Natural and man-made evolution

It is very easy to accept many seemingly contradictory historical facts or claims if a simple idea is understood - there is a continuous eternal natural flow which includes living and evolving.

On top of that natural flow is an artificial or man-made flow of living and evolving. 

Most man-made elements are less energy efficient, where not actively wasteful of energy, and more emotionally stressful and so detrimental for natural evolution. That flow also drastically and short-sightedly prioritises humans at the expense of Nature evolving as a whole. [1]

Evolution is defined as greater optimality and generality and simplicity, by any measure, of a system. Here, Nature herself is a system.

Consider also that purity = directness.

Thus, one's silent inner meditation or attention with eyes closed 

is more simple and general and directly beneficial than 

other religious or spiritual practices such as

audible prayer in groups in a specific, usually little-understood, language with open eyes and 

expensive rituals conducted by other(s).

This silent inner meditation or focus is the highest level of practice in all religions. 

All, bar none.

Intermediaries of any religion who claim otherwise do so only to exert control over the adherents.

This self-directed silent inner attention is where Heartfulness/Sahaj Marg starts and ends. This is why it is simple, pure, and light.

With one's own inner focus or attention comes understanding of, and cessation of, those parts of one's man-made flow that are out of sync with the natural flow. Those parts neither extend nor support the natural flow, and in fact, they actively disrupt that flow where they do not reverse it.

All religions and spiritual paths only strive to return to the natural flow of living and evolving. But they have varying degrees of success in teasing out only those in-sync man-made elements and applying them simply, directly, lightly. [2, 3]

In particular, they have failed to understand, accept, or welcome an even simpler idea and rule - each and every one of their adherents, bar none, must evolve naturally through natural+in-sync living if natural evolution is to occur! 

This natural and effective evolution can occur only if each one lets go of out-of-sync elements through their daily, nay, moment-by-moment, living.

Natural evolution + in-sync man-made evolutionary activities - simple in practice, but ridiculously complicated in theory. 

Learning is natural and simple - babies are the best learners! At the other end of intellectual maturity are the self-realised, again with little ego. They also learn incessantly and daily.

Societal, cultural, and school education is complex - the vast majority of students fail to remember what they are forced to memorise in school.

Experience, facts, and memory are simple. Putting facts into, and taking them out of, a man-made conceptual framework is complex and partially, where not totally, wrong. And, of course, partially right.

Humans are mentally flailing around uselessly and counterproductively most of the time. That leads inevitably to physical activities out of sync with natural evolution.

"Let go and rejoice", says the Isha Upanishad. Nature herself will take care of your evolution!

But then, which son listens to his mother?! Especially a silent, and seemingly ever-forgiving, Mother Nature?

In sum, regain the natural living flow first. Then, carefully, cheerfully, and respectfully, infuse your own man-made flow - light, simple, direct - into it.

NOTES

[1] Extending the prioritisation further leads to a specific group or groups of humans evolving at the expense of other humans. And finally, only if others do not evolve.

[2] The Sufis claim, e.g., that each person's practice must be prescribed by a Sufi according to the contexts of time, place, and people.

[3]  J. Krishnamurti states that each person's life must be a unique and unprescribed flow through individual understanding and acting. This, his "Truth is a pathless land."

Brahman and Atman made simple

TL;DR: Brahman outside the body == Atman inside the body.

Everything manifests from Brahman or Bhuma, and unmanifests, dissolves back into it.

Everything is real or existent.

But, the time duration of existence and non-existence of things varies.

Thus, a planet, say Earth, exists longer than a mosquito on Earth.

Non-existence precedes an individual existence and

non-existence again follows that existence. [0]

 

Space is an ill-defined and ill-definable substance or field.

Per science, space is unaffected [1] by matter - that which occupies space.

Unaffected by or unchanged by both the existence and non-existence of matter.

Matter is similarly unaffected by space.

Brahman is like space with respect to manifestation.

It is not affected by  its own manifestations.

It stays the same every-where and every-when because

space and time themselves manifest from Brahman.

And since it is the ultimate cause by definition, it is itself uncaused. [2] 

The space-matter relationship is bidirectional, i.e., space to matter and

matter to space relations.

But, neither is a cause-effect relation.

Matter does not do anything to or affect space in any way. [3]

Neither does space do anything to matter.

Consider:

1. Brahman or Bhuma is the subtlest or finest cause.

2. The gross or dense body (schoola shareera) is 

a gross or dense effect.

3. Brahman that is encapsulated or infused into, or 

Brahman that has manifested

grosser/denser bodies either 

directly - causal body or kaaraNa shareera, or 

indirectly - subtle body or sookSHma shareera,

is now termed aatma or jeeva-aatma.

Is the manifested or encapsulated (in-carne-ated, emln-fleshed) Brahman,

the jeeva, the effect, different from the cause?

