The Conscious Process MASTER: This is an essay for the Three Ways book,
or the Dreaded Gom-boo book, and this new booklet. Also it
seems to me this essay would be appropriate to read this
weekend at these occasions. I don't know how it could be
done cause its quite long. But ... there's not only the
Mainland, there's all of these other Centers and so on. I
don't know how it would be communicated to them. But if it
could be, that would be useful to read it before this
sitting occasion on Saturday. Also this booklet that we're contemplating, you'll all
have to see how the Dreaded Gom-boo book works out. Whether
all of these recent materials should be included in it, and
then decide whether its useful to select out some of these
things to make another booklet or not, I don't know. So the
new booklet is just an idea, I don't know if its useful. So this essay is called What
Is the Conscious Process (The Master reads the essay).
Adi Da Samraj: Now the obvious reason why this would be useful to read
at this occasion is because its going to involve one of
these periodic times of sitting. And... so this calls people
to understand what this event is all about, what its
usefulness is. Not only in terms of this occasion, or this
kind of occasion, but in daily practice. So its again
another form of summary of the context of this Teaching. It
follows in the sequence of some of the other essays that
I've written in the last week. Its a call to understand the
... not only to appreciate the fact that this ... that the
relationship between the devotee and the Spiritual Master is
of great importance, but to understand the process that it
involves. People thinking about this Conscious Process in and of
itself, and in more or less abstract terms, might, if they
didn't truly read me, because I make things fully plain
every time I communicate them. If they didn't fully study my
Teaching on this matter of the Conscious Process, might tend
to associate and even identify it with some of the
traditional exercises ... in such traditions as the Advaitic
tradition. And there's a tendency in the Advaitic tradition
to develop this kind of talking school approach to
Realization. And therefore it tends also to legitimize the
point of view of certain kinds of advocates who can be read,
and even heard in public. Who preach to people about
consciousness and call them to identify...merely to identify
with it. They try to talk people into identifying with
consciousness, or merely to relax their minds and so forth,
and settle into a conscious state, that doesn't have any
particular reference to the body-mind, although its still
associated with it practically. There are many such advocates. I've spoken about
Krishnamurti from time to time, he's just one. There are
many such people these days. They have in common, call to
people to do something like the exercise...logical
...exercise of logic recommended in the Advaitic talking
school. They call upon them to identify with Consciousness,
presently, to believe and affirm that the essence of the
being, the consciousness behind thoughts and actions is
presently and always already identical to Brahman or the
Transcendental Condition. Therefore merely by involving
yourself in this kind of analytical exercise, you can
presume that you are enlightened, or that you have achieved
Jnana. That's not at all true. The same kinds of advocates
are also busy telling people that there is no real purpose
for a Spiritual Master, except to bind yourself to another
ego and so on. The reason they can so easily dismiss the Spiritual
Master is because they have already dismissed the whole
process of spiritual practice. And all that's necessary for
them is this kind of analytical effort of identifying with
Consciousness. It is true that our own consciousness, that
which is at the root of attention is ultimately, even
inherently identical to the Transcendental Being. But must
be Realized to be so. And it cannot be realized to be so
until energy and attention are free for that most profound
and radical intuition. Its not merely factually so. Its not
factually so that Atman and Paramatman or Brahman are
identical. Its not factual so that Nirvana and samsara are
the same. By definition these are opposites. Nirvana and
samsara are actual or an absolute opposites of one another.
That's how the two terms arose in traditions. They indicate
two entirely different states of existence, one
Transcendental and the other conditional. Well, in the Buddhist tradition, this formula developed
eventually, that states that Nirvana and samsara are the
same. Well, this is a confession of Adepts. This is a
confession of Realization. In the case of Realization it is
true. In some profound paradoxical sense. But it is not
factually true. Its true only in the case of
Realization. Likewise in the Advaitic tradition, in many places in the
Hindu tradition, we hear the proclamation that Atman and
Paramatman, or Atman and Brahman are identical. This is not
factually true in the original development of these terms.
They were meant to indicate complete opposites. They are
Realized to be true by Adepts. Or the equation is Realized
to be true, or the Truth in the case of an Adept. But not
otherwise. The equation is not factually true, its only true
by virtue of Realization. So you cannot merely, by inverting
upon the self essence, identify with the Transcendental
Being. To invert upon the self essence is merely to continue
the act of Narcissus. It is to meditate upon the
self-essence, the essence of the ego, the root consciousness
of the ego. Until the ego is transcended, that's all that's
at the base of the "I" thought. We may have some sense, some intuition of that which goes
beyond the limit of self-contracted consciousness, but we
cannot realize our identity with it, apart from the fullest
development of spiritual practice. In fact, therefore, it is
a heresy to claim that Atman and Paramatman are the same, or
that Atman and Brahman are the same, until you have Realized
it. It is a heresy to declare that Nirvana and samsara are
the same. Its a ridiculous claim except in the case of
Realization. And so the Conscious Process in our discussion is not to
be equated with a kind of talking school conceits, or the
presumptions of the ego, that want to be realized
immediately without having to go through the hard school of
purification, liberation, and awakening. The Conscious
Process is part of the total affair of practice, which
involves the transcendence of the ego, or conditional
attention. The Conscious Process develops by stages--it has
a number of forms. From the beginning it may simply have the
form of prayer in the Way of Divine Communion. It may become
enquiry or re-cognition, or it may take the form of the
Perfect Practice in its first two stages, until
Realization. The Conscious Process goes through stages of development
as the individual matures, but the Conscious Process is not
the whole of the practice. The practice is associated with
supportive but necessary supportive disciplines. All of
which come under the heading of what I call conductivity.
These practices include all of the disciplines, apart from
the Conscious Process. Therefore includes such disciplines
as the dietary discipline, general health discipline, the
discipline of sexuality, and of service. It includes the
developments of conductivity as they become associated with
the practices in meditation. So that total regime of practice, exercised within the
community of practitioners, with the culture of devotional
life, study, service and so on, is the practice that is
implied by , indicated by the single term, the Conscious
Process. Its the essence and ultimate, most fundamental
exercise of the Way, but it is necessarily associated with
this total culture of life. The reason for this is that the ego, the self
contraction, the character that is Narcissus, is not merely
some superficial notion. My conception of Narcissus applies
to every single aspect, every part, function, state,
relation, and condition of the self. There is no part of the
manifest self that is not characterized by the
self-contraction, the complex avoidance of relationship.
