The Path of Self Inquiry
1. The Life of Wisdom and The Contemplative Life
-The Life of Wisdom and the Contemplative Life
-The Three Components of True Psycho-Spiritual Change
-The Lifelong Lawsuit with Reality
-The Characteristics of Phenomenal and Noumenal Reality
2. The Two Main Types of Meditative Practice
-Insight Meditation and Concentration Meditation
-Reflecting Awareness Vs Concomitant Awareness
-Access Concentration
-Instructions for Seated Insight Meditation
-On Exercises to Deepen your Insight
3. Insight Meditation, Mindfulness, & Clear Comprehension
-Bare Attention
-Clear Comprehension
-The Five Kinds of Clear Comprehension
-Meditation on a Characteristic of Phenomenal Reality
-Discursive Meditation upon Impermanence
-Meditative and Discursive Contemplation of Impermanence
-Meditation on a Characteristic of Noumenal Reality
-The Five Foundations of Awareness
4. Principles of Intensive Insight Meditation
-Principles of Intensive Insight Meditation
-Insight Meditation via the Scanning Method and Energy Circulation Methods
-Dissolving Energy Blocks
-Manifestations of "Kundalini" or Neurological Destabilization
-How to Handle a "Kundalini" Crisis
5. On the Stages of Monistic Insight Meditation
-Beginner’s Stages
-The Seed: Access Concentration
-The Flow of Light
-Concentration without Support
-Branch Paths: The Meditative Absorptions
-Advanced Insight Meditation
-The Extraordinary Mind and Enlightenment
-Review
6. The Path of the Meditative Absorptions
-The Technique of Staggered Breathing and Breath Retention
-The Technique of Colored Discs or Circles
-Signs of Progress Along the Path of Concentration
-Absorptions with Form
-Absorptions without Form or Formless Absorptions
7. Meditation without Form
8. Authentic Spirituality
-Characteristics of Authentic Spiritual Communities and Authentic Spiritual Teachers
-Characteristics of Authentic Spiritual Masters
-Spirituality and Sexuality
-Criteria of Progress for long-term Meditators
-New Age Hedonism and New Age Narcissism
-Gurus, Spirituality, and New Age Fundamentalism
9. Secondary Source Material Used
10. Necessary Philosophical Background for Serious Students
What is the Standard of Reality? That alone is Real
Which exists by Itself, which reveals Itself by Itself, and
Which is Infinite and Eternal.
(Ramana Maharshi)
Whatever is Here, the Same is There.
Whatsoever is There, the very Same is Here.
He goes from death to death who sees any multiplicity in It.
(Katha Upanishad)
Like the Center of a Cloudless Sky,
The Self-Luminous Mind is impossible to Express.
It is wisdom of Nonthought beyond Analogy,
Naked Ordinary Mind.
Not keeping to Dogmatism or Arrogance,
It is clearly seen as Ultimate Reality.
The Appearance of the Six Sense Objects,
Like the Moon in Water,
Shines in the State of Wisdom.
(From a Buddhist Dzogchen Text)
The Tao that can be Spoken is not the Eternal Tao.
The Name that can be Named is not the Eternal Name.
The Unnamable is the Eternally Real,
Naming is the Origin of all Particular Things.
Caught in Desire you see only the Manifestations,
Freed from Desire you Realize the Mystery.
Yet Mystery and Manifestations arise from the Same Source,
This Source is called Darkness.
Darkness within Darkness, the Gateway to all Understanding.
(The Tao Te Ching)
There is neither Creation nor Destruction,
Neither Destiny nor Free Will,
Neither Path nor Attainment.
This is the Final Truth.
(Ramana Maharshi)
My Self of Long Ago,
In Reality Non-existent;
Nowhere to go when Dead,
Nothing at All.
(An Old Zen Master)
So Long as Confidence in Causation is Not Destroyed,
The World is Eternally Present.
But when that Confidence is Extinguished,
The World is not Anywhere to be Found.
(Shankara)
A Mind turned Within Itself and Inactive is, Indeed, Without
Movement.
This is the Condition of the Enlightened Ones:
Unconditioned, Unborn, and Nondual.
Unborn, Sleepless, Dreamless, this Enlightened Mind
is Forever Luminous.
(Guadapada)
The Ignorant Imagine Objects and then Uselessly Pursue
These Phantoms.
The Wise Understand that there is Nothing to Pursue,
And so Attain the Great State of Brahman:
Unconditioned by any Object or Circumstance,
Unoriginated and Undying,
And never Torn between Impulses and Images.
(Gaudapada)
Silently and Serenely One Forgets all Words;
Clearly and vividly That appears.
When one Realizes It, It is Vast and without Limit;
In its Essence, It is Pure Awareness.
Singularly reflecting in this Bright Awareness, full of Wonder in
This Pure Reflection...
Infinite Wonder permeates this Serenity;
In this Illumination all intentional efforts vanish.
Silence is the Final Word.
There is Neither Joy nor Sorrow,
Neither One nor Many,
Neither Self nor Other.
This is the Highest Enlightenment.
(the author)
Personalists and the like will always Protest against, and Fail to
See, The Great Harmony. What is The Great Harmony? It is
Simply the Concrete Realization that The Multiverse is Infinite in
Scope, Power, Qualitative Richness, and is Perfectly and
Timelessly Unified.
In the Light of this Realization, One Knows that all Human
Problems, both Individual and Collective, are Literally as
Nothing When seen Against this Infinite Backdrop.
Therefore, the Human Response should be a Cultivation of
Perfect Equanimity, Perfect Dispassion, and the Perfection of
Compassion and Wisdom.
(The Editor)
Do You Imagine that the Universe is Agitated?
Go into the Desert at Night and Look out at the Stars.
This Practice Should Answer the Question.
(The Hua Hu Ching)
He who seeks only Himself brings Himself to ruin,
Whereas He who brings Himself to Naught
Discovers who He is.
In coming to Naught, He will not only discover Who he is,
But what He is, for in God these cannot be Separated.
That He is, What He is, Who He is, Where He is,
in God these are One, and outside this One,
Nothing is.
(The Experience of No Self by Bernadette Roberts)
When love has carried us above and beyond all things,
above the Light into the Divine Dark,
there we are wrought and transformed by the Eternal Word
Who is the image of the Father;
and as the air is penetrated by the light of the sun,
thus we receive in the idleness of spirit
the Incomprehensible Light, enfolding us and penetrating us.
And this Light is nothing else but an Infinite Gazing and Seeing.
We behold that which we are and we are that which we behold;
because our thought, life, and being are uplifted in simplicity
and made one with the Truth
which is God.
(Jan van Rusybroeck = John Ruusbroec)
The Life
of
Wisdom:
Spirituality
and
The Path to Enlightenment
Spirituality & Superstition
The Naturalistic Principle:
We assume, as an immutable postulate, the universality of the reign of law in nature.
This means that all macroscopic and microscopic existence’s and events occurring in the
space-time world are solely and completely accountable in terms of natural causes and
conditions WITHOUT exception. The Naturalistic Principle forbids us to believe or
conjecture that there ever occur interruptions in the natural workings of events or
capricious interventions by some anthropomorphic Deity or gods. This same principle
urges us to disbelieve in anything like the supernatural, the paranormal, the occult, or
magic, and asks that we see these things for what they truly are: as unworthy and childish
superstitions for which there is ZERO GOOD SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. Moreover,
these things are maintained in being solely by the power of human need, wishful thinking,
plus biologically, socially, and culturally conditioned anthropomorphic modes of
perception.
What are the mechanisms of action of meditation? They are fourfold. In the beginning
stages, as one reads, reflects, and tries to come to terms, both psychologically and
intellectually, with the practices, philosophy, and ideals, the impact is primarily on
cognition. In the intermediate stages, the impact is primarily on behavior - inasmuch as
one becomes more adept at observing and controlling it. As a result of the mastery of
one’s behavior, a pervasive stillness settles over one’s body as a whole. In the more
advanced stages, the impact is, in large measure, neurological. With regard to the neuro-
psychological impact, advanced meditation allows one to control, and eventually to stop,
the ceaseless internal dialogue and flow of internal imagery that B.F. Skinner calls
"talking without talking" and "seeing without seeing" respectively. In the final stages,
the impact of meditation is wholly neurological. In these last stages, one’s meditation
practice simply accelerates and augments the successful aging process by dismantling the
vivacity of memory-recall along with the ability to engage in the anticipation of the future
(in any lively and concrete way). All these changes are wedded to a dissolution of the
ability to discriminate among "different" objects in one’s field-of-vision. Another way of
stating the impact that meditation has on one’s experience as a whole at this final stage, is
that it returns one to the way one experienced the world as an infant, viz., as a timeless
Unity-in-Variety, while retaining the cognitive and psychological advances of the adult
state.
All the above changes, taken together, allow for enormous psychological and
metaphysical insight into life along with concrete insight into the causes and conditions of
human misery and delusion coupled with knowledge of the means to extinguish both
(misery and delusion). That is all. There is NOTHING "paranormal" or "supernatural"
about this!
I
The Life of Wisdom
and
The Contemplative Life
Section 1
Wisdom and True Change
Introduction: The Life of Wisdom
This chapter is not about The Life of the Intellect, as philosophy is currently understood, but The Life of
Wisdom, as philosophy was originally understood. This chapter gives detailed instructions in the
cultivation of The Life of Wisdom - for it must be cultivated. The pervasive superstition that one can
think oneself into radical change and enlightenment must be discarded at once because it is utterly inimical
and antithetical to The Life of Wisdom and totally unproductive.
What is The Life of Wisdom? It is the fourfold form of understanding that unites a reflective attitude, a
contemplative attitude, a practical concern, all wedded to the most concrete forms of loving kindness and
compassion possible and manifested to all persons a given individual comes in contact with. The aim of the
unified attitude is to understand the fundamental nature of Reality and its significance for the living of the
good life. The object of the practical concern is to form a reasonable conception this good life along with a
detailed knowledge and practice of the concrete methods and techniques required for the extinction of
human suffering and delusion.
What does Wisdom decree in one’s actions toward others? It seems that the concrete ethical imperatives of
Wisdom are twofold:
(i) Kantian Respect: always treat people as ends in themselves and never as means.
(ii)Agape Love: other-centered disinterested (unconditional) charity. In other words, that type of "no
strings attached" charity or love which simultaneously wills and carries out what seems to be, according to
one’s best lights of the moment, that which is in the total best-interests of the beloved.
The reader of this book is likely to be either in a university and/or heavily into academic pursuits. For those
in a university setting, it is requested that you look carefully, honestly, and with great discernment at the
interaction between faculty and faculty, between faculty and students, and between students. What you will
find, all too often, is nasty and ugly politics, academic egos out of control, pet academic theses inextricably
intertwined with grossly inflated academic senses of self-image and of self-worth, poor responsiveness to
criticism, much arrogance and conceit, ad nauseam. Now one would think that philosophers, of all people,
ought to know better. Such, however, is not the case. Just as many psychologists and psychiatrists are not
"mentally" and behaviorally well-balanced, so many philosophers are not wise. Why is this so? It is so
partly because philosophers, for centuries, have been more concerned with the cultivation of the intellect
than with the well-living of life; it is so partly because even philosophers equate wisdom with intellectual
mastery; it is so partly because most people believe they can think themselves into radical change; it is so
because most people fail to realize what the components of genuine psycho-spiritual change actually are.
This raises the all-important question as to what, then, is the true locus of change and the means to The Life
of Wisdom?
The Three Components of True Psycho-Spiritual Change
True psycho-spiritual change has three components:
(1) The Cognitive Component
This component does involve a measure of theoretical knowledge and expertise. However, the weighting is
not toward academic mastery, but toward profound self-knowledge instead. It is a mastery of the
appropriate intellectual tools (philosophical, psychological, scientific, contemplative) which will allow one
to "Know Thyself" as the old Socratic Dictum has it.
(2) The Behavioral Component
For some strange reason, most people, including philosophers, do not seem to think behavior very relevant
to The Life of Wisdom. This delusion is similar to the person who thinks all there is to playing the piano is
reading volumes of books on piano technique without ever practicing technique and playing great pieces of
music. So in the moral realm the old cliché that "Good is as Good does," is as true now as it ever was. Thus
not only is behavior important and relevant to The Life of Wisdom, it is all too important and all too
relevant. In fact, it is supremely important. How is behavior critically relevant to the Life of Wisdom?
This question may seem pointless to those individuals who have never committed serious crimes and have
never seriously hurt anyone either psychologically or physically. But just as there are subtleties within
subtleties in playing the piano, so too, are there subtleties within subtleties in learning to control many
aspects of one’s behavior as well. For example, many persons automatically engage in the denigration of
others just as easily and readily as they breathe. This is one area in which greater behavioral control,
resulting in the cessation of all types of this behavior, would constitute significant moral progress. Another
example concerns the obvious lack of bodily stillness in a great many persons. Many can be seen nervously
drumming their fingers, shaking and jerking their legs, frantically looking around at various sights with the
eyes never still, etc. Individuals in this category are much like Ping-Pong balls - always and forever "batted
about" by external and internal stimuli of which they never seem to be aware, and which always seems
beyond their ability to control. Yet another example concerns anger. Many persons are often quite unaware
that they are angry even when it is clear to almost everyone else that this individual, is, presently, very
angry. A final example concerns the automatic judgments of every kind that almost everyone engages in,
either silently on the one hand, or explicitly on the other. To learn the extent of this very bad habit, it is
request that the reader carry a small notebook around for a week or so and record the nature and frequency
of the judgments made in that period of time. It will soon become clear that in this area too, things are well
out of control.
Unfortunately, most people have never practiced minutely observing and controlling their behavior; and
even those who recognize the need do not know how. Thus what is needed is a system for doing this. This
is what much of meditation is about. Learning self-mastery is the same as learning to be a concert pianist -
it requires supreme dedication and hours and hours of practice for years and years. That is really all there is
to this component, in abstracto. What this involves, concretely, is spelled out in later sections.
(3) The Neurological Component
Scientific research into advanced meditation has, fortunately, not confirmed the ability to levitate or acquire
paranormal powers. However, it has shown that advanced meditation has the ability to effect profound
changes in the functioning of the nervous system and the brain. For example, the EEGs of meditation
masters are simply different in a detectable and quantitative way. More specifically, the activity between
the two hemispheres of the brain has been equalized. Another ability that advanced meditation makes
possible is for one to enter into a state called, in neurology, the disinhibition of the cortex. During this type
of experience, one learns to trigger, oneself, the random firing of many or most of the neurons in the brain.
The changes this brings about are similar to those the near death experience brings about. For a detailed
discussion of some of the neuro-science involved see Dying to Live by Susan Blackmore, Prometheus
Books and ‘Meditation and the EEG’ in The Psychology of Meditation, Oxford.
Have you ever wondered why self-knowledge is the most difficult knowledge of all? There is an emerging
scientific consensus which provides us with a very convincing and scientifically rigorous answer to this
perennial question. Based on current research into psychotherapy, cognitive psychology, artificial
intelligence, neural networks, nonlinear dynamics, and related fields, there is a growing neurological
paradigm to the effect that most of the information processing that goes on in the human brain and nervous
system is largely automatic and largely unconscious. Freud said as much - but a metaphysics of the
unconscious is not nearly as convincing as a neuro-scientific account of it. Why? Because the former is
unfalsifiable, even in principle, while the latter easily lends itself to empirical testing.
Before turning to the new neuro-scientific insights just mentioned, it must be pointed out that it is not
possible to intelligibly and practically discuss them without a discussion of some relevant background
material. To this end, the following points are made. For example, doing something as seemingly simple as
picking up and drinking a glass of water is a miracle of information processing. If a person were asked to
spell out a set of precise rules that could be programmed into a machine to do the same, that person would
probably not know how to even begin. The experts in robotics and computer science have the computer-
robot amalgam solve algebraic and differential equations when picking up the glass and similar tasks.
Solving algebraic and differential equations is not what the human being is doing when picking up a glass
of water. The way the human brain seems to work is that memories, complex motor skills, complex
cognitive and intellectual skills, and so forth, are stored as by varying the strength of connections among
neurons in the biological neural network that is the brain. The weightings are so complex, that no set of
discrete rules, however large, can take their place in a (1996 A.D.) computer. Some light on the complexity
of the neurological situation may be had by considering the components of the brain. The brain contains one
trillion cells (1,000,000,000,000), ten to one hundred billion neurons (10,000,000,000 - 100,000,000,000),
and one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) interconnections among neurons. How big is a quadrillion? A
quadrillion is roughly equivalent to the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Now the closest current
computer science term for how the brain actually processes data is massively parallel information
processing. This means that much of what the brain does, it does simultaneously, not sequentially. And the
incredible sophistication and complexity is all hidden, at the cellular and molecular level, in biological
circuitry so sophisticated that nothing science can devise in the 20th century even comes close. Moreover, it
seems that we must make a distinction between the body + brain + nervous system as a whole, and the self-
conscious part. Now the critical new neuro-scientific insight is that the self-conscious part of the system is
but the tinniest abstraction from the information processing actually going on in the entire system. A
cliché that captures the essence of these new insights is "tip of the iceberg." Now the existence of, and
distinction between, the minute self-conscious part of a person and the mostly unconscious information
processing actually going on, gives us a rigorous and scientific answer to the question why true self-
knowledge is the hardest of all: the tiny self-conscious part has the greatest difficulty in grasping the
relative infinite complexity of the whole of information processing going on in body, brain, and nervous
system. And this is why the neurological changes brought about by advanced meditation practice are so very
very important - for without them the self-conscious part would not have an existential inkling of the
unbelievable enormity of the non-self-conscious part and the power and depth of the self-illusions and self-
delusions.
Detailed Confirmation from Contemporary Neuroscience
There is even more detailed confirmation of the link between behavior and neurology in the research of Dr.
Paul McLean of the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, resulting in his Three Brain Theory.
The existence of the three brains working together has the status, today, of scientific orthodoxy and has
been corroborated by many researchers. In what follows below, a brief outline of the results and
implications of his research are given.
Normal members of our human species today - and throughout the history of homo sapiens - have three
brain centers actively working together within the one brain. The first is the ancient reptilian brain. The
reptiles had a very limited horizon for care: they did not care for their offspring once hatched but were
concerned only with their own survival. As the next higher mammalian brain evolved after many millions
of years, the old reptilian one remained in place, presiding over the basic survival reflexes and leaving the
higher brain free for other activities. The new mammalian brain had a wider circle of caring: it cared not
only for its own survival but now also for its offspring after birth and, further, for its own closed group but
not for anything beyond. When the comparatively recent higher neo-cortex brain evolved in us, the older
mammalian brain remained in place, taking care of the basic, spontaneous animal instincts. But this new or
specifically human brain now enables us to live in a wider horizon of intellectual understanding and
altruistic caring and love for all human beings, for animals, and even for the environment, once we get
awakened to the values at stake. All three of these brain centers must work together for a fully developed
human life, the lower subordinate in each case to the higher. But the trouble with humans is that this last
brain center has evolved so fast, comparatively speaking, in the course of evolution that the neuron
connections between this and its subordinate brains are still not fully developed with strong, stable
pathways; the connections are still a bit fragile. The result is that in moments of heavy stress we tend to
drop down spontaneously to the next lower level - that is, we first care spontaneously for our own offspring,
family, or social group and ward off others threatening it, whether physically or psychologically. In
extreme cases where survival is as stake, we tend to drop down spontaneously to the lowest level, the
ancient reptilian brain, concerned only with fighting for our own survival.
It is possible, however, for us to control these spontaneous tendencies to regression to more primitive levels.
Surprising to say, if we deliberately develop and practice habits of virtue - of acting according to our higher
human values even under stress - the higher brain actually sends down new neuron connections that
strengthen the channels of control of the higher over the lower and thus enable us to resist these primitive
regressions even under extreme stress. But we must develop these new neuron connections by our own
deliberate action. There is nothing automatic about this; it is a properly human meditative plus behavioral
plus rational activity. Thus we must actively make our spiritual and moral character by habitually
meditating and acting according to ethical and spiritual values, to principles, beyond the automatic reflexes
of the animal or the reptile. The spontaneous energy and activity of these very ancient brain centers,
evolved over many millions of years before the human level appeared, is powerful and needs a deliberately
applied higher power and higher values to keep them under control, as servants, not masters, of our actions.
Consequently, we can do something about our instability, self-delusions, and self-illusions. We can
deliberately and meditatively cultivate personal habits of virtue and teach ourselves, and everyone we can,
to live by the light of wisdom, reason, and love. And it is, moreover, the sole purpose of this chapter to
discuss in great detail the techniques and perspectives that lead to a truly wise and compassionate life in the
concrete.
Neurology and the Sense-of-Self
It must be emphatically affirmed that while we think we are intimately familiar to ourselves, scientific
investigation reveals we are as mysterious to ourselves as is the world in general. We have only limited
access to the workings of our minds and bodies, but these are vastly more complex than any other presently
known natural system(s). Stated explicitly, the human being is the most complex natural system presently
known to science!! In greater detail, the human sense-of-self is a result of the coordinated and integrated
firings of incredibly many neurons. That is, each and every total state of consciousness has, as its
infrastructure, the coordinated and integrated firings of, literally, billions of neurons, the interconnections
among which we do not even understand in broad outline yet. Moreover, the sense-of-self is an as yet
poorly understood emergent property from all these coordinated firings. The noble prize winning scientist
Francis Crick says that we do not know, as yet, what consciousness really is or how it is even possible. So it
should be even more evident why true self-knowledge is so difficult - human beings are so unbelievably
complex!!
Section 2
The Lifelong Lawsuit with Reality
(Adapted from The Social Face of Buddhism by Ken Jones)
Every kind of human ingenuity is exerted, all unconsciously, to mask and deny what we are. The normal,
characteristic human condition is that of delusion, of inauthenticity. Delusion is sustained by the drive to
acquire, to possess, to cling to all that will apparently strengthen our sense-of-self, and to reject all that
threatens to undermine it. Whether it be a wave of depression, a bronchial condition, being without work,
or unhappiness in a close personal relationship, we instinctively struggle to maintain something of an
inviolate and separate self, whether outraged or saintly. "I" tend to respond as if somehow separate from
my condition, making the threat into an alien "thing" - my bronchitis, my unemployment, my disagreeable
marriage. This has the effect of making the condition even more alien and threatening. We are instinctively
opposed to what could bring relief and enable us to cope better, though a total acceptance of the depressed
me, the wheezing me, the idle and frustrated me, the self-pitying and guilty me. We feel we would become
too vulnerable, would "lose control."
