Acharya Peter Wilberg's Bulletin

Edited by author 24-10-2009 11:00 AM
Hello Steven,

I trust your retreat went well. I have somewhat inundated myself with reading, having purchased quite a number of core books to establish my Shiva library. I have done what is probably not wise, in reading parts of all of them, like jumping from stone to stone in a river of awareness. There is so much in "Triadic Heart of Shiva", so full of the rich teachings of Acharya Abhinavagupta, I cannot honestly say I have even half begun to absorb its treasures.
Currently my inner responses have been somewhat undisciplined and more a stream expression of awarenesses and questionings that have arisen from my reading. Perhaps this is because I realise how much I currently lack in content of the rich tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, and my constricted academic experience. With this goes a certain hesitancy to speak with confidence on detail. However, the sharing of "Awarenessing" bears fruit however it is expressed. Along with this of course are also the equally awareness-provoking and enlightening offerings of Acharya, that flow with abundance.
Thank you for your reference to my other blogs and sharings. I am presently in dialogue with Acharya, particularly about absorbing meditation wherein the "Other", even the most mundane can transform its meaning, its nature, its 'rasa', to Shiva Awareness within.
At present I have been experinecing in awareness moments the deep impression of how utterly unique each, bindu connected point of here-now of Kali manifestation is. Each moment, each Jiva passage, each Jiva-Jiva connection, each configuration in time, space, connection (particularly of meanings) as that which will never be imitated in all the manifestation of Eternity. Even as a copy it would be a 'copy' and not the original.
I am reminded of the Expansion and Contraction inherent in the term 'visarga' discussed by Muller-Ortega, a quality of the Heart.

How does it connect within me?
It appears, and it has been thus far too few and brief in experience, but nevertheless powerful, - that in seeing this utter uniqueness, of this bindu-like 'now', this bindu-like 'here', there is an awareness of utter contraction.
And yet, and this is hard to express, but I will attempt it, this utter contraction brings about an expansion, wherein the uniqueness is so utter, that time and space become in a sense irrelevent, and boundless in quality. Each moment like this is still but moving, is contracted but expanding, and now I have (*No! not 'I have', but rather 'there is') an awareness that this is the very quality of the Visarga, and thus the Heart of Shiva, quietly throbbing in each moment. That is all I can say.

(*I am slowly acquiring from dialogue with Acharya, some skills to more clearly express the inner experience of awareness as a 'Jiva', without incorrectly conveying an unintended meaning of it somehow being 'possessed' by the Jiva. I am finding that without due care, words, even just one preposition can lead to a lack of clarity. Both the writing of Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega (what a fluid beautiful name) and of Acharya, amongst others, are fine examples for me. Attainment of that level will not be achieved in this passage for this Jiva, I think. And that's ok.)

My email is lloyds11@tpg.com.au

BTW, Did you know Fosters has lost its sheen here? Its down the list now in Oz.

Namaste

My Shiva Shrine

To Rod Lloyd: I've been meaning to ask you how your reading of Triadic Heart of Siva went, since you said you were getting into it a couple of months ago. I also brought it along for my most recent trip to northern Minnesota with my lady friend. I couldn't find your email address on your blog, even with my computer-literate son's help. Also tried Facebook (I'm on Facebook) but wasn't able to get a message through.I'm reading with interest how you try to put your understandings and applications of Awareness into practice, both on this Bulletin Board and your other sites.

