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O All-Knowing God, that powerful strength with which
sacrifice endows you, the strength of the sun, the strength of the
elephant, King among men -- may the two Spirits, garlanded with lotus,
vouchsafe that to me! Behold the elephant, best of all creatures to
mount and to ride! I anoint myself with his share of strength, with his
elephant splendor!
Atharva Veda 3.22.4; 6. VE, P. 344

Monday
LESSON 106
Awareness, Will And Life Force
The primal life force ever resident within the body,
emotions and mind of man is, when used or allowed to function, what I
term willpower. Now we can see that the ever-present persistence of
life force gives an overabundance of willpower and with it the ability
to direct it from deep within. This ability to direct the willpower is
the jnana, the wisdom we seek. We have but two choices: to gain jnana
through learning the tried-and-tested, set patterns for living and
conducting ourself or, through assuming a relaxed approach of
ignorance, be guided by the "good" and "bad" and mixed emotional forces
of the wills of others. Therefore, the devotee seeks to gain the
conscious control of his own willpower, to awaken knowledge of the
primal force through the direct experience of it, and to claim
conscious control of his own individual awareness.
Thus we can
begin to see that our individual awareness, willpower and the primal
life force deep within body, emotion and mind are, in fact, one and the
same -- that willpower, individual awareness and life force, their
habits and usages, are but various aspects.
You will notice
that, through our study together, these three aspects are referred to
time and time again, individually as well as collectively. However, in
the study of yoga it is important to keep in mind the totality
of their sameness in order to fully identify your personal and
continued experience of yourself as a being with unlimited will,
constantly and fully aware of the primal life force flowing through
body and emotions, as you, awareness, travel through the mind. This is
the goal of the jnani, the one who has attained to wisdom, to the acquisition of divine knowledge and the personal experience of what he has learned.
A
child in his early years becoming acquainted with living with his
family on this planet will show tendencies toward a quiet, peaceful
will or a provocative willfulness. The wise parent teaches the culture
and etiquette of the household and the community at large, ever
endeavoring to bring forth the inner knowledge within the child as to
the wise use of his willpower, guiding him carefully away from
impulsive, willful behavior so that, little by little, he becomes
responsible for the action he causes, as well as its reactions. The
unwise parent with no particular cultural heritage, completely
vulnerable to his own instinctive impulses, overlooks this area of
childhood training. Therefore, impulsive willfulness bursts forth from
within the children, cultivating abilities to hurt themselves as well
as others, and to upset the home, with no particular remedy in view.
This
of course is the opposite to what we have in mind to obtain for
ourselves. It is the attainment of that ever-collected mastery over our
faculties through holding our inner perspective of them that keeps a
heavy reign over the aspect of awareness called willpower, maintaining
an even balance between the emotional-instinctive, the intellectual and
the spiritual aspects of our being. It is through the study of raja yoga,
while always holding a silent overview as to what you are learning and
how it relates to your particular life patterns, that you will come to
know that an inner change is taking place. Harness the powers of your
will in the ways indicated. The reward is simultaneous with the effort
employed. The results are immediate.
Tuesday
LESSON 107
Inner and Outer Willpower
There are basically two aspects to the force of
willpower. One controls our external life in the world and with those
about us. The other controls our internal life, strivings and personal
spiritual disciplines, or sadhanas. The externalized
individual, who throws his force totally into the outer aspect of
willpower, inwardly suffers nervousness, confusion and the lack of
self-mastery. The devotee who throws his force totally into the inner
aspect of willpower suffers total withdrawal from being able to face
and cope with the forces of the world at large.
It is the
total willpower, through both these two aspects of will, the inner and
the outer, that the devotee seeks to develop within himself, with an
emphasis on the internalized, spiritual processes of his being, for he
full well knows that only in this way is he able to serve effectively
in the world without being of the world in any way.
Willpower
developed in this way brings forth the complete being of man to the
foreground of himself. He no longer feels he has to sit and meditate to
leave one area of the mind, through detaching himself from that area
because of his sense of dislike of it, in order to go into another more
desirable area. His free flow of awareness from the inner to the outer
is but a short distance, so to speak, when the fulfillment of his sadhana has equalized the forces of the totality of his willpower.
