Wisdom's Path, Part One
Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Description: Gurudeva and the monks settling around the time of 1970 into Kauai Aadheenam as their new home from the "Guru Chronicles." There is only one mind, finished and complete in all stages of manifestation. Awareness travels through the mind. Change is only a seeming concept. Everything is in a perfect state of evolution which we can see through the eyes of our soul. Come into visions, light, sound, overwhelming joy and peace in the superconscious area of the mind; awareness becomes our real identity. Related Shum words: liim and jiliim. "Master Course Trilogy, Merging with Siva." Lessons 36-38; Guru Chronicles.
Transcription:
Good morning everyone.
Today we're starting with "Merging with Siva" Chapter 6 which is entitled:
"Wisdom's Path" it's drawn from the "1970 Master Course."
And we a have couple of stories from "The Guru Chronicles" to start with from that general time period of the early 1970's.
"While settling into his island home, (Gurudeva and the monks moved here February 1970) Gurudeva continued to travel extensively, monthly to his other two monasteries and almost weekly to Honolulu to hold meditations and give public classes. A major renovation plan for the old inn evolved (meaning this building), and soon a group of followers flew to Kauai to undertake intensive remodeling of the 1929-vintage estate. For some three years the whining of saws and pounding of hammers became familiar sounds. He gave the new rooms exotic names: the Palace of the Noonday Sun, the Ryokan, Peacock Court and the Hibiscus Room. It was a heady time, full of travel, of new and constant publications and the establishment of his home. He always saw it as the guru’s home, not an institution. The monks planted tropical gardens and imported Toggenburg goats, the first in the state, for milk. Gurudeva bought horses and had the young monks learn to train and care for these intelligent creatures, advancing to equestrian jumping and barrel running. Similarly, Gurudeva brought cows into the monastery to provide a touch of nature and, not insignificantly, milk and all of its gifts."
So then we move forward a little bit.
"During the 1972 India Odyssey, 75 seekers traveled around the world with Gurudeva through Hawaii, Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka (which became a republic and changed its name from Ceylon that year), India, Iran, Russia and France. More than before, he immersed them in the mysteries of Saivite temple worship and, as was his way when traveling, he took them to meet the spiritual lights of each nation they visited, Indian saints and yogis, the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, Buddhist lamas in Nepal, Russian Orthodox priests in Moscow, Zen masters in Japan and imams in Iran.
Amid these serious visits, Gurudeva showed his easy humor. During the bus ride to Dharamshala to see the Dalai Lama, he led the Innersearchers in a long and rousing rendition of 'Hello, Dolly!' After spending a day in Ganeshpuri with Swami Muktananda, he was on the bus returning to Bombay when a pilgrim inquired if he regarded the renowned swami
to be enlightened. The philosophical exchanges at the ashram that day had been made through an unusually adept translator, Professor Jinendra Jain. Master thought for a moment, then offered, “Well, either he is or his translator is.” Everyone on the bus roared."
Great story.
Lesson 36:
"The Purity of Awareness
"To the awakened mystic, there is only one mind. There is no 'your mind' and 'my mind,' just one mind, finished, complete in all stages of manifestation. Man’s individual awareness flows through the mind as the traveler treads the globe. Just as the free citizen moves from city to city and country to country, awareness moves through the multitude of forms in the mind..."
So commentary, that's a different way of looking a the mind than is popular. In other words, we tend to think of the mind a being created when we experience it. But this is saying everything in the mind already exists, and we're just finding it, so to speak. Already exists, everything in the mind.
"...Before we meditate, we view the cycles of our life and erroneously conclude that the mind changes, that it evolves. We view joy one moment, and despair the next and, because we feel so different in these states, assume we have changed. We grow up and look back on our childhood and again see the appearance of change. Through meditation, however, we observe that we have not changed at all. Awareness becomes our real identity, and it is pure and changeless. It was the same at seven years of age as it is today. It is the same in happiness as it is in sadness. Pure awareness cannot change. It is simply aware. Therefore, you are right now the totality of yourself. You never were different, and you never will be. You are perfect at this very moment. Change is only a seeming concept created through false identification with the experiences we have in various areas of the one mind..."
That's worth reading again; that's a profound sentence: "Change is only a seeming concept created through false identification with the experiences we have in various areas of the one mind."
