Chapter
3
The Way of
Truth is the Way of the Perfect Awakening of the
Conscious Man. And the true Destiny of the living
human being is in conscious
and literal expansion, ascent, and translation from
this conditional, passing world of our waking,
dreaming, and sleeping experience into the
Imperishable, Graceful, Unimaginable Realm that is
itself the Divine Reality. However, the Principle
of such expansion and ascent is not any strategy of
ascension itself, but it is dissolution of the
separate soul or ego, on the basis of which there
is natural, spontaneous, effortless, and
literal
translation
into the God-Realm, in meditation, in the midst of
ordinary life, and after death.
The Ways
of Yogis and Saints exploit the possibility of the
conventional ascension of the purified soul, or the
benign ego. Such Ways are efforts in dilemma, which
involve the being in concerns for purification and
ascent via a transformation of human craving, from
present and grosser objects toward future and
subtler objects. But there is no free, true,
direct, and final ascent except the separate and
separative ego principle or soul, which is rooted
in the heart, be not merely purified but utterly
dissolved.
The Way of
conventional Sages is to bypass all
concerned efforts toward purification and ascent
and turn the being into the consideration of the
root of conscious awareness. On this
basis, the separate soul illusion is undone in the
Ground of Conscious Being, the true Heart. But such
a Way is worked on the basis of a discriminative
revulsion toward both the unnecessary and the
necessary emanation or expansive effulgence of the
Heart. Thus, its Principle tends to undermine the
ultimate Destiny of the Awakened Expansion and
Translation of Man.
The Way of
Divine Ignorance or Radical Intuition, which I am
disposed to proclaim and teach, is the Way of Truth
and its Destiny. It is the Way of devotional
sacrifice and conscious illumination, founded in
that Ignorance which is both the Heart and Glorious
Body of the Divine Reality in which we are now and
suddenly appearing to one another. Through the
conscious process of radical understanding, the
separate and separative ego or soul-principle is
undermined and dissolved in the true Heart, which
is Unqualified Conscious Radiance. When this
dissolution is stabilized in natural re-cognition
of all arising as modification-only, there is
spontaneous expansion and ascent, which is
regeneration of the Living and Unqualified Being.
Such is Sahaj
Samadhi, the Regeneration of Amrita Nadi, and the
true devotee's meditation (absorption in the Divine
Form).
The Way of
Yogis and Saints is the Way of Sushumna Nadi, or
presumptive ascent of the purified ego-soul through
the conditional realms toward the Highest. Such a
Way is generated in dilemma through concentrated
remedial efforts. The conventional Way of Sages is
the Way of exclusive descent into the Heart, or ego
death through descent in Amrita Nadi (the secret
pathway between the sahasrar and the heart region).
The Way of Divine Ignorance, or Radical
Understanding, is the Way of non-strategic
dissolution of the ego-soul in the Heart and
simultaneous regeneration, or expansion and ascent,
in, as, and through Amrita Nadi, whose upper
terminal is not truly the sahasrar (subtle crown of
the gross body) but the Unspeakable Condition and
Radiance of the Highest, wherein all worlds arise
and fall. (The Expansion of the Heart is without
qualification, Radiant in all directions to
Infinity, losing its center by including all
objects, and losing its boundaries by penetration
of all contraction. The Fullness of this Process is
also experientially communicated in the upper, or
subtle, and lower, or gross, dimensions of the
whole body - first to
the subtlest, and descending simultaneously to the
lowest.)
Persistence
in the natural Condition of Sahaj
Samadhi (or radical intuition) in the maturity of
this Way of Divine Ignorance is the natural,
effortless, spontaneous, and true Principle wherein
the true and liberated Destiny of every man or
woman, even mankind, and every living world is
Realized in literal and direct Translation into the
Form of God, even while alive, and after death. (In
Bhava Samadhi, the Heart and the Light are realized
as One, Real God, without references, up or down,
inside or outside, to any realm or
appearance.)
To be
human and yet to consider, speak, and adapt to this
Way is a Grace that reduces all ordinary
fulfillment's to the level of pain, delusion, and
unrelieved suffering. It is my hope and the
argument that is my whole life that you will choose
to adapt to this Way and renounce all ordinary
efforts and fulfillment's, high or low, based in
the reactive craving and delusions of this
born-experience. Become this Sacrifice with me and
rise from this death into the Condition of the
Heaven-Born. So be it.
Chapter 3
THE GREAT
PATH OF RETURN VS.
THE RADICAL PATH OF
UNDERSTANDING
The
reader should appreciate Bubba's use of the term
"Radical Understanding" as the synonym of "Divine
Ignorance. " This essay, somewhat revised here, was
written in early 1975, before Bubba began to
summarize his Teaching via the term "Divine
Ignorance. " "Radical Understanding" is "Ignorance.
" In the understanding of our false and
self-limiting activity we do not become great
knowers, but are released in our natural, Radiant,
unknowing Condition, the Heart of Existence, prior
to but not necessarily exclusive of subject and
object, self and other.
INTRODUCTION:
THE
TRADITIONAL ERROR
The
capital realization of the usual man and thus the
most universal communication of mankind is the
primitive sense of dilemma. The history of human
adventure is entirely dependent upon this
realization. Each generation serves the next by its
attempts to deal with this contradiction in the
core of life, but, for the most part, what is
delivered through time is the dilemma
itself.
Every
culture is, fundamentally, a structure of problems
and solutions built upon this felt dilemma. And
each new life is, by this education, compelled to
become a gesture in error, a reaction to this
realized dilemma. Therefore, each individual
assumes that the appropriate way to deal with this
primitive sense of dilemma is in fact to deal with
it, to re-act to it, by analyzing it and
identifying it with a specific or known problem,
and then attempting to solve it by a strategic
search toward a Goal, whose principal content is
release.
This
cultural strategy, to which we are bound by every
kind of archetype and indoctrination, is perhaps
best exemplified by the great traditions of
religious and spiritual life. The esoteric quest of
mankind is still, even in this age of mortalistic
technology, the principal image of human adventure.