The struggle to sustain delusion is carried on with ill will, aggressiveness, bitterness and anger, and in the
virtuously repressed and transmuted forms of these emotions which will make them socially acceptable and
relieve us of guilt. When we structure our world we stake out an area which we regard as our territory and
the rest we define in vague and general terms - "not my concern," "not worth bothering about," "not our sort
of people." We want our territory to be clearly structured, controlled, and predictable. When it threatens to
be not so, we become aggressive. That is why men go to war and women give their families hell.
The incessant coping with threat and the feeding of desire to keep the sense of well-being and control is our
biographical and historical project, our lifelong lawsuit with reality. True, diversions, drugs,
entertainment’s, day-dreams, the playgrounds of what was and what might be, are not unimportant, but there
is no doubt that for most people most of the time "coming to terms with life" amounts to building up and
fortifying a strong belongingness identity and "making your mark on life." The lifelong formation of
belongingness identity is described as follows by Adam Curle: We become what we belong to and what
belongs to us: our civilization, our nation, region, family, church, political party, wife and children, school,
university, neighborhood, community, house, land, books, profession, clubs and societies, social standing,
investments, tastes in music and literature, views of the meaning of life and the immortality of the soul,
preferences for brands of cigarettes or gin, friends, reputation, dress, eccentricities, honors, hobbies, way
with the opposite sex, pictures and a thousand other things. From these we fabricate a sense-of-self, an
identity. It is by this that we define ourselves to ourselves. It is this form of awareness we must be emptied
of in order to achieve the release from the bondage of the ego and to a compassion and service to humanity
that knows no vested interest.
Note that we find our inauthentic self-identity both through association but also through "standing out" and
"making our mark," whether as president of the golf club or the wearer of plum-colored trousers. The most
favored and more or less socially licensed ways of "standing out" have not changed much since Augustine
of Hippo in the fourth century A.D. identified them as the acquisition of more power, prestige, wealth, and
sex than the next person. Similarly, in 1984 A.D. the twentieth-century luminary, Helen Gurley Brown,
editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, claimed that "what every woman yearns to learn" is how to have for
herself "love, success, sex, money."
With all these belongings and acquisitions what is significant here is not necessarily the mere fact of them
but what impels us to need them and our use of them as "things-out-there" for the aggrandizement of self.
Behaving ultimately out of a fear-driven self-need we tend to use all that is other, not in terms of itself, but
in terms of our lifelong project of self-confirmation and reality-denial. As we shall see, that is why much of
human history for most people much of the time has been so hellish.
As a kind of meditative exercise, you may now like to list all the details of your own lawsuit with reality on
a large sheet of paper. Stick to the facts, allow the associated feelings to surface, do not obstruct with
meanings. Watch how it turns into another game for the self to confirm or disconfirm itself - for what
would happen if there were no reflection in the mirror!
In the high-income, high-technology consumer societies when material acquisitiveness palls there is the
historical and multicultural supermarket of something different, an array of new ideologies, mysteries,
causes, and so on. With arrivals so much facilitated, eventually finding nothing really new or satisfying
becomes a bigger and bigger disappointment. The era of convenience, speed, choice, time saving, and
instant access increasingly removes all impediments to the self confronting the nothingness and
insubstantiality of the itself, like Ibsen’s Peer Gynt peeling the onion of self to discover what was in the
middle - nothing at all! Deluded, willful and unprepared, this is the beginning of madness, not the dawn of
Enlightenment. In effect, the development of critical thinking and of the scientific outlook has now
demythologized or demystified all the things that people have traditionally lived by. Religions, ideologies,
moralities and even such basic institutions as marriage and the nation-state have all been reduced by
skeptical analysis to complex cultural transformations and masks of the raw biological will-to-power. The
skeptical scientific and biological naturalism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has prevailed, and the
realization of the extent to which human beings as we know them are ultimately motivated by egoistic will-
to-power has coincided with our actual acquisition of destructive power on an almost unimaginable scale.
Finally, our sheer, vibrating busyness, being "on the go," is available to confirm that we are alive and well
and here. It can be observed in meditation, as the mind stills, and the speed of this cinematographic
projection slows down, empty gaps begin to appear between the frames and there is no longer a reassuringly
continuous picture. The operator gives an alarmed start, and the picture speeds up again.
At bottom, all of the foregoing analysis is experiential rather than intellectual. If it speaks to the reader’s
condition this will be because it "makes sense," and not because "it sounds reasonable." Most people are
doubtless, much of the time, getting sufficient self-reinforcement out of their lives and are sufficiently
unaware of the process, as to find little truth here. And indeed Spirituality itself may provide such
reinforcement, and thus may take you into a meditational practice where you become aware of that
motivation. In greater detail, it should be observed that not all the socially underprivileged are dissatisfied,
as every reformer knows, to his despair. And this is even truer of spiritual poverty than of economic lack.
Life contains a number of vivid sense-pleasures, and the gaps of despondency and boredom between them
can be filled more or less adequately by hard work, sleep, the movies, drink, and daydreaming. Old age
brings lethargy, and morphia will help you at the end. Life is not so bad, if you have plenty of luck, a good
physique and not too much imagination. The disciplines proposed by Spirituality are drastic, and the lazy
will shrink from them. They are tedious, also, and this will discourage the impatient. Their immediate
results are not showy, and this will deter the ambitious. Their practice is apt to make you appear ridiculous
to your neighbors. Vanity, sloth, and desire will all intervene to prevent a man from setting his foot upon
the path of Spiritual effort.
One meditation master, Bhikkhu Buddhadasa, says that the truth of the human condition is hard indeed to
discern because it has a threefold covering. The outermost is the attachment to sense objects. Instinctively
our sense organs seek incessant satisfactions. People think they are masters of things, but, on the contrary,
they are really the slaves of their senses. Now the intermediary covering is attachment to and belief in
ideologies, creeds, or cults of one kind or another. Belief is something that worldlings cannot do without -
to take refuge in something other than ourselves is an incomparably strong instinct. However,
Enlightenment can only be attained for oneself - no one can do it for one. Finally, the innermost covering,
which is to think in terms of self or "I" is the most subtle. To be free of suffering, and thus free to serve
humanity concretely, is to destroy the very misconception of an "I" or self who wants to be free from
suffering. "I" or self is very difficult to gain insight into because it is suffering itself. It is like the fish
swimming in water of which it has no awareness.
This brings us to the prescription for the remedying of the human condition as diagnosed above, through the
instructions for the remedy - the life of meditation, ruthless self-examination, and selfless and
compassionate service to others. This liberation is the total acceptance of, and opening up to, the transience
and fragility of our human condition. It is the emptying of wants and desires of the clinging, agitated and
opinionated "I," so that the world is experienced undistorted and unfreighted by self-need. All that is other
is seen in its own light. The self is restored to the self, to the body and to the Ten Thousand Things. The
things become beautiful, but not desirable; ugly, but not repulsive; false, but not rejected; a task may be
boring and trivial, but we do it without anxiety or alienation or tension.
Section 3
The Characteristics of Phenomenal and Noumenal Reality
We will now attempt to elaborate upon, and state simply and succinctly, what we believe to be the root-
causes of the problems of individuals in The Global Society. The reasons and causes may be best
summarized as the pathological human response to The Four Marks of Conditioned Existence (The
Characteristics of Phenomenal Reality) and a failure to apprehend The Three Marks of Noumenal Reality.
We might note at this point that "Phenomenal Reality" simply means Reality as it is apprehended through
the untrained mind and the senses, while "Noumenal Reality" has to do with the characteristics of Reality as
it is in itself.
The Four Marks of Conditioned Existence (Phenomenal Reality)
1. Essencelessness:
This mark tells us that suffering is caused by the erroneous belief in, and delusive experience of, solid and
inherently existing persons and phenomena in general. This is in stark contrast to the truth: there are no
self-encapsulated and self-same phenomena at all. Any seemingly individual phenomenon that can be
pointed to or experienced is without any permanent underlying essence or core whatsoever. Thus, all
phenomena can be factored into causes and conditions without remainder, leaving all things and events with
no irreducible selfhood at all.
2. Unsatisfactoriness:
This mark tells us that suffering is also caused by the delusive belief that some possession, person, group of
persons, experience(s), dogma(s), or belief(s) can give lasting happiness or "ultimate satisfaction."
Moreover, this same mark tells us that beneath even the most sublime and seemingly satisfying experience
or experiences, there exists an undercurrent of suffering and Unsatisfactoriness. And, the more we cling to
any given phenomenon as "IT" or as "ultimately satisfactory" the more unsatisfactory it becomes. In
greater detail, this means that the root-cause of suffering is grounded in the craving, thirsting, and desire of
the individual. Suffering is not the result of ontological evil like Original Sin, resulting from some
mythological Ancestral Fall; nor is simply due to actions performed by individuals in the world against the
arbitrary Decrees of an equally arbitrary and despotic Calvinistic God; nor is it, as the Marxists have it, of
one economic class exploiting another. In fact, all of these are elegantly and completely accounted for as
manifestations of craving and desire. A moment’s reflection will reveal the truth of this. However if this is
not clear, consider the following. The nature of the mind is regrettably characterized by an unending series
of wants and desires. One no sooner satisfies one desire than another pops up to take its place. Man seems
to be the anxious animal because he’s the only pathologically desiring animal - living fretfully and forever
in a state of anticipated wants. It is important to point out that the Truth of Unsatisfactoriness does not say
that there is no pleasure and happiness in life at all or that we should be pessimists or cynics or fatalists.
What is actually being maintained here is the affirmation that not only is there an undercurrent of
Unsatisfactoriness always present even in the most satisfying and sublime experiences; but at the same time,
it must be borne in mind that nothing whatsoever can offer "ultimate fulfillment" or "ultimate satisfaction."
So even if we do get the desired "A" on our test, we then worry about getting the next one. Even if we do
get the long-desired car or expensive stereo, the newness soon wears off and we either desire a better car or
a bigger stereo, or our desire shifts to something else entirely. Thus the viscous cycle begins again, never
coming to the end. Hence, the Noble Truth of Unsatisfactoriness.
3. Impermanence:
This mark tells us that all that can be experienced with the senses and the untrained mind is in a state of
ceaseless flux. Nothing in Phenomenal Reality stays still or even remains the same for any interval of time,
no matter how small we choose it to be! And, the more we cling to any given phenomenon, the more
impermanent it seems to become. How truly impermanent are the things and events in our lives? Let us turn
to modern science for answers and evidence that are very difficult to question or deny. Consider what our
senses tell us about our desk. They tell us that it is solid. Not so, says science; if one could but shrink to
the size of an electron, one would see that the ratio of matter to space is on the order of a baseball in a ball
park. However, even this picture is a distortion and an enormous simplification. For the truly scientifically
literate, it is well known fact of Quantum Mechanics that there is no such thing as empty space. Even the
"hard vacuum" of interstellar space is a seething cauldron of activity with virtual particles passing into and
out of existence in a never-ceasing process of particle/anti-particle creation and annihilation. Or, our senses
tell us that the desk is static. Wrong again, says science; it is a beehive of activity with electrons circling
their nuclei a million billion times a second; or in undulatory terms, with electrons vibrating more times
each second than the number of seconds that have elapsed since the earth’s crust was formed. Lastly,
nuclear physics applied to the sun tells us that the sun produces from 67 to 200 trillion trillion trillion
electron neutrinos per second, and this is far beyond what any human being can concretely conceive or
grasp or experience.
4. Processive (Flowing) Nonduality or The Experiencable Universe is not as it seems
Even at the phenomenal level, the cosmos is really not made up of separate or distinct things. In fact, it is
single, seamless, and ceaselessly flowing event. Thus, even here, the experience of discreteness and
separation is illusory. Suffering enters the picture when a desire to separate ourselves from the unitary
flow arises. Finally, the more enamored we are with "individual things" in the form of, for example,
acquisitiveness, the more fragmented and discrete reality seems to be.
As we have seen in the previous paragraph, things are not as they seem. Not only is matter not solid and
lifeless, it is more like compacted power or crystallized energy than anything else. Nature’s quantitative
marvels impress the modern mind the most, so here are a few more examples. First, it takes light traveling
at approximately 186,300 miles per second, two million light-years to reach earth from the nearest galaxy.
Second, even given currently orthodox and conservative models of the universe, galaxies number in the
billions. From a cosmological perspective, this makes even clusters of galaxies, numbering in the
thousands, no more than mere density fluctuations in the ceaselessly flowing fabric of space-time. Put in
other words, matter is a mere ripple against the inconceivably vast back-drop of David Bohm’s Implicate
Order (see his Wholeness and the Implicate Order and his The Undivided Universe: an Ontological
Interpretation of Quantum Theory) which oscillates at the unbelievable resonant frequency of 10 to the
power 43 Hz. Third, at the level of the very small, Avogadro’s number tells us that the molecules in 4.5
drams of water (roughly half an ounce) number 6.023 x 10 to the power 23 - this is roughly 600,000 billion
billion molecules. Even before supercomputers and nanotechnology, Fred Hoyle could say for science back
in the 1950’s that "no literary imagination could have invented a story one-hundredth part as fantastic as the
sober facts that have been unearthed." Yet, the almost half of a century that has intervened since he uttered
these remarks has dwarfed even his purview. While contemporary microphysics probes for quarks that
make the subatomic powers we have thus far named look immense, and finds that even quarks have
structure (with the implication that matter has no truly indivisible and structureless parts!!), John Wheeler,
the world-famous cosmologist, tells us that the entire universe we know is but one of who knows how many
likely universes across the gigantic platform of Superspace whose dimensions are not four but infinite. As
for levels, though to enter even a single level of smallness beyond the one that is now being explored would
require that we build a particle accelerator encircling the planet (with current technology), the Quantum
Physicist David Bohm thinks that the total number of levels in nature is probably equal to Wheeler’s
dimensions. They too, are infinite. The Many Universe Cosmology has now, at the end of the twentieth
century, received the status of scientific orthodoxy. The new science that puts talk of multiple universes on
a firm physics foundation is called Quantum Cosmology. The interesting question, here, is how and why
did the scientists take this out of the hands of the philosophers on the one hand, and the wild speculators, on
the other?
A Prelude to Quantum Cosmology: General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
(adapted from Astronomy: What Happened before the Big Bang, May 1996)
To answer the above question, we must first discuss to of the pillars to twentieth century physics - General
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Modern day classical cosmology is based on Einstein’s General
Theory of Relativity, a theory of gravity. Physicists use General Relativity to describe the expanding
universe, which can be compared to a smooth balloon being inflated by a child, will trillions of tiny galaxies
sprinkled on the surface like star dust. By contrast, Quantum Mechanics refers to the subatomic world,
populated by thousands of strange denizens such as electrons, protons, quarks, and possibly superstrings.
Like oil and water, General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics do not mix. For example, they take
precisely opposite strategies in describing gravity. General Relativity views gravity emerging from the
warping of the continuous, smooth fabric of space-time, while the Quantum Theory sees gravity emerging
by the exchange of energy called gravitons. Clearly, then, the very theoretical infrastructures of each of
these theories differs radically. However, the two theories must necessarily collide at the instant of the big
bang, when gravitational forces and temperatures were so fierce that even particles would have been ripped
apart. At these energies, Einstein’s General Relativity becomes useless and quantum mechanical effects
overwhelm General Relativity at a temperature a trillion trillion times hotter than the center of a hydrogen
bomb explosion.
In other words, the secret of the big bang’s origin lies with merging the two theories into a more
comprehensive one in which both General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics emerge as approximations in
the appropriate limit. Thus, physicists need a quantum theory of gravity that simultaneously describes both
the subatomic quantum world and the structure of the universe as a whole. Moreover, the fusing of General
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics provides the physical basis for talk about multiple universes.
Quantum Cosmology
One of the principles of Quantum Cosmology is that we must treat the universe just like we treat a quantum
particle, and the simplest is the electron. As students learn in chemistry class, we never know for certain
which energy level an electron occupies; quantum fluctuations are always bouncing an electron into various
energy levels simultaneously. Similarly, once we treat the universe like an electron, then we are forced to
conclude that the universe can exist in several different states simultaneously, i.e., parallel universes.
The simplest analogy is boiling water, which is a quantum mechanical effect. Tiny bubbles constantly form
in the water and then expand very rapidly. If we treat the universe like a bubble, then we see that our
universe coexists with a sea of other bubbles. Our universe, then, may be nothing but a quantum bubble, the
result of a quantum fluctuation in an infinite ocean frothing and seething with universes. In this infinite
ocean, the Multiverse, the vacuum is constantly spawning new universes. In this picture, big bangs
constantly take place, each representing a quantum fluctuation in the vacuum.
Creating universes out of nothing may seem to violate cherished conservation principles, until we realize
that it takes no energy to create a universe. If the universe is closed like a bubble, then the energy content
of its matter is positive, while the energy of its gravity is negative: the sum is exactly zero (because it
requires positive energy to lift an object out of a gravitational well, the object’s gravitational energy is
negative). Thus is takes no net energy to create new bubbles, which are constantly being created in the sea
of nothing. Universes are for free. This does not help if you want to create a universe in the laboratory -
you would have to heat up matter to 1,000 trillion trillion degrees to create a baby universe in your
basement. Now according to Quantum Cosmology, these bubble universes are constantly churning and
peeling off other bubbles. This new picture of cosmology creates a new twist on religious mythology. In
greater detail, most myths concerning the origin of the universe fall into one of two categories: the Judeo-
Christian myth of Genesis which describes a definite instant called creation, or the Hindu-Buddhist myth of
the manifestations of The Void, which describes an endless universe that has no beginning in time or space.
In this new picture, we combine these two mythologies into one coherent and scientifically grounded one:
We have a constant genesis, or boiling of universes, in the infinite ocean of the Vacuum or The Void.
Quantum Cosmology: Implications and Problems Solved
An important implication of Quantum Cosmology is that there is no beginning of creation. That is to say,
the nature of the Cosmic Void is such that bubble universes spontaneously and unceasingly form. Thus the
difficult and probably unintelligible question as to what happened before the big bang is circumvented
completely. The Multiverse has simply been here all along and there is not any need for an
anthropomorphic God to explain it all.
Quantum cosmologists caution, however, that life may not exist in many of these other universes. Most of
them, in fact, are probably lifeless, where the proton lifetime is less than say, 10 billion years, the minimum
time necessary to create stable organic compounds, DNA, and life itself.
The compelling picture of creation emerging from Quantum Cosmology may also solve the curious puzzle
of Anthropic Cosmological Principles. Physicists have long observed the remarkable coincidence that the
fundamental constants of the universe fall within an exceedingly narrow band that is compatible with life.
For example, if the electric charge or the gravitational constant were changed slightly, then stable DNA
molecules would not be possible. The Strong Anthropic Principle, in fact, concludes that this proves the
existence of an anthropomorphic personal God.
In Quantum Cosmology, however, we have a simple explanation, viz., there are an infinite number of actual
universes, with different physical constants. We just happen to live in the one that is compatible with life.
This explains why we are here to discuss the question in the first place. So it is not an accident at all that
the physical constants are compatible with life; we coexist with plenty of dead universes where the physical
constants are incompatible with stable DNA-type molecules.
The Lessons from Quantum Cosmology
It may have occurred to the more scientifically and historically literate reader that science has never hit
upon a "final" theory of anything - despite claims now and then to the contrary. Why is this so? The
answer of Bradleyan metaphysics is that given the quantitative and qualitative infinitude of Manifestation,
plus the flawless non-temporal integration of Reality as it is in itself, anything studied by science is but the
tiniest abstraction from the Infinite Whole. Thus no matter how much science progresses, or how refined
its instruments and technologies are, there is always an infinite amount of detail left out in any scientific
theory. Added to this is the fact that any theory, scientific or otherwise, involves an irreparable
sundering(in thought) of the primordial unity of the cosmos. So to truly understand any given phenomenon
we would have to take into account the entire Multiverse! Again an illustration should convey the essential
point. Consider the real numbers raging from minus infinity (-¥) to positive infinity (+¥). Remove the
integers, the rational numbers, and the purely irrational numbers (excluding the transcendental numbers)
and the set as a whole is hardly affected. True, the integers are infinite in number and so are the rationals.
Moreover, the purely irrational numbers do constitute a larger type of infinity than do the integers and the
rationals. However, the transcendental numbers constitute an even larger type of infinity than any of the
others mentioned. Consequently, Reality is like our number system - in that the attempt to exhaust it (our
number system) by removing such subsets as the rationals plus the purely irrationals and an uncountable
infinity of them are still left out. Then if one tries to encompass all numbers under the rubric of "the reals"
someone comes along and discovers complex numbers, hyper-complex numbers (quaternions),
infinitesimals, and surreal numbers.
Noumenal Reality: The Three Characteristics of Ultimate Reality
As mentioned above, the phrase "Noumenal Reality" means Reality or The Absolute as it really is apart
from its manifestations. Unfortunately, Reality cannot be adequately characterized in language at all.
Consequently, the best we can do is say what it is not. Thus, Reality as it really is, is beyond change, so we
say that it is timeless. Further, since it does not exist in time, it manifests itself in time as permanence or
"Sameness-in-Change." Also, it is certainly not finite; thus we say that it is Infinite. Lastly, since Reality is
a seamless and simple whole, we say that it is Nondual, and characterize this philosophy and Characteristic
as Eternalistic Nonduality. These Three Characteristics in summary form are:
1. Timelessness or The Eternal Now:
Reality as it is in itself, knows no past nor future. Thus all that is, is encompassed within one Final Moment
of Eternity. So just as a human being can see the totality of a painting all at once, so Reality knows and
encompasses all times and places simultaneously. Another way of illustrating Eternity is with an empty
circle. The circle stands for Reality and Eternity and the interior stands for all of Manifestation. And, just
as the circle itself never changes regardless of what's inside, so Reality never changes despite the seeming
unceasing flux of its manifestations. Therefore, each thing within the present always seems, to itself, to
always be in a state of constant flux, while the timeless present never does. Clearly, then, all activities as
well as thoughts are nothing but present experience.
