Letters To Anna

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There are fundamental

puzzles an adept ought solve. There are different systems, different theories, different practice methods. All that aids the adept on the path when there is a deeper understanding of the universe itself. And a deeper understanding enables the adept to figure why each system works, in what sense they work, and why a good portion of aspirants of different systems seem to fall away.


The first idea I wish to draw attention to is the idea of the self, in ancient traditions. The self were taken as through that which the primordial God were approached.


Through experience, from birth to death, the individual is subject to a range of experiences, transformations of experiences, yet the fundamental sense of who they are doesn’t change, be they during their childhood, or in their deathbed.

That immutable aspect inside, beyond transformations, beyond transformations of the body, experiences of the mind, experiences of suffering and joy, of which it is a witness, yet in itself isn’t fundamentally transformed by it, is the self.

That witness of nature, the experiencer of phenomenon, yet unaffected by phenomenon, that is the self.


The Kenopanishad, adopts this mode of analysis in seeking the self,

A translation of the first section of the text is here,

By whose

wish were this mind

of mine send forth on this path? Unioned unto whom does the first life in me move? By whose wish are these words said? Unto whom are the eye and the ear yoked? - Verse 1

Ear of the ear, Mind of the mind, The tongue’s tongue,

Life’s life, Eye’s Eye Avoiding the false, The wise,


Transcending the world, Attain immortality. - Verse 2

The eye doesn’t go there, Nor speech, nor mind, Nor do we know of That, Nor the way to instruct about It, Not the known, and beyond the unknown, This we have known from the ancients Who instructed us. - Verse 3

What is not enlightened through speech, But what enlightens the speech, That alone, know to be the Supreme, And not which is worshipped by people here - Verse 4


That which by the mind can’t be thought, Yet, Is that which makes the mind think, That alone, know to be the Supreme, And not which is worshiped by people here - Verse 5

That which is unseen by the eye, But that by which the eye is able to see, Know that alone to be the Supreme, And not which is worshiped by people here - Verse 6

That the ear can’t hear, Yet is that by which the ear is enabled to hear, Know that alone to be the Supreme, And not which is worshiped by people here . - Verse 7


What is not breathed in the breath, But that by which the life breath itself is enlivened, Know that to be the Supreme, And not which is worshiped by people here - Verse 8


The mind-layers are different from the self. The mind forms impressions based on experiences. Like layers of dirt on a pond, transforming the way the lake reflects the rays of Sun, the mindlayers alter the way we experience the world. The mind-layers distort the world-experience.


If the mind-layers were to be dissolved away, then a pure perception of the Sun would fall on the consciousness-lake. The Sun, in this analogy think of as THE PRIMORDIAL ONE, The lake without the layers of dirt, think of as the consciousness that reflects THE SUN, THE GOD COSNCIOUSNESS being present in the Individual self. Unlike the water of an ordinary lake, think of the water of this lake, the self, as unpollutable, immutable, yet kann be covered by the mind-layers, the dirt-layers.


The layered mind is described in ancient yogic texts as “chitta.” The Sanskrit word root “chit” means “that which piles up,” “ to pile up.”

For this reason, the ancient aphoristic text YogaSutras defines its approach to yoga, as “Yoga chitta vritti Nirodha” “Yoga is the dissolutioning of the expanding mind-layers. “ Word by word,

Yoga refers to the Union with the Primordial One, through the inner self.

Chitta is the layered psyche, the worldphenomenon aggregates.

Vritti is expansioning, expansioning in cycles

Nirodha is to dissolve, to restrain.


The same aphorism suggests an

abide in Yoga, The Union with the Primordial One, dissolving the worldperception. alternate sense,

That Union with the Primordial One is only affected through a deep, loving, inner worshipfulness.


The mind is that which is piled up over the course of existence. An experience impression forms, the consciousness reflects it and focuses on it, identifies with it. Say as a good or bad experience in life. The consciousness forgets that that impression is but a mirage that disappears over time, dissolves away.

The ancient text Vasishta Yoga takes the viewpoint that the entire universe phenomenon – with its heavens and hells, all evolve that way from the Universal Consciousness, the All Pervading Self.


When the aggregates are dissolved away, the Universe phenomenon disappears as well.

And the consciousness, the individual self, withdraws into existence beyond the manifest Universe,

Says the Vasishta Yoga viewpoint,


In Schools of Saivite philosophy, They understand the worldphenomenon as ultimately of the same nature as the consciousness, since it is in consciousness it evolves,

So they believe the body itself can be taken to a state of pure consciousness, unaffected by passing forms,

And from that viewpoint emerges their idea of non-duality,

Where the Joy of Universe-Experience, and The Joy of Union with the One, are thought analogous, since the pure consciousness sees The One, in all phenomenon.


The Saivite philosophy says,

Beyond the state where the adept experiences the consciousness bliss,

The adept ought enter into worldactivity, and experience

the state

of Jagadananda, the bliss of experiencing the Universe itself


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Nature is distinguished form the self. The word Prakriti is used in Sanskrit texts to refer to the manifest universe, into which beings enter at the beginning of every cycle of creation. Beings are in essence infinitesimal portions of The One. When a being takes up a body in the Universe, it departs from The One, taking along with it faculties of senses and the mind, just as fragrance is carried along with the wind. The Bhagavat Gita tells us this in Verses 7, and 8 of the fifteenth Chapter. Once the self enters nature, it proceeds to experience of suffering and joy, abiding in matter that gives it the illusion it is the doer of actions it experiences. “By Nature actions all are done, Through gunas the fundamental aspects of nature’s functioning The self enveloped by illusory factors of ahamkara Thinks it is the doer” – Verse 27, Chapter 3, The Gita

In understanding this, let us analyze what we experience as action. Within the limitation of the bodies in nature, in Prakriti, we have at any moment a set of choices, from which we seem to choose. We can choose not to breathe for a few minutes or to breathe deeply. But beyond that spectrum of choices the nature of our body offers us, it is impossible for us to act. We make a choice between this or


that presented to us by our material bodies. Nature engendered impulses even strongly drive that decision. And then the material body itself proceeds with one of the choices it presented to us. For instance, we can’t make a choice of not breathing for 4 hours, and flying to Neptune and back with no apparatus at all. The idea being, we are limited by the choices nature offers us at any instance. And its nature itself then that takes the being along its path of action, while the being is deluded into thinking that it acted, that it is the doer.

And how does nature act. The fundamental impulses of her activity, is described in ancient texts as Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. In a surface sense, Sattva translates to white, pure, whole, etc., Rajas to red, activity, etc., and Tamas to darkness, blackness. The modes of activity, the streams of active flow nature offers us to enter at any instance, are always of one of these three natures. The consciousness, the self, identifies with the gunas, and experiences the gunas. Experiencing sattva it feels energetic, whole, bright, and experiences a wholesome natured activity . Experiencing rajas it feels the unease of disorderly activity, desires which drag away the mind from ease, and act as fires difficult to fulfil, the being unable to act in a way that benefits itself - it activates desires and factors such as anger, functioning in deluding modes, for the destruction of the good factors beneficial to that being, while giving


the being the idea that identification with its activity will lead it to pleasure. Experiencing tamas, it feels states of dullness, inactivity, sleepiness, and so forth. Sattva grants perception of the world patterns as they are. Intelligence, so to speak. Rajas disrupts the intelligence, granting ideas that are both factual and false. While tamas entirely falsifies perception.

The gunas evolve out their own natured experiences, they evolve out what is experienced by the self as its engaging in action, while the self is merely experiencing what the gunas are doing. The self identifies with the gunas, with nature, while abiding in this delusion.

And driven by the dualistic delusion of desires and hate, the self proceeds through the guna generated streams, as if without will, while it assumes it is the doer.

“With desire and aversion born, The dualistic delusion, O Arjuna, All beings in into that delusion Enter at creation, O Scorcher of foe� - Verse 27, Chapter 7, The Gita


“Those who have gone beyond sin, The folks of virtuous deeds, Freed of the dualistic delusion, They worship Me with firm will.� - Verse 28, Chapter 8, The Gita

Factors such as desire and aversion, keep identifying the being with prakriti, or nature evolving in its own modes. When freed of those factors, the being engages in virtuous modes of activity, and freed of delusion, the mind turns from the idea of identification with the modes of nature, to The Primordial One. From this insight we understand the whys of different practices. There are practices that suggest non-attachment, emptying the mind, etc. The purpose is to free it from identification with the gunas, and take it to a state of intelligent perception. The word-root Buddh suggests intelligence, awareness. There are systems that focus on the self. The focus on the self, the consciousness withdrawn into the consciousness itself, the attention on the attention itself, awareness on the awareness itself, generates a purer awareness of the self. The self then Naturally reflects The Primordial One. The Being turns away from the delusory flow with the modes of nature, to a worshipful focus on The Primordial One. The focus on The Primordial One, in itself is thought by systems to be the fastest path. It naturally dissolves the ego aggregates. And that loving focus on the One, the


intelligence, the desires, all naturally turned toward The One, the world experience as an offering to the One, dissolves away the delusory aggregates. Engaging in whatever activity of a virtuous nature emerging from the heart, engaging virtuously in the world, enjoying its forms, the intelligence, the senses, all turned toward The One, inwardly, they engage in action, and return to that which is beyond the nature that dissolves in time.

“What you do, That which you eat, What you offer, What you give away, Whatever austerities you perform, O Arjuna Do so as offering to Me� - Verse 27, Chapter 9, The Gita

In studying ancient texts we should realize the words often have senses different from what we have now. The sense of the word eat, encompasses the processing of worldexperience. The act of lovingly turning the attention to the One, is worship of the One. The act of willfully turning over the results of activities to the One is worshipfulness of the One. Engaging in action thus, without attachment to the results, for the sake of engendering the experience of the One, is worshipfulness of the One. Study of nature for the purpose of transcending it, is worshipfulness of the One.


The results of actions, though they engage in it with great intelligence and wisdom, keeping the good of world in mind, they are unattached to. The good and the bad results both they turn over to the One. And they understand it is important to engage in activity. And never be with attachment to inactivity. There are systems that are heaven-oriented. Those systems train the individual to identify with the sattva mode of nature. They worship saints and gods, who are situated in the sattva mode, thus establishing their minds in the sattva mode. This if done well enables the rising of the being to sattvic worlds. To heavenly spaces, so to speak. By ancient systems, such an effort is thought to bring limited and impermanent results. In the Mahabahrata Bhishma about to die, observes that the heavens are just another kind of hell, when compared to the worlds of the One. There are dimensions, physical dimensions in which the three modes of nature act to different degrees. These are by traditions labelled heavens, earths, and hells. The gunas act cyclically, and repressing the other gunas. A person under influence of rajas is suppressed from the perception of the other two. A depressed psyche is experiencing the dark guna, tamas, and the same world and circumstances another may find to be joyous, that psyche would experience as depressing. Situated in Sattva a person engages in joyous, steady activity, with a wholesome vigour and intelligence. Situated in rajas the person makes bursts of wild effort,


disorganized, eventually often resulting in disorder, increasingly false perceptions, the psyche sinking into experience of the tamas. Sattva generates attachment to comfort within the forms generated by nature, rajas to wild activity, and tamas to inactivity and dullness. And thus the three gunas are to be transcended in transcending nature. While, at the same time establishing oneself in sattvic natured activity. Since adepts observed that activity leads often to error, or suffering as they labeled it. Without understanding the deeper science, they labelled activity as generative of karma and thus of suffering. Effort were thus made to avoid all forms of activity, which is found in monastic systems. But the result more often than not is that since the mind can’t be inactivated, the mind just falls into the grip of the tamas, the guna of inactivity. Of delusion and dullness We must observe that even monastic forms of true systems also involve a high amount of activity – including study, mantras, the rituals, and even disciplined activity. The activity of meditation in which the mind is withdrawn to the self. In some systems, they do the meditation in movement, as in tai chi, and so forth. Just as the breath can’t be taken away from the body, the being at no point exists without activity. The person continues to engage in gunas on a psychological level, all identification with the gunas remaining, even intensifying. The forced inactivity is but a form of activity in which the psyche is entirely affected by the tamas guna. The dark


quality, the identification with which forms dullness, experiences of suffering, and so forth. Other false ideas based on superficial observation, as that suffering would lead to a purification of the system, etc. , often prove destructive for the adept. Influenced by such ideas, the psyche seeks out and identifies itself with the tamas guna. Gunas multiply themselves. Suffering engenders further suffering. The being affected by such false ideas seeks out suffering, in delusionary desire of a future happiness. The rising to Heaven, due to the cyclical nature of reality that proceeds through the gunas, result in an eventual sinking back to earthly realms, this happens as the mind eventually generates identification with rajas, and from there it falls to tamas, and so forth. The sattvic streams in which the being established itself, the flow of virtue, eventually gives way to rasjasic and tamasic streams. The being itself, not having entirely gone beyond identifying with the gunas, are still subject to being dragged away by nature and its automatically shifting modes of operation. The focus on manifest gods, etc., are but a form of identifying with a better set of gunas, and temporarily elevating one’s experience. When done perfectly, and with great effort, they go to the worlds they focused on. But then all those systems are but ways of restraining oneself in modes of nature.


