Attention - thinking to feeling

Meditation is simply paying or giving attention to something without effort or with minimal effort. That thing could be outside or inside the body.

Orthogonal to inside or outside is the idea of limit. That is, that something is limited in space or time or both. Or that something is unlimited.

So something outside and limited, like a candle flame.

Or something outside and almost limitless or unlimited like universal space or universal life, by which I mean that from which all life in the universe has come.

For both inside and outside, for both the limited and the unlimited, when one uses attention the same way - with minimal effort - it is meditation.

As one rests one's attention on something, effort-less-ly, one learns about attention from practice:

• Over a brief meditation session, or a long session,
• over many iterations,
• over the ease of bringing the attention upon something at will,
• over the frequency of attention slipping away,
• over the quickness and ease of recovery to the starting object,
• and so on.

All this (and more) is training the attention through daily practice.

The choice of object decides whether meditation transforms one internally in specific ways or simply hones one's mental prowess.

A transcendental or unlimited object, inside or outside, means one's attention cannot rest on the object for a long time. It necessarily slips away.

A simple example - infinity of natural numbers. I can only hold about, say, 7 or 10 numbers in working memory at once. Beyond that, I switch to general patterns or generating algorithms or whatever helps me to think about the entire infinity of natural numbers at once.

From our own experience, and reports of unethical and immoral scientists, we know that meditation on an infinite object outside does not change us.

Not permanently.

But there are reports of people who have been transformed by meditating upon, or constantly remembering, some entity either immanent or transcendent or both (both within and without - technically called omnipresent).

Sometimes we ourselves have had a numinous experience. As we could not hold on to it as a continuing experienc-ing, it became a memory. It is still useful, for inspiring oneself and others, but one must go beyond a single, or even many, such past experiences. [1]

Feeling the meaning or presence is the next step up from meditation, simply, from thinking to feeling, when one's attention is completely filled by the object chosen to represent that presence. [2]

This complete washing out of attention is technically called samadhi. [3]

It is like tuning an old TV receiver manually and the screen then filling with images decoded from that tuned signal.

But here, when an infinite conscious presence is represented by the object of meditation, the TV screen of the attention and mind is taken over by that presence, which then works on increasing the sensitivity, resilience, and empathy of the meditator. Put differently, changing an old TV receiver from tuning into only the TV spectrum of frequencies to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. With analog and digital decoding as well!

Now, after enjoying and ruminating over it, please drop the TV analogy completely because a TV is not a conscious entity.

While there is indeed a mechanical or physical aspect to the meditative process, it is not rule bound in the way one would think if only one person were involved. As one goes deeper and deeper inside, separative factors (I vs. others) are replaced by factors more and more common to all conscious beings. For example, life and the source of life are about as abstract and common to all living beings as one can consider.

Thus, in a very simple way, one shifts from the definition of meditation itself to different objects of meditation and then from thinking to feeling.

NOTES

[1] One difficulty is due to the habituation ability of the body and mind. They like to feel and then put that feeling into memory to chew over later.

[2] The presence need not be infinite, at least initially. There is a gradation of objects from limited to unlimited to beyond.

[3] Per Sw. Vivekananda in his Raja Yoga, it takes 12x12x12 seconds, approximately 28-30 minutes of effort-less mental attention upon an object for its internal representation to fill one's attention. Once it happens many times, though, it can occur much faster, even reducing from minutes to seconds or less.

Working with saṁskāras

(Axiom - Human birth is for mental machinery to learn about itself, especially its natural limits - vast but not infinite, and work efficiently within them.)

Currently, our mental machinery is clogged by saṁskāras.

Saṁskāras are emotional residues of events. ~Daaji

Getting through events without such residues can be done in different ways, natural or forced.

Forced way - prevent or block heart feelings altogether, be like a stone.

Feelings + thoughts = emotions

Heart feelings+ "I" thoughts = mental emotions

~Sahaj Marg definition from Babuji and Daaji, and most likely why Babuji always emphasized feelings over emotions.

"I" thoughts both cause, and are caused by, saṁskāras.

Forced way implies forcibly detached, and a closed heart (cakra).

Natural way - have feelings as usual, but with zero/minimal "I" thoughts, separative thoughts, me-you-he-she-they thoughts. Tough when "I" thoughts occur so often and are encouraged and enforced from babyhood. Their reduction becomes an interim goal and zeroing the final.

Mechanical/technological/practical/objective thoughts are fine, though. They are necessary for the mental instruments to work properly. Or, such thoughts show mental instruments are working properly.

Feelings work at different levels, but are essentially non-verbal. They are experiential but instantaneous, not memory-driven. They affect both physical and mental instruments continually.

