Chapter
4
"I" is the whole
body. "I" is not merely the inward part. The Real
is not reducible to subjectivity or inwardness.
Just so, "I," or the whole, simultaneous body, is
not the Condition of the whole body-"I." The
Condition of the whole body-"I" is the Real, the
Divine.
The Real, the
Condition of the whole body "I" and all arising, is
not knowable. No matter what arises, within or
without, high or low, "I" do not know what even a
single thing as. This Ignorance, not the knowing
"I," is Truth, and it is the Principle of the Way
of Truth.
The stages of the
Way of Divine Ignorance represent progressive
responsibility, in Ignorance, for the forms of
contraction in the Infinite. The forms of
contraction are all the conditions arising, within
and without, high and low, gross, subtle, and
causal.
The effective
Process enacted at every stage of the Way is that
of expansion beyond the present limitation or
contraction. Expansion beyond contraction is the
responsibility at every stage, relative to the
unique milieu of contraction in which the devotee
is responsible, by Grace, at each
stage.
Infinity, the
Perfect Domain, is not at the furthest point of the
reach of expansion. It is the "point" where the
problematic cognition of space and time, subject
and object, is cancelled. It is revealed in the
moment when the mutual gestures of contraction and
expansion are equal.
The Way of expansion
in Truth is not a willful effort from the
ego-center. The Process is not generated the way a
balloon expands by pressure from within. It is like
the way a balloon, when punctured, equalizes with
all space and time.
Bubba Free John
PRINCIPLES
OF THE PRACTICE:
THE
PARADOX OF INFINITE EXPANSION
The following chapter
contains Bubba Free John's essential descriptive
commentary on the stages of practice of the Way of
Divine Ignorance, or Radical Understanding. These
essays do not present the specific details of each
stage of practice, but simply indicate to you the
fundamental responsibilities and enjoyments of each
stage as spiritual life matures over time. The
specific practices of each stage are presented in
full detail to devotees, either in the source books
and other publications of Vision Mound Ceremony, or
in private instruction offered to devotees at
Vision Mound Ceremony's educational center in
northern California.
THE
FOUR STAGES OF THE TRANSLATION OF MAN INTO
GOD
4.1
The Way of life that
develops and matures on the basis of the Teaching
which has been communicated and demonstrated in the
Play of Bubba Free John with devotees is realized
through a process of several stages. The process as
a whole is named the Way of Divine Ignorance, or
Radical Understanding.
The stages of this Way are
named and described under the following
headings:
1. The Way of Divine
Communion
2. The Way of Relational
Enquiry
3. The Way of
Re-cognition
4. The Way of Radical
Intuition
All men and women,
regardless of their present state of life, are
welcome to enter into the stages of this Way
through appropriate or right response to the
Teaching and the Teacher. Appropriate or right
response is always in the form of real fulfillment
of the Law, which is sacrifice. The Way develops
and matures through sacrifice, or adaptation of the
whole body-being to the Condition and the
conditions communicated in the Teaching and
manifested in the form of the Teacher.
The relationship to the
Teacher is implicit at every stage of the Way of
Ignorance. It is a transcendent or spiritual
relationship, not a conventional, worldly, or
cultic one. From time to time in any given year
devotees will enter into the personal company of
Bubba Free John in forms of sacred occasion. Such
meetings serve the essential awakening and
quickening of the process of the stages of the Way
of Ignorance in those who are properly prepared.
The Way itself, however, is lived by constant.
personal confrontation with the Teaching and real
fulfillment of its demands in an intelligent and
responsible spirit founded in devotional
sacrifice.
Those who respond to
public communications begin the Way of Divine
Communion, which matures as the Way of Relational
Enquiry (the essentials of the first stage of
practice still remaining). When there is maturity
in these first two stages, the individual should
begin the Way of Re-cognition under personal
guidance.
The process in the Way of
Divine Communion shows the signs of the
purification, intensification, and harmonization of
the three lower chakras and the three common
functional levels (mental, emotional sexual, and
physical) of the body-being. The maturing in the
Way of Relational Enquiry integrates the body-being
relative to the true Heart. When maturity (with
"enquiry," and "conductivity" in the form of the
"Breath of God") of the Ways of Divine Communion
and Relational Enquiry appears, then the Heart as
Ignorance becomes the foundation of living
practice. This becomes, in the Way of Re-cognition,
the opening of the throat (release from the verbal
mind and emotional-vital reactivity) and
conservation of the body-being in the mature forms
of "conductivity," which shows the signs of
purification, intensification, and harmonization of
the body-being universally (above and
below).
4.2
The Way of Divine
Communion involves the realization of a process of
simple "conductivity," or reception and release,
from a transformed or benign center (heart-felt
sacrifice), within and relative to the Divine
Condition and Presence. It is devotional reception
and release in the Divine Presence.
The Way of Relational
Enquiry involves direct intuition and functional
duplication of the real Process that is the center.
(The center or heart of practice is not a self or a
center in itself, nor an infinite realm of
subjective contents, but the Process or unqualified
Condition that is relationship itself.) This
intensifies the awakening of "conductivity," from
simple reception-release to a spontaneous cycle of
reception descending and release
ascending.
The Way of Re-cognition
involves dissolution of dependence and
identification relative to "conductivity," or the
descending and ascending, reception release cycle
of the manifest process. This is realized through
dissolution of the illusion of specific, concrete
consciousness or center, both as self (or
independent but finite or conditional consciousness
and subjectivity, subtle or gross) and Self
(independent but infinite and unconditional
Consciousness, separate from all subjective or
objective arising).
The Way of Radical
Intuition involves Realization of unqualified
Radiance, the Condition of conditions, prior to
reception, release, descent, or ascent. Such
Realization is simultaneous and identical with
unqualified Ignorance, the Condition of conditions,
prior to all knowledge, all subjectivity, all
relations, and all presumptions of a center or
independent consciousness, whether finite or
infinite. The Realization is Ignorance-Radiance,
prior to all centers (even the soul) and all bounds
(even the sense of Presence), but which is the very
Truth and Condition of even the present ordinary
moment or eternal Process.
4.3
No-contraction is the
principle of the process of salvation, realization,
or liberation. In the Way of Divine Communion, this
process is served through Communion with the Divine
Presence, and through the action of sacrifice in
various forms. In the Way of Relational Enquiry,
which develops on the basis of the Way of Divine
Communion, this process is served by inspection,
obviating insight, and enquiry into every kind or
pattern of contraction, and by awakening into
stable awareness and adaptation to the natural
etheric or subtle structure and "conductivity" of
the psycho-physical being. In either case,
salvation, realization, or liberation involves
release from the binding or consciousness- defining
power of subjective contraction, or objectification
and limiting modification of each of the functions
of the being (physical, emotional-sexual or
etheric, mental, super-mental or transcendental,
and egoic) and in each of the three common states
(waking, dreaming, and sleeping). When there is
such release, the consciousness tacitly,
intuitively, and directly realizes its always
present identity with the real Condition, or
Real-God.
4.4
In the Way of Divine
Communion and the Way of Relational Enquiry,
enquiry (in the form "Avoiding relationship?") and
conductivity (in the simple form of the Breath of
God) develop to maturity. The Way of Re-cognition
begins when enquiry is giving way to its non-verbal
form (re-cognition, prior to thought) and
conductivity is shown via spontaneous evidence. As
the Way of Re-cognition matures, the body-being
abides more and more in Ignorance as no-mind,
no-knowledge, and whole body Radiance. In such
mindless intensity, the Light (above) and the Life
(below) become an incarnating Play of the single
Power (the Heart) realized in Ignorance. This stage
leads into revelations of the subtle being, above
gross body awareness. The Way of Radical Intuition
begins when the being rests in tacit re-cognition
of all arising, high or low, as modification-only
and no longer is involuntarily motivated or
confused by any arising or experience.
4.5
THE
ESSENTIAL AND PROGRESSIVE PRACTICES, TO BE LIVED AS
SACRIFICE TO THE SPIRITUAL MASTER, OF THE STAGES IN
THE WAY OF IGNORANCE
1. Maintain ordinary,
relational, active, serving, productive, and
positive conditions of life.
