angel of light," and "Satan can deceive even the elect - if such were pos sible." There is much that I do not wish to discuss here regarding that, but I w ill simply say that while I do not entirely regret my time there, that was then, this was now; much had changed, and it was time to move on. One thing I will ma ke clear, however, is that I did not leave in any way because of a loss of hope, but rather a fundamental lack of trust in and agreement with many fundamentals of his teaching and person. In fact, when I left I immediately felt a surge of h ope, although I will admit that for a few weeks I found some comfort hanging out in a Christian bookstore - mainly because it felt peaceful and they didn't both er me or ask me if I believed in what they did believed in. I asked no questions , and neither did they. I stopped going there, however, when they called me up o ne week and asked if I would help them drag a cross around town on Easter Sunday ! Meanwhile, I had two careers: computer programming, then chiropractic; got ma rried at age forty; raised three step-children, somehow without forethought grad ually took up ultra-mountain-marathoning at age fifty, etc., basically trying to live a normal life, while dealing with a paradoxical demolition from within...I t has been an interesting thirty-five years, filled with mistakes, humiliations, revelations of ego, attempts at healing (including three bouts of primal-type t herapy, at ages 28, 34, and 58, with mixed results, because inevitably at some p oint due to my spiritual background I would "wake up" out of therapy [not that t he subtle shift I had enjoyed at Sawan Ashram ever left, but as I now see it, it had to be further clarified over time]; I would really wake up and "see" that t here was nothing wrong, usually drawing a negative response from the therapist! There was a tussle in my mind about all of this because I (and many others quite commonly) associate having deep pain arise mean I was doing or had done somethi ng wrong, or that someone else - my parents - had, rather than seeing that it wa s the very fact of my awakening to consciousness that allowed such processes to occur and deepen, with all the doubts and confusion as being O.K., and just part of being human). So, successes, failures, adventures, fulfillments, heartaches, simple pleasures, agonizing pain, occasional blisses, bitter aridities, a sense of incarnating deeper and deeper into the World, with mysticism a long ago drea m, was my experience, but all punctuated and even interrupted with a sense of fr eedom, clear seeing and conscious awakening as well. At times the witness-consci ousness would more dramatically arise, affording a great relief, and being cente red somewhere behind my head. I would feel my body and mind arising to conscious ness. At other times a much deeper experience would shine forth, creating a smil e so wide it could not be wiped off my face, and tears of joy would appear. It w as as if my Being was pressed forward into the world, and I didn't have an 'insi de' anymore. The distance between myself and things and others would be greatly decreased. These more intense forms of experience were not common, but, to say t he least, it made it hard to explain to any therapist exactly where I was at or what I was feeling from moment to moment! These experiences were a different dim ension from anything mystical I had long earlier experienced, and they would occ ur in the most incongruous places: sitting in the classroom at chiropractic scho ol, with the body expanding and the room about to dissolve, in my security guard booth at night, while sitting in my car at lunch, even while sitting on the Joh n! This went on for a period of about a year while I was in chiropractic school, then stopped, to only intermittently happen randomly in the years I was in Adi Da's community. Then they stopped entirely for about fifteen years. That was not heartbreaking, because by this time I knew that, enjoyable as they were, they w ere still only experiences occuring to a 'me'. What was already the case, what w as already me before, during, and after the experiences was much more important to know.

Carrying out the Master s words I wish to backtrack a little at this point and relate what I promised to disc uss earlier, which was how I tried to fulfil Kirpal s dictum to me to , convey my l ove to your parents. First off, his love in full was impossible to convey, as he wa s a Master, not I. But I also soon learned that, even doing the best I could, th is was a most difficult and painful assignment. First, love takes many forms and is an art to learn, and, second, others have to be receptive to what you most w ant to give them. Yes, I now had more inner freedom to bare with the triggering that close contact with old scenarios (like my father's gruffness, putting me do wn, and so on) would bring up, and I could flow with the punches, especially as he began to show obvious signs of aging, and I was also now the bigger person in some ways. But it was extremely difficult. My mother, bless her heart, always s upported me, but, in retrospect, even in relationship to her I woefully failed t o live up to Kirpal s words by simply not visiting nearly often enough, although I lived very close, until 1979 when I moved to California after they had moved fr om New York to retire in Florida. I was just still too much into myself to succe ed at loving, struggling to live out my life getting a job, having relationships , suffering their loss, while simply trying to be nicer and more understanding w hen I did visit home. Much earlier, before I had gone to India, I once took my mother to meet the M aster. She was receptive to whatever I asked of her. It must have seemed a stran ge scene, I am sure. We walked into a meditation sitting in a dark room in New Y ork City, and when the lights came on Kirpal asked for a show of hands as he oft en did, asking who saw what in meditation: the Sun, the Moon, the Big Star, who crossed the Big Star, golden light, white light, the Master s Radiant form, etc.. I thought my mother must have felt it was very weird. When the Master got up to leave, however, he walked right by her and I noticed my mother gazing at him, al most shocked. Well, this was long forgotten until many years later when my Aunt Ruth mentioned to me that my mother was very impressed with Him - something she ha d never told me. So one never knows what the impact of a saint will be. It was s aid that a single glance of Baba Sawan Singh from a moving train was enough to t ransform a complete stranger forever. These Masters have said that a disciple s re latives for seven generations, past and future, are graced, and when my mother d ied in 1995 I was right there, with my hand on her heart and forehead as I sense d her life currents leaving, and I believed inside that the Master was helping h er transition. She had been conscious until I arrived at her side, my sister and niece saying that she had been waiting for me, her baby boy. Then she lapsed in to a semi-comatose state while I tried to invoke and remember the Master s presenc e. I was remarkably composed, yet sad, but was only capable of crying for real y ears later. My father, on the other hand, after reading one of the Master s books, simply s aid, it sounds like a form of hypnotism to me. And when I got home from India he s aid that he thought I had thrown away everything by doing so. So I never pressed the issue further with him. Once I got a gainful job he settled down and was ok ay. I tried to just be with him at his own level, not trying to change him or de lve into the past or discuss anything spiritual or related to feelings either. It was just too much to ask of him. He was what he was, due to his past, and was no t going to change. So it was a lesson in love just to do that much. But I still felt like I was failing at my guru s request. When I did decide to abandon my comp uter career and go to chiropractic school, I asked my father if he could help me . He was very nice and immediately offered me $10,000. At that time this was eno ugh to cover tuition for four years, and I was moved by his kind gesture. He did care about me and also felt it would be a good profession, too. Then I hugged h im for the first time in my whole life. This was some kind of achievement, as on e of my girl friends had described my father as being Archie Bunker. Even my broth er-in-law told me that he was just a hard man to talk to.

The fact was, as I came to realize, he was very lonely. I think maybe he wasn t listened to as a kid enough. His own father, who as grandfather to me was wonde rful, as grandfathers often are, gave him the name, L.G. Holleran, Jr., and that , I was soon to find out, was something he could never quite live with. I had di scovered this actually when I was sixteen, and we were at the dinner table when my father, a periodic alcoholic, was drunk. Just the two of us were there. He wa s talking, confiding in me (the kid, not the adult) about his father. He said, t humping his fist on the table, with muzzled anger and despair, I was glad when he died, because he called me Junior , and I could never live up to it. His father was a self-made man whose own father was the town drunk in a little village in upst ate New York, and he had to work hard to support his family while also putting h imself through college. He eventually became well-known, head of the New York Ci ty Society of Engineers and in charge of building what at the time was the groun d-breaking designed Bronx River Parkway. He died, in agony, in a hospital becaus e of a bad heart, not being able to take it when he heard that his son, my dad, was also in the hospital - drying out with the DT s - and he exclaimed, oh no, not my son! So I felt bad for my father when he told me these things, but he was supp osed to be the adult listening to me and my problems, not the other way around. The next day I mentioned this to my mother and she said, what he said is not true at all. He called his dad his rock , and at the funeral they had to hold him up be cause he was in so much grief. So my father told a truth about his feelings about his Dad, but not the truth. He loved him dearly, but carried unfelt wounds. The full impact of his pain didn t hit me until years later when I was more capable o f feeling my own. That s how it works. One s own pain always comes first. You can tr y to be a boddhisattva, and should, but in reality you can only but try until fr ee from the bulk of your own inherited woundedness. Kirpal would often say to pe ople, "how long are you going to keep this pain within you?" In the Gospel of Th omas, Jesus said almost the same words, "If you do not bring out that which is w ithin you, that which is within you will destroy you." I knew after five years as a computer programmer I needed a change as that fi eld was just not my interest or compatible with who i was and which was making i t self felt more pressingly as the years went by. I could not hide from myself a nd my destiny or gifts to the world any longer. I had obtained a history teachin g degree as well as phiosophy degree at Cornell, but, being the highly politiciz ed Vietnam era, there were no high school social studies teaching positions avai lable when I got out of college, so, after the trip to India, and a year of subs titute teaching on a short-term basis at local schools, which was a disaster as any teacher could tell you (kids always giving you the 'business', as I had done in my own time!), I went to a headhunter in 1974 and asked him to find me some other kind of job. He said, here is a good one: computer programming for the Burr ough s company. I said, that sounds good - what s computer programming?! At the time th ey would hire you off the street without any computer background and train you t hemselves. But as a relief from the stress of substitute teaching, always being the brunt of student s pranks and non-cooperation, I was grateful to just settle i nto a simpler, but boring routine. Until, however, I could no longer stand it. I didn't like wearing a tie and working in a building with no windows. Plus it wa sn't my thing. I was thinking to myself, "if I can only hang on for two more yea rs I can save up $20,000 and buy a farm in Vermont and live a hippie life." But I couldn't wait that long, as the stars were pressuring me onwards. When my Satu rn return hit at age 29 I made a quick decision to fly to California and start a new life, going back to school and also hoping to take up with a lady I had met in a health store when I had been sent out there on training with Hewlett Packa rd after I had left Burrough s. I held a garage sale within a week of quitting my job, sold my car on the way to the airport, and was soon back in California to s tay. When I got out there, it figures, the girlfriend promptly dumped me for som e more exciting guy and I was suddenly alone in a new place, starting from scrat ch. School was a good experience, I met many nice people, but had a limited soci al life because I worked nights as a security guard where I could study on the j

ob to make ends meet and come out of school debt-free. I met friends, but would be lying if I didn't say I was often lonely. The important thing I want to share now was how I attempted, even at this lat e date, to get closer to my father, still remembering what Kirpal Singh had said to me. You see, a true Master s words burn deep, and you can never forget them. S o I felt I had some work to do. I called my dad once and said how I loved him an d wanted to (somehow) spend more time with him. I was now thirty. He just said, n o, no, those days are gone,and I just wish you all the best in life. The tears we re streaming down my face as I heard his words and the weight of my past came tu mbling back as if it were just yesterday. But I still wanted MORE, both from him and from me. So I thought of a plan, which I will divulge shortly. It took me a long time and what I now recognize as the fundamental qualites o f intention and courage, however meager they were in my case, to finally 'know' and 'heal' the wounds with my father. They still aren't healed, on my part, but at least they aren't crippling like they were. I live much more in the present, and can see when I am afraid of confrontation, put myself down, feel worthless, and so on. But, it took a long time the revelation of hidden content to surface and be integrated with the consciousness that had begun to come alive as me. Som e spiritual types, such as those of the advaitic persuasion, will say, 'why both er doing any of that?' All I can say is that something within told me I needed t o in order to 'be real'. Anger and rage were hard to get to, grief for me was easier. But for years th ey were more like crocodile tears, and my first therapy intensive was not very f ruitful, given the high hopes I had after reading The Primal Scream in 1975. I w as just too shut down to feel anything bodily. I found I had to get out there an d live, as best I could, and let the world teach me what I was and what was in m e. To give an example. When I was twenty-five, more vulnerable to my true feelin gs after my final encounter with Kirpal, but still pretty poorly wired, if I wen t into a Hallmark card store and look at Mother's or Father's Day cards I would have to leave because the emotion that welled up was too much. I felt like a pho ny for sending a card that said, "Love" when I really felt "I still need you" in the case of my mother, and a "F--k you, you bastard, why didn't you love me?!" overlay on a deeper "I need you, too" in the case of my father. In reality, he d id the best he could, given the circumstances of his life: a tough father, strug gling through the Great Depression years, serving overseas in WWII, where he had learned to smoke and drink, and it was my problem at that point to turn the tab les and love him as best as I could. Years later the insight came to me that my deeper wound was not that of not receiving enough love, but being frustrated tha t no one wanted what I came here to give them. In any case, I might say that I d id as best as I could, but in retrospective often feel I failed. But I don't dwe ll on it too much any more. We only all do the best we can with what we have, a fter all. I was not a saint, and could no way live up to the great and sacrifici al way my Master showed love to everyone and everything: his own family, almost from birth, as well as strangers whom he served in hospitals as well as on the s treets during the flu epidemic of 1918 when few would touch the dead bodies, and later fearlessly amongst bitter enemies during the tragic time of the partition of India in 1947. Such grandious capacity was not my given task. I was to attem pt to heal wounds within my immediate family and within my own heart. After college a second time at age thirty-four, I was stronger, more vulnerab le, and I did another primal intensive, which was more productive, but still not fireworks (I can see now how in spite of an attempt at healing I was still tryi ng NOT to feel my essential loneliness). It was not until much later in life tha t key feelings of brokenness began to surface in a powerful way, without my direct ly digging for them. In fact I came to understand that simply getting out there and living in a hard world (to a sensitive quadruple Pisces) would be key to hea ling any wounds that in the security of a therapy room, for me anyway, had refus

ed to surface. At one point during chiropractic school, I felt like trying find a way to nu rture that love for both my father and I again. Our first few years together wer e sweet, then he took to drink; my sister left the house at eighteen because of abuse, she was nine years older than me, and, along with my mother, my chief prot ector . My father never hurt me physically, but did belittle me too often and stuf fed my creativity and self-expression. I grew afraid of the nice warm daddy who took me places, played catch, talked kindly, and whose lap I enjoyed crawling in to at age five to have him cut my toenails. So I decided to learn to play chess, because that was one of his passions. We used to play when I was a kid, but this time I purposely got books by the great masters and studied really how to do it right. I went out of my way, without gr eat hopes of regaining my lost childhood, but of maybe healing a part of it. I c an't say I got that good at the game, but I was excited to have something to sha re with him. After all, he was getting old and frail. I visited them, not with overblown hopes but with interest and some enthusiasm. So, we had a game. Sorry to say, halfway through the game in his usual gruff way (he, too, like me, had a Scorpio affliction - Moon square Pluto - in his chart, and also grew up with a due-to-life-circumstances tough Scorpio father as well) at one point he said, "N o! That's the wrong move. What's the matter with you?!" Nothing major, right? Y et, I just popped. I was older now, thirty-five, and could talk back. I snapped and said with an increasingly louder voice, "The only thing wrong with me is tha t you have been saying that to me for thirty years and I am SICK OF IT!!" He qui etly stood up, said, "the game is over," and walked off into his room. I, being the bigger person at the time, so I thought, immediately was stung to the core, but also felt anger, and shame at what I said - my feeling was that he didn't kn ow any better, while I did (neither of which were really the truth but my projec tion and self-judgement) - and I felt I had to do something. So I followed him i nto his room and calmly tried to explain why I felt like I did, which wasn't eas y. When I was done, all he said was, "You're too sensitive." Of course, feeling people know that my deep inner response was more like, "yo u're god-damn right I am sensitive and there's nothing wrong with that, you a-hole!" But, I said nothing more. I felt a responsibility, and it just wouldn t hav e been fair or kind to him. He couldn t understand. Expressing that kind of anger at this stage of life would just not have been right. My point with all this, ho wever, is that I was pro-active, and it got me to a deeper feeling. Tears fell a ll the way home on the plane. A few years passed, and my father was now dying of colon cancer and emphysema . I was thirty-eight, had had two primal intensives by now, and also had been a practitioner of two spiritual paths. I went for what was to be a final visit, a nd he was in bed. One day he, quite innocently I think, asked me to cut his toen ails because it had been months perhaps since he was able to do so. I don't thin k he made the connection (remember, that was one of the highlights of my early c hildhood memories; I immediately thought about it, however, and it seemed like m y life had gone by in a blur). So I cut them, and, as I was now a chiropractor I also, quite naturally, massaged his feet as well. Later that evening, to my sur prise and delight he made a statement to the family members present that, "Peter was king for today." (Keep in mind, when my sister moved out when I was nine, our house became ice-cold; I was never praised). Boy, that was sweet, but, at th e same time, it really stung. The lost years came front and center (my second t herapist, a big burly guy like my father, had told me, "there's a lot of love a dad can share with his son"; that hurt, but it was years before I could feel the real loss). This time the buried wound was right there. I left soon after, neve r to see my dad alive again. As with my mother, when I received the news that my dad had died, I did not cry. Not until much later did I really become able to w eep for my loss. There was a lot of ice still to melt before that was possible.

I know many have a lot worse stories and traumas to tell, but you know how in sidious neurosis is. I internalized most of it and went dead bodily for a longti me starting at age ten. I became afraid of my dad, who, once my sister left, who he treated poorly and even beat her when he was drunk, took his frustrated ange r out on me saying, if I voiced a contrary opinion to his, what do you know, you re nothing! too many times. My mother would always stand up for me and say, he is no t nothing! , but the damage was done. So that it how it went. It is all my respons ibility at this point. Now, at sixty-three, I feel the shortness of life, but also, quite strongly, the unreality of time, which is very relieving. What s done is done, and I feel in my most creative period. At times I miss my Master terribly, as well as first f riends and family, what are perceived as lost years, but all the drama are only the symptoms of a psyche that is in metamorphosis, nothing more or less than tha t. The inner hub was withdrawn, but that was just the beginning of another process , whose completion is yet to be. When informed by phone that Kirpal had died I curiously felt nothing, both be cause he had already internalized himself in me, and also restored me to myself in a fundamental way. I was reading the book Crooked Cucumber about the life of Suzuki Roshi and found him mentioning that he felt it odd at a similar age in li fe that he also felt nothing when his own master died. This was after he had an enlightening experience. Yet, his most emotional years were still in front of hi m. Much growth lay ahead, and much deepening of his enlightenment, which he alwa ys downplayed if not flat out denied. So, that is how I did my best with what I had to try to convey the Master s lov e to my parents. I feel it is not very impressive, and also feel bad that that w as the best that it got, but also feel there was karmic closure on my account . And the third thing he said to me, besides do you need any money? and convey my love t o your parents - the tell everyone you are a new man part? Well, I feel that is wha t this writing effort is all about, kind of like Sufi teacher Irena Tweedie writ ing the biography, Chasm of Fire, about her transformative ordeal with her own g uru Bhai Sahib, and at his request. Kirpal Singh changed my life, and indeed sav ed my life. There used to be a saying of Sawan Ashram that 'it was the place whe re men were made . I can t say I am a man yet, but believe this statement was true. So much on the path of the Masters, the 'scrubbing', goes on under the surface, intimately, secretly, and often unknown to the outer and even inner personality, and may only be revealed in its fullness perhaps in the kingdom of heaven. Enlig htenments' happen, yes, and - so? We must still become human. Remember "Truth is above all, but higher still is true living," said Nanak. Kirpal also wrote: "It is not the inner experience which determines the spiritual progress, but the basic personal attitude of serene living of the child disciple, which proves his or her worth." (7a) I will also say that it is never to late to love. One may grieve over a lost opportunity, but we do not come into this world with a blank slate, nor do we de part that way. Each of us asked to be here, with our past tendencies as well as the environment in which to play those tendencies out. The loving effort we make carries beyond this life. Need confirmation? - the Beatles sang it! So I trust that my parents are in good hands, and our bonds have not been broken, and at he art cannot be broken. The main lessons I learned from the master's words to me a re several. One, by trying to love I came to realize the truth behind the statem ent a kind therapist once told me, that "you can only hate those you love." A wi se spiritual teacher I had before Kirpal once confessed that even when his fathe r was beating him he still loved him. That remark took many years to sink in. Bu t it is true. In spite of the hurt, I never stopped loving my father in my heart . And the Master's words and very being are only there to help open our hearts.

But to open the heart, one must first find out that it is closed, and how very m uch it is closed. Then, as the rust softens, one discovers what the Tin Woodsman meant when he said, "Now I know I have a heart, because it's breaking." Once th e wounds or imprints are opened enough, a new level of feeling can emerge. This might even be felt as a new form of suffering, along with whatever bliss is unco vered along the way. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpiche eloquently spoke of this, which is none other than true boddhicitta, the great heart upon which every great Master is forever impaled: If you search for awakened heart, if you put your hand through your rib cage a nd feel for it, there is nothing there except for tenderness. You feel sore and soft, and if you open your eyes to the rest of the world, you feel tremendous sa dness. This kind of sadness doesn t come from being mistreated. You don t feel sad b ecause someone has insulted you or because you feel impoverished. Rather, this e xperience of sadness is unconditioned. It occurs because your heart is completel y exposed. There is no skin or tissue covering it; it is pure raw meat. Even if a tiny mosquito lands on it, you feel so touched. Your experience is raw and ten der and so personal. For the warrior, this experience of sad and tender heart is what gives birth to fearlessness. Conventionally, being fearless means that you are not afraid or that, if someone hits you, you will hit him back. However, we are not talking about that street-fighter level of fearlessness. Real fearlessn ess is the product of tenderness. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. (7b) To reach such a state requires grace. It is not something one can merely do a lone by dint of self-effort. As Kirpal Singh once wrote, in perhaps somewhat dat ed language, but it matters little for its central meaning: "The reservoir of the subconscious mind is filled with worldly thoughts, impu lses, and instincts inherited from past lives. This must be drained out complete ly before it can be filled with love and devotion to the Lord-Master." (7c) Only the divine can accomplish such a task. And, do not fear, it is impossibl e to 'totally' drain out this reservoir! The subconscious is not only filled wit h negative vasanas or tendencies, but is also part of our creative and higher se lf. The negative imprints will be burnt out by chiefly the master-power, in coop eration with our patient, although ultimately inadequate, efforts, but also inev itable surrender. The love released is our true nature, the very heart of the un iverse, yes, yet some sages speak of such love as more rare than even liberation itself. And it is what becoming a bodhisattva is all about. And what is the ess ence of that? It may be spoken of in so many ways. Suzuki Roshi put one aspect o f it quite simply when he said: "On one side we are fools, but when we realize this we are enlightened, and w hen we make efforts in the face of it, we are bodhisattvas." (7d) So, it is never too late. As long as there is breath, as my master used to sa y, it is never too late. We may stumble, but always falling forward. That way we remain on the way home, because in each such moment, we are home. The harvest i s rich, and on this path grace is the prime mover. Yet it moves in mysterious wa ys. Have simple faith and you will be free. That is what I am learning and I bid you to trust in it, too Continuing saga and conclusions learned from my experience Though I will not at this time flesh out this point, the years since 2005-201 0 initiated another plunge into the 'dark night', or subterranean mining operati on, than before, which has not yet been completed. Again, it is as if an increas e in conscious awareness has allowed for this body-mind to have a deeper purific ation to occur. Where it will stop, nobody knows. For the intimate, gritty detai

ls, the reader with an interest is directed to Death of a Dream - Pt. 2. Some wi ll understand, while other well-meaning souls will not. This is just my honest c onfession, no more, no less. Along the way in the early years I came across a beautiful little story by Tr acy Leddy that spoke directly to my emotional experiences in many ways. I do not intend to suggest my path or process is special or better than that of anyone else. Indeed, I usually feel if anything that it has been a tough clea nsing process for me because I was sicker than most, yet am ready to accept that ultimately even that is my own illusion and projection. The truth is I don't re ally know for sure, and it is better to have no judgement of these things. To im agine that one is or has done something wrong because he or she has pain is an i ncorrect one, a supposition about what may just be the human condition in variou s dimensions of recognition and feeling. For some, however, it appears that the way seems only bliss and peace and happiness. That is most likely due to their e njoying a lifetime of favorable karma - either that or successful avoidance of a 'deepr walk with the Lord'. Blessed be the Guru and those for whom that is the way. The path for 'me' seems to have largely been one of extended purgation and repeated episodes of a dark night of the soul as uncanningly described by St. Jo hn of the Cross in an important descriptive link [approximately one page], and n ot an easy one of peaceful inner meditation. In fact, it has been such experienc e that led me to write a much longer and detailed article on that phenomenon in order to understand my own ordeal. It is definitely not what I would have chosen . deCaussade once again seemed to reflect my experience: "Never forget that you may, possibly, find yourself bereft of everything in t he most complete spiritual poverty, and left to the simple practice of bare fait h for the extinction of self-love. This death of self hardly ever occurs without a deprivation of all things, and at the mere thought of this one's very nature shudders. It is then that one seems lost indeed, without any support, and left i n the most cruel abandonment." (Book Four, Letter XX) Except that in my case there was the gift of radical insight that made this s tripping tolerable and at times, in a sense, even interesting - although still p ainful. Having left the Sawan Ashram 'hospital', I was as yet in 'out-patient ca re': "The heavenly Physician has therefore treated you with the greatest kindness in applying an energetic remedy to your malady, and in opening your eyes to the festering sores which were gradually consuming you, in order that the sight of t he matter which ran from them would inspire you with horror. No defect of self-l ove or pride could survive a sight so afflicting and humiliating. I conclude fro m my knowledge of this merciful design that you ought neither to desire nor to h ope for the cessation of the treatment to which you are being subjected until a complete cure has been effected. At present you must brace yourself to receive m any cuts with the lancet, to swallow many bitter pills, but to go on bravely, an d excite yourself to a filial confidence in the fatherly love which administers these remedies." (Book Four, Letter XXI) A little dramatic, but so it goes. Everyone and everything "new-age" - as wel l as medical, clinical, psychological, or spiritual - argues against it. But it is what it is. Some things we apparently have little say in. At times when thing s get difficult, I have regressed and unloaded my woes on my friends, searching here and there for answers and ways to 'fix' or make things 'better'. In the end , however, all alternatives and therapeutic solutions fall short, nothing avails but faith, surrender, and the seeing of what Is. And remembering what I have be en shown, and continue to be shown. Karmic purification is another way of lookin g at it. "First realisation, then deal with the evil karma," said the zen master . However one views it - better not view it in any way at all - I have been forc

ed to ignore the noise and protestations of the mind. It eventually reduces to o ne thing: Kirpal Singh as God or the Self of my Being called me His friend, and is remaking 'me' from within. At times he was rough, and at times it has been to ugh, yet that simple conclusion is all that makes sense. It is all that matters, and yet concurrently, in truth, 'no-thing' matters and there is 'no-self' as th e self. How easily this paradox gets forgotten. Yet even this is not quite it, b ut had to be included to maintain a semblance of spiritual 'political correctnes s'. In restrospect, I learned a few things at Sawan Ashram. Years later, only aft er the experience, I understood, I think, some things about the ways of the guru . One, as Ramakrishna said, there is a need to "lance the boil," and that, medic ine acts only after the sore is opened. These were words he used in reference to his two most famous disciples Brahmananda and Vivekananda, whom he was often no ted for ignoring. Proximity to an advanced soul sooner or later stirs up the hor net's nest of the disciple's ego. This can occur before and after various awaken ings. Tendencies in the aspirant that have been covered up or avoided, for years , even by spiritual disciplines, are moved to the surface for final eradication. This is a process that once set in motion could take years for completion. That may be one reason Kirpal hit on the "sex nerve" with me in the context of the d iary. On this process in general Rangan, a disciple of Ramana Maharshi, once ask ed: "How is it that the egos of some of your devotees, instead of becoming less a nd less, seem to grow more and more by their contact with you?" Bhagavan replied , "If the ego is to go away, it has to come out first from its hiding place. Whe n water is put on the stove to be boiled, it must get heated, overflow and then evaporate." (8) Sadguru Gananananda was an example of a guru whose treatment of his disciples varied widely depending on their needs and intimacy with him: "There were many occasions when the Swami would start a devotee on the road t o introspection. This he would do by being indifferent to him, by admonishing hi m in the presence of others. This was designed not only to fathom the devotee s faith but also to deflate his ego and subject him to relentless self-probing. Th e Swami would also impose the discipline on those who were very close to him and who he thought deserved his consideration and spiritual ministrations. The crav ings and mental oscillations of the past had to be erased and obstructive old pa ths and habits made to fade away and die, if the unmortified affections of the h eart were to be sublimated to a congruous harmony. The more he chastised a devot ee the more likely it was that he was very close to him in spiritual kinsmanship . The more he treated a devotee with cool indifference or a frigid look, the mor e likely it was that he was brooding over the welfare of the devotee." (9) There is also the story of Milarepa and his guru Marpa: "Marpa scolded and even beat Je-tzun Mi-la ra-pa many times. This was not bec ause he personally disliked him, but because out of compassion he saw the needs for skillfull means that were forceful. Thus if your Guru is wrathful to you, tr y to see this as a method he is using to tame your mind and lead you to Enlighte nment. As a Buddha, how could he possibly hate you?" (10) The famous Sufi Maulana Rumi gave an elegant summary of this play of the true Master: "First he pampered me with a hundred favors. Then he melted me with the fires of sorrows. After he sealed me with the seal of Love. I became Him. Then, he threw my self out of me."

He also wrote: "When God loves a servant He afflicts him; if he endures with fortitude, he c hooses him; if he is grateful, He elects him. Some men are grateful to God for H is wrathfulness and some are grateful to Him for His graciousness. Each of the t wo classes is good; for gratitude is a sovereign antidote, changing wrath into g race. The intelligent and perfect man is he who is grateful for harsh treatment, both openly and in secret; for it is he whom God has elected. If God's will be the bottom reach of Hell, by gratitude His purpose is hastened." (Discourses of Rumi (Fihi ma Fihi)) Sant Darshan Singh said: "Remember he has taken a vow never to leave or forsake us until he takes us t o our eternal Home. But we should also realize that we must go through the stage when we feel abandoned, when we must feel that the Master has deserted us. This is one of the features of the path of mystic love. We must go through this stag e without a grumble on our lips, for this stage is in reality a gift from the Ma ster himself to help us grow. Ultimately, it is for our benefit, for our own sal vation. There is a divine purpose behind everything the Master does. We may have to spend a lifetime of tears to get his love. We cannot demand the gift supreme from our Beloved. The gift descends at the appointed hour." (11) The ego, or more properly, the exclusive egoistic point of view (for judgemen t about the ego itself is inherently a negative and arguably esoterically incorr ect position), is, unfortunately, as I can confess from painful experience, near ly impossible to dislodge from its seat of sovereignty and will easily disguise itself, even through spiritual techniques. Paul Brunton (PB), therefore, has spo ken several times of thinning it down through discipline and then "tracking it d own to its lair," which he considers the inner Void, where it can finally be del ivered "a knock-out blow", but, on the other hand, he, too, says it must "come o ut of hiding." How can it come out of hiding, however, by only retreating within ? There is so much room for it to hide there! Moreover, if the Self is potential ly One with the All, how can that truly be realized if the All is negated, inclu ding the much-maligned ego? For much of the 'self-centeredness' that the ego is criticized for is a product of the shadow side of the ego, which to a great exte nt is composed of a lack of imagination, trust, and faith in oneself. This is of necessity said to balance out the negative connotations surrounding the word eg o, which is just a functional part of the human persona. In fact, it has been sa id to be an evolutionary development that is in fact necessary for the very ques t itself. Therefore the paradoxical function of the spiritual Master, and the en tire cosmos itself, the miraculous "womb of the Buddhas", which teaches the ego, not to try to annihilate itself, but to orient itself and align its will with t hat of ones deeper Being, Lord-Master, World-Mind, Absolute Soul, God, or whatev er term suits one best. Temporary merger or forgetting of the ego in ascended sa madhi alone won't do it. That is at best a halfway house, albeit an important st age, if it is your karma to have it. One must paradoxically "die while alive", i n place, they seem to be saying, not only in meditation, although that may also happen. This concept greatly enlarged my view of the spiritual process - or simp lified it, depending on point of view. Secondly, years later I came to the realization that what PB termed a transit ion from the Long Path to the Short Path via the dark night, call it of the soul or the self, may have been part of the meaning of my gift from Kirpal Singh. Th at is, I was forcefully moved from a "long path" of self effort to the more dire ct route, or "short path" of self-surrender or reliance on Grace. Not that disci pline was to be totally abandoned forever (as for most of us, in this real world and considering our actual state, both "paths" must at some point be pursued si de by side, and I confess to making many mistakes and indiscretions, if not outr

ight sins), but along with the earlier methods there was now a more primary need to let God do the work, and to balance the masculine with the feminine sides of the path. It is not all muscle. I found that PB has many quotes on this shift, whose accuracy, relevance, and help for me were so precise as to also be uncanny . Yet such are the "magical" effect of the words of a true sage: "Henceforth you are not to become this or that, not to gather the various vir tues, but simply to be. For this you do not have to strive, you do not have to t hink, you do not have to work with any form of yoga, with any method of meditati on."(12) "To adopt the Short Path is to place oneself at a point of view where all the efforts of the Long path are seen as a sheer waste of time and where its succes ses are regarded as equal in value to its failures, since both are illusory expe riences of an illusory entity." (13) "The Long Path is taught to beginners and others in the earlier and middle st ages of the quest. This is because they are ready for the idea of self-improveme nt and not for the higher one of the unreality of the self. So the latter is tau ght on the Short Path, where attention is turned away from the little self and f rom the idea of perfecting it, to the essence, the real being." (14) "It must never be forgotten that the work of the Short Path could only come i nto being on the basis of the work of the Long one, and on the presupposition of its presence." (15) "His quest for God has reached its terminus but his quest in God will now sta rt its course. Henceforth his life, experience, and consciousness are wrapped in mystery." (16) "The transition from the Long to the Short path is really a normal experience , even though to each person it seems like a major discovery." [yes!] (17) "He must be willing to discard the familiar attitudes developed on the Long P ath. There will be an inner struggle." [so true] (18) "The Short Path of recognizing the divine existence here and now, whether or not the ego feels it, is the best path at a certain stage." (19) "He must be free of the kind of self-consciousness which makes him aware that he is a Questor." [difficult] (20) "The Short Path requires him to fall into amnesia about his spiritual past. T he attempt to produce a perfect being and an impeccable character need not troub le him any further.....The Long Path is likely to come first in a man s spiritua l career, with the bizarre result that he is required to become much more aware of what is going on within himself - his thoughts, feelings, and character - and then, with entry on the Short Path, to become much less aware of it, even to th e point of ignoring it. (21) "It is not a question of choice between the two paths. The beginner can hardl y comprehend what the Short Path means, let alone practise it. So perforce he mu st take to the Long one. But the intermediate, weary of its toils and defeats, t urns with relief to the other path, for which his studies and experiences have n ow prepared him." (22) "However tirelessly and relentlessly he pursues the Long Path, he may come on e day to the tragic discovery that the ideal it proposes to him embodies a human ly impossible perfection. With that discovery he will fall into a numb inertness , a pathetic and hopeless state which could even bring his overwrought mind not

far from a breakdown. He may feel alone and deserted. He may enter the dark nigh t of the soul, as some mystics have named it. His ego will feel crushed. He will not know what to do, nor even have the strength of will to do anything more. At this point he must wait...out of the bleakness and weakness there will presentl y come a guidance, bidding him respond affirmatively to a suggestion, a book, or a teacher directing him toward what is really his first step on the Short Path. " (23) "So long as a man stays on the Long Path alone he is clinging to the idea of his ego, which embarks on the Quest to save itself by methods and processes of p urifying itself. This idea is never let go, only refined and purified. For it st arts the Quest as an imperfect and low ego, finishes it as a perfectly pruned an d improved one. Its own reality is not questioned, for if it were regarded as th e nonexistent fiction that it is, there would be no need to purify or save it." (24) Kirpal Singh also mentioned these two paths, in different language. He referr ed to the path of self-effort as "long and tortuous" compared to that of self-su rrender, but that relatively few could take to the latter, because it required o ne to "recede back to the position of an innocent child", and is only possible w hen "a disciple has complete faith and confidence in the competency of the Maste r", but should one be able to do so "he then goes directly into His lap and has nothing to do by himself for himself." 'Should the Lord so ordain, then, O Nanak ! a person may take to the path of self-surrender'...but very rarely even a real ly blessed soul may be able to acquire that attitude." (25) And in such a case , as Kirpal said, "The Guru is pledged to help the helpless." Sant Darshan Singh tells us plainly: "Only a lucky few follow the path of self-surrender. It is a difficult path, but if we are able to surrender, our life's journey becomes smooth and spontaneo us. But generally we first try hard to make progress by our own efforts, and onl y after breaking our shins do we come to the stage of self-surrender. Ultimately , to reach our final goal we will have to come to surrender. There is no way out - sooner or later we all must come to that stage. It is just a question of whet her we take a long time or come to it straight away."(26) As the Shrimad Bhagavata Purana states: "Hope indeed is misery greatest, Hopelessness a bliss above the rest." - (11. 8.44) [The latter holds a great truth, but it may also be misunderstood. Hopelessne ss is a fundamental stage and passage, but at more than one point in life it nee ds to be counterbalanced by a positive Hope. Without hope is a terrible way to l ive an entire life, and it can break the soul. There is simultaneous great hopel essness and great Hope alive in the world today. Many more in the times to come will heal themselves of their past and latch onto an excitingly new yet reliably sober wave of spiritual inspiration. Many, many, exciting and inconceivable thi ngs lie ahead. Those of us who endured as pioneers and midwives of a new era wil l not be the first to enjoy its abundant fruit. Others will not have it as hard as some of us have, what to speak of the many giants in whose shoulders we all s tand]. It is my personal feeling that such a passage has, in most cases, to be force d by Grace, that is, we must be placed in the condition where there is no choice in the matter, or we won't be able to endure it successfully. There is, for ins tance, a famous story in the traditions where the master holds the disciple's he ad under water until he can no longer stand it, then lifts him out and says that when his yearning for God is as intense as that of a drowning man for air, he w

ill have it. On pondering the story, it is clear that this is something no one w ill or can do by himself. He will always come up for air. Someone or something h as to "hold his head under water" for the experience to be meaningful. That some thing is Grace. Ramana likened this stage to that of being caught in the jaws of the tiger. If one is fortunate enough to be thus caught, there is little he can do to improve on the situation. And even this may be too dramatic, for while th ere are no doubt many 'relative' deaths on the true path, there is no real death . Things remain as they are. Therefore, I feel it is not really true that there has been two paths, long a nd short. As PB said, both paths are, after all, in the imagination. Since that day when insight arose in the courtyard it would be incorrect and a refusal of g race to say other than that there has been only the apparent history of a malada pted body-mind trying to catch up with what already happened. True, much trial, tribulation, and internal affliction, to use traditional language, still lay ahe ad. Radical insight is not a way to avoid that. It will go on as long as needed. The thing has to be lived, on earth, as it is in heaven. PB summarized this par adox as follows: "The Long Path is needed to make a man or woman ripe for receiving truth, but only the Short Path can lead to it. This is the answer to the dilemma created b y the claims of the Wu Wei school. Its practical application is: act as the Long Path requires by working on and improving the self, but think as the Short Path enjoins by holding the attitude "There is nothing to be attained. Realization i s already here and now!" (27) The feeling I sometimes ponder is that Kirpal consciously or unconsciously kn ew he didn't have much time left and had a job to do and he did it. Without the insight he helped provoke in me, I would have been in a lot more trouble. And I thank him for that, in spite of an ordeal of difficulty and heartache to follow, and an ongoing lack of clarity on how to socially and spiritually mesh my exper ience with the traditional path of Sant Mat. It is also clear that when he repli ed to me, "yes, it is time for you to go," he, knowing that he was soon to die a nd that this might be our last physical meeting, was essentially echoing the wor ds of Jesus to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go no t away, the Comforter will not come to you. When he, the Spirit of Truth, is com e, He will guide you into all truth." As PB wrote: "It is as necessary to his disciples that he leave them deprived of his guida nce as well as of the consolation of his presence as it was earlier necessary fo r them to have them while he was still on earth...The very hour of his departure from them is appointed in their destiny by the infinite intelligence, which has sufficient reasons for making it then, and not earlier or later. If they must h enceforth strive for direct touch with the Infinite and no longer lean on the en couragement of an intermediary, this is because they are at that stage to make b etter progress that way, whatever their personal emotions may argue to the contr ary." "The animal which at a certain age deserts its offspring to force them into s elf-reliance is like the rare guru who tells the overstayed learner it is time t o leave." "In the end he must free himself inwardly from all things and, finally, both from whatever teacher he has and from the quest itself. Then only can he stand a lone within and one with God....It is bewildering to be told that a time comes i n the disciple's development when attachment to the teacher must also be broken.

He must free himself from the very man who has shown him the path to liberation from every other form of attachment. His liberation is to become total and abso lute." (28) "Ashram life is for beginners," said Maharshi, and the cable of truth had bee n laid down between Kirpal and I, and prolonged personal contact of the previous sort was no longer necessary, and perhaps even detrimental. That is my understa nding, with the Master to be henceforth found only within, or rather, as non-sep arate from my own Being, with the idea of the "Master" as well as the idea of "m e" both receding into the Void from whence they arose. Again, Jah Jae Noh writes: "The mind can be lead countless times into the heart, yet it can refuse to be lieve or accept what is experienced. To this extent no learning takes place. So faith is the vehicle, the mode of learning. Understanding, which is the mind's a cceptance of the heart, is the activity of faith." (29) Ramana Maharshi said a similar thing: "This very doubt, whether you can realize, and the notion 'I-have-not-realize d' are themselves the obstacles. Be free from these obstacles also." (30) As had been said to me, "you can believe it - or not." All of the above reson ates with me now, but never would have done so before visiting Sawan Ashram. Sti ll, my experience leaves many questions. For instance, Sri Aurobindo once said: "I had experience of Nirvana and Silence in Brahman long before I had any kno wledge of the overhead spiritual planes." (31) Exactly what does that mean? Does it hold a possible key to reconciling the e xperiences of jnana or satori, and the inner samadhis, a dividing ground among d ifferent schools? Are the latter just a 'bunch of business', as some sages say? Or are both necessary for the full nondual realization of Truth? I openly ask th e living satgurus of Sant Mat for their clarification of these mysteries, if pos sible, to know where they stand, and the divine Lord for their revelation and co mplete accomplishment in my own case and that of all beings. Thankfully I have c ome into contact with a source that is answering some of these questions to my s atisfaction, knowing full-well also that 'the satisfied disciple is still the on e he was', and that the master guru exists primarily to break the hypnotic spell of the chela. Further questions that many have been exploring today are: how much psycholog ical work must be done, what role does therapy have in healing core wounds, what is its place in spiritual life, or should one abandon all such subconscious dig ging and simply work on 'forgetting all personal stories' as some newer teachers promote, or engage, as necessary, a paradoxical or random utilization of both? This latter is more likely a personal question than one for the masters to answe r. One will likely do what he feels he needs to do. Still, it needs addressing, especially in a path such as Sant Mat, where the traditional emphasis has histor ically been more or less a bodily dissociative one. Finally, I learned that my ignorance is profound, and I know little of the wa ys of the true Masters, but also that there were answers to the questions I pose d long ago, and that Grace in the form of Master Kirpal worked directly in my ca se to lead me to a point where I could be able to know a little about them, albe it "outside of the box" of his tradition, as it were. Or perhaps not so outside the box. The path has always been full of paradoxic

al and mysterious stories of the play between master and disciple.. One thought that came to me that fateful day at Sawan Ashram was, ah, so this is the Path of the Masters ! Not just shabd yoga per se, but the grace and power and mysteriou s agency of the master himself. The true shaikh steals everything from the illus ion of the disciple that presents itself to him, including even, if necessary, h is apparent spirituality. To this point, Maulana Rumi said the following: "A man may be in an ecstatic state, and another man may try to rouse him. It is considered good to do so. Yet this state may be bad for him, and the awakenin g may be good for him. Rousing a sleeper is good or bad according to who is doin g it. If the rouser is of greater attainment, this will elevate the state of the other person. If he is not, it will deteriorate the consciousness of the other man." Lao Tzu put matters more succintly: "Failure is the foundation of success, and the means to its achievement." In my case, the apparent loss was really an advance, however bitter it seemed , and still seems from time to time. I recall, however, two famous stories of Ru mi. In one, his future Master, Shamas Tabrez, threw Rumi's books into a stream, whereupon Rumi berated him saying, "You idiot, that is the knowledge about which you know nothing!" The saint promptly retrieved the books from the stream, with out a drop of water having touched them, and said to the proud Rumi, "This is th e knowledge about which you know nothing." This humbled the future murshid, who gave up his lofty position among the scholars to become the devotee of the remar kable dervish. Shamas once remarked, We may seem like beggars, but our actions a re more than royal. The other form of this story, however, as told by Pir Vilaya t Khan (a friend of Kirpal Singh and son of the respected Hazrat Inayat Khan), s poke more to my situation. In this version Shamas tossed Rumi's books down a wel l and asked him, "do you want me to retrieve them, without their being wet?", an d Rumi answered, "No". Pir Vilayat remarked that this was the answer that secure d Rumi's greatness, for it indicated his intention to extract the spiritual marr ow from his master, and that he was not interested in miracle-working or any ego ically distracting experience, high or low. My answer of no in response to Kirpa l Singh's question of whether I wanted anything from Him, including the experien ce of leaving the body, was given more or less unconsciously, but with a similar , ultimate - although as yet to be conclusive - beneficial effect. While Kirpal Singh clearly favored and embodied the way of shabd yoga, he did acknowledge other legitimate paths, in particular jnana yoga, the yoga of discr iminative knowledge. In doing so, however, he reiterated the primary importance of relationship with a true master for its success: "The path of jnana is a short-cut to yoga but it is frightfully steep, and ve ry few can take to it. It requires a rare combination of razor-sharp intellect a nd intense spiritual longing, which only a few like Buddha and Sankara possess. The path, however, would become smooth if one, by a mighty good fortune, were to meet a Master-soul. A Sant Satguru can, by his long and strong arm, draw an asp irant out of the bottomless vortex of the life of the senses without his having to do overmuch sadhana." (32) This is assuming one has to be drawn out of the bottomless vortex of the life of the senses to realize jnana - if only as a first stage - or, instead, plunge d into it, as some nondual teachers and body-oriented therapies call for, or as new-age 'incarnational spirituality' proposes. In either case this passage heark ens to the illuminating tap of a sandal on the forehead of Rumi by Shamas, or th e enlightenment of Raja Janak by Astavakra in the time it took the king to put h is foot in the stirrup of his horse. Such things have been reported to happen wh en the power of the divine working through a true godman has its way.

In summary, while dhyan meditation/concentration/inversion has been virtually totally dead inside me since my time at Sawan Ashram, moments of contemplative insight have not. I should say exciting moments, for the 'hole in my head' is st ill there, the basic realization only needing continued belief, it is too ordina ry yet mysterious. While still all too infrequent [as written in the book, Postc ards from the Edge, "instant gratification takes too long!"], during those times I see that the one who worries about birth and death is unreal, relative peace ensues, and anxiety over paradise lost subsides.. As is said in Zen, "A thought of faith once awakened is the foundation of the way forever. " Yet even so, the mind rebels and says it is not enough, and in spite of what is often so clear, and what the books, the Buddha, and the non-dualists say, at times the soul feels a longing for a true home, and, as Plotinus said, is yet in pain, the purgation and aridity seemingly unending, with many tears, shed and u nshed, seemingly unanswered by these Masters, though it be blasphemy or lack of faith to say so. It is really neither, but just a byproduct of the clarifying os cillations of consciousness trying to better know its own nature. I have had for these teachers over the years many questions, those listed above, and others su ch as the following [which I am finding no one can really answer except myself, if I am not to give my power away and also dishonor the gift I was given by my M aster or by Being itself - which are more and more becoming indistinguishable] : "What sadhana to do, if any, when the chief technique offered is impossible? Is a new master necessary? [It's getting a little late for that!] If the successor (s) can help, why haven't they? If they can't, will they say so? If they have, c an they clarify that further? What is their explanation for the relationship bet ween realizations spoken of as satori or enlightenment, and the higher plane sam adhis in traditions like Sant Mat? I am finding that such answers are only reluc tantly forthcoming from such gurus. But most importantly, do I even have a probl em?!" For, to be truthful, at the time of this revision, I don't care anymore ab out any of these questions, except to some degree the last one. If the Masters k now, the truth should - rather, it would be nicer that the truth henceforth - be spoken more plainly. Some of my questions were worked out myself in the article Sant Mat: A Comparative Analysis of the Path of the Masters on this website, ye t others remain my own 'koans.' When the true Soul - or Being - answers, the questions drop away. Confirmatio n outside the Self is seen as unnecessary, the inner help obvious. The work done long ago and over the years, and truly, outside of time, is clearly seen, the g race once transmitted at Sawan Ashram is revealed as unchanged, and having certa inly born fruit. It has not been all a veil of tears, but also laughter at the j oke of self, and amazement at the Mystery. Many other times, it is difficult not to grumble under the soul's confining shackles and (apparently) miserable state , yet the answer that comes is "surrender, surrender, surrender, into the myster y of unknowing, as there's nothing more you can do," with the only option to str uggle anew each day, when apparently required - until the struggle stops - when the motion exhausts itself - or through inquiry into the one who suffers, doubts , and struggles, the automatic machine of separation wears itself out and the Tr uth shines by Itself. But, basically, it is a simple matter of letting things be , while also looking towards an ideal. "Be who you Are," as Ramana said, yes, bu t also "be all you can be" ('in the aaarrrrmy'). That is the paradox. We are to be free here and now, Nirvana is here and now, but our destiny is yet a divine o ne. I personally was graced by being checkmated long ago by the master-player, a nd the essential game is over. Therefore, more and more out of resignation to my 'fate', and not by choice, or desire, I, like many others, appear to stand alone, outside of tradition. The ego remains an impatient fellow. The apparant recalcitrance of the body-mind is yet far too profound to this one's satisfaction and seemingly beyond complete t ransformation. Luckily, it needn't be perfected, or we'd all be doomed! Yet I st

ill pray, "help me, dear Friend, savior of (non) fallen souls everywhere." Ongoing Prayer What happened at Sawan Ashram increasingly seems like the dream of another pe rson. While the nature of my connection with Kirpal Singh remains unclear to the mind, it has never been abandoned, disowned, or forgotten in the depths of the heart. It is wordless, intuitive, bereft of visions, and indistinguishable from that of my own Being. I love him, yet at times have felt frustration and despair , like anybody else, but always, while sensing more and more that he set me free by calling me friend, remain a humble, undeserving beggar at His door, the High er Self and Truth, despite the omnipresence of consciousness itself. Insight pre sents itself, yet within a relative and apparent spiritual poverty still profoun d. Definitely a 'reward-punishment, as I was told years before. Except that is a negative way of putting it. There is no punishment. We are not wrong, or a mist ake, or fallen. Initially born in ignorance, we are only gaining experience in o rder to find ourselves. Our pain is our gain, and part of the plan. In spite of non-dual glimpses, openings, and understanding, this writer is no t yet convinced the current teachers of oneness have the last word on the subjec t. Again, there appears to be a great divide between such paths of 'Consciousnes s' and that of seemingly dualistic schools such as Sant Mat. No non-dualist I kn ow of has had access to the highest spiritual planes, especially those of Sat Lo k, so how can they speak thereof? On the other hand, the arguments of philosophy (i.e., Mind or Consciousness) appear unassailable. In either case I am nothing and no-thing so to speak and have no evidence of any capacity for apparent succe ss in one or the other! I thus travel 'incognito' among seekers of all stripes, and am becoming comfortable with that predicament. It's definitely had its advan tages. Perhaps one must ultimately have the non-dual realization on ALL of the plane s of consciousness, including the highest, and therefore the Sants are correct w hen they say the current teachers of consciousness alone (gyan, advaita, Zen, et c.) are worthy of our respect for having the highest of the human realizations b ut not yet the highest of all. Yet perhaps the sages are right and this is not t rue or necessary. In any case this body at times still cries out in dualistic pr ayer to the Saints: "Kill me if thou wilt but turn not away, Hug me to Thy bosom, listen to my prayer, Just look this way and earn my gratitude, Why kill me by turning Thy face away?" "An ever erring child I am, but I depend on the Father's Grace." "Thirsty as I am for Thy sight, My mind calls for Thee in agony, I pray to Thee O Formless! and crave for Thy mercy." "Pray forget not Thy servant; if for nothing else consider my previous love of Thee and possess my heart." (33) "Listen, cried Rumi, can you hear a wail arising from the pillar of grief? Shams of Tabriz, where are you now, after all the mischief you've stirred in our hearts?" (34) "I will take You up now, Beloved, said Hafiz, on that wonderful Dance You pro mised."

Kirpal looked at us and said, "It is hard to become a man, but easy to become God. A few minutes of the Master's Grace, and then....?" I endure the beating and chiseling of this body of clay, which is only apparent, while awaiting, and yet in a real way already enjoying, His promise. While it is impossible to ever escape a first love, I also contemplate, and o ut of necessity and in order to stay sane take some comfort in, the healing word s of PB and many other 'Real Persons': "He is in the Stillness of central being all the time whether he knows it or not..He has never left and can never leave it. And this is so, even in a life pa ssed in failure and despair." (35) "When you awaken to truth as it really is, you will have no occult vision, yo u will have no "astral" experience, no ravishing ecstasy. You will awaken to it in a state of utter stillness, and you will realize that truth was always there within you and that reality was always there around you. Truth is not something which has grown and developed through your efforts. It is not something which ha s been achieved or attained by laboriously adding up those efforts. It is not so mething which has to be made more and more perfect each year. And once your ment al eyes are opened to truth they can never be closed again." (36) "..the Overself is with him here and now. It has never left him at any time. It sits everlastingly in the heart. It is indeed his innermost being, his truest self. Were it something different and apart from him, were it a thing to be gai ned and added to what he already is or has, he would stand the risk of losing it again. For whatever may be added to him may also be subtracted from him. Theref ore, the real task of this quest is less to seek anxiously to possess it than to become aware that it already and always possesses him." (37) The Bhagavad-Gita likewise proclaims: "I am always with all beings I abandon no one However great your inner darkness You are never separate from me." Kirpal himself once said, "you are already there, you just don't know it." Wh at could be more non-dual than that? In a sense, all seems forever accomplished that day in 1973. Everything since has been as nothing but the unraveling of a dream. And if all has been accompli shed, is there any need to keep on asking for its accomplishment, or begging for something that is already mine? The answer comes back, "No!" Even so, 'I' want to be a better person. If there is a karmic continuity that goes on within 'the One' I wish to take a hand in its improvement, not only for my sake but for that of others. That's just my feeling at this point. I first saw Sant Rajinder Singh, the current guru in that Sant Mat lineage, t alk in 1991, and my friend William Combi dragged me up to the dais to meet him, telling him I was working on a book of biographies of spiritual teachers, which at the time I was. Somewhat embarrassed, I said to Him, "I really don't know wha t I am doing," and he quickly replied, almost as if no one else could hear, "Joi n the club." In a strange and paradoxical way, that simple remark impressed me; to whatever degree this new Master was in on the secret! While on this subject, I went to see Rajinder again in Berkeley in year 2000 or so, and while sitting in my chair awaiting his rival, noticed an old friend, Richard Handel, whom I hadn't seen in thirty years, walk by behind the Master as he entered and I called, "Hey Richard." Richard was always an un-uptight, cool

guy, and he immediately came over and with warm enthusiasm said, "Peter, where t he fuck have you been all these years?!" I have since remembered insider jokes w e shared when Kirpal Singh came on tour in 1972. Once, in a large meeting hall i n Chicago, a young man in the audience asked about pot smoking. Kirpal feigned i gnorance, saying , "eh?" The young man said, "Grass, Master." He again replied, looking towards some next to him, "Eh, what's he talking about?" (He knew very w ell what the man was talking about, but was just playing with our minds, as he o ften did - more than we ever knew; why, many times he had accused some of us of having bad meditations as a result of our taking LSD years ago! He always said t his with a slightly veiled chuckle. You see, Kirpal, like Neem Karoli Baba as de scribed by Ram Dass, was always one or two 'jokes out' from us all - one could n ever get ahead of him. He was the master, after all). Right then an elderly reti red policeman and New York City group leader, lovable but old school and a bit u p-tight, Ben Ringel, said, "Narcotics, Maharaj-ji." Richard and I tried hard to suppress our laughter. I bring this up for two reasons, one relating to Richard and one relating to Ben. Richard was always very devoted to Kirpal, but also stu died advaita, travelled much and saw other teachers over the years. He died a fe w years after our reunion in Berkeley in a tragic accident - a head-on collision with a truck on a snowy New England road. Some time after that a student went i nto a Taco Bell in Naperville, Illinois where Sant Rajinder was eating with a fe w other students, and went right up to him and asked point blank, "Where is Rich ard now?" Rajinder replied without hesitation, "Sach Khand [Sat Lok], because of his great love for Kirpal." To me this is just another example that, while Kirp al of course loved us all, he had a special place in his heart for sincere but o rdinary warts-and-all humans, or 'fools' as Richard described himself, rather th an overly ambitious self-possessed seekers. Because it's not about us all gettin g better, perfect, squeaky clean, or doing everything 'right'. Indeed, we really can't. Just knowing that much is a great grace and relief. I get that He was ju st waiting for many of us to recognize this and accept the path of love, trust, and grace. And where is Richard now really? The same 'place' Kirpal is: in our hearts, a nd us in His. As the song goes, "How far is heaven?" Not far, there is no time, no space, and all realms exist simultaneously, with only a thin veil apparently separating us all. Closer than breath and as near as thought, nay, even nearer a re we to each other. This is not mere sentiment but reality. Now Ben (who has no doubt long since left this world) was a big man, and to a twenty year-old as I was when I first met him, seemed to be about a hundred yea rs old, or maybe eighty... but most likely sixty (!), and somewhat austere and s trict in appearance, although he once confessed that while people probably thoug ht that ice-water flowed in his veins, he had a heart like everyone else. When I was leaving Kirpal for the last time, I was asked where I was going. I said, "A merica." Kirpal's face got wide and he said with a smile, "Oh - America! That's a big place - where?" I said, "New York." And then he said, "okay, please convey my love to Ben." So some months later I happened to see old Ben at a group meet ing, and I went up to him and said , "Ben, I have something to tell you. Master loves you." Ben didn't know me, but his ears perked up and he leaned my way and asked me my name. I said, "Peter; yes, Kirpal told me, 'please convey my love to Ben.' " I know this may not seem like much, but I feel grateful to this day tha t I had the chance to give him this communication, which I knew not only made hi s day but who knows what else. It was also a gift for me, and one more step in t he beginning of a long process of my own thawing out. We all so want to be loved and to love; indeed, are love. In summary, to my undying good fortune, master Kirpal chose me as a friend while also becoming more than an enigma. On the one hand, as mentioned, he would say, "God is nothing!", or "I am Mr. Zero", but then, "the Master resides here" (pointing to his heart), while also "the higher Self is God" (tapping his foreh ead). Could not all of those viewpoints be simultaneously true, thus reconciling

the essence of many paths? I think so. f y s d

Thank you for hanging in there are reading this story. I sincerely hope all o this may prove useful for some. People coming up nowadays need not walk the wa many of us pioneered as part of a great experiment. Like anything, this depend on many factors. But it need not be so hard. May peace, love, and light descen upon you, within you, and as you.

The Only Reality A talk given by Richard Scotti in 1973 on his return from India It s a blessing to share the experience of being with Master in India. I say bl essing because the very sharing is a lesson in love. When we remember him in our meditations and during the day, and especially in India where it's so easy, our love is flared up; he gives us something. If we let that flow through by giving love to everybody and into every action, he gives more. If we try to keep every thing for our own self to be special and above the rest, then he takes it back, like the Biblical story of the sons and the talents. This is the path of love, t

he way back to God; and if we're not feeling love we must be wandering off, conc erned with the little self. You see, he really didn't say anything new; he said the same words (with all the love behind them) that we have been hearing, reading, and repeating all alon g. But when you are physically near to Master, it's like being exposed to radioa ctive material: your consciousness is affected, awareness is increased, and his words become alive. Everything is so significant and clear; the conviction of se eing is there. No doubt all of us have had this experience of waking up to the w ay things really are, by His Grace; well, it's like that. The Master does not live in India only, you see. His physical body may be the re, but He's right here in each of us. Of course it's easier to find Him in us t here; but that seeing, that vision He gives must be kept as much as possible whi le doing our work in the world. He is all consciousness and all love and can giv e whatever He wants to. We set up barriers when we lock Him up in India, in medi tation sittings, or with other satsangis, and forget that God is in every heart. So some are called over there for a while; that doesn't mean that the others ar e not being blessed or receiving--"all feasible grace, help and protection is be ing extended." Master showed us in so many ways that he dragged us there. Still, our prayer--my companion's and mine--is that all might have this blessed experi ence, even for a short visit as ours was. The plane trip is not easy, partly because of the time and schedule changes, and more because it is difficult to meditate; at least it was for us. We arrived in India feeling very tired and unreceptive, maybe like trees in the winter eve n with the sun shining, and were soon ushered by loving brothers and sisters rig ht up against Master's couch--about two feet from being on his lap. He came in s o jolly, so alive, and I kept thinking, "Oh, wake up, mind! Please warm up, hear t! That's God manifesting." Master soon looked down and spoke directly to me. At one point he asked, "Did you come for something special?" Wen, that just knocke d me out, you see, because for some months before I had reasoned and prayed that if only I had more love for and devotion to Him, then, whatever He allows would always be beautiful. If only I could remain contented and grateful for what He sends without all this asking! Then at Satsang once a group leader said that if Master ever asks you what you want, take it as a special blessing. So here I am at his feet, and he's asking! Looking up into the Life in his eyes, I said, "Lov e and devotion, Master. " Well, how to tell it? From that moment--even today (but not quite so strong)-He showed me the world as a classroom, everyone who comes as a messenger, every situation as a manifestation of love . . . and the lessons are of love and devo tion. I mean, all initiates are graced with the eyes to see His not-so-hidden ha nd working in our lives; but this was different. It was more seeing Him manifest ing and His words coming to life all around. Further, He showed (at some level) that there is nothing, nothing in this vast creation but the Master and the disc iple. That's all there is! This place is a training ground where He teaches the lesson of how to see only Him. So what's there to be afraid of? What to avoid? E xcept perhaps prolonging this separation and carrying around this selfish little self any longer than is absolutely necessary. This is the path of love; that lo ve comes from Him. Master teaches at all levels simultaneously. In his physical presence, for ex ample, he speaks some words to a group; some hear one thing, some hear other thi ngs, some hear little at all, and some are given inner awakening that could not have come from the words he spoke. So when he says to protect yourself--"Don't l ook into the eyes of others," "Don't touch others," "Don't accept presents,"--th ese rules are according to the law, "As you sow so shall you reap." This is true , of course, because he says so; but the highest law is love, and "Love knows no law." If we are loving, well, we cannot even see the bad radiation or karma. Lo

ve knows nothing of these things; it only knows and sees Him. Love knows giving even in receiving. How can we see and love the God in all others if we're afraid of the bad, unspiritual radiation? How can we serve and love the God in all oth ers if we're always thinking about our own selves? For the sake of protecting ou rselves, the principal commandments of loving all others and not offending a hum an heart are often broken; like being penny wise and pound foolish, as they say. But love, the very path that makes everything so easy and beautiful, comes only from Him. We spent about half of our visit up at Manav Kendra. If ever there was a Shan gri-La, that's it: indescribably beautiful--especially the hearts of our brother s and sisters. Master is the manifestation of God, and those we lived with and s hared love with for awhile are surely very pure manifestations of His love--livi ng examples, I would say. There loving service flows from hearts that don't seem to know anything about self interest. I mean people there seem to be going arou nd always giving their lives away to love, but not for any reward; rather becaus e that's what those lives are for. Looking into their eyes, the secret is there: they see only Him! No question of surrendering; they are felt to be constantly surrendering, like water over a falls. We tasted the truth of these words there. you see, because the radiation is so strong that the same love was stirred up i n us and our heads too were offered for awhile. Such a wonderful thing. By His grace I went to India with a pretty good understanding of my own incom petency. I could see that I really can not do the path, keep the commandments, k eep the diary and weed out, and do the spiritual practices accurately. All my ef forts great and small only seemed to lead eventually down some tunnel and out in to the cold again. The harder I tried the more mechanical life became and the le ss love there was. Many things were running through my head during our first few days there and I kept trying to put the confusion into a sensible question or t wo. Our gracious Master would come to us twice a day for Darshans--such happy ti mes! And I really wanted to see Him--I mean there was a great thirst in me to se e beyond the man. I looked very carefully and vcry long at that beautiful face a nd those eyes--each view was more beautiful than the last. You can never grow ti red. The mind reached out too, but still, there was no depth of satisfaction. Fi nally I thought, "I want to see You but I can't," and then He showed me somethin g of Himself. A brother who was leaving the next day asked Master at a Darshan a t Manav Kendra to please bless some small photos for his home satsang. Master sh uff led through them and looked them over. In laughing, jolly tones he asked, "W ho is this? Do you know?" The answer came back, "Why, that's you, Master." Then he grew quite serious and strong, and everything became very very still. I tell you truly, Nature came to attention. Powerful vibrating words came out of that m oment of stillness: "This is my physical body. Such things are meant only for sw eet remembrance." The life and authority in those words completely filled the ai r. That was an unforgettable experience with which He graced me when I realized my own incompetency. He showed me in so many ways that as long as we think we can do anything with out Him by changing this or that or doing one thing instead of another we must r emain all alone and lost. If you can do it yourself, you re welcome. And then, If not , seek the company of one who can help. I used to think that these words referred only to the initial experience; but truth is always true. All of our crutches a nd acting and posing instead of love for Him--all our attachments to anything ex cept Him--stand as subtle giants between each one of us and our Master. If only the significance, the truth, of this one fact could be conveyed. One day he told us a little story: A rat was making a pilgrimage to Mecca, a l ong way off. Running along the ground he saw a pigeon flying overhead. (You know pigeons can fly 70 miles per hour.) So the rat called to the pigeon, Where are y ou going? To Mecca, he replied. Will you take me? asked the rat. Out of compassion th e pigeon replied, Yes, most gladly, picked up the rat with his claws and carried h

im off to Mecca in no time. It s all His mercy and grace, you see, which comes in a s we wake up to our miserable state and utter helplessness to change it, and we sincerely ask for help from the Master, the Competent One. Another time the Beloved Master was answering a question at Darshan and it so unded like he was saying, you must do this and you must do that. And my own inco mpetency, my own helplessness, was pressing down very heavily and as Master was talking, I was bleeding, really hurting inside. I cannot remember feeling so low and helpless before. So my arm went up and when he nodded and smiled, out of me came the question, "Master, I'm very confused ... " (he smiled and noddcd again ). "The gift that you have to give to us is of pure love and grace; how can it b e earned or merited in any way?" With that out my attention flashed back to his shining eyes; there was nothing else. I was very very down low, but Dear God! wh en I looked into his eyes--it was overwhelming--he was much lower than me! So ge ntly, so lovingly, so pleadingly, he said, "Look here: keep my commandments. Rem ember me." Those words, that love, pierced my heart, and everything was so so cl ear. I understood that the commandments, the diary, the spiritual practices, are divine devices for drawing in and focusing our attention on Him. He, the Master , is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the Path to God, as well as our t rue home itself. Conscious contact with Him is all that is real. Everything was reduced to this one point which is truth and love. This is the path of remembran ce; but remembrance too is His. Everything is His. As I understand what the Master taught me, helplessness alone is ours. It is the mercy and grace of the God-in-man that awakens us to this fact and plants wi thin each of us a spark of His own life, a speck of yearning, that we lose again and again. That doesn't mean to suggest that we should be down in self pity and do nothing but wait for Him to come. We must carry on with both our worldly and spiritual work as best we can, trying to live up to what He says; but recognize that alI strength and progress come only through conscious contact with the God man, our Blessed Master. We should pray for that help, and when it comes, get on to the real path: the path of love. Seek Him, serve Him, love Him, in every acti on. If we struggle to take one step this way, He promises to come down a million . But the struggle, the one step, the seeking His help through prayer and rememb rance--these things are there too. The path is so simple! There are no special c ircumstances required; no acting and posing will help. It doesn't matter where w e are or what we have to do in the world; He is there. AlI that matters is where our devotion is as we go through the duties which come as a result of the desti ny karmas. The true relationship is a spiritual one and has only to do with wher e our faith is, where our hearts are attached; and nothing to do with the good o r bad karmas we must go through. Very natural, very simple, very truthful: we ha ve only to respond to His love by turning to Him each moment. Remembrance comes from yearning. Love comes from remembrance. Everything follows love. God has pro mised to give everything to the truly helpless who fall at His feet for mercy. N othing more is required; anything more is too much. God only knows how many more times these lessons will have to be learned before we surrender to the truth. When Master was told that we had to leave the next morning, he said, "That's all right. Go jolly; God will help you." The custom at the ashram is that those who are leaving have a "special" Darshan--whatever that means; all Darshan is sp ecial, blessed, priceless! We wanted to thank him in words too for the blessings we are having and especially for the grace in the form of such overwhelming les sons of love and devotion. He was so alive, very warm and personal with us, and he laughed one of his total laughs. When our Godman laughs, all creation seems t o come into that laughter and everyone around is floated On a wavy ocean of happ iness. He said, "Thank God. We may grow tired of receiving but He never grows ti red of giving." And then: "God bless you." He sent us back into the world for a while to find Him within ourselves and within all of creation, and to payoff our give and take cheerfully, gratefully and lovingly. The last few minutes he gave us were so powerful and love-filled. Like a good teacher, he summarized the imp

ortant lessons. Like a loving father or dear friend, he gave out his best advice . Like God Himself he graciously and lovingly pointed once more to the homeward path. He said, "REMAIN IN CONTACT."

Set Your House in Order By Tracy Leddy (from The Song of Everything) Partway up the mountainside, the Pilgrim lay sprawled in the rubble. Tremblin g, miserable, unable to go any further, he was too exhausted even to move his fa ce in the dirt. He lay there, trying with all his might to dispel the shadows be fore his eyes which had caused his fall. But the shadows would not go away. They cIung to his eyes, to the space behind his eyes; they held him fast. At length the Pilgrim groaned and cried aloud, "Lord, what is to become of me? I am besieg ed -- I cannot move!" Suddenly there was a great stillness around him and a great warmth. Something touched his outstretched hand. The Pilgrim slowly roused himself and looked up, squinting through the ceaseless flow of shadows around his head. His Lord stood before him, a man like any other man, except for the great stillness, except fo r the great warmth which surrounded him. On His face was a look of such profound understanding and compassion, the Pilgrim wept anew to see it. "I wanted so much to come to You," he sobbed. " I started out so boldly, with such zeal... "

"What of your house?" asked the Lord. "Oh, that place! I left it long ago." The Pilgrim shuddered at the memory of it. "It was too dark and gloomy and cold." The look of compassion deepened on the Lord's face. "Dear friend," He murmure d, . "obviously it hasn't left you. Matters are not at rest there or you would n ot be beset by shadows now. You must set your house in order before you can come to me." "Oh no!" moaned the Pilgrim. "I don't want to go all the way back down there! It's so far behind me now and--and--there are rooms in it I have never entered ... Please help me to continue on my way up the mountain; don't send me back dow n there!" "Beloved friend, there is no other way," replied the Lord. "Your house must b e in order, completely in order, before you can come to me. Look what a paltry s elf you bring me--a weak and fearful creature who stumbles at shadows! Is it not said, Thou shalt love thy Lord with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength? Come to me in fullness--not in fear! Go and open all those doors, one by one; fill the place with light; sweep out every co rner until there is no darkness anywhere. When the task is done, I myself will c ome and get you." The Pilgrim wept and stormed and begged and wrung his hands, to no avail. His Lord's words were hard, the very last words he had wanted to hear. But instead of sympathizing, the figure before him grew stern and commanded him: "I tell you , set your house in order or journey not toward me." And with this final pronoun cement, He was gone. Teeth chattering and limbs shaking, but fire burning in his heart, the Pilgri m made his way slowly back down the mountainside. The air around him became incr easingly dense with shadows until he found himself flailing his arms continuousl y to keep any open vision as he retraced his steps toward home. Wearily he turned out the key from its hiding place in an old flowerpot, unlo cked the front door, went in and sat down. Fresh tears fell as he looked around him at the dust, the cobwebs, the cold hearth. But, "Lo! I am with you always!" sang to him suddenly out of the fire in his heart and the Pilgrim knew, even tho ugh at the moment he hated being here, that he had come to the right place and t hat somehow everything would be all right. It took months for the Pilgrim to do even the most superficial deaning. He ha d always thought he kept a decent house but closer examination revealed many une xpected messes he had never noticed before. And it took nearly a year before the Pilgrim had gained enough courage to sta nd in front of the first of the four unopened doors, knowing now that he was str ong enongh to open it and enter the room and face and conquer, nay, even befrien d whatever awaited him there. Shadows crowded around him, in front of his eyes, in the space behind his eye s, and suddenly he was seized with terror, shaking and choking with it; and from the depths of his heart came the cry, "I'm scared! I'm so scared!" And with the strength of this cry he opened the door and rushed inside. Instantly all the sh adows vanished and he saw to his amazement a shadowy figure, very like himself, cowering and quaking and sniveling in the middle of a dismal empty room. The Pil grim's heart went out to the poor creature. "Come," he said, "you shall sup with me tonight." And he took it by the hand and led it back along the corridor into the central chamber in the house where there was a long table set in front of a

blazing fire. And then he went back to the first room and opened all the windows and lit al l the lamps and washed and scrubbed and scoured until there wasn't the shadow of a shadow of the fear that had lived in there so long. The Pilgrim lived with fear for some time and they became intimate friends, u ntil there was nothing the Pilgrim did not know about fear. But strangely enough , the longer their friendship continued, the fainter the shadowy figure became u ntil one day, in the bright sunlight which came through the huge skylight in the central chamber, fear was not there at all. And the Pilgrim set his jaw and tur ned his attention and his footsteps toward the second door. He stood in front of this one, knowing that he now had the strength to open i t and enter the room and face and conquer, yes, even befriend whatever awaited h im there. But again shadows crowded around him, in front of his eyes, in the spa ce behind his eyes, and suddenly he was filled with pain, every muscle, every ne rve, every organ in his body was shrieking, "I hurt! Oh, I hurt!" and with the s trength of this cry, he opened the door and rushed inside. Immediately all the s hadows vanished and he found to his surprise a shadowy figure, very like himself , doubled up and writhing on the bare floor. It was clutching its stomach as tho ugh it had a spear or an arrow in it which it was struggling to remove. "Oh you poor thing!" gasped the Pilgrim, "come along out of here and let me try to help you." He put his arms gently around the creature and led it into the light and w armth of the great central chamber in which he spent most of his time. Then the Pilgrim went back to the second room and opened all the windows and lit all the lamps and dusted and swept and polished until there wasn t the shadow of a shadow of the pain that had lived in there so long. Pain and the Pilgrim spent much time together. They too became intimate frien ds until there was no more sorrow, no anguish in this world the Pilgrim did not know. But strangely enough, the longer their friendship continued, the fainter t he shadowy figure became until one day, as evening light shone throughthe sparkl ing window on the western side of the fireplace, pain was not there at alI. And the Pilgrim took a deep breath and made his way toward the third door. This time the shadows assailed him in the corridor and raged around his head until he almost lost his courage, thought he was going mad, and turned into the safe familiarity of the chamber. But---"Stop!" sang the voice inthe depths of hi s burning heart, have you forgotten I am with you always? Who do you think, Belov ed, is doing all this work?" Both ashamed and heartened, the Pilgrim reset his s teps grimly toward the third door. The heat was overpowering, and it was nothing like the warmth of the Lord. It was a red-hot blast, a passionate fury which en gulfed him as he stood there. From his fingertips, his toes, his bowels, his ent ire being, he felt the violence boiling up and, opening his throat and roaring w ith total anger, he threw the door open and strode inside. The heat stopped abru ptly. The shadowy leonine figure which looked just like him snarling and pacing the floor in the dimly lighted room did not surprise the Pilgrim. Come on, he said bravely, taking a firm grip on the creature s arms, you and I will have much to ta lk about. Well, it took a longer time than either fear or pain did, but the Pilgrim eve ntually made friends with anger, too. And at last the shadowy figure that was th e Pilgrim s anger disappeared from his house in much the same way as fear and pain . This left only one more unopened door, but it was many years before the Pilgr im could bring himself to face it. One day he was thinking of his Lord and remem bering that He had said the house must be completely in order before--before any

thing really good could happen and, as the fire in his heart burned particularly brightly that day, he found himself stiffening his shoulders for this last, mos t difficult foray. The shadows were more than shadows which clung to his eyes, to the space behi nd the eyes, this time: shapes, moving, sinuous, twining shapes, like temple rel iefs, like old frescoes and paintings, like words from books given bodies; and h e felt his skin prickle and go hot and the rest of his body throbbed with delici ous, delightful sensations. "Oh," he groaned, "I want it, I need it, I love it!" and he threw himself into the room. A shadowy figure, half male, half female, o pened its arms to him from an enormous bed. "Yes," he said, gazing at the figure with infinite pity, "finally you and I will become friends too." And he drew th e amorous creature forth from the shadows and into the clear light of the great central chamber. No one knows how long the Pilgrim's friendship with physical desire lasted; b ut let it be known that he learned all that he needed to learn. And when shadowy creature that was the Pilgrim s own sensuality finally disappeared into the brigh t air as the others had before it and the house had no darkness in it anywhere a t all, the Pilgrim was at peace and thought his task was done. It was not so. The Pilgrim lay in front of the hearth one night and in a drea m he saw a small door opening and a long bony hand reaching around to grasp his hand. In this dream the Pilgrim tried to close that door but there had been no l ock on it and the bony hand had reached for him again. The Pilgrim awakened in a cold sweat with his heart pounding. "It was Death," he said to himself. "Fool that I am, I have not yet made a friend of Death!" An d without a moment's hesitation, he scrambled up into an old forgotten attic on one end of the house and opened the fifth and very last door ... But instead of bony fingers and the dampness of the tomb, there was a familia r stillness and a singing light. "It is I, Beloved," said the Lord. " I promised I would come for you when your house was completely in order and so I have." His face radiant with the fullness of his understanding and his heart filled with love and trust, the Pilgrim went back up the mountainside in the company of his Lord.

Dark Night of the Soul The Divine assails the soul in order to renew it and thus make it Divine; and, stripping it of the habitual affections and attachments of the old man, to whic h it is very closely united, knit together and conformed, destroys and consumes its spiritual substance, and absorbs it in deep and profound darkness. As a resu lt of this, the soul feels itself to be perishing and melting away, in the prese nce and sight of its miseries, in a cruel spiritual death. (1) "The soul must needs be in all its parts reduced to a state of emptiness, pov erty and abandonment and must be left dry and empty and in darkness. For the sen sible part is purified in aridity, the faculties are purified in the emptiness o f their perceptions, and the spirit is purified in thick darkness.....All of thi s God brings to pass by means of this dark contemplation; wherein the soul not o nly suffers this emptiness and the suspension of these natural supports and perc eptions, which is a most afflictive suffering (as if a man were suspended or hel d in air so that he could not breath), but likewise He is purging the soul, anni hilating it, emptying it or consuming in it (even as fire consumes the mouldines s and the rust of metal) all the affections and imperfect habits which it has co ntracted in its whole life. Since these are deeply rooted in the substance of th e soul, it is wont to suffer great undoing and inward torment, besides the said poverty and emptiness, natural and spiritual...Here God greatly humbles the soul in order that he may afterwards greatly exalt it; and if he ordained not that, when these feelings arise within the soul, they should speedily be fulfilled, it would die in a very short space; but there are only occasional periods when it is conscious of their greatest intensity. At times, however, they are so keen th at the soul seems to be seeing hell and perdition opened." (2) "It is well for the soul to perform no operation touching spiritual things at this time and to have no pleasure in such things, because its faculties and des ires are base, impure, and wholly natural; and thus, although these faculties be given the desire and interest in things supernatural and Divine, they could not receive them save after a base and natural manner, exactly in their own fashion ...All these faculties and desires of the soul..come to be prepared and tempered in such a way as to be able to receive, feel and taste that which is Divine and supernatural after a sublime and lofty manner, which is impossible if the old m an not die first of all." (3) "And when the soul suffers the direct assault of this Divine Light, its pain, which results from its impurity, is immense; because, when this pure light assa

ils the soul, in order to expel its impurity, the soul feels itself to be so imp ure and miserable that it believes God to be against it, and thinks that it has set itself up against God. This causes it sore grief and pain, because it now be lieves that God has cast it away...the soul now sees its impurities clearly (alt hough darkly), and knows it is unworthy of God or of any creature. And what give s it the most pain is that it thinks that it will never be worthy and that its g ood things are all over for it. This is caused by the profound immersion of its spirit in the knowledge and realization of its evils and miseries, for this Divi ne and dark light now reveals them all to the eye, that it may see clearly how i n its own strength it can never have aught else...When this Divine contemplation assails the soul with a certain force, in order to strengthen it and subdue it, it suffers such pain in its weakness that it nearly swoons away..for sense and spirit, as if beneath some immense and dark load, are in such great pain and ago ny that the soul would find advantage and relief in death." (4) "It is clear that God grants the soul in this state the favor of purging it a nd healing it with this strong lye of bitter purgation, according to its spiritu al and sensual part, of all the imperfect habits and affections which it had wit hin itself with respect to temporal things and to natural, sensual and spiritual things, its inward faculties being darkened, and voided of all these, its spiri tual and sensual affections being constrained and dried up, and its natural ener gies being attenuated and weakened with respect to all this (a condition which i t could never attain of itself, as we shall shortly say). In this way God makes it to die to all that is not naturally God, so that, once it is stripped and den uded of its former self, he may clothe it anew. And thus its youth is renewed li ke the eagle's and it is clothed with the new man, which, as the Apostle says, i s created according to God." (5) "Wherefore the soul that God sets in this tempetuous and horrible night is deser ving of great compassion...by reason of the dreadful pain which the soul is suff ering, and of the great uncertainty which it has concerning the remedy for it, s ince it believes..that its evil will never end... It suffers great pain and grie f, since there is added to all this (because of the solitude and abandonment cau sed in it by this dark night) the fact that it finds no consolation or support i n any instruction nor in a spiritual master. For, although in many ways the dire ctor may show it good reason for being comforted because of the blessings which are contained in these afflictions, it cannot believe him. For it is so greatly absorbed and immersed in the realization of those evils wherein it sees its own miseries so clearly, that it thinks, as its director observes not that which it sees and feels, he is speaking in this manner because he understands it not; and so, instead of comfort, it rather receives fresh affliction, since it believes that its director's advice contains no remedy for its troubles. And, in truth, t his is so; for, until the Lord shall have completely purged it after the manner that He wills, no means or remedy is of any service or profit for the relief of its affliction; the more so because the soul is as powerless in this case as one who has been imprisoned in a dark dungeon, and is bound hand and foot, and can neither move nor see, nor feel any favour whether from above or from below, unti l the spirit is humbled, softened, and purified, and grows so keen and delicate and pure that it can become one with the Spirit of God, according to the degree of union of love which His mercy is pleased to grant it." (6) "The Dark Night is not the result of any physical suffering or personal misfo rtune: it comes from a subtler cause. It induces a depression of enormous weight ...The sombre loneliness experienced during the Dark Night of the Soul is unique . No other kind of loneliness duplicates it either in nature or acuteness... It creates the feeling of absolute rejection, of being an outcast...A terrible inne r numbness, an unbearable emptiness, is a prominent feature of the spiritual dar k night...The situation is really paradoxical and beyond correct appraisal by th e conscious mind, certainly by the suffering ego. He is being made to learn, by the severest experience, that the divine reality must not be confused with his c

onscious reactions to it, nor with his mental reactions to it, nor even with his emotional reactions to it, that it belongs to an unknown and unknowable realm t hat transcends human faculties and defies human perceptions...It is not enough t o recognize the Real in its homeland alone; he must be trained to recognize it u nder all conditions, even when it is hidden under thick illusion, even in the lo west ebb of the soul's dark night." (7)

The Deeper Meaning of the Dark Night of the Soul: SPIRITUAL CRISES AND BREAKTHROUGHS IN CHRISTIAN AND BUDDHIST TRADITIONS by Peter Holleran Prelude "The sugar cane yields its sweet juice only after it has been crushed relentl essly in a mill. The human entity yields its noblest traits and truest wisdom on ly after it has been crushed repeatedly in the mill of anguish." - Paul Brunton (1)

No one has been united to his Beloved through mirth. Whoever has attained comm union with him has done so after shedding many tears. If it were possible to mee t the beloved while laughing and in a state of comfort, why should one suffer th e anguish of separation? The people of the world are happy. They eat and sleep. Kabir alone is unhappy. He is awake and is crying. - Kabir "We are people of little faith and fail to recognize and appreciate the hand which guides and which sustains. Hazur (Baba Sawan Singh Ji) used to say that on ce a saint has taken a soul under his wing, he is keen to compress the progress of twenty births into a single one. And if we desire to pack the accomplishments of twenty lives into a single one, we must pay for it." - Sant Darshan Singh "I realize that no contemplative path wants to advertise the cross or the suf fering entailed in the crossing over. On the other hand we must not be naive abo ut this or in any way mislead others. The truth is that getting to the other sho re will stretch the human limits to the breaking point, and not once, but again and again. Who can take it? it is not for nothing that the cross is the central Christian symbol." - Bernadette Roberts Part One St. John of the Cross was described by Thomas Merton as the greatest of all my stical theologians", and his writing stands at the pinnacle of the Christian eso teric tradition. The Dark Night of the Soul, his best known work, is considered a peerless account of spiritual blindness and its eradication by divine grace, a nd his astute analysis and advice have meaning and usefulness for many who find themselves in an apparent impasse or quandary on the path. To examine in detail the lesser known aspects and inner significance of this phenomenon is the purpos e of this article. All mistakes are those of the author, whose only claim is tha t of writer, researcher, and fellow seeker after truth. As the subject matter is rather obscure and goes beyond that of conventional religious understanding som e background in philosophy and mysticism, both theoretical and practical, is ass umed on the part of the reader. Also, the hyperlinks in this piece are very impo rtant and add much to the discussion. However, since many are substantial entrie s themselves they might best be more fully studied on a second reading in order to better maintain the flow of argument the first time through. In essence, the famed "dark night" is considered by some to be a transitional phase between a long novitiate of self-effort to a more direct path of self-tra nscendance, from a time of reliance on the ego to one of reliance on and transfo rmation by the divine, from belief in a personal self to knowledge of its unreal ity, from identification with the ego to identification with the higher Self, an d the very Self of conscious-being that you are, and from the feeling of the sou l being somehow inside the body to that of the body also being inside of the gre ater Soul. It brings a thorough purgation where the personal will passes through existential hopelessness, and increasingly becomes sacrificed to the divine wil l. It produces a complete metamorphosis wherein ones conception of self and worl d are literally turned inside out. While it has been written about and experienc ed on many levels, and may perhaps be considered a metaphor for much of the spir itual path itself, St. John, while somewhat confined to the world-view of his ti me, specifically states: "Into this dark night souls begin to enter when God draws them forth from the state of beginners - which is the state of those that meditate on the spiritual road - and begins to set them in the state of the progressives - which is that of those who are already contemplatives - to the end that, after passing through it, they may arrive at the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine un ion of the soul with God." (2)

The authentic dark night is thus nothing less than a compassionate and benefi cent gift of God. It is 'the wound that only God can heal'. As Prophet Muhammed spaketh: "If Allah touch thee with affliction, none can remove it but He." - Qur'an 6: 17 A deep understanding of the 'dark night of the soul' requires a mature unders tanding of what the Soul actually is. For it means different things in different traditions of thought. Most commonly it is thought of as a 'spark of the divine ', an individual spirit that, through this process, becomes 'purified' of all wo rldly dross and fitted to enjoy heavenly bliss, or even a felt 'union' with a Go d initially at least conceived of as separate from it. This is the most frequent mystical view. However, as will be made plain in Part Two, it really goes far b eyond that, and is a death of the whole being conceived as an ego-soul or separa te individual, that is, an individual separated from infinite consciousness or r eality. Through it - and one cannot will this to happen, in fact, the individual will is what is fundamentally transmuted in this process - one undergoes a meta morphosis not unlike a caterpillar dissolving in its cocoon and becoming a new s pecies, a new birth. It may be equated with what the islamic Sufis call fana and baqa, or annihilation and resurrection in God. As the word God, however, has so many dualistic, theistic connotations, one may prefer to call this 'rebirth as consciousness', with the body and personality also reborn and not annihilated. T hey are in fact more real than before, as they are known in a non-dualistic, non -separate manner. One really is a new creature, an evolutionary 'mutation', if y ou will, seeing things from a totally different perspective. If carried to its p roper depth, the dark night process trancends while including such conventional 'soul' consciousness (including that expressed by traditional yoga and mysticism ) leaving one alive and embodied as consciousness itself, and awakened to its di vine implications. Much depends on what one considers to be the soul, as we said. The ancient Gr eeks, in our opinion, were in advance of later developments of yoga and mysticis m in their conception of the soul. I am thinking especially of Plotinus, for who m the soul was a transcendental verity, pure consciousness, but still itself an emanation from three eternal principles or hypostases: one with Absolute Soul or the 'mother Soul' (soul being considered as a 'one and many'), a ray of the 'In tellectual Principle, Nous or Divine Mind (considered as a one inmany, the divin ity within each soul), and a point in the One itself. The soul is transcendent t o and immanent in manifestation (the full realization of the soul's nature as su ch being a nondual one), which 'divine cosmic idea' is projected through the sou l by the Intellectual Principle or Divine Mind (that which 'knows the soul' and by which the soul 'knows' itself), and which Divine Intellect is inseparable fro m the One. Thus soul is also ultimately rooted in the One. All of these higher P rinciples are of the nature of Void-Mind, as is the soul; hence, the realization of the soul, and many nondual realizations, are often mistaken for even higher, or deeper, realizations. When the aspirant knows the Soul and is united with it - the fruit of the three traditional stages of medieval mysticism [the purgativ e, illuminative, and unitive ways] - it can then know something of its Higher Pr inciples. It can then know that God Is and know something about it. This higher knowing was generally not attained in traditional mysticism, East or West. Soul will not unite with God, but it can know its oneness and non-separation from God . We are getting ahead of ourselves here, for this is a much larger discussion, reserved for several other articles on this site. This article is of much more of a practical nature. The chief point to get across right now is that for the a ncient great philosopher-sages, the soul wasn't only a 'spark' or piece of God t hat simply got inserted in a body, but meant much more. It is of the nature of u niversal being, consciousness, void, and also inseparably linked with manifestat

ion. In modern times, Sri Aurobindo also spoke of three eternal principles: soul , universal Spirit, and absolute Spirit. Cypriote mystic Daskalos taught that th e true nature of the soul, itself eternal and beyond time and space, was the 'Go d within', called Pneuma in Greek, eternally at one with Absolute Beingness. The Indian sage of the last century, Ramana Maharshi, of course, championed a view of consciousness that transcended anything associated with individuated consciou sness. To realize that ground of Being, however, the first stage towards a true divine life, requires a 'death', a death of egoism that only a ripe, i.e., matur e, person can make. Paradoxically, the person or ego must mature and 'ripen', be fore it is capable of the sacrifice of itself which enlightenment entails. Fools don't get enlightened. And even more paradoxically, this eventual realization i s often preceded or accompanied by a definitive failure of willful efforts to tr anscend, avoid, negate, abstract oneself from, detach, eliminate, or escape the world, the body, the ego, or whatever one conceives of as the source of one's bo ndage as a separate being! This, in some form unique to the individual, requires a passage through a black hole of existential pain. No one really wants that, w hich is why the dark night of the soul comes only to those who are ready for it, for whom the alternatives, worldly and spiritual, have failed in some fundament al way. And, to repeat, this often requires that one has in this or some other l ifetime fulfilled or seriously applied oneself to the use of the heart, mind and intentionality in order to 'better' oneself, even though such efforts, while pa rtially successful, will not really succeed. Why? Because of what St. John calls 'spiritual blindness', that is, the blindness that comes with seeing oneself as a separate being in a world of others and objects. It fundamentally comes down to the intransigence of self-will, or the will to be separate. Such a conception of the dark night is, certainly, not the traditional one. I am not even sure if St. John himself was aware of these depths. He was far in a dvance of his time, but also bound to allegiance to the Church. But I suspect th at he knew more than what he wrote, but lacked the language to express it fully. In any case, this will hopefully become clear as we proceed in this paper. If w hat has been discussed briefly so far is too complex, have no fear, relax and pr oceed, the rest will be easier and speak to the heart more directly. The essence of the matter at hand is really quite simple. According to St. John, the true Divine Light (not mystically perceived light) is dark to the soul (ego), so when its influence is most potent one often feels as if he is losing ground. Thus, even with the help of those who have gone befo re, the aspirant finds himself on a necessarily secret path. St. John uses the w ords, "in darkness and secure...in secret, when none saw me...without light or g uide," to highlight the sense of unknowing and bewilderment confronting the soul at this stage. A great undoing is necessary, he says, to prepare the soul for u nion or identity with the divine or higher Self, since it is so thoroughly ident ified with the Old Man . This undoing he describes in terms of two nights , the night of sense and the night of spirit. The first is bitter and terrible , and makes perf ormance of spiritual exercises useless and futile, for varying periods of time, while the second night is horrible and awful , undermining the individual at his ro ots. The dark night, therefore, presents itself at the outset as a reward/punish ment. Many may enter the first night, but few the second, says St. John, accordi ng to the grace of God, which essentially comes to prepared souls for the purpos e of producing the purified disposition capable of perceiving and receiving the sublime self-transcending touches of divine grace and realization, which, essent ially, produce a non-separate person. This, to say the least, is a big thing. During the course of ones initial approach to spiritual practise, grace or th e apparent fruit of ones effort often manifests in the beginning with the gift o f visions, positive emotions, interiorization of attention, and experiences of s ubtle energies. These are a glimpse of things to come and a form of incentive fo r the seeker to persevere in spiritual work. For St. John, the dark night genera lly only comes to those souls who have completed this initial stage and enjoyed

many such "sweets," which were gifts to wean them from complete attachment to th e world, or from a materialistic viewpoint. This is the traditional mystical por trayal of the dark night. It may no longer be necessary or even appropriate for one to achieve such success or even pursue it for the dark night experience to s ettle into one's bones, as it were. It may take many forms. For St. John, howeve r, in order to progress further, these experiences must fade, and true tests of will, determination, patience, discrimination, and understanding will come to th e aspirant, who may then feel as if he has been abandoned, whereas, in truth, th is is not so. He is actually being brought to a new stage in which he is humbled , purified, emptied of self-satisfaction, and prepared for a more permanent real ization of his essential Self or Soul, wherein he will also be able to perceive things in a divine or universal manner, rather than a personal or egoic one, whi ch he could not do otherwise as a beginner, due to his inherent ignorance. In th is third and final stage, even the world, as well as the personal self, are no l onger negated, or even avoided, but are spiritualized or seen as existing in and as God or, in more philosophic traditions, Mind or Consciousness. Here one is r eminded of Ramakrishna's famous reply to Vivekananda, when the latter said that he wished to experience nirvikalpa samadhi for days on end: "You fool! Mystic tr ance is a trifling thing for you. There is a state much higher than that." In other words, since the aspirant, crystalized, contracted, and misidentifie d as an ego, cannot help but unconsciously conceive of his goal in the form of a personal attainment, it is inevitable at some point that there will be a spirit ual impasse. Much of this will depend on the individual karmas and/or relationsh ip one has with an enlightened Teacher, and the form of practise that he engages . One contemporary mystic has suggested that perhaps no more than one in four wi ll undergo a dark night similar to that which St. John has described. In its mos t precise details, my guess is that it is far fewer than that. However, since fi rst drafting this article some years ago, I have come to feel that everyone will and must pass through a similar process, sooner or later. In any case it is not something one 'willfully' chooses, nor is it to be casually entertained. Anthon y Damiani, a teacher of mine, who confessed to experiencing jnana samadhi at age forty-five and later having a stable realization of the witness self, spoke to his students once about this kind of "soul death". He said: "The mystics say to God, "more pain, more pain." - No! I don't want it. I know what I am. We're not strong enough. Don't ask for such a thing." Nevertheless Anthony said that one m ust really come to see how powerless he is to change himself. And, generally (al ways generally, for nothing is the same for each and all), the only way for that to happen is for one to try to do so! He states: "You're going to go out and seek that? Who are you, Saint Francis?! We're tal king about an ego-crushing experience! You are not going to come out better for it, you're going to come out a little humble. That's called eating crow. If you didn't eat crow, that's not the ego-crushing experience..Once that happens there is something made available. You are opened up a little bit, but usually it tak es the whole cosmos to do it...for most of us it really has to be delivered. We' re put through it...But as long as the ego has that persistant arrogance and a w hole network of defense mechanisms to block out anything from coming in, it's no t going to get that Grace; so the world has to come and crush it so that a littl e Grace might come in. But no one willingly goes out to seek it, take my word fo r it." (3) Of this experience Paul Brunton, whose extensive writings will be referred to frequently in this article, tells us: In that state there is also a work being done for him by Grace, but it is deep in the subconscious mind far beyond his sight and beyond his control....In that terrible darkness he will find himself absolutely alone, able to depend on noth ing else than what he finds within his own innermost being. Without anyone to gu ide him and with none to companion him, he will have to learn an utter self-reli

ance..It is useless to complain of the terror of this experience for, from the f irst moment that he gave his allegiance to this quest, he unconsciously invited its onset. It had to come even though the day of its coming was yet far off....D uring this period the mystic will feel forsaken, emotionally fatigued and intell ectually bored to such a degree that he may become a sick soul. Meditation exerc ises will be impossible and fruitless, aspirations dead and uninviting. A sense of terrible loneliness willl envelop him...He feels lost, becomes fearful, repro aches himself with sins fancied or real, and thinks he is now permanently estran ged from God as a punishment. Such is the "Dark Night"....The raptures, the aspi rations, the devotions may be repeated many times, but in the end they are seen as part of the ever-changing picture which life itself is seen to be. Moreover i n "the dark night of the soul" they die off altogether....How real is his experi ence of the Overself [Soul], or how near he is to it, must not always be measure d by his emotional feeling of it. The deep inward calm is a better scale to use. But even this vanishes in the "dark night"....It is not enough to recognize the Real in its own homeland alone; he must be trained to recognize it under all co nditions, even when it is hidden under dark illusion, even in the lowest ebb of the soul's dark night." (4) Madame Guyon states: "He gives us some token of His immediate presence, as if to assure the soul f or a moment, that He was with it in its tribulation. I say for a moment, for it is of no service subsequently as a support, but is rather intended to point out the way and invite the soul to further loss of self." Brunton goes on to say that, in general, while most aspirants are tested to s ome degree in this way, the dark night occurs in its truest form to those who ha ve already achieved what he terms the second degree of contemplation, or rapt in ward absorption and advanced mysticism, and serves to prepare them for the third stage, or union with the Soul or Overself. He therefore concurs with the suppos ition that the dark night is a profound purification and not for beginners, who have yet to proceed very far on the spiritual path nor have had a true spiritual glimpse, and who would therefore not be able to endure or profit from this extr eme purgation: "The Overself demands a sacrifice upon its altar so utter, so complete that e ven the innocent natural longing for personal happiness must be offered up. As n o novice and few intermediates could bear this dark night of the soul, and as ev en proficients cannot bear it without murmuring, it is reserved for the last gro up alone - which means it happens at an advanced stage along the path, between a period of great illumination, and another of sublime union." "When the dark night comes, its effect stuns him. His eager aspirations fade away into despondency and his spiritual exercises fall into disuse. Nothing that happens around him seems to matter, and everything seems so aimless, futile, or trivial. He has to force himself to go on living outwardly as usual. His will i s listless and his emotion leaden. He feels inwardly dead, hardly aware of anyth ing except his own state...The inner nature becomes stiff, muscle-bound, unrespo nsive to the joyous evidences and serene intimations of the Overself. What is ev en worse, bringing a dark hopelessness with it, is the fear that this will becom e a permanent state...When this drying up of all aspirations comes upon him with out any traceable cause, the beauty and warmth of past intuitive feeling or myst ical experience will seem unreal." (Notebooks, Vol. 15, Part I, 3.1, 3.8, 3.10, 3.19) Again, we repeat that it may no longer be necessary for the aspirant to pursu e an extended course of mysticism or yoga to penetrate to the root of consciousn ess. Ramana Maharshi made this clear. It might be noted, further, in reflecting upon this particular observation of Brunton that one must take the long view. Th

ere is the possibility, for instance, that in some cases a person may have alrea dy achieved an advanced degree of meditation in a prior incarnation and then spe nd much of his present life in a dark night ordeal, without appearing to have co nsciously passed through every classic stage prior to it. Or he may have simply deeply seen and felt the futility of a life lived in separation, no matter how a pparently successful, in either worldly or 'spiritual' terms. Thus one should no t necessarily expect to see all of these stages occur in a linear fashion in any one lifetime in order for the dark night experience to be genuine. This reasoni ng applies equally to those rare beings who seems to awaken suddenly without any apparent effort or spiritual discipline. It must be assumed that much was accom plished in prior lifetimes. Nor can we say that the classic dark night itself an d all of the various stages are required experiences. It is just that they occur , and must be accounted for. However, all must pass through a dreaded black vort ex, an abyss, to be born again from the ground up. "Is insight achieved gradually or suddenly, as the Zen Buddhists claim? Here again both claims are correct, if taken together as parts of a larger and fuller view. We have to begin by cultivating intuitive feelings. These come to us infr equently at first and so the process is a gradual and long one. Eventually, we r each a point, a very advanced point, where the ego sees its own limitation, perc eives its helplessness and dependence, realizes that it cannot lift itself up in to the final illuminations. It should then surrender itself wholly to the Overse lf and cast its further development on the mercy and Grace of the power beyond i t. It will then have to go through a waiting period of seeming inactivity, spiri tual stagnation, and inability to feel the fervour of devotion which it formally felt. This is a kind of dark night of the soul. Then, slowly, it begins to come out of this phase, which is often accompanied by mental depression and emotiona l frustration into a higher phase where it feels utterly resigned to the will of God or destiny, calm and peaceful in the sense of accepting that higher will an d not in any joyous sense, patiently waiting for the time when the infinite wisd om will bring it what it once sought so ardently but what it is now as detached from as it is detached from worldly ambitions. After this phase there will come suddenly unexpectedly and in the dead of night, as it were, a tremendous Realiza tion of the egoless state, a tremendous feeling of liberation from itself as it has known itself, a tremendous awareness of the infinitude, universality, and in telligence of life. With that, new perceptions into the Laws of the cosmos will suddenly unfold themselves. The seeker must thus pass from intuition into insigh t." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 2.55) [For the complete explanation of PB's views on the Dark Night of the Soul see Vol. 15, Part 1, Chapter Three. PB lucidly portrays it as a relatively inevitab le transition between a 'Long Path' of self-effort, discipline, and meditation, and a 'Short Path' of surrender, grace, and infused contemplation.] While for some this night serves to break down what has been termed "wrong cr ystalization", wherein the ego has become spiritualized yet remains intact, its greater purpose, as we have tried to explain, goes beyond classic purgation to p repare an aspirant to advance beyond mystical experience itself (up to and inclu ding even nirvikalpa samadhi or the Void, the highest or deepest interior trance state) to that of sahaj, or a lasting non-dual enlightenment, in which one not only feels himself as Soul, or, in more modern terms, Consciousness-Being, but k nows its true nature under all conditions, both within and without, and sees the world and others as both distinct and non-distinct from one's own self. It is t rue, of course, the entire affair is paradoxical, since realization has been des cribed as the awakening to the fact that there is 'no one' (no exclusively empir ical conditioned being) to be realized, and such in fact is considered a disting uishing characteristic of every true spiritual glimpse. Even if one understands this, however, and has had many such glimpses, to become stable in this conditio n involves an ordeal, as the vasanas or tendencies of egoity are not so easily d ismissed. Truly awakening as conscious-being through the portal of the broken-he

art makes one more in touch with his humanity - his divine humanity - and all hi s parts come back to be embraced and known as 'non-other'. Thus, a confrontation with 'shadow' material may continue long after one's initial true awakening. [A nd, although it is beyond the scope of this article, the conclusion that there i s 'no one' to be realized is only the case empirically or phenomenally, for it i s the true soul, in fact, that is realized, beyond all thought and conception. T o say that there is only the one, Absolute, non-dual Self that becomes known onc e the realm of thought or mind has been transcended, is a conclusion and assumpt ion of ancient Vedanta and Buddhism, in which only an impersonal expression of r ealization was made, but which has not gone unchallenged. This, it might be said , is an outdated 'static' vision of realization, for each such realizer is still alive in a world where there are other such realizers who also know themselves as the 'Absolute', yet interacting on a human, personal level in a dynamic fashi on! What is being suggested is that the languaging of realization needs upgradin g. For more on this thought see Dual Non-Dualism on this website]. The German mystic Tauler, in one of his Sunday sermons, said: Think not that God will always be caressing his children, or shine upon their head, or kindle their hearts as He does at the first. He does so only to lure us to Himself, as the falconer lures the falcon with its gay hood...We must stir u p and rouse ourselves and be content to leave off learning, and no more enjoy st rong feeling and warmth, and must now serve the Lord with strenuous industry and at our own cost. (5) Evelyn Underhill, in the classic work Mysticism , offers an in-depth consider ation of the process of the dark night. In one passage she writes: In Illumination, the soul, basking in the Uncreated Light, identified the Divi ne Nature with the divine light and sweetness which it enjoyed. Its consciousnes s of the transcendant was chiefly felt as an increase of personal vision and per sonal joy. Thus, in that apparently selfless state, the I, the Me, and the Mine , t hough spiritualized, still remains intact. The mortification of the senses was m ore than repaid by the rich and happy life which this mortification conferred up on the soul. But before the whole self can learn to love on those high levels wh ere - its being utterly surrendered to the Infinite Will - it can be wholly tran smuted in God, merged in the great life of the All, this dependence on personal joys must be done away. The spark of the soul must so invade every corner of cha racter that the self can only say with St. Catherine of Genoa, my me is God: nor do I know my selfhood except in God. (6) Brunton wrote that the ego may in fact welcome a "large attrition of its scop e" (Notebooks, Vol 6, 8:4.167), through religious, yogic and mystical discipline s, without being serious about its final undoing. That is, while the ego is posi tive in that it is part of the intelligence of the soul and when so aligned is a help in getting started and navigating the quest, at some point it becomes appa rent that it will agree to cooperate with the seeker so long as it can preserve itself. Its deviousness and cunning become more subtle. The problem forced towar ds a conclusion by the dark night is the very unraveling of egoism at its core. For even in the higher reaches of mystical experience, the thought, feeling, ten dency or activity of I-ness (ego or ahamkara), remains, and may actually, in fac t, be perceived as or identified with the infinite expanse of light, incorrectly understood to be the divine, as implied by Underhill above. Thus the penultimat e mystic experience, the ocean of light, is, in a sense, the highest illusion, a ccording to sages, while saints and mystics see it is the first creative express ion of God, if not the final goal. Abu Hasan Al Shadhili said, "The desire to en joy ecstatic union with God is one of the things which most effectively separate us from God." Sant Kirpal Singh gave me a hint of such a point of view when I w as with him in 1973. While sitting in a dejected mood at his feet he once asked me, "Do you want something, my friend?...do you want to leave the body?" In a re

sponse opposite to that of Vivekananda, but more out of resignation to my pitifu l state than from any supreme insight, I simply said, "No, nothing." He became a nimated, leaned forward and excitedly said, "Nothing?! You're an emperor! I'll k iss your feet! God is nothing!" The 17th century Hindu saint, Sri Samartha Ramad as, in his treatise on gnana yoga, Atmaram, said, "The Bliss-Attainment of a yog i is Maya." In the Buddhist text known as The Transmission of the Lamp Shih-tou is even more emphatic in saying that one must not be attached to such experience , and suggests that one can remain for countless kalpas (eons) in such a state w ithout gaining direct insight into Reality [df: Kalpa: (as a period of time) A M aha Yuga is 4.32 million years. Twenty seven Maha Yugas is one Pralaya. Seven Pr alayas is one Manvantara. Finally, six Manvantaras is a Kalpa. That is, one Kalp a is 27x7x6 = 1,134 Maha Yugas. This works out to 1134 x 4.3 million = 4.876 bil lion years] : "The Sravaka is enlightened but going astray; the ordinary man is out of the right path and yet in a way enlightened. The Sravaka fails to perceive that Mind as it is in itself knows no stages, no causation, no imagination. Disciplining himself in the cause he has attained the result and abides in the Samadhi of Emp tiness itself for ever so many kalpas. However enlightened in his way, the Srava ka is not at all on the right track. From the point of view of the Bodhisattva, this is like suffering the torture of hell. The Sravaka has buried himself in Em ptiness and does not know how to get out of his quiet contemplation for he has n o insight into the Buddha-nature itself." The Iso Upanishad says: "They enter the region of the dark who are occupied solely with the finite. B ut they fall into a region of still greater darkness who are occupied solely wit h the Infinite." Nagarjuna, the great Mahayana Buddhist, put it even more bluntly: "Believers in emptiness are incurable." Or perhaps, as Guru Nanak proclaims in the Adi Granth, the Sikh scripture: " Truth is above all, but higher still is true living." The concentration of mind gained through yoga and mysticism and their purific atory requirements are sometimes considered prerequisites for the higher teachin g and ultimate path, but the fulfillment of yoga, according to the Buddha in the Potthapala Sutra, does not in itself produce insight or Nirvana. Damiani remind s us, however, that one should be lucky to be a mystic who can be criticized lik ed that. Yet if truth be our goal we must listen to the warnings of those such a s Brunton who writes: "When the mystic comes to the end of this phase of his career but believes he has come to the end of his career itself, he falls under an illusion from which it is hard to recover....Hence, one of the texts belonging to this teaching, th e Lankavatara Sutra, says of those who have perfected themselves in yoga: "When they have reached the eighth degree they become so drunk with the bliss of inner peace that they do not grasp that they are still in the sphere of separateness and that the insight into reality is not yet perfect"....There is a fourfold evo lution in humanity and it unfolds successively - physically, emotionally, intell ectually, and spiritually. Hence the mystic has to return to rebirth to complete his evolution despite his "union" which is consequently temporary...The attainm ent of this deep state of oneness in meditation by an ordinary mystic may seem t o be the end of the quest. Nevertheless the cycle of reincarnation will not end for him until he has become a philosophical mystic. For even though all earthly desires have been given a quietus, there will remain a latent desire to know, to

understand his own experience and the world experience. To satisfy this desire, which will slowly come to the surface under the compulsion of Nature, he will h ave to develop intelligence to the proper degree...For nature is shepherding the human race not only along the road of spiritual evolution but also of intellect ual evolution....Giving up the world does not lead to reality, but it leads to p eace of mind. Men who lack intelligence...must take to mysticism and yoga, but o nly the mature and developed mind can enter the quest of enquiry into truth. Thi s means therefore that pupils are not generally initiated into this enquiry by g urus prematurely. They must first have developed their egos and their minds to a high degree, and only after that should they be taught to renounce what has bee n fostered with so much pain. This is evolution: although truth is ideally attai nable here and now, technically it is attainable only at the end of the pageant of evolution, when the whole man has been highly developed and is ripe to receiv e the greatest of all gifts." (7) An important aspect of the dark night, according to Brunton, is that it serve s as a time when the undeveloped aspects of the character, notably the faculties of feeling, knowing, and willing, are allowed or forced to catch up to the aspi rant's successes at meditation, so that a complete and enduring enlightenment ma y be accomplished. Through the unconsoling, humbling processes of a true dark ni ght, the "bubble" of egoism is popped once and for all, and one reaches what Zen calls the "asylum of rest", from which he can "fall" no further. The consequenc es are profound and a revolutionary transformation in consciousness and understa nding. Mystic experience thereafter, when present, becomes not so much negated b ut rather grounded and resurrected in reality. In Zen and Taoism one is said to become the 'Universal Man'. But it is none other than one's real, authentic self . "So important is this virtue of humilty," says Brunton, "that it may be label led both first and last...That is why upon those who really do aspire to the ver y highest there descends the dread phenomenon of the dark night of the soul. Whe n later they emerge from this awful experience, they emerge with all vanity grou nd down to powder and all pride burnt down to ash.." (8) One may, therefore, read the words of gyanis like Ramana Maharshi, "In truth you have no birth and no death,", and Shree Atmananda (Krishna Menon), "Liberati on is not going beyond birth and death, but going beyond the illusion of birth a In the place of the Unborn, the whole que nd death", and great Zen Master Bankei, stion of being born or not being born is irrelevant, and they are well worth our contemplation, but it must not be forgotten that this is a stage-specific realiz ation usually accomplished in a lasting way and not as just a glimpse by fulfill ment of a multi-disciplinary quest in which the entire being is matured. So whil e Brunton agrees, "Perhaps the most wonderful thing which the illuminate discove rs is that his independence from the infinite life power never really existed an d was only illusory, that his separation from the Overself was only an idea of t he imagination and not a fact of being. Even the desire to unite with the Overse lf was only a dream, and consequently all lesser desires of the ego were merely dreams within a dream," (9) he also adds, "That initial realization has hencefor th to be established and made his own under all kinds of diverse conditions and in all kinds of places. Hence his life may be broken up for years by a wide rang e of vicissitudes, pains, pleasures, tests, temptations, and tribulations." (10) The following dialogue of Chan master Hsi Yun, as a preview to the second par t of this article, should lay to rest any idea that a condition of utter humilit y is somehow not required for a true non-dual realization: Q: Illusion can hide from us our own mind, but up to now you have not taught u s how to get rid of illusion. A: The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion i s not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking.

If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as ordinary and Enlight ened, illusion will cease of itself. And then if you still want to destroy it whe rever it may be, you will find that there is not a hairsbreadth left of anything on which to lay hold. This is the meaning of: I will let go with both hands, for then I shall certainly discover the Buddha in my mind. Q: If there is nothing on which to lay hold, how is the Dharma to be transmit ted A: It is a transmission of Mind with Mind. Q: If Mind is used for transmission, why do you say that Mind too does not ex ist? A: Obtaining no Dharma whatever is called Mind transmission. The understandin g of this implies no Mind and no Dharma. Q: If there is no Mind and no Dharma, what is meant by transmission? A: You hear people speak of Mind transmission and then you talk of something to be received. So Bodhidharma said: The nature of the Mind when understood, No human speech can compass or disclose. Enlightenment is naught to be attained, An d he that gains it does not say he knows. If I were to make this clear to you, I doubt if you could stand up to this knowledge. (from E. A. Burtt, ed., The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha (New York: Mentor, 1955), p. 205-206) Notice that basically he did not say merely that he doubted if the questioner could grasp it, or understand it, but whether, in his present condition, he cou ld stand it. Sri Nisargadatta concurs on the need for preparation before revelation: M: It is only when you are satiated with the changeable and long for the unch angeable, that you are ready for the turning round and stepping into what can be described, when seen from the level of the mind, as emptiness and darkness. For the mind craves for content and variety, while reality is, to the mind, content less and invariable. Q: It looks like death to me. M: It is. It is also all-pervading, all-conquering, intense beyond words. No ordinary brain can stand it without being shattered; hence the absolute need for sadhana. Purity of body and clarity of mind, non-violence and selflessness in l ife are essential for survival as an intelligent and spiritual entity." ( I AM T HAT (Durham, North Carolina: The Acorn Press, 2009), p. 436) Amazingly, however, after such a profound passage one finds that his ego stil l lives, and is not really annihilated. It is not a mistake, or something wrong, but a functional part of reality. Oh, dear one, know that there are many such p aradoxes to be lovingly held in one's heart on the path. Madame Guyon continues: The life of the believer is like a torrent making its way out of the high moun tains down into the canyons and chasms of life, passing through many experiences until finally coming to the spiritual experience of death. From there, the torr ent experiences resurrection and a life lived in concert with the will of God wh ile still going through many stages of refinement. At last the torrent finds its way into the vast, unlimited sea. Even here the torrent does not totally come t o be one with the vast ocean until it has once more passed through final dealing s by the Lord.... The soul, after many a redoubled death, expires at last in the arms of Love; but she is unable to perceive these arms...Then, reduced to Nought, there is fou nd in her ashes a seed of immortality, which is preserved in these ashes and wil l germinate in its season. But she knows not this; and does not expect ever to s

ee herself living again....and the soul which is reduced to the Nothing, ought t o dwell therein; without wishing, since she is now but dust, to issue from this state, nor, as before, desiring to live again. She must remain as something whic h no longer exists: and this, in order that the Torrent may drown itself and los e itself in the Sea, never to find itself in its selfhood again; and that it may become one and the same thing with the Sea. (11) If Madame Guyon were alive today she would probably change her mode of expres sion. The fact is that the soul is never not one with the Sea, does not become l ost in the Sea (except as a temporary experience), yet it does go through a proc ess of molting, like a moth in its chrysalis, only to emerge 'subsiding' in the presence of one's own Being, itself eternally in the bosom of the Divine. Augustine Baker tells us: "For first He not only withdraws all comfortable observable infusions of ligh t and grace, but also deprives her of a power to exercise any perceivable operat ions of her superior spirit, and of all comfortable reflections upon His love, p lunging her into the depths of her inferior powers. Here, consequently, her form er calmness of passions is quite lost, neither can she introvert herself [note: a particularly bitter and profound trial for the mystic who by long effort has f ound peace thereby] ; sinful motions and suggestions do violently assault her, a nd she finds great difficulty (if not greater) to surmount them as at the beginn ing of a spiritual course...If she would elevate her spirit, she sees nothing bu t clouds and darkness. She seeks God, and cannot find the least marks or footste ps of His Presence; something there is that hinders her from executing the sinfu l suggestions within her, but what that is she knows not, for to her thinking sh e has no spirit at all, and indeed, she is now in a region of all other most dis tant from spirit and spiritual operations - I mean, such as are perceptible." (1 2) Underhill summarizes this process: "The self, then, has got to learn to cease to be its "own center and circumfe rence": to make that final surrender which is the price of final peace. In the D ark Night the starved and tortured spirit learns through an anguish which is "it self an orison" to accept lovelessness for the sake of Love, Nothingness for the sake of the All; dies without any sure promise of life, loses when it hardly ho pes to find. It sees with amazement the most sure foundations of its transcenden tal life crumble beneath it, dwells in a darkness which seems to hold no promise of a dawn. This is what the German mystics call the "upper school of true resig nation" or of "suffering love"; the last test of heroic detachment, of manliness , of spiritual courage." (13) "Show us your wounds," is the question asked of the aspirant at the door of s piritual knowledge. St. John is critical of those who wish to linger in a passiv e state of grace, enjoying visions and other spiritual consolations; he asks rea ders to abandon the disposition of mere babes and to become grown men, capable of receptivity to and acceptance of and as the divine ego-less light which transcen ds and is the ground of all experiential phenomena, high or low. One interpretation of the dark night is given by Satyam Nadeen: "If you live long enough everyone eventually experiences enough disasters in their personal lives to qualify for what Zorba the Greek calls "the full catastr ophe" that leads to a terrible depression. But there is a huge difference betwee n a clinical depression and the dark night of the soul. It is the function of th e latter to soften one up for the total change of perspective that is to follow all the fruitless years of weary searching for one's absolute truth." "There is only one way that I know of for Life to teach us its one absolute t

ruth. First it has to totally destroy every other so-called truth that we think we already know. Add to that the realization that I call all of the truths we ha ve ever learned before the Shift as mere concepts in the face of this one absolu te truth." "How does Life erase these countless concepts? It starts by destroying the fo undation upon which all these concepts are based, namely the ego personality tha t thinks it is a special somebody somehow separate from the Source of all Consci ousness and from all others. This separated persona is a direct result of an ide ntity with the mind. Anything that the mind can perceive in this physical manife station I have named the "3rd dimension." "So what occurs with a shift from the third dimensional perspective to the 4t h dimension? This is where the Stranger who has always waited for us at the door of our perception welcomes us into the Presence of the Witness. There is a swit ch of identity here from how the mind perceives reality to how our Witness under stands that very same reality in such a different way." "And so began my own transition via the despair, hopelessness and depression that characterizes a good dark night of the soul. For it is only here that the c oncepts of the mind that have guided us so brilliantly through life up to this p oint seem to completely break down now and fail as to a possible solution out of this hellish nightmare." "This process crushes our whole self-image of who we think we are. It calls i nto question all of our "shoulds" and "should-nots" that make up the minefield o f our concepts. It is the mind which has created these concepts and because this mind is a Divine instrument created by Infinite Intelligence, it is not about t o just commit voluntary suicide so its role can be assumed by a more powerful un ified force field that the Witness brings to the table." "Enough time spent in the dark night of the soul and the seeker quits seeking . The whole quest seems so hopeless now that it is given up. Futile seems the se eking of anything that is outside of us. We finally disintegrate into a big pile of nothingness inhabited by a little nobody." The aspirant must then simmer in this nothingness for an indeterminate amount of time until he is drawn out of it by a higher power. Actually, he is not draw n out of it, but he becomes conscious within it. That is being drawn out of it. The so-called dark night can perhaps then be viewed as a somewhat inevitable ordeal that aspirants pass through in one form or another, due to the very natur e of spiritual blindness, or egoic adaptation and consolation in all of its dime nsions. No matter what the teacher says about the necessity of self-surrender an d self-transcendance, or, let's say - since that is rather problematic and duali stic language, i.e., 'who' surrenders? - no matter what the person hears about t his essential, graceful and inherent, natural process, the Way is still felt, un consciously, as a path" or road or ladder that the ego-self moves or progresses along . Real help is required to accomplish the true spiritual work which undermines t his conception of a self-existing separate self. The guidance of a competent spi ritual director is essential for this passage, according to St. John, although t he real work is done by God, with the aspirant's fidelity and helpless cooperati on. Thus one finds Job, faithful servant of the Lord, thrown into a condition of confusion, despair and anguish, where everything he did turned against him. His ordeal is masterfully detailed in the book Ego and Archtype by Jungian psycholog ist Edward Edinger. Job's struggles ended when he felt the limits of the persona lity or ego and surrendered its sovereignty. The Koran refers to this as the stat e of self-accusing . Thomas Merton wrote of this phenomenon, and in one of his lat er journal entries went so far as to remark that he felt his entire life was a c harade and that he had been a failure as a writer, a monk, a priest, and a conte mplative. At this point Tibetans who knew him said he was "very close" to enligh tenment [which in this case might more accurately be considered a "glimpse"].

A Zen equivalent for the dark night is referred to as of the blue dragon. (14)

descending into the cave

Master Hakuin said: I felt as if I were sitting in an ice cave ten thousand miles thick. I myself shall never forget the spiritual struggle I had in sheer darkness for years. (15) The greater the doubt, the greater the awakening; the smaller the doubt, the s maller the awakening; no doubt, no awakening. (16) This means that the greater the existential confusion about one's real being, the greater the felt sense of separation and the anguish that brings, the great er and richer the eventual realization potentially is. The Buddha describes his pre-enlightenment experience likewise in harrowing t erms: Then Sariputta, I plunged into a fearsome forest thicket and dwelt therein. Su ch was the fearsome horror of that dread forest thicket that anyone whose passio ns were not stilled and entered there, the very hairs of his body would stand on end. (17) In The Conference of the Birds the Persian mystic Attar speaks of this as the valley of detachment . One must endure this process completely and allow oneself t o be put to the test. Once one has been given hope and strength by an initial sp iritual glimpse, he is then further shown who the enemy is: his essentially arro gant - yet an evolutionary developedment, and therefore not wrong - self-will. A nd from that point on there is no way out but through. Half-hearted efforts will not create the inner alchemy, nor invoke the divine grace, that brings him to a liberating crisis, where his efforts are seen to be of no avail. Paradoxically, then, over time as the ego matures and "ripens" its sense of "rotting" increase s. Thus is derived the term "old soul". Paul Brunton explains that through a ser ies of incarnations, the ego or personality, and all of its faculties becomes mo re balanced, refined, and evolved, until at some point a sense of inner "revulsi on" arises and it is finally moved to let itself be 'done in', which can of cour se only finally be achieved by Grace. On the subjective nature of the purgation in the dark night he writes: "It is the paradoxical irony of this situation that the joys of the beginner make him believe that he is very near to God whereas the desolations of the prof icient make him despise himself." (18) This quote carries much meaning, but there is a potential drawback that we fa ce in having access to such profound teachings, which is that of creating a self -image through them; nevertheless, it is something that apparently can't be help ed. There is no need of dwelling on the misery, but when the process starts in e arnest one can do nothing to avoid it from having its way. Eventually the process completes itself and the pilgrim, a new man or woman, emerges from his 'journey through the wilderness'. St. John reminds us that this entire ordeal of the dark night is of a divine design: O spiritual soul, when thou seest thy desire obscured, thy will arid and const rained, and thy faculties incapable of any interior act, be not grieved by this, but look upon it rather as a great good, for God is delivering thee from thysel f. (19)

Note he says 'Oh spiritual soul'; this to me suggests that he was aware of so mething more than 'ego-soul' or separative being. Though it may seem that nothing good can ever come from the midst of such an impasse, the aspirant is in the center of the oldest, most sacred struggle. The ego must inquire into its origins and lay itself on the altar, in order for man to become identified with his Soul. The anguish at this stage comes from the ego seeing that this is the one thing it can never successfully do by itself, even while it still continues to try. Brunton explains: "When he finds that he has been following his own will even at those times whe n he believed he was following the higher self's will, he begins to realize the extent of the ego's power, the length of the period required for its subdual, an d what he will have to suffer before this is achieved...The ego does not give it self up without undergoing extreme pain and extreme suffering. It is placed upon a cross whence it can never be resurrected again, if it is truly to be merged i n the Overself. Inner crucifixion is therefore a terrible and tremendous actuali ty in the life of every attained mystic. His destiny may not call for outer mart yrdom but it cannot prevent his inner martyrdom. Hence the Christ-self speaking through Jesus told his disciples, If any man will come after me let him deny hims elf and take up his cross daily and follow me. (20) This sounds a bit like an Aztec blood-sacrifice, but in actuality, it really is something like that. In graphic language St. John speaks of the lowest possib le dregs of such experiences, in the second night, the night of the spirit, whic h, it must again be said, may only occur to a few, for their unique karmic reaso ns and higher purpose. This is one one which takes one out of identification wit h the lower soul into identification as unbounded while still human consciousnes s. He gives quite a frightening description, in which the reader can see why suc h an ordeal is not for beginning aspirants. Brunton described it in terms of a m ystic witnessing the loss of everything he had previously attained, while what i s left is relentlessly crushed. As we have said, one doesn't have to be a mystic for this to occur. As the years go by, I and many others predict the time-frame for this transition to be economized and compressed. How long that may taker is anyone's guess. Mother Teresa of Calcutta wrote, "Before there was so much love and real tend erness for the Sisters and the people - now I feel my heart is made of stone." S ant Darshan Singh echoed with one of his mystic verses, My heart - now concrete p ain - once laughed (Love s Last Madness, p. 120). As St. John confirms, " 'the livi ng flame of love' makes the soul feel its hardness and aridity". This means lite rally that one may feel his sense of 'insane' separation even viscerally, perhap s as a tight band constricting his chest, or a feeling of being crushed, and so on. Or maybe not. Again, it is an individual thing. He continues: The Divine assails the soul in order to renew it and thus make it Divine; and, stripping it of the habitual affections and attachments of the old man, to whic h it is very closely united, knit together and conformed, destroys and consumes its spiritual substance, and absorbs it in deep and profound darkness. As a resu lt of this, the soul feels itself to be perishing and melting away, in the prese nce and sight of its miseries, in a cruel spiritual death. (21) "The soul must needs be in all its parts reduced to a state of emptiness, pov erty and abandonment and must be left dry and empty and in darkness. For the sen sible part is purified in aridity, the faculties are purified in the emptiness o f their perceptions, and the spirit is purified in thick darkness.....All of thi s God brings to pass by means of this dark contemplation; wherein the soul not o nly suffers this emptiness and the suspension of these natural supports and perc eptions, which is a most afflictive suffering (as if a man were suspended or hel d in air so that he could not breath), but likewise He is purging the soul, anni

hilating it, emptying it or consuming in it (even as fire consumes the mouldines s and the rust of metal) all the affections and imperfect habits which it has co ntracted in its whole life. Since these are deeply rooted in the substance of th e soul, it is wont to suffer great undoing and inward torment, besides the said poverty and emptiness, natural and spiritual...Here God greatly humbles the soul in order that he may afterwards greatly exalt it; and if he ordained not that, when these feelings arise within the soul, they should speedily be fulfilled, it would die in a very short space; but there are only occasional periods when it is conscious of their greatest intensity. At times, however, they are so keen th at the soul seems to be seeing hell and perdition opened." (22) "It is well for the soul to perform no operation touching spiritual things at this time and to have no pleasure in such things, because its faculties and des ires are base, impure, and wholly natural; and thus, although these faculties be given the desire and interest in things supernatural and Divine, they could not receive them save after a base and natural manner, exactly in their own fashion ...All these faculties and desires of the soul..come to be prepared and tempered in such a way as to be able to receive, feel and taste that which is Divine and supernatural after a sublime and lofty manner, which is impossible if the old m an not die first of all." (23) "And when the soul suffers the direct assault of this Divine Light, its pain, which results from its impurity, is immense; because, when this pure light assa ils the soul, in order to expel its impurity, the soul feels itself to be so imp ure and miserable that it believes God to be against it, and thinks that it has set itself up against God. This causes it sore grief and pain, because it now be lieves that God has cast it away...the soul now sees its impurities clearly (alt hough darkly), and knows it is unworthy of God or of any creature. And what give s it the most pain is that it thinks that it will never be worthy and that its g ood things are all over for it. This is caused by the profound immersion of its spirit in the knowledge and realization of its evils and miseries, for this Divi ne and dark light now reveals them all to the eye, that it may see clearly how i n its own strength it can never have aught else...When this Divine contemplation assails the soul with a certain force, in order to strengthen it and subdue it, it suffers such pain in its weakness that it nearly swoons away..for sense and spirit, as if beneath some immense and dark load, are in such great pain and ago ny that the soul would find advantage and relief in death." (24) "It is clear that God grants the soul in this state the favor of purging it a nd healing it with this strong lye of bitter purgation, according to its spiritu al and sensual part, of all the imperfect habits and affections which it had wit hin itself with respect to temporal things and to natural, sensual and spiritual things, its inward faculties being darkened, and voided of all these, its spiri tual and sensual affections being constrained and dried up, and its natural ener gies being attenuated and weakened with respect to all this (a condition which i t could never attain of itself, as we shall shortly say). In this way God makes it to die to all that is not naturally God, so that, once it is stripped and den uded of its former self, he may clothe it anew. And thus its youth is renewed li ke the eagle's and it is clothed with the new man, which, as the Apostle says, i s created according to God." (25) In remarkably similar fashion Babuji Maharaj of the Radha Soami Satsang, Agra , offers the following, somewhat unique in the literature of the Sant Mat tradit ion, where such inner secrets are usually revealed only in private: It is usual that the awakened Saint or Gurumukh (beloved disciple of the Guru) must go through a period of great physical depression and weakness. This is bec ause the entire constitution of the body has to be transformed in order that it may be in harmony with the spirit in its awakened condition and be fitted to per form the work before it. This period of depression may continue over a number of

years, but it is usually followed by a high degree of bodily health. This physical change is absolutely essential for making appreciable spiritual progress. The capacity of the body to undergo it constitutes the limit of useful ness of the body. There have been exceptional jivas (souls) endowed with bodies capable of enduring in one life the whole requisite transformation without break ing. But in (such) cases the immediate physical effect of the transformation was a low and depleted bodily condition which continued for quite a number of years . After the changes have been effected, complete physical vigour usually comes b ack, though with a body very different in its constitution. One of its acquired characteristics is its softness and freshness like that of a babe. (26) Brunton explains why such a process must necessarily take time: "The depth to be penetrated from the surface to the deepest layers of the hum an psyche is too great to be reached quickly without acute sacrifice and intense anguish. " (27) It might be better to substitute the words "human psyche" , ego, or jiva, whe re St. John somewhat less precisely uses the word "soul", for in a sense it is t he psyche, ego, or jiva that is facing the "big squeeze" in the famed dark night , with the divine Soul being that which is to be realized. The ego or individual ity is not so much annihilated, however, being itself the product of a long evol ution, rather the egoism and false identification dies out and the personal self , which is illusory only in the sense that it has no inherent self-existence, be comes objective to the higher or true Self. Even this sounds too dualistic, as i n reality the two become fused as no-separation. According to Ramana Maharshi, "The 'I' casts off the illusion of 'I' and yet remains as 'I'. Such is the pa radox of Self-Realization. The realized do not see any contradiction in it." (Ta lks) In the Forty Verses, he says: "Get at the Heart within by search. The ego bows its head and falls. Then fla shes forth another I , Not the ego that, but the Self, Supreme, Perfect." Sastri comments: "Does this mean that the ego-self is lost for ever? No, the ego is lost, but only to make way for its original, the real Self, to come up to the surface by either using the regenerate ego-self as an instrument or by transforming it to a true reflection so as to make its presence felt on the surface, the effect of w hich is an experience, a feeling in the ego-self that it is one with its deeper and real Self and that it is this deeper being that has assumed the form of the apparent self in the phenomenal existence." (Sastri, Coll. Works III, 355, cited Nandakumar 20). Brunton agrees: "He enters into a state which is certainly not a disappearance of the ego, bu t rather a kind of divine fellowship of the ego with its source....He loses his ego in the calm serenity of the Overself, yet at the same time it is, mysterious ly, still with him....It [the Overself] is a kind of impersonal being but it is not utterly devoid of all individuality....The dictionary defines individuality as separate and distinct existence. Both the ego and the Overself have such an e xistence. But whereas the ego has this and nothing more, the Overself has this c onsciousness within the universal existence. That is why we have called it the h igher individuality....He as he was vanishes, not into complete annihilation and certainly not into the heaven of a perpetuated ego, but into a higher kind of l

ife shrouded in mystery....The actual experience alone can settle this argument. This is what I found: The ego vanished; the everyday "I" which the world knew a nd which knew the world was no longer there. But a new and diviner individuality appeared in its place, a consciousness which could say "I AM" and which I recog nized to have been my real self all along. It was not lost, merged, or dissolved : it was fully and vividly conscious that it was a point in the universal Mind a nd so was not apart from that Mind itself. " (28) [For those unfamiliar with PB's unique terminology (Mind, World-Mind, World-I dea, Overself) , please click here for a precise explanation]. Sri Nisargadatta similarly refers to realization of the source of the I AM as a "point in Consciousness." Whether in ultimate realization there is only One Self, as the Upanishads dec lare, or distinct Souls, is a matter of ongoing debate. In either case it is a p aradoxical realization, ie., a 'not-two', or the whole of the One Self present a s each individual Soul [the "ocean merging into the drop"]. Plotinus prefers to settle this discussion by refering to Soul as a "One-in-mMany." Medieval sage Ibn 'al 'Arabi concurs that the experience is veritably non-dua l, without a radical naughting of the individuality required: "If you know yourself as nothing, then you truly know your Lord. Otherwise, y ou know him not. [But] you cannot know your Lord by making yourself nothing. Man y a wise man claims that in order to know one's Lord one must denude oneself of the signs of one's existence, efface one's identity, finally rid oneself of one' s self. This is a mistake. How could a thing that does not exist try to get rid of its existence? ...If you think that to know Allah depends on your ridding you rself of yourself, then you are guilty of attributing partners to Him - the only unforgivable sin - because you are claiming that there is another existence bes ides Him, the All-Existent: that there is a you and He." (29) The following quote by Shaikh Mawlay Al Arabi ad Darqawa confirms Ibn 'al' Ar abi's insight: "Extinction also is one of thine attributes. Thou art already extinct, my bro ther, before thou art extinguished and naught before thou art annihilated. Thou art an illusion in an illusion and a nothingness in a nothingness. When hadst th ou Existence that thou mightest be extinguished?" (Martin Lings, A Moslem Saint, p. 137) St. John continues: "Wherefore the soul that God sets in this tempetuous and horrible night is de serving of great compassion...by reason of the dreadful pain which the soul is s uffering, and of the great uncertainty which it has concerning the remedy for it , since it believes..that its evil will never end... It suffers great pain and g rief, since there is added to all this (because of the solitude and abandonment caused in it by this dark night) the fact that it finds no consolation or suppor t in any instruction nor in a spiritual master. For, although in many ways the d irector may show it good reason for being comforted because of the blessings whi ch are contained in these afflictions, it cannot believe him. For it is so great ly absorbed and immersed in the realization of those evils wherein it sees its o wn miseries so clearly, that it thinks, as its director observes not that which it sees and feels, he is speaking in this manner because he understands it not; and so, instead of comfort, it rather receives fresh affliction, since it believ es that its director's advice contains no remedy for its troubles. And, in truth , this is so; for, until the Lord shall have completely purged it after the mann er that He wills, no means or remedy is of any service or profit for the relief

of its affliction; the more so because the soul is as powerless in this case as one who has been imprisoned in a dark dungeon, and is bound hand and foot, and c an neither move nor see, nor feel any favour whether from above or from below, u ntil the spirit is humbled, softened, and purified, and grows so keen and delica te and pure that it can become one with the Spirit of God, according to the degr ee of union of love which His mercy is pleased to grant it." (30) One contemporary writer, in an anonymous post to the internet entitled "Secre ts of the Night", highlighted some of these problems facing the soul in the dark night: "St. John refers frequently to this inner congestion, as like being bound ha nd and foot and unable to breathe. He uses the Biblical reference of Jonah being swallowed in the belly of the beast to illustrate his point. This psychological congestion has a marked effect physiologically on one's breathing pattern. Brea th control is often advocated as an aid to contemplation. Here we have the rever se process whereby the spontaneous contemplative process that is unleashed durin g the "Dark Night" itself dramatically alters one's breathing process until it i s almost fully suspended. One still gradually breathes in but the corresponding breathing out is greatly suspended. So the psychological congestion one feels ha s a striking physiological counterpart....... One can feel as if drowning or bei ng caught up in an internal earthquake. At other times one feels greatly parched as if one's insides had received a severe overdose of sunburn. The sense of bei ng confined like a hostage in a dark confined space with little freedom for mano euvre is often very strong. When these recede one begins to surface a little to restore some kind of normality. However over time one's customary framework of e xperience is greatly eroded........ It is like a chain reaction. One has to exer cise faith to literally survive in the darkness. But this growing inner light on ly highlights ego restrictions further forcing one into a greater exercise of fa ith. So the process steadily intensifies......... What is clinically diagnosed a s "endogenous depression" is very likely and is associated with the loss of a ge neral sense of meaning in one's life. As the very purpose of the "Dark Night" is to erode one's conceptual frameworks of understanding it is not surprising that this type of depression should occur. Endogenous depression is often diagnosed by the psychiatric profession in purely physiological terms as a chemical imbala nce. This is very reductionist. Certainly a chemical imbalance can be associated with the illness. However this is inseparable from changing psychological facto rs which tend to activate the physiological process. Other psychotic symptoms as sociated with manic-depression or schizophrenia may well surface at this time. H owever this raises a key dilemma. To diagnose an authentic "Dark Night" experien ce in simply pathological terms (though such elements may well be present) is to very much misunderstand the nature of the problem. So people dealing with [thos e having] the genuine "Dark Night" experience are not likely to see ..and only n otice these secondary characteristics. So they are likely to confirm the aspiran t's own growing fears that the whole experience has been a tragic mistake". The breathing problems and other extreme psychic episodes (such as literally going through the experience of Hell, which she later remarked had been very use ful for her spiritual growth) are also very evident in the life and writings of St. Teresa of Avila. Other mystics have left similar reports. Their spiritual si gnificance and similarity to perinatal near-death experiences are discussed in t wo illuminating articles by Christopher Bache. A number of these great trials ha ve definite parallels with primal-type psycho-therapeutic processes, and, as men tioned, pre and peri-natal experiences, yet, while these are often profound, it is my feeling that St. John describes a passage that extends beyond, or confirms a growing redefinition of, the limits of experiential psychology. [To Basche, t he peri-natal realm is the borderline between the personal and transpersonal dim ensions. For him, the emergence of peri-natal symptomology (pain, suffocation, f eelings of annihilation and death) in mystics and spiritual aspirants represents the growing pains of expanded consciousness, the psycho-physical system's throw

ing off its poisons as it moves to more wholistic stages of consciousness]. The dark night, then, is far more than just an occasional dry patch or depres sion for the seeker after Truth, but a major and lengthy transformational crisis . Because the beginner who comes upon these writings may mistake his mere backsl iding or lukewarmness for entry into such a process, St. John issues several cri teria to distinguish between the two.[ Again, these pertain to those who have un dergone spiritual practice. It is entirely possible for the dark night to procee d without such prior preparation, and in years to come will undoubtedly do so]. First, the soul finds he can no longer engage in meditation as before. The power he had to do so using his natural faculties has been taken away. Second, in spi te of this, he has no inclination towards the worldly pursuits he formerly enjoy ed. He feels caught between two worlds, the one no longer wanted, and the other (apparently) not wanting him, as Brunton once described. Third, he finds his onl y delight in a loving repose in the divine will, and the secret contemplation th at he begins to experience, even though all outward signs may suggest he is lost and doing nothing of spiritual value. The fruit of this first dark night, the n ight of sense (which he calls "bitter and terrible"), and to which relatively ma ny may be called, according to St. John in Bk. 2, Ch. 1, is that "the soul goes about the things of God with much greater freedom and satisfaction of the soul t han before it entered the dark night of sense. It now very readily finds in its spirit the most serene and loving contemplation and spiritual sweetness without the labor of meditation." The soul is more respectful, humble, and circumspect r egarding the things of God and spiritual life. Much of its natural conceit in su ch matters is diminished. However, there remain many deep and hidden impurities in the soul, including the root imperfection of egoity itself, that must now be eliminated in the second night, the night of the spirit (which he calls "horribl e and awful"), and which, according to the saint, comparatively few will pass th rough. At times the suffering may appear so great, and always seemingly greater than before, that ones faith is repeatedly tried to the breaking point, and it canno t prevent the arising feeling that something is terribly wrong, and that one is being destroyed for no reason. This is, however,really par for the course. It is to happen. Brunton also reminds us that such a perception is wrong, that the da rk night is not a time of capricious and meaningless suffering, but a grace for removing egoism and rebirthing oneself: "The "dark night" does more to detach a man from his ego, his interests, and his desires than the rapturous joys and emotional ecstasies. The awful feeling o f being separated from and even lost forever to the higher power, works as a hid den training and secret discipline of all personal feelings." (31) Sant Darshan Singh also speaks of this secret process of grace: "Even if the Lord seems to withdraw himself from us, we can not give Him up; we have no choice. We are afflicted with a disease and we cannot rest until we a re reunited with Him...It is by withdrawing Himself from us, by moving away, tha t he compels us to follow Him. As we recognize that nothing compares with the jo y of his presence, we disengage from our worldly attachments one by one. The suf fering and anguish of separation are processes by which we are purified of all w orldly desires. Love burns up everything except the Beloved. And as we restlessl y wait for the faintest sounds of His coming footsteps, we are being cleansed an d recreated from within." (32) I chose these quotes because of their inherent power, but it must be remember ed that in the new, non-dual life that is the result of the dark night the perso nality remains, along with bodily desires and preferences and the like, and in t his there is nothing wrong. Progressively over time (and given enough time), eve n divine archtypal qualities may manifest. But the important thing is that the w

hole world-view has done a radical three-sixty. Brunton concurs with Darshan Singh that the soul has indeed reached the point of no return: "The long hard search for the soul [by 'soul' Brunton means not 'ego-soul' or 'personal soul' , but infinite consciousness-being] asks too much endurance of self-discipline from its pursuers ever to be more than it has been in the past an undertaking for the few driven by an inner urge. Hence it is not so much a v oluntary undertaking as an involuntary one. The questers cannot help themselves. It is not that they necessarily have the strength to endure so much as they hav e no choice except to endure." (33) In the midst of such an experience Henry Suso was led to exclaim, "You ask wh is my resignation? But tell me first, where is the infinite pity of God for friends?...Alas my God! What art thou about to do unto me, I thought that I had enough by that time. Show me how much suffering I have before me." The L said, "It is better for thee not to know."

ere His had ord

St. John further describes this bitter period of purification with the follow ing metaphor: "This purgative and loving knowledge or Divine light whereof we here speak ac ts upon the soul which it is purging and preparing for perfect union with it in the same way as fire acts upon a log of wood in order to transform it into itsel f; for maternal fire, acting upon wood, first of all begins to dry it, by drivin g out its moisture and causing it to shed the water which it contains within its elf. Then it begins to make it black, dark and unsightly, and even to give forth a bad odor, and, as it dries it little by little, it brings out and drives away all the dark and unsightly accidents which are contrary to the nature of fire. And, finally, it begins to kindle it externally and give it heat, and at last tr ansforms it into itself and makes it as beautiful as fire....It drives out its u nsightliness, and makes itself black and dark, so that it seems worse than befor e and more unsightly and abominable than it was wont to be. For this Divine purg ation is removing all the evil and vicious humours which the soul has never perc eived because they have been so deeply rooted and grounded in it; it has never r ealized, in fact, that it has had so much evil within itself....This enkindling of love, however, is not always felt by the soul, but only at times when contemp lation assails it less vehemently, for then it has occasion to see, and even to enjoy, the work which is being wrought in it, and which is then revealed to it. For it seems that the worker takes his hand from the work, and draws the iron ou t of the furnace, in order that something of the work which is being done may be seen; and then there is occasion for the soul to observe in itself the good whi ch it saw not while the work was going on. In the same way, when the flame cease s to attack the wood, it is possible to see how much of it has been enkindled." (34) Fenelon says, "One does not begin to know and to feel one s spiritual miseries until they begin to be cured." St. John is saying that this entire process is not one of unbroken suffering, but that there will be brief periods when the person is restored to a more free r state of communion with the spirit than before, in which it is then almost con vinced that its troubles are over, and it sees the value of what it has gone thr ough, but these periods will not last, if it is to be a true dark night. Still, from time to time the maturing practitioner may be graced with spiritual glimpse s such that, utterly poverty-stricken though his soul may be, he realizes in a v ery real sense it is like a dream and has little to do with his true Self, leadi ng him to confess with Santideva:

"The thought of Enlightenment has arisen within me I know not how even as a g em might be gotten by a blind man from a dunghill." and with the author of the Rubaiyat: "Though pearls in praise of God I never strung, though dust of sin lies clott ed on my brow, yet I wlll not despair of mercy. When did Omar argue that the One was two?" While intermittently enjoying such graces, however, he continues to endure th e plight of a lover, feeling the Lord toying with him while drawing him ever clo ser. As a sword, however, is tempered by repeatedly being placed into the fire a nd then cooled, so, too, says St. John, will the soul be repeatedly returned to even worse states of poverty and purgation, where it will be filled with "spiritual pain and anguish in all its deep affections and energies, to an ex tant surpassing all possibility of exaggeration...The spirit experiences pain an d sighing so deep that they cause it vehement spiritual groans and cries, to whi ch at times it gives vocal expression; when it has the necessary strength and po wer it dissolves into tears, although this relief comes but seldom." (35) "And to this is added the remembrance of times of prosperity now past; for as a rule souls that enter this night have had many consolations from God, and hav e rendered Him many services, and it causes them the greater grief to see that t hey are far removed from that happiness, and unable to enter into it."(36) Brunton states: "The Dark Night is not the result of any physical suffering or personal misfo rtune: it comes from a subtler cause. It induces a depression of enormous weight ...The sombre loneliness experienced during the Dark Night of the Soul is unique . No other kind of loneliness duplicates it either in nature or acuteness... It creates the feeling of absolute rejection, of being an outcast...A terrible inne r numbness, an unbearable emptiness, is a prominent feature of the spiritual dar k night...The situation is really paradoxical and beyond correct appraisal by th e conscious mind, certainly by the suffering ego. He is being made to learn, by the severest experience, that the divine reality must not be confused with his c onscious reactions to it, nor with his mental reactions to it, nor even with his emotional reactions to it, that it belongs to an unknown and unknowable realm t hat transcends human faculties and defies human perceptions" (37) "The life of faith is nothing but the continual pursuit of God through everyt hing that disguises, disfigures, destroys, and, so to say, annihilates him," say s Jean-Pierre deCaussade, in Abandonment to Divine Providence. He continues, agr eeing with Brunton on the transcendent nature of the divine: "This complete deprivation which reduces us to acts of bare faith and of pure love alone, is the final disposition necessary for perfect union. It is a true death to self; a death very inward, very crucifying, very difficult to bear, but it is soon rewarded by a resurrection, after which one lives only for God and o f God...After the soul has mounted the first steps in the ladder of perfection, it can scarcely make any progress except by the way of privation and nudity of s pirit, of annihilation and death of all created things, even of those that are s piritual. Only on this condition can it be perfectly united to God Who can neith er be felt, known, or seen....." (Book Six, Letter VII) It is a curious thing, however, that after experiencing the 'heavy hand of th e Lord' for some time, one actually feels cast adrift when it is absent. St. Joh n continues:

"But in the midst of these dark and loving afflictions the soul feels within itself a certain companionship and strength, which bears it company and so great ly strengthens it that, if this burden of grievous darkness be taken away, it of ten feels itself to be alone, empty, and weak. The cause of this is that, as the strength and efficacy of the soul were derived and communicated passively from the dark fire of love which assailed it, it follows that, when that fire ceases to assail it, the darkness and power and heat of love cease in the soul." (38) Once again, St. John offers this hope and consolation: "Therefore, O spiritual soul, when thy seest thy desire obscured, thy affecti ons arid and constrained, and thy faculties bereft of their capacity for any int erior exercise, be not afflicted by this, but rather consider it a great happine ss, since God is freeing thee from thyself and taking the matter from thy hands. For with those hands, however well they may serve thee, thou wouldst never labo ur so effectively, so perfectly, and so securely..as now, when God takes thy han d and guides thee in the darkness, as though thou wert blind, to an end and by a way which thou knowest not." (39) Brunton likewise explains: "If the Overself did not lead him into and through the final dark night, wher e he becomes as helpless as an infant, as bereft of interior personal possession s as a destitute pauper, how else would he learn that it is not by his own power s and capacities that he can rise at last into enduring illumination?" (40) The Vissudhimagga, a Buddhist manual of meditation practice, calls the diffic ult purifications that spiritual aspirants go through as the core of their being is slowly undone the "Higher Realizations." deCaussade, in Abandonment to Divine Providence, wrote insightfully on inward destitution , death of self-love and mystical death: "The loss of hope causes you more grief than any other trial. I can well unde rstand this, for, as during your life you find yourself deprived of everything t hat could give you the least help, so you imagine that at the hour of your death you will be in a state of fearful destitution. Ah! this is indeed a misery, and for this I pity you far more than for your other sufferings. Allow me, with the help of God s grace, to endeavour to set this trouble in its true light and so to cure you. What you want, my dear Sister, is to find support and comfort in your self and your good works. Well, this is precisely what God does not wish, and wh at He cannot endure in souls aspiring after perfection. What! lean upon yourself ? count on your works? Could self-love, pride, and perversity have a more misera ble fruit? It is to deliver them from this that God makes all chosen souls pass through a fearful time of poverty, misery and nothingness. He desires to destroy in them gradually all the help and confidence they derive from themselves, to t ake away every expedient so that He may be their sole support, their confidence, their hope, their only resource." "I know how much suffering this operation entails. The poor soul feels as if it would become utterly annihilated, but for all that, it is only nearer the tru e life. In fact the more we realise our nothingness the nearer we are to truth, since we were made from nothing, and drawn out of it by the pure goodness of our Lord. We ought therefore to remember this continually, in order to render by ou r voluntary annihilation a continual homage to the greatness and infinity of our Creator. Nothing is more pleasing to God than this homage, nothing could make u s more certain of His friendship, while at the same time nothing so much wounds our self-love. It is a holocaust in which it is completely consumed by the fire of divine love. You must not then be surprised at the violent resistance it offe rs, especially when the soul experiences mortal anguish in receiving the death-b

low to this self-love. The suffering one feels then is like that of a person in agony, and it is only through this painful agony and by the spiritual death whic h follows it that one can arrive at the fullness of divine life and an intimate union with God." "God may possibly allow you to think that this painful state is going to last you your life-time, in order to give you an opportunity of making Him a more co mplete sacrifice. Do not waver, do not hesitate for a single moment, sacrifice a ll! Abandon yourself without reserve, without limitation to Him, by Whom you i magine yourself abandoned." "Remember that God sees in the depths of your heart all your most secret desi res. This assurance should be sufficient for you; a cry hidden is of the same va lue as a cry uttered, says the Bishop of Meaux. Leave off these reflexions and c ontinual self-examinations about what you do, or leave undone; you have abandone d yourself entirely to God, and given yourself to Him over and over again; you m ust not take back your offering. Leave the care of everything to Him. The compar ison you make is very just; God ties your hands and feet to be able to carry on His work without interference; and you do nothing but struggle, and make every e ffort, but in vain, to break these sacred bonds, and to work yourself according to your own inclination. What infidelity! God requires no other work of you but to remain peacefully in your chains and weakness." (Book Seven, Letters I,IX,XII) Maulana Rumi, in his Mathnawi, wrote: Your anguish is seeking a way to attain to Me; yesterday evening I heard your deep sighs. And I am able, without any delay, to give you access, to show you a way of passage, to deliver you from this whirlpool of time, that you might set your foot upon the treasure of union with Me; but the sweetness and delights of the resting place are in proportion to the pain of the journey. Only then will y ou enjoy your native town and your kinsfolk, when you have suffered the anguish of exile." (The Pocket Rumi, ed. Kabir Helminski, p. 160) Ramana Maharshi similarly advised: "The Higher Power knows what to do and how to do it. Trust it." (41) Further elegantly portraying the helplessness and bewilderment of the soul at this stage, deCaussade continues: "God hidden in his veils gives himself with his grace in an altogether unknow n way, for the soul feels nothing but feebleness under its crosses, disgust with its obligations, while its attractions are only to very commonplace exercises. The idea which it has formed of sanctity reproaches it internally with these low and contemptible dispositions. All the saints lives condemn it. It knows nothin g with which to defend itself; it has light to see a sanctity which, however, br ings it desolation, for it has no strength to rise to it, and does not recognize its weakness as divine order, but as its own cowardice....Experience shows us t hat nothing so much as this apparent loss inflames the desire of the soul for un ion with the divine will. What profound sorrow for the soul!...no consolation is possible....To ravish God from a heart longing for nothing but God, what a secr et of love! [Sant Darshan Singh referred to this apparent spurning by the Beloved in the following verse, What an irony, Darshan! In the tavern master s presence, those par ched with thirst gain no entrance. Love s Last Madness, p. 89] "It is indeed a great secret, for by this way and by this way only are pure f aith and pure hope established in the soul...Everything one does seems the fruit

of chance and natural inclination. Everything that happens humiliates the soul. ..Others are always admired, but we feel miles below them and put to confusion b y their every action....The divine action seems to keep us far from virtue only to plunge the soul into a profound humility. But this humility does not seem to be such to the soul, it thinks it is suffering from the rigours of pure justice. " "The most remarkable thing about this is that in the eyes of those whom God d oes not enlighten concerning its path, the soul seems animated by quite contrary feelings such as obstinacy, disobedience, contempt and indignation that cannot be cured, and the more the soul tries to reform these disorders, the worse they become, for they are the most proper means to detach it from itself and fit it f or divine union. From this painful trial comes the principal merit of self-aband onment. In the duty of the present moment everything is of a nature to draw the soul away from its path of love and simple obedience. It needs heroic courage an d love to stand firm in its simple, active fidelity and sing its part with assur ance, while grace sings its own with different melodies and in different keys wh ich do nothing but convince the soul that it is deceived and lost." (42) If the 'soul' can rest in this state, without struggling to get out (which, o nce fully in this state, it really cannot do), something great will happen. deCaussade then sums up the Divine purpose in all of this as the mortificatio n of the personal will, or self-love in all its disguises, and how His chosen spo uses seemingly receive the harshest treatment: It is the usual way by which God conducts His chosen spouses to the perfection He destines them to attain; and I have known very few whom He has not judged it necessary to guide along this path when they give themselves up entirely to Him . Why then are there such painful states? Why this heaviness of heart which take s the pleasure out of everything? and this depression which makes life insupport able? Why? It is to destroy, in those souls destined to a perfect union with God , a certain base of hidden presumption; to attack pride in its last retreat; to overwhelm with bitterness that cursed self-love which is only content with what gives it pleasure; until at last, not knowing where to turn, it dies for want of food and attention, as a fire goes out for want of fuel to feed it. This death, however, is not the work of a moment; a great quantity of water is required to extinguish a great conflagration. Self-love is like a many-headed hydra, and its heads have to be cut off successively. It has many lives that have to be destro yed one after the other if one wishes to be completely delivered. You have, doub tless, obtained a great advantage by making it die to nature and the senses; but do not dream that you are entirely set free from its obsessions. It recovers fr om this first defeat and renews its attacks on another ground. More subtle in fu ture, it begins again on that which is sensible in devotion; and it is to be fea red that this second attempt, apparently much less crude, and more justifiable t han its predecessor, is also much more powerful. Nevertheless, pure love cannot put up with the one any more than with the other. God cannot suffer sensible con solations to share a heart that belongs to Him. What then will happen? If less p rivileged souls are in question, for whom God has not such a jealous love, He al lows them a peaceful enjoyment of these holy pleasures, and contents Himself wit h the sacrifice they have made of the pleasures of sense. This is, in fact, the ordinary course with devout persons, whose piety is somewhat mixed with a certai n amount of self-seeking. Assuredly God does not approve of their defects; but, as they have received fewer graces, He is less exacting in the matter of perfect ion. These are the ordinary spouses of an inferior rank, whose beauty needs not to be so irreproachable, for they have not the power to wound His divine heart s o keenly; but He has far other requirements, as He has quite other designs with regard to His chosen spouses. The jealousy of His love equals its tenderness. De siring to give Himself entirely to them, He wishes also to possess their whole h eart without division. Therefore He would not be satisfied with the exterior cro

sses and pains which detach from creatures but desires to detach them from thems elves, and to destroy in them to the last fibre that self-love which is rooted i n feelings of devotion, is supported and nourished by them, and finds its satisf action in them. To effect this second death He withdraws all consolation, all pl easure, all interior help, insomuch that the poor soul finds itself as though su spended between Heaven and earth, without the consolations of the one, nor the c omforts of the other. For a human being who cannot exist without pleasure and wi thout love, this seems a sort of annihilation. Nothing then remains for him but to attach himself not with the heart which no longer feels anything, but with the essence of the soul to God alone, whom he knows and perceives by bare faith in an obscure manner. Oh! it is then that the soul, perfectly purified by this two-fol d death, enters into a spiritual alliance with God, and possesses Him in the pur e delights of purified love; which never could have been the case if its spiritu al taste had not been doubly purified. (Book Seven, Letter XIV) "God, felt, enjoyed, and giving pleasure, is truly God; but He bestows gifts for which the soul flatters itself; but God in darkness, in privations, in desti tution, in unconsciousness, is God alone, and as it were, naked. This, however, is a little hard on self-love, that enemy of God, of our own souls, and of all g ood; and it is by the force of these blows that it is finally put to death in us . (Book Seven, Letter XV) "One must never take the extreme expressions made use of by orthodox writers quite rigidly, but enter into the meaning and thought of the authors. One ought, without doubt, to prevent good souls from making use of expressions, coolly and with premeditation, which seem to savour of despair; but it would be unjust to condemn those who, driven almost out of their senses by the violence of their tr ials, speak and act as if they had no hope of eternal happiness. It does not do to feel scandalised at their language, nor to imagine it actuated by a real desp air. It is really rather a feeling of confidence hidden in the depths of the sou l which makes them speak thus; just as criminals have been sometimes known to pr esent themselves before their sovereign with a rope round their neck saying that they gave themselves up to all the severity of his justice. Do you imagine that it was despair that made them speak in this way? or was it not rather an excess of confidence in the prince s goodness? And, as a rule, they obtain their pardon by the excess of their sorrow, repentance, and confidence. Will God then be less good with regard to souls who abandon themselves to Him for time and for eterni ty? Will He take literally expressions which, in the main, only signify transpor ts of abandonment and confidence? (Book Seven, Letter XVI) "To begin with you must know that these trials, which are more grievous than any others, are those which God usually makes those souls whom He most loves und ergo. At this time I have under my direction some who, in this respect, are in a n indescribable state, the mere account of which would horrify you. The entire i nterior nature is encompassed with darkness, and buried in mud. God retains and upholds the free will, that higher faculty of the soul, without affording it the slightest feeling of support. He enlightens it with the entirely spiritual ligh t of pure faith in which the senses have no part; and the poor soul, abandoned, as it appears, to its misery, delivered over as a prey to the malice of devils, is reduced to a most frightful desolation, and endures a real martyrdom." (Book Seven, Letter VIII) Steven Harrison speaks to the overall confusion one inevitably faces: "We have misunderstood our confusion when we think there is an answer to it. The confusion is not a result of questions that are too hard, but rather a quest ioner who is disintegrating. Confusion is the introduction to true intelligence. " (43) St. Francis de Sales, in Book IX, Chapter 3, of Treatise on the Love of God,

speaks with subtle sophistication on union with God through spiritual affliction s and resignation of the soul to the divine will: "Now of all the efforts of perfect love, that which is made by acquiescence o f spirit in spiritual tribulations, is doubtless the purest and noblest. The Ble ssed (S.) Angela of Foligno makes an admirable description of the interior pangs which she sometimes felt, saying that her soul was tortured like to a man who b eing tied hand and foot, should be hung by the neck without being strangled, and should hang in this state betwixt life and death, without hope of help, and una ble to support himself by his feet or assist himself with his hands, or to cry o ut, or even to sigh or moan. It is thus, Theotimus: the soul is sometimes so ove rcharged with interior afflictions, that all her faculties and powers are oppres sed by the privation of all that might relieve her, and by the apprehension and feeling of all that can be grievous to her. So that in imitation of her Saviour she begins to be troubled, to fear, and to be dismayed, and at length to sadden with a sadness like to that of the dying. Whence she may rightly say: My soul is sorrowful even unto death; and with the consent of her whole interior, she desi res, petitions, supplicates, that, if it be possible, this chalice may pass, hav ing nothing left her save the very supreme point of her spirit, which cleaving h ard to the divine will and good-pleasure, says in a most sincere submission: O e ternal Father, Ah! not mine but thy will be done. And the main point is that the soul makes this resignation amidst such a world of troubles, contradictions, re pugnances that she hardly even perceives that she makes it; at least it seems do ne so coldly as not to be done from her heart nor properly, since what then goes on for the divine good-pleasure is not only done without delight and contentmen t, but even against the pleasure and liking of all the rest of the heart, which is permitted by love to bemoan itself... and to sigh out all the lamentations of Job and Jeremias, yet with the condition that a sacred peace be still preserved in the depths of the heart, in the highest and most delicate point of the spiri t. But this submissive peace is not tender or sweet, it is scarcely sensible, th ough sincere, strong, unchangeable and full of love, and it seems to have betake n itself to the very end of the spirit as into the donjon-keep of the fort, wher e it remains in its high courage, though all the rest be taken and oppressed wit h sorrow: and in this case, the more love is deprived of all helps, and cut off from the aid of the powers and faculties of the soul, the more it is to be estee med for preserving its fidelity so constantly." Michael Molinos, whose Spiritual Guide came so close to the truth that it pro voked a Papal Decree in 1687 proclaiming, "Anyone found in possession of this bo ok will be excommunicated," also wrote on this time of trial: "When God crucifies in the inmost part of the Soul, no creature is able to co mfort it; nay, comforts are but grievous and bitter crosses to it. And if it be well-instructed in the laws and discipline of the ways of pure love, in the time of great desolation and inward troubles, it ought not to seek abroad among the creatures for comfort, nor lament itself with them, nor will it be able to read spiritual books: because this is a secret way of getting at a distance from suff ering."(44) Teutonic mystic and visionary Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), who wrote much extoll ing the glory of communing with the Eternal Word or Music and Spirit of God thro ugh inner meditation, practicing "holy abstraction and ceasing from self-thinkin g and self-willing" [see "Jacob Boehme and His Teachings," in Sat Sandesh, July, 1976], nevertheless, in The Way to Christ, Treatise Eight, in a way guaranteed to raise the hair on the back of ones neck, wrote of pain, fear and desolation o n this path: "The soul's will groaned for God but the outgoing senses that were to press i nto God were scattered and were not able to reach the power of God. This frighte ned the poor soul still more in that it could not bring its desire to God, so it

began to pray more strongly. But the devil in his desire...awakened the evil ch aracteristics so that false inclinations rose up and went in where they had earl ier found happiness." " The poor soul wished to go to God with its will, and was in much anguish, b ut its thoughts all fled from God to earthly things, and did not want to go to G od. The soul groaned and cried to God, but it appeared to it that it had been co mpletely cast out from before God's face, as if it could not gain one glance of grace, and stood in vain anguish as well as great fear and dread." "The soul, yearned only for the first fatherland from which it originally cam e, yet it found itself far away from it, in great rejection and misery, and it d id not know what to do. It thought it would enter into itself to pray more ferve ntly, but the devil came into it and held it so that it might not enter greater inclination and repentance." "The devil awoke earthly lust in its heart so that these inclinations upheld their false natural rights and defended themselves against the soul's will and d esires because they did not wish to die to their own will and lust but to keep t heir temporal pleasure and they held the poor soul captive in their false desire so that it could not awaken itself no matter how much it groaned and sighed for God's grace." "Your ability is completely gone, even as a dry twig cannot gain sap and spro ut by its own ability so that it might enjoy itself again among the trees, likew ise you cannot reach God by your own abilities; you cannot change yourself into your first angelic form, for you are dry and dead to God as a twig without life or sap. You are only an anxious and dry hunger." "And as it stood in such groans and tears it was drawn to the abyss of horror as if it stood before hell's gate and was to perish immediately...in such conce rn it began to sigh inwardly and to cry to the mercy of God. And then it began t o sink itself into the purest mercy of God..." " [But] the divine light..grew faint and only glimmered in the internal groun d as a mould-fire so that reason saw itself as foolish and abandoned. It did not know how this happened, or if it was really true that it had tasted of the divi ne light of grace; yet it could not stop from thinking this... The reason of its will was broken and the evil inherited inclinations were mo re and more killed and this caused much pain to the nature of the body making it weak and sick, yet this was not a natural illness but a melancholy of the earth ly nature of the body. Thus the false lusts were broken." In comparison to Boehme speaking of the soul's plaintive yearning for its "fi rst fatherland", St. Therese of Lisieux, in acute trial in the last year of her life, which she described as a black hole, darkness, and a thick wall separating her from God, spoke of giving up hope for the glorious "fatherland" of light, a nd abandoning oneself to "nothingness": "You believe that one day you will walk out of this fog which surrounds you! Advance, advance; rejoice in death which will give you not what you hope for but a night still more profound, the night of nothingness.....My smile is a great m antle, which covers a multitude of sufferings. The sisters and people think that my faith, my hope and my love are profoundly fulfilling me, and that intimacy w ith God and union with His will, live in my heart. If they only knew...only blin d faith moves me along, because the truth is that all is darkness for me. Someti mes the agony of desolation is so great and at the same time the living hope for The Absent so profound that the only prayer I am able to recite is Sacred Heart of Jesus I place all my trust in You. I will quench your thirst for souls. " ( Las t Conversations) Lest we think that these saints are exaggerating, or suffered unnecessarily d ue to starting spiritual life with a wrong foundation of understanding, which mi ght have been avoided had he been trained in an awareness school such as Vipassana Buddhism, or perhaps Advaita Vedanta, let us think again. Perhaps the specifics of the dark night in its fullest extent as described by St. John are unique and

rare, and to some extent old school medieval!, but stripping away the cultural and religious limitations of his tradition, it remains highly likely that the pr ocess he describes, in one form or another, is unavoidable at some point on the path, if one has truly petitioned the higher power for its help, or is simply ri pened to the point where it is tike. This is because our ignorance is generally so thick that we cannot but conceive of the goal as some thing that will be persona lly attained. We confuse the personality with the ego and the ego (subtler and sp iritualized) with the Self or Soul. This identification will generally not go do wn without a struggle - even if we realize this fact, and 'try, not to struggle - although the ordeal can be quickened considerably by association with a true a dept or sage, if one is fortunate enough to find one. Then much of the drama ass ociated with mental and imaginative preconceptions, based on wrong understanding , may be seen through or bypassed. Still, the goal is great, and so is the sacre d ordeal, especially if one has asked for truth, and not just inner peace. Non-d ualist Douglas Harding wrote of going through a period of the dark night many ye ars after having taught others about his awakening to what he called "headlessne ss." He expressed that having spiritual glimpses was easy, but surrender of the personal will most difficult. This correlates to what non-dual teacher Adyashanti in The End of Your World says about awakening proceeding from the head to the heart to the gut. An initia l awakening at the level of the understanding, while profound and important, mus t proceed to enlighten all aspects of the being, including the emotions (heart) and the personal will (the "gut," the basic survival instinct or "existential gr ip"). This was also discussed in the Lankavatara Sutra, where it speaks of a 'fu ndamental turnabout in the deep-seat of understanding', as well as an 'inconceiv able transformation death of the Bodhisattva's individualized will-control'. Bob Ferguson (TAT, from "Why We Don't Get It?) wrote: "Only through the simple process of self-observation can this thing called th e "self" be seen. We may need years of looking at it, seeing why it does what it does, thinks what it thinks, until we know it well enough to cease to believe i n it. All of our energy, for all of our life, has been poured into this thing: o ur personality, the little self, the ego. A few moments of seeing, while of monu mental importance, will not cause its complete demise. This demise is what we fe ar most; for it is seen by the thought-pattern we call "us" as death. At some po int, the initial joy of seeing will turn to the pain of ego-death, as the Truth becomes known. It will not be pleasant. In fact, the pain and horror felt by the ego as it faces its own death, will be felt as yours." These profound developments, in my opinion, are the fundamental province of t he dark night of the soul, call it by whatever name you like. Because soul has m any connotations, and we are not talking about simply (or not so simply) purifyi ng the dross of the personality so one can get to a heavenly place, but the unde rmining of all of that, simply the 'dark night', 'dark night of the person,' or 'dark night of the being', may be more useful terms for our time. If one can hol d on, without leaping out of the fire, and allowing any and all drama to arise, without blame, even if one feels extremely blameworthy, he will get through, so to speak. Actually he will and he won't. To say, however, like some modern teach ers do , that all problems come from 'a simple misunderstanding,' or because of the existence of 'thoughts, beliefs, or personal' stories', is seriously underes timating the depth of the quest. While seeing through some of that may be enough to produce an 'awakening', the true alchemical process known to the ancients as 'coagulation' goes much farther, and relieves even the awakened being - who now has more strength to deal with it - of deep cellular imprinting and what might be called 'primal insanity', even while the true light penetrates and comes aliv e in and through the being more and more. Brunton elaborates further on why such a process of descent is important, and some of its ramifications: "The need of predetermining at the beginning of the path whether to be a phil

osopher (ie., sage) or a mystic arises only for the particular reincarnation whe re attainment is made. Thereafter, whether on this earth or another, the need of fulfilling the philosophic evolution will be impressed upon him by Nature." (45 ) "Beware what you pray for. Do not ask for the truth unless you know what it m eans and all that it implies and nevertheless are still willing to accept it. Fo r if it is granted to you, it will not only purge the evil out of you but later purify the egoism from your mind. Will you be able to endure this loss, which is unlikely to be a painless one?" (46) "Whoever invokes the Overself's Grace ought to be informed that he is also in voking a long period of self-improving toil and self-purifying affliction necess ary to fit him to receive that Grace....If he offers himself to the divine, the divine will take him at his word, provided the word is sincerely meant. The resp onse to this offer when it comes is what is called Grace...Many who ask for Grac e would be shocked to hear that the troubles which may have followed their reque st were actually the very form in which the higher power granted the Grace to th em." (47) "There is.. an unpredictable element in the pattern of human life, which incr eases rather than decreases as the quality of that life rises above average. We see it markedly in the case of a maturing aspirant who has to undergo tests and endure ordeals which have no karmic origin but which are put across his path by his own higher self for the purpose of a swifter forward movement. They are inte nded to promote and not delay his growth, to accelerate and not impede his devel opment. But they will achieve this purpose only if he recognises their true aim. " (48) Sant Darshan Singh writes: "We are people of little faith and fail to recognize and appreciate the hand which guides and which sustains. Hazur (Baba Sawan Singh Ji) used to say that on ce a saint has taken a soul under his wing, he is keen to compress the progress of twenty births into a single one. And if we desire to pack the accomplishments of twenty lives into a single one, we must pay for it." (49) PB similar writes: "If his evolutionary need should require it, he will be harassed by troubles to make him less attached to the world, or by sickness to make him less attached to the body. It is then not so much a matter of receiving self-earned destiny a s of satisfying that need. Both coincide usually but not always and not necessar ily. Nor does this happen with the ordinary man so much as it does with the ques ting man, for the latter has asked or prayed for speedier development." (49a) Santideva reminds us in his Bodhicharyavatara, that the price for such a rich reward is actually less than that of its alternative: For myriads of ages, measureless, uncounted, Your body has been cut, impaled, Burned, flayed - for times past numbering! Yet none of this has brought you to buddhahood. The hardships suffered on the path to buddhahood Are different, for their span is limited, And likened to the pain of an incision Made to cure the harm of hidden ailments. (50) Some have advanced the argument that the transformation described by St. John

does not in itself produce the non-dual enlightenment or self-realization such as described in the highest forms of Buddhism, or by a sage such as Ramana Mahar shi, but only various forms of mystic union, even that of the highest, such as n irvikalpa samadhi or its Christian equivalent (if there is one). While such an e xperience is an evolutionary advance which under no circumstances should be mini mized, this is not an insignificant point. In fact it is the most fundamental po int. Perhaps if St. John were here today he might speak to us in more modern lan guage and resolve our doubts. Indeed, Brunton points out that the saint "limited his reading to four or five books, of which one was Contra Haereses, and confin ed his writing by his proclaimed intention "not to depart from the sound sense a nd doctrine of our Holy Mother the Catholic Church." (51) It is quite possible, however, that he circumscribed his exposition of more esoteric teachings in orde r not to further arouse the hostility of the established church hierarchy, for w hich he had been thrown into prison. Many true mystics throughout history have u nfortunately faced the same problem. (One is reminded of historian Will Durant's remark, "the Church has persecuted only two groups of people: those who did not follow the teachings of Jesus, and those who did"). St. John certainly did seem to be intimately familiar with and write about a realization beyond ego and the exclusive pursuit of interiorization. Evelyn Unde rhill in her classic work, Mysticism, wrote: "The self which comes forth from the night is no separated self, conscious of the illumination of the Uncreated Light, but the New Man, the transmuted humani ty, whose life is one with the Absolute Life of God." (52) Hubert Benoit also feels this way: When St. John of the Cross passes beyond his mystical compensation, when he de taches himself from the image of God after this image has been as far as possible rendered impersonal, he does not feel attached to the image Ego from which the ima ge God drew its apparent Reality; he does not feel attached to anything. He no lon ger feels anything; it is the Night in which nothing exists any longer in connexio n with what can be felt or thought. But there is still an ultimate attachment to the Ego which links together all the powers of the being, an ultimate and invis ible compensation. It is passing-beyond this invisible compensation which is the veritable detachment, total and instantaneous. To the Night succeeds what St. J ohn of the Cross calls the theopathic state, that which Zen calls Satori. (Zen an d the Psychology of Transformation: The Supreme Doctrine (Rochester, VT: Inner T raditions International, 1990), p. 220) The following passages from St. John do read more like a satori or pre-satori description given by a Zen Buddhist, where one stands outside of the ego, than the report of an ordinary yogi or mystic, who, still identified with his ego, st ands outside of the body: "For this night is gradually drawing the spirit away from its ordinary and co mmon experience of things and bringing it nearer the Divine sense, which is a st ranger and an alien to all human ways. It seems now to the soul that it is going forth from its very self, with much affliction. At other times it wonders if it is under a charm or spell, and it goes about marvelling at the things it sees a nd hears, which seem to it very strange and rare, though they are the same that it was accustomed to experience aforetime. The reason of this is that the soul i s now becoming alien and remote from common sense and knowledge of things, in or der that, being annihilated in this respect, it may be informed with the Divine. " (53) Several centuries before St. John a lesser known mystic, Margaret Porete, who was executed for heresy, wrote

"about seeing Nothing, about immersion in the Abyss, about an identity with t he divine in a nothingness which is at the same time the All. "Now this soul has fallen from love into nothingness, and without such nothingness she cannot be A ll." (Excerpted from The Book of No One, by Richard Sylvestor, p. 120) It may very well, then, be that the end result of passage through the dark ni ght, as well as the experience of true spiritual glimpses, will vary depending o n the metaphysical preparation of the individual. As briefly touched upon earlie r, even if one achieves (and there are few in this day and age that can do so) t he highest or deepest mystical realization, as in nirvikalpa samadhi (the experi ence of consciousness itself, abstracted from the world, the conventional goal o f Eastern mysticism (sometimes mistaken for realisation of the Ultimate State), there still remains, according to sages, the necessary and profound second task of bringing that realization into the world and stably recognizing that the sour ce of the world image is the same as, or not separate from, the source of ones e go or 'I'. This is generally known as sahaj samadhi, non-duality, the "natural s tate", considered superior than even the loftiest mystic trance, because it is p ermanent and not temporary, and also entailing a greater, perhaps even inconceiv able degree of sacrifice. This is so because anyone who so 'escapes' is highly u nlikely to give up their attainment and come back to what they left with such gr eat effort - even if it really be to gain a greater realization. For only here t he Individual Soul can realize it not separate from the All-Soul. Not just a blo odless, quiet contemplation, this has been described in a real sense as a merger of ones self with the world or absorption of the world into ones self. Do you t hink this will be reached without a tussle, an inner revolution in fact? A conco mitant of this is the merger or surrender of the personal will, illusory though it may be, with the divine or universal will. St. John certainly spoke of the la tter, though not explicitly about the former. The realization here is simultaneo usly one of 'no-self' and union, as well as the simultaneity of One and many, th e impersonal and the personal. Of this further accomplishment Anthony Damiani wr ites: "Do you see why PB was in such pain and agony in spite of achieving nirvikalp a?...The truth is one thing, but personal comfort is something else -- our pleas ure, the fact that we're comfortable, is something else." (54) Kirpal Singh said, "The mystery of life is solved by dissolving yourself into it." Similarly, Ramana said, "One who truly renounces merges into the world." T he idea is that one does not so much enter worlds as that he becomes them." For those wishing to explore in depth the issue of whether the Christian path includes true non-dualism or not the reader is directed to Bernadette Roberts' What Is Self?

