Later she was to say that she learnt from this experience that to live in isolation for long periods is not an efficacious means of practicing sadhana and does not bring real peace.
The structure of ‘me-ness’ has collapsed. The roof of ‘my-ness’ has blown away. The foundation of knowledge has been broken. The walls of principles have been shattered. The ideals of ideology have fallen apart.
There happened a marvel. In between two thoughts the beauty of sheer nothingness shone.
….the name ‘awareness’ is given to that energy which does not require a subject like the ‘I’, the ‘me’ the ego, which is not limited by any circumference or periphery of human knowledge and experience or inheritance, which is all-inclusive. It does not require the relationship of subject and object. It is an all-inclusive attentivity, nonobjective and non-subjective … So awareness is an energy qualitatively different from the energy of thought, of impulses of instincts, etc.
Vimalaji explained that there are male and female energies in the person and these reside in the sex organs and the small of the back at the base of the spinal cord. With the help of prana energy, it is possible to give them an upward push and a vertical momentum. This is the physical aspect. Kundalini travels up to the lotus in the heart and, if development is normal, from thence to the throat centre and head centres.
Vimalaji then further explained that the person who has deflected the energy of prana to the higher centres or chakras of the human body, due to purity of thought and purity of living, has a power to make that which he or she thinks become true. This is because the creative energy has reached the heart. When it reaches the throat, then whatever the person speaks becomes true, because that creative energy has made speech its abode.
When it travels up into the eyes, when it travels up to the Bhru Madyah – the point between the two brows – then the eyes become so powerful that the eyes can transfer the vitality to another human being, just through a glance.
Any technique or method that provokes or stimulates the chemistry of the body is dangerous. As techniques of awakening kundalini force – because it is a physical force – are very dangerous, even shaktipat or transmission of psychic power from teacher to student can be very dangerous. I have come across thousands of young men and women who met with nervous breakdowns because their bodies were not capable of assimilating the newly stimulated energy and its frequency………
Self-observation, observing oneself, can begin on a simple level by simply watching one’s behavior, so that one becomes aware of the way in which one functions as a personality, and one begins to see the many faults and failures and stupidities of one’s prejudiced, unconscious life. But watching your behavior is simply a first step. There is something more intense that is required. It involves sitting quietly, alone, comfortably, and simply watching your mind.
It sounds so simple but actually it is extremely difficult. Whilst carried on at the level of mind it requires constant, minute by minute effort until the breakthrough is achieved. The thoughts bubble everywhere; they come hurling from outside into the field of one’s own mind, a veritable mass of colour and vibration. As one struggles, not through violently forcing anything upon the mind, but by gently learning to identify thoughts as ‘something other’ coming from ‘outside’ there are brief moments of absence of thoughts, which gradually through practice, extend themselves.
One may need to go away for a period of weeks or months to intensely practice. Not all people are suited to do it. As Vimalaji said, ‘Some people cannot stand it.’
The body is steady, we abstain from verbal speech and close the eyes, so that the contact with the outer world is no longer there. …. You notice that though there is no voluntary effort to think, thoughts are moving. The movement of thought structure is independent of your volition. Do you see what a tremendous discovery it can be? The discovery that what I call my thoughts, my feelings, my memory, have a movement and a momentum independent of me, this discovery has a dual effect. One, the pride and vanity that ‘I think’, that these are ‘my thoughts’, that vanity disappears … [and] a humility comes about. ……The marvelous thing is, when you look at the thoughts in simplicity, not claiming them, not rejecting them, they lose their grip on you.
Though the contents of the subconscious and the unconscious may be vast, they are limited. They are not withouth beginning or end. A person who spends time in quiet observation comes to a phase when nothing more is exposed, there is nothing more to be observed. Therefore the observer also disappears.
For the mutation to take place, the silence has to crystallize. It is only when the silence crystallizes as the normal dimension of consciousness that the mutation, the quantum jump into the state of dhyanam occurs. It is not the result of any human effort.
For those who live in silence, the scars of stress and strain are healed.
[Concentration, dharana] has nothing to do whatsoever with meditation (dhyana) ….[Concentration] has an educational value, to strengthen the mind.
Concentration is a discipline. You try to focus your attention on one point which you choose. You exclude the rest of reality and the world from the focus of your attention and you concentrate it on one point. The concentration is not meditation … Concentration develops the powers of the mind. It sharpens the intellect, it enriches the memory. It gives the capacity to manifest many occult powers, many hidden powers which are latent and dormant in the psyche…….
Those who practice concentration attain …psychic powers like clairvoyance, clairaudience, reading the thoughts of other people. They imply the functioning of the I-consciousness on a very subtle plane and it is not without danger to cultivate and develop these powers.
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