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It has somehow escaped my notice that most people function at an immeasurably inferior manner than that which is rightly theirs; beggars with a winning lottery ticket in an unchecked pocket. This isn’t really an enlightenment thing so much as a human development thing. This was discussed in Damnedest, but it can’t be overemphasized not mine, but Thy will be done; the will of Allah; Brahma is the charioteer—if you don’t get this, you don’t get anything. If this isn’t your living reality, then you are, like most people, stuck in the ego-clad, nestling state. If so, my advice is this: Observe this state. Make a study of it as it appears in yourself and others. Turn the light of your mind upon it. See it everywhere. Learn to recognize the workings and reasonings of ego. Dissect thoughts, words and actions to find the kernel of fear within. To know the lie is to hate it; to see it is to slay it. There is no nobility in spiritual poverty. If you desire release from this state, you should pray for it. If you don’t desire release from this state, you should pray for the desire. The nest isn’t life, as anyone who has taken wing will attest.
-Jed McKenna, Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment
“That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real.” -Sri Ramana Maharshi
The profundity of the above quotation cannot be fully unpacked in a simple blog post. However, I would like to use the quote as a pointer for the subject of this post.
The path to awakening brings lots of interesting experiences, particularly in the realm of states of consciousness. It would appear that the human mind (and perhaps other non-human minds) are stratified or layered. Through concentration, it is possible to access a wide range of experiences. Some are blissful, some are dull. Some are in the realm of dreams, others of the void. Many states are rather enticing, which is why so many great sages (including Ramana Maharshi) have warned against getting too caught up in them.
So, when Ramana refers to “deep dreamless sleep,” he’s pointing to a state of consciousness. In traditional Vedanta philosophy, there are three primary states of consciousness: gross/waking, subtle/dreaming, and causal/deep dreamless sleep. We are warned that the states themselves are not “real,” due to their changing nature. These states come and go. And although the state of deep dreamless sleep feels like freedom, it isn’t. It isn’t freedom because there’s no way to stay there. Clinging to any state will keep one immersed in sticky, murky delusion.
That’s not to say that states of consciousness do not have a place on the path to awakening. Quite the contrary, actually. For, it is in accessing these states that we discover that which exists in them all; or rather, that which is the essence of them all. In Vedanta, they call this the turiya, or the fourth state, which isn’t really a state at all. Turiya is the Witness – the aspect of reality which cognizes experience of the three basic states. And really, the only way we can really recognize that which persists through all three basic states is to access them all consciously. That’s why we meditate. And the Witness just so happens to be the cognizant aspect of the source.
Recognizing the Witness is not the end of the game. As I mentioned in a post on tracing back the radiance, recognizing the source is only the beginning. We must then trace it back. In so doing, the seeming separation between the Witness and the three states is seen through completely, and one eventually achieves Self-realization. Ramana called this awakened state of affairs turiyatita – that which beyond the fourth state, beyond the Witness.
Any way you look at it, awakening is not a state that you learn to hang out in. Recognize the essence of every state, trace it back, and awaken.
Anything you do for the sake of enlightenment takes you nearer. Anything you do without remembering enlightenment puts you off. But why complicate? Just know that you are above and beyond all things and thoughts. What you want to be, you are it already. Just keep it in mind.
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That
You cannot condition Enlightenment. Nibbana is an unconditioned state. A liberated person will indeed be generous and benevolent, but not because he has been conditioned to be so. He will be so purely as a manifestation of his own basic nature, which is no longer inhibited by ego.
-Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English
“[The Buddha element] is pure and yet has afflictions. [Enlightenment] was not afflicted and yet is purified. Qualities are totally indivisible [and yet unapparent]. [Activity] is spontaneous and yet without any thought.” ~ from the Uttara-Tantra-Shastra
I come across the following questions often…
“If you are already That which you seek…”
“If all is Brahman/God…”
“If there is nothing to gain in awakening…”
“If form is Emptiness and Emptiness is form…”
“If your truest nature is already primordially free, then…”
… why practice at all? Why look for what you already have? Why send out a search party for what was never lost?
At a certain point, these types of questions are important to ask. But often times, asking these types of questions is just another way of reasoning your way out of practicing, and thus, out of actually waking up.
J. Krishnamurti is famous for rejecting all forms of spiritual practice. He taught that, “any aiming at a ‘what should be’ involves a ‘directive’ away from ‘what is.’”* As usual, this makes sense, right? Unfortunately for Jiddu and his students, the truth doesn’t have to make sense.
