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The Purpose of Life, Part 3

Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Description: The process on the path of enlightenment is unfolding and unfolding through the ages. The mystic remains in the eternity of the moment: that is the state of awareness to hold. If you go to the past or future, go there for a purpose. Shum for eternity of the moment: bîsî. For the best major decisions, go in and in for intuitive guidance. Preparing for a new cycle, in Shum: kamrehyûta. Learn through your tremendous power of observation. “Master Course Trilogy, Merging With Siva” Chapter4, Lessons 17-19.

Transcription:
Good morning everyone. We are continuing with "Merging with Siva" Chapter 3, entitled "The Purpose of Life" which is drawn from the "1970 Master Course" and we're up to Lesson 17: "The Path of Unfoldment "Meditate on man being like a lotus flower. He comes through the mud, his instinctive mind, and he's aware of the things of the instinctive mind: hate and greed and love and passion, and jealousy and sorrow, and happiness and joy and excitement. He comes into the intellectual mind. He becomes aware of ancient history and predictions about the future, politics, all sorts of systems, all sorts of organizations, institutions and opinions of other people. And this consumes and overshadows the soul, life after life after life, just as the desires and cravings of the instinctive mind overshadow the soul life after life after life after life. But all this time, the body of the soul is growing up. It's getting stronger. It's absorbing the reactions of each lifetime, drawing more energies from the central source of energy to build up and absorb these reactions; and this is food for the soul. Then, finally, awareness comes into its bud state. It says, 'Here I am, a bud, and I'm out of the mud, and I'm out of the water.' We'll look at the mud as being the instinct, we'll look at the water as being the intellect and we'll look at the air as superconsciousness. 'Now I want to unfold, and be of service to mankind and everyone else who is unfolding, I see them all down in the mud, caught in the mud like I was at one time. I want to help them out of the mud. Then I see hundreds of people caught in the intellect. They're all in the water. They think they're a stem, but I know I'm a bud.' Then begins the process on the path of enlightenment for this bud unfolding and awareness expanding. First it becomes aware of the inner processes of the body and how breath controls thought. Then it becomes aware of the inner processes of the mind, how light moves through the body, how the mind of light begins to work, and it goes on unfolding and unfolding and unfolding through the ages. "If we look at the past as a catalog and the future as a planning book, and now as the only reality of time, we have dodged the past and we have dodged the future, because we have brought them both into the eternity of the moment. The mystic on the path of unfoldment doesn't allow his awareness to go into the past and flow through all the yesterdays and relive in his mind what formerly happened to him physically. The mystic doesn't go into the future and live emotionally experiences that may or may not happen to him. The mystic remains in the present, right now--using the catalog of the experiences of the past and a planning book for his future. This makes him wise, for intellect when it is correctly used at the right time is wisdom..." Comment on that: One way I like to express that idea is: If we're going to go into the past or the future, we should go there to do something productive. We should go into the past, get some of that information and use it in a productive way. We should go into the future, plan something and then make it happen. We don't just go there and kind of not accomplish anything. That's what Gurudeva's saying, it's fine to go to the past and to the future but if want to go there you should go there for a purpose. It's like turning on a computer. Just don't want to sit at the computer all day, if you want to use the computer only when you need to do something that requires its abilities. Likewise, we only want to think about the past and think about the future in a productive way. And Gurudeva continues on this idea of the eternity of the moment. "...Holding the eternity of the moment feeling and the feeling of the being within that has never changed, finally you don't even say it's a being within. That in itself is duality. You just identify it as you, an immortal being who's lived for thousands of years, which never changes except it unfolds more, and it lives now. The past and the future are only intellectual concepts that we live with and have been developed by man himself in that particular area of the mind." And the Shum word that relates to all of this, of course we all know the Shum word for eternity of the moment: bîsî Eternity of the moment felt in the middle of three days in the past and three in the future; bîsî means “I am aware of the unreality of time and the eternity of the moment;” have you noticed that any concern you might carry always bears upon the past or the future? to dissolve any concern, therefore, all one has to do is guide awareness to the present; living in the moment in the center of three days in the past and three days in the future is the spirit of bîsî; used as a greeting meaning, “We meet in the eternity of the moment.” In other words, the three days in the past and the three in the future are a natural area to be working with in terms of our external responsibilities. We need to think about what we just did and not what we're just going to do. But to exceed that time frame is generally, can be unproductive shall we say. It's just kind of a: "what if this happens, what if that happens, or, why did this happen or why did that happen?" It's an unproductive adventure. So being productive particularly relates to three days in the past and three days in the future. And we're up to Lesson 18: " Making Wise Decisions "Life is a series of decisions also. One decision builds into another. To make a good decision, we have to again bring our total awareness to the eternity of the moment. If we project ourselves