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Originally posted by slenten

For some people, neo-advaita is a good place to start until they meet the qualifications to begin more comprehensive, systematic inquiry.

Doesn't Anadi describe the Absolute as like death, a state that cannot be maintained without the death of the body (Nirvakalpa Samadhi?). James Swartz would - and has - taken issue with Anadi's views because they are experiential: based on limited states and of a hierarchical structure.

James' view, as a Vedantin, is that, after the hard and fast knowledge that we are
"limitless, non-dual, actionless ordinary awareness," we may come
to realize that we neither exist nor not exist because we know we are the Self.

Now, does that mean that pure Awareness, existing before consciousness is the Self? Isn't the dichotomy of Awareness and consciousness a duality? Wouldn't knowledge of the Self render all of it moot?

Recently, I was reading Jean Dunn's preface to her book "Prior to Consciousness" in which she said that Nisargadatta forbade quoting of scriptures in the last year of his life. It seems he stridently encouraged his students to report their experiences without reference to scriptural authority. This is an interesting challenge: what is happening to me without recourse to Yogic/Vendantic/Advaitic, etc. concepts and descriptions.

I can say that I know a emanating, light-like (a loose similarity to retinal sensation) source of consciousness in the region of the mid-brain that when focused upon seems to be the carrier signal or monitor of other thoughts and bodily sensations. This source can be isolated and is distinct from volitional thought, and, once the mind quiets, a natural deep focus on the area occurs. This energy can be channeled to the chest area and extended to the rest of nervous system so that it all resonates in the same subtle way. From this state, the center of the chest becomes very emotionally subtle, and becomes the predominate, emanating focus. It seems that repeated harmonizing of the nervous system in this way leads to spontaneous, intuitive knowledge and to extremely subtle states of consciousness.

Experience has taught me that isolating these centers is a dead end and that harmonizing the entire nervous system to act as an investigative device is the key to in-depth knowledge and an expansion of the heart.

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Originally posted by CarsonZi


Awareness, consciousness, absolute, neo-advaita, these are all just words. And they mean different things to different people. None of these words are TRUTH. And here, there has been a shift towards desiring only Truth. And Truth can only be known, it can't be (adaquately) captured with words.

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Originally posted by wakeupneo

Slenten,

Anadi describes the initial entry into the absolute state as a death like experience. You sense of self identity gets pulled into the unmanifested, so yes--- if is a death, even in the literal sense. Your sense of being pierces the hara.

The absolute, according to Anadi, once realized can be stabilized and integrated. This process of stabilization and integration is refered to in Zen as being like a "withered tree". All your life force is getting pulled into the hara, it's almost difficult to exist at this point, as there is nothing to do and the vital force is not circulating towards your higher centers.

Once stabilized however, the vital forces continues to function normally. The sense of identity completely encompasses consciousness, the heart and is anchored in the unmanifest4ed - the absolute--- this is more or less the supreme state according to Anadi's teachings. Please don;t quote me on this as Anadi's teachings are very percise and detailed... this is my rough understanding.

Personally I feel Swartz puts way too little emphasis on the energetic/experiential aspect. Essepcially when reading his auto-biography it's chop full of how his guru pierced all his granthis and raised his kundalini to the crown.

It's interesting that the focus for you has shifted from the mid-brain to the chest area --- this is accurate according to the teachings of Ramana and Anadi --- is this something that you did consciously?

best,
j

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p. 381 Gate Gate Paragate

‘Gate Gate Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!’
Prajna Paramita is the great transcendent mantra; it is
also called the great bright mantra, the supreme mantra,
the unsurpassable.
The esoteric meaning of the mantra relates to the three
stages of enlightenment. This commentary is given to
celebrate Osho's enlightenment day.
Gate, gate means: Gone, gone - gone from suffering to
liberation.This is the first stage of enlightenment. Ego is
transcended and you merge with the Being in the fifth
body. Being is so vast, so beautiful, such love and bliss,
and still there is much more.
Paragate means: Gone beyond - gone all the way to
the other shore. In the second stage of enlightenment
Being is transcended and your individual soul merges
with Paramatman, the sixth body.
The sixth body is pure awareness, the cosmic witness
with no trace of thought. Many mystics remain at this
stage with the complete opening of the third eye.
Parasamgate indicates: The ultimate liberation, full enlightenment,
the seventh body of Source where even the
cosmic fire of the witness is transcended.
On 21 March 1953, Osho passed through all three
stages of enlightenment in one night.
‘Bodhi Svaha!’ What an awakening!

