Inward Movement
It seems that to live and survive in this world demands all our attention and effort. Our minds are constantly being outward directed with thoughts that attempt to master the physical world and its many challenges. The awareness constantly moves from one subject to another on the surface of the mind. Especially in the west our parents, society and educational system unknowingly condition us to think in a very linear type of way that further strengthens this tendency to stay on the surface of the mind.
This is much like trying to breathe by only exhaling and never inhaling. It is very hard, and life is short lived. Just as our breathing has two natural directions that are both required for the sustenance of the body, so does our mind have two directions to move that are both natural and necessary - an inward movement and an outward movement.
As your lungs expand with an in-breath so does your consciousness expand when it moves inward into the Ascendant. And it may seem that the out-breath, or outward movement of the mind, is a shrinking from that, but a very necessary part of the process when we Ascend. Allowing both movements of the mind as we Ascend makes the process smooth and very fast. By moving back and forth from the unmanifest Ascendant One to the manifest creation we stabilize our consciousness quickly in the center of our being, in the Ascendant.
To break the conditioning of our thinking and the way that we direct our awareness (or let it drift here and there without any direction) we need to introduce the inward movement of the mind. This naturally occurs when one uses the Ascension Attitude as does the outward movement when the body is healing itself. This is the natural way of functioning for every nervous system, and that is why no effort or trying is needed to accomplish the perfect flow of Ascending.
Because of the habitual patterns that have been engraved into our brains, the constant streams of thinking that keeps us on the surface of the mind, we may not have conscious awareness right away of the inward movement. We may not have an awareness of the fact that the Ascension Attitude takes us all the way to the Source of all thoughts. This is why innocently Ascending regardless of our experiences is such an important thing. The Ascension Attitude is a tool for us to start the inward movement, and begin to engrave a new pattern into our nervous system that is upward directed. Just like with our physical bodies, the more we practice a specific movement, the more fluid it becomes and the more aware we are of its more subtle levels. Just so our minds become more readily tuned into our subtle inner experience of expanding consciousness. A great gift lies hidden in such a simple choice - the choice to move inward with the Ascension Attitude.
Nataraja Ishaya
New Experience
It is our habit to use our senses in an outward direction. Whenever we open our eyes and see, whenever we touch, hear or feel, these are "vertically" outward movements of the mind. This is the first lesson the infant needs to learn in order to interact with the environment. Those who fail in developing (or retaining) this outward direction of the mind end up in mental wards. It is also our habit to think in a "horizontal" direction -- that is, we think about things, we contemplate the nature of reality, we daydream, we flow around the surface of the mind thinking about life. One purpose of school is to develop this horizontal angle of the mind.
Both of these directions of the mind are considered normal, common, routine, completely natural. But we often believe the only remaining direction, "vertically" inward, is difficult or impossible and must require tremendous ability to concentrate or control the mind.
Rarely do we allow our perceptions or thoughts to move vertically inward, to seek more abstract and universal levels of understanding. And yet how can this be difficult? The frequency of the peak experiences is an indication that it is not hard to develop the mind. People everywhere throughout history have tasted higher consciousness; their experiences have come at the most peculiar times and places: over a crowded desk, staring at the stars in January, at the beach, during childbirth; the catalogue is as endless and extensive as is the human race itself.
All that is necessary to begin to move to higher levels of consciousness is to begin to retrain the mind to move vertically inward.
MSI, Ascension!
Pada I Sutra 12
By approach and detachment, the movements still.
Approach means Ascending, the practice of expanding the mind to the Ascendant. As one moves effortlessly inward to more and ever more expanded levels of awareness, one is also quite naturally withdrawing from the outer world, the more contracted and bound levels of experience. By habituating the mind to this march toward increasing inner stillness and peace, the structure and meaning of life naturally begin to change.