into the future to try to make a decision, we do not make a decision with wisdom. If we project ourselves into the past and in that way formulate our decisions, again they are not necessarily wise decisions, for they are decisions made through the powers of the intellectual or the instinctive area of the mind. The best decisions come to us when we hold the consciousness of the eternity of the moment and go within ourself for the answer. "The best rule in making a decision is: when in doubt, do nothing. Have the subject matter so clearly in mind, so well thought out, that soon the answer will be self-evident to you. There will be just no other way to go. Good, positive decisions bring good, positive action and, of course, positive reactions. Decisions that are not well worked out--we jump into experiential patterns haphazardly or emotionally--bring reactions of an emotional nature that again have to be lived through until we cease to be aware of them and experience them emotionally. "Each time we have a decision to make, it's a marvelous test in this classroom of experience. We can make a good decision if we approach it in the eternity of the moment. And, of course, there are no bad decisions. If we make a decision that's different than what we would make in the eternity of the moment--we make it through the instinctive area of the mind or the intellectual area of the mind--we're not sure, totally, of ourself. We do not have enough information to make a good, positive decision. "So, when in doubt in making a decision that's the time to know we have to collect up more information, think about it more. Each decision is the foundation for the next series of experiences. When you are in a sequential series of experiential patterns, you are not making decisions at that time. Only when one experiential pattern has come to an end, and you're ready for a new set of experiences in certain areas of your life, those are the times when you make new decisions. Weigh carefully each decision, because that is the rudder that guides your ship through the whole pattern of life..." That's a very important point, Gurudeva's distinguishing between small decisions and major ones. And major ones are: moving from one state to another, changing jobs, which job is the first job you take when you come out of a university? Major decisions like that are really important and need to be made in the eternity of the moment to work out well. "...Think it over carefully. Go in for intuitive guidance. And nobody knows better than yourself, your own superconscious being, what is to be the next set of experiential patterns for you to go through in your quest for enlightenment. It's all based on decisions. Don't expect someone to make decisions for you. They are second-hand, not the best. Others maybe can give a little bit of advice or supply a different perspective or added information for you to make a better decision. But the decision you make yourself in any matter is the most positive, most powerful one, and should be the right one. Do it from the eternity of the moment. That is the state of awareness to hold." And then there's a Shum word that relates to that: kamrehyûta Preparing for a new karmic cycle, as outlined in jyotisha; as one enters an area of the mind, he travels through it either quickly or slowly, as a traveler passes through a city; having had the experience, a new cycle begins; plans for a new cycle, for entrance into a new area of the mind, can be made while still within a persisting experience. So preparing for a new karmic cycle which is Gurudeva's idea there about finishing one set of experiences and starting another, you need to make a good decision. And Lesson 19 "Using the Power Of Observation (first part) "There are several ways we can make decisions, and there are guidelines to help us. There are basic principles that we can follow in life that other people have followed which helped guide their decisions along. It worked out fairly well for them, so we can follow those basic principles, too. And we’ll go in after a while to outlining some of these basic principles that help us make good, positive decisions, for we can learn by observing other people, the decisions they have made, the reactions and experiential patterns that followed. We can learn by observing other people. The first faculty of the expression of the inner being of your immortal soul is the great power of observation, to learn through observation, as your individual awareness detaches itself from that which it is aware of. You have tremendous powers of observation, for you are a free spirit. You’re just here on this planet to observe. And through your powers of observation you can go through the experiential patterns of other people by observing what they’re going through without having to go through them yourself. (Short cut.) Some mystics live several lifetimes in one in this way..." So that reminded me of a "Publisher's Desk" I wrote, 2008, "Using TV As A Spiritual Tool". Now I like to call it "Streaming Videos". Using streaming videos as a spiritual tool. This idea of observing other people. We can observe other people not just in life but also in TV shows, in movies. "...Parents can help their children learn to use television to increase spirituality by watching programs together and discussing them afterwards. Talk about the various characters, their actions and the consequences of those actions. A good perspective to convey is that 'All men are your teachers. Some teach you what to do and others teach you what not to do.' Oftentimes on today's television programs the principles of reincarnationa and karma are presented in one form or another. This can be pointed out and discussed to see how accurately the concept was presented. There's even a popular comedy about karma, called "My Name Is Earl," which tells of a man working hilariously to resolve his past misdeeds. Mystical practices, which are common in recent shows, such as being able to read other's thoughts or seeing the future in a dream, are also useful to talk about with children, drawing out lessons to be learned." So, can learn through observing other people both in life and in fiction. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.