The Non-Dual Experience and the Practical Means to Return to It

[Guest guest]

The Non-Dual Experience and the Practical Means to Return to It

The non-dual experience is simply to directly experience one's self and the

world as Consciousness without the use of the mind and senses.

 

There are various means to recollect this experience, which is what and who we

always already are. There are apparently 2 directions you can take. One of them

is to talk it out, compare notes, compare teachings, and hope for the best, a

sort of existential approach, lively and intellectual, like reading Henry

Miller, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, hanging out, so to speak, with

like-minded chums, who like in the lively days back before television, sat

around (now over chat-rooms) mulling over in consideration of all the proponents

of the idea of non-dualism and discussing what it could possibly be - good fun.

(facetious)

 

In actuality, in every Religion and related philosophies and yogas, there are

many, study groups, which in any case develop insight, devotion and proximate

perception of the Truth that usually culminates in the experience of "hearing."

However, the effect is usually much greater when people are also talking about

the lives of the Saints, Sages and Saviors, when they discuss their sacred Words

and Teachings, such as Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Rama, Moses, Guru Nanak and the

Ten Sikh Gurus, Milarepa, Maher Baba, Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, and so on,

because their lives represent the Reality of who we really are, giving substance

and meaning and the power of emotion to so transform the mind into a state of

purity, that the Inner Self, apparently hidden, awakens and recollects Itself in

an experience the Sages call "hearing."

 

Apart from the reading, discussing and commiserating about the subject of

non-dualism, the other approach, is to take up practices that clear out the

false or mistaken ingrained identification of one's sense of self or "I" that

results in the an emergence from a kind of progressive amnesia with the

experience of single pervasive Consciousness.

 

In this experience, there is no subject object dichotomy, as there is apparently

with the mind and the senses. Initially, when one awakens to or begins to

recollect and experience one's Self as Consciousness Itself, the use of the mind

and senses are abated. You still see them, like one sees a full moon in a

crystal blue sky, but you no longer need the light of the moon to see, as the

Sun of your Self has risen.

 

Looking at these choices from different perspectives, but focusing more on the

practice to eradicate this progressive amnesia....

 

What happens through the reading and rereading of non-dual texts, various types

of meditations etc. are the occasional "grokking" of the experience, which

Buddhists call a "Satori."

 

A Satori is a sudden flash of pure consciousness.

 

 

 

To experience oneself as consciousness means, simply, that the use of the mind

as an instrument of seeing and knowing, as well as the mind's focusing power of

attention, and the use of the senses to see and know, come under abatement, and

for a while one experiences oneself as a field of consciousness. This is also

why Krishna describes the body as a "field."

 

These Satori's are actually quite common. They don't come just as a result of

solving the Koan Riddle. In Christianity and really all householder oriented

religions there is an admonishment to persevere in one's life regardless of

circumstances and to orient oneself to excel in whatever talents and abilities

one has, for example Christ's Parables of the sower and the talents. As the

artist, the businessman, the military man, the holy man, the journeyman laborer,

any people with any vocation or avocation exert effort to excel regardless of

circumstances in other words to resolve and overcome barriers in their path,

there is a continuous flashing of awareness throughout the nervous system to the

point where the nerves are so irradiant with these flashes of intuition in

persevering that there arises a sudden experience of the seer prevailing without

the attention to objects, an experience, which over time does not diminish and

instead draws the person's mind inwards, while the body's nervous system becomes

brighter and brighter, and the mind more and more intuitive, single, inward

drawn. There's a sensation of listening to soundless sound with such an

intensity that one remains undistracted even in a crowd, even as one goes about

one's daily life.

 

Many people that have this experience don't know quite what has happened to

them, but as it emerges out of the intensity of their lives they tend to realize

it as the presence of their own being and abiding in it persevere in their

lives, lives that center around taking a stand in Truth and their Word.

 

In the practice of spiritual meditation, there needs to be the same sense of

urgency and determination to "figure out" the experience proclaimed by the

Sages, Saints and Saviors, which also requires a total belief and resolution,

therefore, to "break on through" with the same intensity as the life experiences

mentioned above, or the process will be long and remain unresolved.

 

As these Satori's flash in the mind over and over, the Truth of one's being

begins to take hold.

 

It should be understood that Consciousness is not something that has to be

discovered, it is where and who we are already. This becomes quickly apparent

with practice. Then starting from this perspective and belief, it is clear then

that the mind is illumined by and within the "field" of consciousness and that

in turn the senses are illumined by the mind. This also means that all we see

and know is seen and known through a process of "recognition" of knowing that

comes out of Consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

When we look at anything that seems outside the body or consider any imagined

image or idea, what happens is that the mind focuses attention and the

awareness, which is really the projection of focused Consciousness, extends to

encompass the object, and the knowledge, to the extent that pre-judging is

limited, flashes into the mind, like an intuition. Therefore, there is no

knowledge or image outside of the source of consciousness in the body.

