Chapter Two The Emptiness of Emptiness
When so-called empty space is understood to be the ether, the pranically-charged, subtle-realm medium that lies between, and connects, the Divine Realm and the material world, then a proper theosophical understanding of the “structure” of the All is possible.
Nirvana is not a matter of seeing all existents as empty, as free from the “extremes” of inherent existence and nihilistic non-existence. Moreover, Nirvana cannot be “seen” because it is not an object. Nirvana, as Gautama defines it, is the drying up of the outflows, the defilements that perpetuate samsara (or becoming). Nirvana is the end of becoming; therefore, it is Being, which, relative to a bodhisattva, is awakened timeless, spaceless Awareness.
The mind is not consciousness itself. Consciousness, the essence of Being, is a universal constant that exists prior to and beyond thought. The mind is a function or application of consciousness that enables you to mentally understand the universe you live in.
Be totally present (and plugged-in) and then utterly absent, so you become a conscious, but empty, cup, ready to receive the Gift, the poured-down Spirit, the electrical-like Bliss-current from above.
When the Heart-knot is cut, Anugraha-Shakti transmutes into Hridaya (or Heart)-Shakti, as the Self-awakened yogi now radiates, rather than just receives, Blessing/Blissing Light-Energy.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF PRACTICE Q: Do you have specific recommendations for the practice of Self-enquiry? A: Yes. First, instead of disidentifying from the body, be present as the whole body. When you are organismically present, you are integrally present, which is the optimal asana, or position, from which to initiate the enquiry. Consciously feel yourself as the whole body and be present to existence as a single, undivided entity. Then begin the enquiry. Although, ultimately, you are timeless, spaceless Being, by being present as
the whole body, you imbue your practice with consciousness-force, which will enable you to more quickly progress with the enquiry.
If thoughts cease and you encounter silence or emptiness, enquire, “Who sees the emptiness?” Eventually, your practice will generate enough consciousness-force to make the emptiness “dance,” to “come alive” as Shakti.
Periodically relax your bodymind and totally let go, being as if dead. This “unconditional surrender” is the perfect yin complement to the yang practice of intense enquiry. Alternating yin effortlessness (akin to ohms reduction) with yang enquiry (akin to voltage) is the optimal way to generate maximal Shakti, or Spirit-current (akin to amperage). The way to the Self is via Anugraha-Shakti, the Spirit-current that is sucked into the Heart-center. And by alternating effortlessness with enquiry, you will, at some point, awaken (and thenceforth be able to evoke) Anugraha-Shakti, the “Flow of Grace” that unveils the Self in the Heart-center.
If you students of the Way wish to become Buddhas, you need study no doctrines whatever, but learn only how to avoid seeking for and attaching yourselves to anything.
Mind is not emptiness, but radiant, universal Consciousness, the all-subsuming Source-Substance of all existents.
If an ordinary man, when he is about to die, could only see the five elements of consciousness as void; the four physical elements as not constituting an ‘I’; the real Mind as formless and neither coming nor going; his nature as something neither commencing at his birth nor perishing at his death, but as whole and motionless in its very depths; his Mind and environmental objects as one—if he could really accomplish this, he would receive Enlightenment in a flash. He would no longer be entangled by the Triple World; he would be a World-Transcender. He would be without even the faintest tendency toward rebirth. If he should behold the glorious sight of all the Buddhas coming to welcome him, surrounded by every kind of gorgeous manifestation, he would feel no desire to approach them. If he should behold all sorts of horrific forms surrounding him, he would experience no terror. He would just be himself, oblivious of conceptual thought and one with the Absolute. He would have attained the state of unconditioned being. This, then, is the fundamental principle.
Chapter Thirteen The Sword of Thusness
Thusness, when enacted, cuts through all that obstructs the expression of one’s Buddha-nature. Thusness expresses one’s Buddha-nature, which is Mind, or Consciousness, because it is the act of Be-ing Consciousness.
True Satsang, direct, unobstructed relationship with Being, morphs into Being-Consciousness, Mind-as-Thusness.
The Heart Master Adi Da (a.k.a. Franklin Jones, Bubba Free John, Da Free John, et al.) espoused a Dharma that was all about relationship, or Satsang. According to Da, who called his Dharma “radical understanding,” the ordinary, or un-Enlightened, man lives in a state of chronic self-contraction, which is caused and perpetuated by his avoidance of relationship (or conscious at-one-ment). In response to the self-contraction (the formation of awareness that is suffering), he seeks one remedial (and ultimately unsatisfying) state of consciousness after another. But none of these states touch the underlying self-contraction; at best, they only provide temporary fascination, distraction, and consolation. Because the self-contraction is generated by the psycho-physical avoidance of relationship, it is only the asana (or whole-bodily “posture”) of relationship that can undo it. And it undoes it by “re-forming” contracted awareness into direct, immediate awareness, which, ultimately, shines as nondual Being-Consciousness, or Mind-as-Thusness. Because the ordinary man’s activity is the avoidance of relationship (the failure to be directly, immediately present and “plugged in”), Adi Da taught the practice of relational enquiry, which instigates one’s assumption, or reassumption, of the asana of relationship. This practice employs the enquiry “Avoiding relationship?” which functions as a prompt or cue to return one to the “stance” of relationship.
To the cognoscenti, “understanding” is the realization that what one is doing in almost every moment is avoiding relationship, failing to be directly “plugged-in” and present.