Part Two The following material, along with what has been written so far, is presented to show similarity of experiences among serious practitioners in different trad itions, but not necessarily to equate all of them with the exact processes descr ibed by St. John, or to try to examine ultimate questions regarding identity, un ion, individuality, or non-duality. For an in-depth discussion of that, and more , see PB and Plotinus: The Fallacy of Divine Identity. What has been attempted i s to show something of the profundity of the emotional depths involved in the qu est. This section should further cement in the reader the notion of the depths t o which the dark night process goes.

The life of Zen Master Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693), considered by D.T.Suzuki to have been one of the greatest of all Zen Masters, illustrates the depths of lib erating despair that often lead up to an awakening. Further, we will see that, c ontrary to many popular notions, such an awakening is often the beginning of tru e practice, and not the end. Bankei was very devoted to his mother, and once confessed to her that more th an anything else it was his desire to communicate the Truth to her which motivat ed his pursuit of Enlightenment. His childhood schooling consisted of little mor e than rote memorization of a Confucian classic entitled The Great Learning. Ban kei was struck by the opening words of the book: The way of Great Learning lies i n illuminating the Bright Virtue. He searched and searched but could find no one to satisfactorily explain this verse to him. His family, his teacher, and the lo cal priest confessed their ignorance, and one day, his great heart-need unsatisf ied, Bankei simply left school. He was obsessed with finding out what Bright Virt ue meant, and he knew at the very least that he would find no answers there. His action, however, would never be acceptable to his elder brother, the head of the household, and knowing this Bankei decided to kill himself. His method of achie ving this was to eat a handful of poisonous spiders, but to his great disappointme nt he did not die. When he refused to attend school his brother expelled him fro m the house, and at the age of eleven Bankei began a life of wandering, meditati ng and visiting spiritual teachers in search of the Bright Virtue. For fourteen years he moved about, practising harsh austerities and paying sc ant attention to the needs of food and shelter. At one point he decided to find the answer within himself, and he built a tiny hut for meditation, leaving only a small hole through which food could be brought to him. He sat until the flesh on his buttocks was flayed and his health broke down. The wall of his hut was ma rked by gobs of thick black phlegm he would be spit up. Finally, Bankei realized that he was dying, and in his despair he experienced a fundamental breakthrough : The master, frustrated in his attempts to resolve the feeling of doubt which w eighed so heavily on his mind, became deeply disheartened. Signs of serious illn ess appeared. He began to cough up bloody bits of sputem. He grew steadily worse , until death seemed imminent. He said to himself, Everyone has to die. I m not con cerned about that. My regret is dying with the great matter I ve been struggling w ith all these years, since I was a small boy, still unresolved. His eyes flushed with hot tears. His breast heaved violently. It seemed his ribs would burst. The n, just at that moment, enlightenment came to him - like a bottom falling out of a bucket. Immediately, his health began to return, but still he was unable to e xpress what he had realized. Then, one day, in the early hours of the morning, t he scent of plum blossoms carried to him in the morning air reached his nostrils . At that instant, all attachments and obstacles were swept from his mind once a nd for all. The doubts that had been plaguing him ceased to exist. (55) Bankei s satoris represented a profound transcendance of unconscious identifica tion with the ego, and the realization of consciousness or Mind as the substrate of all experience, that became the basis for his further practise. It was the B uddhist seed of enlightenment , not the final achievement, but which nevertheless w iped doubt and uncertainty from his mind. For about thirty years I wandered searching for the real Tao everywhere.. But at this moment, seeing the plum blossoms, I am suddenly enlightened, and have no more doubts. (56) Bankei had a deepening of his realization three years later under the guidanc e of a Chinese priest, who confirmed that he had indeed penetrated to the Self-e ssence but still needed to clarify the matter beyond , discriminating wisdom , or "the

practise after Enlightenment". Master Po Shan similarly discoursed: Therefore the proverb says, after enlightenment one should visit the Zen Maste rs. The sages of the past demonstrated the wisdom of this when, after their enlig htenment, they visited the Zen Masters and improved themselves greatly. One who clings to his realization and is unwilling to visit the Masters, who can pull ou t his nails and spikes, is a man who cheats himself. (57) Garma C.C. Chang brings to our awareness the recognized distinction made in Z en and Ch an Buddhism between the awakening to prajna-truth (or the immediate awak ening to transcendental wisdom or selflessness) and Cheng-teng-cheuh (sabyaksamb odhi), which is the final, perfect, complete enlightenment of Buddhahood: A great deal of work is needed to cultivate this vast and bottomless Prajna-mi nd before it will blossom fully. It takes a long time, before perfection is reac hed, to remove the dualistic, selfish, and deeply rooted habitual thoughts arisi ng from the passions. This is very clearly shown in many Zen stories, and in the following Zen proverb, for example: The truth should be understood through sudde n Enlightenment, but the fact (the complete realization) must be cultivated step by step. (58) The great Lankavatara Sutra speaks not only of a fundamental "turnabout in th e deep seat of understanding", but of the "inconceivable transformation death of the Bodhisattva's individualized will-control", the latter serving to balance a nd temper the enthusiastic claims of many self-professed non-dualists. Hubert Be noit, in The Supreme Doctrine, attempts to clarify the difference between freedo m 'of the ego' and freedom 'from the ego' (and, one might add, freedom 'for' the ego, poor little thing thing it is, for ego gets liberated, too!) : In a book on Zen..a Western author affirms that the man liberated by satori ca n do anything in any circumstance; but this is radically contrary to a true unde rstanding, for the man liberated by satori can only perform one single action in a given circumstance. He can no longer do anything but the single action that i s totally adequate to that circumstance; and it is in the immediate, spontaneous elaboration of this unique adequate action that the enjoyment of the perfect li berty of this man lies. The natural egotistical man, activated by partial determ inism, elaborates in a mediate manner one of the innumerable inadequate reaction s to the given circumstance; the man who has attained Realization, activated by total determinism, elaborates with absolute rigour the unique action that is ade quate. (59) Damiani explains why even such a true glimpse is only the beginning: "Once he gets a Glimpse, he recognizes the illusory nature of the ego but als o its tyrannical sway. Then usually what a person does is offer that ego to his higher self. In other words he wants to be of service to the higher power and al l he can do is pray and ask that that be given for him to do. Make sure you know what you're asking for, because this is a big thing. Once you do that, I'm not saying it's granted, but then there comes a series of lives where egoism is real ly crushed, or you go through a training where you get rid of it, or you come ac ross a master who will help you get rid of it." (60) He further demolishes the claims of many to premature eradication of the ego: "Don't kid yourself. Don't come to me from the point of view that the ego doe sn't exist, because it's been around as long as the Overself [Soul] has been pro jecting itself, manifesting itself through some kind of life. The residue of all that living becomes a tendency which you're going to find is perhaps not a perm

anent entity, but good enough to drive you up the wall for the next indefinite n umber of incarnations....As soon as you say the ego is "empty" then you're in fo r it. I don't think you understand why I regard any talk like that as utterly fu tile and even esoterically stupid. I don't care who says it. Anyone who thinks h e's going to outwit his ego is in for a real rough time. That's why I don't like to call it empty. I like to think of it as a real fire-breathing dragon.....Tha t's why I sometimes tease you by saying that anyone who tells me the ego is illu sory is out of his mind. He hasn't even encountered it yet." (61) This was necessary to be said. However, the battle, real but also illusory, e ven unnecessary in a way, must be understood rightly. For the ego is really a pa rtner in this quest. A balanced approach is best. The following dialogue occured between Prince Chandragarbha and his guru Atis ha: "O guru! On entering samadhi, I perceived (a state of voidness) like a cloudl ess sky, radiant, pure and clear. Is that the nature of the Dharma, O guru? Then , after coming forth from meditation, I was troubled by no attachment, but longe d to be of benefit to sentient beings. I recognize the reality of karma, even th ough all objects are revealed as illusions. O guru, is my practice without error ?" The guru answered: "Fortunate man. You are a product of accumulated merit. As a bhikshu I do not exaggerate or pervert the truth. Although at the time of con centration one perceives that all objects share the voidness of the sky, one mus t lift up all beings through compassion after the concentration has been perform ed. This is an exposition of two truths (absolute and relative). " Atisha's guru, Avadhutipa, himself gave this stern warning: "As long as you do not properly modify your actions according to the law of c ause and effect, you could still go to hell, despite being a great adept and yog i. Until you abandon grasping at a self and while you still place little value o n the law of cause and effect, always remember that yogi so-and-so was reborn in hell." Shawn Nevins, in The Ego of Seeking (TAT Forum, July 2005), explains that eve n those who may come to recognize that their spiritual search itself involves eg o, and then make the somewhat more sophisticated attempt to get rid of this "spi ritual ego" by "doing nothing" are, in most instances, not really "doing nothing ", but rather entertaining "the thought of doing-nothing," which is just another form of ego and a dead-end or short-circuit on the path. The ego only truly get s transformed, not eliminated entirely, by wearing itself out through its own ef forts, taking a hand in its own evolution, exerting itself mentally and morally, seeing its painful ridiculousness, stewing in its own hopelessness, and finally getting trancended by grace. Paradoxically it does not get eliminated, since it has no self-existent reality from the beginning, no true existence apart from t he One. The person, however, remains as long as the body lives. Bankei many years later confessed: " When it comes to the truth I uncovered when I was twenty-six and living in retreat at the village of Nonaka in Ako in Harima - the truth for which I went t o see Dosha and obtained his confirmation - so far as the truth is concerned, be tween that time and this, from beginning to end, there hasn't been a shred of di fference. However, so far as penetrating the great truth of Buddhism with the pe rfect clarity of the Dharma Eye and realizing absolute freedom, between the time I met Dosha and today, there's all the difference of heaven and earth!" (62) In short, as Brunton writes:

"The glimpse is the beginning; recognizing it for what it is, is a further an d extended operation......For us who are philosophically minded, the World-Mind truly exists. For us it is God, and for us there is a relationship with it - the relationship of devotion and aspiration, of communion and meditation. All the t alk about non-duality may go on, but in the end the talkers must humble themselv es before the infinite Being until they are as nothing and until they are lost i n the stillness - Its stillness." (63) Anthony Damiani in commentating on PB said that the ego eventually gets "push ed into" the World-Idea, and the sage attains a universal viewpoint. His body, i n essence, becomes identified with that of the cosmos, a rare and painful achiev ement. This is stated in the Lankavatara Sutra as follows: "In the perfect self-realisation of Noble Wisdom that follows the inconceivab le transformation death of the Bodhisattva's individualised will-control, he no longer lives unto himself, but the life that he lives thereafter is the Tathagat a's universalised life as manifested in its transformations." (excerpted from Dw ight Goddard, ed. A Buddhist Bible) In the Sufi tradition reference is given to the difference between a state an d a station. A state is incomplete and temporary while a station is relatively p ermanent and cannot be lost. The former is more often considered an unpredictabl e gift of God while the latter is largely a result of one s effort and maturity al ong with the helping hand of grace. The essential difference is that between a f irst awakening to the Heart and fully grown union with it. It is sometimes assumed that Zen is chiefly a mental exercise (paradoxical an d non-rational, as evidenced by the koan practise) leading to awakened insight, without requiring either a long course of personal discipline and self-purificat ion as demanded in yoga, or devotion and self-sacrifice as called for in the Chr istian tradition. This former error is made by fans of Advaita Vedanta as well, who talk of the non-dual Self without creating the preparatory conditions for it s actual realization. Whereas the practise of a wide range of disciplines as wel l as meditation sitting in some form, common in Buddhism generally, has been the traditional Zen practise from the beginning, and is the necessary prerequisite for the fruitful use of the koan. As Brunton pointed out, "The earlier Chinese Zen lectures and writings were often prefaced by the war ning that they were intended for persons who were already properly instructed an d established in "the virtues"....the Zen master Ma-tsu admitted as much when he said, "If there is no discipline, this is to be the same as ordinary people." ( 64) Any confusion regarding this would be unheard of in the Sufi tradition, where the attainment of a particular station is intimately connected with the acquiri ng of a corresponding virtue. To speak of them as separate would be considered t o talk nonsense. Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes: The gaining of the spiritual virtues and their corresponding states and statio ns are so many stages in the death of the soul in respect to its base and accide ntal nature, and its resurrection in divinis...Since man is not just an intellig ence that can discern the Truth and know the Absolute but also a will, the virtu es are a necessary concomitant to the total attachment of man to the Truth. For, Truth, when it appears on the level of the will, becomes virtue, and it is then veracity and sincerity. ...If the discussion of spiritual states in Sufism is inse parable from that of the virtues (mahasin or fada il), it is precisely because in Sufism a virtue is seen not as an act or external attribute but as a manner of being. It has a definite ontological aspect. That is why in the classical enumer ation of the states and stations of the soul we always meet with the enumeration of the virtues. A state or station, like patience (sabr) or confidence (tawakku

l), is a virtue, which means that when the soul reaches such a state not only do es it possess the virtue in question as an accident, but its very substance is t ransmuted by it so that during that stage of the Way in a sense it is itself tha t virtue. It is this ontological dimension of the virtues that makes the discuss ion of them inseparable from that of the spiritual states, as we see in so many Sufi treatises, old and new. Of course the Sufis never tire of emphasizing that the end of Sufism is not to possess such and such a virtue or state as such but to reach God beyond all states and virtues. But to reach the Transcendent beyond the virtues, man must first possess the virtues; to reach the station of annihi lation and subsistence in God, man must have already passed through the other st ates and stations. (65) As Sant Kirpal Singh once said, gold is gold. The preceding also must not be misunderstood. Nasr is a bit one-sided in his explanation. The great Sufi Ibn 'Arabi explains things differently. Certainly th e traditional descriptions of attainment make it seem impossible for all but the perfect moral superman. But, in Islam, the idea of 'Virtue' has another meaning . Virtue correlates with the 'Divine Names and Attributes' of God. But it is ver y interesting, that at the archtypal level of the Divines and Attributes, 'Virtu e' has no moral connotation. Some of the Divine Names are Merciful (the most sen ior of the names, and the very essence of God), compassionate, benevolent, and s o on, but also wrathful, jealous, etc.. Man is considered the highest and most ' perfect' of the creation precisely because only he can potentially embody all of the Divine Names and thus get the experience necessary for realization, somewha t like the Prodigal Son. So do not worry about being perfect in a human way, it is destructive to the being if taken too far. And not necessary in any case for divine Self-realization. There will be eons of time for reaching the ideal of pe rfection! Simply try and "Be good, do good, and be One," as Kirpal Singh used to say. Or "charity and clarity", said Sri Nisargadatta. That is hard enough to li ve up to for most of us. Back to Zen for a moment. Not all Zen schools have used koans, which are a ki nd of artifical form of riddle sometimes created by the Masters to break the fixat ion of dualistic consciousness in their students. They are solved not by giving the right answer but by transcending the conceptual mind in the process of conte mplation of the paradox the koan represents. As such they are really only useful chiefly for advanced practitioners, whose mind, and general character developme nt, whose desperation and 'revulsion' are "ripe" for a breakthrough to a true gl impse. This matter of maturity and ripeness, as well as the need for practise af ter satori, is so important and apparently so rarely found today that the the ve ry legitimacy of such practice and dharma transmission itself have been called i nto question. D.T. Suzuki (1970-1966) considered his master, Soyen Shaku, to be the last of the great Zen Masters. If it seems to some that Zen has deteriorated even further since then, despite notable exceptions, such may be partly and unf ortunately inevitable when a tradition or school becomes too insular and its mas ters and students are uninformed by an in-depth study of their own as well as di scriminative study other philosophical teachings. A classic koan is what is the sound of one hand clapping? , or "what was your or iginal face before you were born?", or simply "Mu". Then one might be told to me ditate on his koan for twenty hours a day until he solves it. The beginning studen t (but still one tested and prepared by a preliminary course of discipline) trad itionally came to the master (in what came to be known as the 'shouting and beat ing school", at any rate) with a clever answer and typically got a whack from hi s staff or a cuff on the ear. In some cases, the disciple may get a blow even be fore he speaks: "Master Tokusan was a much more severe kind of Zen Master. Once a monk came t o see him and, according to the Buddhist manner, made a bow to the Master before

asking a question. However, before he had finished bowing, Tokusan gave him a b low of his stick. The monk did not know what it was all about, and said, "I have just bowed to you and have not asked you any question yet. Why have you struck me?" "It is no use to wait till you start talking," was the reply Tokusan gave h im. In such a strict denial of words we are to see how earnestly Zen insists on the experience itself." (66) For most of us this is only of historical interest. However, to set the recor d straight, the mere contemplation of the koan is an intense discipline and coul d go on for years. It is similar to Vedantic enquiry in its ability to concentra te the mind and also undermine one's dualistic thinking processes. Thus it is a complement to and even a form of meditation. Half-hearted or superficial mental efforts will not produce the desired result. Interestingly, the disciple often g ets his worst beating when he is close to penetrating what is essentially the "k not of self" or "ball of confusion" (to borrow a line from The Temptations) repr esented by the koan. This is because the seriousness of the endeavor, its spirit ual life and death nature, self-evident to the Master, is now becoming apparent to his feeling. This often manifests as the anguish and despair evoked by devote es like Bankei - or, crossing traditions, even Ramakrishna - in the maturing sta ges prior to insight or a fundamental breakthrough. In the Zen tradition one hears of the state of the great doubt that "burns like a ball of red-hot fire that one can neither swallow nor spit out". One may wond er if at least part of the meaning behind the choice of this metaphor refers to the hard inner clenching or contraction around an imaginary center that is a sub jective symptom of separation strongly felt (ie., St. John: "The living flame of love makes the soul feel its hardness and aridity."). This doubt may also be cons idered as a thought or feeling-sense of the struggle with self as it begins to b ecome clear that you yourself, as you are, are the problem, but the problem itse lf (the aggitated need to do something through the sheer force of one's self-wil l) is not entirely obvious as yet. The ordinary man in general has no such exist ential "doubt". He is comfortable with a self which he unconsciously identifies solely with the body. As his life ripens, as his basic confusion increases, howe ver, this natural conceit becomes undermined. Certainty and knowledge turn into doubt. One no longer knows who or what the 'I' or the 'world' are, yet reality i tself has yet to dawn upon his consciousness. Instead, a crisis presents itself. Or not. Sometimes the man before satori is described as being in a state of neu trality, of calm, where the pressures of the drive to do something and the drive to do nothing are equalized. The man at this stage has been described as 'an id iot', knowing nothing - often, but not always, as mentioned, in deep despair, of an extreme existential nature. The energy of the Great Doubt gradually is built up within his being to a critical degree. When fundamental insight finally aris es to consciousness, as satori, often catalyzed by the perception of an external sight or sound, the inherent distress is released and the 'doubt' vanishes. One then becomes one who has truly 'entered the path'. Prior to satori every answer o ne comes up with for the koan is rejected, which, of course, is as it should be, for short of satori no one passes his interview with the master - assuming the master truly has fundamental insight. Without a life (or prior life) of discipli ne, purification, and study/contemplation), however, it is highly unlikely for t he great doubt to arise or certainly for a koan to be of much use. Our unconscious tendencies or vasanas will keep us preoccupied with the world and the ego to su ch an extent that insight will have difficulty arising. Further, our life of 'sl eep' will not be interrupted sufficiently to allow the insight that does manage to arise to become stable realization. However, it should also be remembered tha t a satori is just a moment, it is not the whole sequence of deaths and rebirths to produce the entirely New Man .[In fact, it is not even necessary. When asked by a disciple why he never spoke about satori, Shunyro Suzuki's wife answered, "because he never had one!"] Nevertheless it happens, particularly in the Zen tr adition. D. T. Suzuki gave an account of his first satori at age 26 using the ko an "Mu" under Soyen Shaku. In it he reveals the difference between absorptive tr

ance samadhi and prajna, or insight. "Up until then he had been conscious of 'Mu' [the koan] in his mind. But to b e conscious of Mu is to be separate from it. Towards the end of that sesshin [Ze n retreat], on about the fifth day, he ceased to be conscious of Mu - "I was one with Mu, identified with Mu, so that there was no longer the separateness impli ed by being conscious of Mu"....That was samadhi; but samadhi is not enough: "Yo u must come out of that state, be awakened from it, and that awakening is Prajna . That moment of coming out of the samadhi and seeing it for what it is - that i s satori." His first words as he was awakened from that state of deep samadhi by the sound of a small hand bell being struck were: "I see. This is it." (66a) Once true and profound insight or self-knowledge is gained, however, although itself a highly significant development, one must go on to practise with that i nsight. This is partly because it is in the feeling nature and the will where th e deepest contractions of ego reside, and they must be unraveled - at least suff iciently for the soul's purposes. There are also many warnings in the Zen tradit ion that there are grades of satori, and that one must press on until he has had a great Satori from which there is no backsliding, and which generally must be approved by a master. Thus there is a 'post-satori process', in which 'one's nai ls and spikes are pulled out'. One may rightly wonder where masters with such pr ofound insight are to be found today. Thus there is a need to choose teachers wi sely, lest one end up wasting years and suffering unduly from the "broken yogi s yndrome". We should take to heart the dying words of the Buddha: "be on your gua rd," and "work out your salvation with diligence." Hakuin, perhaps the greatest of the Rinzai teachers, had his first experience of satori after meditating on the koan Mu for four years: He shouted: Why, the world is not something to be avoided, nor is Nirvana somet hing to be sought after! This realization he presented to the Abbot and some fell ow disciples but they did not give their unqualified assent to it. He however bu rned with absolute conviction, and thought to himself that surely for centuries no one had known such a joy as was his. He was then twenty-four. In his autobiog raphical writings, Hakuin warns Zen students with peculiar earnestness against t his pride of assurance. (67) After this he endured three years of merciless hammering by the Master Shoju, who utterly smashed his self-satisfaction. He had another satori, which he classi fied as a great satori , and which his teacher confirmed by saying, You are through. Nevertheless, Shoju admonished him not to be content with such a small thing but to perform the practise after satori. This is known as the downward practise, where one descends from the mountaintop to become the Great Fool, highly revered in the Zen tradition. It was not until more than ten years later, and much meditation under extremely austere conditions, that Hakuin penetrated to the depths of the Lotus Sutra, and gained a most fundamental awakening: The meaning of the ordinary life of his teacher Shoju was revealed, and he saw that he had been mistaken over his great satori realizations. This time there w as no great reaction in the body-mind instrument. (68) Brunton similarly writes: The glimpse, because it is situated between the mental conditions which exist before and afterwards, necessarily involves striking - even dramatic - contrast with their ordinariness. It seems to open onto the ultimate light-bathed height of human existence. But this experience necessarily provokes a human reaction to it, which is incorporated into the glimpse itself, becomes part of it. The perm anent and truly ultimate enlightenment is pure, free from any admixture of react ion, since it is calm, balanced, and informed. (69)

Such a condition is so subtle, so close to the heart, that it may even have t o be pointed out by the teacher: If you believe that you have had the ultimate experience, it is more likely th at you had an emotional, or mental, or mystic one. The authentic thing does not "enter" consciousness. You do not know that it has transpired. You discover it i s already here only by looking back at what you were and contrasting it with wha t you now are; or when others recognize it in you and draw attention to it; or w hen a situation arises which throws up your real status. It is a permanent fact, not a brief mystic "glimpse." (70) Or as Sri Nisargadatta, with the utmost acuteness, once said: "With some, realization comes imperceptibly, but somehow they need convincing . They have changed, but they do not notice it. Such non-spectacular cases are o ften the most reliable." (71) An important of the last two quotes is that one's realization or awakening mu st be recognized by others, that it is not necessarily self-verifying. A yet eve n deeper truth is that there is no such thing as individual liberation, in isola tion from the whole. "I am Brahman" is no longer good enough. It is a Newtonian solution in a quantum world. But, this is not the place to get into that! In the Zen tradition there is mention of the Zen illness or the stink of enlight enment , which may arise after a first satori. Further practise is required for th e complete breakdown of the conceits of self until the entire being is transform ed. This will take as long as it takes, which sacred texts suggest may be many l ifetimes of practice. Damiani, in response to the question of why someone who ha s a true glimpse does not yet know the truth of the I AM (ie., true Soul or Spir it-Being), answered: "Because that's a long, arduous, difficult process, maybe t wenty, thirty incarnations left to go." (72) There is no point in worrying about things like that. The plain fact simply i s that it takes however long it takes. Damiani, moreover, was talking about full y grown union with one's own Soul, True Nature, or Conscious-Being, not the init ial awakening to it. And, who knows, maybe one has had twenty such lives already . So there is no use in putting any limits on this thing. Moreover, why worry ab out an 'end'? For that is just a concept. Better to be free of the whole thing, and let Nature have its way with you. Harada Roshi, in commenting on the realization of one of his female disciples , Yaeko Iwasaki, spoke further of the Zen sickness: An ancient Zen saying has it that to become attached to one s own enlightenment is as much a sickness as to exhibit a maddeningly active ego. Indeed, the profou nder the enlightenment, the worse the illness. In her case I think it would have taken two or three months for the most obvious symptoms to disappear, two or th ree years for the less obvious, and seven or eight years for the most insidious. ..My own sickness lasted almost ten years. Ha! (73) Boo hoo, ten years! In light of some of the previous comments, one should be so lucky! After a first satori a Zen practitioner may exclaim, "Ah, the immaculate Yogi ns do not enter Nirvana and the precept-violating monks do not go to hell!", but overcomes this initial enthusiasm and self-assurance through further training, wherein he learns that "to be conscious of the original mind, the original natur e - just this is the great disease of Zen."

The depths of despair that Bankei experienced are common to many ripening asp irants at various stages or moments of the way. The Buddha spoke of an ocean of tears to be crossed on the journey to Nirvana, or from self to Overself, before the hard crust of ego dissolves and the heart awakens permanently. On the work r equired to become such a sage, Brunton, echoing Huang-Yang Ming, wrote that one will "die a hundred deaths and suffer a thousand sufferings." (74) (see Append ix A) The great Tibetan Guru Marpa lamented that if he could have plunged hi s favorite disciple Milarepa into utter depair a ninth time he could have saved him years of suffering and the need for a future rebirth to eradicate all of his impurities. Even selfless servant of the poor Mother Teresa of Calcutta, throug h recently released private papers, confessed to five decades of feeling abandon ed by God. She even requested an exorcism shortly before her death: "I am told emptiness is er of my soul every side is ng me, of God

God lives in me - and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and so great that nothing touches my soul..I want God with all the pow - and yet between us there is a terrible separation...Heaven from closed....I feel just that terrible pain of loss, of God not wanti not being God, of God not really existing."

Thoughts of suicide have at times tormented the sincerest of devotees, among them Brunton, Ramakrishna, Rama Tirtha, Prophet Mohammed, Elijah, Milarepa, and St. Therese, to mention only a few. The latter confessed during her most extreme physical and mental suffering: "What a grace it is to have faith! If I had not any faith, I would have commi tted suicide without an instant's hesitation." (LastConv 22.9.6). About a month earlier she was in such pain that she spoke of nearly losing her mind (CG 22.8.9 7). At this time too she said to her sister, Agnes: "Watch carefully, Mother, wh en you will have persons a prey to violent pains; don't leave near them any medi cines that are poisonous. I assure you, it needs only a second when one suffers intensely to lose one's reason. Then one could easily poison oneself." (August 3 0, Green Notebook). At times of more strictly inner, spiritual purgation, we are reminded of the words of St. John: "When this Divine contemplation assails the soul with a certain force, in ord er to strengthen it and subdue it, it suffers such pain in its weakness that it nearly swoons away..for sense and spirit, as if beneath some immense and dark lo ad, are in such great pain and agony that the soul would find advantage and reli ef in death." At its worst this is reminiscent of the "sickness unto death" written of by K ierkegaard: "The torment of despair is precisely this - not to be able to die... not as t hough there was hope for life; no, the hopelessness in this case is that even th e last hope, death, is not available. When death is the greatest danger, one hop es for life; but when one becomes acquainted with an even more dreadful danger, one hopes for death. So when the danger is so great that death has become one's hope, despair is the disconsolateness of not being able to die." (75) Yet great souls have unanimously proclaimed the value of such periods of tria l: "That which hurts, but is profitable, is drunk by the wise like medicine. For the result, afterwards attained, becomes incomparable." - Nagarjuna "If he could see his nothingness and his deadly, festering wound, pain would arise from looking within, and that pain would save him." - Rumi

"To get at the core of God at his greatest, one must first get into the core of himself at his least, for no one can know God who has not first known himself ." - Meister Eckhart He who never spent the midnight hours, weeping and waiting for the morrow, he knows ye not, ye heavenly powers. - Goethe "The moment when Divine Mother beats you the hardest is when you should cling tenaciously to her skirt." - Paramahansa Yogananda "This state is full of consolation for those who have attained it; but to do so it is necessary to pass through much anguish. The doctrine concerning pure lo ve can only be taught by the action of God, and not by any effort of the mind. G od teaches the soul not by ideas, but by pains and contradictions." - Jean-Pierr e deCaussade "Hope indeed is misery greatest, Hopelessness a bliss above the rest.." - Shr imad Bhagavata Purana) "The horse that will bear us quickest to perfection is suffering." - Meister Eckhart "If suffering did not exist, it would be necessary to create it, because with out it one cannot come to correct self-remembering." - P. D. Ouspensky "Because I love you I have given you bad health since the beginning of your l ife, so that you would feel how dependent you are on Me." - Sister Marie of the Order of Poor Clares of Jerusalem "When your grief transcends all bounds, it becomes its own cure." - Ghalib "You cannot have spiritual exaltation without having intense mental depressio n." - Baha'ullah "The foundation of all mental illness is the avoidance of legitimate sufferin g." - Carl Jung "The entrance to purgatory is at the deepest point of hell." - Dante "Paradoxically, though the path is said to lead to the highest bliss, it is paved with the anguish of separation and tears." - Sant Darshan Singh "Nanak saith: the wife doth get her Beloved if she really feels unhappy and i s extremely miserable without him." - Adi Granth "Suffering is the way for Realization of God." - Ramana Maharshi "The Overself knows what you are, what you seek, and what you need...We somet imes wonder whether we can bear more, but no experience goes too far until it cr ushes the ego out of a man, renders him as helpless as the dying person feels." - Paul Brunton "When God recognized my sincerity, the first grace that he accorded me was th at he removed the chaff of the self from before me." - Farid al-Din Attar So this type of experience and ordeal, while not exactly something to be soug ht after, can be more or less expected at some point. The insufficiency of ego i s most fundamentally shown when, most likely after already many lifetimes of sel f-development, it then attempts to do what is seemingly impossible (improve, tra

nsform, and transcend itself), and that is when the real anguish, resignation, p atience, and humility comes. Out of this dead-end proceeds awakening, according to the mystics, for we become enabled to "surrender in the arms of love." The pr oclamation of Zen, similarly, is that "Satori falls upon us unexpectedly when we have exhausted all the resources of our being." The only thing I would add, and which has been emphasized time and again throughout this paper, is that this is not a one-time event, but an organic process. One must truly come to know onese lf, both in his relative and absolute nature, before the two have a chance at be coming realized as one. Hubert Benoit writes: ...The man who works according to Zen has no love of suffering; but he likes s uffering to come to him, which is not the same thing, because, in helping him to 'let go', these moments will make it easier for him that inner immobility, that discretion and silence, thanks to which the Principle works actively in him for realization..One perceives how much the 'progressive' doctrines which invite ma n to climb up an ascending hierarchy of states of consciousness, and which more or less explicitly conceive the perfect man as a Superman, turn their back on tr uth and limit themselves to modifying the forms of our hopes. Zen invites us on the contrary to a task which, up to satori exclusively, can only appear to us as a descent. In a sense everything becomes worse little by little up to the momen t when the bottom is reached, when nothing can any longer become worse, and in w hich everything is found because all is lost." (76) Abbot Zenkei Shibayama of the Nanzenji Monastery in Kyoto, Japan, in an alter nate manner describes the inner work of the true Zen path, which could just as w ell be any spiritual path: The first step in pursuing the way to religion is to empty oneself. But this empt ying oneself does not mean, as ordinarily understood, merely to be humble in one s thinking or to clean out all from the self-deceived mind so that it can accept a nything. It has a much deeper and stronger meaning. One has to face the ugliness and helplessness of oneself, or of human life itself, and must confront deep cont radictions and sufferings, which are called the inevitable karma. He has to look d eep into his inner self, go beyond the last extremity of himself, and despair of himself as a self which can by no means be saved. Emptying oneself comes from this bitterest experience, from the abyss of desperation and agony, of throwing onese lf down, body and soul, before the Absolute. It is the keenness with which one realizes one s helplessness and despairs of o neself, in other words, how deeply one plunges into one s inner self and throws on eself away, which is the key to religion. To be saved, to be enlightened, or to get t he mind pacified is not of primary importance. Shinran Shonin, who is respected a s one of the greatest religious geniuses in Japan, once deplored, I am unworthy o f any consideration and am surely destined for hell! ....When one goes through thi s experience, for the first time the words of the great religious teachers are d irectly accepted with one s whole heart and soul... (77) From a different philosophical perspective, Damiani describes this situation and its requirements: "The root desire is the reproductive faculty that is in the Soul, which insis ts upon being embodied. That's what has to be killed, and I don't mean with a sh ot gun. It is a complicated thing...the point here to understand is that the fea r and trembling that comes in, and the sickness unto death...is exactly the givi ng up of this root desire. Not the body, because ascetics and saints have been k nown to torture the body beyond the point of endurance. And that's when the High er Will comes down. The Higher Will [i.e., liberating grace] doesn't come down u ntil after the moral conflict. So don't have any illusions about it, that you're going to wait around until the Higher Will comes down. It'll come down after yo ur moral effort. This is what is the mystical death. The body ceasing to functio

n, every animal goes through that, and we don't call him a great mystic...That H igher Will doesn't come into action until after you've made the moral effort. In other words, you have to find out that you are impotent to change yourself. And you're not going to find out unless you try, and you really have to try because you can't kid the Soul. You'll never know what the limits are until you try. Yo u have to exhaust whatever potentiality you have before you can say, "I give up. " You can't say, "I give up," before you've started; that would be phony. But yo u're actually going to have to reach the point of satiation with frustration. I think I must have called on that higher help a thousand and one times. It doesn' t hear me. It says, "Try harder." (78) Steven Harrison writes: "What occurs when there is no psychologist, no guru, no god to help us? What occurs when there is no resolution to our conflict, no enlightenment, no end to our sorrow? What occurs when there is only emptiness and nothing to fill it? Our world, our life, our relationships collapse. We collapse. This collapse of our identity and the impossibility of escape is the end and the beginning. This "dar k night of the soul," through which nothing can pass, is not an event, not an en lightenment. It is not in time or of time. It is not about us, or becoming somet hing better. It is not causal, not the result of anything. No one can take us to this or through this. And we cannot create it, hurry it, or end it. It is a mom ent, a lifetime. Having been reduced to nothing, nothing may then express itself . This expression of nothingness is love." (79) Jah Jae Noh, in the marvelous Do You See What I See?, describes how one comes to what he variously calls the life of faith, the cessation of the search, the unravelling of the "form of ones fear", and the willingness to allow oneself to "be done by reality": Among truly sincere students, any method will serve to promote spiritual realiza tion. Among the insincere no method will serve...Methods are illusory, serving o nly to pacify and gratify the mind. That which accounts for the realization of s ome and not of others is readiness..It is best that each person try every concei vable method of redress, avenue of change, discipline of self-improvement, befor e he attempts faith...For whatever reasons, the fact remains that true convictio n comes only after the lack of meaningful alternatives have been vividly, and in tensely experienced. The entire structure of one s existence must necessarily be d ramatically questioned and undermined. It is not that the mind is being convince d in this affair, it is being destroyed. This insight is not a mindful one, but an intuitive one, and incredibly deep grasp of the idea of non-alternative, hope lessness, death. One must vividly see the absoluteness of his fear, his avoidanc e..This crisis is the heart informing the mind..It is not an insight of wisdom, but of profound ignorance, an insight of darkness, of death. There is no place t o go. It is the bottom of the pit ; end. (80) To truly reach such a point of self-surrender, of 'no-effort', could itself t ake a lifetime. Sant Kirpal Singh, during a period of trial for me, once said, "Going strong, my friend? Going strong? No? Feeling weak? Feeling withered? Hopeless? Is it ho peless yet? No? Not hopeless yet? Well then, if there's hope, keep trying!" Hakuin beautifully characterizes the process: " When all the effort you can muster has been exhausted and you have reached a total impasse...it will suddenly come and you will break free. The phoenix wil l get through the golden net. The crane will fly free of the cage." (81) Adyashani calls this "Achieving Total Failure." He quotes Lao Tzu, "failure i

s the foundation of success, and the means to its achievement," and adds, "when the neurotic tendency to be constantly trying to succeed..is once cast aside com pletely, or [this] is forced upon you, then the reality of its own accord presen ts itself." Brunton offers us this promise: "Indeed, the hour may come when, purified from the ego's partiality, he will kiss the cross that brought him such agony and when, healed of his blindness, he will see that it was a gift from loving hands, not a curse from evil lips. He w ill see too that in his former insistence on clinging to a lower standpoint, the re was no other way of arousing him to the need and value of a higher one than t he way of unloosed suffering. But at last the wound has healed perfectly leaving him, as a scar of remembrance, greatly increased wisdom." (82) Finally, after this ordeal has been brough to fruition, the enigmatic words o f sages like Ramana Maharshi can become clear: "If the longing is there, Realization will be forced on you even if you do no t want it...Sadhanas [spiritual practices] are needed so long as one has not rea lized it. They are for putting an end to obstacles. Finally, there comes a stage when a person feels helpless notwithstanding the sadhanas. He is unable to purs ue the much-cherished sadhana, also. It is then that God's Power is realized. Th e Self reveals itself...There is no greater mystery than this: ourselves being t he reality, we seek to gain reality. We think there is something hiding our real ity, and that it must be destroyed before the reality is gained. That is ridicul ous. A day will dawn when you will yourself laugh at your previous efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and now." (83) "When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the soul laughs for what it has f ound." - Sufi aphorism.

Dying in the Master's Company By Peter Holleran from Talks with Ramana Maharshi, p. 163-164: "It must be remembered that Sri Bhagavan had been with his mother from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. until she passed away. He was all along holding her head with one hand, the other hand placed on her bosom. What does it signify? He said later, t hat there was a struggle between him and his mother, until her spirit reached th e heart. Evidently the soul passes through a series of subtle experiences, and Sri Bhagav an's touch generates a currrent which turns the soul back from its wandering int o the Heart. The samskaras, however, persist and a struggle is kept up between the spiritual force set up by his touch and the innate samskaras, until the latter are entirel y destroyed and the soul is led into the heart to rest in eternal Peace, which i s the same as Liberation. Its entry into the Heart is signified by a peculiar sensation perceptible to the Mahatma - similar to the tinkling of a bell. When Maharshi attended on Palaniswami on his deathbed, he took away his hand aft er the above signal. But Palaniswami's eyes opened immediately, signifying that the spirit had escaped through them, thereby indicating a higher rebirth, but no t Liberation. Having once noticed it with Palaniswami, Maharshi continued touchi ng his mother for a few minutes longer - even after the signal of the soul passi ng into the Heart - and thus ensured her Liberation. This was confirmed by the l ook of perfect peace and composure on her features." (For more, see Ramana Maharshi's Mother Enlightenment)

from The Moth and the Flame, by Arran Stephens, p. 291-292 (Chapter 38): "Mataji [Sant Kirpal Singh's wife] returned to her eternal abode on April 3, 197

0. Her frail form had suffered from cancer for about four years. On this subject the Master afterwards remarked: "Many people who have experienced this sickness have suffered greatly and have screamed aloud with the agony that it causes, bu t with the grace of God, through having direct contact with Him within, Mataji w as spared the pinching effects.." Eventually Mataji was unable to get around anymore, and while the Master was on tour in the latter part of March, her condition worsened. On March 30 (1970) the Master asked her if she was ready to leave and she replied, "Yes, in three days ." The Master thought for a moment and then said, "Well, three days, that means April 2nd - and I will be very busy that day (due to the commemoration of the de ath anniversary of Hazur Baba Sawan Singh). The 3rd would be better, in the earl y afternoon, say 1:30 p.m. I will be more free then." At about 1:00 p.m. on the third it was noticed that Mataji's condition had becom e very serious. When told about Mataji, the Master said, "I know it." The Master went to Mataji and looking down at her very kindly, asked, "Are you prepared?" She looked up and said, "Yes." The Master said, "Are you sure your heart is abso lutely clear - with no hatred for anyone?" She replied, "Yes, I have nothing aga inst anyone in my heart." The Master asked, "Then why are you not smiling?" With this, her face..began to glow with joy. Ripples of laughter came forth and she looked radiant with happiness. Taking hold of the Master's hand she said, "Forgi ve me, if I have ever done anything to offend you." The Master smiled compassion ately. She said, "Both forms are here - I am seeing you outside and inside." The Master said, "All right, now close your eyes and relax," and with these words h e returned to his room. Within ten or fifteen minutes, Mataji had left." Kirpal Singh afterwards remarked, "she is more alive now than ever."

Commentary "If he accepts the decree of destiny quietly and obediently, if he is willing to pass, without rebellion and without fighting, out of this world when the ord ained hour arrives, he achieves that peace of mind which the prophet Muhammed ca lled "Islam"--a resignation to, and harmony with, God. It is as far as detachmen t from the ego can go without losing the ego itself." (1) While all may take solace from these words of Paul Brunton (PB), in the tradi tions it is said that the friendship of a saint or sage may grant great comfort, even liberation, to the fortunate soul at the time of death. In Sant Mat there are frequent references to the Master Power, or grace of the Godman, holding cou rt over the power of Dharam Raj, the angel of death, regarding the fate of dying souls, whether initiated or not. I have heard numerous such stories from the li fe of Kirpal Singh as told by devotees. Ramana Maharshi said likewise in regards to the true sage: "The jnani can leave the body whenever he likes. When the time comes for the jnani to leave his body, Lord Yama [the Hindu god of death] comes and asks, stan ding at a distance, "Will you please come?" if the jnani says, "No, not now," Lo rd Yama will have to leave without him." (2) Besides generating a feeling of awe in one's heart and mind, these stories al so offer food for thought regarding the place of such apparently divine siddhis or powers. In the case of either of these saints or sages many people experience d miraculous changes, effects, cures, etc., without the master's apparent awaren ess, yet it may be assumed not unrelated to his being or presence. On some occas ions, however, an apparently active role was played by these great souls. I say apparently because from a non-dual perspective and using the language of Plotinu

s one can consider that the Universal or Absolute Soul or Self, undifferentiated as it is from the Individual Soul and apparent jiva or human personality, uses that purified agent as a means to produce such effects. In the case of Paramhans a Yogananda there were a number of instances when people had died and the saint revived them. Kriyananda recounts relates one such story, in Yogananda's words: "A real estate agent in Encinitas, hearing that I had healing power, came to me to request a healing for his wife, who had been ill for ninety days. I prayed , but God told me not to go to her bedside. Shortly thereafter, she died. Only t hen was I given guidance to go to her...About thirty people were present in the room when I arrived. Her husband was weeping and shaking her, almost out of his mind with grief. He wouldn't accept the fact that she was already dead. I motion ed him away...Putting one hand on the dead woman's forehead, and the other one u nder her head, I began invoking the divine power. Five minutes passed. Ten minut es. Suddenly her whole body began to tremble like a motor. After some time, a de ep calmness stole over her. her heartbeat and breathing returned. Slowly her eye s opened; they held a far-away expression, as though she had just returned from a long journey. She was completely healed." (3) In Maharshi's case, towards the end of his life while dying from cancer he re marked that he, as a jnani, lacked the will, or vikalpa, to do anything about it , nor did he care. His position throughout his 50 years among devotees, moreover , was generally of this nature, and therefore in contrast to the remark above, w hich claimed the jnani had power over Yama, the lord of death. He characteristic ally took the position that the jnani, or man of knowledge, was oblivious to the issue of birth and death, and was beyond possession of any kind of power attrib utable to an individual, "being in his true nature invisible even to God." Even though such incidents as the above-mentioned one in the case of Yogananda also o ccured due to Maharshi s presence, on one such occasion where the son of a man who had asked for his help died, he said: Even an incarnate God cannot raise all the dead. He has no individual will so he cannot decide to perform a miracle. If miracles happened in his ambience, he witnessed them; that was all. (3a) Zen master Bankei, in classic non-dual fashion, also belittled concern over o ne's physical death: "When it comes to the idea of being free in birth and death, people are apt t o misunderstand. There are some who, beforehand, announce they're going to die i n a certain number of days, while others go so far as to express their intention to die, say, next year, in such-and-such a month and on such-and-such a day. Wh en the time arrives, some of them, even though they are not ill, die just as the y said, while others put it off for another day, or a month, and then pass away. There are lots of people who consider this being free in birth and death. Not t hat I say this isn't so. So far as freedom goes, they're terribly free! But thin gs of this sort are only a result of the strength of people's ascetic practices, and often they haven't opened the Eye of the Way. Even among ordinary people, y ou frequently find this. While they may know [the time of their] death, they hav en't opened the Eye of the Way, and that's why I don't accept this kind of thing . The man of the Unborn transcends birth and death. Now, I'm sure you're all wondering just what it means to transcend birth and death. That which is unborn is imperishable; and since what doesn't perish doesn 't die, it transcends birth and death. So, what I call a man who's free in birth and death is one who dies unconcerned with birth and death. What's more, the ma tter of birth and death is something that's with us all day long -- it doesn't m ean only once in a lifetime when we confront the moment of death itself. A man w ho's free in birth and death is one who always remains unconcerned with birth an d death, knowing that so long as we're allowed to live, we live; and when the ti

me comes to die -- even if death comes right now -- we just die, [realizing] tha t when we die isn't of great importance. Such a person is also one who has concl usively realized the marvelously illuminating Unborn Buddha Mind. Talking and th inking about something like what hour of what day you're going to die is really narrow-minded, don't you think?" (4) The Taoist sage Chuang Tzu said: The true men of old knew nothing of the love of life or of the hatred of death . Entrance into life occasioned no joy; exit from it awakened no resistance. Composedly they came and went. They did not forget what their beginning had been, and they did not inquire into what their end would be. They accepted life and rejoiced in it; they forgot all fear of death and retu rned to their state before life. Thus there was in them what is called the want of any mind to resist the Tao, and attempts by means of the human to assist the Heavenly. Such were they who are called the true men. (reference misplaced) Sri Nisargadatta goes so far as to radically state: "Whatever is getting transformed will not remain, any transformable state wil l not remain. If you have accomplished knowledge correctly, you will never know that you are dying..... The very tool by which you observe will itself disappear . After so called death where is the tool of observation? The very instrument or consciousness will not be there. (5) This would need to be qualified in the case of someone accustomed to "dying d aily" in the manner the Sants describe, if Sri Nisargadatta is referring here to physical death. It might then perhaps be alternately stated as, "one who has ac complished knowledge correctly barely notices his death." I seriously doubt the saint or sage is prohibited by their accomplishment of jnana from being aware wh en they are dying. [for more on this see The Integrationalists and the Non-Duali sts - 3] PB, nevertheless, in a fashion similar to Bankei, writes: "The wise man lives secretly in the even, sorrow-soothing knowledge of the On eness, and remains undisturbed by the inevitable and incessant changes in life. From this lofty standpoint, the tenet of rebirth sinks to secondary place in the scale of importance. What does it matter whether one descends or not into the f lesh if one always keeps resolute hold of the timeless Now? It can matter only t o the little "I," to the ignorant victim of ephemeral hopes and ephemeral fears, not to the larger "I AM" which smiles down upon it." (6) The sants and the jnanis appear paradoxical at times, both taking the positio n of not doing anything to cure either themselves or another, and also being att ributed with healings, postponing the time of death of various disciples, and ev en apparently re-enlivening certain souls. One such case took place in the prese nce of Yogi Bhajan, a disciple of whom had succumbed and whom the yogi could not help. The mere touch of Kirpal Singh brough the man back to life. One may right ly ask, what miraculous divine power can do such a thing? This is certainly no o rdinary yogic siddhi. According to Patanjali, however, it can be explained, as a result of profound samyama, or dharana, dhyana, and samadhi on all the stages u p to Isvara or the Mahapurusha, from which the creative power of "OM" emanates, leading to purification of all the sheaths or coverings over the free Soul. Still, from the position of ultimate awakening, according to proponents of jn

ana, or non-duality, this would still not be considered proof of the final strok e, the realization of the Void-Mind, nor would it be the necessary accompaniment of enlightenment. Patanjali himself warned against attachment to even the highe st of such things. Alice Bailey, in her exposition of the yoga sutras, Book 3, V erse 37, said, "These powers are obstacles to the highest spiritual realization, but seen as magical in the objective realms." On the other hand, I.K. Taimni points out that "it is almost impossible to distinguish the terminal stages of self-realizati on and the powers that adhere in those stages, for the siddhis that come out of that realization are hardly occult powers as such." (7) So there is a rahasya, or mystery, here that must humble mere mortals to dust . Kirpal Singh gave a hint of this with the following quotes: "I tell you now. As I explained many times, the son of man is not the Master; the son of man is the human pole at which God as the Master works. And it is th at God Power that goes around and awakens all those who are initiated. He even a ppears to those who have some background, although they do not know who he is... " (8) "That is His Grace--if He leaves me, I am nothing. I am Mr. Zero. I don't do anything. That is the safest way." (9) Once approached by a new disciple, Ed Wallace, who at the time, about forty y ears ago, had become paralyzed on one side of his body due to the effects of liv er disease and drug abuse, Kirpal said to him, "Oh, nobody can cure that." Two w eeks later the man was free of all symptoms. One may rightly ask where such saints and sages exist today, and whether the purported help and enlightenment of many contemporary - and in particular, weste rn - teachers is deep enough to last beyond the portals of death. Have they had a glimpse of Emptiness - or the fullest embodiment of Emptiness-Luminosity-All P ervading Energy, the three kayas of the enlightened Mind as termed by Padmasambh ava in Tibetan Buddhism, requiring not only the "turnabout in the deep seat of u nderstanding", as the Lankavatara Sutra says, "but also the fundamental transfor mation death of the bodhisattva's individualized will-control?" Have they achiev ed this much deeper non-dual realization, the ultimate liberation of anutarra sa myaksambodhi itself? For it seems reasonable to assume that the deeper the reali zation, the deeper the help that may be given. On the other hand, the deeper one 's individual practice itself, the greater the opportunity offered by the proces s of death for spiritual advancement or even enlightenment itself, according to the Tibetan tradition. Here all nature cooperates with your final "meditation" a nd there is a chance for one to recognize and abide in the clear light of consci ousness as it dawns, if not permanently then for a brief period that will benefi t ones future rebirths. This is the purpose behind recitation from the Tibetan B ook of the Dead (Bardo Thodol), to help the dying one remember who he is at the time of death and spiritually auspicious moments shortly afterwards. As Evans We ntz states: The whole aim of the Bardo Thödol teaching...is to cause the Dreamer to awaken i nto Reality, freed from all the obscurations of karmic or sangsaric illusions, i n a supramundane or Nirvanic state, beyond all phenomenal paradises, heavens, he lls, purgatories, or worlds of embodiment. (10) Vic Mansfield points out, in Tibetan Buddhism and Analytical Psychology, his inherently implies a non-dual state of consciousness:

that t

The text clarifies this point when it discusses the dawn of the primary Clear Light at death.. It reads, Thine own consciousness [rigpa, pure, pristine awaren ess], not formed into anything, in reality void, and the intellect [shes-rig, co nsciousness revealing contents or intellect], shining and blissful, these two, are i nseparable. The union of them is the Dharma-Kaya state of Perfect Enlightenment. (11) Sogyal Rinpoche speaks of this as the dawning of the Ground Luminosity merging or uniting with the Pure Essence of one s own Mind." PB also writes on this las t chance at freedom: The aspirant whose efforts to attain inner freedom and union with the Overself while living seem to have been thwarted by fate or circumstances, may yet find them rewarded with success while dying. Then, at the very moment when consciousn ess is passing from the body, it will pass into the Overself. (12) There are advaitists, such as Sri Nisargadatta and Ramesh Balsekar, who at ti mes speak quite strictly on these things, and appear to deny any intermediate re ality or awareness by an "I" after death. Their point of view is worth consideri ng, along with that of the others, if only to counter false hopes of the ego amo ng serious questers. Sri Nisargadatta states: "The memory of the past unfulfilled desires traps energy, which manifests its elf as a person. When its charge gets exhausted, the person dies. Unfulfilled de sires are carried over into the birth. Self-identification with body creates eve r-fresh desires and there is no end to them unless this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen. It is clarity that is liberating, for you cannot abandon desire un less its causes and effects are clearly seen. I do not say that the same person is reborn. It dies, and dies for good. But its memories remain and their desires and fears. They supply the energy for a new person." (13) This is very Buddhistic in nature, yet even in a path such as Sant Mat one is said to die at each plane quit by the soul. The teaching as more commonly prese nted, however, is that for those who are unenlightened but somewhat spiritually aware, there is a period of individual existence after the brief swoon of death, where happiness, bliss, comfort, and rest can be found as can only be imagined b ut not found here (14), in various astral or causal realms, to be eventually foll owed by the "second-death" wherein the as yet not fully enlightened ego goes to sleep before its eventual re-embodiment. According to PB, one's own divine Soul oversees the entire process. PB also emphasizes that philosophic study while ali ve is a help in the afterlife, which would appear to de-emphasize the all or not hing approach of sages like Nisargadatta: "For as the Bhagavad-Gita truly says, "A little of this knowledge saves from much danger." Even a few years' study of philosophy will bring definite benefit into the life of the student. It will help him in all sorts of ways, unconscious ly, here on earth and it will help him very definitely after death during his li fe in the next world of being." (15) It is maintained in Sant Mat, moreover, throwing a question mark over certain aspects of the Buddhist and Advaitic teachings, that some souls which have not yet undergone this second death wherein the subtle and causal bodies disintegrat e into their constituent elements and the being with a new personality incarnate s may do spiritual sadhana after death through the help of a Master-Soul, and th e question of their need to eventually incarnate again might vary from individua l to individual. Kirpal Singh affirmed that this is the case: "The initiates have a great concession: at the time of death, your Master wil l come to receive you, and not the angel of death. He usually appears several da ys or weeks before death to advise you of your coming departure from this world.

I'm talking about those who keep the precepts! For those who do nothing with th e gift of Naam, he may or may not appear before they leave the body...In your fi nal moments, and much beforehand if you have gained proficiency in meditation, M aster's radiant form will take you to a higher stage where you can make further progress. At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her d ay of marriage! He may then place you in the first, second or third stage, or he may take you direct to Sach Khand. In some cases, where worldly desires and att achments are predominant, he will allow rebirth, but in circumstances more conge nial for spiritual growth." (16) Ramakrishna, PB, and other teachers also confirm that the visionary or subtle form of one's guide, be he advanced enough, or one's faith strong enough, may c ome to comfort one during the transition at the time of death. Here is a current example as told by one Sant Mat initiate: On February 4th, 2008, we had a very sweet tea-time with Mata Ji. Such a divin e sweetness in her presence! It's a kind of spiritual power. Imagine: daughter-i n-law of Master Kirpal; wife of Master Darshan, and mother of living Master Raji nder. MataJi shared with us the recent passing of dear Jaswant Singh (a Baba Sawan Singh initiate, and the groom in the rare movie of Hazur in the 1940's). Sardar Jaswant Singh was a highly elevated, interesting, inquisitive, eccentric, intoxi cated and joyous soul, full of love for the Masters. He was also a Munshi - Pers ian scholar. What most people didn't know that he was quite an entrepreneur, and had established a chain of dry cleaning stores, with which he amply established his family. When nearing his end (I think he was over 90 years old), the family could hea r him in his bedroom calling out loudly (for he was at least 98% deaf), "Give me the date! Give me the date!" "Eighth? O.K." At least the family thought he said the 8th. The 8th was only a couple of days away, and all became apprehensive, a s Master always comes to notify devoted initiates before actual physical death. The 8th came and went. It turned out that they had not heard correctly, as the I nner Master told him "the 18th!" Accordingly, he passed peacefully on the 18th, his face imbued with a rare glow for several hours, according to family and frie nds. Huzur Maharj (Soamiji), when asked by a disciple about their apparent lack of progress in mediation and a dearth of inner experiences, replied that 99.5% of our meditation is being held in reserve by the inner Master explicitly for our b enefit at the time of our death. This is pretty much a cornerstone of Sant Mat. While the concept of further evolution itself after death might appear diffic ult for some to reconcile with Buddhism, wherein it is generally assumed that al l who have not attained enlightenment in this life face complete egoic or skandh ic dissolution followed by rebirth until they realize enlightenment in the wakin g state, and is certainly one of the great mysteries in the traditions, it is no t always mandated in the Buddhist canon that one must reincarnate on the earth-p lane to attain enlightenment; exceptions are noted: see "The Four Levels of Sain thood" and "The Ten Fetters of Buddhism" as presented by the Wanderling on his w ebsite, and The Thirty-One Planes of Existence from the Theravadin perspective. PB also wrote that one might continue evolving on other spheres. Traditional yog ic schools, including the Kriya path of Paramhansa Yogananda, concur with this p ossibility: Salvation is of two kinds: final liberation from all karma and union with God; and freedom from earthly karma, giving the possiblitiy of living from then on i n high astral regions, from which one can work out his astral and causal karma u ntil he reaches final liberation. Salvation from the need for further imprisonme

nt on this material plane is in itself a great blessing, and can be won even wit hout (yet) achieving divine perfection. (17) In any case, From God we come, to God we go"...."the Self of all beings"...."w ho is more the life of the Soul than the Soul itself. Fear no more. All is well . ................................................................................ ................................................................................ ........................ "A Realized Soul who knows the truth is aware of the fact that he is not the bod y. But there is one thing more. Unless one looks upon death as a thing that is v ery near and might happen at any moment, one will not be aware of the Self. This means that the ego must die, must vanish, along with the inherent vasanas." - R amana Maharshi, Letters from Sri Ramanasramam "Some people, sweet and attractive, and strong and healthy, happen to die young. They are masters in disguise teaching us about impermanence." - The Dalai Lam a "Your fear of death is really fear of yourself: see what it is from which you ar e fleeing." - Rumi "Nobody is born or dies at any time; it is the mind that conceives its birth and death and its migration to other bodies and other worlds." - Yoga Vasishta "Nothing dies. The body is imagined. There is no such thing." ta

- Sri Nisargadat

"Unlike life, death cannot be taken away from men, and therefore we may consider it as the gift of God." - Seneca "Why dread even death? God allows it to happen to everybody, so it cannot be bad ." - Paramhansa Yogananda "Understand for yourself that death is nothing. Know that, "I am birthless, I am deathless, I have never taken birth and I will never die." Take the poisonous t ooth out of the serpent and play with him. You know it is not going to do any ha rm to you. Death is nothing. Everyday, when you sleep it is like a small death. Why to fear? Nothing is there. Everything is illusion. Keep your mind in that fe arless state only. Just as the poisonous tooth is taken out, in the same way, pl ay with the world, play with the illusion, there is no harm. It won't affect you r mind. Live fearlessly; no death, no fear, knowing "I am that real Power." Ther e is nothing! What will harm you?" - Ranjit Maharaj "There is no difference between life and death." When asked by someone then why is it that you do not die, he replied "because there is no difference between l ife and death." - Thales Nothing happens.

- the 16th Karmapa, on his deathbed.

"Our own death absolutely confronts us with the reality that this is a story. Ot her people's deaths can also confront us with that. It is precisely the existenc e of death in the dream that makes so many of us make of these wild, wild storie s about the things that must be achieved and the heavens that must be aimed for. For a person, death is quite a challenge, so to avoid contemplating its own ann ihilation, the mind makes up the most wonderful and bizarre stories about an ent ity that continues after death in some way...Nothing continues after death but t hat's o.k. because nothing is continuing right now." - Richard Sylvester, The

Book of No One "To fear death, gentlemen, is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know. No man knows whethe r death may not even turn out to be the greatest of blessings for a human being; and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that it is the greatest of e vils." - Socrates "The fear of death, which is the highest punishment, comes to all in order to te ach them the true immortality, which is in Unity. If you think that you are one and he is another, then you have to die: if you think all are one, then you beco me deathless." "Death causes fear. What is the meaning of fear. It arises from the meaning you attach to the word death. The train of ideas (kalpanas) of the loss it entails c ome into your mind and frightens you. Therefore it is the thought that causes fe ar. Hence when you know this why should you be afraid of a thought? The obstacle is that you do not want to look upon this body as an idea. Yet the word 'body' brings to you only a thought. In dream and sleep all ideas sink back into the Mi nd, like the waves into the ocean, why then be dissatisfied? The waves are still in the ocean, the ideas are still in the Mind. Therefore nothing is really lost , at death it is really a going back into itself. So you must inquire what is th e self? If men knew this, that higher than the mind is the Atman, that everythin g goes back into it and IS there, what room for fear?" "The best way in which nature teaches you to inquire is giving you a number of d eaths. Be born and die constantly and then you will begin to question seriously what death is. Then you will not be satisfied with what you see, but begin to as k questions of Nature [God]." "After having done everything, achieved everything, had the greatest pleasures, even then I shall be taken away and must die. Hence the thoughtful man inquires into the meaning of death. Thus philosophy springs out of death." "He must be as indifferent to the death of his own body as we are to the death o f people we have never seen or heard of and living in distant continents." "The notion that you will go to some world after death, some astral plane or rel igious heavens will disappear as nonsense with the disappearance of belief in th e reality of the I." "Dualists like Ramanuja have written big volumes about the soul. Yet they are qu ite ignorant of the fact that the I about which they write itself comes and goes and has no permanent existence, is only an idea after all...Atman alone remains after you get rid of all thoughts and ideas of identification with self...We bo ldly say that God does not exist, because his existence implies that I am differ ent from Him. Any kind of difference means contradiction. Nothing whatsoever oth er than Atman exists. Non-duality means the negation of all thought." - V.S. I yer "This wise one neither abhors birth and rebirth nor wishes to perceive the Self. Free from joy and sorrow, he is neither dead nor alive." "Reposing on the foundation of his own being, and forgetting the entire cycle of birth and rebirth, the great-souled person does not care whether his body dies or is born." - Ashtavakra

"The Fall from Grace" by Peter Holleran Does the "I" First Arise at Age 2? Is there "no thing" that reincarnates? Is there no awareness after death? Prologue

A conversation based on passages from A Net of Jewels by Ramesh Balsekar and I A M THAT by Sri Nisargadatta, as quoted in A Course in Consciousness, by Stanley S obottka, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

I: Hello again. I am intrigued by the common argument these days, which you seem to subscribe to, that our ego-identity is created around the age of two by the development of a consciousness-bifurcating dualistic language, and that therefor e the entire spiritual quest can be reduced to the undoing of our "personal stor y". In "A Course in Consciousness," Professor Sobotta seems to argue for this qu ite adamantly, through the writings and dialogues of Ramesh Balsekar and his gur u Sri Nisargadatta. I will let you read portions of that course to me and respon d as I am moved to. ND: All right, but be forewarned, I will jump in anytime I choose. Sobotta write s (in bold): 7.6. The first identification: The appearance of sentience At the first collapse of the brain-sensory system wavefunction of the embryo or fetus, sentience appe ars, but without an observer/observed duality. (Exactly when this collapse occur s is unknown and consequently is an inadequacy of the theory.) Goswami explains this collapse as self-referential collapse between nonlocal consciousness and th e brain wavefunction. Brain wavefunction and nonlocal consciousness mix with eac h other to make the collapse self-referential. Without self-referential collapse , there would be no sentience and no manifestation. The result is not only senti ence but also entanglement of the level of nonlocal consciousness with the level of the physical system, a tangled hierarchy. This results in identification of nonlocal consciousness with the physical mechanism. This identification is neces sary for sentience to appear and for the life processes of the physical mechanis m to occur. It also produces the experience of awareness: Nonlocal consciousness thereby becomes aware. We may call this state the unconditioned self..... 7.7. The second identification: The appearance of the "I" The classical part rec ords in its memory every experience (every collapse) in response to a sensory st imulus. If the same or similar stimulus is again presented to the brain, the mem ory of the previous stimulus is triggered, and this memory acts as a restimulus to the quantum part. The combined quantum-classical wavefunction is again collap sed and the new memory reinforces the old one. Repeated similar stimuli inevitab ly lead ultimately to an almost totally conditioned response, one in which the p robability of a new, creative response approaches zero. The brain then behaves a lmost like a classical deterministic system... The repeated restimulation of the quantum part by the classical part results in a chain of secondary collapses. These secondary collapses correspond to the clas sical states of evoked memories, habitual reactions, introspective experiences, and conditioned motor responses. However, we can see evidence for the functionin g of the quantum part even in introspection and memory because of the quantum ch aracteristics of the mind that we discussed in Section 7.4 above. The secondary processes and repeated running of the learned programs of the clas sical part conceal from us the essential role of nonlocal consciousness in colla psing the wavefunction and creating an experience. The result is the persistent thought of an entity (the "I"-concept) that resides in the mind. Now, a second t angled hierarchy can occur, this time between nonlocal consciousness and the "I" -concept, resulting in identification of nonlocal consciousness with the "I"-con cept. When this occurs, the illusion of what we call the ego, "I"-entity, or "I"

-doer is formed. The ego, or false self, is an assumed separate entity with an a ssumed power of agency that is associated with the classical, conditioned, deter ministic part, while the unconditioned self is an experience that is dominated b y the full range of possibilities of the quantum part..... To recapitulate, two distinct levels of identification (tangled hierarchy) occur, the first resulting in pure awareness, the second resulting in the false self, ego, or fictitious " I"-entity. The ego does not exist as an entity. It is nothing but a presumption-the presumption that, if thinking, experiencing, or doing occur, there must be an entity that thinks, experiences, or does. It is the identification of nonloca l consciousness with the "I"-thought in the mind. As a result of this identifica tion, the experience of freedom that is really a property of the unconditioned s elf becomes limited and is falsely attributed to the ego, resulting in the assum ption that the "I"-entity has free will instead of being a completely conditione d product of repeated experiences. If we believe that we are egos, we will belie ve that our consciousnesses are separate from other consciousnesses and that we have free will. However, at the same time, we will contradictorily perceive ours elves as being inside and subject to space-time and as the victim of our surroun dings. The reality is that our true identity is the nonlocal, unitary, unlimited consciousness which transcends space-time, and the experience of our true ident ity is the infinitely free, unconditioned self. 7.8. Further discussion of the unconditioned self, the ego, and freedom In this discussion, we must make a clear distinction between the two types of experience that are related to the two types of processes occurring in the brain. The firs t process to occur in response to a sensory stimulus is the establishment of a r esponse wavefunction in the combined quantum-classical brain. This is a superpos ition of all possibilities of which the brain is capable in response to the stim ulus. Nonlocal consciousness self-referentially collapses the wavefunction. Reme mber that in this first tangled hierarchy, the contextual level of nonlocal cons ciousness and the level of the physical brain become inextricably mixed. This ta ngled hierarchy gives rise to awareness and perception, but still without the co ncept of an entity which perceives or observes. Goswami variously calls this pri mary awareness, pure awareness, the unconditioned self, or the Atman. It is impo rtant to realize that the unconditioned self is not an entity, thing or object. Pure experience needs no entity. In this state there is no experiencer and nothi ng experienced. There is only experiencing itself. This is the state of the unco nditioned infant, and of the enlightened sage (a redundant term). The other type of experience is related to the secondary processes in the brain. These are the processes in which the classical part restimulates the quantum pa rt, and the combined quantum-classical wavefunction again collapses into the sam e or similar classical brain state, which restimulates the quantum part, etc. Af ter sufficient conditioning of the classical part, the quantum-classical brain t ends to respond in a deterministic pattern of habitual states. Included in these states is the concept of a separate entity. In the second tangled hierarchy, no nlocal consciousness identifies with this concept, and the assumed "I"-entity or ego arises. When we are in this identified condition, we are normally unaware o f both the tangled hierarchies and of the unconditioned self. Identification that leads to the illusory "I"-entity arises during early childho od when the child has been conditioned to think of itself as a separate person. This occurs after the child has been called repeatedly by its name; has been ref erred to as "you" (implying that there is another); has been instructed, "Do thi s!", "Don t do that!"; and generally has been treated as being an independent pers on separate from its mother. However, one should not think that this conditionin g process is something that can be avoided, since it is a necessary part of chil d development (see Section 5.8). The child is being conditioned for survival in the world. The ego is presumed to be the thinker, chooser, and doer. However, it is absurd to think that a mere concept could actually be an agent with the powe r to think, choose, or do. The ego is nothing but a figment of the imagination,

does not exist as an entity, and has no power whatsoever. In reality there is ne ver a thinker, chooser, or doer. There is nothing but identification of nonlocal consciousness (which is not an entity) with the conditioned quantum-classical b rain. Exercise: Watch your thoughts come and go. See if you can see where they are com ing from. Are you thinking them? If you think you are, see if you can see yourse lf doing it. Can you choose your thoughts? If you think you can, see if you can see yourself doing it. Now see if you can choose to have none at all. There is only one consciousness. Our consciousness is nonlocal consciousness. My consciousness is identical to your consciousness. Only the contents are differe nt. The entities that we falsely think we are result from identification of this consciousness with a concept in the conditioned mind. Identification with the hard conditioning and rigid isolation of the fictitious ego is relaxed in so-called transpersonal, or peak, experiences, which lead to a creative expansion of the self-image (described by Abraham Maslow in The Farthe r Reaches of Human Nature (1971). These experiences approach, but are not identi cal to, those of the unconditioned self, since identification with a self-image is still present although the self-image becomes expanded. The unconditioned sel f is experienced as pure awareness, pure presence, and pure subjectivity in whic h there is no entity at all, and which arises when the unconditioned quantum wav efunction is first collapsed (or later in life after disidentification from the self-image has occurred). Awareness is what we really are, and is equivalent to the Atman of Indian philosophy, or not-self in Buddhism. The goal of all spiritu al practice is to disidentify from the fictitious "I"-entity and so to realize o ur true nature. 7.9. The disappearance of the ego. The experience of freedom from bondage. We ar e now in a position to complete our discussion of freedom. Goswami uses the term "choice" to mean the nonvolitional action of nonlocal consciousness in selectin g a particular possibility out of the range of possibilities defined by the wave function. (Choice is nonvolitional because there is no entity to exert volition al choice.) Without identification, choice is free. With identification, choice becomes limited. However, even when we think we are egos, we are aware and we kn ow that we are aware. Therefore identification of awareness with the I-concept i s never actually complete, and this allows the possibility of disidentification from the false self. We found in Sections 5.9, 5.10, 5.11, and 5.12 that freedom of choice does not exist in a separate entity. Therefore, even if the ego were real it would still not have the freedom to choose. However, because the ego is nothing but a fictional self-image, it does not even exist as an entity. Therefo re its freedom is doubly fictitious. All choice is the nonvolitional choice of n onlocal consciousness, and complete freedom is the experience of unconditioned, disidentified awareness. We come now to the paradox of the paradoxical tangled hierarchy (Section 7.5). The ego is the belief that it is free to choose, but it is not. The unconditione d self is freedom itself, but it is not a separate entity that can choose. Remem ber from Section 5.12 that the belief in free will depends on a perceived separa tion or dualism between a controller and a controlled. Within the unconditioned self there is no separation or isolation--there is no entity--so there is no dua lism. Hence, in the state of pure, or primary, awareness, there is no illusion o f free will . The experience of true freedom comes from the unconditioned self , whereas what we think of as free will comes from the noncreative, conditioned, imaginary ego. Whenever we experience pure freedom, pure creativity, or pure or iginality, it is a result of a momentary disidentification from the conditioned ego, permitting the experience of the freedom of the unconditioned self to be re vealed. This is true freedom, creativity, and originality, not the mechanical wo rkings of the conditioned, deterministic brain. During these moments, there is n

o individual I . When reidentification occurs, the conditioned akes credit for being free, creative, and original!

I

reappears and then t

Question: What is the experience of being absent? The paradox of the paradoxical tangled hierarchy reveals itself in our experience of freedom even when we are bound by our belief that we have free will. The thought of free will, which is a thought of bondage, cannot conceal our true nature, which is pure freedom. Howe ver, the ego attributes the experience of freedom to free will instead of to pur e consciousness even though nothing in the conditioned mind is free. How can we apply this knowledge to our personal lives? We have seen that our c onsciousness really is nonlocal universal consciousness and the goal of all spir itual practice is to know the freedom of unconditioned awareness. This can happe n only when disidentification from the fictitious ego-entity has occurred. Howev er, "you" as the ego cannot disidentify from the ego because the ego, being only a concept, can do nothing. Disidentification can only happen spontaneously. But understanding the ego and the feeling of bondage it entails are helpful in disi dentification. The practices of Part 3 show this. However, "you" cannot do them. If they are supposed to happen, they will. If not, they won't (see also Section 5.15). I: Let's stop there. Compare this view to the following by Paramhansa Yogananda: "Master," said a disciple, "J----is a little discouraged. Someone told him that, according to Ramakrishna, grace is only a sport of God. He takes this to mean t hat one might meditate for years and get nowhere, yet God might reveal Himself t o any drunkard if he took a mere notion to do so." The Master replied, "Ramakris hna would never have said that! That is what happens when people without spiritu al realization try to interpret the sayings of the masters. God is not a creatur e of whims! Of course, it may look like sport sometimes to people who don't see the causal influences of past karma. But why would God go against His own law? H e Himself created the law." (The Essence of Self-realization, 1990, p. 100-101) Let's also consider the following from advaitist James Schwarz, on the idea that there is nothing we can do because it is all pre-determined. I think here is wh ere Balsekar went a little too far and fell into the trap of non-dual philosophy as contrasted with non-dual reality, which includes dualism. This quote is a li ttle long but please bear with me. I've presented this before but I think you wi ll find it valuable. "It is a common misconception that you can just get it once and for all and from t hat point on life is just endless bliss. I don t know if you are familiar with the story of Ramana Maharshi, but if you are, ask yourself why, if after his death experience and the awakening it caused, he spent twenty years sitting alone in c aves? If he was the Self as he had experienced, then what is the point of sittin g in caves? Isn t it rather stupid to say the reality only shines in caves, that i t does not shine in the world? Why not just go back home and live like a normal person? The answer is that he had experienced the Self and he could not forget i t and his mind was turned inward, by a powerful fascination to use his own words. B ut this was just the beginning of his spiritual life. There was still somebody t here that was fascinated, inspired, by the Self. Ramana s greatness was that he understood that the best way to get rid of Ramana, his sense of duality, was to keep his mind fixed on the Self (he called it Self inquiry) and just burn out all those old dualistic notions. The best way to do i t for him was to follow the tradition and go sit in a cave where he would not be distracted. At some point the small Ramana that he thought he was, the one who had had the experience, disappeared and from that point on the name Ramana refer red to the Self, not to a person who had realized the Self. A person did not dis appear because there was no person there in the first place. All that disappeare

d was his notion of himself as an incomplete being. Awakening [causes] you to understand what the Self is but the next step is to un derstand that you are the Self. Getting this understanding is hard work. Every t ime you find the mind thinking as a limited I you correct it. You put it to work a sserting your wholeness and completeness, not denying it. And slowly the mind ch anges. You can keep up this work because you know that you are the Self, not [xy z]. This is why it is not brainwashing or a kind of religious belief. You can ac tually see what the Self is and that you are it. One day, the mind gives up argu ing with you. It surrenders. It accepts you as are you are and no longer tries t o convince you that you are a limited little worm, a beggar in need of inspirati on or anything else. It sees you as you are. This is the end of it.... If there is only one Self and this Self always knows who it is, i.e. that it is limitless and whole and therefore does not need any particular experience to era se its sense of limitation and make it whole, how can it forget who it is? Vedan ta says that it can't forget but that it can forget. Or to put it another way it says that there is only one Self, pure Awareness, and that this Self is capable of both knowledge and ignorance. It would not be limitless if it were unable to be ignorant. This capability of being two opposite things at once is called May a. THE DEFINITION OF MAYA IS; THAT WHICH IS NOT. YOU CAN SEE THE PROBLEM IN THE DEFINITION. HOW CAN SOMETHING THAT IS NOT, BE? WELL, STRANGELY IT CAN. There is a strange notion that when one permanently experiences the Self the int ellect is switched off for good and you just remain forever as the Self in some kind of no thought state. The fact is that the intellect keeps right on thinking from womb to tomb. God gave it to us for a good reason. Clear logical practical thinking is absolutely necessary if you are going to crack the identity code. I t is called inquiry. YOU WANT TO THINK BEFORE REALIZATION, DURING REALIZATION, A ND AFTER REALIZATION. Realization is nothing more than a hard and fast conclusio n that you come to about your identity based on direct experience of the Self. O nly understanding will solve the riddle....No experience will eradicate vasanas born in ignorance and reinforced with many years of negative behavior. (www.shini ngworld.com) Finally, let us also compare this concept of self-identity arising for the first time at the age of two with the following from one of the yoga schools: "The jiva, or soul, is individualized consciousness: the infinite limited to, an d identified with, a body. The beginning of its existence as an individual soul comes with the causal body. The soul's further encasement in an astral body is w hat causes it first to manifest ego-consciousness. identification with the body of light is what causes one to think,"I am unique and different from other being s of light." Ego-consciousness becomes further bound to objective reality when i t assumes a physical body, and all its energy is directed outward through the ph ysical senses." (p. 307-308) In the material world, man's wareness of outer Natu re (Aparaprakriti) virtually defines his concept of reality. In the astral world , that outward direction of awareness is only partial. Though limited by ego-con sciousness, he nervertheless senses the reality of the energy within him, which sublty links him to the objective realities around him. In the causal world, he knows that everything is made of idea-forms, or thoughts. Separate ego-conscious ness ceases, for him, to exist, and he knows himself s the soul (jiva), a manife station of Para-Prakriti: pure Nature. He is attuned to the Kutastha Chaintanya - the Christ consciousness underlying the universe. Blessed with this high state of realization, and virtually freed from every self-limitation, his consciousne ss is crowned with almost infinite power." (The Essence of the Bhagavad-Gita, ex plained by Paramhansa Yogananda, as remembered by his disciple Swami Kriyananda, p.307-308) Maybe the self-identification at the age of two, necessary for the build-up of t

he organism, is not the first arising of an "I", but only the first arising in t he physical body. One has died to the bardowa and reidentified with the physical , then an new identity, sure, arises with language and self-reference, but this is not the first time, nor the only disidentification which is necessary. Serial disidentifications at plane after plane may be called for; the soul coming back into its own. so to speak. Perhaps the new babe is only "relatively radiant", a s one teacher put it, and not equivalent in consciousness to that of the sage. N or may it all be just "one soup", as some ND's assert. There may be irreduceable paradoxes involved, such as pointed out by PB and Plotinus.i.e, One and many so uls, inseparable but distinct. It is a guess of the ND's, such as John Sherman, that there is only one Self, one consciousness, as equally a guess of the integr ationalists that there are truly separate souls. ND: You may be right, but I say "if you get it here, you don't need to get it th ere." If you awaken in the physical body, you are done. Here is some interesting conversation about the ego or "I" between Ramana and Mercedes de Acosta when sh e visited the sage many years ago: Question: What is death and what is birth? Bhagavan: Only the body has death and birth, and it (the body) is illusion. There is, in Reality, neither birth nor d eath. Question: How much time may elapse between death and rebirth? Bhagavan: Perhaps one is reborn within a year, three years or thousands of years. Who can say? Any way what is time? Time does not exist. Question: Why have we no memory of past lives? Bhagavan: Memory is a faculty of the mind and part of the illusion. Why do you want to remember other lives that are also illusions? If you abide within the Self, there is no past or future and not even a present since the Self is out of time-timeless. Question: Are the world, the mind, ego and the body all the same thing? Bhagavan : Yes. They are one and the same thing. The mind and the ego are one thing, but there is no word to explain this. You see, the world cannot exist without the mi nd, the mind cannot exist without what we call the ego (itself, really) and the ego cannot exist without a body. Question: Then when we leave this body, that is when the ego leaves it, will it (the ego) immediately grasp another body? Bhagavan: Oh, yes, it must. It cannot exist without a body. Question: What sort of a body will it grasp then? Bhagavan: Either a physical bo dy or a subtle-mental body. Question: Do you call this present physical body the gross body? Bhagavan: Only to distinguish it-to set it apart in conversation. It is really a subtle-mental body also. Question: What causes us to be reborn? Bhagavan: Desires. Your unfulfilled desir es bring you back. And in each case-in each body-as your desires are fulfilled, you create new ones. You must conquer desire to be absorbed into the One and thu s end rebirth. Question: Is it possible to sin? Bhagavan: Having a body, which creates illusion , is the only sin, and the body is our only hell. But it is right that we observ e moral laws. The discussion of sin is too difficult for a few lines. Question: Does one who has realized the Self lose the sense of "I"? Bhagavan: Ab solutely. Question: Then to you there is no difference between yourself and myself, that m an over there, my servant-are all the same? Bhagavan: All are the same, includin g those monkeys. Question: But the monkeys are not people. Are they not different? Bhagavan: They are exactly the same as people. All creatures are the same in One Consciousness . Question: Do we lose our individuality when we merge into the Self? Bhagavan: Th ere is no individuality in the Self. The Self is One-Supreme. Question: Then individuality and identity are lost? Bhagavan: You don't retain t hem in deep sleep, do you?

Question: But we retain them from one birth to another, don't we? Bhagavan: Oh, yes. The "I" thought (the ego) will recur again, only each time you identify wit h it a different body and different surroundings around the body. The effects of past acts (karma) will continue to control the new body just as they did the ol d one. It is karma that has given you this particular body and placed it in a pa rticular family, race, sex, surroundings and so forth. Bhagavan added, "These qu estions are good, but tell de Acosta (he always called me de Acosta) she must no t become too intellectual about these things. It is better just to meditate and have no thought. Let the mind rest quietly on the Self in the cave of the Spirit ual Heart. Soon this will become natural and then there will be no need for ques tions. Do not imagine that this means being inactive. Silence is the only real a ctivity. (My Meeting with Ramana Maharshi by Mercedes deCosta) ND: And here is more relevant material on this subject from A Course in Consciou sness: 10.4. About death Because all bodies die, if we identify with the body, we will fear death. When w e see that we are not the body, we will be indifferent to death. In Chapters 20 and 23, we shall see directly that we are Awareness, which is unchanging and can not die. We are not what changes, which is unreal and must die. All sages attempt to answer the seekers' question, "Where was 'I' before the bir th of the body?", and, "Where will 'I' be after the body dies?" Ramesh Balsekar teaches that, when the body dies, Consciousness simply disidentifies from it. In deed, the death of the body is the result of Consciousness disidentifying from i t. Since there was no separate I before death, there is none after death, so there is no entity to continue after death. Thus, there is neither an after-death nor a before-death state for the I since it has never existed in the first place. Wit hout a body there is only pure unmanifest Consciousness. I: This is reductionistic; surely even a sage has a sense of a separate self, a conventional "I"; that can exist after death, and get progressively transcended plane after plane even as it is not ultimately our identity? He is guessing that without a body there is only pure unmanifest consciousness, and that mysterious ly out of that comes the force of memory and tendencies which form a new body th at consciousness re-identifies with. Sri Nisargadatta admits a witness "I am" an d a "causal body" that, while not our ultimate identity, do provide a link from life to life: Q: "And what is death? M: It is the change in the living process of a particular body. Integration ends and disintegration sets in. Q: But what about the knower. With the disappearance of the body, does the knowe r disappear? M: Just as the knower of the body appears at birth, so he disappears at death. Q: And nothing remains? M: Life remains. Consciousness needs a vehicle and an instrument for its manifes tation. When life produces another body, another knower comes into being, Q: Is there a causal link between the successive body?knowers, or body-minds? M: Yes, there is something that may be called the memory body, or causal body, a record of all that was thought, wanted and done. It is like a cloud of images h eld together. Q: What is this sense of a separate existence? M: It is a reflection in a separate body of the one reality. In this reflection the unlimited and the limited are confused and taken to be the same. To undo thi s confusion is the purpose of Yoga. Q: Does not death undo this confusion? M: In death only the body dies. Life does not, consciousness does not, reality d

oes not. And the life is never so alive as after death. Q: But does one get reborn? M: What was born must die. Only the unborn is deathless. Find what is it that ne ver sleeps and never wakes, and whose pale reflection is our sense of 'I' [but w hich nevertheless derives, and gets its sense of existence, from THAT]." In the meditation for April 13 in A Net of Jewels (1996), Ramesh says, "Once the body dies, manifested consciousness is released and merges with the im personal Consciousness like a drop of water merges with the ocean. No individual identity survives death." I: He is guessing here when he assumes no intermediate realms and states after d eath; he has never experienced that state. The saints declare they have. Was PB purposely misleading us when he said: "Philosophy teaches that every sincere seeker finds a certain compensation - in a beautiful and ethereal world after death - for the failures, disappointments, and miseries which make up so much of the stuff of the human story." and "Unless the human ego were itself an emanation of the Overself it would be quite unable to identify itself with the sensation of severance from the body during the process we call dying." (v6.1.1.36) He says elsewhere that accept for a brief swoon during the death process one awa kens to a world more light than this one, where in rare cases one may even progr ess spiritually and not need be reborn. He also says: "It is not quite correct to assume that we are the manifested forms of the perfe ction from which we emanate, we are projections of a denser medium from the univ ersal mind, appearing by some catalytic process in natural sequence within that medium. The cosmic activity provides each such entity-projection with an individ ual life and intelligence centre through an evolutionary process, whereby its ow n volitional directive energies are, ultimately, merged with the cosmic will in perfect unity and harmony." (v6.1.131) Further, the concept of gradual liberation, or liberation from the after-death r ealms, is lucidly explained by Swami Krishnananda, disciple of the reknown Swami Sivananda. It is not altogether clear that the non-dualist assertion that this is impossible is true. This adds a dimension of complexity to the usual advaitic metaphysical reduction ism. In the meditation for May 20, he says, "When you are dead, you will be back in the primordial state of rest which exist ed before you were born, that stillness before all experience. It is only the fa lse sense of a limited, separate "me" that deprives life of its meaning and give s death an ominous significance which it really does not have." I: While he is right in reminding us that death is no bugbear, he again assumes no consciousness after death, no intermediate states. In the meditation for June 19, he says, "What is born must in due course die. The objective body will thereafter be dis solved and irrevocably annihilated. What was once a sentient being will be dest

royed, never to be reborn. But the consciousness is not objective, not a thing at all. Therefore, consciousness is neither born nor dies, and certainly cannot be 'reborn'." I: Is there an antakarana - a 'deeper personality' that is reborn, flooded by th e same sutra atma or ray of 'light' (the individual Overself, paradoxically a 'o ne and many') or is it a complete shuffle of the deck? If it is a complete re-sh uffle, it might be argued that there is little reason for effort or morality. And in the meditation for October 14, Ramesh says, "Although one may be afraid of the process of dying, deep down one very definite ly has the feeling, the intuitive conviction, that one cannot cease to exist. Th is feeling has been misrepresented as the basis for the theory of rebirth, but t he fact of the matter is that there exists no actual entity to be either born or reborn or to cease to exist." Since there never is a separate "I", there can be no entity either to incarnate or to reincarnate. Ramesh explains the existence of individual characteristics o f the body-mind organism as a result of conditioning and heredity (see also Sect ion 5.15). (Note: Ramesh says that heredity includes differences projected from the "ocean" of consciousness (see Section 8.1) as well as genetic differences. (The "ocean" is a concept that cannot be verified; see Section 8.2.) Ramesh uses this concept to try to explain the origin of body-minds that are strikingly sim ilar to previous ones, as in the concept of reincarnation. From the "ocean", he says the body-mind may inherit characteristics from previous body-minds, but the re is no previous lifetime of the "I" since there is no "I".)" I: No "I", or no "I" that is our ultimate identity?; the deeper personality - th e antahkarana - contains the reincarnating or reintegrating ego; this may not be the ultimate identity, but is nevertheless real; there are beads on a string, t he "sutra-atma", the incarnations strung on the deeper personality which is itse lf strung on the Light of Consciousness, the same ray that is behind the differi ng lifetimes, even if it is not an objective 'thing'; consequently, there is a p urpose behind doing right action, and a meaning to the law of karma. In the Occu lt Glossary (Theosophical University Press, 1996) theosophist G. de Perucker arg ues thus: "Reincarnating Ego": In the method of dividing the human principles into a trichotomy of an upper dua d, an intermediate duad, and a lower triad -- or distributively spirit, soul, an d body -- the second or intermediate duad, manas-kama, or the intermediate natur e, is the ordinary seat of human consciousness, and itself is composed of two qu alitative parts: an upper or aspiring part, which is commonly called the reincar nating ego or the higher manas, and a lower part attracted to material things, w hich is the focus of what expresses itself in the average man as the human ego, his everyday ordinary seat of consciousness." When death occurs, the mortal and material portions sink into oblivion; while th e reincarnating ego carries the best and noblest parts of the spiritual memory o f the man that was into the devachan or heaven world of postmortem rest and recu peration, where the ego remains in the bosom of the monad or of the monadic esse nce in a state of the most perfect and utter bliss and peace, constantly reviewi ng and improving upon in its own blissful imagination all the unfulfilled spirit ual yearnings and longings of the life just closed that its naturally creative f aculties automatically suggest to the entity now in the devachan. But the monad above spoken of passes from sphere to sphere on its peregrinations from earth, carrying with it the reincarnating ego, or what we may for simplici ty of expression call the earth-child, in its bosom, where this reincarnating eg

o is in its state of perfect bliss and peace, until the time comes when, having passed through all the invisible realms connected by chains of causation with ou r own planet, it slowly "descends" again through these higher intermediate spher es earthwards. Coincidently does the reincarnating ego slowly begin to reawaken to self-conscious activity. Gradually it feels, at first unconsciously to itself , the attraction earthwards, arising out of the karmic seeds of thought and emot ion and impulse sown in the preceding life on earth and now beginning to awaken; and as these attractions grow stronger, in other words as the reincarnating ego awakens more fully, it finds itself under the domination of a strong psychomagn etic attraction drawing it to the earth-sphere. The time finally comes when it is drawn strongly to the family on earth whose ka rmic attractions or karmic status or condition are the nearest to its own charac teristics; and it then enters, or attaches itself to, by reason of the psychomag netic attraction, the human seed which will grow into the body of the human bein g to be. Thus reincarnation takes place, and the reincarnating ego reawakens to life on earth in the body of a little child." Purucker says this about devachan: "[Tibetan, bde-ba-can, pronounced de-wa-chen] A translation of the Sanskrit sukh avati, the "happy place" or god-land. It is the state between earth-lives into w hich the human entity, the human monad, enters and there rests in bliss and repo se. When the second death after that of the physical body takes place -- and the re are many deaths, that is to say many changes of the vehicles of the ego -- th e higher part of the human entity withdraws into itself all that aspires towards it, and takes that "all" with it into the devachan; and the atman, with the bud dhi and with the higher part of the manas, become thereupon the spiritual monad of man. Devachan as a state applies not to the highest or heavenly or divine mon ad, but only to the middle principles of man, to the personal ego or the persona l soul in man, overshadowed by atma-buddhi. There are many degrees in devachan: the highest, the intermediate, and the lowest. Yet devachan is not a locality, i t is a state, a state of the beings in that spiritual condition. Devachan is the fulfilling of all the unfulfilled spiritual hopes of the past incarnation, and an efflorescence of all the spiritual and intellectual yearnings of the past inc arnation which in that past incarnation have not had an opportunity for fulfillm ent. It is a period of unspeakable bliss and peace for the human soul, until it has finished its rest time and stage of recuperation of its own energies. In the devachanic state, the reincarnating ego remains in the bosom of the monad (or o f the monadic essence) in a state of the most perfect and utter bliss and peace, reviewing and constantly reviewing, and improving upon in its own blissful imag ination, all the unfulfilled spiritual and intellectual possibilities of the lif e just closed that its naturally creative faculties automatically suggest to the devachanic entity. Man here is no longer a quaternary of substance-principles ( for the second death has taken place), but is now reduced to the monad with the reincarnating ego sleeping in its bosom, and is therefore a spiritual triad." I'll admit, theosophy tends to be a little weak in its philosophy of the ego and the soul, in contrast to the non-dual teachings of Buddhism, but PB (perhaps as a legacy from his theosophical days) spoke of a "seed atom in the heart as a re pository of all the components of man's ego that passes from life to life. [See also Karanaopadhi]. Yet the truth of our identity, no doubt, lies in the phrase, "the bosom of the Monad." That would have to be not an entity per se, phenomena lly conceptualized, or else fail the strictest test of philosophy. PB said that the highest the average man could go after death would be to the th ird heaven, which might be equivalent to devachan of the theosophists. He at lea st admits there is an afterlife. I think some of the advaitists like Balsekar ma y be sometimes confusing the swoon of death with what comes after it, when they assume there is nothing between death and rebirth.

ND: Maybe, but from the higher point of view, Balsekar is right. It is hard to a ccept that he, or Nisargadatta, would not agree that on a relative level there i s a consciousness after death, although not automatically equivalent to recognit ion of the immortal Self. I: You are right. Nisargadatta doesn't say that. In I Am That (1984) he states: "Human beings die every second, the fear and the agony of dying hangs over the w orld like a cloud. No wonder you too are afraid. But once you know that the body alone dies and not the continuity of memory and the sense of 'I am' reflected i n it, you are afraid no longer." In this passage he is saying, like Ramana, to hold onto the sense, thought, or f eeling of "I Am" (the witness) and it will take you to what is beyond the I Am. Thus, this I Am is the root of the deeper being that does survives death. It is not the absolute, but it does exist after death. Some sages teach that, in the absence of the body, Consciousness is still aware of itself. The evidence they cite is an awareness that they say exists during de ep (dreamless) sleep. For example, in I Am That, p. 28, the following dialogue e nsues between Nisargadatta Maharaj and a questioner: Questioner: What do you do when asleep? Maharaj: I am aware of being asleep. Q: Is not sleep a state of unconsciousness? M: Yes, I am aware of being unconscious. Q: And when awake, or dreaming? M: I am aware of being awake or dreaming. Q: I do not catch you. What exactly do you mean? Let me make my terms clear: by being asleep I mean unconscious, by being awake I mean conscious, by dreaming I mean conscious of one s mind, but not of the surroundings. M: Well, it is about the same with me, Yet, there seems to be a difference. In e ach state you forget the other two, while to me, there is but one state of being , including and transcending the three mental states of waking, dreaming and sle eping. In Truth Love Beauty (2006), Francis Lucille says, "Consciousness knows itself, with or without objects." However, note that, in th e February 4 meditation in A Net of Jewels (1996), Ramesh states, "The original state of the Noumenon is one where we do not even know of our bein gness." This is the state before birth and after death." I: He is guessing here, too, since he never experienced that state - nor, do I s uspect, any of the mystical states after death either to make that claim. Since there is no body in this state, there is only Noumenon. This state is not identical with the states in dreamless sleep, under anesthesia, or while comatos e, because, objectively speaking, in those states there is still rudimentary sen tience associated with the brainstem. I: Another assumption. Dreamless sleep, anesthesia, and coma are examples of the presence of absence as depicted in Figure 1. These are not the same as death because, before the body was born and after it dies, there is a double absence--the absence of the presen ce of the manifestation and the absence of the absence of the manifestation. The

only way to describe this state is that it is neither presence (waking) nor abs ence (sleep), neither existence nor nonexistence. I: He is making a blanket assumption here, which may only be true in the moment of the dawning of the Dharmakaya. No, after the death of the physical body, for most, there is, true, the absence of its presence, but there is still the presen ce of the astral body then after its death, the causal body, and after its death , the individual soul, infinite and cosmic, but individual, but not personal, as PB wrote. Didn't Ramesh or Sri Nisargadatta acknowledge at least the relative w isdom of the Bible where it talks of the "second death" - the dissolution of the subtle body into its constituent elements, followed by rebirth? The "first deat h" doesn't make all go back into the soup just like that. There are intermediate levels and mechanisms for the process of manifestation. And what about the silver cord, which allows the meditator to leave the physical body and traverse the inner realms and come back, before actual death? These ex periences are much deeper than the OBE's or NDE's, which seem to be still within the limits of the gross body. But not beyond the experiences talked about by th e shabd yogis, where it is argued that there is an actual 'death' at every plane quit by the soul (or emanent of the soul). Balsekar and Nisargadatta or Terence Grey (Wu-Wei-Wu) aren't going to invalidate thousands of years of mysticism jus t like that. Question: What is the experience of dreamless sleep? Can you remember it? What i s the experience of being under anesthesia? Can you remember it? Although all religions attempt to give some picture of what we will be after dea th, they are all based on ego fears and desires rather than on personal experien ce. The ego may insist that it will continue to exist after the death of the bod y, but in so doing, it defies the direct evidence of everyone's disappearance du ring deep sleep or anesthesia. If the reader cares to imagine some picture of pe rsonal life before birth and after death, he or she should be aware that there n ever can be any kind of direct proof of such states. I: Why can't there be? Some people think that thought can exist without a body, I: Maybe not without "a" body, but without the physical body. :...so that the "I" concept (the soul) may prevail after the death of the body. But if that state cannot be verified, how can it be said to have existed at all? Many Buddhist teachers claim that the Buddha taught that, after death, the indiv idual is reborn in another body. To them, this seems logical because of the Budd ha's teaching of karma (or causality, see Section 12.3). However, because he tau ght that there is no self, there hardly could be a rebirth of the self. ND: In an article on Buddhism we find: 9. Death "If there is no soul, does Buddhism then teach that death is the termination of all conscious existence? This question cannot be answered by a simple yes or no . It is not strictly true that Buddhism teaches reincarnation, nor does it advocat e an absolute annihilation. Rather, it takes a position some place between these two extremes. The Buddha was born a Hindu, and in the Hindu religion each consc ious being is regarded as having a soul. Each soul is a manifestation of the gre at Universal Soul which the Hindus call Brahman or God. Brahman is the Absolute,

the basis of all creation, and the ultimate goal of the finite soul is to retur n and unite with Brahman. This union with Brahman is the Hindu conception of Nir vana and is achieved after many reincarnations. With each new life the soul lear ns new lessons; sins, suffers from its sins, and goes to the next life somewhat better than before. At last it is purified of all selfishness, attains Nirvana, and is no longer reborn. In reply to the question, What will happen to me when I die? The Buddha might answ er, What are you? For the word I or self includes not one thing but many. Death, of co urse, means the cessation of all bodily functioning. What then becomes of the mi nd? With our modern knowledge of neurophysiology, there can be little question t hat most, if not all, of the things we call mental activities are directly depen dent upon the electrochemical workings of the brain. When the brain ceases to fu nction, sensations, perceptions, thoughts and consciousness come to an end. Buddhism teaches that mind without matter is an impossibility; a body is a prere quisite for consciousness. However, it also teaches that a body alone is not eno ugh. There is a nonphysical aspect of the human psyche which must be present bef ore consciousness can occur. This nonphysical aspect of the mind is referred to as the bhavanga-sota or subconscious life-stream. It is said to survive the deat h of the body and then manifest in a new body. The nature of this bhavanga-sota is peculiar to each individual and is the perci pitate of his former actions and experiences. Each person has his or her own inh erent blend of conscious and subconscious tendencies; e.g., pride, an interest i n music, an aptitude for art, a love of nature, feelings of insecurity, and so o n. Each of these carries with it its own karma. Selfish tendencies carry with th em the karma of selfishness which is suffering (i.e., dukkha) in proportion to t he amount of wrong that has been previously committed. The condition in which ea ch man finds himself is the result of his own former thoughts and deeds. His pre sent behavior is what will determine his future state. Thus, each man makes his own destiny. The bhavanga-sota is, like all other finite creations, constantly in an evolving , changing state, acquiring new attributes while abandoning or modifying old one s. Such changes are identical with the changes in one s personality. As most peopl e go through life they are influenced by their families, societies and other fea tures of their environments to the degree that they become products of their env ironments. As a result, the development of their personalities is largely a matt er of chance. The purpose of Buddhism is to guide and direct the development of one s personality so that such development is no longer a matter of chance. Niravn a is the ultimate goal in this process of maturation, and with Nirvana rebirth c omes to an end. What is it, Venerable Sir, that will be reborn? A psycho-physical combination, O King, is the answer. But how, Venerable Sir? Is it the same psycho-physical combination as this prese nt one? No, O King. But the present psycho-physical combination produces karmically whole some and unwholesome volitional activities, and through such Karma a new psychophysical combination will be reborn. (Milinda-Panha 46) A man s conscious memories, his present self-concept, his views and attitudes towa rd his own existence, his specific prejudices and his beliefs and opinions will perish with the body. Consequently, one could never say that the same person wil l live again." After-death states, such as those described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, by necessity are intuited or cognized by a living person, so the reliability and mo

tives of that person must be considered. Any intense, personal experience, such as a near-death experience, cannot be proof because such experiences by definiti on and necessity are not death experiences. The appearance of discarnate entitie s, such as spiritual guides, deceased relatives, or religious figures, are also not proof because they always appear in living body-mind organisms and therefore could merely be mental phenomena. Because near-death and out-of-body experiences require the presence of a brain, they cannot reflect what happens after death. In fact, out-of-body experiences c an even be produced at will by electrically stimulating the right angular gyrus region of the brain (see Blanke, Ortigue, Landis, and Seeck, Nature 419 (2002) 2 69 - 270); and by video camera and 3D goggles (H. H. Ehrsson, Science 317 (2007) 1048; and Lenggenhager, Tadi, Metzinger, and Blanke, Science 317 (2007) 1096-109 9). Near-death experiences have been shown to be more common in people for whom the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness are not as clearly defined as in th ose not having near-death experiences (see Kevin Nelson, Neurology 66 (2006) 100 3). Thus, in near-death experiences, the REM (rapid eye movement) dream state of sleep can intrude into normal wakeful consciousness. In the April 7 meditation of A Net of Jewels (1996), Ramesh says: "There are many reports of what are popularly considered 'death-experiences', wh ich are mistaken as evidence of what happens after death. These are in fact only hallucinations experienced by the ego arising from stimulation of certain cente rs of the brain before, not after, the completion of the death process. Most of the mystical phenomena recorded as yogic experience are of the same order, movem ents in consciousness experienced by the ego." I: It is true, NDE's are not the same as experiencing death. Here it is admitted that most - but NOT ALL - mystical phenomenon are limited to the brain. To argu e that they all are, however, is going out on a limb. Are we to believe that the masters in the Sant Mat tradition, for instance, are totally deluded or lying w hen they say that, as in the Bible, there is something called the silver cord th at remains unbroken during life, but which enables the deep meditator to get tru e out of body experiences and still return before death? Sant Rajinder Singh, on e of such masters, has said that one will be assured that there is life after de ath when one reaches the third inner plane. While that in itself raises a number of questions, does anyone think he is a fool, and knows nothing about death and beyond? Perhaps most non-dual realizers haven't had such experiences, and there fore are not in a position to comment on them. See also The Thirty-One Planes of Existence and In the Way of Enlightenment: The Ten Fetters of Buddhism by the W anderling for more discussion about gradual liberation, or liberation by stages, on after life planes for certain qualified souls. An interesting view on this form the path may take is given by one Swami Satprak ashananda. This is similar to the view of Swami Krishnananda mentioned earlier: Knowers of Saguna Brahman [God with form or attributes], according to Sankara, do not have full knowledge (jnana) and their souls depart from their bodies at the time of death, although they do not have to be reborn. The jnanis (knowers of N irguna Brahman - God without attributes), however, merge in Brahman, and their s ubtle bodies (souls) dissolve at the time of death....Knowers of Saguna Brahman realize Nirguna Brahman and attain final liberation at the cosmic dissolution, a long with Hiranyagarbha, the presiding deity of Brahmaloka. This is called Gradua l Liberation (krama-mukti), as distinct from Immediate Liberation (sadya mukti), ac hieved by those who realize Nirguna Brahman in this very life. (Swami Satprakasha nanda, The Goal and the Way (St Louis: The Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1977), p. 179) Since a chief claim of Sant Mat is that Sat Lok itself is beyond both Brahmaloka

and the three worlds , as well as cosmic dissolution and grand dissolution, it wou ld most likely disagree with the above statement, although not necessarily on th e general concept of gradual liberation or the non-necessity of rebirth for as y et unliberated souls, which it, and even some schools of Buddhism, ARE in agreem ent with. It is just that it may take longer on the inside than here. The follow ig is from Paramhansa Yogananda: Salvation is of two kinds: final liberation from all karma and union with God; an d freedom from earthly karma, giving the possiblitiy of living from then on in h igh astral regions, from which one can work out his astral and causal karma unti l he reaches final liberation. Salvation from the need for further imprisonment on this material plane is in itself a great blessing, and can be won even withou t (yet) achieving divine perfection. [(18:71) EVEN THAT PERSON WHO, FULL OF DEVOT ION AND WITHOUT SCEPTICISM, MERELY LISTENS TO THIS HOLY DISCOURSE, AND HEEDS ITS TEACHINGS, SHALL BECOME FREE FROM EARTHLY KARMA AND SHALL BE BLESSED TO DWELL I N THE HIGH REALM OF THE VIRTUOUS. ] (The Essence of the Bhagavad-Gita, Explained b y Paramhansa Yogananda, As Remembered by His Disciple, Swami Kriyananda (Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity Publishers, 2006), p. 569) Kriyananda further writes: "It is not the soul which incarnates and dies with the body...The body - the bod ies, actually: physical, astral, and causal, the first two of which are subject to birth and death - may be described even on the physical even as only ideas of the soul. All three bodies are unreal in eternity, and endure only as long as t he idea of them is activate by desires. That idea is fueled in the astral and ph ysical bodies by the concept of individuality. Ego-consciousness is, indeed, an e lement of the astral body. (Ibid, pp. 425-426) Yogananda elsewhere states: "If our individuality were dissolved by death we would [simply merge back into G od then]. But the ego forms the physical body. It is the cause, not the effect, of physical birth...The ego is an element of the astral body, which is retained after death. the physical body is merely the ego's projection into the material world". I think some of this is Swami Kriyananda's misinterpretation of Yogananda's teac hings; the astral body may survive physical death, but is not immune to the "sec ond death" where it disintegrates into its constituent elements prior to rebirth ; the ego itself is birthed prior to even the astral body, according to most occ ult doctrines, including that of Sri Yukteswar [for more on his teachings and th ose of Yogananda, see: Paramhansa Yogananda and Kriya Yoga]. Still, Yogananda ha s some wonderful things to say about the higher, heavenly astral realms: "There are two kinds of heaven. the one most people think of is that which compr ises the higher regions of the astral world. The true heaven, however, and the o ne which Jesus more often referred to, is the state of union with God. The astra l heaven has, as Jesus described it, many 'mansions,' or levels of vibrations. I t is similar to this material world, for this one is a projection of those subtl er realms. The astral heaven, however, is without the countless imperfections of this grosser plane of existence. Heaven is not 'up there,' as people commonly i magine. it is all around us. it is just behind our physical vision. i see it all the time, and I spend much of my time there. It is a vast universe, composed of beautiful lights, sounds, and colors. The colors of the material plane are very dull by comparison. Heaven's beauty is like the most radiant sunset you have ev er seen, and even far more beautiful. There is infinite variety in the astral wo rld. The seasons there can be changed at will by advanced souls. usually it is s pringtime there, with perennial sunshine. Snow, when it falls, is peaceful and b eautiful, and not at all cold. When the rain falls, it descends gently, as myria

d-colored lights...Sentiments, too, are highly refined on the astral plane, and far more intense than people normally experience them on earth...How long a pers on remains in the astral world depends on how well he lived on earth. Those with good karma may remain there for many centuries. Devotees, on the other hand, sp urred on by their desire for enlightenment, may elect to return to earth sooner, in order to continue their spiritual efforts. For they realize that the astral world, too, is but a veil behind which the Lord hides His face of eternal perfec tion." (Ibid, p. 74-75) Regarding rebirth being caused by desires, Yogananda further states: Newcomer: "What causes the ego to reincarnate?" Yogananda: "Desire. Desire, you see, directs energy. As long as a person desires the things of earth, he must come back here, where alone his desires can be ful filled." Disciple: "Must every desire conceived on earth be fulfilled here also?" Yogananda: "Not pure desires - not, for example, the longing for beautiful music , expansive scenery, or harmonious relationships. Such desires can be fulfilled better in the astral world than on this imperfect material plane. In many cases, the desire to create beauty here on earth is due to deeper-than-conscious memor ies of the beauty and harmony one experienced in the astral world...Those souls, especially, who in this life have meditated even a little bit, go to regions of great beauty after death. Those also go to higher regions who have prized duty and truth above their physical existence." (Ibid, p. 73, 74) I recall Anthony telling us that listening to classical music, for instance, hel ped to purify the cittta. "Citta" is usually translated as "mind-stuff," but Yog ananda preferred to call it "feeling." He said that the yoga phrase "chit vritti nirodha" meant the pacification and calming of the feelings (the heart), withou t which meditation would not be fruitful. So this is all good to know. ND: The problem is how to reconcile all of that information of astral and causal worlds and so on with the statements of Professor Sobotta, Ramesh, Nisargadatta , as well as the following from Jess Foster and Sri Ranjit Maharaj (co-disciple with Sri Nisargadatta): "Everything simply arises and dissolves in this open space, this vastness which holds all of manifestation. "I" arise in this vastness, and the story of "I am a separate individual" arises too, as does the story "One day I will die". And no matter what arises or dissolves, the vastness remains untouched, always. The vastness accepts everything, unconditionally, including the arising and dissolv ing of the individual, that is, including my apparent life and my apparent death . And so "you" will never really die, because "you" were never really born. The re is only this wide open space in which all ideas about birth, life and death a rise and dissolve." (Jeff Foster, Beyond Awakening, p.77) "10.10 "By words I have become bound, and by words I can become free." The human body is not born with the capacity to use words. That is a skill that is acquir ed through a process of trial and error during early childhood. The infant learn s to objectify its sense impressions by imitating the words provided by its pare nts. Consciousness, which is the power that allows the process to take place, an d which is the real "identity" of the child, becomes veiled by ignorance. The br ain, divided into two halves, provides the basis for a mind that also divides ev erything into two, beginning with the fundamental duality: "I" and "not-I." This confusion of the consciousness with the I-thought creates identification with t he body and is bondage. To undo this process of misidentification, the opposite process must be applied, like unscrewing a screw or tracing a river back to its source. By enquiry into your true identity through seeking the answer to the que stion "Who am I?" the misunderstanding can be removed and the individual identit y merged into its source. Both processes take place through the use of words and

concepts." (Sri Ranjit Maharaj, Commentary: Thinking and the Mind) I: My feeling is that we are going to have to include the concept and experience of the Soul in here sometime, if we are going to understand the experience of e nlightenment - or awakening - or no-awakening, or no-state - throughout all the states (!), including the portcullis of death. Ranjit, if you read the complete commentary above and many of his others, brings up the analogy of the dream and sleep states again and again, something Yogananda would downplay in favor of kno wledge attained from the superconscious states. This and similar topics have bee n discussed ad nauseum in the first two dialogues in this ongoing series of deba tes. Returning to Kriyananda's comments about the physical and astral bodies being su bject to death, he is there implying that the causal body is not subject to birth and death. This would be consistent with the idea that a deeper personality - an antahkarana or karana sarira - reincarnates, or at least reintegrates . This itsel f implies that there is a relatively permanent, although not necessarily eternal I . But I ask, is this truly the case? Is there an I , non-eternal but relatively pe rmanent, which reincarnates? Most non-dualists say no, that the "I" is being bor n and dies, or appears and disappears in every moment, and otherwise develops re lative permanency for the incarnation at about age two. ND: Right, there is no permanent I, not even an apparent one. That was the whole point of the Buddha's teaching. Wei Wu Wei wrote: ""Birth" is the birth of the I-concept. "Death" is the death of the I-concept. T here is no other birth. There is no other death...There is no Path! Paths lead f rom here to there. How can a path lead from here to here? It could only lead awa y from home. All methods require a doer. The only "doer" is the I-concept...The aggregate of "latent tendencies," held together by an I-concept, is what reincar nates - whatever that may be...Karma and Reincarnation, and all and all, belong to the dream-world. The dream goes on... (Ask the Awakened, 2002, p. 16-17) I: Yes, and I will get into all that some more later on. That is a big point. Bu t so is the notion of the Soul. For now I wish to explore further the concept ra ised about the moment of physical death being the end of the "I". For instance, many such accounts of death are only useful for the immediate transition of phys ical passing. There may be a swoon implying nescience or unconsciousness before re-awakening in the astral worlds. There will also, according to yogic schools, upon successful meditation or competent grace of an adept, be a death at each tran sition to successive planes. Multiple such zero points may need to be passed thro ugh for the full liberation. At the very least, complete dissolution of all of t he vehicles of the soul and the soul or immortal ego in the causal body itself at th e moment of physical death is not backed up by the majority of the scriptures, s utras, as well as testimony of high saints and sages, which suggest intermediate stages. Therefore, jnanis such as Nisargadatta and Ramesh Balsekar may not have the full truth of this matter. ND:..."But when man finally surrenders his miserable egoic individuality, there is no experience of anything. He is the Totality itself." I: Maybe the followers of Balsekar and Nisargadatta should bow to a illumined sa int and beg for a true experience of the soul. When his 'miserable egoic individ uality' is surrendered, something greater than that will takeover and overshadow his limited self, without taking away all sense of individuality, according to the testimony of saints, or sages like PB. Papaji didn't deny reincarnation as r elatively real, which Nisargadatta and Balsekar seem to do.] In the April 4 meditation of the same book, Ramesh says:

"My relative absence is my absolute presence. The moment of death will be the m oment of highest ecstasy, the last sensorial perception of the psychosomatic app aratus." I: Ramesh is extrapolating from his understanding based on reading the book Open Secret by Terence Gray (Wu Wei Wu) over one hundred times, not from his experie nce in the afterdeath state, and also limiting the possibility of knowledge of t he afterdeath states based on his interpretation of the rather limitations of ND E's and OBE's in the literature. Ramesh also taught there is no free will, becau se there is no doer, (a strict non-dual philosophical position, which may not sq uare with reality, as most philosophies don't) and that your decision to practic e is involuntary. Maybe because there is nothing you can do about your spiritual progress according to him is why he had affairs with his students in his old ag e] On p. 181 of I Am That (1984), Nisargadatta (Ramesh's guru) says: "Everybody dies as he lives. I am not afraid of death, because I am not afraid o f life. I live a happy life and shall die a happy death. Misery is to be born, n ot to die." And on p. 122, he says: "To be a living being is not the ultimate state: there is something beyond, much more wonderful, which is neither being nor non-being, neither living nor non-li ving. It is a state of pure awareness, beyond the limitations of space and time. Once the illusion that the body-mind [physical-body-mind] is oneself is abandon ed, death loses its terror; it becomes a part of living." I: Nisargadatta, a Piscean, seems capable of some fellow-feeling or love and dec ency. Surely he is right about the goal, that it is beyond all conceptual descri ptions, neither being nor non-being, etc., but he, too gave the impression there is no existence of a subtle personality at all after the body-mind dies. He doe sn't mean when the three coils die or disintegrate, just the psychosomatic organ ism. If so, he, too, is guessing. Robert Adams felt Nisargadatta was a bit angry and had a radical extreme understanding of the advaitic position, which he didn 't agree with. Robert advocated that his students make effort, because in their next life, as he put it, they would at least be ahead of the guy going bowling ( !), and that maybe they would get enlightened when they were fourteen. He recogn ized a continuity of consciousness, if not awareness, from life to life, as well as the paradoxical need to make effort. I can see the isolated case where someone may seem to have the memories of a pre vious lifetime, and even recognize items and people in a village where "they" we re supposed to have lived, but maybe they were really experiencing samskaras of someone else's lifetime, not their own or one they had a connection with. This s eems possible. But many, many times the person is very strongly certain that it was themselves, and not others. And in the case of a master pointing out that on e's mother had been reborn in such and such a town, and the person travels there and finds a little girl, with whom he has instant rapport, and who seemed to em body many of the traits of his mother, that seems an even stronger case for a li nk. Such indeed was one of many such instances related by devotees of Paramhansa Yogananda. Exactly what did the Master see in these instances? We here have not one, but two people, one of them supposedly enlightened, testifying to a karmic connection. Something sees or remembers. What is that? ******************************************************************************** ******************

The following previously written essay will explore in more detail some of the a bove concepts on death, rebirth, and consciousness: "An Esoteric Examination of Reincarnation" by Peter Holleran The concept of the Bodhisattva, or continually reincarnating adept whose purpose is the enlightenment of all beings, as found in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition , finds no equivalent in the West. Western religious exotericism rejects reincar nation entirely, while its stream of esotericism makes only occasional mention o f perhaps one or another adept being reborn as a specific teacher. In the East t he Tibetans have been unique in their outspokenness about the existence of entir e lineages of reincarnating adepts, whose relocation has been made into a well e ngineered science. In India the subject is treated somewhat more casually by the general population, and the adepts themselves are often hesitant to speak of th eir previous identities. Baba Jaimal Singh, for instance, was considered by his disciples to be a reincarnation of Guru Nanak; indeed, there were many resemblan ces between the two, and the soldier-saint Jaimal Singh was born in the very sam e district in which Nanak had prophesied he would reappear. Yet when questioned on the matter the saint merely said, "If we spirits were to speak our minds, who would allow us a moment s rest and who would spare our skins?" (1) Satya Sai Baba , on the other hand, has plainly stated that he was previously the reknown Shird i Sai Baba, and even prior to that, Jesus the Christ. Swami Muktananda felt that this was not possible, arguing that Shirdi Sai Baba was an enlightened being an d that enlightened beings do not take rebirth. This finds little support in the traditions, however, and possibly rests on a common misconception in occult teac hings regarding the liberated state, namely, that it is inccmpatible with existe nce in the world. Enlightened beings do take rebirth, and such jivan muktas ("th ose liberated while alive") are the best candidates for reincarnation, for after t he sacrifice of re-embodiment their spiritual development is swift and complete, enabling them to most effectively serve the enlightenment of others. The enligh tened individual is not compromised in his enlightenment by the arising of manif est conditions, for he is eternally present as their conscious source and stands as the Heart and its Light, the divine body of enlightenment. Finally, Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita points to the paradoxical nature of reincarnation when he t ells Arjuna, in words to the effect, "many lives have I had", and also, "never w as I not." It may very be that, in the case of the adept, the tendency for gross embodiment has exhausted itself, and therefore he must reincarnate or assume a body-mind a new by an act of will or intention, as contrasted with the bound soul whose re-e mbodiment is said to be more or less inevitable, but that is another matter enti rely. The type of view that holds enlightenment and manifest existence incompati ble or mutually exclusive speaks more of an inverted mystical realization than t hat of the sage. The Bodhisattva does not sacrifice his Enlighterment in order t o remain incarnated for the sake of helping others, rather, he remains incarnate d, enlightened, in order to help others. He postpones or awaits kaivalya or Nirv anic isolation, but not enlighenment itself. And, of course, in a very real sens e, there is then no "one" awaiting such final or ultimate Nirvana. This issue of reincarnation or rebirth is a very mysterious one and worth discus sing in more detail. What is it, precisely, that reincarnates? If, as popular li terature suggests, the notion of reincarnation is consoling to the bewildered eg o, why should this be so? The common belief about reincarnation is based on the same point of view that is at the foundation of both exoteric religion and conventional mysticism. This is the belief in a personal identity as an ego, or ego-soul, that is somehow inser ted or contained within the body and that leaves the body at death, has experien ces in subtle dimensions after death, and eventually re-associates with a body a gain and is reborn. Understanding of the reality of the physics of the body-mind

, however , reveals to us that if such an identity is assumed to be real then on e is precluded from experiencing a continuity of consciousness through the trans itional states between death and rebirth. Yes, something continues, but, yes, so mething does not. In any case one is born again with, except in rare cases, no m emory of anything prior to the present life, and faces a seemingly endless round of suffering in limitation unless and until he takes up the practice of self-tr anscendence in spiritual terms. The human being can be classified into three dimensions. There is the gross pers onality, composed of the physical body, its life energies, and the lower or inte ntional nlind in its association with the physical body. This "gross personality " does not reincarnate, it is born and dies, and has parents and grandparents". This is Jane Doe or John Smith, an identity built up in this lifetime. It has no memory of past lives (or afterlife), generally, because it has no past lives (o r afterlives). Prior to the gross personality is what could be called the "deepe r personality". The deeper personality consists of the subtle and causal aspects of the being that may manifest through the gross personality as tendencies bear ing little or no resemblance to the parent lineage. This constitutes what is con sidered the character of an individual, which is the net result of the tendencie s built up over the course of many lifetimes and stored "deeper" within the bein g, essentially in what is subconscious and unconscious to the waking personality . In terms of yoga terminology, the deeper personality consists of the higher as pect of manomaya kosha as well as the vijnanomaya kosha. This is the antahkarana ("inner organ"), the true (if any) reincarnating entity. It is known as the kar ana sarira, or the "immortal Ego in the causal body" in theosophical language. T his "causal body" is the repository of the samskaras or impressions and tendenci es from innumerable past lives, from which the jiva or personality is formed afr esh during each lifetime. For one identified with the gross personality, the deeper personality is not rea dily available to their conscious experience, both in life and after death. Neve rtheless it is a determining factor in their experience of both life and death. Prior to even the deeper personality is the conscious divine Self, the source-co ndition of both the gross and deeper personalities, and the very Reality which n evers reincarnates but remains as the unconditional Witness of all conditional e xperiences. This conscious Self is eternally unchanged and unmoving. Ramana Maha rshi testified to his realization and identification with this omnipresent Self by remarking,just prior to his mahasamadhi, "They say that I am dying but I am n ot going away. Where could I go? I am here." The enlightened being has transcend ed identification with both the gross and deeper personalities: the physical bod y, the "psychic being", as well as the primal root of 'I'-ness or egoity itself. It is somewhat paradoxical to speak of his reincarnation, then, for as the cons cious divine Self he does not reincarnate. The deeper personality does reincarna te, however, and it is this which can be said to have past lives. Some will argu e that this deeper personality does not reincarnate, but more actually reintegra tes after complete skhandic dissolution after death. The question remains if the re is a permanent I that is self-identical from life to life, a post on which to h ang the many impermanent personalities, other than the I-I of Maharshi which is th e Self or unmanifest consciousness itself. Ramana suggests there is when he spea ks of the aham sphurana , or current of the Self that leads to the unmanifest Self. If so this I would be part of the causal body as described in the literature. Som e schools would call this the soul, but we will reserve that term for consciousn ess itself, or the Overself as termed by PB. Ramana Maharshi, once again, speaking from the ultimate standpoint, says: "Reincarnation exists only so long as there is ignorance. There is really no rei ncarnation at all, either now or before. Nor will there be any hereafter. This i s the truth." (2)

Paul Brunton further explains: "The true teaching about reincarnation is not that the divine soul enters into t he captivity and ignorance of the flesh again and again but that something emana ted from the soul, that is a unit of life that eventually develops into the pers onal ego, does so. The Overself contains this reincarnating ego within itself bu t does not itself reincarnate. It is not the Overself that suffers and struggles during this long unfoldment but its child, the ego. It is not the Overself that slowly expands its intelligence and consciousness, but the ego. It is not the O verself that gets deluded by ignorance and passion, by selfishness and extrovers ion, but the ego. The belief in the merger of the ego held by some Hindu sects o r in its annihilation held by some Buddhist ones, is unphilosophical. The "I" di fferentiated itself out of the infinite ocean of Mind into a distinct individual ity after a long development through the diverse kingdoms of Nature. The self-co nsciousness thus developed will not be dissolved, extinguished, or re-absorbed i nto the whole again, leaving not a trace behind. Rather it will begin a new spir al of evolution towards higher altitudes of consciousness and diviner levels of being. " (3) Whether this I was an intermediate pedagogical position of PB or a pointer to a re ality is a subject that may be debateable. Elsewhere he speaks much like the Bud dhsts and Hindus by saying that the I is nothing but a bundle of thoughts and tend encies around an imaginary center, that gets its sense of reality from the unman ifest light or consciousness behind it, which is the only thing (which is not a t hing ) that persists throughout the incarnations other than the conditional proces s itself. In other words, there is no fixed entity which reincarnates. On the ot her hand, I remember once when Tony said that a sage can know your Overself, and he could know your psyche, but he can t experience your I . That was a mysterious st atement. What is this I ? [ND: Nothing, in reality it doesn't exist, but phenomenally it is just a thought . And since it doesn't really exist, even the sage can't experience it as it is in someone else, while he can intuit their consciousness and "see" their phenome nal bodies - how's that?!] If a realized individual maintains a connection with the deeper personality or k arana sarira, then, it can be said that he reincarnates, even though from the po sition of truth, that is, from the absolute position, this is not so regarding h is real identity. In other words, if two gross personalities shared the same kar ana sarira then there is a karmic link between them. So when a being such as Sri Aurobindo clams to be a reincarnation of Napoleon it may be understood in this manner: the two gross personalities share, or are karmically linked, by a common deeper personality or karana sarira, even though the ultimate identity of eithe r character is the Overself or divine Soul itself. What is being suggested is th at ordinary personalities are strung like beads on the deeper personality, and n ot just spontaneously strung on the Atman, Soul, or Not-self according to the Bu ddhist formula, this being, that appears , otherwise known as dependent origination . This would allow for the teaching in various schools of a gradual enlightenmen t from post-death spheres once transcendence of the gross body was attained. From the point of view of the mind, the Buddhist teachings may seem to imply tha t there is a spontaneous or random connection between an Overself and its manife stations or conditional lifetimes. PB would say that the same ray of light under lies all the lifetimes of one divine Soul. If there were no karmic link between this present lifetime and a string of preceding ones, no connection between the Self and a deeper personality and between that deeper personality and its gross manifestations, then an adept might have to spontaneously manifest conditional v ehicles, or borrow those of another, in order to incarnate. In fact, Rudolph Ste iner suggested that the Christ acquired the body of Jesus for just this purpose. Such occurrences, if possible, would be rare and unique.

On the other hand, there is the Avatar theory, wherein it is suggested that the Divine Being (we could say the World-Mind of Paul Brunton, or the Absolute Soul of Plotinus) in some mysterious way assumes human form directly (without the age ncy of a Divine Soul Itself) and is, so to speak, only circumstantially associat ed with its vehicles, but not karmically associated. In other words, in this cas e, there would be no common karana sarira or deeper personality between any two manifestations of an Avatar. This is what may be implied if one takes some of th e scriptural pronouncements literally. Whether it is true or not it is certainly difficult to understand, difficult to believe, and must remain a spiritual myst ery, or rahasya, for ordinary unillumined souls. Yet since the concept has appea red again and again in the literature it has been mentioned here, along with a f eeble attempt at an explanation. If these words fail miserably then this writer takes refuge in the exhortation of Plato, who, when commenting upcn his famous a llegory of the cave, said, "what I have written is not true; nay, it most certai nly is not true. Yet something very much like it is true." PB suggested that, inasmuch as an adept has to will his reincarnation,for the sa ke of helping others, the process of incarnation of such a realizer is essential ly the reverse of the process of spiritual sadhana for the unenlightened being. The adept is the Self, who reaches towards a deeper personality and then a gross personality in order to have vehicles or agency for his work in the world. The disciple begins identified as the gross personality, and reaches towards the dee per personality and then towards the Self. The conjunction of these two represen ts the fulfillment of the process of realization. The sage, then, engages a real sacrifice in order to be born and teach others. He may even appear to lose his enlightenment in the process of embodiment, for the assumption of a new body and brain necessitates a period of re-adaptation and re-awakening in the conditions of the gross dimension. The force of his prior realization, however, guides his development and makes the process of sadhana in his case relatively brief and c onclusive. [ND: I'll tentatively buy that, but I must insert this comment by Wei Wu Wei to be more philosophically demanding: "A Bodhisattva does not seek to enlighten inexistent "others": inexistent as a s elf, that which he is destroys the illusion of the existence of "others" as such ." (Ask the Awakened, p. 174) I: Not to drop a monkey wrench in this entire discussion, but in his commentarie s on the Bhagavad-Gita, Paramhansa Yogananda said that an advanced yogi may even reincarnate in several bodies at once in order to work out his past karmas more quickly (Swami Kriyananda, The Path, p. 302). Ramana Maharshi once mentioned th at a spiritually advanced person might even be born as a forty year old rather t han as a baby, implying what seems to me some sort of "walk-in" theory!] Contrary to what is taught in mystical schools, it has not been universally reco gnized that one should or needs to explore the subtle regions outside the brain for spiritual realization. One purpose of incarnation, it may be argued, is actu ally to confine and concentrate experience in the gross dimension. The brain exi sts as a barrier to the intrusion of subtle experience and past lives into one's consciousness in the waking- state, which, in fact, is the arena where all of t he tendencies of the deeper personality (which interpenetrates the gross body) c an be purified and transcended at the heart, without rising into the subtle plan es themselves. According to some sages, when the lower life has been purified an d the individual has matured to a sufficient degree, he can pass directly to the practice of the Witness consciousness, horizontally as it were, founded in the heart, without engaging the ascended mystical dimension while alive at all. Thus , it is not necessary to become a yogi, no doubt a great relief to many. Still, there is a yogic dimension to enlightenment. Does anyone think that PB, Sant Kir

pal Singh, Paramhansa Yogananda, and the 16th Karmapa, for instance, were all wr ong? 1. Kirpal Singh, A Great Saint: Baba Jaimal Singh (Delhi, India: Ruhani Satsang, 1968), p. 66 2. Maharshi's Gospel, p. 40 3. The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Vol. 16, Part 2, 4.257 [See Fundamentals of Buddhism (Part II: Kamma and Rebirth) (scroll about halfway down the linked material) for a deeper discussion of this subject, in particula r that of the bhovanga sota. Could that be equivalent to the karana sarira in th e yoga teachings?] ******************************************************************************** ***************** Back to discussion of A Course in Consciousness. ND: All of that is very interesting, but let's get the point. What you have said is just unnecessary way from our direct experience. Read chapter 11 of then see what you have to say. The sages are very

back on track and directly to gobbledy-gook and taking us a A Course in Consciousness and simple and precise:

GOD IS ALL - ALL IS GOD 11.2. The appearance of sentience within Consciousness We have seen two objective explanations of how the world appears out of the tran scendental: 1) wavefunction collapse, given in Section 7.3, and 2) manifestation from the transcendental realms of Nisargadatta and Ramesh, given in Section 8.1 . Both concepts have the logical difficulties that are discussed in Section 8.2. A simpler, more general, and more verifiable concept is that the manifestation simply appears when sentience appears within Consciousness. Sentience is the mechanism by which Consciousness becomes aware of Itself. (Obj ectively, sentience requires a brain connected to sensory organs; see Section 7. 6.) There can be no manifestation without sentience, and there can be no sentie nce without manifestation. In Chapter 9, we used the term individual mind, altho ugh we found that Awareness of all minds is universal, not individual. In simpl est conceptual terms, all experience can be divided into thoughts, feelings, emo tions, sensations, and perceptions. All of these are nothing but concepts divid ing Consciousness, so none is more real than another. However, we tend to equat e intensity and persistence with reality, so the last items in the list can seem to be more real than the first items. For example, emotions, sensations, and p erceptions can seem to be more real than feelings and thoughts because they can be more intense and persistent. However, sensations and perceptions are not inh erently more real than feelings and thoughts are. On the contrary, the more att ention-grabbing an object is, the more unreal it is likely to be, and the more s ubtle it is, the more real it is likely to be. For example, subtle feelings and thoughts (see Section 10.1, Chapter 16) are more likely to point to Reality tha n intense ones are, and very subtle perception (called apperception) is more lik ely to reveal the underlying Reality of the object (see Section 23.3 and Chapte r 24) than superficial perception is. On p. 95 of I Am That (1984), Nisargadatta Maharaj says, What is beautiful? Whatever is perceived blissfully is beautiful. Bliss is the es

sence of beauty. On p. 48-49 of his book Eternity Now (1996, see Appendix A2), the sage, Francis Lucille, says that Truth, Love, and Beauty transcend all concepts, and come dire ctly from the Unmanifest and are pointers to the Unmanifest. On p. 70, he says that positive feelings like love, happiness, gratitude, awe, respect, and sense of beauty come from beyond the mind, and they generate release, relief, and rela xation at the somatic level. These are to be contrasted with negative emotions, like anger, hatred, and fear, which come from the mind, and which generate stre ss, heaviness, pressure, constriction, and tension at the somatic level. Exercise: Close your eyes and feel the following feelings: Love, gratitude, beau ty. Now feel the following feelings: Fear, anger, hatred. What are your experiences? Where do you feel them? Which seem more real? 11.3. M anifestation: The first level of identification We shall talk about three levels of identification. The appearance of sentience and the manifestation is the fir st level of identification (see Section 7.6). In the meditation for January 12 in A Net of Jewels (1996), Ramesh says, "The entire phenomenal manifestation is based on the principle of duality, which starts with the sense 'I AM'". In the meditation for June 9, he says, "An infant, not being aware of having an individual identity, has no intellect w ith which to conceptualize and therefore lives in spontaneous freedom without re sistance from moment to moment. The same is true of the self-realized sage, who has gone beyond the mind." I: Did Ramesh experience that, or is it another assumption? This can get very co mplicated, as many people who have done deep feeling work, such as that of the p rimalling of Janov and the rebirthing of Grof, feel that they have re-experience d states of individuality before the age of two, and even before birth all the w ay back to conception. I'm not saying those experiences are true, or interpreted as true, or that there are not other ways of understanding them (in as much as they are still being observed with the adult brain, albeit more primitive parts of the brain), but the fact is, Ramesh faces the problem in that he is guessing when he talks about the infant. Ramana said to one disciple, "Go back the way yo u came," pointing him to becoming like a child again, to reenter the womb, in a sense. That would be an actual experience, or a yogic dimension to Ramana's adva ita, kind of a combination of mysticism and the regressive psychologies. ND: I think you are reading way too much into Ramana. And in the meditation for April 10, he says, "The life of a sage appears to others to be as purposeless as the actions of an infant." I: Did PB appear like that, purposeless? - or did Kirpal Singh? The infant lives in the bliss of ignorance, while the self-realized sage lives i n the bliss beyond both ignorance and knowledge. In fact the sage is no longer e ven an individual, in spite of the presence of a fully developed intellect." At the first level of identification, which is the level of the infant, Consciou sness is identified with the whole because the concept of separation has not yet

arisen. Until intellect arises, there can be no concepts, so there can be no di stinction made between subjectivity and objectivity. (This might also be the cas e with insects and the lower animals.) With the appearance of intellect in man and possibly the higher animals, the concepts of separation and duality appear. These concepts appear within nonduality, e.g., the concept of the individual min d (see Section 9.2) appears within Consciousness. The working mind now appears ( see Section 11.9) but still with no sense of personal doership. This is the stat e of the sage. The difference between the sage and the infant is that the sage h as a well-developed intellect whereas the infant does not. In the sage, as disti nct from ordinary people, there is no identification with the concepts of doersh ip. However, in the sage as well as with ordinary people, there is identificati on with name and form. This means that there is direct awareness of the body's thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, and perceptions, but there is no direc t awareness of those of any other body (see Section 9.2). Thus, when the sage s ays "I", he often refers to "his" body-mind but never to another body-mind. (At other times, when the sage says "I", he often refers to Consciousness.) Ramesh says that identification with name and form is exhibited when the sage is addre ssed and the body responds. In the Advaita Fellowship News of August 2003 (http: //www.advaita.org), he says: The really important thing to realize--there is no need to try to remember it--is that the fact that there is no individual doer does not mean that there is no d oing, that there is inaction, but that the operation of doing happens in the for m not of inaction but non-action. The ego--as identification with a name and for m--will remain as long as the body remains, but after Self-realization, continue s to function merely as a witness of the non-doing instead of as a doer. Because the sage functions from pure Awareness, when the sage speaks, it comes d irectly from Source without being corrupted by an "I"-entity. However, what the sage says and the way it is said also depends on the conditioning of the body-mi nd organism, and this persists after the disappearance of the "I" entity. That i s why different sages will explain their experiences of nonduality in different terms. 11.4. Objectification: The second level of identification In the meditation for July 31 in A Net of Jewels (1996), Ramesh says, "Bondage is nothing more than the illusion that you are an autonomous entity." The concept of the separate "I" appears in the child after the appearance of the intellect, and after there is sufficient conditioning in the body-mind organism (see Section 5.8). Awareness then identifies with this "I" concept (the second level of identification) to produce the sense of personal doership and choice, and the fictitious "I"-entity, ego, or individual (see, e.g., Sections 7.6, 7.7, 7.8). Now there is objectification (which we may also call entitification) as w ell as conceptualization; or dualism (which includes the sense of separation) as well as duality (which is purely conceptual, see Section 9.5). Whenever there is the sense of personal doership, there is also suffering becaus e, in addition to the mind functioning as the working mind, it also functions as the thinking mind (see Section 11.9). The sage does not suffer even though ther e may be pain because there is no sense of personal doership and resistance, and no thinking mind. When an object is said to exist, what do we mean? It means that Awareness has id entified with the "I"-concept, resulting in the belief that the "I" is separate from the rest of the manifestation. Thus, the "I" entity is said to exist. From this, we can see that existence is conceptualization plus identification. After Awareness identifies with the "I"-concept, the pernicious beliefs in the existen

ce of other objects also arise. Objects seem real because they seem to exist ind ependently of each other and of our awareness of them. However, independent exis tence is nothing but a product of intellect, identification, and belief. In Real ity there exists no "I"-entity or any other kind of object. There is only Consci ousness. Exercise: Do the following exercise with your eyes closed while looking past you r thoughts directly at the sensations themselves. What is your immedicate noncon ceptual experience of the following: 1. There are sounds, but is there something making the sounds? 2. There are sensations of touch and pressure, but is there something causing th e sensations? (Note: Sometimes we might carelessly say that Consciousness exists, but as we ha ve already seen, Consciousness includes all existence and nonexistence, and tran scends both existence and nonexistence (see Section 10.1). Another type of confu sion results when the word existence is used to refer to the pure sense of Prese nce that always accompanies pure Awareness (see Figure 1, Section 10.1). This mi ght be called pure Existence, but we shall avoid using this terminology.) You are not an individual, and you are not limited. As pure Awareness, You are u nlimited Reality. Reality is the same whether your eyes are open or closed. When your eyes are closed and all thoughts and images are absent, You are the only R eality. When your eyes are open, and objects seem to be present, You are still t he only Reality. Reality underlies and pervades all the objects that you perceiv e. That is why You are everything and everything is You. In The Elements of Buddhism (1990), John Snelling says, "Central to the Buddha's teaching is the doctrine of anatman: "not-self." This d oes not deny that the notion of an "I" works in the everyday world. In fact, we need a solid, stable ego to function in society. However, "I" is not real in an ultimate sense. It is a "name": a fictional construct that bears no corresponden ce to what is really the case. Because of this disjunction all kinds of problems ensue. Once our minds have constructed the notion of "I," it becomes our centra l reference point. We attach to it and identify with it totally. We attempt to a dvance what appears to be its interests, to defend it against real or apparent t hreats and menaces. And we look for ego-affirmation at every turn: confirmation that we exist and are valued. The Gordian Knot of preoccupations arising from al l this absorbs us exclusively, at times to the point of obsession. This is, howe ver, a narrow and constricted way of being. Though we cannot see it when caught in the convolutions of ego, there is something in us that is larger and deeper: a wholly other way of being." On p. 64 of Nuggets of Wisdom (2005) by Ramesh Balsekar, he says, "The total acceptance of non-doership means the end of the load of guilt and sha me for one's own actions and the load of hatred and malice towards the other for his actions. The removal of the load means the automatic presence of peace and harmony--equanimity." On p. 65, he says, "There is a distinct difference between the anger, grief or fear of the sage and that of an ordinary person. The sage's emotion is not based on any selfish moti vation; and the sage's emotion is always in the present moment, and therefore ve ry short-lived. No residual impression remains in the mind that could lead to in volvement in horizontal time."

The beliefs in the existence of the "I"-doer and of the world are more persisten t than they would be if they were known to be purely conceptual. Since the mind consists not only of thoughts, but also of feelings, emotions, sensations, and p erceptions, identification and belief can percolate down to these other levels a s well. In particular, the emotions of guilt, shame, hatred, malice, envy, jealo usy, and pride are compelling evidence for a continuing identification with, and belief in, the "I"-doer. Upon awakening, these emotions disappear. Other emotio ns may arise, but there is no identification with them, so they quickly disappea r without causing suffering. In particular, when a sage exhibits anger, it passe s quickly without lingering because there is no identification with it. Question: How does the sense of personal doership lead to suffering? Question: How do the following emotions depend on the sense of personal doership : Guilt, shame, hatred, envy, jealousy, pride? Belief in separation is extremely persistent, and is virtually invulnerable to s uperficial mental practices, such as the mechanical repetition of aphorisms, aff irmations, or denials. For example, the thought that "I" exist as an individual is not nearly as difficult to see through as the feeling that "I" exist. Theref ore, in order for a practice to be effective, it must be seen and felt directly that there is no "I"-entity and there is no separation. Such practices are the s ubjects of Chapters 20, 22, 23, 24. It is the appearance of the conceptual, dualistic individual that is the source of all conflict, suffering, and striving in the world. However, the individual is an illusion because the apparently individual awareness is actually still pur e Awareness. There is always only one Awareness, never multiple awarenesses. The individual is only a conceptual object because its subjectivity is really pure Subjectivity. When the "I"-entity seems to appear, a boundary seems to arise between itself an d everything else. This is represented in Figure 1 of Chapter 10 by the boxes in the upper right labeled "I" and not-"I". The boundary line between the "I" and the not-"I" becomes a potential battle line, with the "I" warring with the not-" I". The only way this battle line can be eliminated is for the "I" to vanish com pletely, i.e., for the recognition to occur that there never has been an "I"-ent ity. This is the perception of the sage. 11.5. Ownership: The third level of identification We have seen that the first level of identification is the manifestation itself, when Consciousness becomes aware, while the second level is identification of A wareness with the concept of the separate "I" and its doership, resulting in the fictitious "I"-entity. The primary self-image of this illusory entity is that o f observer, doer, thinker, decider, and experiencer. But conditioning and identi fication produce not only this false self, but also various kinds of thoughts, o pinions, and images about the false self. Some examples of these are its compete nce, incompetence, beauty, ugliness, goodness, and evilness. With the appearance of these concepts arises also the possibility that Awareness will identify with them. This results in a third level of identification, the l evel of ownership, or "mine", consisting of many forms of embellishment on the b asic "I"-entity. Without this third level of identification, the "I"-entity is b are, consisting only in the sense of doership (which includes observership, thin kership, and decidership). With it, the "I"-entity becomes clothed not only in t houghts and images, but also in feelings and emotions. Feelings and emotions do not cause suffering unless there is ownership of them. Then many different kinds of suffering occur. This third level of identification is the one that causes a ll the trouble (some might say all the fun) but it depends entirely on the assum ed existence of the doer. This fully identified (clothed) "I"-entity seems to su

ffer unlimited agonies over whether it is good enough, beautiful enough, smart e nough, competent enough, healthy enough, strong enough, loving enough, caring en ough, and many other "enoughs". It feels guilty about "its" actions in the past, and worries about how "it" will perform in the future. It sometimes sees itself as a bag of s__t, and at other times, as a god or goddess. However, sooner or later it will see itself as a victim, i.e., as an entity that suffers at the han ds of something else (see Section 11.7). I: This is all rather complicated. I would like to speak very practically here. My logic may not be metaphysically airtight, but bear with it. Hindu scriptures say that for the emanant that PB speaks of to reach the human level requires fro m five to eight million incarnations in lower live forms to evolve. That is, "Egoic development begins, just as the outward life forms it assumes do, at the lowest levels of conscious identity. It moves upwards automatically at first, th rough plant, insect, and animal forms, until at last it reaches the human level. Thereafter evolution ceases to be automatic, for in man's more highly developed brain and nervous system the ego experiences for the first time the ability to exercise discrimination, and thus develops a certain amount of free-will. Spirit ual evolution from this time onward becomes speeded up, or delayed, or temporari ly reversed, according to the caliber of the individual's own efforts." (Swami K riyananda, The Path, 1966, p. 258) At this point, we can use karma to become neh-karma or free of karma. How? - by working within the dream in the right way. For instance, as Kriyananda writes: "Spiritually speaking, karma has different levels of manifestation, depending on how clear it expresses the divine consciousness. Love, for example, is a more s piritual karma than hatred, since it reinforces the awareness of life's essentia l oneness. Hatred increases the delusion of separateness from God, and from othe r people. To tell the truth is a more spiritual karma than to tell lies, because truthfulness helps to develop a refined awareness of what really is - of the Di vine reality behind all appearances." (Ibid, p. 259) PB expressed this in a very poetic way; he said: "Make it a matter of habit, until it becomes a matter of inclination, to be kind , gentle, forgiving, and compassionate. What can you lose? A few things now and then, a little money here and there, an occasional hour or an argument? But see what you can gain! More release from the personal ego, more right to the Oversel f's grace, more loveliness in the world inside us, and more friends in the world outside us." (Notebooks, Vol. 3, Part 1, 5.12) Finally, as Paramhansa Yogananda said, "It takes very, very, VERY good karma to even want to know God." (Ibid, p. 262) I think what he is saying here can be und erstood in advaita as saying that it requires karma yoga to prepare one for inqu iry or the more direct path - or maybe even that the two are inseparable in the paradoxically non-dualistic/dualistic universe we live in. This may seem kindergarten level stuff to some, but I think alot of important th ings are learned in kindergarten, don't you? You can tell me that I have no cont rol over the thoughts that come into my head, whether for good or for bad, and t herefore no control over my actions, because there is no doer, and that all I ha ve to do is see there is no doer and automatically everything will work out fine , but somehow I won't believe you. I think it is easy to fool ourselves, or let' s just say, I feel we have to be, that is it is healthy to be, on our guard a bi t when talking like this. Maybe it's just my problem, but even Anthony used to s ay that even if we take the witness position we still have to aspire to higher v alues and higher states. Many people strip away that portion of Nisargadatta's t eachings and forget that he also taught devotion, as also did Robert Adams. It's

like it is built into the system. If you want to bring in the idea of the Soul in the Nous, well, that's a college-level description of the same thing. PB had many beautiful quotes on of the necessity of the "double standpoint" : Vol. 13, Part 1 2.30 "Paradox is the only way to view both the immediate and the ultimate at the same time." 2.31 "Philosophy says that its highest teaching is necessarily paradoxical because th e one is in the many and the many, too, are one, because nonduality is allied to duality, because the worldly and limited points to the Absolute and Unbounded: hence the doctrine of two Truths." 2.32 "Paradox is the only proper way to look at things and situations, at life and th e cosmos, at man and God. This must be so if as full and complete a truth as min d can reach is desired. To express that truth there are two ways because of its own double nature: there is what the thing seems to be and what it really is. Th e difference is often as great as that yielded by an electronic microscope with five thousand-fold magnification when it is focused on an ant, compared to the v iew yielded by the naked eye." 2.62 "The idea of illusion is a necessary discovery for the beginner, but with deeper knowledge he discovers that the illusion is also the real because it is not apa rt from reality. The truth is that reality is attainable." 2.5 "If we think, "I strive to become one with God," or, "I am one with God," we hav e unconsciously denied the statement itself because we have unconsciously set up and retained two things, the "I" and "God." If these two ultimately exist as se parate things they will always exist as such. If, however, they really enter int o union, then they must always have been in union and never apart. In that case, the quest of the underself for the Overself is unnecessary. How can these two o pposed situations be resolved? The answer is that relativity has taught us the n eed of a double standpoint, the one relative and practical and constantly shifti ng, the other absolute and philosophical and forever unchanged. From the first s tandpoint we see the necessity and must obey the urge of undertaking this quest in all its practical details and successive stages. From the second one, however , we see that all existence, inclusive of our own and whether we are aware of it or not, dwells in a timeless, motionless Now, a changeless, actionless Here, a thing-less, egoless Void. The first bids us work and work hard at self-developme nt in meditation, metaphysics, and altruistic activity, but the second informs u s that nothing we do or abstain from doing can raise us to a region where we alr eady are and forever shall be in any case. And because we are what we are, becau se we are Sphinxes with angelic heads and animal bodies, we are forced to hold b oth these standpoints side by side. If we wish to think truthfully and not merel y half-truthfully, we must make both these extremes meet one another. That is, n either may be asserted alone and neither may be denied alone. It is easier to ex perience this quality than to understand it." "The highest attainment in philosophy, that of the sage, comes from a union of t he sharpest, subtlest thinking and of the capacity to enter the thought-free sta te--a combination of real knowledge and felt peace--balanced, united, yielding t ruth. This is what makes the sage, whose understanding and peace are his own, wh o does not depend upon any outside person. Yet it is not the little ego's emotio n nor its intellectuality which has brought him to this truth. It is the highest

human mind, the finest human feeling. The total man cannot lose what he has att ained. It is the higher power working inside the human being." "This is puzzling indeed and can never be easy, but then, were life less simple and less paradoxical than it is, all its major problems would not have worried t he wisest men from remotest antiquity until today. Such is the paradox of life a nd we had better accept it. That is , we must not hold one standpoint to the det riment of the other. These two views need not oppose themselves against each oth er but can exist in a state of reconciliation and harmony when their mutual nece ssity is understood. We have to remember both that which is ever-becoming and th at which is ever in being. We are already as eternal, as immortal, as divine as we ever shall be. But if we want to become aware of it, why then we must climb d own to the lower standpoint and pursue the quest in travail and limitation." 3.384 "He may keep out the ego's interference and yet not reach the pure truth because he may not keep out his evolutionary insufficiency." 3.377 "Only a great nature can take a great illumination and not become imbalanced by it. That is why the full cultivation, all-around develpment, and healthy equilib rium of the man is required in philosophy." 3.385 "Those who talk or write truth, but do not live it because they cannot, have gli mpsed its meaning but not realized its power. They have not the dynamic balance which follows when the will is raised to the level of the intellect and the feel ings. It is this balance which spontaneously ignites mystic forces within us, an d produces the state called "born again." This is the second birth, which takes place in our consciousness as our first took place in our flesh." 3.388 "So long as he is living exclusively in one side of his being, so long as there is no balance in him, what else can his view of life be but an imbalanced one? N or will the coming of illumination completely set right and restore his balance. it will certainly initiate a movement which will ultimately do this, but the in terval between it initiation and its consummation may be a whole lifetime." 3.392 "The separatist spirit which would erect the pediment of truth on the single pil lar of yoga alone or metaphysics alone ends always in failure or, worse, in disa ster. When each sphere of activity whose integral union is needed for the succes sful completion of the structure asserts its self-sufficiency, it begins to suff er what in the individual human being is called an enlarged ego. The student of metaphysics who despises mysticism and the student of mysticism who despises met aphysics will pay the penalty of neurosis for this unhealthy and unbalanced stat e of his mental life." 3.394 "Those who, like Krishnamurti, will recognize none but the highest level and hav e no use for the steps leading up to it become extremists and fanatics." Part 2, 4.168 "It is not enough to attain knowledge of the soul; any mystic may do that. It is necessary to attain clear knowledge. Only the philosophic mystic may do that. T his emphasis on clarity is important. It implies a removal of all the obstructio ns in feeling, the complexes in mind, and obfuscations in ego which prevent it. When this is done, the aspirant beholds truth as it really is."

Shall we talk some more about the concept of free will now? ND: uh...later, bud..... I: O.K. But first here is just a snippet from the late Robert Adams, a man I am sure you appreciate: The Gift of Free Will When I speak of Unimaginable beauty within, you understand that this is a beauty that is indescribable. The beauty in Creation whispers of this. Always remember that we are spiritual people, the world is not. What this really means is that w e, as human beings, become last, not first. It is with much compassion that I tell you to do these things, for it depends on your Free Will. This is the secret. Everything changes, the Truth does not. Do not say appearances are not real, simply understand this and act accordingly. As you are unfolding, cling to what is True, Good, Beautiful. Be humble and strong . Speaking about Truth and becoming a living embodiment of Truth are two differe nt things. Choose your actions carefully. Everything depends on the gift of your Free Will.

"Last Gasp of the Puppet People" The Nature of Volition Action without a Doer Perception Without a Perceiver And Other Non-Dual Convulsions By Peter Holleran "None of us is thrown into this world against his will. All of us are here because we want to be here...Some are eager to descend into a body again, but others are reluctant and are half-dragged down." - Paul Brunton ND: I really liked the trailer form the movie Shane you shared in our second dia logue. Now I can't help but respond with a favorite clip of mine from the movie Scarface. it exemplifies the spirit of our discussion, heh heh. I: Funny man. But did you say that of your own volition, or was it just a determ ined automatic response from the Absolute, the Unborn or the One as you like to say? Can you even take credit for your cleverness? I assume your answer will be no, absolutely not, since, according to non-dualist teachers like Ramesh Balseka r and Nisardgadatta - which you have expressed sympathy with - it is all a prede termined display without a separate doer anywhere to be found. ND: You are quite correct. And it is fruitless to even assume such a one for the sake of practical living. There is no one who does, or decides to do, anything. It is all just happening. Try and see for yourself if there is a doer anywhere. You won't find one. You can realize this by trying the enquiry "Who Am I?", or just by seeing if you can actually find a separate doer. Sri Nisargadatta emphas ized the latter approach, while Ramana favored the former. I: I like Nisargadatta, although, you know, Robert Adams, whom I think you also appreciate, thought he distorted advaita a bit. And, in my opinion, Ramesh took it a little further off track. But we already handled that in our last discussio n. And you now know what Yogananda said about the matter of self-effort being fu tile, that God does not act capriciously, but conforms to his own laws. I would like to offer some quotes by PB along these lines to give a counter-balance to y our radical non-dual presentation. I think by now we can agree that any conceptu al approach or position will be paradoxical and only a pointer to the real, but from a practical point of view, the way we formulate the spiritual quest has imp lications for our understanding. Ramesh made some unsupported assumptions about consciousness and what happens after death which we have discussed, and I feel s imilar mistakes have been made with the idea of free will. It may come down in t he end to whether or not one buys a form of argument like that of Plotinus and P B, that there is an Absolute Soul which eternally births non-separate but indivi dual divine Souls. If that is the case, talk of evolving around and into the Wor ld-Idea makes sense, and we can discuss practical aspects of the quest. If there

is only one self, as the advaitins claim, then there is nothing much for us to talk about, but if that is itself recognized to be a concept, (which it is), the n perhaps the traditions may still contain much food for thought. ND: Proceed. I: O.K. Well, Paul Cash once wrote me the following: "PB talked one day about free will and predetermination. He said that people who stand for free will are partly right, and so are those who stand for predetermi nation. Each has something to hear from the other side. When you look at it care fully, he said, life is a highly ordered structure of opportunities. Some of tho se opportunities are material, some are spiritual. We have no control over the o rder in which they appear or the time at which they appear. He talked about how if you really understand astrology you can see that the chart is this carefully structured sequence of opportunities that emerge and pass in only one order, in one direction, and in an irreversible way. That's the predetermined part. But th en he explained how these opportunities are presented to a soul that is free at every moment to align itself or refuse to align itself inwardly with the opportu nity as it arises. If the soul aligns itself with the opportunity, a certain ser ies of events unfolds; if the soul doesn't, that series of events doesn't unfold . Each "choice" if we can call it that at that level has consequences, and life never presents exactly the same opportunity again. At any given time, we're living out the consequences of choices made earlier. Wh at we've inwardly aligned with plays itself out as well as it can in the context of the other circumstances in which we live. In that sense, our lives are prede termined in the short run: things already set in motion must generally run their course. At a deep level, our whole version of the world--and what's possible in it--comes about through the filter of the tendencies we've developed and desire s we've strengthened through our own repeated choices. But we're also free to ch ange the direction of our lives by the way we respond to the next opportunity; s o in the long run free will has the day. I wish now that I had thought to ask P. B. what he meant by "short run" and "long run." But I didn't." I told Paul that the Masters in Sant Mat, speaking in simple, practical terms, p erhaps not in an ultimate metaphysical way, generally have said that there is 25 % free will, and 75% determined. Paul responded to me that what fascinated him w as thinking of how the consequences of choosing to exercise/develop that power o f choice differ from the consequences of choosing not to exercise it. He perked up at the idea that maybe our choices only matter a quarter of the time, but the n, wondered, how would we figure out which quarter? ND: There is no way to figure out which quarter and there is NO QUARTER of the t ime free-will, because there is no separate doer to have free-will. I: But there must at least be the appearance of a separate doer, and within that appearance maybe 25% of the time there is free-will and 75% everything is deter mined. Within the dream we must make choices with real consequences 25% of the t ime, and, true, we have no way of knowing when we must make them. However, a goo d guess would be that if we try something over and over again and get a negative result, or get stymied everytime we try, then maybe that is not a destined goal for us to achieve. That is, maybe it is not in alignment with the World-Idea, w hich divine intelligence is steering us towards. Then we use our intuition or ju st keep quiet until we feel the guidance to move in a particular direction. ND: Well, I'll grant you that in the dream there all sorts of appearances, free will and determinism both arise within Mind. Have you read of the experiments of Libet, et. al.? [see A Course in Consciousness, 5.9]. They found in the laborat ory that one's awareness of an action occurs a split-second after an act of voli

tion begins. Think about that for a minute. You get up to walk across the room b efore you think about or are aware of doing so. That seems to prove even scienti fically that there is no such thing as free-will. I: I'll have to give their experiments some serious thought, but I'm always a li ttle sceptical of what they 'prove' in the lab. Perhaps that argument can be hop elessly regressed infiinitely, and become useless for our practical living. Freu d 'proved' a hundred years ago there was much that was unconscious that determin ed our experiences. But the philosophers like to say there is no such thing as t he unconscious, just different manifestations or modes of consciousness. Perhaps our will, therefore, is distinct from our thinking processes, and we do make ch oices without thought intervening. That doesn't necessarily mean there is no fre e will. As a matter of fact, are you aware that Libet later changed his stance t o say that his experiments proved the existence of free will?!! Maybe it is our intuition, purified of a stunted feeling nature, which guides our actions. Our a ttunement with that intuitive faculty may be the measure of our free-will, that is, our freedom as Soul to identify with the will of the World-Idea and not the ego. Whether it is 'free-will' or not doesn't mean that much to me; whether the choice made or action taken is "dharmic" (perhaps a dirty word to you) is what i s important for me. Our dilemma with such research as Libet is kind of exemplifi ed in this limerick: "The centipede was happy, quite, until a toad in fun; said, "pray, which leg goes after which?" This threw his mind to such a pitch, he lay distracted in a ditch, wondering how to run!" Furthermore, free-will and determinism are concepts denoting two relative polari ties - and they both hang on the notion of causality, do they not? Therefore, if free-will is disallowed then determinism must go out the window, too. We can't have or absolute free-will or absolute determinism - the notions are meaningless . Neither can we have no free-will without no determinism. The truth is neither, and we end up with non-causality." ND: Right. Everything in this world can be spoken of as the product of infinite causes, therefore we can never get to a first cause. In effect, then, there are no 'effects'! The entire universe is the 'cause' of the entire universe, so to t alk of ultimate causation is meaningless. There are really no 'causes'. The enti re doctrine of causality thus self-destructs. This is what the Buddhists meant b y "Interdependent Origination". Hey, by saying there is neither free-will or det erminism haven't you just proven my main point?!" I: Oops!!" This is all just too difficult to understand. ND: Or too difficult to believe? Hhhmm? Free will is only applicable within the mind and from the point of view of a separate self. The question can only arise within the dream or the waking state. What you probably have trouble with is the argument by Ramesh Balsekar that whether one tries or not, practices or not, is itself totally determined, that if an action happens, or a path is followed, or an inquiry is engaged, is all determined. Just because you cannot grasp that do esn't mean that it isn't true. It is a difficult argument, and unfortunately bey ond the ken of Joe-sixpack, I'll agree with you there. Until you are ripe for it , you will make efforts, and your failures will lead you in the end to this trut h. However, I'll agree that determinism is really a provisional teaching. In tha t sense Ramesh and Ramana were not giving out the ultimate truth when they said all is determined. The truth is one, unity, and inconceivable. I: Now perhaps we are getting some place to where we can both agree. I say our e fforts are necessary and inevitable even if only to show us our incompetency and powerlessness. Then what they talk about as the higher will can come into the p icture. Here's what Anthony Damiani said about that: "The Higher Will doesn't come down until after the moral conflict. So don't have

any illusions about it, that you're going to wait around until the Higher Will comes down. It'll come down after your moral effort. This is what is the mystica l death....That Higher Will doesn't come into action until after you've made the moral effort. In other words, you have to find out that you are impotent to cha nge yourself. And you're not going to find out unless you try, and you really ha ve to try because you can't kid the Soul. You'll never know what the limits are until you try. You have to exhaust whatever potentiality you have before you can say, "I give up." You can't say, "I give up," before you've started; that would be phony. But you're actually going to have to reach the point of satiation wit h frustration. I think I must have called on that higher help a thousand and one times. It doesn't hear me. It says, "Try harder." (Anthony Damiani, unpublished class notes: The Fallacy of Divine Identity, 7/13/83) This 'higher will' may have been what the14th Century North Indian mystic named Lalla meant when he said: Lord, you exist as me. Your power moves, and I start walking. A prior impulse is the only difference between us. Other than that, everything I am is You." "A prior impulse." Might not that be the higher will we need to become one with ? But enough of going in circles. Let's look at what PB has to say. First, here are just a few quotes about rebirth or reincarnation in general as they relate t o the will. All of the following are from the Notebooks, Vol. 6, Part 2: "When a child is born or a man dies, the new world of his experience cannot be s aid to be either a ready-made one or an entirely personal one. The truth lies in a combination of both. The mystery of existence lies in the wonderful way in wh ich such a combination is brought about." (2.13) "All of his experiences during ages upon ages of his existence as a finite centr e of life and consciousness have left their record in the mysterious and measure less seed-atom of his body." (2.97) [Note: this appears to be a quote reflecting PB's theosophical days - not to say it isn't true] "None of us is thrown into this world against his will. All of us are here becau se we want to be here." (2.14) "Some are eager to descend into a body again, but others are reluctant and are h alf-dragged down." (2.16) These are interesting, in that PB seems to half-suggest there is a "someone" who wants or does not want to be reborn into a physical body. But he then adds the following, which implies that such is not entirely the case, and that he simulta neously holds more of the traditional Buddhist view that what is reborn are only tendencies in motion, from which an apparent "I" is reconstructed: "The traits and tendencies which a man receives from the preceeding births const itute in their totality the personal self which he knows as "I." (2.33) "What a man brings over from former births are the fixed ideas in the consciousn ess, the habitual direction of his feelings and the innate pulses of his will." (2.34) Then he gives some quotes that show the paradox involved with "purpose" and "fre e will" in our births:

"What a man is, needs, or has done puts him just where he is." (2.36) "The innate tendencies of his mental life give rise to the natural compulsion of his active life. He cannot behave differently from the way he does - that is, i f he is not on the quest and therefore not struggling to rise beyond himself." ( 2.39) "Only when the desire for perpetuation of personal existence finally leaves him is a man really near the point where even a little effort produces large results on this quest. But getting tired of the wheel of rebirth's turnings does not co me easily." (2.139) "We have to become in actuality what we are in potentiality; all our rebirths are engaged in this process." (2.210) "Whether we confront the mystery called death or the equal mystery called life, the revelation must come in one or the other state: there is a connection with H E WHO IS. For this we are born and our oscillation between the two happens at th e Mind of the World's behest. As, so sleepily and unwittingly, we shape and ligh t up these fragments of being that we are, quite simply the connection gets unco vered more and more." "Patience, little man, there is no possibility of your missing salvation. What i f you have to wait through a number of reincarnations! You cannot lose this wide -stretched game, played all over the planet, for you cannot lose your innermost being. The Covenant with your Creator has been made and must be fulfilled in the end, however dubious the prospect seems today." (2.216) [He carefully seems to capitalize 'Creator' here to leave room for avoiding the implication of a 'creator deity' and causality either via the doctrine of parina mavada (actual emanation or manifestation), or vivartavada (apparent manifestati on), the latter two being provisional teachings in Vedanta, in favor of a final position of ajatavada (no-creation, or only non-dual Brahman). However, he seems to lean towards some version of vivartavada, at least until one has reached the terminal stages of the path, for which there are archtypal stages - not merely dialectical stages of argument]. And finally, "The Long Path of reincarnation is illusory. The Short path idea of it is an und ulating wave, a ripple, a movement upward onward and downward. Since there is no ego in reality, there can be no rebirth of it. But we do have the appearance of a rebirth. Note that this applies to both the mind and body part of ego: they a re both like a bubble floating on a stream and then vanishing or like a knot whi ch is untied and then vanishes too. We have to accept the presence of this pseud o-entity, the ego - this mental thing born of many many earth lives - so long as we have to dwell in that other mental thing, the body. But we do not have to ac cept its dominance; we do not have to perpetuate its rule, for all is in the Min d. Where then are the reincarnatory experiences? Appearances which were like cin ema shows. They happened in a time and space which were in the mind. The individ ual who emerged lost the individuality and merged in the timelessness of eternit y. This is the unchanging indestructible Consciousness, the Overself." (2.220) "The eventual trend of evolution is through and away from personality, as we now know it. We shall find ourselves afresh in a higher individuality, the soul. To achieve this, the lower characteristics have slowly to be shed. In this sense, we do die to the earthly self and are born again in the higher self. This is the only real death awaiting us." (2.223) "The changes of personal identity under the process of reincarnation alone show that the little ego's immortality is a religious illusion. Only by finding its h

igher individuality is there any chance of preserving any identity at all, befor e nature re-absorbs what it has spawned." (2.231) ND: Right there in that last quote you can see that PB only timidly and provisio nally offered the hope for retaining a "higher individuality" when he talked abo ut the Overself; but there is in truth no-self, no possibility of a reified indi vidual identity. His kindness and language may give us a false hope or expectati on of what realization is. The same goes for reincarnation, free will, and other such concepts. I: You may be right. I may only be holding on to false hope. But inasmuch as non -duality is duality, form is emptiness, emptiness is form, and "there are more t hings on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy," I will retain the concept as a practical one for now. PB wrote: "Karma comes into play only if the karmic impression is strong enough to survive . In the case of the sage, because he treats life like a dream, because he sees through it as appearance, all his experiences are on the surface only. His deep inner mind remains untouched by them. Therefore he makes no karma from them, the refore he is able when passing out of the body at death to be finished with the round of birth and death forever." (3.569) "The view that karma operated like an automatic machine is not a wholly true one ; this is because it is not a wholly complete one. The missing element is grace. " (3.570) "It is sometimes asked, why should the Overself, through its grace, interfere wi th the workings of its own law of consequences? Why should it be able to set the karma of a man at naught? if the recurrence of karma is an eternal law, how can any power ever break it or interfere with its working? The answer is that the O verself does not violate the law of consequences at any time. If, through a man' s own efforts he modifies its effects upon him in a particular instance, or if t he same is brought about by the manifestation of grace, everything is still done within that law - for it must not be forgotten that the allotment selected for a particular incarnation does not exhaust the whole store of karma existing in a man's record. There is always very much more than a single earth-life's allotme nt. What happens is that a piece of good karma is brought into manifestation alo ngside of the bad karma, and of such a nature and at such a time as completely t o neutralize it, if its modification is to be the ended result. Thus the same la w still continues to operate, but there is a change in the result of its operati on." (3.574) "Whatever happens, the Overself is still there and will bring you through and ou t of your troubles. Whatever happens to your material affairs happens to your bo dy, not the real YOU." (3.577) Let's focus for now on the period of incarnation itself, and examine the idea of free will. Here are some additional quotes: "The will's freedom has its limits. It must in the end conform to the evolutiona ry purposes of the World-idea. If, by a certain time, it fails to do so voluntar ily, then these purposes invoke the forces of suffering and force the human enti ty to conform." (3.537 "If his evolutionary need should require it, he will be harassed by troubles to make him less attached to the world, or by sickness to make him less attached to the body. It is then not so much a matter of receiving self-earned destiny as o f satisfying that need. Both coincide usually but not always and not necessarily . Nor does this happen with the ordinary man so much as it does with the questin g man, for the latter has asked or prayed for speedier development." (3.247)

"A mistake in my published writing has been the emphasis on man's possession of free will. I did this deliberately to counteract the common impression that orie ntal mystical teaching is associated with a paralyzing fatalism and a futile ine rtia. Unfortunately, I overdid it. Consequently, I gave the impression that the quantity of free will we possess is about equal to or even more than the quantit y of fate allotted to us. But, in their combination, the effects of the past, th e pattern of our particular nature. and the influence of our environment govern our immediate actions very largely whilst the divine laws govern our ultimate di rection within the universe quite fully. In such a situation, personal freedom m ust actually be less than we usually believe it to be. Again I have taught that no experience could come to us which we had not earned by our karma, which in tu rn was entirely the product of our free will. but I have since discovered that s ome experiences can come to us solely because we need them, not at all because w e earn them. This is an important difference. It increases the sphere of persona l fate and diminishes the sphere of personal freedom. However, in self-justifica tion I ought to point out three things here about the kind of fatalism now put f orward. First it is not paralyzing but, on the contrary, inspiring. For it tells us that there is a divine plan for us all and that true freedom lies in willing ly accepting that infinitely wise and ultimately benevolent plan. Second, it emp hatically offers no grounds for inertia for it bids us work with the plan - not only to secure our own individual happiness but also to help secure the common w elfare of all. Third, it does not introduce anything arbitrary or despotic into God's will for us but retains the rule of intelligent purpose and restores evolu tionary meaning to the general picture of our individual lives. if quite often t he free will we imagine we are exercising does not exist outside such imaginatio n, this need make no difference to our practical attitude towards life." (4.13) "There are tides of fortune and circumstances whose ebb and flow wash the lives of men. There are cycles of changes which must be heeded and with which our plan s and activities must be harmonized, if we are to live without friction and avoi d wasting strength in futile struggles. We must learn when to move forward and t hus rise to the crest of the tide, and when to retreat and retire." (3.327) "For long I fought desperately against the notion of fate, since I had written s creeds on the freedom of the will. But an initiation into the mysteries of casti ng and reading a horoscope began to batter down my defenses, while an initiation into profounder reflection caused me to suffer the final defeat." (3.334) "Whatever happens to a man is in some way the consequence of what he did in the past, including the far-gone past of former births. But it may also be in part t he imposition of the World-idea's pattern upon his own karmic pattern. if it com es, such imposition is irresistible for then the planetary rhythms are involved. " (3.439) "The view that karma operates like an automatic machine is not a wholly true one ; this is because it is not a wholly complete one. The missing element is grace. " (3.570) "It is utterly beyond the power of man to perform an act of completely free will . In all situations he is presented with a limited series of choices and he must accept one of them, reject the others." (4.53) "If freedom of will is utter illusion we have to ask ourselves why the Buddha, g reatest of all advocates of the truth of inexorable karma, and whose enlightenme nt is incontestable, gave as his dying legacy to disciples the words, "Work out your own salvation?" If this is not a call to the use of will, of a free will, w hat is? it is hard for Westerners to accept a doctrine of complete fatalism, and the difficulty is not wholly due to their ignorance of spiritual facts which ar e elementary to Indians. it is also due to their instinctive refusal to be robbe

d of their initiative, and to their insistence on moral responsibility for ethic al decisions and actions." (4.64) "The really determined spiritual man has more powers of free will than others powers to mold his life and to offset his karma and to create good karma to wipe out threatening or existing bad karma." (4.81) "If in the larger sense free choice is illusory - or cosmos would become chaos in the narrower sense it is real enough in reference to mental attitude, to spi ritual standpoint, to the thought we have about a situation. The World-Idea must be fulfilled, but within that limit there is some amount of personal freedom." (4.89) "The events of our future remain in a fluid state until a certain time. We have the free will to modify them during that period, although it is never an absolut e freedom." (4.1) "The destiny of an entire lifetime may be set by a single mistake, itself the co nsequence of ungoverned emotion or passion." (4.90) "Fate hands him the opportunities and the difficulties: what he does with them i s his choice, for which he is responsible." (4.92) "In itself the will is free but in its activity it is not. This is because the e ffects of past acts and the necessities of evolution incline it toward a certain course." (4.107) "Laws govern the universe: the latter could not have been conceived as it is, so mathematically, so orderly in numerical values, unless all things were in confo rmity with and obedient to the World-Idea..." (4.112) "We are part of a process whose course and outcome are alike determined by the w ill of Heaven. In that sense the vaunted freedom of man is a mere chimera. But w ithin those limits there are always two or more possibilities open to him and th ere lies his free choice..." (4.113) "Where is man's free will? He is free to choose whether he will conform to the p attern of the World-idea, whether he will obey or not obey the higher laws." (4. 114) "The structure of the physical brain contributes largely to the way a man acts. This leaves him less room for free will than he thinks he has. But the brain (an d the whole body) structure is itself the product of past self-made karma now fu nctioning." (4.116) I: It is possible that Libel, et. al., may have gotten different results in thei r free will experiments if they had worked with different evolutionary levels of people, i.e., those who possibly had different brain structure and functioning. The gap between the volition and the perception or thought might have been smal ler, non-existent - or even reversed. ND: I suppose that's possible. But I don't hold much with phenomenal science exp laining that what is essentially noumenonal, although they were very interesting experiments. I: Agreed. I don't think science can explain these things, but is seems to be ge tting a little closer. It may never get there, a priori, but at least it is elim inating more and more things that are nottrue. PB continues: "His personal freedom does not stand alone, isolated, absolute. it is inseparabl e from a helpless determinism. Such is the paradox of the human situation." (4.1

23) "What he wills in his highest moments is both a free act and a necessary act. In these moments the conflict vanishes, the paradox appears. In them alone the ego attains its highest power yet falls also into complete powerlessness." (4.148) ND: Now you are starting to get closer to my point of view. You see, we are a bi t like Miles in the '50's sci-fi movie, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Mile s and Becky are holed out in his office when some of the "pod people" discover t hem. They have a discussion about what happens when you go to sleep and are 'tak en over.' Miles says. "but is there no love then , no feeling?" The leader of th e group says, "love; what is that? - has it ever lasted? It's much better to liv e without it, we're much better off; there's no pain, no discomfort, no foolish emotion." Miles says, "well then I want no part of it." The man replies, "you're forgetting one thing, Miles." "Huh, what's that?" he says. "YOU HAVE NO CHOIC E!" Yung Ch'ia long ago said: "Ask a wooden puppet When it will attain Buddhahood By self-cultivation." See, we have no choice, no free will; there is no subject, no object, no experie ncer, nothing experienced; it is all an inferential illusion. Wei Wu Wei explain s: "It is often said that see-er, see-ing, and seen, or experiencer, experiencing, and experiment, are one; this may, in a colloquial sense, be so. But it is also said that there is no see-ing without a see-er, no experience (experiencing or e xperiment) without an experiencer: this, however, is not so. As far as I happen to know, only Krishnamurti seems to have expressed this corre ctly. Without a see-ing, an experiencing, there can be no see-er, no experiencer . Neither before nor after a see-ing, an experiencing, is there a see-er, an exp erience-er. The latter is produced in order to explain, or to justify, the pheno menon. In fact he has never existed, and could never exist: he is just a supposi tion invented pour les besoins de la cause - like the ether of an earlier genera tion of scientists, who thought that if it did not exist it jolly well ought to - in order to justify their ways of interpreting the sensually-perceived univers e. As so often pointed out heretofore, "see-ing," "experiencing," signify the co gnition of all forms of manifestation, and indicate the "pure perception" which is subsequently interpreted as the apparent universe. That which is "seen" or "experienced" is as imaginary as the "see-er " and "expe riencer": both are interpretations of a movement in subjectivity which we term s ee-ing and experiencing." (Ask the Awakened, p. 162-163) Ranjit Maharaj says this about free will: "12.1 "The body has no free will. Free will is always for the realized person." Free will is a concept that is considered almost sacred in the West, but which h as no foundation in reality. It simply does not correspond to the way things are and, sooner or later, it has to be abandoned in favor of surrender to a higher power. The "free will" that the realized person enjoys comes from complete surre nder. To see and experience the perfection of things as they are and to accept w ithout reservation is true freedom of the will. The realized person always has t he attitude "Thy will be done." "As an aspirant, however, you cannot simply say "thy will be done" and stop maki

ng any effort. To go that way is to misunderstand Advaita. This mistake is illus trated by the story of the man who stood in the way of the elephant. The elephan t's handler called out to the man to move but the man just said "I am God, the e lephant is God, everything is God's will." Of course, he was knocked down and in jured by the elephant. When he complained to his guru, saying that he had only r epeated what the guru had told him, the guru said "the elephant's handler, who t old you to get out of the way, was also God, but you chose to ignore Him at that point." 12.2 "Realized persons understand by mind only." The real, or final, understandi ng, is that there is no one who has anything to gain, no one who is seeking, and no one to understand. This understanding is what the apparent journey of spirit ual seeking is heading towards. It should be clear, though, that the mind itself meets its death in this realization (which is why it is called "final" understa nding). Unwittingly, the ego-mind brings about its own death. The ideas of the M aster, once accepted and absorbed, transform the mind completely, reducing it to its original state of no-mind, or pure consciousness. Realization is the last s cene of the last act for the purified mind. The curtain comes down on the false "doer." There is no repeat performance." I: At least Ranjit Maharaj admits that to become a realized person some form of effort is necessary. Ramana Maharshi said the same. The stick must stir the fire and in the end itself be consumed. One cannot just sit around emulating the "la ziness of the sage," who, the Ashtavakra Gita states, "has trouble even blinking ." You do have one choice: to choose to know yourself. ND: Yes, that is the only [apparent] true choice we have. Once more, here is a b eauty from Wei Wu Wei: "Of all that has to be "laid down" - conditioning, knowledge, religion, science, "self," perhaps the most important is the idea that one lives his own life. To lay down the rest and go on thinking that one lives instead of being lived, woul d be an idle gesture. We do not "choose" to be born, to grow old, to be well or ill, or to die; why on Earth should we imagine that we can choose anything in be tween, i.e., how we live, let alone everything? We are free to understand, which means free to know ourselves...that is our one and only freedom..." (Ask the Aw akended, p. 164) I: Awesome. I can feel that truly letting that one is quite a shocker [pause] . It seems almost embarrassed to bring in the following after that masterful quote . I could, of course, counter by saying that while one doesn't choose to be well or ill, he does choose what to eat, whether to exercise, etc. - but then I know you will reply by saying that we don't choose for the thought to do those thing s to come into our minds, so I'll hold off for now. Paramhansa Yogananda spoke practically. He essentially advocated the traditional practice of karma yoga to help one move beyond karma. Maybe as a philosophy it is a little weak, but nevertheless he stated: "Bad karmic tendencies can be overcome, not by concentrating on them, but by dev eloping their opposite good tendencies. Hence the importance of serving God. By service to Him, through others, you automatically divert toward development of g ood tendencies that energy which wants to take you in wrong, self-serving direct ions. ...You must be intensely active for God, if you would attain that actionle ss state of final union with Him." (The Essence of Self-Realization, 1990, p. 86 -87) This can be picked apart, and even Yogananda would agree that it is a intermedia te position, that at some point the conceit of self will itself be seen through,

but it is simply basic, practical advice. Here is more: "The spiritual path is twenty-five percent the disciple's effort, twenty-five pe rcent the guru's effort, and fifty percent the grace of God. Don't forget, howev er, that the twenty-five percent that is your part represents one hundred percen t of your own effort and sincerity!" "The desires of incarnations keep one endlessly wandering. Once, however, a sinc ere longing for God awakens in the heart, liberation is already assured, even th ough the process may take more incarnations. For that longing for God, too, is a desire, and must be fulfilled eventually." (Ibid, p. 94) Returning to PB, he switches gears a bit and continues: "Thoughts come to a man without his trying to bring them on, without his willing them into existence: they are there as part of his human conditioning. the same applies to feelings. Where then is his freedom of choice, and what then is the use of preaching to him that he should be good or aspirational? What is the use of teachings which lull him into the belief that he is free to create his own me ntal states, both good and evil, when moods, emotions, and ideas happen of thems elves or come to him by themselves? Is it better for him to understand his limit ations and not deceive himself, to know what he can and cannot do and thus not f all into illusions about his spiritual progress or spiritual failure? Moreover, if all is happening by the will of the World-Mind and all is comprised in the Wo rld-Idea, he himself is really doing nothing, thinking nothing, for all is being accomplished irrespective of his ego. To understand this situation and to accep t it and to free himself from the idea that he is thinking, he is feeling, he is doing, is to free himself from the illusions of personal agency, doership, and egohood as being the ultimate truth about his own experiences." (4.155) "The World-Idea will work itself out in any case, or as people say, nature will takes its course. The World-Idea has been operative through all past centuries, is operating now, and will operate through forseeable time. Whatever man does, h e cannot obliterate it nor alter it and whenever he thinks he is doing so he is merely carrying out unwillingly the World-Idea." (4.156) ND: Wait a minute! Those last two paragraphs seem to sum up much of what Profess or Sobottka, Ramesh and Nisargadatta have been saying! I: Yes, I know; I thought you'd notice that. But holding these two quotes in min d, in juxtaposition with all the others, is sure to send one into breathless sam adhi, don't you think?! Wei Wu Wei expresses the paradox even more 'painfully' [Ramesh Balsekar said he had read Open Secret at least one hundred times - I recommend one read that book before tackling Balsekar', whose writings may not be as accurate, in my opinion - see our third discussion in this series]: "If you have the basic understanding that the primal Buddha-nature is that of al l sentient beings, it follows that anyone who thinks that any action can lead to his "enlightenment" is turning his back on the truth; he is thinking that there is a "he" there to be "enlightened." whereas "enlightenment" is a name for the state wherein there is no separate individual at all, and which is that of all s entient beings, a name for what they are, but which cannot be recognized by anyo ne who believes himself to be an autonomous individual. That is why only the act ion of non-action, the practice of non-practice, unmotivated non-volitional func tioning, can lead to that recognition of awakening, and why any kind of action, practice, or intentional procedure is an insurmountable barrier to such awakenin g. The error depends on the rooted superstition of the existence as such of an i ndividual being." (Open Secret, 2004, p. 96-97)

The double-bind is clear. As a phenomenal being we are lition, even while we may think we have; as a noumenon on the other hand we have non-volitional being and are al truth, moreover, our phenomenal being is none other s emptiness, emptiness is form, etc.

determined and have no vo dreaming its phenomenon, "lived" by Life. In radic than the noumenon: form i

"Nevertheless "volition" is only an inference, for search as we may, we can find no entity to exercise it. All we can find is an impulse which appears to be an expression of the notion of "I"...Volition, then, would seem to be an illusory i nference, a mere demonstration on the part of an energised I-concept, resulting in either frustration of fulfillment and thereby being the source and explanatio n of the notion of karma. Sentient beings are entirely "lived" as such..and the psycho-somatic organism is inexorably subject to causation." (Ibid, p. 4) Here is the kicker: "Action" which implies "effort" implies "intention," which is Volition, which is the functional aspect of an I-concept. It should not be difficult to perceive t hat such "action" could not result in awakening from identification with - an Iconcept!.....Unmotivated non-volitional functioning, mentioned above, as a conti nuous manner of "being lived" is a result of awakening rather than a "method" or "practice" to that end. It is also the Way itself, the way of living in the sen se of Tao." (Ibid, Note, p. 97) So, non-volitional functioning is needed for awakening, but it is also a product of awakening! Yet there is hope: "Noumenally there is no volition - because there is no I. Phenomenally spontanei ty alone is non-volitional. But by understanding what volition is not, the way m ay be found to be open whereby that "volition" which is non-volition may liberat e us, as apparent objects, from the bondage which is due to that identification with an objectivisation, which we have never been, are not, and never could be." (Ibid, p. 6) "By understanding what volition is not" [or what self is not, or what the "I" is not", or what "phenomenon" is not; in other words, understanding such through t he via negativa process of 'neti neti' ] there is the chance that we may conscio usly fallinto the non-volitional state of "being lived" [ which we in fact alrea dy are, but just don't realize it]. Thus, there is no way out for the ego; the non-dual presentation is relentless. Either one benefits or not from immersion in its study and application in any gi ven moment, but we need to here it at least from time to time to keep us headed in the right direction on the quest. Still, other help may still be necessary fo r some, such as karma yoga, or therapy, and/or the grace of a Master perhaps? Th is need for different kinds of help is why in the Lankavatara Sutra the speaker, for one thing, distinguished between the Dharmata Buddhas and the Transformatio n Buddhas; the Dharmata Buddhas (i.e., say, someone like Hui Neng - or John Whee ler) teach only the doctrine of the One Mind, while the Transformation Buddhas ( basically, most Bodhisattvas, saints, and people like PB or the Dalai Lama) teac h as needed to help the most people they can from where they find them. As PB sa id, those teachers who have gone through many trials and much understanding can thrown down a bridge which many different kinds of seekers can cross. If you don 't have the wealth of experience in one life you teach what worked for you and t hen sometimes don't understand that everyone can't grasp it or how to help them further. One may also have jnana, and the ability to teach, but not the developm ent required for being an agent for the Overself's grace, however valuable one's help is in its own right..

