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The Nature of Thought, Part One

Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Description: The story of Kadavul's Nataraja. Looking at the mind from the threshold of the Absolute. The four perspectives in Shum of looking at the mind from within oneself: shūmīf mūlīf simnīf dīmfī are described. Thought, energy and matter are one from the perspective of the mystic. Thought and matter are synonymous. In Shum, shūmīf dīmfī represents Monistic Theism. Inner Light is the friction between actinic and odic force in meditation. "Master Course Trilogy", "Merging with Siva" Lessons 204, 205. "Guru Chronicles."

Transcription:
Good morning everyone. We are starting a new chapter from "Merging with Siva" it's chapter 30 entitled "The Nature of Thought" and it's drawn from "The 1970 Master Course" and as is our pattern here when we start a new chapter we get some background from "Guru Chronicles." "One day in New Delhi Gurudeva took an early walk during a quiet day. It proved to be a momentous one. He later described it: 'Having pilgrimaged with seventy-five monastics and devotees throughout India and Sri Lanka to saints and sages, ancient temples, dharmashalas, aadheenams and modern ashrams, I happened late one morning, during a spontaneous walk, upon an extraordinary Lord Siva Nataraja Deity at Nirmala’s Copper Bazaar. I walked around the wondrous six-foot-tall bronze statue situated on the busy sidewalk and quietly said, 'Hello!' It was the store’s insignia and showpiece, too precious to sell, the owner declared, as no value could be attached. Bravely disregarding that fact, we bargained and traded through the morning hours and ultimately acquired it, and as evening approached arranged for its shipment to our distant Garden Island of Kauai.' "At Mahasivaratri time a year later, in 1973, in the jungles of Kauai, the murthi was installed in Kadavul Temple..." And then it goes on to say the monks started a three year, a three hour vigil. So monks take turns every three hours in the temple, night and day, 365 days a year. "...During this vigil, they perform constant meditation, puja, yogas and chanting, quelling the mind and giving themselves in profound adoration, prapatti, to this remarkable icon. Thus the arrival of the Siva Nataraja Deity transformed our life, and from that day onward life in and around the monastery has revolved around His divine presence." Then we get our lesson. Lesson 204: "Thought and Awareness "The mystic, while in the beginning stages, tries diligently through his sadhana to extract his awareness from the thinking area of the mind while simultaneously trying to perceive without thinking about what he has perceived. (So perceiving something without thinking about it. That's the challenge.) It is the overview of what has been perceived that the mystic endeavors to super consciously grasp in a series of flashes.(As he'e been thinking about it.) He well knows that thinking is the more externalized strata. The mystic constantly, through every waking moment and even during sleep, endeavors to strengthen his acute observation through perceiving the overview of thought strata rather than thinking through them. My guru often said, 'There is a chair at the top. Sit in it and look at the world from that perspective.' The mystic constantly sits in this chair, looking at mind from the threshold of the Absolute. "It is the baser emotions, when stimulated, that bring awareness from inner depths into the thought strata of the mind, thus strengthening human emotions and feelings with powers of reason and memory. Therefore, for those not too deeply engaged in the external emotional traps, certain sadhanas can be performed to regulate and control these instinctive drives. When they are less impulsive and forceful, one has a sense of being able to control one’s thoughts. Later on, if the sadhana persists, the sense that awareness travels in and among those thoughts is felt, and still later the perceptions occur of hovering above thought, looking out upon the thought stratum of the mind or a portion of it. "To give an example of the thought state, and a deeper state of not thinking but perceiving thoughts, imagine sitting before a television set. The set has not been turned on, and you are thinking about various things that involve you personally and wish to distract awareness from them by watching a television program. When you turn to the program, sitting across the room from the set, you have the sense of perceiving the thoughts, moods and emotions of the program, without necessarily thinking yourself. You perceive. Similarly, the mystic can be called the watcher of the play of life, for he is totally identified with his inner depths, rather than the thought strata and structures he perceives. "The mystic lives in a state similar to that of a child, for a child does not think, but perceives. He, of course, reacts emotionally to some of his perceptions, but it is only when he reaches twelve or fourteen, sometimes younger, that he begins to enter the thought strata of mind. The mystic has deliberately arrived at this state of the child through sadhana and, of course, has awakened the facilities in himself to go into the next succeeding, even more refined, areas of consciousness. The entire concept of creating a thought, or thoughts of the mind already being in existence, or thoughts and concepts disintegrating or being destroyed because they are no longer used, is totally dependent upon the nature of the sadhana of the mystic. There are four different perspectives in looking at the mind from within oneself. In Shum, these four perspectives are called shūmīf mūlīf simnīf and dīmfī. And of course, many more combinations of these perspectives can be utilized and have been, thus creating the various philosophical and metaphysical outlooks that we know today. How thought is seen within one’s mind totally depends on the positioning of one’s individual state of awareness. This, in turn, depends upon prior sadhana he has performed." Very interesting. And Lesson 205: "Thought and Manifestation "Thought and matter are synonymous. They have only to be seen in this way to be understood as such. From the external area of the mind, matter seems to be separate from thought. However, from the central, internal perspective of the mystic, thought, energy and matter are one. Things and forms are and have been manifestations of thought conglomerates through the ages. And, of course, as you look upon animate and inanimate matter