It's not merely a superficial part of you, underneath which
there is this eternally free essence which you should
identify with. Even that essence underneath it all, that
fundamental sense of self-consciousness, is a fraction of
this total character that is Narcissus. This total character
must be understood and transcended. In every feature,
function, part, relation, state--waking, dreaming, and
sleeping-this consciousness that is identified with in the
talking school is nothing but the bare consciousness of the
waking state, or attention apart from objects. It is not
Transcendental Consciousness; it is simply egoic
consciousness. That egoic consciousness in all of its forms
must be transcended as a necessary precondition of the
radical intuition of the Transcendental Being. This Way is not merely some kind of self generated
discipline, some effort made by the ego, that ultimately
winds up being Enlightenment. It is the Way of transcendence
of the ego, not the way of the efforts of the ego. And so
the context of this practice is the submission of the ego to
that which transcends it. The context of this practice is
the submission of the ego to its own help, to Transcendental
Help, to the Agency made literally present through the work
of the Adept. It is necessary for the individual to hear or understand
this Teaching and to develop the various practices
associated with the general exercises of conductivity and
the Conscious Process. We should regard these to be simply
the means whereby the individual enters into Communion with
his or her own Help. It is that Help, that Transcendental
Transmission, that permits conductivity and the Conscious
Process to be fruitful. It is necessary for the individual who enters into such
Communion to understand how that great relationship works.
As the individual develops this practice in my Company and
contacts me through all of the opportunities of this
Satsang, the contents of this Narcissistic ego or karmic
personality come into consciousness. As these contents
arise, the individual is to practice the exercises of
conductivity and the Conscious Process in daily life and
meditation. That is done in direct Communion with the Divine
Power, transmitted in and through and as the Adept. As these
contents arise in the moment of this Company, they are
purified. They are brought up by that Influence, they are
lifted off, they are changed, either instantly, or through a
process of trial. They are reduced, broken up, absorbed, or
in one or another way eliminated by the Work of the Adept.
This is literally so; it is not merely figuratively so. When I spend time with people, or sit with them in the
Communion Hall, I magnify this Influence to them, and it
combines with the various contents of their conditional
being in a fashion that would not occur if this Siddhi were
not brought to bear in the individual case. This Influence
is Conscious. It is all energy and full Consciousness. This
is what you confront in your life and meditation. This is
the character of the Siddhi. And it spontaneously works to
bring these contents up, in life and meditation, in life and
in moments of repose. And the effect of that Siddhi is to
bring these contents up and to break them up, and absorb
them, and eliminate them, in a fashion that would not occur
if this Siddhi were not brought to bear in the individual
case. And so my life with people, and in my occasions of
sitting with people, as is as if, it is literally so that I
am expanded on their company. I actually experience
therefore all of the contents, all of the effects, all of
the vibrations, forces, limitations and so forth, associated
with them. All these contents enter into the sphere of my
existence. In one or another fashion, associated with my
conscious attention perhaps, although not necessarily so, I
absorb these conditions, and they are therefore changed in
the case of those individuals. In the case of every
individual. It is a remarkable process, ultimately, it can't
even be explained. It is simply there to be observed. It is
so. And so I experience in my own case then, many effects of
my association with people. I enter into all kinds of play
with them for the sake of this transmission, this
purification and balancing and awakening, and I also
experience in return the contents of their lives. And so all
of this effects me in one way or another. Sometimes I feel
tired from it, sometimes I have a lot of physical symptoms,
over time I feel a lot of physical symptoms. All kinds of
psychic content arises and so on. There's many dimensions of
my familiarity of this content in people. But ultimately the
character of my work with people is such that these contents
are eliminated. They are absorbed, broken up, eliminated,
returned to the primary energy condition, and to the
Ultimate Condition of Transcendental Being. And so the
spiritual life of devotees in this Way is of this kind. It
is lived out in this Company, in the context of this Siddhi,
and in this relationship. It is necessary for devotees to
hear, to understand, to practice the disciplines of
conductivity and the Conscious Process. That is their part
of this play. And my part is to be present with them, to
magnify this influence in their company. And that influence
inevitably does the work as I've described it. For this reason then I always look for people to be
capable of making use of my Company, and then I look for
various ways in which to make myself accessible to them. In
various occasions of sitting and so on, various kinds of
meeting, various kinds of life associations, and in general,
I always keep myself associated with practitioners, in every
moment. So that this Influence is constantly available,
constantly fresh. Now those who maintain themselves in this
Company, who live out this discipline, observe over time,
all kinds of changes that are the signs of this work, the
signs of this process as I'm describing it. Now it is a hard
school. As well as being a life of Grace, a life in which
there is Great Help, that transcends the limits that you
would bring to practice ordinarily, it is also a hard school
or a difficult affair. it requires great responsibility,
great attention for this exercise. But if you enter into it
truly and seriously, then all of these kinds of changes or
effects that are generated over time, will amount to a
purification of attention from its habits, on every level,
in every state, in all relations, under all conditions, in
every function. Psycho-physical equanimity, responsibility
for energy and attention, will be the result of that. And on
the basis of such equanimity, there will be free energy and
attention, energy free of this ego-bond, energy free of the
character of Narcissus. That free energy and attention is
the ultimate arms or means at the level of the individual
whereby the Way can fulfilled. Only when energy and
attention are literally free from the ego bond at every
level can this process of radical intuition can be
fulfilled. In The Liberator (Eleutherios), I have written: "Be
Conscious as the Feeling of Being and Realize that It Is
Radiant Happiness." This Admonition summarizes the Teaching
relative to the "Conscious Process." And that practice
epitomizes and fulfills the entire Way that I Teach. However, it must be understood that this Practice or
ultimate Realization of the Conscious Process is not a
matter of remaining fixed in the conscious or merely
left-brained mind of the waking state. It is a matter of
Realizing the Transcendental Condition of Consciousness,
Free Being, or Self-Radiant Happiness--what is called
"Turiya," or the "fourth state," in the Hindu tradition. Be Conscious As The Feeling of Being and Realize that It
Is Radiant Happiness. That is a summary of enlightenment. It
is not a call that can be fulfilled instantly by anyone who
hears it you see. It can be fulfilled instantly in some
sense. You can sympathize with it to the degree that you can
enjoy a level of self understanding and begin the practice,
but you cannot fulfill it perfectly because energy and
attention are not free, because the Atman cannot be equated
with Paramatman or Brahman, it is too self involved. It is
contracted upon itself. It doesn't enjoy the Siddhi, the
freedom where by it may enter into the native equation of
individual consciousness and Transcendental Consciousness.