ND: I am reminded of Neo in the Matrix. When he discovers that consensual realit y is an illusion or a fabrication but has yet to enter the real world he is havi ng convulsions in a kind of unconscious state. Reasonableness of explanations ar e okay at the beginning to get people to give some credibility and acceptance to the teachings but at another phase it just causes one to incorporate spirituali ty into the consensual dream. The paradoxical and outrageous statements are need ed to catapult you to the truth. That is why I like the term 'Zen-Advaita'. If y ou look with the prajna-eye instead of the thinking mind, you will be able to ve rify the truth of these seemingly paradoxical statements. I: I'm convulsing already! Your metaphor, in fact, reminds me of the scene at th e end of the movie Terminator 2. The cybernetic advanced metal alloy terminator falls into a vat of molten steel, starts to melt, and his CPU begins to shut-dow n. He emerges from the fiery soup again and again in nightmarish and distorted f orms, first as various people whose bodies he replicated earlier in the movie, t hen with his head split in two, then a grimace here, an flaying arm there, etc., etc., but finally succumbs to his fate and goes down once and for all. Perhaps that's a bit like the end-game in pondering the the non-dual arguments. ND: Hsi Yun spoke about this: A: The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory. Illusion is no t something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking. If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as ordinary and Enlightened , illusion will cease of itself. And then if you still want to destroy it whereve r it may be, you will find that there is not a hairsbreadth left of anything on which to lay hold. This is the meaning of: I will let go with both hands, for the n I shall certainly discover the Buddha in my mind. Q: If there is nothing on which to lay hold, how is the Dharma to be transmitted A: It is a transmission of Mind with Mind. Q: If Mind is used for transmission, why do you say that Mind too does not exist ? A: Obtaining no Dharma whatever is called Mind transmission. The understanding o f this implies no Mind and no Dharma. Q: If there is no Mind and no Dharma, what is meant by transmission? A: You hear people speak of Mind transmission and then you talk of something to be received. So Bodhidharma said: The nature of the Mind when understood, No hum an speech can compass or disclose. Enlightenment is naught to be attained, And h e that gains it does not say he knows. If I were to make this clear to you, I do ubt if you could stand it. And so did Wei Wu Wei: "In early stages teachings can only be given via a series of untruths diminishin g in inveracity in ratio to the pupil's apprehension of the falsity of what he i s being taught..truth cannot be communicated: it can only be laid bare....." "How many of us, writing our thoughts about Buddhism, even the purest Ch'an, exp ress our thoughts in such a way that a sentient being is envisaged as a medium, that is, by inference, having objective existence? is this still not so even whe n the very subject of our thesis is the non-existence of a self? Indeed, how man y of us are there who do not do this? Let us even ask how many texts are there i n which this is not done or implied?"...If we have not seen for ourselves that t his must be so, would it not be reasonable to expect that we would provisionally take it on trust from the lips of the Buddha, and apply it? Alas, no. It is too hard, too much to ask: conditioning is too powerful. Yet with out that understa nding, that basic understanding, that sine qua non, for what can we hope? Howeve r much else we may have understood, have we in fact even started on the way - th e pathless way that leads no body from no there to no here?" (op. cit., p.23, 17 )

I: Hope...for what can we hope?..."Two notes of the chord is our forescope, and to reach that chord is our life's hope; and to name that chord is important to s ome, and they gave it a name, and they called it A U M......" - the Moody Blues. ND: According to Ramana, forget reaching for Om, just inquire into the "I": "It is said in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the first name of God is 'I'. ' Aham nama abhavat' ['I becomes the name']. Om came later." ( David Godman, The P ower of the Presence, Part One (Tiruvannamalai, India: Sri Ramanasramam, 2000), p. 233). . I: Woah! Better leave that one for another day. ND: O.K., but why? All else is a distraction. I would like to comment here that I have noticed that many questors miss the not uncommon experience of seeing the world as a dream. Many have had this experien ce, but fail to recognize it as a taste of mentalism while they await the achiev ement of trance, nirvikalpa, etc, which is unfortunate, as most of us westerners may never get anything like nirvikalpa, short of dying. Anthony said: When you experience the world as a dream you know you are getting closer to its r eality. it is not reality yet, but you know you are getting closer. It is an int uitive understanding that dawns - that the mind projects the world, then experie nces the world that it projects...when you experience the world as a dream, rath er than the way you experience it now, there is an intuitive understanding that arises with it at the same time that you are coming closer to the very nature of the mind. (Anthony Damiani, Looking Into Mind (Burdett, New York: Larson Publica tions, 1990), p. 43) These experiences while subtle are real and should grant seekers an intuitive ea se in their life, but many overlook them as somehow not true glimpses, holding o ut for the Big Bang. But the truth is that mind creates time and space, which al lows duration and dimension, out of which a hypothetical I and a world is objectiv ised by us and then cognised as real by inference, really, nothing more, accordi ng to Wei Wu Wei (Open Secret, p. 2). The inquiry Who or What or Where am I ?" cu ts directly to the root of the mind, prior to all of manifestation. I: Yes, I agree. The Self truly is no-thing, with a center everywhere and a circ umference nowhere. I have been feeling those radical glimpses of timelessness la tely. In fact, they seem to be happening more and more with age, have you notice d? They really have a metaphysical quality to them, even though I think everyone has them, they just don't appreciate them for what hey are. But just to be clea r, as Alan Jacob points out in Advaita and Western Neo-Advaita: "In fact the 'gh ost of the me' doesn't really exist as an entity, this is true, but the notion o f 'the false me' is very powerfully fueled subconsciously by the selfish-will an d compounded by the vital force...It has to be diligently enquired into to be de stroyed. The Maharshi says emphatically that our only freedom as an ajnani is to turn inwards. It is not trying 'to get something', it is rather trying to 'get rid of something', the sense of separation, i.e. identification with the thought s, mind and feelings. Otherwise there is a permanent occlusion, the Granthi Knot , permanently screening off the tremendous power of the Real Self, which is the Absolute Unborn Deathless Consciousness, God, Unconditional Love, Dynamic Silenc e, and Oneness." ND: Must you always make things so hard? Truth is easy, man. Just let it all go. Here's a few more words from Wei Wu Wei telling it like it is: "Despite appearances to the contrary, nothing that is other than conceptual is d

one by a sentient being, for a sentient being objectively is only a phantom, a d ream-figure, nor is anything done via a psycho-somatic apparatus, as such, other than the production of illusory images and interpretations, for that also has o nly an apparent, imagined or dreamed, existence. All phenomenal "existence" is h ypothetical. All the characteristics of sentient beings - form, perceiving, conc eiving, willing, knowing (the skhanda or aggregates) - are figments of mind whic h "itself," i.e., as such, also is hypothetical only [I: hypothetical? What'd yo u same your name was? - Clarence? oh, I thought so..next thing you'll be telling me is that I was never born - and don't answer that!]..Each and every action, e very moment of each, in the extension and duration imagined so that they may be sensorially perceptible (that is, in the framework of space and time) are dreame d or imagined by a dreamer which has no quality of selfhood, of objective being - that is to say, by hypothetical mind." (Ibid, p. 18) "Our dreamed "selves," autonomous in appearance, as in life, can be seen in awak ened retrospect to be puppets totally devoid of volitional possibilities of thei r own. Nor is the dream in any degree dependent on them except as elements there in. They, who seem to think that they are living and acting autonomously, are be ing dreamed in their totality, they are being activated as completely and absolu tely as puppets are activated by a puppeteer. Such is our apparent life, on this apparent earth, in this apparent universe." (Ibid, p. 19) I: And I thought you said truth was easy. Need I remind you what Neo said? ND: It is easier to BE it than to explain it. I: Of course, of course. Well, It's been a pleasure debating and sharing with yo u. We are really not as far apart as we think (duh). Here is a wonderful summary of the life a seeker can look forward to when he finally throws in the towel, r ealizing and resting in the truth of knowing what a "puppet" he really is [and b efore I forget, this gives me a "puppet people" motif for my epitaph ]. Adyashan ti says: "While the world is trying to solve its problems and everyone around you is enga ged in the same, you're not. While everybody around you is trying to figure it o ut, trying to arrive, trying to get there, trying to be worthy, you're not. Whil e everyone thinks that awakening is a grand, noble, halo-enshrouded thing, for y ou it's not. While everybody is running from this life right now, in this moment , to try to get there, you're not. Where everybody has an argument with somebody else, mostly everybody else, starting with themselves, you don't. Where everybo dy is so sure that happiness will come when something is different than it is no w, you know that it won't. When everybody else is looking to achieve the perfect state and hold on to it, you're not." "When everybody around you has a whole host of ideas and beliefs about a whole v ariety of things, you don't. Everyone on the path is getting there; you haven't gotten anywhere. Everyone is climbing the mountain; you're selling hiking boots and picks at the foot in the hope that if they climb it and come back down, they may be too exhausted to do it again. When everybody else is looking to the next book, to the next teacher, to the next guru to be told what's real, to be given the secret key to an awakened life, you're not. You don't have a key because th ere's not a lock to put it in. When you're living what you are in an awakened wa y, being simply what you've always been, you're actually very simple. You basica lly sit around wondering what all the fuss is about." "When everyone is sitting around saying, "I hope that happens to me", you rememb er when you did that. You remember that you didn't find a solution to that. You remember that the whole idea that there was a problem created all of that." (Ady ashanti, Awakened Living Intensive, Berkeley, CA). ND: Beautiful.

I: Yes, but before you get too excited here is a similar quotation from PB, with a caveat: He comes by growth of knowledge and width of views, by metaphysical evolution and emotional discipline, to a great calm. From then on he neither seeks eagerly for incarnational experience nor aspires loftily for liberation from it. Argume nt and discussion, meditation and exercises and spiritual states, labels and cat egories, teachers and teachings and quests are only for observation, not partici pation. Others may think he has lapsed and shake their heads in sorrow or pity. This is not to be used as counsel for beginners: if followed it could only hinde r them. But to prevent limited views, sectarianism, and fanaticism arising among them, as so often it does, they can well be told occasionally that such a stage exists, and it may be theirs when a patient development brings them to it. (Note books, Vol. 13, Part 1, 4.117) The highlighted phrase cannot be over-emphasized. ND: Maybe so, but we aren't beginners, are we? I: Yes, yes, just so, of course not. But let's not also forget the following fro m Robert Adams, which just came to me or I would have mentioned it earlier: Q. From what I m reading about Ramana, the people around him were not practicing S elf-Inquiry as much as devotion... R. You are right! You are right. That is why I tell you the story of the student who used to pull his fan. He used to stand by him and pull his fan for 40 years ! Then one day he dropped dead. Ramana looked at him and told them, He is not comin g back." That is why it is a combination of devotion and Knowledge- Jnana ..... Having spoken their piece, the non-separate participants in this debate called i t a wrap and went their non-separate ways...............

The Dalai Lama explains Tibetan Buddhist views of the nature of human consciousn ess and describes some of the subtle anatomic processes which underlie life and death. The following notes draw from the Dalai Lama s book Advice on Dying, and L iving a Better Life (2002) his dialogues with Renee Weber and David Bohm in Dial ogues with Scientists and Sages (1986) and The Universe in a Single Atom (2005). We will explore the Dalai Lama s teaching as most pertain to the investigation o f the heart doctrine, the nature of human consciousness as light and the concept of zero point origins. The Dalai Lama states that after conception the psyche and body grow from tha t which forms into the heart. He describes three major channels interconnecting seven major channel-wheels or centres within the subtle anatomy as the basis for consciousness and mind within the body supported by various winds, as the medium for mind. He also describes various knots or constrictions established at the heart centre, as well as at the other six centres: In the body there are at least seventy-two thousand channels arteries, veins, duct s, nerves, and manifest and unmanifest pathways which start growing at what will b e the heart soon after conception. (There are) three most important channels At vital places in these three channels are seven channel-wheels, with differing n umbers of spokes, or channel-petals. The wheel of phenomena is found at the hea rt the residence of the very subtle wind and mind that are themselves the root o f all phenomena. At the heart, the left and right channels wrap around the centr al channel three times (each channel also looping over itself), and then proceed downwards. This results in a six-fold constriction at the heart, which prevent s the passage of wind in the central channel. At each of the (other six) centre s the right and left channels wrap around the central channel once each (each ch annel also looping over itself), thereby making two constrictions. The right an d left channels are inflated with wind and constrict the central channel such th at the wind cannot move in it; these constrictions are called knots. (pp. 138-9) The Seed of Life at the centre of the Flower of Life can be used to depict the six fold constriction around the central channel wheel of the heart, the 7th centre, or channel-wheel.

All the channels, arteries and such, grow out from that which forms into the hea rt. The inner circulation of the winds which support consciousness and mind, is t hen distributed through three major channels and seven centres in the pattern of 1 -3-7 as befits the description of light. Just as white light divided by a prism yields a spectrum of seven colours, so also there is an inner circulation of co nsciousness and vitality through the inner human being through the subtle winds whic h are the basis for mind and conscious experience. The knots within the heart res trict the winds in the central channel, as do the knots at other centres. At d eath, these knots are loosened and the winds move again within the side channels and then withdraw into the central channel and finally return to the heart. Al though the winds do not ordinarily move in the central channel, yogic techniques c an enable this, which leads to the more profound states of mind . The Dalai Lama explains some of the dynamics of death and dying: During the last four phases of dying, the winds that serve as the foundations of consciousness enter into the right and left channels and dissolve there. In tur n, the winds in the right and left channels enter into and dissolve in the centr al channel. The deflation of the right and left channels loosens the constricti ons at the channel knots: When the right and left channels become deflated, the central channel is freed, thereby allowing movement of wind inside it. This move ment induces the manifestation of subtle minds, which yogis of Highest Yoga Tant ra seek to use in the spiritual path; the winds on which a deeply blissful mind rides are intensely withdrawn from moving to objects, and such a mind is particu larly powerful in realizing reality. (p. 143) The Dalai Lama describes the indestructible drop within the heart and how there a re essential fluids in each of the centres. In another profound passage, he expla ins esoteric physiology within Tibetan Buddhism:

At the center of the channel-wheels are drops, white on the top and red o n the bottom, upon which physical and mental health are based. At the top of th e head, the white element predominates, whereas at the solar plexus the red elem ent predominates. These drops originate from the most basic drop at the heart, which is the size of a large mustard seed or small pea, and, like the others, ha s a white top and red bottom. Since it lasts until death, this drop at the hear t is called the indestructible drop. The very subtle life-bearing wind dwells ins ide this drop; at death, all winds ultimately dissolve into it, at which point t he clear light of death dawns. (p. 145)

The indestructible drop within the Heart is the origin of life and c onsciousness within the body. As a person dies, the vital energies and consciou sness withdraw through the channels and gather at the heart before the soul leav es the body. As this happens, as the life principles resolve back into the unde rlying metaphysical realms of being, the heart essentially functions as a blackhole computer. All of the information of a persons life is available as consciou sness resolves back to zero point levels and the patterns of life are illuminate d by a consciousness reflecting the Mind of Clear Light. The Dalai Lama offers profound teachings on the nature of the human subtle anatomy and the physiology of life and death. Such concepts re present a coherent proposal and model of the psyche, a worthy hypothesis for sci entific inquiry. Such a view of an indestructible drop within the heart provide s an alternative perspective to the head doctrine of modern science the belief or as sumption that material-energetic processes of the brain produce consciousness.

In The Universe in a Single Atom (2005), the Dalai Lama discusses th e issues of consciousness and provides a valuable critique of the head doctrine and its assumptive basis: Until there is a credible understanding of the nature and origin of consciousne ss, the scientific story of the origins of life and the cosmos will not be compl ete. (p. 115) Western philosophy and science have, on the whole, attempted to understand cons ciousness solely in terms of the functions of the brain Many scientists, especia lly those in the discipline of neurobiology, assume consciousness is a special k ind of physical process that arises through the structure and dynamics of the br ain. (p. 127) Despite the tremendous success in observing close correlations between parts of the brain and mental states, I do not think current neuroscience has any real ex planation of consciousness itself. (p.130) The view that all mental processes are necessarily physical processes is a meta physical assumption, not a scientific fact. I feel that, in the spirit of scien tific inquiry, it is critical that we allow the question to remain open, and not conflate our assumptions with empirical fact. At least in my view, so long as the subjective experience of consciousness cannot be fully accounted for, the ex planatory gap between the physical processes that occur in the brain and the pro cesses of consciousness will remain as wide as ever. (pp. 128-129) The Dalai Lama notes that in Buddhist epistemology, there was no clear recogniti on of the role of the brain as the core organizing structure within the body . (p. 170) The Dalai Lama s teaching about the indestructible drop within the heart, th e chakras and channels, winds and knots, represent the more complex esoteric vie w concerning the origins of consciousness and life. Whereas modern psychology and science have considered consciousness to be no n-substantive, nothing in itself, the Dalai Lama most clearly equates consciousn ess with light. He describes consciousness as inner illumination or light which reflects the deeper Mind of Clear Light. : Consciousness is defined as that which is luminous and knowing. It is luminous in the double sense that its nature is clear and that it illuminates, or reveals , like a lamp that dispels darkness so that objects may be seen. Consciousness is composed of moments, instead of cells, atoms, or particles. In this way con sciousness and matter have different natures, and therefore, they have different substantive causes. (2002, p. 129)

Consciousness is light which illuminates the objects of human experience the mater ial side of nature. Again, we find the distinction between the I and the me, the Pu rusa and Prakriti. Consciousness is considered as separate from the objects of a wareness, yet illuminates them as an inner The Dalai Lama states simply: Matter c annot make consciousness. (1986, p. 236) The Dalai Lama explains that to understand human consciousness, we have to disti nguish between matter and consciousness. Space particles (space quanta) are the basis for matter, while the mind of clear light is the basis for consciousness: In Buddhism, there are levels of coarseness and subtlety of particles, and the m ost subtle of all particles would be the particles of space. These serve as the

basis for all of the particles ... The particles of space remain forever. ... When you go back and back, researching what the substantial causes are, you will eventually get back to the particles of space. ... new worlds will form physic ally on the basis of the empty space-particles. (In Weber, 1986, pp. 235-6)

prior to its formation, any particular universe remains in the state of emptines s, where all its material elements exist in the form of potentiality as space par ticles. (2005, p. 89) According to the Dalai Lama, the empty space-particles.

... new worlds will form physically on the basis of

This is a remarkable teaching and concept and is consistent with Blavatsky s Secre t Doctrine and the teachings of Kabbalah. H. P. Blavatsky describes the Gods an d other invisible powers clothing themselves in bodies based such zero point fou ndations like empty space particles. Further, she described the laya state or laya c entre where an element is in a state of unmanifest potentiality. So also, Kabba lah describes the supernal infinitesimal point origination of a Cosmos and the Z imzum contraction creating an empty space within the Plenum as an empty space part icle at the heart of being and of ourselves. The Dalai Lama explains that the conjunction of Light and the empty Space Particles is the basis for human experience: In the field of matter, that is the space-particles; in the field of consciousne ss, it is the clear light. These two are something like permanent, as far as co ntinuity is concerned. ... The clear light ... is like the basic substance tha t can turn into a consciousness that knows everything. All of our other (kinds of) consciousnesses sense consciousness and so on arise in dependence on this mind o f clear light. (Weber, 1986, p. 237) Space particles are the foundation for the material realm and the contents of co nsciousness, while consciousness is a reflection of the mind of clear light and illuminates the material or subtle world orders. Individualized consciousness, or the I-experience, depends upon the conjunction of these elements. Certainly, if science wants a model of holography in order to understand a human being wit hin a multi-dimensional Universe, then elements of such are provided by the Dala i Lama as by other esoteric sources. A coherent supernal light source illuminat es material objects of perception and mind. What we normally consider our consci ous experience is the conjunctions of these elements the Space Particles upon whic h new worlds are built and the Consciousness or Mind of Clear Light, which illum inates them. The Dalai Lama explains that there is a close association between the consciousn ess/mind and the winds, which support it. He states:

the wind on which consciousness is mounted, like a rider on a horse, is a physic al entity that supports consciousness. Although consciousness can separate from the physical body, as it does when we pass from one lifetime to another, consci ousness can never separate from the subtlest level of mind. (p. 132) The subtle winds support the movements of subtle mind and are

beyond physical par

ticles, although substantive in their own nature. Tibetan Buddhism suggests that consciousness is able to exist in relationship to seven dimensions or planes of b eing, each of which has a further seven fold division. Thus, esoteric Buddhism suggests seven degrees of Maya or material creation and 49 planes of existence all of which could conceivably be illumined by the Mind of Clear Light. The Tibetan Buddhist description of the life review process which occurs at deat h is also consistent with the idea of the heart functioning as a black hole comp uter: As the vital winds withdraw into the heart at death, all the quantum infor mation of one s life may become available within the subtle dimensions of being. I ndeed, the Universe is a Hologram, illuminated by the mind of clear light and al l new worlds are established on minute, empty space particles. Modern science has brought us to the time where we can actually relate such concepts as the Dal ai Lama proposes to the hard sciences in the areas of physics, information theor y, cosmology and medicine. Meanwhile, the dogma of the head doctrine remains the most serious impediment to the progress of psychology and science, the awakening of humanity to the myster ies of the Heart, and the next step in the evolution or unfoldment of human cons ciousness. And who is really so enlightened as to the nature of Self and consci ousness the head brain theorists of modern psychology and science or the Dalai Lam a and the other mystic explorers of consciousness? Footnote 1. The indestructible drop within the heart, as described by the Dalai L ama, is similarly described by Swami Yogeshwaranand Saraswati, in his text Scien ce of Soul: A treatise on Higher Yoga (1987). This is the 'bliss sheath': ... the golden sheath of the divine city ... which is a mass of light filled with bliss, has its abode in the subtle area of grape-sized hollow of this physi cal heart, the repository of blood. It is in the castle of this causal sheath t hat the immortal individual soul abides with its supreme protectos, all-powerful , omniscient, adorable father God. The temple of a yogi is inside the heart alo ne. There ... the vision of Divinity ... the nectar of bliss ... the Bliss Shea th (or Anandamaya Kosha). (p. 37)

A Radical Critique and Alternative Approach to the Mysteries of Human Consciousness This critique was initially written for a discussion group forum, at MindBrain@y ahoogroups.com, on Friday, April 01, 2005 11:18 PM In this paper, I provided a n alternative view to the two statements made by others as quoted below, in rega rds to the issues of human consciousness. In my view, these perspectives repres ent a seriously misguided understanding of the enigmas of consciousness, yet suc h views are common opinions of the day: "For years now I have accepted that the best explanation of me being aware of be ing here now is that my brain creates within itself a model of self in the world and, while I am awake, it keeps updating this model. Consciousness as such is w hat it is like to be the updating of this model of self in the world, no more an d less.

Bravo! yes! Yes, the brain processes represent a constant updating of the brain 's existing in a conscious state but there is no separate consciousness which belon gs to the brain, no medievalistic soul or spirit or consciousness that goes bump in t e night and plays musical chairs with poltergeists and visiting pixies and hobo gnomes." These opening remarks on consciousness from the forum represent a completely err oneous understanding from my perspective, as a clinical psychologist, scientist and mystic--as to the mysteries of human consciousness. 1. I think, therefore I am, Descartes declaration epitomizes the dualistic errors of contemporary thought. Modern psychology is defined as the science of behaviour and mind, studying the mi nd and the body. Ideas about human beings having a heart and soul, or spirit, or any immaterial mind to connect to the material body or mind, have been dismisse d. The scientific opinion of the day does not consider that there is any ghost in the machine, any kind of permanent I within a human being. Instead, modern psycho logy and science are based upon the head doctrine the so-called scientific view, sup erstition or belief, that material and energetic processes within the brain cons titute the mind, and produce human consciousness. The nature of consciousness is the most mysterious of all psychological phenomen a. For many years, psychologists dismissed the study of consciousness altogethe

r, as it was too elusive to study empirically and because it borders on such sup posed unscientific pursuits as metaphysics and religion. Nevertheless, in the s econd half of 20th century, consciousness re-emerged within psychology and neuro science as a legitimate topic of study. However, for the most part, scientists have embraced an extremely limited conceptualization of consciousness equating it with thinking and other cognitive processes of the mind, and assuming that it is produced by the brain s material neurological processes. The' head doctrine' is the label that I use to refer to this most prominent and commonly accepted western scientific and psychological model of consciousness. The central tenet of this perspective is that neurological processes within the material brain generate consciousness. This illustration from the Scientific Am erican article The Quest to find Consciousness is an artist s depiction of the mysteriou s brain activity involved in consciousness. The article by P.Roth was published in a special issue on MIND (2004). In a table in Roth s Scientific American article, we find this summary of the findings of modern psychology and neuroscience, as regards to the nature of cons ciousness: FAST FACTS The Rise of Awareness How does consciousness, with its private and subjective qualities, emerge from t he physical information processing conducted by the brain? The problem is so ch allenging that for a long time it was left to philosophers. Recently neuroscientists have focused on the neural correlates the activities in t he brain that are most closely associated with consciousness. To date, no center for the phenomenon has revealed itself, but advances in imaging have helped in the study of the brain areas that are involved during consciousn ess. (p. 34) When we examine these fast facts, it seems they are not so fast, or factual, or an ything. Of course, there is not a single fact in the table, but only questions or assumptions. It is not proven that consciousness emerges from the physical info rmation processing in the brain, nor from the neural correlates. These are only a ssumptions although they are presented as fast facts. When it comes to discussing states of consciousness, Roth offers a pretty lim ited scheme of consideration: Any effort to understand consciousness must begin by noting that it comprises var ious states. ... At one end of the spectrum is the so-called alertness (or vigil ance) state. States of lower consciousness include drowsiness, dozing, deep sle ep and on down to coma. (p. 34) A normal state of alertness is put at one end of the continuum, as if this is the highest possible state of consciousness a human being can experience. All the o ther levels are below it down into coma and the extinction of consciousness. It i s assumed that there are no states of consciousness beyond basic vigilance hence n o Self consciousness, cosmic consciousness or God consciousness. The contemporary scientific literature demonstrates how scientists are in t he dark about the mysteries of consciousness exemplified by this Scientific Americ an article The Quest to find Consciousness." The most certain comments offered by a uthor G. Roth regarding consciousness are that a true understanding of the phenom enon remains elusive, and further, that For now, no definitive explanations exist . Thd assumption that the brain produces consciousness and the mind, seems mo st reasonable and few scientists question it despite the fact that they are comple tely unable to establish how or where and how the brain produces consciousness,

or what exactly all the faculties of the mind include. Nevertheless, putting a side these uncertainties, most researchers and theorists share the views of Roge r Sperry, a prominent neurologist, who remarked: I don t see any way for consciousn ess to emerge or be generated apart from a functioning brain. The cognitive psychology views of the brain as creating a model of itself a nd that this somehow is consciousness, as in your quotation, are representative of 50 years of cognitive approaches to consciousness studies. Before that, ther e was a complete neglect of consciousness studies for 50 years under the behavio ural influence after J. Watson could not see a soul in a test tube, and so dismiss ed the concepts of mind and consciousness from scientific psychology. This is fur ther due to the acceptance of ideas about 'evolution' by random and purely mater ial processes, and the dismissal of the possibilities of a human soul and spirit -whatever these might be. Human beings came to be regarded as simply material b iological organisms, which live and die with their bodies. While most people would consider that understanding human consciousness is somewhat irrelevant to their life, apart from posing issues in science, this is simply not the case. In fact, if the strictly material conceptualization of con sciousness is true, then this has profound implications for the nature and signi ficance of human existence. Isaac Asimov identifies the most important of these : The molecules of my body, after my conception, added other molecules and arra nged the whole into more and more complex forms, and in a unique fashion, not qu ite like the arrangement in any other living thing that ever lived. In the proc ess, I developed, little by little, into a conscious something I call I that exist s only as the arrangement. When the arrangement is lost forever, as it will be when I die, the I will be lost forever, too. (1981, p. 158) This is the gist of the head doctrine. Human beings are purely material beings who live and die with their functioning brains. When the molecules or neurons a re destroyed, consciousness is no more, and so life ends at death and the I is los t forever. In the same vein, Carl Sagan elaborated the strictly materialist position: ... the mind is merely what the brain does. There s nothing else, there s no soul o r psyche that s not made out of matter, that isn t a function of 10 to the 14th syna pses in the brain. (Psychology Today, 1995, p. 65) In this view, human beings are nothing more than the fortunate arrangements of m olecules within the brain, a pack of neurons for scientist Francis Crick, which ge nerate the experience of consciousness and I for a limited period of time until th ey degenerate and come to an end. Modern psychology does not conceive that a hu man being might indeed have a soul, or some kind of inner I, a God spark, an indiv idual spiritual soul, however this is to be labelled or understood and that this c ould be the hidden source of human consciousness. The scientists of new formation came to believe in the head doctrine the claim that th e material brain processes in the head somehow produce the inner consciousness of being and that this has no special mystical or spiritual nature. Of course, no on e knows where or how the brain produces this consciousness, or what this conscio usness is, but it is simply assumed that neurological activity in the brain is res ponsible, and it is just a question of time before the scientists find it thereor so it is promised. The problems of consciousness are elusive a holy grail of psychology, like the gra nd unifying scheme sought in physics. However, will an understanding of conscio usness be founded upon a psychology and science of the mind and body alone? Or, alternatively, will it require a psychology as the science of the soul to under stand this profound enigma

Author and science journalist John Horgan, in The Undiscovered Mind (1999), prov ides a critical and sceptical view on most of the consciousness studies he exami ned. He stated: Mind-scientists and philosophers cannot even agree on what consc iousness is, let alone how it should be explained. (p. 228) J. Horgan quotes Harv ard psychologist, Howard Gardner, who suggests that someone may find deep and fru itful commonalities between Western views of the mind and those incorporated int o the philosophy and religion of the Far East in order to explain the enigmas of co nsciousness. Gardner suggests that a fundamentally new insight is necessary, al though unfortunately, we can t anticipate the extraordinary mind because it comes f rom a funny place that puts things together in a funny kind of way. (p. 260) These comments are somewhat ironic, as indeed, there is a fundamental difference between western views of the brain/mind producing consciousness and the Eastern traditions, where consciousness is viewed as spiritual in origin and associated most intimately with the Heart. Modern scientists have taken the I think aspect o f Descartes formula, and neglected the I am aspect. And from a mystical perspectiv e, this I am, is established within the heart. Understanding these and other di fferences between the head doctrine and the heart doctrine certainly will provid e a novel perspective on the issues of consciousness and allows us to put things t ogether in a funny kind of way. Nowadays, as I ve said before, anyone can write a book on the nature of the human mind and consciousness and simply illustrate it with a picture of the brain, and everyone claps, and declares that this is real science, like Carl Sagan celebrati ng the romance of science and Broca s Brain, and declaring that there is not one io ta of evidence for any immaterial mind, or consciousness, spirit or soul. Scien ce writer, John Horgan writes a book on Rational Mysticism, and he illustrates it with a picture showing blood patterns in the brain. He doesn t consider that mysti cism could have anything to do with the Heart and blood, or a study of physics an d metaphysics. People have become so conditioned in psychology today to accept on faith, or blind authority, this dogma of the head doctrine that the brain produce s consciousness by material/energetic processes, and that all human experience i s there as well, even mystical ones. Of course, no one imagines that there migh t indeed be a real I.

A Mystical Psychology of Human Consciousness, the Heart and Soul & the Divine Spark Why do we think that contemporary thinkers on consciousness necessarily know so much more about the inner nature of human consciousness, than do all the saints, swamis, yogis, Sufis masters, mystics of the esoteric teachings of humankind, t he daring explores of such realms? What do the head doctrine theorists, assumin g that the brain produces consciousness, think about what the Dalai Lama says ab out the origins of human consciousness? Of course, they are not likely to know, and would likely not consider seriously such alternative views. Modern psychology has taken the I think of Descartes as more primacy than the I AM e deeper awareness of Being, associated with the heart. And now, the scientist s think that the brain in the head produces the only mind there is, and that it cr eates consciousness somehow through neurological processes. However, consciousn ess itself is left undefined and the neurological causes of consciousness cannot be figured out. Nor have scientists determined where the sense of Self resides, and even the idea of there being a real I or permanent I, has been dismissed. In a Psychology Today interview (1976), Guru Bawa, an eastern wise man, made the se rather startling comments about western psychology and the common misundersta nding of Self. According to the guru, psychologists are quite deluded about the origin of the mind (or consciousness): I studied psychology once, and I became crazy, Bawa responded in a playful tone. lost all my powers. ... Psychologists don t know where the mind is. Some think it is in the brain. Others think it is in the genitals. Others think it is in the ass. But the mind is in the heart, and that is what psychologists do not know. Unless the heart opens, you will be driven crazy by the monkeys of the mind. (Ap ril, 1976)

I

Certainly scientists are in a sad predicament if they do not know where the mind is, or where consciousness originates! Yet, from a mystical and spiritual pers pective, this is precisely the case: there are fundamental errors in modern scie ntific approaches to understanding of the origin and nature of human consciousne ss, and the deeper levels of mind. Guru Bawa describes some psychologists as thinking that the mind is in the brai n as in the modern head doctrine. Others relate it to the genitals in reference to Freudian psychology, with its focus on human sexuality; or, in the ass in reference to the kundalini energy, a primordial instinctual energy described by yogis as l ocked within the root chakra. However, Bawa insists: The mind is in the heart. T his is the deepest, most essential Self and Mind--beyond what the yogis refer to

th

as the monkeys of the mind of the material brain. In this viewpoint, mainstream p sychology, philosophy and science alike, are fundamentally mistaken about the na ture of consciousness, mind and self. They are not Knowers of Self, as described in the mystical literature. Sri Chinmoy, another contemporary spiritual teacher, stresses the heart do ctrine and also diagnoses human beings common ignorance as to the true nature of self: He does not know himself precisely because he identifies himself with the ego an d not with his real I. What compels him to identify himself with this pseudo I ? I t is Ignorance. And what tells him that the real I is not and can never be the eg o? It is his self-search. What he sees in the inmost recesses of his heart is his real I, his God. (1970, p.16) Human beings generally lack true self-knowledge and are asleep to their deep nat ure as spiritual beings. According to the mystics, we live in ignorance, identi fying the Self with the thoughts, feelings, desires and sensations which make up the contents of the mind and the personal daily life dramas. All the while, we do not know Self, the real I related to the subtle mystical dimensions of the heart . Ramana Maharshi, an Indian sage and mystic, similarly described the Self as being related to the mysterious Heart Centre deeper than the personal or ego leve l of the mind centred in the head: ... the final goal (of yoga, or life) may be described as the resolution of the mind in its source which is God, the Self; in that of technical yoga, it may be described as the dissolution of the mind in the Heart lotus. ... The mind and t he breath spring from the same source. They arise in the heart, which is the cen tre of the self-luminous Self. ... Where the I thought has vanished, there the tru e Self shines as I. I in the heart. ... The I, the Self, alone is real. As there is n o other consciousness to know it, it is consciousness. (1977, pp. 90-1) Ramana Maharshi makes a number of important points concerning consciousness and self. Firstly, real I or Self is identified most intimately with the spiritual and soul dimensions of the heart, and is connected therein to God. Secondly, the go al of yoga is the dissolution of the mind into its source within the heart lotus o r centre. Thirdly, the Self is self-luminous and shining having a inherent light natu re. Fourthly, the self-luminous Self is consciousness itself. Consciousness is th e light of Self. I is within the heart. The consciousness of Being, the I Am, is more primary than the thinking a nd cognitive processes, and consciousness is not a product of mental activity, or of the brain. An infant is conscious of Being long before he is able to mentally construe himself in language and thought, and go around minding its own business, and updating its models. This is what the head centred scientists do not seem t o realize. Of course, they might dismiss any concept of consciousness as relate d to the Heart and blood as simply poetry or music, or religious superstition, b ut this in fact is the idea at the heart of mystical teachings. The issues are in ways clear. The head doctrine assumes that material brai n produces consciousness, the sense of self, awareness of the body and emotions, and that these are all centered in the head. Everything, all human consciousne ss is up in the head, and from this view, it is only an illusion that we experie nce anything within the heart, or within the body. If we consider the head doct rine in this way, we realize how profoundly limited it is. The heart doctrine describes a Quantum Self established within the Heart, a n I, a zero point source origin of consciousness. Consciousness and life emerging from within without from point sources, and out of higher Space dimensions. Th e permanent element is established in higher dimensions, beyond the mechanisms of the material/energetic activities of the mind and body which are both impermanent. As a Monad in hyperspace, the jivatma, or individual spirit soul, has a metaph

ysical origin in relationship to the physical body. This is a serious scientifi c hypothesis, which should not be dismissed given the advances in modern physics and quantum information theory, and such, all of which illustrate exactly such dynamics in nature. The primary awareness of Self, of being, of the I, is associated throughout e soteric psychology with the Heart, and is discernable within one's own experienc e. The mind and brain are regarded as secondary and illumined by the light of con sciousness, which emerges from within the higher dimensions of the heart. Consc iousness and Self originates from within without from the higher dimensions of t he Heart--where a Monad, or jiva-atma, or God spark, or individual I, is establi shed. This element, or zero point source, is inherently self-illuminating like th e Sun. The mind/brain is compared to the moon, which has no light of its own bu t only reflects that of the Heart, the Sun of the body. In mystical teachings, the attainment of Self or Self-Realization brings direct realizations of this. Swami Yogeshwaranand Saraswati, in Science of Soul, states: ... it is instinctua lly recognized that Jivatman denoted by the pure form of I has its abode in the he art, and in Samadhi there is direct realization of this. (1987, p. 69) Dr. R. Mishra, a yogi and medical Doctor, explains in the Fundamentals of Y oga: The physical heart and physical consciousness are related. In the same way, the spiritual heart and spiritual consciousness are related. ... Life and conscious ness are byproducts of the heart. ... Biological heart and consciousness are phy sical in nature and they depend on the metaphysical heart and consciousness. In reality, consciousness is not created but manifested and this manifestation dep ends on the evolution of the nervous system ... and blood . Your principle aim is to reach the spiritual heart and spiritual consciousness by means of the physica l heart and physical consciousness. (1969, pp.139-40) Modern science considers that the brain/mind produces consciousness-even though no-one can explain what consciousness is, where it seat might be, if it has one, o r many, or how it could be produced by its neural correlates. Even when research ers try to figure out the neural correlates of consciousness, they are often mon itoring blood flow. Modern consciousness studies are in such a quagmire, a virt ual Tower of Babel. Consciousness is not simply a cognitive process, but a deeper awareness of be ing - which we are trying to understand. Mystical psychologies equate consciousne ss with light, and connect this to the mysterious I within the Heart, and the circ ulation of light through the subtle anatomy and blood within the physical body. Such a perspective raises all kinds of issues and considerations, which need to be explored. Until psychology was defined as the science of behaviour and mind, as it is i n contemporary times, its ancient meaning was the science of the soul. The issue of the soul is, in modern times, also the issue of the origin and nature of human consciousness (although they are different), and these also concern the nature o f the heart. It is only western thinkers who have followed Descartes who though t that any immaterial soul would have to be connected to the body in the head, rel ating it to the pineal gland in the centre of the brain. In contrast, the esoteric psychologies relate the soul and consciousness princ iples, the I Am principle, the source of I most intimately to the Heart the I am of Desc artes intellectual formula. As Lord Krishna states in the Bhagavad Gita: The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine made of material energy. (18, 61) I am the Self, O conqueror of sleep, seated in the hearts of all creatures.

I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings. (10, 20) Mystical psychologies maintain that humans can experience varied levels of the awakening of consciousness, inner quantum shifts or leaps of consciousness, through Self Realization, and further samadhis. This can include objective exper iences of the deep grounds of being and within other subtle being-bodies, experi ences of mystical unity with the world or cosmos, and states of spiritual and di vine consciousness. There are also afterlife worlds, and other lives, and other realms of being- from hell worlds to voids, purgatories and even seven heaven w orlds. Mystical psychologies regard consciousness emerging from within the dee p substrates of Being, and certainly not a fortuitous by-product of matter/energ y processes of the brain. Consciousness is not created by or from matter, but rather, the matter provides the body or vehicle for consciousness experience. Fu rther, different bodies provide the vehicles for consciousness upon diverse inte rpenetrating levels of being. The subjective side of consciousness, the I experience, is described as lig ht, and this illuminates the object side, the me, the various psychological func tions of the mind, emotions and the body, and the various being-bodies. Whereas modern science conceives that human beings live and die with the material body, mystical teachings describe seven bodies and seven dimensions of existence, int er-penetrating and sustaining one another. Of course, if there is life after de ath, other dimensions of human existence and such, then consciousness in the hum an body, was never being produced by the brain. Instead, the brain is a vehicle , body or sheath, for the life of the spirit soul, the I Am--that is within the heart. The heart is the Sun of the body, while the mind, like the moon, only re flects the light of the sun. In the Vedas, purusha is consciousness and spirit, while prakriti, is the b asis for material nature. Blavatsky distinguishes between the creations of spiri t and matter, the subject and object sides, the heavens and the earth, the super nal father and supernal mothers. Similarly, the Dali Lama describes human consc iousness as the combination of consciousness which is a reflection of the Mind o f Clear Light and minute space particles, which are the basis for the material n ature, the vehicle. The Vedic psychology describes 7 differentiated prakritis, and one fundamental undifferentiated Prakriti. Prakriti is undifferentiated whe n three gunas, representing intelligence, energy and matter, are in perfect symm etry, and hence sign-less. When the worlds are spun out of nothingness, the 7 inside creates 7 outside h ence there being seven degrees of Maya, 7 realms of existence, each of which is sevenfold again. Tibetan Buddhism thus postulates 49 planes of existence within the Great Chain of Being. Consciousness as light can exist in relationship th e subtle matters, energies and intelligences of all these inward levels. Thus a s it withdraws at death through the indestructible drop within the heart, it can a waken within new life circumstances and dimensions, under different conditions o f existence. Thus, modern science assures us that the brain produces consciousne ss, that there is no central I in a human being, and that life, unfortunately or fortunately, ends at death. In contrast, mystical psychologies suggest profoun d possibilities for multi-dimensional existence, through interior dimensions of being, with a central I, established in higher dimensional Space--as a Triune Mo nad amidst the Seven Skins of the Parent Space. The Sons, the living beings, wh ich emerge from the Pleroma, expand and contract through their own Selves and He art, and each becomes in turn a world spun out of spirit and matter.

Consciousness' has to be distinguished from the cognitive processes involved in y our 'minding' of the world. Yogis call these the 'monkeys of the mind,' and des cribe them as an obstacle to Self realization and the awakening of consciousness . Consciousness does not consist in 'minding' self, construing your reality and such, as you imagine. Most consciousness researchers approach the study of consciousness with the mind and through the observation of external material processes. Further, they tend to simplistic patterns of dualistic thinking distinguishing a mind and a bod y, the consciousness and the unconscious, and all of the other dualities of huma n existence postulated by different theorists. However, they do not explore the dynamics of consciousness through inner self-study, such as are the essential m ystical and spiritual practices designed to illustrate the issues and illusions of consciousness and Self. Eastern and esoteric psychologies of consciousness a re far ahead of modern concepts when it comes to understanding the inner dynamic s of human consciousness, as it is only within the inner world that we have dire ct experience of what we mean by the term consciousness. It is something that can only be studied within the inner world like learning to separate the I and the me . Whereas modern psychology has been defined as the science of behaviour and the mind, in a dualistic mind-body way, mystical teaching depicts humans as havi ng a three fold nature functioning mentally, emotionally and physically. Roughly, the head brain can be taken as the intellectual centre, while the emotional cen tre is related to the heart and the autonomic nervous system, and the physical n ature is related to the spinal column and brain stem, and to other organs. A hu man has three stories or levels, the head, the heart area, and the lower story i n the abdomen and organs. In a sense, there are three semi-independent brains a

nd minds within the organism. A catchy way of depicting the threefold nature of an individual is to speak of head, heart and hands what you think, what you feel, a nd what you sense and do. In the Vedas, the three modes of nature are these thr ee fold principles of intelligence/mind, energy and matter. There is the mind, emotions and the body; and a body, soul and spirit. From mystical perspectives, a human being even has three lower bodies the mental body, the astral body and th e physical body whereas modern psychology only considers a person to have a physic al body, but no such mysterious subtle bodies.

Mystical psychologies regard consciousness as something other than the psycholog ical processes of the thinking, feeling and sensations. All of these can occur w ith different degrees of consciousness, or the functions can proceed unconscious ly. But thinking is not consciousness, nor is it feeling, nor sensation. Inste ad, consciousness is light, which illuminates these psychological functions within these three centres, and within the three being-bodies. From a mystical psychology perspective, modern scientists and philosophers confuse the 'psychological functions of thinking, feeling and sensation with 'con sciousness.' This is one of the many fundamental mistakes in modern so-called s cientific consciousness studies, and it goes back to William James who wrote: By states of consciousness are meant such things as sensations, desires, emotions, cognitions, reasonings, decisions, volitions, and the like. (1890, p.1) James identified consciousness in a general way with the stream of thought, or the thinkin g, feelings and all the rest as the stream of subjective life. From a mystical/spi ritual perspective, this is a fundamental mistake to take the consciousness as an eq uivalent to thinking, or feeling, or sensations, or all of these taken together. Further, to think that the different psychological functions give us different states of consciousness is misleading. James also suggested the site most likely the basis of these states of mind , or consciousness: The immediate condition of a state of consciousness is an act ivity of some sort in the cerebral hemispheres. (1892, p. 18) James s orientation towards the study of consciousness came to dominate the following century of ps ychological approaches to that most mysterious thing in the world human consciousn ess. In 1980, Carl Sagan tells the public that The cerebral cortex (is) where ma tter is transformed into consciousness, (Cosmos) although he has no idea of wher e or how this is done. Twenty five years later, the current emphasis in researc h is still on finding the Neural Correlates of Consciousness-or NCC s all thought to be centred within the brain-and in the head. Although neurological processes in the brain provide elements on the objec t side of consciousness, as when I think about this, or that, or do some mental m anipulation, or react to sensory inputs, consciousness has to be understood as som ething different. However, the subject side of consciousness is completely misu nderstood and an enigma, and confused with the objects or contents of consciousnes s. The fact that various cognitive functions involve the cortex, does not mean that these areas produce the consciousness itself, even in interaction with mid-br ain and brain stem structures. Further, the fact that the body is represented o n the sensory-motor cortex does not mean that our experience of the body is norm ally only up in the cortex. The hard problem of consciousness is definitely tryin g to understand the subject side-the I. This also was an issue addressed by Wi lliam James, who distinguished the I and the me. However, a myriad of data from everyday phenomena and as evident in selfstudy, suggest that consciousness is not confined to the brain at all. Consciou sness can exist in relationship to other nerve plexus of the autonomic system both the sympathetic and parasympathetic, and in relation to the electrodynamics of the heart and blood. There is no reason to limit the consciousness as a something only to certain neurological brain processes, and to deny its existence elsewhe re within the living being.

The autonomic nervous system is centred in a series of major plexus withi n the body, and is involved as a neurological basis for emotional experience. F or example, when a person is anxious they can experience this within the solar p lexus directly. So why cannot your famous consciousness exist in relationship t o the electromagnetic processes of the solar plexus, or of the heart plexus? Wh y is it that only neurological activity in the brain is considered to produce co nsciousness, but not neurological activity elsewhere--even if you assume that 'p acks of neurons' produce consciousness, as mainstream scientists assume. The ce ntral nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, and the electromagnetic hear t centre of the human being, must all be considered as to the role they might pl ay in regards to what consciousness might be. If we consider a human being as a quantum system, the centre of that syste m would be the heart, whose electromagnetic volume is estimated at 5000 times th at of the mind (Pearsall, 1998). The central fallacy of the head doctrine seems quite self evident in self-study guided by discerned analysis and self-awarenes s. Do you really feel in yourself that your consciousness is only up in your he ad? Sometimes it now all sounds so strange and silly, and clearly not evident w ithin one s own experience of consciousness. However, the human experience is not that consciousness is confined to the head, and the enlightened mystics and swa mis, and Sufi poets, all seem to located the origins of consciousness and Self q uite differently, where it has not been conceived by the head scientists. In the pointing game, hardly anyone ever points to their heads to localize the I. Instead, the natural impulse is to point towards the central area of the c hest to indicate I. Of course, modern psychologists and brain scientists do not co nsider that there is such an I., and do not even imagine what this conceivably cou ld be. Esoteric psychologies do however elaborate upon such mysteries. The idea of the relationship of consciousness and blood flow can also be c onsidered internally through your inner experience. By simply trying to be consc ious in one s feet, the blood flow is enhanced to these areas, and the feet get war mer and become enlarged. Similarly, if you eat a big meal, then the blood flow is to your abdomen, and it feels inwardly that your consciousness is more centr ed within your gut. Consciousness is more mobile than the fixed neural networks responsible for varied cognitive processes, and it can also exist in relationshi p to other activities within the body, and the emotional life especially the Heart . Don t confine consciousness to the brain, without some pretty substantial evidenc e of some kind, which does not exist. Of course, all the thinking does increase the blood flow to the brain, an d consciousness become more 'intellectually centred, while reducing the blood flo w to your feet, which go cold, and of which you are then more unconscious. Howe ver, the sensory-motor strip does not produce this something of consciousness. Ho wever, even if one thinks that the neurology of the brain produces consciousness , what is it so special about this neurology, in contrast to that of the autonom ic nervous system--which extends throughout the body and has major nerve plexus such as the solar plexus, and the cardiac plexus? And then we have the whole e lectrical system inherent to the heart, with its pacemakers and dynamics. Generally, psychologists ignore the tricky issues of consciousness and si mply equate it with thinking, reasoning, and other mental and sensory processes. Unfortunately, scientists who regard these issues as having been resolved igno re the fact that they have been determined by fiat and methodological considerat ions, rather than on the basis of scientific evidence. Furthermore, the questio ns of the existence of the human spirit and soul are profoundly important, and t he issues of consciousness are intimately linked to understanding these other my steries. Science has not disproved the existence of a ghost in the machine, or of a soul, or even of a God Spark an I which is not a molecular arrangement, or a pa ck of neurons. Consciousness does not consist in 'minding' self, construing your reality and such, as many scientists and intellectuals imagine. In fact, such processe s are regarded as obstacles to the awakening of consciousness, within all of the mystical traditions. Consciousness is light, and it functions to 'illuminate' different parts of the body, emotional centre and mind. Just as there is light

in the external world, which illuminates things which it is not, so also, there are forms of 'inner light' which allows awareness of thinking, or of a full stom ach, the feet, or of one s heart ache. To understand such possibilities we would h ave to explore the complex physics and metaphysics of what is 'consciousness, wha t is light, and consider the higher dimensional reality established within the s paces of the Heart, and underlying the material forms of the body. The fact that the body is represented on the sensory motor cortex, does not necessarily imply that our normal consciousness of these bodily area only resid es up in the cortex. As different parts of the organism require energy, there is increased blood flow and consciousness to those areas. Consciousness is not si mply confined to the head but circulates potentially through the whole organism. When a person does different cognitive task, these are ensouled and enlightene d through the blood, and part of the brain lights up, providing contents for con scious experience. The modern neurological correlates of consciousness do not s omehow manufacture the consciousness-and there is no scientific evidence that th ey do. It is simply an assumption that the brain produces consciousness, but th e issues of consciousness remain the central unsolved enigma at the heart of psy chology and science - or should I say, at the head of modern science? Modern scientists even focus on studying emotions in the head, as though lo ve and compassion, hurt and despair, are all processes of the limbic system, and could not have anything to do with the heart, the central electromagnetic sourc e of life in the body. Do you go home and tell your sweetheart that you love he r or him with all of your limbic system, or midbrain processes, or with all of yo ur head ? She will send you to a psychiatrist. Psychology today has almost compl etely ignored the study of the heart, as the central organic computer in the hum an quantum system. Meanwhile, everyone is trying to find consciousness, and its neural correlates only in the head. Consciousness should not be confused with the functions of the mind alone. Your consciousness can be in your head, your heart, your hands, and elsewhe re, even in your stomach, a primary centre of conscious experience in many peopl e. Think of consciousness as being-self-awareness, and circulating through the blood, and energies of the subtle bodies, and possibly as existing throughout t he whole of your organism. Consciousness is not simply confined to the brain co nstruing your self. What is often taken to be the nature of consciousness--all the thinking and minding your own business--is the exact mistake explained withi n the mystical and spiritual teachings of psychology of confusing consciousness wi th the mind. Mystic Blavatsky writes, The mind is the great slayer of the real. Consciousness thus must be distinguished from the psychological functions o f thinking, feeling and sensation, related to light, and considered in relations hip to the circulation of the blood of both the physical and subtle bodies. Most importantly it is substantive, and according to many mystical sources, actually reflects the larger 'mind of clear light' of the Dalai Lama, or the Ayin Soph Au r of the Kabbalist.

Lights Out ? - or Only More God?! by Peter Holleran "O friend! hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live, understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides. If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliverance in death? It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with Him because it has passed from the body: If He is found now, He is found then, If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death." - Kabir "At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her day of marriage!" - Sant Kirpal Singh There are those who say that these quotes reflect either scare stories or, al ternately, false hopes, but we are not among those. There is truth in the first quote, but with a message of fear attached to its conclusion, and much, much tru th and hope in the second, but which can also be only partly understood. We are fundamentally of the mind that there is a seamless web of life and death within the great Tao, and there is nothing to fear. We are eternal, and life goes on, f or better or worse, and with greater or lesser understanding. Our over-emphasis on self-importance, be it worldly or spiritual, is our chief problem in this mat ter. That, and the conflicting stories about what happens after physical death t hat we have inherited from the traditions of man. In this article we will try to mention some of these, while portraying a rational distillation of the basic re lative stages and processes in the usual after-life, with due regard to the ulti mate spiritual point of view that transcends these. Yet even the notion of 'tran scendence' and 'transmutation' are only natural processes with the Tao, with eve n radical ego-death and 'annihilation' unnecessary for complete Oneness as well as the fulfillment of our humanity to be the case. Again, there is too much fear over these matters. The 'true men of old' were not like that, embracing all, an d taking life and death as they came without undue concern. This is not to say t here are not difficult passages, and various relative deaths; indeed, that would be going too far on the other direction. But the central truth proclaimed by th e sages is that there is no death, there is only LIFE, with necessary and natura l changes of form.

There is no particular order to this essay, topics being discussed as they pr esented themselves. It may be considered a companion piece to Dying in the Maste r's Company on this website, with this essay tying up some loose ends not covere d in that article. A somewhat higher point of view is taken in that article, whi le this piece may be thought of as 'stories within the appearance of relativity' , or, 'what happens between lives when you are not yet fully enlightened'. It is perhaps not so bad after all. This is to say that our 'identity' has been described in several basic forms: a genetic physical persona, a human personality, a not-entirely-finite psychic or soul-nature (both individual and universal), and an unindividuated impersonal infinite essence. The latter is most often spoken of as our only and true etern al identity by most traditional spiritual paths, base their claims on the transc endance of apparent limitations, rather than their inclusion. This essence, more over, is usually spoken of as consciousness itself, or 'absolute consciousness' or 'awareness', but some teachings have recognized both consciousness and matter or phenomena to be two halves of a relative polarity, and therefore any true ab solute beyond all such splits or divisions. This is not the essay to get into an extended discussion of this important issue. The point to be made here is simpl y to point out that here we will be addressing after-death states fundamentally as they relate to our soul-nature, not unindividuated Being itself. In fact, we suggest that it is arbitrary to try to find exacting boundaries between all of t hese proposed identities as some have done, that we in fact are ALL of it. Even if we do realize infinite Being, we do not thereby lose our soul-nature, 'an ete rnal wanderer in God's infinitude'. Our position is that it is all part of our m ultidimensional nature. Every spiritual guide we have known, then, however great and complete their t eaching may be, at some point or another if one reads them closely, seems to say s something to make us question. These may be lacunas, or statements for teachin g purposes meant for certain ears only. There may be the inherent veiling nature of physical embodiment, imparing more accurate knowledge acquired on higher pla nes. Absolute precision in language at all times is not necessary to act as a ge nuine agent of grace. There is also the question of the maturity of the disciple to consider, as to the teaching that he is given. But truly, there should no lo nger be any secrets or gaps in a teaching. The sacrifices of many have brought h umanity to this point, where we must not hesitate to question. For instance, both Sri Nisargadatta and anadi have at one point or the other said that consciousness or the state of presence doesn t last beyond the portals o f death, that one is just immediately de-manifested into the absolute unconsciou sness, until such time as the personality - and soul - are re-created or re-cons tituted into a new birth, with, however, according to Maharaj, the I Am and the memory traces or vasanas carried over. anadi, whose teaching is fresh, intellige nt and stimulating, went so far in his book The Human Buddha (1999) as to deny e ven the existence of the bardos, writing that they were only put in the literatu re to motivate people out of fear. By email he softened this a bit by saying tha t they simply weren't there like most Tibetans believe they are. We can accept t hat. One can certainly experience the afterlife from an enlightened and an unenl ightened perspective, just like this world. And, in his newest work, book of enl ightenment (2011), he does speak about higher states of consciousness, where cog nition doesn't require an object to know itself (1). This, in fact, is what many traditions including that of the Sants have always said, that the free soul kno ws intrinsically by her own light. And it opens the door to permitting the exist ence of lesser states of consciousness where cognition does require an object, b oth before and after death. So the comment about bardos, and the lack of any int ermediate level of experience between enlightenment and ignorance, does not as y et anyway seem warranted. According to Tibetan Madhyamika teachings, to deny the intermediate states (bar srid) is a form of 'nihilism' - a heretical view. (2)

Perhaps this remark was meant for certain persons only, then, as it was part of a question and answer session with students, and not a philosophical dissertatio n. His central point, however, a very important point, is "Why worry about consc iousness after death? What matters is to be conscious when you are alive. If yo u are not alive now, you will not live after death either." Euripides once said, "death is a debt we must all pay, so why not pay it now and be forever free of the obligation?" So-called death-in-life has been the message of all the sages. "learn to die, so you shall begin to live," said Christ. Be it ever so, yet we a re alive now, only in varying degrees of forgetfulness. We suggest even this is something to notice, not to fear, preferring the words of Tagore, who wrote: "Death is not the extinguishing of the light; it is only the putting out the lamp because the dawn has come." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Blessed Prophet Muhammed is attributed to have said: Humans sleep. It is when they die that they awake. It is a common fundamentalist interpretation of the Prophet's words that when the veil of incarnation is lifted man will see the workings of God and his rela tive place or destiny within it. Yet the greatest Sufi masters within Islam have n't talked quite like that. They recognized many intermediate states, such as va rious heavens which are available to some, but not to all, depending on one's le vel of virtue and awareness in life. Shakespeare wrote: To sleep, perchance to dream...Ay, there s the rub. For in that sleep of death w hat dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pa use." - Hamlet We think devout Muslims would do well to listen to Shakespeare and Kabir! On the nature of the death process - with which we agree only in part - anadi states: "The concept that one can choose how and when to incarnate, is one of many sp iritual superstitions. No one can choose, for the choice is being made by the hi gher intelligence. After the dissolution of the physical body, which is the cont ainer of human consciousness, and the only vehicle for it, one dissolves into th e state of rest. The human soul is unable to exist without the body. There are c ertain energies and presences, which do not need a physical form in order to exi st, but they are certainly not human spirits...After the dissolution of a partic ular individual human Me, one returns to the deep sleep state, where the informa tion of existence is not present. There is no need to prepare oneself for the ne xt life or after death challenges. Some traditions, out of fear developed specif ic practices. For example, their adepts make special visualizations to be able t o leave the body in such a way that the negative post-death experiences could be avoided, so that the pure land or heaven could be reached directly. However, th ere is no reality behind these concepts but simply a false belief system. there are certain areas in life where one simply needs to trust. We didn't decide to c ome into this life - the higher intelligence decided. Why shouldn't we trust the same Intelligence to direct the destiny of our soul, according to the principle s of love and harmony, also after the dissolution of our human form?" "After this dissolution, if the blueprint of soul is not complete, soon, when

the timing is right, one incarnates again in a particular body and in a particu lar environment to which one is destined...The journey of the soul's evolution i s complex and almost impossible to be grasped by the mind...In the dimension of time, knowing and not-knowing are mixed and support each other. Our knowledge is ultimately an expression of our essential clarity and intelligence. While not-k nowing, the divine ignorance, represents our humility and child-like innocence. Our knowledge is freedom from the false and the not-knowing, which ultimately is the I AM, is freedom itself; pure rest within the heart of the creator." (3) The conclusion to be drawn from this is that the only complete security is ab idance in God, and the only proper disposition to take at death is one of comple te surrender to the process and to the unknown. Nevertheless, the traditional vi ew that there are intermediate states after death and before rebirth, in my opin ion, still stands as a reasonable assumption. One may indeed 'return to the deep sleep state' as anadi says, but the consensus is that, other than for a relativ ely brief swoon of unconsciousness at the time of death, this happens in stages over what may be a very long time in many cases. Furthermore, more and more info rmation is coming into our Western 'data-banks' that there is, in fact, much liv ing and processing and even pre-planning of life events and possibilities for th e soul's incarnations as 'personality' that goes on after death, for both the li berated and non-liberated, with many intelligences, guides, persons to be involv ed, including the eternal soul itself that are involved in guiding and aiding ma n's journey through God's infinitude. This is a far cry from the "howling throug h the Bardos, helplessly blown on the winds of karmas" which the old Tibetan tex ts scare is with. The soul, which we as personality are never separate from, but not identical with either, is to be seen as a very loving being, God, in fact, from the point of view of the ego, although the soul in turn looks up to a highe r being, which could be called the 'One Individual'. Individuality, in fact, goe s all the way up. It is metamorphosized, but not absolutely snuffed out, rather embraced in a wider and wider whole. According to Daskalos, the master of Cyprus, perhaps the greatest modern spir itual 'researcher' of the subtle realms, one's three lower bodies that constitut e the personality (physical, psychic and noetic, or physical, astral, and mental (both higher and lower) are made by the Archangels of the elements', guided by the Holy Spirit, and in other traditions they speak of the 'lords of karma', etc .. Then there is also the situation of one who has a genuine Master, who is said to take over responsibility for his chela from the lords of karma. It is a very intricate affair. One is free to say it is all a play of emptiness/consciousnes s, or God, but also within relativity there are a vast host of beings involved i n making things work smoothly. It is not all determined but neither is it random . One's higher or true self/soul also has a say in the matter on what karma he c hooses to take on in his next incarnation. While much of the above quotation by anadi is no doubt true, particularly reg arding various old Buddhist beliefs, and the need for simple surrender to the pr ocess of death, the highlighted assertions, that it is essentially 'lights out', have, again, not gone undisputed. Neither anadi nor Sri Nisargadatta died or we nt through a process of recapitulating death, the veritable mystical death-in-li fe, in the manner such as the Sants portray, and consciously returned with the c ertain knowledge of whether or not these assertion was true, nor were they explo rers of the subtle realms - Nisargadatta saying that 'such things required speci al training', which he did not profess to have, and both basically asserting tha t they are more or less illusion to be avoided. We suggest that in the total pic ture they need not nor ultimately will not be avoided, and are in fact part of t he 'bridge' out of relativity and natural structures in consciousness to be inte grated. [See the Appendix for a detailed discussion of what we feel are limitati ons and confusions in the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta, and a hyperlink to essa ys exploring anadi's teachings in depth]. In these two teachers' paths anything regarding non-physical realms is considered in the domain of relativity and esse

ntially undesirable, bypassable and unnecessary in order to realize the absolute , or nondual truth. They may, or may not, be correct. Saints and mystics in all traditions, including Kriya Yoga, Sant Mat, Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism, Christiani ty, and, we dare say, even sages such as Ramana Maharshi, have spoken otherwise about the afterlife, and from experience, not conjecture. They all agree, certai nly, that such realms or experiential states are not ultimate truth - but that t hey are relatively real, and part of multidimensional reality just as this gross plane is, they most positively affirm, and that consciousness and life already exist independently of the physical body is a fact. Supposedly for some the burd en of proof would lie on whether that which is spoken of as the silver cord in t he Bible - which is said to permit one to leave the body before death and return - is true or not. The saints and yogis say it is. It is part of the etheric dou ble that serves as the mould for the physical body. Daskalos said that it is cut at the time of death by the Archangel Raphael. The experiences of Sadhu Sundar Singh of India, the famous 'Christian yogi', also strongly suggest it is. [This is a fascinating link]. In the Siddha tradition of India, and based on what we have purporting to be the words of Jesus, certain great adepts can dematerialize and rematerialize the ir physical bodies at will, without regard for time or space, and can reappear o n earth even without reincarnation. They can certainly exist consciously in the after-death realms. The consensus is, however, that for those who do reincarnate , no matter how conscious one is after-death, be he ordinary soul or adept, upon rebirth he will 'lose' his enlightenment, at least for a time, when he takes on a new body. That is in fact part of the adept's sacrifice for others. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Daskalos' teachings are explained in great detail in the article The Idea of Man on this website. This is not strict Vedanta,or high Buddhism, but still a te aching with much relative truth within it. Therefore read with intent and some c reative imagination, holding it lightly. There are many ways of looking at the m atter, and the best one may get is an intuitive feeling. For a very brief recap, then, Daskalos taught a form of esoteric Christianity that states that there is an Absolute Be-ness that is a self-sufficient Multiplicity-in-Unity, composed o f an infinite number of Holy Monads , each of which radiates myriads of Spirit-Bein gs. The Absolute (the Father) is part of a Trinity, the other two parts being wh at he calls the Christ-Logos and the Holy Spirit, roughly equivalent to Shiva-Sh akti. Those Spirit-Beings or Pneuma destined to become human beings pass through the archtypal Idea of Man, becoming eternal Self-conscious Souls . These souls ema nate a projection of themselves that becomes involved in an incarnational cycle, the purpose of which is to garner experience in the realms of time and space an d separation, eventually returning to the God-State (Theosis) as a Pneuma with t he fruits of self-conscious individuality. This, he says, is the Parable of Chri st about the Prodigal Son. [This is very similar to the theosophical conception and also that of Paul Brunton (PB) who taught that an 'emanate' of the Overself or Soul, not the higher Soul itself, is projected into the realms of relativity and reincarnates again and again until it gains a form of consciousness it never had before]. Those Spirit-Beings who do not pass through the Idea of Man remain Archangels, who have responsibilities of creation. The question of the 'beginni ng' of this process, even relative beginnings, are beyond the scope of this arti cle. The human entity, after descending from the realm of Self-conscious Soul, b ecomes cloaked in three bodies: noetic or mental (the body of thoughts), psychic o r emotional (the body of emotion and sentiment), and the gross physical (the 'garm ents of skin' in the book of Genesis). All of this occurs in the eternal Now, he points out, so his teaching has an element of nonduality within it, although no t as radical as advaita. One must think a bit imaginatively here. This is an anc ient model and may not adequately reflect that of an emerging 'quantum' spiritua

lity. Yet it is a good start, and also is reflecting a perpetual as well as cycl ic process, not only something that happened in the past, although something lik e it is said to have happened in 'one past' of our evolutionary history. After death the present personality lives on for a time in more or less clari ty within the psychonoetic realms, depending on the understanding in which it li ved while on earth. Most people, however, have a subjective shell around them, c onsisting of the 'elementals', or thought-forms they created while in physical f orm, that prevents their clear seeing of the reality of the subtle realms. Also, while we have, created by the Holy Spirit, glorious psychonoetic bodies on their respective planes that are shaped according to the archtype of man that exist fo r the support and maintainance of the physical form, we are also given at the be ginning of the incarnational cycle an amorphus psycho-noetic body that is shaped li ke a sack and is centered around the heart region. Our task, so to speak, through maturation of our character, is to develop and shape that body until eventually it will resemble the form of man, at which time it fuses with the archtypal or supportive psychonoetic form (made possible because both forms share the same et heric body) and we will be able to live and function in those inner realms clear ly, as well as and more importantly progress beyond forms and bodies until we co nsciously reach back to the level of soul and Spirit-Being from which we 'began' , after which we, the conscious emanation or part of the divine Soul that incarn ates, through the psycho-noetic form developed during the incarnations, the so-c alled Hermetic 'robes of glory', will enable us to be of greater service in the lower realms, if we so choose or dedicate ourselves to. I ll admit the concept of two separate psychonoetic bodies is confusing, and Da skalos successor Kostas says that very few esoteric schools are aware of their ex istence. However, the idea of building a soul, meaning a subtle body, in order to consciously function in esoteric dimensions, as opposed to simply being consciou s of them, was mentioned by George Gurdjieff and others. It should be noted that whether there is one or two of these bodies, their development comes naturally as we advance spiritually, and there is no special means needed for shaping them to conform to the divine archtype of man. Whether pursuing a direct or gradual path, it is already happening as a matter of course as one matures. Again, pleas e set your Vedanta aside for the time being. It must be kept in mind that those advaitists or others who would classify al l non-physical realms under the monikor of 'astral planes of illusion' are mista ken. 'Astral', of which there are at least seven but potentially seven time seve n, or even myriad, subplanes or 'heavens', are but the start of the seven-storie d system of Creation, with the higher buddhis and atmic planes formless and intu itive, and beings who venture down from those heights beyond time and space as w e know it often must take on a familiar appearance to communicate with us. And t hey really don't 'go' anywhere, but change their rate of vibration to better sui t ours. For those who do have clarity, from earnest living, spiritual investigation, and metaphysical knowledge gained during their incarnation, Daskalos says that c ontinued learning can actually take place after death, through the aid of many b eings, archangels, masters, invisible helpers, archtypes, etc., before the essen ce of the previous incarnation and the new learning is passed up to the 'Permane nt Personality', the respository of the condensed experience and wisdom gained t hrough all of one's lifetimes, closely linked with the Soul, and before one then passes into a deep sleep prior to being reborn. Kostas, a master in Daskalos' i nner circle, said: "In the event that the present personality becomes adapted within a reality o f those other dimensions, it will be offered the opportunity to acquire more kno wledge for advancement on the spiritual path. The subconscious of every human be ing will be given the opportunity to be enriched there as well...If you manage t

o construct solid foundations on this plane of existence..then your progress wit hin the psychonoetic dimensions could gallop in a geometric progression...In thi s dimension you have many questions that you are unable to answer experientially . The confines of gross matter are an obstacle to the advancement of your awaren ess. Within the psychonoetic worlds, on the other hand, there are no such obstac les. The very moment you begin within those worlds to raise questions and become a researcher of the Truth you are in a much better position to explore and disc over for yourself what is real and what is not." He gives the caveat, however, that all of this depends on the steps you have taken during one's physical lifetime: "The further you are advanced in this world on the path for the research of T ruth the easier and faster will be your advance within the psychonoetic worlds." (4) All teachings are in agreement that one does not consciously merge back into the Source after death until one's relative bodies are purified to a high degree , or until one has realized his infinite being during life. The higher mental or lower causal plane is generally the highest one has access to - with even that being rare - short of theosis or God-consciousness. There are exceptions, and ha ve much to do with completion of karmas, the soul's 'blueprint' (anadi) of what was to be accomplished in this life, and other matters. It is interesting to not e here, however, how closely the native American Lakota Sioux teachings parallel those of the Hindu Katha Upanishad. This remarkable correspondence hints at the existence first pointed out by H.P. Blavatsky of the existence of a 'trans-Hima layan lineage' of adepts spanning the globe, in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, a nd North and South America. For instance, the Katha Upanishad says: Beyond the senses are the objects, beyond the objects is the mind, beyond the mind is the intellect, beyond the intellect is the great Atman...Beyond the grea t Atman is the Unmanifested; beyond the Unmanifested is the Purusha (the Cosmic Soul); beyond the Purusha there is nothing. That is the end, that is the final g oal. The Purusha (Self), of the size of a thumb, resides in the middle of the body as the lord of the past and the future, [he who knows Him] fears no more. This v erily is That. The seat of the Purusha is said to be the heart, hence It resides in the middle of the body. Although It is limitless and all-pervading, yet in rel ation to Its abiding-place It is represented as limited in extension, the size of a thumb. This refers really to the heart, which in shape may be likened to a thu mb. Its light is everywhere, yet we see it focused in a lamp and believe it to b e there only; similarly, although the life-current flows everywhere in the body, the heart is regarded as peculiarly its seat. That Purusha, of the size of a thumb, is like a light without smoke, lord of t he past and the future. He is the same today and tomorrow. This verily is That. In this verse the teacher defines the effulgent nature of the Soul, whose light is pure like a flame without smoke. He also answers the question put by Nachiket as as to what happens after death, by declaring that no real change takes place, because the Soul is ever the same. Compare the Katha with what Black Elk spoke long ago: "I am blind and do not see the things of this world, but when the Light comes from Above, it enlightens my heart and I can see. For the Eye of the heart sees everything. The Heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little s pace, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of t he great Spirit by which he sees all things and through which we see Him. If the heart is not pure, the great Spirit cannot be seen, and if you should die in ig

norance, your soul cannot return immediately to the great Spirit, but it must be purified by wandering about in the world [Note: we might interpret this to mean wander or experience in the spirit worlds]. In order to know the center of the heart where the great spirit dwells you must be pure and good, and live in a man ner that the Great Spirit has taught us. The man who is thus pure contains the U niverse in the pocket of his heart." "It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to underst and the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may help us i n preparing for our own death [Indeed, Buddha and Socrates used almost the same language as Black Elk]. He who is well prepared is he who knows that he is nothi ng compared with Wakan Tanka, who is everything, then he knows that world which is real." (4a) So there is no question that the more one can awaken during life the better. But all is not lost if one does not succeed. Life goes on, and there is another chance and always more learning. Nothing is gained through undo worrying. As mor e and more fear is transcended in the coming age life and death will come closer together in a situation of more natural fluidity. Even without nondual realizat ion having been actualized, much relative change and processing does takes place as the essence of each personality is carried upwards, stored in the Permanent Personality (intermediary between the lower vehicles and the Soul), and enrichin g the Soul with each lifetime in the realm of experience. Thus, it is not a hear tless or dismal 'all or nothing' affair of being either unconscious or conscious , asleep or awake. There is a gradiant of approximation of reality. There is som e truth to the often made assertion that if you are asleep to reality during wak ing life you will likewise be asleep to it after death. Yet even that is not ent irely true. One does not necessarily merely 'fall into the astral dream', as PB writes, with no moments or periods of relative enlightenment or awakening surpas sing those known on the earth plane. Awakening is neither necessarily 'over in a n instant' as the Tibetan Book of the Dead suggests, or complete for all as the Koran implies. It is more complex, rich, and varied than that. Those totally sceptic and believing there is nothing after death may, in fact , be quite confused initially, unawares of their surroundings, and possibly for quite some time, although there are myriads of helpers devoted to the service of acquainting one to what is what, so sooner or later even the most doubtful will know they have passed on. Then one may have the 'life-review', sluff off the et heric body, and go on to astral places' of learning for years. More mature souls have other choices of destiny, bypassing the life review entirely and going dir ectly to higher planes and learning there, before returning to the reincarnation cycle for completion with this earth cycle. Many other possibilities are also s aid to exist in this multidimensional Universe - or Multiverse - in less frequen t instances. Furthermore, Daskalos assures us, that, contrary to some traditions, the so-c alled 'second-death' is nothing to fear, that it is not like the first death at all, but more like a beautiful meditation as one gradually expands into a world more and more light, the noetic world, shedding the psychic or astral body, befo re either passing into even higher spheres and then eventually passing into slee p (the 'third' death) and being reborn: "Some people hear about a second death and they are horrified. They imagine s omething analogous to earthly death. The second death is the dissolving of the p sychic body in Kamaloka. You don't even recognize it because it is a very gradua l process. It is not something that happens suddenly, it is unlike the death of the gross material body which, after it dies - or rather, after you drop it - yo u can see lying there. The second death is the gradual cleansing of the psychic [or astral] body from its negative vibrations whereby the surrounding environmen

t becomes increasingly numinous. It is something analogous to the illumination o ver landscape as the sun rises...The second death is a process toward higher lev els of awareness and illumination..All human beings have the potential of having this experience. They will have it, assuming they have come to their senses and assimilated the lessons of life just lived. Otherwise the masters of karma will put the ego to sleep. That is, the psychic body will dissolve instantly, will p ass momentarily through the noetic dimension and descend down to the gross mater ial level in a new incarnation. In such a case the individual will not experienc e or have consciousness of the noetic body. It is a very complicated process...I t is an individual matter of how long you stay within the psychic dimensions and not a fixed mathematical formula which is the same for everyone." (5) And further: "I have reached the realized that all human beings are free to choose how the ir next life will unfold prior to the second death. They can choose before the s econd death how they are going to come down and deal with their karma." (6) The decision into which physical body to be born is made by both the self-con scious-soul and the archangels of the elements, who craft the three bodies of ea ch incarnation. So the after-death experience is often felt as a truly liberating one. It is partly karmically determined by the thought-forms or elementals created by onese lf, also partly molded by the evolutionary impulse of the World-Idea - the manif est intelligence of the One Great Mind or Source of all - and also subject to th e actions of Grace in the form of one's own Overself, his Guru or spiritual Mast er, as well as forms of group learning. Relatively few people spend hundreds of earth-syears in the lower forms of the subtle or psycho-noetic worlds, since thi s would only result from profound unconsciousness and attachment that blocks wak ing up to the life of the higher psychonoetic worlds, such as the true mental or in rare cases even buddhic planes. Even for the average person, however, life i s more vibrant, and understanding less obstructed than on earth. As each person assimilates into that world consciously, their life is enhanced, often considera bly, by being freed of the constraints of the physical body, any illnesses they have, physical karma in general, etc.. So it is often rather liberating and natu rally results in a gradual or sudden expansion of consciousness. Eventually pass ing through the second death and entering the mental world is even more so a lib eration and expansion, and so life there is certainly not boring at all. More ad vanced souls are even more likely to enter into a fuller experience of the types of experience and consciousness now available resulting from freedom from the p hysical, and eventually the mental, bodies. This would include a greater sense o f peace and contentment, more aliveness and vitality, gaining energy more pranica lly , directly than through sunlight, food and sleep, less psychological need for dreams, and other positive changes. For some it can take only moments to make th is transition, usually days and months, for others it can take decades. Even kno wing about all this, having some idea of how it works, what to expect, makes a r eal difference. And, of course, having spiritual connections makes a very big diff erence. In what respect is the after life like dreaming? Many schools like Advaita Ve danta assert that there is no spiritual value in anything but waking earth life, or, as the New Testament states, "work while it is day, and not at night, when no man can work." In the avastatreya, or analysis of the three states of waking, dreaming,and sleep, Advaita says that the afterlife is nothing but a dream. But this is too simplistic. It is dreaming in the sense that there are aspects of t he way that we interact with the environment there that are more like our dreams . There is a stronger experience of an interaction of our psychological state wi th the way we perceive things, and even what we perceive. The environment can be both experienced as relatively solid and stable as in the physical plane, or al

so as rather subject to our minds and creatively modified or even whole environm ents can be created with thought. The difference being that a person who has bee n consciously assimilated into these psychonoetic dimensions knows that that is where they are, they are consciously functioning there, so that they adapt to th e reality that they do not need to eat, that they can change form at will, that they can communicate by telepathy, and so on. So it is unlike common dreams in t hat the individual who knows they have died knows they are 'dreaming', is not on ly lucid but, no longer having a body, tends to be even more awake than they wer e while incarnate, and can interact more creatively with their world and its inh abitants. We have to remember that time is very different there. Also, it is somewhat l ike going to a new exotic country with an unexplored culture where you magically are given more powers, can now meet old friends and make new ones, can find mea ningful fields of service, can more easily than ever before study anything you w ant, and can have contact with more of the most enlightened people. You will be gradually remember more of your past lives, seeing into the deeper patterns of m eaning behind the life just past lived, realizing many of the people you knew du ring that life were old friends from past lives or inner worlds, gaining access to environments more beautiful and luminous than anything you had ever seen on E arth. All of this on just the astral. And then magnify that considerably when mo ving onto the mental plane. The problem is not boredom - the problem is getting distracted in the largest, most mesmerizing amusement park imaginable, not only to the senses, but to the heart and mind as well. The challenge is to keep one s e quanimity, focus on the path, the Dharma, and prioritize service and the other t asks at hand, and move on efficiently. This is why it is so useful to have a mas ter and dharma friends. If there is a need to come back, it will only be after a good amount of spiri tual rest and rejuvenation that will leave the Permanent Personality refreshed a nd ready. And the part of you that is here now, and especially the part that 'do es not want to come back', is not the part that does come back. It is, in essenc e, the Permanent Personality that reincarnates, not the temporary personality. M uch of the latter is a temporary identity formed anew in each life out of the in ner essence of the Permanent Personality, combined with elementals of desires, e motions and thoughts from past lives, and molded by the body, family, culture an d experiences of the next birth. So by the time a new personality forms, it will have many core traits that are similar that carried over, but also a new combin ation of karma/elementals than the last life, plus the positive fruits of experi ences after the last death on the higher planes, all coordinated around a new bo dy/incarnate identity. So in a certain sense it is the same you coming back, but in another important sense it is not, because it is like a multi-facted reconfi guration with new elements mixed with old, and all constilated around a new body and pattern of life experience. So, for instance, if one leaves incarnation wit h a strong desire not to be here anymore, and had a rough life, some of these fe elings may carry over in the subconscious, but they will mix with new karmas and also with the inherent love of life and vitality that comes with every new body . Human bodies created by the Holy Spirit have a natural vitality, love of life, self-preservation and other drives and instincts that get us going and engaged. These are brand new, fresh and dynamic with each new life, and so even though t he old elementals will mix with this body to form a new identity, it will not be the same as when we left incarnation with a tired, battle-scarred and maybe bur ned out body/personality. It's a fresh start with a rejuvenated inner self, a ne w balance of karmas/elementals, and a new, dynamic body. And, of course, we usua lly don't remember how the last life went. So.... its not so bad! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to Robert Swartz, in his book, Your Soul's Plan, souls have individ ual identities in Spirit but do not perceive any form of separation at all; they know they are infinite and boundless and one with all there is. The souls never theless do get further enriched by the experience garnered by each personality, and have their own distinct evolution or 'melding with the Absolute'. "There are many experiences for which a human would have no words of comprehension." A interesting concept, which has been confirmed not just by the more sober am ong psychic channelers of higher quality, but also by liberated spiritual master s, as well as Tibetans such as Namkhai Norbu, is that not only advanced masters with divine siddhi but more ordinary souls may actually have more than one incar nation, or emanated personality at the same or different time! That is, these ma y be actual 'persons' who in some case can even talk to each other if necessary! This really expands the notion of personal identity. It seems an impossibility, but one must remember that the concept of time varies greatly among dimensions and is not linear. To have an incarnation in the past, present, and future, and heal them all by the action of one's current personality, is truly mind-boggling , yet the increasing confession of many souls. For enlightened masters it has to do with an increasing role of planetary service, but for the average person it has to do with parallel lines of development and the balancing and release of pe rsonal and inter-personal karmas. We are healing both ourselves and others, desp ite apparent circumstances that argue for the contrary. Utter non-judgement of a ppearances is required in order to embrace this. Further, this is said to be the case whether or not the personality is conscious of these other dimensions or n ot. However, the soul always knows and is in contact with each personality. This sounds more and more like a case of 'split personality,' but our sanity may be kept intact if we keep the mind and heart open and view this as approaching the quantum level of consideration of these matters previously mentioned. This is way beyond the scope of this essay, and to be the topic of a future o ne (called, fittingly, "It's All Too Much For Me To Take!"), but the gist is tha t all planes and dimensions interpenetrate (but don't comingle) and occupy the s ame 'space'; 'higher' is not necessarily 'better' than 'lower', each in fact fee ds and enriches the other; and, bottom-line, the soul can project not just one e manant but two, three, or, in higher dimensions, an infinite number, just as the Spirit, Pneuma, or Monad may project an infinite number of souls, and finally a nd essentially, all is One in a seamless web of reality. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Many, many traditions starting with the ancient Puranas use a septenary syste m of planes making up the relative universe. Roughly speaking , they correspond to the various bodies or koshas of man, varying from system to system: physical, astral, lower and higher mental, causal or buddhic, super-causal or anandic, an d atmic. The psychic planes are composed of seven main planes with seven sub-pla nes in each, and, according to some, even more subplanes within those; to a degr ee, there are subdivisions in the noetic worlds and even the true formless heave ns of light above. There are, however, in this ancient septenary reckoning, basi cally four planes of form and three 'formless' planes that the soul, depending o n its level of awareness during life, may experience after death. The noetic pla ne and above are beyond time and space as we know it, that only sages, saints, a nd their initiates may reach. "At the higher noetic spheres you do not learn abo ut things outside yourself. You become those things...You can consciously acquir e any form you like and still be you...Thought at these levels is yourself..Thou ght there is love itself...When you reach such a stage do you undervalue things that are not at that level? No, because in reality there is no higher and lower. " (7) All of these mentioned planes are within relativity, and simultaneously wi thin the nondual absolute. Most people fall into a sleep upon experience of the

formless planes, being then reborn, but those spiritually awakened souls have so me discernment there. The astral regions are alluring and the lower sub-planes among them contain ' hellish' realms, although most so-called hells are private psychic dimensions un ique to a person, who arrives in the afterlife more or less covered with a psych ic shell created by his own thought-forms or elementals formed during life. That is why certain people do not even realize that they are dead for some time. Mor e will be said about this later, but an interesting experience can be had even b efore death by the initiate of a true master-saint. Kirpal Singh explains: "At times, the Master takes the initiate 'under cover' far beyond certain pla nes which are bewitchingly beautiful so that he may not get entangled therein an d be lost in the wonders of the way." (8) This can extend to being taken in such a 'protective bubble' to get a 'previe w' of different realms including hells; I have known several people who claim to have had such an experience. For the average good person, generally, the experience of death is relatively liberating and benevolent: PB writes: "Philosophy teaches that every sincere seeker finds a certain compensation in a beautiful and ethereal world after death - for the failures, disappointment s, and miseries which make up so much of the stuff of the human story." "Unless the human ego were itself an emanation of the Overself it would be qu ite unable to identify itself with the sensation of severance from the body duri ng the process we call dying." (9) "For as the Bhagavad-Gita truly says, "A little of this knowledge saves from much danger." Even a few years' study of philosophy will bring definite benefit into the life of the student. It will help him in all sorts of ways, unconscious ly, here on earth and it will help him very definitely after death during his li fe in the next world of being." (10) In general, of course, this is not permanent and one will sooner or later (be it months or decades) pass into incarnation again, but it does affirm that ther e is conscious life after death for the as yet unliberated souls. PB nevertheless reminds us of an opportunity for the prepared, and also keeps our mind fixed upon the ultimate goal and the proper attitude towards it: "Concealed behind the passing dream of life there is a world of lasting reali ty. All men awaken at the moment of death but only a few men are able to resist falling into the astral dream. There are a few who sought to die to their lower nature whilst they were still alive. These are the mystics who enter reality." The aspirant whose efforts to attain inner freedom and union with the Overself while living seem to have been thwarted by fate or circumstances, may yet find them rewarded with success while dying. Then, at the very moment when consciousn ess is passing from the body, it will pass into the Overself. (11) The Tibetans make much of the potential of liberation in the dawning of reali ty, the 'dharmata bardo, that occurs for every creature at the actual moment it separates from the gross body, where one, if he can recognize it, may merge into the clear light of reality. However, they also warn that for most people - thos e not accustomed to meditating on rigpa or primordial, pure consciousness - it i s essentially 'over in an instant'. Thus, the emphasis on great fear is perhaps

overdone. Death is a natural process and one is unlikely to be overcome with ter ror any more than the usual person will be plunged into the Great Void when he f irst sits down to meditate. Such a dramatic passage is a 'healing' crisis, so to speak, and a test of faith for ripe souls, that must be earned. Yet even that m ay not be necessary if one's development in understanding and intuition is a gra dual and balanced one. There are actually said to be two main immediate bardo chances, and then nume rous minor ones over forty-nine days, with decreasing hope for of success at bei ng liberated. (12) Therefore the great need for practice if this brief interlude is to be fruitful. Kirpal Singh also mentioned this instant with reference to t he non-practitioner: "On the death bed one may get a glimpse of reality but then it is too late to comprehend it." (13) However, the initiate of a saint has a concession, that he will meet his guid e at the time of death, or before, and be taken directly to a plane suitable for his spiritual advancement, whether or not he needs another birth. Yet even those not initiated by such a master are assured of the benevolent p rotection and guidance of many helping presences in the unseen realms. We are no t alone. PB continues speaking, however, of the highest viewpoint: "The wise man lives secretly in the even, sorrow-soothing knowledge of the On eness, and remains undisturbed by the inevitable and incessant changes in life. From this lofty standpoint, the tenet of rebirth sinks to secondary place in the scale of importance. What does it matter whether one descends or not into the f lesh if one always keeps resolute hold of the timeless Now? It can matter only t o the little "I," to the ignorant victim of ephemeral hopes and ephemeral fears, not to the larger "I AM" which smiles down upon it." (14) This last paragraph makes some advaitists happy, who teach, that at death eve ryone, saint or sinner, goes directly back into the non-dual Supreme, consciousn ess itself, which is already the case even before death, only without realizatio n. So nothing really changes and no one goes anywhere. Yet this is only one view , that there is the One Self behind all perishable individual selves, and no imm ortal and infinite Souls, distinct but not-separate eternal verities within the totality of Reality. In any case the most ancient doctrine holds that all levels or planes interpenetrate, with conceivably many planes which are states of vibr ation of the universal energy, occupying the same point of space, without coming ling, as stated previously. and are one with the non-dual truth of the Absolute, Mind, Turiya, or Nirguna Brahman. There is nothing to be negated. There is myst ery. There is a hierarchy within relativity with many planes of existence. We do not just go directly into the 'soup' of undifferentiated consciousness after de ath; if he we do it is in graduated stages - nor is it forever, even if liberate d. Unless we so choose. Moreover, it is all Love. So say many sages. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ramana clarifies the concept of no survival of consciousness without a body a fter death: Question: Then when we leave this body, that is when the ego leaves it, will it (the ego) immediately grasp another body? Bhagavan: Oh, yes, it must. It cannot exist without a body.

Question: What sort of a body will it grasp then? Bhagavan: Either a physical body or a subtle-mental body. (15) So right there he makes his position clear that it is only the ego that needs a body to survive, not consciousness or the soul, and that, in fact, the ego wi ll continue for a time in its subtle body before the 'second death,' when that d issolves into its subtle elements when it is necessary to reincarnate. [However, it should be noted that Ramana, while frequently critiquing the 'astral' worlds as being secondary, irrelevant, or only existing in the mind or the 'Self', doe s not speak much about the higher noetic worlds and formless dimensions beyond t hese, in which ego and mind as we know it does not function, where, while not ye t nondual Brahman according to Vedanta, are still realms where separation and su bject-object distinctions no longer persist. Thus, his treatment of life after d eath seems rather cursory in comparison, say, to that of Daskalos, or the esoter ic Christian and Sant Mat traditions. However, we shall have some concluding rem arks later from Ramana to clarify his perspective on Absolute versus relative re ality. This article is mainly about the relative dimension, which includes every level up to that of the free soul and God, which as a realization, and not just as a concept, is pretty high from where most of us are standing right now]. He succinctly sums up the possibilities after death: Some are born immediately after; others only after the lapse of some time; a f ew are not reborn on this earth but get salvation from the higher regions, and a very few get absorbed here and now. (16) [Without getting to technical and overstepping the bounds of this article, wh ich is meant to be relatively reader friendly, one can see here a slight confusi on of language on Ramana's part, for nondual Brahman being the All and already t he case, is not something one can get 'absorbed' in. One can get absorbed, says PB, into one's individual eternal Overself]. Schools are divided whether there is actually complete dispersal of all eleme nts or whether the same ego and subtle body (antahkarana) continues from life to life, with only the gross personality dispersing. For the Tibetan Buddhists, there are three types of persons who will reincarn ate immediately upon physical death. The first is a realized adept who chooses t o do so for the purpose of uninterruptedly serving others as a boddhisattva. The second would be a very highly advanced person who wishes to progress in the mos t rapid fashion to full enlightenment. The third is the more unfortunate soul wh o is sent back without experiencing the bardo at all (myshams med pa lnga - "wit hout an interval") as a punishment for committing one of the five so-called grav e deeds: killing one's father, killing one's mother, killing a realized being, m alevolently causing a buddha's body to bleed, and sowing discord among the sangh a, all of which require an immediate karmic retribution. The reader can judge fo r himself how much of this is traditional superstition, scare tactics, or may ac tually be real. Such a person doesn't even go to one of the hells, which it is h ard to see as a better option than immediate rebirth! However, it is better in t he sense that it is a place of learning and karmic expiation, perhaps in a short er time than in a subsequent incarnation. By the way, Daskalos wrote that he got the sense that some 'hells' were 'below' the earth. I got that impression, too, through several nighttime experiences many years ago. [Up, down, higher and low er, truly have little meaning from the point of view of the mind; the planes are not actually stacked one upon the other in a spatial way, they may easily occup y the same 'space' (cidakasa), the only separation among them being the rate of vibration of each. But it is interesting that one will feel as if he is ascendin g, and along similar lines it is also curious when people have a classic operati ng room out-of-body experience, they always seem to be on the ceiling looking do wn on the scene in the room, and never from below; why/how is that?]

Daskalos has a refeshing view of hells, that they serve a purpose of educatio n and evolution: "You should never assume that the so-called hells are some kind of psychic to rture chambers. The hells - and purgatories are schools and workshops for the ac quisition of experiences so that human entities may ascend towards their perfect ion. In reality there is no punishment. There is only experience. if there is su ffering it is not because the Absolute wishes to punish us for our transgression s but so that we can find out who we really are." (17) Interestingly, while there are many accounts of NDE's by Christians and other s of transports to or previews of such realms, Jesus, in all his recorded canoni cal sayings did not ever mention the word Hell. (17a) Only St. Paul and other pr iest-scribes, it must be assumed, must be accountable for such ancient Zoroastri an fire and brimstone teachings in the Bible. Much explaining needs to be done! To see any of the inner realms clearly, like this present one, in any case re quires some degree of maturity. As PB wrote: "It is all like a gigantic dream, with every human inserting his own private dream inside the public one. A double spell has to be broken before reality can be glimpsed - the spell which the world(s) lays upon us and that which self lays upon us. The man who has completely awakened from this spell is the man who has gained complete insight. This faculty is nothing other than such full wakefulne ss. It is immensely difficult to attain, which is why so few of the dreamers eve r wake up at all and why so many will not even listen to the revelations of the awakened ones." (18) What he says is that on the inside, as Daskalos also mentioned, the elemental s that make up the personal self created during life plays a more intrusive role than it does when anchored to the physical body in the gross world; let loose i n the inner regions, it can exist as an overlay on the actual relatively objecti ve (although ultimately Subjective) worlds that exist there. On the other hand, he gives the hopeful words that those subject to mental illness will not be so a fflicted once they are out of the physical body, for though such illness is caus ed by elementals disrupting their psychonoetic bodies, once freed from the gross material form, the tormented brain will bother them no more, and the problems w ith their other bodies will be dispersed in various ways with the help of the al ways present 'invisible helpers'.. The question remaining is, as Shakespeare [er, Rosicrucian Roger Bacon, haven 't you heard? - Shakespeare himself was illiterate] said, "in that sleep what dr eams may come?" That is to say, what is the nature of the consciousness that pre vails in those intermediate states between death and rebirth: Is it hazy and dre amlike? Is it vivid and self-conscious? Are there beings 'trapped' for long peri ods of time in some of these 'regions', such that one of the ministrations of th ese great souls is to help and guide the misfortunate (and fortunate) ones a ste p further along in their spiritual destiny? In some cases, all of these are true . In both Sant Mat and Buddhism, however, it is also said that for souls with a great Master, spiritual progress towards liberation from the inner realms may ev en be possible after death, depending upon ones prior development and the grace of the guide. Paramhansa Yogananda said that most prepared souls achieve their f reedom from the inner realms. Jesus assured his disciples of this also ( in my Fat her s house there are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you, etc.). Sant Kirpal Singh makes this clear: "The initiates have a great concession: at the time of death, your Master wil l come to receive you, and not the angel of death. He usually appears several da

ys or weeks before death to advise you of your coming departure from this world. I'm talking about those who keep the precepts! For those who do nothing with th e gift of Naam, he may or may not appear before they leave the body...In your fi nal moments, and much beforehand if you have gained proficiency in meditation, M aster's radiant form will take you to a higher stage where you can make further progress. At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her d ay of marriage! He may then place you in the first, second or third stage, or he may take you direct to Sach Khand. In some cases, where worldly desires and att achments are predominant, he will allow rebirth, but in circumstances more conge nial for spiritual growth." (19) There is mention also in Buddhism, of the possibility of progression and libe ration from the 'pure abodes' (subtle realms of form) after death. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sundar Singh describes one particular case that may of interest to those who are inclined to analytically read too many articles of this type (!) DEATH OF A PHILOSOPHER "The soul of a German philosopher entered into the world of spirits and saw f rom afar the incomparable glory of the spiritual world, and the boundless happin ess of its people. He was delighted with what he saw, but his stubborn intellect ualism stood in the way of his entering into it, and enjoying its happiness. Ins tead of admitting that it was real, he argued thus with himself, "There is no do ubt at all that I see all this, but what proof is there that it has objective ex istence, and is not some illusion conjured up by my mind? From end to end of all this scene I will apply the tests of logic, philosophy and science, and then on ly will I be convinced that it has a reality of its own, and is no illusion." Th en the angels answered him, "It is evident from your speech that your intellectu alism has warped your whole nature, for as spiritual, and not bodily, eyes are n eeded to see the spiritual world, so spiritual understanding is necessary to com prehend its reality, and not mental exercises in the fundamentals of logic and p hilosophy. Your science that deals with material facts has been left behind with your physical skull and brain in the World. Here, only that spiritual wisdom is of use which arises out of the fear and love of God." Then said one of the ange ls to another, "What a pity it is that people forget that precious word of our L ord, 'Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven' (Matt. 18:3). I asked one of the angels what the end of this man would be, and he replied "If this man's life had been altoge ther bad, then he would at once have joined the spirits of darkness, but he is n ot without a moral sense, so for a very long time he will wander blindly round i n the dim light of the lower parts of the intermediate state, and keep on bumpin g his philosophical head, until tired of his foolishness, he repents. Then he wi ll be ready to receive the necessary instruction from the angels appointed for t hat purpose, and, when instructed, will he be fit to enter into the fuller light of God in the higher sphere." "In one sense the whole of infinite space, filled as it is with the presence of God, who is Spirit, is a spiritual world. In another sense, the World also is a spiritual world, for its inhabitants are spirits clothed with human bodies. B ut there is yet another world of spirits after they leave the body at death. Thi s is an intermediate state -- a state between the glory and light of the highest heavens, and the dimness and darkness of the lowest hells. In it are innumerabl e planes of existence, and the soul is conducted to that plane for which its pro gress in the World has fitted it. There, angels especially appointed to this wor k, instruct it for a time, that may be long or short, before it goes on to join

the society of those spirits -- good spirits in the greater light, or evil spiri ts in the greater darkness -- that are like in nature and in mind to itself." (2 0) The message of this passage is humility, first and last, and that human intel lect can only take one so far. In Tibetan Buddhism, the first possibility mentioned previously, 'hazy and dr eamlike,' pertains to the state of the average person and which they sometimes s imply call 'the bardo', as opposed to the six manifested realms (three higher an d three lower) where one can take rebirth. On the other hand, NDE's of people wh o have reported to having been in the presence of Jesus, or other masters, have said their experiences were much more vivid than anything experienced here on ea rth (which doesn't necessarily mean they were ultimately more real). According t o PB, the highest the unenlightened person can reach is the third heaven, which would be something like the Devachan of Theosophy or Sukhavati of the Buddhists, and generally said that full nondual realization can only be attained while in the waking state on earth, that Nature would eventually bring back even advance mystics to complete their development. This may or may not be so. We do not have sufficient data in the inheritance of our spiritual heritage to definitively sa y this is true in all situations. In any case, some souls may drift in and out of consciousness in the afterlif e, and for them part of their experiences of these worlds may be hazy and dreaml ike. For those more advanced, the higher mental realms are definitely more vivid , and in the realms beyond these, on the borderland of the form and the formless , the experiences are extremely clear and communication between souls is by merg er with meanings directly intuited without any mental decoding necessary. The hi gher formless Sambhogaya realms, the penultimate realms within relativity, while not the non-dual Dharmakaya itself, are unattainable except for the Bodhisattva s and Buddhas, that is, those who are awakened in life to a significant or ultim ate degree. While there is some truth to the argument that it is absurd to talk of realiz ing the 'deathless' after death (the 'deathless' being beyond birth and death'), nevertheless the saints and some of the sages say that that very thing is possi ble, although perhaps rare, as the non-dual reality is the case at all times and places. Truth is stranger than our philosophy sometimes. In general philosophy says that the present waking state man body is the best place to realize the tru th, some say the only place, for a number of reasons. Not that it is ultimately consoling for one with the right attitude and view, but that there is some intermediate relative experience after physical death is hard to argue with, given the overwhelming accumulated evidence of NDE research , including some of the more spectacular cases, such as that of Mellon-Thomas Be nedict, and those in persons in whom all vital signs and brain activity have bee n completely absent, including this recent one by a nonbelieving neurosugeon, as well as accounts by those accomplished in mysticism, or initiated by a great Ma ster and being given a preview, have reported being transported - not in dream o r mere psychic vision - but in actuality, to such planes and bardos, and, the si lver cord (whatever that may actually be - supposedly an etheric link with the p hysical body) not yet being broken, returning to tell of what they have seen, se ems to mitigate in favor of afterlife experience. In Tibet such a person who die s for a period of time (meaning all physical signs of life being absent), whethe r hours or days, and travels to the bardos and back, is known as a Gelug. There are many such accounts of having a spirit guide, including Green Tara or Avaloki tesvara, escort one through the after death realms, heavens and hells and even b eyond, in full consciousness. A number of disciples of Kirpal Singh told me they were carried in mediation as if in a 'protective bubble' by the master see vari ous hell realms. In Tibet, moreover, they have a phrase for the grace and help s

uch an enlightened lama or guru gives to those stagnating in the lower realms, t aking them under his wing, so to speak, with boundless light illuminating the da rkness, to either a higher plane or into a propitious rebirth, known as Dredging the Depths of Cyclic Existence. It is unlikely all of these great saints and sage s were deluded or misleading us. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------To recap, the usual description of what happens to the average person after d eath is that, after an initial swoon into unconsciousness, a rejuvenating post d eath slumber in which the incarnating portion of the soul sleeps in the 'cocoon' of the etheric body in total security and rest (a Hindu maxim says, "Not even t he Gods on their high thrones have any power or dominion over the sleeping souls "), although in its initial stages only it can be interrupted or disturbed eithe r by loved ones pleading for its return to life or its own troublesome thoughts (just as research shows that a baby in the womb may become traumatized), after w hich one 'awakens' either in a pre-astral region, or, having passed through a 't unnel', enters such a place, where a 'life review' may occur, it actually being ones own higher or true self, the divine I Am or Overself, that witnesses the sa lient features of the past lifetime, which, after one acclimates to and is welco med into his new surrounding (much as a newborn baby does not become fully aware or conscious all at once, but in fact takes two years or more; the same is so i n all transitions in Nature, they are gradual processes), one then advances to t he appropriate plane of existence according to one's karma or level of conscious development in life, for a period of time, perhaps many years or decades, where a purposeful after-life processing and learning goes on, presided over by the " permanent personality," a term of Daskalos' referring to a combination of the vi jnanomaya-anandamaya koshas and similar to Aurobindo's 'psychic being', but in p lanes where one may commune with kindred spirits of a similar vibration level, b efore one eventually outgrows the usefulness of the astral or psycho-noetic life and begins to enter a second slumber or period of deep, restful sleep, the init ial stages of which are ones of spiritual digestion and assimilation, of retrosp ection, manifestation of latent powers, reconstruction, and unfoldment, eliminat ing a little each life through remorse and recompense of what is worst in onesel f, and adding many desirable characteristics, as Yogi Ramacharaka states, "unfol ded in the rich spiritual soil of the higher planes, aided by the Sun of Spirit which envelops the soul there," before one passes deeper into the necessary reju venating sleep where the elements of ones subtle bodies disperse, and one is fin ally reborn in a newly formed triple-body, shaped by the Archangels of the eleme nts, with a seed-atom of the permanent-personality planted in the heart, devoid of previous memory except fading reminisces of celestial glory, but in which the previous character, intelligence, and evolutionary stage gradually manifesting themselves. Sensitive souls may retrieve memories from the Universal Mind where all is stored, but it is Divine mercy that we are generally confined to forget p ast lives in order to make the current life tolerable. It is not necessary to kn ow such things. [Please do not hold us to too rigid a definition of 'soul' here. Suffice it t o say that for the unliberated being (for lack of a better word, realizing that 'for the 'great souled one', as the nondual classic the Ashtavakra Gita says, su ch terms as liberation and bondage have ceased to have any meaning), the unborn Self or Soul puts forth an incarnating emanent of itself that experiences varyin g degrees of limitation in order to arrive at self-consciousness, or develop a s elf-conscious entity, which did not exist before, and such limitations must be r espected even while they are lifted one by one. Whether a person in any one life 'prepares himself' in the traditional sense first, and then gets awakened, or h as a glimpse of awakening first, and then 'prepares or matures himself' so to sp eak naturally through time, is a question no one can answer, nor is there likely

a choice in the matter. The work will get done, one way or another. This being a practical essay, and not a treatise on ultimate reality or an ultimate point o f view - which is not a point of view, in any case - we are merely attempting to gather some insights on the topic of birth and death not often found in one pla ce for the reader's own investigation, and in order to take the edge off what ma y be unnecessary fear underlying the issue - even for the unenlightened. Our pre ferred view is that it is all a natural process]. Thus, as in nature, so in life and death there are built-in pauses between ea ch transition and no abrupt changes. As a baby spends necessary time in the womb , so the dying person first sleeps in the womb of the etheric body, and the pers on in the second death or slumber is in a similar chrysalis state revitalizing f or a future birth. The only exception to the former may be the disciple of a com petent master who will pull his initiate directly up at the time of death via th e Shabda Brahman or sound current, or by concentration on his Form, to a higher state without the agency of the forces of Nature. Such a master is said to also 'transfer the life records' from Dharma Raja, Yama the god of death, or 'the Lor ds of Karma' into his own caretaking, dispensing the appropriate justice and gra ce as the soul requires. So it is said, and is within the experience of many who have the eyes to see. This, by the way, does not invalidate the teaching that i t is ultimately ones own soul that oversees the life review, etc.. A broader vie w of things is required. In the Buddhist canon, the teachings of Sant Mat, and the words of saints suc h as Paramahansa Yogananda and others, it is said that in many cases one can act ually attain liberation from an after death plane, with Yogananda seemingly alon e in saying that this is the actually most common occurrence. Yogi Ramacharaka a lso maintains that some souls will shed all that remains of the sheaths of earth desire and rise to higher planes where they will work out their liberation, wor lds more glorious than the mortal mind can conceive. The beauty of even the high er astral worlds is such that the the Masters of Sant Mat, whose abode is far ab ove, say that the radiant subtle or Sambhogakaya' form of the Master is so enrap turing "that even the saints take delight in it." As Ramacharaka puts it: "Blessed indeed nds itself in even e bows his head in transcend even the

is the soul which awakens from the second soul-slumber and fi the most humble of these exhalted states. Even the wisest sag reverance at the mention of such spheres of existence, which human imagination." (21)

This conception is in obvious contradiction to teachings that say that only i n the full waking state is liberation possible, for reasons to be considered in a future essay. And we must also ponder the words of Christ, i.e., "work while i t is day, and not in the night, when no man can work." This may reflect the infl uence of the early mystery centers, such as in the Lesser Mysteries of the Eleus inian school, which essentially held that man was no better or worse after death than he is in life, and that if he does not rise above his ignorance during his sojourn here, at death he goes to wander about for eternity making the same mis takes which he made here. Though the doctrine of reincarnation was present, even within the early Christians, this this all or nothing message continued to be p romulgated for centuries, Dante's Inferno being one such example. It appears, ho wever, that the 'custodians of wisdom' have released a bit more of the esoteric teachings since then, with the afterlife not such a cut and dried experience. So me 'work' does go on after death, due to the impulse of the evolutionary World I dea and countless spiritual 'helpers'. In any case, the caveat is usually given that, even if liberation after death were possible, as suggested, it is much quicker to attain such release in the p hysical world than the inner realms, for the reason being that here life lessons are etched in stone and experienced more unavoidably and directly, and, for the Vedantin, the full experience of the three states of waking, dream, and deep sl

eep are available for our comprehension and realization of turiya, whereas in th e higher inner worlds, while the experiences for those who are conscious are ind eed more luminous and vivid, they are also more consoling than those experienced here, and therefore without or even with the help of an enlightened Master ther e is less incentive to engage spiritual practice. It is also harder, although di fficult to explain, for one to actually awaken to the essential subjectivity cha racteristic of realisation. In other words, whatever 'consciousness' one does ha ve, for whatever period of time, is not free of objectivity. It may be conscious , but it is not awake in the ultimate sense. In this light, Kirpal Singh said th at the progress one can make during one's earthly sojourn in a matter of weeks c ould take hundreds of years on the inner planes. One must take this warning some what imaginatively, as the sense of time is also different there. But this is wh y most serious practitioners, and their masters, would prefer they take rebirth, in order to regain union with their Beloved much faster. Even the gods - and co untless souls - are said by those with such capacity of vision to be literally ' lined up' awaiting a human birth. That being said, it is rather presumptuous, is it not, to assume that out of all the billions of planets and solar systems in (our) universe alone, that this is the only place, planet, or plane where one can live, evolve, and awaken in? Of course, the whole affair is mysterious and paradoxical. In many traditions, such as high Buddhism, Western esotericism (theosophy), S ant Mat, and Sufism, it is said that there are stages after reaching that of jiv anmukti or human liberation. These are beyond human conception, and have to do w ith a number of things: further unification of the non-dual state with the relat ive levels of the various bodies, for the sake of enhancement of the bodhisattva role or ability to serve others; advanced levels of development within the Divi ne Plan ("the journey in God, versus the "journey to God"), serving the greater Purpose in various ways. For instance, the system of the Buddha had seven initia tions, of which that of the liberated Arhat, was only the fourth. There is liber ation conceived as an inner freedom, and liberation conceived as freedom from ka rmas. Some stages, according to the Buddha, were only traversable after karma wa s eradicated. Further, it is said that this globe is not the highest sphere in c reation, and there are worlds upon worlds in creation to which the life-wave may pass, i.e., "There are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in yo ur philosophy, Horatio." If all this be true, then there are surely possibilitie s of spiritual awakening that do not require the need for a physical body. It might also be mentioned that the 'inner' realms or 'higher' regions are no t, strictly speaking, merely in ones 'mind,' that is, they are not entirely subj ective, except for some lesser evolved souls, although they may be said to be wi thin 'Mind', as is also the present existence. Each of them are, as was ecstatic ally told me years ago by an advanced Sant Mat initiate, "both a state of consci ousness and a region," on entry to which "you die and are born again, in stages - it's so perfect!" This is why even enlightened saints and sages can visit or t ake their abode there, and not be in mere illusion: these realms or states are r eal, in the sense that they are supported by the World-Mind (PB), or the Divine Logos, or 'apara-Brahman'. They may, as suggested, be experienced from both an e nlightened and unenlightened point of view. That is, one may see them in ultimat e subjectivity, that is, non-dually, as manifestations of Mind, the Supreme Self , one's ultimate Overself, or they can be experienced as apparently real 'person al' experiences. Ramana said that they exist, but that they were 'as real as you are.' That, however, goes for the sublime formless realms as well - where the s ense of unity, universality and infinity may well be a greater challenge for one 's discriminative powers between this highest level of relativity and the truly non-dual than it is here on earth. Buddhi, for instance, is spoken of by H.P. Bl avatsky as "duality without separation." Anthony Damiani described the 'archtypa l realm of formless reason principles' as being a plane with "no subject-object

distinctions, where being and knowing are one". Yet even this is not yet nondual consciousness. How many are capable of distinguishing among these lofty states? It obviously requires great maturity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now the words from Ramana that we promised. In many schools there is recogniz ed an intermediary, an enlightened presence within relativity 'between' the gros s empirical worlds and ultimate reality or Brahman, which has been called Cosmic Christ, Adi Buddha, Isvara, the 'Current', and many other names. It is said tha t one way or another one must go through this intermediary, which relates to the reality of the soul, that one can not simply jump into attributeless Brahman. J esus said, "No one comes to the Father but through Me." He meant through this en lightened presence within relativity. Now, Ramana clearly distinguished between ultimate reality or Brahman, and Isvara, otherwise known as God. He doesn't casu ally dismiss it, as it is surely as real or more real than what we usually exper ience, and worthy of veneration and respect and has been so since the dawn of ma n. The liberated sage is said to go 'beyond' even this, but it is certainly not to be imagined that one will miss out on any of the grandeur, peace, love, beaut y, and joy of divinity. This is a very high spiritual stage. Some would argue a necessary penultimate stage. All right, what does Ramana say? He says: Question: Is there a separate being Iswara [personal God] who is the rewarder of virtue and punisher of sins? Is there a God? Bhagavan: Yes. Question: What is he like? Bhagavan: Iswara has individuality in mind and body, which are perishable, bu t at the same time he has also the transcendental consciousness and liberation i nwardly. Iswara, the personal God, the supreme creator of the universe really do es exist. But this is true only from the relative standpoint of those who have n ot realized the truth, those people who believe in the reality of individual sou ls [we prefer to say, who have only realized as far as the soul , to avoid the impl ication that this is only a matter of thoughts, concepts, or beliefs] . From the absolute standpoint the sage cannot accept any other existence than the imperso nal Self, one and formless. Iswara has a body, a form and a name, but it is not so gross as this material body. It can be seen in visions in the form created by the devotee. [and also manifests itself to the devotee as well] The forms and n ames of God are many and various and differ with each religion. His essence is t he same as ours, the real Self being only one and without form. Hence forms he a ssumes are only creations or appearances. Iswara is immanent in every person and every object throughout the universe. The totality of all things and beings con stitutes God. There is a power out of which a small fraction has become all this universe, and the remainder is in reserve. Both this reserve power plus the man ifested power as [all the worlds] together constitute Iswara. (22) This is the World-Mind of PB and the ultimate Deity of religion and mysticism . It itself knows Brahman. To get this far may be considered the next to last st age on the gnana path or Vedanta, but a lofty realization (i.e., 'making real') it is. It requires realization of the soul, our impersonal yet individual, infin ite subjectivity, which, while not the absolute I Am or Universal Subjectivity, is said to be eternally rooted in or united with that and beyond any relative se nse of duality, with yet a higher or transcendent form of devotion or communion than that remotely conceivable by a personality. In itself it transcends birth a nd death. So there is much to look forward to - by the soul, of course. We say t his both compassionately and a bit tongue-in-cheek, for the price of admission r emains: your mind, your ego. The Absolute' is not such a good word, after all, because it implies its oppo

site, the Relative, while nondual Brahman is beyond all categorizations, includi ng being 'One'. In a true nondual realization, moreover, it is suggested that no thing is excluded, including the soul and God! The link to essays on the teachin g of anadi in the Appendix directs one to a discussion of this possibility. The point being made is that it is not 'all or nothing.' The non-dual reality, empti ness/consciousness/intelligence, makes room for stages, growth, bodies, planes, and evolution, as well as even a holarchy of beings and helpers. We are not spea king of whether or not any of this is necessary; perhaps the best we can say is just that, "things are as they are." So, no worries today about Nirvana, or nond ual Brahman. A little faith, love, and kindness, and we are "on the road to find out", as Cat Stevens sang. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Returning to our previous discussion of experiencing realms or seeing phenome na from a personal, dreamlike perspective, and not as they are in truth, when th is writer first began to practice meditation in 1970, at the age of twenty-one, he had a few interesting nighttime experiences. A couple of times he was drawn u p towards the crown of the head by the ecstatic sound of the Big Bell. At other times, on several occasions, he felt myself concentrated in the head, somewhat s eparated from the gross body, but then strongly pulled within and down - whereve r that was - like the bad guy in the movie Ghost. He heard terrifying ghoulish s ounds along with classic ball and chain noises, groans, etc...Having just read t he Bardo Thodol, or the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and remembering the admonition contained therein to see everything as a manifestation of ones own mind, he tri ed as best he could to remain calm and contemplate what he was experiencing in t hat manner. Unfortunately, it didn't work! What was later realised was that the identity of 'I' at the time was on the same level as that which it was experienc ing, and was therefore very much part of what was a much more vivid-than-dream e xperience. Finally, out of stark fear he began yelling and begging the guru for his mercy and help. Eventually he came back from wherever he was, sweating and s tunned. This is just two cents on how real unreality can appear, and the need fo r genuine spiritual practice and organic growth of understanding. Though it has an more or less Christian context and conclusion, this is a fas cinating story of one man's brush with death, heaven/hell and the afterlife. There are also said to be what have been termed by Sri Aurobindo, 'annexes of the subtle regions,' which are personal subjective hells within the more 'objec tive' realms that are themselves within the ultimate Subjectivity or Mind. This was partly addressed by the quote from PB given above. These are places in which , as C.S. Lewis once phrased it, where people are 'so afraid of being taken in t hat they can't be taken out.' Fortunately, such private 'annexes' have a limited lifespan, eventually disperse and the soul moves on. Whereas 'hells' are generally in the literature considered to be sub-planes o f the lower astral realms, it should be mentioned that Daskalos, for one, and ot hers have said that there are such realms 'below' the earth, whatever that means . According to Daskalos and PB, there is also an etheric or psychic band around this very earth that is composed of the tormented thought-forms of beings trappe d therein by their own negative and violent vibrations. Daskalos termed this pla ce "the Scream". It is under the care of angelic beings, but we (humanity in gen eral) have a major responsibility for its ongoing existence. It is something to take notice of, but not for anyone especially to worry about. Several researchers, such as at The Newton Institute are independently publis hing their findings about LBL's ('Life Between Life') where they use unusually d eep hypnotic trances, regress subjects back to the womb, stabilize them there, a

nd then ask them to move back to the moment of death in the most recent life. Fr om there they move them forward through the death experience and track the whole sequence of events and process between birth until the are born again in this l ife. Apparently they have done this with hundreds of people with fascinating res ults that tend to have strong similarities both between subjects and also indepe ndently working researchers. They are trying to develop a more objectively deriv ed understanding of all this, free from religious and culture bias. Incidentally , the sequence of events during death only vaguely reflects the types of things that are discussed in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It may reflect a more 'norma l' sequence of events, certainly for westerners, on the nature of the in-between life of the soul. Certainly to say that there is just a forty-nine day period b etween births is a cultural bias of the Tibetans, as this claim is contradicted by almost every other tradition. It may be an instant, a day, a year, or a thous and years, who can tell? [The same goes for the idea that it takes forty days fo r the etheric double to dissolve. In some traditions they advise cremation after three days, to prevent the soul from remaining attached to the physical body]. Subjects at the Newton Institute commonly describe: the passage to the other side (with variations on how this happens), the expanded state of consciousness one has when out of the body and first reactions to passing over, standard movin g towards the light episodes, encounter with family/friends/guides, entering int o a healing phase if there were emotional and/or physical challenges or disease that was hard, going before a non-judgmental 'Council of Elders' to begin evalua tion of the life just lived, and beginning to assimilate learning from those exp eriences, eventually moving on to higher planes and re-absorption back into one' s soul group or spiritual family, life in the realms inhabited between births, m eetings with others to plan the next incarnation, and the process of rebirth. Ot her topic subjects explored were whether there a hell, what happens with people who have lived very unwholesome lives, and so on. This all matches up well with mystic Daskalos' take on all this, a master who was unusually aware and active, even for an adept, in these lower to intermediate inner planes where all these k inds of things transpires for most people. For PB, while these things are accountable, it is largely ones own divine sou l which passes judgement on its own emanation, engages the life review, and one even has some say in the circumstances of the future life, depending on how cons cious an individual is. Otherwise, the many forces of nature have the larger han d in these affairs. This also the report of many sensitives. So the old view tha t after death cold, impersonal, and inexorable karma takes over upon which 'one is blown helplessly' with no personal input whatsoever may need broadening based on the much larger data base of experience that we have today. There are reasons for taking rebirth other than the force of karma, or the de sire for making faster progress towards liberation, such as that of compassionat e service for others. To some extent these are not matters of personal choice pe r se. It is really the soul that decides in each case. So say some sages. It has also been suggested, and as is discussed in Dying in the Master's Comp any, that some souls that remain unenlightened or not in nondual consciousness b efore death may in fact have no more earthly rebirths, while those who have real ized nondual consciousness may in fact need future rebirths. Much apparently dep ending on karma. We are just reporting. In Buddhism they talk about the six real ms of samsaric or deluded, suffering existence. However, they also speak of four eternal realms, much like in Sant Mat, that are beyond the cycles of birth and death. Even those who simply through virtue reach the 'Pure Abodes' (equivalent of higher psychonoetic or subtle realms of form), may work out there liberation. Whereas some practitioners who enter formless states simply through technique a nd not wisdom and die in those state, although technically 'higher' than the pur e realms of form, may not avoid rebirth.

In conclusion, while it is true that in most cases one may not experience rea lity as-it-is while in the after-deaths realms, just as he hasn't in life [that is to say, completely from the perspective of the I AM or the soul, and not of t he mind], to say that there is no awareness there, even periodically, seems unme rited. Ramana Maharshi, tending the death of his disciple Ganapati Muni, while h e bemoaned that he had failed to attain mukti, testified that the latter had bee n reborn into a higher realm. Kirpal Singh, on the other hand, when aiding his w ife's departure, at which time, riddled with cancer, she became radiant, sending forth peals of laughter and testifying to the sound of bells and the visions of masters within and without, said, when she had gone, that "She is more alive no w than ever." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------One additional topic that has not been addressed and which we will only brief ly touch upon is that of conscious death for the adept. In the yoga traditions t here are several unique methods in which an accomplished master may choose to le ave his body. One undergone by a particular sect of Himalyan yogis called hima-s amadhi. In this form of exit the yogi slowly lets his body freeze in the icy col d of the snows until all life processes become numb and insensitive. Then he may employ another method that is also a stand-alone technique called Sthal-samadhi in which the yogi sits in posture and consciously opens up the fontanelle, exit ing the body through the Bhrahmarhendra at the top of the skull. There may be a characteristic 'clicking sound' indicating what is known as the 'cracking of the skull'. Exit through the top of the head is considered by both Hindu and Buddhi st yogis as auspicious in that it may avoid complications that may arise if the soul has to pass through the vast reservoir of the unconscious in the lower cent ers of the body. In Tibetan Buddhism they use powa transference to accomplish su ch an feat. For the Shabd yogin such an exit is natural due to the grace of the master and the sound current. He is automatically pulled through the crown of th e head. Then there is the strange possibility that an aging yogi may choose, if the opportunity presents itself, to leave his body and take on that of another, such as that of a younger person who is dying or who has just died, and then rev iving it. In such a case the new body will appear to have the same mannerisms of the original yogi, not the recently departed. This rare occasion is called para kaya pravesha. Finally, there is the also rare exit achieved by yogic concentra tion on the solar plexus whereby the inner fire is generated which reduces the b ody to ashes. This is mentioned in the Kathopanishad and the Mahakala Nidhipanis had. Then there are the spectacular cases mentioned in Tibetan Buddhism where th e adept transforms or dematerializes the elements of his physical body into eith er a 'body of light' or the 'rainbow body' through the culmination of his comple te actualization of his nondual practice and not strictly through yogic siddhi. These are things written about, none of which most of us have to worry much abou t! All of these examples were taken from Living with the Himalayan Masters by Sw ami Rama, who also adds these wise words of advise, "Birth and death are two eve nts in life which are considered to be very minor according to the yogis and sag es of the Himalayans." Have faith in God and just let go should be sufficient fo r most of us to accomplish. (23) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A disturbing and relatively frightening concept put forth by anadi, however, pertains to a time-limit on the evolution of a 'dormant soul'; that one can, in fact, undergo actual 'soul-death' if he has not chosen the path of positive evol

ution by a certain number of lifetimes. I hesitate to include this because much of his teaching seems precise and clarifying that I don't want to cast doubt on all of it with this one example. But he said it, not I. Yet, as PB said, those o n the path are no doubt saved from such a destiny, as they have already chosen t o evolve into the light. To quote anadi: "It is a common misconception that t o remember our original self is to bring into the present who we have always bee n. A seeker who unimaginatively follows the idea of self-remembrance may in fact falsely believe that he has already existed prior to this cycle of time as his perfect soul, which only by some inexplicable misfortune became lost in forgetfu lness. In reality, however, prior to becoming lost in the dimension of ignorance , we did not exist at all [this is somewhat similar to what PB - and many ancien t mystery schools - postulated, that it is not the entirety of an eternal soul i tself, but an emanant of that soul that incarnates and develops through a long p rocess of evolution to know itself and its 'creator' consciously - something tha t it has never known before]. Indeed, forgetfulness is our very beginning. The t ask of the great remembrance is our destiny, the exalted realization of our divi ne potential. The soul is not our forgotten past, but our ultimate future." In other words, he appears to be siding with those who would suggest that the re has been no 'fall', but an evolutionary process to grow into conscious union with the divine. This is also a critique of advaita. But is the advaita explanat ion really that foreign to what anadi says, or just a different model to explain our state of ignorance? Vedantist James Swartz says that the ever-conscious Sel f paradoxically can veil itself, and then manifest a lila in which either we or it 're-awakens' to itself. He qualifies this as being a 'relative' and not non-d ual explanation. But Dzogchen and most advaita schools hold that the primordial unborn consciousness (both our true nature and that of the universe) is ever-awa ke, it doesn't need to re-awaken to itself. However, they also say 'we' (but who are 'we'?) made some mistakes of knowledge and became lost in samsara. They don 't explain how that happened, or how our true nature can be ever-awake if we don 't know it. These are traditionally considered to be among the 'imponderables'. Neither of these models delve into the why of the fall into ignorance, only the way out. The why or how are also considered to be a question 'not fit for edific ation.' Yet we ask it, because it has bearing on how we view or conceive of real ization or enlightenment itself. Is the true immediate displacing element for th e ego the divine soul, or ultimate reality? PB and anadi say the former, advaita the latter. Now here comes the difficult part to swallow. We are not saying it is false, only that we don't know and have no way of knowing - and venture that anadi has no way of knowing either - if it is true or not: "The dormant soul can remain inactive for many lifetimes before finally she b ecomes ready to awaken. Only in rare cases of evolutionary deformity does the so ul never awaken. When she becomes permanently stagnated in her evolution, or ser ves the lower intelligence of darkness over the course of many lifetimes, an irr eversible corruption of intelligence can occur that results in her total annihil ation. She becomes extinct - lost forever. Like a seed failing to germinate afte r many seasons, she finally disintegrates." "Each soul has only a limited number of lifetimes in which to become activate d before she withers away and dies. If the soul is lost like this, one's individ uality is erased and its essence of I am dissolves back into the source of creat ion. It is not a punishment; it is as if one had never existed. Unless our sense of me solidifies through the birth of I am, continuity within the whole is not guaranteed." (24) The ever-reliable PB also said something like this once: "He recognizes that the mysterious alchemy of life, working with the reincarn

ations, will take the most abandoned wretches and turn them into admirable creat ures, although a few monsters of iniquity may be hurled into the outermost regio n of hell, and be annihilated." (25) Whether PB actually meant this literally I don't know. He did once write that as far as he could see the man Jesus in the Gospels never once mentioned Hell. It was St. Paul who warned, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole wo rld, and lose his own soul? (Matt 16:26) Yet the latter statement may only mean the loss of an opportunity of awakening, not obliteration. Yogi Ramacharaka, however, also spoke of this form of annihilation. He said t here is a certain class of souls dwelling on the lowest astral planes that are: "degenerated and fallen souls - descended from a once higher state - who, if they fail to profit by the pains of the material life, are apt to tend still far ther downward until kind Nature wipes them out as independent entities, and reso lves them back to their original spiritual elements." (26) In this day of nondual teachings, an interesting question arises, "what is th e difference from this form of annihilation and actual enlightenment?!" The sugg estion from the traditions is that they are poles apart, enlightenment being the fruit of a conscious, individual evolution or unfolding in consciousness. We personally cannot accept the idea of 'annihilation' - which doesn't mean i t isn't true, for where there is smoke there is usually some fire, or spark of t ruth. Yet, again, how could one ever know if such a thing were true or not? Supp osedly only the advanced 'spiritual scientist' can know such things. Yet Paramha nsa Yogananda protested: "Impossible!" he declared with absolute certainty. "The soul is part of God. How could any part of Him be destroyed?" (27) Daskalos says: "No one gets lost, no one has ever got lost, and no one will ever get lost as an ego-soul" [meaning Spirit-Being or Pneuma]. (28) However, regarding souls like that of a Hitler or Stalin: "There ego [soul] will not be dissolved. They will simply be put to sleep for a very long time and when their time comes to awaken they will move one step up ward, but only one. Their ascent, or if you wish to call it their maturation, wi ll be gradual and tiring." (29) Therefore, where there is smoke there may be fire. Daskalos, tells us that th ere is a form of oblivion, a sub-plane of those realms where certain souls may b e sent, temporarily, for a specific purpose: "Erevos..is a form of psychonoetic abyss, which is not punishment but a neces sary condition similar, I would say, to oblivion where their memories will be er ased so that when they return to consciousness they will not remember anything. You will see that what separates the various worlds, the etheric of the gross ma terial, the psychic and the noetic, is the veil of Erevos or abyss. When one ent ers there one ceases to remember, reflects no impressions, yet one knows one exi sts. Quite often human beings enter there during deep sleep. The ancient Greeks called it "The Dregs of the Water." It is a necessary condition to force human s pirits that vibrate satanically, so to speak, to forget." (30) According to Daskalos, our Moon is also such a place. We know, sounds crazy, doesn't it? But "more things on heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your phi

losophy, Horatio"... Perhaps the most egregious form of 'scare story', and from reputedly the olde st religion in the world - Jainism - pertains to that of the seven hells. It is said that one may go to any of the first six hells and come back, but if he goes to the seventh hell he will not come back. However, how would one ever know if there was a seventh hell? If one says there is, he has been there, but if he has been there, he can't come back and tell about it! What anadi wrote may have been chiefly to serve as a goad to practice, we gra nt that (!), in a form of 'scare-tactic' way, yet we have it on the words of Jes us that there is hope for the worst of sinners, and, as PB added, if that is the case there is certainly hope for us all, who are probably not that bad. (31) An yone in whom the thought of self-knowledge, or finding God, or Truth, is present , is already surely well on the path, going forwards, and need have no fear. Nor are such questions as 'fitness' that much applicable any longer. "The day in wh ich the question of solving the mystery of life arises is the greatest day in a man's life. He in whom this question has arisen is fit, I tell you," said Kirpal Singh. And the Bhagavad Gita tells us: Whatever a person has meditated upon his whole life, that is what he remembers at the time of his death, and that is what he obtains in his next birth. (8.6) Yet this famous verse itself may raise questions, as some have read it and fe ar that at the last minute they will forget. It must be remembered, however, and is reasonable to assume, that it is the general trend of the mind that is of im portance, not just one final thought - that is ancient superstition - for what i f one dies in an accident or coma? Even then, one will reawaken once the link wi th the body is severed, and one's character as manifest in his deeper bodies wil l go with him. If one has thought of the Truth, the Master, and lived a life in Him, one will naturally go where He goes, or where He chooses to take you. Or, i f one's mind abides in the natural state , and one has trust in Being, the Real You having come forward, and lived life from that perspective, then? One becomes tra ckless , like a fish in water, or a bird in flight, and merges while simultaneousl y continuing on in the Only Reality. Either way is supremely Good. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God. - Meister Eckhart "Here and hereafter are words to frighten children. We never come nor go. We are where we are." - Swami Vivekananda "The way to solve the mystery of life is to dissolve yourself into it." - San t Kirpal SIngh Dying into the River of Existence - by Adyashanti ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[For additional information on enlightened and unenlightened death, please se e The Enigmatic Kabir and, as noted, Dying in the Master's Company on this websi te]. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Appendix - a critique of the teaching of Sri Nisargadatta: clearing up some c onfusion This appendix has become almost article-length in itself, but we feel it is i mportant and, frankly, didn't know where else to put it! This is not a criticism of the man, but some questions over the published teaching. There is no doubt h ere that in his personal company there was much effective grace and instruction. But for people trying to put it into practice today, there is much that remains confusing - to us at least. After reading Sri Nisargadatta's Consciousness and the Absolute (his final and supposedly most definitive talks), we conclude that much of the difficulty in understanding his teaching, especially regarding the s o-called 'absolute prior to consciousness', lies chiefly with idiosyncratic defi nitions of certain traditional Vedantic terms that he often used. Some of the co nfusion this has raised has been discussed extensively in the article The Primor dial Ground on this website. We feel that many - but not all - of the problems a re semantic ones. For instance, when taken in context, by 'consciousness' it se ems clear that he really means 'waking consciousness'. And with his interchangea ble use of 'the absolute prior to consciousness', 'awareness', capital 'C' Consci ousness', 'univeral consciousness', or 'absolute consciousness', he appears to m ean what most other Vedantins (including Guadapada in his Karika and Sankara in his commentary on the advaitic gold standard of the Mandukya Upanishad, and also t he teaching of Ramana Maharshi) meant by 'pure consciousness', pure awareness, or 'turiya'. [Ed Muzika, disciple of Robert Adams, and his student Rajiv Kapur, au thors of "Autobiography of a Jnani," think that the absolute is beyond turiya'; w e once were leaning in that direction but now think this is not likely to be so. The word turiyatita evolved to indicate the true nature of turiya, that it wasn t really a fourth state over and above the other three: waking, dream, and sleep, but rather their very substrate, nature, and ground]. Sri Nisargadatta also use d the word 'Brahman', not in its traditional usage, but to mean God as the crea tor, and 'ParaBrahman' to mean what is usually meant by Brahman, or specificall y, 'Nirguna Brahman' (absolute reality without attributes). And, contrary to mos t Vedantins, he is not at all averse to speaking of the five elements, prakriti, the gunas, etc - whereas most of them say they are all expedients and nothing b ut consciousness. He can also be confusing when he says that 'consciousness', or what he calls 'I AM', or the feeling of being , is the product of the food body, a nd not the other way around - i.e., the bodies being manifestations of conscious ness, as most advaitins teach. [However, as we have seen, his use of the terms ' absolute', 'absolute consciousness', and 'universal consciousness' cover for thi s discrepency: the body, world, and consciousness are spontaneous and simultaneo us manifestations of the absolute. We will explain at the end of this Appendix, after exposing what we feel are contradictions in his views, in what way we feel he is actually partially right]. We suggest that if there is an absolute state such as Sri Nisargadatta points to, that contemporary teacher anadi has taken it an important step further. [Se e Dual Non-Dualism on this website for a detailed discussion]. Maharaj holds obvious preference to reality being the Unmanifest, the imperso nal, the unborn, the timeless - not seeming to recognize that these are conceptu al halves of relative polarities. This has implications, in that it leads one to teach from a seemingly traditional yet dissociative Hindu perspective. His idea l of the jnani is one who is a witness , in the state of no-return', the 'eternal st

ate . Yet nonduality sees no problem with re-incarnation, if an adept so chooses o r it is willed by the 'Absolute'. And also, he, like Ramana Maharshi as well, te nded to hold the common Indian view that everything in life is predetermined or predestined, and, therefore, spoke in a way that discouraged seeming acts of wil l. He said, "I know full well that this knowingness will not remain. I abide in that no-knowing state. So, this being the case, where is the question of one's e ngaging in activity? With such a spiritual orientation, can one be affected by w orldly or family life?" His disciple Ramesh Balsekar carried this view to the ex tremes of pre-determination, with both of them teaching that everything is just the 'spontaneous manifestation of the totality of manifest consciousness', or Na ture. Yet, man is part of Nature, too (!), and can just as easily 'engage' or 'i ntervene' within this natural process without any contradiction. To deny the wil l is just as foolish as to grant it complete freedom and power. The West and the East are now meeting head-on, and such a partial view as total determinism is n o longer as compelling or appropriate as it once may have seemed, and must be se en as what it is: one side of a pair of relative polarities or complementaries. As Osho opined about the oriental view, "The East has forgotten how to assert, t he East has forgotten how to do anything about its condition." This is the root of the peculiar fatalistic spirituality of India in particular. More than fifty years have now passed since the world-view of Maharaj and Ramana was in vogue, a nd it is futile to try to put the genie back in the bottle. A new form of spirit uality is necessary for our times, one in which realization is not just of the i mpersonal, but also of the individual. Sri Nisargadatta states in this book that prior to birth he was in 'the perfe ct state' - as is everybody [Question: how does he know that?], but because the sense of 'I Am' - which depends on the food body for its arisal - was not there, he was 'trapped' and not able to 'refuse this birth', which he would have done if 'he' knew what was coming. But 'what was trapped', and what 'he' could have k nown what was coming? This is vague languaging, and in direct contradiction to t he teachings of one such as PB who said that this world was not neither a trap no r a degradation of the divine essence , and of Daskalos, and newer channeled teach ings (much as we resist going there), which say that there is actually, after a brief swoon, much after-death processing, as well as pre-birth planning, that go es on in coordination with the personality, non-physical helpers, other souls, o ne's own soul, and Spirit. And further, that the soul or its extension is actual ly going in and out of the body during the second and third trimesters, until fi nally embodying it fully, and only then forgetting entirely what it knew before birth while it builds up a new sense of self or I Am, by the age of two or so, a nd eventually a full personality-structure before renewing its quest for growth and liberation. Sri Nisargadatta, as mentioned at the outset of this article, st ates that one goes directly into the Absolute after death, knowing nothing, bein g aware of nothing, until the next helpless birth when consciousness arises agai n. Once more we ask, how does he know this? We think he doesn't, and can't, beca use he never consciously or fully explored those intermediate regions, which he admitted that to experience and/ or remember required special training . His basic teaching as summarized in Prior To Consciousness by Jean Dunn on th is point is that consciousness can only become conscious of itself when it manif ests in a physical form, that when consciousness leaves the physical body there is no individual, no world, and no God, and that before the physical form manife sts one is the Absolute ParaBrahman. We say, respectfully, that this is a narrow and unproven view. He refused to allow scriptures to be quoted from in his gath erings, making people rely on their personal direct experience only, yet thereby in essence asked most of them to take his word for it, as very few had the capa bility of verifying such claims, or their own insight, which might prove unrelia ble in the early stages. We feel he is in a way saying that the tireless efforts of the great sages in articulating the scriptures were for nothing. His claim a bout consciousness and the sense of I AM being dependent on and arising from the physical form is contrary to so many spiritual teachings, which hold that man i

s a multi-layered being, and the physical form is only the gross cloak or body, and he is fully capable of functioning after death - and during life if he is an adept - without it in other, finer bodies. Further, that the sense of a pristin e 'I-consciousness' is even older than the earth itself, arising long before man 's incarnation into physical form, with only the darkness of earthly ignorance a nd earthly egoism being due to the taking on of gross incarnation. Maharaj is tr ue, as are many other teachers, in saying that before each birth the sense of 'I ' is made dormant and reawakens after the age of two or so, but that it is absen ce for the entire inter-life period is not only refuted by many saints and sages , but something that we believe is mere speculation on his part. Asking a discip le if they were aware of their existence before their birth or after their last death is a pointless question, as how are they to remember? In fact, some do rem ember, but it is the divine mercy that we generally do not so we can get about o ur business in this life. We are not questioning all points of his wisdom on the question of absolute i dentity, but are questioning his relative wisdom. The teaching of immediate diss olution into the Absolute after dropping the physical body is contrary to what m any teachers, including the masters of Sant Mat, have said: that there are virtu ally a myriad of souls 'lined up waiting to incarnate here, earth-life being such a great opportunity for spiritual awakening. Sri Nisargadatta contradicts hims elf further by saying that the 'I AM' is the source of all our misery, but on t he other hand, without it we could not become liberated (which for him means nev er to be physically born again). This seems itself is a confession of the value of physical incarnation while at the same time a negative judgement of it. In places he say that the absolute awareness is never aware of itself, while in others he says that it is self-aware, until it 'falls' into error, and that t he goal of practice in fact is for 'the Self to become aware of Self', and that it takes many births. He says again and again that the sense of being or "I AM" or 'conscousness' i s a product of the food body only (traditionally known as the annamaya kosha), but then also says that the I AM or consciousness is prior to the world - and the b ody is an emanation of the greater consciousness - which is precisely what most everyone else is saying. He also has unusual definitions for Isvara (which is usually considered Sagun a Brahman or the creator god); for him it is the total impersonal manifest consc iousness , which is still based in the waking state. Most Vedantins equate Isvara with prajna, the causal body, or the macrocosmic equivalent of the deep sleep st ate, itself transcended by turiya. Sri Nisargadatta, however, uses causal body as the small physical seed of the human form , and not prajna as the Vedantins say, o r as the higher mental or archtypal body the way that Sant Mat or Kriya Yoga use s the term. His definition of Atman is also unique: "Atman is only beingness, or the consciousness, which is the world. The Ultimate principle, which knows this beingness cannot be named." Again, this is not necessarily wrong, but also not a standard advaitic usage of the term Atman, which is equivalent to Brahman or u ltimate reality. Sri Nisargadatta was a dynamic, genuine teacher, giving much sagacious practi cal counsel; he had his own preferred method but wisely offered many forms of ad vise and practice to different people, often even saying just have faith', 'trust ', 'endurance', 'earnestness', 'do the best you can , 'go home, marry the girl nex t door, take up your father's business,' etc.), yet the inherent contradictions in his higher teaching seems to have forced him to concede, from time to time, t hings like, "never tell a child to be dispassionate like we tell each other, bec ause they need ambition to achieve further growth and certain goals, and also, the jnani doesn't care about any of this, it is mere spit, but do your work with en thusiasm and the best you can - because this world is an orphan! (referring to th

e advaitic metaphor, son a of a barren woman ). But also, "This is a big hoax, a fr aud, created out of nothingness...I am not afraid of death. With death the imper fection is removed." One might ask him, however, what for any of this work, if it doesn't have any importance, and is utterly unreal? In these talks he uses traditional metaphors that do not reflect the way adva ita refers to the concept of what is unreal . For example, as demonstrated above, h e says the world is unreal, like the son of a barren woman. Another such metaphor in advaita is like a hair s horn. These are examples given for what is totally unrea l in the sense of utterly non-existent. The world is said to be unreal, not in t hat sense, however, but as mithya - neither real nor unreal. It is not permanent , but it is there nonetheless. It is unreal as paramarthika, but real as vyavaha rika. Sri Nisargadatta appears to hold to the older Hindu preference for the unm anifest, the impersonal, the unborn, the timeless - in exclusion of their opposi tes. Thus, his description of the 'perfect state' is when there is no I, no other , no manifestation - but this is just nirvikalpa, is it not? - the thoughtless st ate, a void - and not true reality. Compare this to what Osho said about his enl ightenment: Since that day the world is unreal. Another world has been revealed. When I sa y the world is unreal I don t mean that these trees are unreal. These trees are ab solutely real - but the way you see these trees is unreal. These trees are not u nrel in themselves - they exist in God, they exist in absolute reality - but the way you see them, you never see them. You create your own dream world around yo u, and unless you become awake you will continue to dream. The world is unreal b ecause the world that you know is the world of your dreams. When dreams drop and you simply encounter the world that is there, then the real world appears. Ther e are not two things, God and the world. God is the world if you have clear eyes , without any dust of dreams, without any haze of sleep. if you have clear eyes, clarity, perceptiveness, there is only God. (Osho, Autobiography of a Spirituall y Incorrect Mystic (New York: St. Martin s Press, 2000), p. 76. Incidentally, in Consciousness and the Absolute Sri Nisaragadatta recognized Rajneesh (Osho) as a great sage. Maharaj says in these talks that the absolute goes into error and forgets itsel f. This is not the highest advaita, in which there is no causal relationship acc epted between Nirguna Brahman and relativity. The soul may be said to forget its elf, or to project an emanant of itself to be born in ignorance and develop awak ened consciousness of itself, and/ or its own source, as an awakened 'I'-conscio usness mow within Oneness as never before, or some variant on this theme, but no t the absolute or Nirguna Brahman itself, which by definition is one, self-conta ined, whole, perfect, unchanging, in need of nothing. This is not a nit-picky po int, but one that has repercussions for the entire teaching. Sri Nisargadatta s ve rsion of what is the absolute, then, must be seen as a relative absolute, not tr uly unconditioned Nirguna, in our view. We ask, if what he teaches is truly nondual, then why did he say, the jnani is always getting happier, because he knows that he is going home" ? Is it becaus e he really believes in the doctrine of videha-mukti, or liberation at death onl y? In nondual understanding one would assume one realizes he is already home. Ye t Maharaj only confessed to something like that level of realization in the last days of his life, and even then expressed it in a rather exclusive way. Metaphors such as 'the Self is a mass of consciousness' (found in the Upanish ads) and 'I am a solid block of reality' in I AM THAT are at best suggestive. Wh at is a 'mass', or a 'block'? In I AM THAT it also says, "in the immensity of sp ace, a drop of consciousness appears, from which an entire world arises." How 'i mmense' is space? Is there room in there for more than 'one' drop? This also is obviously not literal. Moreover, does the drop merge into the ocean, or the ocea

n into the drop? Osho says these mean the same thing, while Anthony Damiani sugg ests that they refer to distinct stages of realization. Such is the difficulty o f referring even to the soul, what to speak of the absolute. Sri Nisargadatta's advice to meditate on or abide in the I AM appears similar to Ramana's 'Who am I?' inquiry, or 'holding to the 'I-thought' or 'I-feeling', until it resides in its source - but much of the rest is often confusing termin ology, in our opinion. We claim no right to criticize such a great and revered m aster, but since we now live in the age of the internet and are faced with a sim ultaneous total exposure to all of the collective teachings of humanity, feel th ey must be sorted out with discrimination. Sri Nisargadatta was a simple man, ne ver travelled or spent much time reading scriptures, and only was with his guru a very short while; this may account for his deficiencies as an articulate expou nder of advaita, and his understanding of other traditions. Then there is this highly enigmatic statement: "The universe is in you and cannot be without you. The word exists in memory, memory comes into consciousness; consciousness exists in awareness and awarenes s is the reflection of the light on the waters of existence". (I AM THAT, p.199) As he so often talked about the 'absolute beyond consciousness', similarly wi th the awareness beyond consciousness , we can equate 'awareness' in this quote wit h the 'absolute'. And from the bulk of I AM THAT he seems clearly to affirm that the absolute, while not a subject-object type of experience, was knowable or re alizable. Yet he even said that without consciousness we would never know there was an absolute. How's that for possible confusion? - 'Awareness' is prior to 'c onsciousness', yet needs consciousness to be aware of itself? What to make, then, of 'the waters of existence', upon which the 'light' is r eflected, which itself produces the 'awareness' that contains the 'consciousness ', in which the 'word' (or world) is contained? What exactly ARE 'the waters of existence', the 'light', the 'awareness', and the 'consciousness' ? Sri Nisargad atta here seems far from standard advaita. In mentioning a light reflecting on t he waters of existence, producing the awareness that contains the consciousness, he is sounding almost like he is embracing a modified Samkhya terminology to so me extent, and not just talking like Ramana Maharshi about the light of the moon being the reflected light of the Sun. it seems a legitimate question to ask 'wh ere does that light come from' and 'where do the waters of existence come from' , to 'produce the awareness and consciousness'. Just logically, he is playing lo ose with his terms, as he seems to be making the effect - awareness - the cause (the 'light') of itself. Thus, there appear to be main two camps of interpretation here - with a possi ble third. The two camps are: (1) that he simply means by 'awareness' or the 'ab solute' what most nondual teachers mean by 'pure consciousness' or turiya, and t hat by consciousness' he means 'ordinary empirical consciousness.' That, in fac t, is what Greg Goode says; and (2) there is some mysterious 'absolute' which he believes in and has known as reality, but which he says does not know itself. T hen again he says that it does. His disciple Steven Wolinsky has many YouTubes a ttempting to explain this absolute. Yet it appears there is possibly a third opt ion, because in the glossary of I AM THAT - while perhaps the responsibility of editor Maurice Frydman and not directly that of Maharaj - there are NO entries f or either 'Consciousness', the 'Absolute,' or 'Awareness', remarkably, but defin itions ARE given for 'Gunas', 'Prakriti' and 'Purusha'; i.e., Prakriti: 'the Cos mic substance, the uncaused cause of phenomenal existence, formless, timeless, a nd eternal'; and Purusha, 'the Cosmic Spirit, the eternal and efficient cause of the universe that gives the appearance of consciousness to all manifestation.' In the text there is one reference that says that the absolute is the source of both, thus differentiating Sri Nisargadatta from modern (post-Kapila) Sam 'khya

which only posits a philosophical dualism of two eternal principles with all it s attendant problems. So either this glossary was whipped together by the editor s erroneously and incompletely, or the teaching of a 'light reflecting on the wa ters' producing awareness sounds much like ancient doctrines including theosophy and Sam 'khya - which is at odds with the supposed advaitic nature of Sri Nisar gadatta s teaching, if that it is what it in fact is. It seems the only thing we can accept without any doubt as bottom-line essent ial and indispensible advice is his passionate insistence to 'give up seeking' a nd go into the silence beyond concepts ! yet even this is somewhat stage-specific to the individual. But we 'absolutely' agree with him when he says, "You need no t worry about your worries. Just be. Do not try to be quiet; do not make 'being quiet' into a task to be performed. Don't be restless about 'being quiet', miser able about 'being happy'. Just be aware that you are and remain aware -- don't s ay: 'yes, I am; what next?' There is not 'next' in 'I am'. It is a timeless stat e." (from I AM THAT) In summary, however, this appears as a one-sided, polarized teaching, despisi ng the body as a 'disease, not worth spit , and the world as complete illusion. It lacks the deep nondual advaitic roots of the Mandukya Upanishad, while appearing to be something new (although claiming an ancient lineage) with its talk of prio r to consciousness and the absolute . Sri Nisargadatta, moreover, also makes claims of knowledge about the hereafter, the super-conscious states, the process of man ifestation, and of consciousness itself, which the evidence suggests he hasn't h imself fully experienced or understood, and which this article has in part been written to offer a broader view. Again, we could be completely mistaken, and lea ve it for the reader to judge if we have raised reasonable questions. Much of this critique is not applicable only to Sri Nisargadatta. Most advait ins in turn have given lip service to the third part of Sankara's famous formula : "the world is unreal; Brahman is real; Brahman is the world," but historicall y in practice have not appeared to have actually lived as if that were so, as op posed to Sankara who was a great adept, both as a nondualist and a tantric reali zer. They use metaphors like "they are unmoved by the froth of the waves on the periphery of the ocean of their consciousness," thus immunizing themselves from what they claim is only illusion after all, and in effect would seem to be a tru e nonduality that actually recognized the world as Brahman. Even the much-covett ed sahaj samadhi is often experienced "as if one were one with all existence", y et still identifies more or less exclusively with unbounded consciousness of whi ch all the rest is an unreal or unimportant manifestation. Thus we get Maharaj s tating near his passing that the pain of his body was unbearable - but he was no t identified with that. But is this true nonduality, or what might be considered the beginning 'stages' of sahaj samadhi, still preferring to hold out in consci ousness or an 'absolute prior to consciousness', which is yet capable of a much more thorough integration of consciousness and matter? What do we mean by 'stages of sahaj samadhi'? Simply (or not so simply) this: having established the state of nondual presence in one's inner consciousness i s not the same as varying degrees of transforming the personality into an increa singly profound manifestation of the implications of nondual awakening. Sahaja o f the essential type that Bhagavan Ramana or Sri Nisargadatta realized are a mor e advanced realization than yogic internal nirvikalpa. Here there is no argument . But this can be 'integrated' into Relativity (intuitive, intellectual, philoso phical, emotional, and physical - including lifestyle changes) more and more and more. In that regard, one may argue that no one has fully done this, as its imp lications are vast. Even PB said that he 'did not say that sahaj samadhi was the highest state possible, only that it was the highest possible as yet for man.' For instance, profound integration of sahaja into the intuitive and form leve ls of expression would result in such a deeply integral master or individual tha

t they would fully understand the essence of every path, and could act as a mast er/guide/guru for any practitioner at any stage, regardless of spiritual path or style - Native American, African Shaman, Dzogchen, Kabalist, Taoist yogi, polit ical activist karma yogi, Christian mystic, Tantric Hindu or Buddhist, Sant Mat yogi, etc.. None of these paths are identical. All have special areas of actuali zation of wisdom and practice. So all express the vastness of human potential fo r liberation, enlightenment and actualization of spirituality in all kinds of wa ys. And many others forms yet to be expressed. Nondual realization in its most v ast potential would manifest in a master of profound development a type of richn ess that would include and integrate all of this. Also, in this respect, one can imagine a person who had reached a level of nondual realization who would have more incarnations to go in order to fully develop. It is also said in a number o f traditions that even some who have not attained while in physical form a nondu al realization, need not necessarily continue in the cycles of reincarnation. So the matter is quite complex, and simplistic arguments remain just that: simplis tic, and only useful for a certain portion of the population. it is highly likel y that a complete expression of realized potential has not yet appeared on earth . All of which, we repeat, is not at all to say that there isn t much of great va lue in Maharaj's recorded works, or that many people haven t greatly benefitted by his company. We also are in thorough agreement with his wise advice, "mind your own self", and, never criticize anybody, but, in this case, the latter just could not be avoided. We critique not the man - for whom we have nothing but praise f or his years of devotion and dedicated service - but only the esotericism in his teachings, while at the same time realizing, as Hazrat Inayat Khan said, There i s no scripture in which contradiction does not exist. It is the contradiction wh ich makes the music of the message. And, having said all that, there is a sense in which we feel Sri Nisargadatta was partially right in speaking of an 'Absolute prior to consciousness'! And th is is because any type of non-dual language is inherently limited and inaccurate , a 'pointer at best', and when talking about Nirguna or true non-dual Reality c oncepts like 'consciousness', 'awareness', even 'universal' or 'transcendant' 'c onsciousness', no longer have any meaning. They just do not apply, and we feel h e would have been better off pointing that out, than creating an ontology that m ay not exist in reality. Any absolute or Nirguna Brahman is 'beyond' any human c ategorization, whether conscious/unconscious, personal/impersonal, active/passiv e, or time/timeless. So those who say 'consciousness is all', or 'there is consc iousness-at-rest' and 'consciousness-in-motion' are, we feel, being far too simp listic. Is there such a thing as 'consciousness-at-rest'? Would that still be co nsciousness, for surely consciousness only has meaning in relation to something which it is conscious of - or else the word has lost all meaning? Other question s arise: 'Who' or what in fact knows 'all is consciousness'? On what does consci ousness 'rest'? Moreover, to say that 'consciousness moves' is also without mean ing. To give but a taste of a future article devoted to these matters, we prefer a conceptual model of the Absolute that is a Trinitarian Oneness, as given in man y, many ancient systems. One may visualize it as a triangle with an Absolute (Ni rguna, or Kether in Cabballa) at the head, with 'Father' and 'Mother' Principles below, the latter two alternately denoted as either Siva and Shakti, Purusha an d Prakriti, or Spirit and Matter - all One inseparable essence, however, from wh ich all further emanations of elements and perceptions flow. From this picture a s well as reasoned analysis one can see that conscious or awareness is never fou nd without an object, or more properly, a content, nor can it be said to be thei r source (nor can one even speak of a 'source'). Even so-called 'conscious-witho ut-an-object', or nirvikalpa, has a content - what PB might call the unmanifeste d World-Idea, consisting perhaps, of 'mula-prakriti' - the 'noumenon of prakriti or matter', in the same sense that 'Spirit' or 'Siva' might be considered the '

noumenon' or 'Soul of the soul'. So consciousness-at-rest' without apparent mani festation, or 'pure consciousness' or 'pure awareness' or 'universal consciousne ss', are only attempts by our human mind to conceive of the infinite, but are NO T actually the same as the Ultimate or the Absolute in this schema, for the Abso lute as such is unqualifiable, inconceivable, and non-attributable in any way. S ome prefer the word 'intelligence' to that of 'consciousness', to more closely a pproximate the unknowing-knowledge that the absolute represents, but truly, we c an not really say even that much of it. Perhaps the most that can be said is tha t it is 'beyond'. "Gate, gate, param gate, bodhi svaha." Another way of expressing this is with an analogy proposed by Saniel Bonder i n which our identity is like that of a Moebius strip: ego, personality, not-enti rely-finite soul-nature (both individual and universal), and unindividuated impe rsonal infinite essence - all a seamless whole that we can't find hard borders o f, that we are ALL of it. He calls it not the One, but the 'Onlyness'. We are generally in our writings complete agreement with this, as far as that statement goes. Not only are all of these realities part of a seamless whole , but the nature of all of these aspects are thoroughly interdependent with each othe r, so when realized in a adequately nondual light, are known as part of a mutual ly defining totality where no part has any meaning or existence without all othe r facets universality and individuality, spirit and matter, infinite and finite, temporal and eternal, personal and impersonal, manifested and unmanifest, etc. All of this arises within relativity, but when comprehended in the nondual view, are realized as a seamless and interdependent whole. The only reality that is n ot mutually interdependent with anything other is the absolute, which is the radic ally transcendent true nature of all that arises within relativity. But relativi ty only appears to be a polar and complementary opposite to the absolute from th e point of view of relativity. From the radically transcendental point of view, there is no relativity as somehow other , and relativity is realized as neither dim inishing nor enhancing the absolute truth. One way of summarizing this in terms of the purpose of this article, then, is by saying, there is NO 'lights out' - our soul-nature, while not ALL that we ar e, nevertheless continues on eternally. Perhaps Sri Nisargadatta said it best when he confessed, "the sum total of my spirituality now is nothing, even that word "nothing" is not there, so there is no spirituality left." Sri Ramakrishna said the same thing before he died. We believe that, for all the obfuscation, Maharaj may have had insight into, and been pointing towards, this indescribable THAT, which is truly neither aware ness or consciousness, but nothing at all speakable in human terms. This, in fac t, is the task all masters face: to make themselves available and create a circu mstance unique for each individual to point to truth and take them beyond the mi nd and into their hearts. Where they are often lacking is in the depth of their relative wisdom and capability of integrating this knowledge into all of their v ehicles, and all dimensions of existence, and interpreting and articulating it a ccurately. Some of this is inevitable is using dualistic language to speak of th e nondual, while some of it is not inevitable, but a want of clear seeing. Be th at as it may, in the Avadhuta Gita, it is said that the truth is "beyond duality and non-duality." PB says that "one is simultaneously in the One, the Many, and the Overself; thus, truth is a triple paradox." We are here, of course, at the limits of our language. So what then is this thing we are all after? Apparently not so simple to pin down as 'the soul', 'the Self', 'one thing', or 'no-thing'. But still, do not be discouraged!

Bankei Yotaku - Unborn Zen by Peter Holleran The life of Zen Master Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693), considered by D.T.Suzuki to have been one of the greatest of all Zen Masters, illustrates the depths of lib erating despair that often precedes an awakening. Further, we will see that, con trary to many popular notions, such awakening is often the beginning of true pra ctice, and not the end. Bankei never tired of emphasizing to his own students, h owever, that much of his difficult personal ordeal would have been unnecessary h ad he been able to meet an enlightened teacher early in his practise. He exhorte d them in the strongest terms to make the best use of his company, and to realiz e how fortunate they were, and said repeatedly that they themselves could realiz e without great struggle - so long as a true desire for enlightenment was presen t. His Unborn Zen was a refreshment of the tradition in which he employed none of the classic methods of his antecedents, but dealt with aspirants directly as he found them. Somewhat like the Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra, he cut through al l limited doctrines and spoke only of the already realized Unborn mind. (1)

Bankei was very devoted to his mother, and once confessed to her that more th an anything else it was his desire to communicate the Truth to her which motivat ed his pursuit of Enlightenment. His childhood schooling consisted of little mor e than rote memorization of a Confucian classic entitled The Great Learning. Ban kei was struck by the opening words of the book: The way of Great Learning lies i n illuminating the Bright Virtue. He searched and searched but could find no one to satisfactorily explain this verse to him. His family, his teacher, and the lo cal priest confessed their ignorance, and one day, his great heart-need unsatisf ied, Bankei simply left school. He was obsessed with finding out what Bright Virt ue meant, and he knew at the very least that he would find no answers there. His action, however, would never be acceptable to his elder brother, the head of the household, and knowing this Bankei decided to kill himself. His method of achie ving this was to eat a handful of poisonous spiders, but to his great disappointme nt he did not die. When he refused to attend school his brother expelled him fro m the house, and at the age of eleven Bankei began a life of wandering, meditati ng and visiting spiritual teachers in search of the Bright Virtue. For fourteen years he moved about, practising harsh austerities and paying sc ant attention to the needs of food and shelter. At one point he decided to find the answer within himself, and he built a tiny hut for meditation, leaving only a small hole through which food could be brought to him. He sat until the flesh on his buttocks was flayed and his health broke down. The wall of his hut was ma rked by gobs of thick black phlegm he would spit up. Finally, Bankei realized th at he was dying, and in his despair he experienced a fundamental breakthrough: The master, frustrated in his attempts to resolve the feeling of doubt which w eighed so heavily on his mind, became deeply disheartened. Signs of serious illn ess appeared. He began to cough up bloody bits of sputem. He grew steadily worse , until death seemed imminent. He said to himself, Everyone has to die. I m not con cerned about that. My regret is dying with the great matter I ve been struggling w ith all these years, since I was a small boy, still unresolved. His eyes flushed with hot tears. His breast heaved violently. It seemed his ribs would burst. The n, just at that moment, enlightenment came to him - like a bottom falling out of a bucket. Immediately, his health began to return, but still he was unable to e xpress what he had realized. Then, one day, in the early hours of the morning, t he scent of plum blossoms carried to him in the morning air reached his nostrils . At that instant, all attachments and obstacles were swept from his mind once a nd for all. The doubts that had been plaguing him ceased to exist. (2) Bankei s satoris could be said to represent a transcendance of unconscious iden tification with the ego, and the realization of consciousness or Mind as the sub strate of all experience, that became the basis for his further practise. It was the Buddhist seed of enlightenment , a profound glimpse, not the final achievement , but which nevertheless wiped doubt and uncertainty from his mind. For about thirty years I wandered searching for the real Tao everywhere.. But at this moment, seeing the plum blossoms, I am suddenly enlightened, and have no more doubts. (3) Bankei had a deepening of his realization three years later under the guidanc e of a Chinese priest, who confirmed that he had indeed penetrated to the Self-e ssence but still needed to clarify the matter beyond , discriminating wisdom , or "the practise after Enlightenment". A Taoist sage called this interim period the dif ference between "enlightenment" and "deliverance." Master Po Shan similarly discoursed: Therefore the proverb says, after enlightenment one should visit the Zen Maste rs. The sages of the past demonstrated the wisdom of this when, after their enlig

htenment, they visited the Zen Masters and improved themselves greatly. One who clings to his realization and is unwilling to visit the Masters, who can pull ou t his nails and spikes, is a man who cheats himself. (4) Garma C.C. Chang brings to our awareness the recognized distinction made in Z en and Ch an Buddhism between the awakening to prajna-truth (or the immediate awak ening to transcendental wisdom, emptiness, or no-self) and Cheng-teng-cheuh (sab yaksambodhi), which is the final, perfect, complete enlightenment of Buddhahood, where the emptiness has become absolute Fullness and one is identified with the One: A great deal of work is needed to cultivate this vast and bottomless Prajna-mi nd before it will blossom fully. It takes a long time, before perfection is reac hed, to remove the dualistic, selfish, and deeply rooted habitual thoughts arisi ng from the passions. This is very clearly shown in many Zen stories, and in the following Zen proverb, for example: The truth should be understood through sudde n Enlightenment, but the fact (the complete realization) must be cultivated step by step. (5) As contemporary teacher Adyashanti points out in his book, The End of Your Wo rld, the awakening to the transcendant witness position can make one initially ' drunk on emptiness', even exuberantly so, while ones egoic conditioning has yet to be completely unraveled or uprooted. This further process generally takes som e time, but is necessary for one to awaken lastingly to the non-dual Self. Paul Brunton calls this second feat the harder of the two. A similar progression can be seen in the enlightenment story of Hakuin, perha ps the greatest of the Rinzai teachers, who had his first experience of satori a fter meditating on the koan Mu for four years: He shouted: Why, the world is not something to be avoided, nor is Nirvana somet hing to be sought after! This realization he presented to the Abbot and some fell ow disciples but they did not give their unqualified assent to it. He however bu rned with absolute conviction, and thought to himself that surely for centuries no one had known such a joy as was his. He was then twenty-four. In his autobiog raphical writings, Hakuin warns Zen students with peculiar earnestness against t his pride of assurance. (6) After this he endured three years of merciless hammering by the Master Shoju, who utterly smashed his self-satisfaction. He had another satori, which he classi fied as a great satori , and which his teacher confirmed by saying, You are through. Nevertheless, Shoju admonished him not to be content with such a small thing but to perform the practise after satori. This is known as the downward practise, where one descends from the mountaintop to become the Great Fool, highly revered in the Zen tradition. It was not until more than ten years later, and much meditation under extremely austere conditions, that Hakuin penetrated to the depths of the Lotus Sutra, and gained a most fundamental awakening: The meaning of the ordinary life of his teacher Shoju was revealed, and he saw that he had been mistaken over his great satori realizations. This time there w as no great reaction in the body-mind instrument. (7) Paul Brunton similarly writes: The glimpse, because it is situated between the mental conditions which exist before and afterwards, necessarily involves striking - even dramatic - contrast with their ordinariness. It seems to open onto the ultimate light-bathed height of human existence. But this experience necessarily provokes a human reaction to it, which is incorporated into the glimpse itself, becomes part of it. The perm anent and truly ultimate enlightenment is pure, free from any admixture of react

ion, since it is calm, balanced, and informed.

