Excerpt from an old meditation text…..

The German translator Richard Wilhelm, who presented to the world the first English translation of the old Taoist meditation text—-the Secret of the Golden Flower—-in 1929 (and just before dying in 1930), also introduced another text that, he wrote,  “combines Buddhist and Taoist directions for meditation”.    Wilhelm published a portion of this meditation text—–the Book of Consciousness and Life or the Hui Ming Ching—-in the 1920s in the fifth German edition for the Secret of the Golden Flower.  That same excerpt is in the 1962 edition published here (and which I have had for many years).    This text (which Wilhelm only publishes the introductory section of) is described in this quote provided on page XV (“Forward to the Fifth Edition” by Salome Wilhelm in 1957):

The Hui Ming Ching, or Book of Consciousness and Life, was written by Liu Hua-yang in the year 1794.  The author was born in the province of the Kiangsi, and later became a monk in the monastery of the Double Lotus Flower (Shuang-lien-ssu) in the province of Anhui.  The translation is from a new edition of a thousand copies printed with The Secret of the Golden Flower in 1921 by a man with the pseudonym of Hui-chen-tzu (“he who has become conscious of truth”).

Wilhelm describes how he became acquainted with both this text and the Secret of the Golden Flower (which Carl Jung, in his foreward, asserts was very important to him in his own work).  From page 3 of the 1962 edition of The Secret of the Golden Flower (A Chinese Book of Life), translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm and with commentary by Carl G. Jung:

This book comes from an esoteric circle in China.  For a long time it was transmitted orally, and then in writing; the first printing is from the Ch-ien-lung period (eighteenth century).  Finally a thousand copies of it were reprinted in Peking in 1920, together with the Hui Ming Ching, and were distributed among a small group of people who, in the opinion of the editor, understood the questions discussed.  That is how I was able to get a copy…..

The oral tradition for these texts goes back to the 8th Century and is traced to a Taoist sect called the Religion of the Golden Elixir of Life.  This was founded by a famed Taoist adept named Lu Yen (or Lu Tung-pin).   Lu Yen identified with the much older teaching perspectives of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, the esoteric and philosophical core of Taoism.

Here (taken from pages 69 t0 79) are the verses that were published from the Book of Consciousness and Life  (only a portion of the full text):

~ Cessation of Outflowing

If thou wouldst complete the diamond body with no outflowing, Diligently heat the roots of consciousness and life.  Kindle light in the blessed country ever close at hand, And there hidden, let thy true self always dwell.

~The Six Periods of Circulation in Conformity with the Law

If one discerns the beginning of the Buddha’s path, There will be the blessed city of the West.  After the circulation in conformity with the law, there is a turn upward towards heaven, when the breath is drawn in.  When the breath flows out energy is directed towards the earth.  One time-period consists of six intervals.  In two intervals one gathers Moni (Sakyamuni).  The great Tao comes forth from the centre.  Do not seek the primordial seed outside!

~The Two Energy-Paths of Function and Control

There appears the way of the in-breathing and out-breathing of the primordial pass.  Do not forget the white path below the circulation in conformity with the law!  Always let the cave of eternal life be nourished through the fire!  Ah!  Test the immortal place of the gleaming pearl!

~The Embryo of the Tao

According to the law, but without exertion, one must diligently fill oneself with light.  Forgetting appearance, look within and help the true spiritual power!  Ten months the embryo is under fire.  After a year the washings and baths become warm.

~The Birth of the Fruit

Outside the body there is a body called the Buddha image.  The thought which is powerful, the absence of thoughts, is Bodhi (liberation).  The thousand-petaled lotus flower opens, transformed through breath-energy.  Because of the crystallization of the spirit, a hundred-fold splendour shines forth.

~Concerning the Retention of the Transformed Body

Every seperate thought takes shape and becomes visible in colour and form.  The total spiritual power unfolds its traces and transforms itself into emptiness.  Going out into being and going into non-being, one completes the miraculous Tao.  All separate shapes appear as bodies, united with a true source.