So you must endure the process, you must take up the Way.
You must go through the hard school of purification,
rebalancing and so on, whereby energy and attention are set
free. The ultimate Realization of the Conscious Process
requires, as a matter of real preparation, the liberation of
attention from the self contraction (or ego-bond), and thus
the liberation of attention (or functional consciousness),
from bondage to the limiting structures of the three common
states--waking, dreaming, and sleeping. For this reason, the practical discipline of the Way that
I Teach involves not only a sequence of preparatory
disciplines or phases of the Conscious Process (finally
epitomized in the Realization of the Practice as described
above), but also a culture of associated secondary or
supportive disciplines, all of which may be regarded to be
forms of the general practice I call "conductivity." Apart from the Conscious Process (generated in the form
of true prayer, enquiry, recognition, and the first two
stages of the Perfect Practice), my devotees also practice a
broad spectrum of functional and relational disciplines
(relating to general health, diet, sexuality, intimate
society, community, and so on). These disciplines, in the
midst of the entire culture of devotion, study, and right
relationship to the Spiritual Influence of the Adept
Spiritual Master, are a secondary but necessary supportive
regime of practice that ultimately provides the maturity or
free ground for the fulfillment of the Conscious
Process. As I have always indicated, the fulfillment of the
Conscious Process requires, as a matter of preparation, the
significant development of truly free energy and attention.
This means that, for the Conscious Process to fulfill itself
in the terms I quoted earlier from The Liberator, energy and
attention must be truly and stably free from bondage to the
self-contraction in every kind of functional and relational
context. It is the work of the secondary disciplines (or the
entire regime of conductivity) to release energy and
attention from the ego-bond. Without this supportive
exercise, the Conscious Process remains nothing more than a
minor psychological and verbal exercise of the waking mind.
It is only to the degree that energy and attention are set
free by the practical and meditational exercises of
conductivity that the Conscious Process can enter profoundly
into the Real Source of life and attention. It is because of the absence of profound practice of
supportive disciplines involving total psycho-physical
submission into the Life-Current that the Way of the
Conscious Process gets reduced to a kind of "talking school"
obsession with "consciousness." Many people read and even
write books and give lectures about the primacy and freedom
of consciousness, as if they could, merely by analyzing
consciousness out from the mass of thinking, knowing, and
experiencing, achieve the incomparable State of "Jnana,"
Enlightenment, or Transcendental Realization. But all such
talk is the mediocre chat of the waking mind. In order to
Realize the Transcendental Truth that Is Consciousness, the
entire process of attention must be liberated from
functional bondage to the states and functions and emotions
and thoughts and relations of the egoic or self-contracted
body-mind. Therefore, I call you not only to consider my Arguments
and understand, but to practice that consideration in the
form of real disciplines that restore psycho-physical
equanimity and liberate energy and attention for the
ultimate affair of radical intuition. The practices of conductivity and the Conscious Process
are the responsibility of each individual devotee. But the
Way is not merely a matter of self-generating these
disciplines. The Way that I Teach (in both its preparatory
and mature or ultimate forms) is the Way of "Satsang," or
Transcendental Spiritual Communion with the Adept in God (or
Reality). The practices of conductivity and the Conscious
Process are simply the means whereby individuals enter into
that Communion moment to moment. The Adept Spiritual Master
provides the Ultimate Means whereby the practices of
conductivity and the Conscious Process become fruitful. It is in the "talking school" of heady non practitioners
(or self-contained egos) that we hear so much nonsense about
the non-necessity of a Spiritual Master. Of course, the
Adept is of no use (except perhaps to write books to feed
the ego minds) for those who are self-bound and not
interested in the real fulfillment of the Great Way. And
there are also many kinds of ego-based, childish,
adolescent, merely cultic, and false kinds of approach or
attachment to the Adept--and I criticize those inappropriate
approaches and attachments more than any of those who merely
damn and anathematize the Great Relationship between the
devotee and the Adept Spiritual Master. But when the Way is
fully understood, valued, and practiced, then-and only
then--the Great Relationship is seen to be the Primary
Principle of the Way itself. The Adept Spiritual Master is not merely an independent
Realizer of the Truth. The true Adept is a "Siddha," or a
Living Agent of Help and Awakening. Thus, beyond the Work of
Communicating the Arguments of the Way, the Adept is Present
to Transmit the Power of Awakening. Those who are devotees of the Adept not only "hear" or
understand the Teaching Arguments and practice the Conscious
Process and the relational and functional disciplines of
conductivity, but, by these means, they "see," or enter into
Communion with, the Radiant Power of Being Transmitted by,
as, and through the Adept. There is no practice of the Way
that I Teach apart from such participatory "seeing." On this basis, the practice of devotees is made fruitful
by self-transcending or self surrendered association with
the Divine Help and Awakening Power. The Way is not
fulfilled by the efforts of the ego, but by the ego's
transcending itself in Communion with its Ultimate Help. Those who are only beginning their association with me in
this Way are yet preoccupied with the initial obligation to
listen to and hear or understand the Teaching. Therefore,
they are also preoccupied with the struggle to adapt to the
various disciplines that are their obligation. For these
reasons, such people have not yet developed the means of
Communion with the Adept's Transmission. And, for them, a
formal relationship to me as the Teaching Source is their
right form of association with me. But as their practice
begins to develop, devotees also begin to "find" me, or
Locate the Power of my Spiritual Transmission in their daily
lives. For this reason, I make myself available to actual
practitioners in various occasions or gatherings devoted to
the Magnification of my Transmission. Those who practice thus in my Company develop over time a
sensitivity to my Influence, and, as devotees mature via the
stages of practice, they are offered many different kinds of
opportunities to enter directly into the sphere of my
Influence. If you will ask mature devotees about the development of
their practice in my Company over the years, you will hear
countless remarkable and extraordinary stories. Those
stories are indicators of how the Radiant Divine Influence
has made Itself felt and effective in the case of those who
know how to use me. And what is the actual process behind
all of those remarkable effects? As I have told you, when the Adept Awakens into his
Function for others, the "Siddhi" or Divine Awakening Power
achieves universal Agency. Thereafter, when the Influence of
the Adept is contacted via the practice of devotees (or when
the Adept makes his Influence effective, spontaneously or at
will, in the case of any person or condition), changes begin
to occur. The essence of those changes is a Work that
purifies, balances, and ultimately Awakens the individual
being. Those who truly practice, and thus cooperate with (rather
than resist, or even merely luxuriate in the superficial
effects of) the Adept's Transmission, are progressively
relieved or purified of the "karmic" (or self-based and
habitual) limitations they have accumulated in the
functional domain of the body-mind and its relations. It should be understood that the karmas or habit patterns
of every individual are effective at every level: physical,
emotional, mental, unconscious, subconscious, conscious,
waking, dreaming, and sleeping. And those karmas extend
beyond the individual body-mind to include others, objects,
and environments on every level, visible (or gross) and
invisible (or subtle), known and unknown--past, present, and
future. Also, because of the universal effectiveness of the
karmic or conditional associations of individual being, it
is not at all possible merely to invert upon and identify
with the self-essence (the "Atman" or most inner
consciousness) and have that be true Transcendental
Self-Realization or Enlightenment. The inner self or "Atman"
is not identical to the Transcendental Self ("Paramatman" or
"Brahman") unless it is Realized to be Such. (Just as
"Nirvana" and "samsara" are not identical until they are
Realized to be So.) And such Realization is not at all
possible until the individual or self-bound consciousness
has first been transcended through the real discipline of
practice. Transcendental Realization requires, as a prerequisite,
the purificatory release of karmic accumulations, or the
tendencies of attention that limit and suppress the ability
of attention to Locate its Ultimate Source-Condition.