“Whose knowledge-perception is stolen away by desires, They resort to other gods, And established in those sets of rules, They get themselves restrained by Nature” -

Verse 20, Chapter 7, The Gita

The restrain of the mind is also virtually impossible without establishing it on the Primordial One. “Even though endeavoring, Of that person who isn’t aware of The Primordial One, When the senses wildly act, The mind is thrown away by force” – Verse 60, Chapter 2, The Gita “Therefore, those senses Restrain on all sides, Be Unioned with Me, Whose senses are in own grasp, His intelligence is steady” – Verse 61, Chapter 2, The Gita

There are those who make great austerities, spiritual efforts, restrain of the senses, engage themselves in ancient practices, and so forth. All of them find that their efforts bear but a transient fruit. The reason is that they are but intensifying identification with a mode of nature or another. Usually with sattva, if the result is goodness. Yet the efforts bear temporary results alone, due to the cyclical nature of guna-activity. “I alone am of all spiritual efforts, The Enjoyer and the Lord,


Yet they do not acknowledge Me, And thus they fall away� - Verse 24, Chapter 9, The Gita

True spiritual effort isn’t heaven oriented either. It is about transcending the Universe of the three gunas, in Union with the One.


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You asked me about Dukha, Samudaya, Nirodha, Marga. The Buddha’s view of the world held them to be aspects of the universe. Noble truths, in that sense. A true teaching, it were thought in those traditions, would discuss the four ideas. Dukha, is a Sanskrit word meaning suffering. The idea is that suffering exists. It’s part of the Universe-phenomenon as experienced by beings. Samudaya derives from the Sanskrit sam, with a sense similar to the English sum, the idea of togetherness. And the word root ud, meaning to rise. The idea is that the suffering experience arises together with something, those factors ought be understood, and they would be discussed by a true teaching. Nirodha is the restraining of those factors. While Marga is the path that leads to beyond suffering. In the Yogasutra aphorism I wrote about in my first letter, “Yoga chitta vritti Nirodha” , The Dukha aspect is in the idea that chitta vritti results in Dukha. The chitta virtti is the samudaya. Through the dissolution-restrain of that, the Nirodha, Yoga is established. And that is the marga. A true teaching is verifiable through independent analysis in our body-universe, in our own deeper perception. And of analysis of the universe around. In my first letter, the viewpoint were that identification with the chitta, the layered mind-aggregates is suffering. By identifying the self, we find the path of not identifying with the formed mind-layers, thus dissolving it.


The word yoga, I wish to add, in the ancient writings didn’t have the sense of physical exercises. It derives from the Sanskrit yuj, to union, with the One. The marga, were to identify the self, And thus lead inwardly to a perception of the One, and though a worshipful focus on the One, dissolve away the chitta. In my second letter, a different view were taken. The cause of suffering were identified as the dualistic delusion arising from desire and aversion, and identification with the gunas. The false notion that the self is the doer, leads to identification with the action of the gunas. The gunas themselves project experiences of suffering, excitement, pleasure, etc., on the psyche. The self, deluded by factors of ahamkara that surround it, is deluded into thinking, all that is its own. You will find the marga were discussed as well. Now the first two letters seem to identify two different causes of suffering. One being the chitta’s distorting patterns, and identification with the chitta. The other being identification with the gunas, and the dualistic delusion. These are but two ways of viewing the same truth. The chitta is matter formed in experience of the gunas. And identification with the gunas results in chitta vritti. The nature of chitta is also of forms within the universe, of the gunas.


The ideas help find the self, that which is beyond nature. Identifying the self, we disassociate with the samudaya, the chitta, the gunas, depending on the viewpoint we take. We engage the gunas, yet do not identify with them. We do not identify with passing phenomenon of nature. Over time we develop a deeper, natural sense of the self, and the idea that the self ought be focused on the One, if this universe is to be transcended.


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The Observer is the self. The observer within, that which observes, observes the thoughts themselves, is the self. After describing Yoga as ‘chitta vritti nirodha,’ the Yogasutras next say, “Tada drashtuh svarupe avasathanam.” Tada has the sense, in that way, thus. Drash, the word root says to observe, see; sva is the self, rup is form, avasthanum, is from the word root stha, to stand. “In that way, the observer is in the self’s form established.” A sutra is often designed to spark insight. Rather than just focus on the narrow dictionary sense, it benefits often to ponder what internal ordering it is referring to. What ordering within the universe does it refer to. And within our own consciousness, and the mind-space. As what we study is the self, and the universe, a text in itself is of little sense, unless we use it to string us to the deeper order. Unless it awakens a deeper perception in us. The word sutra, has the sense string. Systems of meditation were derived from that insight. That the observer is the self. When in the state of the pure observer, when the observer stands in perception of the observer, then the state of yoga is approached. The observer observes the self’s form. Itself. The guna projections, the various kinds of perceptions, and


thoughts, do not deviate it from that state. That’s a form of practice. In that state of meditation, all perceptions, erroneous perceptions, imaginations, sleepiness, and recollections, are to be thought of as vrittis, and avoided. Dissolved away, by the observer. The yogasutras label virttis as one of these five types. A strong state of study of the way the gunas project their nature on the self, is a state of being the observer. Identifying chitta vritti for what it is, is a state of being the observer. The strength observation is strong enough to not be moved by those factors. They are studied, and dissolved away in the strength of the observation.


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Schools of non-dualistic Saivism, take the approach that all that exists is the consciousness itself. The all pervading consciousness is thought by those systems to be the self. All forms, rup, are in essence that consciousness. In that sense, the self-form sva-rup observed, is the emergence of the form from the self observed. The idea of emergence of one’s own body, vital streams, the life-breath, as from that self, leads to practices as of observing own breath.


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Observation subtle-izes.

The matter that is observed

begins to break down, dissolve, reveals its processes, taken nearer to the realm of the observer itself. The matter turns subtler. Subtler matter has the abilities of subtler planes. Through the consciousness observing the body, it is possible thus to generate a subtler body. The act of abiding in stillness, in the state of the observer itself, the act of observing the body perceptions, of pleasure and suffering, without the awareness being dragged away from itself, are practices of establishing yoga. “Perceive the fundamental movements, O Son of Kunti, Cold, heat, pleasures and suffering offering, The impermanent, that appear and disappear, Endure in thy self, O Arjuna” – Verse 14, Chapter 2, The Gita When there is a perception of a particular set of gunas, or of a chitta vritti, if we observe it with a sense of study, then we observe how those set of gunas evolve. We find it begin to break down, dissolve, reveal its processes. And what is studied is processed the next time with greater ease. The practice may be done any time, walking, eating, while engaging in the world. Engaging in the world, in aspects of the world that you virtuously enjoy, the practice may be


done. Engaging in good food, good activity that you enjoy from within. The practice of observation may also be done in stillness, in meditation adopting a steady and comfortable pose, that allows for the vital energies to easily evolve in the body. Yet another form of meditation involves abiding in stillness, in the state of being the observer. In the manifest world, the ability of the observer to breakdown, understand, reorder, generating greater forms is found in the fields of study and human effort. The ability to distill and reorder the universe, the ability to understand it, exists in the observer.


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“Knowledge binds.” The second statement of the Sivasutras say that. An aphoristic text is a hint to understand a deeper truth. If we take it to mean that knowledge will keep us bound to the world, then we might assume every duffer transcends it. The Sivasutras are a set of terse phrases, thought to have been revealed to the sage Vasugupta. In a dream, Siva visits Vasugupta, and instructs him to find a rock in the foothills of the Mahadeva mountain. The text were discovered by Vasugupta, inscribed on the rock. In Sanskrit it is “jnanam bandhah.” The word jnanam has the sense knowledge, and the word bandhah has the sense a bond, that which is the bind. The same phrase can be read to understand that knowledge forms the bind, the bind that keeps us on the path. True knowledge keeps us on the path. Whatever we study, we should remember – it’s not the text we study. It is the deeper truth we seek. And the phrase or the text often just serves to have us think about the deeper aspects. A guide to the thought we need to do, or the analysis we need to perform on our own. If we read something, and without deeper thought hold the first sense we get from that to be the absolute truth – and then get our actions all driven by that – often that ends up being the fetter.


The process of understanding is a process of enquiry. A process of being aware. What we study illumines to us those aspects of the world, and our own inner world, the self, shines through in the flame of knowledge. The Pythagoreans gained awareness of the worlds through study of the numbers. And for them the numbers were all within 1 and 9. And for a few of them, it were all between 1 and 4. They found the universe starts with the 2 proceeding from the 1, triadizing into the world, and in four were that fountain that returned to the source, and that formed the whole, which then may be abstracted at a later stage in five, represented by forms such as V, to indicate the union of the two principles. And in studying those numbers they studied the way the universe evolves, and the way the Unioning to the One happens. They observed the fundamental patterns of the universe. They observed it reflected in themselves. Whatever observation that happens, activates a similar set of phenomenon inside us. From a neuroanatomical perspective, it is only our own systems and brain that we see. The object is not what we observe, but the systems activated in our brain by the phenomenon of observation. The observation, when pure, strong, in the state of the observer, subtlized and perfected what were observed. They perfected their own mind and body thus.


Schools of non-dualist philosophy argue, the observer and the observed are in essence the same, the consciousness itself. Knowledge structures form in the initial phase of study. If we are studying business theory, the art of negotiation is initially learned as a framework of rules, and it is initially in our mind as artificial structures to be invoked. In time, these structures dissolve away, while the essence of the art, the dissolved knowledge seems to have become a natural part of us. Knowledge structures in esoteric studies are as well, to be formed, and then dissolved, allowing the light of self to shine though. Knowledge is the bind, to the One. The first phrase of the Sivasutras say “chaitanyam atma” , the light is from the self, the consciousness is from the self. And the second phrase says ”jnanam bandhah,” knowledge forms the structure that lead us to that light, and allow that light to shine through. Atma is the Sanskrit word for self. Chaitanyam has the idea of light, consciousness, and so forth. The study impulse that emerges from within, ought be paid attention to. And systematically followed through. The light of the self will shine through those aspects which has been bound by knowledge, and then dissolved away, in the perception of the One.


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The Vital Streams evolve out the body. The body keeps forming itself from the food, and the genetic information. There is a continual destruction-reconstruction happening in the body. If the body were just an inanimate organic mass, it would decay in a few hours. There’s a vital principle moving inside, fecunding the body, generating it each day. The organism’s processes function in sync with the rhythm of that vital. If we observe our breath, we find its movement is bonded to that vital movement. Indeed, that air-breath is only a function generated by the vital principle’s movement, and it isn’t the vital principle itself. Yet, observing the breath, leads us to the perception of that which enlivens us, the vital. The feeling of breath filling the body, nourishing us, when we take a deep breath, is the feeling of that vital principle moving inside. The body is multidimensional, and the vital energies that nourish the body flow in a deeper dimension. Within the body, this manifests as a vital fountain, starting its flow from the pelvic spaces, upward, along the spinal. If this fountain’s rhythms are bonded to the One, its evolution and flow strengthened, the body evolves in an ideal way.


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Why do we age? Usually, the flow weakens with age, the vital inside weakens, and aging sets in. The ancient theory is that the fountain of vitality weakens, and the system no longer renews itself. From today’s perspective, aging is in aspects programmed into the genetic material itself. What state of expression to follow on from the present state is programmed into the DNA. The DNA appears as strands of information. In digital systems, information is stored as bits, 0 s and 1s. In say, a system of encoding, a set of 8 such bits may be used to represent an alphabet. As if it were a programmer’s design, DNA uses an encoding of 4 letters, A,C,T,G to map its units to amino acids. A sequence of 3 such letters, a codon, represents an amino acid. Processes that scan the DNA, processes running in parallel, map codons to RNA and eventually to amino acids. The amino acids string together to form proteins that function in the organism. The DNA undergoes transformations in expression. In which parts of it are read. A neuron and a bone cell has the same DNA, yet plays different roles, is expressed differently. This differentiation is thought due to the chemical environment in which the cell is. The same DNA, expresses differently, in two different cells.


