Essence of God

Remember the experience you told me about where you found you were inches away from the face of God? I had a detailed version of that a few months ago as well. 

While I was that close for the longest time a quote by the 13th century theologian Meister Eckhart came to mind. “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God seeing me”. 

I took that to heart in that moment and put it to work. I viewed, as if through a highly focused eye, somewhat tunnel-like in nature into God. One part of my awareness venturing forward while the rest of me remained where it was, separate from God. “Taking fullness from fullness, what remains is fullness”. 

The part of me that moved forward into the realm of God then turned to look back at me (which in itself is Very Powerful I could write an article on that alone) looking through the same avenue from which I came and I saw me as God would see me. I was/am glorious, brilliant, vibrant, shimmering light, with golden petals of light at my centre. All in perpetual motion or dance. The feeling of love was almost unbearable. Now, I know why God has this sense of unconditional love. He is seeing His own Self reflected right back at Him as full as He is. He can’t help but love the scene with all His heart. Too beautiful for words. Each one of us is so very majestic at that level. 

Seeing through God’s eyes is the beginning. From the thought to know Himself, God created a second self to act as a reflector/partner, us. In one way the self is both a singularity and a plurality. That’s why we experience ourselves, in UC, as both one and many in perfect harmony and balance. That principle is what allowed me to both venture forward in action and remain still, simultaneously. 

The act of crossing over from the second Self to the first Self is part and parcel of our journey. It's structured in us because it's structured in God who made us, in His own image. In the end we can't help but be what God is. It’s the embracing of what we truly are. Both the worshipper and the worshiped. See MMY commentary in ch 6 v 32 of the Gita for verification/clarification.

Hope all of you enjoy this beauty beyond words.

Psychology of Consciousness (Part 3)

I want to make a few things perfectly clear. First, full Oneness can only be had by the extinction of devotion. Devotion is a beautiful habit/addiction that reinforces separation. I don’t say this so you, the reader, actively work to get rid of devotion but rather so you will not be surprised when devotion starts to fade away, naturally. It’s inevitable. If you really miss it, you can bring it back but only as a secondary reality, because as a primary reality full oneness can not happen.

Once, you realize your guru or god isn’t separate from you, you may still seek guidance from time to time to help you convey teaching knowledge to others. Its like the adult child consulting with their parents on parenting techniques. So of course there’s a respect and admiration for the teacher/guru but not so much that one falls into a parent-child relationship again.

Secondly, Oneness is not the end of the road. Its simply the unification of the world of things. We are getting into deep waters now.

As I mentioned in Part 2, Lord Krishna states in chapter 13 v 12 that the highest brahman (consciousness) is Not This. Not That. So where is oneness in Para Brahman? Its gone. Because it doesn’t exist in the highest brahman. A state of absolutely No attributes. Now that’s the end of the road. Hahaha.

So how do we live or function?

Sidebar: That Nothingness can either be perceived as all light or all darkness. Subject for another discussion.

Back to how do we function.

Once, you embrace Nothingness, for a while you will be in a state of not caring because frankly, what’s the point.

You have lost your guru and your god. Everything around you is now known to be an illusion. So it really doesn’t exist. And you are now resting in a state devoid of attributes it can feel like rock bottom so why engage in anything?

By the way, although it sounds like a state of depression but in some weird way you feel a quiet contentment. Completeness. Done. Finished. This state offers its own deep satisfaction.

Gradually, you realize, you still have a body. You still have others depending on you, from a day to day perspective. You still need to eat. Haha. So you participate.

At first reluctantly, because there is a flavor of ‘why bother’ still lively in your awareness. Never the less, you participate. Of course, its a strange participation you are somewhat engaged but as time goes on you integrate. Some quicker than others.

It's like someone having a particular regional accent to their speech then they move to another region. Many people quickly adapt and pick up the new regional accent and some people never do. In that same way the "integration" after such a dramatic awakening can take a while depending on one's ease in shedding attachments.

Summary: In our consciousness development we find ourselves moving past devotion to make room for full oneness. The destruction of separation. The joining of worshipper and worshiped.

We then realize that oneness in the final analysis is really Not This. Not That. Full negation of everything. An awareness devoid of attributes. Para Brahman.

After some time, we notice we are still physically alive and must respect this plain of existence because we are in a state of saying Yes to everything, illusion or not. That’s actually the living of Brahman. Wholeness. Totality. This state is the infamous “integration” many speak of. Where we come full circle. Right back to being an ordinary citizen. Fully assimilated into our day to day but somehow very different.

Know this my friends, no matter how ordinary you look or feel, you will always radiate a subtle but beautiful light that the angels, gods, and gurus eternally rejoice.