 

This is also so in relation to knowledge of the Self - single pervasive

Consciousness. When we repeatedly try to understand and know that part of us

that understands and knows, especially by reading or being told about the lives

and words of the Saints, Sages and Saviors, who are the living expression of the

Truth and who speaking continuously of their ever abiding experience as

Consciousness Itself, realizable without the use of the mind and the senses,

then That Self, which is our own Self, "hears" and "recollects" Itself, and in a

flash discards the use of the mind's mechanism of attention.

 

With this comes an impalpable, totally unique and radical experience some call a

"churning in the nadis," which is a deep sense of on the one side the mind of

thoughts and images and related physical sensations being sucked inwards no

longer outgoing, and on the other side of a pervasive penetration of radiance

that feels like de-contraction, as though the cells and atoms of the body,

previously gripped by the force of maintaining an identity to myriads of images

and impressions chemically encoded and stored throughout the body, are being

blown apart by a penetration of radiance of such deepening and expanding

intensity that the images hold no more interest. With this comes the pulsation

of "I" - no longer, "I - this" and "I - that" but "I as I." A soundless single

pervasive reverberation of pure Being That "I AM."

 

The words "I am the Truth" and "I am the Light of the World" spoken by Christ

mean simply what every Sage, Saint and Saviors have said that "I am

Consciousness Itself" and the experience of Absolute Truth beyond opposites.

These words mean something to the Self, which is Itself the experience of these

words, but little to the inquiring mind, which through continued quest becomes

pure, reflects its Source and vanishes.

 

The experience of abiding as Consciousness Itself is non-dual, as seeing happens

within a field of consciousness in which the spatial images are no longer

differentiated. They appear and manifest like the ebbing and flow of waves on

the ocean, all without the use of the mind's power of attention. The sense is

of timelessness, of the state having no cause, of being unconditioned by time

and space, space-like.

 

At first there is the sense of seeing both the world of senses and ideas, while

abiding transfixed in a state even beyond purity, but over time even the

abatement of images begins to dissolve.

 

 

 

And the waking field of consciousness begins to awaken to the subconscious mind,

meaning that even dreams begin to fade. This means that you experience the world

in the same way that you experience dreams, where you recognize that the dream

and the player or protagonist, yourself, in the dream are both created or

manifested by you. In other words, as you awaken, to what the conscious mind

has categorized as subconscious, within the "field" there is no sense of

separateness. It's all "I" without the slightest vestige of a thought or

movement of breath.

 

The use of the senses and mind to see fade even further.

 

There are any number of practices, which necessarily depend, as well, on the

study of scripture, as a reference point to be able to somehow come out of the

progressive state of amnesia that clouds us over.

 

When the mind is pure, i.e., the heart, a the mind rises or projects out of from

the what yogis call the Spiritual Heart (unrelated to the heart chakra), not the

brain which is the reflected consciousness, then there is a sudden "hearing"

Self recognition, and the knot that binds the mind and body idea to the sense of

"I" is sundered.

 

Meditations of all kinds and the various yogas encompass the path of what can be

called "withdrawal and dissolution" - technically, the path of Pratyahar.

 

Of the various yogas, probably the most effective exponent is the path of Raja

Yoga, as outlined by Sage Patenjali, and in the related commentaries of

Vivekananda. In practice the basic components include fasting, to eat little or

no food for the duration of the intensity of the practice, then 2 times a day,

e.g., at 10 am and 3 pm to do a series of asanas very slowly watching every

breath and the motion, while watching through the body, the mind in complete

abeyance of any thought, so that the movement and breath are like a prayer or

offering to God. Then 4 times a day a series of pranayamas at 6 am, noon, 6 pm,

11 pm for 1.5 to 2 hours at a sitting, while watching the movement of prana

through certain main nadis. In the interim times you read non-dual scripture.

As the weeks and months pass, you begin to become light, feel transparent, feel

the still silent pervasiveness of the "I" and you come to be able to see as

Consciousness without the use of the mind and senses.

 

Eventually in the stillness, something deep emerges - awakens, a force of

discernment, of Intelligence, the sense of "I" independent of the notion of

identity in reference to objects, a state often called non-objective awareness.

This also comes about due to the mind no longer being used to generate thoughts,

meaning that prana begins to accumulate throughout the body as a kind of kinetic

or potential energy, which begins to take on an electromagnetic quality. Then

suddenly it's as though a graviton in the Heart has been triggered and the mind

is gripped by the pulsation of "I" and whole body fills with light (to

paraphrase Christ's explanation of the experience from Luke 11:34).

 

 

 

The nadis irradiant act like a light in the darkness, meaning that you

experience the ability to see as Consciousness, without the use of the mind or

the senses.

 

All the abstract and poetic phrases we read in scripture are all describing just

this.

