THE METHOD OF THE SIDDHAS   CHAPTER 8 Meditation and Satsang FRANKLIN: Spiritual life is Satsang. It is the company of Truth. It is a relationship to one who lives as Truth. Satsang is also the very nature of life. It is the form of existence. Relationship. Not independence, not separation, but relationship. So the principle of true life is relationship. All attempts to relieve the life of suffering by various means, remedies, do not produce Truth. They may heal dis-ease. But only Truth produces Truth. Sadhana or spiritual practice is to live Satsang as the condition of life forever. Sadhana is not something you do temporarily until you get free. It is to live Satsang forever. A lifetime of Truth. The beginnings of ones spiritual life are the coming into relationship with the Guru-living in his company, which is Satsang, living the conditions created in that relationship. Getting straight. There is a force, a Siddhi, or spiritual power alive in Satsang. The earliest experiences of spiritual life are generally the sensations of force or presence communicated in Satsang. These are enjoyed as various feelings, peace, kriyas (spontaneous purifying movements), bliss, a sense of presence, the qualities of energy. But, in truth, spiritual life is not something that happens to you. It is not a process that takes place independent of your conscious existence. If it did, all you would need do would be to wait for it to come to an end in liberation, or some such state. Spiritual life is conscious life. It doesn't really exist until your consciousness comes into play, becomes active. Spiritual life is an intelligent process. It is not a kind of mediumship, wherein you simply enjoy certain experiences, certain energies, a certain shakti. The shakti or force aspect of spiritual life has one purpose. It is to communicate to you the energy alive in the Truth, to purify, harmonize and intensify your life, so this conscious process can begin. All of the shakti experiences are simply means created to strengthen and intensify your life so that you have the energy, the force with which to live this conscious life. Sadhana is a process in consciousness. It is intensity. It is force of consciousness. It is intelligent. It is not just energy that you witness. Consciousness does not happen to you. All of you here tonight have begun to live Satsang. To some degree, you are committed to it. You have begun to live it as the condition of life. Some of you have these experiences of force, of energy, of movement, internal awarenesses, various kinds of purification. In some cases, Satsang appears simply as a very practical influence. But now it is time to begin to use this teaching which brought most of you here. I want to read you a couple of pieces from The Knee of Listening , from the very beginning of that portion called "The Process of Real Meditation." It is a long section. It gets into many of the subtleties of this affair of "enquiry." I am only interested in getting into the very beginnings of it here, because the beginnings of it are the practical affair which is the foundation and unending circumstance of real or spiritual life. "The usual meditation" (traditional meditation, the motivated remedy) "is only a consolation, an effect and a good feeling. It provides no radical reversal of ordinary consciousness, and when situations arise out of meditation the person has no control over the process of identification, differentiation and desire." I spent years with all kinds of people who were going through the phenomena of yoga, of kundalini yoga, dealing with presence, force, miraculous spiritual experiences. I have never seen anyone fundamentally changed by these experiences. I was never thus changed by any of these experiences. Their intention is not to change you. They are change. They are phenomena only. They depend on the force, Guru-Shakti, the force aspect of Satsang. The phenomena themselves are not the point. They are there only to assist in the intensification of the quality of your life. You are not intended forever to sit in them, bathe in them and watch them perform. These phenomena, if they need to happen in you at all, will happen in any case. They are a relatively minor aspect of spiritual life. Enjoy them. But see that they are not themselves spiritual life. They will not lead to liberation. They are not Truth. They will not affect the motivating character or source of your peculiar life one iota. Thirty years of shakti experiences will occupy a fool, but they will not awaken him. Increase of energy or experience does nothing whatsoever to the fundamental quality of conscious life. At most it intensifies it, providing the functional strength, so that conscious life can begin as a real process. "Only radical understanding avails." (In other words no motivated process, no simple influence of energy does.) "Only radical understanding avails. It is the viewpoint of reality itself. It is not attachment to some body, realm or experience that is seen as the alternative, remedy, cure and source of victory. It knows that every motive and action is made of avoidance. Thus, it has no recourse except to understand. And understanding as well as the one who understands, are Reality, the Self, the Bright. "The yogic search only enjoys forms of shakti, the bliss of energy. Only radical knowledge is real bliss, dependent on nothing. "Understanding arises when there are true hearing and self-observation in relationship." "Relationship" here is, ultimately, a reference to Satsang. Satsang is the relationship to the man of understanding, or the Guru, lived, made the condition of life. A person begins to become stronger, straighter, under those conditions. Perhaps some of these phenomena, this energy, this shakti, become awake in him, perform certain purifying activities, intensify him. And after a while he begins to listen . At first there is simply the contact with his Guru. When he becomes strong, more intense, he begins to listen to what is spoken in Satsang. And after a while he also begins to hear what is spoken. At first he only listens, and what is said modifies his mentality in various ways. But at some point he begins to hear. The communication takes place in fact. And the sign of its having taken place is that it takes the form of spontaneous self-observation. So, understanding arises when there are "true hearing and self-observation in relationship." "Therefore, make use of such teachings as this present one and observe yourself in life. Observe yourself when you seek. Observe yourself when you suffer to any degree. Observe your motives. Observe the activity of identification. Observe the activity of differentiation. Observe the activity of desire. Observe the patterns of your existence." Self-observation under all conditions is the beginning of this process in consciousness. I was talking with one of you today, and it was asked whether it was appropriate for someone simply to begin this enquiry "Avoiding relationship?" as it is described in The Knee of Listening . Right now, reading the book, why not just begin it? But this intelligence that is understanding is a form of Satsang. It is Satsang in another peculiar form. This enquiry is Satsang. It is that same condition that we enjoy in the