The basics. The foundation. The bottom-lines.
Move attention from:
From a Sufi teaching story [1]:
"How much of my life is being wasted while I wait? Waiting for someone to tell me what to do, or for something to happen which will change my condition and frame of mind?"
Babuji: A truly happy man is one who is happy under all circumstances.
According to the Sufis, man has better and more reliable inner senses and the capacities to educate them than constant emotional stimulus. [1]
(Unpacked: According to the Sufis, man has better and more reliable inner senses than those arising from constant emotional stimulus. And man's capacities to educate or train those senses include better and more reliable ways than such constant emotional stimulus.)
Thus, my understanding of levels of peace:
(Normally, we move between the first two levels without knowing the other levels, or even absolute peace, is possible. With simple accumulation of spiritual practice one moves to deeper levels.
The fifth level is a siddhi from uninterrupted ahiṁsa per PYS 2.35 - ahiṁsa pratiṣṭāyām tat sannidhau vaira tyāgaḥ)
SAADI, THE SUFI author of the Persian classic, The Rose Garden, writes of a visit to the burial place of John the Baptist, in Syria.
He arrived there one day, exhausted and footsore. But then, as he was feeling sorry for himself, he saw a man who was not only tired, but had no feet. Saadi gave thanks to God that he, at least, had feet.
This story, on the obvious level, means "be grateful for small mercies." Its teaching on that level is found in all cultures. It is useful to help one to find a larger perspective in his situation when suffering from disabling self-pity.
The employment of such tales for emotional purposes - to switch the mental attitude and to make a person contented with, and perhaps even momentarily grateful for his lot - is characteristic of the conventional type of instruction.
Modern sophisticates say: "All that Saadi did was to inculcate so-called moral virtues - his work is outmoded."
Traditional, crude, sentimentalists may say: “How beautiful to dwell on the misery of others and one’s own comparative good luck.”
But Saadi, being a Sufi, included in his writings materials which had more than one possible function. This tale is one of them.
In Sufi schools, the piece is treated for what it is - an exercise.
The student may benefit from whatever "uplifting" moral may be the conventional interpretation.
But, without introspection, yet with self-observation, he should be able to say:
"I realize that changes in my mood are dependent on emotional stimuli.
"Do I always have to be dependent upon 'seeing a man with no feet' or reading about it before I realize that 'I have feet'?
"How much of my life is being wasted while I wait for someone to tell me what to do, or something to happen which will change my condition and frame of mind?"
According to the Sufis, man has better and more reliable inner senses and capacities for educating them than constant emotional stimulus.
The object of the Sufi interpretation of this lesson would be nullified if it caused people to start an orgy of self-questioning of an emotional kind.
The purpose of pointing out this Sufi usage of the narrative is for it to be registered in the mind, so that the student may in the future notice a higher form of assessment of his situation, when it begins to operate in him.
NOTES
[1] Idries Shah, Wisdom of the Idiots, pg.150, The Sanctuary of John the Baptist
[2] Daaji: therefore, zero desires => infinite peace
Turn the attention from always outward to inward long enough and deep enough, repeatedly, until it can effortlessly go both outward and inward at will or as needed.
Let all energy points/knots turn into chakras and then into lotuses and then into almost nothingness, so energy can flow freely at all levels.
Accept energy coming into you and going out of you. Then, turn all your outgoing energy inward and let it become subtler and subtler. At the subtlest it is Divine Love.
Repeatedly surrender all reactions to incoming energy consciously to the inner Master. They become lighter and lighter, until perhaps they are no more. [1]
Accept whatever comes peacefully and uninhibitedly, keeping the above in mind. [2]
Consciously let your inner peace and joy and Divine Love flow outward, at as many levels of subtlety as possible, as much as you can.
Change from mostly tamas and/or rajas to mostly, if not almost entirely, sattva. This happens naturally through repeated effortless surrendered meditation.
NOTES
[1] True vairāgya and a simple yet beautifully effective application of PYS 1.37 - vīta rāga viṣayam va cittam
[2] This is abhyāsa and, with [1], PYS 1.12 in its entirety - abhyāsa vairāgyābhyām tad nirodhaḥ
There is a set of learning levels described in What Did You Ask At School Today, Book 2 [1]:
1. Remembering what is taught exactly as it is taught.
2. Remembering it later (at least a year, or even a lifetime, later)
3. Being able to apply the learning/understanding to new problems
4. Being able to teach it to others (so they also reach this level - a recursive ranking)
Humans are all about experiencing, learning and understanding from their experiences, and sharing their understanding with others:
pratyakṣa, anumāna, āgama
But if you can share your understanding to the level that not just your understanding, but your very experience is evoked in another, that is true āgama. [2]
Doing it optimally, for a significant portion of the human species, such that the experience of one human then spreads effortlessly across the entire species, is the grand problem of spiritual evolution.
(Removing crud - mala, vikṣepa, āvaraṇa - from the internal and external senses of that significant portion of humanity, for an exact evocation of their experiences, is an antecedent grand problem!)
