Effortlessness
I used to train Chinese martial arts. For many years that was my passion and I had a relentless Chinese teacher pushing me forward. One thing that he always pointed to me was that I tried too much. My shoulders were often tense and the movement lost its natural balance and ease and effectiveness. And I tried a little harder to overcome this apparent failure.
Being stubborn with things that I start I did not give up even when no real solution to the tension in my shoulders could be found through training.
At that time I did not know that the tension was really in my mind. I had too many thoughts. Too many doubts undermining my efforts. My body was reflecting the stiffness and rigidity of my own mind. Perhaps with a long period of time I would have exhausted myself and let go more and relax. Usually my teacher trained me hard to get me to that point of exhaustion where the mind just gave up. And then everything happened differently.
After I learned Ascension I realized instantly that there was indeed a different approach. One that required no trying and one that effectively brought me to a point of such deep relaxation that it was unequalled by anything else I knew. The more that I have ascended the more I have experienced that indeed there is no trying whatsoever. There is no forcing required in Ascension or in anything in life.
Ascension is a powerful tool that helped me to achieve quickly and effortlessly the very thing that I so much desired to find through training the martial arts. The true effortlessness comes from resting in your Self at every level. To have your Presence fill your physical body, your mind, your heart, your soul. To anchor every level of your being into the essence of who you are, the Ascendant One.
I could never force myself to relax. I could never lower my shoulders by telling them to do so. Or letting my teacher tell them to do so. As a by-product of ascending the trying melted away and was replaced by trust, ease, certainty, fluidity and effortlessness. As the mind quiets down and the stress is dissolved what is natural in us naturally comes to be experienced.
Even the slightest tension will break the fluidity of spirit, body and mind. The only rule in Ascension is that we never ever try to Ascend. The mastery of this art is already present within us. Our body and our mind already know how to ascend and with proper tools they will automatically do just that. Our job is to let the master play the instrument, the instrument that is our body and our spirit.
Nataraja Ishaya
Simplicity Itself
Joseph Campbell's statement 'follow your bliss' is a simple but powerful approach to life. For many of us the difficulty lies in knowing just what that is. If you read about Campbell's life it is quite clear that what he sought was the Greater Truth of Reality, the Source of it All, or as we call it the Ascendant. The great thing about the practice of Ascension is that it clarifies the senses so we can recognize it.
The mind is built to seek greater happiness. The Ascension Attitudes are designed to bring the mind to greater experience of what Is. This is supremely satisfying to the mind. This is simplicity itself. Just point the mind in the right direction and let it go. The mind is not so much more than a wind up toy in any case. All we have to do, at any time, is to think an Ascension Attitude and let go.
The instructions for Ascending eyes closed are also very simple: Get comfortable, close the eyes and watch the thoughts moving through the mind, then gently introduce the Ascension Attitude and let it go. Then when you notice the Ascension Attitude is completely gone and you are thinking other thoughts, gently reintroduce the Ascension Attitude.
It is as important to let go of the Ascension Attitude as it is think it. It is in the letting go that we loosen our grip on what we think we know and allow something greater to come into our experience. The old must be allowed to fall away to make room for the new. Any effort to go after some desired experience we hold in mind or effort made to change the experience we are having while ascending comes from our limited ideas about life and will only slow the expansion of consciousness.
Similarly with the natural healing of the body that occurs because of the deep rest we get from Ascending. The body knows how to heal itself. All it requires is rest. The more we allow this natural healing to proceed without interference, the more benefit we get. This may not always be pleasant. If, for example, we have had a habit of holding back our emotions by tensing our bodies, we may experience both the emotional and physical pain this has caused. Or, since the mind and body are connected, we may experience a great flood of thoughts as healing occurs. In either case, if it becomes too intense, the thing to do is to stop using the Ascension Attitude for a moment and let your awareness go to the body. When the awareness is on the body, the body functions better and the healing can complete itself more easily and fully. Any effort made to direct, understand, modify, run away from, or control the process is not restful and the body will not heal itself as well as it could if we totally allow it to happen.
Remember, the Infinite Source knows exactly what we need and has all the means to lovingly give it to us if we allow it.
Sankara Ishaya
One-Pointedness
Conflict creates effort. This can be easily demonstrated. Take your hands and push them together. The left hand wants to go right, the right hand wants to go left and you end up in a stale mate. The harder you push, your hands together, the more effort you make with no outcome. This is what your mind is constantly doing. Two opposing beliefs, ideas, or thoughts striving to become dominant and until one becomes stronger or one lets go; nothing is accomplished.
One-pointedness creates effortlessness. This can also be easily demonstrated. Take one hand and push it forward. It is very easy to push your hand forward and the results are obvious – your hand moves freely without constraints. When there is only one thought or desire it is absolutely effortless to create it. This is a very rare trait in the world today. Yet, almost everyone has experienced it at some point in their lives. Can you remember a time when you whole-heartedly wanted something?
The universe is always giving us what we want. What we “want” is what we put our attention on, consciously or unconsciously.
The normal waking state mind has thousands of conflicting beliefs, ideas, and desires, all producing a constant effort. Over time, this effort wears our bodies out, makes us tired, and eventually kills us. What happens when the conflicting ideas, beliefs, and desires are removed? Life returns to effortlessness, life returns to simplicity and ease.