relationship to the Guru, but only in another form. Just so, there are subtle forms of this enquiry, in which no mental enquiry takes place. But it is the same enquiry, and it is still Satsang. And perfect understanding is itself Satsang, perfectly realized and enjoyed. It never comes to an end. It is perfect enquiry-enquiry going on eternally, absolutely. At some point this verbal or mental enquiry becomes appropriate. But it is only one of the stages in a process. This form of enquiry is necessarily preceded by insight. It must first be made alive as intelligence, as real re-cognition in your own case. Then, instead of simply observing the quality of your life, you will begin to enquire of the quality of your life. A more or less passive quality in consciousness is replaced by a more or less active quality. But that actual enquiry, asking of this question ("Avoiding relationship?") in a more or less formal way, is not appropriate at the beginning in most cases. Satsang must begin, the influence of Satsang, the condition of Satsang must begin. You must begin to adapt to Satsang, make it your sadhana, meet the conditions of spiritual life in a very simple way, take on the qualities of an ordinary pleasurable life, assume responsibility for the relationship that is Satsang. And begin to listen. You will simply begin to listen, and you will simply begin to hear. When you begin to hear, when this process in consciousness has begun, you will begin to observe yourself, see yourself under the conditions of life. This process of self-observation, carried on here in our discussions about this contraction or avoidance of relationship, and in all your study, reading and living of this work, at some point becomes communication received, real observation of how, yes! this contraction, this avoidance is the quality of your life. Therefore, this process of self-observation as the result of hearing in Satsang, of living in Satsang, is the beginning of this process that becomes enquiry. Enquiry is not a method any more than Satsang is a method. Enquiry at some point is the natural, spontaneous, intelligent activity of one who is living Satsang. But first he must hear and observe. Yes? "When you see that you are always seeking, understanding is emerging. When you see the pattern of Narcissus as all your motives, all your acts, all your seeking, understanding is emerging. When you see you are always suffering, understanding is emerging. When you see that every moment is a process in dilemma, understanding is emerging. When you see that every moment is a process of identification, differentiation and desire, understanding is emerging. When you see that every moment, when you are at your best as well as when you are at your worst, you are only avoiding relationship, then you understand. When you see that which already is, apart from the avoidance of relationship, which already absorbs consciousness prior to the whole dilemma, motivation and activity of avoidance, then you have finally understood." So this process of self-observation in Satsang, which is a result of hearing in relationship to the man of understanding, grows and becomes insight, actual living intelligence. "When you have understood" (when this insight has become real) "understanding will become the natural response of your intelligence to any experience, the total content of any moment. Then approach every moment with understanding, and perceive the original truth within it. Devote some time in the morning and evening to conscious understanding. Sit down, turn to understanding, and enquire of yourself as thoughts, feelings, and movements arise within to distract you. Enquire in the form of understanding: Avoiding relationship?" When this insight has developed as a result of self-observation, initiated through hearing, under the conditions of Satsang, this enquiry, which is then a form of the intelligence already alive in you, becomes appropriate. And a practical way to enjoy this intelligent activity is simply to set aside some time for it. Morning and evening is convenient. When you get up in the morning, that is convenient. Just before bed, that is convenient. Any time is all right. But such times are appropriate and convenient. "Do this for a half hour or an hour in the morning and evening, when you rise from sleep or just before retiring. Do it also briefly at any moment in the day when strong distractions absorb you. Devote yourself to understanding in the midst of all experience, instead of any kind of remedial action that arises as a way to handle the problem of life at any moment. "Make understanding and enquiry your radical approach to life. Become more and more absorbed in understanding and the cognition of present freedom. Understand and enquire, until these things become realized permanently as your form. Enjoy and create according to the wisdom of your own form." The last two lines refer to the radical, most subtle forms of this process of enquiry. Yes? A number of people have asked me about this enquiry, "Avoiding relationship?" Some of them want to use it immediately, simply because they read about it in the book. Some started to use it and found it very troublesome and problematic. Some started to use it as a "method." But the only genuine use of it depends upon its having come into existence in you, as your intelligence, which is a very different thing from reading it in a book. The enquiry depends on Satsang. It depends on making Satsang into radical spiritual practice, true sadhana, your way of life, the very condition of your life. Enjoy the quality of Satsang, the force of it, until you become free enough, so alive with the intensity of that force that you begin to listen, which is to become spontaneously available to the intelligence of Satsang. Then you will begin to hear what is said or otherwise communicated. All of this will take place in you and become self-observation. When this self-observation that is spontaneously awakening in you continues under all conditions of life, you will begin to observe this contraction of which I speak. You will begin to see this avoidance of relationship. It will become clear to you in your living experience. When it has become clear to you, when it takes place as a certainty, as your very knowledge, then that very knowledge can be used positively, directly. It becomes your approach to life. It is your intelligence. At that point, this enquiry begins. Examine this chapter on meditation in The Knee of Listening . See what is involved in the beginnings of it. Our work is not the exclusive kundalini yoga. It is the all-inclusive, universal and perfect way of God. Many of you have begun to become sensitive to the energy, the force, the shakti of this work. And no doubt about it, there is a living force in Satsang. This work is not simply an intellectual or mental liberation. The force alive in Satsang is the very force of the Heart, the living Reality. But it is not unconscious. It is conscious. And the way is conscious. True sadhana is an intense, forceful way of consciousness. So it is not a matter of forever receiving the blessing or darshan of shakti and allowing it to do things to you. Begin to listen. Accept the conditions of this relationship. Remove the ordinary