NOTES
[1] Mukunda, Kamala V. 2019. What Did You Ask At School Today: A Handbook Of Child Learning Book 2. HarperCollins Publishers India
[2] And that is the only distinguishing mark of a true teacher. A true spiritual teacher does this for her inward experience.
There is a very simple analogy of the spiritual journey. Think of an always glowing lamp. Covered by layers of dirt. When all layers of dirt are removed, its light spreads limitlessly. Removing the layers of dirt is the entirety of the spiritual path.
(This analogy, of a hurricane lamp and dirt on its glass, is from Chariji)
Analogies are obviously limited. Depending on how you like to think of Reality, that lamp, its light, and everything around it are one, in space. Or there is no real distinction at one level of vibration. The layers of dirt are not all the same vibratory levels either. E.g., there is physical dirt and mental dirt. Mental dirt is described variously as veils, impurities, complexities. There is also energetic dirt when the physical body functions abnormally. And so on. Babuji terms all dirt as grossness.
All authentic spiritual paths try to get every human to understand that the light is their own and they also created that dirt. So there is nothing I can do for spreading the light, except cleaning, or better, letting go of my own dirt.
How the cleaning is done varies across paths.
Once the light shines as it can, and should, the real evolution of life, especially of human life, can happen.
Sahaj Marg is aimed from the very beginning to be something very simple and effective for all humanity. Babuji said that very little of his work was on abhyasis. Its prayer says ... goal of human life ...
Still, very few humans seem to appreciate the self-discipline, spareness, and lack of colour or rituals in Sahaj Marg. Even the immense peace and tranquil love felt occasionally, or often, slips away into the subconscious. And of those who do appreciate, many cannot look inwards all the time, especially in the midst of outward activities. And so they look for succour outside.
Babuji called Sahaj Marg "civilized madness"! This was in comparison to avadhutas who get lost in Divine madness and also lose normal behaviour.
Daaji has been working to bring all spiritual paths to work together. He has succeeded to a great extent with Indian yoga schools, at least the authentic spiritual ones. Like Chariji said earlier, and Daaji says now, black marketeers and criminal gangs seem to work together more harmoniously than spiritual organisations. Each spiritual organisation fights to prove it is more effective. Or worse, the only effective one! When viewed from the perspective of human evolution, it is such a waste of time, money, and other resources.
Babuji said about Mahesh Yogi (of TM fame) that he is also working to bring peace of mind to people. And why should he stop him from working?!
What I have understood so far is that once one understands one's own internal progress at removing one's own dirt or grossness, there is no need for outside validation. Even from the Guru or seemingly more experienced travellers. It's nice to be validated or appreciated once in a while. But it's not necessary when one does one's practice. After all, how difficult is it to understand an increasing lightness and peace? Or since temporary troubles result in greater lightness and peace afterwards, that they are meant to remove some specific grossness?
Some tools or techniques do have to be learnt for immediate use - how to become calm after being disturbed, how to prepare for a disturbance ahead, how to avoid hurting others, how to help others effectively, how to stay positive, how to avoid adding more grossness or heaviness, how to remove freshly added dirt, and so on. Basically, how to stay light-hearted. Sincere and serious spiritual teachers offer a version of some or all of these techniques.
Understanding all this is crucial to getting past spiritual politics - natural, or at least endemic, - to organisations, and focusing on one's own spiritual practice and its useful context.
Babuji wrote or dictated Towards Infinity, a travelogue/map of the Sahaj Marg/Heartfulness Way journey, in a superconscious state. So he didn't repeatedly describe all the details as one goes to or from each point or levels. But it is possible to come up with a general "algorithm" from going through all the descriptions and give an explanatory perspective on going from level to level.
(Daaji has given an exegesis of the yatra in Towards Infinity in a series of articles, collected in the December 2017 edition of Heartfulness Magazine)
At each point or level [1]:
Then living like that level/point and its characteristics, until that level has been sufficiently experienced. [2]
Then negativating those characteristics, that level and its vibrations, to leave for the next subtler level. Negativating means transforming the grosser level vibrations into their subtler cause.
(How? This can be done simply by reaching the next level. Or someone - whose mind-field has merged with that level - can go to that level and raise your own mind-field to that level by physical and mental proximity. Or by pranahuti - subtlest possible level - along with a sankalpa, by Master.)
Repeat...
In Towards Infinity, Babuji talks about sāyujya-ta or refined identicality and then about going to a subtler level to get to the next point. sāyujya-ta of two things is at the same vibratory level. Compare water in water against water in water vapour. Or, food is matter and when it is in sāyujya-ta with us, it has been digested in our material body such that we don't feel it any more. (In our spiritual yatra, we are food and we are also digesting ourselves in the Divine at different levels!)
Then we go to the next subtler level by changing the vibratory level. Babuji calls this negation sometimes. "I negativated it!" he said when light came to him in meditation.
