Lightning evolution

Imagine being hit by lightning.

Your physical body

cannot handle 

the mega-amperes of

electric current and

it burns up.

Now imagine that, 

somehow, say through 

kundalini practices and awakening,

you become physically able 

to handle the titanic surge
of electromagnetic energy. 

Your brain changes as well and 

intellectual,

artistic, and 

emotional 

insights and abilities

open up.

Now you may go around 

searching for 

lightning strikes or 

similar high-power phenomena 

to evolve.

This is lightning evolution by

outside or outer circumstances.

 

Now imagine 

an energetic inner counterpart to 

natural lightning in the sky. 

Those strikes may again be picked up 

after sufficient kundalini practices and 

again change you 

physically and mentally.

This is lightning evolution by

inside or inner circumstances.

 

Imagine now 

a pre-energetic aspect 

to the inner lightning strikes. 

They can be picked up 

internally but mentally, 

when one's attention is 

sufficiently

expansive,

subtle, and 

swift.

 

This subtilization happens

by meditating

on something

infinite and

incredibly dynamic,

even swifter than

mental lightning!

Here, 

even without practices 

to change the body

physiologically or

energetically, 

one is able to 

catch lightning strikes

mentally.

 

Catching mental, 

non-physical,

yet material lightning strikes

can still cause changes in the 

energetic and 

physical layers or 

kośas (prāṇamaya and

annamaya).

 

Next consider

inner lightning 

--a time-bound event-- 

as a grosser manifestation of 

inner sunshine 

--eternally bright.

 

What level of inner subtlety 

would be needed 

to sustain that 

continuous brightness?

And finally, imagine 

a potentiality, 

a nothingness, 

from which 

that sunshine, 

and in turn, 

that lightning 

arises. 

 

Not darkness, 

but greyness, 

black with just a faint hint 

of brightness.

 

What would be the 

mental or

intellectual level 

needed 

to feel and 

understand 

that?

In sum, one sequence of evolution is the ability to withstand or apprehend:

1. physical lightning
2. psychic lightning
3. mental lightning
4. mental sunshine
5. mental potentiality/nothingness
   

Starting from 5. should develop capacity to withstand 4-3. Perhaps it also develops capacity to withstand 4-1, too?

NOTES

 

1. Lightning and sunshine analogy inspired by (but inverted from!) Sri Aurobindo's  Levels of Mind/Consciousness. C.f. Fig.2. The Vertical System - Levels of Consciousness and later explanations in the online Our Many Selves - Practical Yogic Psychology

 

2. "Darkness to light, light to grey" is from Babuji.  He may have been referring to wisdom as light, and omniscience as potential which manifests into actual wisdom as needed.

3. Consider also Babuji's increasingly subtle sequence of matter to energy to absolute, and the increasingly grosser sequence of manasa-vāca-karmaṇa (thought-word-action).

Acceptance and grace

Choose cheerfully and totally;

either you accept your life and advance in wisdom,

[OR advance in wisdom, by your practice, and accept your life]

or you refuse and stagnate,

and then you have the same road to walk, minus the grace.

Paraphrased from Babuji's message of Sunday, August 1, 1999 – 10:00 a.m. Entire (edited and original) whisper below.

[Edited]

Whispers from

The Brighter World

Beloved Master 

Revered Babuji Maharaj

Sunday, August 1, 1999 – 10:00 a.m.

To you we ask - endure your current life, and as much as possible with a smile. Cheerfully.

Many of our aspirants are disappointed; they thought that having a Master and being on a path like Sahaj Marg would eliminate all their family and health problems.

But if you all were to know our lives well, you would have seen that we were not spared.

You settle up the remainders of previous lives and the mistakes made in this one.

No path, no Master, whatever his stature, will be able to resolve all your small problems to your liking. The objective - of the path - does not lie there. You must understand it.

If you follow us with the motivation to remove life's problems - that will not happen, you will be disappointed.

Our goodwill cannot make you walk on a path of roses.

The roses of life, you do get them, but also their thorns.

Study the lives of all the great Masters who punctuated history, and see what they experienced to reach the highest level of holiness, and all that they went through.

It is only by going deeper and deeper inside yourselves that you will find not only answers, but also the strength to endure what you have to go through in this life.

Without this obligatory process, evolution is not possible.

Choose cheerfully and totally:

either you accept your life and so advance in wisdom,

(OR advance in wisdom by your practice and accept your life)

or you refuse and stagnate,

and then you have the same road to walk, minus the grace.

Babuji

[Original]

Whispers from

The Brighter World

Beloved Master

Revered Babuji Maharaj

Sunday, August 1, 1999 – 10:00 a.m.

To you, we ask you to endure your current life, as much as possible with a smile.

Many of our aspirants are disappointed; they thought that having a Master and being on a path like Sahaj Marg would eliminate their family and health problems.

If you all knew our lives well, you would see that we were not spared.