obstacles. Abandon them. If you truly engage and use this relationship from day to day, more obstacles and more demands will be created for you than you could ever have imagined as a discipline for yourself. The relationship will discipline you. You don't have to be concerned with spiritual techniques, purifying methods, things to do to yourself, apart from the responsibilities for practical maintenance of life which were discussed with you when you entered the Ashram. As you make Satsang the condition of your life in a very practical way, you will begin to listen. You will begin to hear, and you will begin to observe your own action, even your most subtle action. The real process of enquiry rests upon all of that. Therefore, a great deal is required of a man before this enquiry comes into play. It is not a method. It is not a form of morbid self-analysis. It is a form of real, living, spontaneous intelligence. It is itself already understanding, the force of Truth. So it simply does not arise as an option for you, as something of use to you, until it has come alive. First there must be Satsang and this activity in consciousness. Listen! There is this contraction, this avoidance. All men are living this avoidance of relationship. That is all anyone is doing. Nothing else is happening. Only this contraction of living and subtle forms. It is suffering. It creates by implication the notions men have about the very nature of life. This contraction implies a separate self, separate from the world and all other beings. The appearance of many, much and separate me is an expression of our suffering, but the force, the intensity, the bliss of Reality persists and is felt even under the conditions of ignorance. Therefore, it appears as the drama of desire, the search for union between the separate me and the manyness. Every mans life is the drama necessitated by this fundamental contraction. Every mans life is the adventure he is playing on this contraction. Every mans life is bullshit! The drama of an ordinary life is without significance, or real intensity. It is deadly ignorance. No Truth, no Satsang. Satsang must begin. Satsang must be enjoyed as the condition of life. Then the whole drama of which even traditional spirituality is a manifestation comes to an end, dies. This contraction becomes flabby and opens. The real force of conscious existence comes into play and becomes the way, the sadhana itself. Meditation is not something that takes place in the dilemma. Real meditation is not a method to get rid of your suffering. It is not perpetual preoccupation with your own thoughts, the content of your life, in order to get free of them, get aside from them, make them be quiet. The you who does all that is itself the dilemma. It knows nothing. It is itself the suffering. It is itself obsession with the endless stream of its own thought. Therefore, the attempts by such a one to do something about his "mind," to make it quiet, to make it see visions, whatever, are within the form of this original motivating dilemma. Such strategies are expressions of his separate life, attempts to fortify and save his separate life, which is already an illusion. Real meditation arises only in Satsang, only under the conditions of Truth, already lived. There is force in such meditation. Real meditation is an intense fire. It is a marvelous intelligence, a brilliance, a genius, a living force. It is not a pious attempt to quiet your little thoughts. It blasts the hell out of these thoughts! From the point of view of the Self, the Truth, the Real, there is no concern for all of these thoughts, all of these dilemmas, all of this mediocrity of suffering. It is nothing. When Satsang lives as the principle of your life, and Truth becomes the form of your meditation, it consumes thought. It is a presence under which thoughts cannot survive. It is an intelligence that needs only to look at some obstruction for it to dissolve. This is the process that comes awake in Satsang, not some method, some remedy. The whole point of view of dis-ease is false. Spiritual life is not a cure. Spiritual life is the life of Truth, Satsang. One who is looking for a cure is obsessed with his disease. The first true thing a man does when he comes into contact with his Guru is to relax the obsession with his dis-ease, his trouble. Therefore, the original activity a man enjoys in relation to his Guru is not this sophisticated meditation, this enquiry. What he does is nothing very sophisticated at all. He comes and relaxes his search. He begins to find himself in the condition of Truth, in Satsang. He begins to enjoy that condition in a very practical way, enjoying the force of it, the intensity of it, the beauty of it, the blissfulness and happiness of it. Only then does he begin to hear, observe and become intelligent, sophisticated. Yes? So the "beginnings" of Satsang may last for a very long time. The more a man persists in the drama of his resistance, the longer he prevents Satsang. If a man comes into association with one who he suspects might be alive, functioning as Guru, but spends the next forty years wondering about it, he has never entered into Satsang. Satsang is not simply coming into a room and sitting. Satsang is the relationship itself, the relationship to the Heart, the Self, the Guru, the paradoxical person of the man of understanding. The drama of the avoidance of relationship to the Guru is the paradigm, the epitome, the archetype of all the dramas played in all relationships. It is better if, upon meeting his Guru, a man surrenders his search and enters suddenly into that relationship. But in most cases there is a period of time, of drama, of wondering, of in and out, of yes and no, of wondering again, of thinking, none of which is spiritual life. None of that has anything to do with spiritual life. It is only the drama of suffering, resistance, reluctance. Spiritual life begins for a man or woman when that relationship openly becomes the condition of his life. Then he becomes willing to accept the conditions it demands of him. He begins to enjoy the force of that presence, that Satsang. He becomes alive, intense with that force. Then this activity in consciousness begins to awaken. Observe your connection here. Examine your relationship to this one. See the drama you are playing in terms of this Satsang, and live this Satsang instead. I am only interested in this Satsang as a real process. I have no interest whatsoever in gathering an enormous organization of silly, fascinated people. I am concerned that this real process begins in fact, in whomever it is possible for it to begin. If there is no one, I will stay home. If there is only one, I will deal with one. If there are fifty, it will be fifty. If there are fifteen million, that is fine too. But I am not willing to do what is necessary to acquire a following through promises, methods, consolations, illusions and one-shot-liberation baloney. Conditions are continually being created for you here. And these conditions are always appropriate. They are the pure instruments of Self-knowledge. But if you don't live this relationship, this Satsang, it will always be an offense to you, it will always create an obstacle for you. Then Satsang will only make you angry and