2. Adapt to a moderate,
regular, regenerative lacto-vegetarian diet, and
maintain it as an ordinary discipline, strictly
observed (except, when appropriate, in the case of
occasional celebrations), and free of reflexive and
righteous concerns.1
3. Realize the sexual
function as a regenerative and harmonious process
of love-desire in specific relationship. At the
stage of the Way of Re-cognition, the sexual
process is completely integrated with the cycle of
whole body conductivity and re-polarization of the
body-being (toe to crown rather than vice versa).
At that time the sexual play is completely released
from the necessity of the degenerative process of
gross bodily discharge through conventional orgasm.
(At that stage, conventional orgasm becomes
controlled and occasional rather than necessary or
obsessive.)
4. At every stage there is
a complex natural and real process of the
body-being which is meditation, or technical
re-adaptation to the natural state, which
ultimately transcends all conditions, high or low.
At every stage this includes natural or
spontaneously voluntary attention of the whole
body-being as feeling observing-listening in the
current which pervades all life-feeling, breathing,
thought, and subtle awareness. This may include
special realization of the breathing through
voluntary action (as in the "Breath of God"
described in the Way of Divine Communion), or
feeling-audition of the current and subtle
visualization of its manifestations above the gross
plane (as in the Way of Re-cognition), and so
forth.
5. There is at every stage
necessary realization of sacrifice into the
Condition of conditions on the basis of unqualified
Ignorance. This is naturally implemented via the
Name of God (in the Way of Divine Communion),
enquiry in the form "Avoiding relationship?" (in
the Way of Relational Enquiry), preverbal
re-cognition (in the Way of re-cognition), or tacit
dissolution in the Condition of conditions, or
Only-God, in radical intuition in the full maturity
represented by the Way of Radical
Intuition.
4.6
In every moment, you are
obliged first to handle thins with your neighbor,
that is, to establish stable, ordinary conditions
in this body-mind and its relations. Only then are
you prepared to go to the holy place, to enter into
sacred occasion (such as meditation or the Company
of the Teacher)-even to realize this moment in
Truth. Therefore) he natural and obligatory
life-conditions of the Way of Divine Ignorance are
primary and necessary in every moment. Otherwise,
even though the moment itself is Only-God, your own
face will hide the Truth of it.
4.7
The Way of Divine
Communion and the Way of Relational Enquiry
constitute the "knee" of listening, the foundation
preparation of free and true attention.
The Way of Re-cognition is
listening itself, or free attention rested in the
prior current of the body-being, open to the
revelation of the Truth or Condition of all that
appears in the radiant effulgence of the prior
current of the being as worlds, above and
below.
Thus, in the Way of Divine
Communion and the Way of Relational Enquiry,
attention is engaged in a liberating or
transforming process in the midst of the relational
pattern generated in the effulgence or radiance
emanating from the current of the being (the very
or manifesting current of the worlds). In this
manner, the Divine or Real Condition is felt as an
all-pervading Presence in the gross and waking
world. In the Way of Re-cognition, the current
itself absorbs the attention, now free of the
conditions of mind, emotion, and gross form, and
the effulgence of conditions is shown in subtle
forms above gross awareness.
When this pattern of
revelation is thoroughly recognized to be only
modification of the prior Condition of the current
itself, attention becomes "open eyed," very
Consciousness, or the Heart, the Condition of
conditions.
The Way of Radical
Intuition is the Way of prior re-cognition, abiding
in the prior Condition of the current of being,
whatever arises, high or low. This awakens as the
regenerated and transcendental Enjoyment of
Only-God, or Unqualified Conscious Light, which is
Amrita Nadi, the Divine Form and Destiny. In that
case, the highest esoteric injunction of spiritual
life, as described in the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 8,
verse 12, is fulfilled:
One should have all the
gates of the body restrained, the mind confined
within the heart, one's life force fixed in the
head, established in concentration by
yoga.2
Thus released from the
conventional disposition in the midst of all
arising, only the Divine Destiny becomes the
spontaneous future, as described in the Bhagavad
Gita, chapter 8, verse 14:
He who constantly
meditates on Me, thinking of none else, who is a
yogin ever disciplined [or united with the
Supreme], by him I am easily
reached.3
4.8
The Way of Divine
Communion begins with the assumption of the
discipline of conditions of life and meditation in
the all-pervading and transcendental Company of the
Spiritual Master, on the basis of the hearing of
his argument, the whole Teaching of Divine
Ignorance, and it has become mature (although not
brought to an end) when the individual manifests
the true signs of steadiness of devotional
attention to the Spiritual Master, the Teaching,
and the regenerative foundation practices of life
and meditation.
The Way of Divine
Communion is the Way of dependence on the Divine
Reality, the Power and Condition that pervades all
conditions, is prior to all conditions, and is the
Real Condition or Reality in which all conditions
appear. Therefore, the Way of Divine Communion is
the way of faith. It is active, present, functional
or practical participation in the Divine Form or
Process. It is devotion, from the heart (the
central or psychic being, the subject of all
experiences, physical or mental, low or high) to
the all pervading Divine.
The Divine may come to be
felt over against one's simple sense of existence
as a Presence pervading the being and all
conditions. In the Company of the Spiritual Master,
the Divine is felt intuitively as a Presence over
against one's being, from the heart. Once the
devotee is initiated by this Presence of Grace, the
Presence is realized to be not exclusively over
against the being of the devotee, but,
paradoxically, to be the very Condition or Reality
of the whole body, including the consciousness. The
Way of Divine Communion is devotion, surrender of
body, life, mind, self, and all circumstances,
desires, and assumptions into the Presence of the
Divine. It is love, receptivity, openness, release,
and active dependence upon the all-pervading
Divine. It is constant reception of the Divine
Power, and acceptance of the transcendental Divine
Power as the Principle of all change, rather than
acceptance of conditions themselves and the
tendencies that seem to fix the conditions of the
world. It is release of all assumptions, all
negative subconscious, unconscious, and conscious
beliefs and intentions, to the Divine, and
reception of the Divine Principle as the Power in
all events, allowing it to change all conditions
from moment to moment.
The Way of Relational
Enquiry extends from the beginning of the
considerations of the matter of relational enquiry
on the part of the true devotee and leads, on the
basis of enquiry (in the form "Avoiding
relationship?") into the spontaneous signs of the
reorientation of the living being (physical,
emotional, mental) toward the all-pervading and
also internal life-current and of the
re-polarization of the life current itself from toe
to crown rather than the reverse (which is common
to the usual man and the unregenerate previous
adaptation of the devotee). In the process, the
current of the being begins to rest intuitively in
absorption in the all-pervading Divine Presence
(rather than in any sense of differentiation from
the Presence), yielding a growing and tacit sense
of the prior Condition that is the Presence
itself.
This is how the devotee
enquires when he is mature in the practice of the
Way of Relational Enquiry: He observes desires,
thoughts, and separating self sense arising at
random in the field of attention. When he notices
any of these, he enquires. Each moment of enquiry
is release of attention from the contraction of
inwardness (the sense of desire, thought, or
separative self) to the natural state of attention,
which is the unqualified sense of relationship.
This unqualified sense of relationship, enjoyed
while, paradoxically, still aware of the perception
of the world and one's bodily presence within it,
is intuition of the all pervading Divine Presence.
In the moment of this intuition, desires, thoughts,
and separating self sense are dissolved. The
devotee does not act upon such conditions, even as
they arise, but merely enquires, and so returns to
the prior or natural form of attention, in which
there is only fullness or delight. Desiring,
thinking, and concentration on the separative and
separating act of self tend, upon observation, to
contract attention inwardly. They are forms of the
avoidance of relationship. If one returns naturally
to conscious awareness of the condition of
relationship itself, the avoidance of relationship
is relaxed, and thus desire, thought, and
separative and separated self come to rest. In that
state of awareness there is the felt intuition of
prior happiness, radiance, and freedom within the
conditions of life. Fundamentally, in each moment
of enquiry, the knot of contraction (dilemma,
self-meditation, separativeness) in the navel is
released. Thus, the devotee who enquires has become
responsible for the reactive pattern that is vital
shock. Secondarily, the knots in the subtle region
(the sahasrar and above) and the causal region (the
heart) are also released in enquiry, but it is only
in the conscious development of the Way of
Re-cognition that one becomes responsible in
consciousness for release of the subtle and causal
knots. In the Way of Relational Enquiry the devotee
still maintains the vital position, the position of
bodily presence in an objective world. Conscious
responsibility for vital shock, the conscious
dissolution of the reaction or effects that are
vital shock, through enquiry, manifests in such a
devotee as intuitive happiness, but under the
conventional condition of body and world. The
subjective contraction becomes a matter of
responsibility in the Way of Relational Enquiry,
but the objective or body-in-the-world condition
continues to remain the conventional state he
assumes. Only in the Way of Re-cognition does
the conscious process involve transformation of the
conventional view of body and world.