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p. 402 Enlightenment

Direct spiritual experience transcends the mind and
cannot be accurately communicated: the truth cannot be
spoken. Words and concepts are but pale indicators of
immense and unspeakable mysteries - until you know
what they mean from direct experience.
The concept of enlightenment is ambiguous. When enlightenment
actually happens, however, it is a dramatic
event that is far from a mere concept.
Enlightenment has three stages. The first stage is the
permanent merging of your soul with the fifth body, a
jump out of ego into Being. Most souls live at least one
life in the first stage of awakening.
In the second stage the third eye opens and reveals the
potent awareness of the witness. Enlightenment quite literally
happens. You are consumed by the awesome light
of the sixth body, the Cosmic Being or witness.
The last stage is the seventh body, nirvana, extinction
of the seeds of desire and transcendence of the witness.
It requires the full opening of the seventh chakra, the
thousand-petalled lotus. Now all lust for life has gone
forever.
After the seventh body is mahaparanirvana, beyond
the great ultimate enlightenment, when you leave a body
for the last time and your soul disappears back to Source
forever.
These words are just concepts; they are fingers pointing
to the moon. Your empirical verification is required.

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Originally posted by CarsonZi

Interesting thread.

Recently, this desire for Truth has developed into a need to abide as deeply as possible in what I've been calling "present moment awareness." But again, those are just words and they don't even scratch the surface of what this actually IS. It isn't even experienced. It is just KNOWN. Debate, classification, definition, these are all useful, but only to an extent. Eventually these will all drop away into the knowing (within the heart) of what it is we are all talking about here.

Love!

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Yes, as you point out, Swartz and his lineage don't deal with the energetic/experiential side of things. Swartz' teacher held a dim view of yogic practices which is interesting since he took sanyas from Swami Sivananda who sent him to Himalaya-residing, Swami Tapovanam who taught him for 8 years. Tapovanam seemed to be a great influence on all of them and he didn't discourage the various yogas for bringing the mind under control.

I followed Anadi's method of heart inquiry but found that my mind lacked sufficient purity and my energy was not fully under control. Once my mind was quiet and kundalini was subtle and useful, I had more sensitivity for the task.

I wonder if Anadi's Absolute is a shutting down of the brain to the reticular formation and its path to the brainstem which does eventually feed into the solar plexus and on to the perineum. He does say that the Absoute State is not in everyone's destiny and seems to have de-emphasized it in his writings.

Is his Hara located in the solar plexus? This is where my mileage varies. If the thrust of his current teachings focus on the soul which is in a higher center than the lower, emotional center in the solar plexus then wouldn't we want to use the purity of the mind to link with the higher emotional center in the chest area and increase its resonance rather than dropping or lowering the energy? It seems to me that one risks unwanted kundalini spikes which have to be handled, and, while they can be repurposed, it does disquiet the mind... they can, however, be captured quickly and guided to the heart but then subtle contemplation is lost. So, it seems that these approaches are at cross purposes.

But getting back to your original post, at the beginning of this
topic, the intriguing question of what is before pure consciousness,
is very tantalizing. Can we say that pure consciousness is a layer?
Or, is it the carrier signal of the brain, the most basic wave, in
the oldest part of that organ, a region with nervous connections
and big junctions all the way down to the root in the perineum.

Can there be something more fundamental than that? Physiologically, no,
psychologically, perhaps yes, fine intuition does return the knowledge of
a mysterious feeling of never existing yet apparently
existing. Is this a trick of the brain? Or, from another perspective,
is merging the energy of pure consciousness with the heart, a door
to the Self? We can experience a basic, truth about ourselves when we
exist from that entity of light which is distinct when the nervous
system is harmonized from pure consciousness?

From that perspective, pure consciousness could be seen as a component
in the structure of the Self, or, a layer of understanding to be
peeled away to reveal its function in the whole.


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