It has been a grand experiment, carried on in many
independent laboratories, each operating upon a
specialized fragment of the whole, but all somehow
pointing toward a common result. But even though a
common result may
be analyzed from the data of the esoteric
traditions, each in fact assumed the problem (the
working "face" of the dilemma) in a unique form,
and each realized a Goal associated with unique
phenomena. The Goals themselves have, therefore,
not been the same, as will become clear in this
article. They are like so many different kinds of
infinity. There is no universal religion in fact.
But the described Goals of the various traditions,
if taken to be the principal data of their quest,
may be gathered together and found, by analysis, to
point beyond themselves toward a single Solution
which transcends every quest and its Goal. We may
name this Solution with a generic term, such as
God, Reality, Self, or Truth.
But even
if we accept this analysis, we have as yet only
fulfilled the ancient formula of culture. We have
only described (and, of course, not yet realized) a
Solution to the felt dilemma of life. Names such as
God, Reality, Self, and Truth are hopeful at best.
Their meaning is release, and, therefore, they
reflect our primitive sense of dilemma.
In fact,
we cannot be released from the dilemma at the core
of life by any strategy of reaction to the dilemma
itself. The search and its solution are only escape
from the conceived problem and its felt dilemma.
The appropriate wisdom of man is not controversy or
any program of reaction, but only investigation of
the felt dilemma itself. If we do not submit to
this radical way of wisdom, we will remain bound to
the ancient strategic way, and stand always
bewildered by the God-idea, the Reality-idea, the
Self-idea, the Truth-idea, or the world-idea. Such
ideas are
only bits of language or mind that distract us from
the contemplation of the dilemma to which we are
always bound. And if we contemplate them, we begin
to assume God, Reality, Self, Truth, or the world
in itself to be a some -Thing. And, if It is a some
-Thing, It must be some - Where. Thus, the various
traditions of culture characteristically assume
God, Reality, Self, or Truth to be either "in" the
world, identical to the "world," or on the "other
side" of the world. By virtue of this traditional
analysis the strategy to which we become culturally
bound becomes associated with an adventure in or
through time and space leading toward a Goal that
is both Specific and Absolute. The esoteric and
ordinary games of life we create on the basis of
all this seem a serious and justifiable affair to
most men. The tales of culture by which we animate
our hopes are so many shrines to the
Accomplishments of heroic seekers. But in fact it
is all a bit of nonsense, built as the result of a
strategic error, founded upon a dilemma that
remains below consciousness, unillumined by all of
that.
This
article will describe the structure of the esoteric
path as it has been collectively revealed by the
experiments of all cultures. It will be shown how
this path is tied to a space-time image of the
journey and the Goal, and how the greatest
Practitioners have declared God, Reality, Self, or
Truth (to which they assigned no Object value) to
be absolute and therefore necessarily prior to any
such journey, any such Solution. The report of
these great individuals is an indication within the
traditions themselves that the "path" of life is
not properly a strategic search toward any
Goal, nor is
it to be equated with any experiential journey,
high or low.
The
radical path of understanding, which Bubba Free
John is here to teach, represents the communication
of that Way of life which involves no reaction to
the felt dilemma in life, and no attainment over
against or, properly, even within life (as opposed
to being identical to or not other than life
itself). Rather, it involves radical understanding
of the motivating dilemma itself. The motivation of
mankind is the key to all our archetypal searches
and their Solutions. The Solutions do not exist in
themselves.
THE
GREAT PATH OF RETURN VS. THE RADICAL PATH OF
UNDERSTANDING
There are
three manifest dimensions: gross, subtle, and
causal. And there are three traditional ways of
practice toward release, each involved in
manipulation and experiences in one of the three
dimensions. These are the gross path (the way of
yogis), the subtle path (the way of saints), and
the causal path (the way of sages). Each path,
being a portion of the whole or great path, pursues
a specific and absolute Goal, via a method of
regression or return, toward the Condition which
pertains at the original or terminal position of
the dimension it assumes.
The
practitioners of the gross path take their stand in
the gross physical condition and seek the Goal by
activity there. In general, they seek either a
religious and magical harmony in the gross
condition or else ascent to the subtle. Kundalini
yoga is perhaps the most effective
and also easiest (if worked through the
extraordinary agency of an accomplished yogi) of
the ascending methods developed in this path, and
achieves entrance into the subtle dimensions by
exploitation and manipulation of the life-current
as vital force (prana), or the finer elements of
gross or lower life. The gross path of ascent
involves manipulation of all the faculties below
the brows, and seeks entrance to the subtle
dimension, which begins at the place between and
behind the brows (midbrain).
The subtle
path, exemplified by traditions such as shabd yoga
(or nada yoga),1 bypasses all
involvement with gross or lower energy
manipulation, including the kundaliniI, and begins
with concentration on the life-current as internal
sound and light at the door of the subtle dimension
behind the brows (ajna chakra2), thus
controlling and absorbing the mind. Since the Goal
of such approaches is escape to cognition above the
gross level, their methods need not magically
improve the karmas below, and so they merely step
aside from yogic attention to the gross aspect of
the Play. But the traditions of the subtle path,
like the kundaliniI and other examples of the gross
path, pursue the Goal by entering the subtle
realms. The real business
of both paths begins at the ajna center (between
and behind the brows), evoking the vision of
bindu,3 or nil chakra ("blue pearl"), or
other versions of the door of manifest light, the
epitome of the subtle mind, and awakening a
visionary confrontation with the subtle form of the
Guru in that same light, who then appears to lead
the individual or soul (subtle being) on to the
display of subtle energy above the lower-reflecting
activity of the mind. This is the adventure of the
super-conscious (higher mind) Play in the subtle
dimension.