2. Sameness-in-Change:
As alluded to above, that which is timeless (Reality) manifests itself in time as permanence. This means
that throughout the ceaseless and wave-like changes, however great, there is That which IS, and is
experienced to be a permanent backdrop to it all. This is what we call Ultimate Reality or The Absolute. It
must be emphasized that the change experienced is absolutely continuous and wave-like in nature for this
particular philosophy and Path.
3. Eternalistic Nonduality:
This Characteristic means that, ultimately, all multiplicity and separation is but an abstraction from the
timeless Unity-in-Variety and Variety-in-Unity that is Reality. Moreover, all that fundamentally exists is
The Absolute - all else is nothing more than an Appearance of this Timeless Unity-in-Variety and Variety-
in-Unity. The Unity, of course, is metaphysically basic.
II
The Two Main Types
of
Meditative Practice:
INSIGHT MEDITATION
AND
CONCENTRATION MEDITATION
Most individuals interested in meditation are familiar with only one type, viz., Concentration Meditation.
In this particular kind of practice one chooses one and only one object of focus and develops increasingly
deep Absorptions into it. This is so regardless of the object of focus, whether it be a word or phrase, a
particular mental image, the breath, etc. The characteristics of the kind of experience engendered by
moderately advanced Concentration Practice are rapture, bliss, one-pointedness, and a temporary
obliteration of sense and mental input. For those familiar with The Formless Absorptions, more later.
The second major type of meditative practice is Insight Meditation. In this particular kind of practice, one
cultivates an increasingly refined and profound awareness of what is happening here and now, both
internally and externally, in present experience.
Section 1
The Classical Monistic Structure of Awareness: Reflecting Awareness
Vs
Buddhist Structure of Awareness: Concomitant Awareness
Any time we go about observing a particular phenomenon, or group of phenomena, the issue arises as to
what perspective to adopt when doing so. The point we are trying to make is particularly clear when one
considers the face/vase illusion in psychology: it can be seen as two faces, or a vase, or the one then the
other, but not both simultaneously. So just as perspectivism is unavoidable in any undertaking or mode of
inquiry, the very same is true with respect to Insight Meditation. No better illustration exists about what we
are trying to say about perspectivism in Insight Meditation than the one given us by Jack Kornfield. Here
we have a very accomplished Meditation Master who has done Insight Meditation from both The Buddhist
Perspective and The Classical Monistic Perspective. Here is what he has to say about it:
"When the mind becomes very silent, you can clearly see that all that exists in the world are brief moments
of consciousness arising together with the six sense objects. There is only sight and the knowing of sight,
sound and the knowing of sound, smell, taste and the knowing of them, thoughts and the knowing of
thoughts. If you can make the mind very focused, as you can in meditation, you see that the whole world
breaks down into these small events of sight and the knowing, sound and the knowing, thought and the
knowing. No longer are these houses, cars, bodies or even oneself…All you see are particles of
consciousness as experience [This is the Buddhist experience and perspective of Concomitant Awareness].
Yet you can go deep in meditation in another way and the mind becomes very still. You will see differently
that consciousness is like waves, like an ocean. Now it is not particles but instead every sight and every
sound is contained in this ocean of consciousness. From this perspective, there is no sense of particles at
all."[This is the Classical Monistic experience and perspective of Reflecting Awareness]
The face-vase illusion is one of the best ways to illustrate the difference between the two methods of
viewing the stream-of-consciousness in meditation. Most people will, initially, see only a face or a vase - it
is not possible to see it as both simultaneously. However, if one initially sees the vase, all that is needed for
a gestalt shift is the suggestion that, contained within the picture is that of a face, and conversely. In terms
of the face/vase illusion, the Buddhist perspective of Concomitant Awareness is that of the two faces, while
the Classical Monistic perspective of Reflecting Awareness is that of the vase. Reality as it really is can be
thought of as the background on which the face/vase illusion appears, while the seeing of it as two faces or
as a vase is our finite human meditative awareness of it.
Buddhist Concomitant Awareness
The Buddhist structure of awareness, or Concomitant Awareness, particularizes and discreteizes each and
every percept that arises during Insight Meditation. Put another way, awareness of one percept arises only
after the previous one has passed away. Moreover, there is an experienced gap or break or space between
the awareness of one percept and its successor. Experientially speaking, these events are experienced as
point-instants of energy coming into and going out of existence with varying degrees of rapidity. Further,
one is aware of one and only one object in each successive moment in Buddhist Insight Meditation. In
fact, these "mind moments" look much like the stars passing The Starship Enterprise in either of the two
Star Trek serials. Two illustrations ought to go some way towards conveying what we are trying to
communicate. These are:
1. Imagine yourself doing Insight Meditation and paying careful attention to all that is happening both
within yourself and without. If you are doing this practice from the Buddhist Perspective of Concomitant
Awareness, and become aware of, say, the sound of a car horn, and then an itch on your leg, and then the
sound of the air-conditioner coming on. What happens from this perspective is that first you are aware of
the car horn; then there is a slight break; then you become aware of the leg itch; then there is a slight break;
then you become aware of the sound of the air-conditioner coming on; then there is another small break, etc.
Let us stress the point that, between one percept and the next, there is nothing at all experienced when one's
practice becomes sufficiently advanced.
2. Consider a diagram-sequence consisting of non-overlapping circles. Each circle represents one of the
many hundreds or thousands of percepts (objects of perception) one experiences as ceaselessly arising
during Buddhist Insight Meditation. The break or gap between them represents an interval of time(long or
short) between the awareness of any two given percepts. Again, during this interval, one in not aware of
anything when one's practice becomes sufficiently advanced.
Classical Monistic Reflecting Awareness
Whereas in Buddhist Insight Meditation one cultivates an awareness of disconnected events of short
duration, in Classical Monistic Insight Meditation one cultivates an awareness of absolutely continuously
connected events of relatively longer duration. These events are juxtaposed, contiguous, overlapping, or
flowing into one another much like moving strands of thread in a rope-weaving machine - there are no
gaps or breaks between events here. In addition, one is aware of a continuous, unbroken, and unchanging
Consciousness (The Absolute) as a sort of permanent and timeless "backdrop" or context to any and all
experiences. This is much like the sound of an unbroken musical note never ceasing and serving as an
unbroken backdrop or context to whatever other notes might sound. Experientially speaking, in deep
meditation, these events are experienced as luminous flowing waves of light (luminous sine waves like the
waves seen on an oscilloscope). Moreover, one is always aware of two overlapping objects at any one
moment in Classical Monistic Insight Meditation: one's primary object and whatever has arisen.
Again, we will give two illustrations, one verbal, the other pictorial in nature, in order to attempt to
communicate what Reflecting Awareness is all about. These illustrations are:
1. Imagine yourself doing Insight Meditation from The Classical Monistic Perspective of Reflecting
Awareness. Now further imagine that a fan is continuously going while doing your meditation. Suppose
further that you are aware of a dog barking, an itch, then finally the air-conditioner coming on in a
sequential fashion. The continuous noise of the fan is similar to the experienced continuous, unbroken, and
unchanging Consciousness alluded to above. So while doing your meditation, the awareness of the fan noise
(symbolically The Absolute) never fades from awareness. Moreover, the experience of the dog barking and
the itch are, if close enough temporally, experienced as contiguous or overlapping. The same is true of
experience of the air-conditioner activation. If there is a significant gap between one object of awareness
and another, they are experienced as sharp peaks or dips of very narrow wave-forms (experienced against
an unchanging background or context).
2. Consider a diagram-sequence consisting of overlapping circles. Each circle represents one of the many
hundreds or thousands of percepts experienced as ceaselessly arising during the practice of Monistic
Insight Meditation. The fact that they are overlapping represents the fact that there is never any
experienced gap or break between one percept and the next, and that the awareness is absolutely unbroken
generally speaking. A quotation from the twentieth century's greatest Advaitn Sage, Ramana Maharshi,
illustrates this point: "...Inquire keenly within what it is that now shines within the heart as ‘I.’ Underlying
the unceasing flow of varied thoughts, there arises the continuous unbroken awareness, silent and
spontaneous, as ‘I-I’ in the Heart." A word of warning: we are not saying that the Absolute is, in its
essence, Pure Consciousness, as many schools of Advaita maintain. Instead, we maintain that Pure
Consciousness is the most refined and subtle experience that a human self (or any kind of self) can have of
the one Divine Ultimate Reality. What Reality is in itself can never be known, not even analogically!
Section 2
Access Concentration
Access Concentration
As mentioned earlier, meditation practice has two main branches: Absorption Practice, and Insight
Practice. The first great branch, called The Path of Pure Concentration or The Path of The Meditative
Absorptions, involves focus on one and only one object of awareness to the exclusion of all else. As one
progresses, one becomes more deeply absorbed into this one object until finally there is a temporary
suspension of the input of the senses and the mind. There are eight different levels of Absorption which one
can aspire to. The second main branch of meditative practice is Insight Meditation. In this kind of
meditation one becomes increasingly aware of what is happening Here and Now both within oneself and
without. However, it should not be thought that the ordinary untrained mind possesses sufficient powers of
Concentration for penetrating Insight Practice. On the contrary, unless one has developed fairly powerful
Concentration, Insight Practice will never be transfigurative or profound. Just how much mastery of
Concentration is necessary in order to effectively do Insight Meditation? The answer of the World's
Meditative Traditions is that for the first or second experience of Enlightenment all that is required is
mastery of Concentration up to the Access level. For any level of Enlightenment higher than the second,
mastery of at least The Second Absorption is absolutely required. One need go no further than this in the
development of one's Concentration unless one desires to do so.
What is Access Concentration? Access Concentration is that type of meditative concentration which allows
for either moment-to-moment observation of continuously and wave-like-connected mental/physical
phenomena (Insight Meditation), or undisturbed meditation on a single object (Concentration Meditation).
Furthermore, as long as concentration is held at The Access Level, awareness of the senses, mental
input, and the external world always remains. But, how does one know whether one has reached The
Access Level or not? When Access Concentration has been achieved, the following Counterpart Sign shall
appear: against the backdrop of the field-of-awareness (best seen with the eyes closed), there shall
appear a "self-luminous seed," or "self-luminous gem." This "seed" or "gem" can (1) remain fixed in
one location, (2) float around, (3) come and go at random, (4) manifest as several "seeds" or "gems." It is
as this point, with the attainment of Access Concentration, that one has cultivated sufficient concentration of
mind in order to do penetrating Insight Meditation. Again, the question arises as to whether one should
even strive to attain this level of Concentration at all, and instead begin with Insight Meditation. This
course of action is inadvisable - for without a sufficient level of one-pointedness of attention one will not
have the power to make any radical changes in the structure of one's consciousness or to gain Insight into
the nature of self and Reality. Why? Because Insight Meditation is like an observing eye, while
Concentration is like a powerful magnifying lens. The unaided eye can see just so much unassisted, while
with the powerful magnifying lens, its power to see is greatly enhanced. Clearly, then, without the
"magnifying lens" of well-developed Concentration skills, one’s Insight Meditation will not take one very
far. All this leads us naturally to an exposition of the fundaments of seated Insight Meditation.
Section 3
Instructions for Seated Insight Meditation
Basic Instructions for Seated Insight Meditation
1. Sit comfortably in a chair, in one of a variety of Lotus Positions, or in some comfortable position on a
couch. Now place your hands comfortably in your lap or in some other convenient position. Be sure to
always keep your back straight if you are sitting rather than lying down.
2. Choose a primary object of observation. This can either be the wave-like sensations of the breath, the
airflow at and around the nostrils, the wave-like rising-and-falling of the abdomen in response to breathing,
or the continuous and unbroken sound of a an electric fan turned on in the room for this purpose. Under no
circumstances should one make any attempt to control the breath. It is of the essence of all Insight
Meditation Practices not to interfere with what is happening. In this context, this means that the
breath should be allowed to continue unhampered by any interference whatsoever.
3. As one becomes aware of various smells, tastes, sounds, sensations, feelings, memories, mental images,
pain, anxiety, tension, rapture, joy, shifting bodily positions, etc., one must include them into one’s field-of-
awareness in such a way that one is simultaneously aware of both the primary object of meditation and
whatever has arisen. Remember, the way change is experienced on this path is of one object flowing into,
overlapping, or side-by-side of, the next without any gaps or breaks and in a wave-like manner.
4. What if you feel to "scattered" or your mind too chaotic to continue on in the fashion outlined above in
steps 1 - 4 ? What if there are no more sequentially arising and overlapping objects to be aware of? In
these cases, return most of your attention back to the primary object of observation. Remember, in
Classical Monistic Insight Meditation, the primary object of awareness never never fades from
consciousness!
5. Then, once again, as other objects arise, include them in your field-of-awareness in such a way that the
awareness of the primary object never fades from awareness. This process (steps 1 - 5 ) are repeated
throughout the Classical Monistic Insight Meditation session.
6. Remember, two objects are always before the mind at any one moment in Monistic Insight Meditation:
"[background object]/[whatever has arisen]."
7. If one becomes bored with this, or there is an obvious lack of objects to notice for quite some time, do a
few (five to nine) scans of the body along various routes. This is done in the following way: start at the
bottom of both feet and gradually run your awareness slowly up your lower legs all the way to the knees,
and then run it slowly up your upper legs to the genitals and buttocks being sure to feel both front and back
of what you are scanning. Do the same for the stomach and back, running awareness up both sides, all the
way to the throat and back of the neck. Then run your awareness up both of your arms simultaneously.
From there, run it up the front and back and sides of the neck simultaneously, then up the front and back and
sides all the way up to the crown of the head. Then you can either repeat the procedure starting from the
bottom of the feet again, or start from the top of the head. During the scanning process, be sure to be
completely aware of what is happening in the area being scanned: is there any experience of heat?; of
tightness?; of cold?; of pain?; of anxiety?; of panic?; of itching, burning , tingling, or vibration?; etc. For
variety, work out alternate scanning routes with, say, one side or part of the body at a time. Be sure
awareness of your chosen primary object never fades from consciousness. After from five to nine
sweeps at various speeds ranging from very slow to very rapid, return your awareness to the breath. Again,
be sure to never let awareness of your chosen primary object fade from your attention.
(8)Lastly, if you already have the ability to go into Absorption but desire to do Insight Meditation instead,
you will have to resist the very great temptation to do so. You must hold your level of Concentration at the
Access Level where you are aware of The Flow of Light along with that of sense and mental input.
9) Arising Mental Content and its relation to Insight Meditation
By the very nature of this practice, distractions are not a hindrance in Insight Meditation - they are to be
made part of the meditation itself, for this is the whole purpose of this form of meditation. However,
beginners who have really noisy minds will quite often find themselves overwhelmed by their chaotic and
undisciplined inner world. In cases like these, it is almost impossible for such persons to do the practice
effectively because they keep getting lost in their own self-produced fantasies and internal dialogue. What
can be done? At this juncture, one should abandon Insight Practice and go directly to the chapter on The
Path of the Meditative Absorptions focus on the development of Concentration and mental tranquillity.
Generally speaking, The Method of Staggered Breathing and Breath Retention is frequently found to be of
the most assistance.
Summary of Seated Insight Meditation Practice
Note: We know that steps 1 - 9 sound fairly complicated, but let us say that our set of instructions is
complete for doing this very dynamic form of meditation. However, all 1 - 9 really amount to is this:
Always keeping one's attention immutably fixed upon the primary object (for example, the fan noise) while
simultaneously being aware of whatever else arises inside the body/mind or outside it during the course of
one's meditation. That is all. The detail in steps 1 - 9 is to cover every contingency so that the spirit of the
practice can be maintained throughout the meditation session.
Section 4
On Exercises to Deepen Your Insight
(1) Internalize the Classical Monistic Categories of Insight
"The Eternal Now," "Sameness-in-Change," and Absolute Nonduality. Metaphors for the first two
categories are: Timelessness, Simultaneity, Absolute Continuity, Identity-through-Change. Especially
important is the experience of Change. Change or Successiveness is understood and experienced in a
unique way in Classical Monistic Insight Meditation - it is experienced in an ABSOLUTELY
CONTINUOUS manner. That is, one percept flows into and overlaps its successor without the slightest
separation between the two. The importance of The Classical Monistic Experience of Change or
Successive cannot be overemphasized; and this means all discontinuous experience of change must be
ignored and finally deleted from one’s experience.
(2) Engage in Walking Meditation when going from one place to another.
(3) Maintain constant Mindfulness of The Hearing throughout the day.
(4) Maintain an Unbroken Whole-Body-Awareness
-This must be done, without a break, throughout the daily routine and especially during periods of formal
meditation.
(5) Engage in Insight Meditation During unoccupied Moments
-For example, when waiting for an appointment.
(6) Aids to Both Concentration and Insight:
(a) Vegetarian Diet
(b) Eating Once Daily before Noon
(c) Fasting
III
Insight Meditation, Mindfulness
&
Clear Comprehension
(adapted from The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nayanaponika Thera)
Section 1
Before proceeding to a discussion concerning Bare Attention and Clear Comprehension, it will be
extremely valuable to discuss in a broad and general fashion the nature of Mindfulness and its relation both
to formal meditation practice and to daily life. As you well know by now, Mindfulness is basically an
active awareness of what is going on Here and Now as seen through the lens of a form of Dynamic and
Flowing Concentration. However, it is much more than such a superficial characterization might at first
seem to imply. True Mindfulness has many interrelated components, and an exposition of these follows
below.
Bare Attention
Bare Attention is simply an acute and supremely simple awareness of what is actually happening to one at
successive instants of time. We use the word "Bare" in order to emphasize the fact that this kind of attention
attends only to the bare facts or bare characteristics of the overlapping objects of perception which are
ceaselessly arising at the gates of the five senses and the mind. "Bare" also means that one keeps solely to a
bare registration of whatever arises through the sixfold sense gates of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting,
touching, and knowing without attempting reaction to any of these percepts in thought, word, or deed.
Contrary to received opinion, the arising of mental commentary during the course of formal Insight
Meditation is not a hindrance, nor should it be looked upon as an annoyance. Rather, one should make the
arising commentary (or whatever) an object of Bare Attention while simultaneously keeping unbroken
awareness of the primary object. This is how "distractions" are dealt with during Insight Meditation. After
Bare Registration of these objects, one dismisses them and continues one's meditation. More about "how
to" in detail in the section on Intensive Practice.
Thoroughness
Clearly, the correct practice of Mindfulness, or Right Mindfulness, will have to employ thoroughness of
procedure to the highest degree. Since Mindfulness is an acute vigilance of what is happening Here and
Now, the absence or neglect of thoroughness would deprive this method of any chance of success and
would be the exact opposite of any form of awareness called "Mindfulness." Carefully laid foundations in
any endeavor will greatly improve the prospects of success of that same endeavor. In the sphere of
Meditation, this is also true. Consequently, Right Mindfulness starts at the beginning. The utilization of
Bare Attention, both in daily life and in formal meditation, helps one return to the seed state of events. With
regard to the activity of the mind, this means that observation returns to the very first phase of the process of
perception when the mind is in a wholly receptive state and attention is focused on The Bare Observation or
noticing of objects. It is the task of the next overlapping perceptual phase to correct and to supplement that
first impression. However, this is not always the case. Frequently, the first impression is uncritically
accepted, and even more often are new distortions carried over into the second overlapping stage.
Obviously, then, the work of Bare Attention begins here - it being a deliberate cultivation and reinforcing of
that first receptive state of mind. This gives it a better chance to fulfill its important task in the process of
veridical cognition.
Obtaining the Bare Overlapping Objects
Bare Attention consists in a bare and exact registering of the sequentially arising and overlapping
(continuously connected) perceptual objects. This is not as easy a task as it might at first appear, since this
is not our usual habit or practice. Normally we are not concerned with a dispassionate knowledge of the
empirical world as seen through the Eye of Nonduality. On the contrary, our usual practice has to do with
the manipulation, handling, and judging of the seeming "separate things" of our experience from the
viewpoint of a narrowly vested interest. One then tacks labels onto these "things" which then form one’s
self-constructed physical and emotional universe. These labels and boundaries are almost always a
reflection of one’s own provincial views and myopic vision. In order to correct these problems we apply
Bare Attention. "Bare" means, in addition to what we have said about it, bare of labels, names, concepts,
images, and emotions. After much practice of Bare Attention, a whole new world will open up to one.
One’s first discovery it that where one believed oneself to be dealing with a unitary thing (i.e., a single
object presented by a single act of perception), there is in fact a multiplicity of differing but wholly
interrelated physical and mental processes presented by corresponding acts of perception following each
other in quick but overlapping succession. Furthermore, one will further notice, with great regret, how
infrequently one is aware of The Bare Overlapping Objects without any adulteration in the way of
subjective additions of prejudice, emotion, and so forth. Thus, for example, most of the phenomena
encountered are almost always egocentrically referred back to oneself, and judged as either useful or
useless, beautiful or ugly, pleasant or unpleasant, etc.
We now see how the various objects of perception "sink into the storehouse of memory" and exert a
powerful and distorting influence upon all one’s present actions and thoughts. Consequently, it is the task
of Bare Attention to eliminate all those foreign additions from the overlapping objects that are currently in
the field of perception. This demands perseverance in both formal meditation and the carrying of one’s
meditative practice into all one’s daily activities. As one progresses in the practice, Bare Attention acts as a
multilayered filter with ever finer meshes which purge first the grossest and then even the most subtle alien
admixtures which prevent us from apprehending the bare objects, and finally, Nondual Reality itself. Once
again, one must contemplate only the process or flow of interrelated and overlapping events and not
engage in discursive analyses of any kind. This includes the responses of judging, emotion, or those
involving the imagination as well.
Realizations and Revelations via Bare Attention
When Access Concentration has been reached, and when one has been practicing Bare Attention for some
years, the first and most traumatic revelation is a direct confrontation with the ever-present fact of Change.
