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Five Steps to Enlightenment, Part One

Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Description: From "The Guru Chronicles", Gurudeva meeting with saints and sages in Paris and Tamil Nadu absorbing Saiva Siddhanta culture to bring back to Kauai. Step one attention and step two concentration of the five steps to enlightenment described and the distinction between the two. Related Shum series for remaining concentrated through physical discomfort ‘vûmrehtaka’ and keeping the mind under control when it wanders ‘kamnakamnam’. "Guru Chronicles"; "Master Course Trilogy, Merging with Siva", Lessons 85-86.

Transcription:
Good morning everyone. Today we're starting a new chapter in Merging with Siva, Chapter 13, entitled Five Steps To Enlightenment. It is still drawn from the "1970 Master Course". And when we start a new chapter we get some information from "Guru Chronicles" about that period of time. "In Paris, he met Swami Bua, a humor-loving yogi who would later visit Gurudeva’s monastery often and live to be 120 years old by one calculation. There were remarkable encounters with Ananadamayi Ma, the senior Shankaracharya from Kanchipuram Matha, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indira Gandhi, a saint named Pundiswami (since he lived in the village of Pundi), who never moved or stood and whose legs had completely atrophied, and others. "All across Tamil Nadu, Gurudeva visited the ancient Saiva aadheenams, eager to observe and absorb how these temple-monastery complexes operate, how they are organized, funded and administrated, the subtleties of how the gurus dress, talk, worship, live, their protocols for interacting with guests and junior swamis, their relationship with the surrounding community, the traditional ways in which devotees serve—to take it all back home to Kauai to continue building an authentic Saiva aadheenam of his own in the West. (Long sentence, that's a very long sentence.) These experiences would fructify over the ensuing two decades as he brought the sacred symbols of the spiritual office with him: the shirobhashanam (crown of rudraksha beads), the silver danda (staff), the simhasanam or 'lion’s seat' upon which the aadheenakarthar (pontiff) sits, the unique kundala (golden earrings) and the golden pendant he wears. He would bring all these Saiva insignia to Kauai, to the West." Interesting information. So our lesson, Lesson 85: "Step One: Attention (First of the five steps to enlightenment.) "The grand old man of the East who ordained me, Jnanaguru Yoganathan, Yogaswami of Jaffna, used to say time and time again, 'It was all finished long ago.' It’s finished already. The whole mind is finished, all complete, in all stages of manifestation. Man’s individual awareness flows through the mind as the traveler treads the globe. "Now we come to the real study, and this applies right to you and to you personally: the five steps on the path of enlightenment. What are they? Attention, concentration, meditation, contemplation and Self Realization. Those are the five steps that awareness has to flow through, gaining strength each time, on the path to enlightenment. When we first start, awareness is flowing through many areas of the mind. And if it is a mature awareness, we will say it’s a great big ball of light, flowing through the mind. And if it’s not a mature awareness, it’s like a little ping-pong ball, bouncing around. The little ping-pong ball awareness is not going to walk the path of enlightenment, so to speak. It’s going to bobble around in the instinctive mind, incarnation after incarnation, until it grows to a great big ball, like a great big beach ball. Then finally it will have enough experience flowing through the mind to turn in on itself. When this happens, certain faculties come into being. One of them is willpower. And we learn to hold attention. We learn to hold awareness at attention. Awareness: attention!..." We'll comment there. Gurudeva says "Then finally it will have enough experiences flowing through the mind to turn in on itself." So that's an important point is that all individuals need experiences in the world, enough experiences before they will turn in on themselves. So as, it's in "Yoga Sutras" says we need experience as well as the search for enlightenment. "...What is attention? Attention is the first of the five steps on the path, that is, holding awareness steady, centralized in only one area of the mind, and the area that we choose it to be in, not the area that someone else has chosen it to be in. Our awareness is moved around by other people through the mind at such a fast rate that we think we are moving awareness ourself, so to speak. That’s a funny way to talk because I’m saying we move awareness as if awareness is something else, other than us. But awareness and energy and willpower are all the same thing. So, we will just call it awareness from here on out. When other people move awareness through one area or another, we call that distraction, or worldly distractions. The mission is to move awareness yourself. How do you learn to do that? By holding it at attention..." So