uncomfortable. Live this Satsang, learn the real conditions of spiritual life, observe your resistance to it, be purified of your seeking, understand and surrender this search. Lead an ordinary, pleasurable life. Remove exaggerated, self-toxifying practices in life, all the absurdities, the forms of self-indulgence. Become more sophisticated with your desire. Come here as often as you can. Simply sit in this relationship, enjoy the force of it, begin to observe yourself. Ask me questions about your sadhana. Not the usual questions: "Where is George Washington today?" or "What is the shape of the next universe?" These are not your real questions. What do you care about all of that? That is not the point. You are suffering only. If you have to fly a rocket between here and Mars, then it becomes a practical necessity to discuss what the conditions are between here and there. When you are elsewhere it is appropriate to consider what it is like in other worlds. After death it is appropriate to examine what it is like after death. If you are dying this evening, then we can deal with the death process. But you are only suffering. You are resisting Satsang. Ultimately, all of this avoidance of relationship is only the resistance to Satsang. It is the resistance to making Satsang the condition of life. It is dramatized in relation to the Guru because, whatever he is in Reality, he symbolizes Satsang or spiritual life. Therefore, people feel very free to aggravate their relationship to the Guru. But they should be approaching their own ignorance, their suffering. Come to Satsang with real need, not with anything to defend. The world is absolutely insane. But your spiritual life does not depend on the world. You are not going to get up from Satsang today and suddenly find that everything and everybody in the world is absolutely beautiful. You are not going to find that all your suffering has been taken away by magic. The world is going to create obstacles. The world does not want to function. People do not want to function. They are not yet alive. If you are coming alive in Satsang, you are going to have to be intelligent in your relationships, intelligent in life. Require Truth. Take yourself to Satsang, the company of Truth. Don't believe the usual company of life, of resistance, of avoidance. The world will create conditions that will awaken your own aggravation, your own ignorance, your own game. It will demand your game of you. It will demand that you suffer it, and that you live it as well. When a person is still weak, still beginning, the world seems a vast alternative to his spiritual discipline and to Truth. The patterns of sudden desire seem so much more pleasurable than this sadhana. Therefore, especially in the beginning, a man must make good use of the company of his Guru and his Ashram. When he becomes stronger he will also make good use of the world. The same thing you enjoy as Satsang is itself understanding. That blissfulness of relationship is already realization, already Truth. The more profoundly you enjoy it, the subtler its nature appears to you. Satsang does not proceed toward a goal of Truth. Satsang is Truth. It is the life of Truth. It is the force, the consciousness that is Truth. Over time Truth itself produces change, apparent transformation. But Truth is the very condition of spiritual life, not its end phenomenon. Therefore, from the moment Satsang begins, the demand of Truth is put to a man in the form of an obstacle. If sadhana, the practice of Satsang, were a method, some sort of means toward Truth, there would be no conditions. Anyone could come for "initiation," regardless of his state of preparation. Then I would give him a little technique of some sort, and flatter him with promises. No, the way is Truth itself, the Tao is itself the way. Truth is the way. So the "initiation" of spiritual life involves the communication of this obstacle, this demand that is Truth. The first form of that demand is the person of the Guru. Thus, the first form of a previous spiritual encounter is generally the life drama of his association with the Guru, the man of understanding. Even so, it is not the Gurus function to destroy the resistance of the world by magic. If a man responds to the teaching he must prepare himself, and make an appropriate approach to Satsang. The first obstacle, and the primary obstacle, to spiritual life is the relationship to the Guru. It is also the fundamental condition, content and source of spiritual or real life. If it were not for that, everybody could become spiritual by the mere practice of some method or another. They would read books, they would manipulate themselves with arbitrary beliefs. But spiritual life is a relationship, a living demand. It creates an obstacle from the very beginning. And that obstacle provokes the crisis and fundamental sacrifice that real life requires. Nothing is offered but Satsang. Nothing is given but that relationship, because it is Truth. Those who finally live it as the condition of life receive everything, because that relationship is the medium of Truth. Everything rests on a mans ability to realize that relationship. I know very well who lives it and who does not. It doesn't require any psychic powers to know it. If a person lives Satsang, I live Satsang with him. With those who do not, I must be involved to some degree in the drama of their resistance. Essentially, this involves the application of conditions to their demands, so that the resistance in them is set aside, broken down. Chastisement, or an apparently negative approach to someone, as you may see in some cases here, or in your own case, is not in fact "punishment." It is a form of Satsang, the communication of Truth. It is only that the individual involved in such a case is, for the time being, incapable of assuming the condition of Satsang, and the responsibilities of Truth. DEVOTEE: Could you define the "enquiry" that you mentioned in your book The Knee of Listening ? FRANKLIN: I have written in the section on meditation, "enquiry" is not something for you to do. It is not a method to achieve anything. This enquiry has no intrinsic value whatsoever. It has only a possible functional value. It is true only when it is real, an extension of present understanding, when the understanding of which I often speak is alive as your own intelligence. This enquiry arises spontaneously and becomes usable entirely apart from the search. Prior to understanding, it has no value of any kind. Until understanding itself arises, it doesn't make any difference how you enquire, whether you enquire, or when you enquire. It doesn't even make any difference if you ask this question ("Avoiding relationship? ") and it seems to be doing you some good. It is still some form of narcissistic, separative, obsessive activity, a form of the search. It is functioning in dilemma. So there is no need to define this enquiry for you, or in other words, to make it more usable. Understanding, the Heart, this re-cognition of avoidance and contraction, is the necessary preliminary to the use of any kind of enquiry. Understanding is a spontaneous intelligence, arising in Satsang, in the company of the Guru. Satsang is a mans discovery, it is his meditation, it is his highest