This is one of the four defining characteristics of Phenomenal Reality: Impermanence. The incessant but
overlapping sequence of events flowing ever onward will become an experience of growing power and will
have a decisive impact upon one’s life and upon one’ meditative progress.
Almost everyone talks about and acknowledges the fact of Change - many popular songs even wax eloquent
about it. However, though commonly admitted, the fact of omnipresent change is NOT realized at an
existential or visceral level. And unfortunately, persons generally become acutely conscious of it only when
it impacts them in sometimes a pleasant, but usually an unpleasant, way. The practice of Bare Attention,
however, will bring it forcibly home that Change is the essence of Manifestation and of life. Life could not
even be without change. From the fact of Omnipresent Change it follows that even in an infinitesimal
fraction of a second the frequency of occurring changes is beyond our ability to apprehend. Probably for
the first time in our lives it will strike us at the root of our being what kind of world we are actually living
in. Coming face to face with Change as experienced vividly in our body-mind we have started to see
Manifestation as it really is: as a single and ceaselessly flowing event much like the ocean. Another
revelation walking in lock-step with the revelation of ubiquitous Change is that even one’s body-mind is
nothing more than an emanation or manifestation of the single and all-pervasive Nondual Divine Reality,
and that finally "individual selves" are as non-ultimate as "individual things."
The Role and Value of Bare Attention in Forming the Mind
Socrates, as transmitted through Plato, was reported to have said "To know the good is to do the good."
All types of genuine Meditative Spirituality agree with this. Hence, much or most of human-made suffering
comes not so much from premeditated evil and irreducible wickedness as from Ignorance (rashness, lack of
discipline or self-control, thoughtlessness, excess, etc.). After some practice, it will become clearer and
clearer that a single moment of Mindfulness or vigilant attention will usually prevent chains of disastrous
events and the guilt and misery which follow in their wake. Thus, by pausing before acting in thought, word,
or deed in one’s never-ceasing application of Bare Attention and Mindfulness, the crucial opportunity can
be seized when the mind has not yet chosen a determinate course of action but is still open to skillful
direction. If this is not done, the mind, in the very next overlapping moment, may give full reign to
misguided and harmful impulses, urges, and desires. Bare Attention slows down and even halts the
transition from thought to action allowing one to come to a wiser and more compassionate decision.
Additionally, Bare Attention also allows one time for carefully analyzing whether action by thought, word,
or deed is even necessary at all. There is all too often too great a propensity for individuals to engage in
ego-fueled interference, and Bare Attention, here, allows us to avoid yet another cause of gratuitous
suffering.
Since all experience is nothing but Present Experience, Bare Attention is concerned only with the Present.
It teaches us what most have forgotten: to live with full awareness Here and Now. It teaches us to face the
present without trying to escape via thought (or whatever) into an illusory and thought-constructed past, or
into an equally illusory and thought-constructed future. Consequently, Right Mindfulness gives one The
Pearl of Great Price: genuine freedom. Right Mindfulness cuts one loose from the chains of past and
future, snatching it from The Devourer of Time - for the one who lives wholly in the Present, lives
Eternally. Thus are the chains of the illusory past sundered for one, since one has ceased reinforcing the
illusion by the habits of nostalgia and regret. Similarly, are the chains of the equally illusory future
sundered, since one has ceased reinforcing this illusion through the habits of fear and hope.
The Role and Value of Bare Attention in the Liberation of the Mind
With regard to the carrying of the practice of Mindfulness and Bare Attention into the arena of one’s daily
life, we suggest that one try, for a week at least, to utilize it in all aspects of one’s daily routine. In this way
one will soon feel how much more harmonious life is compared with the times when one conducted an
"emotional lawsuit" at the slightest provocation. So, by stepping back from persons and events, the peace
born of detachment may possibly become one’s permanent possession. Concomitantly, one’s feelings,
views, and attitudes become ever more friendly and compassionate because the conflicts necessary for the
arising of Greed, Hatred, or Delusion are lacking - life becomes very light, easy, and spacious.
By extrapolation from the temporary experiences of peace and equanimity had via Bare Attention, it
becomes possible for one to realistically entertain the notion that permanent and perfect detachment and
equanimity are possible. It gives one the confidence to believe that such fleeting experiences as one has had
may well one day become a complete stepping out to the illusory world of time and duality. It gives us an
intimation of the true Summum Bonum of Final Liberation in this very life. It can be truly said, at this
point, that one would be in the world but not of the world.
Nondual Insight is a direct and profound realization of The Four Characteristics of Phenomenal Reality
plus The Three Characteristics of Noumenal Reality. This is no mere intellectual or conceptual knowledge
of these truths, but one that goes to the roots of our self-identity and being. It is a transfigurative and
unshakable personal experience of them attained through repeated meditative confrontation with the facts
underlying these truths. Nondual Insight belongs to that type of life-transfigurative knowledge that popular
and exoteric religion promises but can never deliver! By its very nature, Nondual Insight produces a
growing detachment and an increasing turn away from Greed, Hatred, and Delusion, culminating in the final
deliverance of the mind from all self-produced causes of its enslavement to time and duality.
Section 2
Clear Comprehension
One of the central points we are trying to communicate throughout this chapter is that the infinitely
detached and receptive attitude of Bare Attention can and should be maintained throughout all of one’s
waking existence. But one should not forget that Bare Attention cannot be maintained by beginners in the
midst of all waking activities. This the beginner is only partially successful in doing, if at all, within the
context of formal meditation. It is one of the objectives of one’s practice that Clear Comprehension should
become the regulative force in the midst of any waking activity. Its job is to make them flow from an
unbroken awareness of The Nondual Reality in harmony with the highest level of one’s understanding. Put
in other words, this means that to the clarity of Bare Attention one should add the full comprehension of
purpose wedded to an immediate apprehension of the nature of Reality. This is what we mean by "Clear
Comprehension."
The Five Kinds of Clear Comprehension
There are five kinds of Clear Comprehension, viz.,
(i) The Clear Comprehension of Purpose
(ii) The Clear Comprehension of Suitability
(iii)The Clear Comprehension of The Domain of Meditation
(iv)The Clear Comprehension of Phenomenal Reality
(v) The Clear Comprehension of Noumenal Reality
An Exposition of the Five types of Clear Comprehension.
(i) The Clear Comprehension of Purpose
It is the goal of The Clear Comprehension of Purpose to always pose the question to oneself as to whether
the intended activity or impulse, or whatever else has arisen in the mind, is really in accordance with one’s
immediate purpose and with one’s moral and spiritual ideals of wisdom and compassion. The skillful and
timely pausing for putting that question to oneself will yield immeasurable benefits. However, it will have
to be inculcated through rigorous meditative training.
(ii) The Clear Comprehension of Suitability
It is the purpose of The Clear Comprehension of Suitability to keep fully before one’s mind that it is not
always within one’s power to choose that course of action which is most nearly ideal. Our selection, we
must realize, is conditioned by time, society, culture, biology, and the limitations of our own capacities -
the conditions imposed by Phenomenal Reality. This second type of Clear Comprehension teaches one to
be more pragmatic in circumstances in which the Ideal is not clearly evident or even unattainable. So, Clear
Comprehension will save us from discouragement or disillusionment resulting from our own misguided
ideas or faulty procedure, and instead, our choices will be more likely to flow from our Spiritual Ideals.
Clear Comprehension of Suitability teaches us to master the craft of the choice of correct means.
(iii) The Clear Comprehension of The Domain of Meditation
By this third kind of Clear Comprehension, the characteristic methods of Monistic Insight Meditation plus
the philosophy of Absolute Idealism incorporated into daily life. Here, one chooses as one’s subject for
reflection and meditative awareness during daily routine, some characteristic of either Phenomenal Reality
or Noumenal Reality.
Meditation on a Characteristic of Phenomenal Reality
Let us say that one chooses to meditate on the characteristic of Impermanence. If so, one should try to
blend it with the work or thought directly demanded by the day’s tasks. Conversely, the work at hand
should be done with an acute meditative awareness of all aspects of change within the range of one’s senses.
Obviously then, meditation upon Impermanence has two components, namely, a discursive one and a
meditative one.
Discursive Meditation upon Impermanence
The following things should be thought about and reflected upon throughout, in this discursive meditation
upon Impermanence. They are:
-life may end in the next instant through accident, sudden illness, or other means
-cliffs fall, mountains erode, rocks tumble, earth washes away, stars die, galaxies fade, and even black holes
evaporate
-seasons change, day turns into night, the sun and moon have their respective phases, the seasons are
accompanied by the life cycles of both plants and animals
-species which lived for over 200 million years, the dinosaurs, are gone
-the atmosphere is in constant flux, as any victim of a tornado or hurricane can attest
-clouds constantly swirl and move above us incessantly
-few human beings have lived beyond 120 - 150 years
-civilizations and nations rise and fall
-the ever-present possibility of the annihilation of most human life on earth via weapons of mass
destruction
Meditative and Discursive Contemplation of Impermanence
This is simply being acutely aware, without concepts, images, or symbols, what is happening Here and
Now, both within oneself and without. It is simply an acute concentrated awareness of the flowing and
overlapping objects of perception that one is used to doing in seated meditation applied to the spheres of
daily life and routine. For the discursive component of this meditation, it is all-important to remind oneself
during any given activity or experience, that "This, too, shall pass away." Moreover, it is equally as
important to remind oneself, after a given activity, experience, or phenomenon has passed away that "This,
also, has passed away." An additional and critical contemplation involves both the observation and saying
to oneself that "When X has passed away, it is as if it never was." This can be done easily by always
saying silently, to oneself, these three phrases. This is the exercise and the technique. One must do it at all
times. However, if this is too difficult initially, then attempt it especially in areas in which one is greatly
attached or in which one has a tendency to cling too much.
Meditation on a Characteristic of Noumenal Reality
If a characteristic of Noumenal Reality is chosen as one’s meditation topic, the considerations similar to
those given above apply here as well. For example, let us say that one chooses the characteristic of The
Eternal Now. One then realizes, to ever greater degrees, that while everything within the circle of present
experience is changing, one thing does not: the fact of Present Experience itself! Ultimately, the passing
present will give way to The Standing Present (Eternity), and one’s sense of the passage of time shall cease.
One then realizes directly that one has been living in Eternity all along.
(iv) The Clear Comprehension of Phenomenal Reality
The Clear Comprehension of Phenomenal Reality eliminates the following delusions: (1) belief in any kind
of permanence outside Absolute Reality, (2) belief in any kind of permanent self or ego, whether divine or
human or otherwise, (3) belief and experience of any kind of separation even at the phenomenal level, and
(4) belief that anything can provide ultimate satisfaction or lasting peace outside of Liberation.
(v) The Clear Comprehension of Noumenal Reality
The Clear Comprehension of Noumenal Reality removes through the light of an unclouded mind the
deepest and most obstinate twofold affliction in humanity: belief in any kind of permanent or separate self
or soul, and duality in all generality. This twofold delusion with its progeny of Greed, Hatred, and Spiritual
Ignorance is the true impetus of much or most of the pain and hate in the world. "Clear Comprehension of
Noumenal Reality" is the clarity and presence of knowledge that separation of any kind is merely a
conditioned and thought-constructed illusion. Only by stripping away the obscuring veils of illusory duality
via Meditation can this twofold affliction be dissolved. Here, as a brief but informative note, we say a few
words on the "emotional tone" of the truth of The Impersonal Nature of Absolute Reality. The discernment
of the reality of this Omnipresent Nondual Totality, by reflection and by methodical practice of Insight
Meditation, is, in itself, certainly as unemotional and sober as that of a dispassionate scientist doing
research. However, except in one who has obtained Final Liberation and hence possessed of perfect
equipoise, emotional repercussions will result. These emotional repercussions of Insight into The Nondual
Absolute are not restricted to a single "note." On the contrary, the "emotional tone" will vary according to
one’s temperament, personality, psychological condition, frame of reference, and the stage of one's
meditative development. But as progress is made, reactions of fear, terror, and depression ultimately give
way to a serene and sublime joy. Why? Because the odious burden of "Me and Mine" and any other kind
of grasping or clinging to a "self" or "ego" is, step-by-step, being laid down. When there is a growing
awareness of The Impersonal Nondual Absolute, we can lift our heads, for a little while, above the fierce
current and whirl in which the obsession of "Me and Mine" engulf us. And, it is this very awareness of
Nonduality which holds open the door to Final Liberation.
The first three modes of Clear Comprehension (viz., of Purpose, Suitability, and Domain of Meditation) can
only be applied outside of formal meditation. Thus, when practiced, the novice leaves behind the relative
safety and detachment given her in formal meditation and returns to the world with all of its traps, snares,
and delusions. In this area, the novice will find that all of her old habits and fears come rushing back with a
vengeance. It seems at this point that every action seems to drag her back into the world’s diffuseness and
illusory duality, and to which her actions are adding to the sum total of the world’s pain and ignorance.
Action, by its very nature, has the inherent tendency to spread and intensify like a cancer. In her resolve to
practice the first three modes of Clear Comprehension, she will find that her actions tend to mire her in new
interests, plans, desires, duties, aims, complications, and conflicts. This means that until she has achieved
some real and permanent silence of mind, she will always be exposed to the danger of loosing both
motivation and any progress made. Therefore, she must be very cautious and vigilant so any progress made
will not be lost. Here, vivid awareness of The Timeless Nondual Divine Reality will come to her assistance.
She observes thus: "Within, there is no permanent self, and without the duality perceived it illusory.
Ultimately, there is just The Unitary Absolute." If this insight is kept before her mind in all undertakings
both great and small, a spacious detachment towards her own actions and the actions of others will develop.
As a consequence, she will no longer care for success or failure, praise or blame, pleasure or pain, boredom
or excitement. Clearly, then, if one no longer clings to an action with one’s whole heart and being, and if
there is no more hankering after personal success or fame, then there will be less danger in being carries off
by the odious currents of Greed, Hatred, and Delusion. Why are we usually carried off? Because actions
performed in pursuit of worldly gains and ends by an unliberated one is usually the creation of additional
bondage and delusion. The preservation of the greatest possible degree of freedom in the perilous realm of
worldly action is the true task of The Clear Comprehension of Noumenal Reality. So with regard to the
active life, Clear Comprehension of The Impersonal Nondual Divine Reality will ultimate suffuse it with a
spacious, loving, and serene detachment. Its influence will by this time not be restricted to a few hours of
meditation. At this point, all of our emotions, thoughts, and activities will come under the permanent sway
of Bare Attention.
Section 3
The Five Foundations of Awareness
(I) The Contemplation of The Body
(a) Mindfulness of the Breathing
This is not a controlled breathing exercise as in Hindu yoga, but a Mindfulness exercise instead. In
the context of Insight Meditation, there is no retention, regulation, or interference with the breath in
any way. The breath must be allowed to breathe itself! This says that there is just The Bare Observation
of the natural flow of the breath, with firm and steady, but easy and buoyant, attention. There is no strain or
rigidity here. Moreover, the length or shortness of the breath is fully experienced without any attempt at
control. Now the breath is always with us. This being the case, we must turn our attention to it in any free
or idle moment during our daily routine. This lays a foundation for a very noticeable sense of well-being,
self-sufficiency, silence of mind, and equanimity. Further, keenness and naturalness of Vigilant Attention
will grow with repeated practice. We see, then, that Mindfulness of The Breathing is very effective in
quieting bodily and mental unrest or irritation. It is, in addition, a simple way to the initial stages of either
The Path of The Meditative Absorptions, or Insight Meditation. For those who would tread The Path of
Pure Concentration, see the chapter on The Meditative Absorptions.
(b) Mindfulness of The Bodily Postures
It is the general purpose of this exercise to keep ceaselessly before one’s mind The Four Bodily Postures of
walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. In addition, one must observe the flowing of one posture into
another in such a way that there are no experienced breaks between a given posture and its successor.
(c) Clear Comprehension
Clear Comprehension extends to all functions of the body: The Four Postures along with looking,
stretching, dressing, eating, drinking, excreting, speaking, keeping silent, being awake, falling asleep, etc.
The presence of Clear Comprehension teaches circumspect and purposeful action for practical ends, helps
with progress along The Path, assists one in the gradual merging of ordinary life and spiritual practice, helps
to deepen Insight into Nonduality, and strengthens detachment from the body.
In the previous exercise, Mindfulness accompanies The Postures while they are assumed, simply by noting
their occurrence and experiencing the flowing of a given posture into its successor. In distinction to it, The
Clear Comprehension of Purpose and The Clear Comprehension of Suitability exercise a directing influence
upon the various bodily activities. The previous exercise consisted of a full, but only general, awareness of
the postures and their impersonal character. The Clear Comprehension of Phenomenal Reality, in its aspect
of Impermanence, also includes a more detailed and almost microscopic awareness of the flowing and
overlapping processes involved. This eventually leads to a deeper penetration of their impersonal nature.
(II) The Contemplation of Feeling
"Feeling" in this exercise has a technical meaning which signifies "pleasant," "unpleasant," or "neutral."
Clearly this does not mean emotion as it does in popular parlance.
Feeling in the sense spoken of above is the first response to any of the overlapping sense impressions, and is
of the highest importance in Insight Meditation. Therefore, particular attention should be paid to it for
those who desire mastery over the body-mind. With regard to The Three Poisons of Greed, Hatred, and
Delusion, the overlapping sense impressions are the primary conditioner of feeling, and feeling in turn,
conditions more intense clinging. Thus we see that the crucial point in the origin of our whole mass of
suffering and delusion has its roots in feeling - since the provenance of passionate emotion of all types have
their origin in feeling. So if one desires to break this oppressive concatenation, feeling is where one must
start. For example, if in receiving any of the overlapping sense percepts, one is able to pause or stop at the
stage of feeling and make it in its very first stage of manifestation the object of Bare Attention, feeling will
not be able to originate The Three Poisons. It will stop at the Bare Registration of "pleasant,"
"unpleasant," or "neutral." This will give the skills one has developed in Clear Comprehension a chance to
help one decide on the wisest and most compassionate course of action possible. In sum, then, if one
notices, with Bare Attention, the overlapping and flowing of the feelings, one will find from one’ own
experience that there is no need to be carried away by extremes or excesses of passionate emotion.
Another component in The Contemplation of Feeling is the careful attention one must pay to feelings of
satisfaction, dissatisfaction, or neutrality that may arise in practice or daily life. Since these satisfactions
and dissatisfactions are complex mental states and not pure Feelings as technically defined, we do not
subsume them under feeling. Moreover, by directing Bare Attention to them, they will ultimately be
divested of their emotional components and egocentric reference. That is, they will appear as mere pleasant
or unpleasant or neutral sensations and will thus no longer be able to carry the contemplative away into
states of excessive highs and lows which are detrimental to spiritual progress and a balanced life.
Paraphrased, this means that one should be aware of the general quality of feelings by a curt and simple, but
repeated registering of their true nature as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. This is done by the use of simple
"mental notes" which help in cultivation of vigilant Bare Attention and which are reflective of the nature of
the overlapping percepts. For example, if one is meditating and one’s primary object of focus is the fan
noise, and if during the course of meditation practice one feels an itch, then one makes a mental note of it by
saying silently to oneself "hearing(of fan noise)/itch." This simple device will prove a very useful technique
for infusing more order and intelligibility to the elusive world of the emotions. What one is not to do while
meditating is engage in either a psychological analysis of the origin and causes of whatever has arisen, or
engage in praising, blaming, condemnation, persuasion, suppression or repression of whatever has arisen.
With regard to The Method of Mental Notes, more will be said later.
(III) The Contemplation of The States of Mind
Here too, the mind is placed in front of the all-seeing mirror of Bare Attention. The object of observation,
in this contemplation, is the condition and level of the mind as it presents itself in any given overlapping
moment. The states one is to pay particular attention to are: "desiring," "hating," "liking," "ignorance,"
"tense," "distracted," "narrow scope," and the like. The opposites of these qualities should also be noted.
We cannot repeat too often that it is the awareness of a background percept simultaneously with what ever
has arisen that distinguishes Classical Monistic Insight Meditation from Buddhist Insight Meditation.
Consequently, in this contemplation, as in all Classical Monistic Insight Meditation contemplation’s, two
objects are always before the mind at any one moment. Thus, the mental notes have two components too.
For example, "(background percept of, say, the continuous fan noise)/(desiring, say, to eat)." Additionally,
one is aware of these states as they occur, or in retrospect.
(IV) The Contemplation of Mental Objects
By regular practice of contemplation's (IV) and (V), the mental objects or contents of thought will
gradually assume the form or "shape" of Classical Monism. This Contemplation has the following
components:
(a) Avoiding, temporarily overcoming, and then finally dissolving all hindrances and fetters.
(b) Cultivating and developing The Seven Factors of Enlightenment: Vigilant Attention, Investigation of
Phenomena, Energy, Joy, Ease, Concentration, and Non-attachment.
(V) The Contemplation of Phenomenal and Noumenal Reality
This contemplation involves intellectual mastery of The Philosophy of Classical Monism, and most
importantly, Meditative Awareness and Mastery of The Characteristics of both Phenomenal and Noumenal
Reality.
IV
Principles of Intensive Insight Meditation
Section 1
(1) Training in General Mindfulness.
During a course of rigorous practice, the time of practice is the whole day, from morning to night.
Mindfulness of all activities and perceptions should be maintained throughout the day to the greatest
possible degree. This begins with the first thoughts and perceptions upon awakening, and ends with the
last thoughts and perceptions when falling asleep. This general form of Mindfulness starts with The Four
Postures of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. This means that one has to be fully aware of (a) the
posture presently assumed, (b) of any preceding and overlapping intention to change it, (c) of any
noticeable feelings of pain or ease, and (d) of any change of posture. Remember, postures flow into one
another without a break. For example, when lying down for the night, and upon awakening in the morning,
one should be aware of, say, "fan noise/lying down," and then "fan noise/touching"(of mattress). The
general problem usually encountered by novices at this point it that he or she may not be able, at first, to
attend Mindfully to all or even most of the activities and impressions of the day. She may therefore start
with only the postures and gradually extend the scope of Mindfulness to all routine activities such as
dressing, washing, cleaning, eating, etc.
