Chapter 9 – Awareness proper organ, the structure of energy that would allow you to stabilise yourself in a higher state of consciousness. You need to generate such a structure. Start weaving the body of immortality. Open the central channel of energy, in the middle of the body. Build up the crown centre, at the top of the head. Create the proper subtle organs and it won't only be during meditation retreats that you will be able to experience an expansion of consciousness, it will be all the time. Even in the middle of a crowd, in a busy railway station or while driving in traffic jams, the new state of consciousness will remain with you. The experience won't depend on your mind being made quiet through seclusion, far away from the world. Spiritual awareness will radiate from the Self through the vehicles that have been built, no matter what happens around you. We are now at the stage of building the third eye, as a first step in the realisation of the body of immortality.
9.3 Permanence in the eye Spiritual paths are many and varied, and so are their techniques. They invite you to look at the world and at yourself from different angles. But there are a few common points to most of them. The central theme that can be found in nearly all methods of self-transformation is the necessity to maintain a permanent inner awareness. Indian masters often like to make their disciples ponder on what it is that distinguishes an enlightened sage from any other human being. The latter may be more intelligent, more educated, more handsome than the sage. He may have all sorts of skills that the sage does not have. But there is one fundamental characteristic that makes all the difference between the two: the sage is permanently aware and the other is not. The sage has exploded into a space of consciousness in which inner awareness is spontaneous. The other one's mind is caught in unceasing thoughts, perceptions and emotions that overshadow the perception of his Self. To sustain this awareness, all sorts of methods have been designed by generations of spiritual inventors. Some use a mantra, a sequence of sounds endowed with power, and repeat it inside all the time! Like the great yogi Ramdass, for instance, who reached his enlightenment by repeating the mantra om ram non-stop for twenty years. Equivalent practices can be found in Christian mysticism in the constant repetition of certain prayers. The
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