One of the processes by which DNA differentiation occurs is DNA methylation, and demethylation. A theory of aging runs that it has to do in aspects with the DNA undergoing methylation. Parts of the DNA get methylated – methyl groups gets added on to the DNA molecule, and other parts get demethylated as the individual proceeds in age. When methylation occurs in a gene promoter, it acts to repress gene transcription. Aging is strongly correlated with DNA methylation. DNA methylation and demethylation happens based on environmental factors as well. A stem cell differentiates into a type of cell based on the environment in which it is. The way the DNA in cells express themselves also change based on the environment in which the organism itself is. In a high altitude, for instance, the DNA expression changes to produce more red blood cells. Stress is for instance, known to affect both immediate and long-term changes in DNA expression. That is, DNA itself retains memories, that distorts its own identity of itself. Though there exists the potential of DNA expression in each cell to be pristine, it appears as if the DNA retains memories, and is as if it is in a field that retains memory of every scar. If that field of information were to be fecund by the ideal vital, the cells would evolve out in a better ideal. In an environment that sparks its memory of its own original


state. Equivalently, as if in a field that dissolves the accumulated memories. We have here something analogous to the chitta distorting perceptions of the self. The chitta distorts out the perception of the ideal. The chiita attempts to retain itself through its set of formed ideas and memories, pushing out the ideal increasingly, as it layers up. The flow of the vital were thought to soften and dissolve the chitta itself, as it flows through deeper dimensions. The chitta softened, renewed, in patterns of the original seed, renews the brain and the neuroanatomy that perceives it. And this extends to renewing the body as a whole. When the flow of the vital isn’t strong, the chitta rigidifies. Similarly, the distortions of the DNA accumulate when the vital principle’s flow isn’t ideal. The brain evolves out from the DNA. The brain is as well the genetic material evovled out.


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In human embryology it is observed that in the initial stages of the organism’s formation, an axial rod like structure forms named the notochord. The notochord plays a key role in the development of the neural tube and the vertebral structures. It serves as a pathway for signals that pattern the surrounding tissues. In esoteric effort, the vital flow is initially established in the central-axial pathway. And from there it evolves out to the rest of the body.


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When the vital breath is observed, in the state of the pure observer, the vital streams idealize, they return to their original ordering. The vital breath subtle-izes as it is observed and fecunds the system. When we breathe-in, the vital stream rises along the central aspect of the body to the brain, and as we breathe out naturally it flows to the entire body, and sinks down. This happens as the vital breath is observed. For the state of pure observation subtilizes and sublimes the vital. It flows in the patterns of the of the cerebro-spinalneuroanatomy, the expanded out DNA, and through subtle streams flows to the entire body. The vital filling the body, rejuvenates it. The body and the vital flow united as one, and observed, idealizes the body. Several ancient systems adopt this approach one way or the other. In breathing exercises such as pranayama. In systems such as tai chi, the initial movement is a gesture of lifting up the vital energies along the body, and then having it flow downward filling the body. In systems of tai chi, once the hands are lifted up to the shoulder level in initial movement, a whip like movement is made with the wrists, as if to splash the waters into the brain, and then the hands gently press down, guiding the flow to fill the body, and course down the spine. Observation and perception reflect itself in the inner systems. So the hand and body movements are designed to generate that reflected observation of the vital, as the


hand movements themselves are perceived in a tranquil state. The same technique is adopted by the pranayama practitioners. They observe the breath, which is related to the flow of the vital breath. It is the observation that

does the ordering, rather than the exercises themselves. Systems of practice also depend on the fact that once a pattern is formed in nature, it is easily repeated. So a group of adepts may decide to go by a particular system. Also, it is possible for the teacher to give the students mechanisms that urge evolution of the streams, and so forth. All that focus on the system of exercise alone, etc., without understanding the why often does end up in superficiality. It is necessary to know that no such external help is needed if we establish our self in our self, and eventually keep the awareness of the self on the One. All the evolutioning of energies needed, happen naturally.

Abiding in the state of the observer, and observing the vital encompasses what pranayama, or other systems of exercises do to evolve the vital. If in exercises, we find it is done better, during a stage of the work, we may without hesitation adopt that method.


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The scriptures of some ancient systems encompass the fundamental structures of the universe. So a study is a fundamental study of the anthropic system, and the universe. Done with awareness, and abiding in the state of the observer, this hastens progress, at stages of the work. The alphabets of ancient languages were often designed to express these ideas – and often are symbols of fundamental inner and outer movements, of the forms and patterns of transformation of the vital energy, and so forth. The symbols were used to express the way the universe structures, and dissolves, and observation, study, of those ordered symbols enabled the ordering of the being into a primordial state.


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As the vital energies transform to subtler energy, and the realm, the depth and strength of the energy became deeper, it enabled adepts to have abilities of deeper realms. Situated in a nature of a deeper realm they were able to act. As in, act based on the choices offered by the deeper nature. There are also ideas such as deeper bodies, and so forth. Which I believe, is all understood when experienced. The evolved energy were transformed into a paradise of their own, for adepts who reached that realm. Or, paradises of their own. They abide in heavenly kingdoms of their own. Generated by the transformed virtue streams of their own. The self’s awareness enters that space. And that space appears as a vast world. Yet, again all these are achievements within the universe, within the universe the three gunas.


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The sound ong, has the vibration O, which encompasses the entire body, sets it in vibration, and ng, the vital waters dissolving the body. That stream’s unioning with the One is associated with the sound ng. N in the English alphabet is a symbol for water, deriving from the Egyptian glypoh for water.

The alphabet g symbolizes, earth in a state of circulation. The matter is set in dissolutionary flow, as it Unions with the One. The symbol of 8 suggests the sense. The sound of 8, has g in movement, the feeling of the animating flow is stronger, the flow is perceived in eight. The sound nga is associated with the Sanskrit alphabet ङ . The line above symbolizes the One. The dot symbolizes, the vital waters, the seed. And the alphabets body symbolizes the movement of the vital up along the axial space of the body. The vital energies evolve, and are Unioned with the One. In traditions, Ong has been associated with the sacred syllable ॐ. Turning that symbol around on its side, we see that it symbolizes the rise of the vital from the pelvic, along the spinal to the brain. The dot in a vase above symbolizes, the vital waters, the seed. is the Javanese form for ॐ. The form of the pelvic bone is abstracted in ꦎ.


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The sound ong may be repeated inside, in the perception of the One, in the perception of the evolving fountain unioning with the One. In chanting, prolong each sound. Prolong the O, setting the body-world in vibration, and the ng prolong evolving the fountain, and Unioning it to the One. The repetition of the sound may be done internally. Discover what pace of chanting works best for you. The goal is to generate awareness of the entire bodyfountain, and union it with the One.


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The usual sound associated with ॐ is OM. Here O is that all encompassing vibration, and M its dissolution to the all pervading consciousness. That all pervading consciousness, is labelled the Brahmam. ॐ is as

well a symbolic depiction of that Brahmam. The Brahmam generates the forms, acts in forms generating the fountain of return, and is all that is in the universe. The Brahmam is an aspect of the One. The All pervading, the formless. The Mandukyopanishad says, ”OM the one alphabet is everything, This is an expression of Om: All that were, is, and will be, Is the form of Om alone, And that which transcends, The threefold time, Is Om, All that is, is verily Brahman, The Self is the Brahman.” - Mandukyopanishad

The OM is to be chanted fixing the self, the consciousness, on the One. The mind, the body, the universe is all activated in that silent repetition of OM, and all that perception dissolves into the perception of the One.


This is to be discovered in practice. Allow the O to vibrat the whole body-universe. The M to dissolve the minduniverse, unioning it all to the One. The sounds O and M are to be prolonged, silently, the body universe, and the mind universe set in vibration along with that internal repetition. O… M… In the initial stages, some find it helpful to listen to a chant of OM. The OM in essence is not an audible chant. It is the perception of the all pervading Brahma. There is little point in saying OM, without finding that deeper perception. The Gita says, “OM, the one alphabet Brahma, Engaging in the vibration of, Remembering Me, Who dissolves the body, He goes to the highest goal. “ - Verse 13, Chapter 8, The Gita Discovery is part of the journey, by engaging in the vibration, observing the inner body processes, keeping the self fixed on the One, we discover the aspects in which we need to align, the way to better dissolve the body in the vibration.


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Abide in the state of the observer, and then let your awareness be on an external object. Observe what has traveled to the object, or who has travelled to it. The processed of the awareness travelling to the object. Withdraw the attention from the object, establish yourself again in the state of the observer. The object disintegrates, dissolutions in the consciousness. Observe the process by which the attention is withdrawn – what travels back, and to where. Try staying single mindedly focused one the object. Does it become one with the consciousness, does the sense of duality disappear?


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Observation, may be done while in any state. Yet, it helps to adopt a steady, comfortable posture, while practicing an exercise of meditation, of observation. The yoga sutras describe posture in an aphoristic statement, “sthira-sukham-āsanam” The word sthira means steady, sukham means comfortable, āsana has the sense posture. There isn’t any other requirement reflected in the yogasutras. The body form ought reflect the inner meaning, ideally. When ong has the vital energies evolving, it is helpful if the body is held steady, the head and neck in a straight line to allow for the flow. The body reflects the meaning, the sense generated in observation, it aligns to it. When the palms face upward, it enables evolution of energy upward. When they face down, and are placed on the legs thus, or are in movement thus, as in tai chi, they urge the evolution of the energies into the body, and integration of the subtle with the surface body. The gesture of worshipfulness in traditions is based on the sense reflecting in the body. The namah gesture involves the palms aligning with the spinal, and reflecting the cervical enlargement of the spinal cord. The evolutioning of the vital energies to the cererbral, is thus urged. The bowing of the head signifying the sense of worshipfulness. The Gita describes the state of the adept as “Macchitta mad gata prana,” “The mind on Me, the prana flowing into Me,”says Krishna. Prana is an ancient Sanskrit term, meaning life, the breath, the vital, and so forth. In the


gesture of prayer, that state is naturally reflected. The state of worshipfulness, and the vital flowing to the One. The palms facing upward gesture has a similar sense, the lotus gesture of the Buddhists has a sense of pure evolution of the vital, reflecting the idea of the blooming vital energies, and so forth. Yoga exercises often involve stretching and relaxation of the spine, stretching and relaxation of the whole body, and so forth. The process of stretching integrates the evolved out vital streams into the surface body, and sudden relaxation integrates it. The Tibetan rites, a set of five exercises written on by Peter Kelder takes these patterns. And the exercises are effective in integrating the vital streams with the surface body, when done regularly. Kelder says in the book that he were taught the exercises by a British army Colonel. The Colonel had succeeded in finding a monastery hidden in the Himalayas, where they practice the five exercises as a way of rejuvenating the body. The monastery were associated with the fountain of everlasting youth. That fountain is nothing but the inner vital in evolution, integrated with the body. The body and the evolving energies are to be unioned as one. The evolving energies are symbolized an eagle, or a soaring bird in traditions. The eagle is to be reabsorbed, they say. The body dissolved by the spirit flows to the One. The spirit and the body abides in the perception of the One, and is unioned together.


The symbolism of the bread and the wine, is the body and the spirit, together flowing into the One. The bread is symbolic of the body. The wine, of the distilled vital. There is a circulation established, and a new body forms in the process, the descending dove, the drops of dew, all symbolize the idea. And that is the idea of being hermetically sealed, where the spirit isn’t allowed to be lost into the outward world, away from the body, but is integrated with the physical body, which dissolves in it, flowing to the One. The body, the spirit, and the soul is to be unioned as one, wrote some adepts, while speaking of the idea. The body also being dissolutioned, being united with the distilled vital, they say, in their writings - union the two fountains, the two waters, as one. The philosopher’s stone is spoken of as being formed of two waters, which are in fact one. Observation dissolves the body into its own original, pure state, which is the state of its own seed, its vital principle. Every object evolves from its own seed, which is the Primordial seed differentiated. The word Hatha in Hatha Yoga, the system which added physical exercises to yoga theory, may be broken down into two - Ha symbolizing the vital breath, and tha symbolizing the spinal. Once it is integrated in the spinal, the integration with the body follows. The sense of the evolving breath is in the sound Ha, while tha suggests that which endows structure, the body, the spine, etc. The Tibetan rites done regularly is effective. It may be done in addition to any other system of exercises you


already do. Start with just 4 repetitions of each exercise, and work gradually over months to the 21 repetitions recommended. The trick with progressing in that system is regular practice. When time is insufficient do 4 repetitions at least. Do not avoid a day’s practice. Practicing at around the same time, say as when you wake up in the morning, adds a rhythmic push to the transformatory process. If the morning exercises had to be spiked for any reason, indeed they may be done at any time during the day.