The yogis
of the gross path, who pass up to the subtle realm
via the esoteric ladder of energy formed by the
finer elements of the gross physical being, also
perceive various marvels of appearance. They may
see visions of lights and forms, hear curious
sounds, and enjoy inner versions of experiences
that have counterparts in all the externally
directed senses and functions. This is the
revelation of the finer aspects of the gross
dimension, and all these experiences together
amount to a description of psycho-physical life
below the subtle realm. That description appears in
the form of an ascending order, from the most
solid, or lowest in vibration, to the most subtle,
or highest in vibration. The qualities of the
functional dimensions of gross consciousness may
appear in the form of lights or light-forms, in
various colors, corresponding to the hierarchy of
subjective or internal functions apparent in the
gross sphere. Such yogis prize above all the
appearance of light that corresponds to their
passage from
the gross sphere into the subtle sphere (not just
the finer side of the gross sphere, but the subtle
or higher energy world in itself, which belongs to
a totally different dimension of appearance and
activity than the universes in the gross-physical
sphere). This light (a spot, grid, flame, or
chakra) corresponds to the higher-reflecting
function of mind, which is turned to the subtle
rather than the gross sphere via the
sahasrar.4 This seed or door of the
subtle realm appears behind and above the gross
physical eyes. Some practitioners say that to
pierce or transcend this door is the way toward the
Self. The lesser ones claim that it is the only way
to reach the Self, or that it is itself the highest
realization of Truth.
Saints, or
yogis on the subtle path, also speak of appearances
of light, since the subtle world is a world of
energy or pervasive vibrations, and their composite
report corresponds to a description of the subtle
world as a whole. Their visionary course begins
with such phenomena as the blue bindu, or nil
chakra, and the appearance of the Guru within. This
vision appears behind and above the eyes, and so
they do not report the various revelations
(specific lights and experiences) corresponding to
the gross realm below the brows, which are the
content of kundaliniI yoga and the mysticism's of
the gross psycho-physical world. Their report is,
however, full of experiences and realms and lights,
but the order they describe is that of the subtle
dimension in itself. And the special characteristic
of the descriptions of their ascent is the
assignation of specific types of sound and vision
to each step of the way. The subtle path travels on
the life-current as audible light, whereas the
gross path travels on the life-current as the lower
or grosser forms of life-energy or vibratory bliss
itself. The kundaliniI is felt, and leads toward
subtle visions (light), whereas the subtle path
relies on the power of subtle hearing and sight to
return to the manifesting or Creator Source of
sound and light.
Each of
the three traditional paths is generally described
in terms of three divisions, including a lower, a
middle, and a higher plane of manifestation or
realization. Each of the three divisions in each
dimension (gross, subtle, or causal) corresponds,
in kind, to an expression at that level of each of
the three great dimensions themselves. Thus, the
mystical experiences of yogis of the gross path
have been described-relative to three degrees of
intensity (low, middle, and high), or planes of
vision (red, white, and black lights), and so
forth. Just so, the yogis or saints of the subtle
path describe three divisions or types of manifest
and manifesting sound (Anahad Shabd, Sar
Shabd, and
Sat Shabd). Each class of sound (each of which may
contain many specific sounds) is heard in a
specific region of the subtle dimension and by
passing from one to the next the practitioner
ascends through the subtle appearances or worlds of
light.
The lowest
form of sound described in the subtle path is
Anahad Shabd, which is heard within after
concentration at the ajna door, the subtle yogic
center between and behind the eyes, at the
midbrain. By concentration upon it one passes up
tot he region of the sahasrar (considered the
ultimate region by yogis of the gross path, but
declared to be only the first of eight of the yogis
of the subtle path). Anahad Shabd is the "gross"
or-lowest version of the three divisions of
manifest and manifesting sound, and it may be heard
while retaining bodily consciousness.
After
successful passage into the first subtle region
(sahasrar, or Sahansdal Kanwal) one contacts the
second or middle version of sound, called Sar Shabd
(meaning essence of sound, hence its relation to
the subtle dimension). This level of sound, as well
as those above it, and the regions they represent
in the subtle dimension, is generally, at least in
the beginning, heard and seen when there is at
least temporary abandonment or diffusion of
body-consciousness, By means of concentration upon
Sar Shabd, there is passage through Triloka, the
world-sphere of Brahma, the Archetype and
Controller of the gross region, which is the region
of the three gunas (tamas-inertia, ragas-activity,
sattwa - harmony), or the qualities of the cosmic
play in the lower planes. Beyond Brahma and-his
world the third or highest version of manifest and
manifesting sound is heard. This is Sat
Shabd meaning
true or source sound, hence its relation to the
causal dimension).5
Just as
each path speaks of three manifest and manifesting
divisions (low, middle, and highest), each also
speaks of a fourth or transcendent division or
realization, which corresponds to the Goal. In the
gross path we hear reports of the piercing of the
"blue bindu" and subsequent merging of the
attention or ego-soul in the Source above,
coincident with the sahasrar itself, the incident
wherein life is absorbed in Light. In the subtle
path we hear of a fourth or transcendent Sound,
upon which the three general divisions depend. This
is Nij Shabd (Original Sound), which comes from Sat
Lok or Sach Khand, the True or Imperishable Region
(the fifth in a scale of
eight).6
The shabd yogis describe
three regions above the fifth,
but they are named with names such as
"Indescribable" or "Invisible", "Inaccessible," and
"Supreme," beyond dissolution, beyond hearing or
seeing. These are not really descriptions at all,
but pointers toward the Goal, which is beyond
description. The subtle path is realized as regions
of Brightness upon Brightness, until no adjectives
are useful. It is at the point of its description
of the Goal relative to the subtle dimension, with
its planes of light and sound, leading to Light
beyond Light and Sound beyond Sound, that the
subtle path begins, like the highest realization of
the gross path, to point to Truth or Reality as
that which utterly transcends the dimension or the
presumption in which the practice has been
performed and realized.