responsibility. When the structure of Satsang, and the quality, form and word of his Guru communicate themselves in their true form, what is called understanding, this real intelligence, begins to grow in a very natural way. Then it becomes appropriate to enquire, for the disciple is free of his search. Prior to understanding, there is nothing to be perfected about the enquiry itself. Prior to understanding, a mans only concern is Satsang. How he responds to it, how he feels about it, all of the resistance, doubt, gravity, all of the qualities in him that are stimulated in Satsang are his meditation. The intelligence represented in the words of the Guru, or the Gurus approach, his form, his energy, his shakti, whatever the communication of Satsang to which the disciple is sensitive, is the only true or radical alternative to all that the disciple finds reflected or stimulated in himself. DEVOTEE: When the enquiry "Avoiding relationship?" is really effective in my daily life, it arises spontaneously. Sometimes it takes the form of an internal mentalization of the question "Avoiding relationship?" At other times it seems to be only a process of intelligence or spontaneous movement of consciousness itself. In other words, sometimes it arises as intelligence itself, and at other times I find myself using the internal mentalization of the idea, the mental enquiry. Why are there appearances of different qualities of enquiry? I have an idea about this. Perhaps it is that, when I am distracted more, the internal mentalization serves to bring me back to the present, to what I am up to, and serves to dissolve the tendency to distraction of mind. FRANKLIN: This enquiry ("Avoiding relationship?") is in the form of a re-cognition or knowing again of ordinary activity, but its also an extension of something much subtler than mind and life. Its an extension of that very intelligence that already is re-cognition. So there is a form of this enquiry that is speechless, mindless, thoughtless, imageless, and yet also an intense form of activity. That is why I have said that enquiry rests on prior understanding or intelligence. If understanding is not alive, enquiry is nonsense. But when this intelligence is alive, then it is the enquiry. When you are sensitive to this re-cognition, this force of intelligence, then you are free to let it live, either as a mental enquiry at this moment, or as a silent re-cognition of mind or mentalization itself. Real meditation is begun by sitting in Satsang, here with me, at home alone, or even while active under ordinary, functional conditions of life. In that conscious condition that is Satsang a kind of quieting arises, and, at the same time, an intensification of your self-awareness. Depending on the peculiar quality of your state at that time, you will become attentive to forms of desire, differentiation, or identification. Impulses are the form of desires. Thought, or separation of things that arise, is the form of differentiation. The various forms of separate and separative self sense are the form of identification. Therefore, when various of these qualities begin to draw your attention, this enquiry may begin. And, generally it begins as an internal or mental verbalization. The enquiry ("Avoiding relationship?") is evoked randomly, not repetitively, but as a real question, and followed until there is a real answer. And the "answer" is not itself a thought, but a spontaneous re-cognition of thought, of action, of the forms of identification, differentiation and desire. When enquiry truly arises, founded in prior insight, then the very forms and processes that have attracted attention tend to fall away. They cease to distract you. And you simply, spontaneously fall into the condition of relationship, which is always already the case, prior to the obscuring activity of the avoidance of relationship. In this same sitting, you may proceed through various forms. At first forms of desire, perception, awareness of life-activity. Then the process may move into subtler forms. Forms of thought, forms of impression, memory, images. Then it may move into the various subtle senses of separation, the qualities of self sense. All the time, this verbal enquiry, randomly activated, adapts to the various qualities that are arising. But in the depth of consciousness, there begins to arise a sense of what is always taking place at any and every moment of enquiry. It appears as a kind of "shape" in consciousness. A subtle activity begins to form an impression and then a direct comprehension in consciousness. Then the mental form of enquiry tends to fall away. Instead of mental enquiry, this other activity that has always taken place at every moment of enquiry begins to move into every instant of awareness. It moves in terms of the same processes that were arising before, including forms of desire, thought, and separate self sense, but without mental verbalization. Then, in each moment, these qualities vanish, as they did when enquiry was mentalized. At first, what is enjoyed in this whole process of enquiry is a kind of intensity in relationship, a sense of relationship with great intensity. But the subtler this process becomes, the more there tends to arise a re-cognition that the only thing that is ever happening in every instant is a modification of the very Reality that exists. Every impulse, every desire, every thought, every sense, every sense of separate self, all of these begin to appear as one activity, a continuous modification, a shaping of what is, of That which is also ones own Nature or Condition. This is the subtlest form of re-cognition. And no sense of limited or qualified relationship exists in this re-cognition at last. The very point in space by which one approaches everything, this separate self sense, is seen, felt and known to be a modification, an arbitrary shaping of ones own existence. Wherever this "shape," this contraction, this modification, this formation of awareness is re-cognized, it is obviated. It is disappeared in the instant of re-cognition, until there is absolute, perfect enjoyment of That which underlies all of this activity. At last only It is enjoyed, only It is lived. And that is called Self-realization, Liberation, Nirvana, all those names. There are various traditional forms of dhyan, or meditation. But perfect, absolute, radical understanding is the most intense, the endless or eternal Form of meditation. When that meditation is itself perfect, radical, absolute, when re-cognition has become total, when every thing has been re-cognized, so that nothing arises in consciousness that is not at the very same instant already re-cognized, when regardless of the condition that arises, regardless of the activity that is performed, whether one is sitting as if in meditation, or walking, or performing ordinary activity, the Real Form is only obvious, when re-cognition is constant, this is the fundamental state. This is true Samadhi, Sahaja Samadhi, constant realization of ones true state prior to all conditions in the worlds. This true Samadhi or realization is not itself an experience, a kind of trance or any kind of "yogic" state. It is only enjoyment of and as that Reality which one has always been, and which all things are. One who simply