The Way of
Re-cognition extends, via the process of
re-cognition4 (thoughtless enquiry,
which becomes intuitive absorption in the prior
rather than the all pervading Condition of the
current of the being), from the beginning of
re-polarization of the bodymind (true Tantra),
until Jnana Samadhi, the exclusive fall in the
Heart, wherein there is no qualification by any
condition seen, heard, or felt, high or low. Jnana
Samadhi, or exclusive Consciousness, is at last
itself re-cognized, yielding the spontaneous,
nonexclusive Realization of "open eyes," or Sahaj
Samadhi.
Re-cognition is the
knowing again of cognition, that is, of the mind or
contraction of the field of awareness. This
naturally follows on enquiry, and it is pre-mental
(it goes through and beyond mind to its prior
Condition, or no-contraction).
In this Way, mind and
body, the whole field of contraction, is
re-cognized to the point of no-contraction. This
takes place exhaustively, even above the gross
plane, via heart-felt contemplation of the
expressions of the current of the being, high and
low. In the earlier phases of the Way of
Re-cognition, the gross bodymind is re-cognized,
but as polarization of the bodymind reverses, the
subtle conditions appear in the face of
re-cognition.
Thus, in the Way of
Re-cognition, the motivating conditions of the
gross body-mind become more and more weak, so that
attention is not so mightily formed by them. In the
process of the intensifying meditation, the gross
attention spontaneously relaxes, the gross body is
reversed in its polarization, and the attention
springs up toward, to, and through the midbrain and
crown. Thus, natural attention as listening-gazing
above appears in the Way of Re-cognition. However,
the strategic method of listening and gazing above
is not at any stage true, in itself, to the Way.
Such is only another craving effort toward change
of state for the ego-soul, founded in dilemma.
Rather, while natural attention above does appear,
the process of re-cognition is generated relative
to both the effects and the cause of its
appearance, and re-cognition continues as the
meditation and practice under all conditions. Thus,
re-cognition occurs relative to this very attention
and the whole intention of subtle fulfillment.
Subtle objects are re-cognized, and the very action
of attention itself, including the action of
listening, of gazing, is all re-cognized. As a
result, the upward tendency of attention, which
pursues the solution of absorption of the ego-soul
rather than to be free of that condition of
ego-soul itself, is made obsolete, undone in the
Heart, in conditional or exclusive Jnana
Samadhi.
When this process is
exhaustive, all conditions of body-mind, all
objects, cease to bind, and there is the Condition
of Sahaj Samadhi, or "open eyes" under all
conditions (gross, subtle, and causal). At last,
all conditions are undone in re-cognition (the
Heart becomes the Condition), and then the eyes
open in Sahaj. That is, the effort of seeking, high
or low, ceases in the Heart. No effort is made to
attain a higher state or to exploit the present
state. There is simply natural awareness, whatever
arises, that it is only modification of the prior
and unknown (not realized over against self, mind,
or body) Condition.
The Way of Radical
Intuition, in which there is effective prior
re-cognition, begins from this point. In that case,
whatever arises is realized to be only modification
of the prior unknown Condition. All extraordinary
and strategic efforts toward any conditions, high
or low, cease in the Unqualified Intuition or
Perfect Sacrifice. This Way includes both Bhava
Samadhi and Sahaj Samadhi (the devotee's
meditation), bodiless, mindless, wordless, even if
body, mind, and world seem to remain in the
conventional view. It is simply to dwell in Amrita
Nadi, or Radiant Consciousness, prior to limiting
spatial, temporal, mental, or bodily references,
high or low.
The Way of Radical
Intuition extends into the maturing of Sahaj
Samadhi under all conditions (high or low) and the
perfect awakening of Bhava Samadhi. Sahaj Samadhi
and Bhava Samadhi are the two great and equal forms
of Radical Intuition.5
Sahaj Samadhi naturally
becomes, or is realized to be, Bhava Samadhi. The
more profound the realization of modification-only,
the more there is perfect rest in the Condition of
the Heart, prior to cognition of conditions, high
or low. There is only the One intensity. This is
radical intuition. As it intensifies, all
conditions are forgotten, all efforts cease, and
there is Radiance only, without definition. Such is
Happiness and unspeakable Destiny.
The Way of Re-cognition is
the spiritualizing Way, just as the Way of Divine
Communion is the foundation and preparatory Way,
and the Way of Relational Enquiry is the humanizing
Way. And the Way of Radical Intuition is the Divine
Way of devotees in the perfect sense.
The whole Way of Divine
Ignorance, or Radical Understanding, depends on the
mutual Sacrifice and loving Communion of the
devotee and the Spiritual Master, or literal
Divine. The whole Way awakens in the devotee by
Grace in the midst of his or her true, persistent,
and maturing response to the Spiritual Master and
the Teaching under all conditions, high or low,
whereby he or she is tested and
instructed.
The conscious or intuitive
process, founded in Ignorance, is the key to the
whole Way. It is this process and not any secondary
yogic or other effort to which the being must be
devoted, or else it will only crave and seek, high
and low, and have no peace, freedom, or essential
happiness.
4.9
Enquiry (in the form
"Avoiding relationship?") is generated via the
thinking mind but prior to the living gross body
and its actions or dispositions in relations. Thus,
it tends to release or draw the being into
intuition of the Real Condition prior to thought,
but secondarily awakens a harmonious fullness (the
full circle of conductivity of the etheric or
energy sensitivity of the gross being) in the
functional and relational play of the gross bodily
experience.
Re-cognition is generated
prior to thought, and relative to the whole field
of functional awareness wherein thought, sensation,
breath, feeling, body, and relations arise. At
first it tends to release or draw the being into
intuition of the Real Condition via the conditions
of higher mind and pure subtle intelligence above
the gross body and the forms of knowledge relative
to it. Later, even the subtle, illumined mind
ceases to distract, and the self-root (causal knot)
is penetrated in Jnana Samadhi.
Radical intuition is most
direct or perfect Intuition of the Real Condition.
It is perfect Ignorance, prior to self, mind, body,
and any world, high or low. Unqualified Radiance,
prior to but not exclusive of all conditions
arising, spontaneously springs up from such perfect
or Divine Ignorance. This Radiant Intuition, or
"open eyes," is the ultimate awakening in the Way
of Re-cognition. Thus, in Sahaj Samadhi, there is
random and most prior re-cognition, generated prior
to self, mind, body, and relations, but relative to
self, mind, body, and relations. In order to be
generated prior to all of these, it must be
generated at the heart, the root of the sense of
self, or independent conscious existence. Radical
intuition does not involve excursions of
re-cognition into the field of mind and body while
identifying with the self knot. It is random,
direct penetration of the self knot as only
modification, at the heart-and thus it also is the
seeing of all thought, body-senses, and relations
as only modification (contraction, or unnecessary
objectification of the prior and Real
Condition).
The process of radical
intuition is random recollection of the Real
Condition prior to self, mind, body, and relations.
It is stable rest at the heart. But it is also
spontaneous Realization of Radiance, which is
regenerated when the knot of the heart (as ego or
as unqualified but exclusive Self or
Consciousness), and thus also the knots of mind
(crown) and body (navel), are dissolved in prior
Intuition. The Radiance springs up of its own and
universally, prior to all illusions, prior to the
effects and implications of the unnecessary
conventions that are self, mind, body, and
relations. The Radiance is not an act, not an egoic
or strategic impulse directed from heart to crown.
It is spontaneous on the basis of Ignorance, or
penetration of illusion at the heart (and thus also
at the crown and navel -simultaneously and by
implication, since the heart or causal root is
senior to both the subtle and the gross
extensions).
Thus, in Sahaj Samadhi,
there is no egoic effort from the heart to
contemplate the "sky" of lights and sounds above.
Attention, self, and mind are dissolved with all
knowledge at the heart, so there is only Radiance,
prior to all content, even above and universally.
