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Five Steps to Enlightenment, Part Two

Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Description: Gurudeva on awareness moving through the mind, diving through pure consciousness into the Source into samadi into the Self. This takes attention, concentration, and meditation. There is a tremendous vastness. You have to want Realization more than your life. The five steps: attention, concentration, meditation, contemplation, samadhi. We are on this planet for the realization of the Self. Shum series on alertness and attention. "Master Course Trilogy" Merging with Siva, Chapter 13, Five Steps to Enlightenment.

Transcription:
Good morning everyone. This morning we're continuing Chapter 13, Five Steps to Enlightenment. Lesson 90 "Going in and Coming out "The Self is so simple. You have to be so simple to realize the Self, not simple-minded, but so unattached. Awareness has to be able to move so nimbly through the mind, like a graceful deer going through the forest, so deftly through the mind, that none of the sticky substance of the mind, so to speak, sticks onto awareness and holds it steadfast for a period of time. And only with that agility can you move awareness in quickly into the Source, in on itself, until you come out having realized the Self. It is an experience you come out of more than go into. "If you were to explain Self Realization in another way, look at it in this way. Right out here we have a swimming pool. Beneath the surface of the water, we will call that the Self. The surface of the water, just the surface of it, we will call that the depths of contemplation, that pure consciousness, that most super-rarefied area of the mind, the most refined area of the mind of pure consciousness. And we are going to dive through pure consciousness into the Self. We will call the physical body awareness. It’s a body of light, and it’s going to dive into the Self, into the depths of samadhi. But to do that, it has to break the surface, has to break pure consciousness. "So, then, we make a preparation. Attention! We take all our clothes off. We put on a bathing suit and walk around the pool. We are getting ready for this great dive. Concentration! We pull our forces together. We don’t quite know what is going to happen to us. Meditation! We look over the swimming pool. We look over the whole thing. We are studying out the philosophy of just what we are going to do. We even try to measure the depth of the Self. We talk to people about it and ask, 'Have you jumped in there?' Some say, 'No, but I intend to one day,' and others will answer, 'Yes.' 'Well, can you tell me something about it?' They say, 'Uh-uh, no.' Then you go into contemplation. You just stand. And you are completely aware of just standing there, right on the brink of the Absolute, and you are standing—so, so, so much conscious that you’re there; you are just aware of being aware. And then you laugh, and then you jump in. As your hands and head go into the water, they disappear. As the body breaks the surface, it disappears. As the legs go in, they disappear. And we are all looking at the surface of the swimming pool and don’t see you there anymore. You just disappeared, the whole body. "As you come out of that samadhi, first the hands and head come up and begin to appear again—then the chest, then the entire torso. Then, as you climb out from the pool, the legs reappear, and finally the feet appear again. You are just the same as you were before, but you are all clean on the inside. Awareness has a new center. The center is way down in the bottom of there, someplace that you can’t even talk about. You have realized, when you come out, that you have realized the Self. "Before you went in, you knew all sorts of things about it. You could quote a thousand different things about the Self; you knew so much. And when you come out, you don’t know anything about it at all. You know you have had a tremendous experience. You have had an inner bath. Then you go back into just enjoying the experience—contemplation. Then you begin to meditate, coming out again on the experience. And there is a vastness in you that awareness can no longer penetrate. It’s a tremendous vastness; you just can’t penetrate it anymore. You go in and in and in, and then all of a sudden you realize that you have realized the Self again. And you go in and in and in, and then all of a sudden you realize that you have realized the Self again. And everything is different. "You look at the world from the inside out. You look at people from the inside out. You look at a person, and immediately you see how he came along through life. You look at his face, and you see what his mother looks like. You look into his subconscious mind; you see what his home looked like. You see what he was like when he was ten years old, fourteen, twenty, twenty-five years old; and now he is thirty. And at the same time you are seeing what he is going to look like when he is forty years old, and so forth. You see the whole sequence, all now. Then you really know, after that deep samadhi, that the mind, in all phases of manifestation, was all finished long ago. It’s already complete. "Before that, you try to believe in that concept. And it’s a vast concept to believe in, because at certain times, when awareness is flowing in the external areas of the mind, it certainly doesn’t look that way at all. Our perspective is limited." Then we get Lesson 91 "After Self Realization "After the deep samadhi of Self Realization, our perspective couldn’t really be called vast; we simply see things the way they are. And it’s as simple as that. We see things the way they are, and that is the way they are, from the inside out. You look at a tree. You see the energies of the tree all working within the tree. Then, after that, you see the leaves and the bark, and yet you see it all at the same time, all working together. That is Self Realization. "There are the five steps on the path of enlightenment, five steps that you have to work with. The first one could be the most difficult—attention. It is making a strong, brave soldier that’s going on a great mission out of awareness. By calling awareness to attention, awareness immediately has to detach itself from that which it was previously aware of. For when awareness is attached to that which it is aware of, it thinks it is that thing. It doesn’t think it is that thing, but seemingly so. When we detach awareness from that which it is aware of, we can move freely through the mind, first in a limited area of the mind, then in a more and more vast area of the mind. "Then we learn to concentrate, which awakens the power of observation. If you have attention and concentration, the other stages will come automatically. But for Self Realization, you have to really want it more than your life; for that deep samadhi, that’s what it is: more than your life. The realization of the Self, beyond the rarefied areas of pure consciousness, is more than your life. You have to want it more than your life. "Memorize these five steps: attention, concentration, meditation, contemplation, samadhi. Now, there are various stages of samadhi—savikalpa samadhi, nirvikalpa samadhi—but when I use the word samadhi, I refer to Self Realization, the Totality, the Ultimate, which I just described. It is worth seeking for. It is worth striving for. It is worth making a mission of existence on this planet for. "We are not on this planet to become educated, to get things, to make money, to dress up the physical body, to acquire property, to feed ourselves. We are on this planet for the realization of the Self, for that one thing, to go within ourselves. That is why we have come to this planet, and we will keep coming back through the process of reincarnation, time and time and time again, until that awareness grows up into a great big ball, where it is strong enough to move through the rarefied areas of the mind—if we are comparing awareness to a ball, from a ping-pong ball, to a volleyball, to a beach ball—and finally we are just there." And we get our Shum series: imvûm A warning sign shuhimvûm Alert, being alert or alerted kashuhimvûm Attention; come to attention or paying attention; concentrate, think, acquire a poised, quiet mind that is under control; pulling oneself together so that the area of the mind that governs the third dimension of one's life is functioning. huhkashuhimvûm Alertness in all situations. Then we get an example of using attention limfniya Visualization of the color blend of rich yellow and bright yellow; the exercise of looking at a color found in nature or in a pigment and then with eyes closed visualize what had been seen; this sadhana is done to strengthen the power of attention, concentration and visualization; visualization is a vital faculty in the process of creation. There's a whole series of these color attention sadhanas in the Shum Lexicon if you've never seen it. So visualization, yes visualization is very important. So it's important for creation and as Gurudeva said here if you're trying to create something, if you're able to visualize it clearly then that helps the process of creation take place. And then in terms of meditation helps as Merging with Siva points out, visualization is a first step toward actually experiencing something. So if you can visualize an inner light that's a good step toward actually seeing it. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.