Therefore, the ultimate fulfillment of the Way (which is to
"Be Conscious as the Feeling of Being and Realize that It Is
Radiant Happiness") requires, as a matter of preparation,
the purification or release of attention from the self-bond,
the stable development of true psycho-physical equanimity
(or full responsibility for self-transcendence), and the
magnification of free energy and attention. The Adept Spiritual Master Works spontaneously for
devotees as a Free Agent that Serves both the initial or
preparatory process (of purification, self-transcendence,
equanimity, and free energy and attention) and the ultimate
process of Transcendental Awakening that follows naturally
upon and even always coincides with every stage of such
preparation. Therefore, when I regard my devotees, or when I
sit with them in Transcendental Communion (whether I am
physically near or far from them), I Magnify the Purifying,
Liberating, and Awakening Power to them, each and all. As devotees progressively develop and mature in their
practice, the Power in my Company acts directly and
effectively to prepare them and to Awaken them. This is
shown by many kinds of evidence in life and meditation, and
there are at least many hundreds of individuals thus far who
can attest to this. The Awakening Effect is affirmed even by
those who first study the literature of my Teaching.
Likewise, all the Effects that serve to purify, to release
the self-contraction, to create equanimity, and to release
energy and attention can be testified to by many who have
practiced this Way in my Company for years or even
months. The process whereby these Effects are Demonstrated is
directly associated with the unique daily life and
meditation of each devotee. Each day, unique tendencies,
associations, and conditions of life and meditation appear
in the case of each devotee. When those tendencies,
associations, and conditions are combined with real practice
(in the forms of conductivity and the Conscious Process) and
brought into the sphere of Communion with the Adept in God
(or Reality), a purifying, harmonizing, liberating, and
Awakening Force is brought into the context of the
moment--and this Event produces all kinds of transformative
changes, both ordinary and extraordinary or profound. In
this manner, the various karmic accumulations or habitual
limitations of each true devotee are gradually lifted off
and absorbed or eliminated by my Agency. My own Work in this regard is a spontaneous Siddhi that
has always been Alive in me, but I accepted full
responsibility for It in relation to others only after the
Event in the Vedanta Temple. Then the Signs of Its Operation
began to Move and Oblige me toward others for the sake of
their Awakening, and I began to Teach. Over the years since
then, I have entered spontaneously and freely into all kinds
of relations with people in order to allow this Siddhi to do
Its Work without limitation. As a result, the Great Way has
now been fully Communicated anew, and devotees and I
practice the Siddhi of our Great Relationship even at great
distances. It is a Marvel of Divine Grace which few are able
to value and understand. And so I call you to practice this Way in my Company. I
call you to understand, surrender, and transcend yourself in
Divine Company, free of the conceits of egoity. If you do
this, then all of the obvious and also hidden content of
manifest consciousness will gradually rise up to your
attention--and each portion of it will be inspected and
released in your own case. When all of that content has been
drawn up and released, then attention will stand bare in
you, and all of the energies of your manifest being will be
free to collect in the locus of the right side of the heart.
Then, and only then, your own consciousness will be free to
Identify with the Transcendental Consciousness, which is
prior to the body-mind and all of Nature. Therefore, do not think you can "take Heaven by storm."
The mere "I" thought is not now an indicator of the Great
One. The "I" is Narcissus-more than a thought, but a
profoundly complex pattern of destiny. You must first
transcend the complex "I" through real practice of the self
transcending Way. And I am always Present to Help you Awaken
from your sleep, your dreams, and your waking conceits. That
Awakening, in the midst of the hard school of
self-transcendence, and in the constant swoon of
Transcendental Communion, is the Conscious Process that I
Teach. If you are thinking, the separate "I" is already the
basic presumption of your existence. But if there is simply
bodily activity, or bodily existing, the separate "I" is not
necessarily presumed and operative. The Secret of God-Realization is in the transcendence of
the separate "I," which is the conceptual reflection of the
contraction of the total body-mind into separation from the
All Pervading Transcendental Identity (or Divine Self
Condition) and withdrawal into confinement by the illusion
of independence as a limited, defined, and knowable
psycho-physical self. The Western Way (or the Way of Divine Ignorance) is a
process of self-transcendence, or ecstasy, generated in the
specific terms of the seven basic stages of human
adaptation, growth, and transcendence. Each stage presumes
various disciplines of a personal, moral, and evolutionary
kind. But these are secondary to the fundamental or
Conscious Process at each stage. The Conscious Process is
the process which is generated from or at the most
fundamental level of awareness itself. And, at each stage,
that process is generated as intuitive understanding and
immediate transcendence of the self-contraction (or the
suggestion of independence and limitation that arises every
moment as experience, or the states of the body mind). The fundamental consciousness does not create or generate
experience. Rather, experience is an apparent modification
of the fundamental consciousness. Psycho-physical states are
nothing more than electronic fabrications made by a seeming
transformation of the fundamental consciousness or Radiant
Being. If psycho-physical existence is, in any moment,
presumed via identification with the body-mind in itself,
then experience, thought, and action become a drama of
self-seeking in the midst of mortal and absurd threats to
existence. However, if, in any moment, the self-contraction
of the body-mind is transcended, even physical existence is
Realized to be a transparent moment of Immortal Divine
Existence. The various expressions of the Conscious Process that
appear in each of the stages of the spiritual Way are all
moments of the same process of self-transcendence, ecstasy
in the Divine, or transcendence of the contracting,
limiting, and defining power of psycho-physical experience.