Only
the more evolved souls, through acute perceptions, can understand these
analogies without confusing them into prior conceptions they may have
had about the force of will. We must always try to grasp the totality
of what is being said, from the overview, rather than endeavor to
hassle with one individual concept or another. It is only through sadhana
performed regularly over a long period of time that any of this
knowledge becomes experiential reality in one's life. The first sadhana,
therefore, is to always hold the overview and cling in your memory to
the intuitive flashes that come as a result. These intuitive flashes
come from deep within and are the only thing that should be remembered,
for this is your jnana, your insightfulness, your own wisdom, breaking through.
It
is only when one identifies his willpower as separate and a tool unto
itself that he is able to move into the next phase, of discerning the
difference between the primal life force within him and what it
manifests. Then he can separate awareness from these manifestations,
for he has gained the intuitive knowledge that he is the all-pervading
life force in the universe. Once awareness has attained individuality
and the devotee becomes the onlooker rather than identifying with what
he looks upon, then he becomes full of the substance of the totality of
the primal force which he experiences as willpower and is able to use
this willpower in his daily life, which he experiences as awareness
flowing through the mind. This shows the evolution of this awakening on
the inner path.
Wednesday
LESSON 108
Harnessing Willpower
In the beginning stages on the path, you will surely
experience your mind wandering. This is what "the mind wandering"
means, that awareness is totally identified with everything that it is
aware of. This gives us the sense, the feeling, that we are the mind,
or that we are the emotions or the body. And so, when you are sitting
for meditation, myriad thoughts bounce through the brain, and it
becomes difficult to even concentrate upon what is supposed to be
meditated upon -- in some cases, even to remember what it was. That is
why the sadhana of the practices of yoga given in Merging with Siva must
be mastered to some extent in order to gain enough control over the
willpower and subtle sense organs to cause the meditation to become
introverted rather than extroverted.
The grace of the guru
can cause this to happen, because he stabilizes the willpower, the
awareness, within his disciple, as a harmonious father and mother
stabilize the home for their offspring. If one has no guru, or has one and is only a part-time disciple whose guru
is a picture on the wall, then he must struggle in his efforts as an
orphan in the institution of external life. I feel some of the basic
tools to struggle along with are clearly explained in this book, and
every effort made toward the Divinity of oneself only serves to bring
forth blessings, which may not immediately be seen, but will manifest
in years to come.
It is the regular practice of sadhana
that really counts, for the habit patterns of the subconscious mind
must be gently guided into new channels of expression. It is only when
this begins to occur that some results will be visibly seen.
Willpower
is first identified through the processes of self-control when the
devotee finds himself impelled by instinctive impulses into directions
that he has long since passed through and experienced. Thus,
self-control, of the appetite, the fantasies, the reactions, is
diligently sought for through performance of his sadhana -- chanting
on the beads, performing regulated religious routine and ritual during
the day and various other more personal disciplines given to him by his
satguru. It is not without great effort that this control of the little "self" is attained.
The
next challenge then is the use of the willpower to control the
intellect. A precisely controlled intellect pierces deeply beyond the
veil of words into the threshold of spiritual experience. The noble
devotee uses his willpower to discriminate philosophically as to the
nature of his quest. It is the elimination of words and thoughts, which
are the intellect, that is his goal. He already has a great deal of
self-discipline through having conquered, somewhat, the emotions and
passionate instincts of his past. Now comes the more advanced practice
of pranayama, the control of breath and inner direction of prana in transmutation toward the highest goal, of realization of the Self, that he hopes one day to attain.
Thursday
LESSON 109
Merging into The Self God
When one looks at the Earth and the Sun, one thinks
more of the Earth than of the Sun, which is so far away. Traveling
through space toward the Sun, the Earth fades into a distant speck and
one contemplates the Sun as it looms larger and larger as he draws
nearer and nearer. There is no intellect here, you see, for the
intellect is connected to the Earth in its exterior ramifications of
worldliness. The devotee's path is to merge into the Sun. The devotee's
path is to merge -- in the totality of his awareness, willpower and
life force -- into the Self, God, Siva. Siva is the ancient name of the
Self, God. Mystically, Shi is the Absolute state. Va is the All-Pervading Self flowing through the mind. It is only when the devotee, through yoga disciplines under the direction of his satguru,
traverses the thought strata of his mind that he begins to experience
what he has been learning philosophically. Then the Sun, his Siva, the
Self God, blooms paramount before his vision. Earthiness, worldliness,
humanness, instinctiveness fade into a speck within his memory
patterns; and like the astronaut hurtling through space toward the Sun,
awe-struck as to the impending annihilation of the remnants of his
identity, the devotee piercing his inner depths awes at the
magnificence of Siva.