(8)

Adyashanti calls this enlightenment "a mutation at the very core of your inne r self." In the following passage he addresses the fact that such a liberation i s not merely cognitive but entails a deep surrender of the will: "This is really a fundamental transformation. That's why I say that we can ha ve a very deep and profound realization of the truth and, in the end, the final real freedom doesn't necessarily come about through a realization. It comes abou t through a deep surrender at the deepest seat of our being. Of course, most peo ple are going to need a profound realization of their true nature in order to be able to surrender naturally and spontaneously. But it completes itself in a bli nd and unpredictable release of control." (9) In one of his talks Adya offhandedly described this spontaneous release of co ntrol as being "kind of like the only thing left to do." I liken his overall comments to the idea that there are many, many hidden ten tacles of what Plotinus called the "audacious self-will", and St. John of the Cr oss called the "Old Man", remaining to be dealt with - that is why the sutras sa id that AFTER enlightenment one should visit the Zen Masters who can pull out on es nails and spikes. This is much like the great Lankavatara Sutra, where it speaks not only of a fundamental "turnabout in the deep seat of understanding" (awakening or prajna), but says that in "the perfect self-realisation of Noble Wisdom that follows the inconceivable transformation death of the Bodhisattva's individualised will-con trol, he no longer lives unto himself, but the life that he lives thereafter is the Tathagata's universalised life as manifested in its transformations." (i.e., liberation) [excerpted from Dwight Goddard, ed., A Buddhist Bible] This is far beyond anything resembling a personal enlightenment. PB described this as entail ing the ego of the sage being "pressed into" the World-Idea. Bankei many years l ater confessed: "When it comes to the truth I uncovered when I was twenty-six and living in r etreat at the village of Nonaka in Ako in Harima - the truth for which I went to see Dosha and obtained his confirmation - so far as the truth is concerned, bet ween that time and this, from beginning to end, there hasn't been a shred of dif ference. However, so far as penetrating the great truth of Buddhism with the per fect clarity of the Dharma Eye and realizing absolute freedom, between the time I met Dosha and today, there's all the difference of heaven and earth!" (10) The essence of this story can be summed up by an old Tibetan saying, "don't m istake understanding for realization, and don't mistake realization for liberati on."

SUNDAR SINGH Subathu, July 1926. The Visions LIFE There is only one source of Life--an Infinite and Almighty Life, whose creative power gave life to all living things. All creatures live in Him and in Him will they remain forever. Again, this Life created innumerable other lives, different in kind, and in the stages of their progress man is one of these, created in Go d's own image that he might ever remain happy in His holy presence. DEATH This life may change but it can never be destroyed, and though the change from o ne form of existence into another is called Death, this never means that death f inally ends life, or even that it adds to life, or takes away from it. It merely transfers the life from one form of existence to another. A thing that disappea rs from our sight has not thereby ceased to exist. It reappears, but in another form and state.

MAN CAN NEVER BE DESTROYED Nothing in this whole universe was ever destroyed, nor can it ever be, because t he Creator has never created anything for destruction. If He had wished to destr oy it, He would never have created it. And if nothing in creation can be destroy ed, then how can man be destroyed, who is the crown of creation, and the image o f his Creator? Can God Himself destroy His own image, or can any other creature do it? Never! If a man is not destroyed at death then at once the question arise s, where will man exist after death, and in what state? I shall attempt to give a brief explanation from my own visional experiences tho ugh it is not possible for me to describe all the things which I have seen in vi sions of the spiritual world, because the language and illustrations of this wor ld are inadequate to express these spiritual realities; and the very attempt to reduce to ordinary language the glory of the things seen is likely to result in misunderstanding. I have, therefore, had to eliminate the account of all those s ubtle spiritual occurrences, for which only a spiritual language is adequate, an d to take up only a few simple and instructive incidents that will prove profita ble to all. And since at some time or other every one will have to enter into th is unseen spiritual world it will not be without profit, if we, to some extent, become familiar with it. WHAT HAPPENS AT DEATH? One day when I was praying alone, I suddenly found myself surrounded by a great concourse of spirit beings, or I might say that as soon as my spiritual eyes wer e opened I found myself bowed in the presence of a considerable company of saint s and angels. At first, I was somewhat abashed, when I saw their bright and glor ious state and compared with them my own inferior quality. But I was at once put at ease by their real sympathy and love-inspired friendliness. I had already ha d the experience of the peace of the presence of God in my life, but the fellows hip of these saints added a new and wonderful joy to me. As we conversed togethe r, I received from them answers to my questions relating to my difficulties abou t many problems that puzzled me. My first inquiry was about what happens at the time of dying and about the state of the soul after death. I said, ' We know wha t happens to us between childhood and old age, but we know nothing of what happe ns at the time of death or beyond the gates of death. Correct information about it can be known only by those on the other side of death, after they have entere d the spiritual world. "Can you", I asked, "Give us any information about this?" To this one of the saints answered! "Death is like sleep. There is no pain in th e passing over, except in the case of a few bodily diseases and mental condition s. As an exhausted man is overcome by deep sleep, so comes the sleep of death to man. Death comes so suddenly to many, that it is only with great difficulty tha t they realize that they have left the material world, and entered this world of spirits. Bewildered by the many new things that they see around them, they imag ine that they are visiting some country or city of the physical world, which the y have not seen before. It is only when they have been more fully instructed, an d realize that their spiritual body is different from their former material body , that they allow that they have, in fact, been transferred from the material wo rld to the realm of spirits." Another of the saints who was present gave this further answer to my question, " Usually," he said, "at the time of death the body loses its power of feeling. It has no pain, but is simply overcome by a sense of drowsiness. Sometimes in case s of great weakness, or after accident, the spirit departs while the body is sti ll unconscious. Then the spirits of those who have lived without thought of, or preparation for, entering the spiritual world, being thus suddenly transferred i nto the world of spirits, are extremely bewildered, and in a state of great dist ress at their fate, so, for a considerable period, they have to remain in the lo wer and darker planes of the intermediate state. The spirits of these lower sphe

res often greatly harass people in the world. But the only ones that they can in jure are those who are like in mind to themselves, who of their own free will op en their hearts to entertain them. These evil spirits, allying themselves with o ther evil spirits, would do immense harm in the world were it not that God has a ppointed innumerable angels everywhere for the protection of His people, and of His creation, so that His people are always safe in His keeping." "Evil spirits can injure only those in the world who are like in nature to thems elves, and then they can do it only to a limited extent. They can, indeed, troub le the righteous, but not without God's permission. God sometimes does give to S atan and his angels permission to tempt and persecute His people, that they may emerge from the trial stronger and better, as when He allowed Satan to persecute His servant Job. But from such a trial there is gain rather than loss to the be liever." Another of the saints standing by added in reply to my question, "Many whose liv es have not been yielded to God, when about to die, seem to become unconscious; but what actually happens is that when they see the hideous and devilish faces o f the evil spirits that have come about them, they become speechless and paralyz ed by fear. On the other hand the dying of a believer is frequently the very opp osite of this. He is extremely happy for he sees angels and saintly spirits comi ng to welcome him. Then too, his loved ones, who have died before, are permitted to attend his deathbed, and to conduct his soul to the spiritual world. On ente ring the world of spirits he at once feels at home for not only are his friends about him, but, while in the world he had long been preparing himself for that H ome by his trust in God and fellowship with Him." After that a fourth saint said, "To conduct the souls of men from the world is t he work of angels. Usually Christ reveals Himself in the spiritual world to each one in degrees of glory differing in intensity according to the state of each s oul's spiritual development. But in some cases, He Himself comes to a deathbed t o welcome His servant and in love dries his tears, and leads him into Paradise. As a child born into the world finds everything provided for its wants, so does the soul, on entering the spiritual world find all its wants supplied." THE WORLD OF SPIRITS Once in the course of conversation, the saints gave me this information. "After death the soul of every human being will enter the world of spirits, and every o ne, according to the stage of his spiritual growth, will dwell with spirits like in mind and in nature to himself, either in the darkness or in the light of glo ry. We are assured that no one in the physical body has entered into the spiritu al world, except Christ and a few saints, whose bodies were transformed into glo rious bodies, yet to some it has been granted, that, while still dwelling in the world, they can see the world of spirits, and heaven itself, as in 2 Cor. 12:2, though they themselves cannot tell whether they enter Paradise in the body or i n the spirit." After this conversation, these saints conducted me around and showed me many won derful things and places. I saw that from all sides thousands upon thousands of souls were constantly arriving in the world of spirits, and that all were attend ed by angels. The souls of the good had with them only angels and good spirits, who had conducted them from their deathbeds. Evil spirits were not allowed to co me near to them, but stood far off and watched. I saw also that there were no go od spirits with the souls of the really wicked, but about them were evil spirits , who had come with them from their death-beds, while angels, too, stood by and prevented the evil spirits from giving free play to the spite of their malicious natures in harassing them. The evil spirits almost immediately led these souls away towards the darkness, for when in the flesh, they had consistently allowed evil spirits to influence them for evil, and had willingly permitted themselves to be enticed to all kinds of wickedness.

For the angels in no way interfere with the free will of any soul. I saw there, also, many souls who had lately come into the world of spirits, who were attende d by both good and evil spirits, as well as by angels. But before long, the radi cal difference of their lives began to assert itself, and they separated themsel ves--the good in character towards the good, and the evil towards the evil. SONS OF LIGHT When the souls of men arrive in the world of spirits the good at once separate f rom the evil. In the world all are mixed together, but it is not so in the spiri tual world. I have many times seen that when the spirits of the good--the Sons o f Light enter into the world of spirits they first of all bathe in the impalpabl e air-like waters of a crystal clear ocean, and in this they find an intense and exhilarating refreshment. Within these miraculous waters they move about as if in open air, neither are they drowned beneath them, nor do the waters wet them, but, wonderfully cleansed and refreshed and fully purified, they enter into the world of glory and light, where they will ever remain in the presence of their d ear Lord, and in the fellowship of innumerable saints and angels. SONS OF DARKNESS How different from these are the souls of those whose lives have been evil. Ill at ease in the company of the Sons of Light, and tormented by the all-revealing light of Glory, they struggle to hide themselves in places where their impure an d sin-stained natures will not be seen. From the lowest and darkest part of the world of spirits a black and evil-smelling smoke arises, and in their effort to hide themselves from the light, these Sons of Darkness push down, and cast thems elves headlong into it, and from it their bitter wails of remorse and anguish ar e heard constantly to arise. But heaven is so arranged that the smoke is not see n, nor does the spirits in heaven hear the wails of anguish, unless any of them for some special reason should wish to see the evil plight of those souls in dar kness. DEATH OF A CHILD A little child died of pneumonia, and a party of angels came to conduct his soul to the world of spirits. I wish that his mother could have seen that wonderful sight, then, instead of weeping, she would have sung with joy, for the angels ta ke care of the little ones with a care and a love that no mother ever could show . I heard one of the angels say to another, "See how this child's mother weeps o ver this short and temporary separation! In a very few years she will be happy a gain with her child." Then the angels took the child's soul to that beautiful an d light-filled part of heaven, which is set apart for children, where they care for them, and teach them in all heavenly wisdom, until gradually the little ones become like the angels. After some time this child's mother also died, and her child, who had now become like the angels, came with other angels to welcome the soul of his mother. When he said to her, "Mother, do you not know me? I am your son Theodore," the mothe r's heart was flooded with joy, and when they embraced one another their tears o f joy fell like flowers. It was a touching sight! Then as they walked along toge ther he kept on pointing out, and explaining to her the things around them, and during the time appointed for her stay in the intermediate state, he remained wi th her, and, when the period necessary for instruction in that world was complet ed he took her with him to the higher sphere where he himself dwelt. There, on all sides, were wonderful and joyous surroundings, and unnumbered soul s of men were there, who in the world had borne all kinds of suffering for the s ake of Christ, and in the end had been raised to this Glorious place of honor. A ll around were matchless and exceedingly beautiful mountains, springs & landscap es, & in the gardens was abundance of all kinds of sweet fruits & beautiful flow ers. Everything the heart could desire was there. Then he said to his mother, "I

n the World, which is the dim reflection of this real world, our dear ones are g rieving over us, but, tell me, is this death, or the real life for which every h eart yearns?" The mother said, "Son. This is the true life. If I had known in th e world the whole truth about heaven, I would never have grieved over your death . What a pity it is those in the world are so blind! In spite of the fact that C hrist has explained quite clearly about this state of glory, and that the Gospel s again and again tell of this eternal kingdom of the Father, yet, not only igno rant people, but many enlightened believers as well, still remain altogether una ware of its glory. May God grant that all may enter into the abiding joy of this place!" DEATH OF A PHILOSOPHER The soul of a German philosopher entered into the world of spirits and saw from afar the incomparable glory of the spiritual world, and the boundless happiness of its people. He was delighted with what he saw, but his stubborn intellectuali sm stood in the way of his entering into it, and enjoying its happiness. Instead of admitting that it was real, he argued thus with himself, "There is no doubt at all that I see all this, but what proof is there that it has objective existe nce, and is not some illusion conjured up by my mind? From end to end of all thi s scene I will apply the tests of logic, philosophy and science, and then only w ill I be convinced that it has a reality of its own, and is no illusion." Then t he angels answered him, "It is evident from your speech that your intellectualis m has warped your whole nature, for as spiritual, and not bodily, eyes are neede d to see the spiritual world, so spiritual understanding is necessary to compreh end its reality, and not mental exercises in the fundamentals of logic and philo sophy. Your science that deals with material facts has been left behind with you r physical skull and brain in the World. Here, only that spiritual wisdom is of use which arises out of the fear and love of God." Then said one of the angels t o another, "What a pity it is that people forget that precious word of our Lord, 'Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise ent er into the Kingdom of Heaven' (Matt. 18:3). I asked one of the angels what the end of this man would be, and he replied "If this man's life had been altogether bad, then he would at once have joined the spirits of darkness, but he is not w ithout a moral sense, so for a very long time he will wander blindly round in th e dim light of the lower parts of the intermediate state, and keep on bumping hi s philosophical head, until tired of his foolishness, he repents. Then he will b e ready to receive the necessary instruction from the angels appointed for that purpose, and, when instructed, will he be fit to enter into the fuller light of God in the higher sphere." In one sense the whole of infinite space, filled as it is with the presence of G od, who is Spirit, is a spiritual world. In another sense, the World also is a s piritual world, for its inhabitants are spirits clothed with human bodies. But t here is yet another world of spirits after they leave the body at death. This is an intermediate state -- a state between the glory and light of the highest hea vens, and the dimness and darkness of the lowest hells. In it are innumerable pl anes of existence, and the soul is conducted to that plane for which its progres s in the World has fitted it. There, angels especially appointed to this work, i nstruct it for a time, that may be long or short, before it goes on to join the society of those spirits -- good spirits in the greater light, or evil spirits i n the greater darkness -- that are like in nature and in mind to itself. UNSEEN HELP Our relatives and dear ones, and at times the saints as well often come from the unseen world to help and protect us, but the angels always do. Yet they have ne ver been allowed to make themselves visible to us, except at a few times of very special need. By ways unrecognized by us they influence us towards holy thought s, and incline us towards God and towards good conduct, and God's Spirit, dwelli ng in our hearts, completes that work for the perfecting of our spiritual life, which they have been unable to accomplish.

The greatness of any one does not depend upon his knowledge and position, nor by these alone can any one be great. A man is as great as he can be useful to othe rs, and the usefulness of his life to others depends on his service to them. Hen ce, in so far as a man can serve others in love, just so far is he great. As the Lord said, "But whosoever will be great among you let him be your servant" (Mat t. 20:26). The joy of all those that dwell in heaven is found in this that they serve one another in love, and thus, fulfilling the object of their lives, they remain forever in the presence of God. THE CORRECTION OF ERROR When people earnestly desire to live lives pleasing to God, the readjustment of their views, and the renewal of their lives, begin in this world. Not only does the Spirit of God teach them directly but in the secret chamber of their hearts they are helped by communion with the saints, who, unseen by them are ever at ha nd to assist them towards the good. But, as many Christian believers, as well as non-Christian seekers after truth, die while still holding false and partial views of truth, their views are correc ted in the world of spirits, provided that they are not obstinately welded to th eir opinions, and are willing to learn, because neither in this world, nor in th e next, does God, or any servant of His, force a man to believe anything against his will. THE MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST I saw in a vision the spirit of an idolater on reaching the world of spirits beg in at once to search for his god. Then the saints said to him, "There is no god here save the One True God, and Christ, who is His manifestation." At this, the man was a good deal astonished, but being a sincere seeker after truth, he frank ly admitted that he had been in error. He eagerly sought to know the correct vie w of truth, and asked if he might see the Christ. Shortly after this Christ mani fested Himself in a dim light to him, and to others who had newly arrived in the world of spirits, because at this stage they could not have endured a full exhi bition of His glory, for His glory is so surpassing that even the angels look on Him with difficulty, and cover their faces with their wings (Isaiah 6:9). When He does reveal Himself to any one He takes into account the particular stage of progress to which that soul has attained, so He appears dimly, or in the fuller light of His glory, that the sight of Him may be endured. So, when these spirits saw Christ in this dim but attractive light, they were filled with a joy and pe ace, which is beyond our power to describe. Bathed in the rays of His life-givin g light, and with the waves of His love, which constantly flow out from Him, flo wing over them, all their error was washed away. Then with all their hearts, the y acknowledged Him as the Truth, and found healing, and, bowing in lowly adorati on before Him, thanked and praised Him. And the saints, who had been appointed f or their instruction; also rejoiced over them. A LABOURER AND A DOUBTER Once I saw in a vision a laboring man arrive in the spirit world. He was in grea t distress, for in all his life he had given no thought to anything but earning his daily bread. He had been too busy to think of God, or of spiritual things. A t the same time he had died another had also died, who was a doubter, obstinate in his opinions. Both were ordered to remain for a long period far down in the w orld of spirits in a place of darkness. In this, being in distress, they began t o cry for help. Saints and angels, in love and sympathy, went to instruct them t hat they might understand how to become members of the Kingdom of Glory and Ligh t. But in spite of their distress, like many other spirits, they preferred to re main on in their dark abode, for sin had so warped their whole character and nat ure that they doubted everything. They even looked with suspicion on the angels who had come to help them. As I watched I wondered what their end would be, but, when I asked, the only answer I got was from one of the saints, who said, "God

may have mercy on them." We can form an estimate from the depravity of man's perverted nature from this, that, if an evil report about another goes round, even if it is false, a man who se outlook is distorted by sin will at once accept it as true. If, on the other hand, a good and perfectly true report is received, for example that such and su ch a man is a devout man, who has done this or that work for the glory of God an d for the good of his fellows, then, without hesitation, such a hearer will say, "It is all false. So-and-so must have some motive of his own at the back of it all." Should we ask such a man how he knows that the former case is true and the latter false, and what proof he can give, he will have not the slightest proof to put forward. All that we can learn from such an attitude of mind is, that, as his mind is tai nted with evil he believes evil reports because they fit in with his evil nature , and he thinks good reports are lies because they do not fit in with the evil o f his heart. By nature, a good man's attitude is the opposite of this. He is nat urally inclined to doubt an evil report, and to believe a good report, because t his attitude best fits in with the goodness of his nature. Those who in this wor ld pass their lives in opposition to the will of God will have rest of heart nei ther in this world nor in the world to come; and, on entering the world of spiri ts they will feel bewildered and distressed. But those who in this world are con formed to the will or the Lord will be at peace on reaching the next, and will b e filled with unspeakable joy, because here is their eternal home, and the kingd om of their Father. THE JUDGMENT OF SINNERS Many have the idea that if they sin in secret then none will ever know about it, but it is altogether impossible that any sin should remain hidden forever. At s ome time or other, it will certainly be known, and the sinner will also receive the punishment he deserves. Also, goodness and truth can never be hidden. In the end they must triumph, though, for a time, they may not be recognized. The foll owing incidents will throw light on the state of the sinner. A GOOD MAN AND A THIEF Once in a vision, one of the saints recounted this story to me, "Late one night a godly man had to go a distance to do some necessary work. As he went along, he came upon a thief breaking into a shop. He said to him, 'you have no right to t ake other people's property, and to cause them loss. It is a great sin to do so. ' The thief answered, 'If you want to get out of this safely, then get out quiet ly. If you don't there will be trouble for you.' The good man persisted in his e fforts, and, when the thief would not listen, he began to shout and raised the n eighbors. They rushed out to seize the thief, but as soon as the good man began to accuse him, the thief retaliated and accused the good man. 'Oh-yes;' he said, 'you think this fellow is very religious, but I caught him in the very act of s tealing.' As there were no witnesses both were arrested, and locked up together in a room, while a police officer and some of his men hid themselves to listen t o their conversation. Then the thief began to laugh at his fellow prisoner. 'Look,' he said, 'haven't I caught you nicely? I told you at first to get out or it would be the worse for you. Now we'll see how your religion is going to save you.' As soon as the officer heard this, he opened the door and released the go od man with honor and a reward, while he gave the thief a severe beating, and lo cked him in a prison cell. So, even in this world, there is a degree of judgment between good and bad men, but the full punishment and reward will be given only in the world to come." SECRET SINS The following was also related to me in a vision. A man in the secret of his own room was committing a sinful act, and he thought that his sin was hidden. One o

f the saints said, "How I wish that the spiritual eyes of this man had been open at the time, then he would never have dared to commit this sin." For in that ro om were a number of angels and saints, as well as some spirits of his dear ones, who had come to help him. All of them were grieved to see his shameful conducts and one of them said, "We came to help him, but now we will have to be witnesse s against him at the time of his judgment. He cannot see us, but we can all see him indulging in this sin. Would that this man would repent, and be saved from t he punishment to come." WASTED OPPORTUNITIES Once I saw in the world of spirits a spirit who, with cries of remorse was rushi ng about like a madman. An angel said, "In the world this man had many chances o f repenting and turning towards God, but whenever his conscience began to troubl e him he used to drown its prickings in drink. He wasted all his property, ruine d his family, and in the end committed suicide, and now in the world of spirits he rushes frantically about like a mad dog and writhes in remorse at the thought of his lost opportunities. We are all willing to help him, but his own perverte d nature prevents him from repenting, for sin has hardened his heart, though the memory of his sin is always fresh to him. In the world, he drank to make himsel f forget the voice of his conscience, but here there is no possible chance of co vering up anything. Now his soul is so naked that he himself, and all the inhabi tants of the spiritual world, can see his sinful life. For him, in his sin-harde ned state, no other course is possible but that he must hide himself in the dark ness with other evil spirits, and so to some extent escape the torture of the li ght." A WICKED MAN PERMITTED TO ENTER HEAVEN Once in my presence a man of evil life entered at death into the world of spirit s. When the angel and saints wished to help him he at once began to curse and re vile them, and say, "God is altogether unjust. He has prepared heaven for such f lattering slaves as you are, and casts the rest of mankind into hell. Yet you ca ll Him Love!" The angels replied, "God certainly is Love. He created men that th ey might live forever in happy fellowship with Him, but men, by their own obstin acy, and by abuse of their free will have turned their faces away from Him, and have made hell for themselves. God neither casts any one into hell, nor will He ever do so, but man himself, by being entangled in sin, creates hell for himself . God never created any hell." Just then, the exceedingly sweet voice of one of the high angels was heard from above saying, "God gives permission that this man may be brought into heaven." E agerly the man stepped forward accompanied by two angels, but when they reached the door of heaven, and saw the holy and light-enveloped place and the glorious and blessed inhabitants that dwell there, he began to feel uneasy. The angels sa id to him, "See how beautiful a world is this! Go a little farther, and look at the dear Lord sitting on His throne." From the door he looked, and then as the l ight of the Sun of Righteousness revealed to him the impurity of his sin-defiled life, he started back in an agony of self-loathing, and fled, with such precipi tancy, that he did not even stop in the intermediate state of the world of spiri ts, but like a stone he passed through it, and cast himself headlong into the bo ttomless pit. Then the sweet and ravishing voice of the children, none is forbidden to come here, ny one asked him to leave. It was his own om this holy place, for, 'Except a man be f God' (John 3:3).

Lord was heard saying, "Look, My dear and no one forbade this man, nor has a impure life that forced him to flee fr born again he cannot see the kingdom o

THE SPIRIT OF A MURDERER A man, who some years before had killed a Christian preacher, was bitten by a sn ake in the jungle, and died. When he entered the world of spirits, he saw good a

nd bad spirits all around him, and because the whole aspect of his soul showed t hat he was a son of darkness, the evil spirits soon had possession of him, and p ushed him along with them towards the darkness. One of the saints remarked, "He killed a man of God by the poison of his anger, and now he is killed by the pois on of a snake. The old Serpent, the devil, by means of this man, killed an innoc ent man. Now, by means of another snake, which is like him, he has killed this m an, for 'he was a murderer from the beginning' " (John 8:44). AND THE SPIRIT OF THE MAN MURDERED As he was being taken away, one from among the good spirits, who had come to hel p him, said to him, "I have forgiven you with all my heart. Now can I do anythin g to help you?" The murderer at once recognized him as the same man whom he had killed some years before. Ashamed and smitten with fear he fell down before him, and at once the evil spirits began to clamor loudly, but the angels who were st anding at a distance rebuked and silenced them. Then the murderer said to the ma n whom he had killed, "How I wish that, in the world, I could have seen your uns elfish and loving life as I see it now! I regret that through my blindness, and because your body screened your real spiritual life, I could not then see the in ner beauty of your life. Also, by killing, you I deprived many of the blessing a nd benefit that you would have given them. Now I am forever a sinner in God's si ght, and fully deserve my punishment. I don't know what I can do except hide mys elf in some dark cave, because I cannot bear this light. In it, not only does my own heart make me miserable, but all can see every detail of my sinful life." T o this the man who had been murdered replied, "You should truly repent, and turn to God, for if you do there is hope that the Lamb of God will wash you in His o wn blood, and give you new life that you may live with us in heaven, and be save d frown the torment of Hell." The murderer said in reply, "There is no need for me to confess my sins for they are open to all. In the world, I could hide them, but not here. I want to live with saints like you in heaven, but when I cannot bear the dimness of the self-r evealing light in the world of spirits, then what will be my state in the search ing brightness and glory of that light-filled place? My greatest hindrance is th at, through my sins, my conscience is so dull and hardened that my nature will n ot incline towards God and repentance. I seem to have no power to repent left in me. Now there is nothing for it, but that I shall be driven out from here forev er. Alas for my unhappy state!" As he said this, fear-stricken, he fell down, an d his fellow evil spirits dragged him away into the darkness. Then one of the an gels said, "See! There is no need for anyone to pronounce a sentence of doom. Of itself, the life of any sinner proves him guilty. There is no need to tell him, or to put forward witnesses against him. To a certain extent, punishment begins in the heart of every sinner while in the world, but here they feel the full ef fect of it. And God's arrangement here is such that goats and sheep, that is, si nners and righteous, separate of their own accord. God created man to live in light, in which his Spiritual health and joy are made permanent forever. Therefore, no man can be happy in the darkness of hell, nor, because of his sin-perverted life, can he be happy in the light. So, wherever a sinner may go he will find himself in hell. How opposite to this is the state o f the righteous, who freed from sin, is in heaven everywhere!" THE SPIRIT OF A LIAR In the world, there was a man so addicted to lying that it had become second nat ure to him. When he died and entered the world of spirits, he tried to lie as us ual, but was greatly ashamed because even before he could speak, his thoughts we re known to all. No one can be a hypocrite there, because the thought of no hear t can remain hidden. The soul as it leaves the body bears in it the imprint of a ll its sin, and its very members become witnesses against it. Nothing can blot o ut that stain of sin except the blood of Christ. When this man was in the world he regularly tried to distort right into wrong, and wrong into right, but, after

his bodily death he learned that there never is, and never can be, a possibilit y of twisting truth into untruth. He who lies injures and deceives no one but hi mself, so this man by lying had killed the inner perception to truth, which he h ad once possessed. I watched him as, inextricably tangled in his own deceit, he turned his face away from the light from above, and hurried away far down into t he darkness, where none could see his filthy love of lying, except those spirits who were like in nature to himself. For Truth is always Truth, and it alone gave this man the sentence of his falsen ess, and condemned him as a liar. THE SPIRIT OF AN ADULTERER I saw an adulterer, who had shortly before arrived in the world of spirits. His tongue was hanging out like a man consumed by thirst, his nostrils were distende d, and he beat his arms about as if a kind of fire burned within him. His appear ance was so evil and loathsome that I revolted at looking at him. All the accomp animents of luxury and sensuality had been left behind in the world and now, lik e a mad dog, he ran frantically around, and cried, "Curse on this life! There is no death here to put an end to all this pain. And here the spirit cannot die; o therwise, I should again kill myself, as I did with a pistol in the world in ord er to escape from my troubles there. But this pain is far greater than the pain of the world. What shall I do?" Saying this he ran towards the darkness, where w ere many other like-minded spirits, and there disappeared. One of the saints said "Not only is an evil act sin, but an evil thought, and an evil look is also sin. This sin is not confined only to trafficking with strang e women, but excess and animalism in relation to one's wife is also sin. A man a nd his wife are truly joined together not for sensualism but for mutual help and support, that they with their children may spend their lives in the service of mankind and for the glory of God. But he who departs from this aim in life is guilty of the adulterer's sin." THE SOUL OF A ROBBER A robber died and entered the world of spirits. At first he took no interest in his state, or in the spirits about him, but, as his habit was, he at once set ab out helping himself to the valuables of the place. But he was amazed that in the spirit world the very things seemed to be speaking and accusing him of his unwo rthy action. His nature was so perverted that he neither knew the true use of th ese things nor was he fit to use them rightly. In the World, his passions had be en so unbridled, that, for the most trifling cause, he, in his anger, had killed or wounded any who had offended him. Now in the world of spirits, he began to a ct in the same way. He turned on the spirits, who came to instruct him, as if he would have torn them to pieces, like a savage dog will do even in the presence of its master. On this one of the angels said, "If spirits of this kind were not kept down in the darkness or the bottomless pit, then they would cause immense harm wherever they might go. This man's conscience is so dead, that even after h e has reached the world of spirits, he fails to recognize that, by murdering and robbing in the world, he has wasted his own spiritual discernment and life. He killed and destroyed others, but in reality, he has destroyed himself. God alone knows if this man, and those who are like him, will remain in torment for ages or forever." After this, the angels appointed to the duty took him, and shut him down in the darkness from which he is not permitted to come out. The state of evildoers in t hat place is so terrible, and so inexpressibly fierce is this torment, that thos e who see them tremble at the sight. Because of the limitations of our worldly s peech, we can only say this, that wherever the soul of a sinner is, always and i n every way, there is nothing but pain that ceases not for a moment. A kind of l ightless fire burns forever and torments these souls, but neither are they altog

ether consumed, nor does the fire die out. A spirit who was watching what had ju st happened said, "Who knows but that in the end this may not be a cleansing fla me?" In the dark part of the world of spirits, which is called Hell, there are m any grades and planes, and the particular one in which any spirit lives in suffe ring is dependent on the quantity and character of his sins. In fact God made th em all in His own image (Gen. 1:26, 27; Col. 1:15), yet by their connection with sin they have disfigured this image, and have made it unbeautiful and evil. The y have, indeed, a kind of spiritual body, but it is exceedingly loathsome and fr ightful, and if they are not restored by true repentance, and the grace of God, (while on earth), then in this fearful form they must remain in torment forever. THE STATE OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THEIR GLORIOUS END Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, begins in the lives of all true believers in this world. Their hearts are always filled with peace and joy, no matter what persec utions and troubles they may have to endure; for God, who is the source of all p eace and life, dwells in them. Death is no death for them, but a door by which t hey enter forever into their eternal home. Or we may say that though they have a lready been born again into their eternal kingdom, yet when they leave the body, it is for them, not the day of their death, but their day of birth into the spi ritual world, and it is for them a time of superlative joy as the following inci dents will make clear. THE DEATH OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN An angel related to me how a true Christian, who had wholeheartedly served his M aster for thirty years, lay dying. A few minutes before he died God opened his s piritual eyes that, even before leaving the body, he might see the spiritual wor ld and might tell what he saw to those about him. He saw that heaven had been op ened for him, and a party of angels and saints was coming out to meet him, and a t the door, the Savior with outstretched hand was waiting to receive him. As all this broke upon him, he gave such a shout of joy that those at his bedside were startled. "What a joy it is for me," he exclaimed, "I have long been waiting th at I might see my Lord, and go to Him. Oh friends! Look at His face all lighted by love, and see that company of angels that has come for me. What a glorious pl ace it is! Friends, I am setting out for my real home, do not grieve over my dep arture, but rejoice!" One of those present at his bedside said quietly, "His min d is wandering." He heard the low voice and said, "No, it is not. I am quite con scious. I wish you could see this wonderful sight. I am sorry it is hidden from your eyes. Good-bye, we will meet again in the next world." Saving this he close d his eyes, and said, "Lord I commend my soul into thy hands" and so fell asleep . COMFORTING HIS DEAR ONES As soon as his soul had left his body the angels took him in their arms, and wer e about to go off to heaven, but he asked them to delay a few minutes. He looked at his lifeless body, and at his friends, and said to the angels, "I did not kn ow that the spirit after leaving the body could see his own body and his friends . I wish my friends could see me, as well as I can see them, then these would ne ver count me as dead, nor mourn for me as they do." Then he examined his spiritu al body and found it beautifully light and delicate, and totally different from his gross material body. On that, he began to restrain his wife and children who were weeping and kissing his cold body. He stretched out his delicate spiritual hands, and began to explain to them, and with great love to press them away fro m it, but they could neither see him, nor hear his voice, and, as he tried to re move his children from off his body, it seemed as if his hands passed right thro ugh their bodies, as if they were air, but they felt nothing at all. Then one of the angels said, "Come, let us take you to your everlasting home. Do not be sor ry for them. The Lord Himself, and we also, will comfort them. This separation i s but for a few days." Then in company with the angels he set out for heaven. They had gone forward onl

y a little way when another band of angels met them with cries of "Welcome." Man y friends and dear ones, who had died before him, also met him, and on seeing th em, his joy was further increased. On reaching the gate of heaven, the angels an d saints stood in silence on either side. He entered, and in the doorway was met by Christ. At once, he fell at His feet to worship Him, but the Lord lifted him up, embraced him, and said, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou int o the joy of thy Lord At that the man's joy was indescribable. From his eyes tea rs of joy began to flow, the Lord in great love wiped them away, and to the ange ls He said, "Take him to that most glorious mansion that, from the beginning, ha s been prepared for him." Now the spirit of this man of God still held the earth ly idea, that to turn his back on the Lord as he went off with the angels would be a dishonor to Him. He hesitated to do this, but, when at last he turned his f ace towards the mansion, he was astonished to see that wherever he looked he cou ld see the Lord. For Christ is present in every place, and is seen everywhere by saints and angels. In addition to the Lord, he was delighted to see that on every side there were s urroundings that filled him with joy, and that those who are lowest in rank meet without envy those who are higher, and that those whose position is more exalte d count themselves fortunate to be able to serve their brethren in lower positio ns because this is the kingdom of God, and of love. In every part of heaven, there are superb gardens, which all the time produces e very variety of sweet and luscious fruit, and all kinds of sweet scented flowers that never fade. In them creatures of every kind, give praise to God unceasingl y. Birds, beautiful in hue, raise their sweet songs of praise, and such is the s weet singing of angels and saints that on hearing their songs a wonderful sense of rapture is experienced. Wherever one may look there is nothing but scenes of unbounded joy. This, in truth, is the Paradise that God has prepared for those that love Him, w here there is no shade of death, nor error, nor sin, nor suffering, but abiding peace and joy. THE MANSIONS OF HEAVEN Then I saw a man of God examining his appointed mansion from a great distance. W hen this man, in company with the angels, arrived at the door of his appointed m ansion, he saw written on it in shining letters the word "Welcome," and from the letters themselves "Welcome, Welcome," in audible sound was repeated and repeat ed again. When he had entered his home, to his surprise he found the Lord there before him. At this, his joy was more than we can describe, and he exclaimed, "I left the Lord's presence and came here at His command, but I find that the Lord Himself is here to dwell with me." In the mansion was everything that his imagi nation could have conceived, and everyone was ready to serve him. In the near-by houses, saints, like-minded to himself, lived in happy fellowship. For this hea venly house is the kingdom, which has been prepared for the saints from the foun dation of the world (Matt. 25:34), and this is the glorious future that awaits e very true follower of Christ. A PROUD MINISTER AND A HUMBLE WORKMAN A minister who looked on himself as an exceedingly learned and religious man die d at a ripe old age. And without doubt, he was a good man. When the angels came to take him to the place appointed for him by the Lord in the world of spirits, they brought him into the intermediate state, and left him there with many other good spirits, who had lately arrived, in charge of those angels who are appoint ed to instruct good souls, while they themselves went back to usher in another g ood spirit. In that intermediate heaven, there are grades upon grades right up t o the higher heavens, and the grade into which any soul is admitted for instruct ion, is determined by the real goodness of his life on earth.

When the angels, who had put this minister in his grade, came back conducting in the other soul, for whom they had gone, they brought him up beyond the grade in which the minister was, on their way up to a higher plane. Seeing this the mini ster in a blustering voice called out, "What right have you to leave me half-way up to that glorious country, while You take this other man away up near to it? Neither in holiness, nor in anything else, am I in any way less than this man, o r than you yourselves." The angels replied, "There is no question here of great or small, or of more or less, but a man is put into whatever grade he has merite d by his life and faith. You are not quite ready yet for that upper grade, so yo u will have to remain here for a while, and learn some of the things that our fe llow-workers are appointed to teach. Then, when the Lord commands us, we will, w ith great pleasure, take you with us to that higher sphere." He said, "I have be en teaching people all my life about the way to reach heaven. What more have I t o learn? I know all about it." Then the instructing angels said, "They must go up now, we can't detain them, bu t we will answer your question. My friend, do not be offended if we speak plainl y, for it is for your good. You think you are alone here, but the Lord is also h ere though you cannot see Him. The pride that you displayed when you said, 'I kn ow all about it' prevents you from seeing Him, and from going up higher. Humilit y is the cure for this pride. Practice it and your desire will be granted." Afte r this, one of the angels told him, "The man who has just been promoted above yo u, was no learned or famous man. You did not look at him very carefully. He was a member of your own congregation. People hardly knew him at all, for he was an ordinary working man, and had little leisure from his work. But in his workshop, many knew him as an industrious and honest worker. All who came in contact with him recognized his Christian character. In the war, he was called up for servic e in France. There, one day, as he was helping a wounded comrade, he was struck by a bullet and killed. Though his death was sudden, he was ready for it, so he did not have to remain i n the intermediate state as long as you will have to do. His promotion depends, not on favoritism, but on his spiritual worthiness. His life of prayer and humil ity, while he was in the world, prepared him to a great extent for the spiritual world. Now he is rejoicing at having reached his appointed place, and is thanki ng and praising the Lord, who, in His mercy, has saved him, and given him eterna l life." HEAVENLY LIFE In heaven, no one can ever be a hypocrite, for all can see the lives of others a s they are. The all-revealing light which flows out from the Christ in Glory mak es the wicked in their remorse try to hide themselves, but it fills the righteou s with the utmost joy to be in the Father's kingdom of Light. There, their goodn ess is evident to all, it ever increases more and more, for nothing is present t hat can hinder their growth, and everything that can sustain them is there to he lp them. The degrees of goodness reached by the soul of a righteous man is known by the brightness that radiates from his whole appearance; for character and na ture show themselves in the form of various glowing rainbow-like colors of great glory. In heaven, there is no jealousy. All are glad to see the spiritual eleva tion and glory of others, and, without any motive of self seeking, try, at all t imes, truly to serve one another. All the innumerable gifts and blessings of hea ven are for the common use of all. No one out of selfishness ever thinks of keep ing anything for himself, and there is enough of everything for all. God, who is Love, is seen in the person of Jesus sitting on the throne in the highest heave n. From Him, who is the "Sun of Righteousness," and the "Light of the World," he aling and life-giving rays and waves of light and love are seen flowing out thro ugh every saint and angel, and bringing to whatever they touch vitalizing and vi vifying power. There is in heaven neither east or west, nor north nor south, but for each individual soul or angel, Christ's throne appears as the center of all

things. There also are found every kind of sweet and delicious flower and fruit, and man y kinds of spiritual food. While eating them an exquisite flavor and pleasure ar e experienced but after the are assimilated, a delicate scent, which perfumes th e air around, exudes from the pores of the body. In short, the will and desires of all the inhabitants of heaven are fulfilled in God, because in every life God's will is made perfect, so under all conditions, and at every stage of heaven, there is for every one an unchanging experience o f wonderful joy and blessedness. THE AIM AND PURPOSE OF CREATION A few months ago, I was lying alone in my room suffering acutely from an ulcer i n my eye. The pain was so great that I could do no other work, so I spent the ti me in prayer and intercession. One day I had been thus engaged for only a few mi nutes, when the spiritual world was opened to me, and I found myself surrounded by numbers of angels. Immediately I forgot all my pain, for my whole attention w as concentrated on them. I mention below a few other subjects on which we conver sed together. NAMES IN HEAVEN I asked them, "Can you tell me by what names you are known?" One of the angels r eplied, "Each of us has been given a new name, which none knows except the Lord and the one who has received it (Rev. 2:17). All of us here have served the Lord in different lands and in different ages, and there is no need that any know wh at our names are. Nor is there any necessity that we should tell our former eart hly names. It might be interesting to know them, but what would be the use of it ? And then we do not want people to know our names, lest they should imagine us great and give honor to us, instead of to the Lord, who has so loved us that He has lifted us up out of our fallen state, and has brought us into our eternal ho me, where we will forever sing praises in His loving fellowship - - and this is the object for which He has created us." SEEING GOD I asked again, "Do the angels and saints who live in the highest spheres of heav en, always look on the face of God? And, if they see Him, in what form and state does He appear?" One of the saints said, "As the sea is full of water, so is th e whole universe filled with God, and every inhabitant of heaven feels His prese nce about him on every side. When one dives under water, above and below and rou nd about there is nothing but water, so in heaven is the presence of God felt. A nd just as in the water of the sea, there are uncounted living creatures, so in the Infinite Being of God His creatures exist. Because He is Infinite, His child ren, who are finite, can see Him only in the form of Christ. As the Lord Himself has said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). In this worl d of spirits, the spiritual progress of any one governs the degree to which he i s able to know and feel God; and the Christ also reveals His glorious form to ea ch one according to his spiritual enlightenment and capacity. If Christ were to appear in the same glorious light to-the dwellers of the darkened lower spheres of the spiritual world, as he; appears to those in the higher planes, then they would not be able to bear it. So He tempers the glory of His manifestation to th e state of progress, and to the capacity, of each individual soul." Then another saint added, "God's presence can indeed be felt and enjoyed but it cannot be expressed in words. As the sweetness of the sweet is enjoyed by tastin g, and not by the most graphic descriptive phrasing, so every one in heaven expe riences the joy of God's presence, and every one in the spiritual world knows th at his experience of God is real, and has no need that any should attempt to hel p him with a verbal description of it."

DISTANCE IN HEAVEN I asked, "How far from one another are the various heavenly spheres of existence ? If one cannot go to stay in other spheres is he permitted to visit them?" Then one of the saints said, "The place of residence is appointed for each soul in t hat plane to which his spiritual development has fitted him, but for short perio ds he can go to visit other spheres. When those of the higher spheres come down to the lower, a kind of spiritual covering is given to them, that the glory of t heir appearance may not be disconcerting to the inhabitants of the lower and dar ker spheres. So when one from a lower sphere goes to a higher, he also gets a ki nd of spiritual covering that he may be able to bear the light and glory of that place." In heaven distance is never felt by any one, for as soon as one forms the wish t o go to a certain place he at once finds himself there. Distances are felt only in the material world. If one wishes to see a saint in a nother sphere, either he himself is transported there in a moment of thought, or at once, the distant saint arrives in his presence. THE WITHERED FIG TREE I inquired of them, "Everything is created for some purpose, but it sometimes ap pears that that purpose is not fulfilled, for instance, the purpose of the fig t ree was to produce fruit, but, when the Lord found it fruitless, He withered it up. Can you enlighten me as to whether its purpose was fulfilled or not?" A sain t replied, "Undoubtedly its purpose was fulfilled, and was fulfilled more fully. The Lord of Life gives life to every creature for a certain specific purpose, b ut if that purpose is not fulfilled, He has power to take back the life in order to fulfill some higher purpose. Many thousands of God's servants have sacrifice d their lives in order to teach and uplift others. By losing their lives for oth ers, they have helped them, and thus fulfilled the higher purpose of God. And if it is lawful, and a most noble service, for man, who is higher than fig trees a nd all other created things, to give his life for other men, then how can it be unjust if a mere tree gives its life for the teaching and warning of an erring n ation? So through this fig tree Christ taught this great lesson to the Jews, and to the whole world, that those whose lives are fruitless, and who fail in the p urpose for which God created them, will be altogether withered and destroyed." And the facts of history make it abundantly plain to us that the bigoted and nar row Jewish national life of that day was, because of its barrenness, withered aw ay like the fig tree. And in the same way the fruitless lives of others, though outwardly they may appear fruitful, are a cause of deception to others, and will be cursed and destroyed. If any one should object that when the Lord cursed thi s fig tree, it was not the fruit season and figs should not have been looked for , then he should reflect that for doing good there is no fixed season, because a ll seasons and times are equally appointed for good works, and that he himself s hould make his life fruitful and thus fulfill the purpose for which he was creat ed. IS MAN A FREE AGENT? Again I asked, "Would it not have been far better if God had created man and all creation perfect, for then man could neither have committed sin, nor because of sin would there have been so much sorrow and suffering in the world; but now, i n a creation made subject to vanity, we have all kinds of suffering to undergo?" An angel who had come from the highest grades of heaven, and occupied a high pos ition there, replied, "God has not made man like a machine, which would work aut omatically; nor has He fixed his destiny as in the case of the stars and planets , that may not move out of their appointed course, but He has made man in His ow n image and likeness, a free agent, possessed of understanding, determination, a nd power to act independently, hence he is superior to all other created things.

Had man not been created a free agent he would not have been able to enjoy God' s presence, nor the joy off heaven, for he would have been a mere machine, that moves without knowing or feeling, or like the stars that swing unknowingly throu gh infinite space. But man, being a free agent, is by the constitution of his na ture, opposed to this kind of soulless perfection -- and a perfection of this ki nd would really have been imperfection -- for such a man would have been a mere slave whose very perfection had compelled him to certain acts, in the doing of w hich he could have had no enjoyment, because he had no choice of his own. To him there would be no difference between a God and a stone." Man, and with him all creation, has been subjected to vanity but not forever. By his disobedience, man has brought himself, and all other creatures, into all th e ills and sufferings of this state of vanity. In this state of spiritual strugg le alone can his spiritual powers be fully developed, and only in this struggle can he learn the lesson necessary to his perfection. Therefore, when man at last reaches the state of perfection of heaven, he will thank God for the sufferings and struggle of the present world, for then he will fully understand that all t hings work together for good to them that love God (Rom. 8:28). THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S LOVE Then another of the saints said, "All the inhabitants of heaven know that God is Love, but it had been hidden from all eternity that His love is so wonderful th at He would become man to save sinners, and for their cleansing would die on the Cross. He suffered thus that He might save men, and all creation, which is in s ubjection to vanity. Thus God, in becoming man, has shown His heart to His child ren, but had any other means been used His infinite love would have remained for ever hidden. "Now the whole creation, with earnest expectation, awaits the manif estation of the sons of God, when they shall be again restored and glorified. Bu t, at present, they, and all creation, will remain groaning and travailing till this new creation comes to pass. And those also who have been born again groan w ithin themselves, waiting for the redemption of the body; and the time approache s when the whole creation, being obedient to God in all things, will be freed fr om corruption, and from this vanity forever. Then will it remain eternally happy in God, and will fulfill in itself the purpose for which it was created. Then G od will be all in all" (Rom. 8:18-23). The angels also conversed with me about many other matters, but it is impossible to record them, because, not only is there in the world no language, no simile, by which I could express the meaning of those very deep spiritual truths, but a lso they did not wish me to attempt it, for no one without spiritual experience can understand them, so in that case, there is the fear that, instead of their b eing a help, they would be to many a cause of misunderstanding and error. I have , therefore, written only a few of the simplest of the matters talked over, in t he hope that from them many may get direction and warning, teaching and comfort. Also, that time is not far distant when my readers will pass over into the spir itual world, and see these things with their own eyes. But before we leave this world forever, to go to our eternal home, we must with the support of God's grac e, and in the Spirit of prayer, carry out with faithfulness our appointed work. Thus, shall we fulfill the purpose of our lives, and enter without any shade of regret, into the eternal joy of the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father. THE END

The Depths of This Thing by Peter Holleran Prelude "If you walk the path you will arrive at the end of suffering. Having beheld this myself, I proclaim the Way that removes all thorns." - Buddha "There are many who might have attained to wisdom, had they not fancied they had attained it already." - Seneca "Mahamati, the purification of the Tathagata of all beings is gradual and not instantaneous." - Lankavatara Sutra "The longer the road, the loftier the attainment, and only those who take the

time and trouble to traverse the whole length of the way may expect to gain all the fruit. He who stops part of the way may only expect to gain part of the res ult." (1) - Paul Brunton (PB) As implied by the title, this is a complicated subject. But we will try for o nce to make it relatively short! This essentially relates to the age-old debate over sudden and gradual enlightenment. In our opinion, the debate boils down to the difference between a glimpse and stable, perpetual union with the truth. Man y people, including teachers, have glimpses of different sorts, which, in some i nstances, even last a lifetime. What are we to make of this, and how does it rel ate to the stages of growth outlined by traditional systems, including one given by the Buddha, as in 'stream-enterer', 'once-returner', non-returner', and 'Arh at'? Many sense that the enlightenments claimed by some do not match up to those traditionally described, and that, while genuine, and of use in helping others, may lack a certain depth, or have an incompleteness to them. These are issues t o be discussed in this paper. To start with, two quotes of PB come to mind: "Even though a glimpse has lengthened through time into permanence, it may no t have lengthened through consciousness into completeness." "It is not a question of how much of his mind does the experience illuminate but also what other parts of his personality does it inspire." (1a) This relates to the subject of whether it is the absolute or the relative nat ure that gets enlightened. Seeing that it is not a 'personal' attainment per se, some, such as PB, have said that the void-mind gets enlightened, or Adyashanti, that 'enlightenment gets enlightened.' Others, like PB (sometimes) and anadi, s ay that it is, in fact, the ego, in other words, the relative nature, that gets enlightened, because the Self, Buddha-nature, whatever word one chooses to descr ibe the fundamental Consciousness, is already awake and aware. But mysteriously, somehow we are not, or, at least, don't usually think we are. One is reminded of a quote by Nisargadatta somewhere in the book I AM THAT wh ere he says that 'for some people their enlightenment needs to be pointed out, a nd that those cases are often the most reliable,' implying that you can sort of just 'slip' into it. But is this really so? Can one really slip into final enlig htenment without knowing it? We are of the opinion that for a glimpse - meaning here a nondual glimpse (i. e., kensho, satori, etc.) - that may be true, but for final enlightenment it is not correct. The reasoning is as follows: It is uncommon for people to have advanced stages of awakening without realiz ing what has happened, because intrinsic to enlightenment is a relative level, i ntuitive discrimination that realizes the implications of the nondual Reality, w ithin and to our relative lives and understanding. In fact, it could be argued t hat at the very foundation of wisdom is this relative realization, because we ar e already buddha-nature. There is nothing to slip into other than the realizatio n that this is so. So how can someone slip into that realization without knowing it? Enlightenment is something that happens 'within' relativity. The Tao is alr eady the Tao, there is nothing to do or be. Only ignorant beings need to awaken, and both happen, ignorance and enlightenment, within Relativity. So it is our r elative nature that becomes enlightened, and this happens by having insight into the nature of relative, dualistic experience, and realizing the difference betw een this and realizing our True Nature. This is wisdom. Deep satoris or glimpses are therefore only deep if they not only involve a powerful opening to direct r ealization of our True Nature, but also rich realization of the implications of

that reality. If there are cases of someone 'slipping into the final state witho ut realizing it', which I doubt, it would mean to me that they have attained ric h relative wisdom at the level of their inner nature, but that, however, very li ttle of the richness of that realization has manifested in their physical awaren ess, only the essence of the shift of perspective. This certainly has value, but most likely they have not slipped into the final state. Our understanding is that the core wisdom of the great traditions is always a bout discriminating between the Truth and Ignorance, and understanding the impli cations of realizing both. So, for instance, in Theravada Buddhism, when they sp eak of 'vipassana', which translates as 'clear seeing', what is being referred t o is not only clear seeing into Buddha-Nature, but also into the 'Three Marks of Existence': anicca (impermanence), dukkha (the fact of suffering), and anatta ( no-self), for it is through insight into these that wisdom arises about the futi lity of having attachments and aversions with regard to dualistic, relative expe rience, and thus awakens both an 'appreciation' for the Truth, and the other sid e of the same coin, the disillusionment with Samsara. This phrase needs repeatin g, for enlightenment, in fact, must be 'appreciated'. Awakening rests on this ty pe of wisdom, whatever its emphasis may be. Therefore, it is essentially our relative nature that gets enlightened. That - the depth of understanding - is what makes the final enlightenment of the Buddha so much more profound than someone having a glimpse - whether it last s a few years or even the rest of their life, as some teachers may indeed have r ealized. [This is not meant to place great importance on trying to determine whe re one is at, only to put the quest in a greater perspective. The feeling that t here is yet 'something more', even as things are 'just as they are', will come q uite naturally in the course of practice if the fundamental quality of sincerity is there]. So, in the ten ox-herding pictures of Zen, for instance, as argued b y Katsuki Sekida, in Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy, kensho commonly happe ns at three, but final kensho, coming after the 'great death', happens at nine, with jivan-mukta symbolized by picture ten. In the Buddha's original four-stage model (stream-enterer (sotapanna), once-returner (sakadagami), non-returner (ana gami) , and Arhat), someone may reach ox picture number-three or 'stream enterer ' in one life (a fundamental glimpse that grants shraddha or unshakable certaint y that enlightenment is possible), and then next life have a second kensho or sa tori, reaching stage two, a much deeper level of integral realization, and think they are 'done', when that is not so. Again, the difference is in the deepening actualization of realization in our relative nature. One of the simple truths expressed in the ox-herding pictures is the notion t hat kenshos, if they do happen for someone, are generally an early stage experie nce compared to deeply ripened enlightenment sometimes preceded by a great kensh o. What is also useful in the four stage model of Theravada Buddhism (stream ent ry to arhat) is that, in this view, if someone is practicing according to that t radition (which makes kensho or profound moments of awakening more likely or vir tually certain, but they are less likely in many other forms of practice), then there will actually be four particularly pivotal kensho or satori experiences, u sually spread out over more than one life, with only the last resulting in the t ransition to stable sahaja (2). One may also capitulate the sequence of 'jhana a bsorptions' in each life, but also at a deeper, richer level. And there can be m any minor kenshos as well along the way, depending on the person's form of pract ice. It is held in that tradition, as well as in other parallel systems, that on ly until the third stage/core-satori/non-returner stage will the individual have deep access to the nondual 'view', and at that stage only during meditation. It is only after the fourth stage that the nondual view or realization is stabiliz ed in ordinary awareness, which is why it is considered jivanmukta, because in t his state, no more karma is being generated, as karma results from dualistic int entions, which have been transcended. So the Ox-herding pictures only speak spec

ifically about the first stage/kensho at stage three, and then sahaja at stage t en. [The other two of the Buddha's original stages are not specifically indicate d in these pictures]. Further, the Buddha's kensho, satori, or awakening may hav e been so profound because he had accomplished deep inversion or 'concentrative jhana' practice in reaching the third stage (or should we say recapitulate that stage, which must have been attained in previous lives), and then shifted to 'vi passana jhana'/insight practice, which became the context for having his culmina ting satori/realization. In the case of many other practitioners, if they have had the first (stream-e nterer) in a previous life, for instance, and then have their second in this lif e, because each subsequent awakening is much richer and more thorough-going, the n they feel that they have had something especially profound, which is often con fused with a more advanced realization. Sekida said that the third ox stage can seem like the ninth for the novice, b ut they are night and day apart, just like Bankei said there was 'the difference between Heaven and Earth', and thirty years, from his first ecstatic breakthrou gh, to his final establishment. One needs to continue to proceed with 'beginner' s mind', until consciousness is clarified for what it really is. There is an ine vitable back-and-fill operation until a certain advanced point. At ox-stage four , for instance, when you see how, despite your true insight, your character hasn 't changed, no matter how much you want it to, and that isn't really a bad thin g ("I got it, I lost it") but an inevitable oscillation to mature one's realizat ion. Also, many zen masters have no kensho until the very end of their training. Suzuki Roshi's wife once said that he never talked about kensho 'because he nev er had one" - but that may have been a joke, and partly due to the fact that Suz uki Roshi, a Soto practitioner, came to the United States on the heels of D.T. S uzuki who had made a big deal about satori, while Soto emphasizes more 'just sit ting' and cultivation of enlightenment in daily life. But no he certainly had 'p ath moments', many little awakenings in the course of his practice. An excellent book on Theravada Buddhism, by U Pandita Sayadaw, is In This Ver y Life, which is apparently a phrase the Buddha often used. He exhorted his disc iples not to think of enlightenment as a far off goal, or one that necessarily w ould take many lives, but to set the goal of attaining either the third or fourt h stages 'in this very life'. He also said, though, that it depends on both leve l of effort (and we will add grace!) and also one's karmic situation. So he said even from the point of stream-entry it is possible it could take as many as sev en more lives to reach the fourth, Arhat stage, though these need not all be in the human realm, and that it may be done in less, depending on various factors. Yet then someone like Dipa Ma or Sunlun Sayadaw or Ramana does it very fast (the re are even stories from the Pali Cannon of some of the Buddha's disciples simpl y attending his talks and having direct realization and becoming arhats in that moment). But these are usually considered the result of practice in past lives, not going through all stages for the first time in one life. Usually it is consi dered fast to go through two or occasionally three stages in one life. Three wou ld be very fast. But the Buddha also said the longest gap was usually between th e first and second, as one is piercing identification with the astral/desire bod y at the second, and that's the heart of it for most people. So the Buddha said that it is common for the second stager to reach the fourth in either that life or the next. One of the most basic issues that spiritual teachers and students both seem t o struggle with, in my experience, is figuring out - when progress seems slower than hoped for - is whether the problem is the practice, or how well one underst ands the practice, or is simply the unavoidable reality of one's situation, whic h no tradition or technique hoping will solve. Many people, hopping from one thi ng to another for years, are still dissatisfied with something, whether it be th e teaching, the teacher, the technique. Sometimes it is true, they need somethin

g better. But all too often it is mostly their situation. The path(s) they have been pursuing are fine, they just are not happy with their progress, and are unf airly blaming the technique or lineage or whatever. Often what they think they f ound elsewhere in their journey was already there in what they abandoned, they j ust were not wise enough to hear it or appreciate it. And there are plenty of te achers happy to confirm their beliefs that something better will have a dramatic ally different effect. And when a shift sometimes does happen, how do they know that that might not have happened if they had stayed put with Zen or Sufism or w hatever they were doing? So it is a tricky business all this dissatisfaction and moving around. Some of it is fruitful, and some is just a lack of wisdom and ac ceptance. We have been speaking of vipassana, but even if one has taken to another path I believe those underlying structures/stages are still there, they may just not be as obvious. Whether one practices karma yoga, tantra/kundalini, shabd ªsound-c urrentº, direct path, bhakti, they are nevertheless there. [One other thing to men tion is that they all may not need accomplishment while on earth, depending on m any factors. This has been mentioned in Buddhism, Sant Mat, and various Hindu te achings]. In the Sufi tradition, while there are many schemas, there are basically said to be three main "stations of the Soul". A "station" is not a state, but a perm anent stage. Anthony Damiani explains that the first of these is where one has h ad the realization, whether in the meditative experience of the Void, or through extreme purgation, or other means, that the ego as such is "empty". Thus, the p rinciple of egotism, the 'reproductive soul' that demands earthly re-embodiment, dies. One still has an ego, but has become humble and capable of being instruct ed by his higher Soul. This is the second station and may take a long time. Fina lly, the third station is when the Soul permanently takes possession of the ego and one becomes a sage, essentially in nondual sahaj samadhi. And he says that t his is a very high spiritual stage. (3) We recognize that we are intermixing systems here, and that the Buddhists may be uncomfortable with the use of the term "Soul". Suffice it to say that the an cients, including the Sanatana Dhama of India, did not, and we get into this in more detail in the article on this website entitled New Myths of Enlightenment w ith its accompanying links to other related articles. Returning to our discussion of Buddhism, one way of conceptualizing this prog ression on the traditional Buddhist path is like this. After a first 'path momen t' or satori, there follows immediately follows states where the implications of this realization unfold. One can learn to sustain this state, call 'path review ', wherein one basks in the afterglow of the nirvanic realization. But, if one w ants to move forward towards final liberation, one must leave that behind, or re nounce the fruition or review state, and re-engage the karmic stream or vasanas that have yet to be purified. This brings one back to the second vipassana-jnana , which is termed the stage of insight into the arising and passing away of phen omena, as in this state, intuitive insight is so lucid that one can witness mome nt to moment the arising in one's awareness of any given phenomena, and it's pas sing out of awareness. This is a powerful level of insight as it drives home the realization of the impermanence of phenomena, directly perceived, and so causes a strong natural falling away of attachments and desires, for they seem futile in the face of impermanence. This is not a conscious renunciation, but an organi c process born of intuitive wisdom. Then, as layers of karma are released, and wisdom deepens from direct seeing into the nature of mind/body phenomena, one ripens into the third and fourth vip assana-jnanas, this time with a deeper cleansing of vasanas, and a more lucid in tuitive insight then the last time around. With all of this will now also come w hat is termed pseudo-nirvana, the experience of many astral/energetic phenomena

like kundalini, chakras opening, inner visions, beings, blissful states, rapture and so on. All this results from the fact that, having passed stream entry, one is now penetrating more deeply into one's subtler bodies, especially the astral /emotional, and many inner experiences may arise. But if one wants true freedom and wisdom, one must view all this in the same light (impermanent, lacking in a separate self-nature, and therefore unsatisfactory), which is more difficult and requires more insight/wisdom, because these experiences are so positive, unusua l and interesting. Passing through the tests of pseudo-nirvana, one will eventua lly have, after again regaining the fourth vipassana-jnana and a new, deeper lev el of purification and wisdom, a second path moment will arise. This awakening w ill be very profound compared to the first kensho. Some folks will think they ar e pretty enlightened now. But if one then precedes in the same way as after the first, and goes back to the unresolved karmas, the second vipassana-jnana will r e-emerge, more purification, more wisdom from pure observation, culminating in t he third path moment/nirvanic realization. Now, one has purified the physical ka rmas fully, so that if one leaves one's body at this stage, there is no karmic c ompulsion to return. Another round of going back to the second vipassana-jnana w ill lead to final purification and a fourth path moment. This is jivan-mukti. On e remains in a state of sublime equanimity and total clarity of awareness, even if still in a body. The Buddha called this 'nirvana with remaining elements', as one is still aware of the stream of phenomena, but is liberated from any karma or vasanas. The path between the third and fourth purifies very subtle karmas an d desires. What we now suggest is significant, and may hold a key to understanding (inte llectually anyway), some of the metaphysical reasons behind the notion of stages , is that these are not arbitrary delineations, but reflect a deep structure in human nature that is related to things like the bodies/planes and elements. In s ome way the four stages reflect mastery of the four elements: earth, water, fire , air, with a fifth being ether or 'akasa'. So the science of stages of enlighte nment, or stations of the soul, will be particularly clear and illuminating if i t reveals and is based on these deep structures. But we also have to add many mo re aspects to the Buddhist model, because for a bhakti, they may follow the same core structure in some way, but the experiences will be somewhat different beca use of the style. For instance, when one understands Buddha's four stages (stream enterer, once returner, non-returner, and Arhat), with a fifth stage of nondual liberation be yond that - and four more initiations beyond even that, pertaining more to funct ion and planetary and cosmic levels of boddhisattvahood, you will get a feel for why it is hard to say where someone is at. These four stages are archtypal and relate to 'initiations', the bodies, and elements, etc.. Thus, the first stage c ould relate to the transcendance and mastery of the physical body, the second to the purification of the astral body, the third the mental, and the fourth what they have called in theosophy the 'cracking of the causal or buddhi body', free ing the 'jewel in the lotus', the true soul or Monad. This results in Arhatship. In Sant Mat it would be the stage beyond ParBrahm or the three bodies where one is then termed a Sadh . It is free of birth and death as long as the cosmic cycle lasts, but still not full liberation or adeptship. It leads to that. The fifth s tage, of nonduality, in this system would be Sach Khand. However, remember that each stage has corresponding four sub-stages, where one recapitulates at a highe r level what one has done in the lower stage, with a 'fifth' stage, satori or 'p ath moment' in each, anticipating the eventual actualization of full nondual rea lization. Buddha talked of this in terms of passing through all of the vipassann a jhanas in each incarnation, at successively higher levels, but this schema cou ld well be adapted to schools such as bhakti, shabd, etc.. So stage four, the tr anscendance of the causal body would be like a crucifixion of the ego, or dark n ight experience, and could happen as a substage in every major stage. So it wou ld be quite difficult to say where anyone was at in their process. The clearest indicator is their relative wisdom, discrimination, and character. Any 'path-mo

ment after stream enterer will feel very liberating, a nondual glimpse, and this is often when many hang out their shingle and begin teaching. This is not alway s a bad thing, as a teacher, as particularly notedin the Theravada tradition, ma y not need to be perfect in order to properly serve others. However, to be a gui de throughout life and death in Sant Mat would require such completion. In that school, they speak of a maximum of four more lives, after one s initial initiation until one reaches the realization of Sach Khand (for those who keep the precept s). There is a grace factor present on such a path that also has to be taken int o account. But the archtypal stages will still be gone through. It could all occ ur in one life, so one never knows. But one can see what is fundamentally involv ed. Also, some people will emphasize meditation, whether more mindful or more inv ersion, and others more karma yoga, so these will all have their own flavor. And , again, the factor of grace may be more prominent on different paths, particula rly for those under the solicitude of an enlightened realizer. So a comprehensiv e model must honor all these styles and types. As mentioned, one reason that the Buddha's final enlightenment or kensho expe rience was so definitive may have been because he had undertaken, over lifetimes , a profound inversion practice - 'concentrative jhanas' - followed by 'vipassan a jhanas' or insight practice. Thus it was his whole being that was transformed and not only his mind that had awakened. Buddhist Master Achaan Cha preferred to emphasize cultivating mindfulness in daily life, rather than intensive vipassana meditation, so he would not describe it the same way, exactly. But the underlying patterns are still there is some w ay, regardless of path. At each transition approaching a path moment, there is a dark night of the soul, then, after ripening, as satori. The final dark night ( like, for instance even, the 'Mahasunn' in Sant Mat) happens when approaching th e fourth stage of enlightenment. But since one has gone through them before at e arlier stages, the effect is different, and one has more wisdom and skill about it. By adding in material from numerous other sources like shamanism, Sufism, ku ndalini/tantric paths, Daskalos, Zen, Dzogchen, Sant Mat, one can flush out a mu ch richer and clearer understanding of each stage and substage. But that work ha s not been done yet. It is a huge project! PB wrote of three main stages: the Witness, or dis-identification with the eg o, rebirth in the Overself as individual soul, and then fully grown union with t he Overself as nondual consciousness. These could also be said to correspond to the main 'stations' on the Sufi path: fana (annihilation), baqa (subsistence in Allah), and 'union with Allah'. This is similar to that described by Damiani abo ve The notion of the witness actually demands a complete discussion of its own, but, in brief, true stabilization of the witness stage is identification with co nsciousness, an awareness of no subject but objects still arising - peace, profo und peace - but with still a sense of separation between the contents of conscio usness (objects) and consciousness itself. So real is the peace compared to one' s former position that many, teachers included, see this - identification with a s consciousness and seeing all as arising in consciousness - as the final goal. Yet it is not. I find it interesting that direct path teacherGreg Goode has trea ted this stage as one in which there is no hurry or about the witness 'collapsin g', that it can be allowed to happen or not in its own good time, while Anthony Damiani said of PB that he was 'in agony' during this transition period before t he attainment of true sahaj. Perhaps the different attitudes depend on the depth of realization involved, as per the stages we have mentioned. But, in any case, the important point is that once a glimpse has been realized one will undoubted ly - with variations due to previous lifetimes of practice - go through many twi sts and turns in actualizing this realization fully in daily life. PB has writte

n many eloquent passages addressing this fact: "If it is to be a continuous light that stays with him and not a fitful flash , he will need to first, cast all negative tendencies, thoughts, and feelings ou t of his character; second, to make good the insufficiencies in his development; third, to achieve a state of balance between his faculties." "The continued existence of this experience, the lengthening of this glimpse into perpetual vision, is something that cannot be brought about without patienc e, care, effort, guidance, and grace." "That initial realization has henceforth to be established and made his own u nder all kinds of diverse conditions and in all kinds of places. Hence his life may be broken up for years by a wide range of vicissitudes, pains, pleasures, te sts, temptations, and tribulations." (4) And, further, regarding the need for a balanced enlightenment of all of a man 's faculties in order to pass from a mystical or yogic goal to that of a philoso pher-sage, realizing sahaj samadhi effortlessly whether within or without of med itation, he says: "If the truth is sought for with every faculty of a man's being, its illumina tion when found will enter every faculty too." "If he brings only a part of his ego into the Quest, then only a part of it w ill become enlightened and only a part of his activities will show the effects o f enlightenment." "So long as he is living exclusively in one side of his being, so long as the re is no balance in him, what else can his view of life be but an unbalanced one ? Nor will the coming of illumination completely set right and restore his balan ce. It will certainly initiate a movement which will ultimately do this, but the interval between its initiation and its consummation may be a whole lifetime." "The mystic may get his union with the higher self as the reward for his reve rent devotion to it. But its light will shine down only into those parts of his being which were themselves active in the search for union. Although his union m ay be a permanent one, its consummation may still be only a partial one. If his intellect, for example, was inactive before the event, it will be unillumined af ter the event. This is why many mystics have attained their goal without a searc h for truth before it or a full knowledge of truth after it. The simple love for spiritual being brought them to it through their sheer intensity of ardour earn ing the divine Grace. he only gets the complete light, however, who is completel y fitted for it with the whole of his being. If he is only partially fit, becaus e only a part of his psyche has worked for the goal, then the utmost result will be a partial but permanent union with the soul, or else it will be marred by th e inability to keep the union for longer than temporary periods." (5) On this note the following quote by Adyashanti speaks of the need to 'marry' direct insight into conscious with the deep 'imprints' in the psycho-somatic org anism in order for one's realization to be firm: "Even though insight often has to do with what is bigger than or transcendent of body-mind also our bodies are very much a part of those insights. The insigh ts go beyond them but they very much there and its the somatic part of the insig ht because that's where the old conditioned grooves are. Your somatic structure, right? That's where they are. [The old crappy imprinting]. Right, there's the i ntellectual conditioning, even though that can be really difficult for people to see through and get rid of, but the somatic imprinting, that's something differ ent. And so that's why I always tell people when you have any kind of moment of

spiritual clarity, that you let your system feel it. You let it partake of it. D on't just go, 'Oh, yeah, okay, got it, well done!' and then go off to the next t hing because then there's no imprinting and in the realm of insight you may have seen the truth but your body, it goes right back to the old imprinting. Then yo u wonder why, how can I know something and at the same time not know it? Do you know what I mean? 'I know that but why is it that I don't know it?' 'I know that but why did I say that and I know its not true?' And that's because that's ofte n the split between insight and the whole body-mind. On the level of insight you know it but your body is still operating on the old conditioning. So when you s low it down you receive the insight not only the intellectual part but also down to the physical somatic part...It literally reimprints your body with that true perception. Once it imprints down to the somatic level, that's it. There's no l osing it. There's no 'got it, lost it' because your whole system has got it, not just a part of you." (6) This quote confirms, for two reasons, my feeling why Adya often appears to be one of the more realistic among the newer teachers. One, this adds to the teach ings on the necessity of 'embodying realization', and, two, it is also very much in line with what many deep feeling and psycho-somatic therapies have been sayi ng for quite some time. There was even a book years ago by Arthur Janov called " Imprints". In essence what they are saying is that there is much traumatic or 'w ounded' material (essentially inherited, but 're-activated' karmically in this l ife) that is imbedded in the subconscious mind which, if not brought to consciou sness, at least sufficiently to free enough energy and attention for the soul's essential purposes, continues to act as a generator of thought patterns and reac tivity such that we can not hold our insight or enlightenment very long. We are simply not yet 'fitted' for it. One way of looking at this is that our 'relative ' nature has not been sufficiently enlightened for our 'absolute' nature to prev ail. In the vipassana tradition it is only insight or clear seeing, mindfulness and non-judgemental awareness, that allows this content to be brought up to be c leared; concentrative meditation (samatha or samadhi), by temporarily calming th e mind suppresses mundane hindrances like restlessness, dullness, etc., is consi dered preparatory 'yoga' to grant the space to penetrate to fundamental insight, which alone is capable of granting liberation. Such samatha is considered neces sary but not sufficient, yet without it one is termed a 'dry meditator'. The bes t is a complement of both practices. Anthony Damiani once was talking about vasanas, or inherited tendencies, and he asked us still very young questers, "do you have any idea how strong these ar e?" I, for one, had no idea. It took quite a while to discover their strength. T he only thing I wonder about is that sometimes one may get the impression that A dyashanti makes it sound all too easy to simply connect the direct spiritual ins ight with these imprints and the revelation of their 'psycho-somatic insights' t hat are necessary for wholeness. However, in the account of his own realization he did say, "You may think it was easy. Well, it wasn't." Therefore, it could be a relatively graceful process, and one needn't necessarily do fifty years of th erapy, zazen or vipassana meditation - although, given the depths of delusion, o ne might (!) - but these tendencies are ancient, and, as Adya also said, and I b elieve would be seconded by many teachers, it generally is difficult, "unless on e has the karmic load of a gnat!" This consideration has very much to do with the qualifications necessary in t hose who have taken on the role of a teacher. Someone at stage one (stream enter er) in the Buddha's system obviously should not get the same form of guidance as someone in stage three. This means a great deal of maturity is needed for one w ho claims the position of a guru. To lecture is one thing, but, even there, to m ake claims and utter words meant for all is a tricky business. For instance, the re are many who say things like, 'the only true meditation is to see all as aris ing in consciousness'. Ramesh Balsekar has done so frequently, and there are man y others. This may be ultimately true, but also may not be the most efficient wa

y to teach those on a level where they are really not capable of making full use of such instruction. They may think they are, and in moments such wisdom may be useful, and, further, one may at any stage have kenshos, satoris, and suchlike 'epiphanies', but what is the fundamental level of reality for a person is what should have the most weight in determining the basic practice they engage in. No t the 'highest practice', but the one they are most capable of, and which is mos t transformative. That is, in fact, the 'highest' or most 'perfect' practice. Chogyam Trungpa was one of the first spiritual teachers coming to the West wh o tried to make this point, in talks and books such as Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. I think many traditional teachers - the better ones anyway - have always had their version of this 'embodying' teaching, once you really engaged t hem, call it ''man-making', 'getting real', 'becoming human', or whatever, only it was not always made so explicit, direct and clear. To me, deep awakening comes hand in hand with facing the great sorrowful trut h of dukkha, the Buddha's First Noble Truth. Only by steadily looking this truth in the eyes can we truly become disillusioned with samsaric existence and awake n. I am just a writer. But I think that is some people think that spiritual teac hing is glamorous. But when it is real it is not. It is just work. And often har d work because one has to deal with adjusting ego-reactions to the path, damage control from wrong teachings and practices, authority issues, and the like. Might part of the reason that people are attracted to the modern advaita, qui ck awakening gurus is that they make is sound so easy? Perfect for impatient wes terners. Of course we all want to proceed by the most direct route. When a frien d of mine visited Christian mystic Daskalos in Cyprus 1992, however, he said tha t perhaps the biggest problem he had with the constant stream of visitors and po tential new students was that many folks were so impatient. They really were not willing to take the long vision and settle into patient, humble step by step pr actice. The quick enlightenment group of teachers may unwittingly capitalize on or exploit this flaw, indulging it at the students expense. Such is part of sams ara. A second quote of Adya's that I feel is more of an example of this leaning is as follows. As I said, I have a respect for him as I feel he is more balanced t han many teachers today, and therefore I hesitate to use this as an example. But consider this one simply on its own (with a better quote to follow): "Adya: For moments when the struggle is not there, or its relaxed a little bi t then you can remember this is about my sense of myself, right? Getting undern eath all the judgments, all the opinions, the whole belief structure, the whole sense of self you inherited from family, culture, and education and all the ways that we acquire more and more dense sense of self, more and more defined sense of who we are. And the key is to look at actual experience instead of in concept . What am I when I don't think about myself? What am I then? And your mind can go, 'Hmm, let me see...' We're looking for the right answer. Spiritual inquiry is not meant to get the right answer. If you get the right answer, you got it wrong. Spiritual inquiry is meant to take your mind and bring it down into actu al experience. Right? So what is underneath this whole turmoil? What's the ex perience? What is the direct experience of that which is having all the experie nce? If you really follow and if you're not trying to get the right answer whic h is the key to inquiry, its not a test, its not like being in school. When you follow it you actually get the answer every single time you ask the question. It's there, every single time. For most people it takes several hundred times be fore they notice what they were given the first time. And then when they notice what they were given the first time they go...oh! It's not because it was given anew but because they realized it for the first time. As an example when you t

urn that awareness back, you can language it different ways, if you just look at it, just follow it, okay what...am...I? And in a brief instant, what...am...I? And there it is. It's not an answer in your mind, right? So often when I real ly guide people there they go, first they go, 'I don't know' cause they're still trying to get the answer and then I say, 'no, what did you experience that caus ed you mind to go, 'I don't know?' Even if you said 'I don't know?' you said 'I don't know' for a reason. When you really slow it down you realize you mind aid 'I don't know?' because you thought that you were supposed to find something, n amely yourself, whatever that might be." Q: After you asked that question that's the first moment my mind was really q uiet. "Adya: That's right! The question worked. In that split instant its complet ely free of any identity. It's just quiet...awake...space. Its right there isn 't it. Every single time. Which time will we notice it, 'oh that!. It couldn' t be that!' Maybe it is." (7) There certainly is some truth in all that, but the real breaking through to t hese realizations in a practical way that leads to a stable, integrated enlighte nment, in my opinion, requires so much more, that quotes similar to this from te achers without the same level of discrimination often feel like they may be sell ing awakening short. Let me speak plainly. I personally know students who have b een exposed to such teachings for years yet do not appear to show significant si gns of real awakening or character improvement. Using 'direct pointing' techniqu es like these with people who are not that close to being really able to integra te them can be an unskillful approach. And in some cases it may also be a sign o f lack of compassion in the teacher (not understanding where your students are r eally at, and what is actually working for them), and can also represents a less than optimally integrated awakening. In less skillful teachers an underlying at titude of ego and spiritual superiority sometimes comes across. Direct pointing certainly has an application at every stage. If a teacher is wise and compassion ate and skillful, they point directly at the state of being and presence that is emergent for that person at their stage, in their own style, so that their inst ruction has personal relevance, pointing out what is accessible and can therefor e be practically worked with and integrated. This will obviously only be practic al among small groups, not mass audiences. Yet to point out that which is beyond a student's reach is sometimes an ego indulgence of the teacher who needs to sh ow off to students at their expense, subtlety making them feel inadequate that t hey cannot get it, or worse, encouraging them into believing they have realized something they have not. Many folks are sidetracked in their practice by such te achings, not because, as in other cases, they cannot get it but hang around and keep trying, but because they think they have when they have not. To be fair, the retreat from which these passages are taken must be considere d as a whole. What Adya is actually pointing to in this particular quote, howeve r, is not nondual awakening, but rather formless states of stillness and mental silence. Of course, they are not the same, and many teachers make this error. A more humble and true approach, in my opinion, for many, would be to identify the truth of these qualities and states (like silence, stillness, contentment, nonstriving, peace) as soul qualities that, when cultivated in many different ways, will provide a foundation for true nondual awakening, which transcends even the m while being fully integrated with everything. Then we are being honest about w hat the practice really is, and we need to acknowledge that this is gradual work over decades and lifetimes. To hold up a narrow slice of formless experience as 'getting it', and having students wonder for years whether they 'get it' or not , for some teachers makes a travesty of what realization is, and the path to its realization. Without getting into extensive analysis of the issue at this point , what it boils down to, in the opinion of most traditional teachers, is the ins eparability of both virtue and wisdom.

Here is another way in terms of the stages of development mentioned above: 1s t, 2nd, 3rd, or stream-entry, once-returner, non-returner, etc. Spiritual practi ces optimally would be tailored to the stage of the practitioner. One doesn't, m ost skillfully, teach 1st stagers the same as 3rd stagers, even though to outwar d appearances they may seem to be at the same level. This is where great maturit y in their relative natures is needed on the part of the teacher. And the realit y is that the percentages are basically something like this. These are rough 'gu esstimates'. Contrary to our wishes, there has yet been no mass shift of a globa l nature. I realize some may dispute this. But let's say the vast majority of ou r current humanity are pre-1st stage. Much less than 1% is past the 1st. I would guess that less than 10% are fast approaching the 1st (in this or the next coup le of lifetimes). Out of those that are nearing or past the 1st, less than 10% h ave passed the 2nd, and much less than 1% have passed the 3rd. Consider, then, t hat advanced nondual practices that emphasize and require substantial access to nondual awareness should only be emphasized with those around the 3rd. Emphasizi ng those teachings with those before that stage is both unskillful and often del uded. That is not to say that those before this stage cannot benefit from nondua l teachings, and can have glimpses and even satoris, but this state will not be accessible even in meditation very profoundly, much less in daily life, and so t o emphasize it is folly. Emphasis should be placed on working with states and pr actices that are more naturally accessible to have greatest effectiveness and ef ficiency. Practices around the 1st stage should generally emphasize karma yoga ( character building, selflessness, and so on) as the foundation, and meditation t o the extent that karma and inclination permits. Those around the second stage a re typically more ripe for more intensive meditation (although many around the 1 st can also do intensive meditation), and, if so inclined, are particularly suit able for tantric practices that accelerate awakening by transforming personal en ergies, desires, emotions, etc. This is also where practices like shabda yoga, f or instance, take off. The first life of such an initiate is often largely spent developing devotion and character, so say some of their gurus. But one can just stay with karma yoga, and simple meditations (in the sense t hat they may not be based in a more tantric sensibitlity, or involve work with c hakras, etc) like vipassana during this stage, rather than including more sophis ticated approaches of a tantric nature (whether they be like Daskalos's Tree of Life/kabalistic practices, Hindu tantra, light and sound, Tibetan practices like the Six Yogas, advanced chi gong, or Taoist alchemical practices). They are all tantric styles. But the point is, that even though the intuition of transcenden t levels is increasingly accessible at around stage two, it is still not most ef ficient to shift to emphasizing nondual contemplation. That would actually slow things down from the optimal approach. This general kind of understand is held i n many great teachings and traditions, East and West, and, next to this understa nding, some of the new teachers, for instance, tend to look very much like amate urs, at best slow and inefficient, and at worst, deluded, misguiding and ego-inf lated. Adya, in condensed form, does, however, point out the inevitable necessary pr ogression involved in getting to the point of steadily contemplating the empty n ature of the ego and the reality behind it. He has elsewhere made it clear that a total transformation is required, that it is not just a realization or awakeni ng. And this is, of course, very mature and useful advise. In the end it all dep ends on how 'ripe' one is as to the effectiveness of a 'direct pointing' form of teaching on its own: "Adya: So, often but not always but often one's spirituality, spiritual searc h, it often will begin with some unexpected, uncalled for, unsought after moment of some experience of something beyond ego. It can happen in childhood, it can happen as an adolescent, it can happen as an adult. It can be just a moment, i t doesn't have to be particularly powerful or overwhelming at all, it can be jus

t a little sort of blip in an otherwise ordinary day. But something that indic ates that there is something other than your idea of yourself. Often people's s piritual path starts with something like that. It's what lights up the intrigue . There is something else. What is that?...The power of even the smallest glim mer can realign a sort of life orientation. And it marks really the beginning of spiritual life [Note: this is so, in each life, or each 'stage', in the long vi ew]. Some people of course come to spirituality, not necessarily out of a moment like that, just out of abject suffering. It's just so difficult, life is so co ntracted, life is so burdensome, that ego just sort of naturally starts to reach out beyond itself as if to say 'there's got to be something more than this.' O ften these little tiny shimmering moments of 'yes, there is something.' There i s something other then that. Experientially, you know? And that initiates ones spiritual life. And then at some point, who knows when it is, once that life h as been initiated, at some point in there you will, the ego starts to look into itself. Because that's the beginning of the spiritual movement, movement within , right? The ego starts to look within itself. First it just encounters its own stuff. So maybe you start to meditate and you think, 'Gosh, I was better off be fore I started!' 'At least I didn't even know how many destructive thoughts I had.' 'I didn't know how confused I was.' 'I didn't actually know how lost I w as.' 'I thought I was a rather intelligent person until I listened to my mind'. ..So when people start to look inside that's often the first thing they encounte r, rather surprised by it and they wonder if it was a good idea to start to look within at all. And then at some point you see, you experience, something that lies at the very center of the ego." "What lies at the center of ego is, its a doorway out of it. It's a doorway beyond it. But what lies at the very center of ego is very much like a black ho le. It's a void. It's experienced subjectively as void so I am not talking phi losophically or theologically, simply experientially. It's experienced as an inn er void, there's nothing there which means at that moment you are seeing through the superficialities of ego, you are seeing into its center. In it's center, t here's no reflection any more. There's nothing there. Ego starts to see its ab sence. And it generally confounds it and often scares the daylights out of it be cause it does not know what to make out of it. The only thing it can usually ma ke out of it is something quite frightening and intimidating and strangely enou gh, very alluring too. Cause there's often this thread, this thin thread of intu ition, that that void at the center of ego holds a kind of power. There's somet hing quite intriguing about it as well as people being quite frightened by it bu t there's something very intriguing about it. So it's sort of a push-pull thing . You are sort of pulled towards it and the ego retracts from it. So it goes fo r as long as it goes." "You of course can find this all on your own because its always there. It's a lso one of the spiritual teacher's first jobs. A good spiritual teacher whoever they may be, one of the first jobs is to show you that. What I mean by show yo u that is to, it's almost like turning up a dimmer switch and you just turn it u p really loud so people see it. And you see it. You might not know what to do with it but you experience it. Unless your mind is still noisy or still resisti ng or still philosophizing or something, then you won't notice it. But that's p art of what's called the transmission. The transmission isn't one thing given t o another, it's just like the dimmer switch on that void is just turned up a bit . And then you start to experience it. You may not be able to sustain the expe rience of it yet because there may still be too much noise and conflict nonethel ess you'll know it's there, you'll experience it, you'll taste it." "Same thing can happen all by yourself. You don't need a teacher to help you with this [Note: again, this is a two-sided coin; the greatest of sages have gen erally disagreed]. Then at some point in some way you move into that void, into that blankness, into that darkness, into that place where the ego gazes at this sort of black hole at its center. [Note: this is no small thing and could take a

lifetime, or even longer, and, as noted, in various stages] The thing that its always moved away from, always run away from, never wanted to deal with, never w anted to look at. And by the way the ego also interprets that..that hole, the e mptiness at its center as a sort of deficiency. Its that place around which all the stories of insufficiency will be wrapped. It will be what's used as proof that you're not worthy after all, that you're not good enough after all, that yo u're not deserving after all. Does that make sense? You have all your own pers onal reasons that reinforce that during your life but essentially at an intuitiv e level that black in an almost unconscious way will be referenced as proof that there's something somehow, intrinsically wrong. Cause the ego doesn't really k now any other way to really interpret it. There's this hole in the middle of me ! There's this void therefore there must be something wrong. That's its interpr etation. And life experience as it always does, you will sift out all the life experience that doesn't confirm that and you will bring into you all the life ex perience that does confirm your conclusion. But at some point you will sort of move into it or you'll stop resisting it. [Note: the depth of emotional purifica tion for this to become real may be immense, as testified by the annals of mysti cism and spirituality; that is my main caveat with this form of teaching, which Adya himself admits, is a simple model of how it works] It often will be totally something that will be quite spontaneous. Your resistance will give way perhaps because you finally have the proper amount of courage. Perhaps because you jus t stopped resisting it, you stopped fighting it, you made a little mistake and r elaxed. Perhaps because you go through something difficult, some life trauma a nd you just don't have the energy and the sort of psychic will to keep pushing a way from it, and so you just kind of fall into it though deep suffering. And th e you fall through this, into this. And when you sort of finally however it hap pens go through it, you realize it is like a hole at the center of the ego, its like a portal. Its a portal into true emptiness. Its a portal into the divine. And as soon as you experience it that way at that instant its no longer experie nced as a deficiency. As something lacking. You experience that same portal, i ts like you finally move through it, you finally give way to it without getting caught in the whirl wind of negative thinking and it just takes you right throu gh it. At that moment you, its usually some version of what we would call someo ne's first awakening. As soon as you move through it your experience of self, y our experience of what you are changes. No longer is your sense of self, your s ense of identity exclusively housed within your ego structure. It doesn't mean the structure completely collapses necessarily but because you've gone through i t, you know there's something else, you don't have to be told, you don't have to believe, you don't have to imagine. You know there's something else." "So you move beyond that, so as I said one of the spiritual teachings first t hings to do is to point out, is to show you experientially that emptiness at the center of ego. Having that pointed out to you experientially may be frightenin g, may be disorienting, it probably will be in some way, until its penetrated. When it's penetrated it's actually the source of great freedom, great relief, gr eat release." "That doesn't mean they won't get caught in it again because you've just gone through the hole in the ego and you might go 'Whoopee!' and at some point the e go goes, 'Whoa! Wait a minute, he or she has left the house. Let's get her or h im back in the house. How do we do that?' Just start contracting. Just start d oing the same old thing. Right? Contract, contract, contract, contract. It's almost like being sucked back into the thing. All of a sudden you are in those ill fitting clothes again. What the hell happened? How did this occur? I don' t know. I saw it as a flimsy illusion, how did it get me again? Of course some thing is very different then. One of the big differences is now you know, you k now with an absolute certainty that there is something beyond the ego. Before y ou hoped, now you know. And the taste of that knowing is always there [In fact, that is what it means to be a 'stream-enterer']. In fact the actual experience of it is always there. It may not be as huge as the first moment you went throu

gh that black hole. It may be at times, even when the ego structure is contract ing all around it, it may be the experience of something very, very infinitesima l in a way but still the experience of that freedom if you really look closely, you'll find it's always there. Always there. And one of the keys to experienc ing it with a consistency is when your ego stops insisting it be experienced in the way it wants it to be experienced. The ego wants it to be experienced in a big way, in a dramatic way, all the time... And that desire is.. just the ego pa rtaking of that freedom and saying 'this is how I want it to be!' And so for alo t of people..there ensues this sort of back and forth. You know, contractions an d releases, contractions and releases. It's almost like labor pains or somethin g. One moment you can seem to be caught and the next moment you're not, you're free because once you've gone through, the doorways open. It's much more permea ble. And the journey at that point, what it calls for is an attention, an attun ing, to that quiet awake space inside. That's what it's all about." (8) Yes, these 'osscillations' constitutes the vissicitudes on the path. They are how consciousness clarifies itself. It is not 'wrong' for this to happen. And i t continues for quite some time. Let's not underestimate what is really involved . But, further, the goal is not just the 'quiet awake space within'. Beyond the quiet, say many traditions, there lies the divine Uncreated Word or Holy Spirit in all its power and glory, and an unearthly Silence beyond that. The 'depths to this thing' truly exceed human fathoming. And, as Adya alludes to, there are di fferent portals to entry, not only to the path, but into this 'emptiness' or 'vo idness'. Fear is only one of them. A difficulty I have with quotes like this (ta ken in isolation), is that one may get the impression that this is the only way it happens - that it always happens like this. I don't think that is Adya's true intention. People, however, are not only drawn to the spiritual path for very many diffe rent reasons, but their experiences of inspiration and insight are of many types also, not just what are described here, which is only one particular way of pro gressing and opening. Not that it is a bad mode of expression, but that it is on ly a small part of the total potential for awakening and the many ways and impli cations of it. Very often, moreover, those who have been properly prepared will usually not be scared or distressed by encountering the 'void' - that is often a sign that they have opened prematurely to it, just as someone can have prematur e kundalini awakening. Sometimes, not always (nothing in life is 'always'!), thi s is more a fault of the teacher than an inevitable part of the path. A good book on all of this is Jack Kornfield's After the Ecstasy, the Laundry : How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path, which has a section with sever al chapters on different Gates of Awakening. The four main ones he talks about ( and there are more) are The Gate of Sorrow, the Gate of Emptiness, The Gate of O neness, and The Gateless Gate, or the Gate of the Eternal Present. Each is a who le chapter - a rich description. What many western nondual teachers may not understand it that the majority of practitioners open gradually to deeper and deeper spirituality through what cou ld be called the' path of virtue or spiritual qualities'. They slowly, in fits a nd starts and trials and tribulations, grow in awareness, acceptance, contentmen t, peace, clarity, wisdom, openness, humility, purity, strength, equanimity, gro undedness, love, compassion, devotion, surrender. From such a space they may sli p' into the void without high drama. One doesn't usually just pierce through the mind and ego into the void! There is a vast intermediate realm of soul, heart, virtue and wisdom. In fact, in many cases people who think they are accessing th e void are really accessing formless soul states. Words like 'void', presence, e mptiness, stillness, silence, ground, nondual, can easily be, and often are, mis taken for such soul states. That is, people open to the vast stillness, spacious ness and simplicity of formless soul states, and call it the void or emptiness o r nonduality and so on. It is a common confusion. So when one sees teaching that

skips over, marginalizes or does not recognize the presence and significance of the soul/virtue level of presence, then it can often be the case that both the 'teacher' and their students are commonly confused about what is what. But the s oul states are states of wholeness, peace and clarity, so they are certainly sat isfying to realize, even in glimpses, and so it is not surprising they are confu sed with nondual states. And cultivation of these qualities are what accounts f or the time factor with realization from within the dimension of relativity. PB continues: "He who has attained illumination, but not philosophic illumination, must com e back to earth for further improvement of those faculties whose undeveloped sta te prevents the light from being perfect." "The need of predetermining at the beginning of the path whether to be a phil osopher or a mystic arises only for the particular reincarnation where attainmen t is made. Thereafter, whether on this earth or another, the need of fulfilling the philosophic evolution will be impressed on him by Nature." "The student travels through the different stages on the journey to supreme t ruth. But without competent guidance he may fall into the error of mistaking one of the stages for the truth itself. He does not usually understand that there i s a graded series of developments, each one of which looks like the truth itself , and that only after all these have been passed through can he reach the glorio us culminating goal." "There are mystics who experience the Overself in its glow of love and joy of freedom, but without receiving knowledge of the cosmic laws, principles, and se crets. There are other mystics who are not satisfied with the one alone but seek to unite and complete it with the other. They are the philosophical mystics for whom the meaning of the self and the meaning of the world have become two sides of the same coin." "On the ultimate path...we begin after having passed through yoga, and having found peace. Then we seek truth. The latter when found reveals that the Oversel f is present in all men - nay, all creatures - as their ultimate being. We not o nly know this but FEEL it. So we cannot remain indifferent to the lives of other s. Therefore - and now is revealed a great secret - when we attain liberation fr om the endless-turning wheel of reincarnation, we voluntarily return again and a gain to earth solely to help others, mitigate suffering, and reduce ignorance. S o long as one creature lives in ignorance and pain, so long a true adept MUST re turn to earth. But this applies only to the adepts in WISDOM. The adept in yoga does not want to return to earth again, does not feel for others, and is happy i n enjoying his exhalted peace. He is quite entitled to this because he has worke d for it. But he has not attained Truth, which is a higher stage. There is a tre mendous difference in the goal we seek. the yogi's aim is a sublime selfishness; the true adept's is a burning desire to serve humanity...Nevertheless, yoga is an essential stage through which all must pass, for mind must be controlled, sha rpened, and purified, and peace must be attained before he is fit to undertake t he great inquiry into what is Truth." "Through the disappearance of the world during mystical meditation he finds o ut its non-materiality. This is the Glimpse. But with his return to the world hi s glimpse changes into a memory only. How to establish it permanently, this harm ony between inner and outer world, is discoverable only when living and active i n the world yet thoroughly understanding the mentalistic nature of the world." "Such development comes only after many births. And since this truth has to b e lived, it must be in practice and not only in theory. Before a man comes to th is truth, this mentalism, much time is needed to enable his mind to develop and

receive it." "When we comprehend what it is that must go into the making of a sage, how ma ny and how diverse the experiences through which he has passed in former incarna tions, we realize that such a man's wisdom is part of his bloodstream." "The longer the road, the loftier the attainment, and only those who take the time and trouble to traverse the whole length of the way may expect to gain all the fruits..He who stops part of the way may only expect to gain part of the re sult." Yet even while working for this noble realization one can, and must, strive f or a higher ideal and purpose in daily life, as in, "BE who you ARE," yes, but a lso "be all you can be" - for others. These two pillars constitute the foundatio n of the way, in most authentic traditions: "He does not need to be conscious of a clearly defined mission before he sets about doing something for the enlightenment of others. There is always some mea ns open to him, some little thing he can do to make this knowledge available or to set an example of right living." "Philosophy rejects the egocentric ideal of the lower mysticism and..trains i ts votaries from the very start to work altruistically for humanity's enlightenm ent. No man is so low in the evolutionary scale that he cannot help some other m en with a rightly placed word, cannot strike a flickering match in their darknes s, cannot show the example of a better life." "Moreover he may take refuge in the words of Tripura, an archaic Sanskrit tex t, which, if its archaic idiom be translated into modern accents, says: "An inte nse student may be endowed with the slenderest of good qualities, but if he can readily understand the truth - however theoretically - and expound it to others, this act of exposition will help him to become himself imbued with these ideas and his own mind will soak in their truth. This in the end will lead him to acti vate the Divinity within himself." (9) To return to and finish our earlier model, a famous Zen master said, "first e nlightenment, then we deal with the evil karma." This may relate to the kensho e xperienced in the third of the ox-herding pictures, where in the fourth-ox pictu re one realizes, "oh my gosh, my personality and relative nature has not changed , and there is more work to do!" In reality, there is no time limit for this tra nsition, so we needn't be disheartened! No one knows what stage they are in, bas ed on past karma and development. And there is the mysterious factor of Grace to consider. We are also in its embrace at all times, which must never be forgotte n. "In this very life!" the masters never tire of reminding us. One might again consider that the most 'perfect' or 'efficient' practice is t he one a person is most capable of actually practicing at any point in time. Thi s may not be pure nondual contemplation, Dzogchen rigpa, or the like. While the reality, but often far-away goal, is always useful to ponder, it may not be one' s main resort. Rather, a humble karma yoga and so-called 'beginner' technique su ch as a mantra meditation, mindfulness, or the 'Jesus prayer' may be what is mos t useful. What was a 'waste of time' for Sri Nisargadatta may not be such for yo u. Ramesh was wrong: these are 'real' forms of meditation. Of course this is an highly individual matter. Yet as vipassana master Anagarika Munindra, teacher of Dipa Ma and many others, once remarked: "Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche spoke about the Hinayana as a foundational vehicle, no t the lesser vehicle, and how crucial that foundation was because, without it, V ajrayana was like building a beautiful mansion on a frozen lake. And we all know what happens when the lake thaws." (10)

PB spoke much on the 'Long Path' and the 'Short Path', and how a version of t hese is found within all spiritual traditions. Those unfamiliar with this distin ction may refer to the hyperlink for a detailed description. In brief, the Long Path is for those who are yet identified with the ego and are involved with self -improvement, character building, 'karma yoga', concentration, devotion, and the like, while the Short Path is for those who have had a glimpse of the ego's unr eality and can rest somewhat from their earlier labors and focus on the more dir ect path of inquiry into, contemplation of, and identification with the higher r eality. For many, at certain stages of their development, both paths will be fol lowed concurrently in varying degrees and lengths of time. And a certain amount of recapitulation of the stages may need to be done in each birth, although in a briefer time frame. For instance, if one has a satori, kensho, glimpse, or awak ening early in life one may assume that much work was done in previous incarnati ons, and his entry onto the Short Path will be quicker. It is interesting to ponder how the Buddha's four stages of 'stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and Arhat, may relate to this Long Path/Short Path issue, and that of 'gradual' versus 'sudden' attainment. PB said the Short Path isn't necessarily short - only 'shorter'. So, when one has a 'path moment' (sato ri, 'glimpse', or nondual awakening) and becomes a 'stream-enterer', he is on th e Short Path. He still has karma to clear, more to embody or actualize, so to sp eak, but his fundamental focus is longer - nor can it be - the same sort of prac tices he engaged while on the Long Path. So now, instead of 10-20 lives to go un til final attainment, maybe there are only 0-3! Compared to the countless lifeti mes that scriptures speak of us having had in the unfathomably distant past, tha t is not very many. A lot of egoic-adaptation continues to unravel (sometimes mo re, sometimes less), different aspects of the being further awaken, one's develo pment becomes more whole, balanced, and integrated, while one enjoys a fundament al confidence, shraddda (faith or certainty), peace, and increasingly clear 'vie w' of truth. Perhaps this idea has the potential of clearing up some of the conf usion regarding the notion of gradual and direct paths. Munindra, for example, a dmitted in his biography that he was a 'once-returner'. For those who know of hi m, a great spiritual teacher, can you just imagine the scope of the quest?! Along these lines an additional brief note on the need for preparation is cal led for. This concerns the energetic component of realization. PB said that the Overself would make a 'mystical union with his own body', and that one needed to be purified to withstand the 'influx of the solar force'. In some paths they wa rn of premature kundalini awakening and so forth. In Sant Mat, there have been i ncidences where an initiate begged, pleaded, and cajoled their master to take th em up to higher planes or states of consciousness. Kirpal Singh responded to one such inquirer, a long-time devotee, "Well, that sort of thing could be done, bu t in your condition I am afraid that you would not be able to carry on here afte r you came back." In another instance, his master Sawan Singh conceded to the co ntinual entreaties of such a man, who, upon returning from his forced ascended s amadhi, said, "Please, do not ever do that again! I felt like a thousand lightni ng bolts struck me at once." The man died a few months later. One can question t he solicitude of the saint, but of course we do not know the whole story. One ca n also question whether such experiences are necessary or not. The moral is clea r, however, such things are reserved for those whose ego has been put in its pla ce, and whose lower self has been purified. American master Vitvan (1883-1964) w rote concerning this matter, couched in terms of what he calls the initiation in to the Third Degree: "Prior to reaching this state in the initiatory process one seldom, if ever, has any realization that a purificatory process is necessary. Not until he begin s to comprehend that Mind [buddhic or beyond psychic] level state does it dawn u pon him how unclean, how impure he is...If someone belongs to the race mind and the crowd, there is no need or requirement to undergo a process of purification.

.Do not ever tell him that there is a purificatory process ahead of him because he is not concerned with it and he should not attempt it. If he did, he would be attempting something that is beyond his sate, and he could not live up to it if he wanted to. If he tried he would have to put in a tremendous amount of mental effort to repress the animal propensities...There are many who get mentally sel f-righteous or spiritually ambitious and say, "No, I am not going to live like a n animal." They repress their animal propensities and develop all sorts of neuro tic outlets and substituted and compensatory forms of expression. They may have nervous or mental breakdowns, whereas they should be good animals. See that? If you are a dog, be a good dog. But one who has reached the third degree in the ev olutionary process, who has gradually expanded and developed out of that, is fac ed with something that is inescapable. He must purify the vehicles. He must puri fy the temple in preparation for the coming of the Christ, the coming of the Lig ht. That Greater That, that Greater Power, that Fire (because that is the Fire), cannot come into unpurifed vehicles - the higher psyche, the lower psyche, and the [energy] configuration. It would be disastrous to awaken that fire and bring it in when the vehicles have not been sufficiently purified." "There are several divisions of the work of purification of the vehicles. Fir st the higher psychic level must be purified. By what is the higher psyche chara cterized? Love, over and above all else...That love demands self-surrender, a gi ving up, a dying. The personality begins to die when you begin to love...Kindnes s, sympathy, and helpfulness also characterize the higher psyche. All that we va lue in human relationship - warm, true friendship...That is the higher psyche." "Then how and why does that need purification for the coming of the Christ? Y ou may be doing all of that with the consciousness that you are doing it - not t hat you are going to get something out of it, but that you are doing it - egoic satisfaction in the doing, personalization of all those activities that we call the higher psyche. You might even be a little proud, have some vainglory and som e selfishness about it. There is where the need for purification comes. You must realize that the motivating force of that love is not something that originates in yourself...You are becoming an channel, an instrument, through which that hi gher influence can work. In that recognition the higher psyche becomes free from the little, personal self. It becomes free and clear, very lovely and beautiful ." "Not until that loveliness, that beauty of the higher psyche, has been establ ished does the Brother of the Third degree realize what a job has to be done on his lower psyche. In that beauty and loveliness of the purification of the highe r psyche two things happen. On the one side, he reaches above and makes contact with those on the lowest of Light's Regions, the Mind level, the power and influ ence of the Christ state. On the other is the purification of the lower psyche." "There is purpose in this, because the Brother of the Third Degree cannot mus ter the strength to cope with the influence of the lower psyche by himself...It is extremely necessary to cultivate the practice of looking to a higher level fo r power, for strength, because when one is up against the conflict between highe r and lower psyche, he has to call upon all the strength that he can obtain. He needs lots of it." "You can do all the AUM chanting and your meditation work, you can listen to the sound currents until they roar like a Niagara, and at the same time that you are in all that loveliness and beauty on the higher psyche the devils of the lo wer psyche are raising old Ned with you. They are kicking up everything to preve nt your getting more light and more fire. They are pulling you down, trying to d issuade you from higher development...You can lift your forces into the higher p syche and beyond, but you have not purified the temple of those entities that ha ve occupied it and are still occupying it."

"When the battle has gone on pretty well...the third phase in the purificator y process begins...The flesh must be remetamorphosed because so long as the qual ity of animal propensities remains in the flesh, the body cannot entertain the h igher Fire, the higher Light of the Christ. It has to undergo purification." (11 ) One gets the picture. Perhaps a little grim in its seemingly super-human requ irements, maybe not a strict nondual teaching (such as the inquiry as taught by Sri Nisargadatta or Ramana Maharshi - although, in this system, it is admitted t o be as yet only a portrayal of the 'third degree' out of seven), and maybe a li ttle 'old-school', from a member of perhaps the last great generation of self-ma de men and masters, born in the late nineteenth century - perhaps with a tad too much emphasis on a traditional masculine battle with the ego, and in need of a bit more feminine balancing emphasis by the universal Mother energy of complete acceptance and embracing, held in the light of non-judgemental awareness, in ord er to heal the wounded psyche - the main cause of egoism in our times - but suff icient in its basic outlines of an archtypal process that in some form is likely unavoidable. Do remember where he said, "not that you are going to get somethin g out of it" (!), and you will stay grounded. Edward Salim Michael (1921-2006) similarly wrote: "Enlightenment does not necessarily mean liberation. It should also not be fo rgotten that there are different degrees of enlightenment. For the great majorit y of seekers, enlightenment (if it did take place in them) signifies purely the start of this arduous journey towards their emancipation...In spite of all the u nusual spiritual experiences he may have had, the aspirant will have to face the hard fact that he is still an incomplete being, full of hidden undesirable tend encies, lacking will and inner strength, and as yet unworthy to serve in a befit ting manner." "If after having known the luminous aspect of his being [an experience of the void], an aspirant cannot raise in himself the strong and sincere wish to know the dark side of his nature as well - perhaps thinking that because of the lofty spiritual experiences he has had, that this is no longer important - then he wi ll render his emancipation very uncertain, if not impracticable. The discovery o f the Sublime in oneself does not mean the immediate release from the bondage to one's inferior nature." "Did not the Buddha declare, when he spoke of those who have taken up a spiri tual path: "A few only reach the further shore. Most people go their rounds on t his one" (Dhammapada, 85) ? One must also recall the very significant words of C hrist, "Many are called, but few are chosen." I have often heard spiritual teach ers in India, and even in the West, say to their disciples: "No efforts. Everyth ing is already here." Or better: "You are already a Buddha; effort comes from th e ego wanting to grasp it." Such statements, if not simply deceitful, are at bes t the result of a dangerous kind of spiritual ignorance. Here as elsewhere, such a lack of discernment can lead only to the most serious of consequences for the seeker, since, when he leaves this world, he will go alone, empty-handed. It is true that "All is here," but does one really know the "All" that is here? And e ven if, after great effort, one should, through a real direct experience, arrive at knowing the "All" that is here in its immensity, can one remain with this "A ll" and be merged with it?" "Even though he has actually recognized in himself the beginning of a very un usual state of being and of consciousness, he can immediately be tempted to be s atisfied with it without seeking to go further onward...He will thus limit himse lf in a domain that is infinitely vaster than he imagines. Besides, however spec tacular the level of advancement one reaches, no one can claim to hear all the t ruth in him. Can one ever say that one really knows the Being of God, His form o

f Consciousness, His Thoughts, and so on?...There exist mysteries impossible to comprehend in all their immensity in this form of existence." (12) This is nowhere brought out more than in a path such as Sant Mat. Though ofte n considered a dualistic mystical path, when opposed to Vedanta, its goal is rea lly an entirely nondual one, and essentially in line with the hierarchical schem a of seven planes given in the Puranas - and which are also accepted in many for ms of traditional Vedanta. The form of this path goes something like this. What is perhaps unique within it is the concept of an intermediary principle or logos called the Shabda-Brahman, emanating from the absolute and which the soul or co nscious principle can attach itself to, as filings to a magnet, so to speak, and defoliate itself of all bodies and merge in its source - which then can merge i nto ITS source. At any successive stage, coming out of such inversion one must i ntegrate his expanded consciousness with the manifest realm. Let us briefly expl ain further. On this path, the provisional method is that of the soul getting concentrated at the eye center, catching hold of the light and sound principle and then leav ing or transcends the physical body. Then it goes further and leaves the astral body, then the causal and super-causal bodies (sometimes broken up into higher a nd lower mental bodies), where mind is left off completely. This school clearly differentiates between mind and soul, or consciousness. The nondual fact that th e body is in the soul as much as the soul is in the body is realized later in mo st cases. This stage is beyond what is referred to as Par Brahm, the Universal M ind, the 'home' of the individual mind, and is the realization of the individual soul, in itself, without all coverings (koshas or sheaths). According to the Sa nts, it is here that the Maha Vakya, 'aham brahm asmi' comes from: "Oh Lord, I a m of the same essence as Thou art." It is the Sant Mat equivalent of the Buddhis t Arhat stage - free from birth and death, but not yet full nondual consciousnes s, where birth and death are even seen as illusory. That comes at the fifth stag e known as Sach Khand or Sat Lok, where one realizes the Unindividuated consciou sness, which might be considered what Plotinus calls the 'principle of Absolute Soul' as opposed to the 'individual soul itself seen as absolute', which the les ser stage refers to. This realm of Truth, or Sat Lok, may be penultimate, but is spoken of as eternal and beyond the reach of pralaya and maha-pralaya (cosmic d issolution and grand dissolution). H.P. Blavatsky appeared to write of it as fol lows: "Darkness radiates Light, and Light drops one Solitary Ray into the Waters, i nto the Mother Deep...This is Divine Thought or intelligence impregnating Chaos. .resulting in a "World of Truth, or Sat (Be-ness) through which the direct energ y that radiates from the ONE REALITY - the Nameless Deity - reaches us." [The my stic insight is given that this "World of Truth" can be described only as] "a br ight star dropped from the Heart of Eternity, the beacon of hope on whose Seven Rays hang the Seven Worlds of Being" (physical, etheric, astral, mental, buddhic , atmic, and Monadic, now all to be realized as One and a nondual unity). (13) Plotinus, too, spoke of this stage: "A blissful life is theirs. They have the Truth for Mother, Nurse and Nutrime nt; they see all things: not the things that are born and die, but those which h ave Real Being and they see themselves in others. For them all things are transp arent and there is nothing dark or impenetrable, but everyone is manifest to eve ryone interiorly and all things are manifest to the most intimate depth of their nature. Light is everywhere manifest to light. There, everyone has all things i n himself and sees all things in others, so that all things are everywhere and a ll is all and each is all, and the glory is infinite." (14) In the Sant Mat literature this stage is referred to lyrically as 'an ocean o f consciousness' punctuated with 'islands of consciousness', the 'light of milli

ons of suns,' etc.. Clearly it is spoken of in metaphor. Not only is is far beyo nd ego, all gaining ideas and self-concepts, but it is beyond the individual sou l (which itself is known as boundless consciousness, hence the confusion with ev en higher stages). From this level this Universal Principle of Consciousness onl y can get absorbed further by three stages (alak -the 'inaccessible'; agam - the 'unknowable' ; and finally anami - the 'unnameable, infinite ocean itself) into the ultimate Source. Without granting this a complete imprimatur, Ishwar Puri s peaks interestingly of these distinctions. Now, however, one more stage needs to be considered. The 'drop has merged in the ocean', but the 'ocean must merge in the drop'! We have realized the Absolut e, but that is still in polarity with the relative. Still to be known is Nirguna Brahman, without qualification or attribute. After realizing these stations of the soul, therefore, and its own higher principle, one will return of necessity or karma - by the pull of Nature - and then need to integrate this consciousness with every realm he has vacated through his provisional inversion. This is not necessarily an automatic process, but one requiring the co-operation of the soul , the person, even the ego. For the nondual consciousness realized exclusively b y such deep inversion via the medium of the Holy Spirit or Logos is to be lived and realized fully at all levels. We won't say it must, but that is the ideal. I t is one thing to be conscious at a stage, and another to function at that stage . It seems too easy to just say 'there are no levels' - that is a bit like sayin g 'there is no door' and trying to walk through it (and we know there are siddha s who can do that, so please don't go there!). This process may take several liv es (or it may not), just as the Buddha outlined, and the fullness of realization accounts for the difference of profundity among such masters. Now, those of the persuasion of 'direct paths' such as advaita argue that the nondual realization of consciousness can be achieved (or recognized) without such an in-depth passa ge. The Sants argue, however, that the principle of soul cannot be bypassed, tha t inasmuch as it is a real reflection or emanation of the One, and in that sense man's True Self, it is itself eternal, even if not ultimate, and certainly not just 'separate ego' as many believe. We cannot fully discuss this profound diffe rence in method or conceived goal here, suffice it to suggest that it is consist ent with ancient doctrines and worthy of consideration. And there are many variations on this theme, to be sure. For instance, there are different ways to look at spiritual development. The notion of dissolutions and grand dissolutions would seem to be part of a type of spiritual cosmology an d understanding of liberation that emphasizes extricating oneself from matter as part of the definition of enlightenment. In this sense, Sant Mat is not present ed in exactly the most nondual terms. But that doesn't mean there isn't a profou nd relative meaning to the notion of dissolutions and so on. To translated into another context, it is similar to the idea of making a distinction between the A tman and the bodies. If one has advanced spiritually and reached shifting one's identification from the lower ego to, say, the anandamayakosa or formless noetic or intuitive sheath, then one has achieved a certain level of spiritual develop ment, but has not truly become jivanmukta, as one has not attained full self-rea lization through transcending identification with all sheaths and realizing the Atman. One of the differences, of course, with the Sant Mat teachings is that th eir style of describing how one develops this realization is through inversion a nd abstracting away from the lower bodies. But we also know that is possible to attain this realization while remaining in place and present to the lower bodies , without trance, inasmuch as they all interpenetrate and exist in the One. They are paradoxically both dim reflections of the real, and direct presentations of the real. Therefore it is not just a matter of setting aside to attain self-rea lization, but rather of developing the wisdom to know who we really are even in the context of these bodies. Now that does not mean that the traditional Sant Ma t approach cannot lead to the same place, but they do have their own way of talk ing about it that does not emphasize this other orientation very much - although that is changing. Similarly, talking about needing to become safe by rising bey

ond the planes that are subject to dissolutions and grand dissolutions, or birth and death, is a little overly 'materialistic' or dualistic in its style of conc eiving of the nature or importance of liberation, and tends to invokes fear. Yet it is not really how it plays out, even in Sant Mat, and this difficulty is not insurmountable. Love and discriminative reflection will overcome it. Moreover, the knowledge and realization of the interpenetration and oneness of all the lev els can be gotten by going deeply into them. We are simply saying that it may no t be the only way. So a reasonably simple formula for the quest might be, "seek for the understa nding and realization of your Source or True Nature, and also work on transformi ng oneself." Hoping that the former will automatically take care of the latter, which many teach today, seems unrealistic for most seekers. It is similar to the view within chiropractic that adjusting only the first cervical vertebra will f ix everything else in the spine and body. Great in theory, but not always so in practice. Therefore, while engaging mindfulness, or meditation, or self-inquiry ('cutting to the root'), there is yet a lot more we can do to assist the process . We can aspire towards an ideal. We can plants healthy seeds in thought, word, and deed, which will favorably come back in the form of auspicious circumstances for spiritual growth. In this two-fold way we can work to 'close the gap' betwe en our relative and absolute natures. Yet there are many teachings taking center -stage today that would, it seems, deny the validity of that. What we have attempted to do here is only make a few brush strokes that one m ay choose to file away for future reference, while remembering that as long as t here is breath there is more to learn and understand. And, need we say that one please hold all ideas expressed here very lightly? To conclude, in one way of looking at the matter it does appears that the ego , the relative nature, does get enlightened. PB wrote: What or who is seeking enlightenment It cannot be the higher Self, for that is of the nature of Light. There then only remains the ego! This ego, the object o f so many denunciations, is the being that, transformed, will win truth and find reality even though it must surrender itself utterly in the end as the price to be paid. (15) To say the 'Void-Mind gets enlightened', or 'enlightenment gets enlightened', somehow doesn't sound quite right - although PB said that, too! - if we assume that the Tao, Buddha-Nature, or the Overself is always, already aware and awake, as most nondual thought is in agreement with. One key question might be, "how c an the Void-Mind awaken to itself in one individual (whether apparent or real) a nd not all - that is, how can the One or the Void-Mind divide itself into parts and still be the One? If it is accepted that the very nature of the One is impar table, how can it awaken from its own delusion without ALL of its manifestations getting enlightened at the same time? It seems to beg the question to say that each individual is the One, or even 'a' One. So can we really say, as some teach ers, such as Adyashanti have said, that the reason the sage works for the libera tion of others is because it is the nature of the One to come after all, or ever y 'part', of itself? No, not really, the words ultimately fail us. Self/no-self, the One/the All, these are only relative pointers. At the risk of wearing out a n old cliche, it is a very paradoxical affair, and hard to articulate, isn't it? As Suzuki Roshi liked to say, "not always so - and even that isn't so!" The rea l key question, then, is not "who has the realization of 'no-self'?", but rather , "what is the nature of THAT which realizes 'no-self'? It may be more profound and more real than one imagines. For what is 'no-self' really? - a concept only in contrast with the notion of empirical selfhood - a 'thorn to pick out another thorn' as they say. In commenting on this doctrine of anatman ('no-self' or 'no -soul') H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, while addressing Harvard's Center for th e Study of World Religions on October 17, 1979, affirmed that:

"by our total experience it is established that the self exists...If we did a ssert total selflessness, then there would be no one who could cultivate compass ion...Even in Nirvana, the continuum of consciousness goes on." PB confirmed that, despite nondual understanding, in our highest realization a form of individuality would survive, that 'we will be with God as higher creat ures', and it is interesting how H.P. Blavatsky in her extensive researches of m an's most ancient spiritual teachings had already confirmed this one hundred yea rs earlier: " [I do not] believe in an individual, segregated spirit in me, as a somethin g apart from the whole...I maintain that though merged entirely into Parabrahm [ meaning ultimate Brahman, not the region of the Sants called Par Brahm or univer sal mind as mentioned above], man's spirit while not individual per se yet prese rves its distinct individuality in Paranirvana (16), owing to the accumulation i n it of the aggregates, or skhandas that have survived after each death, from th e highest faculties of Manas [or Mind]. The most spiritual, i.e., the highest an d divinest aspirations of every personality...become part and parcel of the Mona d [and are] preserved to the end of the great cycle (Maha-Manvantara) when each Ego (17) enters Paranirvana, or is merged in Parabrahm...To our talpatic or mole -like comprehension the human spirit is then lost in the One Spirit, as the drop of water thrown into the sea can no longer be traced out or recovered. But de f acto it is not so in the world of immaterial thought...That such Parabrahmic and Paranirvanic 'spirits' or units, have and must preserve their divine (not human ) individualities, is shown in the fact that, however long the 'night of Brahma' [said to be 4,320,000,00 years] or even the Universal Pralaya [approximately 31 1,040,000,000,000 years - not eternal but a long time]...yet, when it ends, the same individual Divine Monad resumes its majestic path of evolution...and brings with it all the essence of compound spiritualities from previous countless rebi rths." (18) Whatever form of self or individuality we have in truth is beyond the concept s of self and no-self, real yet inconceivable. The above is obviously not the st rict or standard form of Advaita, but a more inclusive one, a taste of a primord ial teaching that antedates both Vedanta and Buddhism, which we will leave the r eader to ponder further, and will address in the essay.

"The Upanishads remind us that knowledge is never ending. Life means learning . Be careful, for the day you think you know something is the day you have close d the door of your mind to knowledge." - Swami Rama

The Long and the Short of It by Peter Holleran

A representative sampling of quotes on the "Long Path" and the "Short Path", from The Notebooks of Paul Brunton

There is a debate raging these days over whether spiritual development or enl ightenment depends on purification and practices or is just a matter of waking up and seeing what is . The latter position seems to be gaining in popularity at the m oment, and not without some justification. Many, especially Baby-Boomers, have d one spiritual techniques and forms of yoga for years and are now tired! The newe r teachers offer relief from the struggle and the search. In most cases, however , realizing that a relative few who listen to them are able to fully grasp or ma ke use of their ultimate arguments, they will sooner or later say something like , "usually the people who have come here have already tried everything else" - i mplying that all the practices they tried didn't work, that no real preparation was achieved - except to exhaust their seeking impulse [which may indeed be true , and in fact is one of the important purposes of the practices] - but it is sti ll only one way of looking at it. A more traditional view is is that perhaps wha t they tried did work, purifying the mind, karmas, and egoic tendencies, but was just not conclusive or sufficient for enlightenment. Paul Brunton (PB), while generally offering a balanced perspective, at times expressed the efficacy and attraction of the Short (or more direct) Path based on the disposition of non-dual insight. In his later years, in fact, he personally appeared to gravitate towards a more natural, graceful far-eastern understanding of sahaj and away from its more technical Indian variety. And like others, in h is writing one can find the usual sort of enigmatic disclaimer : [The] Short Path is the path of paradox t the unexpectable!" (Ibid, 1.141)

(Vol. 15, Part 1,1.118)

and

"Expec

Not only the Short Path, however, but the overall position of PB himself, as scribbled down in fragments year after year on scraps of paper and journals and then collated into The Notebooks series, in many places can be seen to be parado xical as well. More properly considered, perhaps he was spontaneously writing fo r many different types of people in varying circumstances, walks of life, and st ages of development and understanding, leaving no one out, offering them a bridg e or way to truth from where they stood in any given moment, rather than erectin g an airtight metaphysical teaching as he attempted in his early years (such as in The Wisdom of the Overself), or in holding someone to a single approach only, as many radical 'Zen-Advaitists' do. For example, also in Volume 15, Part 1, we

find: The Short Path is the only genuine approach to truth, the only one offering re al possibility of liberation. It is endorsed by Atmananda and Krishnamurti and R amana Maharshi. Lifetimes have been spent by seekers who have traveled the Long Path but arrived nowhere, or are not much nearer the goal, whereas others have m ade swift advance from their first steps on the Short Path. The assertion that t he Long Path is a necessary complement to or preparation for the Short one is co rrect only for those who are still under the thraldom of illuson, who are asleep . Its followers merely travel in a circle: they never get out of the illusion or awake from the sleep. That is why in the end it has to be given up, abandoned, understood for the egoistic effort that it really is. The entire length of the L ong Path is an attempt at self-improvement and self-purification planned, manage d, operated, and supervised by the ego itself. Is it conceivable that the ego wi ll work for its own destruction? No! - it will never do that however much it pre tends to do so, however subtle the bluff with which it deceives itself or others .. (1.57) This rivals anything the current non-dual teachers pronounce. But then he see ms to reverse himself and play devil s advocate by saying: Those who believe in the Short Path of sudden attainment, such as the sectaria n following of Ramana Maharshi and the koan-puzzled intellectuals of Zen Buddhis m, confuse the first flash of insight which unsettles everything so gloriously w ith the last flash which settles everything even more gloriously. The disciple w ho wants something for nothing, who hopes to get to the goal without being kept busy with arduous travels to the very end, will not get it. He has to move from one point of view to a higher, from many a struggle with weaknesses to their mas tery. Then only, when he has done by himself what he should do, may he cease his efforts, be still, and await the efflux of Grace. Then comes light and the seco nd birth. (2.65) and: The Short Path teacher, such as Krishnamurti, insists on explaining their own divinity to all people and rejects the assertion that there are many uncapable o f understanding it. (2.74) and: "It is true that he is conditioned in several ways and that the attempt to fr ee himself from them by introducing other, and usually opposing, ways merely cre ates new bindings, new conditions. But to leave the statement there - as Krishna murti does, and as Jean Klein tries to do - is misleading because it is half-tru th. These teachers regard yoga, for instance, as such a form of conditioning; ye t Atmananda, who appears to be at least one source of Klein s inspiration, himself found that yoga was a preparation for Advaitic truth. In short, there is a prog ression among conditions; they are not developed in a circle but in a spiral. (4. 43) On the one hand he writes: To adopt the Short Path is to place oneself at a point of view where all the e fforts of the Long Path are seen as a shere waste of time and where its successe s are regarded as equal in value to its failures, since both are illusory experi ences of an illusory entity. (1.107) "Why should the Short Path be a better means of getting Grace than the Long o ne? There is not only the reason that it is not occupied with the ego but also t hat it continually keeps up remembrance of the Overself. It does this with a hea

rt that gives, and is open to receive, love. It thinks of the Overself throughou t the day. Thus, it not only comes closer to the source from which Grace is bein g perpetually radiated, but it also is repeatedly inviting Grace with each lovin g remembrance." (6.149) but then: The Long Path is unutterable irksome whereas the Short Path is gloriously attr active. The one is associated with toil and suffering; its emblem is the Cross. The other is associated with peace and joy; its emblem is the Sun. Yet, those wh o would prematurely desert the one for the other will find their hopes frustrate d in the end, however enthusiastic and rapturous the experience maybe in the beg inning. This is because Nature, the Overself, will not let them enjoy permanentl y what must be taken into every part of their being, properly cleansed and prepa red to absorb it, with the being itself properly equilibrated to endure the expe rience of absorption without stimulating the ego. (2.1) After discoursing in chapter three on the Dark Night of the Soul as a general period of transition between the labors and frustrations of the Long Path and q ualified entry into, and resigned acceptance of, the Short Path, he again takes us back and forth between different themes: "The Long Path is taught to beginners and others in the earlier and middle st ages of the quest. This is because they are ready for the idea of self-improveme nt and not for the higher one of the unreality of the self. So the latter is tau ght on the Short Path, where attention is turned away from the little self and f rom the idea of perfecting it, to the essence, the real being." ( 4.7) and "It must never be forgotten that the work of the Short Path could only come i nto being on the basis of work of the Long one, and on the presupposition of its presence." (4.8) He even adds yogic (non-advaitic) reasons for the necessity of the Long Path, revealing the more emanationistic overtones to his version of non-dualism: "Another reason for the need of the Long Path's preparatory work is that the mind, nerves, emotions, and body of the man shall be gradually made capable of s ustaining the influx of the Solar force, or Spirit-Energy." (4.35) "The Overself will overshadow him. It will take possession of his body. There will be a mystical union of its mind with his body. The ego will become entirel y subordinate to it." (v.16, Part 1, 2.251) He also puts forth a question: "Most Short Path teachings lack a cosmogony. They evade the fact that God is, and must be, present on the plane of manifestation and expressing through the e ntire universe. Why?" (2.19) Finally, in chapters four and five, his writing takes the middle road and dip lomatically summarizes what appears to be his most basic, consistent and practic al position on the matter: The transition from the Long to the Short Path is really a normal experience, even though to each person it seems like a major discovery. (4.55) [That fairly w ell sums up the enthusiasm among many non-dual students and teachers]. "It is not a question of choice between the two paths. The beginner can hardl

y comprehend what the Short Path means, let alone practice it. So perforce he mu st take to the Long one. But the intermediate, weary of its toils and defeats, t urns with relief to the other path, for which his studies and experiences have n ow prepared him." (4.115) "However tirelessly and relentlessly he pursues the Long Path, he may come on e day to the tragic discovery that the ideal it proposes to him embodies a human ly impossible perfection. With that discovery he will fall into a numb inertness , a pathetic and hopeless state which could even bring his overwrought mind not far from a breakdown. He may feel alone and deserted. He may enter the dark nigh t of the soul, as some mystics have named it. His ego will feel crushed. He will not know what to do, nor even have the strength of will to do anything more. At this point he must wait...out of the bleakness and weakness there will presentl y come a guidance, bidding him respond affirmatively to a suggestion, a book, or a teacher directing him toward what is really his first step on the Short Path. " (4.148) "Most people who start the short path have usually had a glimpse of the Overs elf, because otherwise they find it too difficult to understand what the Short P ath is about." (5.2) "If he begins with the Short Path he may feel that whatever is accomplished i s self-accomplished and thus, subtly, insidiously, his ego will triumphantly rea ssert, or keep, its supremacy. But if he begins with the Long path and, after al l his efforts, reaches an inconclusive result, the consequence despair may crush his ego and point up his dependence on, and need of, grace." (5.103) "Its practical application is: act as the Long path requires by working on an d improving the self, but think as the Short path enjoins by holding the attitud e, "There is nothing to be attained. Realization is already here and now!" (5.15 4) This is very similar to the confession of the great adept Padmasambhava, who said that while "his realization of emptiness was as vast as the sky, his attent ion to the law of karma was as fine as a grain of barley flour." "The Long path is splattered with discouragements. Only those who have sought to change themselves, to remold their characters, to deny their weaknesses, kno w what it is to weep in dissatisfaction over their failures. This is why the Sho rt Path of God-remembrance is also needed. For with this second path to fulfill and complete the first one, Grace may enter the battle at any moment and with it victory will suddenly end the struggles of many years, forgiveness will suddenl y wipe out their mistakes." (5.170) "Without this conquest of the lower nature no enlightenment can remain either a lasting or an unmixed one. And without suitable disciplines, no such conquest is possible. This is the reason why it is not enough to travel the Short Path." (5.171) [These last two quotes recall a mysterious observation a friend made to me ye ars ago. He said: "some people have to get a lot better, and some have to get a lot worse." In other words, some apparently have to "get it together", and some have to "fall apart"!] "Let it be clear that the attempt to try the Short Path alone is not being de cried. What is being said is that the likelihood of failure is great and that ev en if success is won, it will a be one-sided, ill-balanced, narrow thing." (5.18 0) "Ramana Maharshi was quite right. Pruning the ego of some faults will only be

followed by the appearance and growth of new faults! Of what use is it so long as the ego remains alive?...But although Maharshi was right, his teaching gives only part of Truth's picture. Presented by itself, and without the other part, i t is not only incomplete but may even become misleading. By itself it seems to i ndicate that there is no need to work on our specific weaknesses, that they can be left untouched while we concentrate on the essential thing - rooting out the ego. But where are the seekers who can straight away root it out? For the very s trength of purpose and power of concentration needed for this uprooting will be sapped by their faults." (5.183) [In Essays on the Quest, PB likewise mentions: "He may think that eradication of personal faults has little to do with findi ng the true self, but this is not correct. These very faults arise out of the fa lse conception of the 'I'. Moreover the eradication is suggested not only to hel p him to overcome such false conceptions but also to help him become a better se rvant of humanity." (p. 183) "The ego is the real enemy on the path, the mountain that cannot be moved by faith but only by agonizing surrender. But the agony is diminished when, through appropriate instruction, he comes to understand how illusory the'I' really is." (p. 185) Radical non-dualists stress only the inquiry into the 'I', while traditionali sts point out that karma yoga as well as self-surrender have long been considere d preparatory and complementary to the direct path of advaita.] "Seekers do not come under he power of Grace until they have done, to a suffi cient extent, what the Long Path requires of them. Then only are they likely to be ready for the Short Path, and to benefit by the Grace associated with it." (4 .44) "What is the purpose of this Long Path inner work upon himself? It is to clea r a way for the inflow of grace, even to the most hidden parts of his character. " (4.46) "The Long and Short paths can no more be separated from one another than the two sides of a coin of the two poles of a magnet. Each would be meaningless with out the other and therefore belongs to the other." (5.194) "In theory the Long Path ought to precede the Short Path, but in actuality pr actice such precedent endures for a limited time only, and then both paths are t o be followed simultaneously." (5.96) Still, he again allows that for some individuals all of this is unnecessary: "The real Short Path is really the discovery that there is no path at all: on ly a being still and thus letting the Overself do the work needed. This is the m eaning of grace." (5.223) "Why create needless frustrations by an overeager attitude, by overdoing spir itual activity? You are in the Overself's hands even now and if the fundamental aspiration is present, your development will go on without your having to be anx ious about it. Let the burden go. Do not become a victim of too much suggestion got from reading too much spiritual literature creating an artificial conception of enlightenment...." (5.232) "Both the Long and the Short Path are in the imagination." (source misplaced) You could also say there is nothing to the whole thing: simply surrender yours elf to God. This is true if you can do it. (5.56)

[For more elaboration on the Long and Short Paths, see the essay, Tirolean Ta lk by PB, 1965]. The Long Path/Short Path debate has been going on for hundreds of years. It i s perhaps best epitomized by the drama over dharma transmission that occured dur ing the time of the Fifth Patriarch in the Ch'an Buddhist tradition. A contest w as held in order to pick a dharma successor, and Shen Hsiu, the most likely cand idate, wrote his famous lines, "the body is like the Bodhi Tree, the mind like a bright mirror, and we must keep that mirror clean and allow no dust to settle o n it." Then the young, unknown, and illiterate Hui Neng had someone write lines for him, "there never was a Bodhi Tree, there is no bright mirror, from the begi nning not a thing is, and there is nowhere for dust to settle." Hui Neng won the competition, but had to be smuggled out of the monastery because his answer was not well-received, and it was fifteen years before he was publically acknowledg ed, and seventy-five years after his death before he was finally recognized as t he Sixth Patriarch as a result of Shen Hui's lifelong teaching of his doctrine. Wei Wu Wei, commenting on the doctrine of Shen Hsiu, writes: "Today the West has its Shen Hsius, and the little sect is busy polishing its mirrors, keeping the dust off them, and searching for the reality therein - par don, for Reality. But it is Hui Nengs that are needed again...I do not so call i t [a doctrine like Shen Hsiu's] in scorn, for it is a noble doctrine. Moreover at least in my small opinion - it is a true doctrine, but it is not the direct path brought to China by Bodhidharma, not the direct path taught by Hui Neng: it is not the path of the great prajnaparamita sutras which alone are that. It is a long path indeed, because the I-concept too is a pilgrim, a pilgrim who leads the others astray at every turning, and who is only pushed over the precipice at the very end. The direct path is the Negative Way, along which no I-concept can travel - for a shadow cannot travel by itself." (Ask the Awakwened, 2002, p. 10 0) Advaitist James Schwartz compares Yoga and Vedanta in ways similar to the Lon g Path-Short Path of PB, and how in each case the former is both preparatory and supportive of the latter: "Vedanta solves the karma problem by stating quite clearly that you are the s elf, limitless awareness, and therefore you are not a doer. If you can see that , or if you can plainly see that action will not produce freedom, then you can s ee that the problem is not one of gaining an enlightenment experience, but of re moving your self ignorance. Does this mean that I follow Vedanta and throw away Yoga? It is not quite t hat simple. Actually Yoga is a very necessary part of one s spiritual path. Why? Because Self realization depends on the nature of the mind. Self realization takes place in that part of the self called the mind. The Self is already free and knows it so there is no need for it to awaken to that fact but some part of it has (improbably) come to forget this fact. If the mind is dull or passionate Self realization does not take place. Yes, one might have a glimpse, a quick a wakening, but when the mind becomes passionate or dull and again one begins to feel limited and the realization of non-duality disappears with it. So the mind needs to be clear and still and very alert. This is where Yoga comes in. Yoga is a number of practices, a very sensible lifestyle really, that produces a cle ar abiding mind, one that is capable of making a sustained and careful investiga tion to see whether or not the Self is limited or limitless. Yoga works because the mind is limited and karmas can affect it. The only problem, which is alway s a problem of action, is that you have to keep doing the practices to get the r esults at least until they become second nature and involve little or no effort.

So Yoga is an effective means of preparing the mind for inquiry. Because Yo ga will have a profound effect on one s experience, one has many epiphanies, what are called samadhis in Yoga. These are special experiences that convince one that there is something beyond the mind, a state of oneness, infinite bliss, etc. Whe n these states have been experienced for some time, many yogis become inquirers. That is they start to ask questions about this state or being that is beyond. y start to ask questions about the experiencer, the person, who is having the ex perience of oneness. Is he or she separate from experience or is he or she actu ally only experiencing his or her Self? It is the nature of the mind to inquire into the meaning of experience. Usua lly people in the spiritual world have a certain amount of knowledge about the S elf anyway: from reading, attending satsangs, and from direct experience. In In dia, where the idea of Yoga developed alongside Vedanta several thousand years a go many Yogis are quite familiar with the teachings of Vedanta and find them abs olutely essential in removing the doubts that arise out of their own experience. Ramana is a good example of a Yogi who understood the value of both Yoga and V edanta. He fell into a samadhi when he was quite young and realized the Self bu t he sat in meditation for many years making an inquiry into the Self, removing whatever doubts remained, until it was no longer necessary to sit in meditation (Yoga) or make an inquiry (Vedanta). This is why he, like the Upanishads and mo st Vedantic texts, encouraged both the practice of samadhi and the practice of s elf investigation. The central problem with Yoga is that it accepts the idea that the Self is an experiencer, a doer and an enjoyer. This makes it very attractive to people be cause this is precisely how they see themselves. Yes, the aim of Yoga is to diss olve the doer, the experiencer into the limitlessness, merge the wave into the ocea n, but what kind of dissolution is this? Is it a dissolution of some solid enti ty, a real person, into some subtle amorphous mass of consciousness or is it sim ply the negation of the belief that one is limited? If you believe that you are a real solid entity and have lived many years of your life with this belief how likely is it that you are going to be ready to cease to exist and become some vas t impersonal state of being? You are not going to want to do this. This is why p eople whose practice is motivated by the Yogic view almost always draw back when they reach the gateway to the infinite. The idea of the non-existence scares t hem and they retreat back into their ego shell. In fact, there is no problem bec ause you can t cease to exist you only believe you can. When your ego dissolves thi s is not the end of anything. It is the beginning of a greater vision." (http:/ /www.shiningworld.com/). Sant Kirpal Singh also mentioned these two paths, in different language. He r eferred to the path of self-effort as "long and tortuous" compared to that of se lf-surrender, but that one could with confidence in the Master tread the former firmly step by step, but that relatively few could take to the latter, because i t required one to "recede back to the position of an innocent child", and is onl y possible when "a disciple has complete faith in the competency of the Master", but should one be able to do so "he then goes directly into His lap and has not hing to do by himself for himself." 'Should the Lord so ordain, then, O Nanak! a person may take to the path of self-surrender'...but very rarely even a really blessed soul may be able to acquire that attitude." (Kirpal Singh, Godman, 1971, Sant Bani Press, p. 180) In regards to the need for a teacher or guru, PB has this to say: "First at the beginning of the Long Path, and again at the beginning of the S hort Path a master, a spiritual guide, is really required. But outside these two occasions an aspirant had better walk alone." (vol. 1, 3.286)

Or the

Another line of reasoning why in most cases there must be both the long and s hort paths, simultaneously, is because, for PB, on the philosophic path there is to be development of the ego and its faculties of feeling, thinking, and willin g, along with the process of disidentification from them. The World-Idea, of whi ch the ego is a part, is projected through the soul and is itself evolving or un folding; the Idea of Man is a subset of that Idea. The philosophic goal, moreove r, is not one of mere isolation, but the non-dual realization of sahaj. This is why the spiritual process of full enlightenment is a work of lifetimes. In volum es 13 and 16, he states: The mystic may get his union with the higher self as the reward for his revere nt devotion to it. But its light will shine down only into those parts of his be ing which were themselves active in the search for union. Although the union may be a permanent one, its consummation may still be only a partial one. If his in tellect, for example, was inactive before the event, it will be unillumined afte r the event. This is why many mystics have attained their goal without a search for truth before it or a full knowledge of truth after it. The simple love for s piritual being brought them to it through their sheer intensity of ardour earnin g the divine Grace. He only gets the complete light, however, who is completely fitted for it with the whole of his being. If he is only partially fit, because only a part of his psyche has worked for the goal, then the utmost result will b e a partial but permanent union with the soul, or else it will be marred by the inability to keep the union for longer than temporary periods. (Vol. 13, Part 2, 4.9) Another difference between a Philosopher and a Mystic is the following: the My stic may be illiterate, uneducated, simple-minded, but yet may attain the Overse lf. Thus he finds his Inner Peace. It is easier for him because he is less intel lectual, hence has fewer thoughts to give up and to still. But Nature does not a bsolve him from finishing his further development. He has still to complete his horizontal growth as well as balance it. He has obtained depth of illumination b ut not breadth of experience where the undeveloped state of faculties which prev ents his light from being perfect may be fully developed. This can happen either by returning to earth again or continuing in other spheres of existence; he doe s all this inside his peace instead of, as with ordinary man, outside it. When h is growth is complete, he becomes a philosopher. (Vol. 13, Part 2, 4.11) The phrase here, "he does all this inside of his peace instead of, as with or dinary man, outside it," is similar to the distinction made in Sufism of the jou rney "in God" following completion of the journey "to God". PB uses almost ident ical language: "His quest for God has reached its terminus but his quest in God will now sta rt its course. Henceforth his life, experience, and consciousness are wrapped in mystery." (Vol. 15, Part 1, 4.54) From this perspective the idea of the fulfillment of the path taking many lif etimes need not be seen as a dreary prospect. He who has attained illumination, but not philosophic illumination, must come back to earth for further improvement of those faculties whose undeveloped state prevents the light from being perfect. (Vol. 13, Part 2, 4.12) All aspects of human nature need to be illumined and equably balanced if the i llumination itself is to be total, pure, and reliable. This statement is no more , and no less, than the truth. Yet ignorance of it is widespread among would-be mystics and even among real mystics. If there is contradiction between their res ults, it is because they too often experience the illumination fully through the

ir feelings, to a limited extent through their wills, and hardly at all through their intellects. (Vol. 16, Part 1, 2.45) The full fruits of this process are wonderfully expressed by PB in the follow ing passages: "One day the mysterious event called by Jesus being "born again" will occur. There will be a serene displacement of the lower self by the higher one. It will come in the secrecy of the disciple's heart and it will come with an overwhelmi ng power which the intellect, the ego, and the animal in him may resist, but res ist in vain. He is brought to this experience by the Overself as soon as he is a ble to penetrate to the deeper regions of his heart. Only when the disciple has given up all the earthly attractions and wishes, e xpectations and desires that previously sustained him, only when he has had the courage to pluck them out by the roots and throw them aside forever, only then d oes he find the mysterious unearthly compensation for all this terrible sacrific e. For he is anointed with the sacred oil of a new and higher life. Henceforth h e is truly saved, redeemed, illumined. The lower self has died only to give birt h to a divine successor. He will know that this is the day of his spiritual rebirth, that struggle is to be replaced henceforth by serenity, that self-reproach is to yield to self-as surance, and that life in appearance is transformed into life in reality. At las t he has emerged from confusion and floundering and bewilderment. At last he is able to experience the blessed satisfaction, the joyous serenity of an integrate d attitude wholly based on the highest truth. The capacities which have been inc ubating slowly and explosively during all the years of his quest will erupt sudd enly into consciousness at the same moment that the higher self takes possesson of him. What was formerly an occasional glimpse will now become a permanent insi ght." (Ibid, 2.96) "At long last, when the union of self with Overself is total and complete, so me part of his consciousness will remain unmoving in infinity, unending in etern ity. There, in that sacred glory, he will be preoccupied with his divine identit y, held to it by irresistible magnetism, gladly, lovingly." (Ibid, 2.299) Anthony Damiani adds to this understanding in his discussion on Plotinus: "Through reasoning on the content of the World-Idea which it is manifesting, the soul evolves its understanding until intellection becomes predominant, and t his is brought to bear on its own self-nature. If the inquiry is pursued, this p rocess will result in intrinsic self-awareness." (Stephen MacKenna, Plotinus: Th e Enneads (Burdett, New York: Larson Publications, 1992), Appendix 1, p. 7370 The preliminary practices of the so-called "Long Path" are to bring the soul to the point where it has become capable of evolving its understanding until 'in tellection' has become predominant. I say 'become capable' because impediments o f character may prevent the sattvic quality of mind from becoming stably present . This is why even on the path of advaita karma yoga often has an important supp orting role. Plotinus seems to point towards this in his own way in the followin g passage: "[As Soul] the Intellectual Principle is ours when we act by it, not ours whe n we neglect it..We are not the Intellectual Principle; we represent it in virtu e of that highest reasoning faculty which draws upon it...the Intellectual Princ iple [is] our King. But we, too are king when we are moulded to the Intellectual Principle. That correspondence may be brought about in two ways: either through laws of conduct engraved upon our souls as tablets or else by our being, as it were, filled full of the Divine Mind, which again may have become to us a thing seen and felt as a presence." (Ibid, p. 441-442)

It is said that the Buddha after his enlightenment was frustrated at the pros pect of teaching anyone at all, feeling no one could possibly understand him, bu t out of his great compassion (bodhicitta) he was moved to find a way. He knew o f the struggles he went through as well as the limitations of the various sadhan as he had practiced. He also realized the impossibility of philosophy or metaphy sics to be more than pointers to the unexplainable wonderous truth. Yet for fifty years, back pain and all, he found a way to teach - without dogma, rigidity, or exclusivity - and so have many philosophic-sages after him.

******************************************************************************** ****************************************************************************** Having said all that, a careful reading of all the above paras may suggest th at PB really spoke of three paths: the Long Path, the Short Path, and the "real" Short Path. In the Long Path one believes the ego-self is real and is trying to improve and transform it. In the Short Path, which PB says is really to be foll owed concurrently with the Long Path after a certain amount of time, could also be seen as a short, transitional phase before the "real Short Path, which is whe re the Overself takes a more active role in one's enlightenment process. PB stat es: "If he is willing to look for them, he will find the hidden workings of the e go in the most unsuspected corners, even in the very midst of his loftiest spiri tual aspirations. The ego is unwilling to die and will even welcome this large a ttrition of its scope if that is its only way of escape from death. Since it is necessarily the active agent in these attempts at self-betterment, it will be in the best position to take care that they shall end as a seeming victory over it self but not an actual one. The latter can be achieved only by directly confront ing it and, under Grace's inspiration, directly slaying it; this is quite differ ent from confronting and slaying any of its widely varied expressions in weaknes ses and faults. They are not at all the same. They are the branches but the ego is the root. Therefore when the aspirant gets tired of this never-ending Long Pa th battle with his lower nature, which can be conquered in one expression only t o appear in a new one, gets weary of the self-deceptions in the much pleasanter imagined accomplishments of the Short Path, he will be ready to try the last and only resource. Here at long last he gets at the ego itself by completely surren dering it, instead of preoccupying himself with its numerous disguises - which m ay be ugly, as envy, or attractive, as virtue."(P) It may be the case that only one who has already had a true realization or gl impse of the Soul will be capable of the profound surrender PB is suggesting her e. He writes as if this is a stage where one is at the end of his rope and "lets go and lets God". Moreover, as stated, this is where the Overself appears to ta ke a more active role, and the person a more passive one, in one's quest. In thi s respect one might say that here there takes place the "infused contemplation" spoken of so clearly in The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross and in Abandonment of Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre deCaussade. The path is taken out of your hands. All that is required is your abiding fidelity to the "crucif ying operations and the spiritual death which follows." And having said all of THIS, one may legitimately say that the concept of sur render spoken of here may be misleading or even overdone for many souls. The tru e Short Path may be easier and more direct than assumed. I am indebted to Mark S corelle for the following illuminating clarification: "if you are identified with the Long Path certain misconceptions of the natur e of the ego and Enlightened Mind are bound to arise. Like self-realization is

a conversion or indicates character or ego reform. This may be true in a small a mount of prominent cases but often in what I've seen the intact ego and enlighte ned mind run as concurrent programs for quite a period of time. Some say it is the body that needs to be transformed in order to incarnate the realization but lately I am seeing another aspect: that the shared ego mind is being educated by enlightened mind. Thoughts need to be remagnetized and oriented to the core in sight. Long-pathers foresee giving up the ego as an Aztec sacrifice on the altar o f truth. Bloody, heart wrenching and awful. But in most cases it is simply the insight that what people, the world, your parents, and your relationships tell y ou you are [Ed: beginning at about the age of two], ie., a person with certain c haracteristics, good and bad and limitations, (love it or leave it) is simply a mistaken assumption. All these self-referring thoughts have led you to believe there was a self to which they were referring. But the same Awareness which see s the world is what sees the feelings, thinking and sensations which we think in dicate a personal self. You are simply what is awake right now, has no character istics, and is formless." (personal correspondence)

Paul Brunton - on the dark night of the soul The upward flights of the aspirant's novitiate are bought at the cost of down ward falls. It is as much a part of his experience of this quest to be deprived at times of all feeling that the divine exists and is real, as it is to have the sunny assurance of it. At first the experience of reality comes only in flashes. Actually it is not the higher self which tantalizingly appears and disappears before the aspirant's gaze in this way, causing him alternating conditions of happy fruition and mise rable sterility, but the higher self's loving Grace. Each time this is shed, the aspirant's first reaction is a strong sense of spiritual lack, dtyness, darknes s, and longing. This brings much unhappiness, self-discontent, and frustration. But it also brings both increased and intensified aspiration for the unearthly a nd distaste for the earthly. This phase passes away, however, and is followed by one as illuminative as the other was dark, as joyous as the other was unhappy, as productive as the other was barren, and as close to reality as the other seem ed far from it. In that sacred presence a puritying process takes place. The old familiar and faulty self drops away like leaves from a tree in autumn. He makes the radiant discovery in his heart of its original goodness. But alas, when the presence departs, the lower self returns and resumes sovereignty. The period of illumination is often followed by a period of darkness. A spiritual advance whi ch comes unexpectedly is usually succeeded by a period of recoil. Jubilation is followed by depression. A greater trial still awaits him. The Overself demands a sacrifice upon its a ltar so utter, so complete that even the innocent natural longing for personal h appiness must be offered up. As no novice and few intermediates could bear this dark night of the soul, and as even proficients cannot bear it without murmuring , it is reserved for the last group alone-which means that it happens at an adva nced stage along the path, between a period of great illumination, and another o f sublime union. During this period the mystic will feel forsaken, emotionally fatigued and in tellectually bored to such a degree that he may become a sick soul. Meditation exercises will be impossible and fruitless, aspirations dead and u ninviting. A sense of terrible loneliness will envelop him. Interest in the subj ect may fall away or the feeling that further progress is paralysed may become d ominant. Yet in spite of contrary appearances, this is all part of his developme nt, which has taken a turn that will round it out and make it fuller. Most often the student is plunged into new types of experience during the dark period. The Overself sends him forth to endure tests and achieve balance. The most dangerous feature of the "dark night" is a weakening of the will occ urring at the same time as a reappearance of old forgotten evil tendencies. This is the point where the aspirant is really being tested, and where a proportion of those who have reached this high grade fail in the test and fall for several years into a lower one. Even Muhammed had to undergo this experience of the dark night of the soul. I t lasted three years and not a single illumination or revelation came to brighte n his depressed heart. Indeed he even considered the idea of killing himself to put an end to it; and yet his supreme realization and world-shaking task were st ill ahead of him. He who has passed through this deepest and longest of the "dark nights" which precedes mature attainment can never again feel excessive emotional jubilation. The experience has been like a surgical operation in cutting him off from such enjoyments. Moreover, although his character will be serene always, it will be a lso a little touched by that melancholy which must come to one who not only has plumbed the depths of life's anguish himself, but also has been the constant rec

ipient of other people's tales of sorrow. The aspirant can rest in the passive self-absorbed state for a short time onl y, for a few hours at most. The relentless dictates of Nature compel him to retu rn to his suppressed ordinary state of active life. This intermittent swinging to and fro between rapt self-absorption and the re turn to ordinary consciousness will tantalize him until he realizes what is the final goal. It will end only when his egoism has ended. Up to now he has succeed ed in overcoming it fully in the contemplative state only. He must now overcome it in his ordinary active state. But the ego will not leave him here unless the purpose of its own evolution has been fulfilled. Therefore he must complete its all-round development, bring it to poise and balance, and then renounce it utter ly. With the ego's complete abnegation, perfect, unbroken, and permanent oneness with the Overself ensues. 2 After a deeply felt Glimpse or Rapture or Spirit in Development there may be a reaction. This takes the form of a temporary and minor Dark Night of the Soul. But this phenomenon is more certain to appear, and in its most dramatic form, a fter the second stage of meditation has been achieved but before the third (cont emplation) is practised. 3 It is the dark night of the soul-that terrible and desolate period when the D ivine seems as far away as the stars when emotional listlessness and intellectua l lassitude fall on a man, when he finds no help within himself and none outside himself. It is a melancholic experience undergone and lamented by Job and Jerem iah in ancient Israel, by John of Avila in seventeenth-century Spain, by Swami R am Tirtha in modern India. "Oh, my dryness and my deadness!" is a typical cry of this period, found in Lancelot Andrewes' devotional diary, Private Devotions. 4 He who comes to the limit of his endurance is likely to utter his critical cr y. The night is darkest just before dawn. He is almost ripe for that revelation which can open a new, hopeful cycle for him. 5 When I am not, the Overself is. When the universe is, God is not. If the Overse lf did not hide itself, the ego could not come forth. If God were everywhere app arent, there would be no universe. In that deep underground mining operation whi ch is the dark night of the soul, the saint's spirituality is utterly lost from sight, feeling, and consciousness. He is left for a while bereft of all that he has gained, while what remains of his ego is relentlessly crushed. Yet this is f ollowed by a true and lasting enlightenment! 6 Even during the longest dark night of the soul, the Overself is not a whit le ss close to him than it was when it revealed its presence amid ecstasy and JOY. 7

Dark Night of the Soul: The owl is blinded by light, which is therefore darkn ess to it. 8 When the dark night comes, its effect stuns him. His eager aspirations fade a way into despondency and his spiritual exercises fall into disuse. Nothing that happens around him seems to matter, and everything seems so aimless, futile, or trivial. He has to force himself to go on living outwardly as usual. His will is listless and his emotion leaden. He feels inwardly dead, hardly aware of anythi ng except his own state. The experiences and surroundings that each day brings h im are passed through as in a dream. 9 We hear that William Blake was one of England's great mystics and we take it for granted that his mystical perception was easily put to work. Yet there was a time when Blake lamented that the light which was with him had gone out. How lo ng this dark night of the soul lasted has not been recorded. 10 The inner nature becomes stiff, muscle-bound, unresponsive to the joyous evid ences and serene intimations of the Overself. What is even worse, bringing a dar k hopelessness with it, is the fear that this will become a permanent state. Thi s is the famed Dark Night. 11 Both Spanish Saint John of the Cross and Hebrew Job of the Bible experienced and wrote of the darkness of the soul that falls on God's good earnest devotee. 12 When the fruits of the glimpse are seemingly withdrawn - and especially so wh en this happens if the glimpse has been brought on by the work of meditation - a deadness will seem to close in on the feeling and a dullness on the mind. If th is condition goes deep enough, it becomes depressive and is more or less what th e saints have called the Dark Night of the Soul. This is not permanent. The seek er should not despair, but his patience will be stretched and he must accept its happening. If he sees no cause for which he is to blame, then the acceptance be comes an act of faith and it will not be in vain. 13 So lofty is the goal to be reached but so low is his present position, that i t would be unnatural for him not to feel at times shaken by despair or oppressed by futility. Such moods, when humanity's life seems pointless and his own purpo seless, when labour becomes tedious and pleasure depressing, will come over him from time to time. These dry periods, when mystical life seems boring and unreal , dull and dreary, are to be expected. They are normal experiences in every aspi rant's career and their remedy is in God's hands in His good time. He is being t antalized so as to make him prize the divine visitation all the more. Most of th

e seekers are tried in this way. Then it also shows how helpless he is. For the last word lies with divine Grace. Yet all this is no excuse for ceasing self-eff ort, and so he will have to go on with his meditations and prayers and studies. For it is their activity which induces the Grace to descend. 14 Henry Suso: "Hitherto thou hast been a squire; now God wills thee to be a kni ght. And thou shalt have fighting enough." Suso cried: "Alas, my God! What art t hou about to do unto me? I thought that I had had enough by this time. Show me h ow much suffering I have before me." The Lord said, "It is better for thee not t o know. Nevertheless I will tell thee of three things. Hitherto thou hast strick en thyself. Now I will strike thee., and thou shalt suffer publicly the loss of thy good name. Secondly, where thou shalt look for love and faithfulness, there shalt thou find treachery and suffering. Thirdly, hitherto thou hast floated in Divine sweetness, like a fish in the sea; this will I now withdraw from thee, an d thou shalt starve and wither. Thou shalt be forsaken both by God and the world , and whatever thou shalt take in hand to comfort thee shall come to nought." Th e servitor threw himself on the ground, with arms outstretched to form a cross, and prayed in agony that this great misery might not fall upon him. Then a voice said to him, "Be of good cheer. I will be with thee and aid thee to overcome." 15 The dread phenomenon of the dark night of the soul makes its appearance in a mystic's life only a few times at most, sometimes only once. The devotions lose their fervour, the emotions become cold, and worship seems a futile exercise. Th ere is no longer any pleasure to be got from the inner life, and experiences of mystical satisfaction are either rare or absent altogether. Meditation becomes d ry, barren, and ineffective; often the very taste for it departs. Aspiration see ms dead. Where there was once spiritual light in the mind and spiritual heat in the heart, there is now only darkness and ashes. A torpor of sheer fatalism sett les over the will. Life becomes marked by emptiness, aimlessness, lack of inspir ation, and drifts with the tide of events. 16 With the coming-in of the dark night there is a going-out of confidence in hi mself, an uncomfortable sense of failure, a pessimistic feeling that he will nev er again find peace, joy, or happiness. 17 The dark night of the soul has been known to last for several years. On the o ther hand, it has also been known to pass away in a single year. It is a trying time when the power to meditate, the desire to worship, the urge to pray, the ho pe of spiritual attainment, and even the feeling of God's benevolence desert the pilgrim. 18 He who suffers the dark night finds himself poised unhappily between the two worlds-the lower not wanted, the higher not wanting him.

19 When this drying up of all aspiration and devotion comes upon him without any traceable cause, the beauty and warmth of past intuitive feeling or mystical ex petience will seem unreal. 20 With the dark night there is a wish to withdraw from active life, from social responsibilities, and from personal duties. A feeling of their futility accompa nies the wish, a vaguely pessimistic outlook surrounds it. 21 Duting the Dark Night he is neither spiritually alive nor spiritually dead. F or though feeling deserts him, memory refuses to do so. 22 The Dark Night is not the result of any physical suffering or personal misfor tune: it comes from a subtler cause. It induces a depression of enormous weight. 23 The sombre loneliness experienced during the Dark Night of the Soul is unique . No other kind of loneliness duplicates it either in natute or acuteness, altho ugh some may approach it. It creates the feeling of absolute rejection, of being an outcast. 24 A terrible inner numbness, an unbearable emptiness, is a prominent feature of the spiritual dark night. 25 The dark night is a tragic period. Hardly anyone emerges from it without bitt er murmuring and rebellious complaint against the Divinity he earlier professed to adore. Wherever the man turns he can find no relief for his suffering. His co nduct, under the suggestion of helplessness, becomes aimless and meaningless. 26 That paralysing emotional dryness and intellectual deadness is the Dark Night . He has lost the world and the flesh but he has not received heaven and the Spi rit in return for them. Like a statue he wants nothing, expects nothing. He pret ends to be alive but is really a mere spectator of a meaningless life. 27 With the dark night, a condition of mental dullness sets in. Real sustained t hinking becomes a strain. This is because the mind loses its interest in things,

being apathetic. 28 He is oppressed by the feeling of his own nothingness, by the realization tha t he is completely in God's hand. 29 His aspiration becomes tepid, his determination to find truth becomes lukewar m. 30 Hope withers in the heart and joy is put away during this dark night of the s oul. The man once eager, passionate, and ardent in his aspiration, becomes dried and sapless. 31 He feels lost, becomes fearful, reproaches himself with sins fancied or real, and thinks that he is now permanently estranged from God as a punishment. Such is the "Dark Night." 32 He seems to walk absolutely alone in a condition of mental gloom and spiritua l barrenness. No friend, no book, and no teacher can help because they have only words to offer and he wants to feel the divine, and not merely to hear words ab out it. It is, however, a phase which will adjust itself in the course of time. There is nothing he can do except to hold on to the sure faith that he will emer ge from it at the time set by the wisdom of his higher Self. So he needs to be p atient. It will not do him any harm but on the contrary will benefit him. It is certainly very unpleasant for the emotions. But it is necessary because the high er Self wants to train him to rise above them - even above religious emotions and to live in intuitive calm. He is faced with the hard lesson of learning deta chment from personal feelings but it is necessary to master it if he is ever to reach inner peace. 33 When the dark night of the soul falls he may find himself entering a desolate apathy, a loss of interest in things and matters for which before he had a keen appetite. Nought is the consolation to be found in surroundings and persons who formerly raised his enthusiasm. 34 During the Dark Night he lets go of the will in a fatalistic way, doing nothi ng to achieve any aim and expecting nothing to help him. He seems to have no fre edom of choice, so remains forlorn.

35 The raptures, the aspirations, the devotions may be repeated many times, but in the end they are seen as part of the ever-changing picture which life itself is seen to be. Moreover in "the dark night of the Soul" they die off altogether. 36 Few are willing to make this change so Nature often forces it upon them by pl unging them into "the dark night of the Soul." 37 The dark night is a prolonged stupor, a period of dull interminable waiting f or some change to happen. 38 During these dark hours life seems to be lived for nothing, its desires a moc kery, its figures a shadow, its events pointless, and the whole world illusory. 39 How real is his experience of the Overself, or how near he is to it, must not always be measured by his emotional feeling of it. The deep inward calm is a be tter scale to use. But even this vanishes in the "dark night." 40 When he enters the dark night of the soul, life becomes unreal and hollow. He is playing a role in a stage play, but it is all acting, it is not real. He has lost the basic interest in life and he performs what he has to do like a mechan ical robot. Its significance 41 To the informed quester, the dark night of the soul inside him is simply anot her phase of his growth. It is no more to be feared than the coming of dark nigh t of the world outside him is to be feared. 42 It comes to this, that a man who is brought down by adverse events or by inwa rd failure, who loses confidence in himself and hope for his future, who is stri cken down by what John of the Cross called "the dark night of the soul" - such a man is unknowingly at a possible turning-point of his life. Let him surrender t his poor crushed ego of his, this broken belief that he can successfully manage his life, and pray to the Overself to take it all over.

43 Accept the long night patiently, quietly, humbly, and resignedly as intended for your true good. It is not a punishment for sin committed but an instrument o f annihilating egoism. 44 In this terrible experience of the dark night, the divine seems to have withd rawn itself and left him desolate, alone, bereft, and comfortless. Yet if he is to become more godlike he must become less attached and less desirous. The stage when he was intensely attached to the divine and ardently desirous of it belong s to the past. The time has come for him to come out of it. Just as he had to fo rsake the desire of earthly things in order to enter it, so he must now forsake even this last and noblest desire of all, even his godward aspiration. In doing this he will follow the Bible's injunction to "Be Still!" He will be himself and not yearn to be something other than what he is. He will be at peace. 45 They must even bring themselves to accept the Overself's apparent indifferenc e and their own very real dryness with full submission. 46 If he is to be truly resigned to the divine will, he will fully accept the da rkness and give his faithful consent to the hidden imperceptible work of the Ove rself in him. 47 The Dark Night is much less a dark night when he believes, understands, or po ssibly knows that it is a work of the Overself, a movement of Its grace. 48 (On the Dark Night) It is not generally known that a master not only can give illumination but also can remove the obstacles to it, that he may be used by th e disciple's higher self for both these purposes. _______ was set free from a te n-year dark night of the soul by Eckhart. Nevertheless, no master is free to exe rcise this power with arbitrariness or with favouritism but only in obedience to the laws governing it. 49 It all seems so utterly futile, so bleak, so useless during the dark night of the soul. But wait - patience and more patience has positive results. 50 I have always preached the gospel of hope, because if it does nothing more, i t encourages effort, gives a tonic to one's spirit, and helps one through the da rkest moments. As the Comte de Saint Germain said: "Every tunnel has its end."

51 It was Miguel de Molinos who warned aspirants that the fulfilment of their as piration could come only after the establishment of calm in their hearts. This h eld true, he further explained, even if the inner obstacles to such calm were of a spiritual kind, such as lack of enthusiasm for the quest, loss of interest in spiritual techniques, and depressed moods induced by failure, no less than for those of a worldly kind. Modern aspirants should remember these words during the dark night when there is a loss of savour and interest in work, art, literature, self-improvement, an d character~building. The same thought may be put in a more poetic form, when the feelings are more likely to be touched and a stronger effect produced. To make use of some of the Latin poet Catullus' lines, written though they were in another connection: "My studies dead, my joy in everything is fled. Why speak, why call out? I am not h eard." 52 He will need patience, for long dreary stretches of empty months will come to him. 53 He seems, in this desolate "night," to be up against a blank wall. But with p atience he may find a way out. It is well to remember Abraham Lincoln's "This to o will pass." 54 If the Overself did not lead him into and through the final dark night, where he becomes as helpless as an infant, as bereft of interior personal possessions as a destitute pauper, how else would he learn that it is not by his own powers and capacities that he can rise at last into enduring illumination? 55 Entry into the soul's dark night is an unpleasant affair, marked by a loss of the capacity to practise meditation upon spiritual themes, an inability to ente r into the mood of spiritual ecstasy, and yet a repulsion toward giving his mind over to anything else. Although he does not know it, although he feels bereft a nd forlorn, this is actually a result of the Overself's working within the subco nscious regions of his being. It is intended to carry his development to a furth er stage which can appear only when the dark night comes to an end. And although it may seem useless in his own view to impose such seemingly unprofitable suffe ring upon him, it is bringing him more and more out of the clutches of his ego. Quite often, he fears that this is some punishment fallen upon him for his own e rrors or omissions, but he is wrong. 56 During the "dark night of the soul," as it is called by Spanish mystics, the abrupt yet brief joy of the first awakening to existence of a diviner life is su

cceeded and thrown into vivid contrast by the long melancholy years of its loss. There will come to him terrible periods when the quest will seem to have been l ost, when his personal shortcomings will magnify themselves formidably before hi s eyes, and when meditation will be dry sterile and even distasteful. Not only w ill it seem that the Divine is saddeningly remote, but also that it is impossibl e of access. Let him know this and be forewarned, know that even its seeming los s is actually a part of the quest's usual course. Hope must sustain him during s uch dark periods, and time will show it to be neither a groundless nor an unfulf illed feeling. Those years may be bitter indeed for the ego, may even seem waste d ones, but they have their meaning. First, they bring up to the surface and int o kinetic activity all hidden faults, all potential weaknesses, all latent evil, so that they may be exposed for what they are and got rid of - often after thei r resultant sufferings. All the aspirant's latent wickedness (as well as virtue) is actualized by deg rees; all of his dormant tempting passions are aroused in turn; all of his anima l propensities are brought into play against his worthier ideals; all his insinc erities and greeds, untruthfulnesses and vanities sprout quickly from the seed s tage into full-grown plants. The good qualities show themselves too at the same time, so that there is a terrible struggle within him, a struggle which the laws of the quest ordain he shall endure and complete alone. He becomes a dual perso nality. No master and no God may interfere with this momentous testing of a huma n soul at this critical stage of its evolution when the relation between the low er and higher selves is sought to be entirely changed. For it may not pass over into the new and higher life forever unless and until it is really ready for suc h life. All this happens through events and circumstances both ordinary and extr aordinary by a natural law which governs all efforts to rend the mystic veil. 57 By freeing himself largely of attachments-and especially the subtlest yet lar gest of all, attachment to the ego - his heart is emptied. Into the void thus cr eated, Grace can flow. Mystics who complain of the soul's dark night are led to know that it is a process whereby this space in the heart is being increased, a crushing of self into dust, to make room for Grace. If they are thus led to noth ingness, let them remember that the Overself is no-thing. 58 Spiritual raptures, which are such a help and encouragement for the beginner, become a hindrance and stumbling block to the advanced discipie. The latter mus t learn to give them up without complaint, and to no longer expect or depend on them. The most effectual way to teach him that lesson is unfortunately for him a lso the most desolating. It is through the dark night of the soul. The absence o f the higher self or God or grace in this condition is only a seeming one. Each is still there underneath the darkness. The situation is really paradoxical and beyond correct appraisal by the conscious mind, certainly by the suffering ego. He is being made to learn, by the severest experience, that the divine reality m ust not be confused with his conscious reactions to it, nor with his mental reac tions to it, nor even with his emotional reactions to it, that it belongs to an unknown and unknowable realm that transcends human faculties and defies human pe rceptions. 59 The man who has seen reality during a temporary glimpse may later be subjecte d to its hidden operation without or within. In this way the higher power tests him, tries his faith, courage, patience, and, above all, sense of truth and capa

city for discrimination. If the test reveals his weakness, then it is for him to provide the remedy: thus in the end he is strengthened. It is not enough to rec ognize the Real in its own homeland alone; he must be trained to recognize it un der all conditions, even when it is hidden under thick illusion, even in the low est ebb of the soul's dark night. These tests, which come both from within and w ithout, help to give this training. 60 When he reaches this condition wherein his whole being seems emptied of hope and light, of certainty and reality, he learns the dread truth that nothing in h imself can be relied on and that nobody outside himself can help him. This is th e lesson of the "dark night of the soul." 61 If he is ever to learn and practise abnegation of the will, then this plumbin g of the depths of the dark night is an essential experience. But it is essentia l only if he previously revelled emotionally in the ecstatic elation of the Glim pse. 62 He who has been through this "dark night" and absorbed its lessons thoroughly has lost all his pride. 63 When the aridity has half gone and the serenity has begun to come, life becom es a little more congenial, Nature a little more beautiful. It is time to bury t he old negativities. 64 The "dark night" does more to detach a man from his ego, his interests, and h is desires than the rapturous joys and emotional ecstasies. The awful feeling of being separated from or even lost forever to the higher power, works as a hidde n training and secret discipline of all personal feelings. 65 He is forced into the seeming darkness by the processes of Nature. She wishes him to turn back and, on the one hand, to purify those parts of his character a nd, on the other hand, to develop those parts of his psyche which have remained undeveloped. 66 The dark nights which come to the inner man, when he feels deprived of peace and hope or especially when he feels utterly deserted by the Overself, are as ne cessary to educate him as the bright days when joy fills him because of the divi ne nearness.

