The Story of Awareness, Part 1
Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Description: Gurudeva in India and Sri Lanka on Innersearch 1969. Awareness and the mystic living two thirds within. Flowing through areas of the mind, being in a pure state of awareness. Shum words relating to meditation and awareness, muif, tyemmuif, shumif, banif, dibanif. Dibanif: a goal to cultivate awareness fluid and free from fear, flowing. "Guru Chronicles", "The Master Course Trilogy","Merging with Siva" Lessons 29 and 30.
Transcription:
Good morning everyone.
This morning we look to start a new chapter from "Merging with Siva" Chapter 5, "The Story of Awareness" drawn from "The 1970 Master Course" and we're inserting some material from 1969 from "The Guru Chronicles" to give historical perspective here.
This is an excerpt describing the 1969 Innersearch Program to India and Sri Lanka.
"Gurudeva’s entire mission was transformed by those weeks, by the profound encounters in India and Ceylon. Having visited Hinduism’s source, worshiped at Chidambaram and immersed his followers in the ancient dharma, he would return many times, and he would bring forth like a river in spate all that he saw and remembered from his youth. No longer would India and Ceylon be a soft reference of the past. They would take center stage in his continuing efforts to bring the West knowledge of the Self and the beauties of Hindu culture.
"During the pilgrimage, a daily diary was published to inform everyone back home of the events and experiences. These Odyssey Letters were mailed to Virginia City, printed and distributed from there to make everyone at home feel they were on the journey."
And we have Lesson 29:
"Awareness, a Ball of Light
"The average person who is not a mystic lives two-thirds in the external area of the mind and one-third within himself. The within of himself can be, and sometimes is, very foreboding. He doesn’t understand it. He is a little afraid of it and prefers to involve himself with external things. Possibly he’s had some inner experiences, some emotional unhappinesses, and he shuns anything that is inner. The mystic lives, and is taught to live, two-thirds within himself and only one-third in the external. In learning how to do this, the mystic is taught to become consciously conscious, or aware that he is aware. He learns to separate awareness from that which he is aware of. The person who is not a mystic, living two-thirds in the external mind, says, 'I am happy,' meaning, 'I am aware of a state of mind called happiness, and I am in that state, so that is me.'
"Or, 'I am unhappy. Unhappiness is me.' The mystic living two-thirds within says to himself, 'I am flowing through the area of the mind that’s always unhappy.' He doesn’t change; he is a pure state of awareness."
Then we get our commentary, two Shum words that are related.
muif
Actinic or soul identity, subsuperconsciousness; holding an awareness of oneself as the soul in juxtaposition with awareness in the physical-mental-emotional world.
(And then the next step in.)
tyemmuif
Looking within with eyes slightly open; looking out into the exterior world through the physical eyes, which are slightly open, and at the same time looking back into the head as if one had pupils on the back of the eyeballs; tyemmuif may be practiced many times during the day; this is the practice and the state of being of protecting the inner life by remaining two-thirds within inner consciousness and one-third in external consciousness, in communication with the third dimension or conscious-mind world; (So that's how it ties into the text; this is a way of remaining two-thirds within, the practice of tyemmuif a few times during the day.) tyemmuif brings a shumif perspective, as well as kamsatyemni; while in tyemmuif, looking within, the meditator will see many things—from balikana (a clear whitish field of soft light) to pleasing and not-so-pleasing pictures; people are often seen in a state of tyemmuif while thinking deeply, working out a problem or intuiting an idea or plan;) when one becomes sleepy in meditation, it is wise to go into tyemmuif by opening the eyes slightly.
That's an interesting idea if you hadn't thought about it, meditating with your eyes open. But it does work. So, eyes are open slightly not totally and of course you don't want to be looking at a brilliant external light, that won't work either. But you can actually meditate with the eyes open slightly which helps overcome sleepiness.
