RE: [AdyashantiSatsang] Purify Senses

[Guest guest]

I find Mazie's contribution from Nityananda to her AdyasahnatiSatsang

list worth quoting here:

 

In the Chandogya Upanishad it is said that purified senses lead to a

purified heart. A purified heart leads to permanent remembrance of

the Self. Permanent remembrance of the Self assures that all

attachments to impermanent things are severed.Question: "How can one

purify the senses?"Answer: "There are a number of ways to do that:By

seeing no differences between the various sense objects, by not

gategorizing them as "high" or "low". In this way can we purify the

senses.By seeing the play of the Guru in them, his divine play, the

manifestations of his absolute grace. In this way we can purify them

as well.By seeing only the highest, the purest, the most divine in

all sense perceptions helps to purify them.By letting the sense

perceptions unfold in complete openness, witnessing them with

complete detachment and free from categorizing them. This purifies

them.And by dedicating all sense inputs to God, by seeing them as

pure expressions of his will. By doing this we can purify them

also."~from atmanisbliss on Nityanandaji

My comments and a plea to not underestimate or underuse the senses:

 

Nice that purification of the senses does not go against nature, a

tendency one so often encounters in ill interpretations of Buddhist

scriptures and their commentaries. Also there is no mention in

Nityananda's words of maya in the sense of illusion and his

admonitions fit right in with the full understanding of the Heart

Sutra.

Typically all the Heart Sutra's translations trip over a poor

understanding of the five skandas, and specifically over the word

"skanda".

The five skandas comprise of the five (notice the vertical and horizontal order):

.. elements (earth, water, fire, air, space),

.. aggregates (solid, liquid, plasmic, vapour, sound),

.. senses (touching, tasting, seeing, smelling, hearing),

.. organs of perception. (hands, mouth, eyes, nose, ear) or the

.. attributes (rupa, samskara, sanjna, vedana, vijnana, (five from a

range of twelve nidanas).

 

And as the Heart Sutra states that "form is emptiness and emptiness is

form", they are all seen as empty... The problem is that from this a

"moral" conclusion is drawn: the usual underrating of the skandas or

senses!

 

Of course a container (Form) is in essence empty (Emptiness) that is why it can contain things.

(Avalokiteshvara was a potter, he knew what he was talking about.)

 

Where and how did the idea of "skanda" originate.

 

Everything is discovered in context... What do ladders, the senses and

gauge theory have in common?

 

It is all a matter of scale, grade and and gradation. (So, I may

respectfully differ with Nityananda unless he means, when he says

"high or low", that we should not make distinctions in a moral sense,

like more or less preferable or something like that.

 

So the way I see it, scale or gradations are OK... more than OK...

 

I have so often promised to explain the gauge and scalar field (gauge

theory). Here is part of the story.

It is a very simple and old theory but hard to explain especially if

we want to understand the modern scientific implications and

application (which I will not get into at the moment).

 

The English words scanning, scale, escalate, as well as the ascending,

descending and transcending all derive from the Sanskrit root SKAND,

meaning climbing... with a proviso...

We should understand the word climbing with the idea of a natural

amphi-theatre in mind. We should understand it in the sense of

reaching (or creating) a higher elevation so that more and farther

objects can be seen and farther sounds can be heard. (The "La Scala"

of Milan still has the original name of old.) Steps and ladders where

intensively used at the time when the naturally formed amphitheatres

were improved upon.

 

(As an aside. Here's the game Snakes and Ladders, which in India is called Moksha-Patamu.

 

The Indian version still includes moral lessons and originally came

from instructions on how to build and use serpentine curves and

straight approaches to ease ascending and descending steep grades.

The pyramids come to mind. I recall having seen a Steps and Ladders

like game on an Egyptian hieroglyphic depiction.)

 

The Latin word scandere was used for both climbing or rising and

scanning or viewing. Philosophical and scientific insights

accompanied the concrete notions of grading the landscape and scaling

the grades.

 

Jacob (could also have been Ishmael) dreamt of a ladder into heaven,

with beings ascending and descending... The very same words were

used.

Moses ascended and descended mount Sinai and saw the ultimate... Had

he purified his senses before he came down with rules (ten

commandments) to help his people to purify their senses?.

 

Looking at the list above with the "series of fives", they all show a

graduated scale, especially when one looks at the five elements, from

coarser or grosser to finer or subtler... It is all a matter of

measurable scale (maya)... gradation... We are especially equipped to

sense the coarser and the finer... as long as it is not in the sense

of more or less acceptable...

 

If we now could just keep it all pure...?

 

Here's to Nityananda

 

Wim

Back to scaling my ladder, am putting the roof on...

[Guest guest]

A bit of an addition to a previous post to prevent misunderstanding...

 

Use of the senses does not go against nature ..., neither physical nor

spiritual nature.

As I said, this is a sentiment one so often sees professed in ill

formed understandings of Buddhist scriptures and their commentaries

and, I might add, just as much in older Christian and Hinduist

literature.

 

The five skandas comprise of the five (notice the vertical and horizontal order):

1 . elements (earth, water, fire, air, space),

2 . aggregates (solid, liquid, plasmic, vapour, sound),

 

3 . senses (touching, tasting, seeing, smelling, hearing),

4 . organs of perception. (hands, mouth, eyes, nose, ear) or the

5 . attributes (rupa, samskara, sanjna, vedana, vijnana, (five from a

range of twelve nidanas).

