Refined Astral Body, Subsuperconsciousness Comes Through
Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Description: Man's seventh aspect is the intuitive nature. Discover great truths. Observations give birth to understanding; understanding comes from the superconscious mind. Cultivate this power through control of thought, being more silent and observing, thusly providing the opportunity to identify with the intuitive mind of the guru. Practice ahimsa in thought, word and deed. Superconsciousness manifests intuition in the external world; pure superconsciousness is a realm unto itself. Tap into your subsuperconsciousness just before sleep. Write down a task you are working on. Go to sleep with the expectation that a creative new approach will come to you soon after awakening in the morning. Master Course Trilogy, Merging with Siva, Lesson 223.
Transcription:
Good morning everyone.
Today we have the last lesson from our "Merging with Siva" chapter, The Astral Body, which is a series on "The Seven Aspects of Man" from 1960. Long time ago. Being only one lesson it's a little bit shorter than normal.
"The Intuitive Nature
Text:
"Observe the intellect as it is manifested in the world around you. You can see its limits. You can also see when it becomes a tool for the intuitive mind--when you discover great truths in the books you read, when creative ideas come to you, observe, with affectionate detachment, the people around you, the situations in life through which you pass. As you have learned, observations give birth to understanding, and understanding comes from your superconscious mind. Thus, the intellect must be developed to a certain extent and then controlled, through the control of thought."
So my comment is:
Gurudeva is highlighting the importance of observation. First we observe; second we understand. So what suggestion does Gurudeva give for cultivating observation? I'm sure you all remember. Abstinence from excessive talk. There was a quote that related to that on the TAKA page recently: "Remember, your powers of observation are cultivated by abstinence from excessive talk. That is all you have to do to begin with--be more silent and observing, not wasting or dissipating this most vital power."
And, back to the text:
"Thought forms are manifestations of astral matter, or odic force, and travel through astral space, or odic force fields, from one destination to another. They can build, preserve and destroy. Thought forms can also protect, and they can create. Thought forms also can be seen, just as auras can be seen."
So then my commentary, very interesting quote from Yogaswami in this regard:
"Electric waves are nothing compared with thought waves. The thoughts of others come and dash against me."
So, he was pretty aware of them. That's one way he knew who was coming. Because when you're coming to see Yogaswami you always think about him so he was aware of their thoughts before their physical body arrived.
An important point Gurudeva is making regarding thoughts is that what we think about others is felt by them. So, sometimes we don't remember that. In other words, we want to practice ahimsa in deed, word and thought. So this is pointing out why the thought's important. If we regularly have critical thoughts of another person we are negatively impacting that person. They feel the contents of the thoughts though they probably won't realize it is coming from another person. Likewise, if we regularly have positive thoughts about another person we are helping that person.
And the text again:
"The intellect is the external ego, but it is only the external ego when it is in control and has cut itself off sufficiently from superconsciousness by becoming opinionated. When the intellect represents the ego, we say a person is unable to change his mind, no matter how much you try to convince or talk with him. He is stubborn, unyielding, even unfriendly if he becomes agitated or disturbed in his effort to hold the intellect together.
"Should the intellectual nature become disturbed, the astral body then takes over and the instinctive mind or the instinctive qualities are prevalent at that time. This is quite apparent in undisciplined people, because the intellectual nature is undisciplined. When the astral body and the intellect work hand in hand, they create an instinctive-intellectual individual filled with opinionated knowledge, undisciplined instinctive drives, and emotions of hate and fear that have not been transmuted into the realms of reason and controlled through allowing a grid work of positive memory patterns to build.
"Within man, and functioning at a different rate of vibration than the intellect is found the motivating force of the mind, the power, the chakras, or force centers. There are seven of these basic force centers, which are stimulated into action and unfoldment by the ida, pingala and sushumna currents. The ida and pingala are odic psychic currents (the Chinese yin and yang) interwoven around the spinal cord. Directly through the spinal cord runs the sushumna current, which is actinodic. The ida current is passive odic force; the pingala current is aggressive odic force. The sushumna is an actinodic current. These currents govern the sixth aspect of man, the chakras. These currents are like the reins which will guide a horse as we ride in one direction or another.
"The intuitive nature, man's seventh aspect, is composed of a greater amount of actinic energy than odic. It is formed by the sushumna current that runs between the ida and pingala currents up through the spinal cord. However, it is the state of mind that a yoga student must learn to identify as his own, so to speak. Until this time, he usually identifies with the intuitive mind of his guru. This identification serves as a constant reminder of the existence of his own intuitive nature. Many students seem to know when the guru is in a higher state of intuitive awareness, but they may fail to realize that the knowing or recognition of that state is their own higher state of intuitive awareness, occurring simultaneously with that of the guru. This is one of the benefits awarded a yoga student working in the guru system: his opportunity to identify with the intuitive mind of the guru."
Reminds me of a quote in "The Clear White Light." It says: "And the face of a Master may appear before you and that is your own potential." So that's the point here that I think is important is sometimes we put somebody way up here and we put ourselves down here. But in doing that, that may be fine for the current moment, we have to realize eventually we'll get up there too. That's the point. So, that's the Hindu point of view is we all end up in the same full unfoldment. So this is the first way of that can manifest this realizing the intuition of someone else, you yourself have to be in a state of intuition otherwise you wouldn't recognize it. And but you don't necessarily credit yourself for doing that.
"When the yoga student learns to control his own odic force field to the point where he no longer identifies with his physical body, his astral body or his intellect, he can then identify his external ego with his intuitive nature, or subsuperconscious mind. This new and humble identity is a sporadic sense in the initial stages on the yoga path, for only when the student is really actinic does he utilize the intuitive mind consciously, perceiving it through the faculties of cognizantability. One does not entertain thoughts when in this state of full awareness. In this consciousness, one views and perceives through the anahata chakra of direct cognition. The intuitive nature is the most refined aspect of the astral body. Although the intuitive aspect is made primarily of actinic force, there is enough odic force within it to enable man to enter into the realm of creation in the material world. This seventh aspect of man is a plateau, a leveling off of one cycle of evolution and the beginning, at the same time, of another."
So, my commentary is:
Gurudeva has given us a clear description of subsuperconsiousness: "Although the intuitive aspect is made primarily of actinic force, there is enough odic force within it to enable man to enter into the realm of creation in the material world." So, that's the point there. Subsuperconsciousness is manifesting intuition but in the external world. Pure superconsciousness is just a realm unto itself of visions and other experiences. It doesn't relate to the material world.
The practice I suggest for tapping into your subsuperconsciousness is that at night just before sleep, write down a task you are working on, describing it accurately and completely. Go to sleep with the expectation that a creative new approach will come to you from your intuition soon after you awake in the morning.
So that has two important aspects. If we don't write it down we don't necessarily focus on it enough. It's just one thought among many. But if we take time to write it down then clearly we're making it a dominant thought and then describing it accurately and completely also writing it down helps do that. Sometimes if we just think about it we're not describing it accurately and completely. So writing it down has those two benefits. So give it a try.
Thank you very much. That's our short presentation for this morning.