enjoys and lives this enjoyment is to be called a "man of understanding." In him true spiritual life has begun . He lives in the Heart, at the "foot" of Amrita Nadi, the Form of God. And when such a one moves into association with other beings, he begins to speak in very strange ways about the nature of life. All men are only seeking, all are involved in this peculiar activity, the avoidance of relationship, and all are pursuing an answer in the forms of their present experience. Therefore, men want a truth that consoles their humanity. But very Truth has nothing whatever to do with human identity, limited to what presently appears. From the point of view of Truth, this birth is an obsession, unnecessary, already non-existent. But men want to hear about birth and reincarnation, experience and after-life, fulfillment and fascinating creativity. Truth is the most radical penetration of this whole event. And only at that moment is there happiness. Until then, every thought, every thought, regard less of its content, is in the form of dilemma. You can be thinking, "Ice Cream Cone," or, "Run Spot, run," and you may imagine, because of the content of your thoughts, particularly if they are "good" thoughts, that everything is all right. But all thought is in the form of a dilemma for one who does not understand. Observe the entire content of an instant of thinking. Not just its apparent content, the "sentence," concept or image you have in mind, but the entire event, including your involvement with the thought, your relationship to the thought and the tendencies created by the thought, the tendencies created by thinking itself. Apart from Truth all thought is dilemma. The quality of thought is dilemma. The quality of ordinary life is dilemma. Apart from radical understanding or real meditation, life is only suffering, search, endless self-creation, endless qualification of the Force that is Reality. Every thought is "shape." DEVOTEE: Suppose you are sitting, looking at a very beautiful lake. You are sitting by a lake, and you are looking at it, and you are thinking it is a very beautiful lake. What would be the dilemma about that? FRANKLIN: As I have said, the content of the experience is apparently only delicious. But witness this entire event. No one has ever been utterly relieved in the presence of a lake! If you were to become truly sensitive to the current of your ordinary awareness, you would find yourself getting angry in gardens, terrified on vacation! It is only that you are chronically unaware of the nature of your own event. What is occurring in this moment by the lake? Sitting, looking at the lake. It seems to be very beautiful. But it seems only beautiful because you are thinking of it in contrast to other experiences. You have been very busy, harried, distracted, demanded, frustrated, and so you go and you sit in the country. You create an interval, to eliminate the conditions of all these things that ordinarily distract you. You sit in the country, and you relax. You feel a little vital, psychosomatic peace. This sitting in the country by a lake, and all things like it, are actually forms of traditional practice. This seemingly natural repose is actually a sophisticated practice of meditation. There is a long and ancient tradition for it. We could justifiably claim that "a lake in the country" is as fixed and formal an object of meditation as the "Our Father," the "Name of Ram," or "Om Mani Padme Hum." As you spend your several days in the country, that first moment of ease into distraction begins to disappear in the currents of usual awareness. And you begin to become sensitive to all kinds of movements within. Thoughts, feelings, sensations, desires, demands, frustrations. When the power to distract is lost, neither mantra, sexual beauty nor country lake can remove from you the pain of ordinary existence. It is the same with those who sit with me in Satsang. Nothing apparently is going on. It is a nice room. It is very quiet here, generally attractive. But you can sit here, in Satsang, and go through the most incredible internal drama. And where does all of that come from? It is not created by the room. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is not so good. Good trip, bad trip. Just so, in the country. In a matter of time we pass from rest and return to the same internal self-revelation. If you were forced to remain in the country and it became your condition rather than your distraction, you would find out that you are disturbed, still disturbed. Then your search goes on in the country, as everywhere else. You discover that the very condition of being someone looking at a lake is a form of suffering. It is a symbol for Narcissus. Compared to running away from a shotgun, perhaps it seems like pleasure. But if you examine the content of experiencing itself, even at ease and pleasure, every instant is this shaping or limitation of the fundamental sense of existence. There is the creation in consciousness of the separate self sense (this "me" watching the lake), of differentiating thought ("lake" is different from "city," different from "shotgun") and desire ("Oh my, this forever"). Consider all the various desires awakened on vacation! What is disturbing men (and all men are disturbed, regardless of their relative condition) is not simply their external condition, or their present experience. What is disturbing is their human condition, their birth. You are disturbed by the fact that you are sitting here, that you are alive in some separate sense, in a world of conditions. This is the disturbance. And as long as that condition exists in consciousness, there is suffering. That is the suffering. You can change the images, you can change the apparent conditions, you can "change" the world. You can go from here to another world, another condition. You can go into another state while alive, a drug state, a yogic state, a different house, a different country, a place in the country. You can modify all the conditions, external and internal, but you will never change the essential condition that is your suffering. Only the man of understanding is always already free. What are men like on vacation? What are people like who are sitting in the country? Most of the time they are obnoxious! All these people on vacation, who are all of a sudden so terribly "fulfilled." How do they treat one another? What kind of capacity do you have for frustration on a vacation? Practically none. There is no peculiar intelligence required to sit by a lake and feel quiet. Any ding-dong can do that. There is no sighted person who cant feel pleasure looking at a sunset. What is so extraordinary about that? People talk about country, earth and vacation as if they were a real alternative to the demands of Truth. Anybody can go down to the ocean and feel comforted. But what has that got to do with your death? What has that got to do with your genuine state? All it has done is distract you from your chronic state. Temporarily, distractions make you insensitive to your common state. Vacations are for that purpose, only to desensitize and rest you for a brief period of time. They are sleep and refreshment in life. They are not a way of life. And sitting by a lake, or any ordinary or extraordinary