In other words, it is not necessary to renounce with force or effort the destructive behaviour patterns of the mind or the outer world. This sutra is not recommending a reclusive life or renunciation, even though this how it is typically interpreted. Giving up the limited and limiting boundaries of the Waking State is not painful or difficult, as long as this withdrawal is accompanied by approach, by expansion. Without the experience of Ascending, no amount of renunciation will accomplish anything at all. If thought is given up without the inward movement to the Ascendant, the individual will experience nothing -- which is commonly called sleep -- not Ascendant consciousness. On the other hand, by Ascending, one naturally gives up the boundaries of the relative experience, just as one naturally removes clothes that have been outgrown, or just as a bud is lost when the flower blooms. This is not painful or difficult! This is the movement of purest ecstasy, a joyful movement toward Truth and Beauty. Only if we are looking out the rear window of the car do we notice where we have been, receding quickly in the distance. But why bother? It is so much more exciting and satisfying to look ahead!
MSI, Enlightenment!
Pada I Sutra 13
Of these, approach is the endeavour to reach stability.
What is the ultimate stability? The Self experiencing its own essential nature. There and there only does the flow of changes cease. "Stability", sthitau, can also be translated "steady adherence" or "duration" -- the aim of approach is not just to touch the Ascendant but to stay there permanently.
"Endeavour to reach," yatnah, can also be translated, "seeking union with," or "devoting oneself to." So approach seeks to unite the waking State of Consciousness with its root in the unchanging Ascendant. How does this occur? By devoting oneself whole-heartedly to the practice, one arrives quickly at the goal.
The Waking Sate is characterized by movement, by continual change -- often in the twinkling of an eye love transforms to hate, peace to chaos, happiness to misery, health to sickness. The weary soul seeks calmness and peace everywhere and finds it nowhere. But there is one movement of the mind that leads to permanence, to stability, to duration -- and that is the movement which leads to silence. Approach is the essence of Ascension. Without this built-in desire in every human heart, it would be difficult or impossible to move to enlightenment, for there would be no impelling force driving the expansion of consciousness. But because the desire to approach stability is built into everyone as our own nature, it is not only possible, it is completely natural and effortless to move into higher consciousness.
MSI, Enlightenment!
Stillness
The following is from the introduction of Eckhart Tolle's book Stillness Speaks. I appreciate so much the clarity and simplicity of his writing and speaking. Everything he says about a teacher also applies to Ascension. "All true Teachings," as MSI wrote, "will ultimately point the finger back at your own heart."
'A true spiritual teacher does not have anything to teach in the conventional sense of the word, does not have anything to give or add to you, such as new information, beliefs, or rules of conduct. The only function of such a teacher is to help you remove that which separates you from the truth of who you already are and what you already know in the depth of your being. The spiritual teacher is there to uncover and reveal to you that dimension of inner depth that is also peace.
'If you come to a spiritual teacher - or this book - looking for stimulating ideas, theories, beliefs intellectual discussions, then you will be disappointed. In other words: if you are looking for food for thought, you won't find it, and you will miss the very essence of the teaching, the essence of this book, which is not in the words, but within yourself. It is good to remember that, to feel that, as you read. The words are no more than signposts. That to which they point is not to be found within the realm of thought, but a dimension within yourself that is deeper and infinitely vaster than thought. A vibrantly alive peace is one of the characteristics of that dimension, so whenever you feel inner peace arising as you read, the book is doing its work and fulfilling its function as your teacher: It is reminding you of who you are, and pointing the way back home.
'This is not a book to be read from cover to cover and then put away. Live with it, pick it up frequently, and more importantly, put it down frequently, or spend time holding it rather than reading it. Many readers will feel naturally inclined to stop reading after each entry, to pause, to reflect, become still. I is always more helpful and more important to stop reading than to continue reading. Allow the book do its work, to awaken you from the old grooves of your repetitive and continual thinking.'
This is also true of Ascension, but we go beyond frequently and make it a regular practice to make systematic and reliable. The time between sessions of eyes closed Ascending is very valuable too. We are not running away from life; we are informing the outer life from the depths of the inner. The space between Ascension Attitudes is also very important because we have to let the mind go beyond the surface level of thinking to experience the true nature of the Self.