The conundrum is simple - how to be natural and continue to wish for naturalness, always. Even when naturalness is construed (incorrectly) as being arbitrary or random, and often nasty, if not evil.

The solution is equally simple. Consider that anything separative, especially thinking or acting against others, is "I" behaviour. As and when this becomes your own understanding, self-repair of your mental machinery will kick in.

Self-repair can take a long time. Lifetimes, even. And so must be unremitting.

Support from fellow travellers along your path (or even a part thereof), or of guides who have traversed your path multiple times, helps speed up the process.

Self-driven effort is subject to barzakh or curvature, essentially a push-back to be overcome by effort at a subtler level, if possible or if understood. Experienced travellers feel such efforts may reinforce the "I" thoughts, if done carelessly.

Saṁskāras are the simplest part of a complex and cyclical feedback mechanism. Yet, by focusing only on removing them, everything else clogging the inner instruments seems to unravel nicely.

As in sickness, there are two parts to removal of saṁskāras: cure and prevention.

Cure is also of two types - bhogam (complex and difficult) and cleaning (simple but needs daily practice).

Bhogam is unravelling saṁskāras through normal life events by witnessing. 

Witnessing is much easier said than done. The "I" as actor must be replaced by God. Or each and every act, including thinking, is offered as worship to God. Essentially, the responsibility is God's. I am only a witness to His actions through me. Everything is His - thoughts, emotions, feelings, words, physical actions. Good, bad, neutral. Everything, every situation, comes from Him too.

Witnessing is not easy to understand or practise. Unwinding takes a long time and witnessing or offering actions as worship can be derailed very easily. False yet plausible rationalisations are common. C.f. the story of the confrontation between the Brahmin who killed a cow and Indra, God of the motor organs. [1]

Cleaning in Heartfulness is called rejuvenation.

Reportedly Ramana Maharshi liberated, or in the first case, tried to liberate, a few dying devotees. He placed one hand on the head and the other on the heart and unwound all of the devotee's saṁskāras at warp speed. It still took hours the first time it worked, on his mother. [2]

A similar process occurs in the daily Sahaj Marg cleaning, which is, of necessity, gentler, self-driven [3] and done daily over years, yet, hopefully takes less than a lifetime to remove years and lifetimes of samskaras.

Babuji writes that, done correctly, seven months is enough. But Daaji says that reaching the Mind Region is a prerequisite, which entails going beyond dualities.

As sattva increases through meditative practices and going inward to more and more subtler levels, the ability to clean quickly and easily increases, i.e., more and more efficiently with less and less energy.

Prevention of saṁskāras is tougher because the changes in mental processing needed are even more drastic. The technique is essentially witnessing, at a greater subtlety. In Sahaj Marg it is called Constant Remembrance, of the Guru, as actor and source.

Generally, a positive and less-egoistic, aka sattvic, interaction creates lighter and/or fewer saṁskāras. The reverse for rajasic or tamasic ones. Heavier and more saṁskāras are obviously tougher to remove, but not so the lighter ones.

A simple analogy. A light amount of bland food is easier and faster to digest, allowing more time and focused energy for other things. Hence sattvic food in an ashram where going inward, and observing and changing inside are more important. Staying healthy is also necessary to do so. Thus, ingredients to boost immunity and help gut bacteria to thrive. Nothing icky, just pepper, turmeric, and other spices, buttermilk or yogurt, fruit and vegetables - fresh and seasonal.

Similarly, minimal creation of saṁskāras help in going more and more inward.

There are three main factors in saṁskāra creation - I (abhiniveśa) and obsessive desiring: positive (rāga) or negative (dveṣa).

Losing the first factor is the best. Minimal to zero "I" thoughts result in minimal to zero fresh saṁskāras.

Then, progressively milder likes or dislikes leading to detachment is the next best option. But this can easily be a source of prideful askesis and increase one's "I" thoughts.

I don't care what I eat. Do you?

OR

I don't care about ... But you do! (Or others do!)

Eating and diet, and all other activities, are not the issue. The related "me" thoughts are the problem.

Positivity towards others, e.g., at the levels of thinking, speaking, and physical acting, is mentally lighter than negativity, though habitual negativity - reactions - may occur faster. Positivity is definitely more expansive as well. Logically then, positive and lighter saṁskāras.

Minimal to zero storage of all saṁskāras is the crux of the issue.

Then one's responses and actions can and must change - from habitual to natural.

Habitual implies past actions, and past implies memory. Thus storage.