distraction and pleasure, is not a way of life. Even traditional, motivated spiritual activity is only a temporary distraction. Truth is not a matter of any of these distractions. It is a matter of intelligence, the activity of real intelligence. If there isn't this activity of real intelligence, you are only distracted, and you are only suffering. Eventually, every individual begins to realize that he is only suffering. Eventually, people realize they are fundamentally disturbed. The more sensitive you are, the more obvious it is to you. The less sensitive you are, the more experience you require before it becomes obvious. The more force there is in intelligence, the more obvious things are, and the more intense is your conscious life. The less sensitive, the more distracted you are, the more in terms of time or experience you require. But the ultimate event is the same in every case. This intelligence, this sensitivity, this real observation of ordinary activity arises. And that is yoga, true yoga. That is meditation. That is spiritual life. That is religion. That is the way of Truth. Truly, there is no satisfaction in mere birth. Life is not a form of satisfaction. Life is a form of modification and motivation. It is self-creating. It is also Self-realizing. It is for the purpose of experiencing or dramatizing and elaborating latent tendencies, and, by a process of radical understanding, to transcend and transform the given drama by the grace of Truth. People who get a little religious, or whatever, like to make all kinds of pious statements about what this all is. But this is simply a realm of dramatized desire. Of course, all things arise within the Truth, or within the Real, but as soon as the Truth itself becomes obvious, "you" disappear. So this world is not itself the Truth. Truth is that real activity, that real intelligence that is the transcendent core of all manifestation. When Truth becomes active and alive, when this real process takes place, the whole form of motion that demands this limited and compulsive experience, this birth, is dissolved. Thereafter, if anything arises, humor is not lost. Therefore, the man of understanding continues to live, but with humor, and he dies with humor. The peculiar quality of all such men is unique. Ramana Maharshi, from the moment of his "realization," wanted to get out of here. From that moment, he wanted nothing to do with life. There came a certain stage in his continued existence when people surrounded him, asked him questions, and wanted to serve him. He consented to live the function of Guru among them, but he never wanted it to last particularly long. He was really very anxious for his death. Not anxious in the sense of a neurotic need to die. But he was more than happy for life to come to an end. And his death was very ordinary. It was a lot of festering and pain and moaning and groaning. Because he understood very well what this ordinary life and death was all about. His death was a demonstration of the nature of this common pain, illusion, suffering. There have also been other "saintly" people whose life appeared as a kind of flowery, miraculous pleasure. Even so, you must remember that these people also have all died! The quality all such beings have in common is this "humor," this freedom in the midst of conditions. And all such men demonstrated this "humor" by their lives, in different ways, in different times, and for different people. There is no moment of this usual birth that is not in the form of desire, of thought, and of separate self sense. Nothing is going on but these, which are the usual qualities of man. And none of these truly arises separately. They are a complex event, a single event. And that event is the usual condition and limit of man. If you begin to become aware of your activity, your state, your condition from moment to moment, you see there is nothing but this. Nothing but desire, thought and separate self sense. The ones who are regarded by the various traditions to have been enlightened Sages, Siddhas and Saints were those who had become extremely sensitive to this fact. At some point, usually relatively early in life, they became incapable of distraction and fell into their ordinary state, which is fear. When there is no distraction, there is only fear. The great ones are those who have utterly passed through their fear. They re- cognized it, knew it again. Other men are of the same nature as these great ones. They are perhaps momentarily insensitive. They are capable of distraction. And the differences between all beings and all disciples are the differences in their capacity for distraction. The kinds and degrees of distraction to which they are subject, and the intensity of their distraction, these are the differences. These qualities create the differences. And the experience of individuals in this great process of Satsang is one in which their capacity to be distracted is undermined, frustrated, turned about. Therefore, periodically, every individual passes through a time of crisis, of great resistance and fear. Ultimately, every disciple and devotee must go through the same process the Guru has already gone through. Perhaps not precisely in the same apparent form, but, within the pattern of his own conditions, that same process must occur. Thus, spiritual life is this undermining and frustration of the capacity for distraction. That is why spiritual life has often been described in harrowing terms. That is why the disciple must be very responsible for the basic quantities in his life, for his relationship to his Guru, and for the dramatization that he is tending to create as a result of this spiritual process in the world. Spiritual life is a crisis. Therefore, spiritual life does involve discomfort at times. When discomforts of the crises occur, this does not mean that spiritual life is failing, or that you are not good enough for it. Crisis and discomfort must occur. The crisis or turnabout is what it is all about. It is supposed to occur. You are supposed to suffer the purifying events. You are supposed to encounter resistance in yourself. You are supposed to discover all kinds of garbage in yourself. So why should there be any special resistance to it when it occurs? There may be discomfort, and you may wish you didn't have to go through it. But apart from that, there is no reason why you should be overwhelmed or completely disenchanted by the fact that you are witnessing a period of intense conflict, crisis, suffering, and disturbance. The more time you waste identifying with all of that, the less sensitive you become to the event. Therefore, Satsang, devotion to Guru, and a loving and intelligent approach to all of life should naturally increase in the periods of apparent discomfort. All of these apparently disturbed or crisis episodes in this real process of spiritual life are themselves very intelligent, very meaningful. They have a great deal to show you. The more capacity you have for passing through these times, the more useful they become. The man or woman who is really using this process in himself can be passing through this crisis almost continually, with great frequency and intensity, and yet, like a soldier on the march, he never misses a step, he never reveals