Yes.

But is there any transfer in the opposite direction?

No.

NOTES

[0] Something unaffected by time, that exists independent of time, may be called eternal -

existing for every given value of time in the past, present, or future.

There may also be something existing from some particular time onwards, but

never becoming non-existent thereafter.

E.g., an extremely subtle idea or concept.

Its converse may also occur - something may have existed from the beginning of time,

but stops existing.

[1] At normal human-perceivable dimensions - neither cosmically huge nor

subatomically small, quantum.

[2] Or, trying to posit a cause leads logically to infinite regression:

Brahman manifests from Brahman Zero - B0.

B0 manifests from B-1.

B-1 manifests from B-2.

And so on.

What is the difference between Brahman and B0? 

Or B0 and B-1?

Nothing intrinsic. 

There is only a supposed or assumed cause-effect relation. 

So this infinite regression is without any benefit by way of greater simplicity or abstraction.

[3] Again, in dimensions as in [1]. Gravitational waves and

the uncertainty principle work at exponentially different scales.

Living choices

Real-time OR

Sampled, curve-fitted, regenerated, 

extrapolated, interpolated?

Livestreaming OR 

Binge watching?

Natural OR

Hyperreal?

Sensation OR 

Symbol, word, representation?

Thriving OR

Living?

~~~~~~~~
Deliberately exaggerated and
framed as mutually exclusive,
but we're like
the frog in a vessel of water
on a stove.
We try to jump out only
when the water
gets unbearably hot.

Flow

Flow

Flow + react

Flow + respond

Flow

Unconscious - act mindlessly

Subconscious - react + reflect

Conscious - respond + reflect

Superconscious - act inspiredly, naturally

Unconscious - moment by moment

Superconscious - moment by moment

Unconscious - cannot think emotionally

Superconscious - need not think emotionally

Before satori, chop wood, carry water

After satori, chop wood, carry water

From living to thriving

Three flows or 

three aspects of 

the same flow 

occur 

naturally or 

automatically - 

peace, joy, and love.

But our mental activities, 

especially verbalisation and 

conceptualisation and 

hyperrealism, 

affect the flows, 

or better, 

their impact on us, 

physically and mentally.

Take any situation of 

extreme pleasure or 

extreme pain. 

Usually emotional thinking 

pauses 

while the situation is 

either savoured, or 

it overwhelms you, 

physically and/or mentally.

The intensity 

of the experience 

reduces as 

meta thinking or 

reflective thinking - 

essentially I-me-my thoughts, 

judgemental thoughts, 

comparative and 

analytical thoughts - return.

Similarly will reduce its 

purity, 

simplicity, and 

lack of mental weight 

(from storing and 

processing).

What if such 

outer/outward

physical or mental situations 

are not needed 

to shift down 

to simple feeling 

alone

from the usual 

simple feeling plus 

thinking?

Feeling is much more 

basic, physical. 

From your sensors to 

brain cortexes, 

just until 

verbalising and/or 

conceptualising -

ideas, thoughts, words -

start.

How to stay with 

simple feeling?

Train the mind and brain, 

through dissociative meditation, 

to let go.

One way, 

as in Heartfulness [1],

is to stay with 

something beyond

all concepts and 

words and 

thoughts, 

something infinite, 

yet something which 

cannot be an object - 

light without luminosity, 

light without light. [2] 

So are

Zen Koans - 

riddles 

which tire out and 

shut down 

thinking.

Or

Ramana Maharshi's 

Who am I, 

or better, 

what is the "I" 

to subtler and subtler levels, 

until, again, thinking stops.

Or any other spiritual practice

that draws your attention 

to subtler and subtler levels and 

overwhelms it completely 

at each level 

so that thinking stops.

All thinking?

No, just 

unnecessary thinking, 

energy-sapping, wasteful 

thinking. 

And emoting.

The egoic activity is

natural and necessary 

for living.

But thriving - 

conscious peace, joy, love - 

recurs (from babyhood)

when egoic activity is 

minimal. 

Obviously, 

the layers and layers 

of mental activities 

on top of the frenetic I-ing 

don't help either. 

Let go of them too.

Heartfulness Cleaning 

accelerates [3] removal of 

stored, frozen residues 

of past hyper egoic and 

judgemental activities. 

How? 

Again "you" step aside 

while "unwinding" occurs. 

This unwinding 

may be felt as 

lightening, 

freeing, 

simplifying and/or 

purifying. 

Or visually,

your present condition 

of thick dark smoke 

dissipating or lightening.

Then the Heartfulness prayer 

helps your ego to 

synchronise and co-operate with

and surrender to

the source of 

your own 

   light without luminosity,

your own 

   life.

In sum, there are 

natural 

flows and activities. 

Then there are 

man-made 

activities 

which layer, 

distort, or 

block/freeze

those natural flows. 

Reduce these 

man-made activities 