 

Natural implies immediate response or actions without colouration from past events. Inspired by our heart which has no memory. And the source of our life within the heart.

Yet when it is not easy to trust oneself, how does one trust God or Guru to inspire or drive our natural behaviour?

In little steps.

Bolstered by a light, free practice that shows daily results.

And by little, even unnoticed, changes adding up over time.

Enforced changes increase the "I". Those done of one's own free will leave lighter stains, easier to clean away. Positive, even enthusiastic, cooperation with commonsensical enjoined instructions is key to effectiveness.

And after all this weight-loss and now seemingly riding a bike without memory, brakes or a reverse gear, what do we do with our pure, simple, and light inner instruments?

A beautiful excerpt from a Babuji Whisper gives an answer:

Arriving at this destination is quite an achievement.

Thereafter, another trajectory will be proposed to each of you.

And if you want to, you will be able to embark on this new trajectory with full knowledge.

And from a recent powerful video of Daaji: [4]

We are all connected - intellectually, morally, and spiritually - through the invisible connection of our hearts, [which is] weaving us all into a common grand destiny.

The road to that destiny is paved by pioneers, hidden in plain sight, even from their own discerning minds.

The pioneers are catalysts of change.

Their silent acts of self-transformation will bring about a tipping point of consciousness that will change the future of humanity.

Together, their hearts beating as one will advance the way of love; that will elevate the human condition from belligerent rhetoric, growing intolerance, and rising inequity.

These pioneers represent the tip of the arrow in the silent revolution of consciousness.

And today, I introduce you to one of them: You

Mike drop.

NOTES

[1] The Brahmin claimed that Indra had killed the cow using his hands. Yet he refused to give Indra credit for the beautiful garden which he had created with the same hands! (IIRC, a Puranic story retold by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)

[2] Subsection - Mother's Death

On the day of her death, May 19, 1922, at about 8 a.m., Sri Ramana sat beside her. It is reported that throughout the day, he had his right hand on her heart, on the right side of the chest, and his left hand on her head, until her death around 8:00 p.m., when Sri Ramana pronounced her liberated, literally, ‘Adangi Vittadu, Addakam’ (‘absorbed’). Later Sri Ramana said of this: "You see, birth experiences are mental. Thinking is also like that, depending on saṁskāras (tendencies). Mother was made to undergo all her future births in a comparatively short time." [28]

Also, from Path of Self-Knowledge (Arthur Osborne)

The end came in 1922 on the festival of Bahula Navami, which fell that year on May 19th. Sri Bhagavan and a few others waited on her the whole day without eating. About sunset a meal was prepared and Sri Bhagavan asked the others to go and eat, but he himself did not. In the evening a group of devotees sat chanting the beside her while others invoked the name of Ram. For more than two hours she lay there, her chest heaving and her breath coming in loud gasps, and all this while Sri Bhagavan sat beside her, his right hand on her heart and his left on her head. This time there was no question of prolonging life but only of quieting the mind so that death could be Mahasamadhi, absorption in the Self.

At eight o'clock in the evening she was finally released from the body. Sri Bhagavan immediately rose, quite cheerful. "Now we can eat," he said; "come along, there is no pollution."

There was deep meaning in this. A Hindu death entails ritualistic pollution calling for purificatory rites, but this had not been a death but a reabsorption. There was no disembodied soul but perfect Union with the Self and therefore no purificatory rites were needed. Some days later Sri Bhagavan confirmed this: when someone referred to the passing away of the mother he corrected him curtly, "She did not pass away, she was absorbed."

Describing the process afterwards, he said: "Innate tendencies and the subtle memory of past experiences leading to future possibilities became very active. Scene after scene rolled before her in the subtle consciousness, the outer senses having already gone. The soul was passing through a series of experiences, thus avoiding the need for rebirth and making possible Union with the Spirit. The soul was at last disrobed of the subtle sheaths before it reached the final Destination, the Supreme Peace of Liberation from which there is no return to ignorance."

[3] Sittings with the Heartfulness Guide or a trainer, group meditations or satsanghs are even more effective.

[4] The video is a promo for, and has quotes from, Daaji's Spiritual Anatomy book. The few sentences immediately before the quoted lines increased their power dramatically - for me - by giving more context:

The journey commences from the heart, the pulsing center that unlocks the portals of growth and enlightenment. The heart is the inner guide, the real guru, on the journey to the Absolute.

Inner space journey

Imagine you must command a manned spaceship taking off from Earth next week. 

• What physical and mental exercises would you do to get ready?
• What would you study for the mission in this week?
• What would you prioritise?
• If you are not sure of your return, what would you do to wrap up your life here?
• How would you check your preparations, however minimal they may be?

