What it takes to do the work.

[Guest guest]

" Duveyoung " <duveyoung3@e...>

Wed Sep 28, 2002

Technique and tradition

 

There is an inherent " weakness " in the human nervous system. It's a

lack of faith. Nisargadatta had, according to his reports, total

faith in his master's statement that Nisargadatta was Brahman.

Thereafter he held onto that concept with faith that his master would

not steer him wrongly. That intense faith was the foundation of

Nisargadatta's relentless application of his intent and awareness,

and finally, after only 2-3 years, he realized. Yet, he does not

highly praise his methodology for realization. Why? Because he knew

that his real advantage in the situation was his confidence in his

guru. That confidence allowed his particular form of " mindfulness "

the fullest possible impact upon his mind/body system.

 

This faith is sorely lacking in the world today….even in very

religious countries like India. It is almost certain that any seeker

you encounter will have tried to " get there " by more than one

technique—guru hopping, trying to find a technique that yields bliss

or other spiritually defined experiences in short order without any

heavy lifting being required.

 

The mind's attention is often referred to as a monkey jumping from

branch to branch looking for a sweeter fruit. Like this, the natural

tendency of the mind is to seek greater happiness, but when a

technique is employed, then the mind is experiencing, to some degree,

repetition--which doesn't fit with the mind's definition of

happiness. This dissonance is usually THE reason for or a hefty part

of the cause of guru hopping. We try a technique, and when we

encounter boredom during the use of the technique we discount its

efficacy and start looking for greener pastures.

 

We can be assured that Nisargadatta was challenged by every manner of

thought and feeling to abandon his technique. Nisargadatta was

modeling for all of us that faith does indeed move mountains.

Persistence is king—even a mechanical, dogmatically

imposed, " mindless " use of a technique can produce the desired

result: disidentification with the small self.

 

All this said, let's underline the less obvious: Nisargadatta was

born and raised in India and the guru-system of that culture is

deeply embedded in it. Imagine, from childhood on, being told that

the gurus of the world were light houses of knowledge. That

enculturation, that bathing of his mind by his society of " axiomatic "

truths, set him up to believe in many, many aspects of the guru

system that westerners are quite oppositely taught to reject such

as:

 

Guru is God.

An ordinary person can become Holy.

The absolute exists and nothing else does.

Heaven and Hell are temporarily visited between lifetimes.

Sin is attachment to, identification with, objects of perception.

Karma is accumulative and only partially mitigated by a single

lifetime.

Etc. etc.

 

Not having these in our western upbringing puts us in a place where

we are almost impossibly challenged by the requirements of the

various techniques extant, because our western beliefs will be

yowling outside our meditation chambers to " have common sense. "

 

This manifests differently in each individual as all the forces of

psychology synergistically produce a " spiritual vector " for the

seeker that determines how strong the faith will be in a technique.

This faith, if weak, doesn't allow the individual enough " room " to

really try out the technique; in fact, most techniques are abandoned

as ineffectual when most of them work to some degree.

 

Hence, traditional values of a culture are important when determining

your own spiritual program. We all know the difference between what

we'd think of a person who spent 20 years in an ashram in India and a

person who read three books by Nisargadatta. We might be wrong, but

we know that we'd honor the 20 year veteran more highly in most

instances when a spiritual discussion begins. Why is this? Because

we all know the value of constancy, the value of accumulation of

wisdom that comes from years of intimacy with spiritual concepts, the

synergy that happens over time as these values get deeper into our

matrixes, the holistic correlations that saturate our psychological

patterns, and the sheer value that SOMETHING held this adherent's

attention for twenty years.

 

One guy says, " Read these three books—that'll getcha started. "

The other guys says, " Be mindful and watch your world expand. "

 

One guy's impact is far more powerful on everyone who knows his

background….and for that matter, even if they don't know….his

embodiment of silence will be palpably felt.