~The Face Turned to the Wall

The shapes formed by the spirit-fire are only empty colours and forms.  The light of the human nature [essence], shines back on the primordial, the true.  The imprint of the heart floats in space; untarnished, the moonlight shines.  The boat of life has reached the shore; bright shines the sunlight.

~Empty Infinity

Without beginning, without end, Without past, without future.  A halo of light surrounds the world of the law.  We forget one another, quiet and pure, altogether powerful and empty.  The emptiness is irradiated by the light of the heart and heaven.  The water of the sea is smooth and mirrors the moon in its surface.  The clouds disappear in blue space; the mountains shine clear.  Conciousness reverts to contemplation; the moon-disk rests alone.

Revisiting a Eureka, California meditation group from the 1970s

I am following up on one of my previous posts here, “The 1970s and It’s Spiritual Influences, part one”, due to  seeing someone finding this blog as a result of an internet search for a “picture of Bruce Avenell”.  First, here’s the link to that article:

http://atiasrama.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/the-1970s-and-its-spiritual-influences-part-one/

And, here’s the relevant section of that article:

Then, there was experimentation with a practice that clearly was goal oriented or a search for experiences.  But, what the hell, I wanted to travel to exotic lands!  So, I was exposed to “surat shabda yoga” in my late teens (in Eureka, California, of all places!) and even though I never joined the Ruhani Satsang, got Initiated by Kirpal Singh, or took those classes Bruce Avenell was offering, I had obtained the details of the practice and started in with that.

I did my own google searching and see that Bruce Avenell’s old meditation group, founded in Eureka, California at the very end of the 1960s, appears  to be going strong still!  I used to visit him in his small Eureka apartment when I interviewed him for an assignment for a journalism class at Humboldt State University.  (And, one time I loaned him a book on the old “I AM Society” associated with the Mt. Shasta metaphysical scene, a book loaned to me by an elderly neighbor.)  Here’s what I found:

http://www.eurekasociety.com

And, a yahoo group founded by his daughter:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Audinometry

The 1970s and its spiritual influences, part one

Exposure to the works of Alan Watts, sometime in 1969, initiated a process of purging myself of rigid mental pictures born from reading popular metaphysical literature of the time. And, likely set the stage for the development of new forms of conditioning with a new set of mental images adopted to represent what was reality. This despite the reinforcing and deconditioning “message” also expressed by J. Krishnamurti. I would say that after a good healthy entry into the stream of awakening, via exposure to a wide range of spiritual traditions and practices, that for a good decade plus the adoption of a frame of reference (and “story”)  offered by Franklin Jones (Adi Da Samraj)  was not really serving “awakening” and “realization”.  For all that time, I chose to live in his dream environment and looked at all other spiritual vehicles and influences as limited compared to his teachings.

During my high school years (the last years of the ’60s), I gobbled up books on metaphysics and the occult.  Flying saucer books were fun also!  So, by my senior year in high school, I had basicly dumped my old atheistic outlook and now carried around this picture in my mind of a universe of mysterious astral planes and forces that operated beyond this “material world”.  I was addicted to books about Edgar Cayce.  Reading Ruth Montgomery was a lot of fun also, thrilling my imagination with all sorts of things not at all viewed as possible in my previously dreary mental world of dismissive reductionism.

By the very beginning of the 1970s, I was practicing two types of meditation.  First, a basic zazen form of sitting.  Alan Watts was sharing his thoughts on a monthly basis now, through mailings of his Alan Watts Journal, and reading his handwritten essay “The Art of Meditation” was a great introduction for that form of practice.  (For me, anyway.)  “Sitting quietly, doing nothing”, or as Watts emphasized, without expectation or a search for experiences, was something I enjoyed doing on  a regular basis.

Then, there was experimentation with a practice that clearly was goal oriented or a search for experiences.  But, what the hell, I wanted to travel to exotic lands!  So, I was exposed to “surat shabda yoga” in my late teens (in Eureka, California, of all places!) and even though I never joined the Ruhani Satsang, got Initiated by Kirpal Singh, or took those classes Bruce Avenell was offering, I had obtained the details of the practice and started in with that.