Sankara Ishaya
The Dive Within
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 into the transcendent and back to action again. Thus we find a man reaches his highest evolution on the plane where he is already. He has only to take himself to a field which is outside action and come back again to his normal field of activity. One dives into 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 a 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.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, commentary on Bhagavad-Gita
Organizing the Senses
One who tries to shoot the arrow without first pulling it back on the bow is said to have a poor sense of action. His shot will not be strong, and his arrow will not go far because it will not be carried forward with force. Wise in the skill of action are those who first pull the arrow back before they proceed to shoot it ahead.
As the mind becomes established in transcendental consciousness, the state of Being becomes infused into the very nature of the mind, which thus gains the status of cosmic intelligence. Coming out of the transcendental state of consciousness, a man regains individuality, by virtue of which he is able to act in the relative field of life, but he now acts infused with Being. Such a person is as naturally above the influence of right and wrong as the wealthy businessman is above loss and gain.
The recluse way of life does not necessarily produce a condition where ‘a man completely casts off all desires that have gone (deep) in the mind’. The state described by this phrase has nothing to do with any particular way of life. Lord Krishna is clearly referring to a state in which one is free from desires and ‘satisfied in the Self’. And this is easily attained by anyone who knows how to meditate and transcend relativity, whether he be recluse or householder, whether he meditate in a palace or a cave.
The wise man, established in bliss-consciousness, is free from any sinful attitude because of the inner contentment which he experiences in the state of absolute consciousness. In contrast, the Lord describes those who concern themselves only with the affairs of their petty individuality and do not attempt to gain the unbounded state of the Absolute. Moved by their selfish thought, they forgo the chance of higher evolution; blinded by selfishness, their joys are only in the field of the senses. The lord says they commit sin who do not work for their connection with the higher powers of nature or for their own evolution.
The beginning of life is in the unmanifested pure consciousness, ‘the Imperishable’. If a man remains always in the field of the senses and fails to reach the source of his being, if his mind does not travel from gross to subtle in order to realize that Imperishable, the ultimate source of all creation, ‘he lives in vain’. He has not made use of the opportunity of enjoying that great happiness which lies beyond the range of the senses; he has not traversed the whole field of life; he has not gone from origin back to origin; he ‘does not follow the wheel thus set revolving’. He has committed sin against himself and sin against God, because he has failed to rise to fulfillment.
The Self is omnipresent and eternal. It does not need anything to realize Itself. Man loses It by remaining in the field of activity. Therefore in order to realize It, he has simply to come out of activity, engage himself in subtler fields of activity until he is completely out of the field of activity, in the field of the Transcendent. This explains the principle of enlightenment through action.
As a direct result of this inward activity of meditation, outward activity in the world becomes more successful, more perfect.
This is the great wisdom of life, the essence of the doctrine of Karma Yoga. The Lord makes a fundamental statement about cause and effect: influence the cause to modify the effect, go to the realm of Being in order to modify the nature of the intellect, mind and senses. Go to the absolute ultimate Reality, and all levels of relativity will cease to be a burden. Be illumined, and life will ever be in freedom and fullness, away from the darkness of ignorance.
The Lord says: Realization of the Ultimate is within your easy reach. You have the power to realize the Supreme, provided you do not undermine that power. It only amounts to Being what you are. Being what you are, you will find the whole field of existence set in eternal harmony. Intellect, mind and senses, all will function in accord, none will overpower the others, and no side of life will be impaired. Life will be lived in fullness.
Unfortunately it is commonly held that desires should be subdued in order to attain enlightenment. This is completely wrong. The misunderstanding has grown during the last few hundred years, and in consequence the task of those who seek the Truth has become more difficult than ever before. Here the Lord says: Go to the state of enlightenment in order to come out of the bondage of karma, bring the light in order to remove the darkness. It is this which is the underlying principles of the verse; not that one should try to remove the darkness in order to come into the light.
This chapter, which expounds the science of action, advocates transcending desire as a technique of subduing desires and also of bringing fulfillment to them; useless desires will be subdues while useful ones fill find their fulfillment. The principle of maintaining the life of a tree is to go beyond the tree. If one attends to the area surrounding the root, to the transcendental field of the tree, it is easy to bring nourishment to all its parts. If one attends to the field of the Transcendent one can make the whole tree of life healthy and fruitful.
All quotes from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from Bhagavad-Gita
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