Going inward is similar in many ways. But there are huge differences, and some similarities:

• You have to restart using disused abilities. The sooner the better. You cannot go inward only by looking at or doing outward things.
• Mental srength and muscles build by going ever deeper and deeper inward
• But relinquish more and more outward - bodybuilding - stuff to go to subtler inner levels
• Yet, mens sana in corpore sano, your mental and physical instruments must function efficiently
• Ultimately, you have to let go of everything you know in order to become that which underlies not only you, but every living being in the universe
• If you cannot let go of "you", you cannot go to the subtlest level - as simple as that
• Everyone came - manifested - from the subtlest level, everyone can go back
• They simply must have interest in doing so
• There are many fellow inward travellers at various levels of subtlety
• You will be helped in ways you cannot imagine now
• You will, in turn, help others similarly
• This is a cooperative journey for all humans - keep good logs and share them
• Time is not a concern. If you let go immediately and sufficiently, you will reach the subtlest level right away.
• Staying at the subtler levels is a problem. Your instruments are not used to turning the other way.
• "Work as if you have all the time in the world, but none to waste"

NOTES

[1] Tip of the hat to Isaac Asimov's Fantastic Voyage.

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.

Heartfulness/Sahaj Marg prayer - a logical perspective

(Disclaimer: Not an official explanation. And not for the blindly-devout/superstitious sans experience or practice either.)

(Please read a beautiful quote below from Babuji first [1])

The Heartfulness/Sahaj Marg prayer is mysterious, many-faceted, and its effects change with practice and attitude. Its three lines are deceptively simple:

O Master, thou art the real goal of human life.

We are yet but slaves of wishes,

    putting bar to our advancement.

Thou art the only God and power

    to bring us up to that stage.

It has tied up abhyasis and preceptors in polemical knots while they strive to explain the seemingly straightforward meaning without coming across as proselytisers. Especially to those who either detest or avow this Commandment from the Old Testament: You shall have no other Gods but (or before) me.

I found it strangely inconsistent with Babuji's writings on Brahman in Reality at Dawn, where brahma-laya - devolution into Brahman - is termed the final state. He describes no God or Guru as an intermediary there.

Yet, a different perspective came up when the real goal was considered as a spiritual condition or state:

• Master refers to the inner Master.

• The inner Master in an abhyasi's heart is linked to the inner Master of a Guru.

• A Guru whose inner Master is in brahma-laya can transfer, through this link, increasingly subtle experiences and conditions to a regular practitioner, as the practitioner advances.

• For the Guru, brahma-laya is both infinite and dynamic. There is no final static state.

• Inner Master-inner Master transfer is completely controlled by the practitioner's interest and regularity of practice. The transfer may then occur naturally and automatically by osmosis as the abhyasi matures and needs less hand-holding.

• Interest leads to cooperation with the Guru.

• Trust and faith develops from experience, leading to surrender (pejoratively known as blind obedience).

• A practitioner who does not have sincere interest, cooperation, or surrender, unwittingly blocks, or cannot accept, what is transferred over the link.

• And even if something does get transferred, it cannot be retained or assimilated. [2]

Babuji describes a simple algebraic expression for laya or merger: if A = B, and if B = C, then A = C.

Since there are layers of saṁskāras around the heart, with regular cleaning (by the abhyasi, preceptor, and Master in Sahaj Marg), the link becomes more and more clear, or less and less clogged. It is then able to transfer more and more faithfully what the inner Master of the Guru continually gets from the Source. Until, at the highest,  A = B, and then A = C.

Algebraically, all very well!

But a jīva is subject to wishes and as long as he's a slave to them, he is unable or unwilling to co-operate, let alone surrender. How then can he progress? From practice, and practice alone, comes everything else. And this practice is nothing but simple attention, from irregular to regular meditation and thence to witnessing. Also called constant remembrance.

In sum, to get or attain a spiritual condition that is the base of all human existence, if I have a spiritual link with someone who has it, the most effective way for me to get that condition is by focusing my attention entirely on the link. Thus the "only God and power" bit. [3]

NOTES

[1] God alone is in fact the real guide or guru, and we all get light from Him alone.
     But only he who has cleaned his heart to that extent feels it coming therefrom,
     while a common man engrossed deeply in material complexities feels it not.
     He therefore stands in need of one of his fellow beings of high calibre to help him in that direction.
    We may call him guide, guru, master or by whatever name we like,
         but he is after all a helper and a supporter,
         working in the spirit of service and sacrifice.
    His role is by far the most important, for it is he who, as a matter of fact, pulls the real seeker up
    and enlivens him with the light which is lying in him under layers of grossness.