that's an important point there. We want to avoid the idea that 'I move awareness' or 'my awareness.' The way I like to avoid that is I say: "I as awareness" then it's not something you possess and you are different from awareness. "I as awareness" do this, this and this. "...How does attention work? Attention is awareness poised like a hummingbird over a flower. It doesn’t move. The flower doesn’t move, and awareness becomes aware of the flower—poised. The entire nerve system of the physical body and the functions of breath have to be at a certain rhythm in order for awareness to remain poised like a hummingbird over a flower. Now, since the physical body and our breath have never really been disciplined in any way, we have to begin by breathing rhythmically and diaphragmatically, so that we breathe out the same number of counts as we breathe in. After we do this over a long period of time—and you can start now—then the body becomes trained, [the external nerve system becomes trained], responds, and awareness is held at attention." Lesson 86 "Step Two: Concentration "Then we automatically move into the next step, concentration. The hummingbird, poised over the flower, held at attention, begins to look at the flower, to concentrate on it, to study it, to muse about it, not to be distracted by another flower—that is then awareness moving. Awareness distracted, here, is awareness simply moving to another flower, or moving to another area of the mind. "Give up the idea that thoughts come in and out of the mind like visitors come in and out of your house. Hold to the idea that it is awareness that moves, rather than the thoughts that move. Look at awareness as a yo-yo at the end of a string. The string is hooked to the very core of energy itself, and awareness flows out and it flows in. Awareness might flow out toward a tree and in again, and then out toward a flower and then in again, and down toward the ground and then in again. This wonderful yo-yo of awareness—that is a good concept to grasp in order to become more acquainted with awareness. Awareness held at attention can then come into the next vibratory rate and concentrate. "Take a flower and place it in front of you. Breathe deeply as you sit before it. Simply look at it. Don’t stare at it and strain your eyes. But simply become aware of it. Each time awareness moves to some other area of the mind, with your willpower move awareness back and become aware of the flower again. Keep doing this until you are simply aware of the flower and not aware of your body or your breath. Then begin to concentrate on the flower. That is the second step. Think about the flower. Move into the area of the mind where all flowers exist in all phases of manifestation, and concentrate on the flower. Move from one area to another—to where all stems exist, to the stem of that particular flower, to the root that that particular flower came from, and to the seed. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate on the flower. This is what concentration is—remaining in the thought area of the particular item that you are aware of and flowing through the different color and sound vibrations of the thoughts. How does it work? The powers of concentration—it is only a name. Actually, what is happening is you are flowing awareness through the area of the mind which contains the elements which actually made that particular flower, and you are perceiving how all those elements came together." So this is, gives Gurudeva's distinction between attention and concentration. So attention is simply holding awareness focused on an object. Could be external object or an internal object. That's attention. Concentration is when we start to think about that object. Then we get some Shum. Get two Shum series here that relate. taka (which is not our blog) taka Twine for binding or tying rehtaka To hold the emotions under control vûmrehtaka Remaining concentrated through physical discomfort. Holding the thread of what is being concentrated upon. This portrait defines the process of holding the thread of concentration throughout internal distraction such as gas in the stomach, a stiff back or a pain in the leg from sitting in one position too long. Diaphragmatic breathing and the knowledge that the thread of concentration can be held are essential to maintaining vûmrehtaka. Overcoming internal static with undistracted concentration. And the second Shum series: kamnam A box; tight container. nakamnam Concentration, keeping the mind on what one is doing. kamnakamnam Gently pulling awareness back to the object of concentration; concentration, focusing awareness, attention; this portrait names the process of handling the flow of thought which has wandered from the subject matter being concentrated upon; perceiving the flowing areas of the fourth dimension of the mind, which governs the third mind [dimension] and causes it to flow. So if you're in a Shum meditation and your mind wanders you can say "kamnakamnam". Come back to the object you're supposed to be thinking about. See we use it in some of our meditations in the past 'kamnakamnam'. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.