The truth is often paradoxical or seemingly contradictory. Take, for example, the quote from the Uttara-Tantra-Shastra at the beginning of this post. How can the Buddha Element (i.e. the source) be pure, and yet be covered over by obstructions prior to awakening? Regardless of “how,” it is simply the case. You may be Buddha in essence, but you’re no Buddha unless this essence is actualized. And this is why practice is necessary. Whether or not there is a truth is of no consequence if it cannot be actualized, or expressed. There’s no use in believing that you’re already free if the opposite is most certainly the case. Practice is a means of clearing away the garbage that blocks recognition and expression of the truth.
Don’t fall into the no-practice trap. Practice, recognize, actualize. There is no other way.
*from Krishnamurti and Traditions of Unitive Mysticism by Alan Gullette
My advice, then, is that you accustom yourself to remaining in a state of non-birth. Try it for thirty days, and you’ll be incapable of straying from it; you’ll live in the Buddha-mind for the rest of your life… Give your ear to me, and forget as so much rubbish all your preconceptions. Indeed, at my one word of exhortation, you can gain satori.
-Zen Master Bankei
(P.S. Bankei’s unborn is none other than the source.)
What you experience while practicing on the path of awakening, especially the recognition of the source, does not have to make sense. By that I mean that it doesn’t have to fit nicely into one form of reasoning or another. Philosophical inquiry tends to fall short when compared to more empirical forms of inquiry. (It was Aristotle who claimed that objects should fall at a rate relative to their weight, so that heavier objects will fall faster than lighter objects. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Well, it did – until Galileo demonstrated otherwise.)
The same is true about awakening. You will no doubt have experiences that confirm your preconceived ideas about the nature of reality. But I guarantee you that if you keep it up, those ideas will need to be thrown out, again and again, until you hold very little regard for ideas at all. Reality is the way it is, regardless of whether or not what is observed by human perception makes sense in terms of human reason.
No doubt, many people are fearful of the idea that their ability to reason is not all it’s cracked up to be. Many of us came from religious backgrounds that extolled the virtues of blind faith. Having been taught to believe what we’re told, regardless of whether it makes sense to the secular world, it can be frightening to turn away from the very faculties of reason that allowed us to escape the bondage of fundamentalism. At least that’s how it went for me.
But in the same way we must ascend up to reason from blind faith, we must then ascend out of reason into Truth – not by faith, and not by thinking or reasoning or philosophizing. Rather, by investigating and experiencing. No need to draw many conclusions, as the fact that the Truth is self-evident becomes more clear the more it is recognized. No need to write it down and proclaim it as gospel. Your own experience is all the gospel you need.
But it isn’t easy. There are no free lunches on the path of awakening. Although the Truth is the Truth is the Truth, there’s a hell of a lot of de-programming that happens before it can recognized as such in a lasting way. That’s why we investigate, meditate, practice.
It doesn’t have to make sense, but you also don’t have to take my word for it, or anyone else’s either. Come see for yourself.
Remember the clear light, the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns, the original nature of your own mind. The natural state of the universe unmanifest. Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it. It is your own true nature, it is home.
From The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
True wisdom is not acquired. Real intelligence is not the measure of how well one comprehends abstractions, solves equations, or memorizes facts. This runs counter to what we encounter in our confused, day-to-day lives as seemingly-separate beings. We are taught to learn things, often by way of memorization. Being able to recall facts from memory is something “smart people” can do. The popularity of game shows like Jeopardy and Who wants to be a millionaire are examples of how highly our deluded selves value this kind of knowledge.
There are many who treat the path of awakening as if it were some kind of mundane intellectual exercise. They learn about concepts like Impermanence or Emptiness or Nonduality, and then they attempt to blanket their experience with these concepts and ponder their significance. However, true wisdom – real intellegence – is the opposite of all that. Cut through the conceptual layers of mind through practice, and all the wisdom you need is available to you. It was there are along. In fact, it just is, period. The source is wisdom (Skt: jñāna) by nature. Recognize the source, and the truth is self-evident. If ultimate truth is your aim, than no amount of conceptualization or philosophizing is going to cut it. You just have to wake up.
Mundane smarts can only get you so far. Don’t worry about trying to wrap your head around paradoxical propositions. Practice until you recognize the source. With recognition comes the dawning of true wisdom.
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