The lesser
practitioners of the subtle path tend to confuse
the Ultimate Event or Goal with the experiential
phenomena acquired by their own method. Thus, they
claim the Goal may not be attained unless one
passes through the phenomena of the subtle
dimension, even as the yogis of the gross path tend
to claim the Goal is not attained unless there is
passage through the inner phenomena of the gross
dimension. However, it is true that the Ultimate
Goal of the way of return has at times been
attained by great yogis of the gross path, just as
it has been attained by great saints of the subtle
path. And these great individuals declare in common
that the Goal is of a transcendent, absolute, and
unqualified Nature (and it is, therefore, by
implication, not identical to the way or path they
followed, nor to the phenomena they passed on the
way).
The causal
path, exemplified by the tradition of jnana yoga,
sees no more reason to begin in the subtle
dimension than the tradition of shabd or nada yoga
sees reason to begin in the gross dimension. The
practitioners of jnana yoga bypass the subtle
dimension as well as the gross dimension, and apply
themselves to the causal dimension, the dimension
of manifest consciousness without subtle or gross
appearances. Jnana yoga proceeds by a penetrating
enquiry into the nature of one's conscious
existence, and thus involves neither manipulation
of gross or subtle energies, nor manipulation of
the mind corresponding to each of
those two
dimensions, but only investigation of the causal
field of simple consciousness in its first
modification (prior to the subtle and gross
appearances), which is the separate self sense, the
ego -I.
Just as
the gross and subtle paths describe three manifest
and manifesting divisions within the planes of
their operating dimension, and a fourth which
transcends it, so also do the practitioners of the
causal path. Thus, the yogis of the causal path
describe three stages: preparation (essentially,
hearing the Teaching as it is communicated by one
who has realized its Goal), practice (especially
the basic meditative practice, such as vichara, or
enquiry into the Nature of the limited self), and
stabilization or stable contemplation. These stages
represent a lower, a middle,
and a highest degree of practice itself. But a
transcendent degree is also described. It is the
attainment of the Goal, Self-realization, Knowledge
of one's Nature and Condition (and, therefore, that
also of the world, God, and all activities or
powers).7
Just as
the yogis of the gross path seek to pass up through
the form of the lower life (through the spinal
line) to enter the subtle dimensions, and just as
they with the practitioners of the subtle path seek
to pass upwards from the brows (the kundaliniI
yogis stop at the sahasrar or subtle glory, wherein
the vital principle is consumed, while the subtle
and shabd or nada yogis seek to pass beyond it, via
the subtle principles of sound and light, to even
higher regions of the subtle dimension), the
jnanis8 and others in the causal path
pass directly toward the heart (that intuition
whose psycho-physical center is felt on the right
side of the chest). The Heart (Self-realization,
the intuition of Real-God) is the Source of the
causal dimension (the seed of all worlds). It is
even the Source of gross life, the mind, and the
limited self. It is the Source of the gross and
subtle dimensions as well, and thus it is also the
Ultimate Source, the final or true Goal of even the
subtle and gross paths. Indeed, the sounds to which
the subtle yogis listen and the internal life
energies by which the gross yogis are raised both
have their Origin and Prior Condition in the causal
region of the heart. And every form or appearance,
every feeling or perception, every thought, every
vision, everything heard within, above, or beyond
appears first in the heart the causal
consciousness, prior to energy and form) in seed
form and then is cognized by reflection in the
various planes of modifying light above. Just so,
the Light of the subtle dimension and the Life of
the gross dimension both begin in the great causal
dimension itself, whose psycho-physical sign is on
the right side of the chest, just off the median.
It is by merging in the Source of the causal
processes that the jnanis realize the Heart, which
is their Goal. However, the common practitioners of
the subtle and gross paths envision their Goal in
terms of the ascended and subtle Life in Light, and
do not consciously continue beyond the subtle,
dimension of energy to the causal dimension of
manifest consciousness (prior to form, energy, and
mind) in order to fall in the true Heart, the Self,
the intuition of Real-God. And the general
traditions of spiritual practice in the gross and
subtle paths do not carry a stream of teaching
which acknowledges the Heart, the causal path, and
the primacy of that Realization.
Only the
most extraordinary individuals, who otherwise
traveled a path of leading into the subtle realms,
claimed the Goal to be utterly beyond and thus
independent of the way of their own experience. As
testimony to the rightness of the explicit or
implicit claims of these great individuals, whom we
may call Siddhas,9 Godmen, the
Heaven-Born (to be distinguish them from the lesser
individuals who traveled the same path but had no
such radical comprehension of the Goal), the
practitioners of the causal path have attained the
transcendent Goal of all the Godmen by a process
that bypasses all the phenomena experienced in the
gross and subtle paths. They attained the Goal of
the three "paths of return" (which together form a
single or great path) by intuitive penetration of
the Nature of the subject-consciousness,
independent of its subtle and gross extensions.
This is the way of the sages,and those who have
been Siddhas or Godmen in that line have also
claimed the radical and transcendent Nature of the
Goal to be independent of the phenomena of their
path, while at the same time, they declared their
path to be the most direct, assuming one had the
intuitive capacity and intelligence for
it.
If we
consider the gathered evidence of all three
traditional ways of practice, we may see that the
"great path of return" by which all traditional
paths go to their Goal does not terminate above, in
the sahasrar or in the subtle planes, but in the
Heart, prior Consciousness, the Source or Prior
Condition of Light, of Sound, of the current of the
being. That "great path" (when viewed in reverse,
as a way of return to Source, rather than
manifestation from Source) begins at the most
descended terminal of the descending-ascending
cycle of the life-current) the life center, the
true navel, at the base of the body, above the
perineum) and passes up the spinal line by
manipulation of body (elemental), vitality
(electric), emotional psyche, intellect, and
intuition to the ajna door, then to the sahasrar
(the Goal or gross yogis), then through (or via and
within) the sahasrar, through ever subtle planes of
experience, to the vision of God-Light (the
reflected or subtle Source-Light, the Goal or
subtle yogis), and then passes down, reducing the
forms of cognition to their rudiments as
modifications of consciousness itself rather than
of the energies or forms witnessed by
consciousness, to the heart (on the right side of
the chest, the Goal of causal yogis), where the
Self, the intuition of Real-God, the Heart, is
realized as Absolute Consciousness, exclusive of
identification and even association with the
causal, subtle, and gross appearances. (The jnana
or jivan mukta10 remains either
oblivious to or unaffected by all three manifest
planes of appearance while alive, and is
traditionally assumed to be released even from
their arising in the death process.)