67 Dark Night of the Soul: In passing through this, the greatest humiliation he has ever experienced, and passing through it resignedly, patiently, and without rebellion, he reduces the ego to a cipher, and destroys its power over him. 68 He has to regenerate his whole being - the intellect which thinks, the emotio nal nature which feels, and the practical will which acts. That is one meaning o f the "dark night." 69 This second mystical crisis yields, as one of its fruits, a moral cleansing. 70 This is perhaps the greatest test of all, this phase of the aspirant's career which has been called "the dark night of the soul" Anyone or all of several dif ferent causes may bring it on, anyone or all of several different results may en sue. In that terrible darkness he will find himself absolutely alone, able to de pend on nothing else than what he finds within his own innermost being, Without anyone to guide him and witll none to companion him, he will have to learn an ut ter self-reliance if he is successfully to gain one of these results, It is usel ess to complain of the terror of this experience for, from the first moment that he gave his allegiance to this quest, he unconsciously invited its onset, It ha d to come even though me day of its coming was yet far off. 71 It is not only by the experience of feeling at times the presence of God that an aspirant may develop inwardly: it may also happen by the equivalent non-expe rience, by feeling quite deserted by God, quite left alone! This - the "dark nig ht of the soul" - is just as essential. 72 The spiritual joys are intended to entice men - lethargic or reluctant as the y are - onto the Quest, or to reward them when they have finished it. That is to say, they are for beginners and adepts. The spiritual drynesses are intended to purify the character, fortify the will, and detach men from the ego. That is to say, they are for sufficiently grown adults. It is the paradoxical irony of thi s situation that the joys of the beginner make him believe that he is very near to God whereas the desolations of the proficient make him despise himself. 73 (Dark Night:) When he realizes that even despair is egotistical, he will real ize that it is not only the so-called evil passions that have to be curbed but a lso the depressive and melancholy emotions. He needs to remember , that whenever he will again penetrate into the higher region of his being, any sadness, depre ssion, or melancholy he may suffer from will diminish gradually and then, when h

e is stabilized in it, vanish entirely. 74 This period of crisis which may descend upon a Quester and which has been cal led the dark night of the soul is a period of spiritual stagnation, moral discou ragement, and mental fatigue. Nothing and nobody seems able or even willing to h elp him and books themselves become useless, arid, and futile. Not only can he p roceed no farther, but there seems no point in trying to do so. Yet, as I have o ften pointed out before, it is in this crisis when he seems most deserted that h e is really being most guided, guided from a path, the Long Path, which has reac hed its end towards the Short Path, which he must now begin to travel.

Thomas Merton From New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions Publishing Company, 19 72) When a man is virtuous enough to be able to delude himself that he is almost perfect, he may enter into a dangerous condition of blindness in which all his v iolent efforts finally to grasp perfection strengthen his hidden imperfections a nd confirm him in his attachment to his own judgment and his own will. In getting the best of our secret attachments - ones which we cannot see beca use they are principles of spiritual blindness - our own initiative is almost al ways useless. We need to leave the initiative in the hands of God working in our souls either directly in the night of aridity and suffering, or through events and other men. This is where so many people break down and go to pieces. As soon as they reach the point where they can no longer see the way and guide themselv es by their own light, they refuse to go any further. They have no confidence in anyone except themselves. Their faith is largely an emotional illusion. It is r ooted in their feelings, in their physique, in their temperament. It is a kind o f natural optimism that is stimulated by moral activity and warmed by the approv al of other men. If people oppose it, this kind of faith still finds refuge in s elf-complacency. But when the time comes to enter the darkness in which we are naked and helpl ess and alone; in which we see the insufficiency of our greatest strength and th e hollowness of our strongest virtues; in which we have nothing of our own to re ly on, and nothing in our nature to support us, and nothing in the world to guid e us or give us light - then we find out whether or not we live by faith. It is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please or c omfort our own minds, when we seem to be useless and worthy of all contempt, whe n we seem to have failed, when we seem to be destroyed and devoured, it is then that the deep and secret selfishness that is too close for us to identify is str ipped away from our souls. It is in this darkness that we find true liberty. It is in this abandonment that we are made strong. This is the night which empties us and makes us pure.

mparing the experiences of Teresa and the LSD subject Having summarized both Teresa's experience and the experiences of LSD subjec ts, as organized by Grof, the next step in the argument is to summarize the poin ts of comparison, which I see as five in number. The first area is the physical symptoms themselves. A review of Teresa's rep orts establishes the similarity beween her symptoms and those of Grof's subjects -contractive spasms throughout the body which may last for hours and be so sever e as to cause a temporary disjointing of bones, violent jerking and shaking of t he extremities, chills, fluctuations in pulse, ringing in the ears, and excrucia ting pains throughout her body, especially around her heart. If the reference to strangulation has experiential import, we can add suffocation to this list. Fin ally, the fetal posture Teresa assumes for a period of time in her early illness is suggestive as a perinatal posture,39 and a passage quoted at the end of this section will describe an experience of stifling pressure on the entire head and body. A second area of comparison is the emotional or psychological component of T eresa's seizures. The psychological distress Teresa experiences in her attacks p eaks in her devil-experiences, and it is these experiences that most closely res emble the psychological debasement, metaphysical alienation, and existential des pair endured by the LSD subject. Teresa's usual interior security is shattered b y extreme inner turmoil accompanied by a loss of love and trust. All of her once -quieted vanities and weaknesses return to plague her, and she feels herself to be profoundiy worthless. She feels utterly estranged from God and condemned to p erpetual exile from him. So deep is her sense of worthlessness and alienation th at she succumbs to despair, experiencing God only as a vengeful tyrant. As her m ystical experience deepens, so does her sense of abandonment and estrangement fr om God. She tells us that these psychological agonies are worse even than the ph ysical pains, and the worst of them are the despair and being denied God's embra ce. The latter, she says, is like being scorched by the heat of a fire over whic h she is helplessly suspended. Teresa likens these experiences to purgatory and hell, images common in the narratives of LSD subjects. In a conceptual context t hat is meaningful to her, therefore, Teresa repeats the basic elements of the LS D subject's psychological experience: estrangement from all that is seen as good and meaningful, extreme alienation, personal worthlessness, futility, and hopel ess despair. She despairs because she experiences this suffering and alienation as never ending, as does the LSD subject. The third point of comparison actually belongs under the second but is being discussed separately because of its singular importance. Teresa's experience re produces the LSD subject's experience of ego-death. In one way or another ego-de

ath is a recurrent theme in Teresa's writing. Repeatedly sounding the refrain of radical self-surrender and self-renunciation, she describes the prayer of union as a "complete death to everything in the world and a fruition in God."40 She i nsists that the passion and crucifixion are the best topics for meditation even at the advanced sixth mansion, topics one cultivates with a strong identificatio n with the crucified Lord.41 Using the silkworm, which dies in its own cocoon, a s an analogue for the soul, she writes: "The silkworm has of necessity to die; a nd this will cost you the most; for death comes more easily when one can see one self living a new life, whereas our duty here is to continue living this present life, and yet to die of our own free will."42 It is only after the silkworm die s, she says, that fullest union with God can be experienced. In keeping with these ideas, Teresa experiences her torments as purifying he r by destroying her own self. Like Meister Eckhardt before her, she understands this "old self" to be not merely our unregenerate habits but our very existence as self-willing individuals. The transformation she describes is nothing less th an a complete displacement or destruction of this self-willing core. "When we em pty ourselves of all that is creature," she writes, "and rid ourselves of it for the love of God, that same Lord will fill our souls with Himself."43 This passa ge refers not to a temporary peak experience but to a permanent restructuring of consciousness. Teresa's ego is being consumed by a purifying fire,44 to be repl aced by an enduring awareness of God. So complete and permanent is this death of the ego that in describing the mystic's state of mind in the seventh mansion, s he speaks of a pervading forgetfulness of self: "[The mystic] lives in so strange a state of forgetfulness that, as I say, s he seems no longer to exist, and has no desire to exist-no, absolutely none."45 Apparently in the seventh mansion the ego has been replaced by a non-ego mode of consciousness centered in God, not in self, a mode Teresa describes simply as h er taking upon herself God's affairs and Him taking upon Himself her affairs. Similarly, in the LSD context, ego-death is experienced as a total annihilat ion of the individual on all levels-physical, emotional, intellectual, ethical, and transcendental. All meaningful reference points collapse as one is emptied t o the point of extinction. Having died as an ego, the individual suddenly finds "himself" experiencing a new mode of consciousness that opens him to certain exp eriences of a distinctly mystical character. It is worth noting in this context that Grof's description of the long-term changes in the personality of the LSD s ubject who has undergone the ego-death experience strikingly resembles Teresa's description of the mystic's life in the seventh mansion.46 A fourth parallel is the blending of pain and ecstasy which so puzzled Teres a.47 The pain experienced by LSD subjects under the influence of the third perin atal matrix often reaches such a high level that it changes into ecstatic raptur e of cosmic proportions which Grof calls volcanic ecstasy. "In the state of 'vol canic ecstasy,' various sensations and emotions melt into one undifferentiated c omplex that seems to contain the extremes of all possible dimensions of human ex perience. Pain and intense suffering cannot be distinguished from utmost pleasur e, caustic heat from freezing cold, murderous aggression from passionate love, v ital anxiety from religious rapture, and the agony of dying from the ecstasy of being born."48 Thus, when Teresa reports extreme pain characterized by excessive sweetness, she gives us not indications of a pathological masochism, as previou sly thought, but an accurate description of a rare but not inherently pathologic al experience. Fifth, the overall progression of Teresa's experience parallels that of the LSD subject. Beginning only after she had begun to practice the prayer of recoll ection, Teresa's seizures become more frequent and more severe as her experience in prayer deepens, peaking immediately before her breakthrough to her highest m ystical attainment.49 Similarly, the perinatal symptoms intensify as the subject

moves closer to the death-rebirth experience and peak in that experience. Equally important, and to my knowledge overlooked by previous commentators, is the fact that Teresa's convulsions cease after she has entered the seventh ma nsion. 50 The perinatal symptoms are the growing pains of a mode of consciousnes s that Teresa would have called God- consciousness. As such, they are transition al and end when this new mode of consciousness is the enduring mode. This transi tion had not occurred by the writing of her autobiography in 1565, but it has by the time she writes Interior Castle in 1577. It is a strange hysteria indeed wh ich is cured by mystical union. While the above arguments may be sufficient to establish that Teresa's convu lsions were actually perinatal symptoms, they do not adequately convey the preci sion of correspondence that often exists between Teresa's and the LSD subject's description of their experiences. This can only be gathered by attending to the detail and nuance of Teresa's narrative. I should like, therefore, to conclude t his section by quoting a passage particularly rich in perinatal elements. In one of her most agonizing and profitable experiences, Teresa descends into hell. De scent into hell is a theme associated with BPM II, and Teresa's journey is a com pelling portrait of this matrix. The entrance, I thought, resembled a very long, narrow passage, like a f urnace, very low, dark and closely confined; the ground seemed to be full of wat er which looked like filthy, evil-smelling mud, and in it were many wicked-looki ng reptiles. At the end there was a hollow place scooped out of a wall, like a c upboard, and it was here that I found myself in close confinement. But the sight of all this was pleasant by comparison with what I felt there. . . . My feeling s, I think, could not possibly be exaggerated, nor can anyone understand them. I felt a fire within my soul the nature of which I am utterly incapable of descri bing. My bodily sufferings were so intolerable that, though in my life I have en dured the severest sufferings of this kind . . . none of them is of the smallest account by comparison with what I felt then, to say nothing of the knowledge th at they would be endless and never ceasing. And even these are nothing by compar ison with the agony of my soul, an oppression, a suffocation and an affliction s o deeply felt, and accompanied by such hopeless and distressing misery, that I c annot too forcibly describe it. To say that it is as if the soul were continuall y being torn from the body is very little, for that would mean that one's life w as being taken by another; whereas in this case it is the soul itself that is te aring itself to pieces. The fact is that I cannot find words to describe that in terior fire and that despair which is greater than the most grievous tortures an d pains. I could not see who was the cause of them, but I felt, I think, as if I were being both burned and dismembered; and I repeat that the interior fire and despair are the worst things of all. In that pestilential spot, where I was qui te powerless to hope for comfort, it was impossible to sit or lie, for there was no room to do so. I had been put in this place which looked like a hole in the wall, and those very walls so terrible to the sight, bore down upon me and compl etely stifled me. There was no light and everything was in the blackest darkness .52

The Fallacy of Divine Identity By Peter Holleran "There is some kind of a distinction between his higher individuality and the Universal Infinite out of which he is rayed, whatever the Vedantins may say. An d this distinction remains in his highest mystical state, which is not one of to tal absorption and utter destruction of this individuality but the mergence of i ts own will in the universal will, the closest intimacy of its own being with th e universal being." (1) Paul Brunton The following material is difficult and may require more than one pot of co ffee to get through and yet still leave one with a headache. It represents a bri ef summary of the thinking of those much wise than I. Yet study of the sources r eferred to herein will yield the reader a rich reward. The main argument is that the spiritual aspirant who realizes the sublime state of sahaj samadhi has achi eved union with his divine soul, or Overself, and not Brahman per se, with the f allacy being that of mystics who exclaim in their ecstasy, "I am God!" This view of Paul Brunton seems to stand in stark contrast with the ajatavada advaitists who speak of enlightenment to Brahman or the One itself. PB did not disagree wit h this view, but felt that an intermediary, what he called the Overself, was nec essary, for both experiencial reasons as well as pedagogical ones. [For those un familiar with PB's unique terminology (Mind, World-Mind, World-Idea, Overself), please click here for a more precise explanation]. Nevertheless, many unanswerab le questions about life and the ego see new light through this way of thinking. Therefore let us begin. This will not be a fully extrapolated argument but a ske tch for fresh lines of spiritual thought, initiated by the works of Paul Brunton and Anthony Damiani. The title of this article is borrowed from that of some tr

anscribed classes by Anthony in March, 1984. Many thanks to students at Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies for useful comments and editorial help ; however, all mistakes and points of view are my own. An initial conciliatory position to intellectually satisfy both East and West might be to say that, according to the teachings of Plotinus and PB, the Soul i s transcendental and infinite from the point of view of the ego, while ontologic ally distinct yet non-separate from the Absolute. Christian mystics tend to forg et the first part of that statement, Vedantic philosophers the second. (In all t his, however, we are tredding on dangerous ground: it has been said that when we say there is "not one iota" of difference between this and that, we are recalli ng the debate at the Council of Nicea in 325 as to whether Christ was the selfsa me substance as God (homoousious) or distinct substance (homoiousios), where the difference between orthodoxy and heresy was only one letter (i) or iota!) Anthony Damiani argued that these problems can be reconciled by the Three Pri mal Hypostases doctrine of Plotinus: The One, the Intellectual Principle (Nous), and Soul. Soul, the third Primal, is divided into a first emanation from the In tellectual Principle, the Absolute Soul, which in turn emanates an infinite numb er of individual Souls. In PB s terminology the Absolute Soul in the Intellectual principle would be the World-Mind, and the individual Soul or Overself would be a point in that World-Mind, or a ray emanated from that Divine Sun. As Plotinus points out, all of the Primals are "beyond the Heavens," and thus transcendental ; therefore, the Soul is also transcendental and not manifest (noumenon and not phenomenon). Damiani (and Brunton) held that Self or God-realization as commonly described in the scriptures and by most mystics, while most profound, is not re ally God-realization as such, but rather reunion or re-identification with man's transcendental, Divine Soul. This might first be realized as the Witness positi on, or as the individual soul in itself, as the innermost level of absorptive tr ance, the ultimate subject, also known as nirvikalpa or jnana nirvikalpa samadhi . On the philosophic path, in order to become a sage one must then come out of this state and realize the Soul under all conditions, both within and without, r ealizing the source of the World or World-Image to be the same as that of one's own self. This leads to non-dualism, or sahaj samadhi, the natural state, which is experienced as neither oneness or duality, but the "not-two", as it is often described in Zen. This full realization is what PB called the Overself (which so me mystics in the ecstasy of their union interpret as God), where the Soul now b egins to realizes itself as a part of the All-Soul, or "Absolute Soul" . From th is point, the Soul, through deeper levels of silent absorption into the Void Min d, becomes "rapt in robes of glory," and may receive emanations or intuit someth ing of the "Intellectual Principle" (Nous or Divine Mind) and the "One" from whi ch it derives its being - but not before. As these are all non-conceptual, beyon d ego (ahamkara), they may for many purposes be collectively considered as God, yet such further distinctions become meaningful from the point of view of the sa ge. In the Judeo-Christian Bible we find that "man was made in the image of God" . Plotinus gives due credit to his predecessors, showing that his thought was n ot entirely new: " [Plato teaches that] the author of the causing principle, of the divine min d, is to him the Good, that which transcends the Intellectual-Principle and tran scends Being: often too he uses the term 'The Idea' to indicate Being and the Di vine Mind. Thus Plato knows the order of generation- from the Good [or the One], the Intellectual Principle; from the Intellectual Principle, the Soul. These te achings are, therefore, no novelties, no inventions of today, but long since sta ted, if not stressed; our doctrine here is the explanation of an earlier and can show the antiquity of these opinions on the testimony of Plato himself."

"The Platonic Parmenides is more exact; the distinction is made between the P rimal One, a strictly pure Unity, and a secondary One which is a One-Many [a uni ty in duality, the Intellectual Principle in all Divine Ideas] and a third which is a One-and-Many [Absolute Soul and individual Souls]; thus he too is in accor dance with our thesis of Three Kinds." (v.1.9) Plotinus, following Plato and some other of the ancient philosopher-sages, ta ught that the Soul: "is an image of its source: that source is the brilliant, the authentic, the primarily existent, the thing self-sprung and self-intent; but its image, Soul, is a thing which can have no permanence except by attachment, by living in that other; the very nature of an image is that as a dependent it shall have its bein g in something else, if at all it exist apart from the original." (2) Thus, the One engenders eternally an eternal being (the Intellectual Principl e, or the Divine Mind) which itself (through the Absolute Soul, or the Soul-esse nce integral to the Intellectual Principle) emanates Individual Souls which them selves, although eternal, are, however, but the image of their prior. In order f or man, then to know anything of the Intellectual Principle he must first achiev e union with his own individual divine Soul. Plotinus says: "If the Soul is questioned as to the nature of that Intellectual principle the perfect and all-embracing, the primal self-knower - it has but to enter into that Principle, or to sink all its activity into that, and at once it shows its elf to be in effective possession of those priors whose memory it has never lost ; thus, as an image of the Intellectual principle, it can make itself the medium , by which to attain some vision of it; it draws upon that within itself which i s most closely resemblant, as far as resemblance is possible between divine Inte llect and any phase of the Soul...In order, then, to know what the Divine Mind i s we must observe Soul and especially its most God-like phase....Those divinely possessed and inspired have at least the knowledge that they hold some greater t hing within them though they cannot tell what it is." (3) Meister Eckhart seemed to be pointing towards this glimpse of the Nous by the Soul in the following passage: " When the soul enters the light that is pure, she falls so far from her own cre ated somethingness into her nothingness that in this nothingness she can no long er return to that created somethingness by her own power. Blessedness consists p rimarily in the fact that the soul sees God in herself . Only in God s knowledge d oes she become wholly still. There she knows nothing but essence and God. Betwee n that person and God there is no distinction, and they are one. . . Their knowi ng is one with God s knowing, their activity with God s activity and their understan ding with God s understanding. I have occasionally spoken of a light in the soul which is uncreated and uncr eatable. . . . This light is not satisfied with the simple, still and divine bei ng which neither gives nor takes, but rather it desires to know from where this being comes. It wants to penetrate to the simple ground, to the still desert, in to which distinction never peeped, neither Father, Son nor Holy Spirit. There, i n that most inward place, where everyone is a stranger, the light is satisfied, and there it is more inward than it is in itself, for this ground is a simple st illness which is immovable in itself. But all things are moved by this immovabil ity and all the forms of life are conceived by it which, possessing the light of reason, live of themselves. Impressive thought indeed for the thirteenth century, but, then, so was Ploti nus in the first! Have we since improved on these greats?

Damiani comments: "The sage unites with his soul and he's permanently soul. He can get a glimps e of the Intellectual Principle but he cannot become the Intellectual Principle. He must return and be soul. He will always be soul. You, I, and everyone else. So the higher glimpse is not your glimpse of your soul [which may be what many e xperiences of non-duality and satori are], but the soul's experience of the Inte llectual Principle. When you achieve identity with the soul, you can get a glimp se of that Void. You can call it the Intellectual Principle or you can call it t he Absolute Soul in the Intellectual Principle. It doesn't matter what you call it, because the One, the Intellectual Principle, and the Absolute Soul of Plotin us - those three Primal Hypostases together - can be considered as the Void Mind . But this higher glimpse is distinct from the unity with the soul, the identity with your soul. It is a different kind of experience. You could know many thing s when you have achieved identity with your soul, but when you have the glimpse of the Intellectual Principle, the only thing you could know is that it is. Noth ing else. So, in other words, you could know that God is after you have achieved union with the soul. Before that all you could know are the contents of the sou l, and the soul itself." "They don't have texts available on these things. When PB speaks about what a philosopher sage is, he points out that the philosopher sage is a person who ha s achieved permanent union with his soul. he doesn't say that the philosopher sa ge is one who has achieved permanent union with the Intellectual Principle or wi th the Absolute Soul, but one who has achieved permanent identity with his soul. This soul that he speaks about, this is what he refers to as made in the image of God - in other words, the image of the Intellectual principle. And this is wh at the philosopher or the jnani is, he's the soul. He knows that his essence com es from the Intellectual Principle. he knows it, not intellectually, he knows it because his soul is a direct emanation from that, and the soul's self-cognition autmatically includes the recognition of its principle - where it comes from." "So it's true that the glimpse into your soul is of the nature of the Void. I t's true. But it's also true that the essence of your soul, even though it is vo id, and the essence of the Intellectual principle, which is also void, are disti nct. [important point]. Now what is the distinction between these two? When the philosopher sage says to you, "God is," he's not saying that my soul, even thoug h it is cosmic and infinite, is God. He's speaking about the Intellectual Princi ple, and that's the experience that comes to the philosopher sage. PB even says that if that's all they can comunicate, it is enough. When the individual soul o r individual mind has that experience of the Intellectual Principle, that is the announcement he makes, by referring that experience to God. He says that's God. Plotinus goes further and says that in that identity he even achieved mystic id entity with the One itself, Mind itself, Absolute Mind, that which is beyond the Intellectual Principle. And he goes on and describes it..." (4) It becomes clear that "in that identity" refers to the sage's identity (union ) with his individual soul, and that "mystic identity with the One itself" refer s to the deepening of the individual soul's experience into the One, not union w ith It. There is no annihilation involved. If there is an actual union with the One then the individual self gets dissolved in the One, and PB says that doesn' t happen. The 'contents of the soul' here would include the gross, subtle, and causal a spects of the being. The soul would be consciousness itself, or Being. Compared to the former the soul itself is experienced as void, or empty of all content. T hat is not, however, identical with the higher experience of the Void Mind descr ibed by Damiani and Brunton or of the Primal Hypostases by Plotinus. That is pos sible, it is suggested, only after permanent union with the soul in sahaj has be

en achieved. That is not a matter of a further union, but of a deeper penetratio n into the void-mind, a deepening of the noumenal identity with the Intellectual Principle and the One. Plotinus claims to have achieved these higher stages. Bu t it is important to point this out, about the union with soul being the final a nd only true union, because so many mystics have felt themselves to be one with God or identical to God when reaching this state. And these higher stages (i.e., realization of the being of the Intellectual principle or the One), is beyond t he concept of merger, or union; there is no merger or union with the One, becaus e the One is always and already the case. The Soul remains itself, as it abides within the Nous or Intellectual Principle, which abides in the One. It is parado xical, for sure. On this point the non-dualists appear to be correct: there is n o merger or union in realization of the One. Damiani points out that here is whe re much confusion has arisen in the Zen tradition, specifically because the term s "void" and "satori" have often been used to describe quite different levels of experience and insight. Only the greatest among the sages have penetrated deepl y into the Void Mind, while practitioners at varying stages of the path have had non-dual glimpses of the soul. PB concurs with this line of thinking: Union with the Overself is not the ultimate end but a penultimate one. What we look up to as the Overself looks up in its own turn to another and higher entit y. [i.e., the Nous or Intellectual Principle] (5) The word entity must not be misunderstood here. There is no entity in the stric t sense at this transcendental, infinite level. This also must not be misunderst ood to imply that the Overself is a Witness self or Witness position. It is not. It is what is realized in sahaj samadhi, the natural state. Thus, it is the ult imate end of mysticism, and further, essentially the end of the philosophical di scipline as well. It is the 'no-self' position and the non-dual understanding. F rom this state one may sink ever further into the Void-Mind to experience the un knowable and ineffable, of which it has been said in varying traditions that the re are three degrees. Among current non-dual teachers Adyashanti is one whose te aching has moved past a reductionistic advaita to acknowledged this infinite dee pening: "The realization of your true nature is the end of not-knowing who and what y ou are. The belief that you are simply the body-mind mechanism comes to an end, but this is not the end in any absolute sense. It's the beginning of another mys terious unfolding. It's the beginning of something without end. When you awaken, you realize that around that body-mind is presence and space, and you know that you are this infinite presence. This presence is inconceivable, even to those w ho realize it. You can't say what it is; you just know that it is what you are. It could be called emptiness, consciousness, God, or spirit, but still there's a certain mystery to it all...In the infinite, you have great, ever-deepening rea lizations, and yet there is simultaneously the sense that nothing is going anywh ere. Everything is an unfolding of stillness within stillness." (Summer/Fall 200 8 Retreat brochure). Madame Guyon may possibly been referring to this deepening into the Primals w hen she said: The life of the believer is like a torrent making its way out of the high moun tains down into the canyons and chasms of life, passing through many experiences until finally coming to the spiritual experience of death. From there, the torr ent experiences resurrection and a life lived in concert with the will of God wh ile still going through many stages of refinement. At last the torrent finds its way into the vast, unlimited sea. Even here the torrent does not totally come t o be one with the vast ocean until it has once more passed through final dealing s by the Lord...."

Herein humility is protected, for even the simplest creature knows that he is not the almighty, although he is forever linked in an indissolvable relationshi p with it. Again, only the most complete among sages have gone past the point of realizing their unity with the soul. Being beyond human perception and concepti on, at this stage the pen breaks and one can say no more on what has been termed 'divine darkness'. That there still exists an individuality, a sense of self, however, was humor ously pointed out by Anthony in the class from which these notes were taken. One student recounts: "At the time I heard it I thought the following anecdote was humorous, but I don't know how many got the joke: There was some kind of discussion going on ab out the Tibetan Buddhist notion of emptiness between a student with Buddhist lea nings and Anthony. The student was asking something to the effect that since he (the student) was a dependent arising and empty of inherent existence, who is a sking the question and who would be getting an answer? Anthony replied somethin g like -- Well, if it's not you then tell the other one to write me a letter." The permanent union with the Soul or Spirit in sahaj is a great achievement a nd not just a glimpse. Damiani readily admits it will feel like union with God, without a doubt, which is why Al Hallaj, who in his ecstasy proclaimed, I am God , was martyred for Islamic heresy. In Sufism this might be equated with the statio n called subsistence or union (baqa), or proximity (qurb), still only the twenty -first or thirtieth of forty stations, in the classification of Abu Sa'id. The l ater stations are considered as belonging to the journey in God as opposed to th e journey to God. Thus, in Sufism, man as a tripartite being of body, soul (or a nima), and Spirit, must undergo the spiritual work to transmute lead into gold, or slay the dragon to reach the treasure. In other words, "Man in his unregenerated and 'fallen' state..identifies himself with the sou l that has not as yet experienced the liberating contact with the Spirit and..li ves imprisoned in a world of sense impressions deriving from the body, along wit h the logical inferences drawn from that world, and in an unilluminated subjecti ve labyrinth that is filled with passionate impulses. The spiritual path..means a radical transformation of the soul, made possible through the gift of revelati on and initiation, until the soul becomes worthy of becoming the bride of the Sp irit and entering into union with it...The Spirit is like the sky, shining and i mmutable above the horizons of the soul. It is a world which, although not yet G od, is inseparable from Him so that to reach it is already to be in the front co urtyard of paradise and the proximity of the Divine..To reach God, the soul must become God-like. Hence the significance of the spiritual stations and states th at the soul must experience and the spiritual virtues which it must acquire and which mark the degrees of ascent of the soul to God. In fact, each virtue is a s tation through which the soul must pass and which it must experience in a perman ent way." (6) For Sufism, the final station (maqam) or permanent non-dual state (tahwid) wi ll be one's own, and not just in the nature of glimpses (ahwal), only after this transformation, which is not only of the intellect or knowing faculty but also of the will. The higher teachings of non-duality exist in Sufism, particularly i n Ibn 'Al Arabi, only they are generally veiled until one earns his way into the "courtyard". Al Arabi states: "If you know yourself as nothing, then you truly know your Lord. Otherwise, y ou know him not. [But] you cannot know your Lord by making yourself nothing. Man y a wise man claims that in order to know one's Lord one must denude oneself of the signs of one's existence, efface one's identity, finally rid oneself of one' s self. This is a mistake. How could a thing that does not exist try to get rid

of its existence? ...If you think that to know Allah depends on your ridding you rself of yourself, then you are guilty of attributing partners to Him - the only unforgivable sin -because you are claiming that there is another existence besi des Him, the All-Existent: that there is a you and He." (7) Plotinus, as well as the Sufis, in this view, can be seen as unique in reconc iling the seeming opposition of emanationism, mysticism, and gnosticism with "no n-duality" (Zen, ch'an, or advaita). (Non-duality is in quotes to emphasize that it is only posed to counter a belief in either oneness or duality, while, once again, the non-conceptual truth is neither, and, of course, forever a paradox. T here is just no getting around that). The above would thus explain how a sage such as Ramana Maharshi could remain a devotee and ecstatically proclaim, "Father, Father," and weep in front of the images of 321 Tamil saints praying for devotion ["I used to go and weep before t hose images and before Nataraja that God should grant me the same grace He gave to those saints. But this was after the 'death' experience. Before that, the bha kti for the sixty-three saints lay dormant.." (Day By Day with Bhagavan, Tiruvan namalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 2002, p. 323), while at the same time he, as a jnani, poked fun at those wishing to see the light of a million suns spoken of by sain ts and mystics. Maharshi maintained, in fact, that only the sage was a perfect d evotee. Vaishnava Acharya Vallabacharya likewise said: "No one is superior to a Jnani who chants the name of the Divine." The great metaphysician Sankara wrote both non-dual metaphysics but also devotional literature. Ramakrishna Paramahans a likewise taught advaita vedanta but also how one must weep for God and how God will work in the soul of the devotee. Ramana spoke of a stage in both inquiry ( jnana) or meditation (bhakti) where the ripe ego becomes helpless and the divine must take over; Damiani says that the "Higher Will comes down" after the moral effort, or the great battle. This talk is similar in nature to that of the infus ed contemplation spoken of by St. John. In The Dark Night of the Soul he wrote o f a stage when individual effort takes a back seat to the direct action of the d ivine within the human soul. Such infused contemplation at first appears as dark ness to the soul, inasmuch as it transcends its capacity to feel and to know. Th is divine grace takes one from the stage of a beginner on the way to that of the proficient, from active meditation to passive and effortless contemplation. St. John describes: "This dark contemplation as secret, since...it is mystical theology, which th eologians call secret wisdom, and which, as Saint Thomas says, is comunicated an d infused into the soul through love. This happens secretly and in darkness, so as to be hidden from the work of the understanding and of other faculties. Where fore, inasmuch as the faculties aforementioned attains not to it, but the Holy S pirit infuses and orders it into the soul, as says the Bride in the Songs, witho ut either its knowledge or its understanding, it is called secret. And, in truth , not only does the soul not understand it, but there is none other that does so , not even the devil; inasmuch as the Master Who teaches the soul is within it i n its substance, to which the devil may not attain, neither may natural sense no r understanding. And it is not for this reason alone that it may be called secret, but likewise because of the effects which it produces in the soul. For it is secret not only in the darknesses and afflictions of purgation, when this wisdom of love purges the soul, and the soul is unable to speak of it, but equally so afterwards in i llumination, when this wisdom is communicated to it most clearly. Even then it i s still so secret that the soul cannot speak of it and give it a name whereby it may be called; for, apart from the fact that the soul has no desire to speak of it, it can find no suitable way or manner or similitude by which it may be able to describe such lofty understanding and such delicate spiritual feeling. And t hus, even though the soul might have a great desire to express it and might find many ways in which to describe it, it would still be secret and remain undescri

bed. For, as that inward wisdom is so simple. so general and so spiritual that i t has not entered into the understanding enwrapped or cloaked in any form or ima ge subject to sense, it follows that sense and imagination...cannot account for it or imagine it, so as to say anything concerning it, although the soul be clea rly aware that it is experiencing and partaking of that rare and delectable wisd om. It is like one who sees something never seen before, whereof he has not even seen the like; although he might understand its nature and have experience of i t, he would be unable to give it a name, or say what it is, however much he trie d to do so, and this in spite of its being a thing which he had perceived with t he senses. How much less, then, could he describe a thing that has not entered t hrough the senses! For the language of God has this characteristic that, since i t is very intimate and spiritual in its relations with the soul, it transcends e very sense and at once makes all harmony and capacity of the outward and inward senses to cease and be dumb. (8) So teachings of transformation by divine love in mystical Christianity and no n-dual teachings such as advaita need not be seen in conflict, although prior to actual realization or significant spiritual maturity such a truth may largely r emain conceptual. The path, however, is essentially a practical one. That is why Maharshi, for instance, demurred on questions of the absolute, saying first rea lize the Self (Divine Soul), the source of the "I", then see what further questi ons arise. Ramana was of the view that while bodies and jivas appear as many, th e Self to be realized is One. Brunton and Plotinus appear at times to differ fro m Ramana and other advaitists, making distinctions between Individual Souls and an Absolute Soul from which the former are emanated, or perhaps more accurately said in which they are rooted: "We must not believe that the plurality of Souls comes from the plurality of bodies. Particular Souls subsist as well as the universal Soul, independently of bodies, without the unity of the universal Soul absorbing the multiplicity of t he particular Souls, or of the multiplicity of particular Souls splitting up the unity of the universal."- (Porphyry)...The World-Soul is not divided, nor does it split itself up in order to give life to each individual thing. All things li ve by the Soul in its entirety; it is all-present everywhere like the Father Who begot it, both in its unity and in its universality " (v. I, 3)...The Soul cann ot be divided quantitatively, nor can it have heterogeneous parts or limbs like a body. Individual Souls are not functions of the Universal Soul (iv. 3, 5)...It is the body, and not the Soul, which makes the illusory divisions. The Soul, ev en in its relations with the body, is only in appearance divided (iv. 2, I).... "All souls are one " (vi. 5, 9)." (from "The System of Plotinus" on the Wisdom 's Goldenrod website). It is suggested by all of this that Souls are distinct, but not separate, in the way bodies appear separate. That is, one distinct Overself oversees multiple incarnations via the concept of the sutra atma, with separate bodies and mental vehicles, but it is distinct from the Overself of another such thread of life. One having a glimpse of the Nous, however, says Damiani, can speak of "Soul in t he Nous", but not of a Soul in the Nous. It is paradoxical, no doubt. The incomparable Sufi Ibn 'Arabi seemed to argue at the highest level against any such division, even provisional, as theorized by Plotinus at all: "If one believes that things exist in Allah - from Him or with Him - and that these things depend upon Allah for their existence, even so, such things are ap pearing to one as lords. Though their lord-ship may depend on Allah, still one w ho believes in them is guilty of recognizing some other lord as a partner of our Lord. It would be a grave error to consider any other existence as valid alongs ide of Allah the Self-Existent, even if the thing is seen as dependent on Allah for its existence...He will be guilty of the unforgivable sin of attributing par tners to Allah..." (9)

The differences between Plotinus and Ibn 'Arabi may be semantical; after all, Ibn 'Arabi was influenced by classical philosophy as well as Islamic tradition. From the point of view of the One, Plotinus does not admit of discreet or diffe rent levels of Reality much the same as Ibn 'Arabi. The basic point of this argument is that there may be considered to be distin ctions in the unmanifest, transcendental domain that are realities. Plotinus sta ted: The gradation of the One, the One-Many [Nous], and the One and Many [Soul] is eternally fixed, and is an expression of reality." (10) Damiani likewise affirms the view of Plotinus: For Plotinus the One-and-its-Power stands first and foremost above all and sim ultaneously sustains and includes lesser levels of reality which are neither sel f-sufficient or illusory. Through an understanding of this principle of Power, w e can make available to our minds what we refer to as the double truth - that is , the non-dual reality does not exclude the dualistic but includes and supports it...In order to understand such descriptions of the ultimate, it is essential f or our minds to become acclimated to a logic of paradox...The Intellectual Princ iple and its emanation, Soul, are not illusory in any sense; they are also etern al...we have to consider them as distinct realities of different degrees....Even if we view the three primal Hypostases - the One, the Intellectual Principle an d the Soul - as forming an integral whole (which is often referred to as the Abs olute when considered from the side of manifestation), the distinctions cannot b e dissolved in such a way that the Nous and Soul, so carefully defined, become i llusory principles. In our understanding of the metaphysical Infinite, we retain the view of the One as the pure and only perfect reality, as well as the view o f real and distinct emanations from it. We do not violate the One s sovereignty by granting to each of the other levels of reality their proper status; they do no t become null and void in the face of the One which they eternally contemplate. ( 11) It may be helpful to round out our study by reading the comparison of Plotinu s with Vedanta as given by Swami Krishnananda, disciple of the well-respected Sw ami Sivananda, founder of The Divine Life Society. He considers Plotinus the clo sest of the Greek philosophers to advaitic thought. One might alternately consid er advaitic thought the closest school to that of Plotinus - but only, perhaps, when seen from the viewpoint of the One. The Plotinian vision, when viewed as th at of a multi-ensouled universe, with the Soul being an eternal existant, appear s far from the common position of advaita, and potentially embracing more spirit ual possibility and understanding of the cosmos as well. Most would probably be in agreement that a mysterious infinitude abounds at t his level in any case. The irreducable paradoxes of love/insight, one/many, identity/relatedness, du ality/non-duality are perhaps not easily discerned within either Buddhist or Chr istian teachings, the former due to an emphasis on metaphysics and the non-conce ptual nature of reality or Mind, and the latter due to its emphasis on divine lo ve, faith, and emotional purgation. From this, however, there arises an unnecess ary argument between those among the Buddhists who, seeing the transient nature of all phenomena, argue that there is no soul, and Christians who feel their tra dition is superior because Buddhism teaches a life-denying Nirvana. Even Pope Jo hn Paul II made this error, inspite of the fact that a major text, the Lankavata ra Sutra, says that "all things are in Nirvana from the beginning," which is har dly life denying. The Dalai Lama himself said that "he who denies his own existe nce is a fool." While Zen itself may be somewhat obscure, the higher Mahayana te

achings are much closer to those of Christianity in matters of selfless service, compassion, and even philosophy. Of course, we are here talking about the esote ric, gnostic, and mystical Christian traditions, where Wisdom or Sophia is recog nized, not modern evangelicalism, fundamentalism, or official Church doctrine, w hich do indeed believe in a "heaven for the perpetuated ego", as PB once express ed it. As Kathleen Granville Damiani wrote in Gnostic Images of the Feminine: "In 1 Corinthians 1:23, Paul writes, "We are preaching a crucified Christ . . . a Christ who is the power and the Sophia of God." A few verses later (1:30) h e continues, "By God's action Jesus Christ has become our Sophia." In 2:6-8, he continues: "But still we have a Sophia to offer those who have reached maturity: not a philosophy of our age, it is true, still less of the masters of our age, which are coming to their end. The hidden Sophia of God which we teach in our my steries is the Sophia that God predestined to be for our glory before the ages b egan. She is a Sophia that none of the masters of this age have ever known." (S. Cady, M. Ronan, and H. Taussig, Sophia, 51) "Paul is the New Testament author who most explicitly proclaims Jesus to be S ophia but he is also one of the writers for whom the Gnostic movement is a real problem. Since Gnosticism downplayed Christ's historicity and resurrection and p roclaimed that Christ as Wisdom could be realized individually, it was declared a heresy. Gnosticism was thus a major factor inhibiting the New Testament procla mation of Jesus as Sophia. So Paul's portrayal of Jesus as Sophia is explicit at times but generally downplayed." The Buddha's unique contribution, which Jesus in his brief time did not expla in except we might speculate to perhaps no more than a few, was that metaphysica l or ultra-mystical insight, was a step even beyond universal compassion, and ne cessary for advancing to Nirvana. For the benefit of the yogis, Buddha made clea r that such insight was also beyond concentrative absorption and mystic bliss as well. He never, however, in his half-century of teaching, taught a doctrine of annihilation or the non-existence of the soul. Such teachings were product of sc hools which arose after him. Brunton writes: "Nirvana is not a state of mind which is to be produced but what is realized when the long cherished notion of "I" is given up. Nirvana, in short, is the mir acle of egoless being. The Buddha's doctrine of the soul was stated in negative terms because he was controverting current misconceptions. He explained this in Alagadupama Majjhima, 1, 135: "Even in this present life, my brethren, I say tha t the soul is indefinable. Though I say and teach thus, there are those who accu se me falsely of being a nihilist, of teaching the non-existence and annihilatio n of the soul. That is what I am not and do not teach."" (12) Brunton further states: "There is some kind of a distinction between his higher individuality and the Universal Infinite out of which he is rayed, whatever the Vedantins may say. An d this distinction remains in his highest mystical state, which is not one of to tal absorption and utter destruction of this individuality but the mergence of i ts own will in the universal will, the closest intimacy of its own being with th e universal being." (13) The Soul remains even after the mystic realization of the One; it does not fo rever dissolve into it. It is an eternal existant, according to Plotinus.Yet it is known as non-separate from other Souls, and themselves inseparable from its d ivine parent, the Intellectual Principle and/or the One. I.K. Taimni concurs: "..the separate individuality of each Purusa means merely that He is a separa te center of consciousness in the Supreme Reality [i.e., in PB s terminology a poi nt in the World-Mind, or a ray of that Sun ] and not that his consciousness is sepa

rated from that of other Purusas and pursues its separate individual ends as in the case of ordinary individuals blinded by the illusion of a separate life." (1 4) PB further writes: It is a fallacy to think that this displacement of the lower self brings about its complete substitution by the infinite and absolute Deity. This fallacy is a n ancient and common one in mystical circles and leads to fantastic declarations of self-deification. If the lower self is displaced, it is not destroyed. It li ves on but in strict subordination to the higher one, the Overself, the divine s oul in man; and it is the latter, not the divine world-principle, which is the t rue displacing element. (15) Remember, however, that PB said the Soul, in turn, looks up to its 'priors', and these are realizable, but there is no 'union' with them: The Overself is one with the World-Mind without however being lost in it.

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There is no final absorption, the individual continues to exist somehow in the Supreme. The fact that he can pass away into it at will and yet return again, p roves this. (17) It would be shere arrogance were it not mere ignorance to believe that because we can go beynd the limited ego, therefore we can go beyond the divine soul and encompass the World-Mind itself in all its entirety. (18) No mortal may penetrate the mystery of the ultimate mind in its own nature - w hich means in its static inactive being. The Godhead [The Primordial Ground of M eister Eckhart, The One of Plotinus, or the Mind of PB] is not only beyond human conception but also beyond mystic conception. But Mind in its active dynamic st ate, that is, the World-Mind, and rather its ray in us called the Overself, is w ithin range of human perception, communion, and even union. It is this that the mystic really finds when he believes that he has found God. (19) God, the World-Mind, knows all things in an eternal present at once. No mystic has ever claimed, no mystic has ever dared to claim, such total knowledge. Most mystics have, however, claimed union with God. If this be true, then quite clea rly they can have had only a fragmentary, not a full union. Philosophy, being mo re precise in its sstatements, avers that they have really achieved union not wi th God, but with something Godlike - the soul. (20) When consciousness is successfully turned in on its own deepest state, which i s serene, impersonal, and unchanging, it receives the experience of the divine S oul, not of the Godhead. It brings us nearer to the Godhead, but does not transf orm us into it. We discover the divine ray within, we do not become the sun itse lf. (21) No one overwhelmed by the experience of Enlightenment has yet said the last wo rd about Absolute Truth, for no words can either exhaust it or even touch it. (22 ) If a man claims to know what God is in the same way that God knows it, he is t alking nonsense, and falling into the sin of spiritual pride. No one can penetra te this irreducable mystery except in his own imagination, speculation, or psych ic fantasy. No human effort can plumb the depth of the ultimate power. No human being has found the truth in all its angles, nor uttered the last word upon it. ( 23) It is humbly truer to admit, with Muhammed,

I am the servant of God, I am but a

man like you, [a favorite expression of Sant Kirpal Singh] than arrogantly asser t with the Advaitin, I am the infinite Brahman! It is better to say modestly with Jesus, The father is greater than I, than to announce with the Sufi Mansur: I am Go d. (24) Jami, the Sufi, very beautifully distinguishes the doctrine of annihilation in God from that of identification with God in the following verse: So tread this path that duality may disappear, For if there be duality in the path, falsity will arise: Thou wilt not become He; but, if thou strivest, Thou wilt reach a place where thou-ness shall depart from thee.

(25)

These latter two lines wonderfully express the non-dual position. It can only be expressed or pointed to negatively, or through the via negativa, neti, neti , e tc. We can call it the not-two , but not One. Some call it the One, but inasmuch as that is a concept, there is a difficulty with such language, wherefore the "not -two" is preferable. "If I say he is one, the question of two arises, said Kabir. We can, according to Jami, say that thou-ness has departed from thee, but not tha t he has attained the One. How does one know it is the One that he has realized by transcending ego? We can also say one has realized the not-self, but not that there is only one soul or Self. There may be, but we cannot say it, for how do not know it? We can only rest in our ignorance and its sufficient profundity, an d allow it to deepen. PB s phrasing that the individual souls or Overselves are roo ted in the World-Mind is closer to the non-dual vision, and give the feel that so uls are distinct but not separate. As Plotinus might say the Individual Souls ab ide in and are inseparable from the Absolute Soul, or the Absolute-Soul-in-the-I ntellectual-Principle. Both of these men expressed paradoxes of realization thro ugh the best limitations of our language and knowledge. There is no doubt, therefore, that as an answer to satisfy the mind, the falla cy of divine identity must fall short. It is not so easily proclaimed or understo od as some might wish. The "fallacy", from one point of view, is itself a fallac y. To borrow an analogy, if Newtonian physics represents the traditional spiritu al teachings, then from the point of view of quantum physics - or non-duality the fallacy is incorrect: in the absence of self or ego, there is only God, and Al Hallaj is exonerated. On the other hand, if we consider we are seeking that w hich is beyond both duality and non-duality, (and hence, beyond even the domain of 'quantum physics'), then the fallacy may still be appropriate: for in the abs ence of ego there is not only no self, but also no God, and what remains is simp ly that which mysteriously IS, and the ever deepening realization of that. The seeker who has a spiritual glimpse may realize the Nous and the One - but , then again, he might not. It is a fallacy, according to PB and Plotinus, to th ink realization of the Soul is realization of the One, yet, even so, Soul, being eternal, survives even in realization of the One. It knows itself in the Intell ectual Principle, or the Absolute Soul in the Intellectual Principle, or the One . And for those who wake up without accessing the deep mystical states, but simp ly become realized in place , their situation may in some cases be described, as on e student has suggested, the "waking paradox of the Nous." In that realization t here is the insight into "no-self", and the "not-two." It is, no doubt, once aga in, best understood as paradox, both true and untrue and both views not contradi ctory. As the Mahayana logician Nagarjuna might say, It s this, it s that, it s neither , and it s both. From this point of view, then, we cannot truly say that Al Hallaj was wrong, although it would also not be quite correct to say that he was right either. We are necessarily struck dumb on approaching the courtyard, what to spe ak of entering the portals of, the Void-Mind. These expressions would hopefully satisfy the Christian mystic apologist, who se doctrinal roots reject merger, seeing the soul and God as ontologically disti

nct, yet demands fidelity and surrender of the soul to the divine, particularly in regards to the transformation of the will. What he may find surprising is tha t this and the above thoughts of Brunton are very similar to those brilliantly e xpressed in this hyperlinked excerpt from the Lankavatara Sutra. Soul remains Soul, according to the above creative interpretation, no matter the cultural or historical tradition. It is just that the confusion of ego (jiva ) with Soul, and Soul with the God, must be thoroughly understood, which is a st umbling block for religious believers and mystics alike. East or West, the heart must open and Reason (Buddhi) be purified, for the ultimate nature of Mind in s ahaj samadhi to be realized. Damiani, further elaborating on the writings of Brunton and Plotinus, gives h is understanding of the esoteric reasoning why earth life and the waking state h ave always been considered essential for achieving enlightenment, and also why r ealization and even clear knowledge of the soul can not be achieved by trance al one, even in the highest state of such inversion, nirvikalpa samadhi (which, by his reasoning, would have to include even anami lok of the Radhasoami or Sant Ma t tradition (described as the final inner realm but the first or only one beyond all light and sound): "In nirvikalpa there is no thought. There's nothing to understand. Without th e fullness of the understanding that comes from penetrating into the World-Idea - in other words, the full development of the faculty of understanding which com es to a soul through the World-Idea - in the trance state one would be utterly u nprepared to understand the mysterious Void...Or we can put it this way: It will take all the teaching that the World-Mind [God as manifesting the universe] can bring to bear upon the soul, in order for the soul to understand its origins, i ts own priors...that's what is necessary to become the sort of philosopher that not only understands the nature of the soul but also something about the prior p rinciples that are, let's say, eternally generating it." (26) In short, "But in order to realize that eternal life and become a conscious a nd active participant in It, it is requisite for the Immortal Soul to be associa ted first with that which is mortal, finite and transient ere it can learn to re cognize Eternity, the Infinite and the Spirit which will unite it to the Supreme ." ("The System of Plotinus"). To humble us even further before the fathomless depths of the Divine Mystery, we can say that even this grand realization and permanent union with the Soul i n sahaj samadhi is not yet the perfection of a human being: Student: Would you say that the being that gets enlightened has become a perf ect vehicle for the revelation of the soul? Damiani: "I don't think so. I think it's just starting. And you know, from wh at we've heard of people like the Buddha, it's a long, long development. It goes on for many, many millenia." (27) "So-named absorption in God, regarded as the goal of the Sufi seeker, is in f act only the beginning," warned Al Ghazzali. (28) The following two passages, one by Ramana and the other by PB, illustrate the problem or difficulty we have to deal with. First, Ramana, like many advaitic s ages, said: "Reincarnation exists only so long as there is ignorance. There is really no reincarnation, either now or before. Nor will there ever be any hereafter. This is the truth." (29) And now PB, who, while agreeing with that statement from the ultimate point o

f view, also wrote: "The true teaching about reincarnation is not that the divine soul enters int o captivity and ignorance of the flesh again and again but that something emanat ed from the soul, that is a unit of life that eventually develops into the perso nal ego, does so. The Overself contains this reincarnating ego within itself but does not itself reincarnate. It is the parent; the go is only its offspring. Th e long and tremendous evolution through which the unit of life passes from the p rimitive cellular existence to its mature human one is a genuine evolution of it s consciousness. Whoever believes that the process first plunges a soul down fro m the heights into a body or forces Spirit to lose itself in Matter, and then le aves it no alternative but to climb all the way back to the lost summit again, b elieves wrongly. The Overself never descends or climbs, never loses its own subl ime conscousness. What really does this is something that emanates from it and c onsequently holds its capacity and power in latency, something which is finited out of out of the Overself's infinitude and becomes first, the simple unit of li fe and later, the complex human ego. It is not the Overself that suffers and str uggles during this long enfoldment but its child, the ego. it is not the Oversel f that slowly expands its intelligence and consciousness, but the ego. It is not the Overself that gets deluded by ignorance and passion, by selfishness and ext roversion, but the ego." "The belief in the merger of the ego held by some Hindu sects or in its annih ilation held by some Buddhist ones, is unphilosophical. The "I" differentiated i tself out of the infinite ocean of Mind into a distinct individuality after a lo ng development through the diverse kingdoms of Nature. Having thus arrived at co nsciousness of what it is, having travelled the spiral of growth from germ to ma n, the result of all this effort is certainly not gained only to be thrown away. .." "The self-consciousness thus developed will not be dissolved, extinguished, o r reabsorbed into the Whole again, leaving not a trace behind. Rather it will be gin a new spiral of evolution towards higher altitudes of consciousness and divi ner levels of being, in which it will co-operate as harmoniously with the univer sal existence as formerly it collided with against it. It will not separate its own good from the general good. What are the ultimate reasons for human wanderin gs through the world process? That life matters, that the universe possesses mea ning, and that the evolutionary agonies are leading to something worthwhile - th ese are beliefs we are entitled to hold. If the cosmos is a wheel and which turn s and turns endlessly, it does not turn aimlesssly. Evolution does not return us to the starting point as we were. The ascent is not a circle but a spiral." "It is not the ego itself which ever was consciously divine, but its source, the Overself. The ego's divine character lies in its essential but hidden being, but it has never known that. The purpose of gathering experience (the evolution ary process) is precisely to bring it to such awareness. The ego comes to birth in finite consciousness out of utter unconsciousness and, later, to recognition and union with its infinite source. That source, whence it has emanated, remains untouched, unaffected, ever knowing and serenely witnessing. The purpose in thi s evolution is the ego's own advancement. When the Quest is reached, the Oversel f reveals its presence fitfully and brokenly at first but later the hide and see k game ends in loving union." (30) "The eventual trend of evolution is through and away from personality, as we now know it. We shall find ourselves afresh in a higher individuality, the soul. To achieve this, the lower characteristics have slowly to be shed. In this sens e, we do die to the earthly self and are born again in the higher self. That is the only real death awaiting us." (31) [For more on PB's thoughts on the doctrine of mentalism, the ego's evolution,

and the importance of going through the World Idea for awakening (or samsara be ing the doorway to nirvana), please see Elvis Was Not a Mentalist on this websit e] Of course, it must be admitted that the more radical advaitists of the presen t era, such as Ramana Maharshi, Sri Nisargadatta, Robert Adams, or Papaji, and o ther non-dualists of the more distant past, such as Zen Master Bankei, would con sider much of the above as complete and total nonsense! This was warned of at th e outset, for the position of such sages is that upon enlightenment or awakening it is realized that there is no body, mind, ego, world, creation, creator or Go d, but only Mind itself beyond all conception, knowable as pure Silence. Therefo re one can see that this topic is difficult to clearly speak on. As Ch'an master Huang Po stated: "Our original Buddha-Nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any trace of obje ctivity.... Even if you go through all the stages of a Bodhisattva's progress to ward Buddhahood, one by one, when at last, in a single flash, you attain to full realization, you will only be realizing the Buddha-Nature that has been with yo u all the time; and by all the foregoing stages you will have added to it nothin g at all. You will come to look upon those aeons of work and achievement as no b etter than unreal actions performed in a dream. That is why the Tathagata [the B uddha] said: I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled Enlightenment." (32) When one opens his mouth, it seems that even the sage is already courting tro uble. Brunton, as portrayed in Annie Cahn Fung's excellent two - part thesis on PB s life and thought, appears to have been leaning in this direction. He declared : From the point of view of the Absolute, there are no questions, no Overself, n othing to transcend. IT IS - this is Advaita. (33) Or, as Peter Dziuban wrote: "Infinite Consciousness does not see a finite universe of time and space, becau se to Infinite Consciousness, there is only infinity. There is no point at whic h infinity ends and something non-Infinity begins because the very definition of I nfinity is end-less. Again, this is only clear when starting from Infinity. In finity s Endlessness is not locatable on a physical, spatial, or dimensional basis b ecause in infinity there is no such thing. Infinity is not locatable even menta lly for Infinity completely precludes all concept of location, or a mentality that would deal with such. Infinity s Allness simply does not coexist with anything b esides itself. (34) Asked whether it is necessary to understand the three concepts of Mind, World -Mind and Overself in order to understand the Absolute, PB responded: If you are trying to think things out in an intelligent way, you must do that. You can't leap there. You can take the Absolute Advaitic point of view if you l ike, but you can't get there until you've gone through them because you don't unde rstand; the instrument is lacking which can handle it....Why did Plotinus split it into three if it wasn't necessary for us? Eventually you rise to the point wh ere there is only THE ONE. In studying, using the intellect; all three are neces sary. (35) Thus Brunton acknowledges, argues Cahn Fung, that "the fragmentation of the non-dual Reality into three distinct concepts has o nly an empirical value, the fruit of an intellectual operation which is only pre liminary to the contemplative experience that alone allows attainment of the Rea

l...The intellect can ulating thought after t it can open the way aditional function in

only produce thoughts, yet Reality is not a thought. Accum thought, reason is forever powerless to grasp the Real. Bu for metaphysical experience, and that is, moreover, its tr Vedantic sadhana."

She further argues that PB had an evolving concept of the Overself, and used it to sweeten the pill of non-dualism for westerners. He started with the Overse lf as a form as realizable in savikalpa samadhi in the heart as an expanse of li ght in The Search in Secret India. Later this became the experience of nirvikalp a samadhi in the heart. Later still, the Overself was recognized as having no bo undaries, becoming the identity of the sage in sahaj samadhi. As Ramana would sa y, even now, you are the Heart or the Self. At this point the boundaries of the Overself s distinctness as an entity of any kind becomes vague, and PB appeared al most strained in finding a further use for the concept. He called it a point in the World-Mind, but refused to admit of separate Overselves for each body. By sa ying this he was harkening to his advaitic inclinations over those of Sam 'khya which admits multiple Purushas. Yet he claimed distinct but not separate Oversel ves for each sutra-atma, or successon of apparent lifetimes. Still, the Overself as opposed to some other advaitic conception does seem to have been a pedagogic al tool for PB, that is, a concession to the limited intellect and understanding of his readers. Cahn Fung writes: Reason proceeds by successive steps and not by sudden leaps it cannot apprehend the concept of the Absolute without intermediary concepts. However, the ultimate step will always be trans-rational. Brunton seemed to be aware of this paradox, f or he confided to a student: "Understanding the One is not a matter of discrimination, because it can only be risen to in the silent mind, the stillness. In having that experience he (Pl otinus) could have only had it in the silent mind, the stilled, silent mind, the higher intellect, when he was not trying. (36) As Anthony Damiani said, you give up trying to achieve liberation. Ramana Maharshi affirmed the wisdom of this position: "There is no creation and no dissolution. There is no bondage, no one doing s piritual practices, no one seeking spiritual liberation,and no one who is libera ted. One who is established in the Self sees this by his knowledge of reality." (37) Thus, Cahn Fung concludes, the World-Mind and the Overself are only intermedia ry concepts permitting the aspirant to construct a coherent mental representatio n of Reality. Is there, then, a fallacy or isn t there? Certainly for the average mystic and yogi there is; but what about for the sage? That is not so clear. Is realizing t he Atman to be the same essence as Brahman equivalent of its being identical wit h Brahman? What does Plotinus say about achieving this ? He writes: and that is the true end set before the Soul, to take that light, to see the S upreme by the Supreme and not by the light of any other principle - to see the S upreme which is also the means to this vision; for that which illuminates the So ul is that which it is to see, just as it is by the sun s own light that we see th e sun. But how is this accomplished? Cut away everything... (v.3.17) What does Plotinus mean here? What is it to cut away everything ? We submit it i

s to discard all concepts, opinions, beliefs, preconceptions, thoughts, points o f view, etc.. This is much like what is advised by the non-dual teachers. So let us start where we began this article, and play devils advocate. What is it that becomes united with its own Soul, which Damiani suggested the sage does? Is there an entity that unites or merges into the Soul, or do we simply come to see that we are the Soul, after negating everything that it is not? Is the Soul a thing, a reality, or just a concept also, to be discarded when our contemplation is com plete? Sri Nisargadatta seems to think so: "Even to talk of re-uniting the person with the self is not right, because th ere is no person, only a mental picture given a false reality by conviction. Not hing was divided and there is nothing to unite." (38) Is the concept of union with or merger into the Soul then any more difficult than that of merger into the One? Is there a jivatmana, or ego-soul, or even Sou l or Overself, as an entity? Can we know or perceive the three Primals as distin ct? How would we do so? Are the Primals really real, or just empirical aids and not metaphysical verities; that is, are they only reflective of different modes of perceiving the truth? How, for that matter, did the ancient sages mentioned b y Plotinus come by this threefold classification? Was it just by reasoning, or s ome kind of revelation? We are not putting away the three principles in a casual manner, for we have great respect for the ancients. But it must be asked, is th ere more than one mystery (i.e., the three principles) to dissolve into or be, and , perhaps more importantly, is it something so foreign to our ordinary direct ex perience? Mark Scorelle writes: There is only one Awareness, this Awareness that's here right now. There is no other one in some hypothetical realm we can't get to or see. It's God, the Self , whatever you want to call it. It is a direct experience, not mental, not refl ective. Formless, changeless livingness. I always liked the idea that when you read philosphy, like ontology for instance, in order to understand this even in the most general way you must reflexively and automatically refer to something i n your immediate being that is that way. So when you say God or the One you are referring to something in your immediate being that allows you to have access to that idea. And that is the life that you are already. In ontology you are refe rring to the beingness that you are already. For the Infinite you are referring to the consciousness that you are already just to get even a sense of what it me ans." Ramana Maharshi stated: "People seem to think that by practicing some elaborate sadhana the Self will some day descend upon them as something very big and with tremendous glory, giv ing them what is called sakshatkaram [direct experience]. The Self is sakshat [d irect] all right, but there is no karam or kritam about it. The word karam impli es doing something. But the self is realised not by doing something but by refra ining from doing anything, by remaining still and being simply what one really i s...When the non-Self is eliminated, that which remains is reality. It is not to be attained because it is not outside you." (39) Thus, it appears we come full circle into agreeing, tentatively, with many of the newer teachers. Only Parabrahman or Paramatman is the Reality. And every re alized sage is that Truth. With Nirvikalpa there may be said to be a liability f or a fallacy of divine identity, inasmuch as it is a passing state and not perma nent reality, ( emptiness without fullness, the inner without the outer) but not in true sahaj, which is unchanging. And how has this supreme state been describ ed by such sages? Meister Eckhart, a favorite of Adyashanti, referred to it as b eyond being and non-being, the "primordial ground where distinction never gazed" ; Adi Da called it a mass of conscousness"; Sri Nisargadatta said it was a solid b lock of reality. No room for fine distinctions here. Nor room for a plurality of

souls other than in appearance. Ramana Maharshi descrbes this stateless state th usly: "Being himself the same as the supreme being, the ignorant man, thinking hims elf to be someone other than the supreme, tries to become one with him by variou s yogas. Since he himself is identical to the supreme being, what can be more ab surd than this?" "In that transcendental state the power of God, named maya, whose expanded fo rm is the whole world, is wholly lost in that motionless supreme one, along with the whole of her creation." "This state of being one's true Self, freed from all limiting superimposition s, is called the state of non-duality, because in that state, the supreme sole r eality, the infinite Brahman, is not other than the Self." (40) Is there anything to be attained at all? Huang Po said no, the Buddha said no , Bankei said no, Ramana said no, even PB said no. If there is not, and the sage s have adamantly said there isn t, where is there room for a fallacy of divine ide ntity? It seems it only makes sense from a lower point of view than the truth. T hat is, from the point of view of the One, there is no fallacy; from the point o f view of the seeker, there is a fallacy. Some of the reason for arguing that there is a fallacy may be on moral ground s: if one is permitted to exclaim he is the infinite Brahman, there is much room for an inflated grandiosity by the ego. But from the legitimate point of view o f the Absolute, the One, there are no others to feel superior to, no higher or l ower stand, so a natural humility is present, and the need for a moral argument is unnecessary. We as jivas have a natural sense that we are not the almighty itself. As the Lord or 'Isvara' said to Job: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who laid the corner stone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God sho uted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors . And said, Hitherto shalt thou co me, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed? . Canst thou bind th e sweet influence of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? . Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Who hat h put wisdom in the inward parts, or who hath given understanding to the heart?" (Job 38:1-40:2), Yet it is this naive universal view that is, according to the ajatavadins, in conceivably and unbelievably swept away by the realization of Brahman or the adv aitic One. When there is no ego or jiva, there is no 'God , 'soul', or 'creation', either, for God, soul and creation are concepts and exist no more at this level . As Sivaprakasam Pillai, close devotee of Ramana Maharshi, wrote: "Only one thing exists: Self-consciousness. The world, the soul, and God are mere imagination. Those who know this will not be baffled." (41) Being no one there to claim a divine identity, only what IS remains, as it al ways IS. Therefore, after cutting everything away , we also find, perhaps, that we can cut Al Hallaj some slack. Shree Atmananda (Krishna Menon) said: "Memory is the one thing that creates the whole world, and memory is the las t link that connects one with the phenomenal world. If memory is understood to be nothing but a thought, which in turn is nothing but pure Consciousness the S

elf

then memory, and the world with it, is merged into the Self."

Before concluding it must be pointed out that even the venerable Ramana Maha rshi gave out seemingly contradictory thoughts at times on this subject. On the one hand he, like Atmananda, wrote affirming the ajatavada position: "There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny or free-will, nei ther path nor achievement; this is the final truth." (42) but also: "Drink of the nectar of Siva-Knowledge and conduct yourself as you please. Yo u are the same as Siva in immortality and purity, but not in the power to create , etc." (43) Adyashanti says: "As human beings, we are all just doing our little part. It's the totality; i t's the One itself that we are but expressions of. If any of us start to think w e are playing a bigger part than we are - if we see ourselves as anything but a small part of an infinite mosaic - it seems to me we're starting to become infla ted and deluding ourselves." (44) Thus, we are back to the position that an individual Soul (mind) is an emanat ion (ray) of, as well as, a point within the Infinite Mind of the world, and th us sharing in the qualities of the Infinite. But, if one accepts that the Soul presides over the continuity of my finite being while the Infinite presides ove r the continuity of the entirety of all Souls and world(s), from this "side of t hings" it is difficult to say that they are both equal - that is, that a Soul be comes or is identical with the One. By analogy it's like taking a teaspoon of w ater out of the ocean. They are both water but the teaspoon of water is not the entirety of the ocean. But it is also not quite correct to say they are not the same, for the infinite ocean, being inconceivable and non-partable, cannot be s aid to be the sum of its drops, or 'teaspoons', of consciousness either. So we a re as many sages have concluded, reduced to ultimate perplexity and wonder, beyo nd all hope of conceptualization. If the poor reader is confused at this point, think of how this humble writer must feel! "The Real is not a state of something else - it is not a state of mind or con sciousness or psyche...It is itself, after the consciousness as such is no more. Then words 'I am man', or 'I am God' have no meaning. Only in silence and in da rkness can it be heard and seen...The man who claims to be God and the man who d oubts it - both are deluded. They talk in their dream." - Sri Nisargadatta (45) "There are mysteries in the world and we're not going to get rid of them, no how. And as a matter of fact when you finish your studies, and when you've pene trated the deepest mystery of all, it'll still be a mystery. You're not going t o take the mystery away." - Anthony Damiani 8/83 Appendix I'd prefer to stop there, but this article wouldn t be complete without giving another model of what re-union with the divine Soul might be. I hesitate only be cause this is from a different tradition than that of the jnana paths or non-dua l teachings, which a majority of this article has been concerned with. In the my

stical path of Sant Mat it is taught that, at the time of death, both the motor currents in the body (pranas) and sensory currents (what could be considered to be the attention, the emanent or outward expression of the Soul) both leave the body, and one becomes a mystic faster than he might ever imagine. During meditat ion, however, it is possible to leave the pranas alone, and concentrate the atte ntion at the seat of the soul at the ajna doorway, leaving body-consciousness an d and progressively passing through the astral, mental, causal, supercausal, and 'spiritual' regions. This school would consider re-union with the Soul in its p urity to take place when one had reached Sat Lok, where merger in the Absolute t hen takes place in three progressive stages. One could say that the ability to a ccess Sat Lok at will and bring that realization back into the earth plane would be re-union with the Soul and its power of projection. The mystics of this scho ol, furthermore, make the unique claim that the Brahman of the vedantists extend s no further than the second Grand Division of the cosmos - up to the limits of the causal realm, and no further: "In the Radhasoami faith, the ultimate reality is Radhasoami. In Hinduism and its branches the ultimate reality is Brahman and Isvara. Brahman is considered to be the highest reality in Vedanta. The founders of Radhasoami faith, however, came forward with a new concept. According to them, The Brahman of Vedanta is l imited to the second grand division of the creation whom they call "spiritual-ma terial region". They hold that the Brahman is not the true Supreme Being or the highest reality because he is not perfectly free from mind and matter. They asse rt that though spiritual components predominate in Brahman, there is Maya latent in the seed form and a Supreme Reality having the least admixture of Maya canno t be styled as the highest truth. They envisaged the highest and the first grand division of creation as the region of the true Supreme Being who is absolutely spiritual and totally free from mind and matter. Such a Supreme Being they have named as Radhasoami." (website of Dadaji Maharaj) This is certainly a novel interpretation of Brahman, with no support from any other tradition. But that is a story for another day. I'm beat!

Suicide: Insights from St. Thérèse of Lisieux by Fr. J. Linus Ryan, O. Carm. The thought of suicide comes to most people at some time in their lives. For the majority it may be only a fleeting thought that is fairly quickly dismissed . But for others it can be a real temptation that must be strenuously fought. St . Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower (d.1897), would seem to belong to the second category. Even though she was an enclosed Carmelite nun in a French provincial town, who died at the age of twenty-four, she has something important to say to people seeking to tackle the problem of suicide. The issue of suicide seems only to have come to her towards the end of her li fe. Her sister, Mother Agnes, said to her a week before she died, what a terribl e sickness and how much you suffered! She replied, "Yes! What a grace it is to h ave faith! If I had not any faith, I would have committed suicide without an ins tant's hesitation." (LastConv 22.9.6). About a month earlier she was in such pain that she spoke of nearly losing he r mind (CG 22.8.97). At this time too she said to her sister, Agnes: "Watch carefully, Mother, when you will have persons a prey to violent pains; don't leave near them any medicines that are poisonous. I assure you, it needs only a second when one suffers intensely to lose one's reason. Then one could ea sily poison oneself." (August 30, Green Notebook). Her sister repeated this on oath at the process for Thérèse's beatification (PA 2 04). In fact, another young sister who was helping to nurse her - Sr. Marie of t he Trinity, - also testified the following: "Three days before she died, I saw her in such pain that I was heartbroken. W hen I drew near to her bed, she tried to smile, and, in a strangled sort of voic e, she said: If I didn't have faith, I could never bear such suffering. I am sur prised that there aren't more suicides among atheists." [Text in Procès de béatific ation et canonisation. Vol. 1 Procès informative ordinaire (Rome: Teresianum, 197 3) 472. English tr. in C. O'Mahony, St. Thérèse of Lisieux by Those who Knew Her: Te stimonies from the Process of her Beatification (Dublin: Veritas, 1975) 254.] These texts make clear that suicide was not just a passing idea, but a consi deration that she thought about very seriously. We have some idea of how grave t his thought was when we look at her physical, psychological and spiritual state at the time. Her thoughts on suicide are found in the last months of her life.

At this time Thérèse was desperately ill with a terrible form of tuberculosis. T he first sign of the seriousness of her condition was a hemoptysis (coughing blo od from the lungs) on the night of Good Friday in 1896. From that time her healt h deteriorated. After a year she was very seriously ill with intense chest pain, frequent hemoptysis and weakness. From July 1897 until her death on 30th Septem ber that year she had acute pain, often with suffocation. In time the tuberculos is spread throughout her body, so that around the 23rd August medical people spo ke of gangrene of the intestines; there was a collapse of bodily functions. Thou gh best medical practice at the time was morphine injections, her superior, Moth er Gonzaga, thought that religious should suffer, and would not allow its admini stration to Thérèse (later the same superior would refuse morphine when she herself was dying with cancer). Her psychological and spiritual sufferings were as great if not greater than her physical distress. Within a few days of her first coughing of blood, Good Fr iday the previous year, she had a sudden collapse of her faith experience. What had been normal to her, like thoughts of heaven, now seemed a fantasy. She spoke of a high wall between her and faith realities. She was in acute darkness of fa ith almost without remission until her death. The images she used were of darkne ss, a black hole, a thick fog, a tunnel and a high wall that she could not scale . In the meantime, she kept the best side out as it were. She continued her reli gious exercises, she wrote charming devotional poems at the request of the siste rs of her community. But all the time, she was personally in darkness, with no f eeling of faith. She said that she really knew the experience of atheists. She w as walking through a dark night of faith. When we put these facts about her physical condition and her spiritual and ps ychological darkness side by side with her thoughts of suicide, we find a deeper perspective. For many religious people the thought of God or Heaven can be a re ason against suicide, but Thérèse is now without any sense of the Divine Presence, d evoid of faith experience, clinging on in darkness. As such her experience is of interest not only for the issue of suicide, but also for the whole area of unbe lief. She knew in the depths of her being the crushing desolation of unbelief.

Comparative Analysis of the Path of the Masters

by Peter Holleran "Not only does loving devotion raise the soul to God, but God, too, is drawn down from the transcendental regions and reaches for the devotee and takes His a bode in his heart. " - Sant Kirpal Singh, Sat Sandesh, July 1983 Believe nothing you have read or anything you have heard, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with common sense and reason. - Buddha

Dedication: For the Hungry It is because of the freedom given me by my initiating Master, Sant Kirpal Si ngh, that I write this article, asking and searching for open dialogue on what r emains for some a glorious yet mysterious path. I would not for the world take i t upon myself, nor is it my intention, to cause one soul to lose faith or entert ain unnecessary doubts, but I figure that if you, dear reader, have gotten this far, you have your share of inquiries and may find some benefit in what is discu ssed herein, and that the day and age has arived to speak more plainly on such m atters. What follows is largely not for the beginner but rather for the seasoned questor who still has real questions regardless of his efforts, devotion, and e xperiences on this path. As there are now hundreds of thousands of followers in the many branches of Sant Mat, or Radhasoami tradition, with different gurus wit hin each, offering similar but not always identical teachings [perhaps the two m ost predominant branches today descending from Sawan Singh (Beas) to either Maha raj Charan Singh (Beas) and Sant Kirpal Singh (Delhi), but also major branches i n Peepalmandi (Dadaji), Soamibagh, and Dayalbagh)], there are undoubtedly many s eekers who harbor unasked and unanswered heartfelt questions. This is not due on ly to internal discrepencies and controversies among or between the various line ages of Sant Mat, but also because of the challenge of a more radical, direct ap proach disseminated by a host of emerging Buddhist as well as non-dual teachers, the latter largely descending from Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta. Ho pefully this article will bring the two schools of thought a little closer toget her. This is an exploratory essay and not in any respect an attempt to "prove" o r "disprove" Sant Mat or any other path. In fact, its underlying assumption is t hat Sant Mat is true and authentic, with yet numerous questions arising for the

discriminative seeker. It is also recognized that mystical experience enters a r ealm where the discursive intellect does not go, yet, it is still subject to som e extent to Reason or buddhi, the highest faculty of the mind, next to Atman its elf. Therefore, If you are content where you are, wonderful, you may read no fur ther. Otherwise, read on, with full attention and an open mind intent on truth. This article is at times dense, as well as somewhat exhaustive; the reader, howe ver, can determine if it is of value. I am well-aware of critical articles and websites by various authors and rese archers regarding succession issues, purported scandals, and the like in the mul tiple branches of the Sant Mat or Radhasoami tradition. I have purposely omitted reference to those, except for one link at the end of this article, in order to keep this discussion on the relative merits of the philosophies alone. Each see ker is free to explore the other material, come to his own conclusions, and deci de what he or she needs for their journey home. These sources are not unimportan t, but simply tangential and at a lower level than that which I want to discuss here. For those with limited time or interest, or who have read this article before , sections # 13,14,15 are perhaps the most important ones in this essay and repr esent new material. On the positive side it is lauditory that by and large many of the masters of Sant Mat, at least, the ones I have known and loved, are examples of clean livi ng, selfless service, loving others, personal discipline, profound depths of inn er meditation and illumination, not accepting money for their spiritual work, an d, compared to many paths, relatively free of gross scandals, i.e., drugs, money , and sex. On these points most unbiased observers would agree. The goal propose d and promised is lofty and celestial. The loved poured out by the greatest of t hese masters is real. The questions I have relate to the philosophy itself and h ow it relates to ultimate realization as described in other traditions and schoo ls. Introduction Sant Mat teaches an emanationist philosophy/theology of creation that believe s the fallen soul must retrace its journey back from realms of varying densities of matter to those of pure spirit. The technique, believed superior to other pa ths and unique to itself alone, is to concentrate at the ajna chakra (third eye) and withdraw the attention from the body, catch the inner light and sound curre nt, and ride that upwards to the fifth and, by their system, first divine and in destructible, plane, Sach Khand. Some Sants, such as Darshan Singh and Rajinder Singh, have actually described the supercausal realm, Bhanwar Gupta, as a true s piritual realm (beyond mind and matter), where the soul first experienced its in dividuality on the downward path, and on the upward path (with but a thin veil o f anandamaya kosha remaining, almost an integral part of the soul itself, said K irpal Singh) first cries out "aham brahm asmi", i.e., "oh Lord, I am of the same essence as thou, or "Thou Art That", etc.), with Sach Khand being refered to as the True Region, or the realm of Truth or Spirit, the first primal expression i n full effulgence of the nameless One. This also sometimes referred to as the re gion of Oneness or Kaivalya. Param Sants go further, being progressively absorbe d by the Sat Purush into three more planes, Alakh, Agam, and Anami, where there is less and less light and sound until merger in Anami, the nameless and formles s. This is sometimes called mahakaivalya. [Some schools of Sant Mat teach that Radhasoami is a stage beyond Anami. The suggestion, through use of the terms "wonder region," or that it is not a region , but the "source and reality of All", etc., is that this may refer to a non-dua l Atmic realization, but it is not made clear, and is difficult in any case to c

ompare to the teachings of other paths. To thicken the plot, Agam Prasad Mathur (aka Dadaji, a direct spiritual descendant of Rai Salig Ram, himself a disciple of Soamiji (according to most sources the modern day originator of the path of S ant Mat or Radhasoami Mat), has stated that beyond Anami is Radhasoami Dham and Dayal Desh, and that these teachings were edited out of the Sar Bachan of Soamij i in the translation of that book by the Beas group under Sawan Singh. Agam Pras ad Mathur therefore was saying that the Beas lineage descending from Jaimal Sing h - another disciple of Soamiji - through Sawan Singh did not have the full trut h. This rather significant alleged difference is little known among radhasoami s atsang circles]. Sant Mat is adamant and unique among the traditions in maintaining that the V edantins are wrong in their assertion of Brahman as the ultimate reality. This i s a major point whose truth or not is at the heart of this entire article: "In the Radhasoami faith, the ultimate reality is Radhasoami. In Hinduism and its branches the ultimate reality is Brahman and Isvara. Brahman is considered to be the highest reality in Vedanta. The founders of Radhasoami faith, however, came forward with a new concept. According to them, The Brahman of Vedanta is l imited to the second grand division of the creation whom they call "spiritual-ma terial region". They hold that the Brahman is not the true Supreme Being or the highest reality because he is not perfectly free from mind and matter. They asse rt that though spiritual components predominate in Brahman, there is Maya latent in the seed form and a Supreme Reality having the least admixture of Maya canno t be styled as the highest truth. They envisaged the highest and the first grand division of creation as the region of the true Supreme Being who is absolutely spiritual and totally free from mind and matter. Such a Supreme Being they have named as Radhasoami." (website of Dadaji Maharaj) In Sant Mat the soul is said to die or be absorbed at each succeeding inner regio n. There is no talk of insight, prajna, or satori such as discussed in Buddhism and other schools. The goal is merger of the soul in the Oversoul, which absorpt ion they say begins in Sach Khand and ends by stages in Anami. On this path, the Godman is all in all. The Sants speak endlessly of the need to first achieve fa na-fil-sheikh (annihilation in the Master) as a prelude to fana-fil-Allah (annih ilation in God). Ths consists in developing rapt concentration through loving re membrance of the human master and the Master-Power within, to the point of reach ing the Master's inner Radiant Form. That, once attained, will, by magnetic attr action, escort the emanated soul to the Sat Purush, which in turn further absorb s the soul into the Absolute. On this path of love and devotion, at each stage t here is allegedly both deeper penetration into the Essence within as well as gre ater interpenetration between the inner and the outer, to the ultimate point of no-difference... In The Crown of Life (1970), Sant Kirpal Singh speaks movingly of this process: "This relationship of love between the Satguru and his shishya, the Godman an d his disciple, covers many phases and developments...With his greater effort an d the greater grace from the Master, the disciple makes increased headway in his inner sadhanas, leading finally to complete transcendence of bodily consciousne ss. When this transcendence has been achieved, he beholds his Guru waiting in hi s Radiant Form to receive and guide his spirit on the inner planes. Now, for the first time, he beholds him in his true glory, and realizes the unfathomable dim ensions of his greatness. Henceforth he knows him to be more than human and his heart overflows with songs of praise and humble devotion. The higher he ascends in his spiritual journey, the more insistent is he in his praise, for the more i ntensely does he realize that he whom he once took to be a friend, is not merely a friend but God Himself come down to raise him up to Himself. This bond of lov e, with its development by degrees, becomes the mirror of his inward progress, m oving as it does, from the finite to the infinite.....once it has reached the po int where the disciple discovers is teacher in his luminous glory within himself

, all analogies are shattered and all comparisons forever left behind; all that remains is a gesture, and then silence...." (p. 185-186) The following few paragraphs were part of an earlier article; they may be dif ficult to understand for those without a philosophic background or familiarity w ith the thought of Plotinus and Paul Brunton (PB). Nevertheless, they are retain ed here for those who may find it clarifying. Others may simply skip directly to the "Points for Discussion". Paul Brunton and Plotinus teach that an emanent of the individual or unit Sou l has penetrated or assumed a body, and it may be traced back to the Individual Soul from which it emanated and evolved through a long process of evolution. The Absolute Soul, which continually births Individual Souls, is inherent in the In tellectual Principle, the Nous, which is forever looking towards its prior, the One. The Absolute Soul is then the first of three degrees of penetration of the silent Void-Mind (Absolute Soul, Intellectual Principle, and the One) for one wh o has already realized his Soul. In PB s terms that would be Overself, World-Mind (God), and Mind (Godhead). All of these higher principles are in the silent Void beyond perception, name and form, light and sound. Thus, Anami of Sant Mat would as it is described as "without attributes" appear to represent the first degree of merger of the Soul into the Absolute Soul, but not the One per se, in Plotinu s' classification. This need not lessen the greatness of such a state, only to o utline its potential difference as described and the ultimate goal as stated in other schools. I will be the first to admit his may be entirely wrong. Meister Eckhart said: God is infinite in his simplicity and simple in his infinity. Therefore he is everywhere and is everywhere complete. He is everywhere on account of his infini ty, and is everywhere complete on account of his simplicity. Only God flows into all things, their very essences. Nothing else flows into something else. God is in the innermost part of each and every thing, only in its innermost part." "When the soul enters the light that is pure, she falls so far from her own c reated somethingness into her nothingness that in this nothingness she can no lo nger return to that created somethingness by her own power." "Blessedness consists primarily in the fact that the soul sees God in herself . Only in God s knowledge does she become wholly still. There she knows nothing b ut essence and God. Between that person and God there is no distinction, and the y are one. . . Their knowing is one with God s knowing, their activity with God s ac tivity and their understanding with God s understanding." "I have occasionally spoken of a light in the soul which is uncreated and unc reatable... This light is not satisfied with the simple, still and divine being which neither gives nor takes, but rather it desires to know from where this bei ng comes. It wants to penetrate to the simple ground, to the still desert, into which distinction never peeped, neither Father, Son nor Holy Spirit. There, in t hat most inward place, where everyone is a stranger, the light is satisfied, and there it is more inward than it is in itself, for this ground is a simple still ness which is immovable in itself. But all things are moved by this immovability and all the forms of life are conceived by it which, possessing the light of re ason, live of themselves. This seems to be speaking of the Soul s merger into or glimpse of Intellectual Principle, its prior, where the Soul is no longer herself. Could this be Anami o f the saints, or is there a further realization that most of them have missed? B e it noted that Dadaji (Agam Prasad Mathur) claimed that Sant Kirpal Singh visit ed him several times to ask him about this very matter. This is for most of us a rather abstruse point and I promise that the bulk of this article will not be s

o technically demanding. If there is a further stage beyond Anami, called Radhasoami , "Dayal Desh" or wh atever name be given to the non-dual Reality, then there may be some line of com munication between these teachings, but, as mentioned, it is left a mystery in t he teaching of Sant Mat where, like in other mystical schools, reasoning on such things is also unfortunately many times discouraged, simply because during the practice of concentration/meditation/dhyana the mental process is temporarily se t aside. But that does not justify the denigration of the intellect and reasonin g about these matters altogether, especially when so many sages appear to disagr ee with the interpretation of their inner experiences. Francis Wickes issues a w arning: Thinking hard hurts. It turns the sharp point of truth back upon the thinker. I t pricks the bubble of ego complacency blown up by thinking easy. Its sharp woun d forbids the forgetfulness which is the goal of evasive thinking. If one can fo rget the inner experience and its challenge can be evaded, the ego can remain co mfortably unborn in the womb of the already known. (1) The most difficult and basic question must be asked at the outset, where is th e proof the path of inversion leads to the non-dual Brahman? Vedanta says that, b eing non-dual, the One, no effort can lead there, that something more than mere yogic concentration must take place to realize it. V.S. Iyer states: When I am told to go and practice Yoga and then only I shall know its truth, I reply, How do you know that Yoga leads to truth? This at once involves epistemol ogy of which every yogi is ignorant and which he has never taken into considerat ion. Yet it is the very foundation of knowledge; without knowing epistemology a man who mentions truth or knowledge simply does not know what he is talking abou t...Vedanta s atitude to mystics is, granting that, if we place ourselves in your p osition, if we follow up the yoga-practices you prescribe we shall have the same mystic experiences you have had, how are we to know even then that those experi ences are the truth? We shall still be faced with that question even after the e xperience. Hence the need for inquiry, whether before or after into What is truth ? What he is saying is that how do we know that duplicating the death process, in and of itself, through shabd yoga, for instance, leads to the truth, and not just higher states? This is not a call for every seeker to become a great schola r, or even be literate, but if even great sages have disagreed on the nature of their enlightenment, however, where would ordinary souls like us be without The Courage to Question? In the Secret Sayings of Jesus it is said: "Let him who seeks not cease in his seeking until he finds; and when he finds he will be troubled, and if he is troubled, he will marvel, and will be a king over the All." Paul Brunton (PB) gives his definition of the term shraddha, traditionally me ant as faith in the revealed truth of the scriptures: "that faith in the existence of truth, that determination to get at truth, co me what may, which would make one a hero even in the face of God's wrath." And finally, we have these words from scientist Carl Sagan: "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." Points for Discussion

1. It is quite a challenge to compare or reconcile the teaching of Sant Mat with any other system than gnostic or mystical schools; their doctrine says that Bud dhism, Advaita, and all other yogas are on a lower level, either: (1) because, a s they claim, their inner experience progressively reveals this, or (2) because the modern founder of the school, Swami Shiv Dayal Singh (Soamiji), once said so , perhaps in reference to the quality of so-called jnanis and vedantists he came in contact with who were available for comparison at the time - which he mentio ned to be largely pundits and not practitioners - but not necessarily, I humbly suggest, from an in-depth study of high Buddhist, Hindu, and other writings or a ssociation with sages of the caliber of Ramana Maharshi. Descriptions of the mea nings of "Brahman", and "Gyana", are also different than those given in other sc hools. Soamiji wrote, in Sar Bachan (Prose) (1978 edition): There will be no salvation for Vachak Gyanis (those who only talk Gyan), for t hey only talk. In the case of true Gyanis, the Sthool Karmas (gross karmas) only are destroyed, but not the Sukshm Karmas (subtle karmas), as they can be destro yed only after reaching the region of the Saints. It must be born in mind that o nly Saints can lead to salvation in this age, because there can be no salvation unless all Karmas, both gross and subtle, are destroyed, and the Gyanis do not k now the technique of destroying karmas. (p. 138) This may be so. One famous zen master said, first enlightenment, then the bad karma is dealt with. There may be few who achieve this. Yet many will argue that a gyani or sage like Ramana Maharshi or Shree Atmananda were examples of those w ho both taught and achieved the transcendance or eradication of not only gross a nd subtle, but causal or root karmas as well. Kirpal Singh, in his book, The Cro wn of Life: A Study in Yoga mentioned that Jnana Yoga was a true path, but a ste ep one and not suited for the average person, but he did not deny its efficacy a nd even said it was a short-cut for those who had the qualifications for it (In fairness, he also pointed out the pitfalls for those who did not). Soamiji wrote: Whoever seeks the Sat Guru will surely find Him, for the Sat Guru is an incarn ation eternally present on this earth. (p. 139) However, he then seems to contradicts himself by claiming: Saints are the Incarnations of Sat Purush, and to serve Them is to serve Sat P urush. They did not manifest themselves in the first three Yugas - but They have now incarnated themselves in this Kali Yuga for the redemption of the Jivas. It then gets more complicated when claims are made by other gurus in these li neages that Kabir, a key figure in Sant Mat history, incarnated in all four ages. Example is often given that Jesus Christ was a perfect master and taught Sura t Shabd Yoga, as well as Buddha (as suggested in the Surangama Sutra where it me ntions attaining the diamond samadhi through the faculty of intrinsic hearing ), but at other times these past masters are spoken of as incomplete and only reaching to the third plane in realization. Specifically, Charan Singh and Kirpal Singh d iffered on this. In addition, the path of Sant Mat is sometimes held to have ori ginated with the medievil saints, not with Jesus or more ancient masters. Moreov er, Sant Mat teaches that all masters must have a master, but whether Shiv Dayal Singh, the modern founder of the line, for instance, had a master in Tulsi Das is yet a matter of controversy. Agam Prasad Mathur claimed that Soamiji had no g uru, whereas the Beas lineage claims that he did. Nanak did not have a master, a s far as we know.

Shiv Dayal Singh didn t give proof for his claim of the inherent superiority of Sant Mat, he merely stated it was so. Of course, one could say, what proof coul d he give? - one must realize it for oneself. Yet for the beginner at least, in deciding if one will take up this path, it comes down to whether you believe Soa miji s cosmology and ontology.. I am not saying whether it is absolute true or not , only that it is an article of faith on this path. Sant Mat would say there are inherent and inevitable paradoxes and mysteries on the path that make descripti on of the inner truths ineffable. True enough, but then that makes comparison wi th paths of jnana, for instance, impossible, and, in fact, comparative reference s are mostly only given to that of various saints and mystics within the Sant or Sikh tradition itself. Some of the differences in the traditional uses of various terms, i.e., brahm, p urusha, prakriti, gunas, etc, can be gleaned by the perceptive student from the following description of the four grand divisions of the cosmos according to , b y Julian Johnson: Sat Desh, the Highest Region Beginning now from Above, and going downwards, we come first to Sat Desh (Sat, T rue, and Desh, country: True Country or Far Country). Many other names have been applied to it, such as Nij-Dham, Sat Lok, Mukam-e Haq and Sach Khand. These nam es are usually applied to the lowest section of Sat Desh, but occasionally to th e entire grand division. This is the region or plane of pure spirit. All enjoyin g the greatest conceivable happiness, its inhabitants are pure spirits in such c ountless numbers as no man can estimate. It is the supreme heaven of all heavens ... It is known to Saints only, who alone can enter it. It cannot be described. In substance and arrangement it is wholly unlike anything known in this world. N either can the human mind imagine it. This section is so vast in extent that no sort of understanding of it can be conveyed to human intelligence. No mind can g rasp it. All that the Saints can say of it is that it is limitless. It is the on ly region which the great Saints insist is practically limitless. We may say, al though no mind can grasp the thought, that it embraces all else, and is both the beginning and the end of all else. It is the great center about which all other worlds revolve. Anything which we might say about it would be incomplete and on ly partially true, so declare the Saints. If the entire physical universe with i ts countless millions of suns and their planets were all gathered together in a single cluster, each sun being a million light-years distant from any other sun, yet this entire ensemble would appear no more than a few dark specks floating i n the clear and luminous sky of Sat Desh. In that happy country, a sun such as o urs, but a thousand times larger, would appear as a tiny dark spot, so very grea t is the light of that world. This region is the grand capital of all creation, the center of all universes, and the residence of the Supreme Creator-Lord of al l. From this center of all light, life and power, the Great Creative Current flo ws outwards and downwards to create, govern and sustain all regions. It passes o ut from this region somewhat like the radio emanations going forth from a great broadcasting station. It is the Audible Life Stream, the most important factor i n the system of the Masters. This Stream permeates the entire system of universe s. A thing of great importance to us is that the music of this ever- flowing cur rent, the stream of life, can be heard by a real Master and also by his students who have advanced even a little on the Path. And let us reiterate that unless a Master teaches his students how this current is to be heard, he is not a Master of the highest order. This grand headquarters of all creation is the region of immortality. It is unch angeable, perfect, deathless. It is for ever untouched by dissolution or grand d issolution. So are its inhabitants. This region will be referred to many times i n this book. It is subdivided into four distinct planes, each having its own cha racteristics and its own Lord or Governor. But the difference between these subd ivisions is very slight. From above downward they are named: Radha Swami Dham (m

eaning home of the Spiritual Lord). It is also called Anami Lok (meaning nameles s region). The next plane below the highest is Agam Lok (Agam, inaccessible, and Lok, place). The third plane is Alakh Lok. (Alakh, invisible and Lok, place). T he last of these higher planes is Sach Khand (Sach, truth and Khand home). The l ast one is also called Sat Lok, the true place. By the Mohammedan Saints it has been called Mukam-e-Haq, meaning of the same as above, the Home of Truth. The light of all four of these regions is so very intense that it is impossible for any mortal to get an understanding of it. It cannot be described. The great Swami Ji sums up his statements regarding is region by saying simply that "It is all Love. BRAHMANDA, THE SECOND GRAND DIVISION The second grand division from above downward is Brahmanda, (meaning, the egg of Brahm, as said before). This refers to its shape and also to the Governor or Lo rd who is its ruler. This Brahm is supposed by most of the old rishis to be the supreme being of all creation, because they knew of no one higher. But the Saint s know that there is not only one Brahm, but countless numbers of Brahms, who ar e governors over so many Brahmandas. For it must be understood that there are co untless Andas and Brahmandas, each circling about the supreme region in its own orbit. And each of them has its own governor or ruler. Brahm was the highest God known to the ancient rishi or yogi, and so the name of Brahm is retained by the Saints to designate the ruler of the "Three Worlds," including the physical uni verse, the Anda and lower portion of Brahmanda, named Trikuti. The upper portion of Brahmanda is called Par Brahm. As said before, this grand division is mostly spirit in substance, but is mixed with a certain amount of pure, spiritualized matter. It is the finest order of m atter, and that includes mind. This is called the "spiritual-material region," b ecause spirit dominates the region. The substance of that division gradually bec omes less and less concentrated as we descend toward the negative pole of creati on. The lower portions become coarser in particle, and more and more mixed with matter. In the lower end of Brahmanda mind is supreme. It is practically all min d, for mind itself is material of the finest order. Of course, even mind is mixe d with spirit substance to some slight extent, otherwise it could not exist. All worlds become a shade darker as we descend, because there is less and less of s pirit substance in the composition. Trikuti, the lowest section of Brahmanda, is the home of Universal Mind. It is from that region that all individual minds ar e derived, and to that region all minds must return when they are discarded duri ng the upward flight of the spirit. Brahmanda is extremely vast in area when com pared with the physical universe, but small when compared with the first grand d ivision. It is itself subdivided into many distinct regions or planes. Some ment ion six subdivisions; but as a matter of fact, there are scores of subdivisions in that one grand division, almost numberless subdivisions, each constituting a separate and distinct world. Divisions and subdivisions shade into one another s o imperceptibly that it is not easy to say just where one ends and another begin s. This accounts in part for the many different descriptions of those regions, a nd the great variety of names assigned to them. Anda, The Lowest of the Heavens It lies nearest to the physical universe. Its capital is called Sahasra dal Kanw al, meaning a Thousand-petalled Lotus [right here Dr. Johnson substitutes the co mmon yogic terminology of sahasrar for sahans (dal kanwal) to give justification for the far superior nature of the Path of the Masters; but as we shall see, Sa hans Dal Kanwal, is described by Soamiji himself as being an eight-petalled lotu s, not a thousand]. Its name is taken from the great cluster of lights which con

stitute the most attractive sight when one is approaching that world. This great group of lights is the actual "power house" of the physical universe. Out of th at power house flows the power that has created and now sustains all worlds in o ur group. Each of those lights has a different shade of tint and they constitute the most gorgeous spectacle as one enters that magnificent city of light. In th at city of splendors may be seen also many other interesting and beautiful thing s. Also, here may be seen millions of earth's most renowned people of all ages o f our history. Many of them are today residents of this great city and country. Naturally they are quite happy. It is far superior to anything ever seen on this earth. Yet this is but the first station on the upward Path of the Masters. This region constitutes the negative part of all the superphysical zones. That i s, it lies most distant from the positive pole of creation. This region is somet imes classified as a part of Brahmanda, but the Saints prefer to consider it as a separate grand division of creation. It has many distinctive features of its o wn. Lying nearest to the physical universe, it forms the port of entry for all t he higher regions. All souls who are passing to still higher regions must pass t hrough it. The great majority of human souls at the time of death pass to some s ub-plane of this region. But very few, comparatively, go direct to this central portion of the Sahans dal Kanwal region. It is through all of these regions that the Masters and their disciples must travel on their way to higher worlds. This section of creation is not immortal or imperishable. Neither are its inhabitant s. Many of its inhabitants believe that they have attained immortality because t heir lives there go on for extremely long periods. All below that is subject to death and dissolution. There are two kinds of dissolutions. The one, simple diss olution" which reaches up to the lowest section in Brahmanda, the region called Trikuti; this occurs after many millions of years, and the other, the grand diss olution" which occurs after immeasurably long periods of time and extends up to the top of Brahmanda. Of course, both of these dissolutions include the entire p hysical universe, every sun, moon and planet in it. At that time every star and its satellites are wiped out, and then follows a period of darkness equal in dur ation to the life of the universe. When the period of darkness has expired, a ne w creation is projected, and the heavens are once more alive with sparkling star s. With each new creation begins a new "Golden Age" for each planet and its inha bitants. But between minor dissolutions there are also periods of renewal for th e life of each planet when Golden Ages succeed dark ages. There is a general ide a, finding its way into most religions, that this world is to come to an end. An d so the Masters teach. But the end is a very different proposition to what it i s generally supposed to be. It will come at a time when all worlds of the physic al universe will be dissolved, and after periods of darkness and silence, new wo rlds will take their places. The inhabitants of all of those worlds to be dissol ved are drawn up to higher regions in a sort of comatose state to be replaced up on these worlds when they are ready for human habitation. They will then begin a new life here under more favorable conditions. These periodic dissolutions come to the physical universe after many, many hundreds of millions of years. No man need worry now, lest that time is near at hand. It is many aeons away yet. The Grand Division of Pinda -- The Physical Plane/Multiverse of Dark Matter and Light The fourth grand division, beginning from above, is called Pinda. It is the gros s material or physical universe. Here coarse matter predominates, there being bu t a small percentage of mind and a still smaller amount of spirit. Our earth is a small and insignificant member of Pinda. It embraces all the suns and their pl anets known or unknown, to astronomy. It extends out into space far beyond the r each of any telescope. Astronomers have never been able to count these worlds; a lthough as their instruments become more perfect, the range of their observation s is extended. Who shall set limits or indicate bound to those starry depths? Wh o can number the numberless? Who can circumscribe the boundless? To the farthest

extent of space wherever there is a material sun or a speck of dust they are al l included in this fourth grand division which the Masters call Pinda. In this division, coarse material predominates. Permeating this coarse material are many finer substances, including mind, and last of all there is a modicum of spirit to give life to all the rest. In this lowest of all divisions of creatio n there is but little light and a very low grade of life when compared with Brah manda. But if compared with Sat Desh, this world is pitch darkness and the life here, in comparison to that, is scarcely cognizable at all. Its substance is coa rse, clumsy, inert, and full of all manner of imperfections. These imperfections , as said before, are due to the paucity of spirit at this pole. This condition of negativity is the soil out of which all evil grows. However real it may seem to us, negativity is the absence of reality, and the absence of reality is the a bsence of spirit. Food is a reality to us, but hunger is also a real condition t o our consciousness. But hunger is due to the absence of food. In its last analy sis, all pain, longing, all desire is only a cry of the mind and soul for more l ight, more spirit. In like manner, evil is due to, the absence of spirit. And th e reason we have so small a percentage of spirit substance at this end of creati on is because this is the negative pole of all creation. Pinda is the extreme ne gative pole. It is consequently so far depleted of spirit that it lies in a stat e of semi-death, a condition of heavy inertia over which broods deep shadow. Out of this condition rise all the manifold difficulties experienced by mortals on this plane of life. As one leaves this lowest plane and begins to ascend towa rd the positive pole of creation, the light increases, and hence more life, more beauty and more happiness. This is all entirely due to the increase in the perc entage of spirit on the several planes. Love, power, wisdom, rhythm, perfection of every sort take the place of negative conditions which prevail in the lower s ections of the universe. It should be said here, with all possible emphasis, that just in proportion to t he degree of spirit substance prevailing in any region, world, person or thing, will its perfections be manifest. And vice versa, in proportion to the lack of s pirit, imperfections will show themselves. In proportion as matter predominates, those states which we call evil will manifest. A depletion of spirit, is theref ore, the one fatal disease of the physical universe. Out of that state all other diseases spring up. In the last analysis, we believe there is but one disease i n the world -- spiritual anemia. [Notice that Julian Johnson uses the term "sahsra dal kanwal and "thousand-pe talled lotus" to describe the first inner region. As will be shown, Soamiji used the term "Sahans dal Kanwal" and said this region had only an eight-petalled lo tus. This has significance in comparing other schools of yoga with Sant Mat]. Continuing, we have a more lyrical description of creation by Huzur Maharaj: A current issued forth from the feet of SOAMI [Lord]. It is the Prime Current and the Creator of the entire creation. The Name of that ADI DHARA. (Prime Current) is RADHA [Soul]. THAT alone is the d oer and dispenser of every activity. The Source or Origin or Fountain-head from whom the Prime Current emanated, is A DI SOAMl (Absolute Lord) of all. Where that current halted in its descent, the creation of Agam Lok [Inaccessible Plane] was brought into being. Agam Lok is a vast sphere. It encompasses all the creation.

The entire creation below is being cradled just in a small nook of Agam Lok. On completion of the creation of Agam Lok, a current issued forth from there. It descended and halted, and evolved the creation of Alakh Lok [Invisible Region or Plane]. When the sphere of Alakh Lok was formed in the above manner, the current descend ed, and created Sat Lok. Sat Lok [Plane or Realm of Truth] is the Dham (Abode) of Sat Purush, and is inha bited by Hansas. Each of the Hansas [souls] has a dweep (island) to himself. They are absorbed in the Darshan [Vision] of Sat Purush. Up to here is the creation of Sat (Truth) or pure spirit. Neither Maya nor cruel Kal exists here. There is neither any desire nor any work. All are absorbed in the Darshan of Sat Purush and feed on Amrit (ambrosia). All live in perfect harmony and enjoy rapturous bliss. There is no trace of pain and anguish due to Kal [god of time-death- illusion] and there is no burden of Karma. For a considerable period of time the creation remained like this - a region of Truth and pure bliss. Time, The "Fall" of Kal, the Gnostic "Demiurge" or Universal Mind Then, from the lower portion of Sat Pur (Sat Lok) emanated a Shyam (blue) curren t. It came down and underwent considerable expansion and ramification. It remained constantly engaged in the Sewa (service) of Purush but, inwardly, it was cherishing some other desire. It disclosed its mind thus, "0 Sat Purush [God]! 0 Merciful One and Giver of all things! Grant me the sovereignty of a separate region, and furnish me with the seed of Surat. Life here is not suited to me. Your region is not agreeable to me ." Hearing this, Purush replied, "Get out from this place. You are a nuisance here. Go and evolve a creation for yourself in the lower part of the pre-creational n eutral zone. Take your seat there and rule over that dominion." The name of that current is Niranjan. It has all the characteristics of Kal. Purush evolved another current with a yellow hue. Its name is Adya. By the order of Purush, this other current was sent down. It associated with Nir anjan. In Sunn, they came to be known as Purush and Prakriti, and in Trikuti, as Maya a nd Brahm. They halted in Sahas-dal-kanwal, from where the three Gunas (qualities) came int o being.

Here, Adya assumed the form of Jyoti, and Niranjan assumed a dark blue complexio n. They first brought into being Brahm-srishti. Then, the creation of Triloki (three worlds) was evolved. Niranjan then engaged himself in Dhyan (contemplation) of Purush (Sat Purush). Jyoti took upon herself the burden of looking after the creation. The three Gunas or gods became her assistants. They evolved the rest of the crea tion. -- Huzur Maharaj, from "Prem Bani Radhasoami", Volume Four, Agra, India This appears to be a derivation from the Sar Bachan of Soamiji, and, in turn, possibly the Anurag Sagar of Kabir, of which we will hear more about later. In the first description of the inner regions given above, it is noteworthy that Ju lian Johnson uses the term "Sahasra dal Kanwal" and equates it with the Sahasrar a or thousand-petalled lotus as traditionally mentioned in yoga, particularly ku ndalini yoga. Sar Bachan Poetry, Part II, p. 277, by Soamiji, however, clearly s tates that Sahans dal Kanwal is a region of an eight-petalled lotus - followed b y a lotus of twelve petals in Trikuti, thirteen in Sunn, and ten at Maha-Sunn. I t is also of interest that further on in Sar Bachan, on page 394-395, it is stat ed that there are twelve "kanwals" or ganglia or lotuses in the human microcosm. Six are the traditional chakras in the spine from the coccyx or muladara up to the eyes or ajna chakra. The next three would be unique although not unheard of in the literature outside of Sant Mat, and appear to be centers deeper within th e brain, although the impression given is that one is to believe that they are o ut of the body altogether. But is this so? Soamiji says that the seventh Kanwal is Sahans dal Kanwal, the eighth is in T rikuti, and the ninth is at Daswan Dwar (considered the tenth door or tenth orif ice, the other nine being the lower, external bodily orifices). This will sugges t to some that the tenth orifice is at the brahmarendra or top of the head, and that the other preceding kanwals are experienced as the attention moves through the structures of the brain (including the "sky of mind" in the braincore) befor e passing out or beyond through the corona radiata into what may be the true sah asrara. Are kanwals or chakras seven through nine actually between the midbrain to the top of the brain, and experienced as attention curves through the ventric les and corpus collosum before passing out through the corona - or not? This beg s for elucidation. Sant Rajinder Singh has said that one will have proof that th ere is life after death when one reaches the third inner plane. This seems like it would only would make sense if the first two inner regions are really experie nced before death in the domain of the braincore itself, otherwise why wouldn t on e have proof that there is life after death when he reaches the first inner plan e? I have an answer, but will give it shortly. Radhasoami gurus Huzur Maharaj an d Maharaj Saheb in their writings both added the interesting but confusing comme nt that the doorway to the lower subtle regions was in the gray matter while the doorway to the "purely spiritual" regions was in the white matter. Rumi, too, s aid, "in the folds of thy brain lie wonderous regions." Soamiji stated: "I give out details of the ganglia, I have seen within my bod y. Twelve Kanwals (lotuses, ganglia) are found in the human microcosm." What are we to make of this, then, in light of the statement of the sage Ramana Maharshi , that "the light in the brain is but the reflected light of the Heart" ? Yogis like Swami Sivananda taught that spiritual illumination comes kundalini or shakti passes through the lower chakras, purifying one of achment, and then finally rising into the sahasrara. The Kriya yoga of a Yogananda held to a similar idea of purification and also considered

when the gross att Paramhans the sahas

rar not as an actual chakra per se but the doorway to the infinite. Some argue t hat Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the end result of this process, while there have been traditional tantric gurus who have argued that through the union of Shiva and Sh akti a non-dual awakening may even ensue from such an experience. I ask a questi on, therefore, at the outset of this article: Is the sahasrara or thousand-petal led lotus the same as the eight-petalled lotus of Sahans Dal Kanwal in Sant Mat, or does it really represent something more comprehensive than that? Soamiji goe s on to list the tenth kanwal as in Maha-sunn, the eleventh at Bhanwargupha, and the twelfth at Sat Lok. These are all still considered in the "human microcosm" . Is it possible, then, that the highest reach or depth of the true Sahasrara is really Sat Lok, with further absorption into the wordless and formless state of Anami actually traditional ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi? If it isn't, why isn't it? Personally I don t think it is, but the explanation is complex. We will get to it later. This is not to diminish the realization of Anami, but rather to sugge st categorizing Nirvikalpa in its traditional yogic profundity. While it may not represent final enlightenment, it is still said to be no small thing. Can it be that there are semantic differences between the traditions that cloud our under standing? The answer to this is, "yes," and will be addressed as we go along. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. There is much ground to cover before r eturning to this important topic. 2. Despite the promises of Soamiji, "Unless I see with my own eyes, I will not b elieve the sayings of the Master, and Know yourself by yourself, and do not rely o n the sayings of anyone else, therefore, much still seems to be expected to be be lieved without argument from the beginning. It is common in Sant Mat to say that all Masters speak of the same path and that its teaching is the same as many teac hings throughout the ages. This makes the path sound like the highest and also h elps legitimize it. It is said that Jesus, Buddha, and other classic figures all taught the same thing. But one can easily reach the conclusion they did NOT tea ch the same thing, at least not as historically recorded. In none of the schools of high Buddhism is shabd yoga taught, nor is there undisputed evidence that Je sus did so, other than a few oblique references in the gospels that are interpre ted to suggest that he did. I am not saying they did one way or the other. There is obviously subtle light and sound experiencible within. That is not at issue. The point, however, is that one must assume that Jesus and Buddha taught this s pecific method of yoga in private only to a select few in order to justify such a claim.There is actually some evidence of this, in the apochryphal gospels of J udas and Mary. There is also the problem that any number of mystical schools, su ch as Kriya Yoga, also attempt to gain legitimacy by claiming Jesus as one of th eir own. If someone adheres to a particular ideology, he tends to defend it in the ter ms of that ideology itself instead of from a position of intellectually neutral comparative analysis. If one is a follower of another path, or if an initiate is decided to be seen as not a good satsangi, for instance, it it sometimes argued t hat their practice or thoughts the work of Kal or the negative power instead of tackling the criticisms themselves. This is no longer a justifiable position as mankind gets less and less provincial in its communication with each other. The teachings must be able to withstand debate from without and not just within. Oth erwise, I ask, what is the purpose of having conferences like the World Fellowsh ip of Religions and Unity of Man, such as were held by my guru, Sant Kirpal Sing h? I say this with all due respect; it is time for the light of truth to be shed on the Path of the Masters - as well as all other paths (and non-paths ). It is no w time for philosophy (the love of truth ), and no longer the time for religion and theology. In order to proceed further on the path, one must get to square one, or what the Buddha called Right View , or otherwise no matter how far one appears t o advance he may not reach the highest truth. Shabd gurus do make a point of encouraging people to examine the path critica

lly, but then once that is done and the seeker has "made up his mind", he or she is advised he should follow the master's instructions, etc., and not worry abou t thinking anymore. But for many this is not enough. How many initiates, moreove r, truly make an in-depth investigation of the path as it compares with others b efore making their decision? Even if one has, a true path must be able to withst and any new arguments that arise, for how can one be certain that he has examine d all the issues in his initial study? Must one ignore new questions or criticis ms that arise just because he has committed himself to a path? If, on the other hand, one relies only on his immediate feelings in making such a decision, such feelings are unfortunately subject to error as well as change when later held up against the light of reason and experience. So understanding, even just intelle ctual understanding, can not be bypassed. Seeking is supposedly about discovering truth. Therefore, it appears someone must ask the questions raised below, and I risk the wrath of the faithful and ev en God if need be to do so. It was never my intention to be in such a position. I would rather just revel in inner bliss and a simple guru-devotee relationship. Yet my master confounded my assumptions, called me his friend, and in the end s aid I was a new man and that I should tell everyone so. Therefore, as Ramanuja o nce shouted from the rooftop while saying what he was told not to say, I don t care if I go to hell if it will help one soul find the truth. I do hope that more tha n a few as well as my heart-friend will find me unworthy of damnation for this i nvestigation. There has, before we finish with this section, also been an ongoing controver sy among Sant Mat teachers (beginning with Faqir Chand) whether it is actually t he Master who "gives" anyone a contact with the inner light and sound, or whethe r he merely points out the technique for the disciple to find out what is alread y there. I believe both of these may be the case, depending on the lineage one i s a part of and the guru s competency therein. In the line of Kirpal Singh, it is claimed that it is the Master Power, directly or indirectly, which can and will (at initiation) actually drag the attention of the initiate within to grant him experiences, and many can attest to that first hand. Personally, I believe they can and do. In other lineages within Sant Mat, this is not promised, and there a re apparently some masters who are only competent to give meditation instruction s, but no transmission . This will all be discussed further below. 3. This promise of an experience at initiation (as a boost on the way, and as pr oof of the guru s competency) was started by Kirpal Singh, and most initiates of t hat lineage (Darshan Singh, Rajinder Singh) do experience something, even before their official initiation (which is said to be the moment of thought-transferen ce from the Master, not necessarily the actual time of the official initiation), sometimes shortly after, which promise is not the case with initiates in the Be as or Agra line. I believe there is a divine siddhi involved, at least in the Ki rpal lineage, whereby the Masters, whether consciously, or unconsciously through their own inner attunement, can temporarily invert the attention of their disci ples, but does that guarantee the ability to grant or produce eventual enlighten ment, or that the guru himself is completely is enlightened? It would certainly elevate him beyond the ordinary teacher, that is not in question. And this is no t meant to disparage or criticize this path, only to seek understanding. Many te achers on other paths, like Ranmakrishna and Yogananda, have been able to give t emporary experiences of the preliminary inner stages of mystic light and sound; Sant Mat claims that they will only be able to take their disciples so far, and not to the highest, which requires a Divine commission. This may be true, but, a gain, it is a matter of faith on this path. 4. There is a controversy within Sant Mat that begs for a more adequate expla nation. This pertains to the role and nature of the Master s subtle radiant form. There may certainly be paradox and divine mystery involved, but there is no reas on for obscurity. For example, Sawan Singh said since the physical master could

not possibly be in contact with thousands of disciples at one time, therefore he creates an "astral duplicate" that resides in the third eye of the initiate and which looks over him and only reports , as it were, to the master when something r eally important needs personal attention. The Master Power, not the physical mas ter, is otherwise constantly looking after the disciple once he is initiated. One is sometimes advised to seek the company of one s guru s successor, but conti nue contemplating only on one s own guru s form, when it appears. Sant Mat in genera l claims that the form is real , and that all true masters are one and may appear. There have been some spiritual schools which denigrate or lessen the value of su ch a form by arguing that it is only a mental projection from the disciple's own mind or soul, saying that Christians see Jesus, Hindus see Krishna, etc. That, however, doesn t mean such an ishta as mentioned on the Path of the Masters is not r eal, or is a product of the gross imagination of a disciple, but the question do es arise whether it is a product of the deeper mind and ultimately the soul or O verself of the disciple, and not necessarily God or the guru directly. It would ce rtainly have to be a lofty definition of Soul to account for the radiant form of a living who appears of Himself. Yet PB describes the philosophic view: "It is the mystic's ego which constructs the image of his teacher or saviour, and his Overself [divine Soul] which animates that image with divine power. Thi s explains why earnest pupils of false teachers have made good progress and why saviors dead for thousands of years still seem to help their followers." "Only when well-advanced does he learn that the help he thinks he got from a gur u came often from the Universal Being. It was his own personal thoughts which su pplied the guru image, but the power which worked was from that Being." (Noteboo ks. Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.183,189) The key words here are, only when well-advanced. Of course, this is a paradox. Supposedly at the highest level Mind, God, Soul, and Master are all One. There c an certainly, moreover, also be telepathic and transcendental help from the mast er even without the presence of the form, and even whether or not one is recepti ve or aware of it. Even the master may not necessarily be aware of it, and yet s till be a conduit for such help. Again, PB explains: "The conscious personal mind of the teacher may know nothing of the help that is radiating from him to one who silently calls on him from a long distance, ye t the reality of that help remains." (Ibid, Vol. 2, 6.744). This was precisely Baba Faqir Chand's position. Furthermore, PB affirms that the blessing of the attention of a sage, given even once, is so profound that it s effects may manifest over the course of some years: "The guide may send his blessing telepathically only once but if it is powerf ul enough it may work itself out through a hundred different experiences extendi ng over several years. Because he identifies himself with the timeless spaceless soul, his blessing may express itself anywhere in space and anywhere in time. M oreover he may formulate it in a general way but it may take precise shapes unco nsciously fashioned by and suited to a recipient's own mentality and degree of d evelopment....Just as the sun does not need to be aware of every individual plan t upon which it sheds its beneficent life-giving growth-stimulating rays, so the master does not need to be aware of every individual disciple who uses him as a focus for his meditations or as a symbol for his worship. Yet each disciple wil l soon realize that he is receiving from such activities a vital inward stimulus , a real guidance and definite assistance. This result will develop the power un consciously drawn from the disciple's own higher self, which in turn will utiliz e the mental image of the master as a channel through which to shed its grace." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 6.752, 784)

Not only Faqir Chand, but Sant Rajinder Singh has in so many words affirmed t hat this is more or less how it works. Only in rare instances does the incarnate master personally involve himself in the disciple's personal inner life, but hi s own higher self is like a grand switchboard into which the many, many disciple s are plugged into. The help or grace goes "over the head" of the adept as it we re, but it is no less real. PB writes: "With a teacher, it is the inward relationship that matters. What, then, is g oing to happen when there is only one Teacher and many thousands of students? Ho w can all the wishes, dreams, and thoughts reach him, yet leave him time for his work? Obviously, it cannot be done. So Nature steps in and helps out. She has a rranged a system very much like a telephone swithboard. The incoming "calls" are plugged into the subconscious mind of the Teacher. The "line" itself is compose d out of the student's own faith and devotion; he alone can make this connection . Then, his wishes, dreams, and thoughts travel along it to the subconscious of the teacher, where they are registered and dealt with accordingly to their needs . In this way, they do reach the Teacher, who can, at the same time, attend to h is work. Sometimes Nature deems it advisable to transfer a particular message to the conscious level. In such a case, it may be answered on either the conscious or subconscious level. Occasionally, too, the teacher deliberately sends one ou t when he is guided to do so." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, , Part 1, 5.273) The latter could account for visions of a Master's form that appear to people who have never even heard of the Master before, but were destined to meet. This happens with frequency in Sant Mat. To be sure, once again, there does seem to be a difference between a form whi ch comes of itself in meditation, and stands before the Master's charged words, than simply a subconscious manifestation of a disciple's (culturally or religiou sly) conditioned mind (again, such as when Christians tend to see visions of Chr ist, and Hindus of Krishna, etc.). The Kirpal lineage of Sant Mat Masters' forms have appeared to many who had never even heard of them before. This would contr adict the theory that it is just a manifestation of one's subconscious mind in e very instance. If a true Master is indeed a mouthpiece of the Absolute Soul, or God, however, due to the purity and depth of his realization, then his Gurudev o r radiant subtle form is certainly a glorious thing which could be imprinted or arise within and attract the soul and mind of his chela or disciple, and which t hus is inherently divine and even non-dual. This could be considered a true visi on. Baba Faqir Chand, a Sant Mat guru who was a disciple of Shiv Brat Lal, and wh o was recognized by Sawan Singh, discovered that many miracles and appearances o f his form to his disciples occurred without any awareness on his part. He concl uded that the form was a product of the disciple's imagination or faith, and not the Master, and he taught likewise, changing the teachings of Sant Mat at the b ehest of his guru and with the blessing of Sawan Singh. Perhaps Faqir's most rad ical departure from the teaching of Sant Mat was in his claim that all visions w ere "phantasmagoria", akin to the after-death appearances that the Tibetan Book of the Dead warns are products of one's own mind. Faqir went from considering th e things he saw inside as objectively real to seeing them as subjective mental c reations, and he increasingly asked the question, "who" sees the visions, and "w ho" hears the sounds?" He apparently never got the full fruit of the enquiry in the form of firm knowledge of the Self, but what he wrote, however, is interesti ng: On the basis of my experiences I say that solution to all our worldly afflicti ons is beyond the mental realms. Go even beyond the state of thoughtlessness. Sp irituality begins from thoughtlessness or the state of Mahasunna. I am indebted to those who consider me as Guru. They helped me to go beyond the mental realms. Now my Sadhana is of the Surat and not of the mind. But you cannot reach this s

tage so easily because you have the desires for name, fame, and wealth. Therefor e, the teachings of the saints are not for the public in general. Do you think t hat the present method for initiation adopted by the Gurus is for the well-being of mankind? Decidedly not. These Gurus are doing this all for their own name, f ame, and centers. This method of initiation would ruin those who get it because they are not aware of the thoughts of their subconscious mind. They do not know the power and the secret of their thoughts. O man, your own mind is your Guru and the follower. Understand this secret fro m the Sat Sang of the realized man. Entertain noble and constructive thoughts an d make your life. None can help you. Even a saint who dwells in light and sound cannot do anything for you. I dwell in light and sound, but I cannot do anything for you. After a long struggle, I have reached the stage of complete surrender to Him. It is all your faith. This life is a bubble of consciousness. This bubble is the creation of His wil l and it will vanish at His will. I am nothing, but still, I am everything. I ha ve been a son, brother, husband, and father, but I do not ensnare myself in this world of attachments. This is the essence of all the religions, but none tries to understand it. What is to happen must happen, so why make hue and cry? Saints live in the state of forgetfulness. For me, the spontaneous form is that I am a bubble of consciousness. I do not claim that I am a God. He who claims himself as Brahma is not a practical man. H e may be intelligent and well-read. If someone is really Brahma, let him do some good to the suffering humanity, or at least save himself from sorrows and pain. None can do it. All harvest the fruit of deeds. (from Truth Always Wins by Baba Faqir Chand) Many have argued, based Faqir's book, that the master's form is therefore a p rojection of the disciple's own mind, yet I feel this concluson is unwarranted i n many cases. Many people who never heard of a certain master before have had th eir inner darshan, and this does not seem to be simply a projection of their inn er desire or pre-conditioned mental tendency. The true guru's radiant subtle for m can appear where and when he wishes, and, it is claimed, God or the Sat Purush can project it in the same manner. Sant Darshan Singh, without refuting Faqir C hand's principle critiques, felt that he was misguided about Sant Mat. But other s no doubt feel the same way towards him, so what's a poor boy to do? There is also the vast issue to explore of the teaching that there are reflec tions of higher regions in lower ones, which each have seven sub-levels, that ca n deceive those without the highest insight or help of one who has accessed such regions. Neither Faqir Chand nor the Kriya lineage speaks of the help of the in ner guide to the extent that the teachers of Sant Mat do. It is, however, beyond the scope of this article to get into this fascinating issue in depth. Dr. I.C. Sharma, successor to the radical and iconoclastic Faqir, didn t follow the latter's thinking that the form is 'merely a subjective vision', i.e., a pe rsonal creation, but that it was important to visualize and concentrate on it in the lower planes as long as one realized it wasn t the be all and end all. In oth er words, the stages are necessary. Sant Kirpal Singh said (in Godman, p. 108) o f the gurudev or radiant form of the master, that "even the Saints adore this fo rm and derive ecstatic delight from it." And it is part of the humility and divi ne physics of the lineage that all masters defer to their own master, even after their realization. This helps keep the transmission of the lineage pure. So eve n though a Master is merged in the light beyond any form of his master, and in t he great Beyond beyond that, he still gets charm from his master's subtle form. And why not? He gets charm from all forms as well. While he is a Master now, in his own right, for conventions sake and an outward show of humility these master s usually defer to their own master as the doer and source of grace.

Still, PB wrote on the terminal stages of the path of devotion: This last stage, where the presence and picture of the Master are displaced by the pictureless presence of the disciple's own spirit, is accurately described in the words of Jesus to his disciples: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ... when he, the Spi rit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." Any other interpretati on of them leaves them without reasonable meaning...When a man has at last found himself, when he has no longer any need for an outside human Symbol but passes directly to his own inner reality, he may stand shoulder to shoulder with the te acher in the oldest, the longest, and the greatest of struggles. "The teacher is a support needed by the disciple to help him progress through successive stages of the quest, as they are stages of thinning illusion. When h e stands on the threshold of reality, then the last and thinnest illusion of all must be left behind, the support of any being outside himself, apart from himse lf, for within him is the infinite life-power." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 6.590; Vol. 16, Part 1, 5.285-286; Vol. 2, 6.859)) I Therefore at some point the disciple must stand on his own two feet. As PB wrote: "In the end he must inwardly walk alone - as must everyone else however belov ed - since God allows no one to escape this price." (Notebooks, Vol. 2, 3.325) Sant Mat holds that in Sach Khand you are not strictly speaking seeing a mere vision but "God as a person" as the Sat Purush. The advaitists, of course, disa gree, but solely on philosophical grounds, as they have not had this experience, nor do they have a concepton other than a unidimensional one of experience beyo nd the conceptual mind. Contemporary anadi stands out among the direct path type of teacher in maintaining that beyond the mind lies more than one experience consciousness - but several stages of deepening into being, realisation of the s oul, and realisation of God. He says that the commonly accepted non-duality of c onsciousness is only beyond the gross level of duality created by the mind, but beyond that there is in reality a subtle duality of soul and God, which is what the sants say also. But the advaitists believe that the impersonal subject of ex perience is the absolute; they don t recognise that there are more than one type o f experience beyond the mind , and two impersonal subjects: soul and the universal subjectivity, God, the I AM. Sri Nisargadatta, however, said, As long as you thi nk yourself to be a person, He too is a person. When you are all, you see Him as all. (I AM THAT, p. 88). This is an absolute type of statement, and may not refl ect the full nature of reality. Vedantist V.S. Iyer, a teacher of Paul Brunton, and Ramakrishna Order monks Nikhilinanda and Siddeswarananda, wrote that "even i f you see Sat Purush, it is just a thought" and "He who says he sees the Sat Pur ush inside in meditation is no sage." This is a radical conception indeed, as in Sant Mat the mind is supposedly left off at the level of the causal plane, two realms below Sach Khand, and Sat Purush is supposed to be an inherent eternal re ality. While advaita admits of no creation or causation (ajata), it does allow, says Nikhilinanda, for the Effulgent Nature of Reality to appear as if there wer e creation, and from the position of Reality there is no separation between the Real and its manifestation. Only from the empirical standpoint do they posit May a as Transcendental Illusion responsible for our ignorant perception of creation . In Truth, there is no separation, and nothing needs negating. All is one. Ramana also spoke of God as a person, the "first person" or "I" in the Heart, but nevertheless beyond the vision of light. Scripture tells us, No man sees God and lives. Iyer stated: "Ideas never reach Atman. The mind never knows it. He who says he has a visio

n of the highest or describes it as supra-mental, etc., does not understand Atma n, because it is free from imaginations." (Commentaries, Vol. 1; see note 29). According to Iyer, it may not be a personal vision at the level of a dream or a product of one s personal mind, but it is still in the realm of the imagination , albeit at the highest level. Even if it is the great vision of light, there is still a perceiver; when the perceiver is gone, then who sees what, and who has merged with what? This is an important question. And it is where it is necessary to bow to the fact that there is Atman and there is Paramatma. The universal pr ojection is not a product of the soul, but of Paramatma. So it is not just imagi nation. Epistemological considerations just do not apply so rigidly here. The Sa nts would say that beyond the ego the soul sees and cognizes by virtue of her ow n light. The Sat Purush, chief principality of Sach Khand, absorbs the soul(not the ego, but the soul, freed from all coverings of koshas) further on into the N ameless One. And despite Soamiji's lyrical descriptions of Sach Khand, any sense of separation or bifurcation of the mind into percever and perceived, as in the lower orders of creation, is supposedly non-existent here. The Sants insist thi s is a purely spiritual realm, with mind and matter left far behind. Sant Darshan has written that after traversing the physical, astral, and caus al planes," the soul no longer has mind, but perceives and understands with its own light." Yet, one might ask, can the soul by its own light perceive and under stand anything other than Itself, without a vehicle (i.e., kosha) to do so? Anth ony Damiani gives the traditional philosophical argument: Any mystical state, any dream state, any wakeful state is a content and an obj ect of consciousness. Different ones are going to demonstrate different characte ristics, and there s going to be an infinite array of possibilities, but the point to be grasped is that every one of them is an idea to consciousness and that th e mind puts forth its own ideas and then experiences them....If you go to a high er level than this one, it will still be a content of consciousness; and if you go to an even higher level, or even to the level of being itself, there will alw ays be a content of consciousness....That s why it is so important to grasp this p rinciple firmly. Hold on to it, because with it you will be able to analyze all experience and tear apart any misconceptions you have....This is true of all the seven levels of existence, even if you live in the angelic world. So if someone came from another level of existence and said, Yes, but your analysis doesn t hold for my plane of existence, I would say, Is it a content? Is it an experience for you? Is it a world that you are perceiving? Is there a perception taking place? You know it? Yes? Then it s subject to the same analysis. That s how it cuts through everything and that s why this teaching is direct and the most comprehensive one y ou will find. This teaching has been around for thousands of years and it won t di sappear. (1) Mystical experiences are still on a penultimate stage of the imagination. You become aware of that. And no amount of superlatives will take you away from that stage....it s still not [ultimate] reality." (2) PB wrote The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga prior to reaching the jivanmukta [lib eration in life] stage. And the statement he makes there is that through persona l feeling and intuition he had already grasped the fact that the mystical level is not dominated by reality, and is not that reality. But it would only be a per son who has disciplined and developed an extreme rational consciousness who woul d be able to see through the superlative effulgence of the mystic state, and see its shortcomings. (3) The great Sankara said in his commentary to the Brahma Sutras: "The highest beatitude is not to be attained through Yoga." [although yoga is a useful preliminary to concentrate the mind and prepare it for inquiry into Tr

uth] Why do some high paths, such as the Tibetan school of Dzogchen, teach that th e goal of meditation is not to go inside? Surely they know of the existence of t he tenth door and the inner realms. Why did a venerated master such as HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche say not to strive for advanced states and inner bliss? "We should realise that the purpose of meditation is not to go "deeply into o urselves" or withdraw from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual , unconstrained by introspection and concentration...The everyday practice of dz ogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything abo ve and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to r each some "amazing goal" or "advanced state." There is a reason for this, too, which we shall reveal shortly when we attemp t to tie all of this together. On the positive side, even Ramana Maharshi said that "visions are better than no visions," in so far as they indicate an increasing depth of concentration, b ut that they must be gone beyond before true Self-Realization. All school say th at. In Sant Mat the only "visions" or perceptible phenomena to be paid attention to in meditation are the Light, the Sound, and the Master's Form, which itself must stand before repetition of the five charged words given at initiation. Thes e five charged words are an ancient tradition or dispensation in many traditions that are said to be the 'open-sesame' to the succeeding inner regions. Except t hat in the last two regions up to Sach Khand the mental vehicle which would repe at these names is left behind, thus only the Naam itself and the Master's Light would assist the soul.Thus, the Form is an extremely important aid at deepening concentrative absorption towards the final goal. This, too, extends only through the lower three planes, after which the realms are, first, archtypal, or formle ss-form, and then formless. Thus, once again the Master's grace itself is the sa ving element. The allegory given by Soamiji in the beginning of this paper is ju st that, an allegory, for upon reaching Sach Khand, or the station of Atman, the re is no form, and no one to answer a Sat Purush who asks one how he has gotten there, saying," by the grace of a saint." Any other explanation makes no sense a ccording to standard yoga psychology. Kirpal Singh stated: "In the lower planes [the Form] continues, but absorption comes at every plan e. When you devote your whole attention into the Form of the master, you sometim es become absorbed; but that continues in further stages. Absorption is better. It does become that Light. You are Light; you become one; you forget; but you ar e conscious all the same. It does come at every step. Ultimately, it becomes One , and there is no form when you are absorbed into Sat Naam. Then, Sat Naam takes you to the stages where there is final absorption. Otherwise, the Form continue s to work in the radiant Form on the different planes." (Sat Sandesh, Feb. 1975, "A Thief in the Form of a Friend") Somewhere I read that the form of the Master changes from plane to plane but resumes human form upon reaching Sach Khand, where one meets "God as a Person", and in the above quote he does say that there is no form when you are absorbed i nto Sat Naam, leaving the possibility open that until you are actually absorbed into Sat Naam, or the Sat Purush, one still might see form in Sach Khand, but th e philosophical criticism still begs for an answer. How can there be form when a ll the kosas are shed and one is supposedly beyond mind and maya? This must be a formless realm. The final goal even in Sant Mat is spoken of as realizing the Master to be on es own very Self. A difficulty in even interesting anyone in discussing these th ings is that the bliss increases as one ascends the inner stages, a bliss that o

ne no less than the Buddha said was extremely difficult for the aspirant to tran scend. According to Buddha, beyond the stages of bliss come the stages of insigh t, and then Nirvana. When is non-duality realized? This will be discussed later, in sections #13 and #14. 5. According to Arran Stephens, author of the book Journey to the Luminous, Dars han Singh, Kirpal s successor, claimed that when Faqir Chand was asked to describe the various inner planes he did not name their proper order and specifically co uld not or did not give the proper answer to the question of how many steps led to the pool of sanskaric purification named Manasarovar in the third plane. Of c ourse, Faqir claimed this very thing, that there was no fixed ordering to all of the planes. This may be wrong, but it is a complex issue. Darshan also said Faq ir Chand was in error when implying that the luminous form of the Master was not 'real', or a direct manifestation of Reality. The subtle Gurudev is said to lead directly to the Satguru or Satpurush, the true or divine form in Sach Khand. In Buddhism similarly there are the Sambhogak aya and Dharmakaya forms of the Buddha, active in the realms of form and the for mless. Yet in general, Buddhism and Advaita argue that anything visible is not t he reality, so, for instance, Sach Khand would not be considered spiritual in thei r sense of the term, as there must be a perceiver to see the sights and sounds t here. Again, the Sants are adamant that the light and sound there is spiritual, beyond the mind or manas, and the soul paradoxically and transcendentally sees b y her own light; there is no duality there, but an enigmatic comingling unity. T hese type of words are poison to the ears of the advaitist. Some other yoga scho ols, however, use this terminology of spiritual planes.This is not to detract from the value or validity or even necessity of such higher realizations, only one s hould understand that in such yoga schools the word spiritual is sometimes (but not in Sant Mat) being used to mean realms of the higher mind or vignanamaya kos ha in contrast to realms of the lower mind or manas where there still must be so me means of dualisitic perception. Yet in the higher traditions there is still m ention of the logos; even Buddhism speaks of the heavenly Avalokitesvara whose s weet sounds will take one back to the soul s true home. Sach Khand, however, to th e advaitist sounds like a celestial subtle plane, due to the language used to de scribe it. The Sants counter that they are hindered in their description by the limits of words, and must picture these realms in the language of metaphor. For the sages the word spiritual implies both a formless, subjective realization, an d the non-dual nature of reality within and without. Brunton, however, writes: "Those who find that beyond the Light they must pass through the Void, the un bounded emptiness, often draw back affrighted and refuse to venture further. For here they have naught to gain or get, no glorious spiritual rapture to add to t heir memories, no great power to increase their sense of being a co-worker with God. Here their very life blood is to be squeezed out as the price of entry, her e they must become the feeblest of creatures." (4) Ramana enigmatically referred to scripture that said that the gyani is "invis ible even to the Gods," and "trackless like a fish swimming through water." This appears in contrast to the saint or sant satguru, whose luminous radiant form i s described as "blazing a path of light for miles and miles through the subtle r ealms," although it need not be so, if we understand the non-dual nature of the reality such a Sant has realized. Ramana, upon dying, famously said: where can I go; I am here? Interestingly, ne aring the end Kirpal Singh said he would soon be going, and one disciple asked, "where are you going?", to which he replied, "Oh, where we all go." Paramhansa Y ogananda likewise remarked, "All paths are paths to God, because, ultimately, th ere is no other place for the soul to go." (Journey to Self-Realization, p. 51)

6. Sant Rajinder Singh, as mentioned, has said that one will be assured that the re is life after death when one reaches the third plane. This is interesting, bu t does that in itself imply that the first two inner planes are then not after-d eath planes but reside in the brain and are thus still within the body? I don t th ink so, but interestingly, the Sar Bachan Radhasoami (Poetry) : Part Two appears to say so. After Sahans Dal Kanwal and Trikuti, one enters the Banknal and then goes through Daswan Dwar (the tenth door ) to reach the third inner region of Sunn : Surat moves onward and opens the door. It enters Banknal (crooked tunnel) and gets across. It passes through high and low valleys. It turns up the pupil of th e eye. (p. 118). Turning up the pupil of the eye and entering the tenth door or aperture (the othe r nine being the bodily openings: eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and two below) im plies attention finally leaving the body. Babuji Maharaj of the Agra branch said that within the folds of thy brain there are many beautiful regions, etc. He may have been quoting Maulana Rumi, who likewise said, Within the folds of thy brain there are wonderful gardens and beauty spots. Should you like to enjoy them, hie to a Murshid (Master) for instruction. (5) Maharaj Saheb, a Sant Mat guru afte r Rai Salig Ram, even more explicitly said, In the fissure between the two lobes of the brain there are twelve apertures, which provide the means for communion with the six subdivisions of Brahmand and with the six subdivisions of the purely spiritual region. The apertures appertai ning to Brahmand are to be found in the gray matter, and those appertaining to t he purely spiritual region, in the white matter. (6) First off, this passage is somewhat confusing, as it suggests that someone wh o has an accidental death would have no access to the spiritual regions because he had no chance to pass through the apertures in the white matter of the brain. Some Buddhist schools teach this also and advocate phowa initiations to make su re the conscious exits the body through the top of the skull. But can this reall y be the truth? Other Sant Mat masters have said that a true disciple in such a case is immediately with the Master within, so this cannot truly be an impedimen t]. The suggestion definitely, however, is that the path of Sant Mat initially t akes place in a passage through the brain, the most direct route being via the c entral channels in the white matter (i.e., via the corona radiata), culminating in the God-light or purely spiritual region(s) that manifest when one truly pierces the crown center in ascended samadhi. This implication or interpretation is some what uncommon in the Sant Mat or Radhasoami literature, which generally assumes a gnostic position considering all of the subtle realms to be outside, or above and beyond, the body, while Saheb seemed to be suggesting that, as experienced i n meditation, they are actually in the braincore, with only the alleged truly sp iritual realms beyond the limits of the body. Sometimes Sant Mat writers claim t hat the third eye is between and behind the eyebrows (i.e, near the pineal gland , with the pituitary more towards the center of the head), while the so-called " tenth door" leading to Daswan Dwar, the third region, is at the crown of the hea d - where the fontanelle is in an infant. So, this would suggest that only the h ighest inner planes, such as Bhanwar Gupta and Sach Khand are truly out of the b ody, as the spatial descriptions of a lower region where the crooked tunnel (Bankn al) is found seems to suggest the passageway in the braincore itself. This would also mean that Sahansdal Kanwal, the first inner station in Sant Mat, may not b e the exact equivalent of the thousand-petalled lotus of the true Sahasrar as de scribed in traditional yoga sutras, but yet a region in the sky of mind in the b raincore, which would, however, truly be felt to be outside of or interior to th e body for the normally extroverted individual. This is certainly highly enjoyab le; as Sawan Singh once said, "if you go in an inch, it is better than a trip ar

ound the world," but its actual nature should be clarified, so adequate comparis ons can be made with other schools. For instance, in the Kriya Yoga as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda, the "spiri tual eye" is visualized at the ajna or agya chakra, but passage between the agya chakra and the sahasrara at the top of the head is said to culminate in nirvika lpa samadhi and transcendance of the astral and causal bodies . The actual passagew ay is said to be a subtler form of the sushumna called, in their school, firstly the vajra and chitra nadis (luminous astral nadis, the "spine of the astral bod y"), and then the "brahmanadi" (or the "spine of the causal body"). Thus, in the kriya school, the implication is also that the astral and causal worlds, at lea st before death, are somehow within or cotermionous with the physical body or br ain itself. Rajinder Singh solves this dilemma for us by asserting that the plan es do interpenetrate one another, but certainly exist on their own after the sev erance of consciousness from the physical body. Soamiji also interestingly but confusingly describesTrikuti as being within t he sushumna, the central yogic channel that culminates in the sahasrar, an addit ional implication that this region may not be outside of the body. That is, howe ver, contradicted by many, many near-death experiences (NDE s). Sant Kirpal Singh, in his book Godman, quotes Guru Nanak: "The Master exhorts the jivas to listen to this music in the Sukhman, the art ery between the two eyebrows; Then be established in Sunnya (the Region of Silen ce), with the result that all oscillations of the mind would cease. When the cha lice of the mind thus turns into the correct position, it will get filled with t he Elixer of Life, making the mind steady and self-poised. The ceaseless music o f eternity becomes a constant companion." (7) The upturning of the chalice of the heart is standard mystic terminology, but the standard reference to the region of Sunn is to the third inner plane. Is th at then also experienced only in the brain, at least, so long as one is alive? T he importance of these questions lies in establishing the true uniqueness of sha bd yoga as contrasted with other traditional yogic explanations. The exposition of this in the Kriya Yoga in the lineage of Paramhansa Yoganan da is even more confusing. [for more on this, see Paramhansa Yogananda and Kriya Yoga: A Comparative Analysis ]. In that path, as in Sant Mat, the aspirant is t o focus at the spiritual eye, located between and behind the eyebrows, which is said to actually extend from that subtle center backwards to the medulla. Accord ing to Yogananda, "The spiritual eye is perceived as a golden aura surrounding a sphere of blue , in the middle of which is a five-pointed start of white light...The point of o rigin of the single eye is in a subtle spiritual center in the medulla oblongata (at the base of the brain where it joins the spine). The energy from this singl e eye divides at the medulla and pours through the brain into the two physical e yes, through which the world of duality is perceived. The spiritual eye with its three lights, or three different rays - one within the other like an extending telescopic lens - has all-seeing spherical vision. Through the gold ray, the dee ply meditating yogi beholds all matter and the mass of radiation (the vibratory cosmic energy) permeating the universe. Penetrating the blue light {the reader m ay recall references to the "blue pearl" by Swami Muktananda], the yogi will rea lize the Christ or Krishna Consciousness - the Kutastha or infinite intelligence of God - which is present in all creation. Piercing the tiny five-pointed white star, the yogi experiences Cosmic Consciousness - the transcendant consciousnes s of God that underlies all creation and that is also beyond the realms of manif estation in Infinitude. The yogi in Cosmic Consciousness perceives that all crea tion, including the microcosm of his body, is a projection of the fivefold rays of God's Cosmic Consciousness."

"The tricolored rays of the spiritual eye, through a complex transformation k nown to yogis, form the physical body of man the microcosm. The golden rays of c osmic energy, for example, are strongly inherent in the vital red blood, and are manifested in the electric current that flows through the nerves. The blue rays are a predominant factor in the gray matter of the brain, which provides a medi um for the expression of thoughts through sensory-motor activity - just as on th e universal scale Christ Consciousness provides the medium that upholds all of n ature's activities. And the white rays are the predominant factor in the white m atter of the brain, in which God's transcendant Cosmic Consciousness is insulate d." (Journey to Self-Realization, p. 92-94) The last sentence in this quotation is most interesting, and similar to the c omments above of Maharaj Saheb that relate the "spiritual Regions" to the white matter of the brain. In his first book, A Search in Secret India, Paul Brunton w rote of similar comments given him by Radhasoami guru Sahabji Maharaj of Dayalba gh: "The innermost parts of our brain centres are associated with subtle worlds o f being; that, after proper training, these centres can be energized until we be come aware of these subtler worlds; and that the most important centre of all en ables us to obtain divine consciousness of the highest order..The most important of these centres is the pineal gland, which, as you know, is situated in the re gion between the eyebrows. It is the seat of the spirit-entity in man....It is t he focus of the individual spirit-entity which gives life and vitality to man's mind and body...Since the human body is an epitome of the entire universe, inasm uch as all the elements employed in the evolution of creation are represented in it on a miniature scale, and since it contains links with all the subtler spher es, it is quite possible for the spirit-entity in us to reach the highest spirit ual world. When it leaves the pineal gland and passes upwards, its passage throu gh the grey matter of the brain brings it into contact with the region of univer sal mind, and its passage through the white matter exalts its consciousness to l ofty spiritual realities." (p. 244-245) Paramahansa Yogananda's guru, Sri Yukteswar, in ,uses the same terminology of the Sants, even speaking of practicing shabd yoga once the preliminary kriyas i n the lower chakras are successful, but also alters the order of the inner plane s. He has Mahasunn coming before Daswan Dwar, whereas the Sants have it afterwar ds. This may or may not give possible credence to Faqir's radical claim that the planes are not necessarily experienced in a fixed order. Yukteswar then lists t he regions of Sat Lok: Alak, Agam, and Anami, much like the Sants. But he also s peaks of a more integral realization beyond this, where non-duality (the Father) is established all of the time. This is not explicitly described in the Sant Ma t literature. The basic ordering of the planes, nevertheless, follows a traditional seven-f old patterning. To complicate matters, it is sometimes said that there also are seven sub-planes in each. [The word "seven" is a common theme in ancient Vedic t heology: seven rivers, seven sisters, seven delights, seven thoughts, seven flam es, seven rays, seven tongues, seven mothers, etc]. In the Puranas, from which t he sage Ramanuja bases his cosmology, there are listed first seven netherworlds (atala, vitala, nitala, tatataya, mahatala, sutala and patala), and then seven h igher worlds, beginning with our Earth-realm or Bhur, followed by Bhuvar-loka, S varga-loka, Mahar-loka, Jana-loka, Tapo-loka, and finally Satya-loka. Sri Aurobi ndo's mystic researches as well as investigation of the Rig Veda revealed a simi lar schema, with three lower worlds (Earth, Antariksha or the middle region, and Heaven (Dyaus), corresponding to body, life, and mind, divided from the higher divinity by an intermediate region known variously as Truth Consciousness, Great er Heaven (Brihad Dyau), the "Wide World," the "Vast" (Brihat), or the "Great Wa ter," or "Maho Arnas"; this is the fourth Vyahriti mentioned in the Upanishads a

s "Mahas", most likely corresponding to Vijnanamayakosa / Buddhi. This could wit h some certainty be considered to correspond with Daswan Dwar, where the "lake o f mind" or manasarovar is located. This may possibly be the origin of the Biblic al passage where the 'waters divide the firmament from the Earth'. The higher su preme worlds embodying Sat, Chit, Ananda are not as such named in the Vedas. Aur obindo says, however, that in the Puranic and Upanishadic systems the seven worl ds correspond to seven psychological principles or forms of existence: Sat, Cit, Ananda, Vijnana, Manas, Prana and Anna (Being, Consciousness, Bliss, Intellect, Mind, Life, and Body). He says that "both systems depend on the same idea of se ven principles of subjective consciousness formulating themselves in seven objec tive worlds." (The Secret of the Veda, p. 45) As mentioned, Sri Yukteswar has a slightly different ordering of the planes. He lists them alternately as: (1) the Puranic schema already mentioned, or (2) G ross, Sunya (Ordinary Vacuum), Mahasunya (the Vacuum), Dasamadwara (the Door), A lakshya (Incomprehensible), Agama (Inaccessible), and Anama (Nameless). In yet a third classification he lists the various levels as Annamayakosa, Pranamayakosa , Manamayakosa, Jnanamayakosa, Heart/Citta/Buddhi, Anandamayakosa, Son of God/At man, Chit-Ananda, and Sat. In Sant Mat there are sometimes listed five planes (i.e., Guru Nanak in his J ap Ji lists Dharm Khand (Realm of Action), Gian Khand (Realm of Knowledge), Sarm Khand (Realm of Ecstasy), Karm Khand (Realm of Grace), and Sach Khand (Realm of Truth), and sometimes eight or nine: Physical, Astral, Causal, Mahasunn, Bhanwa r Gupta (Supercausal), with Sat Lok divided into four planes, Sach Khand, Alakh, Agam, and Anami. The latter division is reflected in many systems, where the ex perience of the Great Void or Void-Mind [in this case, Sat Lok] encompasses thre e levels of deepening realization or penetration beyond Atman. Theosophy generally uses a nine-fold schema: Physical, Etheric, Astral, Lower and Higher Mental, Buddhic, Atmic, Monadic, and Logoic. Clearly, it is reasonable to suggest that these modern systems basically foll ow the Puranic pattern. What is of most interest, however, was, as pointed out b y Sri Aurobindo, that the planes all interpenetrate. That is why a non-dual real ization is the final goal. In Sant Mat it is not mentioned publically so much, b ut Yukteswar and the Yogananda school frequently spoke of the realization of jna na along with the higher states. [This issue will be discussed in detail later i n this paper in section #14, where it will be suggested in what ways Sant Mat ca n be considered to be a jnana path]. Sri Aurobindo wrote: "The triple principle was doubly recognised, first in the threefold divine pr inciple answering to the later [post-Vedic, or Upanishadic era] Satchidananda, t he divine existence, consciousness and bliss, and secondly in the threefold mund ane principle, mind, life, and body, upon which is built the triple world of the Veda and Puranas. But the full number ordinarily recognised is seven. This figu re was arrived at by adding the three divine principles to the three mundane and interpolating a seventh or link-principle which is precisely that of the truthconsciousness, Ritam Brihat, afterwards known as Vijnana or Mahas. The latter te rm means Large [this could mean Universal Mind in the Sant Mat classification] a nd is therefore an equivalent of Brihat. There are other classifications of five , eight, nine and ten and even, as it would seem, twelve; but these do not immed iately concern us." "All these principles, be it noted, are supposed to be really inseparable and omnipresent and therefore apply themselves to each separate formation of Nature . The seven Thoughts, for instance, are Mind applying itself to each of the seve n planes as we would now call them and formulating matter-mind, if we may so cal

l it, nervous mind, pure mind, truth-mind and so on to the highest summit, param a paravat...So also the seven rivers are conscious currents corresponding to the sevenfold substance of the ocean of being which appear to us formulated in the seven worlds enumerated by the Puranas. It is their full flow in the human consc iousness which constitutes the entire activity of the being, his full treasure o f substance, his full play of energy." (Ibid, p. 98) "The sevenfold waters thus rise upward and become the pure mental activity, t he Mighty Ones of Heaven. They there reveal themselves as the first eternal ever -young energies, separate streams but of one origin - for they have all flowed f rom the one womb of the super-conscient Truth - the seven Words of fundamental e xpressions of the divine Mind, sapta vanih...The Force rises into the womb or bi rthplace of this mental clarity (ghrtasya) where the waters flow as streams of t he divine sweetness (sravathe madhunam); there the forms it assumes are universa l forms, masses of the vast and infinite consciousness...This is also his own ne w and last birth. He who was born as the Son of Force from the growths of earth, he who was born as the child of the Waters, is now born in many forms to the go ddess of bliss, she who has the entire felicity, that is to say to the divine co nscious beatitude, in the shoreless infinite." (Ibid, p. 120-121) These last two paragraphs are examples of the philosophical poetry of Sri Aur obindo; they use Vedic imagery and are not meant to stand alone in total clarity without further study of his work on the Veda. What they are meant to show is t he ancient nature of the seven-fold schema of worlds, and also the big picture o f a non-dual realization, uniting all of the planes in a conscious experience. Still, we have yet to fully understand this matter of "inside" and "outside". Ramana Maharshi said: "Leave out the body-consciousness (the idea that I am the body) and then wher e is 'in' and where is 'out'? All life-consciousness is One throughout." (Face t o Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Laxmi Narain, ed, 2007, p. 276) What then does it truly mean to be outside the body? If one takes the view of t he jnanis or sages who state that it is closer to the ultimate truth to say that all bodies and worlds arise within the Soul or Mind, and it is a fact that whil e alive in the gross plane all bodies, sheaths, or koshas interpenetrate, then t hat would certainly not preclude one having experience of the subtle regions onc e the gross body disintegrates at physical death. Some sages maintain, that whil e that is true, that as the physical, subtle and causal bodies interpenetrate in consciousness while one is alive, one can do sufficient sadhana while in the gr oss body, bypassing the need for ascent. Sant Rajinder Singh, in fact, has start ed to speak in this manner about the various inner planes: he ot ly a

"Most religions believe that there are higher regions of existence soul goes after it dies...The question is, where are these realms? zones in outer space delineated by borders. All these realms exist with this one. The reason we are not aware of them is because they different frequency or vibration." (Sat Sandesh April 2003).

It rence dies. ached s and

to which t They are n concurrent operate on

is plausible to assume that there can be a relative 'up' or 'down' in refe to the subtle bodies just as there is in relationship with the physical bo At some point, however, the words will become meaningless, once one has re the realm of the great cosmic archtypes, between the the three lower world the higher divine realms.

If all of this is truly so then some of the aforementioned contradictions and discrepencies are overcome. If all of the planes exist concurrently, they must all exist in consciousness, or the soul, and then the 'direct path' of the sages is somewhat exonerated.

In this vein, Sant Jagat SIngh, guru between Sawan Singh and Charan Singh, sa id, "90% of spirituality is correct thinking." Sant Kirpal Singh, my guru, once asked me, "do you want anything, my friend? - do you want to leave the body?", t o which I answered, "no, nothing." He became animated and exclaimed, "You're an emperor, I'll kiss your feet - "nothing" is God!" Further, when someone asked hi m. "Master, do you still meditate?", he replied, "If you get your PhD do you sti ll have to learn the ABC's?" Very mysterious language coming from these gurus, a nd obviously something to be revealed to only a few to avoid confusion for the u nripe mind. Other saints have acted likewise. Lord Krishna, after giving Arjuna the Cosmic Vision, as recounted in the Bhagavad-Gita, then said, "Now I will tea ch you." Ramakrishna gave visions and samadhis and devotional exercises to his d evotees, but instructed or taught only one disciple, Vivekananda. This he did th rough the help of his copy of the non-dual Ashtavakra-Gita which he kept hidden from the others, including his chief biographer, "M", or Master Mahasaya. More recently, when asked why he did not teach non-duality, Gurinder Dhillon, successor guru to Charan Singh, and another master in the Radhasoami lineage, a nswered, "because the disciples would not understand it." Kirpal Singh and many others thought highly of Ramakrishna, often capitalizin g on his oft-repeated phrase to Vivekanda, "Yes, I see God as clearly as I see y ou - even more so!" But the implication most often is that Ramakrishna had not t ranscended the causal plane, the uppermost limit of the lower three worlds. Many in Sant Mat would likely argue that his realization was limited to the region o f Brahm, with Nirvikalpa samadhi achieved there, but not to the higher regions a bove that. The sometimes conjectured equating of Nirvikalpa samadhi with the pla ne of Anami Lok is not right, as Nirvikalpa samadhi can be achieved from any pla ne. The realization of Anami Lok is much deeper and richer than standard yogic N irvikalpa, as it not only grants a non-dual vision but also knowledge and discri mination garnered from passage through all of the planes. Swami Sivananda, whom Kirpal Singh respected, used the following language whe n writing about the kundalini. This is very interesting because speaking from a different yoga tradition he used several terms identical to some of those used i n Sant Mat, with a different explanation. He, too, like Yogananda, and Ramakrish na [when he was talking to the yogis - but not Vivekananda] - argued that merger of the attention into the sahasrar produced liberation: "Brahmarandhra means the hole of Brahman. It is the dwelling house of the huma n soul. This is also known as Dasamadvara, the tenth opening or the tenth door. Th e hollow place in the crown of the head known as anterior fontanelle in the newborn child is the Brahmarandhra. This is between the two parietal and occipital bones. This portion is very soft in a babe. When the child grows, it gets oblite rated by the growth of the bones of the head. Brahma created the physical body a nd entered (Pravishat) the body to give illumination inside through this Brahmar andhra. In some of the Upanishads, it is stated like that. This is the most impo rtant part. It is very suitable for Nirguna Dhyana (abstract meditation). When t he Yogi separates himself from the physical body at the time of death, this Brah marandhra bursts open and Prana comes out through this opening (Kapala Moksha). A hundred and one are the nerves of the heart. Of them one (Sushumna) has gone ou t piercing the head; going up through it, one attains immortality (Kathopanishad) . Sahasrara Chakra is the abode of Lord Siva. This corresponds to Satya Loka. Th is is situated at the crown of the head. When Kundalini is united with Lord Siva at the Sahasrara Chakra, the Yogi enjoys the Supreme Bliss, Parama Ananda. When Kundalini is taken to this centre, the Yogi attains the superconscious state an d the Highest Knowledge. He becomes a Brahmavidvarishtha or a full-blown Jnani." (Kundalini Yoga, p. 32-33)

This would be highly refuted by the Sants; they generally use the term Daswan Dwar in a different meaning than the yogis, in that it is refered to the third inner plane, not a brain structure. This is important to keep in mind. But as we have seen, Babuji Maharaj, Maharaj Saheb, and Sahabji Maharaj spoke differently about it. Despite these discrepencies and apparent contradictions, I suggest thatthe is sue can be resolved if it is accepted that there are simply two uses of the word , 'Daswan Dwar', or the 'tenth door'. In the common yogic and (sometimes) Sant M at usage, it at one time means the crown center, and at other times it refers to a passage on the third inner plane, essentially the 'gravitational' dividing li ne between the more material-mental and more mental-spiritual regions. Those tea chers that don't recognize the higher meaning of the term would in most instance s likely be of lesser realization,although, not necessarily. Like Sivananda, Ramakrishna at times spoke in the traditional yogic manner of reaching the higher centers for liberation [when he was not teaching Vivekanand a non-duality]. He said: "The mind ordinarily moves in the three lower chakras. But if it rises above them and reaches the heart, one gets the vision of Light....Even though it has r eached the throat, the Mind may come down again (from utterly unworldly consciou sness - PB). One ought to be always alert. Only if his mind reaches the spot bet ween the eyebrows need he have no more fear of a fall, the Supreme Self is so cl ose." He goes on to say that reaching the thousand-petalled lotus of the sahasrara at the crown of the head is liberation or God-consciousness. This is what Swami Sivananda said also. The great Tibetan adepts Marpa and Naropa also spoke of med itating to reach the thousand-petalled lotus. Now, to my mind, the thousand-peta lled lotus of the sahasrara (which is the definition of sahasrara) cannot be the same as the Sahans Dal Kanwal of the Sants, which only has eight petals. Just t he way these great yogis or saints describe their attainment does not sound remo tely like the beginning stage of the inner journey as portrayed by the Sants, bu t something far more significant. I am not saying that it is realization, sahaja samadhi, the natural condition, but only a profound state nevertheless. Words, moreover, are no doubt poor substitutes for reality. Ramana considered even this world to be nothing but spiritual. This, again, can only be true, how ever, if the concepts of matter as well as the ego-soul or ego-self is rejected in favor of the view and insight that "all is a perception or appearance to Mind ". But why must it be one or the other, as the vedantins would have it? Isn t real ity more rich than that? In Sant Mat, the various planes are described as contai ning differing amounts of matter and spirit, from gross material, material-spiri tual, spiritual-material, to purely spiritual. For Ramana, Buddhism and Zen, any thing perceivable ("things") or conceivable ("thoughts") could be considered ment al , all arising in and as Mind. To them, the concept of matter is really no more than a guess, with no proof. This doesn't mean one may not experience or feel a difference while passing through different planes, etc., but only that the same epistemological discipline must be applied when discussing each of them and thei r relationship to truth. Mystics in general have no interest in doing this, assu ming what they see and feel is real. To sages and philosophers, however, such an endeavor is important if not crucial if ones interest is in truth, and not just bliss or peace. It is, they say, essential for a full understanding of concepts such as "soul," "spiritual", and "consciousness." 7. Plotinus, Paul Brunton, Ramana Maharshi, and Buddhism teach that the Reality itself is neither within or without, that the highest inner trance state (ie., n irvikalpa) is still a subjective realization, a partial realization only, which

must also be integrated or realized in the normal waking state as well as 'sahaj samadhi', if truth be ones goal. This, they say, grants non-duality. That is, t he "drop appears to merge into the ocean" in nirvikalpa, but the "ocean merges i nto the drop" in sahaj. That would appear to make Radhasoami or Anami Lok of the Sant Mat tradition appear to be only a halfway house on the philosophic path (i n as much as it is, as described, similar to nirvikalpa - nameless and formless, without attributes), whereas Sant Mat considers Sach Khand as the halfway house of Self-Realization, with Anami as God-Realization. I, for one, have difficulty reconciling the two positions. Sant Darshan Singh, a blessed soul, peace be upo n him, answered a similar question regarding gyan or jnana by simply stating tha t gyan masters reach the highest human states of realization or samadhi, but tha t only Sant Mat takes one to the highest. Once again, this begs for more elucida tion. Exactly how and why is this so? Hang in there, for a possible answer will be given in a little while. [Interestingly, on a side note, one of Sant Darshan' s favorite books was Somerset Maughan's, The Razor's Edge, which is supposedly t he story of a seeker's visit with the sage Ramana Maharshi]. 8. Scriptures and teachers seem to be in agreement that the waking state or eart h life is the most important gift for realization, that enlightenment must be ac hieved or realized here and now, not after death. Few outline exactly why that i s so. For instance, Kirpal Singh said one can make more progress HERE than after death. He casually mentioned sometimes that that is the case because the inner planes are so deceiving, bewitching, and also consoling, that the spiritual prog ress that can be made here in a few months would take hundreds of years up there . Others have pointed out that here ones experiences are so vivid, etched in sto ne, as it were, while up there they are, without the anchor of the body, too viv id and subject to distraction. There is the quote from the Buddhist sutra, The T ransmission of the Lamp, which says that one can be lost for many, many kalpas i n the bliss, not just in the inner realms, but the inner void itself. This sugge sts there is something special about the waking state, and that it is not only t o be dismissed as illusion, to be dualistically left behind in search of some pe rmanent spiritual place. The "Radhasoami state" seems to imply a realization tha t would encompass this perspective. Brunton, a philosopher-sage, clearly states that all yoga is only preparatory for inquiry, and that realization is achieved in the full waking state. Brunton's teacher, V.S. Iyer, argued that the waking s tate is essential for Self-Realization because only here (not in nirvikalpa or s leep) is the faculty of Buddhi (Reason) active - which is not merely intellect a s yogis frequently misinterpret it, but the highest faculty of the mind which di stinguishes the real from the unreal. "Through Buddhi will you come to Me," said Krishna in the Gita. For the vedantist, realization requires, among other thing s, as stated, the faculty of buddhi in the waking state, not in trance. This is because, according to the vedantic argument, our beginningless ignorance began i n the waking state and there it must end. This is definitely not the teachings o f the sants, as reflected in Sar Bachan of Soamiji or Anurag Sagar of Kabir. For them our ignorance or fall began in the supracausal realm. This and the very co ncept of creation itself are major and important differences between the two sch ools. For more on this topic, the reader is directed to see The Enigmatic Kabir and come to his own conclusions. 9. Ramana said that ones samskaras or inherited egoic tendencies must be scorche d one by one as they arise and traced to the Heart while alive. This is the veda ntic position. It is much different from Sant Mat which teaches that the samskar as are only removed, one, by the master s grace at the time of initiation, and, tw o, after the soul passes through an "inner" pool of Mansarovar or Amritsar on th e supracausal plane [more on this later]. If the latter view is true then nothin g besides Sant Mat makes sense. The suggestion of the sages on the importance of the waking state, however, is that realization consists in seeing truth without excluding the waking state. Nanak said, "Truth is above all but higher still is true living." If that is not just a metaphor, what is its true meaning? What Tr uth was he talking about - the truth of the inner reality found at the innermost

level of trance - like Anami Lok or Nirvikalpa samadhi - or the Truth of sahaj? Certainly nothing can really be above Truth. So truth must in some sense includ e life. Which brings one back to the argument that realization must be had while alive - not in meditation alone. This is not discussed by Sant Mat masters, to my knowledge, although they do certainly mention this world as a place to pay off karmic debts. To their credit , however, it might be argued that the non-dualists who often criticize them lac k a cosmogony, or theory of creation, in fact as they deny it, holding strictly to the ajata theory, and many of these teachers may only be privy to having had a glimpse of reality, however long it lasts, and not full realization. That is a pparently clear among Papaji disciples, many of whom were declared enlightened b y him, when it became clear that that was just not the case. A glimpse, even if it lasts five years, is not the same as fully grown union with ones Soul, which, according to Paul Brunton, may entail a number of successive lives of spiritual APPLICATION , even AFTER nirvikalpa has been attained, or re-attained, in any p articular life. That would also suggest, on the other hand, and to be fair, that simply traveling to Sach Khand or even Anami once would not grant ultimate and permanent enlightenment by itself, although Sant Mat teachers, where they allude to it, which is infrequent, appear to differ on this point. Some sages say that the longer one dwells in the Void the deeper ones realization becomes and the m ore one understands it, especially if one has some metaphysical background to ac company the mystical fulfillment. So it would seem the same arguement for repeat ed immersion would apply to mystical merger in Anami Lok. Sant Darshan Singh, in his biography, mentioned that by a certain date he had been able to achieve the ability to go there at will, implying that before he had gone there, but not at will. Obviously, the former is a higher accomplishment than the latter. The ide a of will is a tricky one, however, as there are sages like Ramana Maharshi who speak of losing the will or vikalpa to do anything, that the Self does all, whic h would include the inherent wisdom of knowing when retracting the emanant of th e soul into itself was of use for its divine purpose. Kirpal Singh would say tha t he did not do anything, and that if his Master did not send his grace, he was nothing. Taking him at his word, one might assume that would apply to when he mi ght be absorbed into Anami, hold initiation, or even going to the grocery store. When one loses the personal will, what does it mean to speak of having the abil ity to do something at will? In Sant Mat it is also mentioned that there is a plane named Maha Sunn, betwe en the created an uncreated realms, where the soul, divested of all the koshas e xcept the anandamaya kosha or bliss sheath, which some yoga schools equate with undifferentiated maya, can go no further under her own power, and depends on the superior light and power of the Master of the Beyond to ferry one across to Sat Lok, the home of the soul and where she regains her primordial freedom. This is a unique feature exclusive to Sant Mat. 10. Here is an anecdote that brings questions to my mind. I am giving all of the questions first, after which there will be the resolution and explanation to he lp resolve some of the questions. I realize so far this may seem very pedantic t o many; to others perhaps not so. Anyway, in Ramana's case there was a disciple, Palanaswami. When Palanaswami died, Ramana said that his eyes opened, which to him signified that his "I-thought", as he put it, or ego or soul, escaped into a nd was "reborn in the higher planes". To Ramana that signified that Palanaswami must take another birth before realizing the Heart (Self or Soul, source of the feeling of "I", not to be confused with the heart chakra), that if Ramana had be en there he could have "pinned his ego down in the heart," thus scorching his sa nskaras there, never to be reborn again. One other case in particular worth exam ining occurred to the famous disciple of Ramana, Ganapati Muni. It was Ganapati who gave the young Venkataram the name Ramana Maharshi. He was a teacher in his own right, and had spent twenty years in yogic sadhana. A few years after meetin g Marharshi he experienced a spontaneous, forceful awakening of kundalini-shakti

(which he confessed was not caused by any intention on his part, but was the res ult of the grace of his Guru and God ), and which began a two-week ordeal in which he endured the yogic phenomenon known in the Taittirya Upanishad as vyapohya si rsha kapale, or the breaking of the skull. Ganapati began to feel a flood of energ y through his body at all times, with a stream of bliss piercing his head making him completely intoxicated. He felt totally out of control of his body and went to Maharshi for guidance. The sage blessed him with a pat of the hand on his he ad and said not to worry. That night Ganapati suffered terribly. There was an unbearable burning sensati on throughout his body...It looked as though his head would break into pieces an y time. he suffered unbearable pain... Suddenly a sound was heard, something lik e smoke was seen. The Kundalini had caused an aperture at the top of his skull.. .After the experience for ten days something like smoke or vapor was found emana ting from the orifice at the top of the skull. By that time the burning sensatio n subsided. The play of force became bearable. The long story of suffering, pain , and agony ended. The body was filled with the flow of cool nectar of bliss. Th e face of the Muni reflected an ethereal splendor. His eyes bore the effulgence of the supernatural. After this extraordinary experience of kapalabheda, the Mun i lived for fourteen years... (8) In spite of the unusual nature of Ganapati s transformation, Maharshi affirmed that he had not attained enlightenment. When asked after his death whether the M uni was realized, Ramana replied, How could he? His sankalpas (inherent tendencies) were too strong. In other words, in Ganapati Muni s case the overwhelming awakenin g of the kundalini was not sufficient to unlock the knot of self that was still al ive at the heart. "Ganapati Muni used to say that he could even go to Indra loka and say what Indra was doing, but he could not go within and find the "I." Sri Bhagavan added that Ganapati Muni used to say that it was easy to move forward, but impossible to move backward. Then Sri Bhagavan remarked: However far one goes , there he is. Where is moving backward?" (9) Of course, this "escape into the higher planes" warned about by Ramana and La kshmana Swamy is exactly what is considered advisable by Sant Mat. So there is a major difference here. My teacher in Ithaca, NY, Anthony Damiani, once told us that both he and his wife Ella May heard the big bell overhead in meditation, an d he confirmed to us that we could go with it, because it would "take you up." T he big bell is the prominent sound of the Naam one hears on the threshold of the astral world. He also said that experience of the subtle planes would completel y devalue our experience here. However, he said he didn't pursue following the b ell sound higher because "it wasn't where he wanted to go." I didn't understand at all what he meant at the time. He also said that he "didn't want holiness," w hich I didn't quite understand either. He held out for the completion of his inn er concentration and mind's tracing itself to the Heart, which gave him stable r ealization of the witness self, (after a period of application), which he descri bed as "peace, peace, peace." He acknowledged the possibility of spiritual ascen t, and eventually different possibilities of spiritual evolution, but wanted to realize the heart-root first, which, he said off-handedly, would "take your head off." He said to those of us who were into shabd practise to "get this (the wit ness) first." The idea is that, without such prior realization of true conscious ness, entering the inner realms would be deluding. In Sant Mat this possibility of delusion is also asserted, however the major point they emphasize is that wha t is required is the "sheet anchor" of the true Master's Radiant Form or Light t o guide one without danger through the maze of possible inner experiences as qui ckly as possible to reach Sach Khand and the formless realms beyond. To achieve this, the agency and help of a qualified adept is necessary, and the soul, merge d with the form of the master can go, undercover, as it were, directly to Sach K hand, the first plane of Sat Lok, without danger of gettiong lost on the way. Here is what Ramana commented about sounds like the bell. It reflects his vie

w that the soul is not exclusively within the body, but the body and mind are wi thin the soul, or better, the Self, but it is unusual and does not stand, imo, a s a refutation of the claims and path of Sant Mat: A disciple Mastan wrote: "For some time I was meditating at night for about a n hour, I used to hear the sound of a big bell ringing. Sometimes a limitless ef fulgence wold appear. In 1922 when I visited Bhagavan at his new ashram at the f oot of the hill, I asked about this. He advised me, "There is no need to concern ourselves about sounds such as these. If you see from where it rises, it will b e known that it arises on account of a desire (sankalpa) of the mind. Everything appears in oneself and subsides within oneself. The light, too, only appears fr om the same place. If you see to whom it appears, mind will subside at the sourc e and only reality will remain." (The Power of the Presence, Part Three, David G odman, ed., 2002, p. 32) The sound of the bell is a sankalpa within the mind? Ramana had an uncompromi sing view of the nature of all visionary or auditory phenomena, including the bi g 'vision' that constitutes the world itself, namely, that they all arose in the Self or what the Buddhists would call Mind. That there was a great universal or absolute Mind that projected a relatively objective world-image and an individu al mind or soul that participted in and within limits co-created that image was not in his world view. Ramana's teaching on the nature of visions is illustrated by the following excerpt from the rare and out-of-print book, Conscious Immorta lity: Conversations with Ramana Maharshi, by Paul Brunton: "The sights and sounds which may appear during meditation should be regarded as distractions and temptations. None of them should be allowed to beguile the aspi rant. Q: Do the appearance of visions or the hearing of mystic sounds come after the c oncentrated mind is still and blank or before? A: They can come both before and after. The thing is to ignore them and to still pay attention only to the Self. Forms which interfere with the main course or c urrent of meditation should not be allowed to distract the mind. Bring yourself back into the Self, the Witness, unconcerned with such distractions. That is the only way to deal with such. interruptions. Never forget yourself. Intellect is the astral body. It is only an aggregate of certain factors. What else is the as tral body? In fact, without intellect no Kosa is cognised. Who says that there a re five Kosas? Is it not the intellect itself? Q: There are beautiful colours in meditation. It is a pleasure to watch them. We can see God in them. A: They are all mental conceptions. The objects or feelings or thoughts, i.e. al l experiences, in meditation, are all only mental conceptions." "When Sundaresa lyer, a local teacher, described yogic experiences, including vi sions of light, ringing of bells etc. which he was having, Maharshi replied, " t hey come, and they would pass away. Be only the witness. I myself had thousands of such experiences, but I had no one to go to and consult about them." Q: Can we not see God in concrete visions? A: Yes, God is seen in the mind. The concrete form may be seen. Still, it is in the devotee's own mind. The form and appearance of the God-manifestation are det ermined by the mentality of the devotee. But the finality is not that for it has the sense of duality. It is like a dream vision. After God is perceived, Vichar a commences. That ends in the realisation of the Self. Vichara is the final meth od. Q: Did not Paul Brunton see you in London? Was it only a dream? A: Yes, he had the vision. Nevertheless he saw me in his own mind. Q: But did he not see this concrete form? A: Yes, but still it was in his mind. Keeping God in your mind as everything aro und you becomes Dhyana. This is the stage before realisation which is only in th e Self. Dhyana must precede it. Whether you make Dhyana of God or Self, it is im

material, the goal is the same. Q: St. Theresa and others saw the image of Madonna animated. It was external. Ot hers see the images of their devotion floating in their mental sight. This is in ternal. Is there any difference in degree in these two cases? A: Both indicate that the person has strongly developed meditation. Both are goo d and progressive. There is not difference in degree. The one had conception of divinity and draws mental images and feels them. The other has the conception of divinity in the image and feels it in the image. The feeling is within, in both instances. Q: In the spiritual experience of St. Theresa, she was devoted to a figure of Ma donna which became animated to her sight, and she was in bliss. A: The animated figure prepared the mind for introversion. There is a process of concentration of mind on one's own shadow which in due course becomes animated and answers questions put to it. That is due to Manobala (power of mind) or Dhya nabala (power of meditation). Whatever is external, is also transitory: Such phe nomena may produce joy for the time being. But abiding peace, i.e. Shanti, does not result. This is gotten only by the removal of Avidya (ignorance)." Ramana's main position was that listening to the sounds was good, but better if done in junction with vichara or self-enquiry. This is like combining samadhi and vipassana or insight practices in Buddhism. But to call the sound of the be ll a sankalpa or tendency in the mind seems an unwarranted conclusion and dimini shed view of the complexity of reality. As is the following explanation from Dzogchen Buddhism, where uniting the inh erent nature of one s mind or "child luminosity" with the "Ground Luminosity" or " Clear Light" while alive, as well as when it dawns at the time of death, is cons idered the most important means for liberation, while at the same time for those not so advanced it is advised to practice phowa transference, or directing cons ciousness so that the soul leaves the body through the crown of the head for pas sing directly to the pure buddha realms [see, The Tibetan Book on Living and Dyi ng, by Sogypal Rinpoche]. This is different from the perspective of Sant Mat, where it is assumed that, not only does everybody pass out of the body through t he crown of the head (barring traumatic accidents), even if you do pass out of t he body via the crown, your direct access to the purely spiritual (or buddha) re alms is not automatically assured, but depends on the grace of the spiritual mas ter and/or one's prior progress on the path. However, one is assured that one's master will be there to guide one at the time of and after death itself. The sta ge by stage of dissolution during the death process, as well as recognition of a nd responsibility for it by a disciple on the Dzogchen path, is therefore, it se ems, bypassed by initiates into Sant Mat, where the Master's radiant form comes for the disciple at the time of death, assuring a smooth passage, leaving the bo dy behind like a fallen leaf. This would obviate a three-day or forty-nine day v igil or waiting period after physical death as advised in Tibetan Buddhism as we ll. Indeed, the promise given by the Sant Mat lineage at least since the time of Kirpal Singh has been that the Master takes complete charge of the sanchit or s torehouse karmas of the disciple and at death takes him to a suitable inner plan e to progress further, even escort him to Sach Khand and beyond, a glorious prom ise much like the one proclaimed in the New Testament: "Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hu nger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. For I have come down from he aven. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and b elieves in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the las t day." (John 6: 35, 38, 40) And as Sant Darshan Singh affirmed: "In spite of our blemishes, our shortcomings, our enslavement to the world an d worldly desires, the Master has taken us to himself. The Master belongs to the

realm of immortality, and in taking us to himself he takes us within the ambit of eternity." (Spiritual Awakening, Chapter 8) 11. Also somewhat curious was a comment by Ramana s that when the soul or "I-thoug ht" merged in the heart there was a sound like the tinkle of a bell that the jna ni could hear that indicated liberation. He indicated that that was the case wit h his mother, whose soul he guided at death until it merged in the Heart, but th at it was not the case with Palanaswami whose "eyes opened at death meaning his soul had escaped to be reborn in a higher plane" instead of merging once and for all in the Heart. So what for Sant Mat was an escape and a boon was for Ramana a failure to attain self-realization. I don t know in what way if any the tinkle o f a bell sound relates to the naam or shabd in Sant Mat or not. Many in Sant Mat hear the tinkling of bells all the time. The words of Ramana do not suggest it is the same, because Ramana did acknowledge the existence of inner sounds or nad a as a concentration method favored by its adherents to lull the mind into samad hi. He didn t speak of it as a way into higher planes, however, which he looked on as a kind of unnecessary detour - and devotees remarked that his eyes looked li ke two stars, and that he appeared to return from a far-off place when he came o ut of inner absorption. He, however, like Anandamayi Ma, seemed to go inside int o full trance less and less as he got older. Shree Atmananda said that once you realize that your own nature is happiness, you will never again be attracted by the goal of happiness in samadhi. You might enjoy it for refreshment, but not fo r realization. Now, returning again to what Sant Rajinder said, that one would have certaint y of life after death once he reached the third plane, my question remains, why wouldn't one get assurance of life after death after reaching the FIRST inner pl ane? The suggestion was that the first two planes were not outside the body. In addition, it may also be asked, how can there truly be any "up" or "down" or spa tial sense except in relationship to the body? V.S. Iyer said that inside and ou tside apply only to the body, and since the body is a perception in the Mind, su ch concepts become meaningless. So how can one truly go up AFTER leaving the cha kra system by passing into and through the brain? Where is up once the body is d ead and you are in a mental realm(s)? Sant Mat would argue that there is still a sense of up and down in relationship with the other bodies or coverings of the soul, such as the astral and causal, as they are in the realm of space and time or Kal, and this is entirely possible and a reasonable explanation within the do main of relativity. Coming back to my question about how, and in exactly what way, is this life t he most important for realization, and in precisely what way can one make more p rogress here, one asks, "Why is the waking state considered so important?" Kirpa l quoted Jesus about how after death "no man can work", so one had better work n ow. PB said that this world is more valuable than after death states because onl y here are lessons etched so strongly on the ego, whereas after-death realms are more dream-like. Sant Rajinder Singh has said that souls are supposed to be lit erally 'lined up' waiting a chance at getting a human body, as there are current ly not enough suitable bodies available in which to make appreciable spiritual p rogress. The Sant Mat masters do say that one can work from the subtle planes after de ath, but, again as mentioned, that it can take a much longer time than here. Bud dhist scriptures generally say that the personality disintegrates back to the el ements, after the death of the body, and that the ego-soul does not survive, cer tainly not after the so-called "second death", where the subtle elements dispers e. Kirpal once joked said, "we have to make the most use of the man-body, and th at is - to get out of it!" I think he was speaking somewhat tongue in cheek, bec ause I saw more in Him than that would imply. But for the spiritual beginner tha t can make intuitive sense. Certainly advaita would disagree. And I think Kirpal would have disagreed also, at least in the sense that there was purificatory wo

rk to do here. A disciple, Rameshwar Dass, relates in Ocean of Divine Grace, p. 97-98: I told Maharaj Ji, "My friend told me that You would give me a glimpse of my Divine Home. But that has not been my experience." "As for taking you up there," He said, "it could be done, but in your present condition you will not be able to stay there; nor when you come back would you be able to carry on with your no rmal life on earth." I personally feel that there is more to it than that, which is that before eg o-death or ego-transcendance such higher planes cannot be experienced totally wi thout a sense of illusion. The master would not disagree with that. And, for som e it is possible that only the final experiential stages may become known after a lifetime of striving in apparent darkness. This need not be cause for despair, if one practices with the right view. The vedantic answer as to why the waking state is important is expressed by I yer in the following quote: "Gnan is to see that all things are the mind's own creations, that none are d ifferent from yourself, that none are other than the mind itself, and that there fore there is no second thing. But this you can get only by analyzing world duri ng the waking state itself and finding it to be like a dream. This is why truth must be understood when awake, not in blank trance, when facing and seeing the w orld, not in negation of it." (Commentaries, Vol. 1 ; see note 29) A quote of Soamiji that seems out of place within even Sant Mat teachings was made by him on the day of his death: Life-long Bhajan and Simran is only for this reason: That one should not forge t at this time (at the time of death). (Sar Bachan p. 21) This also causes questions to arise. What was his true meaning here? Forget w hat? -Bhajan and Simran? -The image of his Master? It is said in many traditions that one s last thought is very important, but surely life-long bhajan and simran , according to Sant Mat, is for the purpose of achieving liberation in life, isn t it? And surely the general trend of ones mind over a lifetime is more important than any stray thought that crosses it at the time of death. What if, when one s t ime comes, as has happened even to great sages, one lapses into a coma, or has a n accidental death? Does then the inability to remember anything cancel out one' s progress, relationship with his guru, or, most importantly, one's enlightenmen t? The answer is, No. A dear friend of mine was killed instantly in a head-on coll ision with a truck on a snowy night, and later Sant Rajinder Singh in answer to a point-blank question by an intiate as to where our friend was today, replied, i n Sach Khand, because of his great attachment to Sant Kirpal. This remark by Soam iji was likely directed to one person at a particular time for its impact value, but, nevertheless, when placed in a source text like Sar Bachan can create conf usion. There is an unbreakable grace-laden connection with one s initiating Master in the path of Sant Mat. Once more, the waking state is valued in most traditions because they say rea lization must take place while here to be true liberation. Why? Perhaps one answ er is because it is very important both how we interpret or understand our exper iences across all of the states, and also that we do not live here or go within , i n ignorance. Also, the faculty of buddhi or higher reason is not active in sleep or trance, and in advaita it is said that it is, in fact, buddhi which gets enl ightened. The Self is always shining in the intellectual sheath, Ramana Maharshi o ften quoted from scripture, as the intellectual sheath or buddhi is closest to A tman and reflects its light. When it gets enlightened it stands aside and Atman

is realized. Technically, the bliss-sheath is closest, but as it is made of undi fferentiated maya there is no knowing or enlightenment possible when it is activ e, such as in sleep. It is present when the soul is in Maha Sunn, as well, and a s we have seen, the soul is helpless there. Brunton states: "If the body does not become non-existent because, ultimately, it is a though t-form, neither does it become unimportant. For it is only in this body that we can attain and realize the ultimate consciousness...the physical wakeful state i s the only one in which the task of true self-realization can be fully accomplis hed.." (The Notebooks, Vol. 7, Part I, 1.5) As in Sant Mat, however, Brunton elsewhere admits that this may not need to b e achieved on earth but could occur on "other spheres." There is also permitted this exception in the Buddhist tradition for certain advanced aspirants of a deg ree of sainthood who had purified a sufficient number of the "fetters" or "defil ements". But the attainment would still not be achieved in a purely subjective s tate in their case, and the higher realms themselves, however blissful and howev er long one might stay there, which could be kalpas, may be considered "pure" bu t not necessarily eternal, as they are in Sant Mat. For example, one of the high er fetters in Buddhism is "attachment to the formless realms". Dzogchen Buddhism somewhat differently argues that only awakening to the "Gro und Luminosity" of Mind while alive assures merger with the Clear Light when it initially dawns at the time of death. This is the great opportunity for liberati on according to their teachings. If one cannot hold onto this realization at the time of death one then passes into the dawning of the "dharmata realm", which i s the all-pervading creative radiance of Mind, similar to how the Sants describe Sach Khand. Failing to sustain awareness of that, one falls into identification with mind and ego once more and passes into the various intermediate realms of the bardos, and eventually rebirth. Only through experience in the waking state with its sharply defined limits can one be prepared, through spiritual practice, for the dawning of Mind or the Clear Light at death. In Sant Mat the waking sta te is also valued to prepare one to be aware while in the bardos or inner planes , as well as for the working off of karmas, but the defining difference after de ath is the boon of the Master coming for the soul, sparing him the bewildering a nd disintegrating experience of the withdrawel of the attention and pranas, a le ss than auspicious exit into an undesirable lower realm, and even further rebirt hs prior to liberation. There is no teaching about immediate recognition of the Dharmakaya prior to passage through all the inner planes to Sach Khand and beyon d. Nevertheless, there are hints here and there in Sant Mat about the non-necess ity of experiencing all of the planes in a linear fashion. Kirpal said some init iates may go directly to Sach Khand and not experience the other planes along th e way, although, generally, they would, at least to some degree, as in a brief " meet and greet" of the various deities presiding therein. He also said, "you are already there, you just don't know it." But he was very clear that a disciple o f some degree of attainment, and even those without much in the way of that but who nevertheless had full faith, may not have to be reborn but could continue th eir sadhana on inner planes, at the discretion of the Master: "The initiates have a great concession: at the time of death, your Master wil l come to receive you, and not the angel of death. He usually appears several da ys or weeks before death to advise you of your coming departure from this world. I'm talking about those who keep the precepts! For those who do nothing with th e gift of Naam, he may or may not appear before they leave the body...In your fi nal moments, and much beforehand if you have gained proficiency in meditation, M aster's radiant form will take you to a higher stage where you can make further progress. At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her d ay of marriage! He may then place you in the first, second or third stage, or he may take you direct to Sach Khand. In some cases, where worldly desires and att achments are predominant, he will allow rebirth, but in circumstances more conge

nial for spiritual growth." (Arran Stephens, Journey to the Luminous (Seattle, W ashington: Elton-Wolf Publications, 1999), p. 41) One enigmatic incident relating to the "distance" or relationship of Sach Kha nd to the earth plane (Pinda) is illustrated by the following. Sawan Singh, when asked how long it took him to go to Sach Khand, closed his eyes for a second an d then reopened them, saying that that was how long. In the yoga sutras, however , it is said that for concentration to mature into absorptive samadhi takes two and a half minutes. How is this discrepency reconciled? I can think of two answe rs. Either the Sants, as sometimes is said, do not let their attention descend b elow the throat center, a yogic process called lokasamgraha, whereby they are ab le to continue to interact with and teach others while still holding on to the i ntuition of freedom they enjoyed in savikalpa or nirvikalpa samadhi or the inner planes, and are therefore able to ascend to Sach Khand much quicker than in tra ditional yoga paths, in as much as the body is almost already transcended, or, t wo, they reside in a non-dual state, and Sawan was speaking from a higher, or pe rhaps, metaphorical, point of view. In the Gurbani, Sikh scriptures, Sach Khand is described as both an after death realm and a state of consciousness one can e njoy during earth life. Master Charan Singh clarified this point: &bsp "Maharaj ji, do the saints have a short-cut inside?" Charan Singh: "They have a short cut in the sense that they have immediate access to the Fa ther. After reaching sainthood, they do not have to pass through all those stage s on their way to the Father. Christ also indicated that he could leave the body when he wanted to and he could take it up again when he wanted to, as he was al ways with the Father and he and the Father were one." (Spiritual Perspectives, V ol. 1 (Beas, India: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 2010, p. 446-467) This suggests that the Master is in a non-dual state, if the quote of Jesus a pplies; on the other hand, it can be interpreted to mean he can access the state of highest samadhi instantly, but he is not in a non-dual condition otherwise. Kirpal Singh remarked in another context that the Master can take some of the di sciples directly to Sach Khand without passing through the preceeding planes, se eming to imply the same thing. Sant Rajinder Singh said: "People often focus on what they want to do, but a bigger question is what they want to be. The world is caught up in doing this activity or that activity, but w hen we look at spirituality, the goal is in being. Doing involves activities of th e body and mind, but being involves connecting with our soul. Our soul is a part of God, a state of permanent love, bliss, and consciousness. It does not need t o do anything. When we stop our physical and mental activity and sit in silent m editation, we become our true self, or soul. When we identify with the soul, we will merge back into God and enter a state of eternal love and bliss." Again, this could imply non-duality or not. It could suggest the ancient conc ept of the Atman as a disinterested witness of all activity, or a greater vision . anadi also said that the true identity of the soul is one of eternal union wit h the Beloved or God; the question for Sant Mat is if one is in this state of et ernal love and bliss on all the planes, or only in Sat Lok. Kirpal Singh suggest ed it is always, when he answered the question, "Master, do you meditate?" by re plying, "Look here. If a man gets his PhD, does he have to go back and learn the ABC's?" The Waking State: Its Importance

Buddha, Vedantists, the Ch an masters and others agree on the importance of wak ing earth life. Damiani says, further, that without the knowledge the World or W orld-Idea can teach the soul, one would be utterly incapable of understanding wh at one was experencing in the mysterious Void (beyond all the manifest planes). One could come out of his trance and still be confused about the relationship be tween world, self, and God, ie., not enlightened. This is as close as I have fou nd for a metaphysical reason for the importance of the waking state for realizat ion, or, since it is not a personal attainment, the Void-Mind awakening to itself or coming to self-cognition. The Lankavatara sutra said that one day all beings will get purifed and ascend the stages, but "if they only realized it, all thin gs are in Nirvana from the beginning." How can one realize that "all things are in Nirvana" by leaving some things out (ie., like the world) and only going with in? Obviously, one can't. This is the mistake of the yogis and ordinary mystics. The highest teachings always posit stages AFTER the mystical ones. The progress ion of stages in Buddhism, as stated, beyond those of the beginner, are from ecs tasy to peace to insight to Nirvana. Does Sant Mat recognize a stage after going within as far as you can go (as profound as that is), as the sages do? Personal ly, I think they do. Kabir, for instance, spoke of a stage "beyond Sunn and tran ce." Brunton writes: "After all, even the Void, grand and awesome as it is, is nothing but a tempo rary experience, a period of meditation. The realization of what is Real must be found not only in deep meditation, in its trance, but when fully awake." (Noteb ooks, Vol 15, Part 1, 8.187-188) And further: "The mystic may get his union with the higher self as the reward for his reve rent devotion to it. But its light will shine down only into those parts of his being which were themselves active in the search for union. Although his union m ay be a permanent one, its consummation may still be only a partial one. If his intellect, for example, was inactive before the event, it will be unillumined af ter the event [this would say something about the idea of "perfect masters"]. Th is is why many mystics have attained their goal without a search for truth befor e it or a full knowledge of truth after it. The simple love for spiritual being brought them to it through their sheer intensity of ardour earning the divine gr ace. He only gets the complete light, however, who is completely fitted for it w ith the whole of his being. If he is only partially fit, because only a part of his psyche has worked for the goal, then the utmost result will be a partial but permanent union with the soul, or else it will be marred by the inability to ke ep the union for longer than temporary periods." "The Mystic may be illiterate, uneducated, simple-minded, but yet may attain the Overself. Thus he finds his Inner Peace. It is easier for him because he is less intellectual, hence has fewer thoughts to give up and to still. But Nature does not absolve him from finishing his further development. He has still to com plete his horizontal growth as well as balance it. He has obtained depth of illu mination but not breadth of experience where the undeveloped state of faculties which prevents his light from being perfect may be fully developed. This can hap pen either by returning to earth again or continuing in other spheres of existen ce; he does this all inside his peace instead of, as with ordinary man, outside it. When his growth is complete, he becomes a philosopher." "It is not that the mystic does not enter into contact with the Overself. He does. But his experience of the Overself is limited to glimpses which are partia l, because he finds the Overself only within himself, not in the world outside. It is temporary because he has to take it when it comes at its own sweet will or when he can find it in meditation. It is a glimpse because it tells him about h is own "I" but not about the "Not-I." On the other hand, the sage finds reality in the world without as his own self, at all times and not at special occasions,

and wholly rather than in glimpses. The mystic's light comes in glimpses, but t he sage's is perennial. Whereas the first is like a flickering unsteady and unev en flame, the second is like a lamp that never goes out. Whereas the mystic come s into awareness of the Overself through feeling alone, the sage comes into it t hrough knowledge plus feeling. Hence, the superiority of his realization." "The need of predetermining at the beginning of the path whether to be a phil osopher or a mystic, arises only for the particular reincarnation where attainme nt is made. Thereafter, whether on this earth or another, the need of fulfilling the philosophic evolution will be impressed upon him by Nature." [The "philosop hic discipline" is the development and balancing of the faculties of feeling, kn owing, willing, and intuition, as well as the full inner mystical realization as well as metaphysical realization of non-dual Oneness]. (, Notebooks, Vol. 13, P art 2, 4.9,11-13) The understanding that everything is illusive is not the final one. It is an e ssential stage but only a stage. Ultimately you will understand that the form an d separateness of a thing are illusory, but the thing-in-itself is not. That out of which these forms appear is not different from them, hence Reality is one an d the same in all things. This is the paradox of life and a sharp mind is needed to perceive it. However, to bring beginners out of their earthly attachments, w e have to teach first the illusoriness of the world, and then raise them to a hi gher level of understanding and show that the world is not apart from the Real. That Thou Art unifies everything in essence. But this final realization cannot b e got by stilling the mind, only by awakening it into full vigour again after yo gic peace has been attained and then letting its activity cease of its own accor d when thought merges voluntarily into insight. When that is done, you know the limitations of both yoga and enquiry as successive stages. Whoever realizes this truth does not divorce from matter--as most yogis do--but realizes non-differen ce from it. Hence we call this highest path the "yoga of nonduality." But to rea ch it one has to pass through the "yoga of philosophical knowledge." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, Part 1, 2.116) Maybe the jnanis and non-dualists are wrong, and the emanationists, such as t he Sants and sages like Plotinus, are right, that down here we only see as in a glass dimly, a poor reflection of the real - but up there "face too face." Maybe any non-dual realization must be made abiding on all planes after passing throu gh multiple "zero-points" or apparent "deaths". Even though the Real is not sepa rated from nature, or the hierarchy of planes, perhaps it is true that only the purified soul has a chance at realizing God, and that such must be attained thro ugh passing through and understanding successive levels of the cosmos. If the So ul is a permanent emanation of the Divine or the Nous, as Plotinus says, perhaps then, having a satori or deep awakening while on the earth plane does not in it self simply dissolve all that lies between 'Nature and the Nous', as many non-du al teachers imply while casually and with self-assurance bordering on its own fo rm of fundamentalism dismiss all discussion of cosmology and the Soul. In Sant M at as well as some of the gnostic traditions such as that of Plato and Plotinus, the true form of the Soul is known only in its own domain, and what we see and know down here is but a glimmer of the reality, even though it is paradoxically a manifestation of the reality and can be realized as such. Perhaps it can be sa id then that even if one intuits the Nous in the waking state, i.e., has the non -dual realization, the soul still naturally desires to seek its origin. Maharaj Saheb, in his discourse, "Ode to the Unknown God," said: "Radhasoami Dayal [the Merciful Lord of the Soul] has graciously assumed huma n form to grant redemption to the entire humanity, nay, He has made the reflecti on of His Form available even at the lower chakras. "Still lower down, He assumed the dark bluish form of Niranjan. Such is my be loved Radhasoami. Descending to the heart centre, He became subject to desires.

