11-27-2014, 07:55 PM
thanks to anagogy for mentioning this book in another thread.
I definitely like the Q&A format, these are edited transcriptions and translations of questions posed to M.
This exchange on the uses and function of Meditation was particularly good and elucidating in its clarity.
6. Meditation
Questioner: All teachers advise to meditate. What is the purpose of meditation?
Maharaj: We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and
feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and
familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness.
Incidentally practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not
know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we over-come it by the very knowing; the unconscious
dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the
mind feels adequate and become quiet.
Q: What is the use of a quiet mind?
M: When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the
experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond
the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: 'I am
this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness
snaps.
Q: As I can make out, I live on many levels and life on each level requires energy. The self by its
very nature delights in everything and its energies flow outwards. Is it not the purpose of meditation
to dam up the energies on the higher levels, or to push them back and up, so as to enable the
higher levels to prosper also?
M: It is not so much the matter of levels as of gunas (qualities). Meditation is a sattvic activity and
aims at complete elimination of tamas (inertia) and rajas (motivity). Pure sattva (harmony) is perfect
freedom from sloth and restlessness.
Q: How to strengthen and purify the sattva?
M: The sattva is pure and strong always. It is like the sun. It may seem obscured by clouds and
dust, but only from the point of view of the perceiver. Deal with the causes of obscuration, not with
the sun.
Q: What is the use of sattva?
M: What is the use of truth, goodness, harmony, beauty? They are their own goal. They manifest
spontaneously and effortlessly, when things are left to themselves, are not interfered with, not
shunned, or wanted, or conceptualised, but just experienced in full awareness, such awareness
itself is sattva. It does not make use of things and people -- it fulfils them.
Q: Since I cannot improve sattva, am I to deal with tamas and rajas only? How can I deal with
them?
M: By watching their influence in you and on you. Be aware of them in operation, watch their
expressions in your thoughts, words and deeds, and gradually their grip on you will lessen and the
clear light of sattva will emerge. It is neither difficult, nor a protracted process; earnestness is the
only condition of success.
I think you've made some interesting observations about the nature of Desire. The only thing that I would add is that sometimes we are not aware of the nature of our desires until we are fully immersed in the experience of them. It is almost as though the experience shows us the Desire itself, by giving it form, clothing, and substance as an Experience.
There is also another issue about the state of being Desireless. What is the motivation of it? If it is to somehow flee pain and difficulties, to somehow say - "I give up all Desires, because I know it's going to disappoint me because I can't get everything I want, and even if I get 99% of what I want, I'll still be disappointed, and so I'll just not Desire anything at all", then that is a poor motivation indeed. But I don't think that's what the Answerer is saying, in this case.
I think there are souls that incarnate from higher planes, which Ra terms Wanderers, and once they can unprogram all the societal biases that left their stamp on an infant and youthful consciousness, they can, indeed, become aware of what they were aware of prior to coming down and becoming enfleshed. Such souls already have an implicit recognition of the exhaustion of many milions of desires through many lifetimes, and the extracted understandings of such experiences. There is no need to relive those again.
I definitely like the Q&A format, these are edited transcriptions and translations of questions posed to M.
This exchange on the uses and function of Meditation was particularly good and elucidating in its clarity.
6. Meditation
Questioner: All teachers advise to meditate. What is the purpose of meditation?
Maharaj: We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and
feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and
familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness.
Incidentally practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not
know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we over-come it by the very knowing; the unconscious
dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the
mind feels adequate and become quiet.
Q: What is the use of a quiet mind?
M: When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the
experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond
the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: 'I am
this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness
snaps.
Q: As I can make out, I live on many levels and life on each level requires energy. The self by its
very nature delights in everything and its energies flow outwards. Is it not the purpose of meditation
to dam up the energies on the higher levels, or to push them back and up, so as to enable the
higher levels to prosper also?
M: It is not so much the matter of levels as of gunas (qualities). Meditation is a sattvic activity and
aims at complete elimination of tamas (inertia) and rajas (motivity). Pure sattva (harmony) is perfect
freedom from sloth and restlessness.
Q: How to strengthen and purify the sattva?
M: The sattva is pure and strong always. It is like the sun. It may seem obscured by clouds and
dust, but only from the point of view of the perceiver. Deal with the causes of obscuration, not with
the sun.
Q: What is the use of sattva?
M: What is the use of truth, goodness, harmony, beauty? They are their own goal. They manifest
spontaneously and effortlessly, when things are left to themselves, are not interfered with, not
shunned, or wanted, or conceptualised, but just experienced in full awareness, such awareness
itself is sattva. It does not make use of things and people -- it fulfils them.
Q: Since I cannot improve sattva, am I to deal with tamas and rajas only? How can I deal with
them?
M: By watching their influence in you and on you. Be aware of them in operation, watch their
expressions in your thoughts, words and deeds, and gradually their grip on you will lessen and the
clear light of sattva will emerge. It is neither difficult, nor a protracted process; earnestness is the
only condition of success.
(11-26-2014, 12:41 AM)anagogy Wrote: [ -> ]It's also interesting to me, in light of another response Nisargadatta gave in a particular response a questioner posed to him:
Quote:Q: Such giving up of desires, does it need time?
Nisargadatta: If you leave it to time, millions of years will be needed. Giving up desire after desire is a lengthy process with the end never in sight. Leave alone your desires and fears, give your entire attention to the subject, to him who is behind the experience of desire and fear. Ask: 'who desires?' Let each desire bring you back to yourself.
Isn't that interesting?
It would appear that beings like Ra, and other higher density entities, have chosen to leave the process of awakening to time, which necessitates the evolution through the densities (and a grand adventure it is too). That appears to be the "natural" way to achieve enlightenment. Allowing the kundalini to raise itself through distillation of experience/catalyst, rather than actively performing meditation practices aimed at raising the meeting place between inner and outer vibratory understanding.
I think you've made some interesting observations about the nature of Desire. The only thing that I would add is that sometimes we are not aware of the nature of our desires until we are fully immersed in the experience of them. It is almost as though the experience shows us the Desire itself, by giving it form, clothing, and substance as an Experience.
There is also another issue about the state of being Desireless. What is the motivation of it? If it is to somehow flee pain and difficulties, to somehow say - "I give up all Desires, because I know it's going to disappoint me because I can't get everything I want, and even if I get 99% of what I want, I'll still be disappointed, and so I'll just not Desire anything at all", then that is a poor motivation indeed. But I don't think that's what the Answerer is saying, in this case.
I think there are souls that incarnate from higher planes, which Ra terms Wanderers, and once they can unprogram all the societal biases that left their stamp on an infant and youthful consciousness, they can, indeed, become aware of what they were aware of prior to coming down and becoming enfleshed. Such souls already have an implicit recognition of the exhaustion of many milions of desires through many lifetimes, and the extracted understandings of such experiences. There is no need to relive those again.