 

Notice that the above five series of skandas can be divided into two

groups, the top two are the material skandas that are perceived, the

bottom three are the facultative skandas that are used to perceive

with.

 

When the Heart Sutra refers to the skandas and claims that they are

empty, just as form is empty it refers at first to the faculties of

perception... They are indeed empty in the sense that as they are the

instruments to measure with they are initially without data or empty.

(Remember that maya means literally "measurable matter"). Whatever

data they register then goes to the sixth sense, which I suggest is

actually the meaning of "samskara", the action of mentally putting

together the fragmented information as supplied by the sense organs.

(The Buddha identified this sixth sense as such.)

 

The Heart Sutra claims that what-we-measure-with is empty and

that-what-is-measured is form.

The synthesis of this culminates in Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form.

 

Wim

(Pretty dry stuff this, no really high voluting spirituality about this...)

[Guest guest]

, Wim Borsboom <wim@a...> wrote:

 

> I find Mazie's contribution from Nityananda to her

AdyasahnatiSatsang list worth quoting here ...

 

 

)))) She is swallowed in His Bliss!

 

 

> And as the Heart Sutra states that "form is emptiness and emptiness

is form", they are all seen as empty... The problem is that from this

a "moral" conclusion is drawn: the usual underrating of the skandas

or senses!

 

 

))) Yes, and then we get religion, and the arbiters of religion,

masquerading as those who "get it" and those who pretend they don't

in the Shepherd/Lamb Game, imagining there is some limit on the

Limitless, something to get or not get, something at all!

 

 

>It is all a matter of scale, grade and gradation. (So, I may

respectfully differ with Nityananda unless he means, when he

says "high or low", that we should not make distinctions in a moral

sense, like more or less preferable or something like that.

 

 

)))) "People talk of rising from higher to still higher truths, and

of discovering more and more truth. What they really discover

are higher intellectual conceptions of truth. But these are only

ideas in their minds. This is not the same as truth itself. There is

only one ultimate truth, not two. The intellect offers a reality

which can never be a felt reality but only an indirectly reflected

or verbally described one and then only in negative terms."

 

--Paul Brunton (Wisdom of theOverself--1943)

 

 

>Looking at the list above with the "series of fives", they all show

a graduated scale, especially when one looks at the five elements,

from coarser or grosser to finer or subtler... It is all a matter of

measurable scale (maya)... gradation... We are especially equipped to

sense the coarser and the finer... as long as it is not in the sense

of more or less acceptable...

 

 

)))) "Something knocked in my soul,

fever or forgotten wings,

and I made my own way,

deciphering

that fire,

and I wrote the first, faint line,

faint, without substance, pure

nonsense,

pure wisdom

of someone who knows nothing;

and suddenly I saw

the heavens

unfastened

and open,

planets,

palpitating plantations,

the darkness perforated,

riddled

with arrows, fire and flowers,

the overpowering night, the universe.

 

And I, tiny being

drunk with the great starry

void,

likeness, image of

mystery,

felt myself a pure part

of the abyss.

I wheeled with the stars.

My heart broke loose with the wind."

 

~Pablo Neruda

 

>If we now could just keep it all pure...?

 

 

)))) "There is a great momentum of suffering and confusion that every

spiritual seeker encounters. It is the momentum of ignorance which

manifests as the experience of conflict and confusion and which

causes suffering. In order to discover the perspective of Liberation,

which alone transcends this entire movement of ignorance and

suffering, one needs to let everything end.

"Letting everything end" means to stand in the moment completely

naked of attachment to any and all ideas, concepts, hopes,

preferences, and experiences. Simply put, it means to stop

strategizing, controlling, manipulating, and running away from

yourself--and to simply be. Finally you must let everything end and

be still. In letting everything end, all seeking and striving stops.

All effort to be someone or to find some extraordinary state of being

ceases. This ceasing is essential. It is true spiritual maturity.

By ceasing to follow the mind's tendency to always

want 'more', 'different', or 'better', one encounters the opportunity

to be still. In being still, a perspective is revealed which is free

from all ignorance and bondage to suffering. From that perspective,

eternal Self is realized. The eternal Self, the Seer, is recognized

to be one's true nature, one's very own Self.

This is an invitation to let all seeking end, all striving end, all

efforting end, all past identity end, all hopes end, and to discover

That which has no beginning or end. This is an invitation to discover

eternal, unborn, undying Truth of Being. The Truth of your Being,

your own Self. Let the entire movement of becoming end, and discover

That which has always been present at the core of your Being."

 

~ Adyashanti

 

>Here's to Nityananda

 

 

)))) Jai Nityananda!

Jai Bhagavan!

Jai Sadguru!

Jai Sky of Heart!

Jai Immortal Bliss!

Jai Transmission of Self to Self!

Jai Ocean of Love!

Jai Beloved!

Jai Beloved!

Jai Beloved!

Om Namah ShivAllah!

Om Namah ShivAllah!

Om Namah ShivAllah!

 

 

>Wim

Back to scaling my ladder, am putting the roof on...

 

 

))) You put it on, He blows it off --

Mazie calls it

"Open Bowl-Head Syndrome".

 

:-))

 

Oh Wimji --

God Is Gracious,

Beloved Friend!

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

b