with your own faculties, they are immediately reduced to thought. This is the way it is seen by the mystic who has attained Self Realization. He also knows thought to be of an apparent, more permanent nature than animate and inanimate objects, which appear to change rather rapidly. "Therefore, we now have the hypothesis that thought, energy and manifested form are one and the same, only seen as different by the unenlightened. Therefore, we must concur that instantaneously upon thinking about any segment of manifested form, we are simply moving individual awareness into the subtle ether of the mind where the form exists in unmanifest state. By 'unmanifest,' I mean not having physical size, shape and density. Therefore, if matter were not thought, how could it be reduced to thought? This then leads us to another view of form, thought and energy, and that is of the all-pervading energy, the base of all form and thought, the primal substance of the mind— internal and external manifestations of form. Were this to be removed, there would be no form, no thought—either interior or exterior. Man’s individual awareness is of the nature of this all-pervading actinic energy of the universe. I say 'of the nature of' because it has several other qualities as well, being a bridge between the viewing of form and formlessness. "There are various strata of thought, and of these the most obvious, of course, is what normally is termed thinking. The motivation thought stratum of the astral plane, because of its being more refined in nature, therefore more permanent, precedes all externalized thinking. We are not aware of this until we begin to meditate often, having perfected concentration and meditation. However, there is yet another area of thought, which can be viewed from the fifth dimension of the mind, and here we see form in all phases of manifestation from one point in inner space and time. We can look to the future and to the past, viewing one singular object, and see a change in manifestation as new, individual frames on a motion picture film, each one being slightly different from the other. This really has to be experienced to be believed—that all phases of manifestation and all of the various and varied forms of the universe exist in the great circle of life. Therefore, we can conclude that it is the point in time and space where our awareness resides that keys us in to seeing only one frame at a time on this circle of creation, preservation and dissolution of form, which leads into the creation of the same form again. "The mystic, once recognizing his particular point in time and space, can travel around this circle of life at will, his control being prior sadhana performed well during early years of unfoldment." So that stretches the mind out. Then we get the Shum. So, shūmīf mūlīf simnīf dīmfī. So we'll do shūmīf and dīmfī first. Another way of saying shūmīf dīmfī is Monistic Theism. So shūmīf is the monism, dīmfī is the Theism. So our philosophy is Monistic Theism. So we utilize both shūmīf and dīmfī on a regular basis. shūmīf 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 Shûmtyêîf language; it is also simply called the Shûm perspective; in Saiva Siddhanta, it includes the deeper meditative practices; it is an advaitic or monistic viewpoint. Then we get: dīmfī (or Theism) One of four perspectives, the metaphysical viewpoint of looking into inner and outer space; it is a perspective that acknowledges, understands and communicates with God and Gods, beings on the astral plane, people from other planets; it is here that all psychic phenomena take place; in Saiva Siddhânta it includes the consciousness of the devas, Mahâdevas and God Siva experienced in the temple; it is dvaita or a dualistic viewpoint. So that relates to how we approach the temple and how we approach meditation. We don't want to mix the perspectives. When we're meditating in Gurudeva's practice of meditation there's no other being. There's no personal form of the Deity involved. Just going inside ourself. We're not trying to experience another being. In dīmfī we're trying to experience another being and get blessings from that being or knowledge from that being. But we don't do that in meditation and we don't practice shūmīf in the temple during the puja. We can practice it after the puja. So those are those two. Very integral to Monistic Theism and temple and meditation. Then we get: mūlīf One of four perspectives, the philosophical viewpoint of understanding theological, metaphysical and psychological concepts; (So philosophy is a one term way of thinking of mūlīf.) realization is often attained simply through understanding deep philosophical concepts, which would be an intellectual realization, not a spiritual one; in Saiva Siddhanta it includes the intellectual study of Siddhanta philosophy; it can be nondual, dual or both, depending on the comprehensiveness of the philosophy. So for example, we can have the philosophical concept that within us is actinic and odic force and where actinic and odic force meet, we see inner light which is the friction between actinic and odic force, right? So what is inner light? The friction between actinic and odic force. A+. But have you seen the inner light? Now, so to see the inner light you have to shift out of mūlīf into shūmīf. So that's a very important point and philosophy is important to give us clear intellectual concepts. Without philosophy we can be too emotional. And Gurudeva distinguishes that kind of emotion from devotion which is more refined. So we need the philosophy but we need to transcend it either in shūmīf or in dīmfī. Then we get simnīf which you may think initially we don't relate to that much, scientific viewpoint. simnīf One of four perspectives, the scientific viewpoint of looking into matter; in this perspective, the mind is moving and the intelligence of the observer is stationary; understanding comes through observing matter and achieving insights into its behavior; in Saiva Siddhânta it includes the knowledge of hatha yoga, prânâyâmas and the currents of the physical body; it can be dual, nondual or both, depending on the inclusiveness of the scientific theory. So that's a simple way of looking at it, hatha yoga, pranayama is a scientific approach; it's dealing with matter. So when we're dealing with matter we can be in a simnīf perspective. We're trying to understand matter and change matter in hatha yoga and pranayama. So, thank you very much. Very interesting: shūmīf mūlīf simnīf dīmfī. That's a great chant. [End of transcript.]