Discriminative Wisdom

One who is everywhere without attachment, on meeting with anything good or bad, who neither rejoices nor hates, his wisdom is fixed. (Bhagavad Gita 2:57)

The Yoga of discriminative wisdom, or Gyan Yoga, is sorely needed in our modern yogic community.  It is sorely needed in our society.  The goal of yoga practice is not being able to get into some advanced body-wrenching asana.  The goal is to develop inner peace, inner joy and unconditional love.  It is to realize the oneness of consciousness.  An essential practice for helping us to develop these enlightened qualities is vairagya, “nonattachment.”  Another is persistent practice of meditation. 

The practice of asana, or “postures” without developing a meditative practice as well is a travesty.  It is not Yoga, but simply exercise.  Practiced carelessly, it might even lead to physical harm.  Discriminative wisdom goes hand in hand with nonattachment.  It means discriminating between what is truly real and what is false and illusory.  It means discovering that we are immortal spiritual beings going through a temporary human experience; realizing that the external world of “good and bad” is really a projection of our desires.

True inner peace is not found in possessions, relationships, business success or even mastering a difficult pose.  It is found by recognizing our true nature as Atman – consciousness beyond the limitations of the mind.  Your true nature is peace, is joy, is unconditional love.  If you cannot find it within yourself, you won’t find it anywhere else!

Karma and Freedom

Liberation does not mean renunciation of action or karma. A liberated man continues to act on the physical, mental, intellectual, emotional and sensory planes. He may plough the land or perform any kind of work because it is not the actions which bind a man, it is the ego. When ego is involved in your actions, karma becomes your property and you have to accept the responsibility for it. 

– Swami Satyananda Saraswati

We tend to think of destiny as something which happens to us from the outside.  Truth is we truly create our destiny.  It is a matter of choice, wisdom and compassion.  We create our experience from the inside out.  When we are not conscious we are bound to the cycles of samsara.  When we begin to awaken we are truly capable of choice and free-will.  We are able to enter that narrow space between stimulus and response,

The external world is nothing more than a display of our unconscious nature.  Our external experiences shift as we become more aware of these internal processes.  As Michael Bernard Beckwith writes, “Once we have become conscious of the patterns we have formed, we can revisit them and make new choices where we feel necessary, or as a practice to keep ourselves flexible, or simply to consciously exercise our power of choice.”  This is the essence of freedom.

Unconscious repetition is the essence of karma.  It is a natural tendency to live our lives on “automatic pilot.”  According to biologist Rupert Sheldrake life itself is based on accumulated habit patterns.  Obviously, this is not a completely bad thing.  Conscious evolution however demands that we reflect on our patterns consciously.  We are free to the extent that we can become aware of our unconscious patterns, referred to as samskaras in yoga terminology. 

According to Yoga philosophy as outlined in the Yoga Sutras our primary enslavement is based in avidya: ignorance of our true spiritual nature.  Because of ignorance we buy into this idea that we are separate ego-beings.  We are individual expressions of the universal mind but we are never separate.  Ignorance is the source of all of our illusory karma.  Once we are able to glimpse that we are beings of formless consciousness things begin to change.  We begin to evolve on an inner (and consequently) outer level.

Truly enlightened teachings transcend our relative notions of right and wrong, good and bad.  As the Ashtavakra Gita states, “Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of the mind and are no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor the reaper of the consequences, so you are always free.”  When we step out of the ego drama of our lives we realize our selves to be Transcendent Being.  From an ego standpoint we like to pose as judges of both ourselves and others.  Awakened Mind tells us that we are all, each and every one of us, expressions of the Divine.

Mother Kundalini

Kundalini is the opening of that

era in human life when the ordinary mind becomes a super mind.

-    Swami Satyananda Saraswati

As human beings we are privileged with this particular form and experiential space to work with.  Over millennia consciousness has evolved out of matter, into vegetable life, the sensual experience of animals and finally into the uniquely mental experience of ours.  How easily we take it for granted!  We are the culmination of life evolving on this planet.  At the same time there is immense further territory ahead.

Kundalini is the term used by the ancient yogis for the energy which is operating through the universe yet somehow dormant within the human system.  When popular culture talks about “human potential” it has little clue as to how fantastic it really is.  As Lord Jesus once put it, “Ye are gods.”  We are the evolutionary edge on this planet.  At the same time we are in danger of stagnation and extinction. 

We need to facilitate our evolution on a conscious level through spiritual practice.  We are uniquely suited to bring spirit into form through sadhana.  Throughout the ages yogis have evolved into seeming super-humans through sadhana.  The stories of the Siddhars of Southern India and the Mahasiddhas of the North bear witness to these transcendent beings.  In Western history we have the stories of saints and mystics who have developed expanded consciousness and paranormal powers.  It is a potential within each of us.

Advanced spiritual beings impart an initiatory energy through shaktipat, which stimulates one’s process of evolution.  Shaktipat can occur in the presence of a physical or nonphysical being.  It is not a physical “thing.”  However, sometimes our material level minds need a sensory-perceptible guru.  Initiation can happen in a dream.  The evolutionary energy is just waiting for an avenue to awaken.

Once it is awakened, watch out.  One’s karma accelerates and often times it seems like all hell breaks loose.  Negative material is exploded as the light within intensifies.  It can be painful.  It doesn’t meet one’s standard expectations.  It is best to suspend judgment for the time being.  Forget about being in control.  Surrender is the only option in the face of this awakening energy.  Faith and surrender are key to keep from going crazy.