The crown or Light above is not object to the
awakened Heart - there is no object and no subject
in perfect Ignorance. The Radiance is the
universal, pre-cosmic Super-Physics of the Heart,
which pervades all objects and realms, but which is
without center, bounds, or definition. The process
in Sahaj is radical rest in Ignorance, at and prior
to the heartroot. But the Radiant Fullness is
regenerated simultaneously, inclusively, so that
the force of life and body collects naturally
above. The gross being is Full, from the crown - as
is the whole gross realm. The subtle being is also
Full, free of all content, all thought, all efforts
of attention. There is simply the natural,
radically intuitive re-cognition, moment to moment,
that all arising conditions are only modifications
of prior Ignorance-Radiance, the Divine Condition.
The process of inclusive re-cognition, in the Way
of Radical Intuition, itself rests dependently in
prior and radical intuition of the Real Condition.
Therefore, the problematic search for changes of
state has come to rest. Whatever conditions and
movements do arise - they are without necessity or
the binding force of implication. There is natural
abiding as the Heart (the heart knot and all knots
or necessities released), which is Ignorance, which
is Radiance. Thus, in radical intuition, the
Fullness which was previously awakened in the
secondary conditions of "conductivity," or the
versions of the "Breath of God," is Realized
coincidentally, simultaneously, and perfectly with
the Heart of Ignorance (which was previously the
province of the senior exercises of the conscious
process - which are the "Name of God," enquiry, and
conditional re-cognition). In radical intuition-in
Sahaj Samadhi and Bhava Samadhi-Ignorance and
Radiance are one and the same, prior to all events,
subjective or objective, high or low.
4.10
To gaze at objects, high
or low, is contraction, or fear. The play of
relations, of subject and object, is itself
subjectivity, or separation. This is the lesson
leading to Jnana Samadhi in the Way of
Re-cognition.
Enquiry (in the Way of
Relational Enquiry) matures beyond words, so that
bodily relations come to rest, and the subtle
being, prior to thought, becomes the locus or
symbol or body of self. Thus, re-cognition passes
instantly beyond body and thought into the field of
awareness itself.
The conscious process of
re-cognition is the responsibility of the devotee
from the very beginning of the Way of Re-cognition.
The Way of Relational Enquiry matures until enquiry
ceases to be verbal and becomes only a wordless,
intuitive, felt gesture of the being, which is
release from subjectivity and the limiting force of
gross (etheric-elemental) relations. "Conductivity"
also matures, spontaneously, and instruction is
given in a new version of the Breath of God. When
preverbal enquiry (re-cognition of contraction) is
stable, the Way of Re-cognition begins.
In the Way of
Re-cognition, further new versions of the Breath of
God ("conductivity") become the responsibility of
the devotee, and instructions are given as soon as
spontaneous evidence appears. Re-cognition is
pre-mental release from contraction, from subject
object force. Thus, as one level of contraction is
recognized, the next naturally appears. Therefore,
the Way of Re-cognition secondarily recapitulates
the "great way of return." As gross objects lose
their distracting power more and more, there comes
the upward tendency (re-polarization, toe to
crown), then upward contemplation of bliss, sounds,
and lights. Then comes a period of relative
dullness or limited distraction, in which arising
objects, gross and subtle, low and high, bodily and
mental, including the patterns of breath-force, are
merely observed while re-cognition continues. Then
the subject-object process or cognition, the very
mind, the act that is attention itself, and which
is the primal sense of relationship, is itself
re-cognized, and thus dissolved. This is Jnana
Samadhi, or Conscious Bliss prior to and exclusive
of objects.
Only a subtle tension
remains in Jnana Samadhi. It is the tension created
by the exclusive (object rejecting) force in this
state of Intuition. Thus, this exclusive tension is
at last also re-cognized. Then there is spontaneous
"open eyes." It is Sahaj Samadhi, which is
unqualified Ignorance (no knowledge, no binding
cognition, no separation, no independent self, no
exclusive Consciousness). That very Ignorance is
also perfect Radiance (the Radiant Bliss of
Consciousness, not the objective radiance seen with
gross or subtle eyes), of which all conditions are
intuitively realized to be only the modification.
Such Ignorance Radiance is the tacit regeneration
of Amrita Nadi, in which case the natural
reappearance of conditions or relations
(subject-object conventions) is allowed, but all
arising comes without binding force, without a
center or bounds, without independence. In that
case Ignorance-Radiance, or Radical Intuition, is
prior to all but not exclusive of any arising.
Thus, there may also be no noticing, no event, no
mind or speech, no body, no relations-the Truth in
Bhava Samadhi.
4.11
THE
WAY OF RE-COGNITION
First stage: Re-cognition
of the body and the life principle.
It is demonstrated as re-polarization of the
being, toe to crown rather
than crown to toe.
Second stage: Re-cognition
of mind. It is demonstrated as upward contemplation
(listening-gazing) in the
subtle dimension of the being.
Third stage: Re-cognition
of self. It is demonstrated as exclusive Jnana
Samadhi, followed by "open eyes," or non-exclusive
Sahaj Samadhi.
THE WAY OF RADICAL
INTUITION
Here there is prior,
all-inclusive re-cognition of self, mind, body,
world (all relations), and exclusive transcendence.
Sahaj Samadhi is the exercise of such prior
re-cognition (realizing all present arising to be
modification-only) in the midst of conditions,
while abiding in radical intuition
(Ignorance-Radiance). Bhava Samadhi is radical
intuition (Ignorance Radiance) prior to any
arising, any noticing, and thus any form of
functional re-cognition.
4.12
When we awaken from sleep,
the elemental or gross
body already exists. Thus, we tend automatically to
live on the basis of the presumption of the gross
body as an irreducible condition, and we struggle
to realize happiness in this shape. All our
philosophy is founded on the irreducibility of our
birth in gross form. But the whole body is greater
than this shape.
The entire purpose of the
ascending absorption in what is above the gross
body, life, and mind, which characterizes the
earlier phase of the Way of Recognition, is to
break through the presumption of the necessary and
binding or limiting nature of the gross
manifestation. Once there is penetration beyond
ordinary gross awareness into the vibratory milieu
from which the gross and waking conception and
perception is always presently arising, the gross
limitation is realized to be unnecessary, a
hallucination like any moment in imagination. The
gross body conception and perception is not arising
spontaneously as it is, irreducibly, so that the
process of its arising may not be inspected. It is
arising on the basis of a subtle process, prior and
creative relative to the gross etheric and
elemental events that appear so solid in the
conventions of the waking state. The process by and
in which the gross body and the gross world are
arising may be inspected, if the attention of the
being or whole body can be relaxed or set free from
the gross obsession and turned up into the subtle
affair above the mind via the mechanisms of the
midbrain.
When this is done, it
becomes clear that not only the gross conception
and perception, but all present arising, subjective
and objective, is hallucinatory, an unnecessary and
merely compulsive modification of the Conscious
Light. All arising is the result of subtle
contraction, the product of primitive motivation
and attractedness.
When this observation of
the creative process of present arising becomes a
certainty, then the investigation of extraordinary
or subtle phenomena has served its purpose. The
purpose of the ascent of attention in the Way of
Re-cognition is not to embrace or become absorbed
in subtle things or the subtle spiritual processes
themselves. Such is only another fascinated
hallucination - perhaps beautiful enough, but not
necessary, and not Truth or the Real, which is
unqualified Happiness. Therefore, once the
nonnecessity and hallucinatory nature of all
present arising becomes obvious to the point of
certainty, the turning of attention into the subtle
dimensions above the gross body and
gross-reflecting mind has served its purpose. At
that point, the very act of such attention, and all
attention, becomes itself the core of the
consideration in the Way of Re-cognition. Thus, the
later or mature phase of re-cognition begins,
wherein all qualification of Consciousness becomes
obsolete. And once even the circle of attention is
undone, all things return again in the Humor of God
as Sahaj Samadhi and Bhava Samadhi in the Way of
Radical Intuition.