    ~Babuji

[2] Sufis, per Idries Shah, say spiritual evolution has its own incontrovertible rules. If an aspirant is spiritually deserving, a Master cannot refuse him. Per contra, if he is not deserving, a Master cannot serve or help him. Especially not the way he wants. Or how he thinks he deserves to be helped.

[3] Babuji said that God has no mind. So for "only God and power", if puruṣa-viśeṣa or Special Personality is under reference, this inner Master is īśvara, one beyond saṁskāras. Yet, perhaps not inactive like the puruṣa in classical sāṁkhya . Whence the power part in "God and power". But I am still working out this explanation, so don't take it too seriously...

In defence of intellect and epistemology

A black-and-white dichotomy is often set up between one's heart and mind, and or between one's experiences and those of others. As usual, Indian darśanas offer a much more nuanced, practical, and commonsensical take for life.

In simple terms: having my own experiences, learning from them, and learning from the experiences of others.

The highest priority for understanding one's inner and outer world should be given to one's own direct experiences, pratyakṣa.

But since the physical sense and motor organs can change (degrade or improve with training, age, illness), sensations should not be treated as unchanging, only as rough approximations. In scientific terms, say, true to zero decimal places instead of to five places after the decimal. So 21, not 21.00089.

Also, there is a constant and immediate interaction between the mind-brain (indriyas and cortexes) and the physical organs. This increases the level of approximation. Say, accurate to the tenths than to the units level. So 20 or 30, not 23 or 39.

However, even at low specific levels, direct experience still has highest priority. It changes from the physical level inwards.

Priority is next given to the mental frameworks one generates from one's own experiences, anumāna. Please note this is very different from learning by rote or learning from teachers who grok not what they lecture about at tedious length. The technical term in the pātañjala yoga sūtras for words or concepts lacking corresponding real-world experiences is vikalpa.

Even when based on one's own experiences, mental or conceptual frameworks are even more of an approximation since they are even more subject to training (especially bad training in logic or reasoning by others), age, illness, etc.

The lowest priority, surprisingly, is given to the experiences or teachings of others, even those of Gurus or Rishis, āgama. This may puzzle traditional sādhaks, especially those on a mystical path. It need not, since the experiences of others, no matter how advanced they were, are simply maps. I must undertake the journey myself and not fruitlessly obsess over its maps.

For example, I recently found how limited and flat-out wrong Google Maps can be for trips to Indian villages. But this does not mean villagers necessarily give better directions. The best option was - directly travel to a place using Maps, ask villagers for directions, when somewhat nearby, to locate the place, drop a GPS pin in Maps upon finally reaching the place, and share the pin with others. Even then, due to circumstances like roadwork or rain and flooding on a particular day, the GPS pin and Maps may still not be enough to get someone else to that place. Especially at a specified time.

This example also shows the often complex and recursive interactions between possible ways of knowing where to go and how to reach there. Life, and even more importantly, the inward or spiritual journey, is no different. But the sāṁkhya-yoga darśana has elegantly reduced many confusing and complicated epistemologies to just three ways of valid knowing. Other darśanas strive to expand the number beyond these three strictly-necessary channels, but the additional ones can arguably be reduced to these three.

And as far as defending the intellect goes, it should be obvious by now that one's intellect is very much necessary to use any map, especially Google Maps :-) Still one's intellect and mind should primarily riff off one's own experiences, and not rely totally or blindly on the experiences or theories of others.

Intellectuals and self-validation

Most intellectuals have great difficulty understanding the simplicity of meditation first, and then practising it regularly even if they do start. Illiterates or non-intellectuals find it much easier to continue since their experience is immediate and not mediated or bogged down by intellectual frameworks.

12 seconds of resting one's attention on the same object without force is a starting point. 12x12 seconds, approximately 2.5 minutes is next. 12x12x12 seconds, approximately 30 minutes is accepted as the highest - samadhi. What occurs at each level has to be experienced personally, though rough ideas are given for understanding.

In even simpler terms, it is about rediscovering the pathway inward. It is not new, just unused. Again, intellectuals have difficulty going beyond thought, so these long-forgotten inward levels are tough for them to accept.

This is a self-correcting and self-validating practice, and so even more difficult to understand theoretically for one with years, nay, lifetimes, of being validated only by others. Of course, they in turn similarly validated others. Others - outside one's home and outside one's body. And in doing so, they have blithely handed over the keys to their own peace, happiness, love, and contentment to others.

NOTES

[1] C.f. Acceptance and grace

[2] C.f. Bottom-lines