Suffering is Optional

"Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found."
~Pema Chodron

I tend to like to keep this idea of attachment at arm’s length. It sounds good to talk about being nonattached.  Truth is that we are all attached up to our eyeballs.  The worst thing you can do in terms of spiritual evolution is try to pretend to yourself that you are beyond attachment.  The only way we can evolve is to look at ourselves objectively.  Try to see where you are attached, let go of judgment love and accept yourself.

The crises in our lives are actually blessings.  They help us realize where we have fallen asleep.  When we try to hold on to temporary circumstances whatever they may be, we are guaranteed to suffer.  It is in those moments of life when everything seems to be lost that we discover our inner resources.  We discover our deeper identities.  The worse things appear to be the greater the opportunity for awakening.  

The Machine within the Ghost

When we allow everything to be as it is, in that inner attitude of non-grasping and surrender, something creative can come to you. That is the space in which insight, wisdom and revelation arise...

It’s the space in which we are gifted with what we need to see. It’s the space in which we can be informed by the wholeness of consciousness, not just by a little speck of consciousness in our mind. And ultimately, it is the space in which realization arises. It is the space in which we realize ourselves to be consciousness itself, the unmanifest fabric of being.
~Adyashanti

The Yoga Sutras tell us that it is because of avidya, or ignorance, that we mistake sensory form for reality.  Sensory form necessarily rests within mind.  There is no sensual experience without mind.  It all takes place in within the still mysterious processes of the brain which somehow seem to mediate between the material and the immaterial.  Somehow the brain takes in our narrow spectrum of electromagnetic energy and manufactures it into our world.  Mind is what gives it shape, meaning and value.

 

    “Reality” exists within us as conscious beings.  We don’t belong to the mechanisms of life or nature; certainly not the fabrications of society and culture.  As spiritual beings we are autonomous and whole.  We have simply chosen to dance with form and manifestation.  Freedom is inherent within us.  Attachment causes us to dream that we are bound.

Moksha – Real Freedom is Inner Freedom

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

--Viktor Frank

Spiritual liberation is not some exotic phenomenon.  Moksha means awakening to who we truly are.  We have been conditioned to believe that we are these physical bodies, that we are limited in space and time, separate from everything and everyone.  The inner reality of things is much different.  In fact it IS reality.  We are metaphysical, spiritual or hyperdimensional beings.  For some reason we became fixated on this narrow spectrum of being. 

I tend to think of life as a sort of virtual computer game.  Unlike the games we invent from our limited consciousness it has different rules though.  You don’t win moksha through aggression.  You don’t win through accumulation.  You win through love, through heart expansion, inner peace and wisdom.  Although “ego” is a problem, individuation is very important.  Don’t buy into the “herd mentality.”  As someone put it, “You have to be somebody before you can be nobody.” 

Meditation allows us to step back from the drama of life.  It is essential to growth and liberation.  It helps us to tune into that space between stimulus and response, to move from being “biogenetic robots” to being conscious beings.  In whatever way that works turn your awareness inwardly on a daily basis, examine yourself objectively.  This is the key to freedom.  Discover your true Self. 

(Hint: you are the one who is looking.)

In Defense of “Making It Up As You Go Along.”

Stop looking all over the place for "the answers" - whatever they are - and start looking for the questions - the inquiries which are most important in your life, and give them answers. You do not live each day to discover what it holds for you, but to create it. – Neal Donald Walsch

To what extent is the world given to us as a static, solid object for us investigate and discover; and to what extent is this world an unfolding evolutionary creation of which we are not just part and parcel but co-emergent “facilitators”?  Twentieth century discoveries in quantum physics suggested that there is an “observer-effect” to reality on the most fundamental physical level.  As an article in Discover puts it:

“According to the rules of quantum mechanics, our observations influence the universe at the most fundamental levels. The boundary between an objective "world out there" and our own subjective consciousness that seemed so clearly defined in physics before the eerie discoveries of the 20th century blurs in quantum mechanics. When physicists look at the basic constituents of reality— atoms and their innards, or the particles of light called photons— what they see depends on how they have set up their experiment. A physicist's observations determine whether an atom, say, behaves like a fluid wave or a hard particle, or which path it follows in traveling from one point to another. From the quantum perspective the universe is an extremely interactive place.”  (http://discovermagazine.com/2002/jun/featuniverse)

John Wheeler coined the term “participatory universe” in his interpretation of the meaning of these experimental outcomes.  The “eerie” results in these experiments have been overlooked to a large extent by the dominant scientific community.  Mostly it seems, because they threaten to dismantle the convenient compartmentalization of the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm upon which modern science is based.  It threatens us with a new world-view which is anxiety-provoking on a number of levels.  This emerging paradigm threatens all of us to some degree.  We have all been conditioned to accept reality a given, as “out there” and apart from us.  What if it isn’t? 

Spiritual traditions have long taught us that it is the inner aspect of ourselves – consciousness – which determines our experience.  When we are at peace inwardly, we promote world peace.  When we feel love and compassion we actually contribute to healing.  And, as Buddha boldly stated, “Our thoughts create our reality.”  Please consider this.  Realize that the world is as you are.  If we let ourselves become caught up in reactive thoughts of anger, revenge and retribution, self and group-righteousness, or depression and self-recrimination, we continue to create a world of suffering. 

On the other hand, we can create a new reality if we are willing; if we are courageous enough.  There is no compelling reason that we have to live in past patterns; we can make a new choice in this very moment.  It means taking responsibility for the creative aspect of our minds; becoming conscious or “waking up.”  Right here and now is where we make the decision to become free or to remain in bondage.  There is no putting it off.  There can be no dependence on the past.  It is up to us right here and right now to create our world anew.