Enlightenment Part 5 – The Final Secret!

And this secret is completely free!   Well, you don’t have to pay me anything anyway.

There are only 3 simple steps.   Maybe, really, only one simple step. 

Unfortunately, these “simple” steps seem to take a lot of study, practice, and creativity, for most individuals. 

That is what you need to pay, your energy. 

Simple, yet, takes a lot of work.  Sounds like a Paradox to me. 

Let me set the stage. 

Just finished Richard Rose’s “The Albigen Papers.”  No, you don’t have to buy the book, I’ll tell you some of the secrets for free.  The book is out of print.  Cost me $30 to get a copy! 
Links to his writings are here: 

http://www.richardrose.org

In the 1950’s, he and a group of his seeker buddies went through a “Hunt the Guru Syndrome” (p.134).  They each enrolled in different mystic and occult groups and cults and gathered information from each and shared and discussed this information with each other. 

Rose then spent 7 years doing yoga and ascetic practices, including celibacy.  At age 28 he let go of these practices, and then at age 32 he fell into “Cosmic Consciousness,” Enlightenment, Samadhi, whatever you want to label this state. 

He then spent the next 20 years trying to convince people that they were “robots” asleep to reality.  He finally wrote and rewrote the The Albigen Papers over the course of about 10 years to put his findings in clear order, and published them in 1973.  It is also a scathing critique of religions, cults, secret societies, “positive thinking,” and psychiatry.  Very clearly written. 

I’ll paraphrase his gauge for evaluating –isms (pp. 118-9):   

1-Does it lessen your fear or raise your hopes using “concept-building?”

2-Does it hint of “sensual license?”

3-Is it cheaper to subscribe to, or to follow (making the teaching an ongoing expense)?  Is it expensive and are you, therefore, deluded into thinking it is being select for financially successful (perfected) people?   

4-Does it have a power structure that may bring you to power one day?

5-Does it appeal to any other vanity?

6-Did you join it because you were too tired to go on looking?

Elsewhere he notes:

7-Does it engage in esoteric thinking, or very complex theology, or promise the “secrets” after a certain amount of money or years spent “in the fold?”

He makes a very central statement (p. 147): “There can be no path to Truth, only paths away from untruth.”  This is also Wei Wu Wei’s “The Negative Way.”

http://www.weiwuwei.8k.com

He also says this again (p. 202) “We must back into the Truth, by backing away from untruth.”  He particularly likes the methods of Zen Buddhism and Ouspensky. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Ouspensky

Rose also extolls the help of similarly minded friends that he terms an “Ashram,” a place “open to all” (p. 187).  Meditation and self-analysis is highly encouraged (p. 190). 

Hmmmm, sounds a lot like Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Jewels

He has an interesting observation on discussions with like-minded individuals in groups.   He describes a ladder where you can reach down to engage in discussions with those just one step below you, and one step above you, but not with those too many steps above or below you.  He also likens this to a pyramid where you can engage 6 or more below you (p. 199).  He warns that “If you reach down too low, your efforts will be wasted, and you can be hurt.  Or crucified.” 

The most fun part of all is that he advocates (p. 216) “…a conscious effort to retraverse our projected ray.”  “I have used the picture of peering back into the focus of the projector, as being the final step of being one with the Absolute.  Actually, we go back in one sense, and at the same time we find that we were back there all the time.”  Sounds like Douglas Harding’s pointing experiments! 

http://headless.org/experiments/pointing.htm

This is also part of the method of the Taoist text “The Secret of the Golden Flower.”  Read Thomas Cleary’s translator’s notes!  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_the_Golden_Flower

So, what are the 3 simple steps?  Body.  Mind.  Spirit. 

1-Body:  Harmonize this vessel in your own creative way. 

2-Mind:  Develop concentration, meditation, and above all, examine and reject everything that is not true. 

3-Spirit:  Look at what is watching.  Feel what is watching this all unfold. 

These are also the reverse steps of the Three Commandments:

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-commandments.html

1-There is only one Source.  2-Love everything.  3-Enjoy yourself.

You ask how do these correspond? 