REVOLUTION AS 'KALI YOGA' - THE NEW YOGA OF TIME

Time is not an ‘objective’ function or property of anything that is – of ‘being’ – but a mode of subjective awareness of what is. Yet if our lives consist of nothing but constant movement from ‘one thing to another’ – one activity or focus of awareness to another - then we remain fettered to the narrowest and most constricting experience of time as mere one-dimensional line in ‘space-time’. This linear experience of time quite literally offers no time for a type of free and unfocussed awareness – one that could allow us to experience time itself as an expansive space of awareness – as ‘time-space’. That is why ‘going from one thing to another’ - from one focus of awareness or action to another, is the very opposite of living a meditative life – a life of freedom and awareness. For it deprives us of what is most essential to life and time quality – namely taking time for a free and unfocussed awareness of all there is to be aware of – all there is to reflect on, look back on, look forward to and enjoy. Yet today’s global business culture is one of incessant busyness – a constant ‘going from one thing to another’. This culture of busyness expresses the very essence of the capitalist business and economic system – which demands that people sell their time to an employer - to be used at the behest of their bosses, and paid only according to its quantity and market value. In this way work becomes what Marx called ‘wage slavery’ – taking what is most precious to each individual - namely their time and awareness - and turning it into a mere commodity to be bought, sold, focussed and directed by the will of another. The capitalist employer seeks to extract ever more quantities of time out of their employees in order to exploit it as the source of ‘surplus value’ – profit – whilst at the same time demanding an ever-greater focussing or concentration of awareness on multiple tasks and objectives. The result is not just a quantitative loss of time for those things of most value to the individual, but a general diminution of time quality – and with it both quality of life and work. Along with this goes a narrowing of awareness accompanied by ‘anxiety’ or ‘angst’ (both words whose Germanic roots (angu / angxt ) refer to ‘narrowness’ or Enge – as in the name Eng-land or ‘narrow land’).

The culture of capitalism is also one in which time is seen as something to be ever more productively used or filled. Yet the very identification of ‘productivity’ with speed and measurable quantities of times is ultimately counter-productive, diminishing quality of time, quality of work - and quality of decision-making and action in all spheres of life - personal, economic and political. Actions become purely reactive or mere expressions of wilful or egotistic ‘single-mindedness’ rather than arising out of an awareness of alternate possible actions and decisions – the foundation of free choice and of patient and considered decisions and actions. ‘Meditation’ on the other hand, means giving ourselves time rather than using or filling time - above all giving ourselves time to come to rest in a state of free and unfocussed awareness – a ‘pure awareness’ (chit) unbound to any particular focus of awareness, perception or activity.

In this sense, meditation is the very opposite of an ultra-focussed or ‘single-pointed’ concentration of awareness. Nor is meditation merely one more thing to ‘make’ time for in our culture of busyness. Instead, what ‘meditation’ means in everyday life is a strict discipline or yoga – the discipline of granting ourselves intervals of time between each and every everyday task or activity we engage in – not just as ‘pauses’ or ‘breaks’ for relaxation, entertainment or ‘rest’ but intervals in which we allow ourselves to come to rest in a expanded ‘space’ of free and unfocussed awareness. This expanded time-space restores our relation to time in its wholeness – transcending the demands and pressures dominating the present moment and encompassing both past and future as well as the immediate present - thus allowing us to reflect on and feel more deeply into all that has been, is and is yet to come.

Within the spacious expanse of a free and unfocussed awareness field we cease to be lost in any particular focus of awareness and activity, or else overburdened by a multiplicity of foci in the form of different life aims, daily tasks or work demands. At the same time, since this expanded time-space also encompasses and embraces every possible focus of our life and awareness – past, present and future – it is a source of fresh creative insights and impulses to action of a sort that do not arise from a narrow, single-pointed focus or concentration of awareness, however intense. Yet this time-space of pure, unfocussed awareness cannot be opened up in everyday life without practicing daily ‘meditation’ in a specific way - not just at the beginning or end of the day – but between each period of focussed awareness and activity that we engage in during the day. This meditative discipline or ‘yoga of time’ is by nature subversive and revolutionary. It is a Kâlî Yoga (from the Sanskrit kâla –‘time’) for the Kali Yuga - that ‘dark age’ which is above all characterised by a patriarchal and global capitalist culture designed precisely to keep people bound in a constant state of busyness – one in which they busily go ‘from one thing to another’ without ever giving themselves time to come to rest within that unbounded cosmic time-space or circumference of awareness that is the womb of the Great Mother goddess - Ma Kâlî. Her counterpart in Hindu mythology is the male demon Kali, hence the so-called Kali Yuga or ‘Age of Kali’ - associated with unbridled avarice, violence, monetary gambling and godlessness. Kâlî on the other hand is the divine power of manifestation latent in pure awareness (Shiva) and realised through the unfoldment of its creative potentials in time.

Listening to the chanting of the Mahamantra we can find in it ever new depths and feel its meaning in ever new ways….