This then brings willpower into its
crowned usage. The transmuted force of the divine will of the devotee
compellingly guides the last remnants of intellect and passions, and in
total surrender, when confronted to respond, he voices, "I know not.
Siva's will be done." The will of Siva -- the totality of all force
that is active, quiescent force and nonforce as found in Shi and Va -- begins to take over the dharma and the karma
and floods through the being of the devotee on the threshold of
Reality. And so, while in a dual state of assuming some personal
identity, he states, "Siva's will be done," as his new and most refined
sadhana of giving up the last of personal worldliness to the
perfect timing of the infinite conglomerate of force and nonforce
within him. This he says as a mantra unto himself when he sees
and hears in the external world. But when eyes and ears are closed,
through the transmuted power of his will he merges into the samadhi of Va and Shi and Shi and Va, experiencing Reality as himself and himself as Reality.
Friday
LESSON 110
The Two Great Transmutations
It is important to gain an intellectual concept of
what it is like to experience through a prolonged term the deep, inner
will of Siva -- for, granted, we are always experiencing something.
Therefore, it is easy to categorize in one of three departments just
where the impulses are coming from that cause our motivations. Number
one: the instinctive impulses are from us and from others, and mainly
concern our body and baser emotions. These are easy to distinguish, as
these impulses provide most of the daily activities. Number two: the
impulse to speak and to think, begun through one's own efforts or those
of another. This is generally based on recurring knowledge accumulated
in the past, churned up through present observations and conjecture
about the future. This is also easy to distinguish, as these impulses
generally fill any gaps that the instinctive impulses have made in a
typical day. We can easily see that unless some break occurs, there is
absolutely no room for number three, which is simply for Siva's will to
occur.
Therefore, the process is one of breaking up the
patterns of instinct and intellect, separating the impulses of them
both, through regular and regulated periods of sadhana and
meditation, so that the divine will, spiritual energy and infinite
awareness can filter in and cause a new intellect to form. Beginning
the sadhana, and the continued practice, is the first sign that
Siva's will is being done in the aspirant's life. New energy abides
within him because of the transmutation from the base to the Divine.
New knowledge comes forth from within him as he builds upon it through
remembering his accumulated inner experiences as if they occurred but a
moment ago.
Should you wish to separate number one from number
two and experience the dominance of number three, Siva's will, simply
begin to say to yourself, "Siva's will be done," throughout each day as
the occasions arise. Be careful to categorize each impulse, so that it
is clear to your intellect which category you are aware in, just as by
being more aware of the Sun than the Earth you begin to forget the
Earth and come to know the Sun. Siva's will is being done always. By
being more aware of the inner processes and impulses of willpower than
the outer configurations of other people, their thoughts and feelings,
you will soon live in the world contentedly and come to know the Shi,
the Absolute Self beyond all form, time and causation, and the Va, the
All-Pervading Self, as actinic energy permeating all form, and you will
rest blissfully in this new knowledge on your new intellectual
threshold. "Siva's will be done" -- the first sadhana on the path. "Siva's will be done" -- the last sadhana on the path, after all others have been perfected.
Saturday
LESSON 111
Conscious Comprehension
You have of course comprehended something at one
time or another. You have a certain power of comprehension latent
within yourself, the power to grasp, to encompass with the mind. It is
an all-knowing state. In spiritual unfoldment, thinking is not enough.
You have to comprehend the yoga path and the steps on the path. You have to comprehend your own nature. That is why in the study of yoga
we work to clear the subconscious mind as one of the first steps. Then
you can comprehend the subconscious state of your own mind. When the
subconscious is comprehended, it no longer holds power over you. It
does not have the ability to influence your life by itself. Many people
think they comprehend things which they do not comprehend at all.
Others do comprehend, but they do not maintain a consciousness of their
power of comprehension, or a consciousness of what they have
comprehended. By not doing so, they become vulnerable again to the
instinctive states of the mind. By holding a consciousness of
comprehension, on the other hand, the higher states of mind, the realms
of intuition and perception, remain open while living in the everyday
world, even while facing some of the reactions of the subconscious.
There is a story told about a great spiritual teacher, a satguru, who lived in India many years ago. In his small group of disciples, two were in perfect harmony with the mind of their guruji. They could easily comprehend everything that he had to say. The yoga master
used to send them on long trips, traveling all over India doing good
for other people. When they returned, they found they were able to
grasp and master even deeper actinic controls and laws and powers. The
continuity of consciousness does not stop. In other words, the
continuity of spiritual unfoldment for the chelas did not stop in the satguru's absence.