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Abide in the state of the observer. Let the attention fall on

Observe the transformations that happen in the body, in the mind, as the object and it aspects are observed. any object.

Direct the attention to the internal transformations, and dissolve them into the ideal, abiding in the state of the pure observer.


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We’ve discovered a two-step process. One of abiding as the self, the observer. And the other of aligning the distilled fountain to the One. The abiding in the state of the observer, observing the self generates a clear awareness. In the body, it is a pure flow. As the still, pure water reflecting the Sun, the awareness begins to reflect the One. And the body streams reflect the One. The body whitened in such a state is described as the Moon, and the process is described as the union of the Sun and the Moon, in ancient writings. The transcendental consciousness, the consciousness perceiving the One, enables us to union the awareness with the One. Practice eventually takes on the quality of the consciousness filling up in all its aspects with the awareness of the One. Eventually the awareness, the consciousness, unioned with the One forms what is labelled in traditions, God consciousness, transcendental consciousness, etc.


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The phrase drashtuh svarupe-'vasthanam, from the Yogasutras now, from the experience we have had, reveals another sense. The observer, the drastuh, observes, the forming self’s form, the sva rup. Sva meaning self, and rup meaning form. The fountain, the vital breath, is the forming self, and the forming body in the way we practice observation of the vital breath. The body is the form of the self. We are generating that ideal self-form, generating an ideal body, reflecting the ideal nature of the self unto the surface body. An aspect of observing the self’s form were discovered by us, in experience. The phrase 3-16 of the Sivasutras say, “Attention on the seed.”


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“The body is the oblation,� says the Sivasutras. The western symbolism of the body as bread, and the spirit as wine, offered to the One exists here. The idea is that in Observation, the vital spirit takes on a subtle quality, expanding out into the body, the bread, together it is the offering to the One. The offering, in the sense that the vital dissolved body-earth, the physical matter of the body flows to the One. The wine is prepared as the observation falls on the vital water.


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In section II of the Yoga Sutras, the author of that work starts with defining the practical work of yoga as “tapaḥ svādhyāy-iśvarapraṇidhānāni“ The word tapah has the sense intense effort, to subject to heat, the idea of intense spiritual effort here. The word phrase svādhyāy can be broken down into two Sanskrit roots. Sva with the sense self, and dhya with the sense to meditate on, to deeply ponder, to give attention to. The phrase iśvarapraṇidhānāni is from Ishwara, a Sanskrit word for God, the One, and Prandhanani is the worshipful obesceince to. “Intensely abiding in the state of the observer, the self, and worshipfulness of the One, is yoga in action,” says the Yogasutras in the first phrase of its description of the method of Yoga. The entire phrase in Sanskrit is,” tapah svadhyayishvarapranidhanani kriya-yogah” “Even though I am the unborn, the Imperishable,

The Ishvara of beings, In my own prakriti established, I come into being, by my own maya, Whenever there is a decay of righteousness, And rise of the unrighteous, O Arjuna, I send Myself forth from Myself,


To take the good across, And for destruction of the evil, And restablishment of righteousness, I am born from age to age. “ -

Krishna, Verses 6-8, Chapter 4, The Gita.


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That which doesn’t dissolve when dissolved in the OM ॐ vibration, is the One. The OM is a representation of the whole of creation, all that is shabdabrahmam, the sound-brahamam. The One is beyond the Shabdabrahmam. The shabdabrahmam, derives from the word shabda meaning sound, and brahmam as the all pervading. When the universe is dissolved at end of a great age, the One alone remains. And that to which the perception-universe is dissolved, while abiding in the OM vibration is the One. Even the highest gods in the Universe undergo dissolution, disappear at the end of an age, say texts like the Vasishtayoga. A few hundred trillion years form the lifespan of a creator, a Brahma. And that is but an instant viewed from the perspective that infinite universes appear and disappear like bubbles from a causal ocean. The initial manifest aspect of the One, Vishnu, is engaged in generating these universes. The Gita tells us in verses 7 and 8 of chapter 9 that the beings themselves enter the One’s nature, at the end of a great age, and then are emitted forth at the beginning of a new creation. They emerge again into manifest nature, as if without will. The explanations on these verses in the As-ItIs translation of the Gita, by Prabhupada is interesting. In fact, at this stage of our discussion, I’d urge you to read the


entirety of Chapter 9 of the Gita, and the explanations of the verses in the As-It-Is edition.


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The sages have described the One, as the self of the self. I attempt to give you this insight so that you may identify in a deeper sense with what is meant by the One. And, so that you can by your own experimentation distinguish between what is the One and what is not. If the consciousness itself isn’t undergoing modifications as nature modifies itself all around, the consciousness itself may be thought of as an emanation from the One. The Gita tells us that beings are that infinitesimal portions of the One. Consciousness in beings is eternal, unmodified by time. From another perspective, if you were to focus on an object, a diety, or anything, anything transient and then withdraw your attention into the self, make the mind tranquil, that object would immediately dissolve away from the consciousness. On the other hand, if you have a perception of the One, and then you withdraw your mind inward, the perception will intensify. The joyous feeling of the perception of the One intensifies as you withdraw into the consciousness itself. If you were to focus on the all pervading, the Brahmam, then as well, your perception of manifest things in nature, including gods, disappear. Yet, the perception of the One, would intensify, if you have that inner thought of worshipfully seeking him. That profoundly worshipful thought, ”I seek the One beyond all this, beyond all universes.”


The purification of the psyche, the generation of the perception of the self, leads naturally to a deeper perception of the One The consciousness itself enters the One, when the mind is still and the adept has that deep inner seeking of the One.


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The sages describe the perception of the One, as sweeter than nectar. The bliss infinitely greater than identification with the all pervading Brahman. You’d be able to answer for yourself if it’s the perception of the One, you are experiencing, based on if every perception of suffering disappears. If it is beyond any experience of the universe. A false faith doesn’t withstand deeper reason. If every deeper understanding of reality, along any perspective, deepens your faith, deepens you perception of the One, then you are on the right. “Of the arguments, I am the Reasoned End,” says the Gita in Chapter 10. Just as observation subtilizes the gross, reasoning, an aspect of the force of observation, of the self itself, breaks down the false. Whether it be a scripture we read, or the words of a sage we hear, the principle of reason will hold us afar from a false understanding. Analyze what is said based on the universe-structure itself. And while observation subtlizes a manifest object, observation of the One subtlizes all that is you and the entire universe that you feel. And the pattern of the new formation is not of a a subtler, purer matter in the uuniverse, but of nature beyond the universe, of Krishna nature, of Vasudeva-tattwa, as Abhinavagupta writes in his commentary of the Gita. Abhinavagupta were an adept of the Kashmiri Saivite tradition, who in around 1000 a.d., is said to have


disappeared into thin air with around 1250 of his disciples. None of them were ever heard of again. Observation of a manifest diety, or identification with a manifest diety leads to identification with the gunas, and understandings within the modes of the gunas proceed. And a variety of understandings are held by those traditions, include austerities, the artificial practices of restraining the senses, avoiding action, a lot of talk on morality, and so forth. While those who perceive the One, find none of that stuff necessary. The inner feeling of observing the One is in itself sweeter than nectar, that that the senses can storm the mind away is impossible. The senses can only add to that experience of joy, the senses turn inwardly to that Joy. We find those who are dedicated in a field of study, etc., experience a joy beyond the senses. The inner Joy grabs all attention. The world is a whirl that disappears. A thing that’s to be taken lightly. Beethoven engaging in his work on music, is reaching through his own deeper self, in to a joy beyond the world-phenomenon. Those artificially restrained of senses, and artificially restrained of activity, and artificially abiding by surface ideas, blindly following this or that so labelled scripture, soon find themselves deprived of their own intelligence. Their senses they attempt to restrain by the mind. They do not have an awareness of the self. For it’s a doctrine or another they follow.


The senses they hold restrained by the mind. And that’s where that process ends for them. The mind, the chitta is ever transforming. The senses when agitated storm away the mind, and the mind when agitated storm away the senses. Eventually they lose trust in their own minds, and their own senses, and fall into patterns of sensory deprivation, abiding even more strictly by their rule books. Often just resulting in a state of cerebral damage. As the entire neural system unless kept fecund with activity, will degenerate. The Upanishadic traditions have taken an approach of yoking the senses by the mind, the mind by the intelligence, the intelligence serving the self, and so forth. That’s different from without a deeper perception trying to keep the senses restrained by the mind. But this isn’t to be superficially understood as refrain from activity, or a refrain from engaging in the sensory world. A yoked intelligence isn’t an inactive intelligence, nor an intelligence that doesn’t apply itself to the world. And yoked senses aren’t inactive senses. They turn inward, yet engage in the world. The Sanskrit word for senses indriyas, encompass the ideas of sense organs and action organs. Action organs being the arms, legs, etc.

The intelligence, when not serving the self, is not a something the person himself uses. An advertisement, for


instance can use it to make his brain get his indriyas buy him something detrimental to himself. The yoking of the senses, similarly, is a kind of integration. In the Upanishads’ symbolism, the senses are likened to the horses, the reins of the senses to the mind, objects the paths the horses take, the intelligence the charioteer. “Beyond the senses, are the objects of the senses. Beyond objects of the senses, is the mind. Beyond the mind, is the intellect. Beyond the intellect, is the great self. Beyond the great self, is the imperishable unmanifest. Higher than the imperishable unmanifest, is the One. Beyond that there is nothing,” says the Katha Upanishad. “Action arises from the Brahmam, From the imperishable Brahmam it arises, Due to that, the all pervading Brahmam, Is in yajna established. “ -

Verse 15, Chapter 3.

The term yajna in Sanskrit cognate with the yasna of the old avestan language is now a term a ritual. Among the Zoroastrian tradition now it is understood to be a ritual of water. Amongst the vedic tradition as it has evolved to today, it is a ritual of fire. And the Upanishads say, “Water verily is fire.” In ancient sense, yajna refers to the idea of a deeper spiritual effort. A spiritual effort, in which one rises, one’s vital subtilizes.


It is in action that the world is established as if in spiritual ritual, back to the ideal source. And the next phrase says, “The wheel that turns thus, Who doesn’t turn here, Sinful, in relaxation of the indriyas, In delusion he lives.” – Verse 16, Chapter 3, The Gita The phrase indriyaramo, which I translate above as “in relaxation of the indriyas,” is often translated with the meaning “lost in sensory pleasures.” Since the indriyas are also the organs of action, and the phrase is said to urge Arjuna into action, the idea here is also that if the indriyas aren’t engaged in their virtuous modes of activity, and is in inactive relaxation, it is sinful, and that person lives in a state of delusion The idea is one has to engage in virtuous action. The indriyas have to be nourished in virtuous action. The intelligence has to engage in wholesome activity. Traditions such as the Kashmiri Saivism say that the indriyas are the divine, the gods within one’s own system. And nourished in virtuous modes of activity, they in return bless the person. If the indriyas are put under unvirtuous modes of activity, or if they are rested in inaction, sensory deprivation, deprived of activity, refrained from virtuous experiences, and so forth, it engenders what is destructive to that person. When we perceive the One, we are naturally aware of the right path of action, beyond what any scriptural guidelines


need tell us. And we know the path of activity that nourishes the best. And the path of activity is unique to the individual.


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Even though a person may turn away from the objects of the senses, even unto a state of deprivation of everything, the taste for the objects aren’t easily avoided, and the person often struggles in futility against it. For he who perceives the One, the taste itself is nourished, turns toward, and is focused on the Supreme, and is as if in a state of experiencing nectar beyond description. The natural engagement with the world, is as if serving the One. It just intensifies in him that steady, firm sense of Joy unioning him with the One. The person struggling between himself and his senses, and his mind and the senses battling, is as if walking forward and back on a tight rope that leads nowhere, and from where he falls off balance often. The person seeking the One, without any arduous technique, transcends the world in an inner state of ecstatic joy, naturally generated in the perception of the One. Like the horses can break free when the reins aren’t firmly held, the senses easily drag along the mind. Even when such a person practicing deprivation of the senses from sense objects finally manages to be in a state of tranquil mind, an agitating of the horses, the senses, by external factors, factors that the person has been with great effort avoiding, end up storming the mind away again.