If in any moment you simply indulge patterns of mental and
physical experience, you fall into the moods and limits of
Narcissus, the separated and threatened self. If, however,
the Conscious Process is generated in the instant of the
arising patterns of body-mind, both mind and body are
transcended in Divine Communion, or Inherence in the Divine
Condition. In each moment in which the Conscious Process is
generated, states of mind and body become open and
transparent, and there is only the direct intuition of the
Real Condition, which is always already the case, whatever
seems to be arising as experience in any moment. In the initial stage of spiritual practice, the Conscious
Process takes the basic form of simple emotional surrender
of the body-mind into the Radiant Divine, Who "lives" the
body-mind and the world. This simple practice (commonly
associated with the surrender of attention into the Divine
via the Name), when associated with basic personal and moral
disciplines, makes possible the transition from the merely
vital and lower mental adaptations of the first three stages
of life to the heartfelt disposition of self-surrender,
which characterizes the fourth stage of life and all later
stages. The simple practices of surrender and Remembrance are to
be engaged within a pattern of daily formal devotional
exercises, but such formal exercises are themselves to
provide a base of concentration from which the Conscious
Process of surrender and Remembrance is exercised more and
more as a constant or moment to moment activity. And in any
moment that the Conscious Process is exercised, the
conventional pattern of mere identification with and
indulgence of states of mind and body is interrupted.
Instead of merely thinking and acting as a search for
fulfillment and release of self, the fundamental being is,
in this manner, involved in self-transcending Communion with
the Radiant Divine. Therefore, as maturity in this Conscious
Process develops over time, a positive equanimity begins to
characterize the body-mind. Obsessive thinking dissolves in
the profound Fullness of Radiant Being. And the bodily
individual becomes spontaneously active as a direct
expression of the Divine Life-Impulse. As such, the body
becomes a form of Light, or Life-Radiance, expressed as a
harmonious economy, full of love, bliss, and delight. When such maturity begins to acquire the body mind, the
verbal aspect of prayer in the fourth stage of life begins
to be naturally transcended. The Name gives way to tacit
Communion, and the struggle with personal and moral
disciplines is replaced by easeful responsibility and
equanimity. Then the devotee is ready to enter the esoteric
order of the Church, wherein the Conscious Process and the
evolutionary practices of higher human growth develop in new
ways. The Secret of practice is this: In every moment, instead
of merely thinking and acting, engage the Conscious Process.
If you do this moment to moment, the self-contraction will
be constantly transcended, the mind will become deeper than
thought, and bodily existence and activity will become
balanced and spontaneous. Of course, moment to moment exercise of the Conscious
Process is not natural or possible at the beginning, but as
you mature and become stable in regular and daily formal
practice, the Conscious Process will extend itself more and
more easily into all the moments of ordinary experience. Don't punish yourself with practice. Develop your
understanding through study, and gradually and progressively
adapt to the personal, moral, and formal exercises. Do it
simply, easily, from the heart, and you will inevitably grow
beyond yourself. The Early Stages The earliest stages of the practice of this Way in my
Company, are associated with changes that serve the dredging
up of the contents of Narcissus, the purification of
attention from its tendencies, the establishment of psycho
physical equanimity, and the freeing of energy and
attention. This is the content of the spiritual process in
its earliest stages. The process is also associated with a
fundamental intuition based on hearing and seeing, of the
Transcendental Condition. you live in communion with that in
life, meditation and the relationship to the Adept. But that
communion is not equal to Realization in the most perfect
sense. It is only so when this original work has fulfilled
itself. You must use the influence of the Adept for the sake
of this purification, rebalancing and liberation of energy
and attention. Its at the extreme point of maturity, in the fulfillment
of the practice in level is of the esoteric order that the
transition to the seventh stage of life is possible. In that
event the Company of the Adept becomes a force of full
Awakening, most radical awakening, beyond all the effects of
purification, balancing and liberation of energy and
attention. So, the company of the Spiritual Master should be
valued for the sake of this change, for the sake of these
changes, as well as for the sake of Awakening. You are
responsible for the various forms of your practice, the
forms of conductivity and the Conscious Process, that are
the means whereby you can enter into My Company. Anyone can be in the same room with me, presuming they're
allowed into the house. But, it is only by means of hearing
and practicing that you can enter into My Spiritual Company,
that you can enter into the sphere of this transmission. And
its only by continuing to practice, and to practice in the
most profound sense, that this transmission can be
effective, can truly become purification, balancing and the
freeing of energy and attention. So its only by submission
to the process in my Company, remaining involved more and
more profoundly, with more and more responsibility, that the
Way in my Company becomes ultimately Awakening. The whole affair of practice, which ultimately becomes
Awakening, is what I call the Conscious Process truly. The
Conscious Process cannot be reduced therefore to the
exercises that go into the name of the Conscious Process.
The Conscious Process is really the entire Way, including
secondary means. This is a Great Relationship, which is so
highly and rightly valued in the traditions because it
serves this purpose that I'm describing. You don't need the
Spiritual Master beyond a point, if your only use of the
Spiritual Master is to acquire the Teaching Argument. So you
don't need the company of the Spiritual Master apart from
reading his books, or hearing him give discourses. Unless
you are going to practice. Once you practice, once you've
entered into the life of practice, and real meditation, then
you've entered into the company of the Spiritual Master as
Siddha. And there is no alternative to that help. There's no
other source of that kind of help, no other source than the
Living Agency. in the case of rare individuals, that living Agency may
be brought concretely, but not through the apparent agency
of another human being. But such individuals are rare. And
they still enter into the sphere of Help. it is simply given
outside the agency of grossly manifest human being. It may
be given through through the help of a deceased Adept, or
some discarnate source of some kind or another. Or it may
even be given directly from the Eternal Source itself. But
individuals who can make use of help in that form are very
rare. In any case, those who enter into the company of the
incarnate Spiritual Master are making use of that same kind
of help. They're not merely submitting themselves to an
arbitrary other human being. They are submitting themselves
to that Divine or Transcendental Help. And it is made
available to them through the Agency of incarnate Adepts.