It is
clear that the way of the jnanis (and the more
radical buddhas) is the most direct, since its
conscious Goal is the Goal acknowledged by all the
Siddhas, whereas the gross and subtle paths tend to
identify themselves with a conscious, problematic,
and necessarily egoic effort whose Goal is either
in the subtle dimension or in its direction. In
practice, the causal path is thus the least subject
to gross and subtle illusion, particularly if
assisted by the Grace of a Master, but it may also
be the most difficult, since it involves
abandonment of the consolations of gross and subtle
manifestation.
The way of
radical understanding is founded in that same Truth
or Reality claimed to be the Goal by all Siddhas of
the "great path of return." However, it makes two
prominent assertions that distinguish it from the
traditions. The first is in the manner of approach.
The way of radical understanding does not assume
the reactive principle of the search in dilemma,
and thus dissociates itself from the progressive
strategy of each of the three ways of return.
Therefore, Truth or Reality becomes not the Goal
but the very Principle of life. This is the second
most prominent characteristic of the way of radical
understanding. From the radical point of view of
the man of understanding, the ancient enterprises
of the great path of return to Truth are merely
sophisticated forms of the karmic and reactive life
of mankind. The path of return is an archetypal
compulsion to which we are necessarily bound (and
which is therefore necessarily and spontaneously
duplicated, but also undone, in the way of radical
understanding), as surely as we are to confusion,
fear, and disease, unless there is radical
understanding in our own case.
The way of
radical understanding, which I am here to
demonstrate and Teach, is founded in awareness of
all the possibilities, and their limitations,
discovered in the experiments of the traditions. It
agrees with the principal evidence of the jnanis,
or sages, but sees that their way is, commonly, a
search generated from the same sense of dilemma
which motivates the searches of yogis of the gross
path and saints or yogis of the subtle path. And it
also sees that the realization of the Heart
awakened when it is pursued as a Goal is an
exclusive realization, just as the realizations of
gross and subtle yogis are exclusive, except that
the realization of the jnana excludes both the
subtle and gross dimensions, whereas the others
only exclude the gross and, rather than pass
through the causal path to the Heart, rest in the
subtle vision of Light or Absolute Effulgence (in
the case of kundalini yoga) or in mergence in the
most subtle Principle or Source of energy,
vibration, or sound (in the case of shabd or nada
yoga). Therefore, the way of radical understanding
involves no search for the Heart as Goal, no
reductive, ascetic, world-denying strategy of
return, and thus no exclusive or conditional
realization.
The
transcendent or unmanifest Dimension is not a thing
in itself, over against all manifest things, but it
is realization of the manifest dimensions in Truth.
The man of understanding"11 realizes all
the manifest functional or conventional dimensions
to be not other than the Heart, and thus he may
retain all his dimensional "bodies," or planes of
manifest being, in the Play of Conscious Light that
is Life. However, he is merely Present, not by
definition one who enjoys siddhi or power in any of
the manifest dimensions (although he may, for
karmic or creative reasons, enjoy or manifest forms
of siddhi). But in the mere Presence of the man of
understanding not only is the Heart communicated,
but every kind of transformation, at every
dimensional level, tends to appear, without his
intention or concern. This is the spontaneous
Maha-Siddhi, the Divine Grace. Whatever the effects
that surround him, however, it is the communication
of the Heart via the radical way of understanding
that is his principal quality and
influence.
All of
this is generated in him not by seeking via any of
the traditional paths (gross, subtle, or causal),
but by understanding the felt dilemma that is
fundamental to his own life and which is the common
principle that motivates all paths, all the ways of
return. Thus, the way of radical understanding
involves immediate and spontaneous intuition of the
Heart, Absolute-Real-God, the Source, Self, Nature,
and Condition of all beings, of all dimensions. The
way of radical understanding thus effectively
bypasses even the causal path. The man of
understanding does not turn to the Heart, but
instantly and from the beginning stands Present
as the Heart. without strategically
excluding or binding any dimension of his being or
of the arising worlds.
In the
literature of Vision Mound Ceremony, this
non-exclusive realization of the Heart is described
as the "regeneration of Amrita Nadi"12
(and thus, also, of the descending and ascending
circle of subtle and gross life, which is generated
via the causal dimension from the prior or Absolute
Light that is the Heart, or Very Consciousness
itself). This experiential metaphor indicates the
non-exclusive nature of radical understanding. Just
as the Heart is both prior to and not other than
the dimensions of manifest existence, its radical
realization does not strategically exclude the
manifest dimensions for the man of understanding,
either during his life or after his death. He does
not require or necessarily look forward to the
cessation of the Play of the worlds. For him, the
Play is not other than the Heart, and it does not
ultimately affect him. His position is the
paradoxical one of Divine Humor.
Thus, the
man of understanding remains merely Present as the
Heart, but he is always apparently entering the
planes of the Play of manifestation, via that same
mechanism the traditions exploit as the "great path
of return." He does not by definition (although he
may in fact) intentionally and presently enter the
world through extraordinary experiences in the
causal, subtle, and gross mechanisms above or
behind the ordinary plane of gross psycho-physical
life. Nor does he by definition manifest the
siddhis, or powers, of those dimensions in his
life. He does not necessarily enter and appear
through the causal, subtle, and gross processes the
way water enters a bathtub through a pipe. Rather,
he appears instantly, immediately, like an apple on
a limb, as a spontaneous Presence in the world, and
this implies his existence in all three planes of
manifestation (just as the apple implies the
process of its appearance, while the apple itself
did not pass up the tree trunk from the root). His
conscious position, however, is that of the Heart,
not other than the worlds (the worlds as Truth),
and he does not, by definition, have any special
interest in or extraordinary experience of gross,
subtle, and causal realms in themselves, except as
they appear in the ordinary or conventional terms
of waking, dreaming, and sleeping. (More "ascended"
or subtler qualities of these dimensions may appear
at random in his experience or in his unintentional
or spontaneous effect on others, but these are not
necessary or characteristic of him by
definition.)
