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.

Purifying the mind-field

Think of ice. Not made from pure water - not just molecules of H2O. With soil, minerals, metals, microorganisms, and so on. With impurities. Also imagine this ice was made from moving water, not still water. The ice crystals made are thus not clear or transparent. Light going in gets reflected in odd directions due to the complexities within.

When ice melts (in sunlight or mild heat), the impurities stay solid, and can be mechanically filtered out, say with a sieve. Not all of them, though. Sieves with such fine screens are difficult to find and work very slowly. They get clogged quickly. Flimsy and soggy filters are slower than stiff metallic ones.

The complexities in ice, though, disappear when it turns back into water.

When water is further heated, it turns into vapour and naturally leaves all its impurities behind. Directing this vapour away to another container is enough to get pure water by condensation. And, if the surrounding temperature is low enough, to get pure ice with simple crystals.

Now imagine your mind-field moves between a similar set of grosser and subtler states. In a grosser state, it contains more impurities and complexities. In a subtler state, they are left behind, obvious or tangible, and so can be cleaned away more easily. But note the two parts carefully - subtilization and filtering. Or subtilization and moving away. For the mind-field, though, moving the attention away to something much or infinitely subtler may itself cause subtilization of the mind-field.

The effect of this cleaning is a matter of daily experience with the Heartfulness Rejuvenation/Sahaj Marg cleaning practice. Exactly how it works is a matter of one's own research and one's own ideas. But it explains why one is able to meditate better after cleaning. That is, one is better able to rest one's attention effortlessly on something for longer, and without internal disturbances. After all, we specifically remove impurities and complexities by the rejuvenation/cleaning.

In a very limited sense, the three gunas - sattva, rajas, and tamas - can be considered as vapour, water, and ice, respectively. Tamas and rajas have more mechanical aspects and correspond better. Sattva is the most psychological and closest to consciousness or awareness. A physical analogy for it is much less exact. Still, taken only in the sense of lightness and expansiveness, ice->water->vapour sequence corresponds to tamas->rajas->sattva.

NOTES

[1] Ice also has a surprising property - water in solid state is lighter than water in liquid state. It floats. Thus it forms a barrier between the cold air above and the water beneath. And this stops an entire body of water from turning into solid ice. Thus allowing fish and other underwater residents to move about and not freeze as well.