The Ocean Om Namah Shivaya:

OM – the solid, rock-bottom of our soul’s ocean, where we can come to rest, not despite but even through those 'rock-bottom' states of deepest weakness, weariness, sickness or depression - which take us ever further down into the abyss until we reach that ultimate soul ground of our being.

NAMAH – all the strange and wondrous life-forms that appear to grow and swim at in the ocean of our inner soul life. All that occurs in our outer life of soul, and all that simply flows as inner currents of feeling through and within our soul’s body, colouring - now more darkly and heavily, now more lightly and brightly - its felt tone and texture.

SHIVAYA – that COMMON all-surrounding soul ocean in which we know both ourselves and each other to dwell, and which nourishes and forms all souls. The secret Fire of Life that is also hidden within every particle of that great Soul Ocean, causing its waters to rise up as aethers to the shining sources of that Fire in the heavens - to 'Shivaloka'.

A Simplification of the Logic and Dialectics of Shaiva Advaita Philosophy


“In this world there are some devoted people, who are undeveloped in reflection and have not taken pains to study difficult works like Logic and Dialectics, but who nevertheless aspire after Samavesha with [immersion in] the Supreme Lord."

From Kshemaraja’s introduction to the Pratyabhijnahrdayam


If ‘bounded’, ‘limited’ or ‘contracted’ consciousness is conceived as awareness contained within a limiting boundary perimeter such as a circle, sphere or body surface of any type, and ‘uncontracted’ consciousness is conceived as the unbounded space or field of awareness around that circle, sphere or surface perimeter, the question arises as to the true nature of any boundary or perimeter as such. I argue that any such bounding perimeter both distinguishes the awareness it bounds from the unbounded field around it, and at the same time unites them. For being inseparable from both the awareness it bounds and the unbounded awareness around it, it renders the bounded and unbounded, ‘contracted’ and ‘uncontracted’ dimensions of awareness both distinct and inseparable. The understanding of Advaita or ‘non-duality’ (a-dvaita) itself as a state of inseparable distinction ie. neither a state of oceanic boundlessness lacking all internal distinction or ‘differentiation’ nor a multiplicity of separable consciousnesses contained within ‘their’ own boundaries - this is the key to simplifying the logic and dialectics of Shaiva Advaita.

The principle of ‘inseparable distinction’, gifted by the new dialectical logic of Michael Kosok, explains exactly why, in Shaiva Advaita, the ‘contracted’ awareness of the ‘bounded’ self or jiva is understood as ultimately ‘identical’ with the unbounded awareness that is Shiva. This is not because the awareness of the jiva has no bounding surface perimeter or ‘sheath’, but because that very perimeter – though it bounds a field of awareness, is not itself anything bounded. For by its very nature, any bounding surface or perimeter is not itself anything bounded! A circle drawn on a piece of paper for example, does indeed seem to bound an area of space on the page – but it does not bound itself, as a circle, in doing so! This is why it is that if we understand every self, body and being as the very surface perimeter bounding a field of awareness, there is no longer any question of how this boundary can be transcended, or how the awareness it bounds can be said to be ‘identical’ with the unbounded awareness around it - for they are both distinct and inseparable.

In the language of Shaiva Advaita, the terms ‘Self’ and ‘Consciousness’ are often used interchangeably to refer to both the bounded and unbounded, contracted and uncontracted dimensions of the universal awareness (chit). Thus there is talk of a bounded or contracted dimension of both Self and Consciousness in the form of individualised consciousness (chitta) of the jiva or of separable beings (bhava) in general, and there is talk of the unbounded dimension of Self and Consciousness (chetana) identical with Parama Shiva. Here it is helpful and simplifying to understand the distinction between ‘Self’ and ‘Consciousness’ in terms of the ‘perimeter model’ explained above. From this point of view ‘Consciousness’ may be defined as any field of awareness contained within or surrounding a bounding perimeter or surface boundary. A ‘Self’ on the other hand, may be understood as any bounding perimeter or surface boundary of awareness as such. Since any such perimeter is not itself anything bounded, this explains why any ‘Self’ is ultimately a singular unity of both bounded and unbounded dimensions of awareness – affirming both Vedantic notions of Advaita as the unity of the Atman and Para Atman or Brahman, and Shaivist understandings of Advaita as the unity of the jiva with Shiva.