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The fountain, when there is God consciousness, union of consciousness with the One, the transcendent awareness of the One, is of a nature that transcends the universe. The vital is that vital that precedes the universe. It is beyond the elements, unaffected by fire, and is animated, evolved in the perception of the One alone. It is from that silver lake at the depths of the firmament. The body is dissolved in that fountain, evolved a new in a nature beyond manifest worlds.


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The adept seeks what is beyond manifest nature. The manifest gods, sages, are all beings in nature. They act within the modes of the three gunas. All beings in nature, are restrained by the three gunas. The One is beyond the three guna world. The Gita says, “They do not know me, the throngs of gods, And my origin, not the great sages, I am the origin of gods, And the great sages all. “ – Verse 2, Chapter 10, The Gita

“Who knows me as the unborn, the beginning less, As the worlds’ Great Lord, The undeluded amongst humans, Is freed of all sin” – Verse 3, Chapter 10, The Gita

In ancient Indian writings, the sages uniformly identify Krishna as the One. “The Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Abode The Supreme Purifying are you The primordial Purusha, Eternal, Divine, The first God, unborn, the greatest, So say the sages all, The sage amongst gods, Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa, And now you yourself tell me, All these I hold as true, What you tell me now, O Krishna,


Thyself, None know, Not the gods, Nor the demons.� Verse 12-14, Chapter 10, The Gita The term purusha, which translates in sanskrit to the word Man, person, etc. is an ancient vedic term for the One. In a few traditions, those who sought union with the One, were termed the sons of Man. In Indian traditions, the term were yogi. Those with a perception of the One, understand the One, the necta like sweetness of the perception of the One, is the Supreme Purifying. Others tend to go for self chastisement, suffering, forms of asceticism that are torturous to the self, all of which lead not anywhere. Suffering engenders suffering. Forms that engender suffering in this world, engender suffering in other worlds. Identification with suffering is just identification with the tamas guna. Ancient adepts, they found endured great efforts. They found they were restrained in activity. Yet that isn’t superficially imitated. Their endurance were a separating from suffering, though in outward appearance it would have seemed otherwise. Inwardly they were experiencing the joy of their studies, and of active inner and outer discovery. Their restrain in outward activity were for activity of a greater intensity.


That which is the night of the sage is the day of all beings. And which is the night of begins is the day of the sage. Where beings see nothing, the sage established his effort. And where the sage I established in effort, the beings see nothing. If a person were to think Newton were doing nothing as he were contemplating in his garden, and after seeing all his later achievements, dress up like Newton, and sit inactive to become like Newton, that obviously wouldn’t work. And others would have concluded it were all the boredom and suffering of loneliness that did the trick on Newton. And would then attempt to have that trick done on themselves, by making themselves lonely and bored in a garden. Spiritual effort has become that way. Without a deep understanding, folks imitate adepts around. And they imitate each other around, giving themselves labels, and forming groups. And since they do not anyway understand they are imitating two sages who were striving for the same ideal, in two different forms, they often end up fighting against each other. While on the topic, this comes to mind. Newton did a translation of the Emerald tablet. His translation says,� And as all things have been & arose from one by the


mediation of one.” “The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.” These phrases of the Emerald tablet refer to the One, the first is description, and the second the idea that the One pervades the Universe in the unmanifest form.

In that state of transcendental ecstasy The citta in restrain, yoked in yoga, In that state, in the self’s joy he abides, In the self perceiving the self he is gratified Infinite that pleasure is, Known by the intelligence, Beyond the senses Knowing that, he doesn’t Here stray from that truth, Gaining that, There isn’t a greater gain he thinks, And even in the midst of grave suffering, Is isn’t touched by it, That dissolutioning, the separation from suffering, Is to be known as yoga. -Verses 20-23, Chapter 6, The Gita The Brahmasamhita, referred to in ancient writings were a text of hundred Chapters. The text itself were eventually lost, until a fragment of the fifth chapter were discovered at a temple, by the Vaishnavite adept Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in the 16th century.


The Brahmasamhita says, “Govindam adi purusham tam aham Bhajami,” as words attributed to Brahma. “Krishna, the Primordial One, Him I worship. “


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The writings of sages of other traditions also speak of the One. The writings of Plotinus, Rumi, Hafiz, etc. Amongst the earliest parchments found in which are writings attributed to the early Christian adepts, is the Apocryphon of John. This text is thought to have in it the essence of gnostic esoterism. Four manuscripts have been discovered of this text. Three manuscripts of the text were discovered from Nag Hammadi in 1945. A fourth were independently discovered at another site in Egypt, fifty years later. Prof. Karen King says, “In antiquity, readers studied the Secret Revelation of John in order to perfect the divine image of their souls.” Lance Owens says, “Among the several dozen ancient Gnostic manuscripts rediscovered in modern times, the Secret Book of John is generally agreed to be the most important. It has been called the locus classicus for the Gnostic mythological system – in sum, it is the preeminent ‘Gnostic Gospel’, a sacred reservoir for the defining essence of Gnostic myth and revelation. It breathes with the life of vision that vitalized early Christianity, a life suppressed and then largely forgotten in later ages. From a modern reading of this crucially important and recently rediscovered ‘Gospel’, we are granted fundamental insights into the lost foundations of Christian tradition.”


A poem, The Inexpressible One, appears in it. And as translated by Steven Davies, it says,

“The One rules all. Nothing has authority over it. It is the God. It is Father of everything, Holy One The invisible one over everything. It is uncontaminated Pure light no eye can bear to look within. The One is the Invisible Spirit. It is not right to think of it as a God or as like God. It is more than just God. Nothing is above it. Nothing rules it. Since everything exists within it It does not exist within anything. Since it is not dependent on anything It is eternal.”

The verses reflect phrase for phrase, ideas in the Gita. For instance, take the text that says, “The invisible one over everything… Since everything exists within it It does not exist within anything. Since it is not dependent on anything. It is eternal, ” and see the analogies with the fourth verse of Chapter 9 of the Gita


verse, “I pervade the universe, As the unmanifest principle, All beings exist in Me, And Me not in them.” We see that for the gnostics, the early Christian adepts, the One were the Father. Jesus says in the Bible, “ Do not hold don to me, for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. Go instead and tell my brothers, ’I ascend to my Father and your Father, your God, and my God.’” The unioning of the inner waters, the evolving streams with the Father, were abstracted with terms such as baptize-ation. The word root bapt has the sense father. In the Vasishtayoga, the view is that an aspect of the One pervades the universe as the chid-akasha, the consciousness sky. Universes float about as specs of dust in that sky. The word akasha has the sense sky, ether, etc. Vasishtayoga takes the approach of focusing on that aspect. The text refers to it also as the great self, the brahmam, and so forth. Different terms, attributed to the same idea. The fragment of Brahmasamhita we have starts with the verse, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam The Supreme Ishvara, Krishna, Sat-Chid-Ananda abode, Without a beginning, The beginning, Govinda,


The Cause of all causes. Govinda is an epithet of Krishna. Sat-Chid-Ananda is a phrase found in ancient texts, which translate thus – sat – truth, existence, chid – consciousness, Ananda – joy. The word chid means consciousness, as opposed to chit which has the sense, the layers of the mind. Now we find that even scholarly articles write the phrase as sat-chit-ananda, which is indeed error. Such errors we find in later manuscripts as well. These texts before being written down in Devanagari and other scripts, were oral traditions. I’d use this it to emphasize the idea, that what we study is not the text itself, but we must always resort to a deeper perception, and study what we are studying itself, subjecting it to reason. The phrase in the Brahmasamhita is a description of how Brahma perceives the One. In the Gita, Arjuna says to Krishna based on the perception Krishna allows, “You are the Imperishable, you are sat, the non-sat, and that which is beyond.”


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An important aspect in finding the self, is to remember that self is to be found, freed from its identification with the chitta, and its illusory identification with the gunas. The elements of the ego such as pride, the need to have a false sense of self, aren’t the self. It is when those factors are patiently dissolved away with time, in observation, in dissolution by the vital, in obescience to the One, that the self is eventually found. That moves in the mind wildly such as pride, an agoistical idea of the self, all these are but things to eb observed, and dissolved away. Through the practice of “drshtuh svarup,� the Yogasutras assure us, eventually we will attain results. The practice when done over a significant phase of time, and with discipline, leads to a soild foundation, the sutras say. And we told that no amount effort, be it even a little is for naught.


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I discussed keeping the attention on an object, observing what moves as the attention is taken to the object, and then withdrawn. Insights gained from that practice, you can apply to withdraw the mind from any thought. Think of that set of thoughts as the object you observe. The observer withdraws from the object, observes it again. And eventually, abiding in the pure state of the observer, dissolves it away. The practice will enable you to withdraw the awareness from the chitta and identify the self. And also in dissolving way aspects of the chitta that the chid, the awareness, is enveloped by.


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Discover what happens to the transformation of the vital as the will is strengthened. The will is an aspect of the observer. Observe the vital fountain, abide with a strong sense of will for a while.


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Any perception, be it thought aggregates or perceptions on the body may be dissolved to pure consciousness through observation. When an unideal sensation is in the body or mind, it may be observed and dissolved. Let it animate the body, and observe the aspects of the system thus animated. Idealize those aspects through observing them in the state of the observer.


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In any activity the state of yoga may be abided in. While you are walking. Take a deep breath and identify the vital. Observing the vital fountain, evolve it out to fill the body. When walking, observe the movements of the muscles, wherever the perception is drawn to allow the fountain to evolve to there, dissolving the systems. Observing the body there dissolves the body. The two fountains, union as one. When reading what we enjoy, drinking coffee, watching movies, in all these states we find aspects of the inner system are activated, observe in a state of easy joy those aspects activated, idealize those aspects. The more wholesome to us the activity, the greater the activation, the better the self is able to observe, and the greater the aspects of the chitta and the body that get idealized. And the traditional view goes that the activities we engage in ought be virtuous, nourishing to us, things that evolve our own inner joys.


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Another method of establishing yoga is to have the intelligence be above the world phenomenon, the awareness transcending the world, in the One, and beautifully still, while the aspects of the body-universe is animated by the world. Dissolve those aspects unioning them again in that nature which transcends all three gunas. This happens when the intelligence abides above the world of three gunas.


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At each stage, we ourselves are able to discover what works best. In a journey, there is often no one trick that we can employ to get over every barrier. Discover, analyze, pose questions unto yourself about what needs to be done, about the nature of the mind, the body, the universe, and what the self is.


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In a dream, is the self experiencing a different set of gunas? What happens when you wake up? Does the self identify with the guna space? We identify with aggregates such as anger, happiness, sadness. We identify with gunas spaces of our own chittam, experiencing different guna streams. Just as in a dream we might identify with an entirely different space, which disappears on awakening - the awareness withdrawing therefrom. We experience happiness, suffering, foreboding, relief, fear, sadness on the circumstances, all these in a dream as well. When aware, none of those were our own. All those belonged to that space, that space of that gream, and all its guna streams. A few traditions take the viewpoint that we need to thus in daily practice, lived life, dissolve away those aggregates, the different aggregates of our own chittam, each of which are making us act in its own way, – an angry version of ourselves is a different person, from a friendly version of ourselves, in the way in which it responds to scenarios. Thosse aggregates drag us on from one feeling to another, which we seem to entirely identify with. As these aggregates that lead us on in behavior, as different bodies that lead us to different experiences in different dreams, in different styles of activity, are dissolved away, an increasingly awake state of existence emerges. The person is increasingly awake, experiences a greater wholeness.