 

There is also another yoga, in which the practice of Pratyahar is one aspect,

the other more predominant aspect being the practice of Radiance and Will.

 

Radiance, which in other meditation and yoga practices oriented to Pratyahar,

comes much later, has 2 aspects: Many varied postures and movements combined

with powerful breathing techniques, where the postures and movements put an

expanding or contracting pressure in certain areas or systems of the body

causing the blood to saturate there. Combined with the breathing, the purified

and electrified blood then saturates these areas, removing impurities and

filling the areas with voltage, life force. Then in the passive phase of the

exercise or kriya, the glands secrete to support the voltage in that area, which

then balances throughout the body. The experience is one of pervasive deepening

"radiance." In this yoga this balanced practice of Laya and Pratyahar is called

the Yoga of Light, because through it all the nadis and the entire body field

are illumined within the body field.

 

Once the body is so charged, it becomes capable of amplifying sound, which means

that certain types of mantra felt reverberating powerfully throughout the body

field, whether repetitive mantra, as with kirtan, or specialized laya mantra

combining breath, bhandas and cadence, balance yet increase the voltage

geometrically.

 

Systematically, in hundreds and thousands of yoga sets and kriyas of many varied

types, and mantras, the electro-chemical encoding of impressions and images

throughout the body are dissolved in the force of radiance, a balanced flow of

voltage / life-force that vibrates above the frequency of thought.

 

The radiance continues to extend and deepen until one begins to feel the

sensation of penetrating de-contraction.

 

The mind's mechanism of attention, which typically focuses energy-consciousness

in the body and to illumine the encoded thought impressions, is gradually

overcome by the rising voltage that becomes greater than the voltage of the

attention mechanism. This means that you begin to notice that thoughts are in

abatement and you experience yourself as spatial consciousness. You feel the

entire body radiating and dissolving without focus or attention - at once!

 

As the nadis brighten, the ability to see spatially without the mind begins to

encompass the area around the body, i.e., the entire body field. In this yoga

practice, this is called the "neutral mind" state or satvic state.

 

You experience yourself as spatial consciousness. Gradually, as the sense of

de-contraction continues, giving a deepening sense of penetrating light that

blows apart the atoms and cells of the body, various layers pure mind begin to

unfold giving the feeling of pervasive Goodness, without its opposite, a sense

of devotion and quest for the Truth - in a steady emergence from the previous

cloud of amnesia.

 

Then there arises the beginning of a sense of a force of singular Intelligence

that irradiates through the body and mind with a force of enquiry as to the

source of the seer.

 

What is happening is that you, as an individual unit of consciousness, begin to

"impact" the Infinite all-pervasive Consciousness which is the True source of

the Light that, piercing through the Heart, illumines the body and mind. In

other words, your voltage and vibration begins to come into the range of the

Light Force that animates the Universe in all its dimensions with the Light of

Being.

 

Suddenly, with the slightest provocation of words expressing the Truth, there

arises a sense of intense "hearing." Recollection, as though coming out of a

coma, a stupor or progressive amnesia. The entire field of consciousness is

sucked inwards into the Heart and blasted out the other side of the shroud, and

the body and mind stand Transfigured. Radiant like a Sun. The "I" pulses as

"I" and even the field of consciousness begins to dissolve, and with it all

latent images and impressions.

 

Your first words, if spoken at all are, like Christ, Nanak and Krishna and

everyone that comes by this experience are: "I am the Truth" - "Sat Nam" -

"Tatvamasi"

 

In this yoga, this entire practice is called "One Star Spirituality."

 

This is a practice, some elements of which one sees in Tibetan Yoga, which was

taught at different times throughout the ages, usually in secret to special

classes of "worthy" people, then lost. We read about it almost like a mythology

of the Maha Siddhas of the past, such as Naropa, Tripola of southern India, the

teachings totally destroyed, but not after being transported and translated by

Marpa to Tibet and taught to Milarepa in recent time of 1,000 years ago.

 

Out of the distant past, this teaching suddenly comes on the scene again, as

though warped in from another time and brought forth in a relentless revelation

over a period of 35 years to provide a "practicalapplicable" means through

which to open the dawning of a new Age, an Age no longer mired by endless

discussions and considerations and comparing and categorizing of Truth, rather

an Age in which one can practically apply a teaching that results in actually

experiencing and living the Truth expressed as possible for everyone by the

Sages, Saints and Saviors over the last 10,000 years.

 

The Teacher of this possible experience is Yogi Bhajan; the practical practice

is Kundalini Yoga, a Yoga for the experience of the Totality of Being.

Throughout his teaching period he reproved any that would listen to him and take

his teachings to heart to believe in and pursue the experience and to stop at

nothing short of That.

 

If you're interested, just click on the websites below for more information.

 

Pieter

 

www.kundalini-matashakti.com

 

www.adityahrdayam.com

 

 

 

 

--