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The Lotus of the Heart, Part One

Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Description: Gurudeva received, as superconscious revelations, divine transmissions which he used to provide a traditional pattern of Hindu ascetic life and to effectively guide and govern his monasteries in monistic Śaiva Siddhānta. The Self God dwells deep within the lotus of light within the heart. The subconscious area of the mind is attached magnetically to many things; by going within you can rid yourself ot the attachments by going with the light. Related Shum words of the first through fourth dimensions: rehunishum, símvumkami. Take steps to realize the self-effulgent being with the lotus of your heart. The Self does not exist in the area of the mind where thoughts are. When individual awareness turns inward, it is possible to contact the light radiations within the lotus of the heart; it then is possible to fully realize Sat­chid­ānanda. “The Guru Chronicles”, “Master Course Trilogy, The 1972 Master Course, Merging with Siva, Lessons 57-58.”

Transcription:
Good morning everyone. And we're beginning a new chapter today, "Merging with Siva" "Lotus of the Heart" drawn from "The 1972 Master Course". So we have some: "Guru Chronicles": "What Gurudeva returned with each day was a new chapter of the Lemurian and Dravidian Shastras, which was read only by the monks for twenty-four years before he felt the world was ready and released it under the title Lemurian Scrolls. It was a revelation, a divine transmission that unfolded the early history of mankind in remarkable detail, how we came to this Earth four million years ago, the spiritual culture of early man, the mysteries of the kundalini and the Central Sun—focusing on the nature of life within ancient cloistered Saivite monasteries—how we lived in the ages now lost to human history. "Much of what was revealed to Gurudeva answered a need for traditional principles to effectively guide and govern his monasteries, provide a traditional pattern of Hindu ascetic life and catalyze his monks’ spiritual unfoldment. These Shastras, along with the Saivite Shastras, an intimate revelation that a group of devas wrote exclusively for Gurudeva’s monastic order, became a spiritual guideline that strengthened their faith and informed every dimension of their existence. The monks treasured the privilege and blessing of being around Gurudeva as these superconscious revelations poured through him each day, as the wisdom of the ages revealed itself page by page by page; much like being with the rishis of yore, they thought." Then we get the Lesson 57: "Emanations From Within "Man is like an egg. He lives and moves within the shell of his own concepts; and within a certain area of the mind that is comfortable to him he finds security. Within this area of the mind there are certain strata of thought flow with which he becomes familiar, emotional stresses that he has adjusted to as he matured. Within the eggshell he finds the pressures of his maturing pressing upon the boundaries of his accustomed area of mind and emotion. One day the shell breaks, and man steps out in all his glory. "In this new area of expanded consciousness, he feels insecure. At this time, the mystical teachings that have come down through the ages are of value to him. These mystical teachings become the new circumference of mind, thought and feeling in which he lives. After each new experience that he encounters, he turns toward the teachings of wisdom for confirmation, encouragement and renewed understanding of the path. He unfolds naturally into a new philosophy, a new outlook on life, and seeks to put into practice all he has learned from within himself. To sharpen his sense perception, he turns to the practices of monistic Śaiva Siddhānta and finds that his own individual willpower plays a part in maturing and stabilizing the force fields around him. Previously, when he was unfolding inside the eggshell and experiencing the breaking of the eggshell, his individual will had no part to play. Now, as a more unfolded being, he discovers his inner willpower and, through the perspective of monistic Śaiva Siddhānta, he is able to use it to move his individual awareness into a greater enlightenment and thus intensify life. "This then begins a series of inner experiences that become so vibrant and vital to him that he recognizes them even more strongly than the experiences of everyday life in the external areas of the mind known as the world. We speak here of some of these experiences man encounters after the eggshell that surrounded him in his infancy on the path has broken. Relate this to yourself personally. In doing so, you will note areas where you have been in the inner mind. "Visualize within yourself a lotus. Have you ever seen a lotus flower? I am sure you have. Now visualize this lotus flower centered right within the center of your chest, right within your heart. You have read in the Hindu scriptures that the Self God dwells in the lotus within the heart. Let’s think about that. We all know what the heart is, and we know what happens when the heart stops. Try to mentally feel and see the heart as a lotus flower right within you. Within the center of the lotus, try to see a small light. Doubtless you have read in the Hindu scriptures that the Self God within the heart looks like a brilliant light about the size of your thumb—just a small light. This light we shall call an emanation of your effulgent being. We could also call it your atomic power, the power that motivates, permeates, makes the mind self-luminous. It is dwelling right within. The Self God is deeper than that. The lotus is within the heart, and the Self God dwells deep within the lotus of light. "The subconscious area of the mind consumes many different things. Begin now to think about all the things that you own in your home and all of your personal possessions. The subconscious area of the mind is attached magnetically to each of them. They not only exist in the external world, they also exist, quite alive, within the subconscious area of your mind, along with all the ramifications connected to them. Each item that you own has a story attached to it which, of course, you remember. This story, too, dwells within the subconscious mind and is carried along with you all of the time. "But it is easy to rid yourself of the attachments to material things by going within, once you know how. The light which emanates from the lotus of the heart knows nothing about what the subconscious area of the mind consumes, because the total area of the mind in which we are aware is a composite of many things." And we get some Shum words in the commentary: rehunishum: Third dimension; subconscious mind; the interrelated magnetic forces in the astral plane that exist between people and between people and their things; the world of thoughts and feelings, of emotions and intellectual theory; this dimension relates to the first three kamshumalínga—akylisimbi, rehnamtyevum and bivumbika. símvumkami: Fourth dimension; subsuperconscious mind; awareness cognizing the interrelated forces of the fifth, fourth and third dimensions; from this detachment we gain the ability to dissolve confusions, conflicts and the various and varied entanglements that are encountered daily; the realm of artistic creativity; here is the resting place where we look in and up and out and down; consciousness should never go lower, but when soaring higher returns to this resting place, the fourth dimension; this dimension relates to the kamshumalínga rehmtyenali; to experience the portraits within this dimension, look at the world from the chest area. Then Lesson 58: "The Subtlety Within You "Everyone who functions in external and inner life lives in a slightly different area of the mind and consumes within his conscious and subconscious areas many thousands of concepts. No person is exactly the same as another in this respect. The Self within knows nothing of this, because it exists of itself. Wherever awareness flows through the totality of the mind, the Self is always the same. When individual awareness turns inward, it is possible to contact the light radiations within the lotus of the heart; it then is possible to fully realize Sat­chid­ānanda. "It is useless to think about the Self, because it does not exist in the area of the mind where thoughts are. If you were to think about it, you would only become aware of concepts within the mind, and that would take you away from it. It is also useless to talk about the Self, really, in your efforts to realize it, because when you do, again you take awareness deep into the conceptual area of the mind, which is further away from your real, self-effulgent being. "The first step is to try to feel the subtlety within you. The light within the lotus of the heart comes from someplace, doesn’t it? Let us think about it in this way. Each time you take a breath, you bring yourself a little closer, you turn yourself within just a little bit more and release a little bit of actinic energy emanating from the self-effulgent being residing within your heart. This energy is called life. We say, “This is my life.” If you stop breathing, the life in your body stops. We have to use willpower to control the breath. When we do control the breath, we begin to have an immense control, and awareness begins to become detached from that which it is aware of. This means that we are consciously conscious of what we are aware of—that we are aware. We control our individual awareness more than we realize when we practice the regulation and control of breath. For instance, as we breathe, prā­ṇā­yāma—in on nine counts, hold one, out on nine counts, hold one—we find that we begin to become more alert, more alive. Our awareness is more subtle and refined." Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day. [End of transcript.]