This practice really amped up the electricity!  Focusing internally on the “light and sound current”, somewhat on a regular basis (like the zazen), seemed to have some amazing side effects in late 1972: a series of clear out of the body experiences over a two or three month period.  All these events took place upon awakening from a night of sleep and started off with sleep paralysis and overwhelming (and loud) currents of energy and a sense of bodily expansion.  When there was a feeling of intense pressure in the center of my brain (as this current overwhelmed my body), I felt tangible seperation from the body.  (One time I could feel my arms, comfortably resting under the covers, actually raising up and amazingly I saw their new energetic form.)

Alan Watts died in November 1973, but he had apparently written something that would sure catch my eye not long after!!  I noticed a Foreward he had written to a book called “The Knee of Listening”.  The book was written by a young guy named Franklin Jones, who was seen on the cover sitting bright eyed and talking to disciples.  Now, immediately I felt an inner tension, probably cognitive dissonance.  For I was definitely in alignment with Krishnamurti’s thoughts regarding Gurus and here was some young guy, from America, becoming a Guru and receiving words of praise from Alan Watts.  Curiousity won out after several examinations of the book on the shelves at the Humboldt State University bookstore, so I bought the damn book!  (And, also Jones’ “The Method of the Siddhas”, a compilation of his early talks before disciples.)

Now, I was not uninformed about eastern traditions.  I had already taken endless courses in Buddhism and Hinduism at HSU.  (Dr. Bazemore’s classes.)  So, I knew something about the role of Gurus in other traditions, and despite the cries of warnings offered by Krishnamurit, I decided to open myself up to this scene and see what I could find out. 

To be continued……

Articles soon to be written.

~ A report on visiting Shree Maa and her ashram community on Valentine’s Day 1999, during their Shiva Ratri celebration.

~ A report on Darshans with Ammachi.

~ A report on experiences associated with “Adi Da Samraj” and some issues related to him and his community of devotees.

~ A review of The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts.

~ An examination of the life, work and teachings of Krishnamurti. 

All of the above persons were significant influences in my life.  In one way or another.

~ An examination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and its primary “workbook” Get Out Of Your Mind and Into Your Life by UNR’s Steven Hayes.

~ Practices related life and “universal” energy/forces (such as kundalini yoga, chi kung, the meditation practice described in the ancient Chinese text The Secret of the Golden Flower and more).

Overflow crowd at UNR hears out Lama Sumati Marut

I attended last night an enjoyable, and easy to follow, talk on Guru Yoga: The Most Secret Practice of the Bhagavad Gita.  The talk was given not by a Hindu or Vedantist (despite the key spiritual reference used for the talk) but an ordained Tibetan Buddhist Lama named Sumati Marut.  See: http://lamamarut.org

I think the Lama was expressively very effective in addressing something very controversial (“Guru Yoga”) and also very unfamiliar and alien to most of us.  His humorous and animated delivery kept the overflow crowd, gathered in rm 324 at the Joe Crowley Student Union Center, not only very focused but amused throughout the whole of his presentation.

“Maybe what drew you here was the ‘most secret practice’ part in the talk title!”

It was my impression that most of the over 75 attending (some in chairs out in the hallway) were likely part of the local Buddhist and Yoga scene.  Speaking of which, here’s a resource a friend (also there) gave me: http://www.nevadadharma.net 

The Lama (a white American, btw) observed that with all the bad experiences people had with Gurus in the 1970s and 1980s that people might think that his advice for a spiritual practice (he said the most “esoteric” of them all), “to find and serve a Guru”, might entail (among other things) having to buy the Guru a new Rolls-Royce.

He also noted that a long time ago there were no “isms”, only teachers and their lineages.  For those of us today, he urged everyone to “rediscover the sacred in your daily life” and even go so far as to “insinuate yourself as much as possible in the daily life of the Guru”.

Given most everyone’s negative perspective nowadays related to the notion of Gurus, he promised to “help you find a Guru in a painless way” (and, he added, who won’t want a Rolls-Royce from you).  First, we need to understand who or what the Guru really is.  (At the end of the talk, he of course identified—correctly, lol—that the Guru was one’s own innermost essence.  “The Guru is YOU!”)  Guru Yoga, he said, involves the understanding that the Divine is fully present (and immanent) in life and is not divorced or apart from life.  The Guru then is, he insisted, a special being (“from Angel HQ”) who is aligned with the ordinary human form (which we can all easily relate to). 