Here is one very detailed illustration of how to apply Mindfulness along with The Method of Mental Notes
to a routine activity:
Obtaining and Drinking a Glass of Water
-One is simultaneously aware of the fan noise(one's primary object) and the desire for a glass of water: "hearing/desiring"
-One then looks over toward the sink : "hearing (of fan)/moving(of neck and/or body), then "hearing(of fan)/looking"
-One then moves toward sink: "hearing(of fan)/walking"
-One stretches out one's hand to turn on water: "hearing(of fan)/stretching"
-One then turns on the water: "hearing(of fan)/turning"
-One then reaches for the glass: "hearing(of running water)/reaching"
-One then grasps the glass: "hearing(of running water)/taking"
-One then moves glass over to running water: "hearing(of running water)/moving""
-Glass becomes full of water and a desire arises to turn off water: "hearing(of running water)/desiring"
-One then intends to turn water off: "hearing(of running water)/intending"
-One then acts to turn off water: "hearing(of running water)/moving (towards control)"
-One then turns off water: "hearing(of running water)/turning"
-One then desires to drink the water: "hearing(fan noise again)/desiring"
-One then intends to move to move glass toward mouth: "hearing(fan noise)/intending"
-One moves glass toward mouth: "hearing (fan noise)/moving"
-One feels touch of glass and water on lips: "hearing(fan noise)/touching", and "hearing(fan noise)/wetness"
-One drinks the water: "hearing(fan noise)/drinking"
-One feels the coolness of the water in the mouth and throat: "hearing/coolness"
-One swallows the water: "hearing/swallowing"
-An so on!
We have outlined the procedure in enormous detail. However, one should not expect all these details to
become apparent at first. Further, it is sufficient much of the time that the practitioner attend only to those
details that are most readily apparent - since one cannot always attend so microscopically to all overlapping
phases of every action. To do so would ultimately wind one up in utter exhaustion without strength to do
one’s practice! Moreover, the initial purpose of General Training in Mindfulness is to strengthen both
Concentration and Insight of what is happening so as to enable the meditator to follow the unceasing flow of
variegated mental and bodily impressions and activities for an increasingly long period of time without an
unnoticed break of attention.
Note: EXTREME SLOWNESS IS THE KEY TO BOTH THE MENTAL NOTES METHOD OF
INSIGHT MEDITATION AND APPLYING INSIGHT PRACTICES OUTSIDE OF SEATED
MEDITATION DURING PERIODS OF INTENSIVE PRACTICE.
(2) Seated Training
After one has attended Mindfully to the various routine activities of the morning, one sits down on a
meditation cushion, or in a meditation chair, or in some position on a couch, being aware of one’s preceding
overlapping intention with whatever one’s primary object is, etc. One then follows the instructions given at
the end of the second chapter. Another thing to keep in mind is that one must not think about the movement
of the abdomen or the flow of the breath, one must experience the processive flow instead, while at the
same time, being aware of all its wave-like sensations, qualities, and phases.
When one becomes sufficiently advanced in meditation, the breath will slow down to a great extent. At this
time, there will be long pauses between inhalation and exhalation, or conversely. It is particularly crucial at
this time (i.e., when there are long pauses between breaths) that one maintain unbroken awareness of one’s
primary object, say, the fan noise. If one begins to feel too tired, or because of long sitting the legs, back,
neck, or buttocks begin to feel numb, one should turn one’s awareness toward these feelings and sensations
(again while retaining unbroken awareness of the primary object). One should keep to that awareness as
long as these feelings and sensations are strong enough to disturb one’s meditation practice. Very often, just
in the act of noticing them dispassionately and continuously, these same feelings and sensations often vanish
of their own accord enabling one to continue on with one’s practice. However, if these unpleasant
sensations or tiredness persist and disturb practice beyond the point of control or endurance, perhaps, then,
it is time to (a) change positions, (b) engage in walking meditation, (c) go to sleep, or (d) quit meditating.
We might also mention that during the entire day of practice, stray thoughts or an unmindful skipping of
phases or sequences of any activity should be noticed, either when it occurs or in retrospect. One should
pay careful attention to the fact whether these breaks in attention have been noticed at once after occurring,
or whether, and how long, one was carried away by reveries of some sort; and this should be done before
resuming the observation of sequentially arising but overlapping phenomena. Of course one should aim to
notice these breaks immediately when they occur, but this skill only comes with much practice. The good
news is that the frequency of these breaks will decrease to ever greater degrees with unbroken practice.
Furthermore, one should never allow oneself to be irritated, annoyed, or discouraged about the occurrence
of distracting or undesirable thoughts or images or desires, but should simply take these disturbing
phenomena as temporary objects of Mindfulness. The very same method should and must be applied to all
external interruptions too. In this way, "disturbances" of meditative practice are transformed into necessary
parts of the practice itself.
(3) A Note on Walking Meditation
In the practice of Walking Meditation, one should have a fairly long stretch of level ground on which to do
it. Here, as in The Mental Notes Method of Mindfulness, extreme slowness is the ideal. Predictably, one is
to keep one’s attention immutably fixed upon the primary object while simultaneously being aware of all the
overlapping phases of the walking. That is all. Much practice will introduce one to the finer points of this
exercise.
Section 2
Insight Meditation via The Scanning Method
and
Energy Circulation Methods
WARNING: THESE METHODS ARE VERY VERY RISKY. MOST OF THOSE
WHO HAVE USED THEM FEEL VICTIMIZED BY THESE SAME METHODS.
SO PLEASE DO NOT ENTER INTO THE USE OF ANY OF THEM LIGHTLY.
In this section we shall discuss an important alternative technique of Insight Meditation which can be used
both in formal practice and in daily life. One major reason for including these methods in this book is that
they have the distinct advantage of being unbelievably more powerful than the nonaggressive methods
discussed so far - that is, when the methods of this chapter are used continuously throughout both formal
practice and daily routine. This means that they allow for quicker progress, but at a price! In addition, we
shall give a detailed account of how to deal with and dissolve "energy blocks" which every advanced
meditator ultimately runs across. As far as the price of this kind of practice goes, it cannot be emphasized
too strongly that there are real dangers in these methods. Because these Energy Circulation Methods deal
directly with the flow of electromagnetic energy in the nervous system and brain by increasing the
intensity, quantity, and speed of that same flow, they can, once more, be very risky and very dangerous.
Because of this, all who choose to use them should first read The Kundalini Experience by Lee Sannella
MD in order to obtain a rough feeling for the kind of experiences and dangers involved. One last piece of
advice with respect to these methods is this: have at least ten to twenty years experience with the methods
mentioned in the previous sections of this chapter while simultaneously having achieved Access
Concentration. This is the safest route. It is at this point that you may be ready for the techniques of this
chapter. If not, you may come to much grief and needless suffering.
Section 1
Insight Meditation via The Scanning Method
As always, one must first decide upon one’s primary object. The most convenient one ferreted out by us is
the unbroken noise of a fan. And again, during the course of practice, one must never lose awareness of the
primary object. Moreover, one must be aware of whatever else is happening both internally and externally
simultaneous with the awareness of the primary object. So everything we have said about the nature of
Reflecting Awareness applies to this meditation method as well. Lastly, during each of the exercises given
below, one must always take notice of anything that arises during the course of practice - what we have said
about Mindfulness in general still applies here.
Exercise l
Slowly begin moving the attention up the left leg noticing all sensations that occur in that leg during the
process. Do the same for the right leg. Do not lose awareness of the fan noise or whatever your primary
object is.
Now move the attention slowly up the front part of the body beginning with the groin area, over the
stomach, over and around the breasts and heart-region. Do not lose awareness of your primary object. Next
move the attention slowly up from the left hand, to the wrist, over the lower arm to the elbow. Remain at
the elbow for a moment. Then begin scanning the upper arm all the way to the pit of the same. Do the
same for the right hand, etc. Remember to notice anything and everything that occurs both within and
without during the course of meditation while never losing awareness of your primary object.
Now move the attention slowly up and around the left shoulder then scan the left side of the neck.
Following this, proceed up the left side of the face becoming aware of the ears. Then become aware of the
mouth, nose, and the left eye. Finally, end up at the crown of the head. Do not forget to become aware of
the forehead. Moreover, do not lose awareness of your primary object. Now repeat the procedure for the
right shoulder, etc.
Exercise 2
Repeat the same process described in Exercise 1 while varying the speed. Speeds range from very slow,
slow, moderate, fast, to very fast. Never let awareness of your primary object fade away.
Exercise 3
In this exercise, begin with awareness of both feet. Scan up the front side of the body up to the crown of the
head, then in the downward direction. Scan up the back side of the body up to the crown, and then do the
same in the downward direction. Scan up the left side of the body, then the right, again up to the crown of
the head in both cases; then do the same in the downward direction. Now scan up both left and right sides
simultaneously; do the same in the downward direction. Now scan up both the front and back sides of the
body simultaneously; do the same in the downward direction. Now scan the body as a whole from top to
bottom, then from bottom to top. Vary these routes as impulse and creativity direct. Never let awareness of
your primary object fade.
Exercise 4
Now try deep internal organ scans. Believe it or not, one can become aware of internal organs and their
various movements and processes on a fairly subtle level. Never let awareness of your primary object fade.
Comments and Reminders
NEVER JUMP OVER PORTIONS OF THE BODY WHEN DOING THE SCANNING METHOD.
THIS MEANS, FOR EXAMPLE, THAT ONE SHOULD NOT JUMP FROM AWARENESS OF THE
FEET TO AWARENESS OF THE HEAD. THIS INTRODUCES DISCONTINUITY INTO A
MEDITATIVE PRACTICE WHICH STRESSES TOTAL CONTINUITY OF THE STREAM-OF-
CONSCIOUSNESS.
Through repeated practice, work out a variety of scanning routes in addition to the ones suggested. One
need not start with the feet or the head. One can start in the middle of the chest if that is one’s desire.
Again and again, alternate the speed with which you do your scans. Sometimes scan only one part or area
at a time. Sometimes scan, say, both arms simultaneously. Sometimes scan one area in one direction and
another area in the opposite direction (simultaneously or sequentially as desired).
In addition to all that has been said, this method must be use continuously outside of formal meditation
practice in order for it to be effective, if one chooses this technique. However, one cannot attend so
microscopically to feelings and sensations outside of formal practice as one can within formal practice.
Therefore, one should only pay special attention to those overlapping sensations and feelings which are
most outstanding when applying the method during one’s daily routine. Moreover, one should put the bulk
of one’s effort into the scanning during the daily routine.
Again and again we cannot stress too much that the all-round use of this very aggressive method is certain
to bring rapid progress while, at the same time, being very risky for many persons. An analogy will
illustrate the danger. If, for example, you are 65 years old, have a heart condition, and are a diabetic, then
you should definitely not engage in vigorous marathon swimming. To do so is to invite disaster. These
same (energy circulation)/(scanning) methods stand in precisely the same relation to the novice meditator
as does vigorous marathon swimming to the 65 year old diabetic who has a heart condition and is out of
shape.
Section 2
Dissolving Energy Blocks
This problem is always encountered in advanced meditators at some point during their spiritual journey.
Further, the symptoms of such blocks are not only a function of the area blocked, but of the psychology and
physiology of the individual concerned. We shall illustrate the procedure with a detailed description the use
of these unblocking methods in the area most frequently and painfully blocked in advanced meditators: the
Heart Region. The symptoms of blockage include rapid heart rate, feelings of "butterflies" in the heart and
stomach region, the feeling of a blocked energy current "wanting" to break through in this same region.
The Unblocking Technique:
There are two methods one can use to unblock this area. The first one is dynamic in nature and is similar to
The Scanning Method but used over a much smaller area, while the second one is static in nature and
involving a fixed and unmoving concentration on the area blocked.
(i) In the Heart Region (i.e., the area of the upper chest above the stomach up to the shoulders and lower
part of the throat) begin moving the attention in a back-and-forth (left to right, then right to left) fashion.
After about 30 minutes of this exercise, begin moving the attention in circular patterns in this same region.
First do this in a counterclockwise manner, then in a clockwise manner. This exercise lasts for about 30
minutes also. Then move the attention in an upward-and-downward, then downward-and-upward fashion in
this area for about 30 minutes. After finishing this cycle, start over at the beginning. The minimum
amount of time to spend in this exercise should be about 3 hours. Really painful blocks can be worked on
all day for a period of days or weeks or whatever until symptoms disappear. Remember, you can use this
dynamic method over the whole of the region, or focus on small portions as desired.
(ii) In the Heart Region, focus on the totality of the blocked area, and keep the attention there for a period
of two to three hours. The center of your concentration should be in the area of the clavicle (usually).
Then, if you become tired of this center, change it according to desire or need.
(iii) Outside of Formal Meditation, one should keep one’s attention focused on and around the Heart Region
throughout all the day’s activities.
Note: it may take some months - usually years - in order for the feeling of
blockage, rapid heart rate, and other symptoms to disappear. However, if
you persevere, this area will eventually become totally clear and problem-
free.
Section 3
Manifestations of "Kundalini"
or
Neurological Destabilization
(1)Affective Manifestations
-panic attacks
-objectless anxiety or free-floating anxiety
-nightmares: your worst and deepest fears actualized while dreaming (e.g. going to hell)
-rapid mood fluctuations
-experience of emotional voids that need to be filled but are not
-exceedingly powerful sense of cosmic meaninglessness and purposelessness
-the feeling that one is dying inside, psychologically speaking
(ii)Physical Manifestations
-rapid heart rate
-asthma attacks
-insomnia
-chronic fatigue syndrome
(iii)Neurological Manifestations
-feelings of heat in various parts of the body
-hearing of loud popping noises much like the sound of a gun shot or a car backfiring
-small bursts of light like miniature stars exploding
-luminous waves of light and other luminous geometric figures experienced
-explosions of light
-tunnels of light and a feeling of moving down them very rapidly experienced
-disinhibition of the cortex: the experience of a pinpoint of light enlarging to fill one’s whole field of vision
along with the concomitant experience of much heat in the area of the head during meditation
-feeling that various energy blocks have "opened" with the simultaneous feeling than energy now flows
freely through an area previously blocked
-feeling of "energy pressure" at the crown of the head and/or in the middle of the forehead
-feeling of powerful "energy blockage" and/or "energy flows" in the region of the heart
-feeling of vibrations moving up and down the spine
-various areas of the body "breaking out" in "vibrations"
-feeling of the free-flow of energy throughout the body
-feeling of vibrations all over the body that others can often feel and very similar to what one experiences
when connected up to a muscle stimulator but felt over large portions of the body
-pervasive "mental" silences along with the stilling of much or most "mental" imagery
(iv)Cognitive Manifestations
-alterations of sense-of-time
-speech is experienced from less than fully meaningful, to meaningless, vibrations in the air
-symbols (words, writing, mathematics) experienced as somewhat to totally arbitrary marks on paper
-the collapse of the continuum of time: the feeling that one has no past or future and that there is only the
present
-being "possessed" by powerful visions and insights (of a philosophical, religious, psychological, or
symbolic nature) that one has never had before
-short bursts of creativity that one has never experienced before
-prolonged outpourings of creativity that one has never experienced before
(v)Miscellaneous Manifestations
-extremely rapid sequence of thoughts and internal imagery that is very difficult to stop
-enormous magnification, for many years, of the sex drive with a precipitous decline when this phase runs
its course
Section 4
How to Handle a
Neurological Destabilization
("Kundalini")
Crisis
Ideally, from a long-term perspective, these crises should be "waited out," or "toughed out." Unfortunately,
it may take many months - usually many years - until the nervous system stabilizes itself and one becomes
accustomed to its new mode of operation.
If your find that you cannot wait this crisis out, then we recommend the following:
(1) Go off any Vegetarian Diet
If you are on a vegetarian diet, get off of it and resume a normal and nutritionally well-balanced one instead.
Eat large quantities of food you love, and often, until stability is restored.
(2) Stop meditating and Start getting Plenty of Rest
Protracted meditation is very hard on the nervous system - inasmuch as it is the nervous system that the
advanced practices impacts the most strongly. Moreover, prolonged meditation is also known to
permanently disrupt sleep patterns as well. Consequently, in order to attempt to stabilize the nervous
system again, it is most necessary to stop one’s practice and get as much sleep as possible.
(3) Begin a Program of Moderately Vigorous Exercise
Many find that moderately vigorous daily exercise for at least a couple of hours helps tremendously. In
some cases, even more frequent daily exercise seems to do the job. However, if you find that exercise
worsens your condition, or that you are too out of shape to do so, then either find a substitute exercise or put
more focus on resting.
(4) The Last Resort: The anti-Anxiety Drug Xanax (alprazolam)
As a last resort, the anti-anxiety drug XANAX is extremely effective in controlling this condition.
Unfortunately, though, if one has altered the functioning of one’s nervous system permanently and
significantly via meditation practice, Xanax will not reverse the changes made. By taking this course of
action, you will increase your risk of drug dependency enormously. So it is better not to take this course of
action at all. If you do chose to do so, you should be on the drug for no longer than a year.
V
On the Stages of Monistic Insight
Meditation
(Adapted from The Stages of Meditation in Cross-Cultural Perspective by Daniel P. Brown)
Many serious meditators have very little idea regarding the nature of the advanced stages of Insight
Meditation and what constitutes real progress along this Path. Most often these questions are answered by
one’s Meditation Master. Moreover, fewer still have any clue at all as to how radically the perspective
taken during Insight Practice affects the unfolding of the stages of this Path. In order to rectify these
deficiencies, the following outline of the stages of Classical Monistic Insight Meditation are offered.
Stages (I) - (II): Beginner's Stages
(A) Preliminary Ethical Training
(B) Preliminary Philosophical Training (Suggested Minimum Requirement):
(1) The Dhammapada (Thomas Byrom translator)
(2) No Boundary (Ken Wilber)
(3) The Spectrum of Consciousness (Ken Wilber)
(4) The Heart of Awareness: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita (Thomas Byrom translator)
(5) The Tao Te Ching (Stephen Mitchell translator)
(6) Hua Hu Ching (Brian Walker)
(7) The Works of Bernadette Roberts:
(i) The Experience of No Self
(ii) The Path to No Self
(8)Philosophy as a Way of Life (Pierre Hadot)
(C) Intermediate and Advanced Philosophical Training (Suggested Minimum Requirement)
(1) The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi (Shambhala Publications )
(2) The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi (Arthur Osborne editor)
(3) Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction (Eloit Deutsch)
(4) Mysticism and Philosophy (W.T. Stace)
(5) Process Metaphysics and Hua-Yen Buddhism (Steve Odin)
(6) Nonduality (David Loy)
(7) Appearance and Reality (F.H. Bradley)
(8) World Hypotheses (Steven Pepper)
(9) Primordial Truth and Postmodern Theology (Huston Smith and David Ray Griffin)
(10) Whitehead and Bradley: A Comparative Analysis (Leemon B. McHenry)
(11) James & Bradley: American Truth & British Reality (T. L. S. Sprigge)
(D) Indispensable Technical Dictionaries
(1) A Dictionary of Philosophy (Peter Angeles)
(2) The Shambhala Dictionary of Eastern Philosophy and Religion
(E) Preliminary Meditation Training
(1) Carrying meditation into all daily activities.
(2) Perfection of formal meditation posture. This will allow one to sit for hours in uninterrupted meditation
practice.
(3) Perfection of UNREGULATED BREATHING - since this chapter deals with the stages of Insight
Meditation .
(4) Realization and control over the free-flow of subtle energy in the body.
Stage III: The Seed - Access Concentration
When Access Concentration is achieved, a self-luminous "seed" or "gem" will manifest against the
backdrop of the field of awareness as seen with the eyes closed. Again, this seed can (a) remain fixed, (b)
float around, (c) come and go at random, or, (d) manifest as several seeds.
Stage IV: The Flow of Light
Once Access Concentration is achieved, and one continues to contemplate the overlapping perceptual
objects, awareness eventually opens up to an incessant flow of light in the stream of awareness. The
neurophysiological basis for this perception is the increase in quantity, intensity, and speed of
electromagnetic energy throughout the nervous system. It is an amazing fact of the human body that these
currents (ranging in intensity from very weak to very very powerful) can be self-generated in the first place;
and that they can produce the potentially very profound changes in the functioning of both the brain and the
nervous system which is called Enlightenment.
Stage V: Concentration without Support
A. Holding Fast to the Flow of Light
This next exercise deals with how the meditator might develop and stabilize a new point of observation on a
new dimension of observable events, namely, the flow of light seen with the eyes closed during meditation.
This involves, simply, a "holding fast" for hours on end to this same flow and requires the development of
enormous skill.
Stopping the mind sufficiently for the duration of the meditation session is crucial because it is the
inveterate tendency of the beginner for the usual bad habits to resurface: flights of fantasy, inner dialogue,
desires of all sorts, etc. Thus, this level of awareness must be purified of ordinary gross content.
Furthermore, such habits can only be suppressed or eradicated by even more intensive meditation plus
"...effortlessly ‘holding fast’ so that the flow of light is ‘not cut off.’" In the Hindu Tradition, this level of
awareness is called nirvitarkasamadhi.
According to the meditative traditions, the meditator is "subtly asleep" to this level of awareness.
Awareness of the flow of light is simply not a part of ordinary untrained perception. Even upon becoming
aware of it for the first time, it is very dim indeed. The secret to seeing the flow with ever greater clarity
and brilliance involves increasing the quantity, intensity, and speed of the flow of electromagnetic energy in
the body through various Energy Circulation Techniques earlier discussed.
The effect of hour upon hour of meditation plus the use of Energy Circulation Methods is that the flow of
light becomes more clear. The frequency of the changing manifestations of light greatly increases; it
becomes "faster and faster." The intensity also gets "brighter." When the flow of light is totally clear, one
has completed this stage.
(B) Letting Go so as to Observe the Flow of Light
"The meditator next learns to ‘recognize’ the flow of light in a stable and clear manner." This means that
the usual inner dialogue, reveries, fantasies, desires, etc., no longer interfere with one’s concentration.
"Clarity implies more careful discrimination of how the flow of light manifests itself." Even at this stage,
there is some difficulty in the recognition of the flow of light with any degree of clarity due to reactivity
associated with ordinary awareness. When this has been eradicated, this problem will cease.