Such is my beloved Radhasoami. He, however, reduces the evil tendencies of Indri -centres (lower centres pertaining to senses). Such is my beloved Radhasoami." ( quoting Swami Ji Maharaj, Sar Bachan Poetry, Book One)" In philosophical terms what he seems to be saying, in this instance, is that the Idea of Man, and the form of the Master-Soul, gets reflected from plane to p lane from Sach Khand on down. The higher up, the more it approximates the eterna l emanation from the Nous, even though the One is always existent and "there is nowhere that it is not." In any case, in Sant Mat it is said that after the soul reaches the radiant f orm of the Master on the threshold of the astral plane, most of its personal toi l is over and the rest is in the hands of the Master, who attracts the soul like iron filings towards a magnet. Likewise, upon reaching Sach Khand, the emanated soul is then in the hands of the Sat Purush, who absorbs the soul likewise by s tages in to the Anami, the nameless and formless absolute realm. So what we are talking about is far beyond the aegis of the personal will. Timothy Smith simila rly writes from the point of view of the Sam'khya tradition of this need for gra ce: "Finally, when the cosmos itself reaches a moment of perfect self-knowing, Bu ddhi, through the Grace of Ishvara and with the support of Prakriti, stands asid e, and a new Bodhisattva is born. With neither will nor ego-identity remaining, this is the moment of viveka turning upon itself and being turned upon itself. T his is the assimilation of mentalism and the fruition of epistemological discipl ine. The remaining ascent from Purusa to Âtman shall unfold in the mysterious remo teness of pure, empty Being.... The higher tattvas [Buddhi, Aham'kara, Tanmatra] , starting with Aham kâra, are not the product of the individual Purusa alone, but a re the work of Îshvara, Shakti, and Shiva. As such they can not be truly dissolved by any individual act, including viveka." In The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga, it is implied that Surat Shabd Yoga fu lfills if not transcends the goal as elaborated in the Sam'khya school. This mak es a precise categorization of the terms Sat Purush and Anami even more compelli ng. In Sant Mat it is said that even a state of oneness, in which the mind merges in ITS own source in the causal plane, is a stepped-down manifestation of highe r spiritual realizations of oneness, with which it is often confused. Maharaj Ch aran Singh said: "Unless the mind returns to and merges in its origin, the soul cannot be rele ased from the negative power and cannot begin its real spiritual evolvement to G od-Realization." (Katherine Wason, The Living Master (Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1984) p. 136) The reader will refer to the schema of planes given before for a visual examp le of this. The mind is said to merge with the universal mind at the second main stage of the inner journey with soul travelling beyond on its own. This is much different than advaita. Katherine Wason writes: "The stage of Brahm is the apex of reality , the very height of spiritual att ainment, to one who has not a perfect Master who has gone beyond the reach of Br ahm. With the blending of self into Universal Mind and the expanded consciousnes s which embraces the furthest reach of the cosmos of the Universal Mind, it seem s that no stage can be further attained. For how is it possible even to conceive of a stage above and beyond Universal Mind, often called Unity itself? To merge into that which interpenetrates the entire universe would seem to constitute th e furthest limit of spiritual ascent. Yet for one initiated by a perfect Master, the now purer and far more powerful

force of the Shabd lifts the disciple out of this appearance of Unity and trans ports him to the stage of Parbrahm - "beyond" Brahm. And here a greater, more gl orious dimension of consciousness is met. For each stage reflects the higher, an d a reflection - no matter how real and pure and beautiful it may seem - cannot but distort and vaguely hint at that which it reflects. Thus the appearances van ish and the Oneness of Brahm is known to be but a part of the Whole. In fact, th e sojourner directly comprehends that there is not only one Brahm, but others as well - that within each of these Brahmandi regions revolves the same vast, seem ingly limitless cosmic scheme, each with its own cycle of birth and death and li beration, each with its own Universal Mind and astral and material creation. At the third stage of the spiritual journey, the soul is pure, completely unfe ttered and free. The once slumbering spirit realises its true identity as a drop of the Supreme Ocean and for the first time wakens to the full wonder and glory of God...Now the soul is in the majestic realm of pure spirit-consciousness, an d awe and joy and wonder become increased beyond imagination. At each threshold of the stages of consciousness..the soul is flooded with the awareness that glor y of a greater dimension lies beyond...By the great Love and Light of the true L ord Himself, the soul, united with God-consciousness, expands and advances to th e three remaining regions". (Ibid, p. 306-308) 12. The concept of the void is necessary to mention here, because of the fact that in Sant Mat it is explained that there is a great void or region called Ma ha Sunn separating the materio-spritual regions from the purely spiritual ones, in which even great souls get suspended until the living master of the time brin gs his great Light through it to guide them out of it and "usher them into" the spiritual planes. This may be confused with the concept of the void(s) as given in Buddhism. For it is unlikely the two are the same. It is even more confusing when it is recognized that in the consideration of the void or emptiness in Mahaya na Buddhism, emptiness itself is also empty . It is not considered to be a state as s uch but more often as a dialectical methodology of understanding the non-entitif ication of things. For more on this please see Empyiness Is Empty on this website. Nevertheless, there are void experiences in Buddhisim which are not considere d experiential as such, but as the absence of experiencing, while in Sant Mat th e plane of Maha-Sunn is referred to as a dark experiential void, like a form of dark space, that the soul passes through on the way to Sach Khand and the true V oid of Anami Lok. Once again, in Buddhism where reference is made to the void it is generally not to a phenomenal void but, rather, either a realm of the absenc e of ego, or, alternatively, as suchness, the only reality there is. In Maha Sunn, however, there is the experience of darkness, but in the true void there is no darkness and no "I", so this, it appears reasonable, would have to be at least w hat is called Anami in Sant Mat. The Void, Sunyata, Suchness, whatever name one chooses to point to the non-conceptual truth, is not dark (another concept or ex perience), but the clear light of Reality, the goal-less goal of all the paths. How could Sant Kirpal Singh, for instance, explain such a thing to his disciples other than on a one to one basis and not necessarily through words but through a potent spiritual silence? Looking back now, I see the reason for Kirpal's excl amation to me, "God is nothing!" In Buddhism, God IS nothing, or the Void-Mind, which is really not nothing but the fulness (purna) of reality, or as Rumi put i t, the "Unmanifest-Manifest". The void, unfortunately, is probably the most misu nderstood concept in Buddhism. It does not mean nothing as conceptually understo od, but rather, non-conceptual reality. It is the REAL. The Dalai Lama appears to take a middle ground, emphasizing the importance of both achievements, concentration and insight: "This pattern of training in the path, training first in ethics then in medit ative stabilization and then in wisdom is not just a pronouncement of the Buddha but accords with the actual fact of experience in training the mind. In order t o generate the view realizing emptiness in any strong form, never mind that spec

ial level of mind called special insight realizing emptiness, it is necessary th at the mind not be distracted, that it be channeled, that it be brought together and made powerful. Thus in order for the wisdom consciousness to be powerful an d to be capable of acting as an antidote, it is necessary for the consciousness itself to be channeled. Thus meditative stabilization is needed for wisdom. In order to have meditative stabilization, in which there is a quieting of in ternal mental distractions, it is necessary prior to that to restrain coarser ty pes of distraction of body and speech. Thus one engages in practices of ethics t hat involve restraint of these coarser activities of body and speech in order to lay the groundwork for meditative stabilization. Thus ethics is first, meditati ve stabilization second and wisdom is third in the order of the three trainings. This is certified by experience. (The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, Pr eliminary Teachings to the Kalachakra Initiation, 1989). PB states: The Void must not be misunderstood. Although it is the deepest state of medita tion and one where he is deprived of all possessions, including his own personal self, it has a parallel state in the ordinary active non-meditative condition, which can best be called detachment...After all, even the Void, grand and awesom e as it is, is nothing but a temporary experience, a period of meditation...The awareness of what is Real must be found not only in deep meditation, in its tran ce, but when fully awake. (Ibid, 8.186-188) I cannot argue with such sages. In my humble, limited understanding what they say seems to make sense. Further, just as meditation needs a long time to be su ccessfully cultivated, such insight apparently also needs a long time to be unde rstood, seen for what it is, and perhaps most importantly, believed, in order fo r reality to positively reveal itself through grace. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13. The Nature of the Planes and Bodies Okay. Now it is time to put much of this together so that we can understand i t, perhaps in a new way. The next few sections may be the most important part of this paper. How is Sant Mat unique, and how does it differ from Buddhism, Raman a, and other sages? What happens after death for the initiate? How is Sant Mat a non-dual path after all? In the next three sections I have had significant help from an initiate friend of my named Mark, some mutual sharing of ideas. That's the only satisfactory way of with dealing with this material, to get more than o ne mind working on it, it is so complex. First, here is a more concise but also intricately described and compiled ver sion of the Sant Mat shemata given towards the beginning of this article, with s ome new points of interest, which one might do well to read. Besides the usual a dvise to avoid the 'left-hand path', it also mentions that in higher regions the re is the possibility of being allured onto a 'right-hand path' which will lead one to higher places but which are essentially dead-ends. hence the necessity of a living master who can guide the soul. All of the descriptions of tunnels, lef t and right, etc., in higher regions, have made me at times wonder if these regi ons are in the folds of the brain, but on closer inspection, with what little ex perience I have had, has led me to a different conclusion. When one goes deep en ough in meditation with the help of the shabda-brahman - the real higher Power b uilt into the worlds, created and uncreated - one knows one is beyond the confin

es of the physical body. The 'silver cord' mentioned in the Bible remains uncut, and one can come and go at will. My limited experience is that these inner experiences are mostly non-physical . They are no less real than the physical world, in some ways more, being less v eiled, but still relative, until one sheds all coverings and reaches Sat Lok or Sach Khand. While relative experience they should not be called imaginary, as so me vedantins and Upanishads such as the Mandukya say, as they are real projectio ns of Isvara, the Creator or Sat Purush. To say, as the Mandukya does, that Hira nyagarbha and the dream state (taijasa) are identical in essence, does not seem to do justice to the actual experiential nature of reality. The true nature of a ll these phenomena is, of course, nondual - when realized as such - and so canno t be categorized one way or another - real/imaginary, inner/outer, up/down, desc ending/ascending. Phenomena like nadis or tunnels are part of relative experienc e, but referring to them in relative ways like imaginary or 'makyo' can have a t eaching value, but is only a tool rather than a 'true' picture of reality. In a certain sense we can say that the sense of solidity of a door is 'imaginary', ma ya, unreal, illusion, but until a rather advanced level of realization, we had b etter open the door to pass into the next room. So from deeper levels all these things are not the deepest understanding - chakras, planes, ascending/descending , trances, karma, bodies, time, tunnels, etc. But just as walking through doors is not a relative experience most of us are likely to transcend in the near futu re, so all this other stuff is a 'relatively' real part of experience. Some of i t, though, is more subject to our personal beliefs than others, so experiences l ike what happens during death is not entirely the same from person to person. Sr i Aurobindo spoke of 'annexes to the subltle realms', that is, personal hells su perimposed on the relatively real universal projections. So, some aspects are un iversal, and some are personal. But overly simple dismissive statement such as c alling the light and sound illusory, or, as Ramana once told someone, a 'deep sa mskara or tendency for experience', or similarly calling planes or tunnels maya, is awkward and incomplete metaphysics - not the most elegant way to honor both absolute and relative dimensions of experience. A great Zen master was once aske d 'how do you relate to the idea of karma?' (a relative principle) He said 'a Ze n master does not ignore karma?' Nor does he probably ignore doors and walls. The various higher planes are not contained in the brain. Yogis who say so ar e experiencing reflected versions of the higher planes. This is also the Sant Ma t position. But one does go through the brain-core, as Rumi mentioned in some of his lyrical verses, and many people experience visions of light and subtle audi tion there. But it is only a step on the way.The inner realms and bardos are def initely trans-physical. When one passes through the visions of light that are wi thin the reach of the brain, pierces the moon, star, and sun, and is then pulled up by the big bell sound, he exits the brahmarendhra at the top of the head and enters the astral world. This is not the thousand-petalled lotus and the end of the road, but just the beginning of the progressively real journey to the Godhe ad. It cannot be bypassed through trickery, or a non-dual realization that is so lely physical plane based. Such paths dismiss the soul in a cavalier way. True, these planes with corresponding bodies of one's own (astral and causal; or astra l, mental, and causal, depending on the system) are temporary and within the rea lm of space and time (in Sant Mat, Kal and Maha-Kal), compared to our formless i dentity on the spiritual planes beyond. That is why Sant Rajinder Singh says you will know for sure you survive death when you reach the third plane, Daswan Dwa r, in my estimation, as this is the plane of final rest for many initiates betwe en rebirths - for those who need to reincarnate. The average soul does not have access that far up, and is limited to experiencing one or the other of the astra l heavens before passing into unconsciousness before rebirth. To complete the de ath process, one must also drop the astral and causal bodies, which is normal. T his is known as the 'second death'. Therefore, to be beyond these bodies is to k now that something real survives, even if the knowledge is not permanent, when a nd if one is reborn with a new body and brain.

One of the great modern masters of these regions with a highly sophisticated knowledge of the workings of the planes, reincarnation, and so on, was named Das kalos. He made a point about this issue in an interesting way - he said 'the bra in cannot think. The mind thinks. The brain is simply a receiving station where the mind imprints its thoughts in the physical body'. In other words, not only a re these lower planes not enfolded in the brain, even the power of thought does not have its seat there, but rather is in the mind, which by a kind of vertical telepathy, imprints in the brain thought and reason. [This might serve as an exp lanation for the possibility of animals becoming liberated. While it is usually accepted in the yogic traditions that only in the man-body, with an advanced bra in equipped with a self-reflective neo-cortex, is the process of self-realizatio n possible, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi felt that animals, too, could also attain s alvation. If such a brain is not really necessary, and although it might be the exception to the rule, dependent on a Master's direct influence, then that would account for the famous case of Lakshmi the cow abiding in nirvikalpa samadhi an d also reaching mukti, according to Ramana's own words]. Daskalos' teaches that the soul knows its deeper self behind the outer person ality of the three bodies, and comes to final rest between incarnations at the t hird inner plane. Reaching even the first inner plane can bring strong convictio n that one survives death, but at this level one has not yet fully dropped ident ification with the astral and mental (or causal) bodies, which are also not only temporary like the physical, but are also veils that usually obscure the consci ousness of the higher, formless 'bodies' beyond these, which include formless re alization of a continuity of experience beyond each cycle of incarnation. Hence the temporary bodies are ruled by Kal, a type of 'time' linked to form experienc e, while the supracausal planes are ruled my Maha Kal, which rules the meta-time of the higher self that remains conscious of the story of evolution from life t o life. So coming to that level of identity really drives home the relative trut h of this deeper level of our spiritual nature beyond temporary bodies, physical and subtle. That is likely why Rajinder Singh made the remark about the third p lane. Again, even when going to the lowest of these inner regions, if done so with real clarity and presence, one immediately feels one is in a realm with greater relative reality greater intensity of feeling, greater vividness of sensation an d perception, by comparison with which the physical world seems foggier, denser, heavier. When experienced in a way that reveals the relative nature of each rea lm, physical and astral, for instance, the physical by contrast seems less subst antial and more restrictive. From a nondual point of view this difference is rel atively inconsequential, for in the nondual view one no longer identifies with a sense of limitation versus freedom. But this non-duality must be realized on ev ery plane. That is the reason for the various jhanas or degrees of absorption combined with vipassana or cultivation of mindfulness and insight - in Buddhism. [This is not to say that the various samadhis and jnanas in Buddhism correlate to the planes in Sant Mat; after reading the above material, it seems likely tha t they do not. One big potential difference is that they are described without t he help of the shabda-brahman, the primal manifestation of the Sat Purush, and t he grace of the Master Power, or the human master who is at-one with that God-Po wer]. However, the Buddha himself warned that one can get attached to these higher experiences, and without understanding one may return without realizing the nondual truth. This is why traveling to a higher plane by itself is not necessarily wisdom - though it can be used to cultivate wisdom - for just because a higher, heavenly world allows greater freedom of expression and fulfillment of desire, does not mean that one no longer has desire or the dualism that desire is rooted in. That is why non-dual contemplation and cultivation optimally must occur at each level. So the true nature of what these various planes really are, and how

that relates to spiritual development, is quite complex. It is possible that the current systems that exist in our world for understanding them will be consider ed very primitive from the point of view of future cosmologies. Doubts can come up, and that is why it can be good to keep sharing our experi ences and such with each other (the general world 'sangha'), to reinforce our un derstanding. Kirpal was asked if he thought anami was the highest plane, and he apparently said "I think so, but if you here of anything higher, tell me - I want to know about it". This may not be higher, but is a teaching worth mentioning - and then perhaps forgetting. The teachings that Theosophists like Blavatsky say they rec eived from higher bodhisattvas in various parts of the world like Tibet, India a nd the Middle East, included a cosmology that said that, not only, as many teach ings say, are the divisions of the universe into great planes mirrored in each p lane so that each plane has many (usually said to be seven) subplanes, but that also this mirroring works in reverse, so that the various world or planes we kno w from various systems are actually the subdivisions of the cosmic physical univ erse. And in this view, there is another octave of 'planes' beyond the highest n ormally spoken of, but that any contact with them will appear completely transce ndental to our physical consciousness.This is very advanced, and would be like t rying to teach calculus to a one year old. If this is true, it is a good thing t hat one does not seem to need to ascend through all these world to have liberati on, as liberation seems to almost move in a different direction, as if the plane s were layed out in one direction, say vertically, whereas access to the Absolut e is more of a horizontal awakening. There are states that feel more whole, tran scendent, liberated, universal, and that they can be accessed in our ordinary st ate, and that the more we develop them, the more peaceful, free, compassionate a nd lucid we become. Sant Mat and Non-Duality Here is one way of looking at the non-dual realization in terms of Sant Mat. In the state of nondual presence (atmic realization, rigpa), when integrated wit h human experience, there is awareness of the world as sensations, thoughts, des ires, emotions, and so on, and even advanced experiences like the Sat Purush. Bu t, as these phenomena arise, they are accompanied by a lucid wisdom, a direct sp iritual realization (beyond not only intellect but even intuition) that each phe nomena that arises in one's consciousness is actually buddha-nature (or whatever one wishes to call it - emptiness, the Tao, Brahman). So there is a kind of dua l perception where maya presents itself to nondual presence/ awareness, moment t o moment, as experiences of apparently separate phenomena, and remaining rigpa o r atmic vision means that one does not slip into experiencing this phenomena as of a separate nature from oneself. The witness is empty. The phenomena is empty. The Sat Purush is empty. Nothing but emptiness witnessing emptiness. The power of this realization liberates the phenomena that is arising as well, so that the karmic power driving some of these phenomena is liberated by the power inherent in the fact that one 'perceived them nondually' (to use a clumsy phrase). This state is different than nirodha, or internal nirvikalpa samadhi, in which all ph enomena have temporarily ceased arising. Many Vedantists immersion in this kind of nirvikalpa can have great power to enhance the clarity of one's nondual reali zation, but it has no power to liberate remaining karma/vasanas because they are not being allowed to arise so the can be liberated in the presence of nondual r ealization. They have been set aside in order to enter nirvikalpa trance. But it may be that this state does strengthen the state of rigpa or nondual presence w hen one does re-emerge. [That is the value of repeated immersion in the shabda-b rahman and higher planes]. In Dzogchen various stages of nondual contemplation are described that are de termined by the depth of power one has developed in the intensity of rigpa or at

mic realization, so that, for instance, vasanas may need to arise repeatedly to be fully liberated, while in the more advanced stages the liberation of vasanas is instantaneous. Further, advanced Togal practices are employed to cause a more enhanced expansion of nondual realization that is more like turning on a light in a room full of karmas, liberating many at once rather than in succession, as vasanas usually arise in human consciousness. But all this business of karmas/sa mskara/vasanas being liberated as they arise in nondual presence is really a rel ative and progressive view of what is happening. In the state of rigpa, there is not concept of changing, liberating, transforming, purifying. All phenomena ari sing are seen as a nondual energetic (shakti) display of one's own nature, selfperfected from the beginning, and not obscuring anything. At a higher stage, th e practitioner gains the ability to access the nondual view or realization, but only in meditation. The karmas that remain in one's nature are experienced as an obstruction that block out nondual awareness, but one has the ability to use on e's will to penetrate through the obscurations and enter 'the view' at will, non dual presence, rigpa. At an even higher stage, one is continously stabilized in nondual realization, but some personal karma remains. This would be just before Sach Khand, if one is practicing non-dual vision simultaneously with meditation. But one's point of view is that these karmas, arising in one's experience, are no longer 'in between' oneself and emptiness, causing obscuration. It is as if o ne has moved to the other side of the cloud of thoughts, emotions, sensations, e tc. that continue to arise, but now one experiences them as nondual, so they are no longer experienced as an obstruction to nondual realization. This is a harde r realization to attain than simply accessing nondual realization in trance, bec ause in the latter, one has set aside these apparent obscurations to make it eas ier to see behind them to emptiness. This can help gain access to the nondual st ate of presence, but it will not be stabilized in one's ordinary awareness until it has gained an intensity werein phenomena are no longer experienced as an ob struction to realization, and further, each moment of phenomena is fully expe rienced nondually, on all planes. This takes greater intensity of realization. In Sach Khand, personal karma has been exhausted, so that the intensity of nond ual presence is not only greater, but is more fully integrated with the lower b odies, releasing more of their latent potential for expression. This is probab ly why there has been debate in Vedanta about whether nirvikalpa or sahaj samad hi is Self- Realization. Technically nirvikalpa feels like liberation, and in a very real sense, is, because one is in a liberated state of presence. But one' s karma is not fully liberated until Sainthood is reached, so one could say that the bodies will express a higher degree of liberation at that stage, especially the causal body. As each plane is mirrored in every other plane, then Sach Khand, for instance , has a reflection in each form dimension. Every incarnate master who is in atmi c or nondual realization is a type of reflection of Sach Khand in the physical w orld. 'Shambhalla' would be the planetary manifestation of a kingdom that reflec ts Sach Khand in the physical world (though many believe, as makes sense to me, that this would be more 'etheric' physical, as that is the physical subplane tha t mirrors Sach Khand). Since each plane reflects a version of each other in a wa y that is conditioned by the reflected plane, the reflection of the lower planes in the higher is more difficult to comprehend, as it realized as the essences o f lower manifestations. So, for instance, we do not have earthy objects in the f ormless planes, but the Idea/essence of the earth element as a pure light/sound/ Idea exists there. So, too, does Time exist there, but as a pure Idea, not as an sequence of events and a sense of duration. There is a reflection of Sach Khand on all three of the lower planes, and it is perfectly real. It is not someone's imagining of it. It is just as real as an y physical place, though in a certain relative sense, it is more real, as it vib rates with a much greater sense of Beingness, or Reality, and so leaves one with a more powerful sense of the 'substance' of it than physical experience does, b y comparison. But, when talking about journeying to higher planes, if we are tal

king about the deepest meaning of moving plane by plane, withdrawing from each b ody in turn until reaching Atman/Sach Khand, then it would be more allegorical t o talk of form environments and such, even though that is very real too. The for mless experience of Sach Khand, though to our ordinary human nature may sound un appealingly impersonal or abstract, is actually even more sublime in its purity than the form level reflection. But since the part of our nature that is attuned to that level is, whether form or formless, in a more nondual state, then the d ifference doesn't matter so much. In a sense the higher realms intermediate between the lower three worlds and the divine planes are the realms of Platonic Ideas and Ideal Forms, not forms in the material sense, but the abstract archetypes upon which manifestation is bas ed, as well as the primal causes behind manifestation. Some of the keys to under standing the realms to my mind are these: (1) From a nondual point of view, the essence of the realms must be the same. Ultimately the essence of all planes is Brahman or the Nondual. (2) At the level of dualism, again the nature of the planes is the same. So i f a lower plane can be said to be 'material', then in some essential way, all th e planes are material. And if some planes can be said to be planes of spirit, th en all planes must be spirit in some sense. Since one meaning of Spirit is the N ondual, which is not against or in contrast to anything, then when we say that t he higher planes are purely or deeply spiritual, then what does this mean? They are spiritual in two ways. They more readily reflect 'realization' of the Nondua l, so they seem more spiritual than the lower planes. But the lower planes can r eflect nondual realization as well, as in sahaja samadhi, so that is not a chara cteristic that is limited to the higher planes. The atman may be the part of us that always realizes its nondual nature, but all planes can do that. So another meaning of spiritual that can be applied to the higher planes is that they are m ore universal. This is a key understanding. The nondual and the universal are no t the same, though they are often confused. The universal is part of relativity and duality, for it gets its meaning in counterrelationship to the particular, t he individual, the specific. (3) All of the planes, then, represent a spectrum of states from what, to our dualistic perception, will appear at one end of the spectrum as a plane of almo st pure form, the material plane all the way up to a plane that is almost pure S pirit or Mind, ultra-universal. This last plane reaches into the very foundation s of the essence of mind and consciousness itself, like the notion of Unity, Pol arity, Selfhood, Infinity, or Eternality. These kinds of Pure Ideas, liberated f rom being perceived as being tied to any specific manifestation of them, form th e very highest planes - Luminous, Eternal, Infinite, Expansive, Liberated. But t hey are not the final nondual, because they are part of a spectrum of experience from form to formless, specific to universal, finite to infinite, which still p artakes of dualism, and so is not fully liberated, in the original Buddhist sens e. (4) The formless, Mind, universal planes are planes of greater wholeness, coh esion and unity, because the nature of Formless Abstraction is that is moves dee per and deeper into identification with Categories of Reality, Universal Ideas, Principles, Archetypes and Laws. We shift our focus from the realm of particular s that these Universals are the Soul of, the underlying Formative Patterns that hold all specific forms in shape, as well as provide the forces that interrelate forms as laws from Love and Gravity to Karma and Time, to the realm of Universa l, and we will feel timeless, blissful, whole, unified, silent, peaceful. This p rovides a powerful foundation for nondual realization, but is not the same. (5) It is easier to reflect nondual realization in our nature that exists in these higher planes, so if we journey to, or attune to, this higher level aspect

of ourselves, we will not only be aware of the universals (sometimes, at first, only as simple qualities like silence and eternity), but we will also connect w ith a level of our nature that has already developed a good measure of nondual r ealization. This can confuse people about the nature of these planes, making peo ple believe their inherent nature is nondual realization. That is kind of true, but not really. (6) The planes can be looked at as existing in a continuum divided into three main groups. The first set of planes is dominated by form, bodies, objects, ind ividuality, matter. The highest set is dominated by Spirit, Universality, Pure M ind. The third set of planes is in the middle between these two, and has a relat ively greater balance of spirit and matter, universality and individuality. (7) There are three form planes - physical, emotional and mental (this last is reall y a material form of mind, not true Universal, Abstract Mind. It is filled with images, words and other forms of mind that are very personal, earth bound, formbased.) (8) The highest three planes are planes of pure Mind - Universality. It is ve ry hard to name these planes. The lowest of these is the fifth plane counting fr om the densest, most material, and is the home of our Atman. (9) The middle plan e, making seven in all, is the plane of spiritual intuition. (10) All the planes have seven subdivisions that mirror the greater seven pla nes. So, for instance, the physical plane has seven subdivision, the highest thr ee being ethereal or energetic/pranic, and is the formative foundation for the d ense body. These three levels mirror the highest three planes, which in the larg er divisions are the 'ethereal, Universal Planes. This etheric or pranic aspect of the physical level of our bodies is where the seven chakras are to be found. These have a profound relationship to the seven major planes, but also have othe r levels of meaning and functioning. The other four planes are the planes of ear th, water, fire and air. They make up the dense physical body. (11) The next two planes are also planes of form, so they are realms of shape, form, bodies, envi ronments, objects, events, etc. They are also divided into the etheric aspect an d the dense aspect. They are the astral and mental. The dense aspect of the ment al plane can be called the concrete mind, as it is the aspect of our human intel ligence that visualizes and names forms. The etheric aspect of the mental plane can also be called the higher or abstract mind or mental body. In some systems i t is called the causal body. It is used by the higher self (atma/buddhi) for int eracting with the lower planes. (12) The fourth plane, the intuitive, is more formless, being in the middle, but still has what some have called 'formless form'. It is a meeting place betwe en the higher and the lower, and a plane where the levels of pure mind can inter act with form, and a level where our form-based human consciousness can begin to look directly into the more purely Universal planes. (13) Mirroring the larger pattern of dividing the planes into three groups, t his middle, soul/intuitive plane can be also divided into three levels. In Sant Mat the lower aspect, which is more 'tainted' with form, is Daswan Dwar, and the higher, etheric aspect is Bhanwar Gupha. This latter is the threshold to the hi gher trinity of planes. The exact mid-point, an point of profound equilibrium an d balance between the lower and higher, is the fourth sub-plane of the fourth pl ane. This is called Mahasunn is Sant Mat. The place of perfect balance is also t he point of darkness. (14) Beyond all the planes is the ground of them all - the Nondual, the Absol ute. This reality can be accessed in different ways. The part of one's nature th at is identified with the densest plane, the physical, and ascends through the p lanes, thus gathers experience and a more balanced relationship to all of them, and can then experience transcending them all 'through to the top', in which cas

e the nondual will seem like it is another plane above the seven planes (or nine if you count the subdivisions of the intuitive). But it is also possible to pie rce through the planes directly to the nondual from any plane. Doing this will a lso bring with it increasing access to all the other planes, as this liberates o ne from the dualistic identifications that give rise to the separate planes in t he first place, so they all become accessible from the base of nondualism. (15) In this schemata, the anandamayakosha is the same as the intuitive body. As this is a plane that still has a balance of spirit and matter, the matter as pect gives rise to 'bodiness'. But as it is relatively more formless, partaking deeply of the qualities of the higher planes, it does not have the kind of shape the lower bodies do. It is a formless body. Hence it blissfulness. This body is also beyond the vijnandamayakosha (discriminative sheath), so lacking the more dualistic judgmentalness of that sheath, the anandamaya is free of self-judgment , guilt, condemnation, and the like, which is another reason it is blissful. It is not the bliss of SatChitAnanda, though. The latter is the bliss of nondual aw akening. This sheath is the home of a very conscious aspect of ourselves. In the average person, it is not as nondual realized as the Atman, but it is wise and compassionate. If the average person where to immerse themselves in the anandama yakosha without actually transforming into the consciousness of that level of re alization, it would go into an kind of unconscious blissful sleep, deep sleep. T hat does not mean that this body is an unconscious body, but rather that is how the ordinary jiva or incarnated self would experience that level. But if one is raised to that level by transforming into the anandamayakosha-self, one would ex perience a great illumination and expansion of consciousness. It is only one vei l removed from the atman. Kirpal Singh said that it is almost like an integral p art of the Soul itself. A few words might be said about the Intuitive Body, midway between the lower three bodies and the spiritual planes above, as this is not discussed very much in any of the literature. Although not having a three-dimensional shape like the physical, astral and mental bodies, and also being beyond time and space as exp erienced in the psychophysical levels, the intuitive body does have a kind of for mless form and as such is still considered a body or sheath that covers the innermost Self, Spirit or atman. The intuitive body contains the pure archetypes, ideas a nd principles that form the foundational matrix for our more concrete personalit y and physical life. The intuitive body is also the more permanent aspect of our reincarnating identity, being the body where the seeds of karma generated in ea ch incarnation, as well as in our experiences in the astral and mental worlds, a re stored between incarnations. It is also the level of our nature where the ess ential wisdom and character developed through each incarnation is integrated and preserved. While each of the three more spatially manifested bodies (physical, astral and mental) have seven major chakras, along with the primary channels or nadis, that form the foundation of each body, the intuitive body contains a more essential version of these etheric centers that expresses as a single, multi-fa ceted and multi-dimensional chakra or lotus that is the essence of the intuitive body of a human being. This may be called the soul body and has also been called the egoic lotus . As this meta-body or lotus manifests on the lower planes, beginning at the etheric mental level, it differentiates into a more three-dimensional sh ape with seven spatially distinct chakras and numerous lesser centers and channe ls. The intuitive body has been called the karana sarira or causal body in yoga, t he ananda-maya-kosa in Vedanta, the soul or higher self, and the permanent perso nality (Daskalos). This level of consciousness and identity is but one level rem oved from the atman or liberated spiritual Self. (16) The vijnandamayakosha correlates to the higher mental body - the reasoni ng, discriminating, thinking body. When this sheath is illuminated with higher r ealization, it becomes a source of relative wisdom and moral discrimination. (17) The manomayakosha is a combination of the lower mind and the emotional b

odies. It is also sometimes called the kama-manas, or desire-mind. (18) The pranamayakosha is the etheric physical body, with chakras, nadis, an d meridians. (19) The annamayakosha is the dense physical body, the lower 4 subplanes. The body dependent on food. (20) Ultimately all the planes are actually interpenetrating, so that manifes t throughout the whole form dimension are the universal dimension. They have no meaning without each other. And, implicit within universals are their particular s that 'express' them. The two realities are mutually interdependent and co-aris ing. So, if one deeply investigates the physical realm, one will gradually disco ver the underlying univerals that the physical is founded on, and so will find t he univeral expressed in the particular, and the particular implicit in the univ ersal. We can separate them out in our consciousness for various purposes, but i n nondual awareness we grow in our appreciation of their profound interdependenc e. This is a basis for the jnana path. Karma, as such, is 'plane specific'. Any attachment or aversion to anything a nd a given plane forms a karmic link to that plane. One is liberated from a plan e by ceasing to be anything but purely equanimous towards it. This can be accomp lished in various ways, but results in the same thing. One must not only cease t o be currently tied to that plane, but must also neutralize past tendencies of a ttachment or aversion formed in relation to that plane. Since the physical is th e coarsest plane, it is generally easiest to develop equanimity towards that pla ne first, then refine our detachment and realization towards subtler worlds. Mor e advanced initiates are developing a most sublime form of nondual realization t hat comes from complete indifference even to the most sublime formless realms. T his, of course, is the hardest level of equanimity to develop. Since the three bodies are the ones that are the lower three vehicles that ar e temporary with each incarnation and define our human nature as beings manifest in form, when one has completed karma at those levels, one is fully liberated f rom human karma. There are two ways to define liberation, one, as a state of min d, and, two, as freedom from karma. At the fifth level (Sach Khand)one is both i n a nondual state of mind and has fully exhausted all three levels of human karm a. At the fourth level (Banwhar Gupta) one is also in a 'liberated' state of min d, sahaja, but the very subtle mental/causal karmas are not yet fully exhausted. But this is not so much karma that it obscures the ability of the individual to remain in a nondual state in which they no longer experience dualism, nor do th ey experience the remaining karma as a problem. Since they are in the nondual vi ew at the fourth already, they are liberated, though they have some remaining su btle or causal karma. The inner realization of a master is uneffected by whether or not they have karma yet to play out. But if there is some karma left, some i ntegration to achieve, it will contribute to conditioning the manifestation of t he body(s) of the master. Thus there may be greater degrees of Mastery despite r ealization of Sach Khand. In Sant Mat, there are several levels beyond the Atman: Alak, Agam, and Anami , the latter variously also called Nirala, Radhasoami, Maha Dayal, etc.. These l evels are also recognized by many schools such as in Buddhism, some schools of H induism (Sri Yukteswar, for example), and certain schools of Western esotericism . Beyond all planes of the relative universe is Brahman or the Tao, the nondual or primordial reality. The Nondual is beyond all these levels and yet is the es sential nature of all levels. No level is closer to Nondual than another, althou gh some levels, particularly the subtlest three, are much more conducive to dire ct realization of the nondual or Absolute. We can group the highest planes toget

her as formless planes that give easier access to increasingly liberated nondual realization. In these planes or levels one s awareness and being are not only inf used with direct perception of the Absolute, but also an awareness of one s relati ve Self or Atman (rigpa in Dzogchen) as liberated and luminous, and being of the same substance as the Absolute. Here one also encounters the Universal Presence or Logos, the essence of all awakened Being. But even the realization on has on these planes grows, and so we must not equate these worlds with a particular le vel of developed enlightenment. The densest three planes are the most veiled. These are often called the real ms of separation or maya, not because they are intrinsically less divine, but be cause these realms are characterized by a perception that everyone and everythin g is separate, limited and imperfect. Remember, each of these worlds are really states of consciousness or understanding, even though the greater maya or veiledn ess of the densest realms gives rise to the illusion or appearance of concrete fo rms, beings and an objective universe. Once again, the intermediate or intuitive plane is a transitional realm, with two or three divisions, depending on classification, partaking of the character istics of both the higher and lower trinities. It is therefore a kind of doorway between the formless realms of nondual illumination, and the more concrete real ms of form, time, space and activity. We might also say that the subtlest three planes are planes of purely universal states, and the densest planes are the rea lms more dominated by awareness of particulars. The middle realm is the realm of intuitive awareness of the interrelation of the universal and the particular, t he unity in diversity. Even though the higher worlds, being less veiled, can make access to nondual realization easier to develop, this direct perception of the nondual can be had from any plane or world, because each level can be purified and transformed so t hat it can reflect the Absolute. And each level gives a new richness to nondual realization, so that until nondual realization is developed in all levels, one h as not yet developed the fullest, most balanced awakening. Each of these planes of consciousness has seven subplanes that mirror the maj or planes. The subtlest three subplanes of the form planes are called the etheri c aspect or dimension of each plane. The three lower worlds, being realms of for m, time and space, are populated by many forms of life, and are made up of count less worlds and landscapes. Just as the physical universe is made up of vast num bers of worlds such as subatomic realms, jungles, oceans, continents, planets, s olar systems, galaxies, and so on, so too the astral and mental planes comprise an even greater variety of these realms, all just as relatively real as the physic al universe. So, for instance, there are astral and mental dimensions that are e qually a part of the total reality of our planet, where there are events and dra mas transpiring that affect the totality of the Earth. The psychological worlds (astral and mental) are populated by countless beings, all inhabiting regions th at resonate with their karmic conditions. Subsequently, the various realms may b e categorized according to their level of consciousness and karma, which we find named in various traditions by such terms as heaven realms, hell realms, purgat ories, the realm of hungry ghosts , etc. Thankfully, on the path of Sant mat the in titiate is led straight through or beyond all of these bewitching and bewilderin g sub-regions. To calm any heated brains, the following excerpt from the famous Lankavatara Sutra should be a healing balm, with which we will close this section: "Thus passing beyond the last stage of Bodhisattvahood, he becomes a Tathagat a himself endowed with all the freedom of the Dharmakaya. The tenth stage belong s to the Tathagatas. Here the Bodhisattva will find himself seated upon a lotuslike throne in a splendid jewel-adorned palace and surrounded by Bodhisattvas of

equal rank. Buddhas from all the Buddha-lands will gather about him and with th eir pure and fragrant hands resting on his forehead will give him ordination and recognition as one of themselves. Then they will assign him a Buddha- land that he may possess and perfect as his own." "The tenth stage is called the Great Truth Cloud (Dharmamegha), inconceivable , inscrutable. Only the Tathagatas can realise its perfect Imagelessness and One ness and Solitude. It is Mahesvara, the Radiant Land, the Pure Land, the Land of Far-distances; surrounding and surpassing the lesser worlds of form and desire (karmadhatu), in which the Bodhisattva will find himself at-one- ment. Its rays of Noble Wisdom which is the self-nature of the Tathagatas, many- colored, entra ncing, auspicious, are transforming the triple world as other worlds have been t ransformed in the past, and still other worlds will be transformed in the future . But in the Perfect Oneness of Noble Wisdom there is no gradation nor successio n nor effort, The tenth stage is the first, the first is the eighth, the eighth is the fifth, the fifth is the seventh: what gradation can there be where perfec t Imagelessness and Oneness prevail? And what is the reality of Noble Wisdom? It is the ineffable potency of the Dharmakaya; it has no bounds nor limits; It sur passes all the Buddha-lands, and pervades the Akanistha and the heavenly mansion s of the Tushita." (from The Lankavatara Sutra, Chapter 11, trans. D.T. Suzuki, as condensed in The Buddhist Bible, by Dwight Goddard) 14. Sant Mat versus Buddhism It appears at first glance, and in popular versions of these teachings, that Zen and vipassana Buddhism do not emphasize or pursue trance, while shabd yoga a nd some vajrayana buddhist paths do. Vipassana per se is not a trance practice, but the Theravada/Hinayana schools that most purely reflect the Buddha's origina l teachings do includes the jhanas or states of absorption, which are 'samadhi' or 'trance' practices. Similarly, madyamika or mahayana Buddhism recognizes jhanas, or deepening sta tes without full trance in order to find the ground or primordial consciousness. The jhanas of various schools of Buddhism, however, (in which they are variousl y called states of absorption, samadhis, concentrative states, tranquity states, jhanas, etc.) are in fact trance states. The preliminary state of access concen tration described in some schools of Buddhism is not a trance state, and can be used as a doorway either into trance states (samadhi) or vipassana practice. The next four levels are called form-absorptions, because one is still aware of for m, such as sensations, memories, thoughts, etc., though one's concentration is u nusually deep, and the mind very still. The next four levels are called formless absorptions. These are the levels of infinite space, infinite consciousness, no thingness, and the stage of neither perception nor non-perception. In some schoo ls, depending on approach, the first four are considered deep meditations, but n ot yet fully beyond body consciousness. In other school, all eight levels are co nsidered trance states (no awareness of the body). All schools of Buddhism agree , though, that the last four are samadhi states of profound concentration, bliss , and lucid, expansive awareness. Very unified and pure. The traditional teachin gs, verified by modern practitioners, is that with the onset of the formless jha nas, the various bodily states nearly cease, such a breathing and heart rate. The Buddha believed that these where powerful states to cultivate, and could lead to profound purification of character, expansion of consciousness, and sidd his, among other things. But he did not feel that one could achieve full enlight enment through this approach. The Buddha also said that none of these states whe re the highest 'Truth'. And he said it was especially important not to confuse t he various formless jhanas like infinite space, infinite consciousness, or nothi ngness, with the 'ground' or unconditioned reality. For the Buddha, all these levels where 'not It'. Yet he did describe a samadh

i oriented practice that could give trance access to the 'unconditioned', which in this context he called nirodha, meaning cessation - the complete transcendenc e of all relative experience, form or formless. To access nirodha in trance one has to first master all eight jhanas and also be good at vipassana, which is qui te an achievement. Then one learns to enter each jhana one level at a time, and in each one in turn practice vipassana so as to cultivate the wisdom of seeing t he relative and incomplete nature of each level of samadhi. If one did this whil e progressing from one level of trance to another, upon reaching the highest jha na, one would simply rest in that level until a ripeness occurred that would all ow an effortless movement into nirodha. [This might be considered by some to be the same as nirvikalpa samadhi or anami, but it is not certain, for one can expe rience nirvikalpa samadhi from any plane. Vedantist James Swartz describes becom ing absorbed into Ramakrishna's belly on a subtle plane and going into nirvikalp a samadhi! See www.shiningworld.com]). Interestingly, the Buddha claimed that it was not possible to gain access to nirodha until one had reached the stage of e nlightenment called the 'non-returner' (one stage before the arhat), a stage whe rein one no longer had any physical karma and so would not need to return to the physical world out of karmic necessity. Many or all of the various jhanas would be accessible before this stage, but not nirodha. This matter of becoming free from karma is one that major emphasis is placed on in Sant Mat. They claim that no other school knows how to accomplish that, bu t the Sants do. Moreover, the notion of only reaching the higher jnanas after on e is free frmo karma should give great pause to the contemporary non-dual teache rs, who feel one can go from the empirical reality straight to the absolute real ity, suchness, or void-mind, solely through understanding. The question is what ground are they talking about - the ground of the mind, the ground of the soul, or the ground of the Oversoul or absolute Void-Mind - anami for the Sants? The p roblem is there are different voids, which are not just conceptual distinctions, although many modern as well as ancient non-dual teachers might have one think so. This is a problem that has been an issue and source of debate over the mille nnia. Hence, for instance, the Buddha mastered the jhanas and then felt, much to his teacher's dismay, that this was not the true or final 'void' or ground, but some still relative one. It is not beyond suspicion that, since many modern non dual teachers lack adequate understanding, training, and guidance to distinguish these states, they commonly confuse much of this, misjudging their own and othe r's level of realization. Some great mystics may conceivably reach Maha Sunn, for instance, and believe it is the Absolute Void or Dharmakaya (Reality), when it is actually a phenomen al void, although beyond the mental vehicles. Zen tries to get to the suchness - emptiness or reality much like mahayana, b ut without much in the way of metaphysics. Traditionally, there actually is a fa ir amount of sophisticated theory in the Zen tradition, but it is usually not of fered to students, unless they have progressed far and are being trained to teac h. Then it is considered useful and not a distraction. In modern times zen has d egenerated significantly in many instances from the zen of the great patriarchs, especially in the moral arena. The problem lies in recognizing what one in fact experiences. Unless your mas ter is very great you may not be able to get clear verification. And, again, the re are different degrees of penetration into reality. Read and you will see that even after multiple outstanding satories he still had to practice thirty more y ears for enlightenment in that school. Same for Hakuin, two of the greatest Zen Masters. Sant Kirpal Singh had Zen masters come to the ashram, and they had tears in t heir eyes from laughing so hard with him, so he knew alot more than satsangis mi ght think he did. One may also be aware that this was true for Ramana. People ha

ve the impression that his teachings were very simple, perhaps at times oversimp lifying and maybe not adequately honoring the various stages other less advanced yogis were at. Actually, a thorough study of Ramana shows that not only was he very learned, rich and sophisticated in his understanding and teachings, but fre quently said things that directly contradict what he said at other times, such a s whether one needed for the mind to "sink into the heart and die", or "just be who you are." Most teachers today opt for the later as it is easier. He was skillfull with other styles of spiritual practice that he never openly taught. There is a story, for instance, of an advanced tantric practitioner who came to Ramana because the kundalini had risen into the head chakras but he cou ld not 'get it' to reach the crown. Ramana took him into a private room, but som e students went to listen at the window, curious what Ramana would say to this y ogi. What they heard was Ramama becoming a a tantric adept and giving this yogi a sophisticated understanding of what was going on and how he need proceed, incl uding giving him a mantra to use for his case. In Dzogchen these days some try to keep the mind free and open, some calling that in itself enlightenment, the problem being that until one has been able to find a stable center of conscious-awareness to return to, letting the mind be op en can lead one to stagnate ina relatively subconscious state. I am thinking of the popular work by the venerable Dilgo Gyentse Rinpoche, Dzogchen in Ordinary L ife. This is a complex issue, but most true Dzogchen teachings that work with th is 'free and open' awareness are very aware of and have complex strategies for p reparing students to practice in this way, as well as ways to work the these pra ctices to remain balanced and alert. Dzogchen is generally taught in the context of the Nyingmapa lineage, and is considered the final of nine stages or tantras , all of which are preceded by preliminary practices. For the Buddha, vipassana was they practice he taught that was based in 'free and open' awareness. But he said that should first get a foundation in right conduct, then a preliminary fou ndation in deep concentration, and only then switch to cultivation vipassana, wh ich should then ideally be pursued alongside trance or samadhi practices. The th reefold foundation of practice he taught is therefore also somewhat sequential sila (morality), samadhi (various concentration, trance, and purification pract ices) and prajna (wisdom developed through vipassana). Unfortunately in the West, practitioners here generally developed their appro ach to various forms of Buddhism backwards - typically becoming enamored of vipa ssana and other 'higher' practices such as Dzogchen, while ignoring or tying to skip over the traditional order of approach as taught by the Buddha and others. Everyone likes the idea of doing the "keep the mind in its natural state" practi ce. They forget , for instance, that Dilgo Rinpoche he spent fifteen years in ca ves and meditated six hours a day for years afterwards and probably teaches diff erently to the monks who have taken vows than they are aware of. For a sobering description of the sadhana of the venerable vipassana master, Luangta Maha Boowo (1913-2011, and the skillfull interconnection of moral virtue, concentration/mi ndfulness, and wisdom/insight practice, see the free on-line version of his new book, Samana, in particular the chapter "From Ignorance to Emptiness." In this s hort section he explains how the samadhi of emptiness [the theravada equivalent of nirvikalpa], as well as the stabilisation of that under the conditions of ord inary life, both advanced stages on the path, are yet, in essence, "fetters" to the Nibbana of the Buddha, the 'ultimate emptiness'. This is a worthwhile read. The power of 'free and open' awareness is that it is a particularly suitable practice for opening to nondual realization, for when awareness is balanced with equanimity, concentration and investigation (as is the method of vipassana), an d all levels of experience from physical to psychological to spiritual, are allo wed to arise without preference, this openness is actualizing nondualism in its aspect of not preferring one object of awareness to another, one plane to anothe r, etc. The danger of trance states is that they express an inherent preference

for higher and higher planes, allowing for the danger of attachment to these pla nes. Vipassana is the antidote to this. Mahamudra is a pinnacle practice in some Tibetan teachings, just as Dzogchen is in others (particularly Nyingmapa and Kagyu). In all these traditions, an ope n focus meditation that integrates nondual awareness with all other levels of ex perience, including activity in daily life, is the final practice (if not employ ed in some form at other stages). In all lineages Mahamudra or Dzogchen is alway s preceded by various tantric practices (such as the Six Yogas of Naropa that Mi larepa and Marpa used, which is basically a form of kundalini yoga), or Deity Yo ga (also a tantric practice as used in Vajrayana), as well as various preliminar y practices such as Ngondro. So at the heart of all major Buddhist lineages is a practice that the Buddha taught originally as vipassana, and later was spun in various ways as zazen, shikan-taza, Mahamudra, Dzogchen, etc. all of which have at the essence to be fully present with all that is arising moment to moment, cu ltivation no attachment to any technique, plane, or viewpoint, which leads to re alizing sahaja samadhi or what the Buddha called 'nirvana with elements', meanin g the experience of nondual realization/liberation while fully aware of the rela tive level of experience. My main question has long been: does shabd yoga strictly and merely by invers ion even to the highest levels of mystical ascent realize the natural state of s ahaj samadhi spoken of by the great sages like Ramana, Ashtavakra, Sankara, Budd ha, etc.? I think there have been Sant Mat saints who have - like Kabir, Rumi, a nd Kirpal -, but that it is not a given just through the mystical process. Moreo ver, are the various trance or samadhi states as taught by the Buddha, for insta nce, or in other school such as Vedanta or Raja Yoga, not to mention the vast ar ray of other schools more or less the same as the stages/states of Sant Mat. I b elieve some are, and some are not. One of the key differences is that what the v arious levels of trance accomplish, how they are experienced, and what one gets out of them, depends a lot on how one approaches them. For instance, the Buddha actually taught two types of trance samadhi practice. One was normal jhanas/sama dhis, the other jhanas in which one also cultivated vipassana within that partic ular trance state. A different approach, with different consequences. Plotinus s aid that we must "teach our souls." In other words, if we don't have the right d octrine or view, we won't understand the experiences we do have. The Buddha, as far as we can tell, used the term jhana in two ways - trance j hanas, but also what he called vipassana-jhanas. The former where absorptions le ading to samadhi trance, and the later simply designated the various stages to a bsorption or deep concentration in various states of contemplation/realization a s they arise doing vipassana. There were four of these basic vipassana-jhanas th at one progresses through stage by stage, culminating in a satori experience (a kind of fifth stage). Then one must return to the second vipassana-jhana, which would again ripen by doing vipassana through a deeper version of the second, thi rd and fourth vipassana-jhanas a second time, culminating in a second satori or nondual awakening. Again one would return to the second vipassana-jhana, ripen t hrough more realization stages culminating in a third satori (now one is a non-r eturner). At this point one has completed physical karma, but is not yet in saha ja samadhi (though it is a very peaceful, virtuous, conscious state with easy ac cess in meditation to nondual awareness). Proceeding through the vipassana-jhana s a fourth time culminates in a fourth and final satori from which one does not 'come back out'. One is now an arhat, permanently established in what Ramana cal led 'external nirvikalpa samadhi', which he distinguished from internal or tranc e-based nirvikalpa samadhi. One is jivan-mukti, liberated while embodied. Many a depts may have attained the non-returner stage and have access in samadhi to non dual awareness (and so believe they are fully enlightened), but are not fully li berated jivan-muktis (arhats) because they have not taken the final step to brin g that nondual awareness fully into waking awareness. of course, this is what Pa ul Brunton (PB), Atmananda Krishna Menon and others have argued. For instance, P

B wrote: "The Overself should not be reached merely in trance; it must be known in ful l waking consciousness. Trance is merely the deepest phase of meditation, which in turn is instrumental in helping prepare the mind to discover truth. Yoga does not yield truth directly. Trance does not do more than concentrate the mind per fectly and render it completely calm. Realization can come after the mind is in that state and after it has begun to inquire, with such an improved instrument, into truth." (10a) The result of this is a state that is constant, whether one is in meditative trance or not, and requires no further practice or even vigilance, as the condit ion, the natural state, maintains itself. Needless to say, this is the culminati on of a great maturity, and few have attained it. PB describes this condition in the following way. I offer this as another example of another ancient teaching that is something for meditators on trance-samadhi mystical types of paths to co nsider along with their devotional search for the soul, and for those teachers a lso to ponder if they need to seek further training in order to realize the cond ition known as "open-eyes." He states: "The "natural" philosophic attainment gives insight as a continuity whereas m editation gives it as an interruption. More, its attitudes are so relaxed, its o perations so effortless, its outlook so carefree, that those who have to work ha rd to get the temporary enlightenment know that nothing else in life has the sam e importance, the same value." (10b) "A tacit insight, nothing more," is a saying that has been attributed to the Buddha upon his enlightenment, after he had passed through the eight progressive jnanas of meditation and realized that they were not 'it'. And what does one get for his labors? The sense that he is a "conscious co-wo rker of the divine plan", as Kirpal Singh would sometimes say? Again there is pa radox. The answer is, "yes," if the meaning is that one sees the God-Power as th e real doer; and "no," if one if takes oneself as an independent agent. For what has one become when he reaches Sach Khand or Anami Lok, the great Emptiness? Ki rpal would even more often say that he was "nothing," a "mere pipe," helpless wi thout his Master's grace." As PB wrote: "Those who find that beyond the Light they must pass through the Void, the un bounded emptiness, often draw back affrighted and refuse to venture farther. For here they have naught to gain or get, no glorious spiritual rapture to add to t heir memories, no great power to increase their sense of being a co-worker with God. Here their very life-blood is to be squeezed out as the price of entry; her e they must become the feeblest of creatures." (10c) This is an important point to think over. It has the potential to draw togeth er many different paths. For the Master is even more vulnerable than his discipl es! Continuing, in Theravada, in the first significant stage, one has the samadhi of emptiness; then he comes out of it and continues to inquire, investigate men tal states, etc., until he overcomes the attachment to the samdhi of emptiness a nd reaches emptiness in natural life. Then he goes beyond even this 'attachment' to the final emptiness or the Nibbana of the Buddha. beyond all categories and concepts. According to anadi, each state must be realized, then cultivated, stabilised, and integrated. Then one can move on to the next true stage. That takes care of the argument of many newer teachers.

In true Dzogchen, this liberation is the third of three stages - first gain s amadhi access to rigpa or nondual presence, then stabilize rigpa in non-trance m editation (like vipassana), then integrate it into daily activity. Ramana taught , similarly, that raising the kundalini to the crown chakra brought internal nir vikalpa samadhi, but not full jivanmukti. To do this on the kundalini path, one needed to bring the kundalini back to the heart and establish it there through t he channel he called the amrita nadi, an extension of the sushumna which curved back from the crown center to the heart. The kundalini, completing this deeper m ovement, established one as a jivanmukti. Of course, this is not what the Sants teach, and it is not clear proof that one is free of karma and totally non-dual realized throughout the planes by this approach. It is not clear that realizing yogic nirvikalpa is the half-way house to realization, in other words. Even Rama na went back and forth teaching this and also teaching the ever-attractive, "jus t be who you are." For example, he, like PB above, said: "We try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happines s lies elsewhere. This is the mistake. The Self is all-pervading. Our real natur e is liberation, but we imagine that we are bound, we make strenuous efforts to become free, although all the while we are free. Birth and death pertain only to the body, they are superimposed upon the Self, giving rise to the delusion that birth and death relate to the Self. The universe exists within the Self. Discov er the undying Self and be immortal and happy. Be yourself and nothing more. Tho ughts change but not you. There is neither past nor future; there is only the pr esent. Yesterday was the present when you experienced it; tomorrow will also be the present when you experience it, therefore, experience takes place only in th e present, and even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is pu rely mental. All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can b e easier than that? Your true nature is that of infinite spirit." (Ramana Mahar shi, source misplaced) Ramana basically offered two paths to realization. One would be the trance pa th which would be savikalpa samadhi, to internal nirvikalpa samadhi, then to ext ernal nirvikalpa or sahaja samadhi. But he also taught that one could bypass the two internal stages of samadhi and go directly into sahaja samadhi. This could be done by doing Self-Inquiry in the spiritual heart. Vipassana and other integrated presence practices are methods of direct reali zation of sahaja without need for trance states. In fact, the Buddha said that o ne of the fetters that remained after one achieved nirvikalpa samadhi (and becom ing a non-returner), and that could be removed by doing vipassana, was attachmen t to higher planes. Because in a very profound sense, the nondual is not really one of the planes, it is the ground of all the planes, and so can be accessed fr om any level. It is just easier to initially access it in trance, which can give the illusion that it is a higher plane. So can the path of Sant Mat bring one to sahaja samadhi? Yes, the difference is that, in the trance path, one must pass back and forth from internal states t o outer consciousness many, many times, which leads to gradually integrating the inner realization with ordinary consciousness. Eventually, the stage is reached of internal nirvikalpa samadhi (for the Sants, anami, which may possibly be muc h deeper than nirvikalpa as traditionally described) which, when experienced oft en enough and then returning to the physical world enough times, leads to nondua l realization being integrated with the physical body. I don't think it happens by itself necessarily, however, and I also realize it is not on the top of the l ist of concerns for most of us! But for a saint or a sage it would be. This poin t merits further exploration: Shabd Yoga As A Jnana Path In Buddhism, we distinguish between spiritual experiences and spiritual realiz

ations. Spiritual experiences are usually more vivid and intense than realizatio ns because they are generally accompanied by physiological and psychological cha nges. Realizations, on the other hand, may be felt, but the experience is less p ronounced. Realization is about acquiring insight. Therefore, while realizations arise out of our spiritual experiences, they are not identical to them. Spiritu al realizations are considered vastly more important because they cannot fluctua te. The distinction between spiritual experiences and realizations is continually emphasized in Buddhist thought. If we avoid excessively fixating on our experien ces, we will be under less stress in our practice. Without that stress, we will be better able to cope with whatever arises, the possibility of suffering from p sychic disturbances will be greatly reduced, and we will notice a significant sh ift in the fundamental texture of our experience. (Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, "Lett ing Go of Spiritual Experience," (Tricycle, Fall 2004) This is a common criticism of mystic paths, of which Sant Mat is one. But can we re-categorize it so that it reflects the aspects of a jnana path, rather tha n only an emanationist bhakti path? I believe we can. Sant Kirpal Singh wrote: By a process of self-analysis, He (a Sadh) has known the self or the spirit in Its real form - to wit, that it is of the same essence as God; and now He striv es for God-knowledge. Each spiritual path makes use of some constellation of spiritual qualities mo re than others. Some emphasize love, devotion, surrender, faith. Another may emp hasize self-analysis, discrimination, inquiry, wisdom and realization. Yet anoth er may focus on compassion and service. And a fourth will emphasize esoteric tec hnical knowledge, skills, power and mastery. There are other leanings as well. M any paths have a variety of these facets, and different people may practice with in the same tradition with different approaches. A path and a specific practice is like a person it has a form or body(s), a s oul (virtue and relative wisdom) and a spirit (basic spiritual sensibility such as nondual, theistic, nature mysticism, etc.). So, when looking at a path or spe cific practice, we can understand the overall approach or practice by looking at the specifics of the form used (mantra, following the breath, visualizations, p ranayama and so on), but also we can understand the soul of the practice by look ing at the specific qualities that are emphasized, and also the deeper spirit or e ssence of the practice in terms of the spiritual vision, philosophy and ultimate goal of the path or practice. So, for instance, a path with the outer form of r epeating a mantra can be the expression of various orientations in that the inne r soul and spirit of the approach may differ. The same mantra (form) may be repe ated by one person with a quality of faith, surrender and devotion and with the underlying spirit of Theistic sensibility, seeking union with God. Another pract itioner may use the same mantra with an emphasis on technical precision, concent ration and discipline, with the aim of leading the kundalini to a particular cha kra, with the ultimate aim of impersonal liberation. Many combinations are possi ble with different forms, qualities and spiritual sensibilities, even when the o uter form of the practices are more or less the same. Since all qualities are interconnected, emphasizing some leaning will ultimat ely bring development in other areas as well. Someone emphasizing technical deve lopment or devotion will ultimately develop wisdom and realization. While someon e leaning towards discrimination and equanimity will ultimately develop love and compassion. But . it seems to generally be true that the fastest route to the dev elopment of specific qualities is to actively include them in our path. Shabd or nada yoga is a form of spiritual practice that is practiced in vario us contexts. In the Sikh tradition it is most commonly associated with a bhakti

style emphasizing faith, simplicity, purity, surrender, devotion and love. In th at context it may not be a form of practice that is based primarily on using dis crimination, awareness or inquiry to cultivate wisdom and liberating realization , but it does, secondarily, lead to a powerful process of insight and awakening. It may be argued that if the context and attitude to practicing shabd yoga incl uded a stronger aspect of these qualities, then the wisdom fruits of this path m ay arise more immediately and richly. But that does not mean they are not inevit ably present in that approach already to some degree. There are other traditions that use nada/shabd yoga strictly in a context of nondual wisdom development, or in the context of raja yoga, or in the context of technical kundalini/tantric yoga approaches. Also these paths vary as to their core cosmologies, some being Advaita, other qualified, and even some with purely dualistic cosmologies. So in what way does shabd yoga act as a form of discriminating wisdom practic e, generating self-knowledge and culminating in Self-Realization? Through the fo llowing: (1) By meditating on the inner sound, the practitioner is first learning to c oncentrate. In this phase awareness moves back and forth between the sound curre nt and distractions of sensation, emotion, memories, plans, etc. This helps to d evelop a foundational insight, a discrimination between the sound current and th e personality/ego. This leads to greater self-knowledge about the contents of on e s personality, and the difficulties they pose to deeper concentration and peace of mind. (2) Gradually, as concentration develops, attunement to the sound current rev eals soul qualities of peacefulness, awareness, concentration, detachment, love, surrender and so on. The movement of awareness back and forth during moments of distraction and periods of concentration continue to deepen the intuitive insig ht not only into the difference between soul qualities (which the sound current is now a focus for attuning to) and the lower bodies, but also gives rise to inc reasing insight into the value or desirability of soul-identification over ident ification with the lower bodies and ego. (3) Further, this growing insight and deepening attunement to soul throws int o greater relief the nature of the ego, its various expressions as anger, selfis hness, loneliness, pride, inferiority, sadness, attachment, manipulation and so on. The contrast between these states of ego and qualities of soul become cleare r and clearer as the practitioner gradually deepens concentration on the sound c urrent and loosens identification with the personality limitations. The dukkha o r unsatisfactoriness of the separate ego, and the deep spiritual satisfaction of soul grows clearer and clearer over time. (4) Eventually, enough purification of karma, release of attachment, and disi dentification from the lower bodies allows the consciousness to become absorbed enough in the sound current and inner soul qualities that the individual is able , in meditation, to withdraw from body awareness. This deepens the insight that one is not the body, because one is now directly aware of not only existing 'out side' of the body, but also of a finer astral body that one now finds oneself in . This expresses a clear moment or transition in self-knowledge, not the last, b ut an important turning point. (5) Through further meditation on the sound current, one gains further insigh t into one's higher nature, especially at this stage one's spiritual self or sou l as a center of formless identity, wholeness, peace, virtue and wisdom. Droppin g awareness of the physical body and extended meditation on the sound current al low for a greater participation in soul experience at this stage, more fully cla rifying the difference between soul and lower states of consciousness.

(6) Eventually the practitioner of shabd yoga raises above the astral and cau sal bodies as well. These each lead to new levels of self-knowledge as the disti nction between one's lower and higher nature becomes clearer and clearer. At thi s stage, have moved beyond the causal level of our nature, the practitioner is i mmersed in a profound level of soul identification, which continues to deepen th roughout the process of moving through the mahasunn and Bhanwar Gupha. At this s tage the aspect of the soul that becomes more vividly aware of its union with th e Oversoul or Sat Purush comes to the forefront, deeply enhancing that dimension of one's spiritual understanding. (7) Rising above this plane and merging in the atman at the level of Sach Kha nd, the soul experiences final realization of the difference between itself and the lower bodies or sheaths. This wisdom is fundamental to the agency that has p rovided the capacity of the soul to realize this truth. (8) Inherent in this realization is the deepening Realization that the nature of the atman is inseparable from the Sat Purush. (9) Stages of ascent beyond Sach Khand refine this nondual illumined state fu rther and further. Therefore, even though in the Sikh tradition the qualities emphasized in the practice of shabd yoga are not jnani qualities per se but those deepening concentr ation that lead to movement from plane to plane, there is still secondarily and inevitably a growing realization/wisdom that comes from proceeding through these stages and experiences. Returning to the lower bodies at the end of each cycle of meditation also ser ves to enhance the intuitive wisdom of the soul in its realization of the differ ence between these levels of its nature, continually enhancing the wisdom that l eads to awakening from false identifications, first by contrast and disillusionm ent, later by profound illumination. Practice over time furthers the ability of the soul to stage by stage bring m ore of this realization back into waking day to day consciousness, both by the d eepening inner realization in meditation, and by the gradual purification of the sheaths that also results from the process, allowing the soul to reflect more i ts realization in the lower bodies as they get saturated with the higher love, l ight, and wisdom. "Sound arises in the inner sky of pure consciousness, the heart-space in the head, the sky of the heart. What manifests is Life-Power, the One." - Nityananda [End of "Shabd Yoga As A Jnana Path"] Vipassana practices hold a key to efficiently integrate higher realization wi th the human personality and physical body, because one practices holding as dee p a realization as one can in direct relationship to those levels of experience, integrating that level of realization into the human aspects. Both aspects tran sform over time (the depth of one's realization and the various dimensions of ou r human nature - body, emotions, thoughts) eventually leading to integrated nond ual realization. So both the Buddha (and Ramana as another example) taught that it is possible to cultivate sahaja samadhi without cultivating trance states. So what is the value of trance states? One important one is that they are, fo r many people, the fastest way to develop a deeply peaceful, centered, concentra ted state of mind. And even vipassana (zazen, Dzogchen, etc.) will progress much faster with that foundation. The approaches normally used for vipassana allow f or reliable progress without significant samadhi power developed first, but it i

s widely believed, and was considered by the Buddha, to be better with it. Deep concentration can and is developed within vipassana practice, but it is often ea sier to develop concentration when focusing on a specific subject (visualization , mantra, shabda) rather than while cultivating the open awareness at the heart of vipassana. There are also many other advantages and values of using samadhi/t rance practices. In fact, the Buddha had many of his liberated arhat disciples c ontinuing to expand and enrich their 'post-realization' states, to enhance their relative wisdom and expand their capacity for service. This included enhancing access to higher worlds, developing siddhis, and expanding relative knowledge. T his is, of course, totally consistent with Sant Mat. In light of all this, the teaching of Nisargadatta that after death one is si mply absorbed back into the absolute seems extreme. There is a special value unique to Shabd Yoga which the Buddhist style jhana, or vipassana, practices do not cultivate. And that is that the Shabd itself is a special focus of concentration. The Shabd is the Logos, Shabda Brahman, or, to translate into Buddhist terminology, the Sound of the Primordial or Universal B uddha. So to meditate on the Shabd is to directly attune to the Universal Presen ce of Nondual Enlightenment, a living, dynamic Presence that transmits realizati on directly into the meditator. In other words, most of the Buddhist versions of samadhi practice do not invo lve the immersion in a source of grace the way Shabd yoga does. This is a great advantage for the path of Sant Mat. But is it still a samadhi path, so it is not necessarily as efficient at bridging that realization back into the body. That is why combine Shabd Yoga with a vipassana-like practice or insight-contemplatio n may be useful. [However, it must also be said that when one investigates what it takes to pursue the path of the Buddhist jnanas, in this current age Sant Mat looks like a breeze by comparison. Also, the way one learns to move from plane to plane in each approach makes i t possible that the nature of the realization and transformation that is taking place at each stage and plane is not the same. In shabd yoga, it is not just 'tr ance', but an actual death and rebirth, in stages. So, for instance, reaching Sa ch Khand in Shabd Yoga is the result not just of samadhi but a transformation re sulting from communion with the Sat Purush that is not the same as what transfor mation has transpired for a Buddhist using the typical jhana practices and reach ing the same 'plane'. 15. After Death This is what is generally understood to take place after death for non-initia tes. First, the consciousness 'in the body' withdraws and is located now in the astral world. If it is a naturally more conscious individual, there will be some awareness that it has died. Karmic connections will tend to dictate who will be available to help after transition. For most souls these will be extended famil y members. For more advanced souls, mentors, elder initiates and masters. The mo re conscious the person, the more rich the process of transition, the higher the aspect of the astral world entered into. Very advanced initiates often skip ove r the astral and even some higher planes. It depends on many factors. Many souls will experience the first stage of transition as like a dream, and due to their confusion about what has transpired, they will carry over in the own subconscio us the elementals of this life (as in a dream) and continue experiencing a 'life ', believing they are still living in the physical, and will behave accordingly. This is not necessarily a painful state. They are working out astral karma, but not very quickly. For many of them it is not hard to convince them that they ha ve died, and then with that simple realization, their experience shifts and they move into higher astral worlds. For many normal souls, and 'junior' initiates, there will be awareness that dropping the body has taken place, and a more or le

ss smooth transition will take place, in which the person will assimilate into a new life in the astral world. Whether the transition was more conscious or not, the fact of having dropped the physical sheath will gradually have its effects, for the lack of a dense body will cause various heavier desires to fall away, a llowing the soul to become more conscious and begin to have deeper understanding of what has happened and where they are. Depending on the person, this can take anywhere from seconds to years. Initiates will usually make this transition very quickly because of two facts - the grace of the master, and the power of their own consciousness, which by v irtue of the fact that they are initiates, generally means that they are not you ng souls who are likely to be more confused and take longer to awaken. Having dr opped the body will make it easier to expand into a more conscious experience of the next world, and the help of friends, family and sangha and guru all make th is inevitable. And if their level of consciousness is adequate when they die, th ey don't even need any help, but will simply make a conscious transition, unders tand what is happening, and typically have a very positive transition. Now, here is the key. A human soul has two basic parts. A part that exist in higher planes, which has different aspects, and an emanation from this part that forms another self on the lower planes, the incarnate self. They are the same s oul, in two levels of expression. The essence of the higher self is the atman, s pirit, Overself or rigpa. This part rests in nondual realization and does not 'd escend' into incarnation. This is the part of us that 'lives' in Sach Khand and is already illumined. Although the intensity of this realization can grow, it is still nondual realization. The atman's realization also shines into the anandam aya sheath 'below', creating a formless, higher dimensional 'body' that also has a type of identity that remains close to the atman, but in the average person d oes not have as much nondual awareness. This body is also called the causal body in Vedanta, because in it are stored the seeds of the karmas that give rise to rebirths in the realms below. These two levels comprise not just planes or world s, but also we have a permanent form of identity on these planes, permanent in t hat they provide continuity from birth to birth. These levels of self do not get dropped after each incarnation ends. The bodies below these get gradually dropp ed after each birth (in some schools the basic divisions at these levels is phys ical, astral, mental. In the five body Vedantic system they are divided somewhat differently and are annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya kosas). These bo dies are temporary each life. The consciousness of the higher self, atma/buddhi, grows from life to life, assimilating wisdom, character (virtue), and nondual r ealization that is never lost, but 'remains in the higher worlds', so to speak. From life to life as the higher consciousness grows, the bodies generally get mo re refined, and reflect more of the higher realization that is developing in the higher self. Eventually the combined effect of extensive soul development in th e higher planes, and finer bodies developed in the lower planes (through transfo rming karma and 'upgrading' the elementals that make up one's manifest character ), allows the consciousness of the deeper self [this is similar to what Sri Auro bindo referred to as the 'psychic entity'] to shine through the lower bodies, gi ving rise to more and more illumined states of consciousness expressed in the lo wer bodies. After death, the individual in their astral body will become more permeable t o the higher self's consciousness, allowing more wisdom and virtue (and ultimate ly nondual illumination) to shine through, how much depending on the state of ev olution of the soul, but always more that the physical self experienced because there is now one less sheath to veil it. So the consciousness, now shedding its vasanas that had to do with being in a physical body, will be integrating more w ith the inner self. This, for most people is a gradual process. Eventually it is time for the second death where the astral is also shed. This allows the consci ousness to become even more permeable to the higher self, their consciousnesses merging even more. By this time the awareness of the person is no longer very si

milar to what it was when they were in incarnation. They have significantly awak ened to remember much that their soul or higher self already knows on its own pl ane (anandamaya/atman). Finally, after some time, a third death will ensure, and the consciousness will fully assimilate back into the higher self, enriching th e higher self with experience. The aspect of the higher self that is the anandam ayakosa 'self' is somewhat veiled with dualism, yet it is mild. This self has di scriminating wisdom. One might call it 'enlightened dualism'. That is, it discri minates about virtue, distinguishes good and bad karma, strives for enlightenmen t, functions as true conscience, and tries to guide each incarnation, within the limits of karma. So each life enriches the relative wisdom and virtue of this l evel of our nature, even if it has not been a very good life karma wise for the outer personality. The inner self still harvests wisdom from the experience, bec ause its core nature does not fall into identification with the lower bodies, ma intains perspective, and assimilates wisdom. Since this self is pretty wise in m ost people, especially those on the path, one method of growth is to simply clea r the lower bodies of obstructions, allowing the inner wisdom and virtue to natu rally shine through. But that will only take one so far. This anandamaya self mu st eventually complete its process of becoming illuminated by the atman or nondu al self through both developing virtue and surrendering to nondual presence, whi ch are all interrelated. So the lower ego self, identified with the lower bodies , gradually integrates its identity with the anandamaya self, attaining what in Sant Mat is called Self-Realization (prior to God-Realization), which in Sant Ma t does not mean Atmic or nondual realization, but rather advanced virtue and rel ative wisdom realization, beyond the temporary bodies and bondage in the realms of Kal and MahaKal. Then the anandamaya self is fully liberated into nondual rea lization (in degrees). So, in between lives a temporary version, in the ascending model, of this lar ger process takes place wherein the lower self is gradually assimilated into the higher, anandamaya self. As this gradual assimilation progresses, both selves a re enriched. The anandamaya self 'digests' the consciousness of the lower self, harvesting wisdom and virtue. And the lower self is infused with the much greate r realization of the higher self. So by the time it reaches Daswan Dwar, it is n o longer the incarnate identity it was, it is essentially transformed back into union with its self at the anandamaya level, reawakening to this much deeper lev el of awareness, like coming home, or as if it had been asleep, identified with the lower bodies. Not the home of Sach Khand, but still a much more spiritual an d wise level. The higher self is the ongoing accumulation of all the wisdom and virtue of all the previous experiences, both in physical and subtle realms. This level is sometimes (as in Vedanta) called the causal level because, though the higher self here is not consciously identified with all the unresolved vasanas o r karmas that are yet to be liberated, they do exist there now in seed form, to re-emerge in future births, sprouting forth through the lower bodies. So even th ough the higher self at that plane is not identified with these vasanas, it is l imited by the subtle veil their presence as seeds creates between its consciousn ess and deeper nondual awakening. So, does the consciousness of the individual that dies go back to Daswan Dwar ? In my tentative view, yes and no. No in the sense of not as it was. But yes in the sense that it is gradually assimilated into that level, with the unresolved vasanas return to seed form. The self that arrives at Daswan Dwar is, in a cert ain sense, not the same self that died, but a transformed and purified self. To learn to go to Daswan Dwar in meditation is to learn to 'die daily', so that the mutual infusion of these levels goes forth during life, rather than after death . This way the lower self is gradually assimilated and transformed into the high er self during life, and the lower karmas and experiences are transformed by the soul, enriching its realization and preparing it for the final stage of assimil ation into the atman (and beyond). If Daswan Dwar has been reached during medita tion while still alive, then one does not need to gradually assimilate during th e after death stages, and will simply go to that level or beyond, or continue, l

ike many do, to retain a lower body to be of service on those planes. Being an initiate ensures that one's master will be there when you pass over, and will guide you though these states. There is nothing to fear about all of t his. For initiates, death is a primarily a beautiful experience. There is a sens e of liberation (relatively) and often a feeling of revelation. Often, though, t here is a period first of gaining perspective on the past incarnation, which at first may be difficult, as we may have carried over the tendency to judge oursel ves too harshly for our human weaknesses and limitations. But eventually, usuall y fairly quickly both due the nature of the process and to the help of others, o ur consciousness shifts. We gain more perspective about why our life took the fo rm it did, we see the karmic patterns behind it, we see what we learned, what ka rma was worked out, and what hidden grace helped us, and greater understanding a nd compassion emerge. Then we come to balance and peace about our life, and we m ove on. If one cannot do a specific practice like absorption in the nada at the time of death, then simply remember the master, even repeating his name, for thi s will ensure one will recognize His presence more immediately. He will definite ly be there, but we may blind ourselves to this at first by our doubts, fears, a nd self-judgments. One experience of a practitioner, a Darshan Singh initiate, who will remain u nnamed, professed to having a numbers of higher plane masters before Him, whom D arshan recognized as real, and who has himself integrated various practices with one another, sheds light on a broader vision of this process. This is not advic e for anyone to follow, just food for thought for the curious or 'hungry'. One m ay take it at face value for him or her. We have tried to be impartial throughou t this paper and are not departing from that guideline now: "Although I have used many spiritual practices, the heart of my path is nondu al transmission by grace. I was initiated by my lineage back into conscious awar eness of my dharma and relationship to them in 1982, at which time a 'process' w as started that involves, among other things, the transmission of Shakti/nondual realization in a sustained form ever since. This has been both a very inspiring and extremely demanding process, because, as you know, strong initiation brings up vasanas that are unresolved. In our lineage, this is done by degree. But onc e the disciple has reached the stage where surrender is adequate, a more profoun d transmission of fire/consciousness can be released. If adequate surrender is n ot developed yet, this can cause a backlash reaction from the ego that is counte r productive. So it needs to be gradual and regulated to the stage of developmen t. But even when surrender is more developed, the process of compressing that mu ch transformation into so short a time can be very stressful. So, I am very fami liar with various forms of the dark night, kundalini-process symptoms, etc. My t eaching cycles tend to correspond to when I have stabilized a new plateau. Altho ugh I do meditation practices and karma yoga, the real power of my awakening is from this transmission, which aims to directly actualize realization in day-to-d ay awareness, without the need for travel to higher planes. But I do meditate al so, emphasizing a vipassana-like practice because it most directly helps to surr ender to the transmission and integrate it into daily life. For other reason I o ften use other practices, especially meditation on the naam, but more as a suppl ementary practice. But the naam at this stage is also present in my awareness th roughout the day, and feels more like an integral part of my awareness and prese nce, rather than something only heard in meditation and experienced as something outside of myself. So an aspect of shabd yoga for me is attuning to the nada du ring activity as an energetic or vibratory aspect of the state of presence itsel f, rather than more of an inner and trance practice (though I also do that too, usually during the night). Although I do not currently emphasize trance practices, I have had many experi ences of those dimensions. In the early stages these were facilitated by my inne r teachers much of the time. During this stage I was introduced to various level

s of the inner worlds. So, though I am not as masterful at accessing these plane s as people like Daskalos or the Sant Mat gurus, I do have some personal experie nce to base my 'opinions' on about these realms. But also we must remember that contact with so-called higher planes does not only happen in trance. These plane s are all interpenetrating vibratory/consciousnesses and can be attuned to while in one's body at any time. Since I am already have a strong connection with hig her planes by nature, much of my practice is geared towards integrating realizat ion in the lower planes, rather than trying to access higher worlds. So most of my contact with higher worlds is done in the context of remaining in my body, so that I do not over stimulate myself (the energy is already very strong and so t here is a danger of over stimulation), and so I attune to the realization, quali ty and experiences of other realms in a state of 'integrated presence' to keep b alanced. My inner lineage first showed me what this state of integrated presence could be like in 1984. To make a longer story shorter, I was with a client doing spiri tual counseling, he was talking about a relationship. I was starting to identify with him and judge his partner for her behavior. I noticed this and pulled back to a deeper state of presence. Then I felt a Greater Presence 'reach into me' a nd expand my consciousness. This began to emerge in me as a feeling of my deeper self 'incarnating' into my body. As my consciousness was expanding, I noticed t hat, to be in this state at my stage, my unresolved karma/vasanas had to be set aside temporarily to allow this sahaja state to manifest. I felt these energies being kind of pushed down my spine into my lowest chakras until they were pushed out the back with a pop. When this happened (it all took a short time) I simply snapped into a new state that it is nearly impossible to describe. The foundati onal aspect of this state was that everything just 'was'. The judgment I had fel t a minute before was now replace with such a profoundly embracing state that th ere didn't seem to be room anymore to step back and judge anything. Also, I rema ined 'in my body', though in fact the nature of the body as I was aware of it in this state was radically transformed. For one, the presence of nondual realization was so pervasive that there was n o discernable boundaries any longer between planes. The various planes now stood revealed as a seamless continuum of consciousness that embraced what we would o rdinarily call the physical plane (which was now not material but a form of cons cious) through the subtle planes, into spiritual planes. Since all were illumine d from a nondual state, they were seamlessly integrated, none higher than anothe r, and certainly not stacked up, one on the other in a two dimensional fashion. They were part of a multidimensional wholeness that revealed patterns and beings and yet was nondual at the same time. In this state, I 'saw' the nondual nature , evolving soul, and personality/karmic aspects of not only the client, but also the woman who he was involved with, and others who were part of their story. I could see the karmic conditions of their lives, and the way their souls were 'in carnated' into them, how they mirrored their stage of evolution, and how it was all absolutely perfect, in the sense that their karmic situation in incarnation perfectly mirrored the stage of the soul's evolution and they were all, therefor e, incarnated in the right experiences for their spiritual evolution, like a glo ve perfectly fitting a hand. There was nothing to judge. These were not ideas I was having in my mind in that state. They were part of a multilayered, direct in tuitive/nondual realization of the nature of what was so. I was directly realiza tion these things through a profound oneness with them. In that state, I no long er had ordinary sensation, but yet was aware of the physical world, I did not ha ve emotions, but was aware of the psychological dimension, and I did not have or dinary thoughts, but had superconscious realization. As usual with these things, my description feels very inadequate. Gradually a reflective self-awareness beg an to emerge, and I slowly started to emerge from the state. I began to have a p art that was observing what was happening to me, and having thoughts like 'this is interesting', 'I wonder how long this will last', 'gee, I wonder if I can tal k while I am in this state, integrating it with behavior'. I could, for while st

ill hold a certain level of this while talking with the client, but the thinking that emerged gradually drew my back out the state. I have been in various forms of these states many times since, including in trance as well, but I do not gra sp after them. They served to directly introduce me to the nature of more realiz ed states, that not only helped transform my consciousness in the moment, but pr ovided direct insight that helps to gradually surrender to higher realization ov er time." It must go without saying that this is but an example, and not a prescription for anyone to follow. Each must find his own way. He concludes with what seems to me a note of sanity for our day and age: "As we move towards a more scientific approach to evolving our understanding of the spiritual life, our experiences are our data, which we need to share with each other to expand our mutual base of experience and enrich understanding. We are the experiments, and so we need to share that with each other." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------16. Sant Kirpal Singh once criticized Russell Perkins for editing out a referenc e in his book NAAM, where a Buddhist monk said the sound of a bell caused his aw akening into satori (which was described as a samadhi, although it was clearly a satori). Russell edited it to read that the person heard an INNER sound, but Ki rpal Singh said to leave the quote alone, because that s the way the sutra read, b ut also said that the person was mistaken, and that he only THOUGHT it was an ou ter sound, for how could an outer sound DRAG one into samadhi? In this case, the m onk went on to describe this satori as apparently initiating a series of deeper mystical experiences for him. Now, satori and samadhi are very distinct experien ces. As D.T. Suzuki explains: "When a man's mind is matured for satori it tumbles over one everywhere. An i narticulate sound, an unintelligent remark, a blooming flower, or a trivial inci dent such as stumbling is the condition or occasion that will open his mind to s atori. Apparently, an insignificant event produces an effect which in importance is altogether out of proportion....When the mind is ready for some reasons or o thers, a bird flies, or a bell rings, and you at once return to your original ho me; that is, you discover your now real self." (from The Gospel According to Zen , 1970, p. 39) An example of a satori awakening was that of a nun Chiyono who studied Zen un der Bukko of Engaku. For a long time she was unable to succeed in her meditation . At last one moonlit night while carrying water in an old pail bound with bambo o, the bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail. At that moment Chiyono was set free, moving her to write this poem: In this way and that I tried to save the old pail Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break Until at last the bottom felt out. No more water in the pail! No more moon in the water! In the above instance, then, either one of two things was true. Either (1) Ki rpal Singh apparently did not recognize the way countless Zen practitioners achi eved satori through their ripe minds being awakened to reality in a moment throu gh an outer sight or sound, and strictly adhered to the Indian belief that only inner (trance) experience was spiritual, and didn t understand other schools or ex

periences which contradict that and was using this monk's account only to suppor t the philosophy of Surat Shabd Yoga (all of which I am inclined to doubt, for a number of reasons: Kirpal was a scholar of the traditions, had read 300 biograp hies of different saints and sages and great men as a young man, and was friends with numerous Buddhist teachers), or (2) he said what he did because he didn t wa nt to confuse his meditating followers with more sophisticated, non-dual teachin gs. Ramakrishna was the same way when he was with Vivekananda in contrast to mos t of his followers. He put the advaita books such as the Ashtavakra Gita away wh en Master Mahasaya ( M ) was around because he knew the latter was keeping a diary a nd didn t want him to confuse many of his disciples who were not ripe enough to un derstand such things. My experience with Kirpal suggests this was the case. The idea that a "perfect Master" never makes a mistake, or that every word he utters is absolute truth, is also a stumbling block for many initiates on the p ath. It must also be understood generally as an erroneous conception of enlighte nment. PB said: "It is pathetic for the philosophically minded, and especially for the inh eritors of the formerly close-guarded hidden teaching, to observe how followers of a mystical or religious guide take all his words without exception quite lite rally and all his revelations as incontestable truth. When Sri Ramakrishna said that a man must die within twenty-one days of achieving illumination, he said wh at other mystics are likely to contradict rather than confirm. And when he asser ted that hardly one man in a century attains the goal through following the phil osophic path, there is no support from the traditions of the hidden teaching for his assertion. All this is written despite my most respectful admiration and wa rm reverence for Ramakrishna and despite my unhesitating belief that he was a ma n of genuine spiritual self-realization. I do not select his statements for crit icism deliberately but only because they are the first ones which happen to come to mind. There are several other mystics, whom I and most of us honour, whose s ayings could equally have been drawn upon as containing examples of this kind of contestable teaching." (Notebooks, Vol. ?, 9.30) A master on the path of Sant Mat is "perfect" in that he can go at will to Sa ch Khand (the "office of the Master" according to Dr. I.C. Sharma) or the eighth and final plane, Anami, and lead others there; it doesn't mean he will in his h uman body never make what looks like a mistake, or necessarily have absolute kno wledge or wisdom regarding all doctrines, including those he has never studied, for instance jnana. He might "drop his fork" or spill food. He may make mistakes of fact from time to time when he speaks. He may even make teaching mistakes . Thi s is only mentioned because some seekers have held the naive view that such shou ld not happen if a Master is perfect. The Masters, it should be mentioned, would probably be the first to say they are not perfect, even while maintaining the v iew that their own Masters were perfect. This is out of respect and humility. "D on't call me perfect," said Christ, "only God is perfect." It is a human concept , afterall. Let us leave it at that. None of these examples of so-called imperfe ction, where present, is evidence that a path or teacher is false or not genuine . In advaita, or the view of many sages, "omniscience" does not mean knowledge of everything you can think of, but rather the permanent and continuous knowledg e of Reality. This is especially significant in that the highest form of knowing has so frequently been described as a kind of "unknowing" or "divine ignorance. " A little story will illustrate this. In 1991 I met Sant Rajinder Singh for the first time when my friend William Combi pushed me up to the dias to meet the sa int. I was writing a book of biographies of spiritual teachers at the time, whic h William was quick to point out. I was a little embarrassed, and simply said, " I really don't know what I am doing," to which Sant Rajinder's instant response, faster than anyone else could notice, was, "Join the club!" Rather than causing doubt to arise, for me it was an instiller of confidence in him and my own guru

. To me this meant his knowledge arose spontaneously or intuitively as needed fr om deep within. Later, I have heard Master Rajinder say, "God-Power does everyth ing, I don't do anything." It must be admitted, however, that there is a paradox here. For the true Mast er is not the physical form, but the Master-Power or God-Power or Oversoul behin d the 'breakwater' of the physical Master. And that Power is infinite, and can, for instance, manifest the Master's Radiant or subtle form (and even physical fo rm) to millions of people simultaneously, even beyond or over the head of the hu man Master's awareness. It is also capable of giving one the advice he needs in any situation, according to the Divine will. So in a sense that is an attribute of omnipresence and omniscience. The concept that the human Master is omniscient, omnipotent, etc., while usef ul perhaps at a particular stage of development of a disciple, however, is too o ften misconstrued. It simply need not be a stumbling block for anyone. If it is an aid for ones devotion, so be it. Otherwise, no one need be ashamed of admitti ng the obvious when it presents itself. It doesn't lessen the grandeur of a Mast er and his scope of influence to see him in his humanness, but, rather, should b e a guide to strengthen ones faith. If one is in internal conflict because of a discord between his faith and his Reason, that is not too fruitful. Doubts must be cleared before one can move on. Sant Darshan Singh once replied to a disciple 's question of whether a saint always knows whether there are other saints alive in the world at the same time. Master Darshan replied, "Of course, saints are a ll-knowing." Now, to my limited understanding, for a true saint to know that the re are other saints alive at the same time does not necessarily imply being "all -knowing." As this statement, then, is different than Master Rajinder's enigmati c comment to me above, I would like to explore this idea further. Ramana Maharshi once remarked somewhat sarcastically after certain guests lef t, "people think if I can not answer every question that I am not great, etc." T he great Zen Master Dogen once said, "the life of a Zen Master is one continuous mistake." Now that one can really make one think if he takes it too literally. One simply can't get ones mind around such a comment. Held in contrast with that of the "perfect master" and it can't help reduce one to an absolute state of ig norance, which is a great achievement! Paul Cash, further, in an article he wrot e about his time with Paul Brunton, who many consider to have been a sage, wrote thusly: "Once PB asked Paul what his idea of what it is like being a sage. Paul answe red that he thought one thing would be that one loves everybody. PB answered, "I 'm not that advanced; I don't love everybody." Another time the question of omni science came up: One afternoon I asked him, "What exactly is it about a sage's mind that makes that mind so different from the rest of us?" It was one of many questions I ask ed that he didn't originally seem to intend to answer. But I persisted and final ly he asked me, "Well what do you think it is?" I said that I had never been able to believe that it could be omniscience in the sense of knowing everything at once; but I didn't think it unreasonable to c onceive that when a sage wants or needs to know, he could turn his mind toward i t in a certain way and that knowledge would just arise. P.B. laughed heartily and answered, "It's not even that good!" "Well, how good is it?" "It has really nothing to do with knowledge, or continuity of intuition, or f requency of intuitions. It's that the mind has been made over into the Peace in

an irreversible way. No form that the mind takes can alter the Peace." "You could say it's a kind of knowledge," he continued, "in this sense. If th e mind takes the form of truth, the sage knows it's truth. If it doesn't , then he knows that it's not. He's never in doubt about whether the mind has knowledge or not. But whether it does or not, his Peace is not disturbed." I asked if that meant that someone could go to a sage for help and the sage w ould be unable to help them. He replied that sometimes the intuition comes, some times it doesn't; he explained that when it doesn't come, the sage knows he has nothing to do for that person. The continuity of frequency of the intuitions has to do with the sage's mission, not with what makes a sage a sage. "You must understand," he said, "that there is no condition in which the Over self is at your beck and call. But there is a condition in which you are continu ously at the Overself's beck and call. That's the condition to strive for." As he spoke these words, he was the humblest man I had ever seen before or si nce. For all the extraordinary things about him, all the glamorous inner and out er experiences, all the remarkable effects his writings and example have had on others, that humility is what seems to be the most important fact about him." My hope is that these examples will provide food for thought and help settle this matter of perfection for the reader, if not now, then soon. Again, perfect ion is a concept of the human mind. It really has limited usefulness. I can say this with confidence because even sages will disagree on what it means. There is also something to be said, however, about the power of a lineage of masters, whose grace flows from one to the next in an unbroken stream, with each humbly deferring to his teacher as the source of grace, and himself being backe d up - and his 'imperfect' aspects 'backed-up' - by those who came before him, a nd whom he is at one with in the Divine reality. For from the point of view of t ruth, all Masters are One. An example of this sustaining power is given in the M ahayana text, the Lankavatara Sutra, where it says: "What is this twofold power that sustains the Bodhisattvas? The one is the po wer by which they are sustained to go through the Samadhis and Samapattis, while the other is the power whereby the Buddhas manifest themselves in person before the Bodhisattvas and baptise them with their own hands...This is in order to ma ke them avoid the evil ones, karma, and passions, to keep them away from the Dhy ana and stage of Sravakahood, to have them realise the stage of Tathagatahood, a nd to make them grow in the truth and experience already attained. For this reas on, Mahamati, the fully Enlightened Ones sustain with their power the Bodhisattv a-Mahasattvas...Thus it is said: The sustaining power is purified by the Buddhas ' vows; in the baptism, Samadhis, etc., from the first to the tenth stage, the B odhisattvas are in the embrace of the Buddhas." (10d) Something else to think about. Returning to the discussion of the difference between the paths of jnana (the "direct" or "short" paths) versus paths such as Sant Mat (which might be called indirect" or "long" paths, I was privy thirty years ago to the confession of on e satsangi, Ed Wallace, with an ecstatic demeanor, and blood-red, tear-filled ey es, who said that after literally having to "drag himself to satsang" for five y ears he finally achieved by the grace of the Master entry into the first of the inner planes, the experience of which at first scared him, but which appeared to have had the result in him of a marked change of character. When asked, "Is it a place or a state," he answered me, "it's both; it's so perfect - you die, and are born again! And once you are through, you are through forever." Thirty years later, Ed confesses to witnessing Kirpal Singh coming on the inner planes to ta

ke charge of numerous souls at the time of death, a testimony to the faithful di scharge of the promise of a Godman. Now, such a positive result may have been tr ue for him, but for others whose inner journey was a more gratuitous passage, a temporary gift, they often come out with the vividness of the experience fast re ceding, and all that is left is a dream-like memory, as the ego re-identifies wi th the body and consolidates its hold over the being again. That is certainly tr ue for nightime transports. But for others, such as the gentleman mentioned abov e, his confession was an inspiration to behold. Judith Lamb-Lion's tale of going to Sach Khand, a much higher state, at her initiation, however, was related to me in a much more calm and balanced way. Based on these two honest accounts of d eath-in-life on this path of ascent it should not be dismissed by the beginner o r seasoned advaitist or non-dualist student that the possibility exists of a pro gressive death and absorption of the ego-soul at succeeding inner plane after in ner plane leading to a progressively more integrated form of non-dual realizatio n that is valid in its own right. For that, in effect, is what the Sants and the greatest of the historical mystics are saying. An interesting take on this form of path is given by one Swami Satprakashanan da: Knowers of Saguna Brahman [God with form or attributes], according to Sankara, do not have full knowledge (jnana) and their souls depart from their bodies at the time of death, although they do not have to be reborn. The jnanis (knowers o f Nirguna Brahman - God without attributes), however, merge in Brahman, and thei r subtle bodies (souls) dissolve at the time of death....Knowers of Saguna Brahm an realize Nirguna Brahman and attain final liberation at the cosmic dissolution , along with Hiranyagarbha, the presiding deity of Brahmaloka. This is called Gra dual Liberation (krama-mukti), as distinct from Immediate Liberation (sadya mukti), achieved by those who realize Nirguna Brahman in this very life. (11) This gradual liberation has also been discussed clearly by Swami Krishnananda , disciple of the reknown Swami Sivananda, whom Kirpal Singh respected. He argue s that one can reach Brahmaloka or union with Puroshottama and, thus purified, g ain a relative liberation, and then attain final, unconditional mukti from the a fter-death realms. Paramhansa Yogananda was of the view that most souls achieve final liberation from the higher regions after death. Since a chief claim of Sant Mat is that Sat Lok itself is beyond both Brahmal oka and the three worlds , as well as cosmic dissolution and grand dissolution, and is eternal, it would most likely agree that the above statement only implies a relative liberation in Brahmaloka, although it would not necessarily disagree on the general concept of gradual liberation or the non-necessity of rebirth for a s yet unliberated souls, which it, and even some schools of Buddhism, ARE also i n agreement with. It is just that it may take longer on the inside than here on the physical plane. For sages such as Iyer, a strict vedantic analysis would hold that liberation is truly not release from the cycle of births and deaths, but knowledge or gyan alone, that is, freedom from even the concept of birth and death. Thus, the sag e will perpetually return just like everyone else. His freedom lies in that he k nows all is Brahman, and his sympathies and identification are with the benefit of all. That is why he will come back. He is no longer motivated by the hope of a personal salvation, bliss, or peace. Such is a much higher view than this one is presently capable of. Nevertheless, it complements the view of the saints - w ho also have this universal sympathy or compassion, in their case having risen a bove the level of the Universal Mind - and is worthy of contemplation. One thing that is plain to me, however, on the basis of a (very) few of my ea rly experiences, is that one may become certain by an inner psychic or mystical experience that he is NOT the body, but he doesn t necessarily know what the ego i

s, or what the world or God is, nor can he necessarily make sense out of the wor ld when he comes out of meditation, without some other sadhana of purification a nd metaphysical understanding or inquiry. That is because the mystic believes th at what he perceives or feels is real. But what is the world, for instance? Veda nta and Buddhism says that it is an idea, or a series of sensations and percepti ons arising within consciousness or Mind. Thus, the body also is an idea, and th e ego is an idea, or series of relatively fixed but changing ideas. This knowled ge having been made ones own through inquiry, then one is fit to inquire into th e soul or Atman, and then Brahman, the All. Otherwise, upon returning from ones inner meditation, the lesser mystic is confronted by a world he does not underst and, and he feels a need to return to his samadhi to maintain his peace. That is what is encouraged in most mystical schools in general, where it is assumed tha t meditation alone is the only means necessary to realize truth. That has always been strongly denied in Buddhism, however, and other branches of philosophy, wi th strong warnings not to be misled by the ecstasy and even absorptive oneness o f trance states but to go beyond them. Jagat Singh, as mentioned, said 90% of spi ritual life is clear thinking. I have wondered precisely what he meant by that. C ould it be remotely similar to the following remark by Ramana Maharshi, who said , "Deliverance is just the clarification of the mind, the understanding: 'I am e ver in my own real nature; all other experiences are illusory.' It is not someth ing that has newly come about." (The Power of the Presence, Part Three, p. 193) Sant Mat generally, however, teaches that vivek or discrimination will take plac e automatically by the progressive absorption that occurs from plane to plane on the way to the final goal of anami. In my understanding, Brunton and other sage s might be in disagreement on that point. Some of the difficulty between reconciling practice of "Long Paths" such as m ysticism with "Short Paths" such as Advaita or Zen, lies in: one, the fact that some form of "long" path of moral and concentrative development is a requirement for successful pursuit of a "short" path of inquiry and insight, and, two, the form of the master or teacher one requires on either path. Brunton writes: "The Short Path [which it must be warned nevertheless requires its own forms of discipline and preparation] can succeed only if certain essential conditions are available. First a teaching master must be found. It will not be enough to f ind an illumined man. We will find peace and uplift in his presence, but these w ill fade away after leaving his presence. Such a man will be a phenomenon to adm ire and an inspiration to remember, not a guide to instruct, to warn, and to lea d from step to step. Second, we must be able to live continuously [or for a suff icient period] with the teaching master until we have finished the course and re ached the goal." (12) A great deal of misunderstanding among mystic paths also arises over their de finition or use of the term "mind". It is common to refer to mind as "the slayer of the real", and as something that must be destroyed or eliminated. Yet this i s strongly denied on paths of jnana or advaita vedanta, where the intellectual s heath itself is a primary means of realization of the Atman in the waking state. "It [the Self] is always shining in the intellectual sheath." In yoga, however, the goal is often conceived as kaivalya, or separation of consciousness from al l limiting adjuncts, but in advaita it is not. The One is to be realized, and th at necessitates self-cognition, not destruction of the mind. There is both Being and Knowing. Franklin Merrell-Wolff writes: "It is often stated in mystical literature that the activity of the mind is i n a peculiar sense a barrier to the Realization of the Higher Consciousness In general, the mystical and occult use of the word "mind" does not carry the same connation that western philosophy or the most authoritative usage gives the term. If for "mind" we substitute the word "manas," at once the mystic's statem ent becomes more correct. "Manas" is commonly translated as "mind" since there i

s no other single English word that approximates its meaning. The word "mind" to day comprehends much more than the Indian philosophers and mystics mean when the y say "manas." Unless this distinction is born in mind, confusion is almost inev itable. For my own part, this confusion caused me some years of needless misunde rstanding. What I read violated what I felt intuitively and subsequently demonst rated to be the case. It was not the competent mystics and philosophers who were in error, but the translators and the western students of mysticism and occulti sm. I have entered into this point at some length, partly for the reason that in m y earlier studies the mis-translation of "lower manas" seemed to require of me a crushing of faculties of the soul that are vitally important for even the Reali zation itself, for I was quite familiar with what the word "mind" meant in weste rn usage. Others may be facing the same difficulty. Literally, to crush or suppr ess "mind," giving to that word the meaning it has in western thought, is to cru sh or suppress the soul. No true mystic means that, whatever he may seem to say as a result of not being familiar with the English term. Actually, with the mass of men, cognition is bound to egoism, but a divorce of these two is possible. Cognitive activity of a higher type is most emphatically not a barrier to Recognition, and if my experience is any criterion, may well p rove to be one of the most powerful subsidiary aids for those who can make use o f it. In any case, I must conclude that if by "mind," cognitive activity is mean t, then it is not true that the mind must be stilled in order to attain Recognit ion. But it is true that the cognitive action must be within a matrix of a high order of dispassion. The higher affections, such as love, compassion and faith are also most emphat ically an aid. But upon this point I do not need to dwell, for here agreement am ong the mystics seems to be practically universal. Further, this phase of the su bject has been much clearly presented and better understood. This is the Road th rough Bliss, the Way most widely appreciated and most commonly followed by Those who have attained God-Realization. By means of pure cognition, it is possible to enter through Intelligence (Chit ). Or, again, one may Enter through various combinations of the higher affection s and pure cognition. Such a course is naturally the most perfect. The individua l may be more developed on the one side or the other at the time of the Entering . But once he is grounded in Higher Consciousness, there is a tendency for the n ature to unfold toward balance, so that finally a Man is symbolized by the "Grea t Bird" which has two wings equally developed. And these two are Compassion and Intelligence." (Chapter 77, "The Higher Consciousness and the Mind", from Experi ence and Philosophy: A Personal Record of Transformation and a Discussion of Tra nscendental Consciousness) James Schwarz (Ram) argues that one must think or use discernment before duri ng, and after enlightenment: "There is a strange notion that when one permanently experiences the Self the intellect is switched off for good and you just remain forever as the Self in s ome kind of no thought state. The fact is that the intellect keeps right on thin king from womb to tomb. God gave it to us for a good reason. Clear logical pract ical thinking is absolutely necessary if you are going to crack the identity cod e. It is called inquiry. You want to think before realization, during realizatio n and after realization. Realization is nothing more than a hard and fast conclu sion that you come to about your identity based on direct experience of the Self . Only understanding will solve the riddle....No experience will eradicate vasan as born in ignorance and reinforced with many years of negative behavior. Question: Is self-realization a discrete occurrence in time...or is the remov

al of self ignorance a gradual process over time? Ram: It can be either or both. Usually one realizes who one is, falls again u nder the sway of ignorance, applies the knowledge again, realizes again and so o n. It goes on over and over until one day there is absolutely no doubt and the p rocess of enlightenment/ endarkenment stops for sure. Ignorance is persistent an d aggressive and one needs to practice the knowledge until the last vestige is r ooted out. I have a friend, a self realized person, who said, I realized the Self five hundred times before my seeking stopped to illustrate that point. (http://ww w.shiningworld.com) Obviously, during a process of dhyan type of meditation one tries to stop thi nking. That is where the mystic schools derive the admonition for one to still t he mind. This generally refers to manas, the discursive mind and intellect. Howe ver, outside of such a particular exercise philosophic schools argue that one ne eds the complementary practice of contemplation on the nature of the Self and re ality for realization to occur. This requires a faculty of cognition. I personal ly know of one disciple, Judith Lamb-Lion, who had gone to Sach Khand at her ini tiation, but still asked, "who am I?", to which Sant Kirpal replied, "Who is ask ing?" This was akin to Ramana's inquiry, but for the ripe soul only. And his res ponse to the question, "do you still meditate?", being "once you get your PhD, d o you have to go back and learn the ABC's?", suggested that he, the Master, enjo yed going inside for refreshment, but it was not necessary anymore for his reali zation. He admitted as such, that "I, too, like to go inside and enjoy." PB writ es: Sahaja Samadhi is not broken into intervals, is permanent, and involves no spe cial effort. Its arisal is instantaneous and without progressive stages. It can accompany daily activity without interfering with it. It is a settled calm and c omplete inner quiet....There are not distinguishing marks that an outside observ er can use to identify a Sahaja-conscious man because Sahaja represents consciou sness itself rather than its transitory states....Those at the state of achieved Sahaja are under no compulsion to continue to meditate any more or to practise yoga. They often do--either because of inclinations produced by past habits or a s a means of helping other persons. In either case it is experienced as a pleasu re. Because this consciousness is permanent, the experiencer does not need to go into meditation. This is despite the outward appearance of a person who places himself in the posture of meditation in order to achieve something....When you a re engaged in outward activity it is not the same as when you are in a trance. T his is true for both the beginner and the adept. The adept, however, does not lo se the Sahaja awareness which he has achieved and can withdraw into the depths o f consciousness which the ordinary cannot do.'' (25.2.138 & Persp. p.350)...It w ould be a poor thing for the sage if he had to sit down and squat in meditation in order to lift himself into peace. This is why he may or may not make a practi ce of meditation. For whether he meditates or not he always enjoys his inner pea ce.'' (unpublished, bv/255/3) PB gives a hint a the stage of sacrifice of the sage: The escape into Nirvana for him is only the escape into the inner realization of the truth whilst alive: it is not to escape from the external cycle of rebirt hs and deaths. It is a change of attitude. But that bait had to be held out to h im at an earlier stage until his will and nerve were strong enough to endure thi s relevation. There is no escape except inwards. For the sage is too compassiona te to withdraw into proud indifferentism and too understanding to rest completel y satisfied with his own wonderful attainment. The sounds of sufferings of men, the ignorance that is the root of these sufferings, beat ceaselessly on the tymp ana of his ears. What can he do but answer, and answer with his very life, which he gives in perpetual reincarnation upon the cross of flesh, as a vicarious sac rifice for others. It is thus alone that he achieves immortality, not by fleeing

forever--as he could if he willed--into the Great Unconsciousness, but by suffe ring forever the pains and pangs of perpetual rebirth that he may help or guide his own.'' (13) 17. Instruction in a meditative technique is one thing. The gift of a brief e xperience of subtle light and sound is another. Establishment of the soul of a d isciple in a position to fruitfully engage such subtle meditation via the master 's siddhi or power is yet another, and even greater gift. As far as the matter o f realization goes, however, Asvaghosa clearly states in his Fifty Verses of Gur u-Devotion: The more you wish to attain Enlightenment, the clearer you see the need for yo ur Guru to be a Buddha. (14) If it is ones own divine Soul which paradoxically and mysteriously gives him the inner image of his Master as well as grace (even if mediated through a Maste r), and at the ultimate level the true Master is one with ones own Soul and the Absolute Soul (both transcendental and of the nature of voidness - and thus far beyond what is commonly understood as soul in occult or mystic circles), then ce rtainly contemplation of a form which comes of itself in meditation, that is, no t through the discursive imagination, is an authentic practise and imbedded in t he divine structure of the worlds, and has been pronounced as such. Even Ramana Maharshi did not disparage it. The lotus feet of the guru, or the dust of the gur u s feet , the radiant gurudev, appearing in the disciple s heart is supposed to be a great vision, boon, and aid, during life and at the time of death and beyond. It is a cornerstone of Sant Mat. Even Kabir, in his devotional ecstasy, procaimed, now I see nothing but the radiant form of the master! An additional question, briefly mentioned before, however, is that the Sant M at lineages divide on whether one should continue contemplating only on one s init iating guru after that guru s death, and/or whether it is necessary to take his su ccessor as ones guru. This controversy began after the death of Shiv Dayal Singh . All recommend seeking the company of a true successor, but differ on what to d o with ones contemplative practice. Sant Darshan Singh also said that matters pe rtaining to the disciple's pralabd karma (current destiny) could only be handled by the successor, because that would required a physical body. Many initiates o f Rajinder Singh have seen the forms of the preceeding three masters before him coming to them unbidden during their meditations. This is an extremely important point that raises a number of issues. First of all, in Sant Mat, at least in the lineage after Sawan Singh and Kirpal Singh, t he dispensation has been offered or promised that once a disciple is initiated i t will take a maximum of four lives for him to reach Sach Khand or be so liberat ed. The Master is said to take it upon himself to erase the pool of sanchit karm as from time immemorial that the disciple would otherwise have to bear. This is significant, for, as taught in, for instance, Dzogchen Buddhism, it is these ver y tendencies, karmas, or habits of uncountable lifetimes that prevent our abidin g in the Ground Luminosity of Clear Light which dawns after death, if ever so br iefly for the average person. A question arises, however: if responsibility for exhausting the sanchit storehouse of karmas is taken over by the Master at the t ime of initiation, what would prevent an initiate from only needing one lifetime to realize the truth? The answer must be, only his creating more destiny or kri yaman karma by not living up to the teachings in this life. Even so, Sant Mat sa ys that the decision of a further birth into this earth realm lies in the hands of the Guru. anadi says that it also depends upon if the soul has reached comple tion of its inborn destiny during this life whether or not he need return. Kirpa l said that if one has no remaining desires towards this life one needn t return, depending on the grace of the Master. The spiritual Master is said to be able to assume the karmas of others on his

own body. A body, as stated, is essential for this particular task. This is not a unique article of faith in Sant Mat. The following beautiful account of the d eath of the Gyalwang Karmapa illustrates this phenomenon: "By the time that I saw him, His Holiness had already had many operations, so me parts of his body removed, things put inside him, his blood transfused, and s o on. Every day the doctors discovered the symptoms of some new disease, only to find them gone the next day and replaced by another illness, as if all the dise ases in the world were finding room in his flesh. For two months he had taken no solid food, and finally his doctors thought the life-supporting systems should be disconnected. But the Karmapa said, "No, I'm going to live. Leave them in pla ce." And he did live, astonishing the doctors, and remaining seemingly at ease i n his situation - humorous, playful, smiling, as if he were rejoicing at everyth ing his body suffered. Then I thought, with the clearest possible conviction, th at the Karmapa had submitted himself to the cutting, to the manifestation of all those diseases in his body, to the lack of food, in a quite intentional and vol untary way: He was deliberately suffering all of these diseases to help minimize the coming pains of war, disease, and famine, and in this way he was deliberate ly working to avert the terrible suffering of this dark age." (15) 18. Kabir s Anurag Sagar claims that Kal the negative power always produces impost er masters to fool the unelect , and that part of the search is for the seeker to f ind the gem among the dirt. Kirpal Singh said there is always at least one true master alive on earth, and clearly said that there may be more than one. Sant Da rshan Singh said on at least one occasion that there was only one. Shoonyo, succ essor to Dr. I.C. Sharma, said that there could conceivably be many.The founder of the modern Sant Mat or Radhasoami lineages, Shiv Dayal Singh, implied there c ould be more than one, with both Rai Salig Ram and Jaimal Singh becoming gurus a fter him. Sant Mat often mentions that contemporaries Kabir and Nanak were both perfect masters. 19. Returning to the main discussion - which is one of mysticism and emanatio nism (including kundalini, Kriya, Sant Mat) versus non-duality, jnana, Ch'an, or Zen, etc. - once out of the body (and from an absolute point of view, even whil e in the body), don't ideas of high or low, inside and out, essentially lose the ir ultimate meaning, as they are only concepts or ideas in the mind? We have alr eady discussed this in part, saying that the subtler bodies being still within s pace and time (Kal) have their relative dimensions, although ultimately there is no such thing. Sant Rajinder Singh succinctly explains that this is indeed the case even on that path: Q: Where are the inner realms? Master: When we withdraw our attention to the single eye, we become absorbed in t he inner Light and Sound. Then, after we meet the radiant form of the Master and rise above body-consciousness, we find inner realms. These inner dimensions or realms exist concurrently with our physical universe. For lack of better termino logy we speak of inner and outer, or higher and lower regions. These realms are not exactly descriptive because we are talking about states of consciousness. Th ey do not exist in time and space., but we have the illusion that our physical w orld is in time and space. The physical region with the earth, sun, planets, and galaxies exists simultaneously with spiritual regions. We measure time and spa ce in this physical universe because that is the only frame of reference that we know. But all these regions, from the physical to the spiritual, exist as state s of consciousness. When we talk about traveling to inner or higher regions, we are not actually traveling anywhere or going up or in. We are actually refocusin g our attention to a different state of consciousness or awareness. (16) From the point of view of Advaita, as mentioned, even the body is essentially

nothing more than an idea or collection of sensations, perceptions, and beliefs in consciousness. Therefore, from the point of view of truth, does it matter, a s some of the Tibetans maintain, how one leaves the body? What if an initiate is m urdered or killed in a horrible accident and is suddenly jerked out of the body, as has happened? I have already spoken of one such case. We are told that no ma tter how we die we will be instantly with the Master within. "The Master always resides in the disciple's innermost heart center," said Kirpal Singh. Saints and yogis have said that one can leave the body through different cent ers: the navel, the heart, or the head, etc. They generally feel that a consciou s exit via the head is most fruitful, and some have said that if one exits the b ody or dies via the anahata chakra, for instance, one may be lost until the next life in lower reflections of the true higher planes. In Sant Mat, barring the c ase of terrible accidents, all initiates exit the body through the crown of the head and are difectly in the presence of their Masters within. Sants argue for the superiority of the head or third eye over the heart as th e main portal to the beyond, but generally do not address the debate on the caus al spiritual heart spoken of by the sages or the heart chakra of the yogis. They simply say that the heart-lotus of the saints is between the eyebrows. That is their portal into the Beyond. Whereas sages such as Ramana Maharshi say the enti re inner journey through the subtle, psychic realms via the divya chaksu (third eye) can be avoided by absorption of attention or mind in the heart, the subject ive source of the separate self or ego. Traditionally, such as in the Upanishads , the heart is considered to be the seat of the soul in the body. Presumably thi s may account for the apparent exception-to-the-rule in the case of Lakhshmi the cow, whom Ramana said atained mukti upon her death. If the soul is in the heart , the lack of a man-body or human form, and lack of a third eye, may not always be an absolute impediment to liberation. An objection might be raised that in th e case of Ramana by his own admission he had little or no experience of the over head planes, so cannot speak for the realizations of the Sants. That is true. Co mparisons between the two positions are therefore difficult. Sri Aurobindo made the same comment about Maharshi when a disciple asked him questions concerning d ifferences between their philosophies. Maharshi in turn criticized Aurobindo's e xperiences of the Supermind, Overmind, etc., in effect saying they were all with in the Self only. When such sages disagree, we should feel little doubt over see king answers to our own questions. Sant Mat sometimes describes Sach Khand as the realm of Atman in exactly the same terms of infinite light as Maharshi spoke as the experience of atman reflecte d through mahatattva (cosmic consciousness); even more, according to Sar Bachan at least, scenes and sounds there, with gushing fountains of light. The disciple of Sant Mat eventually attains to a realm of no sound and no light (Anami), whi ch it calls Absolute God, but sages like Paul Brunton, Ramana, Nisargadatta woul d still almost certainly disagree with the idea that even that is the end of the path. Sahaja samadhi, which may or may not be the radhasoami state , still awaits the mature soul. It should be noted that Hazur Baba Sawan Singh was attracted to advaita, but after study of Kabir's Anurag Sagar decided the path of shabd was higher. In Sant Mat, the state of sahaj is supposed to happen more or less autom atically, through the infused power of the shabda-brahman. 20. Ramana, it must be noted, was of the view that all types of experience ar e unnecessary - even while many of his disciples had all sorts of classic yogic and mystical experiences in his company. He also made gentle fun of those of his disciples who wanted to see the light of a million suns. Brunton called that "the penultimate experience." A rare yogic text called it , great as it was, "maya". Interesting, isn't it, that Maharshi made fun of what most Sant Mat disciples w ould die for, and what, in fact, sound alot like descriptions of Sach Khand! Ram ana also said that one could not really say it was not light, however, that the metaphor was appropriate, but it was the invisible light of understanding.

The highest mystical experience is generally considered in the standard yogic literature to be nirvikalpa samadhi (samadhi without form, the source of subjec tivity), with anything perceptible still in the realm of the psychic or subtle. Thus Sach Khand would not be spiritual in this traditional understanding. It is de scribed in Sant Mat as the "full effulgence of the light of the Creator." Yet it is not Atman as traditionally defined, which is ithout attributes. Kirpal Singh once did mention, however, that the description of Sach Khand as being that of millions of suns, etc., was in fact an allegorical description, but the question remaind, is it realization of Atman, and, if not, what is it?. According to Sant Rajinder Singh, the Theosophical schema, in a addition to v arious subplanes in the astral world, outlines seven subplanes in devachan, the lower four constituting the mental plane, and the higher three the causal plane. In Sant Mat, the soul is free of birth and death when it reaches the super-caus al plane, where only a thin layer of the anandamaya kosha is said to cover the s oul. After that is Sach Khand, or Sat Lok. As mentioned, Dr. I.C. Sharma called Sach Khand the office of the Master , and Param Sants are said to go higher, to Ala k, Agam, and Anami. There is no doubt that these planes are intoxicating compare d to ordinary life in this sublunar earthly sphere. However, while Sach Khand ma y possibly be beyond dissolution and even grand dissolution of the lower created worlds, as these masters teach, it, once again, is paradoxical to call it spiri tual, in the philosophical sense, as there is said to be light and sound and vis ible beings there, living on their dweeps (islands) and enjoying nectar, as the Sa r Bachan of Soamiji says. We cannot ignore what Anthony Damiani emphasized, that no amount of superlatives will take away from [the] fact that if there is a perce iver and a perceived there, it is not the Reality." No matter how intense and hi gh the bliss and ecstasy, these must be gone beyond before the Soul is realized. This, however, is clearly not the case in Sach Khand. So someone is incorrect. The mystical experience of an ocean of light, however wonderful, is itself still the penultimate stage of the mystical path. The words "spiritual planes", howev er, is valuable within the sense it is used in Sant Mat. In Buddhism there is me ntion of glorious Dharmakaya realms, where only buddhas and bodhisattvas of the highest realization may dwell. Yet, once again, the highest mystical experience is supposedly beyond all obj ectivity, as the realization of ultimatesubjectivity, and can then, it seems, on ly be found in the Sant Mat experience in the Anami state or region - if that is understood and experienced as beyond subject/object distinctions as nameless an d formless would seem to imply. Some in Sant Mat, in fact, feel that not only is the Radhasoami state higher than Anami, but that it itself is just the beginnin g. Anami and even Radhasoami are described, however, in terms such as "the wonde r region," into which, according to Baba Jaimal Singh, Sawan Singh's Guru, the g urumukh disciple will "get merged", which, however, is supposedly beyond subject and object. This is a contradiciton only if we are talkng about a separate ego that merges into God. But we must remember that here we are talking of a process of the Soul, which is eternally in unity with the divine One, the I AM, and not that of an 'ego-soul wanting to 'save' itself. There is also a death as the ema nant of the Soul quits each inner plane. Even the mind is transformed until it m erges in the universal mind in Trikuti. This is a radical insight and requiring a radical shift in one s view of the world and sense of identity. Ramana called an approach of assuming the reality of an ego-soul that gets purified to finally e njoy or even get merged with an Oversoul or Paramatma a "deceitful stratagem," b ut he was not talking about the true soul. Here is what he said: "...devotion is nothing more than knowing oneself. The doctrine of Qualified Monism [i.e., Ramanuja] also admits it...Their traditional doctrine says..that t he individual soul should be made pure and then surrendered to the Supreme; then the ego is lost and one goes to the regions of Vishnu after one's death; then, finally, there is the enjoyment of the Supreme (or the Infinite)! To say that on

e is apart from the primal Source is itself a pretension; to add that one divest ed of the ego becomes pure and yet retains individuality only to enjoy or serve the Supreme, is a deceitful stratagem. What duplicity is this - first to appropr iate what is really His, and then pretend to experience or serve Him! is not all this already known to Him?"......"all lokas, even Brahma loka, do not release o ne from rebirth. The Bhagavad Gita says: 'Reaching Me, there is no rebirth...All others are in bondage'...so long as you think that there is gati (movement) - a s implied in the word gatva (having gone to) - there is punaravritti (return), a lso. Again, gati implies your Purvagamanam (birth) What is birth? It is birth of the ego. Once born you reach something; if you reach it, you return, also. Ther efore, leave off all this verbiage! Be as you are. See who you are and remain as the Self, free from birth, going, coming, and returning"....."People would not understand the simple and bare truth - the truth of their everyday, ever-present and eternal experience. That Truth is that of the Self. Is there anyone not awa re of the Self? They would not even like to hear it (the Self), whereas they are eager to know what lies beyond - heaven, hell, reincarnation. because they love mystery and not the bare truth, religions pamper them - only to bring them arou nd to the self. Wandering hither and thither, you must return to the Self only. Then, why not abide in the Self right here and now?" (17) Adyashanti argues similarly to Ramana: "The taste of no separate self is totally liberating. "No separate self" does not mean there is a spiritual experience that goes something like, "I have exte nded myself infinitely everywhere, and have merged with everything." That's a be autiful, wonderful experience for a separate self to have, but that's not what O neness is. Oneness is not merging. Merging happens between two and since there i s only one, then any experience of merging is one illusion merging with another, as beautiful and wonderful as that experience may be. Even when I experience ha ving merged with the absolute, with the infinite, with God, it simply means that my fictitious self has merged with another fiction. Mystical experiences aren't enlightenment." (18) "The merging experience is very pleasant and very beautiful, and you may or m ay not ever have it. If you have a particular type of body-mind, you might exper ience having it every five minutes. If you are another type of body-mind, you mi ght have it every five lifetimes. It means nothing whether or not this happens o r how often. I have met many people who can merge at the drop of a hat, and they are about as free as a dog chasing its tail in a cage. Merging has nothing to do with bein g free or actually having any idea what Oneness really is. Oneness simply means that everything is the One. Everything is That, and every thing always was That. When there is a very deep knowing that everything is One, then the movement of the me trying to find a past experience ceases. Movement i s cut off. Seeking is cut off. The seeker is cut off. Realization cuts everythin g off all at once. Every experience that you will ever have is the One, whether that experience i s merging or having to go to the bathroom. Even when it's beating a stick on the floor and saying, "This is it. This is the Buddha. This is enlightened mind. It doesn't get more enlightened than this!" It is all God. (From Consciousness -- E verything is That, by Adyashanti) Sant Darshan Singh, by contrast, described his ultimate experiences in the fo llowing manner: "He has taken me above body consciousness...to the higher planes, leaving the stars, the moon and the sun behind, making me one with him in his radiant efful

gent form. He has taken me into moments of eternity; beyond the limitations of t ime and space, and then, giving me a glance of love, a boost...he has taken me.. .into the highest realms of spirituality. On the way he has introduced me to the various Masters who have blessed this earth since time immemorial, and arranged for our conversation. We have conversed in a language which has no tongue...no words...no alphabet...in a language which is eternal. We have conversed in the l anguage which was in the beginning..which was made Word, in the language which [ divine] lovers even now speak. This is the language which will continue to the e nd of all time...And after taking me to our Eternal Home, Sach Khand, he has tak en me to higher realms known as Agam and Agochar, those regions which are fathom less...beyond human imagination. And after that we reached Anami, the ultimate v ast region which has no shores...no limitation...no name..." (19) "We cannot possibly reach our goal of union with God without the help and con stant guidance of an Adept. The distractions and pitfalls that line the way are unsurmountable, and one would be lost a thousand times even before one crossed t he first inner plane. But the Guru's task does not end even after the soul has r ealized its own essential divinity. He takes us to the region known as Sach Khan d, or the True Home. Here the soul comes face too face with its Creator and is f inally in the realm of the Absolute, the Unchanging Permanence. From now on the spiritual journey is the story of progressive merger, to a state where the creat ure cannot be said to behold the Creator for they have at last become one. Such indeed is the inner journey which the spiritual Adept makes possible and which h e enables us to traverse successfully." (20) And from Sant Kirpal Singh: "The soul has been imprisoned for ages and it is only through the kindness of the Master that it can be released. There is no other way." (Spiritual Elixir Chapter 20) So the question of the difference between the ego, objective to the soul, and the soul, itself impersonal subjectivity and forever united yet simultaneously merging into the ultimate subjectivity, God, is settled according to the Sants, but not for the non-dualists. At this point I refer the reader back to sections 13, 14, and 15 of this paper for exegesis on this important matter. 21. The branches among Sant Mat, as stated, are divided on whether Anami is the highest realm, or whether there is something beyond, called Radhasoami , which may or may not be a region, per se. This is where there is a lack of preciseness or limitation in our language. Some of this may be unavoidable, yet if Radhasoami i s not a region, but a more universal, transcendental realization, similar to tha t described by sages like Ramana Maharshi or the Buddha, beyond even the formles s state represented by Anami, then it should be made explicit. It may not matter much to beginners but overall it is important. And perhaps not all Sant Mat mas ters have attained the highest philosophic realization, but only the highest mys tic one. Even in cases where they have, because so much theologic tradition has been built up around Sant Mat, it might not be possible for the gurus to teach d ifferently, even if they have the radical insight, without undermining the faith of thousands, if not millions of disciples. And perhaps they help more people b y simply teaching the way they do. Perhaps it is more practically effective to t each an initial dualistic search, with more advanced instruction demonstrating h igher stages of the path being given by those of their gurus with the specific c apability. But, as Kirpal Singh was fond of quoting from Socrates, I love Truth m ore than Plato. At some point, Truth is better. In other passages Sant Darshan speaks more radically, however, about the true condition of the soul: "If we think that the Master is in one physical location, that is the most er

roneous way of looking at things. The Master is always with us. He is nearer to us than our throat; he is within us. He is within our eyes; he is within our for ehead; he is within every pore of our body...The Master is with us all the time. We are caught in the tresses of the beloved and we cannot wiggle out of them. W e cannot even move our finger we are so tied up in our Beloved's tresses. Only i f we look inside ourself will we find our Beloved master with us. Our Master can even be with us physically all the twenty-four hours. He is not gone. He has no t left the earthly plane. He is here - now! [words similar to those of the dying Ramana Maharshi: "where could I go? I am here."]... We should call him from the core of our heart. He has not gone anywhere. He is with us; he is within us; he is without us; he is in every pore of our body. He enlivens us in our voice; he is in our breath; he is in our looks; we only fail to perceive him...Be one wit h him and he will be with us all the time. There is no magic in this room. it is only the oneness of our attention." (21) And, interestingly, Sant Rajinder Singh recently has also appeared to modify the language of Sant Mat to move one step closer to the advaita or non-dual posi tion, as well as that of modern science. While touring Budapest in 2007 one woma n expressed that when she sat for meditation she sometimes felt afraid. The Mast er responded by saying that we often feel fear because of the language used such as rising above body-consciousness. The words, he said, do not clearly define wha t is happening. The spiritual regions are going on concurrently with this physic al region. We are not rising out of the body, he explained, but are "tuning into d ifferent frequencies." This is a radical departure from the explicit message in all of Sant Mat to date, whose appeal to suffering seekers is exactly that the s oul does rise out of the body, exactly as at the time of death, with the ability to return guaranteed because the "silver cord" mentioned in the Bible remains i ntact. Examining the statement further, one can see the difficulty faced by the Teac her. If he in this instance is trying to tell someone that "we" are really not a "something" that goes anywhere, but that "we" only deepen in the experience of more and more dimensions within our self, then this traditional teaching as give n loses its comparative uniqueness. Moreover, saying that we are really not leav ing the body but "tuning into different frequencies", still leaves unanswered th e more basic question, " 'who' is doing the tuning in?" Without resolving that q uestion first, the gyanis or sages say, self-understanding has not yet occurred and the potential for fear will remain, as well as the potential for misundersta nding one's experiences. If this is answered according to advaita, it will be ar gued that in fact there is no separate "one", no fixed entity, to tune into anyt hing (and also no fixed entity that is born or dies), in which case the motivati on to meditate in this specific manner itself is called into question and needs further argument. What is the goal one exactly is trying to achieve? This is now not so clear. Is this ascent a necessary and direct means to enlightenment, or, as traditions such as advaita would argue, are the practice and samadhis only p reparatory, in some cases, to final inquiry into the Self? If there is no leaving, or no one who leaves, the body in meditation, then is there any one who leaves the body at the time of death - and does this also nee d to be understood in a radically different way? Thankfully this matter is event ually taken out of our hands. Non-dualist or not, a power takes the soul out of the body at death.The teachings of the advaitists purporting to speak from the p osition of absolute truth, however, even deny incarnation itself, and speak radi cally differently about death and the state of consciousness of an "I" after dea th - or in life, for that matter - some denying it any intermediate reality at a ll. There may be limitations in their point of view, which they will admit is no t for beginners, but what they say must be considered. If the Masters say that t he body is just a thought, or perception arising in consciousness, however, whic h even the language, "we are not really rising out of it", suggests - or at leas t is compatible with - then the concept of "leaving" the body would also need to

be re-explained, and the books possibly re-written, a difficult and perhaps tha nkless task for those charged with upholding a tradition with countless follower s at many levels of understanding. Sant Mat is a bhakti path, and few are likely to be interested in questions l ike these. Just sit in the silence, receive the love, and don t worry. I pray for a cool breeze from the Masters to soothe my overheated brain, and I, too, wish a bove all for pure love.... But such questions have been around in some form for hundreds of years and will not go away. They are not mere mental hair-splitting but inquiries that affect the very means, intention, and understanding of one's sadhana and the guru-disciple relationship. If the soul or power of the soul cal led the attention does not really rise up and leave the body during meditation, but only appears to, what are the meaning of heart-felt statements like the foll owing from Sant Kirpal Singh, quite representative of Sant Mat: "You cannot imagine with what longing the Master Power awaits you at the eye focus ready to receive you with open arms." As the reader will find under Biographies: The Death of a Dream and a Gift of Truth , I have a personal and not merely intellectual interest and need for such a nswers, having been cast down from the eye-focus by the Master Power many years ago for what I hope was my soul's own ultimate good, but which continues to stra in my faith and endurance to the limit. If I think of the fallen state of the so ul, I suffer immensely. If I inquire " 'who' wants to leave the body", or " 'who ' thinks he must leave the body", or "who thinks he is a 'thing' that must leave a body?", and the Soul responds with an intuitive glimpse, there is relative pe ace. So this entire article thus represents not just a philosophical investigati on but a continuing prayer to the Masters for guidance and grace. I respectfully ask, therefore, what exactly was the Master pointing to here? It seems to speak directly to the heart of Sant Mat as a distinct philosophy. 22. In the article Sophia's Passion: Sant Mat and the Gnostic Myth of Creation, Neil Tessler within the framework of Sant Mat attempts to explain their teaching s within classic creation stories wherein the realms of creation allotted to Kal , the negative power (himself an eternal emanation of the Sat Purush or creator Go d, actually said to be created out of the finest hair of the Sat Purush ), are lowe r than the highest, uncreated Heaven of Sach Khand. While Kabir's Anurag Sagar i s very interesting, beautiful and enigmatic, it is debateable whether it should necessarily be a taken as a metaphysical and literal description of conditional and absolute realities. It should be mentioned, however, that the reknown saint, Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj, considered Anurag Sagar as essential for und erstanding the difference between Sant Mat and other paths, so its reading shoul d not be lightly dismissed. Again, see the biography of Kabir on this website fo r more on this. Tessler writes: The several creation myths developed by the Masters serve to describe the rela tionship between the Absolute in its non-attributive formless essence, known in modern Sant Mat as Anami or Radhasoami, and its manifested attributes. As Kirpal Singh has written, "In one there is always the delusion of many, and the totali ty does signify the existence therein of so many parts. The ideas of a part and of the whole go cheek by jowl, and both the part as well as the whole are charac terized by the similarity of the essential nature in them. The essence of a thing has its own attributive nature and the two cannot be se parated from each other. Just as the essence is both one and many, so is the cas e with its attributive nature." [Kirpal Singh, The Crown of Life; A Study in Yog a]

These attributes first appear in their purest and most realized form as the pr imordial "creation", known in the East as Sach Khand or in Gnosticism as the Ple roma or Fullness, (terms which will both be used synonymously throughout this pa per). Creation is, however, a misnomer, for Sach Khand is not created as such, b ut rather it is the expansion into distinct being of the eternally perfect and f ully elaborated attributes of the Absolute. These cosmic attributes are known as the Sons of Sat Purush in the East and the Aeons in Gnosticism. Sat Purush or t he Only-Begotten is the Aeon that is the Being, the mind, as it were, of the Abs olute; pure consciousness and consciousness on all planes, thus also the bridge to creation proper. As Hans Jonas has written, "The Only-Begotten Mind alone, having issued from him directly, can know the Fore-Father: to all the other Aeons he remains invisible and incomprehensible. ' It was a great marvel that they were in the Father without knowing Him.' (Gospel of Truth 22.27) The number of these eternal emanations of the divine varies according to refer ence. The gnostic version described by Hans Jonas gives four Aeons with their co nsorts to make eight, "the original Ogdoad", who then further elaborate to make another seven pairs for a total of thirty. The Kabiran version gives sixteen wit h Sat Purush being the first emanation. The myths now run in two distinct directions, at least in the gnostic forms. The Kabiran version and one gnostic version tells us that there was an Aeon that ch erished a desire for its own creation as an inherent part of its nature. We coul d say that the potential for separation from God is in itself an Aeon. This lead s ultimately to a creation existing in negative polarity with eternal Sach Khand , spinning the attributive universes that exist in Time. This separative Aeon, k nown as Mind or Time (Kal), is Sat Purusha's first expansion in the gnostic vers ion and fifth in the Kabiran version. Kabir's Anurag Sagar states that "He is cr eated from the most glorious part of the body of Sat Purush". Thus Sat Purush is cosmically linked to the "lower" creation, which eventually develops through Ka l's activity. In this we are warned away from value judgements, and reminded tha t this entire process is under Divine Will (Hukam). This last statement is important, because how many nevertheless do think of K al in value judgements? But how can this be the true perspective when one has re alized Oneness? Answer: It is the paradoxical nature of reality. As Rabia of Bas ra said, however, In love with God, I have no time left to hate the devil; My love to God has so possessed me that nothing remains but Him. Here is an illustration where even Sant Kirpal Singh, whom I revere - or perh aps the editors or assistants working on his book, Godman ? - may possibly have stretched a bit to maintain the traditional dualistic negative power/positive po wer dichotomy. One must keep in mind that Kirpal Singh wrote this book, as a dev otional gesture to his guru, Sawan Singh, when he was still a disciple, twenty o r more years before he was a Master, although it was not published until 1967. S peaking in glowing terms of the oneness of the Master and God or God-Power and h ow such a state is possible, Kirpal states: In discourse 7 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna thus sets to rest this ques tion: "Not knowing my transcendant, imperishable supreme character, the undiscerning think me who am unmanifest to have become manifest. Veiled by the delusive mystery created by my unique power, I am not manifest to all; this bewildered world does not recognize me, birthless and changeless."

Then he writes: "Blessed indeed is the man who is ready for immediate transformation into God , for to such an individual he at once reveals his Godhood; as Krishna revealed his oneness with Kal to Arjuna..." (22) Krishna, previously implied to be one with God, is here relegated to the less er avataric status or "oneness with Kal" the negative power as considered within the Sant tradition. All very confusing. Explainable, but still confusing - cert ainly for a Hindu who would consider Buddha or perhaps Christ or even Ramakrishn a to have been avatars. In any vision of Oneness, whether it be the oneness of the soul, or the oneness of the ultimate, "Kal must be taken back into one's being an d no longer projected outside. It must, however, be kept in mind that Kal is not really a person, i.e., satan, but a principle, but who can apparently manifest in form. Judith Lamb-Lion, disciple of Kirpal Singh, described a mystic encounte r where she met Kal, who "was black and had feathers. She removed a feather and saw light and God behind him and no longer was afraid." This is also essentially what the Tibetan Book of the Dead tells one to do: recognize everything as a pr ojection of one's own mind.. This non-reactivity and acceptance must be habitual ly practiced every day, however, to be effective at the time of death. What this all suggests is that the dualistic vision of the cosmos, described metaphorical ly in many spiritual and religious teachings, is ultimately to be transcended. The more positive aspect of the Kabirian myth is where the aeon Kal is not in herently evil or sinful, but power is granted to Kal as a concession by the Sat Purush so that the cosmic play will go on for some time and souls will not immed iately return to the Forefather as soon as they are incarnated for the first tim e, but be trapped in the lower worlds until rescued by the manifestation of the Positive Power, the Sant Satguru. Needlessly to say, advaita (i.e., sources like the Mandukya Upanishad) do not accept such cosmological theories of creation at all. Which isn t to say that they are not more true thannot. Two metaphors, therefore, seem to exist for the path to Truth. The most ancie nt is the emanationist one of the "ladder" or "ascent" to the highest or deepest realm of consciousness. The non-dual metaphor currently in vogue is that of the "bottom falling out of the bucket" or "the bubble of ego bursting" wherever one finds himself. Is it necessary to fulfill both of these "paths" for complete Tr uth to be realized? Is there a choice? Is one more important than the other? Doe s the "Radhasoami" realization in Sant Mat produce a non-dual enlightenment? It seems that in some cases it may, in some case maybe not, as they seem to derive from different antecedent causes. The Gyan samadhis so criticized as only as "th e highest human realizations" by the Sant Mat masters may not automatically beco me the experience of these Masters just because they fulfilled the complete cour se of inner inversion, and, therefore, only the rare Master in that lineage may have the means to make an accurate comparison, in my humble and hesistantly intr oduced opinion. On the other hand, however, does the "non-dual" enlightenment in traditional or popular Buddhism, Zen or Advaita last any longer than the body, unless the course outlined by the Sant Mat Masters is fulfilled? Realization certainly doesn't seem to remain unbroken in its continuity, in e ither case, as even the masters and sages who choose to return to help others te mporarily sacrifice their enlightenment when they assume a new body, and must sp end some time regaining it (Sant Kirpal Singh called it a "refresher course"), a lthough in their case the regaining is relatively assured. 23. Once again, there is still supposed to be light and sound beyond Sach Khand, and if so the three higher regions beyond Sach Khand (Alak, Agam, and Anami, on ly the latter which is described as formless), can not by definition be equivale nt to the three higher degrees of penetration into the Void Mind mentioned by Pl

otinus (Soul, Intellectual Principle, and the One), and by Paul Brunton as Overs elf (Soul), World Mind, and Mind, all of which are formless, egoless, dimensions . Sach Khand then would be the highest subtle or celestial plane, which Sant Mat denies, calling it the first true spiritual region, beyond mind and matter, and says that you can't know that is the case until you get there, least of all bec ause many lower stages seem like reflections of the higher. 24. The very way Sach Khand is described is paradoxical, however, so its claim t o be a spiritual region may not be dismissed outright. Our language is a poor guag e of reality, in the final analysis. Sach Khand, as a divine realm where souls s ee by their own light and recognize other souls and their Creator, is very much like the following description given by the great Sufi, Ibn Al Arabi: A final spiritual intuition will show you our forms manifest in Him, so that s ome of us are manifest to others in the reality, know each other, and distinguis h each other in Him. There are those of us who have spiritual knowledge of this mutual recognition in the reality, while others have not experienced the plane o n which this occurs. I seek refuge in God lest I be of the ignorant. (23) And also by Plotinus, on the realization of the Nous or Intellectual Principl e, the image of which is the Soul: "A blissful life is theirs. They have the Truth for Mother, Nurse and Nutrime nt; they see all things: not the things that are born and die, but those which h ave Real Being and they see themselves in others. For them all things are transp arent and there is nothing dark or impenetrable, but everyone is manifest to eve ryone interiorly and all things are manifest to the most intimate depth of their nature. Light is everywhere manifest to light. There, everyone has all things i n himself and sees all things in others, so that all things are everywhere and a ll is all and each is all, and the glory is infinite." (v. 8, 4). So far be it for this poor one to speak of what he knows not , but if clarifi cation can be given to bridge the contradictions within the traditions, I ferven tly ask that it be granted, by experience if not in words. 25. Generally, in Sant Mat there is no recognition or proposal of what Paul Brun ton called "Short Path" practices to cultivate insight, as complementary to conc entration practice, and to supplement the often long and dreary years of attempt s at purifying the ego-soul so it can go "within" - such attempts which can in s pite of themselves often reinforce the identification with the ego itself - prio r to actual experience of the higher realms themselves, which through the power of the Word will progressively annihilate the earth-bound soul until it shines i n its primal glory.. This is less likely for those who make themselves accessibl e to the company of a true master and develop love for him. Sometimes in Sant Ma t this is difficult, due to the great number of disciples. This is one reason ma ny are turning to non-dual teachers for what they feel is to be more direct, acc essible, and practical guidance. The Upanishads themselves were the product of a few students sitting at the feet of the master until all doubts were resolved. This turning away from the path could be unfortunate, however, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Again, however, Paul Brunton explains that the mystical schools above all are the most likely to offer one method for all, whether that is suitable for an aspirant or not. There are several reasons for this: "The average teacher takes from his own personal experience what helped him m ost or what his own teacher led him to, and passes it on to the student as being "the Path," the only way to God, the sole method of arriving at truth - whether this particular way or method suits the individual type or his degree of develo pment or not. He almost forces it on the student, even if it is contrary to the latter's entire temperament or need. The poor student finds himself locked up in his teacher's personal opinions and practices, as if nothing good existed outsi

de them." "It is the mark of a well-qualified teacher that he adapts his advice to fit each disciple individually. If everyone is recommended to practise the same meth od irrespective of competence, his personal history and temperament, his grade o f development or capacity, his character-traits and tendencies, in a number of c ases it will be largely ineffectual." (24) Again, the antidote is to go in all humility to the Master-Soul and tell him your problems; if he is a true master the help will be there. 26. So at some point sages say that one must move from the practise of pursuing concentration on a projected ultimate object (i.e., God), with attention extende d outside of the heart, and inquire or find the subject, and then the ultimate S ubject. Supposedly this happens automatically through Naam bhakti. Zen Master Ba ssui (1338-1500), however, echoed Ramana: "What is this mind? Who is hearing these sounds? Do not mistake any state for Self-realization, but continue To ask yourself even more Intensely, What is it that hears?" There are hints here and there that even some of the Sant Mat masters recogni zed this. As mentioned previously, a disciple I knew, Judith Lamb-Lion, who conf essed in Kirpal Singh s company and was acknowledged by him to have gone to Sach K hand at her intiation, still asked him in private, WHO am I? to which Kirpal repli ed WHO wants to KNOW?" It should be mentioned that Kirpal did not suggest this in quiry or practice to just anyone. This was a ripe soul who had also been taken t o Sach Khand, and for whom the question still arose. Therefore we are talking of very high spiritual states. This would make sense of Ramana's comment: "It is said in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the first name of God is 'I' . 'Aham nama abhavat' ['I becomes the name']. Om came later." (25) 'Om' here refers to the creative vibration or life-current, similar to Naam o r Shabd in the Sikh or Sant tradition, except, in the teachings of the Sants, th e scope of "Om" is attributed to that of the lower three worlds only, which are the purview of the vedas and vedantic sages. Sar shabd and Sat shabd are said ta ke one much higher and lead to liberation. Ramana was quite adamant that eventua lly the quest into the truth of the Self is alone the direct path to the right a wareness of the Self or realization. He affirmed that meditation is a preliminar y aid to this quest for breaking up the idea of the body as the self, but that i n all yogas, or stages of yoga, other than that of enquiry, it is assumed that t here is an entity called 'the soul' pursuing that quest, which he says is a fals e assumption. In summary, for Ramana all yoga and meditation is just preliminary to the ultimate path of vichara or enquiry, wherein the source of the apparent ego-soul is realized as the Self. As previously argued, the view that the subjec t discovered through inquiry is the ultimate Subject, instead of the Soul, is a traditional assumption of advaita vedanta, which may not be true. It may simply be a traditonal inheritance we have received from an age when the teachings of t ruth were presented in only impersonal terms. Here is an example of how Ramana would direct his listener from a relative to an absolute viewpoint: Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Individual human souls are not the only beings known." Question: "And the sacred regions Kailasa or Vaikuntha, are they real?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "As real as you are in this body."

Question: "Do they possess a phenomenal existence, like my body? Or are they fic tions like the horn of a hare?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "They do exist." Question: "If so, they must be somewhere. Where are they?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Persons who have seen them say that they exist somewhere. So we must accept their statement." Question: "Where do they exist?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "In you." [Didn't Baba Sawan Singh say much the same thing? "Everything, including the Creator, is within you." ] Question: "Then it is only an idea, which I can create and control?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Everything is like that." Question: "But I can create pure fictions, for example, a hare's horn, or only p art truths, for example a mirage, while there are also facts irrespective of my imagination. Do the Gods Iswara or Vishnu exist like that?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Yes." Question: "Is God subject to Pralaya (cosmic dissolution) ?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Why? Man becoming aware of the Self transcends cosmic diss olution and becomes liberated. Why not Iswara who is infinitely wiser and abler? " [In Sant Mat, Iswara is situated lower in the scheme of creation than the Sat Purush] Question: "Do devas (angels) and pisachas (devils) exist similarly?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Yes." Question: "These deities, what is their status relative to the Self?" Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Siva, Ganapati and other deities like Brahma, exist from a human standpoint; that is to say, if you consider your personal self as real, t hen they also exist. Just as government has its high executive officers to carry on the government, so has the creator. But from the standpoint of the Self all these gods are illusory and must themselves merge into the one reality..." (26) "Truly there is no cause for you to be miserable and unhappy. You yourself im pose limitations on your true nature of infinite being, and then weep that you a re but a finite creature. Then you take up this or that spiritual practice to tr anscend the non- existent limitations. But if your spiritual practice itself ass umes the existence of the limitations, how can it help you to transcend them?" ( 27) While that is so, the ego is not the soul. To realize the soul one must trans cend the ego and co-operate with its death. So what the jnanis say is only halftruth and not gospel. 27. Sant Darshan Singh said in one of his books that one doesn't get the first g limpse of true happiness until after transcending the fourth plane. In the highe st and most true sense this may be so. At the fourth plane the soul stands with

only the anandamayakosha veiling it. No doubt there is great bliss as one ascend s to such a heavenly realm, and as the ray of the soul returns to its origin it partakes more directly of the nature of that source. Still, one may find it diff iculty to accept or simply agree with that comment, no matter how pure and illum ined Sant Darshan Singh was, which as far as I can tell few have walked the eart h with as much sanctity as he. It is simply that other sages have disagreed with it. Therefore the question arises. True, it is certainly harder to be happy her e, and it appears that there is a limit to human happiness, due to its transcien cy, but it also seems that the communication of such a view could reinforce suff ering, in so far as the more one believes or thinks he must get out of the body, the more fixed the belief in the reality of the body becomes, for one thing. Ja panese Buddhist Master Fuji, who sat with Kirpal Singh a number of times, was in obvious ecstasy, with a smile as wide as the room, while in this very plane. Ki rpal was often that way, too. There is also the example of the emotion-filled ex clamation Kirpal made to His master, "Huzur, the peace and security found while sitting at your feet can not be had in higher planes!" Unless this was just a de votional gesture one must question the nature of happiness itself. Does it shine forth while being without ego in the moment, or is it only attained in some far -off inner plane, in the psychological depths of consciousness? If one believes strongly in the reality of the body and world as real, which the very drive to g et out of the body must reinforce (not that one should never pursue it), then ne cessarily one will project his ideal of happiness in that direction only and not recognize it any other way. According to some, that very disposition is a big s tumbling block to liberation. Again, we refer to Brunton who wrote: "The notion that the truth will be gained, that happiness will be achieved, t hat the Overself will be realized at the end of a long attempt must be seen as a n illusory one. Truth, happiness, and the Overself must be seen in the Present, not the future, at the very beginning of this quest, not the end, here and now.. ...It is an error, although a reasonable one, to believe that attainment comes o nly when the whole distance of this path has been travelled. This is to make it depend on measurement, calculation - that is, on the ego's own effort, managemen t, and control. On the contrary, attainment depends on relinquishment of the ego , and hence of the idea of progress which accompanies it. it is then that a man can be still; then that he can, as the bible promises, "know that I am God." (28 ) Ramana also declared: "What is meant by liberation? Do the heavenly worlds and heavenly bliss exist somewhere else in the sky? Are they to be experienced in some other world and s ome other body after leaving this world and the body? The heart alone is the sup reme world. Tranquility, in the form of supreme silence, is alone the supreme bl iss or the happiness of liberation...The cessation of all worries is the attainm ent of the supreme truth. By the state of inner consciousness the great life of supreme bliss can be attained at all times in this very world and in this very b ody." (29) Even Master Darshan spoke enigmatically about this, in apparent contradiction to his words mentioned above. In Love's Last Madness (p. 75) we find: "Eternal rapture is within reach in this ephemeral world: Devote your life to serving in the tavern." In this case some of the Sant Mat gurus would generally be honorably and laud ibly classified according to the Lankavatara Sutra as "Transformation Buddhas", but not necessarily "Dharmata Buddhas" (such as Hui-neng), that is, those who do not publically teach the ultimate truth of the One Mind, but methods to help th e most people they can from the level at which they find them. Many of the great

est sages in history have mixed mysticism with philosophy, trying to help as man y people as they could., such is their great compassion and universal vision. As vedantist V.S. Iyer wrote: "In Brahma Sutras Sankara says that Brahman is the cause of the world, wherea s in Mandukya Upanishad he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will be fr ightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed." (30) As Hung-Jen (eighth century) said: Throughout the canon, the Tathagata preaches extensively about all types of tr ansgression and good fortune, causes and conditions, and rewards and retribution s. He also draws upon all the various things of this world, mountains, rivers, t he earth, plants, trees, etc. to make innumerable metaphors. He also manifests i nnumerable supernormal powers and various kinds of transformations. All these ar e just the Buddha s way of teaching foolish sentient beings. Since they have vario us kinds of desires and a myriad of psychological differences, the Tathagata dra ws them into permanent bliss according to their mental tendencies. Understand cl early that the Buddha Nature embodied within sentient beings is inherently pure, like a sun underlaid by clouds. By just distinctly maintaining awareness of the True Mind, the clouds of false thoughts will go away, and the sun of wisdom wil l appear." (31) The following quote is going to hurt. PB states: "The sage has conquered separativeness in his mind and realized the ALL as hi mself. The logical consequence is tremendous. It follows that there is no libera tion from the round of births and rebirths for the sage; he has to go through it like the others. Of course, he does this with full understanding whereas they a re plunged in darkness. But if he identifies himself with the All, then he can't desert but must go on to the end, working for the liberation of others in turn. This is his crucifixion, that being able to save others he is unable to save hi mself. "And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, `And he was numbered with the transgressors.' Why? Because compassion rules him, not the ego. Nobody is li kely to want such a goal (until, indeed he is almost ready for it) so it is usua lly kept secret or symbolized. Again: "For this is my blood of the new testament , which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (32) Ramana Maharshi and others, even Darshan Singh, have said the same, that they would come back again and again to help apparent other souls. . As Kirpal said, "one bulb is replaced with another." Sant Mat believes the Satguru is an incarnation eternally present on the earth, "giving food for the h ungry and water for the thirsty," as Christ said. There is some merit to the concept of a lineage, where each master watches ea ch other s back, so to speak, thus maintaining the purity of the transmission, eve n when a paerticular master is not fully developed. A teacher or Master may in f act still be a true and effective agent of Grace without the ability to advise o ne in all areas of life or practice; in such cases, one will inevitably be moved out of inner necessity to exercise and develop his intelligence in many matters and seek guidance, with all due love and respect to the primary master of his h eart, from other sources as required, and without fear or paranoia about "Kal" o r anything else. In traditional devotional paths this independence and self-reli ance has usually been considered taboo, but in the age we are living in that is increasingly becoming a no longer viable or believable point of view. The Divine Mind seems to be leading us on a path of evolution and to develop all of ones f aculties is part of that evolution. And there is a higher purpose behind this.