The Lama suggested that everyone begin their hunt, and adoption of, a Guru with the folks closest to them: Mom, Dad, husband, wife, etc.  Adopt and serve them as Guru.  But, with the understanding that our feelings that arise in relation to Mom/Guru (or whoever is chosen) are merely our projections upon them and they are not ultimately the cause of the feeling.  Now, he laughed,  your Mom/Guru might not seem special to him, but certainly She should be to you, the disciple.

What we will have a tendency to do in this relationship is to project our images, feelings, ideas, etc onto the Guru, who is in fact (if truely awakened and realized) empty and a blank screen.  Therefore, part of Guru Yoga involves the Guru serving as a mirror for the student.

The Lama went through various verses (we all had a  nice printout  of  them) from the Bhagavad Gita to describe in more detail the nature of Guru Yoga.  7.16  9.14  9.27  12.6  12.7  6.29  6.30  6.31  6.32  18.61  18.62  18.63  18.64  18.65  18.66  18.67  18.68  18.69

Essentially, the Guru is not a “someone” outside of us.  In fact, the Lama pointed to one of the verses, wherer it’s reported that “one who is fully perfected in yoga sees oneself in all beings and all beings in oneself, [that such a one) sees everything as coming from the same source”.  A Buddha, he said, sees all as Divine and inherently perfect.

Still, Guru Yoga is a “hard practice”, which is why (according to the Lama) it’s the most esoteric of all practices.  He quoted the late (and controversial Tibetan Rinpoche) Chogyam Trungpa:  “the guru serves to insult the ego”.  Central to Buddhist teaching, along with the notion of an endless chain of cause and effect (interdependent arising or dependent origination are some Buddhist terms associated with that), is the proposition that the “ego” or sense of a seperate and permanent self located in our heads  is an illusion.  The Lama described this “mini-me” as like Captain Kirk sitting in his command chair, in control of everything.  So, it seems that the intent of Guru Yoga involves serving to help awaken others from this illusion, a key factor it would seem in keeping us distressed.  And, it seems that the process of Guru Yoga requires a union with a seemingly ordinary human (who is in fact “special”, he asserted–direct from Angel HQ!) who can help untie the knots of suffering.

“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.

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

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

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.

Where is this “Kingdom of Heaven” anyway??

It’s probably a safe bet that most people that I see when I go out for a walk, or any other purpose, are self-identified as “Christians”.  Though, it seems a preponderance of people that I know most well have a somewhat secular, non-Christian perspective.  Really committed Christians talk about a “Kingdom of Heaven” and appear to adopt one of the two “takes” on this in the canonical Gospels, which is the “Kingdom of Heaven” is a place somewhere else apart from their current circumstance.  This despite the fact that Jesus is quoted at one point as saying that it was right here, always, staring us in the face (so to speak).

Based on many conversations with self described Christians over the decades, my impression is that the most common notion re: the “Kingdom of Heaven” is of an afterlife Place.  If you accept Jesus as the only begotten Son of God, you have in effect obtained not only a Passport to  this Kingdom, but you have also been sworn in as a Citizen of that Kingdom.

Biblical scholars have asserted through careful analysis (chiefly through the project called The Jesus Seminar) that the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas likely represents the most accurate reporting of what Jesus actually said about things.  A lot in that Gospel resonates quite well with a non-dualistic “Eastern” perspective.  (Non-dualism, btw, is not an “Eastern” thing; it’s just more blabbed about in the traditions from there).

Thanks to the Gospel of Thomas, which for me was like MapQuest in finding this “Kingdom of  Heaven”, I would like to report that I think this Kingdom is located in what I have recently been calling “the nothing is happening Place”.  A “place” with no Center and no Circumference.  “Here” there is no movement whatsoever.  It’s the place where all movement and experiences arise and fall with no sense of distress attached to all that movement and experience.  And, perhaps most importantly, “Here” there is no “other”.  Therefore, this Place is also the BirthPlace of true compassion.