"The skillful yogi learns to practice by easing up on the amount of effort at just the right points in the
samadhi. "Moreover, the yogi must let go of all activities that might interfere with his or her scrutiny of the
flow of light. This results in an even clearer manifestation of the flow and the flow now comes forth as a
succession of constantly changing manifestations of light.
(C) Balancing the Flow of Light
"The key to direct apprehension of truth rests with refining awareness of this flow of light and carefully
developing one among the three possible perspectives on it," namely, The Theravada Buddhist Perspective,
The Mahayana Buddhist Perspective, or The Classical Monistic Perspective. The Buddhist Perspectives
and The Classical Monistic Perspective are very different. "Each tradition refines its particular perspective
so that certain truths become directly accessible to the meditator. The flow of light will also appear
differently from each possible perspective."
The Classical Monistic Insight Meditator learns to develop a point of observation called Reflecting
Awareness through which the flow of light appears as absolutely continuous luminous waves. As the
meditator refines the observable event and awareness of the flow of light, it (the flow) begins to manifest
itself more and more as a continuously-wavelike-connected-vibrating-energy-field "...which is in a state of
unbroken propagation like a wave-front." At this crude stage, awareness is still able to identify apparent
"points" in the continuously transforming field. "Skillful development of the point of observation comes by
turning awareness away from the apparent points in the vibrating energy field toward the Eternal
Awareness that transcends all states of matter." Consequently, "...a specific focus of events is given up
altogether in favor of the pervasive awareness of the universe. This new perspective of observation is called
Reflecting Awareness because it is capable of yoking the subtlest events of the mind to the eternal
awareness pervading the universe."
Branch Paths: The Meditative Absorptions
At this level of meditative development, certain branch paths become available to the meditator. Thus it is
possible to continue one’s development of Concentration so that all awareness of the senses and mental
input are held in suspension. This path is not relevant to the stages of Insight Meditation, and hence we will
discuss it in another section.
Stage VI: Advanced Insight Meditation
(A) Attaining the View
"With the perception of how events unfold in the stream, as well as the new point of observation, the
meditator has arrived at a point where s/he may gain insight into how the world of ordinary experience and
the self are constructed, through a new series of meditations, The Insight Meditations. Although the
insights differ significantly ..." according to whether one chooses one of The Buddhist perspectives or the
Classical Monistic Perspective, "... all systems take a detailed analysis of the flow of light as a starting
point." Predictably, all traditions agree that "...the meditator’s perception of the way this stream comes
forth is erroneous." In The Classical Monistic Tradition, the cause of this is subtle biasing factors called
"samskaras" built into the very fabric of perception at its most basic level. Obviously the purpose of Insight
Meditation is to eradicate bias hence correcting the meditator's view so that the stream comes forth
properly. When this is done, the luminous succession of events undergoes a significant transformation.
Classical Monistic Insight Meditation is a high-speed analysis of the flow of light which unfolds over time
as a succession of flowing and wave-like connected events. Many thousands or millions of such
movements occur in even the shortest intervals of time and can actually be experienced at this level. The
meditator conducts an analysis of each and every overlapping moment of perception occurring so rapidly
that they are undetectable by ordinary perception. Again, while Buddhists look for discontinuities in the
flow, Classical Monists look for continuities.
Each tradition, whether Buddhist or Classical Monistic, "...makes explicit its bias as to how the stream may
be viewed through preparatory philosophical training followed by samadhi practice." Moreover, "While
gross cognitive understanding of the philosophical position drops away upon entering samadhi, its
impression nevertheless persists in the form of ..." a single category which has an impact on the meditative
experience. Every single change in the flow of light must be compared to this category; and if any
particular change does not conform, it must be made to do so, or discarded. "Unless samadhi is oriented
with such a category, no insight is possible." The Category of Insight used by Classical Monists is
"Sameness-in-Change," or "Sameness through Change."
The Classical Monistic Insight Meditation approach begins with a detailed understanding of, for example,
Advaita Vedanta in the East or NeoPlatonism in the West. The variegated phenomena of the cosmos as
observed in the activity of the mindstuff in meditation are in constant wave-like change while The Absolute
or Reality is timeless and hence changeless. The meditator comes to intellectually comprehend the
distinction between Appearance (Manifestation) and Reality and applies this insight to the meditation
experience. The meditator then enters "seedless" samadhi where only impressions with no gross content
remain. He or she then uses the category of "Sameness" by which to compare the continuous wave-like
changes in the energy field. "At the onset of samadhi, s/he is likely to observe the ‘seeming manifestations’
and ‘non-manifestations,’ that is, patterns in a continuous field of change. Using the category of
‘Sameness’ during ‘constant practice’ results in a transformation of the energy field called the
‘transformation into cessation.’ For moments, transformation of specific wave patterns cease and mindstuff
attains an even more refined condition. Biasing impressions are eradicated. These moments of cessation
leave their own impression, which subsequently affect the experience of the continuously changing energy
field. The energy field is now a ‘calm flow’ wherein wave patterns become less noticeable. This calm flow
is the ‘means to realization.’" We see here that an important shift has occurred. Awareness turns away
from the observable events toward Reality, hence it is called Reflecting Awareness.
To repeat, Insight Meditation of any variety is, at this stage, really nothing more than a high-speed
information processing search task. The stream of consciousness is like a vast set with a potentially infinite
number of components. One’s category of insight, for example, "Sameness-in-Change," are kinds of
memory sets. The meditator searches the "set" with The Category of Insight ever before his or her mind
picking only those components out of the set which match the Category and suppressing or discarding the
others. Non-metaphorically, this means that the meditator "...searches each and every moment of the flow
of light to see if there is any match with the original category. With full awareness, the yogi searches events
which pass very rapidly, unavailable to ordinary attention. S/he continues this high-speed search to learn
about the structure and operation of perception and to remove the biases to ordinary perception."
(B) Skill : Reverse Samadhi
At this stage it is very important to make absolutely sure that Reflecting Awareness with its attendant
Category of Insight "Sameness-in-Change" is not lost with the arising of gross mental content like thoughts,
feelings, sensations, and perceptions. One must maintain Reflecting Awareness during the multiplicity of
the ceaselessly arising and overlapping events. In order to do this, the meditator must have two overlapping
events always before the mind at any one moment.
"Continued experience with reverse samadhi brings forth additional skills, namely, automatic continuation
of awareness and the ability to divide awareness between several types of events at the same time. Besides
focusing on the content, the meditator also becomes aware of the process by which events come forth and
pass away in immediate experience." For The Classical Monistic Insight Meditator, this absolutely
continuous experience "...is like a volley of gongs so fast they blend into each other and seem to be the
same continuous vibration."
(C) Arising /Passing Away Samadhi
"Arising and Passing Away Samadhi is one of the most important stages along the path of meditation
because the meditator has refined awareness of the flow of light to its very limit - to the temporal structure
of ordinary perception. From this now stable and bias-free vantage point, s/he is able to discern the very
process by which phenomena seem to come into and go out of existence. Since the same laws governing
how mental phenomena pass in and out of existence are operable in the wider universe, the meditator has
reached the interface of mind and cosmos."
While The Insight Meditation Traditions agree that an observation of how events come into and pass out of
existence is the essential feature of this stage, predictably, the actual experience of this is quite different
depending upon The Category of Insight adopted at the beginning of practice. For the Buddhists, "...the
experience is of a succession of discrete events seeming like very intense light which flashes in and out of
existence like a high-frequency stroboscope." For The Classical Monistic Insight Meditator, "...the
experience is of a continuous succession of changes of the more ‘observable aspects’ of wave patterns,
which are more or less manifest at any given moment, much like the peaks and dips in an unfolding musical
score.
"As the meditator observes the discontinuous coming/going [Buddhist experience] or more or less
continuous manifestations of wave phenomena [Classical Monistic experience], an important shift in
emphasis occurs. Awareness opens up and attends to the very temporal/spatial structure of the flow of light.
New questions occur. Is the seeming coming and going itself a perceptual bias? Are the seeming many
manifestations reducible to a single unitary phenomenon? To resolve these questions the meditator begins
to examine the very subtle causal and spatial relationships in which ordinary perception is embedded. To
do so, s/he adopts a new category of insight, often paradoxical or dialectical in nature."
At this crucial stage, the Classical Monist "...completely resolves the relationship between sameness and
change by applying that category not only to changing events, but now to the very temporal organization of
these events. The yogi first observes the changes in the patterns, properties, and states of the energy field
and then observes the underlying ‘unchanging aspect.’" Thus having contrasted the changing aspect
(Appearance) with the unchanging aspect (Reality), the meditator examines the causal relationship between
change and sameness. "As a result, a unity experience comes forth in which all the potential events of the
universe come forth SIMULTANEOUSLY as a dimension of the same underlying substratum."
Finally, we might mention the fact that this unity experience is called "eternalistic" because "...the
experienced interconnectedness is of some underlying substratum to the universe and its reflecting
awareness is unchanging."
Stage VII: The Extraordinary Mind and Enlightenment
(A) The Relationship between Ordinary Perception and the Extraordinary Mind
This is the stage wherein the meditator opens awareness up to the level beyond the time/space matrix of
everyday perception and is one step away from the deepest shift possible: The Enlightenment Experience.
This level is what some traditions call "The Extraordinary Mind." The first task faced by the yogin is to
remain in meditation for longer and longer intervals of time. During this time, the meditator must
"...eradicate misperceptions and corrupting influences, while being careful not to lose track of the initial
category of insight now applied in a totally new context." The Classical Monist must apply the category,
"Sameness-in-Change" to a new context. The Monistic meditator "...becomes aware of subtle acausal [that
is, not resulting from a cause] interactions called ‘vasanas,’ between the potential events during the
extraordinary samadhi. Initially, s/he may notice a ‘difference in the activity’ stemming from these subtle
interactions. If the category, Sameness-in-Change, is applied to the vasanas, then ‘the impetus of what is
not the same is the same.’" By focusing on Sameness-in-Change, the simultaneity of events emerges as an
Eternal Emanation or Manifestation of The Absolute, capable of reflecting The Timeless Absolute.
"The meditator must learn to carry forth the category of insight into the extraordinary samadhi and compare
the new insight to that of the previous ordinary insights. The meditator establishes links between the
unmanifest potential interactions and the manifest events of the mind, subtle and gross. S/he learns to
‘remove the interval’ between the extraordinary mind and ordinary mind. This is done by first entering into
the extraordinary samadhi and then observing the return of the ordinary mind in the transition back to
waking consciousness. Through repeated practice the states become contiguous." Thus, the Classical
Monist "...first opens up awareness to the subtle acausal interactions and gross activity of mental content
during the transition to ordinary meditation. Using the category of sameness in change throughout, the yogi
comes to realize that the extraordinary and ordinary levels ‘have no interval' between them.’"
"Because the experience of extraordinary samadhi is so compelling, meditators tend to react to it. They
must repeat the practice until ‘indifferent,’ ‘dispassionate,’ or ‘having cut off desire.’ Then the links in the
chain of karmic activity become clear. The subtle acasual interactions between relative interconnected
events are a ‘storehouse’ of karmic activity. These interactions affect changes in the flow of light, at the
subtle level of ordinary experience, which in turn produce changing manifestations in the gross mental
content in the stream of consciousness. The meditator not only learns the stages by which every action
becomes manifest over time according to The Doctrine of Cause and Effect, but also sees that it is possible
to stop the karmic chain."
"Next, the yogi proceeds to more carefully observe the subtle karmic activity and its manifestations." This
is called the "same entity in diverse mindstuff" in The Classical Monistic Insight Meditation Tradition.
"The meditator comes to recognize that all observable events - simultaneous or successive, subtle or gross -
are but emanations as a consequence of this subtle karmic activity. Furthermore, through practicing session
after session, subtle reactivity drops away and the meditator comes to realize events in a new way, just as
they are in the primordial state." In The Classical Monistic Tradition, the yogi sees all the continuously
changing and seemingly different manifestations and mindstuff as Manifestations of The One Ineffable and
Timeless Absolute, which merely appear different and separate due to Primordial Ignorance.
(B) The Relationship Between The Extraordinary Interconnected Mind and The Enlightened Mind
"Having gained insight into the nature of the karmic activity of The Extraordinary Mind and its relation to
ordinary mental events, the meditator begins to question how equanimous awareness of karmic activity
might also relate to Enlightenment. Two conditions must be met, one from the perspective of the point of
observation, the other from observable events."
"From the point of observation, awareness changes its direction away from the emanating interconnected
events toward itself. When awareness turns upon itself the shift in experience is often distinct, like space
opening up amidst changing events." For The Classical Monistic Insight Meditator, awareness shifts away
from the incessant and wave-like connected activities of Appearance toward itself. The relationship between
Appearance and Transcendent Awareness becomes clear.
"From the perspective of observable events, the activity observed during equanimity more and more
approximates the perfect primordial state; it must conform to the natural condition of the mind’s activity so
that Enlightenment can occur. The key to understanding this stage of practice is the mind’s activity. An
important distinction is made between..." artificial activity (gross reactivity + subtle activities which
interfere with the realization of the Primordial State) and the spontaneous activity of The Primordial State
itself. The yogin must learn to extinguish the more common forms of reactivity such as doubts, judgments,
and expectations, and the frequent attempt to classify and analyze the unfolding experience of The
Extraordinary Mind. The yogin must also negate the subtle activities of meditation itself at this point, for
even the tools of Mindfulness and Energy Circulation become obstacles to realization. Consequently,
Enlightenment cannot be a state that is "achieved" or "procured." The greatest realization at this stage is
that Appearance or Manifestation is seen to exist in order to be a reflection of, and to be able to reflect,
Reality. Moreover, Pure Awareness is seen and experienced to be an unbroken backdrop against which the
constant flux of Appearance occurs.
When the precise conditions necessary (but not sufficient) for Enlightenment have been fulfilled, the
meditator simply waits upon its occurrence during practice. All Insight Meditation Traditions agree that
Enlightenment comes forth as a series of three instantaneous shifts in awareness. These are called Moments
of Enlightenment : (i) Basis, (ii) Path, and (iii) Fruit.
Basis-enlightenment, The First Moment of Enlightenment, comes swiftly, suddenly, and is very profound.
From the perspective of observable events, all events, all content and activity whatsoever, falls away. This
is called "Cessation" and is qualitatively different from any temporary cessation of thoughts, feelings, or
mental input obtained by absorption. What remains? Vast and unbounded awareness. From the perspective
of the point of observation, as the events recede from awareness, the locus of awareness shifts from its
seeming rootedness in the ego-self to experienced rootedness in Reality itself. Prior to Enlightenment,
awareness seemed to be bound up completely with the activity of the body/mind. After Enlightenment, the
meditator becomes aware of an unconditioned center around which all activities and thoughts revolve.
The Second Moment of Enlightenment sees a return of observable events, now viewed from a profoundly
different center of awareness. Thus for the Classical Monist, the simultaneous activity of the vasanas and
the successive activity of the impressions return to recognition.
The Third Moment of Enlightenment is the final moment in the threefold Enlightenment process. As this
point, The Classical Monistic Insight Meditator experiences "Raincloud Samadhi" in which all possible
forms of knowledge and levels of existence pour forth simultaneously as if from a full rain cloud.
Review
Following these three moments of Enlightenment, ordinary time/space experience with its gross mental
content returns. Ordinary consciousness unfolds similar to that in the waking state before one ever started
meditation, but from a vastly different perspective as earlier mentioned. The meditator is now reflexively
aware of the profound shift that has occurred. It is this reflexive awareness that constitutes the "Review"
stage.
VI
The Path of The Meditative Absorptions
Section 1
The Path of The Meditative Absorptions or The Path of Pure Concentration is quite different from Insight
Meditation and Energy Circulation techniques described in the previous chapters. So whereas the former is
quiet static in nature, the latter two are very dynamic. And while the experiences during the advanced
stages of Absorption Meditation are quiet different from the advanced stages of Insight Meditation, the goal
of each Path is the same: The Cessation Experience which is The Enlightenment Experience. And as you
well know by now, the purpose of The Enlightenment Experience it to bring about the elimination of Greed,
Hatred, and Delusion. With regard to The Enlightenment Experience, this happens during the practice of
Insight Meditation; while The Enlightenment Experience on The Path of Concentration can only happen
after one emerges from The Absorptions.
The proximate or immediate purpose of Absorption Meditation is to cultivate ever greater degrees of
tranquillity and an unshakable concentration of the mind into the meditation object. In addition, the
achievement of Access Concentration is an indispensable necessary condition for the reaching of The
Absorptions. Thus, one can only enter The Absorptions after Access Concentration has been achieved.
Furthermore, these higher levels of Absorption involve a gradual discarding of all sensory and mental input:
ultimately experience of the senses and mental input is obliterated for the period of time one is absorbed.
One word about the terms "rapture" and "bliss." "Rapture" is like the initial pleasure and excitement of
finding a long-sought object; or similar to the raising of hairs on the body; or it is like momentary flashes of
joy that appear and disappear like lightning; or it is like immersion in a thrilling happiness. "Bliss,"
however, is a more subdued and subtle state of unbroken ecstasy. These distinctions and one’s awareness of
them will prove crucial to The Path of Pure Concentration.
There are eight possible levels of Absorption which are divided into two main groups: (i) Absorptions with
Form and (ii) Formless Absorptions. A pyramid-type diagram accurately indicates their hierarchical
structure.
By an unbroken focus on the meditation object, there comes a moment which is truly a complete break with
normal consciousness. This is called Full Absorption. The mind seems to suddenly sink into the meditation
object and remain fixed there for the duration of the meditation session. All hindrances, bodily pain,
thought, and sensory input cease for the duration. Apart from the unmoveable attention towards the primary
object, consciousness is dominated by rapture, bliss, and one-pointedness. It is most important to
remember, at this point, that until Access Concentration plus the particular Absorption one is interested in
is mastered, the attainment will always be unstable. What constitutes mastery of a particular Absorption?
Simply this: the ability to enter the desired Absorption whenever, wherever, as soon as, and as long as, one
wishes. When this has been done, the meditator can move up to the next higher one. In what follows
below, we shall describe two methods for the attainment of these Absorptions. However, each method has
several components which must be wholly mastered, both conceptually and on a practical level, before they
can be effective in this form of meditation.
Section 2
Method I
The Technique of Staggered Breathing and Breath Retention
The Method of Staggered Breathing and Breath Retention is especially appropriate for those who, through
the use of other methods, are unable to sufficiently still and silence the mind. And in keeping with its
nature, the method of expiration is called The Bamboo Method of Exhalation. It is characterized by
intermittent, wave-like, and very controlled exhalation. The name "bamboo" was arrived at by analogy
with the bamboo plant: just as a bamboo trunk has successive joints or nodes, so exhalation is stopped now
and then for a little while, giving short pauses. Furthermore, the length of the intervals and exhalations may
be decided according to the length of your breath. The possibilities are too diverse to be described here.
Moreover, the minute specifics of the technique must be evolved by the practitioner himself or herself,
and only a general description of the method is even desirable. The word "wave-like" is referring to a
continuous but repeatedly stressed way of exhaling. "Intermittent" is meant to imply rather long intervals
between exhalations. Thus, when one’s concentration becomes deeper, exhalation may seem almost
stopped for long periods of time with only occasional faint escapes of breath when exhaling and with
almost imperceptible inhalations. At this time it should be mentioned that one should breathe in-and-out
with the abdomen, rather than up-and-down with the lungs. If you do not breath properly, please take six
months or so to correct this problem. It is now time to turn to the details of the method itself.
The Method of Breathing In
First, allow the lower abdomen to fill out or inflate - this is the first phase of inspiration. Second,
inspiration is then performed by subtly contracting the diaphragm which allows for an inflation of the upper
volume of the lungs - this is the second phase of inspiration.
The Method of Breathing Out
Now remove the pressure from the diaphragm and breathe out naturally until all the air plus the tension are
gone. Then begin the slow contraction of the diaphragm inward and make it work in opposition to the
abdominal muscles. After contracting the diaphragm, say, 1/4 of the way, stop the contraction and hold the
breath anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds. Exactly how long is hard to specify, so you will have to work out
what seems best for you depending upon your physical condition and other factors. Then begin letting the
breath out slowly again while simultaneously contracting the diaphragm. Again contract it 1/4 more of the
way to the half-way mark. Then hold the breath anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds. Repeat the procedure to
the 3/4 - way mark . Lastly, for the final one-quarter, begin your slow exhalation while simultaneously
contracting the diaphragm. Let this last contraction be an inexorable one, as if you were pursuing your foe
to his hiding place. Then hold the breath for longer than you did previously, for a maximum of 25 seconds.
Now the process starts over again with The Inspiration Phase.
Method II:
The Technique of Colored Discs or Circles
The beginner starts by constructing a colored disc - a simple display device used in meditation. This is
done by making or obtaining a circular surface of about 30 cm in diameter. It should be colored of only the
following colors: blue, red, yellow, or white. A circular piece of cardboard of the requisite dimensions will
also do. It is of the highest importance that the surface be absolutely uniform and flat. One may also
construct a light disc by projecting a circular disc of light (of the specified dimensions) onto a wall.
Further, one should sit down on a stool, chair, or in a Lotus Position about three to four feet from the device
and focus one’s attention it. Since this is a concentration exercise, the whole of one’s attention should be
focused exclusively on this object. Moreover, the perception of the object must focus increasingly on the
essential feature or characteristic of the subject, leaving aside all peripheral elements. This means that
whatever subtle irregularities that still exist in one's chosen disc, should be noted at first, then completely
eliminated from one’s perception of it.
Section 3
Signs of Progress along the Path of Concentration
How does one measure progress in the development of Concentration? By patiently waiting for, in a non-
anticipatory way, The Three Signs of Concentration. These signs are:
(1) The Preliminary Sign
(2) The Learning Sign
(3) The Counterpart Sign
(1) The Preliminary Sign
-This is nothing more than the initial perception of the chosen colored disc as one begins to focus one’s
concentrated awareness upon it.