To teach outside the religious and cultural expectations of tradition when ne eded requires skill, knowledge, and courage. Sant Kirpal did so, with some. Sant Darshan Singh, to his credit, seemed to be moving in that direction, but once a dmitted, bless his soul, that he was old-fashioned . Perhaps he was referring to pe rsonal moral codes and such, perhaps not. I was not his personal disciple so I c annot say. He did write that when all is said and done, one must come to the poi nt of surrender. With that there can be no argument. But there is no question th at the public message of Sant Mat in general continues to be simply go in and up . For some this works, but for many, apparently not so well. There are many, many souls who have meditated faithfully for years and been disheartened with the res ults. This may not all be attributed to a lack of patience and perseverance or t he difficulty of the ordeal, although that can t be ruled out. Hazrat Inayat Khan told a story of a man who had meditated for years and was disheartened with his progress.The man s father told him that he practiced for forty years with the same result and was told to pray for a miracle. One day the miracle occured and he b roke through into the light. In Sant Mat a big emphasis is placed oon the stage of man-making and te working off of karma. It is sometimes said that ninty-five per cent of the grace is withheld until the time of one s death, and that is when one will see the full glory of one s Master. Still, some cash in hand is promised ev en from the beginning. In the July 2007 issue of Sat Sandesh magazine Sant Rajinder spoke about how we should meditate because we will see the glorious inner realms and have bliss and peace, and that another benefit is that we will see our relatives and realiz e that they, too, are in a better place of peace and joy. Now, at first glance, forgive me, when I read this I felt like saying, "What is this, how could he say such a thing? Doesn't it contradicts everything Sant Mat teaches about life aft er death, especially for the uninitiated? Kirpal Singh's book, Mystery of Death, does not promise that everyone just by dying is in a better place. You have som e vivid but dream-like experiences for a while, have a pleasant sleep, and then are reborn until you get it right or wake up. One doesn't progress just by dying !" But after further contemplation, I was reminded of a story about Ramana Mahar shi. A man came to him distraught about a son who had passed away. He wanted Ram ana to tell him if he would see his son again when he died. Ramana didn't answer him, and the man relentlessly implored him to promise him that he would again s ee his son when he died. Finally after a long time Ramana said, "yes." When the man left, Ramana turned to one of his advanced devotees and said, "what could I say? If I had said "no" the man's faith would have been shaken to its roots." Sri Nisargadatta, in the midst of speaking about the point of view of the jna ni, also confessed to using such consoling words when dealing with souls of less understanding: "Q: Imagine you are ill -- high fever, aches, shivers. The doctor tells you the condition is serious, there are only a few days to live. What would be your firs t reaction? M: No reaction. As it is natural for the incense stick to burn out, so it is nat ural for the body to die. Really, it is a matter of very little importance. What matters is that I am neither the body nor the mind. I am. Q: Your family will be desperate, of course. What would you tell them? M: The usual stuff: fear not, life goes on, God will protect you, we shall be so on together again and so on. But to me the entire commotion is meaningless, for I am not the entity that imagines itself alive or dead. I am neither born nor ca n I die. I have nothing to remember or to forget... Q: How does the jnani fare after death? M: The jnani is dead already. Do you expect him to die again? Q: Surely, the dissolution of the body is an important event even to a jnani. M: There are no important events for a jnani, except when somebody reaches the h ighest goal. Then only his heart rejoices. All else is of no concern. The entire

universe is his body, all life is his life. As in a city of lights, when one bu lb burns out, it does not affect the network, so the death of a body does not af fect the whole." How many of us are interested in hearing the truth of the self for its own sa ke? Let us not judge masters too prematurely, for their message is given to many , many people of different background, understanding, and readiness. Paul Brunto n wrote, and this may sting, too: This goal must not be mistaken, however, for the orthodox Hindu or Buddhist go al of liberation from the cycle of rebirths. The philosophic aspirant seeks libe ration only from mental and emotional bondage to the experiences of these rebirt hs. He does not hate earthly life nor desire to disappear utterly in the univers al life. Unlike the ordinary Oriental ascetic or mystic he is content to come ba ck to earth again and again, provided he can come back with wisdom, understandin g and compassion, and participate effectively and selflessly in human affairs. F or he knows that death and birth, earth and heaven, are but changes in idea, and that in reality there is one unchanging existence which is birthless and deathl ess and everlasting. The world is for ever changing, but the flow of changes is itself permanent. Therefore we can find the Eternal here in this world as well a s in the supra-mundane realm... Ultimately we may continue to exist no longer as finite beings, only as the Ab solute itself. The person is absorbed into its impersonal source. This deprives immortality of all human meaning. The instinct of self preservation holds us all in so powerful a thrall that we demand its satisfaction even after we have reno unced the transient mortal life. For then there is no impress on the universal l ife, nothing to show in the vast void of the Absolute that the individual has ev en existed at all. But we as egos shall not pass into nothingness when we finish this pilgrimage from outward existence to inward Essence. We shall pass inwardl y into a state where we shall not be involved in time space change as humanly kn own, a state where they become meaningless terms. This state is as undeniable by a being in it as it is impenetrable by those who stand outside it. But it exist s. It is not annihilation, it is the fullness of being. From this final standpoint there can exist no such process as the cyclic whirl of reincarnation. All births on earth are then seen to be appearances of one an d the same thing. The thing is known to be the reality, and its appearances are known to be its shadows. But before this high level is reached man thinks in his ignorance that he has a wholly separate existence from all other men, that he i s a finite individual who must be born again and again on earth until he attains the being of the Overself, and that the Overself and he are two things, separat e and apart. (unpublished essay) Rajinder Singh also has said that merger in God is not the annihilation of on es identity, but rather immersion in all the love, joy, and wisdom of God. . So I sense that Sant Rajinder was speaking to someone or some particular gro up of people in his talk for which such a consoling message was a help. Sort of like "Mr. Rogers". Watching Mr. Rogers (God rest his soul) was a humbling experi ence. A cynical person like myself could never pull off what he did. He was incr edible. So, too, the Masters have their amazing play and often there is little t o say about why they do what they do. Sooner or later master-teachers say almost everything, to one person or another. In this instance, however, was such a sta tement of Sant Rajinder's the literal "truth" ? The answer is, for the Sant Mat initiate, it is said that their close relations and loved ones (even to seven ge nerations past) are also given the boon of the Living Master s help, and are not a t the mercy of Kal, or the angel of death, the Lord of the three worlds within w hich souls recycle endlessly until they meet the Master.

I am fully aware that some will cringe at what seems like the exclusivity of such a teaching, while others will shed tears of joy. From the point of view of the higher philosophy, it is all illusion. But it i s as real as we seem to be. "Nobody is born or dies at any time; it is the mind that conceives its birth and death and its migration to other bodies and other worlds." - Yoga Vasishta 28. Once more, there is the issue of purification of vasanas or egoic tendencies to clear up. The Sant Mat answer to this is rather unique. In the lineage they say the sanchit karmas, that is, the vasanas, tendencies, and karmas, from time immemorial are eradicated forever by the Master at the time of initiation (at le ast, in the Kirpal lineage this is said). The pralabd karmas, those making up th is lifetime, are left alone, otherwise one would die at the time of initiation. The kriyaman karmas are those one accumulates from day to day by wrong living, a nd are kept to a minimum by meditation, moral actions, selfless service, and eat ing a vegetarian diet. If one does this adequately with full faith then at the t ime of death when the Master takes one through the pool of Manasrovar in the sup racausal plane where one sheds his causal body, all ones karma from time immemor ial is wiped out forever. Otherwise the accumulated kriyaman karma may require a nother birth to be purified. This will, no doubt, raise the hair on the neck of the confirmed vedantists, who may not even believe in the concept of karma. So b e it. To them it might be said, "see you next life." Sages like Ramana Maharshi speak differently about this issue of karmas and s amskaras: they say it is an (often long and drawn out) affair that must occur in the waking state, whereby the vasanas of egoity are scorched by checking them i n consciousness as they arise and returning consciousness to its source. This mu st go on even after an experience of nirvikalpa, or formless inner trance. The c onsciousness must become stabilized under all conditions. One can easily see tha t this is a very different view. Vedantist Iyer gives a philosophic interpretati on of the bath in Manasarovar (Sanskrit: "manas-sarovar", or "lake of mind"). Fo r Iyer, the world in front of us, including the body, is the lake of mind that o ne must be immersed in until he has firmly established that all is an idea, or a mental appearance. The epistemological argument goes: reality of matter is a gu ess; we can only known what appears in consciousness; therefore, everything is a n idea. This understanding, he says, effectively dissolves the world into Mind, and one realizes in his understanding that he is Atman. Then through further inq uiry Atman is known to be the same as Brahman. This, he says, is equivalent of t he religious pilgrimage to Lake Manasarovar where one takes his ritualistic bath before going on to Kailas. For Iyer, Kailas signifies Atman. Iyer makes no ment ion of the mystic interpretation given in Sant Mat. Of course, because he was no t a mystic, nor had he access to those transcendental realms, so, as great a pun dit as he was, his view was sort of one-dimensional. 29. When I sat before Ki rpal Singh, one disciple complained that she couldn t still her mind. On this path concentration (dhyan) is the sine qua non. Kirpal replied, that s all of our probl em! Some would take that as a matter-of-fact reply, the point being that achievin g stilling of the mind was difficult for everyone. Yet perhaps there was an addi tional meaning to Sant Kirpal s remark. At the time my dhyan was being demolished. L ater, I remembered this incident when I read the following words of the chinese master Hung-Jen: The triple realm is an empty apparition that is solely the creation of the ind ividual mind. Do not worry if you cannot achieve concentration and do not experi ence the various psychological states. Just constantly maintain clear awareness of the True Mind in all your actions. (33) In the Dzogchen tradition the same approach is taken. Not concentration, but letting the mind be open and vast as the sky, neither rejecting or accepting tho ughts. The only problem is that if one relaxes the mind prematurely, he will go

into the subconscious mind and stagnate. That is why in most traditions the deve lopment of mindfulness or concentration is at least a preliminary exercise or pr actice, and Sant Mat is no exception. My experience with Sant Kirpal Singh was unique and led me to feel that he hi mself may in a sense have transcended the conventional teaching of his lineage a nd realized Sat and Sahaj, for instance, independent of exclusive inversion. He once asked me if I wanted anything, if I wanted to leave my body, and when I rep lied (unknowingly, without much intelligence at the time, as I was a young man), no, nothing, he immediately got excited and said, You're an emperor, I ll kiss your feet, God is nothing! A couple of days later I had a satori or kensho type of exp erience at his ashram, which he seemed to recognize and acknowledge, even though I didn t yet know what had happened at the time. It was not mystical or psychic, or even an experience, but an instant of realization of the ego or person's unre ality, even while in the body. Nothing had changed, and everything negative in m e remained to be purified, but yet, everything was different. It was one of thos e infamous "non-events" the non-dualists are so fond of talking about. I knew th is was something that never arose in any of my inner meditations before that mom ent, and could not have arisen as long as my attention was only rivetted on inne r phenomena or their expectation. Kirpal, as stated, after giving a long and det ailed description of the path to the final goal, once said, "you already are the re, you just don't know it." To me this confirms he had a more complete realizat ion than that conventionally elaborated in Sant Mat, and that Kirpal, like Rumi and Kabir, was among the highest gurus in that lineage.. Ramana spoke of a tiny orifice in the heart which is normally closed, but whe n opened led to realization of the Self and happiness, here and now. This causal "knot" (granthi) is not automatically opened by the path of ascent, it seems, b ut rather the knot at the ajna doorway is opened. That is, the divya chakshu is op ened, but not necessarily the jnana chakshu that Ramana talked about. That may or may not open depending on one s background, prior understanding, etc. Otherwise th e ego on the path of ascent "takes a bath" and is purified of gross attachment, but still remains intact as an ego-soul for some time until the soul shines in i ts pristine glory. Further, on return to the world ignorance to a degree reasser ts itself, perhaps not in all, but in many cases. In Sant Mat, it is indetermina te when the knot at the heart opens. It is likely that the greatest of these Mas ters, such as Kabir, Nanak, Kirpal, and a few others knew the Truth, but this ma jor distinction between the teachings regarding the heart versus the third eye ( ajna center) is simply not given much recognition. Rather, the path of the sages is just dismissed as a lesser path, and left at that. This leaves many experien ces unexplainable. On the other hand, it is likely possible for the jnana chaksh u to open, on the path of knowledge, without the divya chakshu or the heart chak ra opening to any significant degree. Perhaps for both to open would be best. I humbly implore the Masters that any remaining mystique surrounding Sant Mat should be let go, that they speak openly and plainly, as was done in ancient da ys, for the good of all. The Tripura Rahasya states: "The best among sages can, without hesitation, give complete answers on matte rs relating to Realization and the sublimest truths. He seems to be spontaneousl y animated when discussing matters pertaining to jnana (knowledge) and is never tired of their exposition." (34) Similarly, the sage Yajnavalkya has been taken as a model of the ideal teache r since the earliest times: "He exemplifies a major characteristic of the guru, namely, to teach fully, h olding nothing back. Although different teachers use different methods, the auth entic guru holds nothing in reserve; he teaches all that he knows and experience s. According to the texts, Yajnavalkya exposed principles relentlessly until und

erstanding took place. These early teachers, though their teaching was frequentl y obscure and esoteric, were not part of a closed society. There was no fear of a free exchange of ideas even among the teachers themselves. Above all, they wer e concerned for the lineage of sacred wisdom and the necessity of its transmissi on." (35) V.S. Iyer writes: "Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words. He was no fool in writing...[He] stressed the great importance of freeing our use of words from all ambiguity...Sankara himself has warned us not to use ambiguous words." (36) In contrast, the history of the Radhasoami movement since the time of Soamiji has often been one of being encouraged not to ask difficult questions (although I have to admit that my master, Sant Kirpal Singh, said, "bring me your worst q uestion!"). Yet too often the advice is, "we shouldn't ask such things," "we can 't know such things," etc.. I will give but one example to illustrate my point, a very important one, in my opinion. In Sant Mat, there is mention of there bein g "marked souls," those with a moharchap on their foreheads, indicating they are to be chosen for initiation and eventual return to Sach Khand. There is even at least one mention in the New Testament of such a stamp on the forehead of the e lect. The following is a statement with references by an angry Beas follower abo ut this topic and its consequences. One will see its essentially drastic message : "MISSION STATEMENT OF THE RADASWAMI MASTER AND THE INTENT OF HIS GOD." " In this argument we want to look at the "Mission" that the Masters claim to be given by God and also look at certain defining characteristics of that God which we can infer from statements by the Masters. We will use two quotes from Radhasoami (RS) books as the source documents: The first is from the book "The Master Answers" by Charan Singh from 1984. The second is data attributed to Saw an Singh from the book "With the Three Masters - Vol. II" (1967) Pages 68 and 1 76. Q. 310. The first question referred to the Supreme Lord as sending us down here: Now sometimes in the Radha Soami literature, may be in some of the discus sions, I forgot which, we have referred to as being prodigal Sons, which indica tes that we came down here by our own choice, rather than being sent down by th e Supreme Lord. Will you comment on that? A. How could we have a choice, when we were with the Lord? Choice comes through the mind, and there is no mind the re. We have been sent. We have been given mind, to be pulled to and function in this world. But we had no mind there. The question of our choice did not aris e there. If the universe had to be created, some souls had to be sent, whether they liked it or not. It is not advisable to discuss many things. For example, you may have heard or you may have read but I do not want to give much import ance to it that some souls were quite willing to come, and others were quite re luctant to come. Generally, it is said that saints come for those souls who we re reluctant to come into this world, and that is considered to be one-tenth of the number of souls sent here. So, only one-tenth will make their way (p.310 THE MASTER ANSWERS (1964 Charan Singh) back to the Lord and nine-tenths will sta y back here to carry on the universe. That is why everybody will not be attrac ted towards the Lord. Some souls are required for the universe to go on, unless the Lord wants to finish this whole play. Otherwise, if all the souls were to go back to Him, there would be an end to this universe. So the Saints come for those marked souls. The one-tenth are the marked souls for which the Masters come, to take them back to the Lord. They are known as the marked souls. I did not want to discuss this question. (below dated June, 1945 and attributed to Sa wan Singh)" "Last night Huzur said, The real secret is that when this creation was cre

ated for the first time it was most beautiful and fascinating. It was shown to all the souls and they were asked whether they would like to live in Satlok or go down to this new creation. Eight-ninths of the souls said they wanted to go down to the lower creation, and only one-ninth of the souls said they wanted to stay at the feet of the Lord. This the all-merciful Supreme Father asked the souls who did not want to go down, to do so, and to enjoy the new creation. He added, however, that He would call them back later on. So it is this group com prising one-ninth of all the souls that is now going back to Satlok. Since the creation is infinite, this one-ninth part is also infinite, and some of these souls will always be in this world to be taken back. The rest of the eight par ts will always remain here as a part of this creation." "On June, 1945, someone asked why this universe was created. Huzur replied, This can be understood only after reaching Satiok, but the perfect Saints posse ss this secret, which is not to be found in any books, that this entire univers e was shown to all the souls on the day it was created. Eight-ninths of the so uls said that they would like to live forever in the material. world; but the r emaining one-ninth said that they did not want anything else except God. At th is the Supreme Lord said, "All of you go down to the material world. Those who have asked for me only, I shall come to take them back in the form of perfect Saints." I said that it was really surprising that these souls liked this mater ial world in exchange for the bliss of Satlok. Huzur replied, "These souls wer e then not in Satlok, but were in a passive or dormant state. They liked this m aterial world because they had not seen any other universe." The Masters claim that their "mission" is to find "marked souls" and bring them back to God. It i s further claimed that each Master has been assigned a specific number of these "marked souls" to locate and return. This is their stated mission throughout th e many RS books. Many RS books contain glossaries, but the term "marked soul" is not defined in any of them. So, just what is a "marked soul". From the above qu otes we can see that a "marked soul" is a soul which came from Sach Khand. It i s a statement of fact or citizenship - marked souls are citizens of Sach Khand and so have the right to return there. You cannot earn the right to be a "marke d soul". You either are or are not. Either way you cannot change it. The concep t of karmas or good or bad works has nothing at all to do with being a marked so ul. The Masters then state the number of marked souls at about 10% of all souls . So, what if you are not a "marked soul". Well, if you are a member of the 90% of non-marked souls, according to the Masters, there is no hope for you regardl ess of how good you are. In the model for the Universe as given in the above qu otes, non-marked souls never reach God. When they are not being "used" to anima te life forms in the creation, they are "stored" in a "dormant state" until nee ded. I do not believe that I can find, in the language that we use here to commu nicate with one another, the words to adequately express the gravity of what is being stated in the above quotes. Please read them carefully." "We begin at a point where the material creation had not yet been conceived. Souls lived in the Spiritual realms. Now it is time to create the lower or mate rial worlds. It is desired that these worlds be populated by animate creatures which necessitates that these creatures have souls. The souls used for this pur pose are not souls from the spiritual planes. They are souls from "a dormant st ate" - souls who "had never been in Sat Lock". These souls are destined to "alw ays remain here as part of this creation". They will have lifetime after lifeti me - hopes and dreams - good and bad times, but the most they can hope for (alt hough they do not know this) is to be put back into "a dormant state". They will never reach God - they will never see God. Saints will not help them. Only the special 10% who came from an active existence in the Spiritual planes have the right (divine right ?) to return to those high planes. They have the passport - "the mark" by definition or divine right or whatever. It is irrelevant what t hey have done or do now or will do in the future. None of this has any effect o n the fact that they are "marked souls" and therefore have the right to access the Spiritual worlds. Similarly, those 90% who are "not marked" have no right a

nd no hope of gaining any right regardless of anything they may do. Now, this is a simply horrible model for the Universe and for God's intentions. If true, we might as well all hang it up because we are dealing with a God which is vastly different from what is generally believed. This is a model for a totally non ev olving Universe - a stagnant place where souls spin around but accomplish nothi ng ruled by a God who creates souls for "utility" and not out of Love that they might develop and grow and achieve fulfillment. It also suggests an elitist or "master race" type attitude on the part of the Masters. The Masters and their s tudents, of course, are members of the "marked soul class" and the "masses" or the general population is the "non-marked soul class" which is doomed and does n ot count. To accept this RS model, then, is to worship a God who does NOT have "unconditional love" but who instead has very conditional love for specific sou ls and no regard for others. The most likely possibility here is that the god of RS is not the ultimate God but rather one of the many "gods" which are worship ped by the various sects in India. In fairness, I wrote to Gurinder Singh and as ked him to explain or clarify the quotes used above. As usual, he refused to gi ve any meaningful answer and simply stated that "our limited minds cannot under stand these things". He also added some advice saying, "I would advise you not to activate the mind unnecessarily". It is good advice, of course. If you are a mindless zombie you will have no trouble accepting anything. However, my "limi ted mind" has no trouble seeing what is being said in the above quotes- and I d o not agree with it and I do not feel that the "god" being described here is the ultimate and "for real" god." [For those with the time, this link and this one will provide access to websi tes covering much of the controversial 'politics' on this path. I make no excuse for their prejudices or errors, but they bring up many questions that need answ ering, and their very existence would probably be unnecessary were it not for th e unfortunate obfuscation and exclusivity on this path, at least, in some of its branches]. In Sant Mat, while there is Absolute God, there is its expression, a personal God, the Sat Purush, of whom it has been said from time to time that the "Mauj" or divine will has been 'changed'. Soamiji mentioned this theological concept o n at least one occasion. In more modern times, the following statement was may t o a friend of mine by Sant Darshan Singh. Things have seemed to be loosening up in recent years - perhaps out of necessity, it is hard to tell - yet this is a m uch more universal proclamation, in line with that of many saints and sages: "I was with Master Darshan in his living room at the ashram in 1988 when he s In fact all the souls in the universe are aid ecstatically to maybe forty of us, destined to go back to God! I do not know if the mauj has changed since Master Sawan Singh made the statements above, but I think that may be the case, since t he living master can ask for these things and the inner circle of past masters w ill listen to the living master." This is what Paramhansa Yogananda had proclaimed, that "eventually all souls will go back to God - because there is nowhere else to go!" "What we call the will of God is not a capricious whim of a playful deity, bu t the expression of an absolute necessity to grow in love and wisdom and power, to actualize the infinite potentials of life and consciousness." (37) Nor must we forget the ultimate non-dual nature of realization in all paths: Our being here is our eternal being. Many people imagine here to have creature ly being, and divine being to be yonder. It is a popular delusion. -Meister Eckha rt nbsp I say, with my limited understanding and countless faults, that it is time

for secrecy and old language to be abandoned. The truth must be made plain. The re are inevitable mysteries and paradoxes on the path to be sure, words as such being but pointers towards wordless truth, but also many 'unnecessary mysteries and paradoxes' due to philosophical provincialism and doctrinal obscurity. Even under genuine teachers, many initiates have suffered from a lack of clarity and understanding. All this being said, Sant Kirpal Singh often said that if one wished to be co nvinced of the greatness of this path, he should go see an initiate dying. Many have attested to the Radiant Form of the Master coming for them at the time of t heir passing. Hopefully, blessed assurance is granted the faithful soul even bef ore this final event. The promise given by true Sants is that for the devoted di sciple indeed there is not only such assurance but also much help. Sant Kirpal S ingh said: "Satguru is the fountainhead of grace. Strange are the ways in which he works his grace. With just a single kindly look he may bless a jiva forever." (38) "Having received the protection of a God-realized man, do you think he would ever forget you? The Master always holds his disciples in the innermost heart ce nter." (39)

Paramhansa Yogananda and Kriya Yoga: A Comparative Analysis By Peter Holleran "You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God's creative p rinciple works in you." Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was perhaps the equal of Swami Vivekananda i n widely disseminating Indian yoga to the West. The Kriya Yoga path he taught wa s essentially an emanationist mystical path with similarities to both kundalini and shabd yoga. This essay will dissect its philosophy and practice and compare and contrast it with both shabd yoga and the path of jnana as espoused by sages such as Ramana Maharshi, Paul Brunton (PB), and others. Yogananda was born Mukund Lal Ghosh into a devout Hindu family. His parents w ere disciples of Lahiri Mahasay, the modern exponent of Kriya Yoga. The young bo y Mukunda used to meditate with his mother in front of a picture of their guru, and on many occasions the image of the photograph would take on living form and sit beside them. At the age of eight Mukunda was healed of cholera when, gazing upon Lahiri s picture, he was enveloped in a blinding light which filled the entir e room. His mother died when he was eleven, and she left a message for him sayin g that Lahiri had told her that one day Yogananda would carry many souls to free dom and that he had actually been spiritually initiated or baptised by him durin g infancy. Yogananda was, like so many great souls, a very mischievious, fun-loving, and strong-willed youth. He was also possessed of numerous yogic abilities from a y oung age. Once, while walking along a road with his brother and a friend, Yogana nda (known as "Medja" by his friends and siblings) decided to have some fun. The group was overwhelmed by the horrible smell of some rotting, maggot-ridden rice wafting in their direction. Yogananda boasted that since he realized that God w as in everything he could therefore eat some of the rice without coming to any h arm. His friend, Surenda, mocked him, saying that if Yogananda could eat the dis gusting mess, then so could he! Whereupon Yogananda calmly picked up a handful o f the putrid rice and ate it as if it were the most delicious of treats. His fri end ran, fearing his upcoming fate, with Yogananda in hot pursuit, but he couldn 't outrun the future saint. Yogananda shoved a handful of the rice in Surenda's mouth and the boy promptly vomited and nearly passed out. Yogananda rubbed his c hest, smiling, and Surenda recovered and conceded his defeat. Yogananda lived in a rich spiritual milieu and met many holy men before accep ting kriya yoga initiation from Sri Yukteswar. He liked to go to the temple at D akshineswar and engage in devotion to the Divine Mother and Ramakrishna. Here he said that the radiance of Divine Light from the image of the Mother's body fill ed his own body, mind, and soul. Later he spent time with brother disciples of t hat great saint. He also received instruction as a youth in shabd yoga technique s from the brother of his brother-in-law, Charu Chandra Basu, who was a Radhasoa mi initiate, and practiced meditation on inner light and sound for some time wit h rapid and spectacular results, although he later always considered it compleme ntary to his devotion to the Kriya yoga as taught by Lahiri Mahasay, and which h e considered a superior path. One personage of particular importance to Yogananda was Master Mahasaya, or M ahendra Nath Gupta (otherwise known as "M , the author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakr ishna), who blessed Yogananda with several breath-stopping mystical experiences,

including his first experience of samadhi, similar in nature to the touch that Ramakrishna gave to Vivekananda: "I experienced that the Center of the Supreme Heavenly Abode was actually a p lace deep within myself and that the place of experience within was spawned by t he Same. It was as if the entire creation was emanating from my Being and the ra diance of an incredibly beautiful Light was spreading through the Sahasrar. 'It is His river of nectar flowing through the world'. A flow of liquid nectar was r ushing through body and mind - waves upon waves. I heard the Onkar Sound, the So und of Brahman - the thunderous Pranava resonance - the First Pulse of the creat ion of the Universe. Suddenly, my breath came back into the lungs. Oh, if I coul d only express how my heart was filled with disappointment. I cannot tell you. T hat Great Being of mine was completely gone. Again I came back and was imprisone d by this insignificant and miniscule physical cage - this thing that cannot con tain that Colossal Person of the Atman. Like the prodigal son described in the B ible, I left my Immense Abode of the Cosmos, and again entered this tiny 'pot' o f the body." (Swami Satyananda Giri, A Collection of Biographies of 4 Kriya Yoga Gurus, Yoga Niketan, 2004, p. 255) Yukteswar commissioned Yogananda to spread the teachings of Kriya Yoga to the West and in 1920 he sailed for America. Except for a brief period in the 1930's , Yogananda remained in America for thirty years, teaching and initiating over 1 00,000 people into Kriya Yoga, and establishing the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) on the Mount Washington Estates in Los Angeles. One of the first Indian te achers along with Swami Vivekananda to come to America, Yogananda's intention wa s not, as he put it, to "Indianize" Westerners, but to awaken them to their own inherent spirituality. "Being a Westerner," he said, "is no excuse for not seeki ng God. It is vital to every man that he discover his soul and know his immortal nature." A vital, energetic individual with a free spirit, Yogananda visited many famo us people in search of spiritual influences and kindred souls. The Autobiography of a Yogi tells of his meetings with RabindranathTagore, Luther Burbank, Calvin Coolidge, Therese Neuman, and Ramana Maharshi. He also saw Anandamayi Ma, Mahat ma Gandhi, and many other notable figures. While at the ashram of Ramana he met Paul Brunton and also an advanced disciple of the sage known as Yogi Ramiah. Yog ananda considered Ramiah to be a fully enlightened soul. (1) Interestingly, it w as to Maharshi that Yogananda sent a young inquisitive Robert Adams, when the la tter questioned him on the limits of kriya yoga for attaining Self-Realization, and why he bothered to teach it. Yogananda s response was, I am doing very well, th ank you, doing things the way I am, but nevertheless recommended that Adams see R amana. Towards the end, Kriyananda recounts: "During this last period of his life, he was very much withdrawn from outward consciousness. He hardly seemed even to have a personality. Truly, as he often told us, "I killed Yogananda long ago. No one dwells in this temple but God..I w on my liberation many lifetimes ago." To the monks...he said, "When I see that G od wants me to be born again in another body to help others, and when I see that I am to re-assume a personality, it seems at first a bit like donning an overco at on a summer day; hot, and a bit itchy. Then," he concluded, "I get used to it ." (2) When Yogananda died his body remained in a state of perfect preservation twenty days afterwards, when his casket was finally sealed. This example of c super-regeneration was evident in the case of a number of saints, such as Catherine of Sienna, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, as well as Aurobindo.

for yogi St. Sri

His death itself was quite dramatic: Paramhansa Yogananda had often voiced this prediction: I will not die in bed, b ut with my boots on, speaking of God and India. On March 7, 1952, the prophecy wa s fulfilled. At a banquet in honor of the Ambassador of India, Binay R. Sen, Par amhansaji was a guest speaker. He delivered a soul-stirring address, concluding with these words from a poem he had written, My India : Where Ganges, woods, Himalay an caves and men dream God - I am hallowed; my body touched that sod! He lifted h is eyes upward and entered mahasamadhi, an advanced yogi s conscious earth-exit. H e died as he lived, exhorting all to know God. (3) Rajarski Janakananda (James "Saint" Lynn) succeeded Yogananda as president of SRF. Upon his death in 1951, Sri Daya Mata assumed the leadership, a position s he still holds. Swami Kriyananda was forced to leave SRF in 1962 and he started his own community, the Ananda Fellowship in Nevada City, California, in the late 1960's. Roy Eugene Davis, ordained by Yogananda in 1951, started CSA, the Cente r for Spirtual Awareness, where he has blended Kriya yoga with a form of advaita in a refreshing manner different from the other ordained teachers of Yogananda. (His description of the stages of realization seems to differ somewhat from tho se of both Yogananda and his predecessors as well, as will be delineated later). As with many spiritual movement when the teacher dies, there were power struggl es and controversies, none particularly earth-shaking, however, compared to othe r groups. Yogananda left no clearly agreed upon successor-guru, recognized no se lf-realized disciples, and, in fact, according to Sri Daya Mata, before his passi ng on Paramahansaji said that it was God s wish that he be the last of the YSS/SRF line of gurus. This means that henceforth disciples would have to establish a re lationship with him in their hearts as there would be no new master for a direct human guru-shisya relationship. Nevertheless it appears that Daya Mata, Kriyana nda, Roy Eugene Davis, and others unmentioned were commissioned to teach Kriya y oga. Swami Sivananda felt highly of Yogananda and issued this tribute: A rare gem o f inestimable value, the like of whom the world is yet to witness, Paramhansa Yo gananda has been an ideal representative of the ancient sages and seers, the glo ry of India, while His Holiness the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, revered spirit ual leader of millions in South India, wrote of Paramhansaji: A bright light shin ing in the midst of darkness, so comes on earth only rarely, where there is a re al need among men. We are grateful to Yogananda for spreading Hindu philosophy i n such a wonderful way in America and the West. (4) The Autobiography of a Yogi is a wonderfully human account of a great soul an d a fascinating story of a spiritual oddysey. To have a complete picture of Yoga nanda's life it should, however, be supplemented with The Path: Autobiography of a Western Yogi (now retitled The Path: One Man s Quest on the Only Path There Is, by Swami Kriyananda. In this book, imbued with devotion, are given many, many d etails of day by day life with the Master, whereas in Yogananda's book we are fo r the most part introduced to the various people he has met. Little is revealed therein of the specifics of the sadhana which Yogananda undertook nor of the rea lization he gained. Even so, Autobiography of A Yogi is one of the most influent ial spiritual chronicles of the twentieth century and with its writing the autho r did countless people an immense service. Yogananda's most famous book is somew hat short on a detailed description of the nature, methods, stages, and goal of the Kriya Yoga path, especially as it compares with others, although I will try to explain it as best I can based chiefly on the above-mentioned book by Kriyana nda, The Essence of Self-Realization and also The Second Coming of Christ by Yog ananda. The path as outlined by Yogananda appears to be different than that desc ribed by his guru, Sri Yukteswar, in the latter's book, The Holy Science, which sounds much more like shabd yoga. The specific details for actual kriya practice are given out in the lessons that members of the Self-Realization Fellowship su bscribe to. Further complicating the picture is that Yogananda actually gave out

different practices and even yogas to different individuals as the particular c ase demanded. Kriya Yoga, essentially, is a form of yoga practice employing breathing techn iques and meditation to free consciousness from the physical, astral, and causal bodies. It is not absolutely clear, to my understanding, from Yogananda's writi ngs, whether the goal is dissociation with these bodies or only disidentifcation from them, of first one, then the other, a common two-part sadhana. In his auto biography and early writings Yogananda suggests that God-Consciousness takes pla ce when the soul or disembodied attention has actually separated from these thre e "coils" and, correspondingly, from the three worlds (physical, astral, and cau sal or ideational). Thus divested, he calls this state of the soul "God or Cosmi c Consciousness", and seems, as far as I can tell, to mean something like tradit ional Nirvikalpa samadhi. Yet he also describes two states before this. The firs t is to become "superconscious", attuned with Aum, the vibratory power of creati on on all levels, and feel the universe as ones own body. The second is to achie ve "Christ Consciousness," which is realization of oneness with the all-pervadin g, still Christ Consciousness, the Kutshtha Chaitanya, within and transcendent o f the Aum vibration, the 'pure reflection in all things of the consciousness of God the Father beyond creation'. This is the definition of a Master according to Yogananda. It is jivanmukta, but not yet total liberation. The further achievem ent of Nirvikalpa beyond manifest creation is defined as "the samadhi-meditation state of oneness with God both beyond and within vibratory creation at the same time." (5) Thus state must then be brought down into the physical body and real ized simultaneously while embodied: "The stages of enlightenment are, first, to be conscious of the AUM vibration throughout the body. Next, one's consciousness becomes identified with that AUM vibration beyond the body, and gradually throughout the universe. One then beco mes conscious of the Christ Consciousness within the AUM vibration - first withi n the physical body, then gradually in the whole universe. When you achieve onen ess with that vibrationless consciousness everywhere, you have attained Christ C onsciousness." "The [next] stage lies beyond vibration itself, in oneness with God the Fathe r, the Creator [through the Holy Ghost] beyond the universe. When, still in that highest state of consciousness, you can return to the body without losing your inner sense of oneness with God, that is complete freedom. All true masters, eve n those who are not yet fully liberated, live in that nirbikalpa samadhi state. That is what Jesus Christ had. It was what he meant by perfection, in saying, 'B e ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt 5:48). T o be a Christlike master, one must have attained that state." (5a) In short, he calls the final state "the complete union of body, Holy Ghost, C hrist Consciousness, and God the Father, perceived as one in Spirit." (5b) Part of the difficulty in understanding all this is that Yogananda appears to have us ed the word "nirbikalpa" where sages like Ramana Maharshi used the term "sahaj", and "sabikalpa" where others used "nirvikalpa." Yogananda states: "There are two stages of samadhi. In the first, the conscousness merges into the Infinite during meditation. The yogi cannot preserve that state, however, on ce he comes out of his meditation. That state is known as sabikalpa samadhi." "The next state is called nirbikalpa samadhi. In this state of consciousness you maintain your divine realization even while working or speaking or moving ab out in this world. Nirbikalpa is the highest realization. Once attaining that, t here is no further possibility of falling back into delusion." (5c) Here Yogananda seems to reverse the traditional usage of the terms Sabikalpa and Nirbikalpa. However, the difficulty clears up if we understand the first usage

to refer to traditional Nirvikalpa samadi, and the second to refer to Sahaja or Sahaja-Nirvikalpa samadhi]. "I made this distinction in a chant I once wrote: "In sabikalpa samadhi yoga I will drown myself in my Self. In nirbikalpa samadhi yoga I will find myself in my Self." (The Essence of Self-Realization, 1990, p. 196) The aforementioned three stages of Self-realization (Superconsciousness, or attu nement with the vibratory current of Om, Christ Consciousness, and Cosmic Consci ousness), Yogananda equated with the Hindu version (AUM-TAT-SAT) of the Christia n Trinity (Holy Ghost-Son-Father). Yogananda states: "In my perceptions, just as I feel my own consciousness in every part of my p hysical form, I feel you all to be a part of me. Everything that is living I fee l within this body. I know the sensations of all. It is not imagination; it is S elf-realization. This consciousness is far beyond telepathy. It is awareness of the perceptions of every being. That is the meaning of Christ Consciousness." (6 ) In his poem Samadhi, from Songs for the Soul, he gives hints of his realizati on. And further he writes: "When he reidentifies with his soul as individualized ever-existing, ever-con scious, ever-new Bliss, he then merges with the all-pervading ever-existing, eve r-conscious, ever-new Bliss of Spirit - even as a droplet returns to the sea. St ill, that individuality is never lost; that portion of Spirit eternally retains its "memory" of that individualized existence." (7) This latter paragraph is consistent with Shabd Yoga wherein the purified soul merges further, losing its identity in the absolute, and then returns to be sou l, and the idea of a "memory" of the individualized life is consistent with PB's idea of an ever-spiralling spiritual evolution, even after sahaj is attained, o r Sri Nisargadatta's assertion that in liberation every 'I am' is preserved and glorified.' Fortunately there is so much good in the devotional writings of Yoga nanda that in my opinion it makes up for any difficulty I have with his sometime s unique use of traditional terms, and I find a growing appreciation for his gre atness the more I read his writings and stories about him. It makes me long for the presence of my own guru. It would certainly, however, be interesting for a current teacher of Kriya yo ga to debate with a master of the Radhasoami school as well as disciples of the Maharshi, for the former gurus attest to the existence of at least four more pla nes beyond the causal, which in each case is defined as the mental or ideational seed-realm, and thus still in the domain of the manamaya and vijnanamaya koshas , while the latter consider the causal realm as the transcendental root or sourc e of attention and ego-self along with the anandamaya kosha in the right side of the heart. In fairness, Yogananda used the term astral to refer to what traditi onally would include prana, manas, and buddhi, while causal is ideational-consci ousness, self-awareness, and intelligence. Christ Consciousness is both transcen dental to and immanent in all lower bodies and worlds, the abode of perfected sa ints, the first individualization or 'spark' of the Spirit as soul, while God-Co nsciousness is transcendental to all cosmic vibration and above that. He also sp oke of not one, but various causal worlds, as did Yukteswar. Yogananda also said

that the heart was the center of consciousness and perception in the body, whic h was in contact with the spiritual eye center in the head. So he is perhaps not so far apart from either the Sants or Maharshi. He spoke of "having killed Yogananda," "there is only God now in this body," and "I won my liberation many lifetimes ago," so he certainly seems to have gone beyond separation and ego. Kriya yoga as popularly presented is a modern form of Raja Yoga, and as such is a mystical school advocating ascension of the soul to the realms of light abo ve, while also teaching of their integration as true liberation. Thus, there is a jnana component. Sri Yukteswar was in fact referred to as "Jnanavatar" Sri Yuk teswar. In practice, among personal students, Yogananda actually taught all of t he classical yogas, even self-inquiry, and had one disciple in particular, Sri G yanamata, who he said achieved liberation through the path of knowledge and by g race. Nearthe end of her life she asked him for nirvikalpa samadhi and he said, "you don't need that. If you are in the palace already why do you want to explor e the gardens?" Yogananda, like Swami Muktananda, speaks with special praise in Autobiography of A Yogi of the causal realm, the "abode of the siddhas", but in that famous book didn t mention or emphasize the merits of Nirvikalpa samadhi, whi ch is the fulfilment of this ascending process [although elsewhere he certainly did, and his guru, Sri Yukteswar, certainly did so also], although his yoga syst em was based in vedanta like most ancient yogas. The famous book was written to get a wide audience of western beginners "hooked" with fascinating spiritual tal es. Perhaps, also, the more advanced teachings were reserved for an inner circle , such as in Ramakrishna hiding a copy of the Ashtavakra Gita strictly for Swami Vivekananda. The writings of Paramhansa Yogananda are overflowing with great heart-devotio n, and have done much good to many, many people - including even Robert Adams, w ho felt jnana without bhakti was dry and lifeless. God tries us in all ways; He exposes our weakneses, that we may become aware o f them and transmute them into strengths. He may send us ordeals that appear ins upportable; He may sometimes seem almost to be pushing us away. But the clever d evotee will say: No, Lord, I want Thee. Nothing shall deter me in my search. My h eartfelt prayer is this: Never put me through the test of obliviousness of Thy P resence. [Note: The test of a saint]. Do not expect a spiritual blossom every day in the garden of your life. Have f aith that the Lord to whom you have surrendered yourselves will bring your divin e fulfillment at the proper time. (8) The moment when Divine Mother beats you the hardest is the time you should cli ng tenaciously to Her skirt. (9) Yogananda s principle guru, Sri Yukteswar (1855-1936) [he also took instruction from Swami Kebalananda, another disciple of Lahiri Mahasay] was described by hi s famous disciple as being a strict disciplinarian, an uncompromising taskmaster , and a man with forceful and candid speech. Yogananda felt that Yukteswar would probably have been the most sought-after guru in India if his methods and manne r had not been so severe. Alas, such has been the fate of many true teachers. Ne vertheless, Yukteswar was revered by those who understood his ways. It is worth noting that his reprimands and rebukes were not directed to casual visitors, but only to those who were devoted to him and to his discipline. Yogananda expresse d gratitude for Yukteswar's "humbling blows", confessing that the hard core of e go is "difficult to dislodge except rudely." Yukteswar was also an excellent ast rologer. He cast charts for both Satyananda and Yogananda and gave them each a p rotective amulet. He told them that it made no difference whether they believed

in such things or not for the scientific principles would work irregardless. Yuk teswar was fond of discussing astrology with eminent practitioners of the art, a nd to this end he would forward full-fare round-trip tickets to coax them to vis it him. If they could not come then he would visit them. One of his most importa nt theories was that the precession of the constellations in the 25,000 year Grea t Year cycle was due to our sun being part of a binary sun system with perhaps Si rius as its companion star. This is being born out by much contemporary research . Yukteswar also correllated this with the Hindu system of Yugas, and found erro rs in the calculation of those. Most importantly, he discovered that confusion w ith a greater or Maha-Yuga cycle led many people to conclude that we are in the dark Kali (Iron age)Yuga, whereas in fact we have been in the ascending phase of the Dwapara (Silver Age) Yuga since 1699 A.D.. Yukteswar established several Self-Realization Fellowship centers (known, in India, as Yogoda Satsanga - YSS) and appointed two successors: Satyananda for th e East (10) and Yogananda for the West. He died on Mar 9, 1936, and in June of t hat year appeared in a "physically rematerialized body" to Yogananda and at leas t one other disciple. (11) Sri Yukteswar shared the general yogic view, and the view of Kriya yogis in p articular, that the ajna chakra or third eye is the most important bodily center for spiritual realization. He said that "the essence of religion, pure consciou sness, and the Supreme Lord reside in the "Cave" in between the eyebrows." (12) Kriya teachings, somewhat uniquely, for I have seen it nowhere else in the liter ature, argue that the vibratory pranic or cosmic life-energy enters the body at the medulla oblongata (brain stem), which is "the main switch that controls the entrance, storage, and distribution of the life-force." (13). They consider the medulla as the twin pole of the ajna or agya chakra, Christ center, or spiritual eye. The prana then goes upwards into the higher brain and downwards from there to the various bodily centers (chakras). In the yogi much of it is stored in th e sahasrara at the top of the brain. This is,as mentioned, a highly unique view. The shabd yogins would say that both the the prana as well as the attention or surat, both enter the body from the top of the head, not the medulla. Yogananda called it the "mouth of God", where the Aum vibration enters the body. He also s aid that the seed-atom or matrix for the coming incarnation is implanted at conc eption in the medulla, while most yogic and vedantic schools say it is implanted in the heart. Swami Kriyananda, in his rendition of Yogananda's commentaries on the Bhagava d-Gita, interestingly states: "The sun in the body represents the light of the spiritual eye - or, alternat ively, the sahasrara (the "thousand-petalled lotus") at the top of the head. The moon represents the reflection of that light in the ego, or agya chakra (the me dulla oblongata), and therefore represents the human ego itself. Ego-consciousne ss is, in fact, centered in the medulla." (14) That, too, is a unique view. For Ramana Maharshi, in contrast, the center for Self-Realization is the tran scendental Heart (the "sun"), all-pervading yet felt or intuited prior to realiz ation relative to the body as being in the heart on the right side, and from whi ch the light above the crown (reflected in the brain - the "moon") emanates and, upon Realization, is recognized, free of egoic illusion. Ramana therefore would object to this Kriya interpretation of the sun and moon as rendered from the Bh agavad-Gita. Ramana also simply said that the source of the pranas is the same a s that of the mind, which is the Heart, and did not concern himself with any of the bodily centers, although he did mention them, but tended to dismiss in advai tic fashion as existing in the mind and irrelevant for realization. [This, in my opinion, is an extreme view, and not the highest non-dual viewpoint, which woul

d include all manifest structures of the body-mind within its realization]. The Kriya path posits the physical, astral, and causal bodies/worlds, and tea ches that when the attention is withdrawn from the outer body it enters three pr ogressively deeper "astral" nadis: the vajra, the chitra, and then the brahmanad i. [The classic "ida" and "pingala" nadis are considered as more superficial, mo re to due with the breath, than the other nadis, which are deeper and luminous w ith astral light]. This is also a unique interpretation of the nadis: "Passing through the chitra, the energy and consciousness enter the innermost channel, the brahmanadi, which constitutes the spine of the causal body. [this is interesting; one has not yet left through the top of the physical head, but h e is supposed to be in the spine of the causal body] It was through the brahmana di that Brahma, the Creative aspect of AUM, in His aspect of Creator of individu al beings and their three bodies, descended into outward manifestation. It is th rough this final channel of brahmanadi, therefore, that the soul must once ascen d in order to become again one with the Spirit. As the yogi withdraws his energy up through this final channel, he is able to fully offer his separate, individu al consciousness to infinity...The opening of the brahmanadi is at the top of th e head. On reaching this point, the yogi becomes reunited with omnipresence, for the last sheath has been removed that closes him off from infinity." (15) Vedantist V.S. Iyer, court philosopher of the Maharaja of Mysore, teacher of Paul Brunton and Ramakrishna monks Nikhilinanda and Siddeswarananda, by contrast , had this to say about this sort of view, from the point of view of truth: Some yogis teach that Brahman is in the top chakra of the skull; that therefor e we must ascend there. This is childish. (Collected Works, Vol. 1, ed. Mark Scor elle, 1999, p. 105) We will hear more from Iyer later. Ramana Maharshi also adamently opposed thi s view. This also appears a problematic and contradictory teaching for the shabd yogi n, for according to that school a successful exit at the top of the head would o nly leave the soul at the threshold of the astral world, with astral and causal bodies intact and yet to be transcended. Therefore, the shabd yogin would not ag ree that "the last sheath has been removed." It is, of course, a traditional kun dalini and raja yoga teaching that nirvikalpa samadhi and infinite consciousness is attained when one reaches the sahasrara, but there seems to be a big jump in logic here. There is much explaining needed regarding the subtle channel or "br ahmanadi" between the agya chakra and the sahasrara. What exactly happens to the astral and causal bodies? How indeed are they transcended by the life energies, consciousness or attention passing from the agya chakra to the sahasrara, the s ahasrara being defined as at the top of the head? If the sheaths are so transcen ded by this process then it seems that the astral and causal worlds would also h ave to be transcended, which then either suggest that such worlds are within the "brain-core", and not outside of it, or that this path is integral in methodolo gy, such that when one did leave the body,all of the sheaths interpenetrating, h e may have already in effect transcended the astral and causal worlds. But if th at were the case then there would be no subtle or heavenly realms after death ei ther, and that can't be the case. What exactly, then, are the Kriya yogis saying ? Yogananda's teaching is sometimes more than a little confusing. If we accept Kriyananda's rendition and (sometimes) Yogananda's teaching about leaving throug h the crown of the head and entering directly to Christ Consciousness at the Sah asrar, then how do we interpret his more common teaching that one must penetrate through the spiritual eye the gold ring (signifying the vibratory astral world) , the blue field (signifying Christ Consciousness (and sometimes also meaning th

e causal world), and then the "white star" (signifying the gateway to God or Cos mic Consciousness)? For instance, for the Sants of the shabd yoga school the whi te star is only at the threshold of the astral plane. The Kriya teachings involve the use of traditional Hatha Yoga means including asana (right posture) and pranayama (breath control), as well as the traditiona l Raja yoga components of pratyahara (abstraction of attention from the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (contemplation), and samadhi (transcendental ab sorption), with the goal being ascended absorption at the ajna center, passage t hrough the central brightness within the spiritual eye, and finally Nirvikalpa S amadhi, beyond the three bodies and worlds. Its practice of concentration of att ention on the lights and sounds in the brain core is similar to that of Shabd Yo ga, although the latter claims to take the soul much higher with a much less ard uous sadhana. Kriya Yoga, on the other hand, makes claims for bodily transformat ion and rejuvenation that the latter does not. Sometimes this tends to get overemphasized at the expense of the goal of realization itself. From an interview w ith Paramhansa Yogananda: The technique I had already received from two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya Fathe r and my tutor, Swami Kebalananda. But Master [Sri Yukteswar] possessed a transf orming power; at his touch a great light broke upon my being, like the glory of countless suns blazing together. A flood of ineffable bliss overwhelmed my heart to an innermost core...." "The Sanskrit root of kriya is kri, to do, to act and react: the same root is found in the word karma, the natural principle of cause and effect. Kriya yoga is thus union (yoga) with the Infinite through a certain action or rite (kriya). A yogi who faithfully practices the techniques gradually freed from karma or th e lawful chain of cause-effect equilibrium." "Kriya yoga is a simple, psychophysiological method by which human blood is d ecarbonized and recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transm uted into life current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers. By stopping t he accumulation of venous blood, the yogi is able to lessen or prevent the decay of tissues. The advanced yogi transmutes his cells into energy." "The kriya yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upwards and down wards, around the six spinal centers (medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacra l and coccygeal plexuses), which correspond to the 12 astral signs of the zodiac , the symbolic Cosmic Man." "Elijah, Jesus, Kabir, and other prophets were past masters in the use of kri ya or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will." "Kriya is an ancient science. Lahiri Mahasaya received it from his great guru , Babaji, who rediscovered and clarified the technique after it had been lost in the Dark Ages. Babaji renamed it, simply, kriya yoga. The next to the last paragraph above could pose a problem, as the "similar te chnique" used by Jesus and Kabir, according to the Sant Mat gurus, would be Shab d Yoga, not Kriya Yoga! The Kriya organization promoted a theocentric myth that their yoga was a special dispensation to the "New Age" from the legendary immort al master "Babaji", which presentation, like Theosophy, is representative of muc h occult mythology which became the manner of many early twentieth-century commu nications of traditional oriental esotericism in the Western world. To complicate matters Babaji was supposed to have been Krishna in a previous incarnation, which wouldn't set well with some of Sri Aurobindo's disciples, who felt that he had been Krishna in a previous life. Ramakrishna also claimed to h

ave been Krishna. Kriya yoga thus appears to be a popularized and even theistic version of an assortment of hatha, raja, and nada yoga techniques that have been taught since ancient times. Its domain is clearly experiential mysticism in the manifest realms, with a goal of the unmanifest, finally integrated with the wor ld. As was the case with Sri Aurobindo, Paramhansa Yogananda was said to have bee n spiritually active in influencing world events, in particular the Korean War. Yogananda stated: "When South Korea was invaded by the north, I myself put the thought into Pre sident Truman's mind to go to its defense. That situation was a threat to the wh ole world. Had South Korea fallen, the communists would have gone on to Japan, a nd would then have come up and taken the Aleutian Islands, from where they would have invaded Alaska and North America. The whole world, ultimately, could have been swept up into the materialistic philosophy of communism. For these reasons it was very necessary that South Korea be defended. That is why I have called th is a holy war." (16) Yogananda also commented on the role of sages in influencing the outcome of W WII. As Swami Kriyananda recounts: "When Hitler first rose to power, Paramhansa Yogananda, for several reasons, saw some hope in that accession. One of those reasons was the unfairness of the Versailles Treaty, which had forced germany into virtual destitution. He also sa w, as he told a few people, that Hitler had been, in a former lifetime, Alexande r "the great" of Greece, who had shown an interest in the yogis of India. When H itler allowed himself to be seized by ambition for power, however, that ambition distorted his potentially spiritual leanings. At that point, several masters be gan to work against him [Aurobindo, the Mother, Narayan Maharaj, and Meher Baba, to name a few who were claimed to have done so].....They..put the thought in Hi tler's mind to make mistakes that led to his eventual destruction. They suggeste d to him from within, for example, to divide his forces and fight both in the ea st and in the west, and also in Africa. This they did by feeding the confidence he felt in his own ability to win "everywhere." Militarily, there was no need fo r Germany to divide its fronts. That self-division proved, for it, a fatal error ." (17) Yogananda said that Mussolini had been Marc Anthony in a past life, Stalin wa s Genghis Khan, and Churchill had been Napoleon (this might have been a small pr oblem, as Sri Aurobindo was also said to have been Napoleon). When asked the sam e about FDR, he quipped, "I've never told anybody...I was afraid I might get int o trouble!" (18) Yogananda said that "the divine purpose behind the Second World War was to li berate the 'third world' countries, most of which were British colonies." Suppos edly a part of this was karmic retribution against Churchill: as Napoleon "he wa nted to destroy England. As Churchill he had to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire." (19) Apparently, for Yogananda, as well as for Sri Aurobindo, the thought that the world bankers as well as secret societies and major power-elite actually funded the Russian Revolution, triggered WWI, orchestrated the Versailles Treaty and i ts inevitable repercussions, and also financially supported Hitler until several years into WWII, never crossed their mind. Whatever the divine plan was for the fate of the nations involved in these major conflicts, there was another plan t hat the sages and masters seem not to have been privy to, that of the Illuminati , who appeared to have achieved all of their major goals, to wit: the breakup of Germany as a major power, the fomenting of unrest in the Middle East, the hando ver of eastern Europe to the communists in order to create a Cold War, with the

subsequent creation in the public mind of a need for a global governing body, fi rst materialized in the incipient United Nations, and in dialectical fashion thu s move a few steps closer to accomplishing their long-cherished New World Order. This topic is discussed in more detail within the article Sri Aurobindo and the Integral Yoga on this website. Divine plan or no divine plan, one obvious irony is that if the masters had not influenced Hitler to split his forces, but rathe r cooperated with his desire to make peace with England, he might have been able to prevail in his goal of stopping world communism and thereby avoid the conseq uences for humanity of both the Korean conflict and the Cold War - the outcome o f which Yogananda said he had favorably influenced. "Who can fathom the mind of the Lord?", saith the psalmist. Kriya Yoga is somewhat difficult to describe because there have been differen ces and modifications of the practices as it has been passed down from Lahiri Ma hasay to Sri Yukteswar to Paramahansa Yogananda. Supposedly this has been to spe ed up and make more scientific the process to the attainment of Christ Conscious ness and God-Realization. The above link opens into an extensive amount of mater ial suggesting contradictions within the Kriya teachings, and cultic aspects of the organization, including scare tactics such as the threat of lifetimes wasted if you ever leave the guru and the fellowship (all too common among religious g roups, invading the Radhasoami Mat, Auroville under the Mother, as well as Mormo nism, Jehovah's Witnesses, fundamentalist Christianity, and many more), and the need to take an SRF loyalty oath, that the reader will be left to explore for hi mself. Here we will give Yogananda the benefit of the doubt, out of respect for the great devotional inspiration derived from his writings, leaving each individ ual to draw his or her own conclusions about guru politics. Essentially, again, kriya yoga employs asana and pranayama techniques to move the subtle life energy up and down the spine, attempting to purify karmas assoc iated with each of the six spinal chakras, with the hoped for result that this l ife force eventually collects at the third eye (ajna chakra) and from there proc eeds to the sahasrar, which Kriya considers the doorway to the infinite. When th e life-force collects at the ajna, a circle of colored rings appear, predominant ly a golden ring around a blue sky, with a brilliant white star in the center. C oncentration on that star leads to passage beyond it and beyond the "three coils ", to eventual Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Repeated attainment of Nirvikalpa Samadhi eve ntually is supposed to lead to realization of the same in daily life, which, as stated, is called Cosmic Consciousness in the terminology of Yogananda. It is, ess entially, realization of Nirvikalpa samadhi in the midst of daily life. How that is achieved is not entirely clear. The assumption is that repeated i mmersion in nirvikalpa will bleed through into ones daily life and eventually an d naturally create sahaj, although that specific word is not used or explained. Here is what PB said on this basically yogic and Indian version of sahaj samadhi , versus its Ch an and, in his language, philosophic version: The Indian notion of sahaja makes it the extension of nirvikalpa samadhi into the active everyday state. But the Ch an conception of sahaj samadhi differs from this; it does not seek deliberately to eliminate thoughts, although that may oft en happen of its own accord through identification with the true Mind, but to el iminate the personal feelings usually attached to them, that is, to remain unaff ected by them because of this identification." "Ch an does not consider sahaja to be the fruit of yoga meditation alone, nor o f understanding alone, but of a combination seemingly of both. It is a union of reason and intuition. It is an awakening once and for all. It is not attained in nirvikalpa and then to be held as long as possible. it is not something, a stat e alternately gained and lost on numerous occasions, but gradually expanded as i t is clung to. It is a single awakening that enlightens the man so that he never

returns to ignorance again. He has awakened to his divine essence, his source i n Mind, as an all-day and every day self-identification. It has come by itself, effortlessly. (20) [Note: do not be misled by the last sentence of this quote. Elsewhere PB says a man must work hard for this, but only that the final stage, that of irreducib le insight into reality, comes effortlessly by grace]. It is not clear whether the final realization for the Kriya yogin is the same as realization herein defined. It appears to be in the category of the former o r Indian version wherein something like nirvikalpa is attempted to be held onto as long as possible. Yogananda also wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi that final liberation for a saint is usually attained from a higher astral world after deat h rather than from the physical plane. This concept has its counterpart in Sant Mat and even Buddhism, which speaks of a realm called Sukhavati from where the b odhisattvas attain their enlightenment. PB gives a warning on the yogic view of the stabilisation of ecstasy as a cha racteristic of the goal, if not the goal itself point of view: "The philosopher is satisfied with a noble peace and does not run after mysti cal ecstasies. Whereas other paths often depend upon an emotionalism that perish es with the disappearance of the primal momentum that inspired it, or which diss olves with the dissolution of the first enthusiastic ecstasies themselves, here there is a deeper and more dependable process. What must be emphasized is that m ost mystical aspirants have an initial or occasional ecstasy, and they are so st irred by the event that they naturally want to enjoy it permanently. This is bec ause they live under the common error that a successful and perfect mystic is on e who has succeeded in stabilizing ecstasy. That the mystic is content to rest o n the level of feeling alone, without making his feeling self-reflective as well , partly accounts for such an error. It also arises because of incompetent teach ers or shallow teaching, leading them to strive to perform what is impracticable and to yearn to attain what is impossible. Our warning is that this is not poss ible, and that however long a mystic may enjoy these 'spiritual sweets,' they wi ll assuredly come to an end one day. The stern logic of facts calls for stress o n this point. Too often he believes that this is the goal, and that he has nothi ng more about which to trouble himself. Indeed, he would regard any further exer tions as a sacrilegious denial of the peace, as a degrading descent from the exa ltation of this divine union. He longs for nothing more than the good fortune of being undisturbed by the world and of being able to spend the rest of his life in solitary devotion to his inward ecstasy. For the philosophic mystic, however, this is not the terminus but only the starting point of a further path. What ph ilosophy says is that this is only a preliminary mystical state, however remarka ble and blissful it be. There is a more matured state -- that of gnosis -- beyon d it. If the student experiences paroxysms of ecstasy at a certain stage of his inner course, he may enjoy them for a time, but let him not look forward to enjo ying them for all time. The true goal lies beyond them, and he should not forget that all-important fact. He will not find final salvation in the mystical exper ience of ecstasy, but he will find an excellent and essential step towards salva tion therein. He who would regard rapturous mystical emotion as being the same a s absolute transcendental insight is mistaken. Such a mistake is pardonable. So abrupt and striking is the contrast with his ordinary state that he concludes th at this condition of hyper-emotional bliss is the condition in which he is able to experience reality. He surrenders himself to the bliss, the emotional joy whi ch he experiences, well satisfied that he has found God or his soul. But his exc ited feelings about reality are not the same as the serene experience of reality itself. This is what a mystic finds difficult to comprehend. Yet, until he does comprehend it, he will not make any genuine progress beyond this stage." (21) Another difference between emanationist paths, such as Kriya yoga, and philos

ophic paths, such as described by PB and as given in Advaita Vedanta and various forms of Buddhism, lies with the concept of matter. Kriya is a firm believer in matter as crystalized or condensed Consciousness. Even astral matter, which Yog ananda terms "lifetrons", falls into this category. To the philosophic sage, all experiences, high or low, no matter how they are subjectively perceived, as den se or ethereal, are ideas in the mind - and ultimately, Mind - but to Yogananda this was the wrong way of perceiving things. He said: "The human body - and all things else - are naught but a mass of condensed en ergy; and energy is "frozen" Cosmic Consciousness, or God. We should not call it mind. Mind is different. To say that everything is mind is incorrect. It is Cos mic Consciousness that causes us to be aware of different things, to have a cons ciousness of so-called matter and a consciousness of Spirit...You will know that the cosmic golden cord that binds the atoms is the tender consciousness of Spir it. It is with this cord that He binds the atoms to become the flower, or the hu man body." (22) Thus, Yogananda is not a mentalist. He even criticizes the great Sankara of c onfusing "mind" with subtle matter. To Yogananda "thoughts" or "ideas" only begi n in the causal plane. "In the causal world, he knows that everything is made of idea-forms, or thou ghts...he knows himself as soul (jiva), a manifestation of Para-Prakriti: Pure N ature." (23) For Yogananda, proceeding downwards from pure Spirit, it is on the causal pla ne that the first individualization of the soul takes place. it further limitati on to an egoic form of life occurs on the astral plane. The raical advaitist might say at this point, "has anyone ever seen 'Para-Pra kriti'? Can you prove its existence?" The answer is no. Then why use the term an d suppose it leads one to truth? As a yogi Swami Yogananda - as well as Sri Auro bindo - took issue with the advaitins and their epistemology of Drik-Drysam-Adva itin, that everything seen or experienced (Drysam) is a presentation to and inse parable from the seer (Drik), Atman or Brahman. In this view everything is menta l, even the soul, which reduces to a thought or concept in Mind. Yogananda might possibly be classified as a parinama-vada vedantist, in which the Mind projects out various levels or stadia, or even a modified advocate of Sam 'khya, believi ng in two primary substances: consciousness and matter (i.e., maha-prakriti, the primordial field of nature). Indeed, Roy Eugene Davis describes Yogananda's sch ema of manifestation as Sam 'khya, although, it seems, it is without the extreme dualism of classical Sam 'khya, for Yogananda accepted vedanta and posited a su preme Spirit, which produced Maya or cosmic illusion, which itself then generate d a transcendental Trinity of Father-Christ Consciousness-Holy Ghost, with the l atter producing the 'Aum' vibration responsible for creation of all of the manif est worlds. Yogananda, however, would not likely have agreed with the strict aja ta-vada vedantist who is a firm adherent to the doctrine of non-causality and th at all is Mind; that 'things' are not produced by Mind, they are Mind. V.S. Iyer , teacher of Paul Brunton, had this to say about Yogananda: "Swami Yogananda of Los Angeles visited me. He kept on saying "I am Brahman. All this is Brahman." I smiled but kept quiet. I ought to have said to him, "How can you prove that you are Brahman?" He would have replied, "I know, practice m y method of yoga and you too shall know. To that I would have said, "How can you prove that your method is the correct one?" Such mystics will not reason." (24) PB states, and this is generally the view of advaita vedanta, as well as Rama na Maharshi and sages such as Atmananda and Nisargadatta: "The Theosophic doctrine that the physical world is an externalization of an

astral plane or even the higher Platonic doctrine that it crystallizes a world o f divine ideation is given to beginners as a help to give them a crude grasp, a first step towards the theory that the world is an idea, until they are mentally developed. When their mind is mature they are then told to discard the astral p lane theory and told the pure truth that all existence is an idea." "How hard for the average mind to grasp this central fact, that the World-Ide a is the world-creation. The one does not precede the other. The second is not a copy in matter of the first. Man has to work, with his senses and his intellect , when he wants to convert his ideas into objects, but the World-Mind does not n eed to make an effort in order to make a universe, does not in reality have anyt hing to do at all, for Its thought is the thing. Some mystics and most occultist s have failed to perceive this. Their realization of the Spirit did not bring th e full revelation of the Spirit. This is because they have not thoroughly compre hended...its utter emptiness. Nothing can come out of the Universal Mind that is not mental, not even the material world which men believe they inhabit and expe rience." (25) Even so, and while it is epistemologically consistent, even PB appears to hed ge on this point a little bit, when he states: "It is not quite correct to assume that we are the manifested forms of the pe rfection from which we emanate. More precisely, we are projecteds of a denser me dium from the universal mind, appearing by some catalytic process in natural seq uence within that medium. The cosmic activity provides each such entity-projecti on with an individual life and intelligence centre through an evolutionary proce ss, whereby its own volitional directive energies are, ultimately, merged with t he cosmic will in perfect unity and harmony." (26) This form of mentalistic insight, however, that all arises in and as Mind, is how a sage like Papaji could make the enigmatic statement, "nothing ever happen ed." Yogananda would consider the causal body to be made of mind or mental "stuf f", but it would still be, from his point of view, a subtle stuff, more subtle t han the astral lifetrons, or the physical body, but still an actual condensation of Consciousness (which to the philosophers is Mind), rather than an appearance within or apparent emanation of Consciousness. This becomes more than mere hair -splitting when one goes deeply into the doctrine of mentalism, and affects the very nature of the identity of Self or Soul and Ego. Similar problems emerge whe n studying the teachings of Sri Aurobindo. Are the differences in these teaching s mere words? We will let the reader decide. [For more on this teaching of PB, s ee the article Elvis Was Not A Mentalist on this website]. For the shabd yogin, separating from the "three coils" of the physical astral and causal bodies, would not, as in kriya Yoga, lead the soul directly to the P urushottama, or nirvikalpa, but first to the "super-causal" dimension, where the soul is essentially aware of itself as a self-existing eternal 'entity' beyond mind and illusion (a 'drop' of consciousness), but still covered by a thin layer of anandamaya kosha, and confronting a dark void (Maha-Sunn) which it cannot cr oss to enter the eternal realms without the superior light of the Master. The he lp of the guru is needed to pass from there to Sach Khand, which is considered t he Spiritual realm or true home of the Sants, and from which one then gets progr essively absorbed by the Sat Purush past Alakh and Agam Loks, and into the namel ess and formless Godhead known as "Anami". Further, in The Second Coming of Christ, Yogananda refers to all of the sound s as 'astral sounds', whereas for shabd yoga they lead beyond the causal and sup er-causal planes to Sach Khand or the home of the soul. Kriya as such [with the caveat, as mentioned, that Yogananda taught all of th e yoga paths] differs markedly from the path Shabd Yoga, in that the latter teac

hes the aspirant to bypass the path of the prana (motor) currents and to instead concentrate the sensory currents at the third eye, ignoring the centers below. Kriya wants to bring both energy and consciousness up to the top of the spine.Th e upward course from there appears the same, in that one is to pierce through th e big star, but in Kriya what comes after that, again, is simply said to be pass age beyond the three worlds, while in Shabd Yoga a hierarchy of seven planes bey ond is taught, with the Master or Master-Power being one s chief aid in transcendi ng from one plane to the next on to the highest goal. In Shabd Yoga, moreover, o ne is taught to cross the sun, moon, and then the big star leading to the first inner plane, although, to be fair, the experience of disciples vary. Lahiri Maha say states: In the kutastha [soul center] there is darkness surrounded by tiny star with the effulgence of the sun is in the center, which to Purushottama [the Supreme Being]. Purusha [the Cosmic Man] in s Purushottama. When one goes through the door of the kutastha he hottama.

a golden ring. A opens the door the kutastha i realizes Purus

This sounds similar to the shabd yoga teaching of the soul upon reaching Sach Khand beholding and then merging in the Sat Purush, but, again, seemingly ignor es the many intermediate regions before the Supreme. I say seemingly because in the book, The Holy Science (SRF, 2006), by Sri Yuk teswar, the Kriya path appears almost identical, once pratyahara is achieved, wi th that of Sant Mat. He even uses the term Surat Sabda Yoga (!), and stages of T rikuti, Daswan Dwar (the "door" between the material and the spiritual regions), Sunn, Maha Sunn, Alak, Agam , and Anami. Seven stages or planes of creation are mentioned (Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Swarloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Sa tyaloka), which correspond with traditionally delineated yoga stages which are e ven listed in Sant Kirpal Singh's The Crown of Life: A Study in Yoga, p. 54 (bhu r, bhuva, swah, maha, janah, tapah and satyam). The involvement with pranayama and kriya techniques, which Shabd Masters argu e is a waste of time, are considered in the Kriya teachings as essential prepara tion to attain the state of pratyahara, whereby one can then catch the sound cur rent and ascend further by attuning with the radiant form of the guru. In shabd yoga the boon of pratyahara is supposed to be given by the master at the time of initiation, with simple concentration at the spiritual eye from that point on a ll that is necessary. On the kriya path, the assumption is that more is required to become capable of concentrating there. From that point, in any case, the pat h is almost identical with shabd yoga proper, at least, according to The Holy Sc ience. What I find even more intriguing is how Sri Yukteswar explains the inner phenomena of the great divide between the material and spiritual creations, in t erms of passage beyond the" Atom" at the heart where the ego or sense of a separ ate self originates. I recommend this short book; to me it is metaphysically and cosmologically more revealing than that found in later books on that path). Paramhansa Yogananda in his lengthy commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita [which he felt appropriate to write inasmuch as he considered Babaji to have been Krishna in a former life, and he Arjuna] summarizes his views on the process of realiza tion. Yogananda was adamant that his viewpoint was more practical than that of t he strict non-dualists. He said: "Other Gita interpretations..are not fully rounded, as scriptures ought to be . Even Swami Shankaracharya's commentaries were one-sided in the sense that they completely rejected duality, though duality, for people living in the world, is a daily reality. [This doesn't seem to be entirely correct; Sankara rejuvenated religion at all levels throughout India, not just advaita]That is why Krishna s ays in the Gita that the path of yoga is higher than the path of wisdom, which S hankaracharya taught. [Iyer disagreed, saying that Krishna taught gnana yoga as

the highest] The path of yoga accepts actual human realities, and works with the m as they are, instead of dismissing them as non-existent. They are illusory, ce rtainly, but for all that duality exists, as a dream exists. It just isn't what it appears to be." (27) This is consistent with Yogananda's view on karma: "Why live a bad dream by creating bad karma? With good karma, you get to enjo y the dream. Good karma also makes you want, in time, to wake up from the dream. Bad karma, on the other hand, darkens the mind and keeps it bound to the dreami ng process." (28) I have noticed in Yogananda s later writings, after he met Ramana Maharshi, ref erences to a different viewpoint than he emphasized in his early years: Look upon this world as a dream, and then you will understand that it is all r ight for you to lie down on the bed of this earth and dream the dream of life. Y ou won t mind, because you will know you are dreaming...Dismiss this phantasm of d isease and health, sorrow and joy. Rise above it. Become the Self. Watch the sho w of the universe, but do not become absorbed in it. Many times I have seen my b ody gone from this world. I laugh at death. I am ready anytime. There is nothing to it. Eternal life is mine. I am the ocean of consciousness...When you truly w ant to be released from this earth dream, there is no power that can stop you fr om attaining liberation. Never doubt it! Your salvation is not to be achieved it is already yours, because you are made in the image of god; but you have to k now this. You have forgotten it. (29) "The truth is, nothing is really created anyway! The Spirit simply manifests the universe. Ultimately, nothing causes anything, for nothing, in actuality, is even happening." (30) "Evolution is only a suggestion to the mind. Everything, in reality, is going on in the present tense. In God's consciousness there is no evolution, no chang e, no 'progress'. it is always and everywhere the same one reality." "The simple thought that you are not free..keeps you from being free. If you could only break that simple thought, you would go into samadhi...Samadhi is not something one needs to acquire. You have it already. Just think: Eternally you have been with God. For a few incarnations you live in delusion, but then again you are free in Him for eternity! Live always in that thought....Evolution..is o nly a suggestion in the mind. Everything, in reality, is going on in the present tense. In God's consciousness there is no evolution, no change, no 'progress.' It is always and everywhere the same one reality." (31) When asked by Roy Eugene Davis how many of the saints he had written about in Autobiography of a Yogi had attained liberation, Yogananda replied: "Not many. Many saints are satisfied to experience the bliss of God-communion and don't aspire to liberation of consciousness." He then emphatically said, "Y ou must go all the way!" (32) Sri Yukteswar, while elaborating a seven-storied creation and the need to asc end to its heights, speaking of the last two stages wrote: "In this state man comprehends himself as nothing but a mere ephemeral idea r esting on a figment of the universal Holy Spirit of God, the Eternal Father, and understanding the real worship, he sacrifices his self there at this Holy Spiri t, the altar of God; that is, abandoning the vain idea of his separate existence , he becomes "dead" or dissolved in the universal Holy Spirit; and thus reaches Tapaloka, the region of the Holy Ghost."

"In this manner, being one and the same with the universal Holy Spirit of God , man becomes unified with the Eternal Father Himself, and so comes to Satyaloka , in which he comprehends that all this creation is substantially nothing but a mere idea-play of his own nature, and that nothing in the universe exists beside s his own Self. This state of unification is called Kaivalya, the Sole Self." (3 3) These views, however, are still closer to the Sant Mat view than the ajata do ctrine of Maharshi, or the 'nothing ever happened' viewpoint of Papaji. And it i s hard to get away from the view that for Kriya Yoga, the goal is some form of h eaven, even as it points to an integral view. Yogananda writes: "Heaven may be said to consist, overall, of three regions: where the heavenly Father lives in vibrationless Infinity; where Christ Intelligence reigns - omni present in but transcendentally untouched by vibratory creation - and in which t he angels and highest evolved saints reside; and the vibratory spheres of the id eational causal world and lifetronic astral world. These heavenly realms, vibrat ory and transcendent, are only figuratively "above" the gross vibrations of eart h "below": They are in fact superimposed one on the other, and the finer screene d from the denser through the medium and intervention of the "firmament," vibrat ory etheric space, hiding the astral from the physical manifestation, the causal from the astral, and the transcendent Christ and Cosmic Consciousness from the causal. Without this integration - producing a physical instrumentality empowere d by astral life, guided by individualized intelligence, all arising from consci ousness - there could be no meaningful manifestation." (33a) A kriya practioner gives a detailed description of the basic, and quite compl icated, kriya techniques. One thing that is distinctive is that sounds that are to be listened to beginning at the third eye by the shabd yogi (who says it is a waste of time and effort not to start at the top) are listened to progressively beginning at the muladhara chakra by the kriya yogi: The sounds of the chakras are discribed as: root chakra--hissing, 2nd chakra-crickets, 3rd chakra--pan flute or deep throated whistling, 4th chakra--tinkling bells or heavy gong, 5th chakra--high pitched whistling, 6th chakra--glorious t rumpets, crown chakra--thunder followed by the AUM. The final sound they listen to is thunder, heard from the ajna chakra to the sahasrar. Sometimes the big bell is listed as heard at the heart chakra. In shab d yoga, in contrast, the big bell comes from overhead and pulls the soul up abov e the lower centers into the astral world. Also, in kriya yoga, the pineal pland or third eye center is spoken of as linked with the medulla oblongata, and coll ection of the pranas between the two is considered necessary for lift-off to the s ahasrar. Kriya places attention to the mechanics of energy in the body, and speaks of cleansing the karmas in the "pranic centers" (bodily chakras), but does not plac e much emphasis on jnana. It is possible that the preliminary techniques employe d by the Kriya practitioner may allow easier integration of the physical body wi th the God-state once that is realized. On the other hand, it may be additional, unnecessary work! Further, the Sant Mat masters, at least in some lineages, spe ak of granting the practitioner an experience of the light and sound at the time of initiation. Yogananda mentioned it, but his successors do not. Both this pat h and Surat Shabd Yoga, finally, speak of final passage of consciousness through the heart of the cosmos into a divine realm or domain. The differences to be ma de explicit are in what happens before and after passing beyond that central lum inosity or "White Star." Only in Sant Mat, in this writer's opinion, is what lie s afterwards made clear (as far as possible), and even then, according to sages or jnanis, a question exists regarding the finality of ones understanding, espec

ially when returning to the realms of creation. For as PB emphasizes, once again , "Enlightenment, philosophically found, is both an experience and an understan ding." (34) It is both of these, simultaneously, as one single insight. Would passage thr ough the various inner regions into a Divine Domain, then, be complete enlighten ment - even when coupled with the experience of the "cosmic body" as one's own w hen re-entering the planes of manifestation? To be as accomplished of a mystic t o be faced with such a question is no small achievement, but is it liberation it self? We would answer that it could be - but it would depend on what happens alo ng the way. As PB forthrightly states: "When you awaken to truth as it really is, you will have no occult vision, yo u will have no "astral" experience, no ravishing ecstasy. You will awaken to it in a state of utter stillness, and you will realize that truth was always there within you and that reality was always there around you. Truth is not something which has grown and developed through your efforts. It is not something which ha s been achieved or attained by laboriously adding up those efforts. It is not so mething which has to be made more and more perfect each year. And once your ment al eyes are opened to truth they can never be closed again." (35) As mentioned earlier, Roy Eugene Davis has been teaching Kriya Yoga for over fifty years, and, IMO, uses different terminology in describing the stages of th e path than his Master did. He also says that Yogananda did not teach only Kriya Yoga, but Bhakti and Jnana as well to those qualified for such approaches, much as Ramakrishna had. Davis says that in the Kriya school it is taught that not o nly Lahiri Mahasay, but Sankara, the vedantin, himself was initiated by Babaji ! Yogananda himself felt that Sankara had achieved Christ Consciousness. Davis teaches standard Kriya practices, but also visualization techniques, an d advaitic practices. This is refreshing from my point of view. He advises disci ples, no matter what level of experience they have achieved, to understand that enlightenment can happen at any time, and that it is not an "attainment": "The very idea that this ideal state is to be attained or acquired is a delus ion, an invalid belief. Self-realization is not a state or condition to earn or possess. It is a realization to which we awaken, to discover that, at our core, we have always been enlightened, knowledgable, and free." (36) (Actually, as we have seen, despite all of his esotericism, in later years Yo gananda said much the same thing). Davis teaches that the soul is an individualized ray or unit of God's conscio usness. He says: "It would not be accurate to say that we are God, for we are not. What is tru e is that "God is us." Our role is to consciously know ourselves as we really ar e, as spiritual beings in relationship to God. When we are fully conscious of wh at we essentially are, and what our true relationship with God is, we are Self-r ealized." (37) There is a subtle dualism implied here, akin to the Muslim idea of "fellowshi p with God" rather than "union" or "Oneness" with God. For those familiar with t he works of PB, Davis is in good company on this. PB wrote: "The Sufi term "companionship with God" is more accurate than the Christian-H indu "union with God"...It is humbler to admit, with Muhammed, "I am a servant o f God, I am but a man like you," than arrogantly to assert with the Advaitin, "I

am the infinite Brahman." It is better to say modestly with Jesus, "the Father is greater than I," than to announce with the Sufi Mansur: "I am God." (38) For those familiar with the philosophy of one such as Plotinus this is not ne cessarily a problem, or an impediment to a non-dual position. Much of it hinges on ones definition of Soul or Atman, which has been dealt with in depth elsewher e on this website, and is beyond the scope of this article. Davis does say that when the 'individualized soul' becomes fully awake, it knows itself as the non-d ual Self. The interpretation by Davis of the Kriya cosmology is as follows. The reader will have to refer back to earlier portions of this article to see where this va ries from the schema put forth by the other Kriya gurus. In his introduction to his book Self-Knowledge, a transliteration of Sri Sank ara's Atma Bodhi, a classic advaitic text, he diagrams the sequential processes of cosmic manifestation as follows. He follows more or less of a Samkhya schema which he considers consistent with Sankara's commentaries as well as Kriya tradi tion. Krishna Prem, widely recognized even by Ramana Maharshi as highly knowledgabl e on Indian philosophy, and who studied Sankara in the original Sanskrit, also a ccepts in his Gita commentary the idea that Sankara followed the basic Samkhya f ramework - from Parabrahman to Atman and Mula Prakriti, Mahat, Buddhi, Manas and the whole scheme of Indriyas and adhibhutas and the so-called external or mater ial world of "purely" adhibhuta. For Sankara, however, the word Samkhya basicall y meant one who 'discriminated the real from the unreal'. Being an advaitin, he nowhere accepted the strict Samkhya dualism as such, nor did he accept the yogic view that samadhi was the sufficient means for liberation. Davis seems to be in agreement with these views. As Michael Comans states: "At the beginning of his commentary upon the Gita, Sankara makes a significan t statement concerning the relation of Sankhya to Yoga.[45] He says that Sankhya means ascertaining the truth about the Self as it really is and that Krsna has done this in his teaching from verses 2.11 up until 2.31. He says that sankhyabu ddhi is the understanding which arises from ascertaining the meaning in its cont ext, and it consists in the understanding that the Self is not an agent of actio n because the Self is free from the sixfold modifications beginning with coming into being. He states that those people to whom such an understanding becomes na tural are called Sankhyas. He then says that Yoga is prior to the rise of the un derstanding above. Yoga consists of performing disciplines (sadhana) that lead t o liberation; it presupposes the discrimination between virtue and its opposite, and it depends upon the idea that the Self is other than the body and that it i s an agent and an enjoyer. Such an understanding is yogabuddhi, and the people w ho have such an understanding are called Yogins. From this it is clear that Sank ara relegates Yoga to the sphere of ignorance (avidya) because the Yogins are th ose who, unlike the Sankhyas, take the Self to be an agent and an enjoyer while it is really neither. They are, therefore, in Sankara's eyes, not yet knowers of the truth."] (39) Cowen's view is debatable; Sankara was a great yogic adept as well as a champ ion of non-dualism. In spite of his advaita, Davis inserts many comments in his writings purporti ng to illustrate that Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita primarily espoused Kriya Yoga as the means for realization. But as Krishna points out, in shloka 10, chapter 10, "I give Buddhi Yoga, the Yoga of discrimination, to those ever-devout who wo rship me with love, by means of which they come to me." (40) In any case, according to Davis, in the Kriya cosmology first there is the Tr

anscendant, Absolute Reality, infinite and without attributes. Then there is the 'Radiant Field' of the Absolute with three constituent attributes, i.e., the th ree gunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas [Unlike Yogananda, he abandons tradition b y not positing 'Maya' arising prior to that of the 'Radiant Field']. Emanating f rom this is the 'Field of Primordial Nature' ('OM', the creating vibratory curre nt responsible for creation of all the lower worlds), with time, space, and fine cosmic forces. Then there is the 'Field of Cosmic Mind', which is the: "Field of individualized units of pure consciousness produced by the blending of the Radiant Field (Oversoul) and the characteristics of the Field of Primord ial Nature. Souls have Self-Awareness, intellect, mind, and ego (a sense of self -identity)" (41) Finally, there are the causal, astral, and material realms. The progression to Enlightenment, then, proceeds through the following stages (keeping in mind, as he says, that "awakening", being beyond time and space, ca n happen at any time in the process): The first stage is Superconsciousness, which is described as awakening to 'hi gher realities and the experiencing of subtle and refined states of consciousnes s'. Then comes Cosmic Consciousness, which, in short, is an awareness of oneness or wholeness, the realization of the 'omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscienc e of the universal Consciousness'. Supposedly this is a realization beyond the c ausal level. Then comes God-Consciousness: "The reality of God is known as God is - as the only expressive Being, Life, Power, and Presence from which the worlds and souls emanate...The soul is libera ted from all former restrictions." (42) Finally, there is Enlightenment: "Flawless realization (with knowledge) of the allness of Consciousness: from the field of pure Existence-Being (that which is Absolute, unmodified, or pure), to God, Cosmic or Universal Mind, the primordial field of unmanifest nature, an d the causal, astral, and matter realms. When established at this stage there is no other level to experience and nothing more to know. Fully enlightened souls live in the world only to fulfill evolutionary purposes and to assist souls to t heir higher good." (43) To conclude, he writes: "Grace is the enlivening life (spirit) of God supporting and transforming cre ation. It expresses throughout the field of nature and from within every soul. I t directs the course of evolution and awakens souls from their sleep of mortalit y." (44) With the latter statement one can find no argument. Final thought: there is a very good reason that the teachings and cosmology o f Yogananda were presented as he did. He had been told by his guru, Sri Yukteswa r, to try to show how the teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita and the teac hings of Christ were essentially the same. That was a basic part of his mission. This he did by writing, in the last few years of his life, two large, two-volum e books on each, published by the Self-Realization Fellowship. When Yogananda in itially went to the West, moreover, he was encountering an audience that was lar gely Christian, and also influenced by such books as William Bucke's "Cosmic Con sciousness," William James, "The Varieties of Religious Experience," etc. So it is only natural that he, unlike Yukteswar, simplified what was an ancient Purani c-Vedic seven-tiered cosmology into one with three bodies, along with the terms

Christ Consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness. He was speaking to a population o f diverse understanding and making things less complicated for their benefit, mu ch as Swami Viekananda had done with his 'neo-Vedanta' and various yoga teaching s. So as we try to compare and contrast Kriya, Sant Mat, and various yoga teachi ngs, we should keep in mind the times and climes in which these great souls spok e. There are differences, to be sure, and some valid questions - for which the t ime is right to seek answers - but the basic foundations are very similar.

(1) Can there be a feeling "I" without that which exists always? Free from thought it exists, the Inner being, the Heart. How then to know what is beyond the mind? To know it is to abide firmly in the Heart. (2) They seek Then What

lose at once their "I" who, from fear of death refuge in the Lord, conqueror of death. by nature they are immortal. is to them, the thought of death?

Is a "living" Guru necessary? Ramana Maharshi Sri Ramana Maharshi's Life Sri Ramana Maharshi's Teaching Devotees of Sri Ramana Maharshi Books by and about Sri Ramana Maharshi Home The answer to this question can be found in these passages: Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: I have not said that a Guru is not necessary. But a Guru need not always be in h uman form. First a person thinks that he is inferior and that there is a superio r, all-knowing, all powerful God who controls his own and the world's destiny an d worships him or does bhakti. When he reaches a certain stage and becomes fit f or enlightenment, the same God whom he was worshipping comes as Guru and leads h im onward. That Guru comes only to tell him, `That God is within yourself. Dive within and realize'. God, Guru and the Self are the same. Realization is the result of the Master's (Guru's) grace, more than teachings, l ectures, meditations, etc. They are only secondary aids, whereas the former is t he primary and essential cause. Guru's grace is always there. You imagine it to be something somewhere high up i n the sky, far away and which has to descend. It is really inside you in your He art, and the moment, by any of the methods, you effect subsidence or merger of t

he mind into its source, the grace rushes forth, spouting as from a spring from within you. Contact with jnanis is good. They will work through silence. A Guru is not the p hysical form. Hence His contact remains even after the physical form of the Guru vanishes. After your bhakti to God has matured you, God comes in the shape of a Guru and f rom outside pushes your mind inside, while being inside as Self He draws you the re from within. Such a Guru is needed generally, though not for very rare and ad vanced souls. One can go to another Guru after one's Guru passes away. But after all, Gurus are one, as none of them are the form. Mental contact is al ways the best. Satsangh means association with Sat or Reality. One who knows or has realized Sa t is also regarded as Sat. Such association is absolutely necessary for all. San kara has said, "In all the three worlds there is no boat like satsangh to carry one safely across the ocean of births and deaths." Guru not being physical, His contact will continue after His form vanishes. If o ne Jnani exists in the world, His influence will be felt by or benefit all peopl e in the world, and not simply His immediate disciples. As described in Vedanta Chudamani, all the people in the world can be put under four categories: The Guru's disciples, bhaktas, those who are indifferent to Him and those who are hostile to Him. All these will be benefited by the exis tence of the Jnani each in his own way and to various degrees. From the book, Divine Grace Through Total Self-Surrender by D.C. Desai, Bhagavan read out the following quotations by Paul Brunton for our benefit: Divine Grace is a manifestation of the cosmic free will in operation. It can alt er the course of events in a mysterious manner through its own unknown laws, whi ch are superior to all natural laws, and can modify the latter by interaction. I t is the most powerful force in the universe. It descends and acts only when it is invoked by total self- surrender. It acts from within, because God resides in the Heart of all beings. Its whisper can be heard only in a mind purified by se lf-surrender and prayer. Rationalists laugh at it, and atheists scorn it, but it exists. It is a descent of God into the soul's zone of awareness. It is a visitation of force unexpected and unpredictable. It is a voice spoken out of cosmic silence - It is `Cosmic W ill which can perform authentic miracles under its own laws'. In truth, God and the Guru are not different. Just as the prey which has fallen into the jaws of a tiger has no escape, so those who have come within the ambit of the Guru's grac ious look will be saved by the Guru and will not get lost; yet, each one should by his own effort pursue the path shown by God or Guru and gain release. Each seeker after God should be allowed to go his own way, the way for which he alone may be built (meant). It will not do to convert him to another path by vio lence. The Guru will go with the disciple in his own path and then gradually tur n him onto the Supreme path at the ripe moment. Suppose a car is going at top sp eed. To stop it at once or to turn it at once would be attended with disastrous consequences. ~ from the chapter 'Grace and Guru' in Gems from Bhagavan ____________________________________________________________

In accordance with this teaching of Sri Ramana, Sri Muruganar exemplified the hu mble state of being a true disciple, and hence (as I have explained elsewhere*) he never allowed anyone to consider or treat him as guru. Even after Sri Ramana had left his physical body, Sri Muruganar discouraged devotees from considering either himself or any other disciple of Sri Ramana as guru, saying that for devo tees of Sri Ramana no other guru is necessary, because he is always living withi n each one of us as our own self, guiding us unfailingly towards our final goal, the egoless state of true self-knowledge. ~ Michael James, from the Introduction to Guru Vachaka Kovai (the one translated by Michael James and Sri Sadhu Om) *Sri Sadhu Om often said that no true disciple of Sri Ramana can be a guru, beca use Sri Ramana alone is the guru of all who are attracted to his teachings. When ever anyone asked him whether it is not necessary for us to have a 'living guru' , Sri Sadhu Om used to laugh and say, "guru alone is living, and we are all dead ", and he explained the real guru is not a physical body but is the ever-living spirit, the infinite consciousness of being that exists within each one of us as our own true self.

Osho - The Second thing that Pythagoras also introduced into Western consciousne ss was the idea of reincarnation. That too is somehow related with vegetarianism . You will be surprised again: all the vegetarian religions believe in reincarna tion, and all the non-vegetarian religions believe only in one life. This can't be just a coincidence. In India, Brahminism, Jainism, Buddhism are the three gre at religions. They differ in every possible way -- their ideologies are so diffe rent that you cannot find more different ideologies anywhere. Hindus believe in God, they believe in the soul. Jainas don't believe in God -- a tremendously fun damental thing -- a religion without God. Buddhists don't even believe in the soul -- no God, no soul. You cannot imagine a religion without God and without the soul. Such are their differences. But abo ut one thing they are all agreed, and that one thing is the idea of reincarnatio n, rebirth. Even Buddha, who does not believe in the soul, agrees with it. It lo oks very absurd -- how can there be rebirth if there is no soul? He does not bel ieve in a soul but he believes in a continuum. He says: Just as you light a candle in the evening in the morning when you are b lowing it out can you say it is the same flame that you had started in the eveni ng? It is not the same -- and YET somehow it is connected. The flame has been ch anging the whole night. the flame was disappearing the whole night -- it was dis appearing into smoke and a new flame was replacing it each moment. In fact the m ovement was so quick, that's why you couldn't see the gaps. There has been a con tinuum -- a constant change, but very quick and fast -- one flame being replaced by another, the whole night. So when in the morning you are putting the candle out, it is not the same flame that you had started -- although it looks almost the same. The first flame and t he last ARE connected -- they are part of one chain, one process -- but you cann ot say that there has been one flame, one soul. That is the Buddhist idea of rei ncarnation: the continuity continues but individuals disappear -- there is no in dividual soul. But still Buddha believed in reincarnation. Jainas believe in rei ncarnation, Brahmins believe in reincarnation. But Jews, Christians and Mohammedans don't believe. Those are the three great re ligions which were born outside India. How did it happen that all three Indian r eligions stumbled upon the fact of reincarnation? -- although they don't agree i n ANY other matter. Why do they agree about one thing? They COULD not disagree. From where did this experience come to them? And you will be surprised -- the an swer is vegetarianism. When a person is utterly vegetarian he can easily remember his past lives. His c larity is such that he can look into his past lives. He is not gross, his energy is not blocked, his energy moves easily. His river of consciousness can penetra te to the ancient most times; he can go backwards as much as he wants. The consc iousness of a non-vegetarian is blocked -- in many ways. He has been accumulatin g gross matter in himself. That gross matter functions as a barrier. That's why all the three religions that were born outside India, and have remained non-vege tarian, could not come to the idea of reincarnation. They could not experience i t. Pythagoras lived in India, lived the life of a vegetarian, meditated deeply, bec ame aware of the past lives, could see himself moving backwards. He could unders tand what Buddha means when he says, "Once I was an elephant, once I was a fish, once I was a tree."

The idea of evolution has been here in the East for ever -- and in a far more su btle way than it has been given to Western science by Darwin. Darwin's idea is v ery raw: he says monkeys have become man -- although Darwinians have not yet bee n able to prove it, because they are still searching for the link between the mo nkey and the man. And the problem arises: why did only a few monkeys become men? What happened to other monkeys? And monkeys are basically imitators -- if a few monkeys had become men then all the monkeys would have imitated. What happened to the other monkeys? Great imitators they are -- why only a few men? And the monkeys are still there! Thousands and thousands of years have passed an d monkeys are still monkeys. And you don't come across a monkey suddenly becomin g a man... one fine morning he wakes up and he is a man. Nobody has ever seen th is miracle happen. The question is: where are the links between monkey and man? -- and the difference is great, it is not small. Just the other day somebody asked, John Lilly has said that man is not the only being on the earth who has consciousness; there are other beings too who have mo re consciousness than man." The questioner has asked, "Is it true? Is John Lilly right?" But those other animals have not discovered man yet -- it is John Lilly who overs those other animals. It is man who goes on discovering. Certainly the overer has more consciousness than the discovered. Even if we find some day some animal has a great, evolved brain, WE are the discoverers. That great n has not discovered us just.

disc disc that brai

There are animals who are very evolved, but nobody is as evolved as man. And the difference is big! John Lilly has been working on dolphins, and he thinks that dolphins have a far better evolved consciousness. If you just meet John Lilly so me time, tell him that dolphins have not discovered him -- he has discovered dol phins. And the discoverer has more consciousness, obviously. Dolphins are not sa ying anything about themselves -- it is a man who is saying something about dolp hins. They cannot even prove something about themselves. Dolphins are beautiful people, and Lilly is on the right track, but dolphins don't have a higher consci ousness than man. They have not produced Buddhas, Patanjalis, Pythagorases -- no t even a John Lilly. The Western concept of evolution, the Darwinian concept of evolution, is very gr oss. The Eastern idea of evolution is very subtle. It is not a question of the b ody of a monkey becoming the body of man -- it has never happened; of the body o f a fish becoming the body of man -- it has never happened. But the inside of th e fish goes on growing; it goes on changing from one body to another. The growth, the evolution, has not happened from body to body: the growth has be en happening in consciousness. When a monkey attains to a certain consciousness, the next birth will be that of man not of a monkey. He will die as a monkey and will be born as a man. The evolution is not going to happen in the body of the monkey itself. That body has been used by the soul -- or whatever you call it, t he continuum -- the body of the monkey has been used, now the soul is ready to t ake a better body, a body where more possibilities of growth will become availab le. The soul moves from one animal to another animal. The bodies are not evolving, b ut souls are evolving. The candles are not evolving, but the flames go on jumpin g from one candle to another. The flame goes on rising higher and higher. The ev olution is of consciousness, not of the material, physiological body. That is wh ere Darwin missed the whole point. But in the East for at least ten thousand yea rs we have been aware of it. The awareness came through meditation and the aware ness was based in vegetarianism -- because people started remembering their past lives.

It was a basic technique with both Buddha and Mahavira: whenever a disciple was to be initiated, the first thing that both Buddha and Mahavira required was that he had to go into his past lives. Great methods were developed so that one coul d move into past lives. And once you start moving into past lives, this life wil l be utterly transformed. Why? Because once you see that all the stupid things t hat you are doing now, or wanting to do, you have been doing for many many lives ... you have done those same things many times, and each time nothing was attain ed. For example, if you are mad after money and then you remember that in the past l ife also you were mad after money and then you had succeeded, and you had become a rich man, a very rich man, and then you died... and all that richness and all that wealth was of no use. It was taken away by death, and you died as empty as ever, as poor as ever. And you remember even before that: you were a king and y ou had a great kingdom. And still you were frustrated, and still you lived in mi sery, and you died in misery. And again you are doing the same and hankering for more money? It will become impossible. The longing will simply fall flat on the ground. How can you go on repeating the same stupid thing again and again if YO U CAN REMEMBER? YOU can go on repeating the same stupidity again and again if yo u CANNOT remember. The idea of reincarnation is not a philosophical idea: it is an experience, it i s utterly scientific. People have remembered their lives. When you have grown a little deeper into meditation... we are going to do all those techniques here to o. But those techniques will require that you be absolutely vegetarian, otherwis e you will not be able to go beyond THIS life. Your mind cannot move -- it has t o be so light, feather light, that it can simply pass from one existence into an other. And the lighter it is, the deeper it goes. It can not only remember that you were a man in the past life -- slowly slowly, you will remember that you have been animals. AND, sometimes, when the depth gro ss, you will remember that you have been trees, rocks. You have lived for millen nia in many forms. And if you remember that once you were a fish, it will become difficult for you to eat fish. Vegetarianism leads you into remembering your pa st lives. And KNOWING your past lives, you become more and more a vegetarian -because seeing that all are brothers and sisters, the whole existence, you canno t kill animals. It becomes simply impossible! Not that you have to prevent yours elf: it simply becomes impossible. Pythagoras was a REAL adventurer. Alexander the Great also came to India, he als o took away many things from India, but they were useless things -- diamonds and emeralds and gold. That's what Alexander the Great took away from India -- usel ess things. Pythagoras was a real seeker. He gathered real diamonds, real emeral ds: diamonds of consciousness, emeralds of consciousness. And these were two tre mendously significant, tremendously pregnant approaches -- that of vegetarianism and the idea of reincarnation. Once it happened: Pythagoras saw somebody hitting a dog. He said, "Do not hit hi m!" to the man who was beating the dog. "It is the soul of a friend of mine. I r ecognized it when I heard it cry out." Now this looks utterly ridiculous to a Western mind, to the Western scientific a ttitude. Even in those old days, people must have laughed: "What nonsense he is talking about! -- 'Don't beat the dog because I have recognized a friend.'" He w as simply trying to teach the idea of reincarnation in every way possible. And the third thing: he was, again, the first to introduce the concept that life is a wheel -- a wheel of birth and death. The wheel goes on moving and we go on clinging to the wheel. And the wheel is repetitive; again and again it will mov

e on the same track. Nothing new will ever happen. Birth will come, you will bec ome young, you will be full of sex and great desires, and then you will be spent and you will be old, diseased, ill sick, frustrated, tired. And then death... a nd again birth... and so on and so forth. Each birth brings a death, each death brings a birth. It is a vicious circle, an d the wheel goes on moving. In India the word for the world is SAMSARA. SAMSARA means 'the wheel'. Youth or childhood or old age are just spokes of the wheel. a nd we go on clinging to the wheel and the wheel goes on moving -- as everything else moves in the world. The earth moves around the sun, and the sun also moves around some unknown sun. And the moon moves around the earth, and earth and moon both move around the sun, and the sun around some other sun, and so on and so f orth. And all the stars are moving.... And EVERYTHING IS moving in a circle! Sea sons move in a circle. Life is a wheel and the wheel is repetitive. You will never reach anywhere if yo u go on clinging to the wheel. In the East it has been a known fact that we have to jump out of the wheel -- only then are we free. To be free from this wheel o f birth and death is to have freedom. Then you simply ARE. Then you are not movi ng. Then there is no past and no future but only the present. Then NOW IS the on ly time and here the only space. That is the state of nirvana, MOKSHA -- freedom. That is the real kingdom of God . One simply is... all turmoil gone, all storms finished, and there is absolute silence. In that silence there is a song, in that silence there is music -- unhe ard music, unstruck music. In that silence is joy, in that silence is bliss. And that bliss is eternal, it never changes. All change is if you are clinging to t he wheel. If you drop out of the wheel, all change disappears. Then you are here and alway s here. That state is the real search of all true seekers: how to get out of thi s wheel of birth and death, how to enter into life eternal where no birth ever h appens and no death either, where nothing begins and nothing ends, where all sim ply is -- how to enter into this God. Just the other day, I was saying God means 'that which is'... how to enter into that which is? These are the sutras by whi ch to enter into that which is.

How long is the interval between death and re-birth? D.: How long is the interval between death and re-birth? B.: It may be long or short, but a Realised Man undergoes no such change; he mer ges into the Infinite Being, as is said in the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad. Some s ay that those who, after death, take the path of light are not re-born; whereas those who take the path of darkness are born after they have reaped their karma (self-made destiny) in their subtle bodies. If a man's merits and demerits are equal, he is re-born immediately on earth; if the merits outweigh the demerits, his subtle body goes first to heave n, while if the demerits outweigh the merits it goes first to hell. But in eithe r case he is later re-born on earth. All this is described in the scriptures, bu t in fact there is neither birth nor death; one simply remains what one really i s. That only is the truth. Again, he would explain in terms of God's mercy. B.: God in His mercy withholds this knowledge from people. If they knew that they had been virtuous they would grow proud, and in the other case they wo uld be despondent. Both are bad. It is enough to know the Self. He did, however, refer sometimes to a person's preparedness or maturity as being due to the achievements of a previous incarnation. A competent person who has already, perhaps in a previous incarnation, qualified himself realises the truth and abides in peace as soon as he hears it told to h im just once, whereas one who is not so qualified has to pass through the variou s stages before attaining samadhi (direct, pure consciousness of being). That is to say that a lifetime may be regarded as a day's journey upon the pil grimage to Self-realisation. How far from the goal one starts depends on t he effort or lack of effort made on the previous days; how far forward one advan ces depends on the effort of today. A Science lecturer from a university asked whether the intellect survive s a man's death and was told:

"Why think of death? Consider what happens in your sleep.What is your experience of that?" D.: But sleep is transient, whereas death is not. B.: Sleep is intermediate between two waking states, and in the same way death i s intermediate between two births. Both are transient. D.: I mean when the spirit is disembodied, does it carry the intellect with it? B.: The spirit is not disembodied; the bodies differ. If not a gross body it wil l be a subtle one, as in sleep, dream or day-dream. Bhagavan would never admit that differences in mode of expression or f ormulation of doctrine between the various religions signified real contrad iction, since the Truth to which they point is One and Immutable. D.: Is the Buddhist view that there is no continuous entity answering to the ide a of the individual soul right or not? Is this consistent with the Hindu doctrin e of a reincarnating ego? Is the soul a continuous entity which reincarnates aga in and again, according to the Hindu doctrine, or is it a mere conglomeration of mental tendencies? B.: The real Self is continuous and unaffected. The reincarnating ego bel ongs to a lower plane, that of thought. It is transcended by Self-realisation. Reincarnations are due to a spurious offshoot of Being and are therefore denied by the Buddhists. The human state is due to a mingling of the sentient with the insentient. Sometimes it was not a question of reincarnation but grieving over the death of a loved one. A lady who had come from North India asked Bhagavan whether it was possible to know the posthumous state of an individual. B.: It is possible, but why try. Such facts are only as real as the person who s eeks them. L.: The birth of a person and his life and death are real to us. B.: Because you wrongly identify yourself with the body, you think of the other also as a body. Neither you nor he is the body. L.: But from my own level of understanding, I regard myself and my son as real. B.: The birth of the 'I'-thought is a person's birth and its death is his death. After the 'I'-thought has arisen, the wrong identification with the body rises. Identifying yourself with the body makes you falsely identify others also with their bodies. Just as your body was born and grows and will die, so you think th e other also was born, grew and died. Did you think of your son before he was bo rn? The thought came after his birth and continues even after his death. He is y our son only in so far as you think of him. Where has he gone? To the source fro m which he sprang. So long as you continue to exist, he does too. But if you cea se to identify yourself with the body and realise the true Self, this confusion will vanish. You are eternal and others also will be found to be eternal. Until this is realised there will always be grief due to false values which are caused by wrong knowledge and wrong identification. On the death of King George V, two devotees were discussing the matter in the ha ll and seemed upset. Bhagavan said: What is it to you who dies or is lost? Die yourself and be lost, becoming one with the Self of all (on the ego's extinction). And finally, about the importance of death. Religions stress the importance of t

he frame of mind in which a person dies and his last thoughts at death. But Bhag avan reminded people that it is necessary to be well prepared beforehand; if not , undesirable tendencies will rise up at death, too powerful to be controlled. D.: Even if I cannot realise in my lifetime, let me at least not forget on my de ath-bed. Let me have a glimpse of Reality at least at the moment of death, so th at it may stand me in good stead in the future. B.: It is said in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter VIII, that whatever is a person's l ast thought at death determines his next birth. But it is necessary to experienc e Reality now, in this life, in order to experience it at death. Consider whethe r this present moment is any different from the last one at death and try to be in the desired state.

Why lay yourself on the torture's rack of the past and future? - Rumi

WHO AM I? The Mahavakya "I AM THAT" (that = SELF). In these statement, THAT is always the SELF. But to make this statement as non-d ual. 'I' should be THAT (SELF). But than, do i know "WHO AM I'. No. So to questi on 'who am i' is perfectly right.. the origin of the thought or the source of th e thought (i.e. 'who am i' is the SELF. The absence or the source of EGO is the SELF. - Sri Ramana Maharshi (40 verses on Truth).

Teaching in Words and Silence - Sri Ranama Maharshi On a Shivaratri day, after dinner, Bhagavan was reclining on the sofa surrounded by many devotees. A Sadhu suggested that, since this was a most auspicious nigh t, the meaning of the verse in praise of Dakshinamurti should be made clear. Bha gavan gave his approval and all were eagerly waiting for him to say something. H e simply sat, gazing at us. We were gradually absorbed in ever deepening silence , which was not disturbed by the clock striking the hour, every hour, until 4 a. m. None moved or talked. Time and space ceased to exist. Bhagavan s grace kept us at peace and silence for seven hours. In this silence, Bhagavan taught us the Ul timate, like Dakshinamurti. At the stroke of four Bhagavan asked us whether we h ad understood the meaning of the silent teaching. Like waves on the infinite oce an of bliss, we fell at Bhagavan s feet. T. K. Sundaresa Iyer Ramana Smrti Souvenir

Devotee: How shall I overcome my passions? Maharshi: Find their root, and then it will be easy. (Later) What are the passions? Kama (lust), krodha (anger), etc. Why do they ari se? Because of likes and dislikes toward the objects seen. How do the objects projec t themselves in your view? Because of your avidya, i.e., ignorance. Ignorance of what? Of the Self. Thus, if you find the Self and abide therein, there will be no trouble owing to the passions. (Later) Again, what is the cause of the passions? Desire to be happy or enjoy pl easure. Why does the desire for happiness arise? Because your nature is happines s, itself, and it is natural that you come into your own. This happiness id not found anywhere besides the Self. Do not look for it else-where, but seek the Sel f and abide therein. Still again, that happiness which is natural is simply rediscovered, so it canno t be lost. Whereas the happiness arising from other objects is external and thus liable to be lost. Therefore, it cannot be permanent, and so it is not worth seeking.

He Who has FAITH has everything, he who lacks FAITH lacks everything, it is the FAITH in the name of the LORD that works wonders. FAITH IS LIFE, DOUBT IS DEATH - Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa There is only one time to awaken and that time is NOW - Lord Buddha To disconnect the mind from the SELF and to become aware of anything else is not hing but UNHAPPINESS - Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi

True Understanding The ways of the guru are often a mystery. Once a guru gave his disciple a bird a nd told him, Kill the bird, but make sure that no one sees you killing it. Ordinarily, one may wonder why a guru would want an innocent bird to be killed. Even if one follows the order, one might not be comfortable with taking a life. However, sometimes the guru gives assignments to the disciples to test how much of the teaching they were able to understand. No doubt a student who does not qu estion the integrity of the teacher succeeds in following the orders of the teac her. This particular disciple decided to follow the orders of the guru and left with the bird in his hands. After some time had passed, he came back holding the litt le bird, which was still alive. The guru asked him what happened. My master, you asked me to kill the bird when no one else was looking, the dutif ul disciple replied. But just as I was about to kill, I saw the little bird was looking at me. So I quickly covered his eyes. Next I realized that I was looking at the bird. So I covered my eyes also. Then I remembered that I still could no t do it, because the all pervading Lord, whose eyes were everywhere, was watchin

g me. Therefore I could not carry out your orders and I am humbly returning the bird to you. The guru was quite pleased with how well the disciple understood the teaching an d said, Your education is complete. Now you can go. REFLECTION The knowledge of Gods omnipresence allows us to pass through life's trials and t ests with ease. In every moment, feel that God and masters are looking at you. If one is firm in this knowledge, one will be free from all negatives. For examp le, a child will not do anything wrong when he knows that his mother is watching him. Similarly, how can we do wrong when God is constantly looking at us? Source: "Pebbles from the pond - Timeless Wisdom Tales" by Paramahamsa Prajnanan anda

Qualities of Sthitaprajna The sthitaprajna is like the vijnani. The sthitaprajna's experience of samadhi i s sahaja, or spontaneous and effortless. The sthitaprajna is a free soul, ever s teady in knowledge of Self. The sthitaprajna sees the presence of God not merely in the good and noble but also in the wicked and ignoble. The state of steady w isdom is a state of transcendence that does not overlook, rationalize, or destro y the lower values of life but fulfills them all, just as adulthood does not den y childhood but completes it. A sthitaprajna is also known as a jivanmukta, or one who is truly free while sti ll living. Although the realization of truth is private and cannot be communicat ed to others, the sthitaprajna can be identified by his or her actions, habits, and character as a tree is known by its leaves, flowers, or fruit. The Bhagavad Gita describes the character of the sthitaprajna as the following: 1] The sthitaprajna is dvandatita, or free from the conflicts of the pairs of op posites, such as pain and pleasure, virtue and vice, honour and dishonour, and g ood and evil. In short, the sthitaprajna is free from all attachments and aversi

ons. 2] The sthitaprajna demonstrates the reality of the Self the divinity of all bei ngs, and the unity of all existence through his or her conduct. 3] Steady in wisdom, the sthitaprajna enjoys the constant bliss of the Self, irr espective of the changing phenomena of the universe . The rise and fall of mind and pain and pleasure of body never make the sthitaprajna waver in steadiness of wisdom. 4] Though behaving like an ordinary person, the sthitaprajna is ever conscious o f the reality of oneness. 5] Though engaged in actions, being free from ego and free from motive, the sthi taprajna is not a doer of actions. Though having a physical body, the sthitapraj na is merely a dweller within the body and is unidentified with it. 6] Firmly grounded in the wisdom of the one Self, the sthitaprajna is at peace a nd ease with everything in all situations. 7] The wisdom of the sthitaprajna is wisdom of a cosmic oneness with all beings that cannot be contained in any temple or exhaustively described by any scriptur e. 8] The sthitaprajna is not bound by the injunctions of the scriptures, the tradi tions of society, or the laws of ethics. Yet the sthitaprajna's freedom does not impose itself on anyone, nor does it violate the rules of morality and ethics. 9] The sthitaprajna does not belong to a particular culture, sect, nation, or so ciety; the sthitaprajna is for all beings of all times. 10] Whatever the sthitaprajna does is conducive to the welfare of all beings. Wh en the sthitaprajna does good, he or she has no expectations or desires. The sth itaprajna's very nature is to do good. 11] The sthitaprajna is a seer of truth, no longer its seeker. The sthitaprajna is not just pure but purity itself. A person conscious of his or her purity is a lso conscious of impurity. The sthitaprajna is not just holy but holiness itself , not just a knower of truth but the very embodiment of truth. The Bhagavad Gita declares: "The yogi who is happy within, who rejoices within, and who is illumi ned within attains freedom in Brahman, himself becoming one with Brahman." 12] While steady wisdom indicates seeing action in inaction and inaction in acti on, it does not stand for a philosophy of inaction. The sthitaprajna continues t o act, lest by following his or her example, the vast majority of people should be led to practice inertia in the name of spirituality. 13] The sthitaprajna lives on the borderline between absolute and relative consc iousness. 14] The sthitaprajna is a jnani, a bhakta, and a yogi. 15] Ever established in the state of yoga, the sthitaprajna remains in constant union with God and, at the same time, is the ideal exemplar of karma-yoga, demon strating steady wisdom through every action. 16] The sthitaprajna's knowledge of Ultimate Reality is universal and dynamic. 17] The sthitaprajna's spiritual vision is integral and all-embracing. 18] For the sthitaprajna, God is both immanent and transcendent at the same time . Dedicated service is as important as offerings of worship, and meditation is n o less an action than everyday activity

Cave of the Heart The reference to the 'cave of the Heart' has several interpretations. However , in simple terms, in some ancient yogic schools the 'cave of the Heart' is call ed the 'seat of the soul' in the body. This has precedent in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita. Teacher anadi dissects this cave into several layers: persona l, psychic or energetic, and spiritual, i.e., the soul, and deeper still, the 'b eloved' or the 'creator.' [The Hindus might say Atman and Paramatman]. St. Augus tine called it imtima mea, the 'inward dwelling,' a 'shared bedroom,' a 'closet of intimacy,' an 'abyss,' and asked, "whose heart is seen into?" However, there is also reference made, in the Vivekachudamani of Sankara, to the 'cave of the i ntellect, buddhi,' or buddhi guha, and also guha hitam, or 'the secret abode of the infinite'. There appears to be a close connection between these two caves. I n Kaballah they mention the mothering, discriminative intelligence of the heart (Binah). Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon said that 'the head and the heart are not w ater-tight compartments.' Even modern research suggests that the heart has its o wn nervous system, is an organ of perception and memory, and is in close communi cation with the brain. (1) In ancient Egypt the god Ptah created the world from the 'imagination of his heart,' [similar to PB's 'presence of the World-Mind in the heart'] and Islamic philosopher Ibn Arabi also taught that to imagine is an ability of the heart. So we must then also think somewhat 'imaginatively' when considering this mys terious topic. Buddhi, in Samkhya terminology, is similar to the yogic vijnanama ya kosha, or the intellectual sheath. Some say that here in the cave of buddhi i s where one finds the Atman, others say that Brahman is found there ( "buddhau g uha yam brahmasti"). Advaitists generally consider them both to be pure consciou sness, so when Atman is realised, Brahman is also. The Upanishads say 'knowledge of Brahman is the same as 'becoming Brahman' (brahmavid brahmaive bhavati) wher eas Sankara said that 'knowledge of Brahman' leads to the 'experience of Brahman ' (anubhava avasanamn brahma vignanam ). We will not argue yes or no on these po ints. Sankara, the great jnani (as well as bhakta and tantrist), in his Vivekach udamani, wrote: "In the cave of the intellect is the Brahman, which is neither existent nor n on-existent, the transcendental non-dual Truth. One who dwells in this cave, bec oming one with the Truth, for him there is no more entry into the bodily cave," (2) The process of finding the Brahman for Sankara and the advaitists is an epistemo logical one, where the five sheaths are analyzed to extract the Truth; it is oft en mistakenly understood to be an ontological 'peeling of the onion' to find the

Self essence underlying them. But the non-dual Truth includes the sheaths and i s not an 'essence' underlying or deep within them. Such is more often the yogic interpretation of the five sheath doctrine. Sankara didn't mean the methodology of 'neti, neti' ('not this, not this') to be taken ontologically, that is, as ne gating the not-Self, but only as an epistemological exercise in order to affirm by investigation what is the Self. This is how it was presented in the Tittireya Upanishad, one of the sources for Sankara's teaching. Each succeeding level of investigation includes the previous one, until none are seen as other than the b lissful nature of the self. There are no references in this Upanishad that consi der them in any way as not real. The vision is wholistic, not eclusive. Ramana Maharshi, modern master of the Heart, would frequently quote scripture saying that 'the Self is always shining in the intellectual sheath.' In Samkhya philosophy, generally adopted by the yoga schools, buddhi being the closest upa dhi, or 'limiting adjunct,' to Atman, is the filter of the light of the Atman to the mind and senses. Buddhi creates the 'I'-thought or ego, and the 'luminous r eason' (susksma buddhi) is the means to enlightenment, while the undeveloped bud dhi is the proximate cause of our ignorance and identification with the ego-I. W hen we do not know ourself as Atman, we mistake ourself to be the 'shining ego i n the buddhi.' The shining nature of buddhi, being easily mistaken for the light of the Atman, means that only discriminating knowledge can get us out of this p redicament. This means, strangely enough, that the buddhi must discriminate itse lf out of existence, in a manner of speaking, to get out of its own way. When th e 'buddhi gets enlightened, Self-realisation takes place,' according to Swami Ra naganathananda. anadi calls this the second level of enlightenment: awakening no t only to the experience, but to the understanding of the experience as well. An d further, out of the meeting of intelligence and sensitivity, which produces th e understanding, comes the fruit of the understanding, which is the appreciation of the experience. The heart is involved. This is an added dimension over and a bove the experience itself. Now, here's where the Advaitic reasoning gets a little confusing. We won't try t o solve the problem of how the ever-free Self or Atman becomes deluded by its ve ry own adjuncts or bodies (koshas), etc., that is too great a task at this point . While the Upanishad considers the Buddhi to be closest to Atman, in between Budd hi and Atman lies undifferentiated Maya. In yoga they sometimes refer to this in the microcosm - as the anandamaya kosha or bliss sheath. This is equated by S wami Ranganathananda with the causal body, also in the heart, and which is activ e in deep sleep. During sleep, the vignanamaya kosha, the sheath of knowledge or intellect, lies dormant in seed-form, and there is thus no knowing possible. Th e bliss sheath is active, yet being of the nature of maya, the undifferentiated, is veiled by tamas, and one has no actual direct experience of bliss while slee ping. One can only infer such a quality upon awakening by saying, 'I slept sound ly,' etc. The Mandukya Upanishad says that Turiya is what recognizes the state o f deep sleep, but only when we are in the waking state. This point is debated: s ome say there is no awareness during ordinary deep sleep, while others say that Mind or the Self is always aware; this is similar to the dilemma faced in the Ti betan tradition with the dawning of the 'emptiness-luminosity' at the point of d eath, everyone experiences it, but most pass into unconsciousness almost immedia tely]. Some contemporary teachers of 'consciousness' say we are actually aware o f the experience or quality of sleep, while we are sleeping, but is this reasona ble? Are we, prior to enlightenment, aware of anything during sleep, or are we e ssentially deconstructed in the absolute unconsciousness? In other yoga schools, they equate the causal body with the 'bliss sheath in the heart.' Swami Yogeshwaranand Saraswati writes: "A stream of rays pertaining to the life-force arises from the bliss sheath (the

causal body in the heart) and goes to the astral body (manomaya and vijnanamaya koshas in the brain) and from there to the physical body." (3) Ramana said it was the Heart itself whose light went upwards to the head and the n into the bodily centers below. He spoke of the light of the moon (sahasrar) be ing the borrowed light of the sun (the Heart). Yet, as mentioned, in the bliss sheath the intellectual sheath lies dormant duri ng sleep. Even though the bliss sheath is the closest to Atman, it has no way of reflecting the intelligence and inherent self-shining nature of the Atman . Onl y the intellectual sheath, the vijnanamaya kosha , or Buddhi, can do so, and it can do so only in the waking state. The bliss sheath, being the causal body of t he soul and of the nature of the primal Undifferentiated, is characterised, para doxically, by 'darkness and vacuity,' inasmuch as it is covered by the veiling p ower of tamas. The so-called bliss sheath is so fine, like a delicate silken cov ering, that it is said to be almost an integral part of the soul. Since the bliss-sheath is embedded in the other sheaths, in waking life one can have positive experiences that give one a feeling of bliss. But there is no 'kno wing' in the human body without the vijnanamaya kosha. The 17th century Hindu saint, Sri Samartha Ramadas, in his treatise on gnana yog a, Atmaram, said, "The bliss-attainment of a yogi is maya." (quoted in The Noteb ooks of Paul Brunton) This makes sense inasmuch as the bliss sheath is an initia l product of maya itself. The bliss is really from the Soul, but the jivatman (v ijnana-maya-atman, or the jiva in the intellectual sheath) co-opts it for itself . Now here I am stepping beyond the limits of my theoretical knowledge, but will t ry to explain to the best of my understanding. In Sant Mat, where they mystically try to peal off these sheaths one by one by m erging with the creative logos in the form of the luminous sound current that pe rmeates all creation, they finally reach a stage where the Soul has shed the phy sical, astral, causal (in their school the manomaya kosha or manas) and the supe r-causal body (vijnanamaya kosha) and is now only vested with the extremely fine anadamaya kosha or bliss sheath. However, the soul is now macrocosmically also in a region known as Maha Sunn, a void which separates the created from the Uncr eated worlds, and which is said to be characterized by dense darkness which the Soul cannot penetrate without the help of the Satguru, whose roots are in Sat, o r the realms of Truth. The soul at this stage has shed mind, ego, and intellect, and can do no more for herself. This dense darkness of Maha Sunn (which even sa int Kabir mentioned) seems to correspond with the "darkness and vacuity" of the causal body or bliss sheath mentioned by Ranganathananda. For the saints, the 'heart-lotus' in the body is at 'the seat of the soul' betwe en the two eyebrows, not in the heart center. [This is also the focus of attenti on in the waking state; in dreams attention is said to go down to the throat, an d in deep sleep to the navel]. Even so, Sant Kirpal Singh would sometimes point to his chest and say, "the Master reside here." This same double reference is fo und in the Gita where Krishna says "I am the Heart in all Beings," but the yogi is also to meditate "with the mind in the heart, and the life-force in the head, established in concentration through yoga." He is encouraged to die that way, t oo. The same is held in Tibetan Buddhism where the yogi is exhorted to go out th rough the crown of the head. The only way I can reconcile these apparently different positions is by taking a non-spatial, non-bodily oriented point of view of the highest realisation in th ese particular paths. Then the awakening at the heart and the third eye would on ly indicate separate awakenings within the total I Am. But I'm not sure they wou

ld all agree with this assessment. All schools, whatever the tradition, are in agreement that the human form in the waking state is the precious circumstance where enlightenment can occur. As Chr ist said, "work while it is day, and not at night, when no man can work." Or one can just assume there is no-doer, and take his chances.

Some of Confucius' Sayings "Someone who is a clever speaker and maintains a 'too-smiley' face is seldom con sidered a person of jen." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". "Each day I examine myself in three ways: in doing things for others, have I bee n disloyal? In my interactions with friends, have I been untrustworthy? Have not practiced what I have preached?" "If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots (a small-to-middle-size stat e), you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economic al in expenditure and love the people. You should use them according to the seas ons." "A young man should serve his parents at home and be respectful to elders outsid e his home. He should be earnest and truthful, loving all, but become intimate w ith jen. After doing this, if he has energy to spare, he can study literature an d the arts." "If the Superior Man is not 'heavy,' then he will not inspire awe in others. If he is not learned, then he will not be on firm ground. He takes loyalty and good

faith to be of primary importance, and has no friends who are not of equal (mor al) caliber. When he makes a mistake, he doesn't hesitate to correct it." "When your father is alive, observe his will. When your father is dead observe h is former actions. If, for three years you do not change from the ways of your f ather, you can be called a 'real son (hsiao).'" "When the Superior Man eats he does not try to stuff himself; at rest he does no t seek perfect comfort; he is diligent in his work and careful in speech. He ava ils himself to people of the Tao and thereby corrects himself. This is the kind of person of whom you can say, 'he loves learning.'" "Ah, now I can begin to discuss the Book of Odes with Tz'u. I give him a hint an d he gets the whole point." "If you govern with the power of your virtue, you will be like the North Star. I t just stays in its place while all the other stars position themselves around i t." "If you govern the people legalistically and control them by punishment, they wi ll avoid crime, but have no personal sense of shame. If you govern them by means of virtue and control them with propriety, they will gain their own sense of sh ame, and thus correct themselves." "At fifteen my heart was set on learning; at thirty I stood firm; at forty I had no more doubts; at fifty I knew the mandate of heaven; at sixty my ear was obed ient; at seventy I could follow my heart's desire without transgressing the norm ." "I can talk with Hui for a whole day without him differing with me in any way--a s if he is stupid. But when he retires and I observe his personal affairs, it is quite clear that he is not stupid."

Ramana Maharshi answers What are the hindrances to the realization of the true S elf and how to overcome "What are the hindrances to the realization of the true Self?" "Memory chiefly, habits of thought, accumulated tendencies." "How does one get rid of these hindrances?" "Seek for the Self through meditation in this manner.Trace every thought back to its origin, which is only the mind. Never allow thought to run on. If you do, i t will be unending. Take it back to its starting place -- the mind -- again and again, and it and the mind will both die of inaction.The mind only exists by rea son of thought. Stop that and there is no mind. As each doubt and depression ari ses, ask yourself, 'Who is it that doubts? What is it that is depressed?' Go bac k constantly to the question, 'Who is the "I"? Where is it?' Tear everything awa y until there is nothing but the Source of all left. And then -- live always in the present and only in it. There is no past and future, save in the mind."

Ramana Maharshi: What is the purpose of creation? Q: What is the purpose of creation? A: It is to give rise to this question. Investigate the answer to this question, and finally abide in the supreme or rather the primal source of all, the Self. The investigation will resolve itself into a quest for the Self and it will ceas e only after the non-Self is sifted away and the Self realized in its purity and glory. There may be any number of theories of creation. All of them extend outwardly. T here will be no limit to them because time and space are unlimited. They are how ever only in the mind. If you see the mind,time and space are transcended and th e Self is realized. Creation is explained scientifically or logically to one's own satisfaction. But is there any finality about it? Such explanations are called krama-srishti [gra dual creation]. On the other hand, drishti-srishti [simultaneous creation] is yu gapat-srishti. Without the seer there are no objects seen. Find the seer and the creation is comprised in him. Why look outward and go on explaining the phenome na which are endless?

The day before yesterday being full moon, the usual Deepotsava (festival of ligh ts) was celebrated on a grand scale. This morning Sri Arunachaleswarar started for giri pradakshina (going round the hill) with the usual routinue and devotees and accompaniment of music. By the ti me the procession reached the Ashram gate, Sri Niranjanananda Swami (the Sarvadh ikari) came out with Ashram devotees, offered coconuts and camphor to Sri Arunac haleswarar, and paid homage when the procession was stopped and the priests perf ormed arati (waving of the lights) to the God. Just then Sri Bhagavan happened t o be going towards the Gosala (cowshed) and seeing the grandeur he sat down on t

he pial near the tap by the side of the book depot. The arati plate offered to A runachaleswarar was brought to Bhagavan by Ashram devotees and Sri Bhagavan took a little Vibhuti (holy ashes) and applied it to his forehead, saying in an unde rtone Appakku Pillai Adakkam (The son is beholden to the father). His voice seemed choked with emotion as he spoke. The expression on his face proved the ancient saying bhakti poornathaya Jnanam (the culmination of devotion is knowledge). Sri Bhagavan is Lord Siva s son. Sri Ganapati Muni s saying that he is Skanda incarnate, was confirmed. It struck u s that Bhagavan was teaching us that since all creatures are the children of Ish wara, even a Jnani should be beholden to Ishwara.

"The Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi I Knew" By Krishna Bhikshu Sri Krishna Bikshu, Voruganti Venkatakrishnaiah (1904-1981), was a lifelong bach elor who held a degree in law, a profession that he scarcely practiced, however, preferring a life dedicated to spiritual pursuits. A man of sharp intellect and prodigious learning, Sri Krishna Bikshu authored se veral works besides the preceding Ramana Yoga Sutras. His published works were " Sukti Sudha" (Supplement to Forty Verses), a summary of "Ramana Lahari" and "Tri pura Rahasya" all in Telugu, and "Sri Ramana Gita" (5th edition) in English are among those that merit special mention. He wrote "Sri Ramana Leela", the Telegu biography of Sri Bhagavan, in the immediate presence of Bhagavan who went throug h every page of it. To our knowledge his magnum opus, "Anasuya Ramayana", a comp lete and faithful translation in Telugu of Valmiki's Ramayana is yet unpublished . Even as a teenager, Sri Krishna Bikshu made a deep study of Vedantic literature. In 1929, he came into contact with Sri Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni and was won ove r by the Muni's great intellectual power and spiritual radiance. That led him on to Sri Kavyakanta's guru, Sri Ramana Bhagavan, whom he first visited on May 17t h, 1929. From 1931 on, Sri Krishna Bikshu committed himself solely to Sri Bhagav an and the practice of his teachings. In 1945, when Sri Krishna Bikshu's mother died at Nellore, on the same day that Echammal died at Tiruvannamalai, Sri Bhagavan observed, "Poor Krishnaiah, he los t both his mothers on the same day!" Krishna Bhikshu reached his Master's Feet i n 1981 on the very day and month of Sri Bhagavan's birth in 1879! Just before hi

s death at 6.05 a.m., December 30th, 1981, Sri Krishna Bhikshu joined his brothe r Dr.O.Ramachandraiah in chanting Arunachala Siva from 3.40 to 5.20 a.m. Krishna Bhikshu was a man of insatiable curiosity, keen intellect, enthusiasm an d energy. He was a precocious youth whose early studies created a distaste for r eligious literature. This lasted until he came under the powerful influence of G anapati Muni, who brought him to the Maharshi in 1929. He was enchanted by the h oly presence of the sage, but still wandered about for some years exploring the different spiritual traditions and teachers of the time. As the result of his wi de study and long practice, Krishna Bhikshu became convinced of the truths taugh t and lived by Sri Ramana Maharshi and surrendered to him whole-heartedly. He authored several important works in Telugu, one being Sri Ramana Leela, the m ost comprehensive biography of the Maharshi. Amidst the chanting of Arunachala S iva, Krishna Bhikshu breathed his last on December 30, 1981. OUR FAMILY was in some way or other always associated with religion and spiritua l searching. Brahmarsi Chivukula Venkata Sastri, the husband of my paternal aunt , had asked some of the questions recorded in the Ramana Gita. When I was a chil d I often used to go to his house and there I saw for the first time the photo o f Bhagavan Ramana and read Ramana Gita and other early brochures. I went to Arunachala for the first time with Sri Rami Reddi. We had our food in the town and then went to the Ashrama. In those days there was very little there - a hut for Bhagavan and another over his mother's samadhi (place of burial). B hagavan had just finished his food and was washing his hands. He looked at us in tently. "Did you have your food?" He asked. "Yes, we had it in town." "You could have had it here," he replied. I stayed with him for three days. He made a great impression on me. I considered him to be a real Mahatma, although his ways were very simple. Most of the cooki ng was done by him in those days. The Ashrama lived from hand to mouth and usual ly only rice and vegetable soup were prepared. When I was about to leave, I aske d Bhagavan: "Bhagavan, kindly show me a good path." "What are you doing now?" he asked. "When I am in the right mood, I sing the songs of Tyagaraja and I recite the holy Gayatri. I was also doing some pranayama but these breathing exercises have upset my health." "You had better stop them. But never give up the Advaita Dristhi (non dual vision)." At that time I could not understand his words. I went to Benares for a month, returned to Pondicherry and spent five months the re. Wherever I would go people would find some fault or other with me: "You are too weak, not fit for yoga, you do not know how to concentrate, you cannot hold your breath, you are unable to fast, you need too much sleep, you cannot keep vi gils, you must surrender all your property . . ." Only Bhagavan asked for nothin g, found fault with nothing. As a matter of truth, there was nothing in me that entitled me to his grace. But it did not matter with Bhagavan. He wanted me, not my goodness. It was enough to tell him "I am yours", and for him to do the rest . In that way he was unsurpassed. The strange people he gathered around him! But those who gave themselves to him and trusted him and did his bidding were overw helmed by his immense solicitude and kindness. In 1930 I visited Ramanasramam for the second time, and stayed a month. Our life was very simple at that time. I would get up early each morning, have my bath n ear the well at Palitirtham, prepare sacramental food on a small stove and start worshipping the Lingam over Bhagavan's mother's samadhi. Chinnaswami helped in the chanting. Bhagavan would make himself generally useful. He would talk quite freely with us every night after food. They would ply him with questions on phil osophy and metaphysics. In the evening he would sit on a wooden cot near the wel l and gaze at Arunachala in deep silence. His face would glow with an inner radi ance which would appear to increase with the deepening darkness. We were sitting

all around him, either silently, or singing some song. Alamelamma would sometim es sing from Tiruppughazh. The silence and peace at those hours was quite remark able. At night after dinner all the inmates of the Ashrama would collect around Bhagav an, and then he was our own, telling stories, answering questions, dispelling do ubts, laughing and joking. We never knew how late it was until Madhavaswami woul d go behind Bhagavan's back and give us signs that it was time to allow Bhagavan some rest. B. V. Narasimhaswami took up in those days the task of writing a book on Bhagava n's life and was collecting materials for his work from devotees. The first draf t of the book was ready and the author gave it to me to read. The idea came to m e that a similar book should be written in Telugu. I got Bhagavan's permission a nd, using Narasimhaswami's manuscript for an outline, got the Telugu version wri tten within a month. After that, whenever there was some court holiday and I had enough money for a r ailway ticket, I would come down to Ramanasramam. Everybody, including Bhagavan, used to say: "Krishnayya has come," and there was always a warm welcome for me. I asked him once: expected to know about the meaning e Gayatri, or who

"You told me to repeat the Gayatri. It is too long. Also, I am its meaning and to meditate on it.'' "Who asked you to bother and all that? I have only asked you to see who is repeating th is the japi," was his kind reply.

On the other hand he did not limit his teaching to the one question "Who am I ?" He invariably adjusted his advice to the needs of the devotee. He would say: "S ooner or later the question 'Who am I?' will have to be faced. All that leads to this question is good. By itself nothing else is fully effective, for Self-know ledge comes only through self-enquiry. But other methods purify the mind and hel p it to see its own limits. When the mind comes to the end of its resources and stands baffled before the unanswerable question, then a Higher Power takes charg e of the mind and the Self stands revealed, the Real, the Wonderful." Once an old woman came to the Ashrama. She always carried with her a framed pict ure of Bhagavan Narayana and she would worship it on every occasion. She asked Bhagavan whether she was right in doing so. Bhagavan replied: "Without name and form, on what is one to concentrate? What you are doing with y our heart and soul is just right for you." One night there were only one or two persons in the hall. Madhavaswami was massa ging Bhagavan's legs. A gentleman from Kakinada asked Bhagavan's permission to m assage his legs. Bhagavan did not reply. The man repeated his request, saying: " At home I am daily praying to Bhagavan and now I have a chance to serve him." Su ddenly Bhagavan thundered: "You had all the chances of serving me at home. Why d id you come here?" The man became quite frightened and could not speak. Thus Bha gavan taught us not to make a show of our devotion. Nobody could guess about the way Bhagavan would meet people. The high and mighty of the land would not get even a blank look, while some insignificant looking w anderer would become the object of his concentrated attention for hours and days . On the other hand eminent people would sometimes be taken up by him and given the immense blessing of being the centre of his interest. Once Pranavananda Swam i came to the Ashrama. He was utterly exhausted. He sat on the steps of the temp le and could not move any further. Bhagavan was told about it. He came out at on ce, sat at the feet of Pranavananda Swami and started rubbing his legs, saying: "You had a long way to walk, Grandpa. Your legs must be paining you very much."

The old swami protested in vain; Bhagavan had his way and massaged the swami's f eet. At food time Bhagavan would ask to be served very little and he would carefully clear the plate of the last grain of food before getting up. Although he never a sked us to do the same, I asked him: "If we clear our dining leaves so scrupulou sly, the dogs, cats, monkeys, rats and the ants will starve." Bhagavan answered: "Well, if you are so compassionate, why not feed the animals before taking food yourselves? Do you think they relish your scrappings?" Once a visitor said: "I have been coming to you, Swami, many times, hoping that something will happen and I shall be changed. So far I do not see any change in me. I am as I was: a weakling of a man, an inveterate sinner." And he started we eping piteously. "On this road there are no milestones," replied Bhagavan. "How can you know which direction you are going ? Why don't you do what the first-cla ss railway passenger does? He tells the guard his destination, locks the doors a nd goes to sleep. The rest is done by the guard, If you could trust your guru as much as you trust the railway guard, it would be quite enough to make you reach your destination. Your business is to shut the door and windows and sleep. The guard will wake you up at your destination." One Rama Rao, an advocate in Nellore, was requested many times by his friends to come with them to Ramanasramam. Invariably he would answer: "I shall go when Bh agavan calls me.'' Once when he was praying Bhagavan appeared to him and asked: "Why have you not come?" Rama Rao immediately left for Tiruvannamalai. Before re aching the Ashrama he had a dream in which a unique Chakra (symbolic drawing) ap peared before him. He told the dream to Bhagavan, described the Chakra and asked who could help him in having one drawn correctly. Bhagavan gave him all the nec essary information. When the Chakra was ready, Bhagavan examined it carefully an d gave it to Rama Rao, telling him to use it in his worship. A widow arrived one day, entered the Hall and bowed to Bhagavan. He looked at he r closely and started laughing. "Oh, it is you.'' he said. The woman got confuse d, covered her face with her white widow's sari and hid herself in a corner. Bha gavan continued with a broad smile: "When I was a boy her people were our neighb ours and she was their little girl. It was agreed between our parents that she w ould be my wife in due course. I was very fond of helping my mother in the kitch en and her mother used to grumble that she would never marry her daughter to a f ellow who likes to spend his day near the stove, like a woman. Anyhow I was not fated to marry. But had I married her, what would have been my fate!" Everybody had a good laugh at Bhagavan's narrow escape. Once I said to Bhagavan: "Bhagavan, formerly, whenever I thought of you, your fo rm would appear before my eyes. But now it does not happen. What am I to do?" "Y ou can remember my name and repeat it. Name is superior to form. But in the cour se of time even the name will disappear. Till then repeat the name," advised Bha gavan. An inmate of the Ashrama who had been serving Bhagavan for many years started vi siting a certain woman in the town. Her relatives came to know of it and decided to catch and kill the man. One night they caught him at her house, bound him ha nd and foot and locked him up in a room, postponing the cutting of his throat un til they had found a safe way of disposing of the body. Our man managed to escap e and came running to the Ashrama, pursued by his enemies. When he entered the g ate they gave up the chase. He entered the Hall trembling and fell on the ground shouting: "Save me, save me.'' Bhagavan ordered the doors to be shut and said: "Don't fear, tell me what happened." After having been told everything, he looke d at the culprit with understanding and pity and said reassuringly: "Don't fear any more. Go and sleep." From the next day the man was at his work and Bhagavan would not mention the matter at all. Everybody in the town came to know what hap

pened. The Ashrama people requested Bhagavan to send the man away, for his prese nce would tarnish the good name of the Ashrama. Bhagavan called the man and told him in front of everybody: "You have done some wrong, but you were too foolish to keep it secret. Others do worse things, but they take care not to be caught. Now, the people who were not caught want you to leave the Ashrama because you we re caught. They will make your life miserable. You had better stay outside for s ome time, until things settle down." The man stayed with some devotees outside t he Ashrama and came back after a few months. When people would complain to Bhagavan about some mischief or other done in the Ashrama, Bhagavan would say: "I have not come here to punish people. If I start punishing people, even a black crow would not remain in this place. People come here, each with his own purpose, and each may find his purpose fulfilled. Why do n't you take care of your own purpose? Why do you pay attention to what others d o?" On some other occasion Bhagavan remarked about some of the visitors: "On their f irst visit to the Ashrama they seem to be all right; on their second visit they discover that the Ashrama is not properly run; on their third visit they start g iving advice; on the fourth they know best how to run the place; on the fifth th ey discover that the management is not responsive and they are very displeased; on the sixth they suggest that the present staff should walk out, leaving the As hrama to them. Finally they become disheartened and blame me for what I have nev er done." After all it is perfectly true that Bhagavan neither started nor organ ized the Ashrama. It was all done by others who just did what they thought right . When Bhagavan was still on the hill, a postcard came in which the sender wrote: "I am a poor elementary school teacher. My mother is old and my salary is so sma ll that I cannot look after her properly. Kindly see that I get a raise." Bhagav an laughed and said: "Well, why not?" Another card came after some time in which he wrote: "By your grace my salary was increased. Now there is a vacancy in a h igher grade. If I am given that grade, I shall earn more and make my mother very happy." Bhagavan had a good laugh and said: "Good." Again after some days, anot her card: "My mother is bedridden and there is nobody to nurse her. If I could g et married, my wife would look after her. But I am a poor man. Who will give me his daughter in marriage? And where shall I get the money for expenses? Bhagavan may kindly arrange." Bhagavan laughed and said: "Well, let it be so." After som e months another postcard came: "By your kindness I was married quite easily. My wife is already with me. My mother wants a grandchild before she dies. Please p rovide. "Why not?" said Bhagavan. After some months another card: "My wife gave birth to a child, but she has no milk for it. I cannot afford milk for the baby. Please get me a promotion." Then another card: "I got a promotion and an increm ent. The child is doing well. I owe everything to your kindness." Bhagavan remar ked: "What have I done? It is his good karma that all goes well with him." After some days another card: "Mother died. She worshiped you before her death. "Well ," said Bhagavan. After a month, another card: "Swami, my child has died." "Sorr y," said Bhagavan. Another month had passed and a card came saying: "My wife is pregnant again." Then another card: "My wife gave birth to a child. Both died." "Ram, Ram,'' said Bhagavan. "Everything seems to be over." Then another card: "D ue to family trouble my work was very irregular and I was dismissed. I am comple tely destitute now.'' Bhagavan said, heaving a deep sigh: "All that came has gon e; only his Self remained with him. It is always like this. When all goes, only the Self remains."

Ramana Maharshi says The absence of thought is bhakti Bhakti is not different from mukti. Bhakti is being as the Self.One is always Th at. He realizes It by the means he adopts. What is bhakti? To think of God. That means only one thought prevails to the exc lusion of all other thoughts. That thought is of God, which is the Self, or it i s the self surrendered unto God. When He has taken you up, nothing else will ass ail you. The absence of thought is bhakti. It is also mukti.

Ramana Maharshi Tells How To Get Rid Of Maya D.: Can you help me to get rid of Maya ? M.: What is Maya ? D.: Attachment to the world. M.: What is it then that raises the question of Maya just now? D.: The mind was not in sleep. The world and the attachment to it are of the min d. M.: That is it. The world and the attachment to it are of the mind , not of the Self. D.: But I do not understand. M.: Because you are identifying the Self with the body. Give up the wrong identi ty and the Self is revealed. D.: But this does not answer my question to help me to get rid of Maya, i.e., at tachment. M.: This attachment is not found in sleep. It is perceived and felt now. It is not your real nature. On whom is this accretion? If the Real Nature is kno wn these exist not. If you realise the Self the possessions are not perceived. T hat is getting rid of Maya.

Vivekachudamani says Give no more thought to the body Just as the cow does not care about the garland round its neck, so too he (the y ogi) does not care whether the body, bound by the strings of past karma, lives o r dies. So you too reject this inert, impure body, and realize the pure and eter nal Self of wisdom. Give no more thought to the body.

Many siddhas and sages came to see Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi in the form of dogs, crows, leopards and snakes One of the most astonishing facts was that many siddhas and sages came to see Bh agavan in the form of dogs, crows, leopards and snakes and were helped to attain spiritual liberation. The doors of the hall where Bhagavan sat were always kept open. This was because many souls came seeking His grace at all times of the da y and night and in all shapes and forms. One of the devotees sleeping in the hall woke up one night to see a dazzling lig ht enter through the door, stand before Bhagavan for some time and then slowly g o out. Later when he asked Bhagavan about this, Sri Ramana replied it was a sidd ha who had come in that form to have His darshan.

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi healing a pigeon Bhagavan always became concerned if any of the animals in his vicinity were inju red or discomfited in any way. I was once walking with Bhagavan on the hill in t he early morning when a pigeon fell in front of us. It had been attacked by a bi gger bird and its head was severely injured. Bhagavan asked me to pick it up and bring it back to the ashram. When we got back to the hall, Bhagavan put it on h is lap and massaged the injury with castor oil. From time to time he would also gently blow on the wound. The bird made no objection to this because it was eith er in a state of shock or unconscious. After Bhagavan's treatment the pigeon made a speedy and almost miraculous recove ry. It flew away without exhibiting any signs of the serious injury it had recen tly suffered.

Ramana Maharshi says The experience of 'I am" is to Be Still A visitor from Tirukoilur asked if the study of the sacred books will reveal the truth. Sri Ramana Maharshi: That will not suffice. D.: Why not? M.: Samadhi alone can reveal it. Thoughts cast a veil over Reality and so it can not be clear in states other than Samadhi. D.: Is there thought in Samadhi? Or is there not? M.: There will only be the feeling `I am' and no other thoughts. D.: Is not `I am' a thought? M.: The egoless `I am' is not thought. It is realisation. The meaning or signifi cance of `I' is God. The experience of `I am' is to Be Still.

Ramana Maharshi says Find out who this 'I' is Two Parsi ladies arrived from Ahmedabad and spoke with Bhagavan.

L.: Bhagavan, we have been spiritually inclined from childhood. We have read sev eral books on philosophy and are attracted by Vedanta. So we read the Upanishads , Yoga Vasishta, Bhagavad Gita, etc. We try to meditate, but there is no progres s in our meditation. We do not understand how to realise. Can you kindly help us towards realisation? B.: How do you meditate? L.: I begin by asking myself `Who am I?' and eliminate the body as not `I', the breath as not `I', the mind as not `I', but then I am unable to proceed further. B.: Well, that is all right so far as the mind goes. Your process is only mental . Actually all the scriptures mention this process only in order to guide the se eker to the Truth. The Truth cannot be directly indicated; that is why this ment al process is used. You see, he who eliminates all the `not-I' cannot eliminate the `I'. In order to be able to say `I am not this' or `I am That', there must b e the `I' to say it. This `I' is only the ego, or the `I'-thought. After the ris ing up of this `I'-thought, all other thoughts arise. The `I'-thought is therefo re the root thought. If the root is pulled out, all the rest is uprooted at the same time. Therefore seek the root `I'; question yourself: `Who am I?'; find out the source of the `I'. Then all these problems will vanish and the pure Self al one will remain. L.: But how am I to do it? B.: The `I' is always there, whether in deep sleep, in dream or in the waking st ate. The one who sleeps is the same as the one who is now speaking. There is alw ays the feeling of `I'. If it were not so you would have to deny your existence. But you do not. You say: `I am'. Find out who is. L.: I still do not understand. You say the `I' is now the false `I'. How am I to eliminate this wrong `I'? B.: You need not eliminate any false `I'. How can `I' eliminate itself? All that you need do is to find out its origin and stay there. Your effort can extend on ly so far. Then the Beyond will take care of itself. You are helpless there. No effort can reach It. L.: If `I' am always -- here and now -- why do I not feel so? B.: Who says that you do not? Does the real `I' or the false `I'? Ask yourself a nd you will find that it is the false `I'. The false `I' is the obstruction whic h has to be removed in order that the true `I' may cease to be hidden. The feeli ng `I have not realised' is the obstruction to realisation. In fact, it is alrea dy realised. There is nothing more to be realised. If there were, realisation wo uld be something new which did not yet exist, but was to come about in the futur e; but whatever is born will also die. If realisation is not eternal, it is not worth having. Therefore, what we seek is not something that must begin to exist but only that which is eternal but is veiled from us by obstructions. All that w e need do is to remove the obstruction. What is eternal is not recognised as suc h, owing to ignorance. Ignorance is the obstruction. Get rid of it and all will be well. This ignorance is identical with the `I'-thought. Find its source and i t will vanish. The `I'-thought is like a spirit which, although not palpable, rises up simultan eously with the body, flourishes with it and disappears with it. The body-consci ousness is the wrong `I'. Give it up. You can do so by seeking the source of `I' . The body does not say: `I am'. It is you who say `I am the body.' Find out who this `I' is. Seek its source and it will vanish.

Osho Quotes on Intuition This word 'intuition' is beautiful. You know the other word, 'tuition'; tuit ion means somebody else is giving it to you. Intuition means nobody is giving it to you; it is growing within yourself. And because it is not given to you by so mebody else, it cannot be put into words. What is intuition? you have asked. Intuition is in some ways like instinct, in some ways absolutely unlike instinct; in some ways like intellect, in other w ays absolutely against intellect. So you will have to understand, because it is the subtlest thing in you. Intuition is like instinct because you cannot do anyt hing about it. It is part of your consciousness, just as instinct is part of you r body. You cannot do anything about your instinct and you cannot do anything ab out your intuition. But just as you can allow your instincts to be fulfilled, yo u can allow and give total freedom to your intuition to be fulfilled. And you wi ll be surprised at what kinds of powers you have been carrying within you. Intuition can give you answers for ultimate questions -- not verbally but ex istentially. You need not ask, What is truth? Instinct won't hear, it is deaf. I ntellect will hear but it can only philosophize; it is blind, it can't see. Intu ition is a seer, it has eyes. It sees the truth -- there is no question of think ing about it. Instinct and intuition are both independent of you. Instinct is in the power of nature, of unconscious nature, and intuition is in the hands of th e superconscious universe, the consciousness that surrounds the whole universe, the oceanic consciousness of which we are just small islands -- or better, icebe rgs, because we can melt into it and become one with it. In some ways intuition is exactly opposite to instinct. Instinct always lead

s you to the other; its fulfillment is always dependent on something other than you. Intuition leads you only to yourself. It has no dependence, no need for the other; hence its beauty, its freedom and independence. Intuition is an exalted state needing nothing. It is so full of itself that there is no space for anythi ng else. In some way intuition is like intellect because it is intelligence. Buddha means an egoless trust. One who trusts in the whole existence also tr usts in himself, because he is part of the whole. He listens to his heart's voic e and follows it. Unafraid he goes with his heart. He trusts his intuition. And once you have known the art of how to listen to your intuition, you will be surp rised: intellect can err, intuition never errs -- it is infallible. It always di rects you in the right course of action. Intuition is the highest rung of the ladder, the ladder of consciousness. It can be divided into three divisions: the lowest and the first is instinct; the second, the middle one, is intellect; and the third, the highest one, is intuiti on. The West represents the male mind, aggressive intellect. The East represents the female mind, receptive intuition. East and West are not just arbitrary -- t he division is very very significant and profound. If you choose according to your own inclination, according to your own intui tion... it is very strong in children but, slowly slowly, becomes weaker. The vo ices of the parents and the teachers, the society and the priest, become louder and louder. Now if you want to find out what is your voice, you will have to pas s through a crowd of noises. Unless you have found your natural inclination your life is going to be a lo ng, long tragedy, from the cradle to the grave. The only people who have been bl issful in the world are the people who have lived according to their own intuiti on and have rebelled against any effort by others to impose their ideas. Howsoev er valuable those ideas may be, they are useless because they are not yours. The only significant idea is that which arises in you, grows in you, blossoms in yo u. Just the energy touching your higher level of consciousness, the superconsci ous -- just the touch, and there is a shower of joy which continues. Slowly the energy goes on hitting and makes its way to the center of the superconsciousness . You have nothing to do: your work is finished when you have stopped repressing and you have cleaned your unconscious. Then you have nothing to do; then all th at has to be done is done by your energy. And when you reach the center a new fa culty starts functioning in you which is intuition. At the center of the unconscious is instinct. At the center of the conscious is intellect. At the center of the superconscious is intuition. Intuition functions in a quantum leap. It has no methodological procedure, i t simply sees things. It has eyes to see. It sees things which you have never ev en thought of as things -- for example, love. You have never thought of it as a thing. But a man of intuition can see whether there is love in you or not, wheth er there is trust in you or not, whether there is doubt in you or not. He can se e them as if these are things. In my religion intuition holds the highest place. That's where I am trying to push you. An unclean unconscious is hindering you. Clean it; and the way to clean it i s to satisfy it, to satisfy it so much that it starts telling you, "Please stop! It is more than I needed." Only leave it then. And with that, your intellect is filled with such a fresh flow of energy that it turns into intelligence. Then t he energy goes on rising and opens the doors of intuition. Then you can see thin

gs which are not visible to your physical eyes, things which are not even things . Love is not a thing, truth is not a thing, trust is not a thing, but they are realities -- much more real than your things. But they are realities only for in tuition, they are existential. And once your intuition starts functioning, you a re for the first time really a man. With the unconscious you are animal. With th e conscious you are no longer animal. With the superconscious you are man. Just as the body has its own wisdom -- it is called instinct -- your soul ha s its own wisdom. It is called intuition. Your mind is a borrowed thing; it has nothing like instinct or intuition. It is just a computer which goes on collecti ng all kinds of information. But it has tremendous power over you because it has all that you know. If it is erased you will be simply dumb, not knowing who you are, where you are going -- for what? What is the business? When something from the unknowable comes to be known, it is a jump. It is a jump! There is no interlink, there is no passage, there is no going from one poi nt to another point. But it seems inconceivable, so when I say, You can feel it, but you cannot understand it, when I say such things, I know very well that I am uttering nonsense. Nonsense only means that which cannot be understood by our sen ses. And mind is a sense, the most subtle, and wisdom is a sense. Intuition is po ssible because the unknowable is there. One has to follow his own instinct. They have to be understood, these two wo rds: instinct and intuition. Instinct is unconscious nature and intuition is con scious nature. First your instinct has to be freed from all the fetters of princ iples, dogmas, right and wrong, morality and immorality. Instinct, completely na tural, has tremendous beauty. That is the beauty you see in the animals. A deer just jumping, running, has a certain beauty which man has lost. His jumping and running has a grace that comes from instinct. He is not jumping and running, it is nature jumping and running through him. He is just instrumental. This is the first step towards ultimate freedom, that your instinct should b e allowed all growth possible. And alongside, you should continue to meditate, b ecause meditation is not a program. Meditation is just a method of becoming awar e of what is happening to you. No disturbance, no judgment, just watching what i s happening in you. If you go on watching your instincts and their growth, a mom ent comes when your instincts start changing into intuition.

You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it. All that you have to do is to give up being aware of other things, that is of the not-Se lf. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and t hat is the Self. Sages say that the state in which the thought `I' [the ego] does not rise ev en in the least, alone is Self [swarupa] which is silence [mouna]. That silent S elf alone is God; Self alone is the jiva [individual soul]. Self alone is this a ncient world. All other knowledge are only petty and trivial knowledge; the experience of silence alone is the real and perfect knowledge. A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this worl d. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation. What is the ego? Enquire. The body is insentient and cannot say `I'. The Sel f is pure consciousness and non-dual. It cannot say `I'. No one says `I' in slee p. What is the ego then? It is something intermediate between the inert body and the Self. It has no locus standi. If sought for it vanishes like a ghost. If you keep on making the enquiry till you fall asleep, the enquiry will go on during sleep also. Take up the enquiry again as soon as you wake up. The Self alone is real. All others are unreal. The mind and intellect do not remain apart from you. The Bible says, `Be still and know that I am God.' Still ness is the sole requisite for the realization of the Self as God. If one surrenders oneself there will be no one to ask questions or to be tho ught of. Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding on to the root-thought `I ', or one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the higher power. These are the only two ways for realization. If the longing is there, realization will be forced on you even if you do no t want it. Long for it intensely so that the mind melts in devotion. After camph or burns away no residue is left. The mind is the camphor. When it has resolved itself into the Self without leaving even the slightest trace behind, it is real ization of the Self. Greedily begging for worthless occult powers [siddhis] from God, who will re adily give himself, who is everything, is like begging for worthless stale gruel from a gene rous-natured philanthropist who will readily give everything. If one scrutinises one's own Self, which is bliss, there will be no misery a t all in one's life. One suffers because of the idea that the body, which is nev er oneself, is `I'; suffering is all due to this delusion. Can there be darkness before the sun? Similarly, can there be ignorance befo re the self-evident and self-luminous Self ? If you know the Self there will be

no darkness, no ignorance and no misery. Be the Self and that is bliss. You are always that. The Self is always realized. The Self alone exists. When you try to trace the ego, which is the basis of the perception of the world and everything else, you find the ego does not exist at all and neither does all this creation that you see. What is bliss but your own being ? You are not apart from being which is the sam e as bliss. You are now thinking that you are the mind or the body which are bot h changing and transient. But you are unchanging and eternal. That is what you s hould know. The Jnani (Self Realized Soul) being established in the fourth state - turiya, t he supreme reality - he detachedly witnesses the three other states, waking, dre aming and dreamless sleep, as pictures superimposed on it. You have to ask yourself the question `Who am I ?' This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. So lve that great problem and you will solve all other problems. An Ajnani (Ignorant) sees someone as a Jnani (Self Realized Soul) and identifies him with the body. Because he does not know the Self and mistakes his body for the Self, he extends the same mistake to the state of the Jnani. The Jnani is th erefore considered to be the physical frame. See whose thoughts they are. They will vanish. They have their root in the singl e `I'-thought. Hold it and they will disappear. The impure mind which functions as thinking and forgetting, alone is samsara, wh ich is the cycle of birth and death. The real `I' in which the activity of think ing and forgetting has perished, alone is the pure liberation. It is devoid of p ramada [forgetfulness of Self] which is the cause of birth and death. The thought `l am this body of flesh and blood' is the one thread on which are s trung the various other thoughts. Therefore, if we turn inwards enquiring `Where is this I?' all thoughts (including the `I'-thought) will come to an end and Se lf-knowledge will then spontaneously shine forth. Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realize the un conditioned, absolute being that you really are. If you would deny the ego and scorch it by ignoring it, you would be free. If yo u accept it, it will impose limitations on you and throw you into a vain struggl e to transcend them. To be the Self that you really are is the only means to rea lize the bliss that is ever yours. Our real nature is mukti (Liberation)s. But we are imagining we are bound an d are making various, strenuous attempts to become free, while we are all the wh ile free. This will be understood only when we reach that stage. We will be surp rised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always b een and are. We imagine that we will realize that Self some time, whereas we are never an ything but the Self. The conception that there is a goal and a path to it is wrong. We are the go al or peace always. To get rid of the notion that we are not peace is all that i s required.

This reality of pure consciousness is eternal by its nature and therefore su bsists equally during what you call waking, dreaming and sleep. To him who is on e with that reality there is neither the mind nor its three states and, therefor e, neither introversion nor extroversion. His is the ever-waking state, because he is awake to the eternal Self. The Jnanis (Self -Realized Souls) do things for the sake of others with deta chment, without themselves being affected by them. The Jnani (Self -Realized Soul), who is only a mirror, is unaffected by acti ons. How can a mirror, or the stand on which it is mounted, be affected by the r eflections? Nothing affects them as they are mere supports. The ignorance is identical with the `I'-thought. Find its source and it will vanish. The `I'-thought is like a spirit which, although not palpable, rises up simu ltaneously with the body, flourishes and disappears with it. The body-consciousn ess is the wrong `I'. Give up this body-consciousness. It is done by seeking the source of the `I'. The body does not say `I am'. It is you who say, `I am the b ody '. Find out who this `I' is. Seeking its source it will vanish. Divine grace is essential for realization. It leads one to God realization. But such grace is vouchsafed only to him who is a true devotee or a yogi. It is given only to those who have striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards fr eedom. In the proximity of a great master, the vasanas (Desires) cease to be active , the mind becomes still and samadhi results. Thus the disciple gains true knowl edge and right experience in the presence of the master. To remain unshaken in i t further efforts are necessary. Eventually the disciple will know it to be his real being and will thus be liberated even while alive. Renunciation is always in the mind, not in going to forests or solitary plac es or giving up one's duties. The main thing is to see that the mind does not tu rn outward but inward. The world is not external. Because you identify yourself wrongly with the bo dy you see the world outside, and its pain becomes apparent to you. But they are not real. Seek the reality and get rid of this unreal feeling.

The "Lost Years" of Ramana Maharshi by Peter Holleran Two Deaths, Two Hearts, Two Teachings Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) was one of the most respected of modern Indian sa ges. At the age of sixteen he had a well-known spontaneous death experience withou t any previous sadhana or spiritual disciplines, which many have equated with hi s permanent establishment in Self-Realization, or the enlightened condition - bu t is that actually the case? This question will be the primary subject of this e ssay. Among the most influential early disciples of Ramana Maharshi were Paul Brunt on, Mouni Sadhu, and Arthur Osborne, who helped in spreading his teachings to th e West. Papa Ramdas, Paramahansa Yogananda, U.G. Krishnamurti, and HWL Poonja ( Pa paji ) also spent time in his company. Annamalai Swami and Lakshmana Swami were am ong his most advanced Indian disciples, considered by some to be Self-Realized s ages. For fifty years Ramana shed the beacon light of truth near the sacred moun tain Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai, South India. Of Maharshi, Brunton once remark ed that at times he felt as if he were in the presence of "a being from another planet, or, perhaps, another species." (1) Even so, and despite being graced by the sage with advanced inner experiences, Brunton later came to feel Ramana s phil osophical position was incomplete. This was largely based on the way the initial communication of his realization was presented, which we will shortly explain. As a boy Ramana was ordinary in most respects, but there was one unusual char acteristic about him. He was a very heavy sleeper, requiring vigorous shakes to rouse him, and he was also subject to periods of half-awake sleep at night durin g which his playmates would sometimes drag him around, beat him, cuff him, while

he would put up with their sport with a meekness and passivity unknown to him i n the waking state. At the age of sixteen Maharshi underwent a now famous spontaneous death exper ience during which he was overwhelmed by fear. He was unable to do anything to a void this fear, the fear of death, and he surrendered himself and passed through it to realize the deathless Self, prior to the ego-I. His description of this e vent has been repeated many times: "It was in 1896, about 6 weeks before I left Madurai for good (to go to Tiruv annamalai - Arunachala) that this great change in my life took place. I was sitt ing alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I seldom had any sic kness and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden viole nt fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it nor was there any urge in me to find out whether there was any account f or the fear. I just felt I was going to die and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or any elders or friends. I felt I had to solve the problem myself then and there. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing t he words: "Now death has come; what does it mean? What is that is dying? This bo dy dies." And at once I dramatised the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretch ed out still as though rigor mortis has set in, and imitated a corpse so as to g ive greater reality to the enquiry. I held my breath and kept my lips tightly cl osed so that no sound could escape, and that neither the word "I" nor any word c ould be uttered. "Well then," I said to myself, this body is dead. It will be car ried stiff to the burning ground and there burn and reduced to ashes. But with t he death of the body, am I dead? Is the body I? It is silent and inert, but I fe el the full force of my personality and even the voice of I within me, apart fro m it. So I am the Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the spirit tra nscending it cannot be touched by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit. A ll this was not dull thought; it flashed through me vividly as living truths whi ch I perceived directly almost without thought process. "I" was something real, the only real thing about my present state, and all the conscious activity conne cted with the body was centered on that "I". From that moment onwards, the "I" o r Self focussed attention on itself by a powerful fascination. Fear of death van ished once and for all. The ego was lost in the flood of Self-awareness. Absorpt ion in the Self continued unbroken from that time. Other thought might come and go like the various notes of music, but the "I" continued like the fundamental s ruti note which underlies and blends with all other notes." A current of awareness in the heart, the aham sphurana , led him to the consciou sness of the Self, which he called the "I-I" (or the "I AM" prior to the primal I-thought), and which became his constant enigmatic fascination henceforward. He clearly related that a "great power" had taken him over, and that he had done n o sadhana, while apparently achieved in one half-hour what it takes most aspiran ts years or lifetimes to do. After this event, he lost interest in school-studies, friends, and relations. Avoiding company, he preferred to sit alone, absorbed in concentration on the S elf, and went daily to the Meenakshi Temple, ecstatically devoted to the images of the Gods, tears flowing profusely from his eyes. This should be kept in mind by those who assume Ramana had permanently and fully realized the non-dual Self by his first dramatic death experience. When questioned in 1946, "With what bhava (feeling) did Bhagavan cry before those images? Did Bhagavan pray he should have no further birth, or what?", he replied, "What bhava? I only wanted the same grace as was shown to those saints. I prayed I should have

the same bhakti that they had. I knew nothing of freedom from births or bondage. " (2) Six weeks later he left his home in Madurai bound for Tiruvannamalai and the sacred mountain, Arunachala, where he would spend the rest of his life. The proc ess that had begun in him continued to have its effects, and he felt a burning s ensation in the body, which he said was due to an inexpressible anguish which I s uppressed at the time", until the moment he entered the temple Arunachaleswara i n Tiruvannamalai. Ramana had little or no previous knowledge of spiritual traditions; it was on ly later that he found confirmation of his experience in the scriptures. After t his he was for many years absorbed in trance samadhi much of the time, oblivious to the world. Indeed, he spent the years 1899-1916 in Virupaksha Cave, and 1916 -1922 in the larger Skandasramam Cave on Arunachala where his mother and others joined him. He said that in the beginning sometimes he would open his eyes and i t was day, and other times it would be night. An early disciple Palanaswami tend ed to most of his needs. Ramana lived with a discipline of extreme tapas, or asc eticism, once revealing that he did so to conserve energy, apparently for inner sadhana, which in his case at this time appears to have been a sadhana of identi fication with the Self-essence, i.e., the fall into jnana samadhi wherein the tr anscendental Self is experienced by exclusion of the body-mind and the world. He described this Heart felt relative to the body as on the right side , but in truth t he formless, infinite, bodiless consciousness. While, as stated, to outward eyes at this time it appeared like he was perpetually immersed in inner samadhis, ne vertheless he also would read scriptures and undoubtedly engaged some form of co ntemplation or practice of self-inquiry (which he came to teach as Who Am I? ), thu s gradually stabilizing his initial profound glimpse until his identification wi th the Self was complete. It was this tendency to be immersed in absorptive samadhi, however, along h his first descriptions of the Heart as the exclusively inner source of the ught or the feeling of "I", that led some, such as advaitic philosopher V.S. r, and possibly even PB at one point, to consider Ramana a saint or yogi and a full sage.

wit tho Iye not

In 1912, when he was thirty-two, he went through a lesser-known second death experience which seemed to mark his complete return to normal outward activity. He remarked numerous times that the current of the self he had realized at aged sixteen had never changed, but while this new experience may not have upstaged h is previous realization it did serve to reintegrate him with his bodily vehicle and with life. This is how he described what happened. While walking back from V irupaksha Cave one day he was suddenly overcome with physical weakness. He lay d own and the world disappeared as if a bright white curtain was drawn across his vision. His breathing and circulation stopped and his body turned a livid blue. For fifteen minutes he lay as if in a state of rigor mortis, although still awar e of the Self within. The current of awareness that was his daily experience per sisted even with the shutdown of all bodily systems. Then suddenly, he explained , he felt a rush from the Heart on the right to the left side of his chest and t he re-establishment of life in the body. After this he was more at ease in every day circumstances, and began to increasingly associate with those seekers who ga thered around him. By some accounts he said that there was no discipline, effort, or change in h is conscious awareness since the first event in 1896, but it must be kept in min d that he, like other spiritual masters, said different things to different peop le, as will be explained below. This second death event, however, seemed to init iate his full transition into the stage of sahaj wherein the body-mind and the w orld are not excluded or seen apart from self-realization.