 

3-Enjoy yourself.  Bask in the beauty of being embodied.  Work, play, eat, have consensual sex.  Develop strength, flexibility, and flow of the body.  But, always keep the other 2 commandments foremost in your mind.   Perhaps, this is the least important for Enlightenment?  My wife contends that this may be the starting point for most of us! 

2-Love everything.  Do no harm to yourself and others.  Be kind to people.  Bring them into your Ashram, Sangha, your seeker’s group.  Truly loving means stripping away everything that is untrue.  Examine mind for what is untrue. 

1-There is only one Source.  Feel the truth of this by looking inward at What Is.  This is really the only important final step. 

I’ll leave you with a final quote by Richard Rose (p. 225):

“…there is an eye that must be open.  We open it by closing all other eyes…”

Instant Enlightenment

Well, it is always instantaneous.

The problem is stringing those moments of clear seeing together. 

That takes practice. 

It is the initial experience I wish to first contemplate today.

As I have argued before, we enter it regularly without realizing we are there.  During deep dreamless sleep.  During visualizing moments of incredible beauty.  Within interactions with a guru.  Perhaps during orgasm. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/enlightenment.html

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/enlightenment-part-2.html

How do we get to these moments with enough consciousness to know we are within this state, but not so “aware” that this state of consciousness “runs away?” 

Sometimes described as using a metaphor of “Painting the cage around the bird before it flies away.” 

Yet, we are always already there. 

Our poor animal brain throws up a screen we can label as the “survival ego” to block our clear seeing. 

That first consciousness recognition of All-That-Is forms the initial “groove” in the brain.  A groove we can later make deeper, with mindful practice, and, therefore, easier to access. 

For initial experiences of Instant Enlightenment, I like these:

1-The pointing experiments of Douglas Harding. 

http://www.headless.org/experiments-video.htm

2-The Big Mind, Big Heart meditation by Zen Master D. Genpo Merzel. 

http://bigmind.org/learn/guided-meditation

3-Many of us first had an experience of seeing clearly through the use of certain drugs, now labeled entheogens (LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, etc). 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/favorite-quotes-and-entheogens.html

That moment of clear seeing is the same no matter how you get to it.  What differs is how long it lasts.  Getting to it with the pointing experiment is the same as getting to it though 30 years of meditation.  However, the 30 years of meditation may be more likely to allow you to string those moments of being in clear seeing together, for longer periods of time.  Creating that deeper groove, and easier to access.  That jumps you up another level in evolution. 

I do worry a bit more about using the entheogens.  Particularly I worry about using them in anyone who might be psychologically unstable.  Sometimes you might not find that they are unstable until they try the entheogen. 

I do hope that we will continue to explore the entheogens within scientific investigations with good screening criteria for psychological stability.  And, if using these for help with psychological problems, then there will be excellent guides and backup psychological help available. 

There is also danger in sitting in meditation.  If you go to a retreat, you will find a questionnaire asking about your mental stability, if you are on any psych medications, or seeing someone for mental heath treatment.   You can “break-down” at a meditation retreat! 

Often you get stuck in a “mental loop.”  Seek guidance from one of the retreat leaders, don’t just try to work on it yourself.  That is why so many of the retreat leaders are psychologists! 

When you try to string those moments together, the survival ego is threatened.  This ego feels it is going to die.  So, “you,” the little you, thinks that you are going to die.  The ego doesn’t realize it will still be there, transcended, but included. 

There are risks within personal evolution.  But, the risks are more than worthwhile. 

Actually, I will argue there really is nothing more important in your life than the drive for evolution. 

Make sure you have trusted people you can talk with.  If needed, find a psychologist with expertise in meditation. 

The initial experience of All-That-Is sometimes can be easy to enter. 

Staying there is usually more difficult.  And you don’t want to stay deeply in there all the time.  But, perhaps, you want to “keep a toe dipped in.”

Gaining Wisdom from entering that state deeply.  Compassion is then using that Wisdom walking in the world.

That is where practice comes in.  Developing the concentration to stay with clear seeing.  I advocate mindfulness meditation.  But, there are many paths. 

When you transcend and include the “survival ego,” then you become the master of your self. 

You become Self.  You are always already Self. 

Dancing on the razor’s edge.  

Teachers and Urinary Tract Infections

Yes, time for another rant!