(2) The Learning Sign
-As concentration becomes steadier and more powerful, the practitioner develops a continuous, unbroken,
and detailed awareness of the disc which remains clear even at the times when there is no direct observation
of it - like when one closes one's eyes for a few moments.
(3) The Counterpart Sign
-As the practitioner’s concentration develops even further, he or she eventually develops Access
Concentration. This is heralded by what is termed The Counterpart Sign. This is no longer the direct image
of the colored disc, but a percept with its own unique features which vary according to the nature of the
colored disc chosen. At this point we should stress, in the strongest possible way, that progress in
Concentration is wholly dependent upon the practitioner’s holding fast to only the meditation subject. He
or she must cultivate an absolute need to keep the attention immutably fixed upon the meditation subject.
The signs of progress will then occur spontaneously without any help or encouragement.
Section 4
Absorptions with Form
The First Absorption
We will now assume that one has experienced all three signs of Concentration plus having achieved Access
Concentration. The meditator now begins strengthening and refining mental concentration on the basis of
The Counterpart Sign that has been established in an absolutely stable way. As the practitioner continues
to "bear down" on The Counterpart Sign, their comes a spectacular moment when one’s attention becomes
fully absorbed in it. At this point, one’s body and mind are pervaded by rapture and bliss, while all input
by way of the senses and the mind is temporarily held in abeyance. This is called The First Absorption, and
it is one of four possible Material Absorptions, or Absorptions with Form.
The Second Absorption
In order to achieve this second level of Absorption, one must eliminate certain factors in one’s experience
of the meditation object - the colored disc. This requires eliminating the initial and repeated returning of
the mind to the meditation object. After emerging from The First Absorption, one notes that these attention
processes seem gross in comparison to an even greater level of Absorption, namely, The Second
Absorption. That is to say, by refining and intensifying one’s concentration, an even more refined state
called The Second Absorption is possible. Thus, one first enters The First Absorption by focusing on the
primary object. One now frees one’s mind of any thought of the object by instead turning the mind toward
rapture, bliss, and one-pointedness. Thus one enters The Second Absorption.
The Third Absorption
In order to progress up the ladder of Absorptions and attain this, The Third Absorption, one masters The
Second Absorption exactly as one did the first. Then when one emerges from The Second Absorption, one
sees that "rapture" is a grosser form of excitement in relation to bliss and one-pointedness. Thus, one
attains The Third Absorption by first contemplating the primary object, then abandoning first thoughts of
the object, then abandoning thoughts of rapture. In this third level of Absorption, there is a feeling of
pervasive equanimity toward even the highest degree of rapture. This equanimity emerges with the passing
away of rapture. Moreover, this Absorption is even more refined than the one directly below it, and without
this newly emergent quality of equanimity, the meditator will inevitably be pulled back into rapture and
hence back into The Second Absorption. If the meditator remains in this Absorption for a while, an
exceedingly sweet and continuous bliss will pervade the body. Once again, one’s mind MUST be kept
one-pointed on only the more subtle qualities of bliss and one-pointedness while simultaneously resisting
the pull of the grosser rapture.
The Fourth Absorption
If one desires to go deeper still, one has to renounce all forms of mental pleasure. That is, one has to give
up all those mental states antithetical to even greater degrees of mental and bodily stillness. Consequently,
one must totally abandon bliss (rapture has been abandoned already). With the total cessation of bliss,
equanimity and one-pointedness gain their full power. In other words, in The Fourth Absorption, feelings
of bodily pleasure are fully relinquished. Here, there is not a single sensation or thought because one’s
mind is wholly occupied with one-pointedness and equanimity. With regard to the breath, it should be
noted that it becomes progressively more subtle at each level of Absorption. In this, The Fourth
Absorption, one’s breath is so subtle that one cannot sense the slightest movement, and one may even
perceive it as ceasing altogether. However, one does not really stop breathing, it just appears that way. In
order to enter The Fourth Absorption, one first completely masters The Third Absorption. Then one enters
The Third Absorption and then emerges from it. One reflects at this point that all forms of mental pleasure
are gross in comparison to equanimity and one-pointedness. Hence, by turning one’s mind away from all
forms of mental pleasure, one enters The Fourth Absorption.
Absorptions without Form or Formless Absorptions
Having achieved The Fourth Absorption, one has reached the apex of The Material Absorptions or
Absorptions with Form. These first four Absorptions are achieved by focusing on a material form (e.g., a
colored disc) or some concept derived from material form. However, in order to attain The Formless
Absorptions, one must abandon materiality and all perception of form totally. In order to enter The
Material Absorptions, one successively empties one’s mind of the relevant mental factors discussed. In
order to enter The Formless Absorptions, one progressively substitutes ever more subtle objects for the
focus of one’s powerfully developed Concentration. Further, all Formless Absorptions share the mental
factors of one-pointedness and equanimity, while differing in degree of subtlety at each higher level. Lastly,
because concentration becomes so powerful at this point, one must pre-determine a time limit that one
desires to remain in a given Formless Absorption. Then one’s biological clock will, in some unknown way,
bring one out of the Absorption when the preset time-limit is up.
The Fifth Absorption or The Sphere of Infinite Space
One attains this First Formless Absorption by first mastering The Fourth Absorption, then entering The
Fourth Absorption through the colored disc one has chosen. Then one mentally extends the limits of the
disc to the largest extent imaginable by turning one’s attention away from the colored light toward the
infinite space occupied by it. At this point, one’s mind dwells in a realm in which all perceptions of form
have vanished. Because the barest vestiges of sense remain, this Absorption would be broken if one turned
one’s attention toward them. This is the trap one must resist if one desires to master this Fifth Absorption.
The Sixth Absorption or The Sphere of Infinite Consciousness
One attains this Second Formless Absorption by first mastering The Fifth Absorption. Then one enters The
Fifth Absorption which results in awareness of Infinite Space. One then turns one’s attention away from
Infinite Space seeing that it is gross in comparison to the Infinite Consciousness occupying that space.
The Seventh Absorption or The Sphere of Nothingness
One attains this Third Formless Absorption by first mastering The Sixth Absorption. Then one enters The
Fifth Absorption which results in awareness of Infinite Consciousness. One then turns one’s attention away
from Infinite Consciousness seeing that it is gross in comparison to the awareness of the absence of any
object. That is, one takes no object whatsoever as the focus of attention. Another way of putting this is that
one leaves consciousness behind in order to contemplate what remains when everything has been removed -
nothing.
The Eighth Absorption or The Sphere of Neither Perception nor Nonperception
One attains this Fourth and last Formless Absorption by first mastering The Seventh Absorption. Then one
enters The Sixth Absorption which results in awareness of Nothingness. One then turns one’s attention
away from the perception of Nothingness toward peacefulness noting that ANY kind of perception at all
is undesirable. It is important to note that one must have no desire to attain the peacefulness of this final
state of Absorption, for to do so would prevent one from attaining it at all.
VII
Meditation without Form
or
Meditation on Nonduality
By now one should be thoroughly familiar, conceptually at least, with the three different kinds of meditation
and the respective methods of each. Thus, in Insight Meditation one takes as one’s objects of focus a
ceaselessly arising sequence of overlapping and absolutely continuously connected percepts. In
Absorptive Meditation on takes as one’s object of focus one and only one percept and cultivates
increasingly deep Absorptions into it. Intermediate between the two are The Energy Circulation Methods.
All these methods are in sharp contrast to Meditation without Form or Meditation on Nonduality. It is to
this that we now turn.
Meditation on Nonduality
This radically Nondual objectless meditation takes no one object (Absorption) or sequence of objects
(Insight) as the focus of attention - THERE IS NO FOCUS OF ATTENTION AT ALL. This is a meditation
of Being and not Doing. Furthermore, there is no attempt to manipulate the flow of energy in the body and
nervous system as in Energy Circulation Methods. Nondualistic Meditation involves withdrawal from
exclusive focus on any particular object or objects in order to allow for a mystical apprehension of all
phenomena as a Unified Totality. Since this experience is ineffable and beyond the scope of any method,
one can only use oblique pointers to guide another to an identification of this spontaneously arising state. In
what follows below, this Primordial State is described using various symbols, images, and metaphors.
(i) Seeing Phenomena against the backdrop of the Void
(ii) Seeing Reality in each and every Phenomenon
(iii) Seeing and moving freely between Phenomena and Reality without attachment to either and without
seeing them as separate
-Seeing nothing as external to this Luminous Emptiness
-An allowing of the reifications and objectification’s in our experience to melt naturally into a unified
awareness without attempting to force this through some Absorption
-To be infinitely open and receptive - like the great emptiness of Space
-An awareness "Vast and spacious, like sky and water merging during autumn, like snow and moon having
the same color...this Field is without boundary, beyond direction, magnificently One Entity, and without
edge or seam."
-Seeing that even spiritual ignorance and all spiritual hindrances are simply manifestations of The Luminous
Field of Reality
-The mind is like the sky and all thoughts and feelings are like passing clouds. However, the mind is not
made blank nor is it forced into some Absorption. Rather, this is a full entering into the NOW or the
Dimensionless Present.
-A realization that wisdom is like Space. "Space" is a metaphor for the open mind and a Total
Transparency of one’s being to Reality. In addition, Space may be said to contain all things without being
affected by them. The Space-Like-Mind is to be sharply distinguished from the mind which is, as it were, in
Space. This is nothing more than The Sphere of Infinite Space, and is nothing more than a concentration
state. This is not what is being pointed to here. Rather, we are talking about a non-grasping non-rejecting
openness.
-Panoramic Awareness which extends to the very boundaries of peripheral vision and which allows the
practitioner to see, with luminous limpid clarity, what is happening and The Unified Totality that is Reality.
Literally, this means that the foreground/background experience is radically reversed. Before spiritual
practice, one first saw particular things against a context, and awareness of that context was largely an
unconscious one. But after some significant progress, one is aware of the seamless context first and of
"individual things" emerging out of the context only secondarily. As one progresses further and further, it
will become progressively more difficult to isolate "individual objects" in the field of vision.
Preparatory Exercises
(i) Practice and unceasing focus on the totality of the field-of-vision outside of formal meditation practice.
(ii) Practice the stopping of thought and analysis outside of formal meditation practice. That is, stop trying
to understand what you are experiencing, seeing, and doing. Just simply do it without thought.
Note: this one should only attempt to do after significant progress in Concentration and/or Insight practice.
Clearly this particular instruction is diametrically opposed to all Insight Meditation practice.
Meditation "Instructions"
Carefully observe the mind itself upon the completion of either Insight Meditation, Absorptive Meditation,
or Energy Circulation Practice. After some degree of mastery of one of these practices, intimations of The
Primordial State are sure to occur. Eventually, this Total Transparency of Mind, or The Space-Like-Mind,
will become one’s permanent possession.
-Rest in a state of bright, alert, attentiveness, which is directed toward NO object or objects, and which is
attached to no particular content.
-Simply BE. Do not do or focus on anything.
-Let the mind take the Form of Empty Space - flawless and totally receptive. To repeat, this is not an
entering into the Absorption of Infinite Space or of Infinite Consciousness.
-Let the mind dwell in its Primordial Formlessness and Goallessness.
VIII
Authentic Spirituality
Section 1
Characteristics of Authentic Spiritual Communities
and
Authentic Spiritual Teachers
1. Acknowledgment of Human Finitude and Fallibility
A sound spiritual teacher, spiritual leader, or spiritual community will be characterized by a willing and
eager admission of the fallibility and Finitude (the basic humanity) of each and every member in it. This, of
course, includes all of the leadership as well. In addition, there must be both an eager willingness to admit
to problems that have either arisen or are pointed out by sympathetic critics, and a speedy, just, and
compassionate resolution of the difficulties.
Remember, perfection only resides in Reality as a timeless whole. Therefore, no part is either infinite or
perfect. Consequently, those who claim differently are making a rather obvious philosophical error and
setting themselves, and others in the community, up for some very real problems. There is the additional
fact that until one achieves at least the dissolution of the ego, very human responses in the forms of anger,
excesses, and self-seeking are still quite possible. This means that most teachers and leaders in spiritual
communities are only partially Enlightened and still have much work to do in meditation.
2. Power: its Use and Abuse
Power should not, ideally, be concentrated in one individual in any spiritual community. Teachers or
leaders should not control the lives of their students by deciding such things as marriages, divorces,
lifestyles, and the like. The sound teacher or leader never engages in deifying him or her self; or maintains,
instead, that all are equally "deified." The sound teacher or leader never creates or tolerates the existence
of special favored groups and treats all as equals. Lastly, a sound teacher or leader refrains, as much as
possible, from playing the role of mother, father, confessor, healer, administrator, master, and counselor all
rolled into one at all times. This does not mean, however, that the teacher or leader never plays any of the
roles just mentioned. On the contrary, this is one of his or her primary functions. What we mean by this is
that genuine teachers and genuine leaders play these roles only when necessary while encouraging the
students and members to develop as much autonomy and self-reliance as they are capable of at a given
time. This helps to avoid creating any kind of addictive dependency on themselves.
3. Money and Resources: Uses and Abuses
Authentic teachers and leaders never accept expensive and luxurious cars or expensive and luxurious
housing. Moreover, money is never accepted for spiritual teaching or guidance, but only for things like bare
necessities and travel expenses. Secret bank accounts and other kinds of clandestine resources are never
possessed by the authentic guides and leaders either. Similar common sense considerations apply as well to
the way in which these same individuals dress and live their lives.
4. The Problem of Sexuality
The sexual urge or drive along with defilement’s like anger and ill-will are not extinguished until the
dissolution of the ego, if this is ever accomplished at all. Until such a time, it is unrealistic to expect
complete abstinence from all sexual activity. What are the options for leaders of spiritual communities in
this situation? We believe that they boil down to two: (a) solitary masturbation, and (b) monogamous
marriage.
5. Alcohol and Drugs: Problems and Difficulties
Even the most cursory survey of contemporary substance abuse debacles in spiritual communities should
convince anyone of the enormous unwisdom of allowing them into a spiritual community at any time. Thus
we maintain that they should at all times remain strictly forbidden to all community members, spiritual
teachers, and spiritual leaders.
There is another extremely good reason why the use of alcohol and drugs should be avoided by serious
meditators. At many crucial stages along The Path, one is assailed by much pain both psychological and
physical because of the enormous and unusual neurological changes occurring. If one takes drugs or uses
alcohol to alleviate the pain, it will work for a while. Unfortunately, when the drugs wear off, the pain
returns many times more intense that it was before their use. In situations like this, the chances of becoming
addicted are many many times greater than they would ordinarily be.
6. Meditation Practice
A good teacher or leader should set aside at least 2 to 4 hours for daily meditation practice regardless.
Moreover, on retreats, the teacher should meditate as much or more than their students unless duty decrees
otherwise.
7. The Path to Enlightenment
True teachers, true leaders, and healthy spiritual communities acknowledge the efficacy of many different
paths and techniques. No one method, set of practices, or philosophy is preached as the only or "one true
way."
8. General Questions to ask Oneself about any Spiritual Community or Spiritual Guide
-Are you asked to violate your own sense of ethical conduct or integrity?
-Is there a double standard: one for the Guru and "special" disciples, and another for everyone else?
-Are there secrets, rumors, and scandals?
-Do key members misuse sex, money, power, or drugs?
-Are they asking for your body?
-Are you not allowed to associate with your "old" friends and family?
-Do you feel dependent, addicted, or lifeless?
-Is the practice more or less without a real sense of humor, joy, and humility?
-Are you asked to believe and obey blindly without being requested or permitted, at some point, to see and
decide for yourself?
-Is there a genuine "no strings attached" love, or does this "love" come with a price tag?
-Is there tolerance and open-endedness?
-When you look at the oldest students (i.e., ones who have been in the community the longest), are they
happy, mature, gracious, genuinely humble , and spiritually integrated?
-Is there a place where anyone may teach or lead the group (time permitting) or at least express any and all
ideas without any orthodox watchdogs?
-Does the community have a fundamentalist and/or separatist quality to it? A very similar question applies
to teachers and leaders as well.
-Finally, is the very crucial truth emphasized that "Ultimately, one must become one’s own teacher, Guru,
or Master?"
9. Ethical Guidelines
All spiritual communities should and must have a written formal code of ethics that all members, leaders,
teachers, and Masters must conform to. If not, this must be done as quickly, thoroughly, rigorously, and
fairly as possible. No one is "beyond" ethics!!
10. Spirituality and Superstition
Authentic spiritual teachers and spiritual leaders who are philosophically and scientifically informed,
strongly discourage belief in the paranormal, the supernatural, the occult, magic, and the like. Individuals
who have taken their meditation practice far enough, know that the impact of the practices is wholly
cognitive, behavioral, and neurological in character. To claim otherwise involves either delusion, on the
one hand, or fundamental dishonesty and corruption, on the other.
11. No Cosmic Secrets or Esoteric Doctrines and Teachings
Some meditative and philosophical schools have esoteric (secret) doctrines as a component of the tradition
in question. Real problems arise when a teacher or leader makes it known, in some manner, that these
cosmic secrets shall be revealed only to the "spiritually elite" or the "spiritually elect," and for a price! The
Modus Operandi of teachers of this sort is the implicit or explicit promise(s) that if the disciple will provide
sex, money, worship, recognition, or just a willing ear, that the "secrets of the cosmos" will ultimately be
revealed. If the disciple ever finally learns the "cosmic secrets," they turn out to be little more than
abstruse philosophy and/or some variation on an already known philosophical and religious theme.
The subject matter of these "secret teachings" often involves the following:
(a) The Nature of the Mind
(b) The Nature of the Enlightened State
(c) The Nature of the Absolute
Still others have esoteric languages frequently accompanied by equally bizarre and esoteric question-and-
answer playing games that they, quite erroneously, equate with Enlightenment.
It must be emphasized as strongly as possible that advanced levels of Enlightenment are, ultimately,
neurological in nature. That is, by altering the functioning of the brain and nervous system via many years
of intensive meditation practice, enormous "mental silence" and bodily stillness results, allowing one
enormous psychological and philosophical insight into the nature of life, human suffering, and human
delusion, along with knowledge of the concrete means to extinguish both (suffering and delusion). That is
all. Furthermore, the experience of all authentic teachers and masters bears this out. To promise anything
more than this either indicates that the individual promising it has made only slight to moderate progress in
meditation at best, or is exceedingly corrupt, at worst.
12. Meditation is Hard and Mundane Work - There is NO "Magic" to it!!
Since Enlightenment is ultimately cognitive, behavioral, and neurological in nature, it, therefore, requires
hours and hours of meditation practice over ten to twenty years to acquire some degree of it (if this ever
happens). The point that needs to be stressed, here, is that if one wants all those lofty contemplative states
and insights to be one’s permanent possession, it takes as much hard work and dedication (in the form of
very much daily meditation practice) as being a concert pianist. That is all there is to it. It really has
nothing to do with anything paranormal, supernatural, or with knowledge of the metaphysical "secrets of
the cosmos." The "spiritualizers" and mythologizers of meditation who suggest that there are no real
criteria of meditation mastery and no real criteria of what constitutes Enlightenment (since it’s all a deep
and inscrutable spiritual mystery) are really only fooling themselves. Do not buy into New Age delusions
and superstitions regarding these matters.
Section 2
Characteristics of Authentic Spiritual Masters
There is a qualitative difference between Spiritual Masters on the one hand, and spiritual teachers plus
spiritual leaders, on the other. We define a Spiritual Master as one who has eradicated all sensuous craving
and all ill-will. This means, concretely, that such a one is incapable of sexual desire and any form of anger.
In terms of the degree of enlightenment achieved, this is simply the stage in which the ego has been
dissolved.
1. Behavioral Criteria
(A) Extreme relaxation of the facial muscles at almost all times. This sometimes appears to be a look of
sleepiness or tiredness. It can also appear as a look of unbelievable compassion or "saintliness."
(B) Extreme stillness of body when not moving.
(C) All movements at all times are slow, fluid, and graceful. This is much like, but not necessarily identical
to, a Tai Chi Master's exercises. There are no sudden or jerky movements of any sort here.
(D) Eyes do not dart around from object to object or person to person. Why? Because true Masters
apprehend the totality of the visual field at once, and at best see "individual things" with difficulty.
(E) Speech is never rapid or incoherent. There are no flights of thought or going off on tangents. Every
thing said is said slowly, gracefully, mellifluously, and is conceptually well-integrated.
(F) As earlier indicated, true Masters cannot engage in sexual activity of any sort, or manifest any form of
anger or ill-will
2. Criteria of Meditation Mastery
(A) Concentration Meditation Masters: have mastered all the stages of Absorptive Meditation and can
describe in the most concrete detail what the various levels are, how to attain them, and what they are like.
(B) Insight Meditation Masters: have mastered all the stages of Insight Meditation and can describe in the
most concrete detail how to view The Flow of Light, how to unblock energy centers plus the pain involved
in these two practices. Also the Insight Meditation Master must have mastered Concentration up to and
including The Second Absorption, or he or she would not have been able to attain The Third Level of
Enlightenment.
(C) As earlier claimed, any sufficiently profound Concentration or Insight Practice will ultimately activate
neurological experiences called "Kundalini Experiences." Masters of both Concentration Meditation and
Insight Meditation will know about these things in the most intimate detail. Any cursory survey of personal
accounts by acknowledged Masters on these subjects will bear this out.
3. Ethical Criteria
Authentic and meditatively realized Masters exhibit the following threefold behaviors and attitudes when
dealing with any and all persons.
(i) Kantian Respect: they always treat other persons as ends in themselves and never as means.
(ii) Agape Love: this type of love is a "no strings attached" type of love. That is, it is wholly disinterested
and unconditional.
(iii) Genuine Self-Effacement: because these individuals have dissolved the ego, there is absolutely nothing
that one of these individuals can want from their students. If there is, indeed, something that such a teacher
or community head wants from someone, then his or her degree of realization is from very slight to
moderate in degree only.