Since he
stands Present by including all dimensions of his
own conventional and functional being, he may speak
of the Light as above (meaning the reflected and
creative Light of the Heart, the God Light or Mind
as it appears at the head of the subtle dimension
above), or of the Heart as within and on the right,
or of the Fullness or Life as descending and
ascending between the subtle Light and the gross
Form. But all of these are only paradoxical
functional references, expressions of his ordinary
and conventional existence. In Truth, he does not
even cognize the Heart. It is not object to him. He
is the Heart. He simply is the Heart, and he does
not assign a space or place or event to That. He
sees he is not other than all that arises. He sees
he is, in Truth, the very worlds. His speech and
action are all paradoxes, humor, play, methods of
confounding those who live with him into that
intelligent crisis or dissolution of self in which
the true Heart is known in Truth.
What is
dissolved in the way of radical understanding, the
way of dissolution rather than of experiential or
progressive return, is not "a self' (a static,
object, entity), nor is "a Self' or "the Self"
acquired, attained, realized, or intuited. Rather,
what is dissolved is a process. The "ego" is not an
object or an entity, but an activity. It is fixed
reflexive contraction, or the complex avoidance of
relationship, at the gross, subtle, and causal
levels. And what is intuitively realized (the
Heart, the Self) may not in itself be described as
an object, entity, static, or process. Indeed, it
cannot be described at all, except it may seem to
be pointed to by implication as the self-limiting
process dissolves in radical understanding. (The
psycho-physical sign of the Heart, felt via the
life-current passing up and down to the right side
of the heart, is just such a pointer, and it is not
the Heart in itself.) The Enjoyment declared by the
man of understanding and by all the true Godmen is
Happiness, without cause, reason, description,
form, force, quality, event, condition, name, or
any other designation. It is the only Happiness.
Everything else, everything that appears in itself,
as some "thing," is a condition of the process of
limitation, the world in itself. But where there is
radical understanding or Perfect Intuition the
Truth is Realized, apart from the conventional
self-idea, Self-idea, God-idea, world-idea, or any
other limiting or un-limiting principle, problem,
or dilemma. Then the arising worlds may be lived,
which is to accept the discipline and condition of
all manifestation, high and low, as forms or true
theatre of the Discipline and Condition that is
Truth. Then any present world may be seen to be not
merely the dilemma of limitation, but Happiness,
implying no-thing (or Thing). Thus, radical
understanding becomes the prior Principle of
life.
Because of
the phenomenon of "targeting," the functional
effect or integrating process of all perception, a
self is implied within. In the process of ordinary
perception, the perception itself is reflected
"within," as a felt phenomenon within the
psycho-physical organism. Thus, sounds heard from
without seem to be heard within, in the middle of
the head. The effects of the targeting of all
perceptions, including the total sensation of the
body, as well as memory, thought, and other psychic
reflections, is to produce a sense of "the
perceiver" as an entity within. Those who become
sensitive to their own dilemma in life may
therefore react by a search within, in an effort to
undo the self via various forms of the "great path
of return." But there is no such self. There is
only the conventional belief that there is such a
one, founded in the implications of experiential
targeting.
Just so,
the search for the undoing of "the self' may be
directed toward absorption, union, or dissolution
in "the Self," or "God," or "Reality," etc.,
within, away, above, and beyond. But this notion of
the Great Entity is only an extension of the same
error, based in the same functional implications,
that produces the sense of objective self within.
Only when the apparent individual falls through the
motivating dilemma itself, and so comprehends his
own imagery, does he see there is no self in itself
and no Self or God in Itself, but only a Great
Process.
There is
no self, even while the Great Process continues.
This is the opposite of the traditional view of the
"great path of return," that ego-dissolution is the
undoing of some "thing," and/or that, with
dissolution of the illusion of self, there must
necessarily come separation from the world or some
change of the world itself. In fact, this
realization or understanding involves no necessary
change at all, in any dimension, but only
realization of the actual, prior, and present
Condition that always already pertains.
Just so,
the realization itself involves no necessary change
in one's apparent condition. Nor is it realization
of some Object or Goal that is "the Self," "God,"
"Reality," or "Truth," exclusive of the world or
knowable in itself. The realization that is radical
understanding is Dissolution in the Nature and
Condition of the world itself, including oneself.
Thus, it is not realization of something other than
the world, or some Thing that is an absolute
alternative to one's self. Therefore, no new and
transcendent "Entity" acquires the attention or
place of the "dissolved self." There was no such
one, and there is no such one, except as a
convention of the functional world. There is simply
Intuition of the Real Condition, which cannot
itself be identified with any change of state (or
State), any alternative within, away, above, or
beyond the world. It is simply Happiness. There is
no Self, or self, or God, or world other than the
World, the Total and Present Process. One who
enjoys such Realization (radical intuition) moment
to moment is only happy, free of the search, of
fundamental dilemma, of the impositions of vital
contraction upon the intuitive force of
consciousness, and of the glamour of all phenomena,
high or low. This Enjoyment is the Principle of
life, not its Goal. One who is thus Happiness
itself has not necessarily acquired any
experiential knowledge or powers in any of the
possible planes of the world-process (high or low).