"...Everything in the world and everything in the mind is as it should be, in a perfect state of evolution. Superconsciously, we can clearly see this through the eyes of our soul. When looking at it through the instinctive-intellectual mind, we don’t see this perfection. It is as if we have blinders on both sides of our eyes, like a donkey. The carrot of desire dangles right in front of our nose when we are in the instinctive-intellectual mind, and we are going after it, step at a time, step at a time, with our blinders on. (That's a great image.) We have to go in and in and in and reach an expanded state of awareness and gain that mountaintop consciousness where we perceive that there is no injustice in the world. There is not one wrong thing. All is in perfect order and rhythm in Śiva’s cosmic dance."
So that's an interesting perspective and again it's not a common one. The common one is there's so many problems in the world, how could God allow that to happen. That's the one I get asked. And so the answer I give is: Well God didn't create what's going on in the world, men created what's going on in the world. So, what we see happening is the result of men interacting with men, going through what they're going through, the past working itself out in the present. So that's what it means and it's all just karma working itself out. So in that sense there's not one wrong thing.
Lesson 37:
"The Mind Is Complete
"Should we acquire the ability to identify as the experiencer instead of the experience, the true and valid nature of awareness and its patterns of movement in the mind become evident. We see the mind as a total manifestation, containing all of the past and future evolutions in the eternal now. The mind is vast in its combinations of time, space and form. It contains every vibration, from subtle to gross. Awareness is free to travel in the mind according to our knowledge, our discipline and our ability to detach from the objects of awareness and see ourselves as the experience of awareness itself. This explains many of the so-called mysteries of life.
"There are people with the ability to look back into the past and ahead to the future accurately and in detail. That feat is understood clearly in the light of awareness traveling through the mind. The entire mind exists right now—past and future included. These psychically talented individuals have trained their awareness to flow into areas of the mind that are unavailable to the average person. They go into the mind itself to view these phenomena. Similarly, esp, mind-reading and other mystical wonders are illumined by the knowledge that there is only one mind, and all phases of it are open to the spiritually awakened person.
"What we term states of mind are, therefore, areas of distinct vibration. On the Earth we have continents, nations, regions, states and cities. Each is distinct and unique. Denmark is different from Spain. Australia is different from China. Paris is not at all like Honolulu. So it is in the mind. We have five states of mind—conscious, subconscious, sub of the subconscious, subsuperconscious and superconscious—and within each are hundreds and thousands of cities. In the subconscious area, the traveler can encounter fear, hatred, love and good memories. In the conscious-mind area he can experience business, human relationships and intellectual, social vibrations. In the superconscious area, there are even more regions, and he comes into visions, light, sound, overwhelming joy and peace."
Lesson 38
Remaining Free, Detached
"As we move through the mind, the mind stays the same, just as the world stays the same as the traveler moves from city to city. Paris does not vanish when he enters New Delhi. It is still there. Others remain in the city, and he can return. Fear does not disappear from the mind when we are blissfully fearless. Others still experience it. Our awareness has simply moved to a more refined area. Therefore, the goal is to make awareness totally free by not getting too magnetically attached to only a few of the many areas. If the traveler enjoys Paris and settles down there, he will never know the other cities of the world. We on the spiritual path must work hard at keeping ourselves detached from friends, places, habits. Only then can we keep awareness free enough to travel uninhibitedly through the sublime, inner areas of the mind.
"Work on that every day. Observe when awareness gets so involved that it identifies with an experience. Then consciously tell yourself, 'I am not fear. I am awareness flowing in the area of fear, and I can move into other areas at will.' Work at that. Strive that simple ability to detach awareness from that which it is aware of. The rewards gained will be more than worth the effort. Be renewed by a change of your mind. Be renewed by releasing awareness from one area of the vast universe of the mind, drawing it back into its source and releasing it again, sending it to another of the vast areas of the mind."
And we have a couple of related Shum words.
liim°
Glance, view or glimpse; to look out through the two physical eyes into the two- and three-dimensional world.
jiliim° (This is a word that's related.)
Being attentive at all times, practicing observation, the first soul quality.
So that's relates to what Gurudeva said, observe whan awareness gets so involved so we need to be always practicing observation. jiliim°.
Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.
[End of transcript.]