This doesn’t imply that we refuse to act as needed in the different modes of nature, which lead us on in streams of happiness, joy, and associated expressions. What would that artificial restrain accomplish? A artificial attempt at restrain would just lead to idleness, identified with the tamas guna, of the activity organs, the sense organs, and so forth. And tama streams would just multiply into torrents of tamas flow – increasing the levels of dullness, inactivity, and so forth. We realize it is the gunas acting on the gunas in various fields of activity. And in our surface actions we would seem not too different from that of a person deluded in all that. An idea found in the Mahabharata is that the wise ought engage in action, just as the deluded do, in a show of attachments. Adepts often live in the world, not giving the world a hint that they are anything other than any other. We find esoteric ideas in poems of Schiller. Even Ode to Joy, which says, “Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!, “ is filled with esoteric ideas. So is Wagner’s Parsifal. Ode to Joy might even be thought of as an alchemical tract, that became the national anthem of Europe. Different modes of existence, beings situate themselves in, based on their own nature. A person might be inclined toward scriptural study. Another toward warfare. Ancient Indian traditions say that situated in any mode, engaging in the activities scripturally prescribed for that mode of


life, a person can rise to heaven. A person in the warrior mode of existence would incur sin if he refrains from a warrior’s activity - activity proceeding of his own nature. The scriptural injunctions of ahimsa, and so forth, prescribed for those engaged in scriptural study, if a warrior were to practice, he would incur sin unto himself, and end up damaging the world as well. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna speaks these words to his elder brother Yudhistra, Vaisampayana said, "Hearing these words of Yajnasena's daughter, Arjuna once more spoke, showing proper regard for his mighty-armed eldest brother of unfading glory. "Arjuna said, 'The man armed with the rod of chastisement governs all subjects and protects them. The rod of chastisement is awake when all else is sleep. For this, the wise have characterised the rod of chastisement to be Righteousness itself. The rod of chastisement protects Righteousness and Profit. It protects also, O king! For this, the rod of chastisement is identified with the triple objects of life. Corn and wealth are both protected by the rod of chastisement. Knowing this, O thou that art possessed of learning, take up the rod of chastisement and observe the course of the world. One class of sinful men desist from sin through fear of the rod of chastisement in the king's bands. Another class desist from similar acts through fear of Yama's rod, and yet another from fear of the next world. Another class of persons desist from sinful acts through fear of society. Thus, O king, in this world, whose course is such, everything is, dependent on the rod of chastisement. There is a class of persons who are restrained by only the rod of chastisement from devouring one another. If the rod of chastisement did not protect people, they would have sunk in the darkness of hell. The rod of chastisement (danda) has been so named by the wise because it restrains the ungovernable and punishes the wicked, The chastisement of Brahmanas should be by word of mouth; of


Kshatriyas, by giving them only that much of food as would suffice for the support of life; of Vaisyas, by the imposition of fines and forfeitures of property, while for Sudras there is no punishment. For keeping men awake (to their duties) and for the protection of property, ordinances, O king, have been established in the world, under the name of chastisement (or punitive legislation). Thither where chastisement, of dark complexion and red eyes, stands in an attitude of readiness (to grapple with every offender) and the king is of righteous vision, the subjects never forget themselves. The Brahmacharin and the householder, the recluse in the forest and the religious mendicant, all these walk in their respective ways through fear of chastisement alone. He that is without any fear, O king, never performs a sacrifice. He that is without fear never giveth away. The man that is without any fear never desires to adhere to any engagement or compact. Without piercing the vitals of others, without achieving the most difficult feats and without slaying creatures like a fisherman (slaying fish), no person can obtain great prosperity. Without slaughter, no man has been able to achieve fame in this world or acquire wealth or subjects. Indra himself, by the slaughter of Vritra, became the great Indra. Those amongst the gods that are given to slaughtering others are adored much more by men. Rudra, Skanda, Sakra, Agni, Varuna, are all slaughterers. Kala and Mrityu and Vayu and Kuvera and Surya, the Vasus, the Maruts, the Sadhyas, and the Viswadevas, O Bharata, are all slaughterers. Humbled by their prowess, all people bend to those gods, but not to Brahman or Dhatri or Pushan at any time. Only a few men that are noble of disposition adore in all their acts those among the gods that are equally disposed towards all creatures and that are self-restrained and peaceful. I do not behold the creature in this world that supports life without doing any act of injury to others. Animals live upon animals, the stronger upon the weaker. The mongoose devours mice; the cat devours the mongoose; the dog devours the cat; the dog again is devoured by the spotted leopard. Behold all things again are devoured by the Destroyer when he comes! This mobile and immobile universe is food for living creatures. This has, been ordained by the gods. The man


of knowledge, therefore, is never stupefied at it. It behoveth thee, O great king, to become that which thou art by birth. Foolish (Kshatriyas) alone, restraining wrath and joy take refuge in the woods. The very ascetics cannot support their lives without killing creatures. In water, on earth, and fruits, there are innumerable creatures. It is not true that one does not slaughter them. What higher duty is there than supporting one's life? There are many creatures that are so minute that their existence can only be inferred. With the failing of the eyelids alone, they are destroyed. There are men who subduing wrath and pride betake themselves to ascetic courses of life and leaving village and towns repair to the woods. Arrived there, those men may be seen to be so stupefied as to adopt the domestic mode of life once more. Others may be seen, who (in the observance of domesticity) tilling the soil, uprooting herbs, cutting off trees and killing birds and animals, perform sacrifices and at last attain to heaven. O son of Kunti, I have no doubt in this that the acts of all creatures become crowned with success only when the policy of chastisement is properly applied. If chastisement were abolished from the world, creatures wood soon be destroyed. Like fishes in the water, stronger animals prey on the weaker. This truth was formerly spoken by Brahmana himself, viz., that chastisement, properly applied upholds creatures. Behold, the very fires, when extinguished, blaze up again, in fright, when blown. This is due to the fear of force or chastisement. If there were no chastisement in the world distinguishing the good from the bad, then the whole world would have been enveloped in utter darkness and all things would have been confounded. Even they that are breakers of rules, that are atheists and scoffers of the Vedas, afflicted by chastisement, soon become disposed to observe rules and restrictions. Everyone in this world is kept straight by chastisement. A person naturally pure and righteous is scarce. Yielding to the fear of chastisement, man becomes disposed to observe rules and restraints. Chastisement was ordained by the Creator himself for protecting religion and profit, for the happiness of all the four orders, and for making them righteous and modest. If chastisement could not inspire fear, then ravens and beasts of prey would have eaten


up all other animals and men and the clarified butter intended for sacrifice. If chastisement did not uphold and protect, then nobody would have studied the Vedas, nobody would have milked a milch cow, and no maiden would have married. If chastisement did not uphold and protect, then ravage and confusion would have set in on every side, and all barriers would have been swept away, and the idea of property would have disappeared. If chastisement did not uphold and protect, people could never duly perform annual sacrifices with large presents. If chastisement did not uphold and protect, no one, to whatever mode of life he might belong, would observe the duties of that mode as declared (in the scriptures), and no one would have succeeded in acquiring knowledge. Neither camels, nor oxen, nor horses, nor mules, nor asses, would, even if yoked thereto, drag cars and carriages, if chastisement did not uphold and protect. Upon chastisement depend all creatures. The learned, therefore, say that chastisement is the root of everything. Upon chastisement rests the heaven that men desire, and upon it rests this world also. Thither where foe-destroying chastisement is well applied, no sin, no deception, and no wickedness, is to be seen. If the rod of 'chastisement be not uplifted, the dog will lick the sacrificial butter. The crow also would take away the first (sacrificial) offering, if that rod were not kept uplifted. Righteously or unrighteously, this kingdom hath now become ours. Our duty now is to abandon grief. Do thou, therefore, enjoy it and perform sacrifices. Men that are fortunate, living with their dear wives (and children), eat good food, wear excellent clothes, and cheerfully acquire virtue. All our acts, without doubt, are dependent on wealth; that wealth again is dependent on chastisement. Behold, therefore, the importance of chastisement. Duties have been declared for only the maintenance of the relations of the world. There are two things here, viz., abstention from injury and injury prompted by righteous motives. Of these, two, that is superior by which righteousness may be acquired. There is no act that is wholly meritorious, nor any that is wholly wicked. Right or wrong, in all acts, something of both is seen. Subjecting animals to castration, their horns again are cut off. They are then made to bear weights, are tethered, and


chastised. In this world that is unsubstantial and rotten with abuses and rendered painful, O monarch, do thou practise the ancient customs of men, following the rules and analogies cited above. Perform sacrifices, give alms, protect thy subjects, and practise righteousness. Slay thy foes, O son of Kunti, and protect thy friends. Let no cheerlessness be thine. O king, while slaying foes. He that does it, O Bharata, does not incur the slightest sin. He that takes up a weapon and slays an armed foe advancing against him, does not incur the sin of killing a foetus, for it is the wrath of the advancing foe that provokes the wrath of the slayer. The inner soul of every creature is incapable of being slain. When the soul is incapable of being slain, how then can one be slain by another? As a person enters a new house, even so a creature enters successive bodies. Abandoning forms that are worn out, a creature acquires new forms. People capable of seeing the truth regard this transformation to be death.'"

The response by Yudhishtra, and the ideas discussed by those present there, is worth reading from the Mahabharata. Vyasa, responds thus,

"Vyasa said, 'The words of Arjuna, O amiable Yudhishthira, are true. The highest religion, as declared by the scriptures, depends on the duties of domesticity. Thou art acquainted with all duties. Do thou then duly practise the duties prescribed for thee (viz., the duties of domesticity). A life of retirement in the woods, casting off the duties of domesticity, has not been laid down for thee. The gods, Pitris, guests, and servants, all depend (for their sustenance) upon the person leading a life of domesticity. Do thou then support all these, O lord of the earth! Birds and animals and various other creatures, O ruler of men, are supported by men leading domestic lives. He, therefore, that belongs to that mode of life is superior (to all others). A life of domesticity is the most difficult of all the four modes of life. Do thou practise that mode of


life then, O Partha, which is difficult of being practised by persons of unrestrained sense. Thou hast a good knowledge of all the Vedas. Thou hast earned great ascetic merit. It behoveth thee, therefore, to bear like an ox the burthen of thy ancestral kingdom. Penances, sacrifices, forgiveness, learning, mendicancy, keeping the senses under control, contemplation, living in solitude, contentment, and knowledge (of Brahma), should, O king, be striven after by Brahmanas to the best of their ability for the attainment of success. I shall now tell thee the duties of Kshatriyas. They are not unknown to thee. Sacrifice, learning, exertion, ambition, wielding 'the rod of punishment,' fierceness, protection of subjects., knowledge of the Vedas, practise of all kinds of penances, goodness of conduct, acquisition of wealth, and gifts to deserving persons,--these, O king, well performed and acquired by persons of the royal order, secure for them both this world and the next, as heard by us. Amongst these, O son of Kunti, wielding the rod of chastisement has been said to be the foremost. Strength must always reside in a Kshatriya, and upon strength depends chastisement. Those duties that I have mentioned are, O king, the principal ones for Kshatriyas and contribute greatly to their success. Vrihaspati, in this connection, sang this verse: 'Like a snake devouring a mouse, the Earth devours a king that is inclined to peace and a Brahmana that is exceedingly attached to a life of domesticity.' It is heard again that the royal sage Sudyumna, only by wielding the rod of chastisement, obtained the highest success, like Daksha himself, the son of Prachetas.'


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Ideas such as detachment ought be taken with a grain of salt. Detachment from what is spoken of by the sages? It is not possible to exist without subsisting on air, water, and the things of earth, that we partake. Every instant any being in the universe is partaking of gunas, its not possible to detach from nature. A person can detach from bright activity and attach himself to dullness. Whetever he does or does not, he is in the ocean of gunas, in the experience of a set of gunas or another. In the Chandogya Upanishad, is this story. The text as translated by Max Muller says, 1. 'Man (purusha), my son, consists of sixteen parts. Abstain from food for fifteen days, but drink as much water as you like, for breath comes from water, and will not be cut off, if you drink water.' 2. Svetaketu abstained from food for fifteen days. Then he came to his father and said: 'What shall I say?' The father said: 'Repeat the Rik, Yagus, and Sâman verses.' He replied: 'They do not occur to me, Sir.' 3. The father said to him: 'As of a great lighted fire one coal only of the size of a firefly may be left, which would not burn much more than this (i. e. very little), thus, my dear son, one part only of the sixteen parts (of you) is left, and therefore with that one part you do not remember the Vedas. Go and eat! 4. 'Then wilt thou understand me.' Then Svetaketu. ate, and afterwards approached his father. And whatever his father asked him, he knew it all by heart. Then his father said to him: 5. 'As of a great lighted fire one coal of the size of a firefly, if left, may be made to blaze up again by putting grass upon it, and will thus burn more than this,


6. 'Thus, my dear son, there was one part of the sixteen parts left to you, and that, lighted up with food, burnt up, and by it you remember now the Vedas.' After that, he understood what his father meant when he said: 'Mind, my son, comes from food, breath from water, speech from fire.' He understood what he said, yea, he understood it