The present layer is the effect of a subtler causal layer. By negation or laya or merger of the sāyujya-ta itself, we go from effect level vibration to cause level vibration.
Thus, our spiritual journey may be understood very simply as going from grossest to subtlest vibration levels.
A few background ideas, from Sāṁkhya-yoga, may be helpful to understand the logic and implications.
[1] From what I have read till now, the idea of recurrence of these stages is entirely original to Babuji. In other paths, these or slightly different stages cover the entire spiritual journey, they occur only once. E.g., the vaiṣṇavites. Their analysis is obviously much more coarse-grained and so less helpful in daily sadhana or understanding one's journey across its many ups and downs. Sufism has a similar set - fanaa - dissolution - and baqaa - subsistence, which is supposed to occur only once. Again much more coarse-grained.
[2] To be determined (TBD) by one's Guide.
(Or, very rarely, by one's memories of past sadhana, perhaps from previous lives. Alternatively, by the Divine itself.)
[3] Another word for transformation is manifestation. Creation is a misleading word because it implies a creator separate from creation.
[4] advaitins want sadhaks to regard transformation as unreal. At least, until one is settled in a highly subtle stage. While a commendable intention, this confuses sadhaks and novices completely!
[5] Mentally, or better, in the non-physical inside the body. This reversal is not permanent, so one can go up and down the levels at will.
[6] There are physical effects, on the physical body, but physical space is not a factor. Simple example - one has subtle transcendental ideas and gross individualistic ideas using the same brain in the same head. While sāṁkhya-yoga does discuss transformation of physical elements [7], they are not necessary for a spiritual practice initially. Since physical space is not important, neither is time.
[7] Babuji, paraphrased -
"matter to energy" says science, "matter to energy to absolute", I say.
Daaji asks abhyasis to do the AEIOU and balancing techniques after meditation to hold on to their condition, or lead a meditative life. I have extended them a bit with some specific details in a few steps, as well as expanding on Daaji's balancing technique to return from a purely inward meditative awareness to "normal" active awareness. [0]
Awareness
Become aware of the condition of your heart, the chest area. It's OK if you can't put words around it, just feel the condition there for a few seconds. Next, your mind - the head area. Lastly, your physical condition - scan all the joints from jaws to toes. Remember to scan your spine and arm joints. [1]
Expansion
Think or imagine that your condition is expanding outward, with you as the centre. Like a sphere or balloon. As it expands, let it suffuse everything around- both living and non-living things (air particles, furniture, microorganisms, people, the space, everything). [2], [3]
IOU - Imbibe, become One, Unite.
Next, come back to yourself. Imbibe the condition. Let it go deeper inside your system. Let it unite, become one with you, assimilate and digest it.
As it goes deeper and digests, you can no longer hold on to it, it will go out of your conscious awareness. Let it go. It will slide into your subconscious and continue to steep there. [4]
That was the AEIOU. Next, the balancing technique.
To come back to normal, yet a more spiritualised, awareness, become aware of your inside and your outside. The space inside and outside the body.
Just a simple feeling awareness, there's no need to think.
Try to become aware of both inside and outside at the same level, simultaneously.
One way is to go deep into the centre of your body and then look outwards. See both the inside and outside from that vantage point. [5]
Please do both the AEIOU and balancing exercise after every meditation and cleaning session. Or after any other dedicated spiritual exercise. It should take only a minute or two, max. The benefits unfold very palpably in time.
General
From this abhyāsa comes vairāgya - in a way. First change negative or indifferent attitude to positive attitude naturally, through meditation/cleaning/prayer. Then, let go or stop working with the conscious positive attitude. It continues within, subconsciously. And you no longer have to work at doing the right thing. It happens naturally. A different meaning of vairāgya :-D
[0] Daaji's explanations in 1) a Nov 2023 article: Remembrance made simple, 2) a May 2022 video:
Things to do after meditation, and 3) a 23 Oct 2017 video: AEIOU - States of Consciousness
[1] On Awareness:
This is awareness of your condition. Do it any way you like, though. These three elements - heart, mind, body - make sense to me.
Also try to compare how you feel now against how you felt at the start.
[2] On Expansion:
Let this expansion happen as effortlessly as possible.
Gently.
Also try to expand a bit more every day, without strain.
Try variants on different days - I use two:
1. Expansion in time - think of the places you are going to visit that day. Let your condition suffuse those spaces. Again, let all living and non-living things in those spaces share in your condition.
2. Expansion to people - think of a few people, whoever comes to mind immediately, within a second or two. Share your condition with them and their surroundings.
If you come up with other variants, please do share with me. My three are space, time, and people.
[3] Why Expansion in AEIOU:
This has a direct effect on how your condition changes your view of others - the world around and everything in it. Indirectly, it affects others because your attitude towards them changes and they, in turn, are free to respond positively.
[4] As you feel subtler conditions, you find yourself able to describe those grosser than them. Remember - this is an infinite journey!
[5] Keep in mind that you keep going deeper inside. So the inner vantage point should do the same.
