Open-eyed cleaning

All theory
about interaction
with others
is intellectual.

The easiest way
to become
peaceful and
unstressed
is to surrender and
do your spiritual practice
effectively.

Do you know for yourself
that you have changed and
how you have changed
after every meditation,
after every cleaning,
after every prayer?

Every event in a day is cleaning.

Once you can clean effectively
with closed eyes,
start doing the same thing
with open eyes.

Watch as you become
lighter and lighter
after an event.
Purer and purer.
Simpler and simpler.

But that is possible
only if you feel
those three
after every cleaning.

What happens
in cleaning is
unwinding
what is stored.

What happens
in the event is
unwinding again
but also
new winding.

If you do
the same thing
during an event
that you do
during cleaning,
fresh winding
will not happen.

Also, unwinding will be
successful.

Here you have to
simply trust
your inner Master
until you become
sensitive enough
to feel it
palpably.

Sensitivity
comes with
interest
in yourself,
in your spiritual growth.
[~Daaji, paraphrased]

It is very simple.

Let the
impurities,
grossness, and
complexities
go without
paying attention
to them.

Pay attention instead
to the changes within you

-- purer, lighter, simpler --
as those things are
going out.

Most of
the spiritual work and
activity
is outside
your conscious
awareness.

As you clean,
pray, and
meditate,
the boundaries
of your consciousness
expand.

"Down" into the
subconscious and
unconscious.

"Up" into the
superconscious.

Use
that expanded
consciousness
every day.

Your unwinding
becomes
better, faster.

Every event.

Every encounter with
every person -
there is some cleaning
happening.

[Even reading this!]

Trust your higher self.

Trust your inner Master.

Don't try,
don't strain.

You can break through
without trying.
 

No, not "trying",
don't put
"effort"
into observation.

The only effort
needed is
to shift
your attention.

Observing others
without judging
is a strain.

Observe only
yourself.

When observing
yourself
without judging
is a strain,
observe

the inner self,
or its proxy,
your heart.

Then observation
becomes
simple feeling,
simple experiencing.

Silence.

Amidst activity.

Peace.

Four levels of hearing - an analogy for mental devolution

 1. Total deafness (almost)
due to self-created coverings --
past and presently continuing.

2. Partial deafness
by continuing further creation of coverings
along with
partial hearing
from removal of self-created coverings.

3. Partial hearing
when removal of coverings
exceeds
replacement
by ongoing creation
which still cause
partial deafness.

4. Total hearing (almost)
from maximum removal of coverings and
minimal to zero ongoing re-creation.

For mental devolution,
think of
impurities and
complexities,
as well as
coverings
from the hearing analogy.
In Sanskrit,
per Babuji, [1]
malam,
vikṣepam, and
āvaraṅam,
respectively.

All three
skew or
screw up
one's understanding
through
biases,
stereotypes, and
habits,
resulting in
the tendency
for instant --
usually negative,
definitely individualistic
and separative --
reactions
in various situations.

Reactive action --
reactive thinking,
speaking, or
acting --
is in contrast to
responsive action,
either mindful and
careful
responses --
usually at first,
then
affectionate and
heartful
responses --
usually later.

Initially,
responding
will be
slower than
reacting.

Thinking and
doing,
especially
overriding
instant
reactive
habitual
thinking,
takes more time and
energy.

But the Indian spiritual tradition
seems to point to an interesting idea:
once the mind and
heart
are purified,
response time
will actually be
faster than
reactive time.

This increased speed is,
perhaps counter-intuitively,
associated with reduced ego.

So how does
a reduced ego
result in
individual actions
happening faster?

And how can
more selfless or
transcendentally beneficial
actions
such as the mahavratās (ahiṁsa, satya, ...)
occur faster than
selfish or self-centred reactions?

After all,
neuroscience claims that
the emotional or
the amygdala-brainstem subsystem
is the fastest part
of the human brain
since it has to work for
the physical safety of
the individual human being.
The "no time to think" idea.

The argument that follows
is more from experience
than theoretical logic.

And while it is
observational and
subjective,
it is the common experience
of meditators.
 

1. As one's
   self-created
   impurities,
   complexities, and
   coverings
   get removed,
   the speed,
   responsiveness,
   clarity, and
   expandability
   of one's inner instruments
   increases
   exponentially.
   
   
2. This allows
   ongoing,
   real-time,
   directing of
   one's inner and
   also one's outer
   instruments
   by a transcendental entity
   whose instruments
   are even faster.
   
   
3. An attenuated ego --
   minimal to zero --
   reduces
   the processing needed
   for a signal or inspiration
   from that entity
   to take effect.
   
   
4. When such inspirations
   have consistently beneficial results,
   trust becomes blind faith,
   in that one may not know
   (as an individual)
   how one's actions will turn out
   until after an event. [2]
   
   
5. Understanding
   the immediate situation
   is also speeded up
   because it is understood
   transcendentally than
   individually.
    
6. Even at the
   partial deafness or
   partial hearing
   stages,
   one can observe
   one's thinking
   shifting
   from individualistic
   to empathic
   to group
   to universal.
   
   
7. At the total hearing stage,
   one's actions tend to
   naturally be
   more beneficial to all
   than only for me.

In sum, inner instruments work faster at subtler levels 

without an individuating or separating ego,

resulting also in faster yet more altruistic actions 

across manasa-vāca-karmaṇa (thought-word-deed) levels.

NOTES

[1] Ram Chandra (Babuji). 1954 (2010 reprint).  Reality at Dawn. p. 55, Ch: Spiritual Training. Spiritual Hierarchy Publication Trust, Kolkata.

[2] Babuji reportedly used to wait for orders from "above" to be repeated 2-3 times to confirm that he was not fantasizing.