Detachment in a true sense is gaining awareness of the self, so that the self begins to see the experiences as being poured forth by the gunas, and isn’t deluded by it. As the light of the self expands forth, there is decreasing identification with the gunas. Abiding in a virtuous mode of activity, abiding in virtuous joys, the light of the self shines forth so strongly, the guna perceptions are dissolved, the psyche doesn’t deeply identify with it, the chitta is continually dissolved, and that mode of activity, in goodness, while abiding in the virtuous joys of the world, engaging in action, is detachment. Just as knowledge structures are to be formed, and then dissolved. Activity is to be engaged in. There are other ideas such as detachment avoids suffering. Well, that is as if a person were to be dull all the time, and never take the risk of being bright, so as never to fall into dullness again. The cause of suffering is not partaking brightly of the world. The cause of suffering is identification with the gunas, the ignorant dualistic delusion, and so forth. The imperishable pervades all these, says the Gita. And the destruction of the imperishable isn’t done by any. And the being itself inside, is imperishable. Beings appear in


patterns that seem to eternally repeat. Even the familial ordering, repeats over yugas. In the case of at least some beings, they are born to the same parents even in lifetimes spanning eons. “There were never a time, When I weren’t, Nor you, Nor these lords of men, And it will be so hereafter.” – Verse 12, Chapter 2, The Gita With that awareness of the imperishable at the foundation of the passing reality - what detachment do we speak of? What suffering from loss of an attached object, or anything is there to be avoided, when it is all eternal? Would one avoid a friend, over fear of the possibility not seeing the person for a few days in the future. I don’t see what that kind of detachment does for any spiritual progress. Traditions have spoken of all phenomenon as springing from a formless source. Yet, from a deeper perspective, what is not in the eternal formless, doesn’t appear in the manifest. And what appears, is nothing but the eternal. Generally, folks live as if they live forever. The being inside is aware it isn’t subject to death. Some avoid the familial ordering in an idea of detachment. The Gita says, “In all beings I am love, in alignment with Dharma.” Dharma maybe translated as righteousness, virtue, the ideal beings abide by in the universe. It derives from the word root dhr, meaning steady, firm, and is related to that which structures the universe itself. In that sense, it has to do with the thinking of the being from whom everything proceeds.


The familial ordering turns the focus inward, and upward, as if by a sacred ritual. The vital evolves in the love principle, unto the One. Love, takes directly to the perception of the One. And Reason has the light of the self shine through. When family is ordered in Love and Reason, established in consciousness of the One, it is far greater a framework for spiritual progress than any idea of detachment, which takes us in the opposite direction. From the perspective of traditions, in a familial ordering, structured as per scriptural injunctions, every word and action is in Love, and in Reason, what naturally evolves in that spaces is sublime happiness, the perception of the One, and thus the domestic mode of life, were thought the best in texts such as the Mahabharata. Nature itself evolves out orderings. What does the idea detachment from that enable any to do? It just leads to false attachments, the mind wildly and by great effort clinging on to a set of flimsy ideals from where nature threatens to storm it away any instant. False ideas lead folks to treat family as a place where they vent their worst, and the public as a place where they put up their best mask. Well, then that ordering is hardly family, and neither is that ordering a ritual unto anything, and that kind of disruptive environment is perhaps best avoided. Love for the One, is the direct-est of paths. Those disrupted by false spiritual ideas which lead them into dry philosophy, and spiritual practices devoid of any awareness of deeper nature and their self, soon find


themselves incapable of deeper love. And the mind devoid of depths is affected by every superficiality. And even if everything were ephemeral, disappearing in time, a viewpoint apparently taken by texts such as Vasishtayoga, even then it’s difficult to see what’s accomplished in an artificial detachment from anything. Then, of course by those traditions as well it is understood what disappears isn’t the self, but the surface manifest universe. Further, since the body itself is the temple, where the best we can have is offered to the gods, the best care possible ought be given to the body, the environment it is in, all without being entirely lost in those aspects. And since detachment from nature is impossible, one ought surround oneself with virtuous joys, and a beautiful ordering. From the guna perspective, this is surrounding oneself by an environment predominant of sattva. This principle were understood by the Epicureans. Virtuous joys, in themselves, lead to the heavens. The kind of life inner and outer life a person tends to establish in lived experience here, has its say on to where the person gravitates in the next world.


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“Trai gunya visaya veda nistraigunyo bhavarjuna” -

Verse 45, Chapter 2, The Gita

“The three gunas are the subject of the Vedas, be beyond the three gunas, O Arjuna!,” says Krishna, in the Gita. Scriptures often deal with subjects as establishing good modes of existence, here and the hereafter. Vedas were scriptures of ancient India. The word Veda is associated with the Proto-Indo-European root weid, having the sense to see, to know. For someone who has touched the realm of directly being able to perceive the Brahman and It’s ways, Krishna says, “What meaning is there in a well When there is flood everywhere That much is all Vedas For who perceives the Brahman.” – Verse 46, Chapter 2, The Gita For those who don’t perceive the Brahman - well, its not that they would by just ignoring the scriptures get to understand deeper. The idea is that the scriptures in itself ought not be taken as the ultimate. The scripture, at best, is only a window into the higher, the Brahmam.

“These flowery words Say those without perception Drunk on the words of scripture


Nothing else other than this there exists, they say Desirous , seeking heaven They engage in a myriad of activities offering good outcome and good births Falling into the path of worldly splendor.” -

Verse 42-43, Chapter 2, The Gita

The ultimate path isn’t found in the words of the scripture, but in seeking the One. “When the delusion thicket, Your intelligence transcends Then you will turn away From all that is heard, and to be heard When the intelligence stands Turned away from all the sruti Still, peaceful, without movement, Then you will attain yoga. “ – Verse 52- 53, Chapter 2, The Gita

The word sruti means, that which is heard – scriptural revelation. Words heard by the sages, divine revelation, the vibrations within the universe, musical sound, the sound of the vedas, and so forth, being senses associated with the word. Does that mean just because our mind turns away from scripture, we are going to attain yoga? Not necessarily. Krishna is addressing Arjuna, who perceives the Brahman, and who is indeed at a realm of being able to do what the


verses say. Transcending the delusion thicket entirely, abiding in the One. The path of detailed study of scriptures isn’t a necessary one either. And this also doesn’t mean if your interests lead you to study scriptures, you should falsely restrain yourself. It ought be done in the right spirit – of seeking the One, in every vibration and word. Studying it while the intelligence in it’s innermost abides in the One. Studying it as patterns of the universe-perception, inside and outside, being dissolved into the One. The same verses I translate above offer a different understanding, the phrase “turned away from” is a translation of the Sanskrit vipratipanna. It is often translated in the sense that I do above. Yet, the same word in Sanskrit, offers another interpretation – vipratipanna gives the sense, to fall in analogous movement with. Vi the word root can give a sense of separation, inversion, expansion, an idea of intensification. Prati the sense of toward, of reflection, of movement in alignment with. Panna , has the sense fall, and is also interpreted as being from the word root pad , path. The phrase “tada gantasi nirvedam” which I translate as “Then you will turn away” is translated by Winthrop Sargeant as “Then you shall become disgusted.” The word nirvedam, can be separated into ni suggesting dissolution and ved meaning knowledge. In that sense, the phrase would say, ”You will then enter the state of dissolution of


knowledge frameworks.” The idea of active dissolution of the forming knowledge frameworks, an idea we did discuss. Similarly, the phrase, nistraigunyo bhavarjuna, which I translate as “be beyond the three gunas,” and which other authors translate as “be free of the three gunas,” also allows for the translation “be dissolutioning the three gunas.” The word nistraigunyo allows for its break down into– ni suggesting dissolution, tri, meaning three, and the word guna. The idea then we see is that when the system, the universe we perceive - the body-mind, and the vital is set in perception of the sruti, in vibration with it, while the awareness, the intelligence, stands still in the One, then the aspects of the inner systems activated dissolve, align, and Union to the One. Listening to the Vedic sounds, the sruti, while the intelligence transcends all that, and stands still in the One, the state of yoga is approached. The system activated by the sounds, when the adept abides in the state of stillness described in the Gita verse, dissolutions into the One. Any aspect of the universe perceived, is a sruti. An ancient view is that all aspects of the universe are vibrating in OM. We find the same insight in chanting OM, remembering the One. That approach as well were offered to us by the Gita. We are then activating the whole system, and unioning it into the One. OM, is the essence of all Vedas, and encompasses all four Vedas. The Chandogya Upanishad says, “The Essence of the Rig Veda is the Sama Veda, the essence of the Sama Veda is OM.”


In a strict sense, the meaning of a word, or a sound, is the perception it creates as an analogous vibration is generated in the human system. Be this perception of the visual form of the written symbol, or of the sound itself. The sounds of the ancient scriptures were thought to reflect fundamental movements in the universe. The patterns of the world-tree, so to speak. The world-tree is perceived, reflected, in the neural tree. The parts vibrated thus, when dissolved in the perception of the One, unioned to the One, yoga is established in those aspects.


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Anna, today a friend of mine read the last letter I wrote you. She asks these questions, You are writing about "seeking the One" ..”The ultimate path isn’t found in the words of the scripture, but in seeking the One” and with the related verse chapter 2 of the Gita. “Your intelligence transcends..” how exactly do you perceive this "intelligence" from this concept? And how you come to the core of seeking? When Arjuna is on the level of being able to do what is written in verses .. abiding in the One ..using your terminology now.. how to come to such a level? In which way to achieve such a state? Well, I assume you’d also have similar thoughts and I will attempt to answer these, in the next few letters. And before doing that, however, in this letter, I wish to take the discussion on to what

the Brahman is. I think that

would lay a foundation for answering these questions. Krishna speaks of perceiving the Brahman, there in the verse I discussed in the letter before. Now, imagine an object. Or, perhaps, look at any object, and then close your eyes. A book, say. It has a form in your consciousness, in your awareness, and that form dissolutions away, when we will it to dissolution away. We can bring forth the form again into our mind. And have the form disappear, dissolve away.


Every ordinary perception is formed, and it can be dissolved away. When a perception forms, and then disappears – what remains? If every perception you formed were to disappear – what would remain? Ponder on this for a while. If you were to clear your mind of the various perceptions, the book, the memories, the ideas, the feelings, the perceptions, thoughts, dreams, all of which appear and disappear, and try to perceive - into what does it disappear, and from where is it taking form, what remains when it is all gone? Its not nothingness that remains, as you yourself don’t disappear. You wouldn’t be there to answer “nothingness,” if you yourself disappeared as well. When you watch that object, on where is it taking form. On where in your mind is it taking from, and from where does that formation draw? And when you withdraw your attention from it, unto where did it dissolved away? Every form in the universe, every angel, all appearances, are like that book, we can have it take form in a space inside us, and have it dissolve away there. What were there before that formation, and after the formation dissolved away? Before all those formations and dissolutions ever experienced? If you seek deeper along those lines, you’ll find that from which it all took form, and unto which it all disappeared. When you begin to dissolve away formed aggregates of the mind, the chitta, then the perception of the unformed aspect, the that which is when you dissolution formed perceptions, emerges.


Let’s go for one additional experiment to study the idea. Wipe out all thoughts, and imagine a wire-frame cube. From where did it take form? Now dissolve it away. Unto where did it disappear? Who.. or.. rather.. What gave it form? What had it disappear? From where did it appear? Unto where did it disappear? And what remains when that cube disappeared? What is it that has the will, the apparent ability to form things and dissolve things, and not in itself disappear, and not in itself be dissolved ? What is it that can form and dissolve everything of imagination, and is in itself not formed or dissolved? In fact, that aspect inside able to do that - form the wireframe cube, and make it disappear, and remain when it disappears, itself apparently neither born, and never dying, uniform, all pervading, and yet not without life, not without awareness, as if a being in itself, that which perceives itself, even if all forms of perception disappear, that which is attribute-less yet which perceives all attributes, and from which all attributes emerge and dissolve: If you feel that, that is the Brahman. The study of how that cube emerged, and disappeared in imagination is similar to the study of how all forms in the universe appear and disappear. A study of the Brahman, and it ways. It would also begin to seem on that kind of study that, the individual self that forms these perceptions as we look at objects, evoke a memory, observe the universe, is similar in the nature of its own awareness of itself, to the Brahman that generates all these.