However,
other disciples who were not in absolute actinic harmony with their
teacher, even when they were with him, found that when they were away
from him for a few hours they would quickly lose their comprehension of
the spiritual path and teachings that were quite natural to them while they were in the radiance of his vibrations.
Have
you ever been with someone and found yourself able to understand things
of a deeper nature better in his presence than when you are away from
him? His actinic vibration opened your actinic force field, harmonizing
and quieting your odic forces. Such people unfold in you a certain
power of comprehension. But unless it opens up your own actinic force
field permanently, the power is really temporary, and when you are away
from the vibration, it closes up again. Just so, the students who were
in harmony with their Indian satguru traveled all through India maintaining their consciousness of comprehension. They were in full control of that power, for a jnana yoga master, or satguru, can effect a permanent actinic awakening for his chelas.
Sunday
LESSON 112
Continuity of Consciousness
Students functioning odically and out of actinic harmony with their satguru found
that they did not have control of the actinic power and had difficulty
in maintaining the continuity of consciousness of the yoga path
and its teachings. Something went wrong. In realizing this, these
students wondered what they could do to regain and maintain this
awakening. They knew the laws of the disciplines, the practices. They
entered into concentration and meditation, and yet they were not able
to maintain their power. They discovered that it was the law of actinic
harmony in effect between themselves and their satguru that
maintained them as actinic force channels through a deeper state of
comprehension. By working with the law of harmonious flow of actinic
forces, they would have been able to enter into complete harmony with
all states of their own mind and those of their satguru, whether or not they were in his presence.
This particular yoga master had gained a cumulative power of actinic force within himself through his yoga unfoldment, enabling him to hold the vibration of comprehension for his students. Because his actinic yoga students were in harmony with him, they were tuned into his actinic force reservoir. The odic yoga students analyzed themselves and found that much of the time they were not in harmony with the satguru,
that they were mentally criticizing him on worldly matters or debating
with him in a way which they did not think would make much difference.
And they did not use their actinic power to resolve these differences.
In discovering this, they went to the guru and said, "We have realized something about the necessity of being in harmony with you." The guru said,
"Yes, you have realized your own actinic force, and now I am going to
start testing you." In his testing he showed them consciously that they
had been attached to their personalities and had not been able to
attain any realization at all, because of this attachment.
There
are some people who go after a job with the idea of working for
advancement. But after they are settled into the routine for awhile,
they begin to lose their impetus, their self-reliance. They begin to
feel, "Oh, it's too much trouble; there are too many blocks in the
way." In their mind they keep working for promotion, but never really
get around to doing anything to advance themselves. These yoga students were in the same predicament. They had started their yoga training,
and then became settled and comfortable in it. They began to lose their
impetus for unfoldment subconsciously. In other words, they began to
live instinctively, using only the odic force.
To demonstrate the difference between the use of odic and actinic forces, this Indian satguru began
to test his students, asking them to do different tasks. He would start
them on one thing, and when they were in the middle of it and
personally attached to the doing, he would ask them to do something
different. The students found it very hard to drop one thing and go
into another because, involving themselves in odic power, they had
become egotistically attached to what they were doing, instead of just
enjoying the action. When the guru showed them how they were
more interested in and attached to material things than to awakening an
actinic cognition and comprehension of the truths within themselves,
they were able at that time to comprehend what he was saying. But the
comprehension was projected to them from the guru, maintained by his own actinic vibration at the moment of their harmony. They had yet to awaken this ability on their own.
It
is the actinic continuity of comprehension that is the important
ability to be awakened and maintained in this study. For instance, if
you comprehend formlessness, and then you find that you comprehend the
form of a particular experience, you have to maintain that
comprehension while you are going through your everyday-world
experiences in the external mind. In other words, you must become
conscious of having actinically comprehended something that is out of
the realms of the lower states of consciousness.
By holding
your mind to one particular physical object and seeing how long you can
maintain this one-pointedness, you are mastering the art of
concentration, controlling the odic forces. You will discover the
consciousness of comprehension that encompasses an entire principle,
and eventually all the great yogic laws of life. Comprehension
is superconsciousness, the actinic force flowing through the mind; and
maintaining the consciousness of comprehension is having conscious
control of the superconscious mind.
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