“Those were the days, my friends….”

My first year in high school came just on the eve of the counter cultural revolution, which was dramatically chronicled in the San Francisco Chronicle on a daily basis when I was in my second and third year in high school.

At that time, I was transitioning from an atheistic outlook, not because of this counter cultural influence but due to reading popular books at the time that introduced the world of psychic “superstars”.  Chiefly, Edgar Cayce, the so-called “Sleeping Prophet”.

In my junior year of high school (1967-1968), I was reading reports of happenings in the Haight/Ashbury District of San Francisco and became somewhat dimly aware of the Eastern Traditions that enthralled so many gravitating to that area.  And, movement.

In my senior year, 1968-1969, the horrors of 1968 were starting to slowly fade in emotional charge and I was exposed, via one high school teacher in particular, to the writings of Alan Watts.  Watts had been on the scene for some time, introducing many in the west to the teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism.  I remember some of my fellow classmates carrying around his Way of Zen, The Book, and The Joyous Cosmology (a chronicle of LSD experiences).

This high school teacher was a disciple of Kirpal Singh, guru of a practice called “surat shabda yoga”.  This yoga taught a method of focusing on the internal light and sound current in order to achieve superconscious awareness of subtler realms of existence.

In college, I took just about every course there was on Buddhism and Hinduism.  (Professor Fred Bazemore.)  Also, a Sociology professor by the name of Dick Hansen incorporated alternative religious thought in his courses.  And, I also took courses from a Catholic Father there (at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California).

In 1973, I saw a book by Franklin Jones, and influenced by a blurb on that book which Alan Watts had written, I bought it (at the Humboldt State U bookstore).  Franklin Jones was then an aspiring Guru and seemed on the fast track to establishing a career as such.  He was a student of a Guru out of the Kashmir Shaivistic tradition, Swami Muktananda.

A year after college, in April 1975, I sat with this new guru, now calling himself Bubba Free John, and found myself experiencing very interesting currents of energy and altered states of consciousness.  I never fully entered that scene.  I was more influenced by the iconoclastic and anti-Guru stance of Krishnamurti, a very popular figure on the spiritual scene of the time.

Throughout the 1970s, San Francisco (where I lived from 1975 to about 1980) was alive with spiritual marketplaces.  The so-called New Age was born and thriving with many consumers.

That, in a nutshell, are my early influences.  And, what the scene was like so many years ago.

The Six Vajra Verses (of Dzogchen)

The following version of The Six Vajra Verses is from Namkhai Norbu’s book, The Crystal and Way of Light:

‘Although apparent phenomena manifest as diversity —
yet this diversity is non-dual.
And of all the multiplicity
of individual things that exist,
none can be confined in a limited concept.
Staying free from the trap of any attempt
to say ‘it’s like this’, or ‘like that’,
it becomes clear that all manifested forms are
aspects of the infinite formless,
and, indivisible from it,
are self-perfected.
Seeing that everything is self-perfected
from the very beginning,
the disease of striving for any achievement
is surrendered,
and just remaining in the natural state
as it is,
the presence of non-dual contemplation
continuously spontaneously arises.”

 

Two old clear texts revealing the nature of the Enlightened Condition

First, an old classic Advaita Vedanta Sanskrit text called the Ashtavakra Gita shares a conversation between a student and a Realized teacher.  I’ve had a printed out copy of this for a long time.  This work was a favorite of Ramana Maharshi’s as well as other contemporary Realized teachers.

See this freely available translation of the Ashtavakra Gita (by John Richards) here:

http://www.realization.org/page/doc0/doc0004.htm

Now, shifting to the Buddhist (and Dzogchen) tradition, I recently came across a sampling of 12th  century writings in an article by a Tibetan teacher, Dilgo Khyentse (1910-1991), that was part of an anthology called The Best Buddhist Writings (2004; published by Shambhala Sun and edited by Melvin McLeod).  Dilgo Khyentse provided in-depth commentary on 19 of 100 verses from The Hundred Verses of Advice by an Indian teacher (Kamashila) who shared his advice (shortly before his death) to the people of the Tibetan village of Tingri.  Dilgo Khyentse’s article in the anthology is called: Like a Mirror, Like a Rainbow, Like the Heart of the Sun.