And a specific incarnate Adept in the case of every
practicing devotee. So, for those who practice, there is no question but that
the Company of the True Adept, the Siddha is essential for
the fulfillment of the Way, and is not possible to enter
into the Enlightened condition without the Help of
Transcendental Agency. In most cases, that Agency magnified
through an incarnate Siddha. So individuals, devotees must
not only hear my arguments, and develop the practice of
conductivity and the conscious process, they must cultivate
their relationship with me. They just locate me. They must
learn how to find my influence. They must learn how to
associate with it, how to relate to it, how to stay with it
and so on. It is not an it, it is an I, it is the
Transcendental Being. It is the Transcendental Person of the
Adept. It is necessary for devotees to learn how to
cultivate this relationship altogether in spiritual terms.
On some level it is necessary to cultivate this relationship
at the human level. Cause I really exist in human terms. Its
necessary therefore to align yourself to me through real
practice, to align yourself to me by participation in the
culture and community of devotees, to come into my company
through the occasions in various means and opportunities
that are provided. Its necessary at some stage to come into
my personal Company. You must cultivate this relationship by
entering into my Company rightly. You don't cultivate this
relationship through flattery and various means you might
use to shuffle up to a president or a king, or something
like that you see. You must learn how to cultivate a sheerly
spiritual relationship. The way to do that is to practice most fundamentally, and
to bring that practice into the framework of human life with
devotees, your life in the world, and into your human
association with me, in what ever form of direct or indirect
human association you have with me. In other words to
everything necessary and appropriate to enter into my
influence, the sphere of this communion. And do not do
anything that suppresses or distorts or deviates from such
communion. This is not a childish responsibility, this is an
ultimate human responsibility. It requires great
responsibility, great maturity in spiritual and human
terms. DEVOTEE: Master, you said a few moments ago that at some
stage it was necessary to come into your human company. It
that because there aren't true devotees yet? MASTER: No, even if there are true devotees, and
presumably there are true devotees at some level of
practice, its simply necessary in the mature stages of
practices to spend time in retreat in my company personally.
were I can know you, see you, and so on. From time to time I
make myself available to practitioners at the Mountain of
Attention or some such place. And there I may be available
not only to strictly mature practitioners in the esoteric
order, but members of the Crazy Wisdom Fellowship. In the
past, even everyone who was involved in our community has
some kind of opportunity here and there to enter into my
physical company, or to enter into my company in the
tangible form in which its manifested in certain places I've
empowered. This is also an opportunity and something to
which individuals are welcomed only once they have achieved
a certain level of maturity. So those who are practicing in the esoteric order they
should be given the opportunity to come into my physical
company, to come to the Hermitage and so on, or to come to,
at least various sitting occasions with me wherever I might
be available. Apart from that, everyone who has taken on the
discipline of this Way, even in the Free Communion Church,
is welcome to come and sit with me. In earlier times I was more likely to spend time with
anyone, even sheer beginners, even people who hadn't even
really begun. Because I was working to develop this Teaching
and community and so on. Now I'm less likely to do anything
like that. But it still is important for people at a mature
stage of this practice, to have contact with me on retreats
and so on, at my Hermitage. Hopefully, before I'm done,
before my lifetime is over, the various means necessary for
this transmission into the future, including the development
of mature practitioners and Awakened Devotees in the seventh
stage of life. This would enable the Transmission to be
active and would not depend on my physical presence. At that
level my physical absence will not destroy the threat of
this transmission. Even then it should be presumed to be appropriate to keep
my body in a samadhi site, for the sake of this
transmission. It should be presumed that this transmission
will continue through my Agency, even after my death.
Because spiritual Agency, once its established, doesn't come
to an end with physical death. But I will be functioning
through the tangible Agency of those who are in this plane,
capable of receiving it. And they won't even have any
particular sense necessarily of having some association with
me in a subtle form, an astral form, that looks like I did
during life and so on. But the Siddhi itself will remain
obvious to them, continue to be obvious to them as it had
during my lifetime, and the cycle will not be interrupted.
But in those days, there should be all kinds of Agency,
Sanctuaries, Empowered places, a fully developed Community,
a fully developed Institution, educational and cultural
Institution. There should be be hermitages, places of
retreat. There should be devotees, in significant numbers
practicing in the mature stages. There should be a community
of devotees practicing in the seventh stage of life. If
those things existed, then the necessity for the physical
presence of the Spiritual Master has become obsolete. Until
that time, the work that the Adept does in the form of his
physical existence, or through the medium of his physical
existence is necessary and essential. And if there are going
to be some who enter into the seventh stage of life, they
must at some point begin to have direct personal association
with me. RAMANA Maharshi I mention him at the end of this essay, "The mere "I"
though is not now an indicator of the Great One". The "I" is
Narcissus, more than a thought, but a profoundly complex
pattern of destiny. Now perhaps this would remind you of the
teaching of Ramana Maharshi, who recommended to people,
simply to concentrate on the "I" thought and observe and
intuit the consciousness, or the condition in which that is
arising. Well, for him, this made complete sense. For him
the whole force of egoity, the whole force of the "I" had
been transcended. And from the Advaitic point of view, the
"I" thought is a pointer to the Atman, which is ultimately
identical to the Paramatman, or Brahman. In the case of lesser teachers, the recommendation to
concentrate upon the source of the "I" thought would be
considered to be a perfectly and sufficient recommendation,
sufficient for instant enlightenment, Maharshi was not a
fool, you see. He knew full well that the ordinary
individual, concentrating on the "I" thought, feeling into,
or intuiting its source, was still ego bound. So therefore
he presumed that this method was a sadhana, a lifetime
practice, that would gradually dissolve the force of the
ego. In other words he didn't belong to the talking school.