to minimum, 

if not to zero. 

Then 

the natural flows 

continue 

freely.

Then your 

natural evolution 

resumes.

NOTES

[1] Heartfulness meditation is 

both dissociative and 

associative. Associating with 

the heart, with the light in the heart, and 

dissociating from 

thoughts, 

emotions, and 

physical sensations 

not at the heart.

[2] Then you allow 

an infinitely 

subtler, 

gentler, 

loving, 

attracting 

entity 

to draw the "you" 

towards it.

[3] All human activities, 

not just Heartfulness cleaning or 

other spiritual practices, 

have an 

unwinding or 

undoing 

effect.

Usually, though, further 

winding and knotting 

occur with

continued

I-ing overactivity.

Uniting

Uniting is an inner journey.

Going towards what makes us similar.

To what makes us the same.

Not back and forth.

Not you or I.

Us.

We.

Joining.

Not physically.

Not even mentally.

Not even with the hearts.

By simply letting go.

Dissolving our selves.

Back into Oneness.

And then ...

Returning outward.

Imbued and
infused and
inspired and
energized
by that Oneness.

prati sancaraḥ

sancaraḥ

Sequences of awareness

Reality is very simple.

Whatever we feel physically, 

without words or thoughts,

is Reality as-is for us.

Physical Reality is not static, 

because physical sensations 

keep coming in.

Whatever we feel mentally is also 

Reality as-is for us, 

again if there are no words or thoughts. [1]

That mental Reality is also 

a continuous flow,

manifesting 

from subtler levels 

to your current mental level,

to your current subtlety of awareness,

of attention. [1]

As soon as 

words and concepts and 

ideas and beliefs and 

biases and cravings, and so on 

come into play, 

your mind has taken 

something flowing continuously, and 

converted it,

approximated it,

distorted it,

into something 

static and 

limited and 

measured.

Fooling around 

with words 

is useless 

for self-realisation.

Simply practise first - 
feel 
the inside first, 

   the subconscious,

   the unconscious,
   the super-conscious,
   the super-subtle.

Let the emotional mind 
quieten down and 
become peaceful.

Then open your eyes and 
feel the outside 
through incoming sensations 
for the rest of the day.

Just stay with feeling 
with the still mind.

Then becoming happens. [2]

Experiencing, 

transforming to 

the next subtler mental level 
happens.

Then being at that level happens.

Enjoying and 

discovering and 

expanding, 

deeper and wider,

happens.

Then you lose awareness 

of that level and 

objects of that level as 
something new, 
something different.

Then that level is negated.

Attention is able 

to go, 

to shift to,

to the next subtler causal level.

Again by 
feeling and 
becoming and 
being 
to go to the next level.

Again nothingness as 
novelty, newness, differences 
fade away 
with familiarity and use.

Now you can describe or 
think conceptually, analytically about

the previous lower level, 
the less subtle level.

At this subtler level, 
your thinking cannot 
corrupt or 
bias or 
filter sensations 
at the earlier grosser or 

denser level. [3]

You can see or describe 
that level more clearly.

This journey is infinite 
because 
the mind can, in a sense, 
become subtler and subtler 
infinitely.

But words are still unnecessary.

Just feel and 
become and 
be and 
negate.

And go about your daily 
spiritual and 
material activities,
your inner and 
outer activities,
with a still emotional mind, 
without emotional, egoistic reactivity, 
without emotional turbulence.

And you will 
resonate, 
synchronise, and 
empathize or 
simply feel 
differently.

Please note that this is a continuous process.

Thus:

feeling,
becoming,
being,
negating or nothingness [4]
is a more appropriate description.

Is it such a simple, linear sequence?

Grossest/densest, subtler, subtler, subtler, ..., subtlest?

No. There's much more 

nuance, 

recursion, 

to-and-fro-ing, 

coalescing of multiplicity,

in the spiritual journey.

But it's a good, practical, 

useful, and comforting 

approximation. 

And way more helpful than 

the sharply-contrasting 

dualistic and judgemental 

transcendental/cosmic perspective vs. 

individualistic perspective 

of traditional approaches.

NOTES

[1] Ignoring inner inputs from memory, which is again stored, from the past, limited and limiting representations or residues, triggers of the past experiences.

[2] Becoming also happens in meditation as the attention moves to a subtler level. That is, one can become consciously aware of that level.

[3] A bit like a highly sensitive ammeter minimally affects or reduces the current flowing through, while still showing its measurement. But the measuring mind has shifted, as if ffrom physical energy to a different energy.

[4] Daaji's sequence - thinking to feeling to becoming to being to nothingness. He doesn't emphasise the recursive or repetitive nature of the states, and nothingness is also presented as the final state cosmologically.