When the disciples began to arrive, Ramana at first was silent, but later gav e out the method of Self-Inquiry, or Atma-Vichara, where, as stated, one asks of himself, "Who am I?", and pursues the source of the "I-thought". Not to be mere ly an intellectual exercise, he emphasized that this inquiry demanded an intense ly introverted mind and was, thus, for ripe souls, whose entire lives of spiritu al discipline and understanding fitted them for the quest in its ultimate form. This form of inquiry requires a high degree of free attention in the disciple fo r its fruitful use. The "I-thought" or "aham vritti" of which Ramana spoke is ac tually more like the feeling-of-I, or the separate self-sense itself. It is not a mere thought like all of the rest, but the root thought and feeling of identit y from which mentation springs. It has also been described as the self-knot or g ranthi, or the thought I-am-the-body . The inquiry that Maharshi advised was, therefore, not a mere mental exercise but a matter of total consideration of what the sense of I was all about. Sometime s he was said to speak using the terms what is this me? , rather than who am I ? Whil e fundamentally jnana yoga, this inquiry is also essentially a submission to the core or heart of the being. Recognizing that not everyone was capable of engagi ng self-inquiry in its pure form, therefore, Ramana offered devotees the option of simply surrendering to him in the traditional manner as Guru or Divine Self. He suggested that one must do either of two things: find the source of the "I" o r ego-self by self-inquiry, or surrender that self and let the Divine strike it down. In this manner he was not as dogmatic as some other of the non-dual sages, allowing a traditional devotional approach to him when appropriate and necessar y. Ramana s heart was said by devotees to be as soft as butter, and would also get choked and weep up when reading about or hearing devotional recitations, plays and stories. An important aspect of Ramana Maharshi's teaching and realization is the dist inction he clearly draws between the crown center, or sahasrar, and the Heart, w hich he describes as the very source of conscious existence, yet felt or intuite d in relationship to the body as being two digits right of the midline of the ch est. For most yogis the center for realization is generally considered the sahas rar, whereas for Maharshi (and ancient Rishis as well) it was the heart. [Theref ore the Biblical verse, The wise man s heart is at the right side; the foolish man s heart is at the left. ] He maintained that the divine light appears (again, relati ve to the body) to flow upwards from the causal Heart to the sahasrar and from t here downwards, enlivening the bodily centers below. To attain Self-Realization, Maharshi initially said, it was necessary for the attention to be inverted with in and the I-thought drawn into its source in the Heart. [For a more detailed expl anation of this see the excellent The I and the I-I by David Godman]. He compared the Heart to the sun and the sahasrar to the moon, and said that the latter only co ntained the reflected light of the former. In contradistinction to most of the y ogis, he argued that there was a terminal bend to the sushumna nadi from the sah asrar down into the heart, which was the true source from which the mind and sen se of self emerged. At various times, then, Ramana would remark that self-realization was only fo r the fit, and that it required intense introversion of the mind. His disciple L akshmana Swamy was adamant that the mind must fall into the Heart and die, or th ere is no self-realization (see No Mind, I Am the Self). As late as 6-27-46 Rama na said: "As often as one tries to surrender, the ego raises its head and one has to t ry to suppress it. Surrender is not an easy thing. Killing the ego is not an eas y thing. It is only when God Himself by His grace draws the mind inwards that co mplete surrender can be achieved. But such grace comes only to those who have al ready, in this or previous lives, gone through all the struggles and sadhanas pr eparatory to the extinction of the mind and killing of the ego." (3)

Paul Brunton often concurred that preparation was required for the end stages of the path: "To attain knowledge of Brahman, the mind must be held in the prerequisite st ate of being calm, tranquil, and in equilibrium - not carried away by attachment to anything. After this is established, and only then, can you begin enquiry wi th any hope of success." (4) At other times, however, Ramana would say that, while scriptures say one shou ld proceed by doing sravana, manana, and niddidyasana, or attain savikalpa, then nirvikalpa, then realization, "why should one wander in that maze only to come round in the end to the Self? why not realize the Self here and now?" (5) With t his and many other remarks he implied that inner trance states or samadhis were not required for realization of the non-dual 'non-state' of our Unborn true natu re (which of course many current non-dualists are quick to latch on to because i t is so much easier than the traditional yogic or advaitic approach - but who kn ows what Ramana would say to them in person!). He said to one devotee: "To imagine Muladhara at the bottom, the Heart at the center, or the head at the top or over these, is completely wrong. In one word, to think is not your na ture." (6) That is to say, the Self or Soul is formless, bodiless, with its realization having nothing ultimately to do with the chakra system or any process occurring within time and space. In this second way of presenting the problem, Ramana seem s to be suggesting that yogic inversion and the opening of the cave of the heart or the small almond-shaped aperture about the size of a thumb that is normally closed but open in the jnani, was not necessary. As he was not firm on this, it is not surprising that disciples and followers of him have taught either approac h. The later perspective suggests Ramana's graduation to being the sage in sahaj , and no longer the saint or yogi as Iyer had claimed. In fact, Ramana once rema rked that if he had known how simple it all was he would never have left his hom e in Madurai! So there was obviously a maturation process that occurred in his c ase after his first death experience, despite the commonly repeated belief that he had a rare, one-of-a-kind instant enlightenment. He was rare and unique, but his enlightenment wasn t, as Anthony Damiani would say, a one-shot affair. The Heart as fully realized by Ramana, then, was distinct from both the physi cal organ, the subtle heart-chakra, and even the causal heart-root; rather, it i s actually the transcendental source and very condition of the separate self, bo dy, mind, and world. He said: "The spiritual Heart-center is not an organ of the body. All that you can say of the Heart is that it is the very Core of your being." (7) Swami Yogeshwaranand Saraswati proposed a similar argument for the causal hea rt-center in his book, Science of Soul (which remains one of the best sources fo r a description of the subtle anatomy of man, including the relationship between the "sheaths", "koshas", and "bodies" mentioned in yoga philosophy) : "A stream of rays pertaining to the life-force arises from the bliss-sheath a nd goes to the astral body and from there to the physical body." (8) He argues that the manamaya (mental) and vijnanamaya (discriminative) koshas (which comprise the subtle (or astral) body) exist in the brain, whereas the ana ndamaya kosha or bliss-sheath (causal body) is in the heart. (9) The transcendental heart of which Maharshi spoke, however, is not to be ident ified with this yogic center but is coterminous with, as well as beyond, all kos has and experiences. It is Reality. Sages will assert, moreover, that as the sub

tle and causal dimensions, sheaths, or bodies interpenetrate the gross or physic al, one can have the intuition or insight of consciousess, the Self, as well as engage effective purifying sadhana, in this very world itself without penetratin g the veil of incarnation as the yogis maintain. Even repeated experiences of ni rvikalpa samadhi itself will not directly produce realization, because the seed of ego has not dissolved in its source but still exists as an unconscious determ inant of one's experience; the age-old vasanas, or active as well as latent tend encies of egoity are also not undone by this means, and therefore stable sahaj i s not yet possible, for all intents and purposes. These vasanas, said Maharshi, must be checked by knowledge, one by one as they arise, until the mind surrender s and allows the true non-dual Self to reveal itself. There is also no knowledge of the Self in Nirvikalpa, since there is no knower there; and in Savikalpa sam adhi there is at best an "experience of the Self shining in the Intellectual she ath", as Ramana repeatedly said, but not knowledge that one IS the Self. That co mes only through understanding in the waking state. The evolution in Maharshi's teachings is also evident within the freely rende red translation of Sankara's Vivekachudamuni written while he lived at Virupaksh a Cave (1899-1916). In the earlier part of the work he argued that the tradition al vedantic means of preparation: sravana, manana, and niddhiyasana, would lead to Nirvikalpa Samadhi, through which was attained the strength essential for dir ect realization of the supreme Self, and which in fact (Nirvikalpa) led spontane ously to the direct perception or knowledge of Brahman. He also wrote in this tr anslation: It is the projecting power of Maya together with its veiling power which unite s the soul with the ego, the cause of delusion, and, through its qualities, keep s a man dangling like a ghost. If the veiling power is destroyed the Self will s hine of itself, and there will be no room either for doubt or obstruction. Then the projecting power also will vanish, or even if it persists, its persistence w ill only be apparent. But the projecting power cannot disappear unless the veili ng power does....Pure discrimination born of perfect knowledge distinguishes the subject from the object and destroys the delusion due to ignorance....Thus, onl y when one obtains realization of the Supreme Identity through Nirvikalpa Samadh i will ignorance be destroyed without vestige and the knot of the heart loosed.. Thus the discriminating soul must know the Atma tattva in order to be free from the bondage of samsara....Brahman can be clearly experienced without any barrier only through Nirvikalpa Samadhi." (10) [Vedantic scholars are fairly unanimous that Sankara himself never asserted t he necessity of samadhi for liberation - although he was certainly capable of it , being a great adept - and that it was much later that neo-advaitins familiar w ith the yoga traditions added this idea]. Near the conclusion of the translation, however, Ramana reverted to tradition al non-dual advaitic teaching: It is impossible to argue that bondage (samsara) is caused by the veiling powe r (tamas) of Maya and Liberation by its destruction, since there is no different iation apart from Maya. Such an argument would lead to a denial of the truth of Non-duality and an affirmation of duality. This would be contrary to the authori ty of the scriptures ...There is in truth no creation and no destruction; no one i s bound, no one is seeking Liberation, no one is on the way to Deliverance. Ther e are none Liberated. This is the absolute Truth. (11) When the dialogues in the mid-1930 s that later became the book,Talks with Rama na Maharshi, were held it is very clear, as mentioned above, that Bhagavan repea tedly emphasized that even repeated experiences of Nirvikalpa Samadhi were not n ecessary for, nor did they automatically lead to, Self-Realization or Sahaj, but that only constant checking of the identifications of the mind and eradication

of the vasanas as they arose would do so. It is therefore fairly apparent that h is understanding of realization evolved over time. [An interesting side note is that while Ramana was insistent that nirvikalpa samadhi was not necessary for, or equivalent to, Self-realization, he did once s uggest that the failure to go into such a state from time to time, for bodily re freshment, was the cause of Adi Sankara's early death at the age of thirty-three due to burnout from a whirlwind schedule of travel and teaching. Maharshi himse lf continued to intermittently enjoy such states, although with less frequency a nd duration than in the years after his initial death experience]. In his later years Maharshl suffered from severe arthritis and resplratory tr oubles. He developed a sarcoma on his left arm that resisted medical treatment a nd eventually succombed to the cancer. The story of his final illness is reveali ng and a lesson in obedience and sensitivity to the Guru, for it was his stated wish on several occasions not to have the tumor interfered with by invasive ther apy, but he gave in to repeated urgings by doctors and devotees to have it opera ted on, with the result that , as he remarked, "the tumor fought back" and got p rogressively worse until it was untreatable. When asked to intervene on his own behalf he replied, "Who is there to will this?" Kirpal Singh in the last week of his own life, was also asked by a devotee, "Master, you are all-powerful, why d on t you heal yourself?" His reply was "anyone whom you love, if he gives you some thing, would you refuse it? Tell me .. He should gladly accept it." This was sim ilar to Maharshi's assessment of his own condition, albeit a bit less negative: "The body itself is a disease that has come upon us. If a disease attacks tha t original disease is it not good for us?" (12) Maharshi commented to those who anticipated the loss of his physical company, "They say that I am dying but I am not going away. Where could I go? I am here. " [Isn't that the first word in "here-after", ie., here?] Thus he testified to h is realization of the Transcendental condition and that after his death his devo tees would still have access to the same presence and grace that was available t o their true devotion while he was alive. The evening he died his devotees start ed chanting a hymn to Arunachala and tears streamed down Ramana's face. There wa s no struggle. He took one final breath before the end. A large shooting star vi sible for miles passed slowly across the sky to disappear behind the sacred hill Arunachala. The body of the most influential jnani of the twentieth century was consigned to the flames while his spirit continued to shine brightly in the hea rts of his followers. Reflections on the

Lost Years

The following was written by James Shwarz (Ram) on his website, http://www.sh iningworld.com, in the section entitled Satsangs : "It is a common misconception that you can just get it once and for all and fro m that point on life is just endless bliss. I don t know if you are familiar with the story of Ramana Maharshi, but if you are, ask yourself why, if after his de ath experience and the awakening it caused, he spent twenty years sitting alone in caves? If he was the Self as he had experienced, then what is the point of s itting in caves? Isn t it rather stupid to say the reality only shines in caves, that it does not shine in the world? Why not just go back home and live like a normal person? The answer is that he had experienced the Self and he could not forget it and his mind was turned inward, by a powerful fascination to use his own words. But this was just the beginning of his spiritual life. There was still somebody there that was fascinated, inspired, by the Self. Ramana s greatness was that he understood that the best way to get rid of Raman

a, his sense of duality, was to keep his mind fixed on the Self (he called it Se lf inquiry) and just burn out all those old dualistic notions. The best way to do it for him was to follow the tradition and go sit in a cave where he would no t be distracted. At some point the small Ramana that he thought he was, the one who had had the experience, disappeared and from that point on the name Ramana referred to the Self, not to a person who had realized the Self. A person did n ot disappear because there was no person there in the first place. All that dis appeared was his notion of himself as an incomplete being. Awakening [causes] you to understand what the Self is but the next step is t o understand that you are the Self. Getting this understanding is hard work. E very time you find the mind thinking as a limited I you correct it. You put it to work asserting your wholeness and completeness, not denying it. And slowly the mind changes. You can keep up this work because you know that you are the Self , not [xyz]. This is why it is not brainwashing or a kind of religious belief. You can actually see what the Self is and that you are it. One day, the mind g ives up arguing with you. It surrenders. It accepts you as are you are and no longer tries to convince you that you are a limited little worm, a beggar in nee d of inspiration or anything else. It sees you as you are. This is the end of it.... If there is only one Self and this Self always knows who it is, i.e. that it is limitless and whole and therefore does not need any particular experience to erase its sense of limitation and make it whole, how can it forget who it is? V edanta says that it can't forget but that it can forget. Or to put it another way it says that there is only one Self, pure Awareness, and that this Self is c apable of both knowledge and ignorance. It would not be limitless if it were u nable to be ignorant. This capability of being two opposite things at once is ca lled Maya. The definition of Maya is: that which is not. You can see the probl em in the definition. How can something that is not, be? Well, strangely, it c an. There is a strange notion that when one permanently experiences the Self the intellect is switched off for good and you just remain forever as the Self in so me kind of no thought state. The fact is that the intellect keeps right on thin king from womb to tomb. God gave it to us for a good reason. Clear logical pra ctical thinking is absolutely necessary if you are going to crack the identity c ode. It is called inquiry. You want to think before realization, during realiz ation and after realization. Realization is nothing more than a hard and fast c onclusion that you come to about your identity based on direct experience of the Self. Only understanding will solve the riddle....No experience will eradicate vasanas born in ignorance and reinforced with many years of negative behavior. Question: Is self-realization a discrete occurrence in time...or is the remov al of self ignorance a gradual process over time? Ram: It can be either or both. Usually one realizes who one is, falls again under the sway of ignorance, applies the knowledge again, realizes again and so on. It goes on over and over until one day there is absolutely no doubt and the process of enlightenment/ endarkenment stops for sure. Ignorance is persistent and aggressive and one needs to practice the knowledge until the last vestige is rooted out. I have a friend, a self realized person, who said, I realized the Self five hundred times before my seeking stopped to illustrate that point. [End James Schwarz' material] Ramana also repeatedly said this. When asked, "will the knowledge gained by d irect experience be lost afterwards?", he replied: "Kaivalya Navanita says it may be lost. Experience gained without rooting out

the vasanas cannot remain steady. Efforts must therefore be made to eradicate a ll the vasanas. Otherwise, rebirth takes place. Some say direct experience resul ts from hearing from one's Master; others say it is from reflection; yet others say from one-pointedness and also from samadhi. Though appearing different on th e surface, ultimately they mean the same. Knowledge can remain unshaken only aft er all the vasanas are rooted out." (13) He also distinguished the specific practice he often recommended from that of yogic absorption or trance (even though he was adept at that with obvious tende ncies from previous births): "Abhyasa consists of withdrawal within the Self every time you are disturbed by thought. It is not concentration or destruction of the mind, but withdrawal i nto the Self." (14) This is more a sense of retreating mentally into subjectivity away from objec ts as opposed to actual yogic absorption into an inner void to escape objects. Going within thus described is not to be understood in a spatial manner, but as an orientation towards ones sense of awareness, which is ultimately realized as both within and without and beyond both. The void, when conceptualized, as somet hing to be absorbed into within, is not the subjectivity Ramana is pointing to, but is still more or less an object, as the witness self is yet objective to the Self. Ed Muzika, disciple of the American sage Robert Adams, himself a disciple of Ramana, had this to say about his difficulties with the "Who am I?" inquiry: "It took me a long time to realize that going within, for me, meant space/voi d/mind exploration, while what I really needed to do was to flee into subjectivi ty away from objects as opposed to fleeing into the Void to escape objects [impo rtant point]. Until you have done this practice for time, it is hard to notice the difference. Going within is not a spatial thing, but a heading towards the sense of the source of sentience. The void is not subjectivity, it is still an o bject." "For the longest time, when I went within, there was a feeling of "solidity " within the void that was centered in my heart area. That is, I felt my essence , so to speak, was involved with the heart center and that it was my job to pene trate and clarify that area. Strangely, this was Ramana's instruction, to look w ithin the heart area. But this is a mistake. There is still a looker who is obje ctifying the heart area phenomenon which was within space and time; yet, who is the looker? Seeking within the heart area makes it important and more real, just like concentrating on the body makes it more real. In one mind, inward and outw ard disappear." "Robert describes the "Who am I?" Meditation as not following the I inward , but asking the question and gently probing within for He who asked the questio n, and in that space, to abide in silence that is, without seeking. I do not like this meditation....because of my misconception of the question as a device to se ek an ever retreating subject, I got lost in the Void. Who am I? has altogether to o much mentation." "Therefore, search within for that which is the perceiver and attempt to ab ide there. The attempt itself will be a failure, but persistence will allow one to abide in silence, as the dichotomy disappears, and the ultimate subjectivity will reveal its mysteries just in this calm abidance. (Ed Muzika, Dancing With G od) Ramana said:

"Even without 'diving' in, you are That. The ideas of exterior and interior e xist only so long as you do not accept your real identity...It was said because you are identifying with the froth and not the water. Because of this confusion, the answer was meant to draw your attention to this confusion and bring it home to you. All that is meant is that the Self is infinite, inclusive of all that y ou see. There is nothing beyond it or apart from it. Knowing this, you will not desire anything; not desiring, you will be content." (15) So right there he is re-emphasizing that initial instructions to go 'within' are just to counter the age-long tendency to perceive things as being 'without', but that trance is not necessary, or even the true subjectivity he is really ta lking about, which is beyond all categories, including time and space. The different point of view of jnana may take some time to discern for one pr acticed in a yoga path. It is not just an academic point but one filled with muc h importance. As the Buddhist text, The Transmisson of the Lamp, states: "The ordinary man is going astray, but in a way is enlightened; the Sravaka, however, who is enjoying the bliss of absorption for ever so many kalpas, is, fr om the point of view of the Bodhisatva, suffering the fires of hell, having buri ed himself in emptiness with no possibility of insight into the Buddha-Nature it self." Continuing, PB wrote: " The ego is a collection of thoughts circulating around a fixed but empty cent re. If the habits of many, many reincarnations had not given them such strength and persistence, they could be voided. The reality - MIND - could then reveal it self... [But] the ego is a knot tied in the middle of our inner being, itself be ing compounded from a number of smaller knots. There is nothing fresh to be gath ered in, for b-e-i-n-g is always there, but something to be undone, untied...The ego finds every kind of pretext to resist the practice required of it...There i s no limit to the ego's pretensions...The ego lies to itself, lies to the man wh o identifies with it, and lies to other men" (16) The preceding counters the simplistic notions among some neo-advaitic teachers who argue practice and effort are not necessary. It seemed to Schwarz that there was a reason that even a great one such as Maharshi did not immediately set up shop and teach after his first awakening, and spent years in seclusion meditatin g, inquiring, pondering, studying, before doing so, and even then somewhat reluc tantly. In a illuminating interview, Schwartz, in precise language, analyzes why he feels Ramana spoke the way he did in the situations he was in, why his early teachings may have differed from the later ones, how he spoke more often from t he language of yoga and experience than that of advaita and identity because of the culture he grew up in and the people he was surrounded with, why there is ne ed for discrimination in talking about whether the mind or ego needs to die, wha t that really means, and the differences between partial realization or awakenin g and full enlightenment. See Commentary on the Teachings of Ramana Maharshi. Th is excellent interview ties together many of the points that have been touched u pon within this article and is a must read. Also see this clarifying dialogue of his on the issue of "eradicating the vasanas". Schwartz's view is, of course, a controversial one. Swamis associated with Ra manashram are insistent that Ramana's pronouncement that his realization did not change at all from the moment of his first death experience is the case, despit e outer appearances to he contrary. For a challenging dialogue on this issue, as well as the differences between experience and knowledge, samadhi and jnana, in advaita, see this excellent piece from the Mountain Path magazine, in which Sch wartz and an influential swami engage in Dharma Combat.

Vedantist V.S. Iyer was even more outspoken and had quite a different view of Ramana's time in seclusion. He felt Ramana overstayed his time in the caves bec ause of the early influence of the shakti worshipping Sri Seshadri Senegal, who was the person who rescued the young Ramana when the latter was immersed in pena nce in the underground vault called Patala Lingam located in the Thousand-pillar ed Hall of the Arunachaleshwarar temple, while ants and other insects were gnawi ng away at his body. Although Palanaswami soon took over the lifetime job as Mah arshi's personal assistant, Sri Sehashri and Ramana remained closely related for a period of time, with Ramana sometimes affectionately called a "Little Seshadr i" by the villagers in the area. Iyer wrote: "If Maharshi had a proper guru and not the mad Seshadri who was his guru but an incompetent one, he would have been told, "You now realize that the world is an idea." "So go and live amongst others, keeping your insight all the time. it is not necessary to remain in solitude any longer." (17) Seshadri had the popular reputation of being somewhat mad, but also the abili ty to make anything he touched prosper and flourish, so villagers tolerated his antics. Whether Maharshi was fully realized or not before he left Madura, for most as pirants there is a need to inquire or investigate one s realization to the point o f knowing one is the Self, without a doubt, as opposed to just settling for the initial glimpse of seeing that there is such a Self, and foregoing what for most is the hard work to establish oneself permanently in that state. Some have aske d, Why should this have to be done? Why not just awaken and that's it? Simply beca use, again, for most, as H. Ross Perot once said, "Folks, it just don't work tha t way!" And for one more extensive explanation we can turn to PB s philosophy abou t the relationship between the ego, the Overself or Divine Soul, and the World-M ind, along with an understanding of the Three Primal Hypostases of Plotinus. [fo r more on this, see The Integrationalists and the Non-Dualists-1. Also, for thos e unfamiliar with the unique terminology used by PB (Mind, World-Mind, World-Ide a, Overself), please click here for a precise explanation]. The non-dual position of PB may be reduced to the following classic passages: His first mental act is to think himself into being. He is the maker of his ow n I. This does not mean that the ego is his own personal invention alone. The whol e world-process brings everything about, including the ego and the ego s own selfmaking. (PB V6, 8:2.15) That s mentalism in a nutshell. That s the whole mentalistic doctrine. The Soul has for its content the World-Idea, and it actualizes that or projects that World-Idea out from within itself. And included in that World-Ide a is the ego and the process that it s going to go through. (18) The ego to which he is so attached turns out to be none other than the presenc e of World-Mind within his own Heart. If identification is then shifted from one to the other, he has achieved the purpose of life." (19) It is simply built into the universe, regardless of philosophy, that not only has this ego been constructed out of the thought-content of the World-Idea by t he World-Mind and projected through the Soul, with this thought due to the power of maya spuriously taking itself to be real, but this very ego, as illusory, te mporary, and insubstantial that it may be, must also still surrender itself if r ealization is to be lasting and uncontradictably REAL, otherwise ignorance and i llusion will reassert themselves sooner or later. The length of time this will t ake after a spiritual glimpse will depend on whether, as Adyashanti once said, o ne's ego has been just "nicked" in the process or has suffered a "mortal wound". Robert Adams was also clear on this issue of surrender. Through the power and e xercise of discipline, moral effort, and vichara, or inquiry, the mind also beco mes more and more sattvic or purified, isolating the ego and bringing it to the

point of such surrender where there is simply nothing left for it to do, and gra ce will then assert itself and bring us through the door, the "gateless gate" of enlghtenment. Paradoxical? Yes, but that seems to be the way it is. Jnana and b hakti are inseparable as long as one lives. Ramana believed either of the paths were capable of taking one to liberation. To a bhakti he remarked, "If the longi ng is there, liberation will be forced on you even if you don't want it." Chittaranjan Naik likewise poetically summarizes the 'end-game' on the path o f knowledge: Traditional advaita says that when you have prepared well, a disguised person will come to you at a Crossroad that you cannot now see. He will carry with him a sword that will slice clean through your neck. His is an act of Love. He is a mercy-killer! He will kill Death that Life may shine through. He is your Self pe rsonified in the mystery of Maya...Who says there is no path to liberation? It i s not a path made of clay and earth. It is a path that leaves no trace. That you cannot point out a traceless path is no fault of the path. (20) Furthermore, for many people this realization occurs in two stages, one, the realization of the transcendant Witness (the exclusive 'experience' OF the Self, or the awareness of awareness), and, two, the realization or knowing one's true identity AS the Self (Oneness, Being, or Pure Consciousness). Not always, but o ften it transpires this way. This may be reflected in Ramana sometimes using the word "Turiya" (the "fourth state") versus "Turiyatita" ("beyond the fourth"). ( 20) PB wrote: "Although the aspirant has now awakened to his witness-self, found his "soul, " and thus lifted himself far above the mass of mankind, he has not yet accompli shed the full task set him by life. A further effort still awaits his hand. He h as yet to realize that the witness-self is only a part of the All-self. So his n ext task is to discover that he is not merely the witness of the rest of existen ce but essentially of one stuff with it. He has, in short, by further meditation s to realize his oneness with the entire universe in its real being He must now meditate on his witness-self as being in its essence the infinite All. Thus the ultramystic exercises are graded into two stages, the second being more advanced than the first. The banishment of thoughts reveals the inner self whereas the r einstatement of thoughts without losing the newly gained consciousness reveals t he All-inclusive universal self. The second feat is the harder." (22) Anthony Damiani leaned toward the opinion that one had to go through the witn ess self to realize Being. Contemporary teacher Adyashanti, while not admitting that it was absolutely necessary, said that the experience of the transcendant w itness was a common doorway, and distinguished between the two realizations in l anguage almost identical to that of PB: "So there are two qualities or two aspects to awakening....One of the aspects of awakening is the realization of your own nothingness, your own no-thingness. It's the direct realization that there is no separate individual being called me. It's the realization that what you are is much more akin to simple and pure awareness without form, without attributes. This is one aspect of realization. It is the most common aspect of realization. The second aspect of realization is the realization of Pure Being. It's the realization of true Oneness. Wherea s to realize your own nothingness is in a manner of speaking is to go from someb ody in particular to being the transcendent witness.... One can have that realiz ation without having the realization of being. Being is...not caught in the real ization of emptiness. It's not caught in the witness. It is that realization w here we see that the "I" is universal...Everything is actually of exactly the sa me essence and that essence is, that substance is what you are...Some people get the realization of nothingness without the realization of Oneness really, of pu re Being. That will maybe come weeks, months or years later...And often the doo

rway to Oneness, to pure Being is through the doorway of pure awareness, of no-t hing-ness. That's why it's often talked about. It's often the doorway. To dislod ge the identity from its false image and to realize that you are not the image b ut the awareness of the image is a much easier step in one manner of speaking th an to realize that everything is one being, one spirit." (from a talk at the Ome ga Institute, 2007) Plotinus seemed to be pointing to this in the Enneads when he wrote: "If a man could but be turned about - by his own motion or by the happy pull of Athene [the Overself?] - he would see at once God and himself and the All. At first no doubt all will not be seen as one whole, but when we find no stop at w hich to declare a limit to our being we cease to rule ourselves out from the tot ality of reality; we reach to the All as a unity - and this is not by any steppi ng forward, but by the fact of being and abiding there where the All has its bei ng." (23) John Sherman, on the other hand, would be in the "it's not necessary" school, holding to a most radically simple interpretation of the practice given by Rama na in "Truth is easy". To summarize this section, it seems likely that from the first spontaneous de ath experience of Ramana as a boy in Madurai until the event in 1912, much went on spiritually within the young sage. He studied scriptures, meditated, inquired and stabilized his initial overpowering glimpse into a steady abiding as the no n-dual Self. In this he would have been like Zen Master Bankei who proclaimed: "When it comes to the truth I uncovered when I was twenty-six and living in r etreat at the village of Nonaka in Ako in Harima - the truth for which I went to see Dosha and obtained his confirmation - so far as the truth is concerned, bet ween that time and this, from beginning to end, there hasn't been a shred of dif ference. However, so far as penetrating the great truth of Buddhism with the per fect clarity of the Dharma Eye and realizing absolute freedom, between the time I met Dosha and today, there's all the difference of heaven and earth!" (24) Ramana s Realizations: Astrology and the World-Mind I thought it would be worthwhile to see if we could correlate these ideas wit h the role that astrological forces play in a person s life and spiritual transfor mation, and in particular, in the case of Ramana. For simplicity, let us just cl assify the planets in the chart up to Saturn as ego-forming (with some considering Saturn actually playing a transitional, initiatory role), and the three outer p lanets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) as ego-transcending, dissolving, and transfor ming . They are Gods , as it were, impersonal divine forces that are only friends for those truly on the path. Wouldn t it be interesting to see if the awakening exper iences and realizations of great masters, such as Ramana Maharshi, were accompan ied by the graceful presence of these beneficent divine helpers as transits in t heir natal charts? In fact, that seems to be the case, in many examples I have u ncovered. For now, let s just take the example of Ramana. Here is his natal chart [scroll down past accompanying biography for chart]. Right away one sees many outstanding configurations, some of which a study of mine has shown to be prominent in famous Indian saints and sages, and spiritual teachers generally. Among these are: a GRAND TRINE one angle of which is the fo cal point of a T-SQUARE, which I would suggest demonstrates a human vehicle and psyche with a smooth flow of spiritual energies and the developmental tension ne cessary both for personal growth and the ability to deal with karmic complicatio ns of devotees. Kirpal Singh, Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Aurobindo, Brahmananda, and Meher Baba had this, to name but a few. Ramana had TWO grand t rines (water and earth) and TWO T-squares (focal planets Mercury and Saturn), in

terconnected to form a a Star of David as well. Also very common in Indian godme n particularly has been the sign of Capricorn (the glyph itself roughly traces t he shape of the subcontinent, and the sign is associated with tradition, discipl ine and renunciation) and a well placed ninth house, domain of the higher, philo sophic mind. Of course, there is alot more but I will skip to the chase. When Ramana was sixteen years old, Uranus was conjuncting his second house Ve nus in Scorpio, and opposing his natal Pluto, planet of death in the eighth hous e of death (ruled by the Scorpio Venus). Result: heart awakening and death-in-li fe, based on fruitful past karma and extreme readiness (represented by the wellintegrated chart). [note: this chart appears to use the whole sign method; if Placidus is used as I originally did when I cast Ramana's chart years ago, Venus and Pluto are in the second and eighth houses, not the first and seventh as sho wn here; even so, the themes remain the heart, death, and the not-self]. Fast forward sixteen more years. Ramana experienced the shutdown of his body almost as if in death, in which he felt the Self within and the current of the h eart maintaining the body. This was shortly followed by the re-animation of the body after which he seemed to have been enabled to function more freely and ener getically from the position of sahaja-nirvikalpa-samadhi in daily life. During this episode Ramana had Neptune transitting conjunct the ninth house M oon, and Saturn conjunct the eighth house Pluto and opposite Venus (also ruler o f the Ascendant). The Cancer Moon on the Midheaven along with all of the rest co uld be used to explain his more outward (or less exclusively inward) heart-orien tation after this transformation. Of course, there can be varying interpretations and such astrological dynamic s will not effect everyone equally, but essentially what are we saying here? Ant hony Damiani put it this way. He first quotes PB: "This whittling away of the ego may occupy the entire lifetime and not seem v ery successful even then, yet it is of the highest value as a preparatory proces s for the full renunciation of the ego when - by Grace - it suddenly rises up in the heart." (25) When the time comes [i.e., "There is a tide in the affairs of men" - Shakespea re], if you haven t done the work you won t know it. But if you have done that work, and there comes a moment where the situation arises where you have to surrender the ego, that makes it possible for you to give up the ego - or at least recogn ize that this is what s being called for. But you have to do the work first. You re not going to give up the ego just like that..But an occasion may arise, when the possibility of surrendering the ego will take place: in meditation, some crisis , or something. And if you haven t struggled all the time with it, you certainly w ill not at that time attempt to surrender it...you're not going to get rid of yo ur ego until you have sufficiently developed it, purified it, and brought it und er the higher discipline, the higher philosophy...Actually, you don't get rid of it, you have to transform it...the ego has to be evolved, matured. It won't be capable of that sacrifice until it does reach that maturity..[Is it possible tha t true surrender takes place without your really knowing it?] Don't worry, you'l l know it. It will be the most agonizing thing you've ever gone through....The e go will not destroy itself. Even if you're in the process of going through certa in spiritual disciplines which are attempting to reduce the ego's strength, the ego will resist....[But] you reach a certain level or a certain stage of contemp lative exercise and it's taken out of your hands. It's the King within that star ts guiding the whole process, the individual ego would never be able to do that. That Grace takes over and directs, and of course you'll be aware of that intuit ively, that it's doing it. (26) And further:

Without the fullness of the understanding that comes from penetrating into the World-Idea - in other words, the full development of the faculty of understandi ng which comes to a soul through the World-Idea - in the trance state one would be utterly unprepared to understand the mysterious Void...Or we can put it this way: It will take all the teaching that the World-Mind can bring to bear upon th e soul, in order for the soul to understand its origins, its own priors...that's what is necessary to become the sort of philosopher that not only understands t he nature of the soul but also something about the prior principles that are, le t's say, eternally generating it." (27) As PB's teacher, V.S. Iyer stated: "You must begin with the external world because it lies before you first. How can you understand the inner self correctly if the world which is in front of y ou is not correctly understood?" (28) For vedantist Iyer, the world, including one's body, must first be realized o n inquiry or investigation to be ideas; only then may the ego itself be seen as an idea, and then the Atman or Mind itself known as the source of these ideas; o nce this is achieved, the universe or totality on further inquiry becomes known as Brahman. This is a radical departure from the view of most yogis and mystics, who venture only within for the truth. PB wrote: "The need of predetermining at the beginning of the path whether to be a phil osopher (ie., sage) or a mystic arises only for the particular reincarnation whe re attainment is made. Thereafter, whether on this earth or another, the need of fulfilling the philosophic evolution will be impressed upon him by Nature." (29 ) Aziz Kristof in a different manner argues that one can have a glimpse of the I AM, and the "no-self" ground of being, but that is not the end. One must get s tabilized in the I AM, and then open the Heart center to find the Soul, or what he terms the ME (not the ego, which is just a mental image): "In effortless abiding, it [the ME] becomes one with the universal I AM, and meets the Creator....The true liberation is not to realize that we have "no-self " but the opposite: to discover our Soul and her separation from the Creator. On ly this can bring us back to the Beloved...The Soul is the Beloved, but the Belo ved that sees herself as a Soul. In this seeing, the beloved is separated from h erself. This is the mystery of Creation....[The] Me expands infinitely into the vastness of the Universal Intelligence. It is the journey of the Spirit into the ultimate experience of love, beauty, and happiness...The Non-dual Perception is not the end of Seeing. The evolution into the Seeing of Reality does not have a n end." (30) This sounds like a radical departure from much non-dual speech, and as presen ted here require more elaboration, for which I refer the reader to Aziz's book, Enlightenment Beyond Traditions, and see for themselves whether it is truly uniq ue in answering some unresolved questions or not. He further says that the Heart can be open without the realization of the Absolute, and that one can also have realization of the Absolute with the Heart remaining completely closed. But to truly realize the Soul the Heart must open and also be rested in the Absolute gr ound of Being. Thus supported, the Soul will then be able to meet its Beloved, t he Creator, in whom it most truly lives - and which also rests on the Absolute g round of Being - with the whole affair, the fruit of evolution, guided by Divine Intelligence. These excerpts are again incomplete, and may appear like just con fusion to a confirmed advaitist, but I feel he is on to something. So please rea

d the entire book, which may well be worth your time. These brief passages do so und quite like PB, where he describes the concepts of an ever spiralling evoluti on of the Soul, and the Soul dwelling within the Absolute Soul and also knowing its divine parent, the Intellectual Principle, in whose "image" it is made or em anated. As I have argued, these experiences of the Primals of Plotinus presuppos e the non-dual realization of sahaj, and may have been what Ramana meant when af ter realization he would cry out in ecstasy, "Father, Father." [I could also be mistaken about this, as Ramana's worship of the Tamil saints took place shortly after his first death experience, which, as suggested, may not have ushered in t he sahaj state.] To me this all means that the Soul cannot come to Self-cognition without the help of the cosmos which it itself ensouls, and without coming to such self-cogn ition it cannot know God, its Beloved. Even Maharshi may have been content to re main in the caves in blissful inner peace but he was compelled by Divine Intelli gence to come to full awakening. In "Outline of the System of Plotinus" from The Shrine of Wisdom,on the WG website, it is summarized: "But in order to realize that eternal life and become a conscious and active participant in It, it is requisite for the Immortal Soul to be associated first with that which is mortal, finite and transient ere it can learn to recognize Et ernity, the Infinite and the Spirit which will unite it to the Supreme." In summary, Realization is a paradoxical affair requiring both our illusory e ffort, as well as grace, i.e., the help of the Buddhas, as well as the cosmos, t he veritable womb of the Buddhas , in order to come to fruition. Select quotes "There is no greater mystery than this, that being the reality yourself, you seek to gain reality." "You think there is something binding your reality and that something must be destroyed before the reality is freed. This is ridiculous." "A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your efforts. What is there to re alize? The real is always as it is." "You have realized the unreal, in other words, you regard the unreal as that which is real. Give up this attitude and you will attain wisdom." "There is nothing new nor anything you do not already have which needs to be gained. The feeling that you have not yet realized is the sole obstruction to re alization." "In fact, you are already free. If it were not so, the realization would be n ew. If it has not existed so far, it must take place hereafter. What comes will also go, what can be gained can also be lost." "If realization is not eternal it is not worth having. Therefore what you see k is not that which must happen afresh. It is only that which is eternal, but no t now known due to obstruction." "Remove the obstruction. That which is eternal is not known to be so because of ignorance. Ignorance is the obstruction. Get over the ignorance and all will be well." "The ignorance is identical with the 'I-thought'. Find its source and it will vanish. Then the Self alone will shine as it always has, in the stillness of be

ing."

Bankei Yotaku - Unborn Zen by Peter Holleran

The life of Zen Master Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693), considered by D.T.Suzuki to have been one of the greatest of all Zen Masters, illustrates the depths of lib erating despair that often precedes an awakening. Further, we will see that, con trary to many popular notions, such awakening is often the beginning of true pra ctice, and not the end. Bankei never tired of emphasizing to his own students, h owever, that much of his difficult personal ordeal would have been unnecessary h ad he been able to meet an enlightened teacher early in his practise. He exhorte d them in the strongest terms to make the best use of his company, and to realiz e how fortunate they were, and said repeatedly that they themselves could realiz e without great struggle - so long as a true desire for enlightenment was presen t. His Unborn Zen was a refreshment of the tradition in which he employed none of the classic methods of his antecedents, but dealt with aspirants directly as he found them. Somewhat like the Buddha in the Lankavatara Sutra, he cut through al l limited doctrines and spoke only of the already realized Unborn mind. (1) Bankei was very devoted to his mother, and once confessed to her that more th an anything else it was his desire to communicate the Truth to her which motivat ed his pursuit of Enlightenment. His childhood schooling consisted of little mor e than rote memorization of a Confucian classic entitled The Great Learning. Ban kei was struck by the opening words of the book: The way of Great Learning lies i n illuminating the Bright Virtue. He searched and searched but could find no one to satisfactorily explain this verse to him. His family, his teacher, and the lo cal priest confessed their ignorance, and one day, his great heart-need unsatisf ied, Bankei simply left school. He was obsessed with finding out what Bright Virt ue meant, and he knew at the very least that he would find no answers there. His action, however, would never be acceptable to his elder brother, the head of the household, and knowing this Bankei decided to kill himself. His method of achie ving this was to eat a handful of poisonous spiders, but to his great disappointme nt he did not die. When he refused to attend school his brother expelled him fro m the house, and at the age of eleven Bankei began a life of wandering, meditati ng and visiting spiritual teachers in search of the Bright Virtue. For fourteen years he moved about, practising harsh austerities and paying sc ant attention to the needs of food and shelter. At one point he decided to find the answer within himself, and he built a tiny hut for meditation, leaving only a small hole through which food could be brought to him. He sat until the flesh on his buttocks was flayed and his health broke down. The wall of his hut was ma rked by gobs of thick black phlegm he would spit up. Finally, Bankei realized th at he was dying, and in his despair he experienced a fundamental breakthrough: The master, frustrated in his attempts to resolve the feeling of doubt which w eighed so heavily on his mind, became deeply disheartened. Signs of serious illn ess appeared. He began to cough up bloody bits of sputem. He grew steadily worse , until death seemed imminent. He said to himself, Everyone has to die. I m not con cerned about that. My regret is dying with the great matter I ve been struggling w ith all these years, since I was a small boy, still unresolved. His eyes flushed with hot tears. His breast heaved violently. It seemed his ribs would burst. The n, just at that moment, enlightenment came to him - like a bottom falling out of a bucket. Immediately, his health began to return, but still he was unable to e xpress what he had realized. Then, one day, in the early hours of the morning, t he scent of plum blossoms carried to him in the morning air reached his nostrils . At that instant, all attachments and obstacles were swept from his mind once a nd for all. The doubts that had been plaguing him ceased to exist. (2) Bankei s satoris could be said to represent a transcendance of unconscious iden tification with the ego, and the realization of consciousness or Mind as the sub strate of all experience, that became the basis for his further practise. It was the Buddhist seed of enlightenment , a profound glimpse, not the final achievement , but which nevertheless wiped doubt and uncertainty from his mind.

For about thirty years I wandered searching for the real Tao everywhere.. But at this moment, seeing the plum blossoms, I am suddenly enlightened, and have no more doubts. (3) Bankei had a deepening of his realization three years later under the guidanc e of a Chinese priest, who confirmed that he had indeed penetrated to the Self-e ssence but still needed to clarify the matter beyond , discriminating wisdom , or "the practise after Enlightenment". A Taoist sage called this interim period the dif ference between "enlightenment" and "deliverance." Master Po Shan similarly discoursed: Therefore the proverb says, after enlightenment one should visit the Zen Maste rs. The sages of the past demonstrated the wisdom of this when, after their enlig htenment, they visited the Zen Masters and improved themselves greatly. One who clings to his realization and is unwilling to visit the Masters, who can pull ou t his nails and spikes, is a man who cheats himself. (4) Garma C.C. Chang brings to our awareness the recognized distinction made in Z en and Ch an Buddhism between the awakening to prajna-truth (or the immediate awak ening to transcendental wisdom, emptiness, or no-self) and Cheng-teng-cheuh (sab yaksambodhi), which is the final, perfect, complete enlightenment of Buddhahood, where the emptiness has become absolute Fullness and one is identified with the One: A great deal of work is needed to cultivate this vast and bottomless Prajna-mi nd before it will blossom fully. It takes a long time, before perfection is reac hed, to remove the dualistic, selfish, and deeply rooted habitual thoughts arisi ng from the passions. This is very clearly shown in many Zen stories, and in the following Zen proverb, for example: The truth should be understood through sudde n Enlightenment, but the fact (the complete realization) must be cultivated step by step. (5) As contemporary teacher Adyashanti points out in his book, The End of Your Wo rld, the awakening to the transcendant witness position can make one initially ' drunk on emptiness', even exuberantly so, while ones egoic conditioning has yet to be completely unraveled or uprooted. This further process generally takes som e time, but is necessary for one to awaken lastingly to the non-dual Self. Paul Brunton calls this second feat the harder of the two. A similar progression can be seen in the enlightenment story of Hakuin, perha ps the greatest of the Rinzai teachers, who had his first experience of satori a fter meditating on the koan Mu for four years: He shouted: Why, the world is not something to be avoided, nor is Nirvana somet hing to be sought after! This realization he presented to the Abbot and some fell ow disciples but they did not give their unqualified assent to it. He however bu rned with absolute conviction, and thought to himself that surely for centuries no one had known such a joy as was his. He was then twenty-four. In his autobiog raphical writings, Hakuin warns Zen students with peculiar earnestness against t his pride of assurance. (6) After this he endured three years of merciless hammering by the Master Shoju, who utterly smashed his self-satisfaction. He had another satori, which he classi fied as a great satori , and which his teacher confirmed by saying, You are through. Nevertheless, Shoju admonished him not to be content with such a small thing but to perform the practise after satori. This is known as the downward practise, where one descends from the mountaintop to become the Great Fool, highly revered in the Zen tradition. It was not until more than ten years later, and much meditation under extremely austere conditions, that Hakuin penetrated to the depths of the

Lotus Sutra, and gained a most fundamental awakening: The meaning of the ordinary life of his teacher Shoju was revealed, and he saw that he had been mistaken over his great satori realizations. This time there w as no great reaction in the body-mind instrument. (7) Paul Brunton similarly writes: The glimpse, because it is situated between the mental conditions which exist before and afterwards, necessarily involves striking - even dramatic - contrast with their ordinariness. It seems to open onto the ultimate light-bathed height of human existence. But this experience necessarily provokes a human reaction to it, which is incorporated into the glimpse itself, becomes part of it. The perm anent and truly ultimate enlightenment is pure, free from any admixture of react ion, since it is calm, balanced, and informed. (8) Adyashanti calls this enlightenment "a mutation at the very core of your inne r self." In the following passage he addresses the fact that such a liberation i s not merely cognitive but entails a deep surrender of the will: "This is really a fundamental transformation. That's why I say that we can ha ve a very deep and profound realization of the truth and, in the end, the final real freedom doesn't necessarily come about through a realization. It comes abou t through a deep surrender at the deepest seat of our being. Of course, most peo ple are going to need a profound realization of their true nature in order to be able to surrender naturally and spontaneously. But it completes itself in a bli nd and unpredictable release of control." (9) In one of his talks Adya offhandedly described this spontaneous release of co ntrol as being "kind of like the only thing left to do." I liken his overall comments to the idea that there are many, many hidden ten tacles of what Plotinus called the "audacious self-will", and St. John of the Cr oss called the "Old Man", remaining to be dealt with - that is why the sutras sa id that AFTER enlightenment one should visit the Zen Masters who can pull out on es nails and spikes. This is much like the great Lankavatara Sutra, where it speaks not only of a fundamental "turnabout in the deep seat of understanding" (awakening or prajna), but says that in "the perfect self-realisation of Noble Wisdom that follows the inconceivable transformation death of the Bodhisattva's individualised will-con trol, he no longer lives unto himself, but the life that he lives thereafter is the Tathagata's universalised life as manifested in its transformations." (i.e., liberation) [excerpted from Dwight Goddard, ed., A Buddhist Bible] This is far beyond anything resembling a personal enlightenment. PB described this as entail ing the ego of the sage being "pressed into" the World-Idea. Bankei many years l ater confessed: "When it comes to the truth I uncovered when I was twenty-six and living in r etreat at the village of Nonaka in Ako in Harima - the truth for which I went to see Dosha and obtained his confirmation - so far as the truth is concerned, bet ween that time and this, from beginning to end, there hasn't been a shred of dif ference. However, so far as penetrating the great truth of Buddhism with the per fect clarity of the Dharma Eye and realizing absolute freedom, between the time I met Dosha and today, there's all the difference of heaven and earth!" (10) The essence of this story can be summed up by an old Tibetan saying, "don't m istake understanding for realization, and don't mistake realization for liberati on."

Ramana Maharshi's Mother Enlightenment There were other ways also in which the mother (Ramana Maharshi Mother) was made to realize that he who had been born her son was a Divine Incarnation. Once as she sat before him he disappeared and she saw instead a lingam (column) of pure light. Thinking this to mean that he had discarded his human form, she burst int o tears,but soon the lingam vanished and he reappeared as before. On another occ asion she saw him garlanded and surrounded with serpents like the conventional r epresentations of Siva. She cried to him: Send them away! I am frightened of them! After this she begged h im to appear to her henceforth only in his human form. The purpose of the vision s had been served; she had realized that the form she knew and loved as her son was as illusory as any other he might assume. In 1920 the health of the mother b egan to fail. She was able to work less in the service of the Ashram and was obl iged to rest more. During her illness Sri Bhagavan attended on her constantly, o ften sitting up at night with her.

In silence and meditation her understanding matured. The end came in 1922 on the festival of Bahula Navami, which fell that year on May 19th. Sri Bhagavan and a few others waited on her the whole day without eating. About sunset a meal was prepared and Sri Bhagavan asked the others to go and eat, but he himself did not . In the evening a group of devotees sat chanting the Vedas beside her while oth ers invoked the name of Ram.

For more than two hours she lay there, her chest heaving and her breath coming i n loud gasps, and all this while Sri Bhagavan sat beside her, his right hand on her heart and his left on her head. This time there was no question of prolongin g life but only of quieting the mind so that death could be Mahasamadhi, absorpt ion in the Self. At eight o clock in the evening she was finally released from the body. Sri Bhagavan immediately rose, quite cheerful. Now we can eat, he said; come along, there is no pollution. There was deep meaning in this. A Hindu death entails ritualistic pollution call ing for purificatory rites, but this had not been a death but a reabsorption. Th ere was no disembodied soul but perfect Union with the Self and therefore no pur ificatory rites were needed. Some days later Sri Bhagavan confirmed this: when s omeone referred to the passing away of the mother he corrected him curtly, She di d not pass away, she was absorbed. Describing the process afterwards, he said: Innate tendencies and the subtle memo ry of past experiences leading to future possibilities became very active. Scene after scene rolled before her in the subtle consciousness, the outer senses hav ing already gone. The soul was passing through a series of experiences, thus avo iding the need for rebirth and making possible Union with the Spirit. The soul w as at last disrobed of the subtle sheaths before it reached the final Destinatio n, the Supreme Peace of Liberation from which there is no return to ignorance.

Potent as was the aid given by Sri Bhagavan, it was the saintliness of Alagammal , her previous renunciation of pride and attachment, that enabled her to benefit by it. He said later: Yes, in her case it was a success; on a previous occasion I did the same for Palaniswami when the end was approaching, but it was a failur e. He opened his eyes and passed away. He added, however, that it was not a compl ete failure in the case of Palaniswami, for although the ego was not reabsorbed in the Self, the manner of its going was such as to indicate a good rebirth. Often when devotees suffered bereavement Sri Bhagavan reminded them that it is o nly the body that dies and only the I-am-the-body illusion that makes death seem a tragedy. Now, at the time of his own bereavement, he showed no grief whatever . The whole night he and the devotees sat up singing devotional songs. This indi fference to his mother s physical death is the real commentary on his prayer at th e time of her previous sickness. The question arose of the disposal of the body.

There was the testimony of Bhagavan himself that she had been absorbed into the Self and not remained to be reborn to the illusion of ego, but some doubt was fe lt whether the body of a woman Saint should be given burial instead of being cre

mated. Then it was recalled that in 1917 this very point had formed part of a se ries of questions put to Sri Bhagavan by Ganapati Sastri and his party and that he had answered affirmatively. Since Jnana (Knowledge) and Mukti (Deliverance) do not differ with the difference of sex, the body of a woman Saint also need not be burnt. Her body also is the abode of God. In the case of her leaving the Ashram as in that of her joining it, none presume d to ask Sri Bhagavan himself for a decision, nor did he pronounce one. It seems not to have occurred to them that the answer had been given in his prayer of 19 14: Enfold my Mother in Thy Light and make her One with Thee! What need then for cremation? Sri Bhagavan stood silently looking on without participating. The body of the mo ther was interred at the foot of the hill at the southern point, between the Pal itirtham Tank and the Dakshinamurti Mantapam (shrine).

Relatives and friends arrived for the ceremony and large crowds came from the to wn. Sacred ashes, camphor, incense, were thrown into the pit around the body bef ore it was filled up. A stone tomb was constructed and on it was installed a sac red lingam brought from Benares. Later a temple was raised on the spot, finally completed in 1949 and known as Matrubhuteswara Temple, the Temple of God Manifes ted as the Mother. As the coming of the mother had marked an epoch in Ashram life, so also did her departure. Instead of being checked, the development increased. There were devot ees who felt that, as Shakti or Creative Energy, her presence was more potent no w than before. On one occasion Sri Bhagavan said: Where has she gone? She is here .

Ramana Maharshi quotes I Like this quote I dislike this quote No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to persever ance. rashaski Ramana Maharshi quotes Similar Quotes. About: Success quotes, Perseverance quotes. Add to Chapter... See also Quotes about: Effort, Succeed. Quotes with: effort, no, No One, one, owe, perseverance, succeed, succeeds, succ ess. Ramana Maharshi said: "No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe t heir..." and: I Like this quote I dislike this quote Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitat ions and become the mind. Ramana Maharshi quotes Similar Quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all. Ramana Maharshi quotes Similar Quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote The degree of freedom from unwanted tho ughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measures to ga uge spiritual progress. Ramana Maharshi quotes Similar Quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote If you go on working with the light ava ilable, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you. Ramana Maharshi quotes Add to Chapter...

I Like this quote I dislike this quote It is not enough that one surrenders on eself. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one's being. Do not delude yourself by imagining such a source to be some God outside you. One's source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should se ek the source and merge in it. Ramana Maharshi quotes Add to Chapter... Users who liked, "No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their. ..", also liked I Like this quote I dislike this quote The greatest glory in living lies not i n never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Quoting Marianne Williamson Nelson Mandela quotes (South African Statesman First democratically elected Sta te President of South Africa (1994), 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace, b.1918) Similar Quotes. About: Perseverance quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote Patience and perseverance have a magica l effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. John Quincy Adams quotes (American 6th US President (1825-29), eldest son of Jo hn Adams, 2nd US president. 1767-1848) Similar Quotes. About: Perseverance quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote Permanence, perseverance and persistenc e in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, th at in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak Thomas Carlyle quotes (Scottish Historian and Essayist, leading figure in the V ictorian era. 1795-1881) Similar Quotes. About: Perseverance quotes, Soul quotes, Determination quotes, P ersistence quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other Walter Elliot quotes (American Catholic priest, writer, 1842-1928) Similar Quotes. About: Perseverance quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote Perseverance is the hard work you do af ter you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. Newt Gingrich quotes (Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives) Similar Quotes. About: Perseverance quotes. Add to Chapter... rashaski contributed: "No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe t

heir..." and: I Like this quote I dislike this quote Why not learn to enjoy the little thing s -- there are so many of them. rashaski Similar Quotes. About: Happiness quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote We always long for the forbidden things , and desire what is denied us. rashaski Francois Rabelais quotes (French author,1483-1553) Similar Quotes. About: Desire quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote The future is called 'perhaps,' which i s the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you. rashaski Tennessee Williams quotes (American playwright. 1911-1983) Similar Quotes. About: Fear quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy... is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do th is is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them. rashaski Ralph Waldo Trine quotes About: Happiness quotes, The Present quotes, Control quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote Wake at dawn with a winged heart and gi ve thanks for another day of loving. rashaski Kahlil Gibran quotes Ramana Maharshi quotes bookmark email link cite rss Popularity: Ramana Maharshi popularity 6/10 I Like this quote I dislike this quote Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitat ions and become the mind. Ramana Maharshi quote Similar Quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all.

Ramana Maharshi quote Similar Quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote The degree of freedom from unwanted tho ughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measures to ga uge spiritual progress. Ramana Maharshi quote Similar Quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance. rashaski Ramana Maharshi quote Similar Quotes. About: Success quotes, Perseverance quotes. Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote If you go on working with the light ava ilable, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you. Ramana Maharshi quote Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote It is not enough that one surrenders on eself. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one's being. Do not delude yourself by imagining such a source to be some God outside you. One's source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should se ek the source and merge in it. Ramana Maharshi quote Add to Chapter... I Like this quote I dislike this quote If one wants to abide in the thought-fr ee state, a struggle is inevitable. One must fight one's way through before rega ining one's original primal state. If one succeeds in the fight and reaches the goal, the enemy, namely the thoughts, will all subside in the Self and disappear entirely. Ramana Maharshi quote

7th-century thinker Gaudapada, author of the Mandukya-karika, argues that there is no duality; the mind, awake or dreaming, moves through maya ("illusion"); and only nonduality (advaita) is the final truth. This truth is concealed by the ig norance of illusion. There is no becoming, either of a thing by itself or of a t hing out of some other thing. There is ultimately no individual self or soul (ji va), only the atman (all-soul). The medieval Indian philosopher Sankara, (700?-750?), builds further on Gaudapad a's foundation, principally in his commentary on the Vedanta-sutras, the Sari-ra ka-mimamsa-bhasya ("Commentary on the Study of the Self "). Sankara in his philo

sophy does not start from the empirical world with logical analysis but, rather, directly from the absolute (Brahman). If interpreted correctly, he argues, the Upanisads teach the nature of Brahman. In making this argument, he develops a co mplete epistemology to account for the human error in taking the phenomenal worl d for real. Fundamental for Sankara is the tenet that the Brahman is real and th e world is unreal. Any change, duality, or plurality is an illusion. The self is nothing but Brahman. Insight into this identity results in spiritual release. B rahman is outside time, space, and causality, which are simply forms of empirica l experience. No distinction in Brahman or from Brahman is possible. (Encyclopædia Britannica). Origins of Advaita (nonduality) in Vedic texts: The Self which is free from sin, free from old age, from death and from grief, f rom hunger and thirst, which desires nothing but what it ought to desire, and im agines nothing but what it ought to imagine, that it is which we must search out , that it is which we must try to understand. He who has searched out that Self and understands it, obtains all worlds and all desires. Chandogya Upanishad 8.7.1 All this is Brahman. Let a man meditate on that (visible world) as beginning, ending, and breathing in it (the Brahman)... Chandogya Upanishad 3.14 1, 3 The separate self dissolves in the sea of pure consciousness, infinite and immor tal. Separateness arises from identifying the Self with the body, which is made up of the elements; when this physical identification dissolves, there can be no more separate self. This is what I want to tell you, beloved. (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Chapter 2, 4:12) As the rivers flowing east and west Merge in the sea and become one with it, Forgetting they were ever separate rivers, So do all creatures lose their separateness When they merge at last into pure Being. (Chandogya Upanishad. 10:1-2) What the sages sought they have found at last. No more questions have they to as k of life. With self-will extinguished, they are at peace. Seeing the Lord of Love in all around, Serving the Lord of Love in all around, t hey are united with him forever. (Mundaka Upanishad. 3:2:5) ...But those who worship me with love live in me, and I come to life in them. He who knows me as his own divine Self breaks through the belief that he is the bo dy and is not reborn as a separate creature. Such a one is united with me. Deliv ered from selfish attachment, fear, and anger, filled with me, surrendering them selves to me, purified in the fire of my being, many have reached the state of u nity in me. (Bhagavad Gita 4:9-10) And this Self, who is pure consciousness is Brahman. He is God, all gods: the fi ve elements - earth, air, fire, water, ether; all beings great or small, born of eggs, born from the womb, born from heat, born from soil: horses, cows, men, el ephants, birds; everything that breathes, the beings that walk and the beings th at walk not. The reality behind all these is Brahman who is pure consciousness. All these while they live,and after they have ceased to live, exist in him. (Ait areya Upanishad)

When identified with the ego, the Self appears other than what it is. It may app ear smaller than a hair's breadth. But know the Self to be infinite. (Shvetashva tara Upanishad. 5:8-9) The supreme Self is neither born nor dies. He cannot be burned, moved, pierced, cut, nor dried. Beyond all attributes, the supreme Self is the eternal witness, ever pure, indivisible, and uncompounded, far beyond the senses and the ego... H e is omnipresent, beyond all thought, without action in the external world, with out action in the internal world. Detached from the outer and the inner, This su preme Self purifies the impure. (Atma Upanishad. 3) Though all the galaxies emerge from him, He is without form and unconditioned. ( Tejabindu Upanishad. 6) Meditate and realize this world is filled with the presence of God. (Shvetashvat ara Upanishad. 1:12) You are the supreme Brahman, infinite, yet hidden in the hearts of all creatures . You pervade everything. (Shvetashvatara Upanishad. 3:7) "That in whom reside all beings and who reside in all beings, who is the giver o f grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being--I am That ." Amritbindu Upanishad "That which permeates all, which nothing transcends and which, like the universal space around us, fills everything completely from within and without, that Supreme non-dual Brahman--that thou are." Shankara

The Sense of "I am" (Consciousness) When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real Self." I obeyed him, be cause I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend lookin g at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon! My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparati vely short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did wa s to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound. I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing bu

t the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love bec ame my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence. My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothin g else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or m editation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my atten tion from it and remain with the sense 'I am', it may look too simple, even crud e. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! Obed ience is a powerful solvent of all desires and fears... Nisargadatta Maharaj

The seeker is he who is in search of himself. Give up all questions except one: "Who am I?" After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The "I am" is certain. The "I am this" is not. Strugg le to find out what you are in reality. To know what you are, you must first in vestigate and know what you are not. Discover all that you are not--body, feelin gs, thoughts, time, space, this or that--nothing, concrete or abstract, which yo u perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what yo u perceive. The clearer you understand that on the level of mind you can be desc ribed in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your searc h and realize that you are the limitless being.

I find that somehow, by shifting the focus of attention, I become the very thing I look at, and experience the kind of consciousness it has; I become the inner witness of the thing. I call this capacity of entering other focal points of con sciousness, love; you may give it any name you like. Love says "I am everything ". Wisdom says "I am nothing". Between the two, my life flows. Since at any poin t of time and space I can be both the subject and the object of experience, I ex press it by saying that I am both, and neither, and beyond both. --Nisargadatta Maharaj

Spiritual Quotes on Soul Be the Self and that is bliss. You are always that. The Self is always reali zed.. - Ramana Maharshi Know Atman (Soul) to be one, ever the same, changeless - Avadhuta Gita Look within. See the Self ! Then there will be an end of the world and its m iseries. - Ramana Maharshi One who dwells in the domain of the Atman does not belong to a particular fa mily, society, or nation. Rather, he is part of all of humanity. He loves the we lfare of all, as much as he loves his own Atman . - Swami Rama Envy is the ulcer of the soul. - Socrates You are a soul -- which cannot be corrupted. Innocence is its very nature. I t is just like the sky: you see clouds come and go, and the sky remains just the same; it is not corrupted by the clouds. Dust storms arise, and settle back; th e sky is not corrupted by dust storms. How many things have not happened under t he skies? Millions of things have happened -- nothing has corrupted it. It remai ns pure. The inner sky is also pure, just like the outer sky. Thousands of thing s go on happening, but the innermost core remains virgin. There is no way to cor rupt it. - Osho

Neither gross nor subtle is my Atman (soul); It comes not, and It goes not; Without a beginning and without an end; Neither higher nor lower is It; That Tru th absolute, space-like, Immortality-giving knowledge am I - Avadhuta Gita You are infinite. You are really everywhere. But you think that you are the body, and therefore consider yourself limited. If you think you are the body whi ch is sitting, you do not know your true nature. - Meher Baba In Atman (soul) there is neither manhood nor womanhood, because such concept ions cannot exist in eternity. - Avadhuta Gita The individual has totally different interests from the society, because the society has no soul. The society is soulless. And if you become too much a part of the society, it will reduce your soul also to a non-entity. Beware, before y ou have lost your whole opportunity. Don't be a slave. Follow society to the poi nt you feel is needed, but always remain master of your own destiny. - Osho O my mind, why dost thou cry? Realize thy Atman (Soul), o Beloved; drink the timeless great nectar of non-duality. - Avadhuta Gita As long as the ignorance of the self lasts, so long will there be misery. Tripura Rahasya Book People believe in the immortality of the soul because they are conscious of death -- not that they know the soul is immortal, but just because they see ever ybody dying, they know the certainty of death. Now, how to escape from a certain ty? Create a fiction. Remember, I am not saying that the soul is not eternal, I am simply saying that people's belief that the soul is eternal is a fiction. The belief is a fiction. - Osho

"I am" itself is God. The seeking itself is God. In seeking, you discover that you are neither the body nor the mind, and the love of the self in you is for the self in all. The two are one. The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one,

seek unity, and that is love. - Nisargadatta

"Blessed are those who were lucky enough to listen to the discourses which were like showers of Nectar from the mouth of the Sadguru Shri Siddharameshwar Mahara j, who was the embodiment of this Supreme Knowledge, Vidnyana. Equally blessed w ill be those who will read and listen to these discourses, and will become like the Immortal Nectar itself. They will never have fear of death, nor they will di e." - Nisargadatta

On "Free Will" Q: Surely, I am not the master of what happens. Its slave rather. M: Be neither master, nor slave. Stand aloof. Q: Does it imply avoidance of action? M: You cannot avoid action. It happens, like everything else. Q: My actions, surely, I can control. M: Try. You will soon see that you do what you must. Q: I can act according to my will. M: You know your will only after you have acted. Q: I remember my desires, the choices made, the decisions taken and act accordin gly. M: Then your memory decides, not you. Q: Where do I come in? M: You make it possible by giving it attention. Q: Is there no such thing as free will? Am I not free to desire? M: Oh no. You are compelled to desire. In Hinduism the very idea of free will is non-existent, so there is no word for it. Will is commitment, fixation, bondage . Q: I am free to choose my limitations. M: You must be free first. To be free in the world you must be free of the world . Otherwise your past decides for you and your future. Between what had happened and what must happen you are caught. Call it destiny or karma, but never freedom. First return to your true being and then act from the heart of love. Q: Within the manifested what is the stamp of the unmanifested? M: There is none. The moment you begin to look for the stamp of the unmanifested , the manifested dissolves. If you try to understand the unmanifested wtih the m ind, you at once go beyond the mind, like when you stir the fire with a wooden s tick, you burn the stick. Use the mind to investigate the manifested. Be like th e chick that pecks at the shell. Speculating about life outside the shell would have been of little use to it, but pecking at the shell breaks the shell from wi thin and liberates the chick. Similarly, break the mind from within by investiga tion and exposure of its contradictions and absurdities. Q: The longing to break the shell, where does it come from?

M: From the unmanifested. - "I Am That" - Link

"I am that by which I know 'I am'"

"Take the case of a young child. The sense of 'I-am' is not yet formed, the pers onality is rudimentary. The obstacles to self-knowledge are few, but the power and the clarity of awareness, its width and depth are lacking. In the course of years awareness will grow stronger, but also the latent personality will emerge and obscure and complicate. Just as the harder the wood, the hotter the flame, s o the stronger the personality, the brighter the light generated from its destru ction." Nisargadatta "Spiritual maturity is being ready to let go everything. Giving up is a first st ep, but real giving-up is the insight that there's nothing to be given up, since nothing is your property." Nisargadatta

"Throw out all you talking, concepts and words! After all, what is the mind? It is just the noise that goes on inside. With waking begins the chattering, and th e talk goes on endlessly thereafter. This is your mind and you run after it" - Nisargadatta, The Nectar of the Lord's Feet

"There's nothing from which the world could profit more than from giving up prof it. A man who's no longer thinking in terms of winning and loosing is truly nonviolent man, since he's above all conflicts." - Nisargadatta

"This dwelling on the sense 'I am' is the simple, easy and natural Yoga, the Nis arga Yoga. There is no secrecy in it and no dependence; no preparation or initia tion is required. Whoever is puzzled by his very existence as a conscious being and earnestly wants to find his own source, can grasp the ever-present sense of 'I am' and dwell on it assiduously and patiently, till the clouds obscuring the mind dissolve and the heart of being is seen in all its glory." Maurice Frydman

"To one who really understands what has been said here, a dream is no different from what is seen in the waking state: both are plays of consciousness . . . We call one the waking state, the other the dream . . . but in essence, both are ev ents happening in the consciousness and essentially they are not different."

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Ramana Mahashi on Turiya and Samadhi Question : Is samadhi the same as turiya, the fourth state? Ramana Maharshi : Samadhi, turiya and nirvikalpa all have the same implication, that is, awareness of the Self. Turiya literally means the fourth state, the sup reme consciousness, as distinct from the other three states: waking, dreaming an d dreamless sleep. The fourth state is eternal and the other three states come a nd go in it. In turiya there is the awareness that the mind has merged in its so urce, the Heart, and is quiescent there, although some thoughts still impinge on it and the senses are still somewhat active. In nirvikalpa the senses are inact ive and thoughts are totally absent. Hence the experience of pure consciousness in this state is intense and blissful. Turiya is obtainable in savikalpa samadhi . Question : What is the difference between the bliss enjoyed in sleep and the bli ss enjoyed in turiya? Ramana Maharshi - There are not different blisses. There is only one bliss which includes the bliss enjoyed in the waking state, the bliss of all kinds of being s from the lowest animal to the highest Brahma. That bliss is the bliss of the S elf. The bliss which is enjoyed unconsciously in sleep is enjoyed consciously in turiya, that is the only difference. The bliss enjoyed in the waking state is s econd-hand, it is an adjunct of the real bliss [upadhi ananda]. Question : Is samadhi, the eighth stage of raja yoga, the same as the samadhi yo u speak of ? Ramana Maharshi : In yoga the term samadhi refers to some kind of trance and the re are various kinds of samadhi. But the samadhi I speak of is different. It is sahaja samadhi. From here you have samadhana [steadiness] and you remain calm an d composed even while you are active. You realize that you are moved by the deep er real Self within. You have no worries, no anxieties, no cares, for you come t o realize that there is nothing belonging to you. You know that everything is do ne by something with which you are in conscious union.

Ramana Maharshi on Samadhi Question : What is samadhi? Ramana Maharshi : The state in which the unbroken experience of existence-consci ousness is attained by the still mind, alone is samadhi. That still mind which i s adorned with the attainment of the limitless supreme Self, alone is the realit y of God. When the mind is in communion with the Self in darkness, it is called nidra [sle ep], that is, the immersion of the mind in ignorance. Immersion in a conscious o r wakeful state is called samadhi. Samadhi is continuous inherence in the Self i n a waking state. Nidra or sleep is also inherence in the Self but in an unconsc ious state. In sahaja samadhi the communion is con-tinuous. Question : What are kevala nirvikalpa samadhi and sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi? Ramana Maharshi :The immersion of the mind in the Self, but without its destruct ion, is kevala nirvikalpa samadhi. In this state one is not free from vasanas an d so one does not therefore attain mukti. Only after the vasanas have been destr oyed can one attain liberation. Question : When can one practise sahaja samadhi? Ramana Maharshi : Even from the beginning. Even though one practises kevala nirv ikalpa samadhi for years together, if one has not rooted out the vasanas one wil l not attain liberation. Question : May I have a clear idea of the difference between savikalpa and nirvi kalpa? Ramana Maharshi : Holding on to the supreme state is samadhi. When it is with ef fort due to mental disturbances, it is savikalpa. When these disturbances are ab sent, it is nirvikalpa. Remaining permanently in the primal state without effort is sahaja. Question : Is nirvikalpa samadhi absolutely necessary before the attainment of s ahaja? Ramana Maharshi : Abiding permanently in any of these samadhis, either savikalpa or nirvikatpa, is sahaja [the natural state]. What is body-consciousness? It is the insentient body plus consciousness. Both of these must lie in another consc iousness which is absolute and unaffected and which remains as it always is, wit h or without the body-consciousness. What does it then matter whether the body-c onsciousness is lost or retained, provided one is holding on to that pure consci ousness? Total absence of body-consciousness has the advantage of making the sam adhi more intense, although it makes no difference to the knowledge of the supre me.

A European lady, Mrs. Gasque, gave a slip of paper on which was written: We are thankful to Nature and the Infinite Intelligence for your Presence among us. We appreciate that your Wisdom is founded upon pure Truth and the basic principle o f Life and Eternity. We are happy that you remind us to "Be still and Know THAT" . What do you consider the future of this Earth? Answer: The answer to this questi on is contained in the other sheet. Be still and know that I AM GOD. "Stillness" here means "Being free from thought s". D.: This does not answer the question. The planet has a future - what is it to b e? M.: Time and space are functions of thoughts. If thoughts do not arise there wil l be no future or the Earth. D.: Time and space will remain even if we do not think of them. M.: Do they come and tell you that they are? Do you feel them in your sleep? D.: I was not conscious in my sleep. M.: And yet you were existing in your sleep. D.: I was not in my body. I had gone out somewhere and jumped in here just befor e waking up. M.: Your having been away in sleep and jumping in now are mere ideas. Where were you in sleep? You were only what you are, but with this difference that you wer e free from thoughts in sleep. D.: Wars are going on in the world. If we do not think, do the wars cease? M.: Can you stop the wars? He who made the world will take care of it. D.: God made the world and He is not responsible for the present condition of th e world. It is we who are responsible for the present state. M.: D.: M.: of

Can you stop the wars or reform the world? No. Then why do you worry yourself about what is not possible for you? Take care yourself and the world will take care of itself.

D.: We are pacifists. We want to bring about Peace. M.: Peace is always present. Get rid of the disturbances to Peace.

This Peace is the Self. The thoughts are the disturbances. When free from them, you are Infinite Intelligence, i.e., the Self. There is Perfection and Peace. D.: The world must have a future. M.: Do you know what it is in the present? The world and all together are the sa me, now as well as in the future. D.: The world was made by the operation of Intelligence on ether and atoms. M.: All of them are reduced to Isvara [?] and Sakti [?]. You are not now apart f rom Them. They and you are one and the same Intelligence. After a few minutes one lady asked: "Do you ever intend to go to America?" M.: America is just where India is (i.e., in the plane of thought). Another (Spanish) lady: They say that there is a shrine in the Himalayas enterin g which one gets some strange vibrations which heal all diseases. Is it possible ? M.: They speak of some shrine in Nepal and also in other parts of the Himalayas where the people are said to become unconscious on entering them.

The mind cannot seek the mind. You ignore what is real and hold on to that which is unreal, then try to find wh at it is. You think you are the mind and, therefore, ask how it is to be control led.

If the mind exists, it can be controlled, but it does not. Understand this by in quiry.

Question 1: What are the marks of a real teacher (Sadguru)? Ramana Maharshi: Steady abidance in the Self, looking at all with an equal eye, unshakeable courage at all times, in all places and circumstances, etc. Question 2: What are the marks of an earnest disciple (sadsisya)? Ramana Maharshi: An intense longing for the removal of sorrow and attainment of joy and an intense aversion for all kinds of mundane pleasure. Question 3: What are the characteristics of instruction (upadesa)? Ramana Maharshi: The word upadesa means : near the place or seat (upa - near, desa place or seat). The Guru who is the embodiment of that which is indicated by th e terms sat, chit, and ananda (existence, consciousness and bliss), prevents the disciple who, on account of his acceptance of the forms of the objects of the s enses, has swerved from his true state and is consequently distressed and buffet ed by joys and sorrows, from continuing so and establishes him in his own real n ature without differentiation. Upadesa also means showing a distant object quite near. It is brought home to th e disciple that the Brahman which he believes to be distant and different from h imself is near and not different from himself. Question 4: If it be true that the Guru is one s own Self (atman), what is the pri nciple underlying the doctrine which says that, however learned a disciple may b e or whatever occult powers he may possess, he cannot attain self-realization (a tma-siddhi) without the grace of the Guru? Ramana Maharshi: Although in absolute truth the state of the Guru is that of one self it is very hard for the Self which has become the individual soul (jiva) th rough ignorance to realize its true state or nature without the grace of the Gur u. All mental concepts are controlled by the mere presence of the real Guru. If he were to say to one who arrogantly claims that he has seen the further shore of t

he ocean of learning or one who claims arrogantly that he can perform deeds whic h are well-nigh impossible, Yes, you learnt all that is to be learnt, but have yo u learnt (to know) yourself? And you who are capable of performing deeds which a re almost impossible, have you seen yourself? , they will bow their heads (in sham e) and remain silent. Thus it is evident that only by the grace of the Guru and by no other accomplishment is it possible to know oneself. Question 5: What are the marks of the Guru s grace? Ramana Maharshi: It is beyond words or thoughts. Question 6: If that is so, how is it that it is said that the disciple realizes his true state by the Guru s grace? Ramana Maharshi: It is like the elephant which wakes up on seeing a lion in its dream. Even as the elephant wakes up at the mere sight of the lion, so too is it certain that the disciple wakes up from the sleep of ignorance into the wakeful ness of true knowledge through the Guru s benevolent look of grace. Question 7: What is the significance of the saying that the nature of the real G uru is that of the Supreme Lord (Sarvesvara)? Ramana Maharshi: In the case of the individual soul which desires to attain the state of true knowledge or the state of Godhood (Isvara) and with that object al ways practises devotion, when the individual s devotion has reached a mature stage , the Lord who is the witness of that individual soul and identical with it, com es forth in human form with the help of sat-chit-ananda, His three natural featu res, and form and name which he also graciously assumes, and in the guise of ble ssing the disciple, absorbs him in Himself. According to this doctrine the Guru can truly be called the Lord. Question 6: How then did some great persons attain knowledge without a Guru? Ramana Maharshi: To a few mature persons the Lord shines as the light of knowled ge and imparts awareness of the truth.

Sri Ramana Maharshi Heart and Mind Ramana: "The jiva is said to remain in the Heart in deep sleep, and in the brain in the waking state. Heart is not the muscular cavity which propels blood. It d enotes in hthe Vedas and the scriptures the centre whence the notion 'I' springs . Does it spring from the ball of flesh? It does not, but from somewhere within us, from the centre of our being. The 'I' has no location. Everything is the Sel f. There is nothing but the Self. So the Heart must be said to be the entire bod y as well as the universe, conceived as 'I'. But to help the abhyasi we have to indicate a definite place in the universe, or the body, dor it. So this Heart is pointed out as the seat of the Self. But in truh we are everywhere; we are all that is, and there is nothing else". Ramana: "Atma is the Heart itself. Its manifestion is in the brain. The passage from the Heart to the brain might be considered to be through the sushumna, or n erve (nadi) with some other name. The Upanishads speak of pare leena, meaning th at the sushumna or such nadis are all comprised in Para, i.e. the Atma nadi. The Yogis say that the current rising up to sahasrara (brain) ends there. That expe rience is not complete. For Jnana they must come to the Heart. Hridaya (Heart) i s the Alpha and Omega". Cohen: From the Heart the body sprouts. The energy, life and consciousness, the only prime elements of the body and likewise of the universe, stream out of the Heart by the first channel, or nadi, straight to the head (Amrita Nadi) from whi ch they run down to all parts of the body through various nadis. ...Because all the nadis from the body end in the sahasrara, the Kundalini yogi, the Hatha yogi , and in fact all yogis, who practise pranayama take the sahasrara to be the ter minal point of their sadhana; whereas the Dhyana yogi, also called Raja yogi, Vi chara yogi, etc. adds one more state for the complete and absolute Emancipation. The last stage runs through the Para nadi, also called Amrita nadi, because, be ing of the purest sattva, it is extremely blissful and leads straight to the Hea rt. Ramana: The Heart is not physical; it is spiritual Hridaya = hrit + ayam, which means 'that is the Centre". It is that from which thoughts arise, on which they subsists and where thry are resolved are the content of the mind and they shape the universe. The Heart is thus the centre of all. It is said by the Upanishads to be Brahman. Brahman is the Heart". Cohen: "Thoughts are (the products as well as) the contents of the mind" is sign ificant; it make the mind not simply manas, as it is usually wrongly translated in Indian metaphysics, but the consciousness which produces, contains and percei ves the thoughts, synonymous wiith the Heart or Brahman. "Verily as space is boundless, so is the ether within the Heart. Both heaven and earth, fire and air, the sun and the moon, also the lightning and the stars, an d whatever is, as well as whatever is not in the universe, all are within the va cuity (Heart)". Chandogya Upanishad, IX, i.3) Ramana: "How to realise the Heart? There is no experience the Self. He is the Self. The Self are, you place your hand on the right siide of you unnowingly point out the Self. The Self s

one who even for a trice fails to is the Heart. When asked who you the chest and say 'I am'; thereby thur known".

Devotee: "Should I meditate on the right chest in order to meditate on the Heart ?" Bhagavan: "The Heart is not physical. Meditation should not be on the right or t he left. It should be on the Self. Everyone knows "I am". It is neight within no r without, neither on the right nor the left: "I am" - that is all".

Questioner (a teacher of philosophy): "How can the world be an imagination or a though? Thought is a function of the mind. The mind is located in the brain. The brain is within the skull of a human being, who is an infinitesimal part of the universe. How then can the universe be contained in the cells of the brain?" Bhagavan: "So long as the mind is considered to be an entity of the kind describ ed, the doubt will persist. But what is mind? Let us consider. What is the world ? It is objects spread out in space (akasha). Who comprehends it? The mind. Is n ot the mind which comprehands space itself space (akasha)? The space is physcial ether (bhootakasha). The mind is mental ether (manakasha) which is contained in transcendental ether (chidakasha). The mind is thur the ether principle (akasha tattva) Being the principle of knowledge (jnana tatva), it is identified with et her (akasha) by metaphysics. Considering it to be ether, there will be no diffic ulty in reconciling the apparent contradiction in the question. Pure mind (Suddh a manas) is ether (akasa). Rajas and tamas operate as gross objects, etc. Thus t he whole universe is only mental".

205. Mr. Cohen had been cogitating on the nature of the Heart, if the 'spiritual heart' beats; if so, how; if it does not beat, then how is it to be felt? M.: This heart is different from the physical heart; beating is the function of the latter. The former is the seat of spiritual experience. That is all that can be said of it. Just as a dynamo supplies motive power to whole systems of lights, fans, etc, so the original Primal Force supplies energy to the beating of the heart, respirat ion, etc. D.: How is the 'I' - 'I' consciousness felt? M.: As an unbroken awareness of 'I'. It is simply consciousness.

D.: Can we know it when it dawns? M.: Yes, as consciousness. You are that even now. There will be no mistaking it when it is pure. D.: Why do we have such a place as the 'Heart' for meditation? M.: Because you seek consciousness. Where can you find it? Can you reach it exte rnally? You have to find it internally. Therefore you are directed inward. Again the 'Heart' is only the seat of consciousness or the consciousness itself. D.: On what should we meditate? M.: Who is the meditator? Ask the question first. Remain as the meditator. There is no need to meditate.

'Service etc.': From Gita, 4.34. "Know that by prostrating thyself, by questions and by service, the wise who have realised the Truth will instruct thee in that Knowledge". 'Still living': This is called Jivanmukti. When the knowledge of the Self-Brahma n is attained, one is said to be liberated. But the body has to work out its pre -destined term of existence due to Prarabdha. So till the Prarabdha is exhausted through experience, such a man is called liberated while still living (Jivanmuk ta). After the fall of the body, the same is said to be Videhamukta (i.e., one w ho has attained disembodied or absolute freedom).

Prarabdha : There are three kinds of actions. 1.Sanchita-i.e., those accumulated in previous countless births (lives). 2. Agami Those that have yet to come i.e.those that are done in this life after the attainment of knowledge. 3. Prarabdha. Part of the accumulated results of the past actions (i.e., Sanchit a) which has started bearing fruit by giving birth to the present body is called Prarabdha. The knowledge of Brahman destroys all the results of the past accumu lated actions (Sanchita) and makes impotent those that are done after attainment of Knowledge (Agami), for, the realised man is not at all touched by them. But the Prarabdha persists and runs its own course by producing various experiences till death. This is the state of Jivanmukti. When the Prarabdha exhausts itself, the body of the liberated man falls and he attains the state of Videha-mukti i. e., disembodied or Absolute liberation. (Brahma sutras 4.1.13.19) 'Does not perceive': Although he may perceive the appearance of the world compri sing name and form, still that has no reality for him and he is always fully con scious of Supreme Atman, for him and he is always fully conscious of Supreme Atm an, his real nature, the substratum of all illusory imputations.] (That an emancipated soul is always free even while engaged in worldly activitie s is now being explained.)

Gita Ch.12/ 13 to 20 : 13. He who hates no creature, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is f ree from attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving. 14. Ever content, steady in meditation, possessed of firm conviction, self-contr olled, with the mind and intellect dedicated to Me, he, My devotee, is dear to M e. 15. He by whom the world is not agitated and who cannot be agitated by the world , and who is freed from joy, envy, fear and anxiety- he is dear to Me. 16. He who is free from wants, pure, expert, unconcerned, and untroubled, renoun cing all undertakings or commencements- he who is thus devoted to Me, is dear to Me. 17. He who neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires, renouncing goo d and evil, and who is full of devotion, is dear to Me. 18. He who is the same to foe and friend, and also in honour and dishonour, who is the same in cold and heat and in pleasure and pain, who is free from attachme nt. (Honour and dishonour indicates at the level of the intellect; cold and heat indicates at the physical level; pleasure and pain indicates at the level of th e mind or the emotional sphere of the mind) 19. He to whom censure and praise are equal, who is silent, content with anythin g, homeless, of a steady mind, and full of devotion that man is dear to Me. 20. They verily who follow this immortal Dharma (doctrine or law) as described a bove, endowed with faith, regarding Me as their supreme goal, they, the devotees , are exceedingly dear to Me. (It has been said that wise one never accepts duality as anything real. Now his angle of vision is being explained further.)

Gita Ch.13 1. Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, uprightness, service of the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control. 2. Indifference to the objects of the senses and also absence of egoism, percept ion of (or reflection on) the evil in birth, death, old age, sickness and pain. 3. Non-attachment, non-identification of the Self with son, wife, home and the r est, and constant even-mindedness on the attainment of the desirable and the und esirable. 4. Unswerving devotion unto Me by the Yoga of non-separation, resort to solitary places, distaste for the society of men. 5. Constancy in Self-knowledge, perception of the end of true knowledge- this de clared to be knowledge, and what is opposed to it is ignorance.

The disciple must be well equipped with all these qualifications and then the te acher, too, should instruct such a disciple properly. Sri Sankaracharya, in his commentary on Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.13. says: on the part of the teacher, too, i t is obligatory that he should instruct a disciple properly equipped with all th e virtues as enumerated in the scriptures, and thus help him to cross the ocean

of ignorance.] (After having learnt the true purport of this book under the guidance of efficie nt and realised teachers one should devote one's life and soul to the practice o f the grand theme, dealt with herein.)

"THAT THE GREATEST EVIL IN MAN IS THE NOT KNOWING GOD." Meher Baba: "The Soul's apparent imprisonment becomes so suffocatingly unbearable that it by the Master's grace - literally tears itself free; and the feeling of exultati on is as powerful as was its feeling of suffocation. The experience of both impr isonment and release is of Illusion; but the experience of the final Freedom is of Reality. The emancipated Soul then experiences continuously and eternally its own infinite freedom. The world exists only as long as the Soul experiences bon dage; when the Soul realizes itself as Reality the world vanishes - for it never was. And the Soul experiences itself as being Infinite & Eternal." --The Everything and the Nothing

Shankara: "You can't deprive yourself of your Self."

"Talk as much philosophy as you please, worship as many gods as you like, observ e all ceremonies, sing devoted praises to any number of divine beings -- liberat ion never comes, even at the end of a hundred aeons, without the realization of the Oneness of Self." --Crest Jewel of Discrimination

Sri Aurobindo: "There is a Power within that knows beyond our knowings; we are greater than our thoughts, and sometimes earth reveals that vision here. To live, to love are si gns of infinite things, love is a glory from eternity's spheres. Abased, disfigu red, mocked by baser mights that steal his name and shape and ecstasy, He is sti ll the Godhead by which all can change. A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff . ...I become what I see in myself. All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become. This should be man's unshakable faith in himself, because God dwells in him." -- Savitri

Ramana Maharshi: "The sense of 'I' pertains to the person, the body and brain. When a man knows h is true Self for the first time something else arises from the depths of his bei ng and takes possession of him. That something is behind the mind; it is infinit e, divine, eternal. Some people call it the Kingdom of Heaven, others call it th e Soul and others again Nirvana and Hindus call it Liberation; you may give it w hat name you wish. When this happens a man has not really lost himself; rather h e has found himself. Unless and until a man embarks on this quest of the true Self, doubt and uncerta inty will follow his footsteps through life. The greatest kings and statesmen tr y to rule others when in their heart of hearts they know that they cannot rule t hemselves. Yet the greatest power is at the command of the man who has penetrate d to his inmost depth.... What is the use of knowing about everything else when you do not yet know who you are? Men avoid this inquiry into the true Self, but what else is there so worthy to be undertaken?" --Ramana Maharshi and The Path of Self-knowledge

Mother Aurobindo: What is this creation after all?...Separateness, and then meanness and cruelty the thirst to harm - and then suffering; and then illness, decay and death, des truction. All that is part of the same thing. And what I experienced was the UNR EALITY of those things, as if we were trapped in an unreal falsehood, and everyt hing vanishes when we get out of it, it DOESN'T EXIST, it isn't! That's what is frightening! That all those things which are so real, so concrete, so frightenin g for us do not exist. That...we are simply trapped in a falsehood. Why? How? What? Never, ever, not once in all its life, had this body felt such t

otal and profound pain as it did that day, OH!...Then, at the end of it bliss: A nd everything vanished. As if all that, all those awful things, didn't exist. Fr om the fool who kills himself to put an "end" to his life - that's the most fool ish of all - to Nirvana (which gives the impression you can escape), all that is worthless. They are at different levels, but they are worthless. And after that, just when you feel you are stuck in hell forever, suddenly...sud denly, a state of consciousness in which everything is light, splendor, beauty, happiness, kindness...It is impossible to express. "Here I am", it comes, then z ap! Gone. Is that it? Is that the key?...I don't know. But Salvation is physical, not mental in the least, but PHYSICAL. I mean it isn' t found in flight: it's HERE. And it isn't veiled or hidden or anything: it's HE RE. What is it in the whole that prevents us from living "that", and why? I don' t know. It's here. It is HERE. And all the rest, including death and all that, s imply become a falsehood, meaning something that DOES NOT EXIST.

Plotinus: Since the beginning of time a Voice has been calling to you. Although its forms are legion, its message is singular. Just for a moment, let this simple message of truth and love be beyond all reason and see how quickly reason will follow as your mind opens to the joyful light of your reunion with the eternally creating Mind of God.or we are not cut off from our source nor separated from it, even t hough the bodily nature intervenes and draws us towards itself, but we breathe a nd maintain our being in our source, which does not first give itself and then w ithdraw, but is always supplying us, as long as it is what it is. But we are mor e truth alive when we turn towards it, and in this lies our well-being. To be fa r from it is isolation and diminution. In it our soul rests, out of reach of evi l; it has ascended to a region out of reach of all evil; there it has a spiritua l vision, and is exempt from passion and suffering; there it truly lives. For ou r present life, without God, is a mere shadow and mimicry of the true life. --"The Enneads" Socrates: his is what my God commands: Make your first concern not for your bodies nor for your possessions, but for the highest welfare of your souls...Wealth does not b ring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing.

--"Apology" in The Last Days of Socrates recounted by Plato 5th Century BC Kierkegaard: o now with love. What love does, that it is; what it is, that it does-- and at o ne and the same time: at the very moment it goes out of itself (the direction ou tward) it is in itself (the direction inward); and at the very moment, it is in itself, it thereby goes out of itself -- so that this outgoing and this return, this return and this outgoing, are simultaneously one and the same. When we say that "Love gives fearlessness," we mean by that, that the lover by h is very nature makes others fearless; wherever love is present, it spreads fearl essness; one freely approaches the lover, for he drives out fear. Whereas the su spicious man frightens everyone away from him, whereas the cunning and the craft y spread fear and painful unrest about them, whereas the presence of the tyrant oppresses like the heavy pressure of sultry air- love gives fearlessness. But wh en we say that "love gives fearlessness," we also say at the same time something else, that the lover has fearlessness, just as it is said that love gives boldn ess on the day of judgment, that is, it makes the lover fearless in the judgment . ...God is love, and when a man from love forgets himself, how then could God for get him! No, while the lover forgets himself and thinks of the other man, God th inks of the lover. The self-lover is busy, he shrieks and shouts, and stands for his rights in order to make certain of not being forgotten - and yet, he is for gotten; but the lover who forgets himself, he is remembered by love. There is On e who thinks of him, and thereby it comes to pass that the lover gets what he gi ves. -- "Love Covereth A Multitude of Sins" in A Kierkegaard Anthology Martin Heidegger: ecause Dasein ( the Self) is lost in the "they", it must first find itself. In o rder to find itself at all, it must be 'shown' to itself in its possible authent icity. In terms of its possibility, Dasein is already a potentiality-for-Being-i ts-Self, but it needs to have this potentiality attested. As a phenomenon of Dasein, conscience is not just a fact which occurs and is occ asionally present-at-hand. It 'is' only in Dasein's kind of being, and it makes itself known as a Fact only with factical existence and in it. To the call of conscience there corresponds a possible hearing. Our understandin g of the appeal unveils itself as our wanting to have a conscience. If the every day interpretation knows a 'voice' of conscience the 'voice' is taken rather as a giving-to-understand. In the tendency to disclosure which belongs to the call, l ies the momentum of a push - of an abrupt arousal. The call is from afar unto af ar. It reaches him who wants to be brought back. And to what is one called when one is thus appealed to? To one's OWN SELF. the ca ll undoubtedly does not come from someone else with me in the world. The call co mes from me and yet from beyond me and over me. -- Being and Time Giordano Bruno

ince a finite is a finite through union with its limiting opposite at their poin t of union, the Infinite must be that which can and does negate determination an d limitation itself, and by so doing returns into itself indifferently and indet erminately all that is different and determinate. In this notion of infinity the negation or opposition has not disappeared completely, but has been incorporate d within the Infinite and transcended by it. Infinity as such, therefore, would in a sense become one with all it comprehends in itself. The Infinite would thus be that which is its own "opposition," its own "determination," its own "end," and that which by its own nature is a "negation" of any and all determinationsit would be that which "determines" and "limits" itself. It would thus be self-d etermined, and would be "in" itself. This Infinite which "determines" itself mus t be self-sufficient, then, by definition, and at one and the same time have wit hin itself all the "limits" and "opposites" which would "exist" in it as these f inite determinations - determinations which are but particular participating con tractions of the infinite essence. It is the Infinite that can by determining itself return to itself, and while maining one and self-sufficient reflect its particular participations. Again, this inner negation of all particulars it necessarily becomes an affirmation all of them, because the particular participating limitations have coincided the Infinite, and have an existence as "related" to it.

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-- The Infinite in Giordano Bruno Leo Tolstoy ne has but to understand Christ's teaching to understand that the world, not tha t which God gave for man's delight but the world men have devised for their own destruction, is a dream, and a very wild and terrible dream - the raving of a ma niac from which one need but awake in order never to return to that, terrible ni ghtmare." -- Tolstoy's Confessions

William Shakespeare: et me not to the marriage of True minds Admit impediments. Love is not Love Which alters when it alteration finds Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickles compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved." -- Sonnett CXVI Kabir: f you don't break your ropes while you're alive, do you think ghosts will do it after? What is found now is found then. If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the city of death." "What had death and a thick body dances before what has no thick body and no dea th. The trumpet says: 'I am you.' The spiritual master arrives and bows down to the beginning student. Try to live to see this!" -- Songs of Kabir

Emerson: hus revering the soul, and learning, as the ancient said, that "its beauty is im mense," man will come to see that the world is the perennial miracle which the s oul worketh, and be less astonished at particular wonders; he will learn that th ere is no profane history; that all history is sacred, that the universe is repr esented in an atom, in a moment of time. He will weave no longer a spotted life of shreds and patches, but he will live with a divine unity. He will cease from what is base and frivolous in his life and be content with all places and with a ny service he can render. He will calmly front the morrow in the negligency of t hat trust which carries God with it and so hath already the whole future in the bottom of the heart. -- The Oversoul The Beatles:

...Limitless undying Love which shines around me like a Million suns, it calls me on and on Across the universe... --"Across the Universe"

Emily Dickenson: Ample make this bed. Make this bed with awe; In it wait till judgment break Excellent and fair. Be its mattress straight, Be its pillow round; Let no sunrise' yellow noise Interrupt this ground.

I felt a cleaving in my mind As if my brain had split; I tried to match it, seam by seam, But could not make them fit. The thought behind I strove to join Unto the thought before, But sequence ravelled out of reach Like balls upon a floor. --The Complete Works of Emily Dickenson Lalla Ishwari: When you see yourself and someone else as one being, when you know the most joyful day and the most terrible night as one moment, then awareness is alone with it's Lord.

Fearful, always-moving mind, the One who has no beginning is thinking of how hunger may fall away from you. No ritual, no religion, is needed. Just cry out one unobstructed cry. I wearied myself searching for the Friend

with efforts beyond my strength. I came to the door and saw how powerfully the locks were bolted. And the longing in me became that strong, and then I saw I was gazing from within the presence. With that waiting, and in giving up all trying, only then did Lalla flow out from where I knelt.

Everything is new now for me. My mind is new, the moon, the sun. The whole world looks rinsed with water, washed in the rain of I AM THAT. Lalla leaps and dances inside the energy that created and sustains the universe. --Naked Song 14th century Kashmir

Ernest Holmes: Be still, O Soul, and know. Look unto the One and be illumined. Rejoice and be glad, for thy Spirit lights the way. Lift up thine eyes and behold Him, for He is fair to look upon. Listen for His voice, for He will tell thee of marvelous things. Receive Him, for in His presence there is peace. Embrace Him, for He is thy Lover. Let Him tarry with thee, that thou mayest not be lonely. Take council from Him, for He is wise. Learn from Him, for He knows. Be still in His presence and rejoice in His Love forevermore. -- The Science Of Mind

Asian Sages Lao Tsu: "My words are easy to understand and easy to perform, Yet no man under heaven kn ows them or practices them. "

"My words have ancient beginnings. My actions are disciplined. Because men do no t understand, they have no knowledge of me. Those that know me are few; Those that abuse me are honored. Therefore the sage wears rough clothing and holds the jewel in his heart." -- Tao Te Ching Since the beginning of time a Voice has been calling to you. Although its forms are legion, its message is singular. Just for a moment, let this simple message of truth and love be beyond all reason and see how quickly reason will follow as your mind opens to the joyful light of your reunion with the eternally creating Mind of God. The Third Patriarch of Zen: "Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anyon e. The Way is perfect, like vast space, where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things. Live neither in the entanglement of outer things nor in the inner feelings of emptiness. Be serene in the oneness of things and s uch erroneous views will disappear by themselves. Those who do not live in the s ingle way fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial. The changes that occur in the nothing world we call real are only because of our ignorance. Do not search for the truth. Only cease to cherish opinion. In the chase of this and that the mind essence will be lost in confusion. Although all dualism comes from the One, do not be attached even to this One. When the mind exists undistu

rbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend. And when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way. When no discriminating thoughts aris e, the old mind ceases to exist. When thought objects vanish, the thinking subje ct vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish. Things are objects because of the subject mind. The mind subject is such because of things object. Understand the relativity of these two and the basic reality, the unity of emptiness. In this emptiness the two are indistinghuisable, and ea ch contains in itself the whole world. If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine, you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion. To live in the great Way is neither easy nor difficult. It is only different. Bu t those with limited views are fearful and irresolute. The faster they hurry, th e slower they go. And clinging cannot be limited at all. Even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray. Just let things be in their own way, and they will be neither coming nor going. Obey the nature of things and you wil l walk freely and undisturbed. When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden, f or everything is murky and unclear. And the burdensome practice of judging bring s annoyance and weariness. What benefit can be derived from distinctions and sep arations? If you wish to move in the one Way, listen. The wise man strives to no goals, but the foolish man fetters himself. There is one dharma, not many. Dist inctions, separations arise from the possession or clinging needs of the ignoran t. To seek mind with the discriminating conceptual mind is the greatest of all m istakes. Rest and unrest derive from illusion. In enlightenment there is no liking or unl iking, just the realization of your eternal singularity." -- "Faith Mind" by Seng T'San, the Third Patriach of Zen

One interesting thing happened here recently. A devotee came here and offered to supply a Kavacham (outer cover) for the Meru Prasthara Sri Chakram* made of cop

per with a silver plating over it. The Ashram authorities, however, wanted the c over to be made of pure silver. As they could not agree on this issue, they deci ded to refer it to Bhagavan and so came to the Hall. On behalf of the Ashram aut horities, one of them approached Bhagavan and asked him with great reverence, They say that they will make the outer cover for the Sri Chakra of copper plated with silver while we all feel it would be better for it to be made of pure silve r. What is Bhagavan s advice in the matter? Bhagavan: What have I to do with it? It is all right in whatever way it is done. Both of you come to an unanimous decision and do that which you have decided to be the best. Enquirer:

Swami, we wish to know what Bhagavan would like us to do.

Bhagavan: That is exactly what I am saying. That which you all agree to do in mut ual consultation will be to my liking. If both of you give different opinions, w hat can I do? Enquirer: As we hold two different opinions, we are enquiring in order to find ou t what Bhagavan would like best. Bhagavan: Oh, I see. You want to know what Bhagavan would like best! What Bhagava n likes best is to remain silent without doing anything. If people with different opinions give up their mouna (silence) which is the emb odiment of love, and come to me and say, We will do this, and We will do that, and e nquire of me what I like better of the two, what can I say? If you all agree upo n a course of action and then ask me for my opinion, I would then say it is all right. But when you are of two opinions, why do you come to me and ask me which I like the better? What I like is, to know who I am and to remain as I am with the knowledge that w hat is to happen will happen and what is not to happen will not happen. Is that not right? Do you now understand what Bhagavan likes best? So saying Bhagavan ass umed silence. Letters from Sri Ramanasramam (excerpt from letter 225)

PRAYERS AND PRAISES WILL NOT TAKE ONE FAR. IT IS THE MERCIFUL LOOK OF THE GURU T HAT BESTOWS TRUE KNOWLEDGE... Once five or six devotees sat down before Bhagavan and sang a hymn in praise of the Guru. He got up in the middle of the recitation and went away, saying: "Pray ers and praises will not take one far. It is the merciful look of the teacher th at bestows true knowledge." I felt elated. Had I not received his merciful glanc es? But the next day he was saying: "Unless one becomes a six month old baby the re is no hope for him in the realm of self-knowledge." My heart sank. Although I lived in the presence of Lord Arunachala Himself, I was far from becoming an in fant. Why Should You Doubt? Another time Bhagavan was telling us stories from the lives of devotees of bygon e ages. I questioned him: "It is written that God appeared before the devotee an d shed His grace on him while he was still in his mother's womb. Can it be true? " To that Bhagavan replied: "Why should you doubt? Will doubt profit you? Only y our devotion will suffer. Those stories are as real as your telling me that you are present here and now." What is Atma? The next day at noon I was again at Ramanasramam. His midday meal over, Bhagavan was reclining on the sofa and explaining a verse from the Bhagavad Gita to Sri Ramiah Yogi. As no one else was in the hall, I gathered courage and asked: "What is Atma? Is it the limitless ether of space or the awareness that cognizes ever ything?" Bhagavan replied: "To remain without thinking 'this is Atma' and 'that is Atma', is itself Atma." He looked at me and I felt my mind melt away into nothing. No thought would come , only the feeling of immense, unutterable peace. My doubts were cleared. -Varanasi Subbalakshmi in Ramana Smriti

NO ATTACHMENT AND TRUE BRAHMACHARYA D.: Is work an obstruction to Self-realisation? M.: No. For a realised being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them with out any attachment. There is no aim for this action. Even one who is still practicing the path of Wisdom (jnana) can practise while e ngaged in work. It may be difficult in the earlier stages for a beginner, but af ter some practice it will soon be effective and the work will not be found a hin drance to meditation. D.: What is the practice? M.: Constant search for `I', the source of the ego. Find out `Who am I?' The pure `I' is the reality, the Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. When Th at is forgotten, all miseries crop up; when that is held fast, the miseries do n ot affect the person. D.: Is not brahmacharya (celibacy) necessary for realisation of the Self? M.: Brahmacharya is`living in Brahman'. It has no connection with celibacy as co mmonly understood. A real brahmachari, that is one who lives in Brahman, finds b liss in the Brahman which is the same as the Self. Why then should you look for other sources of happiness? In fact the emergence from the Self has been the cau se of all the misery. (Excerpt from Talk 17: Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)

REFECTIONS ON TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI 21. Bhagavan: The mind is like akasa (ether of space). Just as there are objects in space, so there are thoughts in the mind...." "One cannot hope to measure the universe and study the phenomena. It is impossib le. For the objects are mental creation; it is like trying to stamp with one s foo t on the head of one s shadow; the farther one moves the farther goes the shadow s h ead. Note: We have already seen that space is the mind s extension, containing thoughts which appear to be the external objects. Since the objects are our own creation , pursuing them in the attempt to reach their end is like trying place one s foot on the head of one s own shadow, which recedes as the body moves nearer, for the m ore we think the larger will the universe grow, however unwieldy and of incompre hensible immensity it already is. Therefore the study of the phenomena will lead absolutely nowhere but to the nev er-ending phenomena never to the Real which underlies them. All sciences mathema tics, physics, medicine pertain to the phenomena, the world of space, of time, o f experience, of bodies, of action, and perish with them.

22. Are thoughts mere matter? Bhagavan: Do you mean matter like the things you see around you? But who is the t hinker? You admit that he is spirit. Do you mean that spirit generates matter? C an consciousness generate non-consciousness, or light darkness?

Note: The questioner rightly demands clarification of the oft-repeated assertion that the world is merely our thoughts. Bhagavan s answer implies that by our thoug hts is meant a mere appearance, which has nothing real in it, like the appearance of water in a mirage, which is no water at all. Thoughts are after all mere vib rations in consciousness, in themselves they are NOTHING, but in our minds they assume ideas or notions of objects mountains, lands, seas, forests, and the thou sands of the things that surround us, or else how can Brahman or God, who is pur e Spirit, generate stones, fire, water, however much the religions of the world may hail Him as their creator? Further, it is utterly inconceivable that He, Who

is immaculate radiance as supreme Bliss-Intelligence, should give rise to the a bnormal darkness of avidya, or to fear, hatred, envy, pain, diseases, etc. The i nference is neither world nor avidya exists. They are pure fantasy Consciousness alone is.

Vasishta tells Rama: The visible world, O Rama, myself, thyself and all things ar e NOTHING; they are uncreated, unborn; the Supreme Spirit alone exists by Itself . As pearls in the sky the world is nonexistent; it is as unreal as the (individual ) soul in the void of consciousness. (Yoga Vasishta, III, xiv-xv) Yoga Vasishta s quoted verse clinches the content of the chapter, which has again and again proved that the world is nothing but a state of the mind, that is, a t emporary appearance in the mind of its experiencer. By itself it does not exist at all. It is an oft-repeated truth that the Reality Self or Brahman is changeless ver present not once present and once absent. The Reality is the experiencer the states himself. He is present in the waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep and uriya (the fourth) or samadhi, whereas the world is present only in the waking jagrat) and completely absent in the others.

and e of T (

The world with all its mountains, oceans, mighty rivers and mightier volcanos is simply wiped off the slate of the seer s consciousness the moment he steps out of the waking into another state. This proves that the senses which are active onl y in the waking to make it are the creators of the world. The physical body thro ugh the sensory organs eyes, ears, nose, etc., which are lodged in it feeds the senses on the impressions received by them from an apparent outside. In no other body this machinery of sense and sense organs are found, which is wh y its deluding power Maya prevails only in the waking state (jagrat) and why del iverance from it (Maya) is sought in jagrat only, through the practice of tapas meditation and study. This is the only maya known to us Advaitins put in the sim plest language to unbaffle the baffled seekers and students who love simplicity and direct approach. by S.S. Cohen

D.: In practice, thoughts are found to manifest and subside alternately. Is this jnana? M.: Some people think that there are different stages in jnana. The Self is nity a aparoksha, i.e., ever-realised, knowingly or unknowingly. Sravana (hearing or study), they argue, should therefore be aparoksha jnana (directly experienced) and not paroksha jnana (indirect knowl edge). But jnana should result in duhkha nivriti (loss of misery) whereas sravana alone does not bring it about. Therefore they say, though aparoksha, it is not unshaken; the rising of vasanas is the cau se of its being weak (not unchanging); when the vasanas are removed, jnana becomes unshaken and bears frui t. Talks no.57

Christian Mystics The Apostle Paul: ehold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet sha ll sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Fo r this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immorta lity. --Holy Bible I Corinthians 15: 51- 53 Meister Eckhart: he heavens are pure and clear without shadow of strain, out of space and out of time. Nothing corporeal is found there. Their revolutions are incredibly swift a nd independent of time, though time depends on them. Nothing hinders the soul so much in attaining to the knowledge of God as time and place. Therefore, if the soul is to know God, it must know Him outside time and place, since God is neith er in this or that, but One and above them. If the soul is to see God, it must l ook at nothing in time; for while the soul is occupied with time or place or any image of the kind, it cannot recognize God. If it is to know Him, it must have no fellowship with nothingness. Only he knows God who recognizes that all creatu res are nothingness. I say moreover: If the soul is to know God it must forget i tself and lose itself, for as long as it contemplates self, it cannot contemplat e God. When it has lost itself and everything in God, it finds itself again in G od when it attains to the knowledge of Him, and it finds also everything which i t had abandoned complete in God. -- Meister Eckhart's Sermons Mary Baker Eddy: ife is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of man, never attainable throu gh death, but gained by walking the pathway of Truth both before and after that

which is called death. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." "Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine science in his victory over de ath and the grave. Jesus' deed was for the enlightenment of men and for the salv ation of the whole world from sin, sickness and death. Glory be to God, and peac e to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of h uman hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in god , hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love." -- Science and Health Teilhard de Chardin: hrist does not act as a dead or passive point of convergence, but as a center of radiation for the energies that lead the universe back to God through humanity, the layers of divine action finally come to us impregnated with divine organic energies. Not in a metaphysical but in a physical sense, the Energy of Incarnati on was to flow into, and so illuminate and give warmth to even wider and more ti ghtly encircling forms of embrace. Starting from an evolutive Omega at which we assume Christ to stand, not only do es it become possible to conceive Christ as radiating physically over the terrif ying totality of things, but, what is more, that radiation must inevitably work up to a maximum of penetrative and activating power. The cosmic-Christ becomes c osmically possible. To sum up, Cosmogenesis reveals itself, along the line of it s main axis, first as Biogenesis and then Noogenesis, and finally culminates in Christogenesis. There are two sides to this operation, the constructive and the destructive; and when Christ is installed at Omega Point it is both these two sides that are cov ered and permeated by a flood of unitive force. In one great surge, Cosmogenesis becomes personalized, both in the things it adds, which centrify us for Christ, and in the things it subtracts, which draw us out of our own centers onto him. A current of love is all at once released, to spread over the whole breadth and depth of the World; and this it does as a fundamental essence which will metamor phose all things, assimilate and take the place of all. There is, in truth, a se cret message, explanatory of the whole of Creation, which by allowing us to feel God in everything we do, and in everything that is done to us (God creating all things and being born in all things) can bring true happiness to our generation . Christ is incarnate; incarnate through the combined action of determinant and liberating factors, and of grace." -- Meditations with Teilhard de Chardin

Ouspensky on Gurdjieff views on Awakening and Group work "Only a man who fully realizes the difficulty of awakening can understand the ne cessity of long and hard work in order to awake. "Speaking in general, what is necessary to awake a sleeping man? A good shock is necessary. But when a man is fast asleep one shock is not enough. A long period of continual shocks is needed. Consequently there must be somebody to administe r these shocks. I have said before that if a man wants to awaken he must hire so mebody who will keep on shaking him for a long time. But whom can he hire if eve ryone is asleep? A man will hire somebody to wake him up but this one also falls asleep. What is the use of such a man? And a man who. can really keep awake wil l probably refuse to waste his time in waking others up: he may have his own muc h more important work to do. "There is also the possibility of being awakened by mechanical means. A man may

be awakened by an alarm clock. But the trouble is that a man gets accustomed to the alarm clock far too quickly, he ceases to hear it. Many alarm clocks are nec essary and always new ones. Otherwise a man must surround himself with alarm clo cks which will prevent him sleeping. But here again there are certain difficulti es. Alarm clocks must be wound up; in order to wind them up one must remember ab out them; in order to remember one must wake up often. But what is still worse, a man gets used to all alarm clocks and after a certain time he only sleeps the better for them. Therefore alarm clocks must be constantly changed, new ones mus t be continually invented. In the course of time this may help a man to awaken. But there is very little chance of a man doing all the work of winding up, inven ting, and changing clocks all by himself, without outside help. It is much more likely that he will begin this work and that it will afterwards pass into sleep, and in sleep he will dream of inventing alarm clocks, of winding them up and ch anging them, and simply sleep all the sounder for it. "Therefore, in order to awaken, a combination of efforts is needed. It is necess ary that somebody should wake "the man up; it is necessary that somebody should look after the man who wakes him; it is necessary to have alarm clocks and it is also necessary continually to invent new alarm clocks. "But in order to achieve all this and to obtain results a certain number of peop le must work together. "One man can do nothing. "Before anything else he needs h elp. But help cannot come to one man alone. Those who are able to help put a gre at value on their time. And, of course, they would prefer to help, say, twenty o r thirty people who want to awake rather than one man. Moreover, as has been sai d earlier, one man can easily deceive himself about his awakening and take for a wakening simply a new dream. If several people decide to struggle together again st sleep, they will wake each other. It may often happen that twenty of them wil l sleep but the twenty-first will be awake and he will wake up the rest. It is e xactly the same thing with alarm clocks. One man will invent one alarm clock, an other man will invent another, afterwards they can make an exchange. Altogether they can be of very great help one to another, and without this help no one can attain anything. "Therefore a man who wants to awake must look for other people who also want to awake and work together with them. This, however, is easier said than done becau se to start such work and to organize it requires a knowledge which an ordinary man cannot possess. The work must be organized and it must have a leader. Only t hen can it produce the results expected of it. Without these conditions no effor ts can result in anything whatever. Men may torture themselves but these torture s will not make them awake. This is the most difficult of all for certain people to understand. By themselves and on their own initiative they may be capable of great efforts and great sacrifices. But because their first effort and their fi rst sacrifice ought to be obedience nothing on earth will induce them to obey an other. And they do not want to reconcile themselves to the thought that all thei r efforts and all their sacrifices are useless. "Work must be organized. And it can be organized only by a man who knows its pro blems and its aims, who knows its methods; by a man who has in his time passed t hrough such organized work himself. "A man usually begins his studies in a small group. This group is generally conn ected with a whole series of similar groups on different levels which, taken tog ether, constitute what may be called a 'preparatory school.' "The first and most important feature of groups is the fact that groups are not constituted according to the wish and choice of their members. Croups are consti tuted by the teacher, who selects types which, from the point of view of his aim s, can be useful to one another. "No work of groups is possible without a teacher. The work of groups with a wron

g teacher can produce only negative results. "The next important feature of group work is that groups may be connected with s ome aim of which those who are beginning work in them have no idea whatever and which cannot even be explained to them until they understand the essence and the principles of the work and the ideas connected with it. But this aim towards wh ich without knowing it they are going, and which they are serving, is the necess ary balancing principle in their own work. Their first task is to understand thi s aim, that is, the aim of the teacher. When they have understood this aim, alth ough at first not fully, their own work becomes more conscious and consequently can give better results. But, as I have already said, it often happens that the aim of the teacher cannot be explained at the beginning.

Osho on Gurdjieff s Strange Methods

Osho - Gurdjieff was born near the Caucasus in Russia ? still there are nomads, wandering tribes. Even sixty years of communist torture has not been able to set tle those nomads, because they consider wandering to be man's birthright, and pe rhaps they are right. He started moving from one group to another. He learned ma ny languages of the nomads, he learned many arts of the nomads. He learned many exercises that are not available to civilized people any more, but nomads need t hem. For example; it may be very cold and the snow is falling, and to live in a tent. ... Nomads know certain exercises of breathing that change the rhythm of the bre ath, the temperature of your body increases. Or if it is too hot, if you are pas sing through a desert, then change again to a different rhythm...and your body h as an automatic, inbuilt, air-conditioning system. Gurdjieff learned his first lessons in hypnosis with these nomadic groups. If th e wife and the husband are both going to sell some things in the market, in the village, what to do with the children, the small children? These nomads have use d hypnotism for centuries. They will just draw a circle around the child and tel l him, "Till we return you cannot get out of this circle." Now, this has been told for centuries to every child. From the moment he could u nderstand, he has heard it. He is hypnotized by it. The moment it is uttered, th e moment he sees the line being drawn around him, he simply relaxes inside: ther e is no way to get out, he can't get out. Gurdjieff was very puzzled, because he was ten or twelve years old then: And what nonsense is this? And each child in every nomad camp is just surrounded by a line, and that's all. The father and mother disappear for the whole day to work in the town. By the ev ening when they come the child is still inside the circle. Gurdjieff started won dering how it happened, why it happened, and soon he was able to figure out that it is just a question of your unconscious accepting the idea. Once your unconsc ious accepts the idea, then your body and your conscious mind have no power to g o against it. In his own exercises that he developed later on when he became a master, Gurdjie ff used all these nomad techniques that he had learned from those strange people ? uncivilized, with no language, no written alphabet, but who knew very primiti ve methods. And he was surprised to see that hypnotism works not only on childre n but on grown men, because those children become young adults; then too it work s. Then they become old, then too it works. It does not change with age. Gurdjieff used to play with the old people, drawing a circle around them, and the old pers on would shout, "Don't do that, don't do that," and before the circle was comple te he would jump out. If the circle was complete then it was impossible, you wer e caught. And this boy ? who could know whether he would be coming back again or not? When the circle was half completed, something was open: you could escape. Then you were saved, otherwise you were caught in it. And many times Gurdjieff s ucceeded in making the circle complete. Then even the old man would simply sit d own, just like a small child, and would pray to him, "Break your circle." Gurdji eff used that technique in many ways ? and many other techniques that he learned from those people. He used to have an exercise called the "stop exercise," and he exhibited it all over the world, particularly in America and Europe. He would teach dances, strange dances, because nobody knew those dances that the Caucasian nomads dance... strange instruments and strange dances. They had stra nge foods that Gurdjieff learned to make. His ashram near Paris was something ju st absolutely out of this world. His kitchen was full of strange things, strange spices that nobody had ever heard of, and he himself would prepare outlandish f

oods. He had learned it all from those nomads. And those foods had a certain effect. C ertain foods have certain effects; certain dances have certain effects; certain drums, instruments, have certain effects. Gurdjieff had seen that if a certain m usic is played and people are dancing a particular dance, then it is possible fo r them to dance on red-hot, burning coals and still not be burned. The dance is creating a certain kind of energy in them so that they can escape t he law of fire ? which is a lower law. Certainly, if consciousness knows somethi ng higher it can escape from lower laws. All the stories about miracles are noth ing but stories about people who have come to know certain higher laws; naturall y, then the lower laws don't function. Gurdjieff had seen all these things, he h ad experienced them when he was a child, and children are very curious. There was no father, no mother to prevent him from doing anything, so he was exp erimenting with everything, in every possible way. And once he was finished with one nomad group, he would simply move to another because from other groups he h ad other things to learn. He developed all his exercises from these nomadic peop le. The stop exercise was tremendously significant, perhaps one of the greatest contributions to the modern world ? and the modern world is not even aware of it . Gurdjieff would tell his disciples to be engaged in all kinds of activities: som ebody is digging in the garden, somebody is cutting wood, somebody is preparing food, somebody is cleaning the floor. All kinds of activities are going on, with the one condition that when he says "Stop!" then wherever you are, in whatsoeve r posture you are, you stop dead. You are not to be cunning, because then the wh ole point of the exercise is lost. For example, if your mouth is open and you see that Gurdjieff is not there to no tice, and you just close your mouth and rest, you have missed the point. One of your legs was up ? you were just moving ? and one leg was down; now suddenly the "Stop!" call comes. You have to stop, knowing perfectly well that soon you will fall down; you cannot stand on one foot for long. But that is the whole point o f the exercise: whatever the consequence you simply stop as you are, you just be come a statue. You will be surprised that such a simple exercise gives you so much release of a wareness. Neither Buddha, nor Patanjali, nor Mahavira was aware of it, that such a simple exercise...it is not complex at all. When you become just a statue, yo u are not even allowed to blink an eye; you stay exactly as you are at the momen t you hear the word "Stop!" It simply means stop and nothing else. You will be surprised that you suddenly become a frozen statue ? and in that sta te you can see yourself transparently. You are constantly engaged in activity ? and with the activity of the body, the mind's activity is associated. You cannot separate them, so when the body completely stops, of course, immediately the mi nd also stops then and there. You can see the body, frozen, as if it is somebody else's body; you can see the mind, suddenly unmoving, because it has lost its association with the body in mo vement. It is a simple psychological law of association that was discovered by a nother Russian, Pavlov. Gurdjieff knew it long before Pavlov, but he was not int erested in psychology so he never worked it out that way. Pavlov also got the idea from the same nomads, but he moved in a different direc tion ? he was a psychologist. He started working on the lines of the law of asso ciation. Pavlov would give food to his dog, and while he was giving the food, he would just go on ringing a bell. Now the bell and the bread had nothing to do w

ith each other, but to the dog they were becoming associated. Whenever Pavlov ga ve the dog some bread, he would ring the bell too. After fifteen days he would simply ring the bell and the dog's tongue would star t hanging out ready for the bread. Now, somewhere in the dog's mind, the bell an d the bread were no longer two separate things. Gurdjieff was doing far higher w ork. He found a simple way of stopping the mind. In the East people have been tr ying for centuries to concentrate the mind, to visualize it, to stop it ? and Gu rdjieff found a way through physiology. But it was not his discovery, he had just found what those nomads had been doing all along. Gurdjieff would shout "Stop!" and everybody would freeze. And when t he body suddenly freezes, the mind feels a little weird: What happened? ? becaus e the mind has no association with the frozen body, it is just shocked. They are in cooperation, in a deep harmony, moving together. Now the body has completely frozen, what is the mind supposed to do? Where can it go? For a moment there is a complete silence; and even a single moment of complete s ilence is enough to give you the taste of meditation. Gurdjieff had developed da nces, and during those dances suddenly he would say "Stop!" Now, while dancing y ou never know in what posture you are going to be. People would simply fall on t he floor. But even if you fall, the exercise continues. If your hand is in an uncomfortable position under your body, you are not to mak e it comfortable because that means you have not given a chance for the mind to stop. You are still listening to the mind. The mind says, "It is uncomfortable, make it comfortable." No, you are not to do anything. In New York when he was giving his demonstration of the dance, Gurdjieff chose a very strange situation. All the dancers were standing in a line, and at a certa in stage in the dance when they came dancing forwards and were just standing in a queue with the first person just at the edge of the stage, Gurdjieff said "Sto p!" The first person fell, the second fell, the third fell ? the whole line fell on each other. But there was dead silence, no movement. One man in the audience just seeing this got his first experience of meditation. He was not doing it, he was just seeing it. But seeing so many people suddenly stop and then fall, but falling as if frozen, with no effort on their own to cha nge their position or anything.... It was as if suddenly they had all become par alyzed. The man was just sitting in the front row, and without knowing he just s topped, froze in the position he was in: his eyes stopped blinking, his breath h ad stopped. Seeing this scene ? he had come to see the dance, but what kind of dance was thi s? ? suddenly he felt a new kind of energy arising within him. And it was so sil ent and he was so full of awareness, that he became a disciple. That very night he reached Gurdjieff and said, "I can't wait." It was very difficult to be a dis ciple of Gurdjieff; he made it almost impossible. And he was really a hard taskm aster. And one can tolerate things if one can see some meaning in them, but with Gurdji eff the problem was that there was no obvious meaning. This man's name was Nicol l. Gurdjieff said, "It is not so easy to become my disciple." Nicoll said, "It i s not so easy to refuse me either. I have come to become a disciple, and I will become a disciple. You may be a hard Master, I know; I am a hard disciple!" Both same l be ll's

men looked into each other's eyes and understood that they belonged to the tribe. This man was not going to leave. Nicoll said, "I am not going. I wil just sitting here my whole life until you accept me as a disciple" and Nico case is the only case in which Gurdjieff accepted him without bitching; oth

erwise, he used to be so difficult. Even for a man like P.D. Ouspensky, who made Gurdjieff world-famous ? even with him Gurdjieff was difficult. Ouspensky remembers that they were traveling from New York to San Francisco in a train, and Gurdjieff started making a nuisance of himself in the middle of the night. He was not drunk, he had not even drunk water, but he was behaving like a drunkard ? moving from one compartment to another compartment, waking people an d throwing people's things about. And Ouspensky, just following him, said, "What are you doing?" but Gurdjieff wouldn't listen. Somebody pulled the train's emergency chain, "This man seems to be mad!" ? so th e ticket-checker came in and the guard came in. Ouspensky apologized and said, " He is not mad and he is not drunk, but what to do? It is very difficult for me t o explain what he is doing because I don't know myself." And right in front of t he guard and ticket-checker, Gurdjieff threw somebody's suitcase out of the wind ow." The guard and the ticket-checker said, "This is too much. Keep him in your compa rtment and we will give you the key. Lock it from within, otherwise we will have to throw you both out at the next station." Naturally Ouspensky was feeling emb arrassed on the one hand and enraged on the other hand that this man was creatin g such a nuisance. He thought, "I know he is not mad, I know he is not drunk, bu t." Gurdjieff was behaving wildly, shouting in Russian, screaming in Russian, Ca ucasian he knew so many languages and the moment the door was locked, he sat sil ently and smiled. He said to Ouspensky, "How are you?" Ouspensky said, "You are asking me, 'How are you?'! You would have forced them t o put you in jail, and me too because I couldn't leave you in such a condition. What was the purpose of all this?" Gurdjieff said, "That is for you to understand. I am doing everything for you, a nd you are asking me the purpose? The purpose is not to react, not to be embarra ssed, not to be enraged. What is the point of feeling embarrassed? What are you going to get out of it? You are simply losing your cool and gaining nothing." "But," Ouspensky said, "You threw that suitcase out of the window. Now what abou t the man whose suitcase it is?" Gurdjieff said, "Don't be worried it was yours!" Ouspensky looked down and saw that his was missing. What to do with this master! Ouspensky writes: "l felt like getting down at the next station and going back to Europe... because what else would Gurdjieff do?" And Gurdjieff said, "I know what you are thinking you are thinking of getting do wn at the next station. Keep cool!" "But," Ouspensky said, "how can I keep cool now that my suitcase is gone and my clothes are gone?" Gurdjieff said, "Don't be worried your suitcase was empty. Your clothes I've put in my suitcase. Now just cool down." But later, when he was in the Caucasus and Ouspensky was in London, Gurdjieff se nt Ouspensky a telegram: "Come immediately!" ? and when Gurdjieff says "Immediat ely," it means immediately! Ouspensky was involved in some work, but he had to l eave his job, pack immediately, finish everything and go to the Caucasus. And in those days, when Russia was in revolution, to go to the Caucasus was dangerous,

absolutely dangerous. People were rushing out of Russia to save their lives, so to enter Russia and fo r a well-known person like Ouspensky, well-known as a mathematician, world famou s.... It was also well-known that he was anti-communist, and he was not for the revolution. Now, to call him back into Russia, and that too, to the faraway Cauc asus.... He would have to pass through the whole of Russia to reach to Gurdjieff who was in a small place, Tiflis, but if Gurdjieff calls.... Ouspensky went. When he arrived there he was really boiling, because he had passed by burning tr ains, stations, butchered people and corpses on the platforms. And how he had ma naged ? he himself could not believe that he was going to reach Gurdjieff, but s omehow he managed to. And what did Gurdjieff say? He said, "You have come, now y ou can go: the purpose is fulfilled. I will see you later on in London." Now this kind of man.... He has his purpose ? there is no doubt about it ? but h as strange ways of working. Ouspensky, even Ouspensky, missed. He got so angry t hat he dropped all his connections with Gurdjieff after this incident, because t his man had pulled him into the very mouth of death for nothing! But Ouspensky m issed the point. If he had gone back as silently as he had come, he may have bec ome enlightened by the time he reached London ? but he missed the point. A man like Gurdjieff ? may not always do something that is apparently meaningful , but it is always meaningful. Nicoll became his disciple, and he had to make it through so many strange tasks, strange in every possible way. No Master before Gurdjieff had tried such strange ways. For example, he would force you to eat, t o go on eating; he would go on forcing you, "Eat!" ? and you could not say no to the Master. While tears were coming to you he was saying "Eat!"... and those sp ices, Caucasian spices ? Indian spices are nothing! Your whole throat was burning, you could feel the fire even in your stomach, in your intestines, and he was saying "Eat! Go on eating until I say stop." But he had some hidden meaning in it. There is a point for the body.... I said just the other day to you that a point comes for the body, if you fast, when after five days it changes its system. That is, the body starts absorbing its own fat, and then there is no more hunger. That is one method that has been used. This is also a similar method ? in the op posite direction. There is a point beyond which you cannot eat, but the master s ays, "Go on." He is trying to bring you to the brink of the capacity of your who le physiology, and you have never touched that. We are always in the middle. Nei ther are we fasting, nor are we feasting like Gurdjieff; we are always in the mi ddle. The body is in a settled routine; hence, the mind is also settled in its way of movement. Fasting destroys that. That's why fasting became so important in all r eligions. It brings you to a moment after fifteen days when you simply start for getting thoughts. Bigger gaps start appearing: for hours there is not a single t hought, and after twenty-one days your mind is empty. It's strange that when the stomach is totally empty it creates a synchronicity in the mind ? the mind beco mes totally empty. Fasting is not a goal in itself. Only idiots have followed it as a goal in itsel f It is simply a technique to bring you to a stage where you can experience a st ate of no-mind. Once that is experienced, you can go back to food. Then there is no problem, you know the track. And then, eating normally also you can go into that state any time you want. Gurdjieff was doing just the opposite because that 's what he had learned from the nomads. Those are a totally different kind of people. They don't have any scriptures. Th

ey don't have any sed on by word of were given by the nomads. They eat .

people like Buddha, Mahavira, or any others, but they have pas mouth, from generation to generation, certain techniques that father to the son. This technique Gurdjieff learned from those too much, and go on eating, and go on eating, and go on eating

A moment comes when it is not possible to eat anymore ? and that is the point wh en Gurdjieff would force you to eat. If you say yes even then, suddenly there is an immediate state of no-mind because you have broken the whole rhythm of body and mind. Now it is inconceivable for the mind to grasp what is happening. It c annot work any longer in this situation. It has not known it before because ? al ways remember ? mind is exactly like a computer. It is a bio-computer, it functions according to its program. You may be aware of it, you may not be aware of it, but it functions according to a program. Break the program somewhere.... And you can break the program only at the ends, only a t the boundary, where you are facing an abyss. Gurdjieff would force people to d rink so much alcohol ? and all kinds of alcoholic beverages ? that they would go almost crazy; so drunk that they would forget completely who they were. And he would go on giving it to them. If they fell he would shake them, sit them up and pour them some more, because there is a moment when the person has come to a point where his whole body, his whole consciousness is completely overtaken by the intoxicant. In that moment his unconscious starts speaking. Freud took t hree years, four years, five years of psychoanalysis to do this. Gurdjieff did it in a single night! Your unconscious would start speaking, would give all the clues about you of which you have not even been aware. And you wou ld not know that you had given those clues to Gurdjieff ? but he would know. And then he would work according to those clues: what exercises would be right for you, what dances would be suitable for you, what music was needed for you. All the clues have been given by your unconscious. You were not aware of it beca use you were completely intoxicated. You were not present when he worked on the unconscious and persuaded it to give all the clues about you. Those were the sec rets about you ? then he had the keys in his hands. So if somebody refused, "Now I cannot drink any more," he would throw him out. He would say, "Then this is n ot the place for you." - Osho

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Gurdjieff Gurdjieff Meditations to Disciples Remember in a Dream that it is a Dream Become Detach from your Acts Don t act like a Robot

"in Moods of extreme desire, Be undisturbed" Self-Remembering

1: Remember in a Dream that it is a Dream Osho - Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples that the most important thing is t o remember in a dream that "This is a dream." But how to do it? It seems almost impossible. How to remember in a dream that "This is a dream"? But if you practi ce the Gurdjieffian method, one day you can remember it. The method is simple. Y ou have to go on remembering the whole day, whatsoever you see, that "This is a dream." Walking on the street, "This is a dream"; the dog barking, "This is a dr eam." Go on remembering the whole day, "This is a dream, this is a dream...." It takes three to nine month for the idea to sink into your heart. Then one day, suddenly, in your dream you remember and you say, "This is a dream !" -- and that is a moment of great illumination. Immediately, the dream disappe ars. The moment you say it is a dream, it disappears and you are awake, fully aw ake, in the middle of the night. Of course, these trees and the people on the ro ad are not a dream so they don't disappear. You can go on saying, "This is a dre am." That was just a method to practice. But when you really remember in a dream that "This is a dream," the dream disappears. The dream can exist only if belie ved; the dream disappears if you don't believe in it. Our imagination is intoxic ating. 2: Become Detach from your Acts Osho - You will have to be a little separate from your acts; then you will be ab le to know what unawareness is. Somebody insults you; immediately, instantly, an ger arises. It is like pushing a button and the light comes on. There is no gap: you push a button and the light comes on. The light has no time to think whethe r to come on or not. Somebody insults you; he pushes a button and immediately yo u are enraged. Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples, "Wait at least for five m inutes. What is the hurry? Let him insult you, let him finish first. Then you cl ose your eyes and wait for five minutes, and watch what is happening inside you -- anger boiling." Gurdjieff himself became enlightened through this simple procedure: that whatsoe ver is mechanical in man he tried to make it non mechanical. And all is mechanic al in you -- anger, lust, greed, jealousy -- all is mechanical. It simply is the re whenever somebody pushes a button. You are functioning like a robot. Become a man. That's what meditation is all about, that's what sannyas is all about. Cre ate a little distance. Next time somebody insults you, give it five minutes, sit silently for five minutes, and then you can become angry. I am not saying "Don' t become angry" -- because that will be too much. I am saying that just for five minutes allow a gap, and you will be surprised: after five minutes it is not th

e same anger that it would have been five minutes before. 3: Because you are not functioning according to the robot Osho - Mind has two parts: one is the learning part, the other is the robot part . The learning part learns; whenever you are learning something you are more awa re. For example, if you are learning driving you are more aware -- you have to b e. The moment you have learned it, the learning part gives its information to th e robot part. Once you have learned driving, then you don't need any awareness; you simply go on doing it mechanically. You turn towards your house, you arrive in your garage, you lock the car. You are doing everything like a robot. And thi s is the story of your life, twenty-four hours a day. Change it! Gurdjieff's method was this: if some vegetarian had come to him as a disciple, t he first thing he would insist was, "Eat meat!" Now this is a very shocking thin g for a vegetarian -- to be told to eat meat. And Gurdjieff was a tough master; he would throw you out if you didn't listen to him, if you didn't follow the com mand, if you didn't follow the discipline. He would force you to eat meat. Now, when a vegetarian eats meat he becomes very conscious -- he has to. He has no id ea in the past, no experience in the past, of eating meat. Just think of Mahatma Gandhi eating meat... he will become tremendously aware! And if there was a meat-eater, then Gurdjieff would say, "For a few weeks you be just vegetarian. Don't eat meat at all -- no eggs, no meat, no milk, no animal food of any kind. Just go on eating vegetables." The whole body system had becom e accustomed to a certain pattern. He would change people's eating hours. If you were eating every day at one o'clock, he would say, "Eat at nine." If you were going to sleep every day at twelve, he would say to go at two or at ten. He woul d change everything. A man who had never been drinking wine, he would force to d rink wine just to change and shatter his pattern. The man who had been a drunkar d, he would stop him from drinking. Gurdjieff was puzzling to people, but the method is simple: he was trying to deautomatize. He was one of the greatest masters of this age, very much misunderst ood. Naturally, everybody was against him. Who has ever heard of religious maste rs forcing their disciples to drink? -- FORCING, actually forcing. And he would sit there.... The greatest thing in his commune was the dinner. It used to last four, five, si x, seven hours. Every evening it would start... and it would end in the middle o f the night. And he himself would take care of everybody, of what was being eate n, of what was given to them -- and he would go on forcing. People would become so drunk they would fall on the ground, and they would start saying things in th eir drunkenness -- and he would sit by the side and listen. He also used to drin k with them, but he had worked hard on the way. He was a tantra master. He had b een to India and to Tibet too, just to learn tantra. Tantra has special methods how to go on drinking and yet remain aware. YOU canno t be aware even without drinking. Tantra has methods to slowly slowly drink, and keep awareness, not to lose track of your awareness. Slowly slowly, the quantit y of your drug has to be increased as you increase in your awareness. A moment c omes when -- you will be surprised to know, still there are people in the East w ho practice it -- a moment comes, when no drug can affect your consciousness at all. Then the last thing they try is this: they keep poisonous snakes and they allow the snake to bite them on their tongue; that is the last method. Ordinarily a ma n will die.... These snakes are absolutely poisonous. Three percent of the snake s in India are dangerous; you cannot survive their bite -- once bitten you are g one. But these tantra masters will remain alert even in that moment and they wil

l not die. Their bodies have become accustomed to all kinds of poisons and they have become alert, so alert that no drug can affect them. Gurdjieff used to use that method with his disciples, simply to shatter your set tled habits.

4: Sutra from Vigyan Bhairav Tantra "in Moods of extreme desire, Be undisturbed" Osho - Gurdjieff used this technique very much. He created situations, but to cr eate situations a school is needed. You cannot do that alone. Gurdjieff had a sm all school in Fontainebleau, and he was a taskmaster. He knew how to create situ ations. You would enter the room, and a group would be sitting there. You would enter the room where a group was sitting, and something would be done so that yo u would get angry. And it would be done so naturally that you could never imagin e that some situation was being created for you. But it was a device. Someone would insult you by saying something, and you would get disturbed. Then everyone would help the disturbance and you would become ma d. And when you were right at the point where you could explode, Gurdjieff would shout, Remember! Remain undisturbed! A situation can be created, but only in a sc hool where many persons are working on themselves. And when Gurdjieff would shou t, Remember! Remain undisturbed, now you would know that this was a created situat ion. The disturbance cannot disappear so suddenly, so immediately, because it ha s physical roots. Your glands had thrown poison in the blood; your body had become affected. Anger cannot disappear so immediately. Even now that you had come to know that you ha d been deceived, that no one was insulting you and no one meant anything by it, it would be difficult to do anything. The anger is there, your body is filled wi th it but suddenly your temperature cools down. Only on the body, on the periphe ry, does the anger remain. At the center you suddenly cool down, and you know th at a point exists within you which is undisturbed. You start laughing. Your eyes are red with anger; your face is violent, animal-l ike, but you start laughing. You know two things now a point which is undisturbe d and a periphery which is disturbed. You can help. Your family can become a sch ool; you can help each other. Friends can become a school and they can help each other. You can decide with your family... the whole family can decide that now a situation has to be created for the father or for the mother, and then the who le family works to create the situation. When the father or mother says, Remain completely is simply wonderful. Once you cannot forget it, and it, regain it.

goes completely mad, then everyone starts laughing and undisturbed. You can help each other, and the experience you know a cool center within you in a hot situation, then in any hot situation you can remember it, reclaim

5: Sutra from Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

BE AWARE YOU ARE AND DISCOVER THE EVER-LIVING :

Osho - This technique is one of the most helpful, and it has been used for mille nnia by many teachers, masters. Buddha used it, Mahavira used it, Jesus used it, and in modern times Gurdjieff used it. Among all the techniques, this is one of the most potential. Try it. It will take time; months will pass. When Ouspensky was learning with Gurdjieff, for three months he had to make much effort, arduo us effort, in order to have a glimpse of what self-remembering is. So continuous ly, for three months, Ouspensky lived in a secluded house just doing only one th ing self-remembering.

Thirty persons started that experiment, and by the end of the first week twentyseven had escaped; only three remained. The whole day they were trying to rememb er not doing anything else, just remembering that I am. Twenty-seven felt they wer e going crazy. They felt that now madness was just near, so they escaped. They n ever turned back; they never met Gurdjieff again. Why? As we are, really, we are mad. Not remembering who we are, what we are, we are mad, but this madness is t aken as sanity. Once you try to go back, once you try to contact the real, it wi ll look like craziness, it will look like madness. Compared to what we are, it i s just the reverse, the opposite. If you feel that this is sanity, that will loo k like madness.

But three persisted. One of the three was P. D. Ouspensky. For three months they persisted. Only after the first month did they start having glimpses of simply being of I am. After the second month, even the I dropped, and they started having t he glimpses of am-ness of just being, not even of I , because I is also a label. The p re being is not I and thou ; it just is. And by the third month even the feeling of am -ness dissolved because that feeling of am-ness is still a word. Even that word d issolves. Then you are, and then you know what you are. Before that point comes you cannot ask, Who am I? Or you can go on asking continuously, Who am I? , just cont inuously inquiring, Who am I ? Who am I? , and all the answers that will be provide d by the mind will be found false, irrelevant. You go on asking, Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? and a point comes where you can no more ask the question. All the answers fall down, and then the question itself falls down and disappears. And when even the question, Who am I? disappears, you k now who you are. Gurdjieff tried from one corner: just try to remember you are. Raman Maharshi tried from another corner. He made it a meditation to ask, to inq uire, Who am I? And don t believe in any answers that the mind can supply. The mind will say, What nonsense are you asking? You are this, you are that, you are a man , you are a woman, you are educated or uneducated, rich or poor. The mind will supply answers, but go on asking. Don t accept any answer because al l the answers given by the mind are false. They are from the unreal part of you. They are coming from words, they are coming from scriptures, they are coming fr om conditioning, they are coming from society, they are coming from others. Go o n asking. Let this arrow of Who am I? penetrate deeper and deeper. A moment will c ome when no answer will come.

Question - Beloved Osho, What happened to Gurdjieff When he had his Car Accident ? Osho - The system of George Gurdjieff is a little bit strange, and it is certain ly different from all other, old approaches. His whole work was concentrated on creating an absolute feeling of distinction between the body and consciousness - not just as a philosophical idea but as an actual experience. It happens to everybody in death, but most people die unconsciously. The conscio usness separates completely from the body to go on its pilgrimage which is etern al. The journey of the body is very small, but it all happens in unconsciousness . It is a natural surgery. A surgeon cannot remove a small piece of your body while you are conscious. He h as to make you unconscious, then he can remove anything. He can kill you; you wi ll never know about it. But if you are conscious, then the pain of a deep-rooted identity being broken is so terrible, so unbearable, that you won't allow him t o do it. It has happened only once in India just at the beginning of this centur y. Gurdjieff The maharaja of Varanasi had to go through an operation to remove his appendix. The best surgeons from all over the world were attending him. But a great proble m arose: he was not ready to take anything from which he loses his consciousness . His whole life's work was exactly like Gurdjieff's: he was trying to be consci ous and to be separate from the body. And he said, "You can remove the appendix. I will not disturb you." But surgeons cannot believe a patient. And such an operation... removing his app endix while he is conscious! He may jump off the table, he may do something; he

may destroy not only the operation but even his life. But on both sides there was a problem. If the operation was delayed there was a danger that the appendix would explode and then death was certain. And because h e was no ordinary man, they could not force him. He was ready to die, but he was not ready to take any anesthesia which would make him unconscious. Finally the surgeons decided, "There is no harm in taking a chance; let him rema in awake. Anyway he is going to die. If we don't operate, he will die. But there is a possibility that perhaps he is right. He may have attained that quality of consolidation such that his consciousness is separate from the body and he may be saved. So it is worth taking a chance. And he is a stubborn man, he won't lis ten; he has never listened to anyone." And the decision had to be made within minutes; otherwise it would be out of the question. So finally they decided to operate on him. He remained conscious. The operation was done, the appendix removed, and he rema ined as if nothing was happening. It was an unprecedented phenomenon in the whol e history of medicine. It was a miracle. Gurdjieff's whole work consisted of separating the consciousness from the body a nd making the consciousness such a solid force that the body cannot drag it, tha t the body becomes only a servant and is not a master. And he was trying many ki nds of experiments. For example, he used to drink alcohol. One cannot imagine such a quantity of alc ohol... but he would remain perfectly conscious. No quantity of alcohol was able to make him unconscious. His disciples and he, they all would start drinking to gether, and within a few minutes all were flat on the ground -- and he was still drinking. He was trying in different ways to feel where he was still attached to the body. He would fast, he would not eat for many days -- and this was not anything reli gious, it was purely scientific experimentation. He would eat too much, so much that the whole body would be saying, "Stop!" and he would go on eating just to m ake the body completely understand that he was not under its control: he would d o what he wanted, he was not going to listen to the body. The car accident was the very culmination of his experiments. It is wrong to say it was an accident; it was not. He did it -- purposely, consideredly, conscious ly. It looked like an accident to everybody. He always used to drive very fast. All those who were sitting inside the car wer e just trembling: any moment the car was going to crash with something or other. But that day he was alone in the car, and he knowingly put it on full speed and crashed it into a big tree. He had multiple fractures -- the car was completely finished. Doctors said it was unimaginable how he got out of it. He got out of it with all those fractures, blood all over his body, and he walked to the ashra m -- which was almost one and a half miles from there -- and said, "Call some do ctors to check what has happened in the body." The doctors could not believe it when they saw the car. Nobody could remain aliv e after that; the accident was absolutely total. And with so many fractures, he was not unconscious; with so much blood gone, he was not unconscious. He managed to walk one and a half miles... which was absolutely miraculous. He was not sup posed to be able to do it! It was not an accident; he did it on purpose, and within three weeks he was perf ectly okay. He wanted to know death before death. That was the purpose of the ac cident. He wanted to know that even if the body goes through such torture, it is

not going to affect his consciousness. And he was immensely happy that he had s ucceeded, that he had attained what, in his terminology, is `crystallization'. N ow death meant nothing and now he could die consciously, watching what was happe ning. The way he had chosen was a long and hard way. But he was a strange type of man: for him, it was neither long nor hard, for him it was perfectly natural and nor mal. The car accident should be remembered as a voluntary entering into death. H e had almost died, but just through his crystallized consciousness he managed no t to die. He refused to die. It is a beautiful experiment, although outlandish. What he tried to do with it can be done very easily by just becoming aware of yo ur day-to-day activities: walking, sitting, eating, sleeping. They will not be s o dramatic, but they will be more simple, more human, more sane. And Gurdjieff is not a normal human being. He should be taken as an exception, n ot the rule. Nobody should try to follow him because he will be in trouble. That kind of person cannot be followed, that kind of person is born. You can underst and much from their life, but you should never try to imitate them. And it is not only so with Gurdjieff. There have been many other people in the E ast, who have died unknown... A few are known, but even the normal Eastern human ity has tried to forget them because their experiments looked outrageous. In India there are eighty-four siddhas. In the whole history of India there have been eighty-four people who could have talked with Gurdjieff in the same langua ge, who tried all kinds of experiments. Perhaps in a few experiments Gurdjieff m ay not have been able to compete with those people. I have been to one of the monasteries of the siddhas. Their monasteries have gon e underground. Because of their experiments, the masses were so against them tha t they have burned their literature, killed their masters, tried to erase... say ing that they are not part of the heritage of the East. In Ladakh, in the Himalayas, there is a small monastery hidden deep in the mount ains. They don't tell anybody that it belongs to the siddhas. There are a few ot hers in India. But unless they trust you, they will not tell you about other mon asteries. They are all linked. In this monastery I saw one experiment that will help to explain Gurdjieff's exp eriment to you. They start drinking poison in small quantities, and slowly slowl y they increase the quantity every day. The poison is so dangerous that just a s ingle dose is enough to finish a person. But they come to a point where they can take any quantity of poison and it does not affect their consciousness at all. They remain absolutely normal. And they have absorbed so much poison that if the y bite you you will die; they are full of poison. And in the monastery they keep big cobra snakes, which have the most dangerous p oison. Out of one hundred snakes there are only three percent which have real po ison; ninety-seven are just hypocrites, they don't have real poison. But they ca n make you freak out if you see them because they look like real snakes. They ar e snakes, only one thing is missing: they don't have the poison. The cobra is the best as far as poison is concerned. And these siddhas, as they are called, have come to a point where drinking poison from the outside, ordinar y poison, is just meaningless. They make the cobra bite on their tongue, and the cobra turns upside down and pours all its poison in their mouth. And you will b e surprised that the cobra dies! -- because that man is so full of poison. The c obra has only very little poison in a small bag attached in his mouth. That's wh y the Chinese eat snakes just as a vegetable. Just cut the head off and it is al

l vegetable! There is a famous story about a master who was sitting with his disciples and a guest master. And as the cobra is a very delicious dish, cobra was prepared. But the master was suddenly shocked, seeing on the guest master's plate, the head o f the cobra. So he took away the plate and called the cook, who was also a monk and proved to be not only a monk but a master. The master was very angry, but before he could show his anger the cook said, "Wh at is the matter?" The master said, "Look what the matter is. You have cooked even the head of the cobra!" The cook said, "Don't be worried." He took the head and gulped it down in front of everybody else. And he said, "Now you can eat. Don't be worried; I have taken care of the head." There was utter silence and shock. But perhaps he was connected with a certain s ecret school of siddhas in China too, so there was no danger. He did not die. Th ese experiments are certainly outrageous, but they have proved that a man is cap able of becoming so conscious that there is nothing that can make him unconsciou s again. He has achieved the ultimate in consciousness. That's the meaning of Gu rdjieff's experiment. Don't call it an accident. Source - Osho Book "The Path of The Mystic"

Question - Beloved Osho, What happened to Gurdjieff When he had his Car Accident? Osho - The system of George Gurdjieff is a little bit strange, and it is certain ly different from all other, old approaches. His whole work was concentrated on creating an absolute feeling of distinction between the body and consciousness - not just as a philosophical idea but as an actual experience. It happens to everybody in death, but most people die unconsciously. The conscio usness separates completely from the body to go on its pilgrimage which is etern al. The journey of the body is very small, but it all happens in unconsciousness . It is a natural surgery. A surgeon cannot remove a small piece of your body while you are conscious. He h as to make you unconscious, then he can remove anything. He can kill you; you wi ll never know about it. But if you are conscious, then the pain of a deep-rooted identity being broken is so terrible, so unbearable, that you won't allow him t o do it. It has happened only once in India just at the beginning of this centur y. Gurdjieff The maharaja of Varanasi had to go through an operation to remove his appendix. The best surgeons from all over the world were attending him. But a great proble m arose: he was not ready to take anything from which he loses his consciousness . His whole life's work was exactly like Gurdjieff's: he was trying to be consci ous and to be separate from the body. And he said, "You can remove the appendix. I will not disturb you." But surgeons cannot believe a patient. And such an operation... removing his app endix while he is conscious! He may jump off the table, he may do something; he

may destroy not only the operation but even his life. But on both sides there was a problem. If the operation was delayed there was a danger that the appendix would explode and then death was certain. And because h e was no ordinary man, they could not force him. He was ready to die, but he was not ready to take any anesthesia which would make him unconscious. Finally the surgeons decided, "There is no harm in taking a chance; let him rema in awake. Anyway he is going to die. If we don't operate, he will die. But there is a possibility that perhaps he is right. He may have attained that quality of consolidation such that his consciousness is separate from the body and he may be saved. So it is worth taking a chance. And he is a stubborn man, he won't lis ten; he has never listened to anyone." And the decision had to be made within minutes; otherwise it would be out of the question. So finally they decided to operate on him. He remained conscious. The operation was done, the appendix removed, and he rema ined as if nothing was happening. It was an unprecedented phenomenon in the whol e history of medicine. It was a miracle. Gurdjieff's whole work consisted of separating the consciousness from the body a nd making the consciousness such a solid force that the body cannot drag it, tha t the body becomes only a servant and is not a master. And he was trying many ki nds of experiments. For example, he used to drink alcohol. One cannot imagine such a quantity of alc ohol... but he would remain perfectly conscious. No quantity of alcohol was able to make him unconscious. His disciples and he, they all would start drinking to gether, and within a few minutes all were flat on the ground -- and he was still drinking. He was trying in different ways to feel where he was still attached to the body. He would fast, he would not eat for many days -- and this was not anything reli gious, it was purely scientific experimentation. He would eat too much, so much that the whole body would be saying, "Stop!" and he would go on eating just to m ake the body completely understand that he was not under its control: he would d o what he wanted, he was not going to listen to the body. The car accident was the very culmination of his experiments. It is wrong to say it was an accident; it was not. He did it -- purposely, consideredly, conscious ly. It looked like an accident to everybody. He always used to drive very fast. All those who were sitting inside the car wer e just trembling: any moment the car was going to crash with something or other. But that day he was alone in the car, and he knowingly put it on full speed and crashed it into a big tree. He had multiple fractures -- the car was completely finished. Doctors said it was unimaginable how he got out of it. He got out of it with all those fractures, blood all over his body, and he walked to the ashra m -- which was almost one and a half miles from there -- and said, "Call some do ctors to check what has happened in the body." The doctors could not believe it when they saw the car. Nobody could remain aliv e after that; the accident was absolutely total. And with so many fractures, he was not unconscious; with so much blood gone, he was not unconscious. He managed to walk one and a half miles... which was absolutely miraculous. He was not sup posed to be able to do it! It was not an accident; he did it on purpose, and within three weeks he was perf ectly okay. He wanted to know death before death. That was the purpose of the ac cident. He wanted to know that even if the body goes through such torture, it is

not going to affect his consciousness. And he was immensely happy that he had s ucceeded, that he had attained what, in his terminology, is `crystallization'. N ow death meant nothing and now he could die consciously, watching what was happe ning. The way he had chosen was a long and hard way. But he was a strange type of man: for him, it was neither long nor hard, for him it was perfectly natural and nor mal. The car accident should be remembered as a voluntary entering into death. H e had almost died, but just through his crystallized consciousness he managed no t to die. He refused to die. It is a beautiful experiment, although outlandish. What he tried to do with it can be done very easily by just becoming aware of yo ur day-to-day activities: walking, sitting, eating, sleeping. They will not be s o dramatic, but they will be more simple, more human, more sane. And Gurdjieff is not a normal human being. He should be taken as an exception, n ot the rule. Nobody should try to follow him because he will be in trouble. That kind of person cannot be followed, that kind of person is born. You can underst and much from their life, but you should never try to imitate them. And it is not only so with Gurdjieff. There have been many other people in the E ast, who have died unknown... A few are known, but even the normal Eastern human ity has tried to forget them because their experiments looked outrageous. In India there are eighty-four siddhas. In the whole history of India there have been eighty-four people who could have talked with Gurdjieff in the same langua ge, who tried all kinds of experiments. Perhaps in a few experiments Gurdjieff m ay not have been able to compete with those people. I have been to one of the monasteries of the siddhas. Their monasteries have gon e underground. Because of their experiments, the masses were so against them tha t they have burned their literature, killed their masters, tried to erase... say ing that they are not part of the heritage of the East. In Ladakh, in the Himalayas, there is a small monastery hidden deep in the mount ains. They don't tell anybody that it belongs to the siddhas. There are a few ot hers in India. But unless they trust you, they will not tell you about other mon asteries. They are all linked. In this monastery I saw one experiment that will help to explain Gurdjieff's exp eriment to you. They start drinking poison in small quantities, and slowly slowl y they increase the quantity every day. The poison is so dangerous that just a s ingle dose is enough to finish a person. But they come to a point where they can take any quantity of poison and it does not affect their consciousness at all. They remain absolutely normal. And they have absorbed so much poison that if the y bite you you will die; they are full of poison. And in the monastery they keep big cobra snakes, which have the most dangerous p oison. Out of one hundred snakes there are only three percent which have real po ison; ninety-seven are just hypocrites, they don't have real poison. But they ca n make you freak out if you see them because they look like real snakes. They ar e snakes, only one thing is missing: they don't have the poison. The cobra is the best as far as poison is concerned. And these siddhas, as they are called, have come to a point where drinking poison from the outside, ordinar y poison, is just meaningless. They make the cobra bite on their tongue, and the cobra turns upside down and pours all its poison in their mouth. And you will b e surprised that the cobra dies! -- because that man is so full of poison. The c obra has only very little poison in a small bag attached in his mouth. That's wh y the Chinese eat snakes just as a vegetable. Just cut the head off and it is al

l vegetable! There is a famous story about a master who was sitting with his disciples and a guest master. And as the cobra is a very delicious dish, cobra was prepared. But the master was suddenly shocked, seeing on the guest master's plate, the head o f the cobra. So he took away the plate and called the cook, who was also a monk and proved to be not only a monk but a master. The master was very angry, but before he could show his anger the cook said, "Wh at is the matter?" The master said, "Look what the matter is. You have cooked even the head of the cobra!" The cook said, "Don't be worried." He took the head and gulped it down in front of everybody else. And he said, "Now you can eat. Don't be worried; I have taken care of the head." There was utter silence and shock. But perhaps he was connected with a certain s ecret school of siddhas in China too, so there was no danger. He did not die. Th ese experiments are certainly outrageous, but they have proved that a man is cap able of becoming so conscious that there is nothing that can make him unconsciou s again. He has achieved the ultimate in consciousness. That's the meaning of Gu rdjieff's experiment. Don't call it an accident. Source - Osho Book "The Path of The Mystic"

The following selections from Sri Ramana Anubhuti (Sri Ramana Experience) by Sri Muruganar describe his experience of realising the Self in Sri Bhagavan's prese nce. The experience was permanent for Sri Muruganar. He wrote Sri Ramana Anubhut i twenty years after realising the Self. These selections are taken from Power o f The Presence Part Two by David Godman. The translation is by Robert Butler. 8. I have ended the confusion of my bewildered, suffering mind. A lowly cur, I have merged with the gracious feet of my Master. In the surging brilliance of his divine wisdom s splendor the broad ocean of deadly desires has disappeared completely. 9. The dark prison, which bound my tortured soul, crumbled and I became his servant, finding joyous life in the open sky of his ambrosial grace. The knot, which locked my spirit to my physical body, was sundered by the bright sword of my Master s glance and was no more. 12. I was a learned fool. My flawed mind knew nothing till I came to dwell with Him whose glance filled my heart with the light of awareness. Dwelling in that gracious state of peace, whose nature is holy silence, so hard to gain and know, I entered into union with the deathless state of the knowledge of reality.

13. As the deadly delusion of a body-bound ego faded, a flower of pure light unfolded at his holy feet. That radiance grew ever brighter with my love until I realized the flawless knowledge of

the Self, manifesting as the unbroken Awareness heart.

I-I

within my

15. He became one with my very soul, the Supreme Lord, the flawless Brahman, the life of all that is, the jewel of the Self, turning my soul s night to day with the fulsome rays of true wisdom s sun.

16. The confusion of the senses ended and the world s illusion was dispelled as grace s bright sun rose, absorbing me in itself and obliterating all distinctions. And as I entered the light of a life lived in the holy silence of the glorious non-dual state, the I and all that arises from it subsided and dissolved away.

18. I was wandering deluded in the mind s labyrinth of dreams, running hither and thither, desiring one thing after another until the joy of union with the Lord welled up within me. My body merged into the infinite light of divine wisdom and my heart was filled with a deep inner tranquility.

23. Corrupted by the senses defilement, yet was I drawn by the light of the Self which shone in your eyes so that I conceived a great love for you. With melting heart, like a cow with young calf, I remain a supplicant at your feet, which hold the reward of final liberation. 25. Unquenchable, the lamp of grace and true knowledge burns at his holy feet. Through his gentle smile, where grace's flower blooms, I have renounced and abandoned the ties of kith and kin and I have placed myself beneath those bounteous feet, grasping them closely.

27. He is the teacher of the eternal law through whose glance the truth unfolded, filling my heart with the dazzling radiance of his blissful consummate grace, so that the body, ego and intellect were all no more. I became merged in the divine silence, which is the abiding knowledge of Lord Siva.

28. A noble lion, he fixed his victorious gaze of true knowledge upon the rutting elephant of my ego, which was drunk with self-conceit, filling me with the sweet nectar of union with Lord Siva so that the inner experience of divine wisdom became my whole existence.

29. I was bound for destruction through my disastrous

attachment to the world s illusory reality until, under my fair Lord s gracious gaze, my understanding was flooded with the delightful experience of Lord Siva's bliss, and I entered a new life in the boundless realm of holy silence.

32. Through the light of inquiry into the nature of the Self, which is true spiritual practice, and through the precious words of my teacher, who is established in the state of holy silence wherein liberation has its origin, my soul has tasted the nectar of union with Lord Siva in the state of bliss beyond duality, merging into the all-transcending oneness of his grace.

38. Deeply absorbed in the state of holy silence which reality s perfect light illumines, filled with the exaltation of the non-dual state, my consciousness merged with the Lord and I became one with Him, winning the greatest reward of all, to dwell in final bliss, beyond birth and death.

39. As the struggle between desire and aversion came to an end, I ceased to invoke in mere words the one true Godhead , and as the light of reality which is truly sublime grew ever brighter within my heart, I attained that state of grace, which is to dwell unwearyingly in holy silence.

40. My poor helpless mind was swept torrent of objective phenomena until understanding into the broad calm of the light of his majesty shone in my

along in the swirling my Lord guided my deluded his holy silence so that heart.

42. My divine Lord and grace-bestowing Guru replaced the loathsome darkness of my mind s delusion with the clear light of divine knowledge so that my understanding overflowed with praise to his glorious reality.

43. Light of lights, graciously he plunged me into the ocean of divine love at his holy feet so that I tasted the sweetness of final bliss with which I could not be sated. Origin and source of my understanding, the spreading radiance of his true teaching rushed forth in all directions until within my heart it united with my very being.

44. Through the power of his feet, gracious beacons of unconditional knowledge, he pierced my desolate existence to the core, and when his noble gaze fell upon me, spreading the unfailing light of Sivahood all about, I experienced the incomparable bliss of authentic being.

48. Transporting me into a realm of pure bliss, the vision of the authentic Self expanded within my heart and I attained the state of grace whose essence is love. Then, in the state of holy silence, bliss and love merged together into realization of the one true reality, which is the experience of Lord Siva.

49. In holy silence at his flawless feet, thinking, yet beyond the realm of thought, I established in my heart that consciousness wherein his self and mine were one. The confusion of eye and mind, born of treacherous desire, died away, its falsehood revealed, and amidst grace s honeyed flood, divine reality was all.

50. I read the scriptures but my mind could not grasp their meaning. It was only through the gracious intervention of my wise teacher and Master, working inwardly, that his own state of unbroken meditation became permanent within me and my heart was penetrated and held in reality s eternal grasp.

53. Without dissimulation he revealed to us through the absolute purity of his grace that infinite state of pure consciousness, manifesting as a radiant expanse of light within our hearts, so that, sitting at the feet of the Creator, with no one to give and no one to receive, we enjoyed the union we so eagerly sought.

54. He is my Master, manifesting the light of true knowledge, whose nature is love, and that same knowledge is the means by which I worship him, so that in my heart, as knowledge and love merge indistinguishably into holy silence, my true nature stands revealed.

56. It was fitting that he should accept me into his holy company and fitting that I, for my part, should approach him as a loving devotee. Through that fair union, as I became one with him, he bestowed upon me the glory of liberation, whose attribute is realization in holy silence.

57. Languishing in the slough of my soul s defilement, I knew not a single moment of clear understanding until my Lord revealed to me my own self as Brahman, and as the light of grace shone forth from his fair feet, graciously bestowing the supreme bliss of his holy silence, all was illumined by the magnificence of his mind, voice and form.

59. Through the ever-present treasure of his grace within my heart, my life became free of the suffering caused by the humiliating bonds of the world and the soul. And as the ruinous effects of my former deeds were consumed like cotton in a flame, my spirit attained the highest bliss, which is to dwell with my Master in that state of grace.

61. The pure eternal state of grace beyond the taint of mind flared up within my heart, spreading through my entire physical form. The reward I gained was the experience of the self as Braham and the victory I won was to vanquish the bitter suffering of birth and death.

63. A poor sinner gripped by the bonds of excessive desire, I was deluded by my ruinous attachment to the pleasures of the senses, but when he conferred upon me the bliss of his true knowledge, all delusion was dispelled. Dwelling thus as one with Sri Ramana is nothing less than union with Lord Siva.

64. Exposing the vast expanse of the heavenly realm as mere illusion, and the entire world known to the senses as false, the I shone forth as the supreme Self, ruling over me and revealing to me the goal of the Guru's mantra.

66. The Lord bathed me in the light of my own inner realization so that the mental trickery that bound me to a world of illusion was exposed. Then, as all desires and the thoughts that gave rise to them fell away, the glory of his holy feet was all that remained, radiating peace and graciously shedding the light of his true teaching all about me.

68. My mind extinguished, I am his devotee, meditating upon his ruby feet, which bestow the grace of the Self, whose nature is pure knowledge. The supreme bliss of realization arising in the sweet nectar of holy silence has established itself within my heart as eternal freedom from birth and death.

71. Through my erroneous identification with my ego, which was filled with desires through my false understanding of the nature of the soul and the world, I remained enmeshed in the web of birth and death. But when I attained the blessed state of grace, wherein I was embraced by the supreme bliss of realisation of the Self, my heart entered the realm of sublime majesty.

75. He saved me, his humble devotee, from destruction, bringing

me to salvation through his own ambrosial being, even as I languished in the dark night of my mind s deadly delusion. Then indeed did the holy feet of my noble Master, bestowing his grace in holy silence, become immovably established within my heart, illuminating my inner being with the golden light of true spiritual practice.

77. Showing me the light of his true teaching, his holy feet drove out the ruinous ignorance that, like a dark cloud, defiled my soul with corruption. Revealing to me in all its clarity the truth whose nature is liberation, he joyfully filled my heart with the bliss of profound peace.

79. Through the victorious experience of true realization s full glory, the confusion caused by my soul s defilement disappeared completely. Then indeed did a tide of deep peace, which my heart could not contain, well up and spread within me, and as the flood increased, desire s thirst was quenched at last.

80. As love for my Master grew to fill my consciousness, the blissful realization of Lord Siva, like sweetest ambrosia, swept me up in its flood. Then, as I became established in that same true awareness, the light of liberation shone out with a steady radiance within my heart.

81. His gracious gaze entered my heart, bestowing the knowledge of Lord Siva in all its fullness. All the petty cares of my erring mind, along with the fears they bring with them, disappeared completely, and as that false awareness of a personal self which gives rise to the multifarious and bewildering world of appearances vanished, a new life began for me at his holy feet.

83. As I waited nervously, weeping and distraught, on the threshold of his grace-bestowing divine presence, my Master cut away the worldly desires which so tormented me, and there, beneath his bounteous foot, I received a noble gift, the realisation of the true knowledge of Lord Siva.

84. The Lord graciously manifested as my Guru, eradicating the bondage of my deluded cravings. Revealing to me the glory of his feet, driving out all my desires, he ruled over me, so that in my soul only he remained. The joy of reflecting upon my deep affection for him never leaves my heart.

85. Seeking sanctuary I took shelter at his feet, and he, through his silent presence, bade me henceforth fear no more. From

that day on, through that authentic union in which he became ineradicably established within my heart, my life has been filled with a child-like happiness and profound joy.

87. Abolishing the deep attachment which sent me wandering in pain from birth to birth, he revealed to me the state of liberation which is my own birthright, and what is more, he charged my voice with poetry so that, unworthy as I was, I was able through his grace to speak of his true wisdom even before the learned, as if I were goddess of Saraswati herself.

88. A poor devotee, I fell into evil through the mean quality of my petty mind, but when the experience of the true knowledge of the Self welled up within my heart, thought melted away in the spreading radiance of holy silence and he showed me the radiance of his bliss, eternal and all transcending.

92. There was no good in me. I was no better than a dog, but when my Master looked upon me, an intense longing for him arose which penetrated my heart and became established there, and as the suffering born of the illusion of separateness abated, the deep peace of a realisation which knows no bounds shone forth, graciously bestowing the wisdom of the self.

93. My heart was sunk in the sleep of delusion, and my selfobsessed mind swept up in a whirlwind of dreams so that the great glory of his true nature was hidden from me until he revealed it in all its majestic splendor. Such is the compassion of my Lord and God. 94. Difficult it would be for me to express the lofty nature of the Lord's compassion other than by sinking into the radiant inner quietude of holy silence beneath his gracious feet so that my Father's own divine majesty might become manifest in me. 97. Bidding me behold and embrace him without a second s delay, my Lord and Master became inwardly one with me, absorbing me into the great ocean of his own Self. The realisation that consists of the merging of consciousness into that Self was established ineradicably within me and I began a new life, sharing his divine nature. 100. 'Experiencing the profound bliss of his nature which knows no taint, I will bathe in the glorious radiance of his grace.' Such was the clear understanding through which he conferred his enlightenment upon me. To my soul, the love of my true father is indeed sweeter than the nectar of the gods.

101. In the parched desert of my sinful life I groaned in agony, trembling with fear, until my Lord put an end to my suffering and revealed to me in the sight of men that state of grace which even the gods cannot know.

102. Delighting my gaze he showed me his feet which graciously bestow true knowledge. No one can reach and know them through the contentious ego with its endless convolutions, but only through his grace, when the mind is delivered up to be subdued by the power of those holy feet.

103. As the gracious light of inner realisation entered my heart, all knowledge acquired through learning was experienced as merely a creation of the mind, and as it fell away, my futile habitual mode of awareness, in which I did not cleave to the unconditional glory of the Self, ripened triumphantly into true knowledge.

104. The shadowy creations of my deluded mind, filled with desire and worthy only of reproach, faded as the Lord s divine grace welled up within me. And for my thoughts, there remains no object other than the glory of the Self where I dwell in awe and wonder.

105. My mind s activity along with my ego subsided and fell into total abeyance so that no object of thought existed within my consciousness. Then, in that overflowing emptiness, did I experience the goal of the Self, eternal and ever present, as my own true goal.

106. Entirely banishing lust and all the rest, my gracious Lord, Guru Ramana, true wisdom s flame, watches over me. Through his glance alone he revealed to me that upsurge of divine love, sweet like the rich juice of a ripe mango, which is the bliss of Lord Siva's blessing.

107. Ocean of compassion, he took pity on this poor ignorant fool and through his grace, cleansing the evil from my heart, he established the supreme reality there. Even the final cataclysm at the universe s end could not dislodge his radiant feet from that place.

109. He it is who is eternally one with myself in the state of one-pointedness, who holds me in his grip like a magnet, who is not separated from me by so much as an atom. And, as the vanity of the I am the body notion fades and is no more, it is his presence that illumines my heart with the teaching of the

indivisible Self.

110. Through his glance he united me with himself, false and deluded knave that I am, and he now dwells illustrious within my heart of hearts. In holy silence, as the experience of the immaculate Self, like sweetest nectar, overwhelms me in its flood, my life has reached fulfillment.

112. Holding me in liberation s final embrace, my Guru s holy feet light up my heart, graciously bestowing the knowledge of the Self. Awakened through his divine power, I have attained strength and clarity of mind so that the false desires that held me in the illusion of worldly bondage have vanished like a dream.

116. Lost in the fruitless round of birth before my Master and my sins were cleansed gaze. Holding to the path of his holy feet dissolved in the light of my devotions and nature of the real.

and death I surrendered by his gracious my deadly vices I merged with the

120. Through my Master s gracious revelation, seeking deep within myself, I knew that it was pure falsehood to claim that the state of self-forgetfulness in which thought diversifies, giving rise to the pairs of opposites, could be inherent in the lofty condition of pure, non-dual consciousness.

123. The nature of his Grace, conferred through the bliss of divine silence, was such that it established in me an unshakeable devotion that I experienced as a deep love for my Lord, a love in which my bondage was ended and my mind dissolved in the limitless expanse of the Supreme Self.

124. Setting me on the straight path of true knowledge he led me to the glorious goal of union with him in the one-pointed state of holy silence. My heart s gracious jewel, true wisdom s sun, he dissipated the dark clouds of the senses illusory world.

126. When the Lord s gracious gaze fell upon me, my heart was filled with the Self s divine radiance in which all distinctions are obliterated so that my evil and treacherous ego faded in the spreading glory of divine realisation s dawn, and was no more.

127. Gladly he ruled me, true wisdom s flame, and now within

my heart where in joy I made for him a home I can perceive no other. Only he remains, the Supreme Self, manifesting as consciousness pure light, empty and yet replete.

128. Those who perform penances, refusing all sustenance, are called great men, but never once did I refuse food with its six flavors. Yet no sooner had his feet entered my heart, delighting my eyes with their blissful sight, than I fell at once into a state where my penance became continuous without any effort on my part.

132. Through the knowledge granted to me by the Lord I came to realize that the reality that lies beyond the mind is my own true nature. In that state the objective knowledge which dominated my fevered mind dissolved and fell away, and in holy silence the fire of a pure realisation, transcending duality, was kindled within me.

133. Subduing and bringing me under his control, he drew my consciousness to himself with the irresistible magnet of his grace. From the profound depths of his holy silence his gracious glance cut away my ego s ruinous cravings in an instant. How great is the power of his piercing gaze!

136. Even as I grieved over my own lack of worth, he revealed to me the infinite heaven of his grace, purifying me with his limitless and all-pervading light. The delusion of a personal self was swept away and in that clear awareness my existence became one with Lord Siva.

137. The holy state of grace has become established within my heart. The false I of my personal self, which arises through lack of attention, has vanished. And as the deadly ocean of wicked desires was drained, I entered that state of clear awareness, which is to be one with Lord Siva.

138. A blissful emptiness invaded my heart as he caused me to experience in holy silence the bliss of his divine grace, proffering me his holy feet, and with them the eternal truth of the Self. I am left without even the power of thought to reflect upon this.

139. The Lord filled me with the radiance of his own Self, established within my heart, so that I was left quite without the power of thought. Separate from nothing and dependent on nothing, my true nature is to abide in the profound wisdom of that Self.

141. Dwelling as the Supreme Self, whose nature is inherently free of all becoming, that unique reality became established within my heart as my own true nature and my personal self was totally annihilated in him.

142. Through the arrogance of the body-bound ego my mind rushed hither and thither until it was irrevocably defeated as my consciousness merged into that glorious eternally blissful state of unbroken awareness, which is the boundless realm of the one true self.

143. Established in the highest awareness which is of the nature of the indivisible Self and which is free of a discriminating consciousness based on discursive thought, my mind s illusory cravings have ceased and that enervated state dominated by desire and aversion has come to a final end.

146. As the natural confusion caused by sinful and injurious desires ceased and everywhere, all about me, my true blissful nature became manifest, I was enfolded by the glorious light of the true and exalted Self, the reality of which is the foundation of all things and is known as Sadasiva [the being of Siva].

148. He is the holy one who entered my inner being, holding me in thrall through his compassion so that I dwelt at his feet, devoting myself to his service. His will, shining within me, became one with my own nd my ego-self subsided, driven from my heart by true meditation, which is to be one with him.

150. So deserving of devotion, he is the Lord in whom true knowledge is embodied. Through His nature I attained an awareness which is the clear, bright and unadulterated expression of his love. And it is that loving awareness that opened up my inner being, eradicating the desire and aversion caused by the soul s identification with the body, so that the bondage of the world s impurity faded and was no more.

151. Through his gaze he bathed me in the rising flood of his grace, revealing to me the glory of the Self so that the stain of my imprisoned soul s defilement was washed away. Bringing my existence to ample fulfillment by restoring it to its true nature, he has become one with me, dwelling within my heart and filling me with his light.

153. Transforming yourself into the pure gold of realisation through spiritual practice, be still at my gracious feet and let your troubles be ended. As he spoke these words an exalted state of awareness grew and came to fruition within me in which I experienced the truth of the Upanishads and vedic hymns.

156. Through my deep yearning I discovered him within my heart. As the holy state of grace opened up into the fulfillment of the real, he bestowed on me the blessed state of divine contemplation that is his teaching, and his peace transformed my consciousness into itself.

157. Through his gracious teaching he abolished the desires that clouded my mind with delusion, engendering in my consciousness the infinite fulfillment of authentic being. And thus, in holy silence, the river of my soul ran true at last, filled with the waters of the experience of the supreme ineffable Lord Siva.

158. Through the glorious wisdom of his all-transcending nature, which graciously granted me the attainment of final bliss, free of all mental confusion, I entered a place where all actions, whether of thought, word or deed, are no more: the realm of holy silence.

164. In glory, severing bondage s knot, my Master fixed his gaze upon me, establishing his grace once and for all within my heart. And as the bliss of true knowledge suffused me, that ego-bound knowledge, filled with desires that bring suffering in their wake, was abolished completely.

165. As the glory of his eternal teaching suffused my understanding with bliss, abolishing the demonic I sense which brings with it the delusion of separateness, I obtained the blessed reward of his holy feet where, in holy silence, resides the ineffable reality which is the import of all the Vedas.

166. Through the blessing of your true knowledge, perceiving without distinction myself in you and you in myself, I have come to know within my heart Selfhood s fair and undivided form. How then shall I praise you when you are fully one with me?

169. Bestowing upon me, through his compassionate glance, his wisdom, which is like a diamond, hard and bright, my Lord, Guru Ramana, graciously accepted my surrender. And as the black cloud of ruinous self-delusion, which wore my body s form as a cloak, melted away, I perceived the precious jewel of my

own true form. 172. Gaining a new life, I spent it singing praises to the lofty truth of his glorious name, albeit in feeble words of little worth. But my Lord did not deem my words unworthy. Embracing me in the outpouring of his affection, with more than a mother's love, he banished my deadly delusion and made me his servant. 173. When I perceived the Self manifesting in his radiant form, fulfilling my heart s deepest yearning, I was humbled by the full flood of his grace which cleansed me of obscuring desires, and as my ego fell away, I bowed my head in profound humility.

175. Beneath my Guru s gaze my heart of emptied of guile so that the false understanding that had usurped my heart disappeared completely, and there, in silence at his holy feet, the pure ocean of the Self, which nothing can contain, swept me into the deep bliss of the absolute Godhead.

182. The disordered and chaotic world created by my deluded mind s endless modifications ended when, through his grace, I entered the harmonious condition of authentic being and found my true place, merging with his holy feet which bestow the clear understanding of true knowledge.

184. For there will henceforth be neither pain nor pleasure now that I have experienced love at my good Lord s gracious feet. The desires, which attended that illusory existence lived on the level of the flawed and untrustworthy mind, have ceased and my own essential Self has become one with the supreme.

186. There are those who bear the marks of the highest maturity, but even they will fail to perceive the way to salvation and must suffer accordingly unless they seek illumination from an enlightened Master and realize the truth. It is the Sadguru alone who can cut away the fretters of the world and the soul.

187. No matter that we read the truth in holy books, no matter how many vows we keep, it is only with the help of the Sadguru that we can conquer our confusion. Although I was a sinner, impure in mind, he established me in his own state and showed forbearance, accepting my homage and becoming my Lord.

195. Through the virtuous state of absorption wherein he dwells in holy silence as the Self alone, he came and made me his devotee. In that moment this whole world became as nothing

to me and I entered into a fitting union with him who dwells as That .

196. Becoming established in the clarity of true knowledge I, his humble servant, have attained to the consummate state of holy silence. Abandoning the ego I have forsaken all company other than that of the Self, whose glorious nature is none other than my own.

197. Dwelling in the thought-free state of holy silence I experienced the true knowledge in all its clarity and in the dawn of the real I entered a new life filled with tranquility. At his holy feet, becoming immersed in his peace, I took as my own form that which is beyond bondage and liberation, the Absolute of Absolutes.

198. Attaining a vision beyond the reach of sight and an awareness more subtle than the tiniest atom, I have become established in the absolute reality of the Self. And thus my mind has merged with the supreme in which there is no going, no coming, no connection with anything whatsoever. Seeing itself in all that is, its separation has come to an end.

200. My Heart was filled with that holy silence is fully manifest as that profound reality whose consciousness. And the peace which I experienced gracious state of pure awareness was transformed for him.

in which the Self nature is in that into love

202. When I became worthy of experiencing that reality whose nature is oneness, and therefore cannot be described, the confused state in which my mind was divided by the duality of good and evil was ended and my existence was suffused by the real.

221. As long as my heart was not filled with the divine blessing of love and true knowledge bestowed in silence, I was like a noisy drum, beating out my message in words. But through the compassion of my savior, who has the power to confer the final state of total transcendence through his grace, I entered into the deathless state of silent absorption in him.

226. He revealed to me the transcendent truth so that I came to dwell in holy silence at his feet, bathing again and again in the sacred waters of divine awareness until my heart was pure and refreshed, and as the flame of bliss flared up within me, all my

bitter suffering came to an end.

233. He forgave me my misdeeds and made good my imperfections. Through the grace of the Self which shines within the heart, cleansing it of its fundamental corruption, he gave me the gift of a greater life lived in the real. He is the Lord to whom I cling as my true support, abandoning all other attachments.

235. He is my teacher, the Supreme Godhead, whilst, as for me, I am not worthy of sitting at the feet of such a Master. And yet through the power of his gracious gaze I was able to offer him my devotion and remain in unbroken communion with him.

238. Surrounded by desires that led me astray, my heart was hardened and my understanding was tricked by the illusion of a personal self. But now that the power of that delusive ego has dissolved at the bounteous feet of my great Master, my divine spouse, I will devote my life to the service of those who serve those holy feet.

241. Hail to the Lord who nourished me with the delicious ambrosia of the eternal teaching of Sadasiva, who through his love refreshed my heart, banishing my deluded attachment to land ownership, wealth and women, who looked upon me through the Self s gracious eye and, entering my soul, made it part of him!

"The truth shall set you free." ~Jesus Buddha "Those who are awake, live in a state of constant amazement." ~Gautama Buddha Mother Mary Patanjali Patanjali's Path on How to Know God Sai Baba You must be a Lotus, unfolding its petals when the Sun rises in the sky, unaffect ed by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it! ~Sathya Sai Baba

Paramahansa Yogananda "You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody el se has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God's creative prin ciple works in you." ~Paramahansa Yogananda Osho "Ecstasy is our very nature; not to be ecstatic is simply unnecessary. To be ecs tatic is natural, spontaneous. It needs no effort to be ecstatic, it needs great effort to be miserable. That's why you look to tired, because misery is really hard work; to maintain it is really difficult, because you are doing something a gainst nature." ~Osho

Satsang Teachers Satsang is by far the most direct path to awakening. It is simply sitting with the truth of who you are. Your true nature, at ease in communion with the Unive rse. Ramana Maharshi "One who knows the Self has nothing more to do, nor has he any more thoughts. Fr om then on, the infinite power will carry out all further actions that may be ne cessary for him." ~Ramana Maharshi Papaji Papaji Video #1

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"Stillness is the greatest achievement one can have in life." ~Papaji Robert Adams Click Here for Robert's Enlightening Wisdoms "Find the source of the "I". Follow it diligently until you merge with the Sourc e." ~Robert Adams Adyashanti Click Here for Adya's FREE Enlightening Audios

"If there is a primary practice or path to enlightenment, this is it, to cease c herishing illusions." ~Adyashanti Click on this photo to download his FREE e-books!! Nirmala "There are basically two movements of consciousness: Love and Fear. Love is allo wing what is and fear is resisting it." ~Nirmala Pamela Wilson "Every thought, every feeling, is a visitor. You just say: Welcome! Come in an d sit with me." ~Pamela Gangaji "Trying to quiet the mind is just some noise trying to make some other noise, le ss noisy. Simply recognize that which is already silent." ~Gangaji