He didn't mean to concentrate on the "I" thought, see that
consciousness underneath that and realize that's Atman,
that's Puja Brahman, that's Brahman and now you're
enlightened, now go and be enlightened, you see. No. That
wasn't his sense of teaching. But rather he followed the
traditional Advaitic approach in the general structuring of
his philosophy. He knew full well that the ego is a great
force, and that the "I" is the ego. But from his Advaitic point of view, he thought a good
technique for people, instead of fulfilling the motivations
of the ego, the motivations of the "I", to constantly fall
back from the activity, and rest in the Atman. Doing this
over time, would purify the "I", undermine the ego, dissolve
the ego. And eventually this meditation would become
self-realization. So it is implicit in his teaching that the
ego must be transcended. He's not a representative of the
talking school. Also you should understand the Maharshi did not presume
the role of a teacher. People asked him what he had
realized, and what was it all about, and how could they
realize it and so forth. And he spoke in the terms he did.
He didn't elaborate beyond that, all of the kinds of
associated means and processes and so on, which would have
to be communicated to people, if your going to presume the
role of a Siddha in their company, or counteract a total
teaching for their benefit. Now I'm aware of the fundamental truth associated with
Advaitism, and the teaching of Ramana Maharshi. I'm also
aware of the implicit realities that are behind this
Advaitic recommendation. Those implicit realities or
realities of the ego, are there to be undone, there to be
overcome. They can't be overlooked. You cannot reduce the
Advaitic recommendation to the academic or logical exercise
of the talking school. And therefore I have elaborated a
complete teaching, that involves all of the kinds of
disciplines that must necessarily be associated with life
and practice if the ego, the force of "I", the force of
Narcissus is to be transcended. And I have established this
practice in my company, and have accepted the role of the
Siddha in your company. So this produces a much more
elaborate culture of practice that is suggested in
Mararashi's company, and is altogether outside the kind of
mediocrity that belongs to the talking school. But to consider further the implications of this notion
that you can trace the "I" thought back to its source - in
the case of the beginner, the ego-bound individual, as I've
said here, the "I" thought is not merely a thought. It is
the name for a whole complex of existence. The "I" thought
exists only in the plane of waking consciousness. What about
the rest of it? It exists subconscious, unconscious,
walking, dreaming and sleeping, bodily, emotionally, and so
on. Merely to trace the "I" thought and feel the
consciousness behind it, is not to be self-realized,
transcendentally self-realized it is perhaps in Advaitic
terms, to begin a kind of exercise that should be associated
with a whole life of disciplines and profound practice, in
which everything that is "I" would be transcended, and the
Atman would cease to be merely this individuated
consciousness. What you must enter into through this conscious process,
is not merely the consciousness behind thought. That is
simply attention. And attention is the fundamental, or
ground mechanism of Narcissus or the ego, as it says at the
beginning of this essay, quoting from The Liberator: "Be
Consciousness as the feeling of Being, and Realize that it
is Radiant Happiness." This ultimate intuition breaks beyond
the framework of manifest consciousness. It breaks beyond
the framework of attention, mere attention. It is associated
with the most profound intuition. It is not like a thought
in any sense then. And it is not like attention standing off
here, next to objects, viewing whatever may seem to be
arising, witnessing whatever may seem to be arising. It is
more to be likened to feeling. It is formless, centerless.
It is not something separate, or separable from objects. It
is not interior. It is not self-conscious in the
conventional sense. What's behind the "I" thought is merely
attention. What must be realized that is far beyond the "I",
is the feeling or Condition of Being. Transcendental Consciousness is the consciousness of this
feeling of Being, mere Being, Being without qualification.
The Being that is the Condition, not only of the conscious
self, but of all of its objects, all of nature. When we've
entered into that condition of Being, when our consciousness
is that fullness of being, then we realize that it is
Happiness, Self-Radiant Love-Bliss. It is the Substance of
the universe. It is That to which Maharshi points in his
considerations. It is That to which the Advaitic tradition
ultimately points. It is That to which the Buddhist
tradition points. In fact, it is That toward which all
traditions are pointing. But apart from the Realization of
it, all kinds of lesser conceptions and perceptions and
senses of it may substitute for enlightenment. And so you cannot take heaven by storm. There is no
method of immediate self-analysis that is equivalent to
Enlightenment. Self-observation, self-knowing,
self-transcendence is a lifelong exercise. It never comes to
an end. It is always going on, always developing, there's
nothing instant about it. The ego that is behind the "I" thought. Its not the
Transcendental Self. The Self is Realized. Maharshi really enquired of everyone, "Who, who, who,
who?" Well, he said yes, "concentrate on the 'I' thought.
Well, who is aware of the 'I' thought?" Well, its the ego
that's aware of the "I" thought. Its the individual
consciousness. That's not the end of it. He would again say:
"Who? Find out who." Well; if you persist in that, that
becomes a whole life of discipline. It even becomes the life
of submission to the influence of the Adept, quite
naturally, quite spontaneously. And that in fact is what occurred in the case of his true
devotees. And that is a form of the ultimate question. Who
is it ultimately that you are? Who are you arising within?
In whom is all of this arising, you see. But its not a
question with an immediate answer. Its not really a problem
to find this out. It is a process. It is found out through a
process of self-transcendence. His questions are indicators
of it. They are queries to help people become oriented
toward the profundity of self-transcendence. And he had his
peculiar way of doing these things. And as I said, did not
presume the role of the teacher in the fullest sense, did
not feel obliged to communicate a total teaching. He appeared within the context of traditional Indian
society. For those who weren't ready to be awakened very
directly in his company, he presumed they would just go
elsewhere, they'd find countless numbers of teachings, and
teachers and means and so forth. He was simply certain that
ultimately, all these ways would fulfill themselves in
Transcendental Self-Realization. So his considerations are
limited to this fundamental query, this fundamental
suggestion that what you must discover is the Condition in
which the self is arising. But to discover that condition,
you must transcend the self, not merely ask yourself a
question, not merely invert upon attention itself, because
attention is the ego. The "I" thought like any other thought
arises to the ego. The ego is what must be transcended.
Merely to put attention on the consciousness in which the
"I" thought is arising, is not to realize the Transcendental
Being. It is to make a gesture toward realization. If you
made that gesture those means, ultimately you would break
through the egoic limit, the illusion that's associated with
attention. That is a profound complete, if if occupied the
whole of your life, then by all of process. Now we do not
... we consider the same truth, this Realization, we do not
consider it in the context of a traditional society, with a
long history of involvement with the quest for
Transcendental Realization. And I have accepted the role of Teacher, the role of the
Siddha in the company of devotees. So I have assumed the
obligation to communicate the Way fully, and to communicate
its in the company of those who will practice it, you see.
