DISCOURSE TEN
Unless one understands the power of the mind
One can easily be deceived in the workings of the Contemplative Spirit;
And how one is transformed through the grace of the Unborn
Dear Spiritual Friend in the Unborn, hopefully you are aware of the misery created because of your brokenness. It is no wonder then how easily you can become deceived concerning the True Nature of Contemplation, particularly due to the ignorance of the powers of the spirit and the way in which these powers unfold.
Whenever you find your mind being occupied with material matters, however some may prove to be beneficial, recollect that anything of the physical world is in truth beneath the dignity of your spirit. And also discern that when your mind is fully imbibed with the mysterious workings of your spiritual faculties, you grow ever-stronger in self-gnosis. This self-gnosis empowers you to Right Virtue and in so doing benefits others along the road to spiritual perfection. But there will come opportunities when your mind and spirit are free from any involvement with anything of a material or spiritual nature, thus freeing you to being engaged with the very Essence of the Unborn Absolute. This, then, is the work of Right Contemplation of which I have been describing throughout this work.
In this sense you will come to transcend yourself, becoming most Unborn-like, because you have grown in the ways of grace and thus are no longer disturbed by the lowly nature of the material. Yet, you are still not equal to the Unborn AS IT IS IN ITSELF, for IT has no beginning or end and is hence deathless in nature.
Thus, my dear spiritual friend, please discern clearly and wisely what I am teaching you. If you remain in ignorance concerning the inner workings of your spiritual faculties, you will be continually deceived in comprehending words that are written exclusively with the ways of the spirit in mind. All of this I must insist lest you try to materially misconstrue with what is intended to be meant spiritually.
We have arrived in this series at what is known as a midpoint in an understanding between material and spiritual realities. Of course, we need to co-exist with both since essentially we live in a material world whilst simultaneously attempting to live in a higher spiritual one. But right there is the crux of the problem—the damned bifurcation, or duality of the equation. The Lanka teaches that the material one is a mere fancy of our imagination; and yet, if we depend on material means to enter into those higher spiritual realms, we will be sorely disappointed because through those means we are only recreating samsara on a higher plane. Remember that Mara has his own higher light heavens which can transfix and bewitch one into thinking that they have accessed transcendent Buddha-fields. One can also get lost in astral planes of one’s own making: the astral body is like an invisible twin who lives within the recesses of one’s spirit and manifests itself oftentimes through dreams and quite frequently through what many refer to on the material plane as a near-death experience. (From our Yogasūtras of Patañjali series.) It’s worth your while to check out that link since it speaks of all sorts of trouble and dangers one can encounter in those astral planes. It can become confusing when we hear and use the term spiritual, because it can connote all manner of phenomena. Best rule of thumb, in particular with this series is to equate spiritual as what occurs within the cloud of unknowing, and that is the [total] absence [negation] of all phenomena; whilst all psycho-physical manifestations should always be placed beneath that cloud of forgetting. Hence, Mind Un-occupied.
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no sight
no smell
no sound
no taste
no touch
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Kind Friend
Thank you for this amazing and challenging series. This brilliant exposition and analysis has ignited a neural lightning storm of auspicious potent in so many ways. I apologize for the half-thoughts previously blurted out, There is so much joy found in these dharma treasures beyond words. Ineffable siddhis…
I am working on a short reflective essay to try to better organize the piercing insights you have intuited throughout this series.
“Regard this phantom world
As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp—a phantom and a dream.”
Thank-you
(excerpt from introduction)
Homage to the great Milarepa for bestowing great courage and fearlessness in this old fool’s hopeless heart who taught the way by his unsurpassed example
Night and day my refuge and my delight forever are transfixed in the unbounded vastness of the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha. How great and exceedingly rare is the good fortune to have the precious sutras and other sacred texts of the great shining ones to behold in this lifetime for this sentient being. Sometimes to feast upon and other times to savour. How wonderful to arise from slumber to the piercing state of blazing awakening. Under the stars in the vast quietude of meditative contemplation, the one who ponders with equanimity finds peace. During the day the sparrows and their friends visit outside the window with delightful song for the daily offerings of loving-kindness. How could one ever want to sleep again?
Blazing awareness dawns within my imageless womb, in magical display I sense a multitude of universes appearing like sea foam bubbles in a crystal brook. Spontaneously arising, galaxies dance and twirl throughout space within my imageless womb. Immeasurable are the stars that radiate and blaze within this pristine awareness. Drifting in oceans of equanimity, appear a vast myriad of fractal thought forms. O how they ever morph and transform; from one iteration to another stretching out in an infinite web of bejeweled brocades. Though all these magical displays appear as sounds, lights, colours and forms, sometimes appearing in varying degrees of solidity, beautiful or terrifying, these are but the spontaneous play of this wondrous Unborn Mind.
In a dream I saw the Great Fearsome Mahakala filling the space of the sky. His body made up of galaxies. His crown adorned with stars. With a fierce countenance he held up the moon in his hands; with his billowing majesty motionlessly beaconing me to abandon this world. In awe of the glory, I was awakened. Ah the bliss of the raindrop that returns to the ocean. With this Vajra chopper I sever the root of the tree in order to become liberated; to abandon the wheel of becoming. Not here, not there, but to calmly abide within the interval. To prefer solitude over the tumult is the sure path of peace.
Blue Zeus’s bolt of light flashed with terrifying brilliance and dissolved above and betwixt my eyes. Again and again the bolt reappears forever. Forget about time, forget about space, and forget about everything in between. Taste the sweetness of the uncreated Light. Listen to the Hum of the hummingbirds.
Love your imagery, in particular the Mahakala illustration.