Back to our text:
"Visualize a little ball of light. We’ll call that man’s individual awareness, and that light is shining right out from his eyes, and this little ball of light is going through the mind. It’s going through the area of the mind that’s always unhappy. It’s going through the area of the mind that’s always dreaming, the area of the mind that’s delightfully happy, the area of the mind that’s in absolute bliss, the area of the mind that’s absolutely in jealousy all the time, the area that’s in fear all the time—many people live in this area of the mind; it’s quite crowded with lots of balls of light there. This ball of light flows through the area of the mind that’s in resentment. It’s like a churning ocean. It’s a delightful place to be in, especially if you’re a little ball. You get bounced all around. (Little humor there.) Then there’s the area of the mind that is completely peaceful and has always been peaceful. No mood or emotion has ever been in it to ruffle it, because that’s the peaceful area of the mind. The one who meditates seeks out this area to become aware in. Man’s individual awareness is just like this little ball of light, and it’s like a camera. It photographs. It registers. It understands. It is pure intelligence. Man knows where he is in the mind, but the first step in awakening on the path of enlightenment is to separate awareness from that which it is aware of."
And Lesson 30:
"Claim the Being Of Yourself
"We say, 'I am sick,' and in the English language that means my body is sick, or I am aware of this body not being in a perfect state of health. The mystic knows he is not this body. He can even remember dropping off the body many, many different times, getting new bodies through the process of reincarnation. We are not what we are aware of. We are separate from that which we are aware of. We are only flowing through these areas of the mind. If we live in San Francisco, we are not San Francisco. If we live in unhappiness, we are not unhappiness. That’s only one of the cities of the mind. This is a great meditation. You can grasp this awakening in thirty seconds. You can grasp this awakening in thirty hours, or thirty minutes. You can grasp this awakening and have it come to you vibrantly in thirty weeks, thirty months, or thirty years or thirty lifetimes. It just depends upon your willpower.
"As soon as we can understand awareness detached from that which it is aware of, we have a vibrant energy, a tremendous drive. A tremendous willpower is released from within us, and we live with the feeling that we can do anything that we want to do, almost as quickly as we want to do it. We want things to happen now, for we vividly see the area where they already exist within the force fields of the mind itself.
"How do we live our life from this point? We begin to apply this philosophy in every department of our life. There are some habit patterns in our subconscious mind that have not caught up with this new perspective as yet, and you’ll be running up against them. As soon as you find awareness totally identified with a subconscious area that has become conscious, immediately turn within, detach awareness from that which it is aware of and just be pure energy.
"You can expect a beautiful life, a beautiful relationship with the being of yourself. Claim the being of yourself as you. You have enough knowledge now. You don’t have to discover the being of yourself and keep looking for it.
"Just be the being of yourself and travel through the mind as the traveler travels around the globe. The wonderful story of awareness, I could go on and on talking about it, because it is so very basic and so very, very important. This then makes an infinite intelligence and everyone the same. Only, they are living in different areas of the mind, or different houses. "
Then we get some Shum words. Of course the basic one that relates is:
shumif
One of four perspectives, the meditative viewpoint of being awareness flowing from one area of the inner mind to another, the mind itself being stationary; the perspective of the Shum-Tyeif language; it is also simply called the Shum perspective; in Saiva Siddhanta, it includes the deeper meditative practices; it is an advaitic or monistic viewpoint.
Then we have a two word Shum series here:
banif
The inner sight of light, illumination and lights within lights within the sixth dimension; enjoy the occurrence as you see one light moving inside of another without mixing with each other; when this happens we can say 'banif u iftye,' meaning we can see the movement of light within iftye.
And:
dibanif
Awareness, fluid and free from fear, flowing; (So this is a goal.) the area of the mind of fluid awareness that one has after namutana; when dibanif is cultivated, awareness can move quickly in any direction, thus mental arguments with others or with oneself do not occur; this is a useful portrait to master.
Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.