You settle up the remainders of previous lives and the mistakes made in this one.

 No path, no Master, whatever his stature, will be able to resolve your small problems to your liking.

The objective does not lie there. You must understand it. If you follow us with this kind of motivation, that will not happen. Our goodwill cannot make you walk on a bed of roses.

The roses, you have them, but the thorns too. Study the lives of all the great Masters who punctuated history, and see what they experienced to reach the highest level of holiness, and all that they went through.

It is by going deeper and deeper inside yourselves that you will find not only answers, but the strength to endure what you have to live.

Without this obligatory process, there is no possible evolution.

You should resign yourselves; either you advance in wisdom and you accept your life, or you stagnate and refuse, and you have the same road to walk, minus the grace.

Babuji

I - she - they - pronouns and ego

Consider these pronouns :

He, she, they

Do 'he' thoughts, thoughts about someone, bring up 'not I' - "he's not I" - and thus 'I' thoughts? Thoughts of comparison: positive, negative, or even neutral/objective comparison?

Using '=>' to mean 'implies':

he => not I => I?

How about:

she => not I => I?

Or:

they => not I => I?

E.g., he is nice, he's not me, I am not nice. Or vice versa.

She's not nice, she's not me, I am also not nice.

They're blue-skinned, they're not me, I am brown-skinned.

(I am forced to use 'me' to satisfy English grammatical rules. But I hope the idea that 'he' thoughts can generate 'I' thoughts is clear.)

Other variations [1] on such thought sequences:

him => not me => me

her => not me => me

they => not me => me

his => not mine =>mine

hers => not mine =>mine

their => not mine => mine

All right, so what? Isn't this normal?

That's precisely the point. It doesn't have to be normal. Such thought sequences, especially by deliberate indulgence, bolster the sense of ego.

Simple awareness is sufficient to change.

Why change?

To reduce the energy wasted, on useless and even demotivating comparisons, especially on negative thoughts, and by the resulting physical stress. Using the brain efficiently also reduces one's ego!

Going inward for spiritual evolution is all very well. But if all we do by going inward is outward thinking, about others outside, that doesn't help us in removing our self-created layers of impurities and complexities. Again, it reduces the brain's efficiency.

NOTES

[1] based on "ego" implying "I, me, and my/mine" thoughts or emotions

A simple model of spiritual practice - sāṁkhya

A simple model from traditional sāṁkhya.

An infinity exists - unmanifest. Within are three categories:

1. sattva - illuminating/discriminating/"aware"-ing,

2. rajas - impelling - and,

3. tamas - impeding.

All three are initially unmanifest as well.

sattva is subtlest, rajas gross, tamas grossest, with respect to understanding.

sattva, rajas, and tamas can have individually different levels of vibration or subtlety.

sattva is also related to willpower; subtlest sattva => subtlest intention or will.

The effects of rajas and tamas on mental and physical "stuff" are the same - causing/changing movement or stopping movement. (Movement is eternal, across different levels, so tamas is also temporary vis-a-vis eternity. Thus, even static rocks erode and disappear over millennia.)

When manifestation starts, sattva is maximum, rajas and tamas are minimum or nil.

Manifestation evolves to grosser levels and devolves to subtler levels. (Why manifestation at all is unclear, though there are speculative answers.)

At our current individual state and that of the universe, sattva is minimum, rajas and tamas maximum. Put differently, free-will in the present is minimum; habitual unthinking reaction - fighting/fleeing or freezing - is maximum.

Individual meditation and other spiritual practices increase the ratio of sattva - in this infinity - compared to rajas and tamas. 

One view: increasing activity - rajas - reduces the quantity of tamas, and rajas is reduced in turn by increasing sattva.

Another view: sattva is transmuted into rajas and tamas and reversal happens during spiritual/inward practice.

(krodha may be equivalent to rajas and kāma to tamas. Hence Babuji saying they are natural and practically ineradicable.)

rajas and tamas are "mechanical" or "non-conscious". sattva is also non-conscious, but is closest in appearance or function to consciousness. Thus, spiritual practice aims first at increasing sattva to attain or become pure consciousness.

Once the "devolution" reaches pure or maximum sattva, it can only go further through unmanifestation. At this point, even separation or "this and that" awareness are lost.

Individual devolution probably results in only a part of the infinity becoming unmanifest. A universal devolution alone - mahāpraḷaya - can cause total unmanifestation. What if every individual did not devolve? Can universal devolution occur?

Please note all of the above are only regarding prakṛti or pradhāna. Consciousness-energies - puruṣas - are another set of infinities, each one eternally separate from the prakṛti infinity, and untouched by its series of evolution-devolution sequences.

Evolution and Samkhya-Yoga philosophy

There is a hyper-realisitic philosophy called sāṁkhya (literally, from categories or from numberings), which posits an evolution (or descent, depending on your point of view) from two sets of infinities.