it in any peculiar, outward way. He continues to function, and he apparently only enjoys his life. He doesn't get involved in a whole drama of upset. But in the beginning, when a man or woman is just beginning to pass through this kind of crisis in consciousness, there tend to be reactions and breakdowns whenever this crisis process begins. In the beginning there is very often an emotional collapse, even a physical collapse. There are these episodes that have an almost psychotic quality to them. And it is during those times that the guy is wondering whether to come here or not and all of that. But as he passes through these purifying episodes, he begins to realize how he must function in terms of the real spiritual process. When this event begins to arise in the mature disciple, there is always already something familiar about it. He knows the signs, he knows what is about to occur, and he knows the kinds of reactions that will build up. He knows that, instead of clenching his teeth and resisting it, he should find some more work to do during that time. Instead of planning a vacation or a binge when he sees a crisis coming, he cancels all forms of entertainment or distraction, every thing that he would normally use to distract himself from his internal state. He plans a lot of work for the coming days. He plans on an ordinary, functional life. He makes good use, really good use of these episodes. The more intelligent he is, the better the use he makes of them. The less intelligent he is, the more capable he is of distraction at that time, the more he will look for ways to dramatize his state, and to distract himself from the lesson that turns purification into transformation. You must know that everything I am doing is a means to bring about this crisis. I desire this crisis in you. I don't want it not to happen. I don't want to console you. I don't want you to be happy in your unconsciousness. I want you to become sensitive to your actual state. I want you to know very well what you are always up to. I want you to become capable of seeing yourself under all kinds of conditions. I want you to see the machine of your ordinary activity. And I want it all to collapse. I want it to come to an end. I want the death of all of that. If that death does not occur, there will be no release, no real enjoyment for any of you. There will just be the continual round, the self-creation of this unconscious event of life and death that is already distracting you. I look to create the various means necessary to serve this crisis. Because to serve this crisis is to serve understanding, to serve the joy and true bliss of liberated realization, of radical understanding. Every instant in Satsang is working to bring this about. In the Buddhist tradition it is said there are three things to which the aspirant must resort. In their language, these three are called the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha: the Siddha-Guru (or descended spiritual Master), the Teaching (including the living spiritual Power and the discipline), and the company or community of those who are living the Truth. The first event that occurred in our work together was the meeting in which you and I established a relationship. The next quality that began to be developed was the understanding of what spiritual life is, what this relationship is, what this process is, and what it demands. So the Guru, the Teaching, the discipline and the communication of the spiritual power of Truth have been the things that have held our attention in the early stages of our Ashram. In the last few months you have seen me begin more and more to emphasize the Ashram as a living process, an activity, a responsible activity of communion or community. I have been creating various functions, first by bringing them to life in myself, and then passing them on as responsibilities in others. So we have been working in the last few months to create the Sangha, the company, the community of this work. The ordinary man is avoiding relationship in complex ways. Therefore, it is necessary, in the midst of this work, wherein we re-cognize this avoidance, for relationship to be the condition. There must be living, working, functional relationship. So there must be the opportunity for those who are living Truth to live it in relation to one another, to examine together the Teaching, and to turn as a living community to the Guru. Community is the natural condition of all true spiritual activity. People who are moved to approach spiritual things are generally motivated by their illusions. They use what they gather through reading and the usual meditation to isolate themselves further, to console themselves, to create forms of self-imagery, good feelings, immunity, various narcissistic qualities. But I intend for this Teaching always to be displayed in relationship, because it is only in relationship that it begins to make any sense, that it begins to show itself. So there must be this functional confrontation between those who are using it. That confrontation is the use of it. Many of you have at one time or another expressed to me your feelings about organized spirituality, organized religion, whatever. People commonly have negative and resistive feelings toward all forms of community and human relationships. And the reason, the ultimate root of these feelings, is the tendency towards separation itself. In a certain way you can see that it is completely justified. There is a great deal about organized spiritual and common life worthy to be resisted! On the other hand, Truth is manifested only in this relational condition, and it is perceived in relationship. It is a crisis that occurs in relationship. Therefore, the community of Truth, the community that lives this Teaching is absolutely necessary. But what makes it a thing to resist is your lack of involvement in it, your separation from it, your dramatized resistance to relational and community life. So the spiritual community must be alive. Every one must be alive within it. Every one must be active in relationship and function within it. So if you do become active, responsible, alive, and intimate with others who are living this way, the whole sensation of resistance to so-called "organized" spiritual life will disappear, because you will be dealing with the problem of community only as that which it truly is: an expression of your own avoidance of relationship. But if you do not live it, if you do not move into functional relationship with this work, you will only see it externally. Everywhere you will only see your reasons for separating from the Guru, the Teaching, and the Community, because you will have made it into something without life, something worth resisting. Therefore, it is the responsibility of those in this work to live it, to become active in it, to use it, and to become responsible for it.   Back to Method of the Siddhas index

Home | Intro | Beezone Articles | Tradition Articles | Adi Da Articles | All Articles | email | top of page "The perfect among the sages is identical with Me. There is absolutely no difference between us" Tripura Rahasya, Chap XX, 128-133  All copyright materials are used under authority of the Fair Use statute. (United State Code, Title 17) Fair Use