4.13
In Sahaj Samadhi there is
no strategic and exclusive concentration of
attention above, toward the crown of the head and
beyond. Neither is there any exclusive and
strategic effort to lose the sense of body-mind by
confining attention in the heart only. Rather, as
it is described in the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 8,
verse 12, the mind is kept in the heart while the
life force is held in the crown. Thus, a
relationship between the crown and the heart
characterizes Sahaj Samadhi. I have described this
relationship or process in The Knee of
Listening:
The ultimate and
simplest meditation is to gaze in the heart as
no-seeking and allow its bliss to rise as fullness
to the head, the
silence of the sahasrar above the seat of the
mind.6
Thus, there is a constant
sacrifice at the heart, at the point of the arising
(as well as the dissolution) of the ego-soul
conception ("I"), even all objects, including the
act of attention itself. Here there is the constant
present intuition that "I," with all other arising,
is only modification of the prior, all-pervading
Condition which is always already the case. As a
result of this constant intuitive and devotional
sacrifice, the subtle consciousness, the crown of
the being, is rested of all content, all
implication or binding force of thought or
conditions arising. As Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
has said:
The light (of
awareness) flows from the heart through sushumna to
sahasrar. The Sahasrar of one who abides in
the Self
is nothing but pure Light. Any thought that
approaches it cannot survive.
7
In the Way of
Re-cognition, attention gradually rises from the
gross position to the most subtle, via the current
and through the crown of the body-being. Only at
last is the root of all attention and subtlety, the
ego-soul, dissolved in the very Heart (the bodily
reference of which is to the right of the median of
the chest). In the Way of Radical Intuition,
attention is no longer driven upwards, toward
subtle objects, nor downwards, toward gross
objects. Rather, there is a constant intuitive
sacrifice of the root of attention, the ego-soul
conception ("I") and all modification contraction
of the field of awareness, at the heart. The
natural conventions of the body-being remain, but
in constant alignment to this sacrifice at the
heart. Thus, the body-being is "open-eyed," the
life-force is aligned to the natural current via
the crown or the subtle epitome above the body, but
there is no stress of strategic mind. The crown is
simple "gazing" or alignment to the intuition or
devotional sacrifice at the heart. The crown or
mind is simply the Light or Radiance of the Heart.
It is what I have called the "Bright." The Radiance
of the Heart springs up naturally to the Crown, and
pervades the whole body, even all worlds. But there
is only the eternal sacrifice at the heart, wherein
all thoughts (even "I"), all conditions lose their
binding implications.
Whenever this gazing
sacrifice has become constant and profound
intuition beyond all sense of arising conditions,
the worlds, the body, thoughts, the independent
self sense, such is Bhava Samadhi, the Paradox of
Divine Dissolution the Grace of Happiness beyond
speech or thought.
4.14
Realization, Liberation,
or Radical Understanding does not imply cognition
of the Beloved (the Condition
of conditions) but re-cognition of the
beloved (all conditions or
limitations themselves, high or low). There is no
Knowledge, no cognition of the Condition of
conditions. But through or in the case of the
re-cognition of conditions we abide as prior rest
in and identification with the Beloved, which is
beyond all conditions, all knowledge, and is
unspeakable.
4.15
In Sahaj Samadhi there is,
effectively, but prior to all thinking, primal
enquiry at the root of all arising, the Heart. That
primal enquiry is equivalent to the form "Who am
I?" - or, "What is That of which the root arising
condition, the separate I sense, as well as all
other conditions are only the present
modification?" Thus, radical intuition is the
undoing of all arising, but it is radical, that is,
it operates at the root of all arising rather than
in the field of all arising in general. It operates
at the root of thought rather than, as in the case
of conditional or progressive re-cognition, in the
field of thought. This comes to be so more and more
in Sahaj, until it is realized to be Bhava Samadhi,
unqualified intuition of the Real Condition of self
(separation in consciousness) and all conditions of
knowledge (self-object or subject-object
conditions). Sahaj Samadhi is the undoing of
conditions even as they appear, while all
conventions, high and low, remain projected as
usual via Amrita Nadi. When radical
intuition has snuffed out the root of all
modifications at the Heart, there is objectless
Bhava Samadhi, which is beyond all speech,
knowledge, or implications of any kind, even if
these appear conventionally true of the devotee to
any manifest observer.
4.16
The tacit "Who am I?" of
radical intuition is Realization of the Condition
of not merely the subjective "I" but the "I" which
is the whole body (both within and beyond
experience). It is Realization of the Condition of
all conditions, in Sahaj Samadhi or Bhava Samadhi,
but it is Realization which obviates the force of
all conditions at the very root of arising itself.
Radical intuition is active at the root of
self-identity, but it is not verbal or subjective.
It is simply awareness at the root of all arising,
the Heart, in which the slightest gesture toward
modification is at once obviated in tacit enquiry,
or prior re-cognition. It is felt at the Heart, at
the "I," at the root of all arising, of all
participation in modification, relations,
distinctions, implications. It is simply awareness
as the Heart, in which it is presently obvious that
all arising is simply modification, unnecessary,
and no longer binding by the conventional force of
implication. Thus, such Bhava (Mood) of the Heart
yields eternal Samadhi (Happiness) of the very,
prior Condition, or the Divine itself. Such is
Liberation, Salvation, Nirvana, the Great
Happiness. This Bhava may remain even as
conventions of ordinary participation appear true
of the devotee to others, in this or any other
realm. But only Bhava Samadhi itself remains verily
true of one who is dissolved in that
Sacrifice.
4.17
The "devotee's
meditation," or Sahaj Samadhi, is the natural and
spontaneous fulfillment of the disposition
described in the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 8, verse 12
("One should have all the gates of the body
restrained, the mind confined
within the heart, one's life force fixed in the
head, established in concentration by yoga"). The
devotee's meditation, figuratively described as
contemplative absorption in the Form of God, whose
feet are in the heart, and whose head is above the
crown of the head, is the natural disposition,
under the circumstances of conventional arising. It
is Sahaj Samadhi.
The progressive process of
re-cognition (in the Way of Re-cognition) is the
gradually inclusive undermining of all contraction,
high or low, of the field of awareness. Thus, it
leads to Jnana Samadhi, the fall in the Heart,
exclusive of all arising. This exclusive condition
is itself spontaneously re-cognized, yielding the
awakening of "open eyes," at which point the Way of
Re-cognition yields to the Way of Radical
Intuition.
The "devotee's
meditation," "open eyes," and Sahaj Samadhi all
refer to the same condition of Realization. Sahaj
Samadhi is the paradoxical form of radical
intuition. It is Realization of the Condition of
all arising (the Heart), but it is coincident with
the continuance of arising conventions or
modifications, high
and low. The devotee in Sahaj is constantly
sacrificed at the feet of God, that is, he or she
constantly enjoys the Condition of the Heart, in
which all arising conditions (including separate
self sense, thoughts, 4.17 body, outer conditions,
etc.) are seen to be only modification of the prior
Condition that is the Heart (prior Conscious Bliss
or Radiance). Thus, all arising is unnecessary and
not binding by the force of implications, high or
low. In Sahaj, this Realization is concurrent with
all arising conventions. Thus, it is also described
as the "regeneration of Amrita Nadi," or radical
Ascent. In this Samadhi, under all conditions, self
and the binding force of thought are dissolved in
the true Heart, or Radical Intuition, while the
Current of Radiance rises out of the Heart,
concentrating or collecting the manifesting
tendencies of the apparent being most perfectly
above. Thus, the living force of the gross being is
economized happily and no appearance, subtle or
gross, personal or cosmic, binds any longer. There
is a natural sense, prior to all strategic effort,
dilemma, or craving, high or low, of a
contemplative concentration of attention above, as
if eyes and ears and feeling were all turned up to
what may never be seen or heard or touched, but
which is intuited to be There.
This disposition of Sahaj
Samadhi is one of the two aspects of radical
intuition. The second is Bhava Samadhi, or radical
Realization of the Heart, prior to all arising. At
random, the sacrifice at the feet of God (radical
intuition of the Condition of all arising at the
Heart) becomes a most perfect Enjoyment, not
associated in any way with the conventional
movements of the being. Sahaj Samadhi is a
description of radical intuition relative to any
condition that might arise, high or low, gross or
subtle or super-physical or spiritual. Bhava
Samadhi is most radical Enjoyment, prior to self,
mind, energies, body, or any realm. It is the Heart
itself, the Condition of conditions. It is
transcendental liberation or Sacrifice into the
Condition (or "Realm") that is God, the very
Reality. It is the same and unspeakable, unknown
Condition Realized in Sahaj, but it is without
references, neither inclusive nor exclusive, only
God, or Real Happiness.