He is not a conventional yogi, saint, or sage. He
is only alive in Truth. What he does or learns
apart from this Realization is simply the apparent
adventure he experiences within the Play, which may
or may not, at any moment, involve powers of soul
(the subtle being in its association with the gross
planes), spiritual powers (powers of the subtle
being in the subtle dimension itself),
extraordinary experiences, ordinary pleasures or
pains, etc. Radical understanding is not identical
to any phenomenon in the Play, nor is any
phenomenon its prerequisite, nor does it depend on
any for its continuation. It is simply the free
realization of Radical, Transcendent Wisdom, or
Happiness. It has nothing to do with time and
space, the arrangement of some destiny above, after
death, or in the present life that appears in the
gross dimension. It is prior to all karmas, all
actions, all events. It has nothing in itself to do
with behavior. One who enjoys as such Wisdom has
realized the fundamental Principle of all worlds,
and thus all changes of behavior, action, or state
follow from this Realization as creative and Lawful
play, but the Realization itself is not bound to or
by any of the models of ideal or acceptable
behavior invented in the searches of
men.
This way
of radical understanding involves no degrading and
no obliteration of the person. He is a functional
convention, part of the humor of the arising
worlds. It is only the strategy of seeking in
dilemma, of which the self-idea is an indelible
element, that must be undone in understanding. If
that is realized in conscious understanding, the
conventional person may remain, just as the Play in
all its modifications may continue.
And the
affair of understanding, by which the reparative
and apparently ego-making process is undone, is of
an entirely different nature than the strategic
path of return (in all its forms). The "great path
of return" is necessarily exclusive,
inward-directed , upward-directed, reductive,
ascetic, and ego-based. It stands in strategic
opposition (in the form of actual practice or else
latent conflict) to the gross dimension of life and
the gross world. In the case of the conventional
jnani it also stands in opposition to the subtle
dimension and, ultimately, the causal dimension, as
well as the worlds of experience corresponding to
each dimension. The traditional strategies are
consistently anti-sexual, life-abandoning, obsessed
with inwardness and even self-conflict. Everything
common to life, high or low, is a source of
possible conflict, requiring possible manipulation,
from the strategic point of view of the "great path
of return." Thus, the self, the mind, emotions,
desires, energies, the body, money, property,
relationships, activity, food, and sex become
fetishistic preoccupations of the traditional
seeker. And associated with the Devi Realm of what
must be excluded is an image of Truth as Objective
Deity or Separable Reality tied to a space-time
image (the path itself) that motivates self and
mind always to climb further within, away, above,
and beyond. But the man of understanding is merely
a non-exclusive Presence in the conventional world.
What makes him "different" from the usual man is
that his orientation is to the Truth or Real
Condition of the world rather than to the world
conceived as objectified and necessary
experience.
The "great
path of return" is not, in any of its forms, the
way to Truth, or even a way to Truth. The only way
to Truth is Truth itself, or Conscious and Radical
Understanding. The various traditional strategies,
wherein the Condition that is Truth is tied to and
approached via a space-time pattern ("within, away,
above, and beyond"), were invented in ancient and
primitive times, when the search for knowledge of
the world (high and low) was not yet separated from
the search for release from the dilemma of self
(the principle and activity of
separation).
The "great
path of return," wherein the dimensions of the
world are experienced, should be utterly separated
from the path of radical understanding, wherein the
dilemma of self is undone. The paths of return,
pictured in the great traditions, are the key to
the perennial science of the world to which every
age has been devoted. The study of the phenomena of
that great experiment can surely serve to clarify
the childishness of our present sciences, limited
as they are to the assumption of the gross
dimension and the gross world. And the wisest of
men may then do science in a more expansive milieu
than we have recently assumed. Such men will make
good use of the reports and even some of the
methods of the great path of return. But mankind
should no longer engage the path of return as a
search or a necessary way toward God, Reality,
Self, or Truth.
All the
Divine Teachers of the past have served the
realization and communication of this perfect
"Yoga" of understanding. All paths may be
understood when examined relative to the various
descriptions of the way of radical understanding
given in the literature of Vision Mound Ceremony.
But the precise, full, and radical formulation of
the Way of the Godmen and its independence from the
traditional paths of return has not been given
among men before this time. You may prove this to
your own satisfaction by examining the teachings of
all traditions in the light of this way of radical
understanding. Then you may test it in your own
case by the enjoyment of this specific practice or
Way of life.
The gross
path is a search by the psycho-physical being or
incarnate soul for escape from the vulnerabilities
of the human and earth-bodily state into the inner
and higher or subtle subjectivity of the soul, or
body of light. This path is done either by a
mysticism of ascent, or by a religious and magical
activity in which gross and subtle powers are
exploited in order to create desired changes
below.
The subtle
path is a purely mystical search by the soul itself
(once it has seen through the veil of its gross
bodily incarnation by experiencing a perception of
the subtle dimension) to regain all its faculties
in the cosmic play and even to transcend or control
them in the attainment of the state of Spirit or
Light itself.
The causal
path is a search by the conscious entity to
transcend all appearance, all suffering, all sense
of manifested or manifesting self-existence,
whether as psycho-physical being, incarnate soul,
soul itself, or even Spirit, in the Realization
(not the "state") of Prior Reality. This search
bypasses both mysticism and magic through a direct
process of discrimination and intuition.
The path
of radical understanding is founded in intuitive
disenchantment with the sense of dilemma itself and
the bondage of conscious existence to every kind of
strategic search for a Goal (which is itself
bondage to time and space as a negative event),
since, prior to the sense of dilemma, there is only
Happiness, no-seeking, no attainment, no
experience, and no specific knowledge. Therefore,
one who understands represents no obstruction to
the manifestation of Life, appears as a limitless
vessel to the intensification of Light, and exists
always as the non-dependent Condition or Intensity
that is Consciousness itself. As such, he does not
represent the problematic and strategic attainment
of either mysticism or magic, but through him the
Power of Truth works the Transformation of the
arising worlds through complete and unobstructed
agency, or creative sacrifice of the limiting point
of view of the gross, subtle, and causal
dimensions.