So there is a difference between my historical role and the
historical role of Maharshi and many others, as there was a
difference between Maharshi and his historical role and all
kinds of other teachers. The same ultimate truth is realized by all free Adepts,
and they communicate it in a particular fashion in their
time and place. Some aren't very communicative, some
communicate in part only, some assume the role of the Adept
or Siddha in relation to devotees, and some do not. Some
function as the Siddha without accepting the role of the
Siddha. They are the Siddha by virtue of Realization, and
for those who somehow or other develop a real practice, they
make use of that though the Adept assumes no personal
responsibility. In your case there's no ambiguity about it
however. I make this Teaching plain, I've communicated all
the details of its practice, I accept this role in
relationship to you, I've explained to you all of the
aspects of the process that takes place in my company, and
therefore its up to you, without any ambiguity, to practice
it as you will. If you will, then the kind of process that
I've just described in this essay, will develop in your
case, and you will see all the signs of it. If you will not
take it on, in the forms indicated in this essay and
elsewhere, then you may in some fashion be attached to this
Institution and this community, even have some familiarity
with me, but this does not necessarily mean that the process
described here will take place. The process required your
responsibility, for hearing and developing the means of
practice, which constantly, moment to moment bring you into
the sphere of my Influence. And you must maintain that
responsibility always, not merely occasionally when I happen
to be sitting with you, or when you happen to be in my
company, or when your in meditation or when you feel good,
or when you feel bad, but always you must develop the full
force of this profound practice. A fundamental aspect of the Way is the progressive
recognition of the Spiritual Master. In other words entering
into that Company, the sphere of the Spiritual Master's
Influence more and more profoundly. By entering into more
and more profound levels of recognition of the Spiritual
Master, beginning with obvious acknowledgment of the
Spiritual Master, as a Living Master, but then going on to
recognize and locate the Spiritual Master as Siddha, as
Siddhi, as that Influence, which is directly present to
every practicing devotee, in every moment, not merely in
occasions of being in the Spiritual master's human company,
or being in meditation, of being in an empowered place, or
being in the community and so on, but always. Those who
truly practice begin to locate and recognize and acknowledge
this Influence in every moment of life and meditation. it is
always available. It is a matter of turning to it, of
acknowledging it, recognizing it, locating it, making your
practice into communion with that Influence. Therefore
allowing that Influence to transform the conditions of
existence that are arising from hour to hour, moment to
moment, not only in meditation, but in daily life. In daily
life all kinds of changes occur, all kinds of moods, all
kinds of circumstances, physical, emotional and mental
states, relations, changes in relations and so forth. Those
are just as much within the sphere of Transcendental
Influence, as any of the activities that occur in the
subjective realm of meditation. Therefore these also, you
will discover, remarkably, are constantly being changed, in
various ways by this influence. The Influence, or Siddhi that you have entered into is
the Power and Being in which all of nature is arising. And
therefore it has its effect on all of the apparently
objective conditions of your existence, just as it has an
effect upon the subjective conditions. So in daily life, you
notice this influence making changes, if your sensitive and
really practicing in this company, in both the subjective
and objective levels of your existence. In meditation, you
notice this influence more in terms of the subjective
changes and the effects this Influence has on you immediate
personal experience, you physical, emotional, mental states,
and those kinds of states that may arise in meditation. You should also begin to notice how this Influence is
operative beyond the waking state, in dreams, in sleeping,
in every moment of existence. There is a tradition in which
Adepts have asked devotees, usually advanced devotees, to to
to sleep at night, with the intention of entering into the
Spiritual Master's company. Sometimes this instruction is
given in very specific detail, to go to sleep with the
intention in the astral or dream form, to go to a specific
location, usually the Communion Hall, or the place of
residence of the Spiritual Master, with full visual
expression and so on, during the dreaming time. Also with
the intention in the sleep state, to be entered into
communion with the Transcendental Condition and presence of
the Spiritual Master, or the Consciousness, or Being that is
the Adept and the Divine. Well, devotees over the years, frequently report random,
unintentional experiences of this kind. Similar experiences
in fact occur even during waking hours, various kinds of
visionary experiences, of seeing me in the meditation hall,
or having some vision of me and so forth, in a moment of
activity. These are reported by people. they also report all
kinds of extraordinary dreams. Now these dreams in general
do not have anything to do with me in the sense that I am
personally, at the level of my human mind and so on, aware
that you are having these dreams, although I very often am
aware of them. But the fact that somebody has a dream in
which I appear to them, does not necessarily mean that I
would be able to tell them the next day that I was aware of
it. I may or may not be aware of it. Or I may be aware of it
in a difference form. Or I may be aware of it in the same
form. But most of the time I wouldn't be aware of it, there
would be no reflection in my waking mind of it. But this
does not mean that the experience if false. It can be
falsified by the individual who just uses it for his own
self-glamouriation, to console him or herself so they can
feel they're had some profound experience. But generally the
essential content of such dreams is a feeling of entering
into this communion, and something about the meaning of the
dream, will generally have some pertinence, some
significance that is real and appropriate enough, worth
remembering, worth allowing to have some effect on you
whenever it will. Therefore since this possibility exists, some people
might try this. You should feel free to try this. These
gatherings we have on celebration occasions are something
like this. People gather in Centers and various parts of the
world, at the same time I'm sitting here with you all. And
they prepare themselves through the devotional occasion, and
use my photograph as a way of associating with me. They are
literally tuning into me, allowing themselves to enter into
the sphere of my Influence, personally. During meditation,
or perhaps in dreams, or some other visions afterwards, they
may have some sense of coming to some place where I'm
sitting with them and so forth. During that time of
meditation, they may have visions of it, of my being in the
room with them, or them being in a room some place or other
with me. In other words the psyche may function automatically to
create some sort of association with me that's tangible.
Whether or not that tangible association has anything
directly to do with my actual physical location or not. It
is simply a, it is simply something that adds a dimension to
the whole force of their alignment to me. ............... See 'worksheet' on 'The
Conscious Process'
a Beezone
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after the reading of the essay the talk continues
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"The perfect
among the sages is identical with Me. There is absolutely no
difference between us"
Tripura
Rahasya,
Chap XX,
128-133
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