4.18
Bhava Samadhi is
spontaneous Enjoyment in the Way of Radical
Intuition. It does not involve any strategic effort
to turn attention down from above toward the heart
region of the gross body. It is a version of the
same Condition enjoyed as Sahaj Samadhi, in which
the world of present arising is Realized to be
World, or only God. The devotee (in radical
intuition) simply persists in Sahaj Samadhi, which
is a constant intuitive sacrifice, through prior
re-cognition, at the Heart, and Bhava Samadhi
appears at random, without reference to a center,
to attention above or below, or to any convention
of arising.
4.19
The Real, the Necessary
Divine, is not any realm, high or low, nor any
body, nor mind in any form or condition, nor any
separate or separative or defined or limited self
or consciousness. All such conditions arise from
that Reality or prior Condition as dependent
modifications and are eternally and utterly
pervaded by That. But the Real, the Necessary, the
Divine Truth is the Condition of conditions,
Realized only in the present sacrifice of all
conditions. That Sacrifice occurs when there is
present intuitive insight in the midst of all
presently arising conditions that they are only
modification of the prior, unknown Condition. When
that Sacrifice occurs there is simultaneous
blissful absorption in or identification with that
Condition. Such, when full and stable, is Bhava
Samadhi. It is also the regeneration of Amrita
Nadi, the true devotee's meditation, or Sahaj
Samadhi. That Condition is utterly free of the
implications of all possible and present arising.
Thus, it is a Principle or Process in which the
arising of limited, conditional, unnecessary
conditions ceases to distract. Therefore, the
conditions of self, mind, emotion, breath,
life-force, body, perception, even the world, or
all relations, become less and less forceful, and
are often, particularly in meditative repose,
unnoticed, uncognized by virtue of being priorly
re-cognized. These conditions rest in the current
of the being, which precedes them, and the current
of the being rests in its prior Condition, Amrita
Nadi, the Divine Form, or the Unqualified Conscious
Bliss of Radiance, wherein the Eternal, Unknown
Reality or Condition is Intuited
(rested into but not grasped) through Perfect and
Eternal Sacrifice.
4.20
The Way of Yogis is
through control of pranas (energies).
The Way of Saints is
through control of attention. The Way of Sages is
through control of ego formation
(sense of independent or differentiated
existence).
Each by his own method
seeks (1) dissolution of the limitations of
ego-soul, mind, body, and environments, and (2)
absorption in or identification with the Reality
which is the Condition of conditions. (1) is
traditionally sought by manipulation of a single
principle (as above), which results, perhaps
temporarily, in dissolution of mind-formation
(I-thought, cognition, perception), which is the
key link in the chain of illusions. (2) is likewise
sought as the point of release from every version
of self, thought, body, and realm (even of
transcendental Form, Light, or Sound). The controls
sought separately and independently by Yogis,
Saints, and Sages are simultaneously realized, with
increased intensity at each stage, in the
four-stage Way of Divine Ignorance, or Radical
Understanding. In the Way of Re-cognition in
particular, the virtuous controls sought by Yogis,
Saints, and Sages are epitomized. In the way of
Radical Intuition, the two principal goals of the
traditions are perfectly and unqualifiedly
Realized. At moments when various conditions or
conventions, high or low, remain even in Radical
Intuition, it is Sahaj Samadhi. When all conditions
fall away in the Mood of this Sacrifice, prior to
all Knowledge, it is Bhava Samadhi. The Way of
Radical Intuition includes both Sahaj Samadhi and
Bhava Samadhi.
4.21
The great path of return,
demonstrated collectively by Yogis, Saints, and
Sages, is itself the archetype of the individual's
karmic destiny - the tendencies to which he is
disposed at birth. There are gross,
subtle, and causal karmas, super-conscious karmas,
spiritual karmas. The experiential evidence of
one's spiritual life is itself karmic. Thus, the
process of spiritual practice involves conventions
of the great traditional path of return, until
these are made obsolete by the Power of the
Samadhis of God-Realization. These conventions
(developed in the stages of practice) make possible
the sacrifice of the archetype of manifest
existence, including all of the individual's
special or unique attachments and destinies
relative to it.
Each individual devotee
will manifest a unique revelation of experience in
this Way, depending on the characteristics and
degree of intensity of the gross, subtle, and
causal karmas. All will demonstrate the full
revelation in experience, but some may demonstrate
the revelation more profoundly in transformations
of the gross life, others in subtle yogic or
mystical experiences.
There is no special attainment of experience to be
valued, since it must all be undone. Therefore,
there is no justification for envy and imitation.
In Sahaj Samadhi, it is clear that all phenomena,
great and small, only test the Wisdom wherein there
is Only God.
4.22
The Way of Re-cognition is
the stage in which the two great conventional
strategic motives of Yogis, Saints, and Sages are
undone. These two motives or methods are the paths
of absorption and discrimination.
The path of absorption in
the subtle matrix of all appearances is the
strategic motive of Yogis and Saints. The initial
phase of the Way of Re-cognition yields the various
conditions of absorption above, in the felt media
of the single current of the being and all
manifestation. This progresses toward the tendency
of absorption in the subtle audible and visible
ranges of this same current, yielding even the
various higher yogic samadhis. However, the whole
process, which arises spontaneously and naturally,
is constantly founded in re-cognition, the process
of conscious intuitive insight, wherein all arising
conditions, high or low, are realized to be only
contraction of the field of awareness. Thus, all
such absorptive tendencies ultimately fall, with
all subtle objects, however sublime.
This leads to the terminal
phase of the Way of Re-cognition, wherein the
discriminative force of re-cognition
passes beyond all cognition, all absorption, even
the separate self idea or I-thought, in the manner
of "Not this, not this." The process itself is
prior to all mentality, but it Is effective
discrimination in this negative sense, and yields
exclusive intuition of the Condition of the root of
subjectivity. Such exclusive and discriminative
intuition is the conventional path of Sages.
However, the tacit force of re-cognition remains
even in this perfect reduction of all arising.
Thus, this Jnana Samadhi is naturally and suddenly
obviated by the "open eyes" of Sahaj Samadhi and
the process of radical intuition.
The conscious process of
radical intuition is founded in the Heart or the
Real itself, prior to body, mind, and ego-soul. It
proceeds in the midst of all arising, free of the
conventional urges of absorption and exclusive
discrimination. It tacitly represents the force of
Realization which proceeds as prior re-cognition in
the form "This is That, this is That, this is
That." It is not the exclusive motive of
discrimination of Consciousness from objects, nor
the inclusive and absorptive motive of
contemplative yielding to objects themselves,
however subtle. Rather, it is the natural
disposition of prior re-cognition or perfect
intuitive identification of all arising conditions,
high or low. That is, all conditions are the very
Condition. They are only modification of That, and
therefore are without necessity, implication, or
binding force.
This intuitive
identification in Truth of all arising may not be
presumed by the mind or ego, except in the case of
delusion. It only arises truly in the stage of
perfect sacrifice, the Way of Radical Intuition.
As such, it is the
Principle of Sahaj Samadhi, or the true devotee's
meditation. In Bhava Samadhi there is neither
inclusive absorption, nor exclusive discrimination,
nor even the action of prior re-cognition, which is
neither inclusive nor exclusive of all arising.
There is, in that case, only the most perfect
abiding as That, the Real Condition, the absolute
Divine or Only God.
4.23
The meditation that is
Sahaj Samadhi is not constantly to think: "This
present arising is only modification of the Real
Condition, the Heart." There is such tacit or prior
re-cognition of what arises, but all
thought, even such a thought,
is itself conventional contraction. Rather, the
principle in Sahaj is the intuition of the Real
Condition or the Heart itself, prior to
contraction. The ego-soul, thoughts, body-sense,
perceptions of a world -all modification is
contraction at the various centers of the
body-being. In Sahaj, contraction itself is
obviated by constant intuition at the principal
seat, the heart, of the Real Condition of all
arising, that is, the Heart prior to contraction
(as ego-soul, thoughts, body-sense, perceptions of
any world, etc.). In Sahaj, this intuition of the
Heart (the Condition of the heart) is tacit,
uncaused, not in the form of action (since all
action implies prior contraction). Thus, in Sahaj,
there is simple intuition of the Heart, and the
current which rises from the heart to the crown and
beyond remains unmodified, empty of
the ego-soul contraction, not
qualified by differentiation (thought-stress).
Thus, Amrita Nadi and the mind (the potential of
all subtle and gross conceptions) remain as the
simple Radiance of the Heart. When thoughts,
body-sense, or perception of any 4.23 world do
arise, they are tacitly re-cognized (this
re-cognition is not in itself mental) to be only
modification of the Heart, or the Real Condition.