In the way
of radical understanding there are also (as in the
three traditional paths of the great path of
return) three preparatory stages, corresponding to
the qualities of manifestation or conscious life
the individual includes in the force of his
practice. These are the stages of the Way of Divine
Communion (which readies him, through practice of
service and functional meditation in the Divine
Presence, for the intense intuitive practices of
the mature stages), the Way of Relational Enquiry
(in which the devotee is active in the specific and
mature practice of enquiry in the form "Avoiding
relationship?" in the gross dimension), and the Way
of Re-cognition (in which he is active as
re-cognition or knowing again of the binding force
of experience in the gross, subtle, and causal
dimensions). At last there is a fourth or perfect
stage, the Way of Radical Intuition (in which the
devotee is alive as prior re-cognition or perfect
conscious existence in the gross, subtle, and
causal dimensions of the apparent being and as the
transcendent realization of Amrita Nadi, in both
its paradoxical form as Sahaj Samadhi13
and its radical form as Bhava
Samadhi"14). However, each of these four
stages of practice represents a prior realization
of the Heart in Truth, by Grace, through true
hearing and devotional sacrifice.
Vision
Mound Ceremony exists for the very purpose of
communicating this radical practice of life. Bubba
Free John only claims that the verity of this way
of radical understanding has been tested and proven
in his own manifest form and life. The event of
this practice in your own case depends on a
consistent, voluntary, and sacrificial or truly
devotional response to the Teaching and the
Teacher. The way is generated and fulfilled on the
basis of intelligence, responsibility, and love, or
surrender of self in actual relationships. Then you
will also have fulfilled the perfect purpose of the
great traditions, which is to realize Truth and to
be free and happy while alive.
1. The
literature's of shabd yoga tend to represent a
religious and hierarchical cosmic description of
spiritual method and experience, whereas the
literature's of nada yoga (as in the final portions
of Hatha Yoga Pradipika) tend to be more
philosophical and directed toward the specific
psychophysiology of the yogi practitioner. Thus,
the language of shabd yoga often appeals to the
impulse toward righteous conversion and universal
or collective salvation, whereas the language of
nada yoga is most often conservative and
individualistic, representing more the hermit's
liberation in subjective privacy.
2. The
ajna chakra is the subtle yogic center between and
behind the eyebrows. It is the door in the human
mechanism between what is below and gross, and what
is above and subtle.
3.
Bindu is a subtle center or visionary point, such
as the "blue pearl."
4. The
sahasrar is the highest chakra and terminal goal of
the yogi. It is associated with the crown of the
head, the upper brain and higher
mind.
5. The
tradition of shabd yoga and the esotericisms of
saints is made up of a number of schools or
Ashrams, each associated with a different line of
teachers. Thus, there are variations in the
descriptions, application of terms, and so forth.
The present essay contains only a sketch of the
scheme of saints, and it makes use of terminology
as applied by Huzur Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji and
Kirpal Singh, since these are perhaps most commonly
known. The texts of Soami Ji Maharaj and Huzur
Maharaj are senior in line to these and should also
be consulted for a comprehension in depth of the
technical viewpoint of saints in the subtle path of
shabd yoga.
6.
Although the esoteric descriptions of the subtle
path speak of regions above the sahasrar or crown
center, these essentially refer to subtle
perceptions associated with various regions of the
brain (just as the esoteric descriptions of the
gross path refer to subtle perceptions associated
with various regions of the body below the brain
and culminating in the brain). The hierarchical
display of subtle planes is experienced as the
perceptions of mind become less and less oriented
to gross and lesser subtle conditions of
subject-object knowledge or experiential
limitation.
7. Most
yogis, saints, and sages refer to a fourth or
transcendental Condition, distinct from the gross,
the subtle, and the causal. This Condition is
called by such names as "Supra-causal," "Sat Lok,"
"Turiya," and the like. Bubba Free John regards
such specific "Conditions" or "States" of
experience to be themselves versions of subtle and
causal conditions, albeit transcendental relative
to the usual conditions of gross life. The Real
Condition is not a fourth, but the Truth of the
three. It is a Paradox, not a separable or
exclusive Condition. It is the prior Reality, and
therefore (as in Bhava Samadhi) need not include
the noticed appearance of any conditions (gross,
subtle, or causal), but it may not itself be
located distinct from and relative to any such
conditions as long as they appear. All conditions
that appear relative to any or all other conditions
are themselves versions of gross
(elemental-etheric), subtle (mental-intuitional),
and causal (egoic-primal) expressions in
manifestation. When Bubba speaks of a fourth or
transcendental Condition, either he is speaking of
the exclusive realization of the Real (which is an
illusion, yet to be undone) or he is using a
conventional reference to Truth, while meaning it
in the Paradoxical or Humorous sense.
If
this Paradoxical sense of the disposition of the
Real Condition is assumed, then Sahaj Samadhi may
be said to be the Fourth or Turiya State, and Bhava
Samadhi is, then, Turiyatita (beyond the
Fourth).
8.
Those whose path is knowledge of the true Nature
and Condition of the worlds through the dissolution
of the ego-soul principle. Classical Vedantic and
Buddhist sages are examples of
jnanis.
9. A
"completed" or fully realized One, who lives in and
as the very divine. One in whom radical
understanding is perfect and who communicates That
to others.
10. One
who is "liberated while alive".
11.
Bubba Free John uses the term "the man of
understanding" to refer to his own characteristic
point of view and function in the worlds. By
implication, at least certain qualities of the man
of understanding are characteristic of all who live
as devotees in the radical way of
understanding.
12.
Amrita Nadi is the intuited structure of manifest
existence, which is the structure of Consciousness,
of human existence, of conscious meditation. The
Transcendent Form, intuited as Divine Reality,
expanding and rising out of the Heart or very Self
into and as the most prior God-Light or infinite
Radiance.
13. Sahaj
Samadhi is the realization of the Condition of all
arising, in which whatever arises is seen to be
only the modification of the prior Condition. It
matures as Bhava Samadhi, which is the Truth of
Sahaj Samadhi.
14. Bhava
Samadhi is the realized state of the most radical
enjoyment, prior to self, mind, body, energy, or
any realm. It is the Condition of conditions, the
existence in the Condition or "Realm" that is Only
God, the very Reality. It is without or prior to
references, and it is, therefore, unspeakable, or
without description.
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