My sister is a teacher, my wife’s daughter is a teacher, they both report increased urinary tract infections in teachers.  My wife as a nurse sees increased urinary tract infections in teachers.  Why does this happen do you ask?

Because they need to stay in the classroom, with almost no breaks during the day and cannot get to the bathroom to pee!  Holding in your urine leads to increased urinary tract infections.  Often the teachers limit their water intake so they don’t need to go as often.  That also increases their risk. 

If there were more male teachers, and they had similar short urethras, there would be a bathroom in every classroom.  Maybe also with a one-way mirror to keep an eye on the kids!    

Maybe we need to harness modern technology.  Perhaps we could give teachers glasses with a “heads-up display” giving her, or him, a view of the classroom via wireless cameras.  This would also include wireless audio to both listen in and to speak to the students via a classroom speaker. 

 

Maybe even include a remote controlled foghorn to really get the student’s attention. 

They could give the kids an assignment for 10 minutes, and go to the bathroom.  They would always have an eye, and ear, on the kids. 

Maybe I should start a company to make these! 

Nah, I’m not very entrepreneurial. 

Maybe you should go do this!  I’ll take 10% for the idea.  

Wind and Synchronicity

Leaves chasing each other

A circle

Forms

Dances

In an upward spiral

Revealing

The invisible power…

Synchronicity

 

Dancing around us

Laughingly

Reveals

Another

Invisible power

Connecting us all…

Bombs and Running

How can

There still be

Those who

Believe

That violence

Can get you

What you want

Targeting

A Great Race

Targeting

Beauty

Yet

Our country

Is not innocent

Of violence

We must

Remember

Hate cannot

Be overcome by

More hate

Only love

Wins

Wordless Wednesday

What is Health? Part 2

Yesterday, I focused on growth exemplified by seeing more clearly.

Yet, the mind does not exist separately.  We are embodied.  All of the cytokines (immune communication molecules) generated in the body are active in the brain, all of the neurokines generated in the brain are active in the body. 

Conventional medicine divides us up into cardiovascular, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, endocrine, immune, and neurological systems.  The mistake is to believe that they are separate systems.  They are not. 

 

This is a whole brain-body, with a myriad of complex systems, some of which we are still just starting to understand. 

Further, this brain-body is embedded within social systems.  Even as a “monk on a mountain,” we are aware of “others” and influenced by them.   

I will further argue that at the deepest levels we are fully connected to All-That-Is, and connected to ALL-That-Is-Not. 

There is a concept in physics called quantum entanglement.  You take 2 electrons, atoms, or molecules and make them interact closely.  After that, you can separate them for miles, and what you do to one, is immediately reflected in the other.  This occurs faster than the speed of light, at least 10,000 times faster than the speed of light.  Likely instantaneous. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement

My argument is that at the Big Bang, everything was one thing, a singularity.  When it expanded into Everything, this evolving Everything remained “entangled.” 

We get hints that this is true within deep meditation.  The empty-fullness, the light in the dark.  Unexplainable occurrences such as sensing from a distance and other “non-local phenomena” likely can be traced to some underlying level of deep connectivity.   We see things in quantum physics that hint that this is true.  We postulate further levels of connectivity though string theory. 

http://www.nucleares.unam.mx/~alberto/physics/string.html

http://phoenixqi.blogspot.com/2009/07/connection-via-string-theory.html

I am no quantum physicist.  And even quantum physicists and string theorists will tell you that, fundamentally, they do not understand how this all works. 

I am not advocating mindless worship of any of multiple versions of new age concepts such as “We are all One.” 

We don’t want to fall into a fundamentalist trap that says we really know what is going on. 

Keep the jaded eye.  Not jaded out of exhaustion.  Jaded with the healthy skepticism that arises when you know that this poor human animal is trying to understand things that are beyond its capacity to understand. 

I like to say we can only comprehend what is completely true, at a similar level to how an ant understands quantum physics. 

Question everything that someone tells you.  That includes whatever I tell you. 

This questioning does not preclude deeply feeling the connection between the mind and the body, between yourself and others, between All-That-Is. 

 

Dropping into the state of empty-fullness is healing in itself. 

Continue your practices whatever they may be.  We are Source playing out its game. 

Enjoy the ride.