One infinity is a unitary set called prakṛti (Nature/Manifestor) or pradhāna (Base/Foundation) [1]. From this infinity manifests everything non-conscious, including mind [8], body, and material universe.

The second is a set of infinities called puruṣa's. Like the sun radiates light, each puruṣa radiates consciousness. Every living thing is a unidirectional combination of one puruṣa and a part of prakṛti.  Consciousness illuminates, but is untouchable by, the non-conscious. Vaguely similar to sun rays illuminating the earth. [3]

Now to evolution of the universe or multiverse. Think of a puruṣa as a consciousness source which purifies one part - a jīva (you or any living creature) - of an ocean of prakṛti. bhog, samādhi, and whatever else makes this purification happen for you as a jīva is by your surrender to this activity with minimal conditioning [4]. You, as an ocean current or whirlpool, are able to tune into the incessant inspiration from your puruṣa better with more and more purification. Your actions become more and more natural and less and less conditioned by subconscious and unconscious tendencies (vāsana's) and emotional residues (saṁskāra's).

Spiritual evolution of humans is purification of a significant part of the non-conscious ocean - a particular threshold of jīva's (humans, e.g.) attaining self-realisation, with its ripple effects.

Self-realisation, IMHO, is getting off the seesaw of habitual likes and dislikes (Babuji's Heart Region) and letting the seesaw of I and the Divine (Babuji's Mind Region) rest permanently on the side of the Divine. Kabir has a nice couplet for the latter:

     Love's lane is exceedingly narrow; it can't hold two.
     When 'I' was, the Divine [5] wasn't; now the Divine is, 'I' am not. [6]

I like sāṁkhya because it explains very elegantly a confusing Vedantic idea - I don't have to do anything as I am never bound - by splitting the I into conscious and non-conscious I's. The puruṣa 'I' is eternally free and unblemished. The prakṛti 'I', my bit of ocean, is what changes, maybe from iceberg to water to vapour to space! 

prakṛti as a whole goes through cycles of simplicity and complexity, purity and impurity, lightness and grossness, across cycles of manifestation and unmanifestation, which cause evolution at a multiverse level.

sāṁkhya is atheistic as there is no need for a whimsical God to plan or direct anything. It is close to science in the idea of natural evolution occurring due to individual actions. ṛta (root of rhythm?), or collective karma at the level of the infinite prakṛti, instead of random chance as in science [7], also drives evolution. But ṛta is not arbitrary, and applies even to higher beings.

yoga/rāja yoga philosophy adds the concept of a special puruṣa, an eternal Guru or Guide, not subject to grosser mental effects even when it does associate with (a part of) prakṛti and incarnates in a physical body.

yoga is traditionally considered the practical aspect of sāṁkhya theory. Its practices or techniques take one's mind gradually from a mostly outward focus to an inward focus and then to one that can go both ways equally easily.  Inward focus is of many levels or stages, and one key principle of sāṁkhya - an effect manifests from a cause - is used in the technique of resolving (Babuji's laya) a grosser effect thought layer into a subtler cause layer.

In Sahaj Marg, dissolution/resolution is done through cleaning. And in meditation, by letting the (almost?) infinitely subtle transmission of the Source of Divine Light guide your attention towards Itself, or your mental vibrations towards Its own level.

NOTES

[1] Babuji's bhūma [2] seems to be both pradhāna and puruṣa's, in a latent state

[2] From the chāndogya upaniṣad (7.24.1)

[3] Sun rays do enter into physical reactions as energy, even while illuminating. Consciousness rays, qualitatively different, cause understanding or wisdom in a layer of prakṛti, but it's a unidirectional relationship.

[4] Some conditioning is needed while living in a physical body, in a specific society, at a particular level of technology, kind of social stage (child, parent, elder, sage), etc.

[5] Kabir says 'Hari' for 'the Divine'.

[6] "'I' isn't" is technically better than "'I' am not", as 'I' is considered to be a set of "I, me, or mine" thoughts.

[7] Perhaps statistical random chance is indeed ṛta for gases!

[8] Mind, intellect, and ego (manas, buddhi, and ahaṁkāra) are considered non-conscious or jaḍa.

Stalactites and separation

Think of a cave.

A limestone cave.

A cold climate.

Water seeps in from the ground above and covers the ceiling.

It freezes into ice.

Water keeps seeping in, and the layers and projections of ice start to descend.

They lengthen as icy water keeps flowing inside, and each stalactite grows, separated from the others.

Now, imagine the water in a stalactite coming alive. It wants to fully experience its original unity, its commonality, with the others. Resisting gravity, it returns to the ceiling and the flowing water beyond.

Next, imagine your mind, weighed down by its identification with your body. It seeks its original lightness, balance, understanding, and expansiveness. It wants to become subtler and relaxed, but has to strive against its own habits of painful effort, of experiencing and expressing itself grossly, through the body, and against others.