Section 3
Spirituality and Sexuality
Even the most cursory survey of the sex scandals in today’s Spiritual Communities should give the more
reflective, intelligent, and critical persons involved in Spirituality cause for real concern. Many deny that
such debacles ever occur. However, the evidence that sexual exploitation and sexual scandals have
occurred and are occurring among many of the "high profile" Gurus is so great as to make those who deny it
look quite silly and credulous. The real question is why so many honest folk involved in Spirituality today
fail to speak up and expose the sexual manipulation and exploitation that they do know about. The answer,
I believe, is a failure to realize what intensive, protracted, and successful meditation really does do to one
with regard to the issue of sexuality. That is, it is a failure to realize what the true nature and manifestations
of Enlightenment are concerning sexuality. This can be seen in the original meaning of Nirvana which is
Extinction. The purveyors of The New Age Superstitions and New Age Hedonism and Narcissism have
thoroughly obscured the actual meaning of Nirvana when it comes to the matter of the ego and sexuality.
So let me take this opportunity for some plain speaking on this and related matters. Consider the following
analogy. A healthy body makes it much less likely that one will succumb to disease, and a perfectly healthy
body (if this were possible!) would make disease impossible. In like manner, real progress in meditation
makes it very much less likely that one would lack sufficient insight, wisdom, and compassion to engage in
the sexual exploitation of others, while the dissolution of the ego (the level of The Spiritual Master),
through very advanced meditation, makes this quite impossible.
In plain words, those who have made moderately advanced progress their practice of meditation, Spiritual
Teachers for example, are very sensitive to the pain and suffering of others and very wise. Hence, they are
much less likely to sexually exploit others. If this does happen, it would be rare, and would certainly NOT
be a chronic phenomenon. For Authentic Spiritual Masters, though, the flame of sexuality, along with that
of anger and ill-will, have been permanently extinguished. Such a one is as incapable of engaging in sexual
activity, along any form of manipulation, as an extinguished fire is of burning one. Stated differently, if
there is anything that an alleged Spiritual Master wants from anyone, if there is anything less than perfect
control, perfect equanimity, and flawless compassion, then one is not dealing with a Spiritual Master!
Finally, it is quite possible, and occurs quite frequently, that a given individual can have some very
powerful mystical (neurological) experiences and insights and still retain a quite powerful sex drive. It is
only if meditation practice is pursued until all drive-states like the sexual impulse, anger, and ill-will are
totally extinguished, will the possibility of sexual excess and impropriety become an impossibility. If a
Spiritual Teacher is not aware of this fundamental fact, then he or she may come to truly believe that his or
her own drives, urges, and desires are somehow "spiritually" or "divinely" justified because of the insights
and experiences had via meditation practice. Since no one is beyond ethics, such is never the case!
In summary, then, we have the following three propositions submitted for your careful consideration:
(1) Authentic Spiritual Teachers will be very much less likely to engage in the sexual exploitation of others
than the average person and never for a protracted period of time.
(2) Authentic Spiritual Masters cannot engage in the sexual exploitation of anyone. Extinction, in this
case, means the permanent and irreversible uprooting of all sexual desire and ill-will.
(3) Sexual manipulation and sexual exploitation by anyone, regardless of their experiences in meditation
and level of intelligence, is NEVER justified, NEVER moral, and WHOLLY inappropriate!
Section 4
Criteria of Progress for long-term Meditators
Partisans of (a) Insight Meditation, (b) Concentration Meditation, or (c) Meditation without Form will
frequently insist that only their favored method will have the desired and transfigurative psycho-spiritual
effects. Longitudinal studies of meditators reveal that, over the very long term, the effects of any of these
practices are the same. So instead of discussing what constitutes significant progress with a given
meditation practice, I shall describe the long-term effects of any successful meditation practice. Regarding
the advanced stages of Insight Meditation practice, these are discussed in detail in chapter fifteen entitled
The Stages of Monistic Insight Meditation. Regarding the advanced stages of Absorption Meditation, these
are discussed in detail in chapter sixteen entitled The Path of the Meditative Absorptions.
THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF ADVANCED AND PROTRACTED MEDITATION
1. Access Concentration has been firmly and permanently established.
2. Effortless and unbroken "mental" silence regardless of circumstance. This simply means that one has
mastered the art of the cessation of internal dialogue or "talking to oneself." So instead of thoughts arising
in a rapid-fire sequence like they do for most persons, they arise progressively more slowly and exceedingly
quietly as one makes meditative advances. The mind is now like a quiet and empty chapel instead of like a
noisy cafeteria. Literally described, silence of mind is one’s primary experience, here, while thoughts and
imagery are experienced as occurring in the midst of vast and unconditioned silence. Another simile
expressing the nature of this attainment, is that thoughts are experienced much like thunder heard from a
storm an enormous distance off - all one hears is barely audible rumbles. Yet another way of describing
this attainment is that thoughts are experienced much more like whispers than normal conversation. Of
course there are levels of silence beyond this; but once you have gotten this far, you will have a good idea
what greater levels of silence might be like and the probable effects of the same.
3. Enormous diminution of "mental" imagery or what B.F. Skinner calls "Seeing without Seeing."
4. Effortless and unbroken global bodily stillness.
5. Effortless and unbroken stilling of needless eye movement. That is, the eyes do not dart about from
percept to percept; they only move when practical circumstance dictates. Otherwise, there is an unbroken
focus, at all other times, on the visual field as a whole.
6. The inability, under any circumstance, forget one’s insights and wisdom obtained though one’s
practice.
7. The unbroken awareness, almost always, of all major bodily movements.
8. The inability to "get lost" in one’s thoughts, reveries, hopes, wishes, and visions.
9. The feeling of very little "internal pressure" throughout the body. This is a state of constant and global
bodily relaxation.
10. Enormous and permanent reduction of both interpersonal conflicts and intrapersonal conflicts. This
attainment also involves an unshakable confidence that even if the world were to fall into chaos tomorrow
or even be destroyed, that one’s equanimity and compassion for other’s would not be affected.
11. Effortless life in the present. This must not be confused with living life for the present. Here the
experience of time as having a continuum (the experience of The Specious Present) has been dismantled.
Put in other words, one’s experience of even, say, whatever occurred ten minutes ago seems to be an
extremely faded memory of, say, one hundred years ago. That is, events leave hardly an imprint at all in
memory.
12. After having several sensitive EEG’s run, one should be able to confirm that the activity between the
two hemispheres of the brain has been equalized.
13. Evacuation of vivacity of the recollection of the past plus the inability to, in any lively and concrete
way, anticipate the future. With regard to the recollection of the past, a metaphor for this attainment is "the
dismantling of the VCR-like operation of memory." It seems that when mystics speak of living in an
Eternal Now, they have acquired something like, but not identical to, anterograde amnesia. No wonder their
experience of time, causality, and self have been so altered.
14. The permanent establishment of The Space-like Mind with the attendant reversal of the
(foreground)/(background) structure of visual experience. With this attainment, the world always appears
with incredible lucidity and always shines as if it were the finest crystal, polished to perfection. The reversal
of the (foreground)/(background) structure of visual experience refers to the awareness of the whole of the
visual field first, with awareness of its content second. As one progresses in one’s meditation practice,
individual objects become progressively harder to distinguish in the visual field. Finally, the ability to so
distinguish individual things becomes almost impossible. In other words, one is really returning to the way
one experienced the world as an infant (as a timeless and absolutely integrated Unity-in-Variety) while
retaining cognitive and psychological advances of the adult state.
15. A progressive leveling and attenuation of the emotions occurs. As one progresses in one’s practice,
emotional lows are extinguished. However, the price paid for this is an extinguishing of the emotional
highs as well. With regard to the diminution and ultimate cessation of all conflict, the meditative path of
spiritual growth differs not at all from the changes brought about by the successful aging process - it is just
that the Contemplative Life accelerates the successful aging process (neurologically and psychologically
speaking). So instead of waiting till one is 75 or 80 years old to see through conflict, greed, materialism,
status, sex, etc., if one ever does, one can have all these insights and changes at, say, age 40, provided one
starts the assiduous practice of meditation early enough. For confirmation of the effect that advanced aging
has on a person’s values and priorities, please talk to a large number of people around 75 years of age or
older. In this age range, one will find that a much larger percentage of persons have resolved most or all of
life’s conflicts, and see through many human illusions and human delusions, than do persons in the
population in general. True, not all of the elderly have made this kind of radical developmental progress.
All that is being claimed, here, is that a much larger percentage have than one would find in a random
sample of the general population.
16. The progressive dissolution of the ego. As one descends into ever greater levels of silence, one will
find that one’s internal dialogue and internal imagery will become progressively more attenuated, as
mentioned above. Now it is precisely at this point that a very powerful and profound feeling that one is
dying, psychologically, arises. This will probably be one the most difficult phases in one’s meditative
development. Consult the works of Bernadette Roberts for a detailed and extremely helpful discussion of
these and related stages.
Section 5
New Age Hedonism
and
New Age Narcissism
(adapted from The Unconscious Quantum by Victor J. Stenger)
A decade ago, Fritjof Capra, Marilyn Ferguson, Gary Zukav, and others had predicted that the 1980’s
would be a revolutionary time "because the whole structure of our society does not correspond with the
world-view of emerging scientific thought." They blamed Classical Physics for all the ills of society and
saw the New Physics, especially Quantum Mechanics, as a savior.
In her 1990 book, The Quantum Self, Danah Zohar asserts that "Cartesian philosophy wrenched human
beings from their familiar social and religious context and thrust us headlong into…our I-centered culture, a
culture dominated by egocentricity." The New Holistic Physics was supposed to teach people to be less
selfish, to recognize that they are part of a greater Whole, and to work cooperatively for the benefit of
everyone.
That no great Holistic Revolution has occurred is the understatement of the millennium. The facts indicate
that even more than the 1970’s, which originally had the name, the 1980’s were much more the "Me
Decade." Far from recognizing that we are each an inseparable part of the Whole, and everyone pitching in
to make the world a better place for its inhabitants, life in the 1980’s was characterized by an unprecedented
level of individual self-absorption. And the 1990’s, so far, show no sign of a change in this focus on self, as
every element of our society is geared to provide maximal short-term self-gratification for its members,
while those who fail to be gratified view themselves as victims.
Now some will argue that the ever-increasing fixation on self only reinforces the need for a Holistic
Philosophy like that of Capra, Ferguson, and Zohar. They will say that the problem is simply that Holistic
Philosophy has not yet taken hold. This is a fantastic and ludicrous claim and has been used by every
religion and philosophy with social and/or political aspirations ever since the beginning of civilization. In
fact, no small portion of the blame for the current excessive self-absorption lies at the feet of the New Age
Mysticism. Anyone listening to New Age Gurus cannot miss the emphasis on the individual finding easy
gratification ("COME ONE, COME ALL. ‘FOLLOW YOUR BLISS’ TO INFINITE AND ETERNAL
HAPPINESS! IT’S BETTER THAN THE BEST SEX!!") rather than sacrificing and selflessly laboring for
a better world. Similar remarks hold good regarding the views these Gurus propound about meditation,
viz., that it’s all bliss and should make you feel wonderful. If not, you are doing something wrong. This is
in stark contrast to the truth: profound and transfigurative meditation is exceedingly painful. St. John of the
Cross did not call the Path to the Unitive State THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL for nothing.
Holistic Hedonistic Philosophy is the perfect self-delusion for the spoiled brats of any age, all decked out in
the latest fashions, who love to talk about solving the problems of the world but have absolutely no
intention, or do not even see the need, of sacrificing and sweating a drop in achievement of this noble goal.
There is also the regrettable and wholly erroneous denigration of Classical Reductionist Physics and
Scientific Materialism as wholly unspiritual and responsible for turning people into egotists. The truth,
however, is that Reductionist Classical Physics does not make people egoists. People were egoists long
before Classical Physics! In fact, Classical and Quantum Physics have nothing to say about human beings
except that they are material objects like rocks and trees, made of nothing more than the same atoms - just
fantastically more complex and more cleverly organized by the impersonal forces of self-organization and
evolution. This is hardly a philosophical basis for narcissism!
This new Cosmythology, on the other hand, feeds our delusions of personal importance. Quantum Holism
tells us that we are part of an Immortal Cosmic Mind with the power to perform miracles and, as actress
Shirley MacLaine has said, to make our own reality. Who needs God when we, ourselves, are God?
Thoughts of our participation in Cosmic Consciousness inflate our egos to the point where we can ignore
our shortcomings and even forget our mortality.
Yes indeed, New Age Religions mainly provide a means for escaping reality. In the United States, where
self-gratification has reached heights never dreamed of in ancient Rome, where self-esteem is more
important than being able to read, and where self-help requires no more effort than popping in a cassette,
the myth of Quantum Consciousness is just what the therapist ordered.
Quantum Consciousness is a grossly misapplied version of ancient Hindu and Buddhist philosophy which
were and are based on the notion that only by the complete rejection of the delusive sense-of-self can one
find inner peace in this world of incessant flux, suffering, and hopelessness. The literal meaning of
Nirvana as Extinction has been completely obscured by The Cosmic Bliss Seekers of The New Age
Superstitions. Far from attempting the painful dissolution of the ego, as advocated by any form of
Authentic Spirituality, New Age Holism puts it on a pedestal and proposes that it, or the Guru, or both, be
worshipped. Capra and his colleagues say they are putting a modern face on ancient Eastern philosophy.
But, on the contrary, they are covering a Noble Edifice with hedonistic graffiti. Where they see similarities
between the new and the old mysticism’s, I see only contrasts. Where they promote the new Cosmythology
as an antidote for self-absorption, I assert that they are manufacturing a drug which induces. And while
they blame Reductionist Rationalist Science and Scientific Materialism for the ills of the world, I hold both
as a source of genuine hope for reducing their severity - if only we and our successors can find the wisdom
to use them properly and in time.
Section 6
Gurus, Spirituality
and
New Age Fundamentalism
Many persons today are drawn toward Spirituality in order to fulfill some real need for religious and
philosophical grounding - a systematic and guiding world view for their lives. Now this can be done in
healthy and productive ways on the one hand, or pathological and unproductive ways on the other. From
the fields of anthropology, sociology, and religious studies we learn that many persons cannot appropriate
philosophical and religious truths and ideals except through ritual, symbol, and myth. That is, they cannot
appropriate these truths and ideals directly. Unfortunately, an uncritical appropriation of ritual, symbol, and
myth can lead to various forms of Fundamentalism in the World’s major religions. For example, in
Christian Fundamentalism, the Bible is viewed as infallible and all those who fail to acknowledge and
accept Jesus suffer everlasting torture in the Cosmic Concentration Camp called "Hell." A real low-point
in Christianity was reached when, from its very inception, Jesus was reported to have said "You are either
for me or against me." Those of a Fundamentalist Mentality have used this Bible verse to the very great and
long-term harm of humanity for nearly two thousand years. Now the Fundamentalist Mentality is not
restricted to Christianity. Indeed, one finds it in the New Age Religions; and it is regrettably wide-spread in
this sphere these days. Just as the Fundamentalist Christians believe that God became Man in order to
dictate some infallible message and show us the one and only way to Salvation, so many of the New Age
Devotees believe that God and/or the Absolute has many Embodiments - the final objective of which is to
show us the way to a Salvation of a usually quite different nature. And just as the Christ of the
Fundamentalist Christians demands and mandates worship ("Every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!" - another low point for Christianity), so to do New Age Gurus require
and demand worship regardless of their moral character and degree of Realization via meditation. "After
all, they are God aren’t they and can do as they please? And who dares to call God to account for anything?
He, or It, is the Final Authority!" This bit of anthropomorphism is little more than a New Age version of
Calvinistic Christianity - a form of Cosmic Despotism really.
Claims that Gurus of various traditions are God, or are manifestations of God, is simply little more than
human delusion, superstition, grandiosity, and hubris magnified to infinity. It is hard to see how any
rational person who is scientifically and philosophically informed can believe such nonsense. Critics might
be quick to point out that these persons, in all truth, are not rational and probably not so informed. I would
hasten to agree and suggest a rigorous course of study in logic, philosophy, science, psychology, plus
Authentic Spirituality, as an antidote to these problems. Unfortunately, so many persons attracted to the
Temples of Guru Worship have very many unresolved psychological and developmental problems and
issues that they are probably, at best, only vaguely aware. Moreover, given the fact that there are very few
psychologically healthy persons willing to undertake such an intensive course-of-study, how much more so
will this be the case for those with real psychological problems who are attracted to contemporary Cults of
Guru Worship? Furthermore, such a course of study, it might be pointed out, would be too psychologically
destabilizing. True, this is a real risk. However, the long-term consequences of not doing so leads to the
human psychological and financial wreckage the Cults of Guru Worship and Superstition produce today. It
can only be hoped that time, and some possibly very painful experiences with these Cults, will convince
those involved of the need for a better and more rational approach.
Am I always at odds with the purveyors of ritual, symbol, and myth - The Devotees of "Timeless Yogic
Paths" as one New Age Disciple put it to me in an E-mail? Is there no such thing as life-enhancing
religious, social and cultural illusions? The answer to this question is implicit in the quotation below and in
the commentary immediately following this. Submitted for your careful consideration is the end of this
section:
"Man needs a second world, a world of humanly created meaning, a new reality that he can live, dramatize,
nourish himself in. ‘Illusion’ means creative play as its highest level. Cultural illusion is a necessary
ideology of self-justification, a heroic dimension that is life itself to the symbolic animal. To lose the
security of heroic cultural illusions is to die - that is what ‘deculturation’ of primitives means and what it
does. It kills them or reduces them to the animal level of chronic fighting and fornication .… [Now] what is
the ‘best’ illusion under which to live? Or, what is the most legitimate foolishness? …. The whole question
would be answered in terms of how much freedom, dignity, and hope a given illusion provides."
Given the Sex, Power, Money and Status scandals in many of the Spirituality Communities today, it could
not even be said that the communities so affected offer any real mythologies (in the technical sense of the
word) of freedom, dignity, and hope. The most important realization vis-à-vis religious mythology and
meditation, whether life-enhancing or pathological, is that the maximum degree of freedom, hope, and
dignity can be found within a given religious and cultural illusion only when one is completely released
from bondage to the forms of that illusion, when the structure of the illusion reveals itself with perfect
clarity and one is allowed to see it as it is - as both fictitious and necessary. This allows one, through
one’s meditative practice, to live in the noninferential unity of Nonduality and Awareness. Finally, we
have here only a refined love of this world, and not of some alleged Omniscient and Omnipotent Guru, or
even the alleged Next World.
Such realizations as mentioned above, would not only prevent the purveyors of pathological New Age
Superstitions and Cosmythologies from doing real and lasting psychological harm to the Devotees, but
would also allow for a more informed, rational, and psychologically productive appropriation of the
genuinely life-enhancing cultural and religious myths as well as the meditation practices.
IX
Secondary Source Material Used
(I) Heavily Used and/or Very Important (for this book on Spirituality) Secondary Source Material
(a) The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (Nayanaponika Thera)
(b) Transformations of Consciousness (Jack Engler, Daniel P. Brown, and Ken Wilber)
(c) The Meditative Mind (Daniel Goleman)
(II) Lightly to Moderately used Secondary Source Material
(a) Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World’s Religions (Huston Smith)
(b) The Social Face of Buddhism (Ken Jones, Wisdom Publications)
(c) The Unconscious Quantum (Victor J. Stenger - Prometheus Press)
X
Philosophical Background
for
Serious Students
(I) General Philosophy
(a) A Concise Introduction to Logic (Patrick J. Hurley)
(b) Philosophy: History and Problems (Samuel E. Stumpf)
(c) A Concise Introduction to Philosophy (William H. Halverson)
(d) Religion and the Challenge of Philosophy (J.E. Barnhart)
(II) Metaphysics
(a) The Elements of Metaphysics (William R. Carter)
(b) Metaphysics (Richard Taylor)
(c) Metaphysics (D.W. Hamlyn)
(d) World Hypotheses (Steven C. Pepper)
(III) Epistemology
(a) The Theory of Knowledge (D.W. Hamlyn)
(b) Contemporary Epistemology (Jonathan Dancy)
(IV) Philosophy of Religion
(a) Philosophy of Religion (John Hick)
(b) Philosophy of Religion (William J. Wainwright)
(c )Death and Eternal Life (John Hick)
(V) Mysticism and Spirituality
(a) Mysticism (Evelyn Underhill)
(b) The Deeper Life (Louis Dupre)
(c) The Common Life (Louis Dupre)
(d) Mysticism and Philosophy (W.T. Stace)
(e) Mysticism (W.J. Wainwright)
(f) Creation and the Timeless Order of Things (Toshihiko Izutsu)
(g) Nonduality (David Loy)
(h) Philosophy as a Way of Life (Pierre Hadot)
(VI) Eastern Philosophy
(a) Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy (R. Puligandla)
(b) Indian Philosophy and Religion (Bibhu Padhi and Minakshi Padhi)
(c) Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction (Eliot Deutsch)
(d) An Introduction to Hindu Thought (A. L. Herman)
(e) What the Buddha Taught (Walpola Rahula)
(f) The Vision of Buddhism (Roger J. Corless)
(g) Fundamentals of Mainstream Buddhism (Eric Cheetham)
(h) Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis (David J. Kalupahana)
(i) The Emptiness of Emptiness (C.W. Huntington Jr. & Geshe Namgyal Wangchen)
(VI) Eastern Spiritual Classics
(a) The Dhammapada (Thomas Byrom translator)
(b) Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree (Bhikkhu Buddhadasa)
(c) The Tao Te Ching (Steven Mitchell translator)
(d) The Hua Hu Ching (Brian Walker translator)
(e) The Heart of Awareness: The Ashtavakra Gita (Thomas Byrom translator)
(f) No Boundary (Ken Wilber)
(VII) Western Spiritual Classics
(a) Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart’s Creation Spirituality in New Translation (Matthew Fox tr.)
(b) The Mirror of Simple Souls
(c) John Ruusbroec (Paulist Press, Classics of Western Spirituality)
(d) The Works of Bernadette Roberts
(i) The Experience of No Self
(ii) The Path to No Self
(VIII) Near Death Experience and Mystical Experience: Scholarly and/or Scientific Research
(a) Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of near-death experience in medieval and modern times
(Carol Zaleski, OUP)
(b) Dying to Live: Near Death Experiences (Susan Blackmore, Prometheus Press)
(c) The Works of Kenneth Ring
(i) Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience
(ii) Heading Toward Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience
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