With so much Love to All …

❤️❤️❤️

The Other Side of God

First off we must never forget that, we are God. Not just an image of God or a spark of God but rather God in His/Her full glory. Almighty God.

However, there’s another side to God. Humble God. A disempowered God. God purposely forgetting His/Her almighty-ness. That’s the role we all are currently playing.

If God is truly Everything how is humility known? Through the experience of humanity and mortality. What better way than to temporarily forget one’s almighty-ness and fully experience, loss, heartbreak, defeat, betrayal, limitations of every kind.

Everything that’s difficult and brings us to our knees is of our own doing designed on purpose for the sake of experiencing humility to understand compassion and ultimately love.

So enjoy all those tears, bad karma, fear and short comings. As God we need that to remember All that we are. There’s power in disempowerment. Maybe there really is Fun in dysfunctional. :)

All Love my Friends. ❤️❤️❤️

Patanjali and Chapter 4 Verse 25 of Bhagavad Gita

In the yoga sutras Patanjali delineates three sutras in particular, dharana (focus), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (transcendence). Together Patanjali terms them as samyama, a method for invoking knowledge of the object of focus, to know the very essence of the object.

Example: by lending focus (dharana) to say, the quality of friendliness we may travel into finer layers (dhyana) of friendliness until we transcend (samadhi) friendliness.

The internal experience of such an act would be to know the object so completely that we adopt the essence of that object, in this case the quality of friendliness.

Another thing is happening during this exercise. We are going beyond the object and experiencing samadhi. However, the experience of samadhi is flavored by the entryway in which we came. Its samadhi but it tastes like some version of friendliness.

So outwardly, we immerse ourselves in friendliness and in someway take on that quality of friendliness. But inwardly, we transcend with the flavor of the object, in this case friendliness.

At this fine layer of awareness the object, friendliness, looks and feels like a colored mist, for me its light green. This mist is actually the veil of maya, illusion, flavored as friendliness. Know that this is the view from the material world.

From the world of the transcendent, Patanjali terms it, savichara, samadhi with seed as opposed to samadhi without seed, nirvichara. Perspective does matter.

A term that encompasses both may better be, ritam bhara prajna, intelligence filled with truth. In this layer of awareness we know the object in its true and perfect form. The blueprint form, its vedic form as such it can be understood as both/neither simultaneously as subtle material or nothingness. If you’re in an upbeat place its glorious beyond glory. If you’re not, its zero, nothingness. If you’re feeling harmonious its both glorious and zero. If you’re feeling non-harmonious its neither or total negation. As maturation of consciousness development sets in, your awareness will grow beyond alteration of the options, into simultaneity of the options. It’s no wonder many enlightened people are looked at as nuts. :) In many cases you become a party 🎉 of one. :)

Let’s get back to this element of the experience of subtler layers. Frankly, it’s much easier to follow.

So as we experience finer states of the object we transcend samadhi with seed, savichara, and go into samadhi without seed, nirvichara. This is a state of atma or brahman. In knowing this we come to realize that following any object to its purest state will deliver us to brahman. And by doing this exercise with object after object one can stitch together brahman, as it were. This is the essence of the Brahma Sutras.

What this also is, is the discovery of a path to brahman consciousness. In chapter 4 v 25 it states, "Some yogis perform yagyas (sacrifice) to the gods. Others offer sacrifice to the fire of Brahman". The offering of sacrifice to the "fire of Brahman" uses the god as an avenue to Brahman. By doing the yagya like this both the god is satisfied as well as Brahman. The main reason there is worship to any god is so we may select a relative perfect form/vehicle in which to travel to Brahman. This is the main purpose of a mantra.

Note, that in the same way we use a sutra to experience finer levels of the object and arrive at samadhi with a specific flavor by using a mantra or name of a god or goddess we will also find samadhi to be flavored with the essence of that mantra/god.

As one moves forward in their own consciousness development at some point this phenomenon is naturally recognized and we find ourselves using the mantra less because its not pure enough. We innately desire to experience brahman without the flavor of something else so we drop the training wheels. At this stage of our consciousness development we can arrive at brahman without aids, without seeds, solely by itself/ourself. We recognize in ourselves that we are brahman and everything we perceive is brahman and brahman alone is.

Mantra meditations and Patanjali sutra exercises have served to deliver us to the goal. As such we lose the appetite for them. We respect their royal standing and honorably bow to them but we move past them to pure direct experience of brahman without these filters, or flavors.

Do we now enter brahman with some other kind of filter? Yes, but that filter now is our own nature. Brahman has become personalized. Its our Brahman. We own It. It owns us. Looking at this from either way it ends up being the same. Lending value to the concept of "sameness". An appropriate description. Sameness in all directions.

Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita (Part 4)

It would seem that in chapter 13 v 12 where Lord Krishna says, “param brahman “, the highest brahman, is neither existence nor non-existence, that the door to consciousness development is now closed. From a state of consciousness it is. However, Lord Krishna continues, in chapter 15 v 16 for yet another 5 verse run. Chapter 15 v 16, “There are two “purusau” in the world, the perishable and the imperishable...”

Chapter 15 v 17, “But the highest (uttamas) purusas is another, called param atma (supreme Self). Who entering the three worlds as Isvarah, supports them (the perishable and imperishable).

Wow, we are definitely in deep waters here. We had the perishable and imperishable but now we have Isvarah who appears to be an overlord that supports the previous two.

Chapter 15 v 18, “Since I transcend (atitas) the perishable an am higher than the imperishable... I’m celebrated (prathitas) as purusottamah (the supreme purusa)”.

“Higher than the imperishable”? This is incomprehensible. I mean, think about it. How can one be higher than the imperishable. Like, where is that state? Just feeling into this reality causes one to be completely without foundation. Talk about true non-attachment.

Verses like this can’t simply be thought of. They must be taken into the heart and deeply felt.

Lord Krishna, in the form of Vishnu, Ishvarah (param atma), and now Purusottamah, the ultimate (uttamas) Purusa, is to be known through a perfect blend of mind, heart and soul.

Chapter 15 v 19, “He who, undeluded, unconfused, knows Me, as Purusottamam, he, sarvavit (all-knowing, omniscient, omni-cognizant), bhajati (worships, loves) Me, with sarvabhavena (all, whole, entire being).

Again, as in chapter 13 v 18, a brilliant folding in of a statement of achievement with a compassionate invitation to join Him in a place (loka) which is higher than the imperishable or not existence nor non-existence. A place/state that is incomprehensible nothingness yet simultaneously full, leaving one wanting for nothing. :)

Chapter 15 v 20, “Thus this most secret doctrine has been taught by Me, O Arjuna; having awakened to this, a man should be (syat), buddhiman (wise, enlightened) with all duties fulfilled (krtakrtyas).

Amazing how Lord Krishna takes Arjuna from the highest of spiritual highs in the previous verse to, down-to-earth, in this verse creating linkage and practicality. Useful in this moment. True mastery.

So, from the seemingly impersonal state of param brahman in chapter 13 starting with verse 12 of "not existence nor non-existence" to the very personal state of purusottamah, "higher than the imperishable". I get a sense of initially knowing the Highest then stepping into the Highest. The knowledge in chapter 13 addresses the question of, What am I? While chapter 15 answers the question, Who am I? What vs Who. These are probably the two eternal questions posed by the true seeker. From the standpoint of God it may play out as - once the creation is complete (the what) the creator (the who) steps into their creation.

In someways this can be seen as the journey of the seeker but in a deeper context it’s our inevitable evolution. Where we feel our way, through the avenue of the heart, to a state of oneness with this divine entity, Krishna, Vishnu, Isvarah, Purusottamah and in so doing, step into, realize and become our destiny.

copyright © jim rocca, 2020

Enlightenment Dark?

Your new enlightenment - after the honeymoon. Usually what one finds is, it's hard to be part of the old world or habits after your awakening. It’s kind of an issue of honesty. Yet... What about those responsibilities? Internal beauty. Yet... External confusion. Am I being honest to myself? Or do I need to take care of the others? Maybe now that I’m enlightened I really don’t need to be on the planet anymore? Now that's really dark but it happens.

Lots to think about and that’s the problem. Thinking.

The new world you are now a part of is huge and plays by a different set of rules. One being life is now non-linear. You will have to find a way to be comfortable with uncertainty. You are living in the Now, the Moment. Planning now takes a backseat to the Moment. Planning is based in something of a future nature usually based on something in the past. Past and future don’t disappear, they just aren’t dominant anymore. Again, honesty prevails. The honesty of the Moment.

As you open to your new found infinite nature, options are endless. How do you digest that? You don’t. You can’t. Our nervous systems don’t have the bandwidth. 

Here’s where the issues arise for the newly minted enlightened and even the soon to be enlightened. 

Due to old habits we attempt to fit our new reality into our old life. Sometimes there’s a match here and there but for the most part it’s a mismatch. 

Honestly, the most comfortable solution is just "Letting Go". Allow yourself to be a faithful servant to divinity, the giver of the grace which you now realize is your true nature, that beautiful infinity that’s allowed you to know God. Just live baby. Just live.