 

All the above tells us so clearly that, as westerners, we are going

to be hard put to stay the course. It is for this reason that I

honor groups, religions, cults, sects, etc. They all offer a

supportive environment for spiritual growth and can shore up lagging

intents with dogma, fellowship, community, etc. The downside of

groups is the bureaucracies that form to run them. These typically

take on a role of mind-police which leads to all sorts of abuse.

Lots of groups are " open " in that their membership is allowed to

have " a life " outside the group, and these can be just the ticket for

a western seeker who wants to get questions answered, some

fellowship, but not any locked-in commitment to the groups' political

machinations.

 

If seekers try to go it alone, without a " proper upbringing, " without

a guru, without a deep clarity about the whole conceptual set of

spiritual values that " mean across " the entire spectrum of existence

and non-existence, and/or without a serious intent to follow one's

program with uncommon faith, then most seekers are doomed to failure

or to spending decades guru hopping before they settle into the " long

haul. "

 

The work. The work. It is about the work. How much time do you

spend each day doing mindfulness, or mantra, or a rosary or

whatever? You have got to put in the sweat equity. You've got to

dump any notion that " I did all the purification last lifetime—so I

only need one touch of the peacock feather by XYZ-Guru-INC's District

Manager of Mantras. " You've got to commit. You've got to be honest

when you waver and talk to yourself about that until some additional

clarity is achieved. You've got to apply your seeking to every

aspect of life….seeking the best psychology, the best diet, the best

lifestyle, etc. Get intense. Do the work.

 

All this trying, of course, achieves NOTHING (in that it cannot make

a silk-purse out of your sow's ear,) but it does give you that great

advantage: luck favors the prepared (grace arrives to those with open

hearts.) All these techniques are great for unraveling the smaller

mysteries of psychology, and doing the work sets you up to have the

actual wherewithal to surrender identity…and this surrender will be

complete….not tentative, partial or largely pretended. The

techniques calm you down and give you a lower basal rate of

excitation of your general mind/body operations. Every method of

purification will culture the nervous system to STAY QUIET. Just

staying quiet is the ultimate goal. Just getting out of the way of

the gunas as they do ALL the thinking, ALL the feeling, ALL the

actions. Quietness, settled-ness, silence filled—these are truly

rare qualities of most personalities.

 

Plant the seeds of restful alertness, do the mindfulness, do what you

know is right, eat moderately, drink a lot of water, have a lot of

green food, dump strong spices, dump salt, go to sleep every night at

the same time (10 or earlier is best,) wake up without an alarm being

set, do your techniques at the same times every day, speak the truth

that is necessary, sweet and factual, and find like minded others to

commune with. These are aspects of a strong spiritual program.

 

 

Realization, " Mark Hovila " <hovila@a...> wrote:

> Jerrio,

>

> It has been said by many sages that in the ultimate sense nobody is

bound and nobody is liberated. This is beyond my present

understanding. Therefore I am proceeding under the assumption that

liberation is possible. It may be that liberation is equivalent to

the realization, or understanding, that we are now and have always

been free. If this is true, then any efforts undertaken with the

thought " I am going to get something I do not now have " are doomed to

failure. They will only result in more baggage added to the ego. So

my effort, if you can call it that, consists of simply looking at

thoughts, sensations, the felt sense of 'I' and all arisings honestly

and without evasion, rather than in trying to cultivate some state or

other with a technique. I am not looking at these things with the

attitude " I am not not these things. " I am trying not to impose a

division between the looker and things that the looker is looking

at. I am simply looking. Something may eventually come of this

effort, but there are of course no guarantees. And the more I think

about the results of my effort, the less likely will there be any

results.

>

> I will also add that it seems to me that any effort undertaken in

the spirit of " I am God " or " I am neverending bliss, happiness, etc. "

is also fraught with problems. It is imposing a condition upon

realization. It is saying that if it doesn't feel good, this can't

be it. So we will be diverted into looking for the truth in blissful

states and ignore any other states that arise. We must be willing to

face What Is courageously and with the willingness to see and accept

whatever comes, no matter how terrifying. Indeed, some have said

that realization is impossible without going through a terrifying

period, called by some The Dark Night of the Soul.

>

> One seeker's perspective.

>

> Mark