Thus, any and all arising ceases to bind, or even
to be prevented. When rest as the Heart (radical
no-contraction) is perfect, there is only Radiant
Consciousness, or Bhava Samadhi, in which there are
no conditions.
4.24
Bhava Samadhi is
effortless abiding in the prior or Real Condition
(Ignorance-Radiance) in which there is no arising
of any objectification. Sahaj Samadhi is the total
cessation of all delusion by conventional
objectification (modification). In either case,
Truth, or the Real Condition, is Ignorance
Radiance, prior to all qualification, modification,
or objectification.
In the common states of
manifest awareness or existence, Consciousness is
apparently objectified, reflected to itself, and
qualified or motivated by the "I" object and all
other mental (high or low), bodily, and
circumstantial conditions or objects. Out of this
presumption of objectified or defined consciousness
arises the search for objective God or Reality,
survival and glamorization of the objectified self,
and experience or satisfaction in, through, and by
every kind of objective world, high or low. In the
case of Radical Intuition, the theatre of
objectification of the prior Condition (prior to
awareness of any kind of object, even the "I" or
ego-self-soul object and all its subjectivity) is
undermined and ceases to represent any Force at
all. Then torments cease. There is cessation of
illusory seeking in objective theatre, and only an
ordinary pleasurableness and sanity remains, while
the events of manifestation take their natural and
ordinary course. The apparent individual ceases to
be profoundly tormented by any arising. He (man or
woman) ceases to torment himself with every kind of
hopeful exercise toward extraordinary fulfillment.
And he ceases to torment others. He ceases to be
differentiated from that Presence, which is Real,
and which tends to attract all living beings into
that Condition which is prior to all objectivity,
wherein all delusion, torment, craving, and
knowledge have already ceased.
You see, then, how
unnecessary and fruitless it would be to engage the
body-being in any tormenting exercise that would
seek exaggerated satisfaction of born desiring,
fascinated fulfillment of possibility, high or low,
uncommon physical longevity (or even physical or
objective immortality, gross or subtle), or
conventional meditative and mystical projection
into miraculous planes of objective experience
above the passing elements, gross or subtle. Bubba
Free John neither engages nor recommends any
principle of life or meditation, founded in the
illusions of objectified existence, that would
implicate us in the pursuit of uncommon,
extraordinary, and fascinating destinies, high or
low, for their own sake. Rather, there must be
critical insight into all of this round of our
adventures, and simple rest in the Condition that
is already true and Truth.
Bubba Free John only
serves this Realization in devotees. In the course
of such service he may recommend temporary use or
exercise of the objective theatrical possibilities
inherent in the tendencies of devotees, but this is
only maintained until the lesson is realized that
relieves devotees of the pattern of seeking,
craving, and clinging to various objects, high or
low, within or without, now or then. Thus, life and
meditation in the three initial stages of the Way
of Divine Ignorance involve various dimensions of
theatrical involvement in the objective Play
(gross, subtle, and causal), but it all serves the
fourth or perfect stage of this Practice, wherein
all delusion and seeking have lost their foundation
or support in Sahaj Samadhi and Bhava
Samadhi.
4.25
In the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad it is said, "Wherever there is an other,
fear arises." The primal sense of independence over
against objects of all kinds is identical to fear.
Such is the creative root of fascination, delusion,
stupidity, self-indulgence, anger, doubt, dilemma,
and all seeking. Wherever there is the subjective
sense, the feeling of "me," of "mine," of
independent "I"-wherever there is the sense,
perception, or consideration of any object, even a
thought or a loved one -wherever the subject-object
condition is felt arising, the feeling of "other"
is awake, and the dilemma of fear motivates
experience.
Wherever there is the
sense of subject, object, or relationships, there
is fear, and fear then makes the adventure of
existence.
The whole process of the
Way of Divine Ignorance involves inspection and
responsibility relative to the primal incident of
each moment. It involves inspection and
responsibility for subjective contraction, as ego,
mind, and limiting or separative identification
with the apparent body in any realm. When such
inspection and responsibility are perfect (in the
stage of radical intuition), all arising, whether
apparently subjective or apparently objective, is
realized to be a single condition or primal
incident-which is the awakening sense of objects
(even as self, mind, and body), the feeling of
"other," the energy of fear.
All arising conditions are
forms of relationship, of subject-object, or of
simple independence, the status of related objects.
We must become responsible, through insight, for
the reactive contraction, the energy and perpetual
act of fear, which is our chronic way of
experiencing in the subject-object field of
awareness. We do not merely live as selves over
against objects and others. We perpetually react,
simultaneously with the sense of simple
relationship itself. That reaction - the root of
which is the fear that is native to the sense of
other, or separation, independence, and
relatedness-is contraction of the functional being.
In our actions, that chronic contraction manifests
as disease, discomfort, anxiety, fear, selfishness,
subjective orientation, separative behaviors
(passive and aggressive), and the whole drama of
the avoidance of relationship. Functionally, that
contraction manifests as disharmony, stress, pain,
obsessive distraction and the need for fascinated
consolation, chronic discharge of the life-force,
vital shock or controlling root trauma, negativity,
obsessive thinking and differentiating abstraction,
the illusion of independent existence, and bondage
to the search for survival in the maze of
problem-solution incidents.
The sense of relationship
(the subject-object condition) is itself the primal
incident, past, present, and future. Fear or
contraction is the native and simultaneous reaction
to the incident of all objects. Liberation in Truth
involves ultimate responsibility, through a natural
pattern of transformation toward maturity, for the
reaction of fear, of contraction, the avoidance of
relationship. Until then, relationship and fear are
the same, and life is suffering.
The Way of Divine
Communion establishes the foundation of human
sanity-the re-orientation to the relational
condition itself, rather than the reactive
condition of subjectivity, contraction, the
avoidance of relationship.
The Way of Relational
Enquiry realizes native responsibility for the
dramatization, in action and in disposition toward
relational conditions, of the avoidance of
relationship, or the fear reaction to conditions
arising.
In the Way of
Re-cognition, the whole pattern of contraction,
high and low, is inspected to the root, so that the
Condition prior to reaction is stably
Realized.
In the Way of Radical
Intuition, the reaction of independence,
subjectivity, contraction, illusion, dilemma, and
fear has ceased to be necessary - so that the
pattern of arising conditions is no longer the
basis for contraction around the illusion of self.
In Sahaj Samadhi, there is tacit (and randomly
generated) re-cognition of the primal incident in
each moment which is the sense of other, of any
object, of fear, of contraction, of self, of
thought, of independent existence as body, psyche,
or soul in the midst of relations, high or
low.
Such tacit and random
re-cognition is generated from the position or
disposition of radical intuition, the prior and
radical presumption of Ignorance. Re-cognition of
all arising as modification-only is generated from
no less a position than the Heart, which is prior
to all contraction - prior to self, mind, body, and
all relations. In the Way of Radical Intuition,
tacit re-cognition, generated on the basis of
radical intuition of the Real Condition, is active,
moment to moment, in the field of objectification,
or objectifying awareness. It is not generated from
the position of self, mind, body, illusion,
contraction, or doubt. It is already Enlightened or
Radiant. Such re-cognition penetrates or dissolves
the binding power or implication of the present
subject-object sense or contraction, in whatever
form it appears as self, thought, energy, body, any
object, high or low, even the very incident of
relationship itself.
Tacit and random
re-cognition, in the Way of Radical Intuition, is
operative as the simple and direct sense, moment to
moment, that whatever is arising is only
modification of the Real Condition, and has neither
independence nor necessity.
Bhava Samadhi is simply
radical intuition itself, or unqualified
Ignorance-Radiance, prior not only to
reactive-contraction but even to the sense of
objects or relations. It can be said that the whole
pattern of reactive-contraction is the theatre of
self or ego-soul. It tends toward the center. *The
Realized pattern of all arising as
modification-only, wherein objects are neither
excluded nor included, but simply arise, may be
said to be the Self, the Divine Person (the World).
It tends toward the non-boundary at infinity. The
Truth of the self and the Self is Realized in
radical intuition of the Real Condition, in Sahaj
Samadhi and Bhava Samadhi. Sahaj Samadhi is
coincident with the conventions of self and Self,
but rests in their Truth the whole while. Bhava
Samadhi is simple, radical, prior Realization of
the very Truth or Condition, the Divine, the
Radiant Sacrifice of all Knowledge.