Althea Ishaya
One Dive
We may say that there is only one step on the path to this state of cosmic consciousness: A step out of the field of action in the Transcendent and back to action again. Thus we find a man reaches his highest evolution on the plane he is already. He has only to take himself to a field which is outside action and come back to his normal field of activity. One dives in the ocean, reaches the bottom, gathers the pearls and comes out of the water to enjoy their value - the whole act is done in one dive. The technique of diving lies only in taking the correct angle and then letting go; reaching the bottom and coming up with the pearls follows automatically.
What a seeker of Truth has to do is only to learn how to take a correct angle for the dive within. This will quite naturally result in Self-consciousness, which in its turn develops into cosmic consciousness in the most natural way; the whole process goes by itself.
The lord tells Arjuna that when he becomes established in eternal freedom of divine intelligence, his life will become naturally full of meaning. That is why he need no longer seek the meaning of all the words of wisdom that he may hear or may have already heard.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Bhagavad-Gita 2:50
What is Required to Still the Mind?
Yoga (Union) is consciousness with its movements still.
Pada I, Sutra 2, Enlightenment!
It must be emphasized that this sutra does not tell how to still the movements of consciousness. Nor does it suggest that strenuous effort is required. It is precisely the misinterpretation of sutras such as this one that has led to the demise of the effectiveness of the Science of Yoga. If we wish the mind to still, introduction of strain or effort will not serve us. On the contrary, by trying to force the mind to calmness, we will raise the physiological rate and tire the mind. Have you ever studied hard for a test? It is tiring work. Stimulants such as caffeine will succeed only for so long -- eventually the mind will be exhausted and impose stillness -- but it will be the stillness of sleep, not the stillness of expanded consciousness.
What is required to still the mind is an object of attention that charms the mind, thereby allowing it to settle down to a more universal and silent levels of functioning. This object could take any number of possible forms, but the universal requirement of the practice of Ascension must be that it is increasingly effortless. If it is desirable to still the mind, it is necessary to begin where the mind is, active in the midst of motion.
Systematically quieting down the mind is the purpose of the Science of Yoga. It is not only natural, it is extremely easy.
MSI
The Only Rule
"Therefore, no effort is required to ascend! In fact even the slightest effort, even the slightest desiring for the experience to be like something, or to be specific somehow, will slow down this process. From our side, we must always be innocent about Ascension. This is the first and most important rule. In fact, it's the only rule. We never, ever try to Ascend."
MSI, First Thunder
Pain and Suffering
Before I learned to ascend, I realized how difficult my life was. I became aware of a strong knowingness that life could be different; life did not require so much suffering. I didn't know how that could be at the time, but I prayed that if it were true, that I could live a life without suffering.
After learning to ascend, I read in Ascension!, "not only is it NOT necessary to suffer in this human life, it is never necessary or even useful to struggle against the natural current of our lives." That's quite a strong statement.
To talk about pain and suffering, I want to define these two words as I am using them in this article. Pain refers to the physical sensation. When I refer to suffering, I'm referring to the thoughts and emotions.
Before learning to ascend, I had a lot of back problems. I would experience the physical pain. Then, I would begin to suffer. I would think things like, "What does this mean? What did I do to deserve this pain? If the pain goes on like this until tomorrow, will I be able to go to work? If I can't go to work, what will my boss think? What if this goes on until this weekend when I want to..........". My relationships often had problems that would set off another round of suffering by thinking "how do I fix this relationship, what does this mean about me, when will he love me the way I want to be loved?......" All of these thoughts had a myriad of emotions that went with them.
I did not realize that suffering was a choice. Now that I know how to use the Ascension Attitude, I can choose how I think in every moment. I can choose to think an ascension attitude and move inward to experience the Ascendant, or I can choose to repeat my old grooves and think downward spiraling thoughts. The more I think about what is wrong with my life, I pull past impressions up and sow seeds of what is wrong with my life (see Chapter 4 of Ascension!). The more I use the Ascension Attitude, the more I sow seeds of Praise and Gratitude which lead to more love in my life and a "innocent" experience a new life.
Now, after years of ascending, I can look back on this pain and suffering and see a much bigger picture. I'm aware that before the back pain started, I had a lot of emotions that I denied and pushed away. I worked (or played) every minute of the day to avoid the feelings of frustration and sadness from my life of stress. The pain occurred as a notice from my body that I needed to make time for myself and become more aware of what was happening and most of all, to become aware of that which is eternal, the Ascendant.
When I kept thinking thoughts based on fear, I actually froze the pain in place. I read in a medical report online, "Fear and fighting the fear increases pain." I know from experience that this is true. MSI said, "fully living in the present means that no feelings are ever repressed". Enlightenment does not mean that one has no feelings. Pushing away our feelings results in inertia, not expansion.
Suffering comes from our perception, or the meaning and interpretation that we have around the subject. "The mind is caught by its interpretations of past experience and is not free to experience the freedom of life as it is in the present moment. It is caught by identification with the boundaries: only the crudest level of objects is perceived; the Unbounded Ascendant is missed. There is no awareness or at best a dim awareness of the Ascendant in the waking state; therefore individual life is caught by identification with desires, thoughts, and possessions. This is like losing a million dollars by finding a dime."
Every moment is a choice. Do I want to continue my life as I have known it, repeating the pain and suffering? Or, do I want to sow a different kind of seed? Every time you think the Ascension Attitude, you experience the Ascendant. The Ascendant and the power of love that it brings into our lives is the only answer to fear, the pain, and the suffering.
Jyoti Ishaya
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This is the 16th edition of the Ishaya Tradition newsletter.
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