He provided commentary for these 19 verses (#51 – 69):

~ In a state of emptiness, whirl the spear of pure awareness;  People of Tingri, the view is free of being caught by anything at all.

~ In a state without thoughts, without distraction abandon the watcher; People of Tingri, the meditation is free of any torpor or excitement.

~ In a state of natural spontaneity, train in being free of any holding back; People of Tingri, in the action there is nothing to abandon or adopt.

~ The four bodies, indivisible, are complete in your mind; People of Tingri, the fruit is beyond all hope and doubt.

~ The root of both samsara [illusion] and nirvana [reality] is to be found within your mind; People of Tingri, the mind is free of any true reality.

~ Desire and hate appear, but like birds in flight should leave no trace behind; People of Tingri, in meditation be free of clinging to experiences.

~ The unborn absolute body is like the very heart of the sun; People of Tingri, there is no waxing or waning of its radiant clarity.

~ Thoughts come and go like a thief in an empty house; People of Tingri, in fact there is nothing to be gained or lost.

~ Sensations leave no imprints, like drawings made on water; People of Tingri, don’t perpetuate deluded appearances.

~ Thoughts of attachment and aversion are like rainbows in the sky; People of Tingri, there is nothing in them to be grasped or apprehended.

~ Mind’s movements dissolve by themselves, like clouds in the sky; People of Tingri, in the mind there are no reference points.

~ Without fixation, thoughts are freed by themselves — like the wind; People of Tingri, which never clings to any object.

~ Pure awareness is without fixation, like a rainbow in the sky; People of Tingri, experiences arise quite unimpededly.

~ Realization of the absolute nature is like the dream of a mute; People of Tingri, there are no words to express it.

~ Realization is like a youthful maiden’s pleasure; People of Tingri, joy and bliss just cannot be described.

~ Clarity and emptiness united are like the moon reflected in water; People of Tingri, there is nothing to be attached to and nothing to impede.

~ Appearances and emptiness inseperable are like the empty sky; People of Tingri, the mind is without center or periphery.

~ The mind with no thought and no distraction is like the mirror of a beauty; People of Tingri, it is free of any theoretical tenets.

~ Awareness and emptiness inseperable are like reflections in a mirror; People of Tingri, nothing is born there and nothing ceases.

Some initial notes on Dzogchen, “the Great Perfection or Completeness”

Okay, my notes here will entail the use of a different terminology and vocabulary.

Dzogchen is regarded by many as the highest expression of Buddhist teachings and is associated with Tibetan Buddhism (in particular one “school” of that) and also was incorporated into the native Tibetan shamanic “religion” of Bon.  Even though the Dalai Lama is the leader of a school different than the one which Dzogchen reportedly arose out of, he has written about, and taught, it.

I personally resonate with it’s teachings, probably because (for me) it outshines even  notions that perhaps are fostered in so many other non-dualistic teachings, like the notion “I am Enlightened” or “I am Realized” or “I am Liberated”.  (Ramana Maharshi, btw, also confronts these forms of self-imagery in various recorded conversations he had with those visiting him.) 

I first read about Dzogchen in some depth in a book by a Dzogchen teacher, Namkhai Norbu: The Crystal and the Way of Light.

Namkhai Norbu asserted that this way of the “Great Completeness or Perfection” involved awakening to the  “primordial” conditon of all that is, pure and non-dual awareness.  Like the crystal that reflects all shifting conditions, this awareness (void and spacious) remains inherently unaffected by the flux of ever changing conditions. 

In the Dzogchen teaching, the teacher initiates the student via a “Great Introduction” to this primordial condition.  Spiritual practice then involves a process of “learning” to abide in that condition in the face of all arising circumstances.  Over time, presumably, the sense of an underlying distress evaporates.  (This is what the Buddha meant by the “end of suffering” in his Four Noble Truths.)

The reader can read a summary introduction here:

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

This video segment precedes one in following post.