You will also find that the individual self in which you saw the formation and dissolution of the wireframe cube, is as if a mirror that reflects formation and dissolution in an all pervading Brahman. The Brahman alone created that wireframe cube in your mind. Into the Brahman it disappeared. The potentiality to emerge it out again, exists in the Brahman. The Brahman is also the space where the Platonic forms exist. Now, if you perceive that all pervading Brahman - just as you tried to dissolve away that wireframe cube from perception, try to dissolve away that all pervading Brahman. Not only will you find you can’t do that, but you will feel that your mind essence is dissolving into that all pervading Brahman. As if you are disappearing, and you begin to union with That. As if it were so of the same nature as you are, that, It, the Brahman, dissolves you into It, when you try to dissolve it your in perception. Established in the feeling of union with the Brahman, the sages experience infinite bliss. “He whose self is purified in that yoga union, Whose has the self won, the indriyas restrained, Whose self has become the self all beings Actions do not entangle him.” – Verse 7, Chapter 5, The Gita That Brahman is also associated with the great self, the self of all beings, and so forth. Some think of this as the individual self disappearing, dissolving into the Brahman. Well, in a strict sense, it is in


Union with the Brahman of the individual self, its sense of separation is gone, and it abides that way, in a beauteous state of existence. Yet the individual self, doesn’t disappear. It is an infinitesimal spark of the Imperishable, imperishable in itself. “Yoga-yukto visuddhatma” is what the Gita says in the above verse. “Yoga-yoked, purified self.” The word yukt there has a sense near the English yoked. It’s a profound yoking, not a dissolving away of the individual self. Though the process of yoking, is so profoundly transformative in experience, and world-view, and the perception of being , that the sages would have felt it as a kind of dissolving of themselves into that which they labelled the absolute. That individual self, the infinitesimal portion of the One, when it identifies itself with aggregates that undergo dissolution, is in a state of existence where it is deluded to its own nature. Just as in one dream it thinks it is a set of temporary aggregates, in another dream it associates itself with another set of aggregates, experiencing suffering arising form that delusion. Though it in itself, innately, is Joy. It is in itself, of the nature of the absolute, awareness, and joy. An infinitesimal spark of sat-chid-ananda. The ancient nihilist’s approach to finding the Brahman were to analyze an object thus: “It can form and dissolve in consciousness as I will, it has a beginning and an end, so it can’t be the Brahman.” When you feel that, that which is beyond the formation-dissolution, and from which everything forms and into which everything dissolves, you feel the Brahman. The Na-Iti approach is spoken of in the


Bhagavata as well. The Bhagavata is a text of devotion. Na means not, and Iti means this. Every perception is analyzed in that approach “Na-Iti, Na-Iti.” Every diety, every god, every form has that formation, and dissolution - your own mind can dissolve the formation of it, in itself. Just as you can see a cube, then close your eyes and dissolve it away in your perception. So the “Na-Iti,” applies to all that. The same with any feeling – of heat, cold. You can have it spring forth even from your own imagination, and then can have it disappear. Imagine a snowy landscape, and you have apparently created the feeling of cold, and even of a whole snowy landscape, in your inner universe. And then you can dissolve out that scenery and have the feeling disappear. You can sense it emerged from somewhere, that scenery and all its aspects, and into that itself, it disappeared. It is the Brahman from where it emerged and disappeared. The feeling of Brahman itself, when you feel it, and try to have it disappear, it would seem, you dissolve into it and disappear, rather than It disappear. It would seem that it is the all pervading great self, the all pervading mind, which is imagining forth all objects and universes everywhere, and all things of any universe. It would seem that you yourself are something of the nature of the all pervading Brahman, so much so, that you seem to dissolve into it, when you try to dissolve away the perception of that Brahman. The Brahman is like an all pervading formless lake, in one of its aspects.


The Brahman sends forth movements which have their innate qualities, forming elemental movements in nature. The formation and dissolution of objects in the mind, reflect these movements as well. The Brahman may be studied in direct perception, thus. The formation of a universe is similar to the emergence of any form from the Brahman. The individual self’s perception as it forms an image send forth by the Brahman, reflects, in the formation of the image, the same processes as of the formation of a universe. The Great Self is an aspect of that Brahman. Identified with the Brahman, beings see all beings as in themselves. “Knowing that, Not again Into Illusion shall you go, O Arjuna And by that knowledge, all beings, You shall see in the self, and in Me.” - Verse 35, Chapter 4, The Gita

In a previous letter I pointed out that the ancient sages of the Vedic-Upanishadic tradition described the Imperishable Unmanifest as above the Great Self, and the One as even beyond that. There are traditions that describe the Brahman as the absolute, and so forth. While other traditions tell us the Brahman is just an aspect of the One, an infinitesimal aspect expanded forth from the One.


The word brahman, derives from the word root bṛh, to expand forth. The word, in itself, means an expansion from somewhere. Srila Rupa Gosvami an adept of the Vaishnavite tradition, who lived in the 16th century, says that Brahmananda, the bliss of being one with the Brahman, if multiplied by one trillionfold, fails to add up to an atomic fraction of the bliss derived from the ocean of devotion, of love and worshipfulness to the One. Focusing on the Brahman were thought of by ancient traditions as the impersonalist’s approach to spiritual progress, while those who focused on the One, were thought to take the path of devotion, bhakti. That’s the viewpoint of those traditions, though neither path need be exclusive of the other approach. The Brahman is perceived as an expansion of the One, when perceived in a deeper sense. It’s feeling is as if feeling the surface of an Infinite body of the One. Everything that has been, exists, or will exists, exists there in potential. We find that in the Gita, Krishna gives awareness of both approaches to Arjuna: Of yoga union with the Brahman, and also of yoga union with the One. One is not different from the other approach, It is possible that the person focusing on the Brahman alone, also eventually gains the perception of the One. The perception of the One, indeed isn’t gained by technique alone but when the One wills that the adept gain a perception of the One.


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When you hold the wish deep inside, “I seek the One,� a stream evolves inside. Trace the

stream, to find the One.


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The One is all pervading. “The Father of All Perfection In The World Is Here,� says the Emerald tablet. When the heart turns to the One, then you find Him. When there is an intense seeking for Him, and you hold nothing as greater, then you find Him. You wish unto Him, for the perception of Him.


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Find any image of Krishna, endearing to your own heart. In the namah gesture, wish for Union with Him. Abhinavagupta tells us in his commentary on the Gita that people underestimate the strength of God, and pray for little things. Pray for Yoga, pray for transcending the universe. Make that sincere wish from your heart. Strengthen the will in side you, that you seek nothing else but the One. There is nothing else needed, all theory and scripture is often superficiality to be avoided.


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The Gopikas transcended not through philosophy, nor through the ideas of ancient sages. The mere wish to have Krishna by their side, had them transcend all these. All theory and philosophy is just crudeness and distraction, when the mind is in that state.


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Scriptures are for those who need a framework to hold themselves up. For those who can seek the One, find Him, what use is scripture? Scriptures are for those who have forgotten the One. Scriptures are for those who would rather dig their head into paper, than seek the One. When the possibility exists of directly seeking him, what use is paper and ink? When the heart turns to the One, and firmly is held on the path, all that needs to be done is done. The dissolution of the chitta and all ego aggregates, the idealization the inner bodies, all occur when the heart turns to the One. He alone is the Teacher, the Guide, the Source of knowledge, wisdom, and the Friend on the Path.


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The Yogasutras tell us, that the One, the Ishwara alone is the Teacher and were the Teacher of the ancients as well. Yoga sutras describe the One, as “a unique person,” unobstructable. The sutras below are from the first section of the Yogasutras, īśvara-praṇidhānād-vā ॥23॥ The entire goal is as well achieved by submission to the One kleśa karma vipāka-āśayaiḥ-aparāmr̥ṣṭaḥ puruṣa-viśeṣa īśvaraḥ ॥24॥ Difficulties, actions, the consequences of actions, unaffected by, a unique person, is the Ishwara. tatra niratishayam sarvajna-bijam ॥25॥ He is unmatched, and the source of all knowledge. sa eṣa pūrveṣām-api-guruḥ kālena-anavacchedāt ॥26॥ He alone were the Teacher, even of the ancients. He is unaffected by time. The verse 26 also says, that this pattern that the Ishwara alone is the Teacher, is unaffected by time. Sa -He, eṣa – alone, One, pūrveṣām- from even the time of the ancients, api - even ,guruḥ - the Teacher, kālena – by time, anavacchedāt – unaffected.


When the heart turns to the One, all knowledge emerges as needed. Direct perception is given by the One. When the wish is made in devotion to the One, all guidance emerges as needed.


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With roots above, and falling branches Known as Aswattha tree, imperishable The vedic hymns are its leaves Who knows this knows the vedas ..

The aswatta tree, entirely with its roots, Through the weapon of non-identification, firmly chopping down, Then that path, ought be searched out To where gone, one doesn't return, Unto the first,

the One, surrender,

From whom emanates everything of the ages.

- Chapter 15, The Gita


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“The One, the Supreme, O Arjuna, Only through deep loving devotion is attained, And not through any other means.� -

Verse 22, Chapter 8, The Gita


// next letter aswatta tree

//WORK UNDERWAY


// When in the Kurukshetra war, Arjuna laments that he has to fight his own family, he would rather be detached from the world, live the life of a mendicant, than kill his teachers and family, and have to enjoy the kingdom smeared with blood. Krishna responds, “You worry over that which isn’t to be worried about Though you speak in words of wisdom, The mobile nor the immobile, The wise doesn’t worry over.” Verse 11, Chapter 2, The Gita The wise doesn’t have to practice a false detachment in fear of a future suffering. Nor does he have to refrain from action. The truth that he perceives in the depths, allows for


no room of fear, nor of suffering, no cause for worry is found in anything. The term I translate above as mobile nor the immobile, is in Sanskrit gatasun agatasums ca , which may also be translated as ‘dead and the living,’ ‘life forms who have departed, and life forms tat are yet to depart.’ It also has the sense that which moves, and that which doesn’t move. We find a profounder detachment advocated to by Krishna.

// surrounding with virtuo sjoys than the theoretically impossible detachment // ego… // When in activity the citta is enlivened, and then dissolved out in the perception of the One, the light of the self, shines thought. Engage in activity, turning over the results to the One, say the ancients. And from that the greatest peace is obtained.


Activity in the mode of one’s own nature, based on one’s own deeper interests evolves out the perception of the self. The activated streams within and in the external world are unioned with the One.

// compassion //wrathful diety //siva tradition //om mani padme ham //siva traditions

// Universes, beings, float about like specs of dust int eh Chidakasha. Assimilating to the essence of that all percading, abiding in awrness of that consciousness, beings enter existence in that space. The legends of Vasishtayoga describe existence of forms in that space, as we have in these realms, but in a space where suffering

//Tibetan writigns

//Withdraw attention from the world

//Object-practice //Yoga in exercises // upside down tree, // way to listen to scripture


// keep practicing any system that you have been practicing.. with these insights.. the experience ould be deeper

//brahmasamhita.. {ancient s modern ideas} //yoga in arts architecture // object practice applied to psyche // the fountain Is beyond nature when god consciousness is established


The Sanskrit word guna is attributed the sense that which multiplies itself.



// Universes, beings, float about like specs of dust int eh Chidakasha. Assimilating to the essence of that all percading, abiding in awrness of that consciousness, beings enter existence in that space. The legends of Vasishtayoga describe existence of forms in that space, as we have in these realms, but in a space where suffering arising from the sense of separation, of the object, and the perceiver, etc., doesn’t exist.

// later distortion //power ofprayer

// withdraw from thought aggregates as from object


// withdraw the attention from the world // only through worship

// he who understands as divine the janma // na me viduh suragana

// role of scripture

// Seek the one

//sufi poems

// the roel of scripture

//vedas made light of

// father

//schiller writing


.//impersonal vs pesonal

// Tibetan writings


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//

That which itself isn’t vibrated in OM, is the One.

The OM is representation of the whole of creation, all that is sabdabrahmam, the sound-brahamam. The One is beyond the Sabdabrahmam. When the universe dissolves at end of a great age, the One alone remains.

//Acting driven by the wheel of nature beigns are placed in modes of activity that emerge from their own inner nature. // svadahrme nidhanam sreya


// activity is the key to establishing yoga //CHIDAKASHA, BEINGS AS SPECS OF DUST //OBSERVE THE WAY THE ATTENTION ENTERS AN AGREGATE // .. svadhya{Obs} .. pranid{union} // PRINCIPLE OF DISSOLUTION CHANGES FROM VITAL TO ..

// drishtve.. the fountain.. forming the sva rupe


// SUFI IDEAS.. KUN FAYA KUN.. / ZINNKE IF TO ADD..

//chaetram - Unmanifest and manifest.. the unmanifest pervades the manifest - -om dissovles all manifest, om as the sabdabrahmam {conser phrase editiong: the

senses turn inwardly to that Joy. }


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