The sun neither rises nor sets
Easily to be observed from outer space
Yet the picture is suggestive of a sunset
Phenomena arising and subsiding
Like the sun seems to rise from the ocean and to subside in it
Although that doesn’t really happen
Awareness neither rises nor sets
Everything seems to arise and to subside in it
Although that doesn’t really happen
Life
Birth: Unknown.
Realization: When the ‘problem of life’ was solved, it was the end of all spiritual ‘home-work’. Because all memory in the form of “this experience was pleasant, that experience was unpleasant” was reduced to a fact file ( this event happened, that event happened), what describes it well is the ancient myth: “The ‘dead one’ (phoenix) once again rose from its own ashes”. It is awareness as Bliss/Grace. The state is natural as a blue sky on a summer day.
The remaining body consciousness is like clouds in the blue sky, always leaving the major part of the sky blue. There are no experiences. In this state, attention is always centered on this state, not as a witness; it is a fundamental property of this state. When attention is not centered on this state, it is undivided attention on whatever caught the attention. There is never a witness of anything; both states of attention are the same oneness.
The attention isn’t the attention from “before”; it is light and free as a bird that can go anywhere.
Death: Alive
Teaching Style: Yahoo Group participation, one-on-one emails, web site, monologues, dialogues and group discussions.
Teaching
Awakening and energy
The (sometimes veiled) basics underlying every path even when it is labeled “no path”.
Every individual cell is a little factory. It needs energy in the form of food, and produces compounds required for its life and eventually for others. As with all energetic processes, there’s a loss of energy involved: metabolism produces heat.
A collection of cooperating cells is an organ: the collective is able to perform tasks, impossible for a single cell. A collection of cooperating organs is a body, and able to perform tasks (functions), impossible for a single organ.
The great secret of the human body is, energy can be accumulated as if it were a battery. That energy has been termed “prana” and it is supposed to travel via the nerves. Not a theory but interpretation of observed (personal) events, every yogi (or aspirant of any path) has to discover her/himself.
This prana has been labeled “intelligent” as it knows to flow in the proper channels (apart from a few exceptions when unprepared). But the alternative, as electrons prefer to flow in a metal wire instead of next to it, is that the path of “least resistance” is taken, whatever, whenever.
Hence the ancient issues of pranayama and brahmacarya regard accumulation of energy under the proper conditions (path, lifestyle), to remove all blocks or conditioning. Emotions carry energy as well, rajas regards dissipation, tamas, absorption with loss, whereas sattva guards.
In quite a few books on yoga, terms like “control of mind”, “control of breath” appear. Neither the mind nor prana can be controlled. What can be controlled is the FLOW. Contemplation on a specific subject directs the flow of thoughts, brahmacarya and pranayama regard control over the flow of energy ( the first three cakras, counting from base up, have to work as reflectors). The amount of energy available is determined by lifestyle, (mind-)body’s maximum is hardwired in DNA.
Unfortunately, before the first block is removed, there’s no awareness of prana movement or accumulation, with the predictable result, the theory that lifestyle doesn’t matter on an “advanced” path. The truly advanced path, known since the dawn of man (Lucifer as”light-bringer”) is forgotten in the West.
It’s the reason why it takes more than two…three years then. To put it bluntly, a Don Juan type of lifestyle with a few hours of reading holy books and mediation is as unlikely to “work” as the lifestyle of a solitary monk holding a grudge against “worldly life”.
Of course perfection in the control of FLOW (energy, thoughts) doesn’t come immediately: it takes resolution and dedication.
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