This is a segment of a documentary, which precedes immediately the video posted in the following article.  It begins with a British newscast in India where there is a large gathering assembling to sit with a silent Ramana Maharshi.

This segment discusses Ramana’s relationship with animals, life in his ashram community and more.

Ramana Maharshi video with narration on his teaching and last days

There is a small amount of discussion related to his teaching, and manner of teaching (which was largely via his silent presence, but included conversations with those visiting him).

This video shows the May 30, 1949 Life Magazine profile of him.  It was that year that he was diagnosed with a serious cancer in his left arm.

He died on April 14, 1950.  Fully conscious as hundreds passed by him with he greeting them with his radiant gaze. 

Video from YouTube.

Brief notes on dualism and non-dualism.

As I mentioned in the post on “Classical Yoga”, that school or system promoted a dualistic picture and program of practice.  Practice is designed to free oneself from what I called the disturbing flux of the world and of one’s own mind.  So as to arrive at some “other” place, a better place presumably.  (Of “Spirit”, or what could be said to be “God’s Place”.)

The Upanishads (first penned around 2800 to 2500 years ago) actually sing a different tune than that.  These writings form the foundation of the predominant “school” (of Hinduism) called Advaita Vedanta.  Advaita means “non-dual”, or not two.  Practitioners in non-dualistic traditions (which includes even the Christian tradition) are not attempting to escape this world into some better place.  Instead, they are interested in awakening to That which they truely are (and which is the core Identity of everything and all beings).  Therefore, this world does not ultimately represent some problematic condition from which they must escape (to a better Place).

Some articles introducing “non-dualism”:

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

http://www.nonduality.com/faq.htm

Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world

Ramana Maharshi

Blogroll created here.

I have started a blogroll here, with the first three links up for David Godman’s blog on the life and teachings of Ramana Maharshi (Mr. Godman has been a wonderful archivist and scholar related to all of that), for amazing articles and discussions by Tom Veitch under the title Elias ~ Notes and Comments, and also more wonderful writings (full of great vulnerability and honesty) from Conrad Goehausen under the title of The Broken Yogi Samyama (later term referring to an intense consideration of matters).

The Blogroll, and other links (as well as “categories” for the various posts), are displayed at the very bottom of the page.  Archived posts from other months are also there.

The “Classical” system of Yoga and its 8 limbs.

 

When people commonly think of yoga, they typically picture the third limb of the Classical system of Yoga,  hatha yoga (asanas or yogic positions and exercises).  Classical Yoga is one of the 6 Orthodox Schools recognized in Hindu philosophy.  While the dualistic aim of Classical Yoga (extrication of Spirit and Soul from the material realm) did not become the dominant philosophical sentiment in Hinduism, the practices outlined in the system of Yoga have basicly been adopted in all the other Schools of thought.

The structure and practices of Classical Yoga was put down in words around 2000 years ago in a work called The Yoga Sutra(s) by Patanjali.  (Not really anything is known about Patanjali.)

Essentially this piece of work describes an eight step (i.e. eight limbs) process of liberation from the disturbing flux of the material world and of the mind into a realm of Blissful Spirit.  Each limb lays the foundation for subsequent limbs or practices:

1) Yama: the practitioner avoids harmful and unethical behaviors.

2) Niyama: the practitioner practices positive disciplines that discipline and strengthen his/her life.

3) Asana: here are the familiar hatha yoga practices of gracefully moving into different positions.

4) Pranayama: breathing exercises to enhance, stabilize, balance and ground one’s life energy.

5) Pratyahara: movement of attention inward, away from sensations.

6) Dharana: movement of attention towards a single object of focus.  (“Object” could be your breathing, a mantra, or something visual.)

7) Dhyana: the practice of meditation, through maintaining focus on a single object.

Samadhi: ecstatic states, the fruition of a meditation practice.

First western translations of the principal Upanishads.

Max Muller, a nineteenth century German scholar of comparative languages and mythology, provided the first translations in the west of the so-called principal Upanishads.

Here is a website that provides these translations:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/upan/index.htm