4.26
In the Way of Divine
Communion there is the Realization that the
vulnerability that is separateness is fundamentally
an illusion, and one that is created by one's own
action or presumption.
In the Way of Relational
Enquiry there is the Realization that reactive
emotions, the moods of separation, are
fundamentally unnecessary.
In the Way of Re-cognition
there is the Realization that thought, including
the concept of self or independent consciousness,
is separative in effect and fundamentally
unnecessary.
In the Way of Radical
Intuition there is the Realization that body or
specific form is fundamentally unnecessary and
ultimately untrue.
In Truth there is no self,
no other, no emotion, no thought, no form, but only
absolute Ignorance, which is unqualified
Radiance.
4.27
The disposition of Sahaj
Samadhi, which is native in the Way of Radical
Intuition, is the perfect Principle or Process of
Awakening in Truth. It is the perfect Way of the
Heart. In Sahaj Samadhi there is no longer any
binding necessity in the arising conventions of
ego-soul, thoughts, energy formations, body, and
relations, high or low. There is rest in Divine
Ignorance, the very Heart, the unspeakable
Condition in which all conditions arise and of
which they are mere and unnecessary modifications
(illusory objectification's or forms of
contraction). In Sahaj Samadhi there is no negative
principle, no irreducible viewpoint toward arising
conditions, no inherent dilemma from which egoic
and strategic efforts of escape would be generated.
Rather, all arising is simply viewed, from the
point of view of the Heart (or radical intuition of
the prior Condition of conditions) as unnecessary,
present modification. Thus, there is simple rest in
the intuited Condition itself, free of
qualification by arising conditions.
This Ignorance is not
exclusive, not separative, not a motive either to
inwardness or outward illusions, but motiveless
Bliss-Fullness, or Radiance. Divine Ignorance is
eternally displayed as unqualified Radiance, or
Bliss, without center or bounds.
One who abides in Sahaj
Samadhi abides in perfect Ignorance-Radiance, the
Divine Condition, even as conditions arise, even
the conventions of gross experience. But the
Samadhi is at the same moment a Principle wherein
present arising is realized to be unnecessary-not
other than and not a distraction from the Divine
Ignorance-Radiance.
Thus, the devotee, in
Sahaj Samadhi, abides in Amrita Nadi, the perfect
Current of Radiance in the Heart. This current is
eternal "Tapas," the Fire wherein all conditions
are dissolved, or become a Sacrifice, so that the
Law is fulfilled. The devotee does not in that case
seek to be transferred from the gross realm to any
other and higher experiential realm. There is no
such motive when there is already present rest in
the Divine Condition, whatever arises. But that
very rest is a Principle or Fire wherein conditions
are dissolved. Thus, in the Way of Radical
Intuition, there is apparent, spontaneous Awakening
(or "Ascension") from the theatre of the gross
world, and direct Translation into the Perfect
Domain. The Way of Radical Intuition is the Way of
radical or Divine Transformation in
Truth.
In the grosser apparent
states, the devotee in Sahaj Samadhi is sacrificed,
dissolved, or at rest in Amrita Nadi, the Current
from heart to crown (Heart as no-center, which is
Radiance to Infinity). There is no effort to ascend
by manipulation of attention. There is simply
Sacrifice, through radical intuition, in the Heart
or Real Condition of all present arising. There is
rest in Ignorance-Radiance. But the Process is so
profound it is a Fire of Light in which there is
always present dissolution of limitations. Thus,
the conditions arising are burned up in such
Samadhi. There is Awakened Absorption in the
Current of Radiance, the Bright or Unbounded
Vibratory Swell of Bliss. That Absorption may be
accompanied by all kinds of experiential
appearances, high and low, of sound and light, of
realms and bodies. But no qualification survives
the Fire. No strategy is required, no method arises
as binding motivation. There is simply the Process
of Radical Intuition itself, relative to all
conditions, high and low. Thus, Sahaj Samadhi is
the perfect and Awakened Principle or Process of
Translation into the Condition that is Truth or the
Divine. In that case, and only in that case, there
is release from manifest conditions, the necessity
for repetition of the present or gross dream as
well as all hierarchical dreams in subtle
conditional realms. Devotees who truly become a
Sacrifice in Sahaj Samadhi Awaken in the Perfect
Domain by Grace. Such Awakening is Bhava Samadhi,
or Translation into the Divine without
qualification.
There is no such
Translation apart from loving Sacrifice or
persistent felt Communion with the literal Grace
and Condition of the Divine. The Way is not for
those whose commitment is to conditions themselves,
particularly the conditions of this gross world,
but only for true devotees, who are Gracefully
distracted by the Divine Presence or Radiance and
the Teaching of Truth or Divine
Ignorance.
4.28
In Sahaj Samadhi, self,
thought, body identification, and the sense of
being surrounded or bounded from without constantly
dissolve in radical intuition, so that
Ignorance-Radiance is the Condition, prior to all
of these. There is simple dwelling in Ignorance,
which is unqualified Radiance, at rest in the prior
and also universal Absolute Vibratory Bliss, which
is unqualified Sound or Intensity or Fire or Light,
beyond speech and thought and seeing and hearing by
any self. There is simple rest in that Bright,
Formless Bliss, the formless Current or Absolute
Speed that is Amrita Nadi, the Heart (in which all
conditions arise as modification of itself),
wherein there is no up or down, no in or out, no
shape, no time, no place, no birth, no destiny
(even while these appear in the ordinary way). When
there is no noticing of conditional arising, it is
Bhava Samadhi, or Translation into the Perfect
Domain.
4.29
In Sahaj Samadhi,
attention is dissolved or made universal in
Radiance. When self, or primal contraction,
thought, cycles of the life-current and breath,
body, and all relations are presently re-cognized
in radical intuition and, therefore, do not
obstruct the realization of the Present and Prior
Condition, there is only Ignorance, or unqualified
Radiance, which is Bliss or Love, the very Divine.
In the conventions of the manifest being in the
waking state, this is felt as Fullness below the
brows, expressed as forceful polarization from toe
to crown. The crown of the body being is thus felt
and expressed as Bliss, Light, or thoughtless
Absolute Vibratory Fire, pressed upon infinity, the
indefinite point above. And the whole body is
tacitly felt, with all appearances, not only to
arise from the heart, but to arise within it, the
very Consciousness, as mere and unnecessary
modification. In the instant of this prior
re-cognition, the body-being rests as undefined
Fullness in and upon the Matrix of Radiance, from
the Heart to the Crown of Infinity. There is no
strategic effort to exclude arising conditions, but
the force of the realization of their non-necessity
undermines and dissolves them in
Ignorance-Radiance, or Love, and so they are
resolved at last in Bliss, prior to subject and
object, prior even to waking, dreaming, and
sleeping. This Awakening in Radiance exceeds by
degrees the gross being in the waking state, and
expands indefinitely, even penetrating the
enclosures of dream and of sleep, of subtle and
causal illusions, so the Condition Realized between
Heart and Crown in the conditional states (waking,
dreaming, and sleeping) is Realized prior to all
conditions. Such is the Perfect Domain, Bhava
Samadhi, Awakened Ascent or Translation into the
very Divine.
This Condition and Process
is Truth, before there is speech and thought, self,
body, and relations. Even so, it may not merely be
presumed in mind to be the case in one's own case
and still be the Realized Truth of oneself. There
must be the Sacrifice, the Transforming Fire, the
Dissolution of knowledge, preferences, the very
being, the whole body or reflex that is self. There
must be revulsion or turning, from "creature and
creations" to the "Creator" or Source Condition,
from the worlds and all fascinations to the Truth
of every condition. But such turning or
renunciation is not a matter of egoic and strategic
separation. It is true only in Ignorance, wherein
not merely self but self and object, the poles of
the primal incident, are resolved in Radiance,
Bliss, or Love, without center, objects, or
bounds.
Sahaj Samadhi, the native
Bliss, is Sacrifice, or liberation from all the
consolations of this birth. Bliss is
disenchantment. Love is freedom in the very act of
life. When both withdrawal and illusions cease,
there is Bhava, the Mood and Domain that is the
Real.
4.30
When ego, or the primal
contraction and division of the Real into the
theatre of subjects and objects, is undone in Sahaj
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