Any field of awareness contained within a surface boundary or perimeter may itself contain within it a multiplicity of surface boundaries or perimeters or selves – like a circle whose inner field contains many smaller circles, but is also itself one circle amongst other circles contained within a yet larger circle. For any surface boundary or perimeter of awareness – any Self – may itself be contained with a field of awareness itself circumscribed by a larger bounding perimeter or Self. If we picture the ‘Self’ then, as a shaped bounding perimeter of some sort – for example a circle - and ‘Consciousness’ as the fields of awareness both contained by and containing that circle or Self, then we get a clear picture of Awareness as such (Chit) as that ultimately unbounded field of awareness within which emerge multiple circles within circles and selves within selves. Thus there is a type of hierarchy of ever broader and more expansive and inclusive Selves, as well as ever broader and more expansive Consciousnesses – the fields of awareness contained by and containing those Selves. Selves can thus be pictured as ever larger circles embracing ever broader fields of awareness. The larger the field of awareness circumscribed by any Self, the more circles or ‘sub-selves’ it can embrace within that field, along with the elements of consciousness they contain – each of which is less an ‘object’ than a ‘subject’ – being a formed boundary of awareness or sub-self in its own right. Yet since the space or field of awareness either containing or contained within any circle or ‘self’ is essentially one singular space or field, one cannot ultimately talk of ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ selves - since it is ultimately the very same singular space or field of awareness that both contains and is contained by all the circles, selves or surface boundaries of awareness - of whatever dimension or breadth – that form within it.

Parama Shiva, as the ultimate or ‘Supreme Self’ of every individual being or entity (bhava) can be compared to an infinite circle, sphere surface circumference or perimeter of awareness - circumscribing all that is. ‘Anuttara’ on the other hand, defined in the Shaiva tantras as the absolute, ultimate or ‘non-higher’ reality, is that ‘Supreme Consciousness’ whose nature is an awareness unbounded by any bounding ‘circle’ or ‘sphere’ of awareness - and thus also unbounded by any Self - up to an including the Supreme Self that is Parama Shiva. This does not make Anuttara ‘higher’ than Parama Shiva, or the ‘Supreme Consciousness’ higher than a ‘Supreme Self’. For as emphasised, the whole point is to understand that any Self - understood as a bounding surface, sphere or perimeter of awareness, is not itself anything bounded. This again is the real and essential reason why - as recognised in both Vedanta and Shaiva Advaita – there are ultimately no boundaries of awareness to be ‘overcome’ or ‘transcended’. For to fully identify with and be any bounding surface perimeter of awareness, to fully be any ‘Self’ - is already to cease to have boundaries - except for those constituted by yet larger bounding circles or perimeters of awareness, yet larger Selves - up to and including the ‘Supreme Self’ - Parama Shiva. On the other hand, by identifying with the very space or field of awareness contained by or containing any circle or perimeter of awareness - any surface boundary or Self at any ‘level’ - we at once and automatically become identical with the ‘Supreme Awareness’ in its absolutely unbounded or ‘non-higher’ character - as Anuttara.

Any ‘body’ is defined by a bounding surface or perimeter – whether a cell membrane or our own skin. Yet biology itself acknowledges that the skin not simply as an encapsulating boundary but as a breathing membrane uniting us with the air and light around it. That is why, in terms of practices or sadhanas, it is by identifying with our bodily surface - by feeling and being our own ‘skin’ – that we cease to experience either our Self or Consciousness as something bounded or encapsulated by that skin, and instead can feel at one with the infinite space, air and light of awareness surrounding and embracing both our own body and all bodies.

The new and simple picture I offer then, is that of multiple circles within ever larger circles. The circles as such constitute the Self-nature of awareness and of all things and all beings - not only human ‘selves’ (jiva) but also beings or entities (bhava) of any sort, including both internal and external ‘contents’ of consciousness - such as thoughts or seemingly insentient ‘things’. For even rocks and mountains ‘breathe’ – emanating vital pranic units or ‘animations’ of awareness and absorbing them from the environment around them. The spaces within and around the circles of Selves constitute the singular and Supreme Awareness within which all things and beings emerge. Of course circles and other bounding shapes of awareness can not only contain or be contained within other circles but can also overlap with them - like overlapping shapes and colours. This is why Self-identity is nothing fixed – for through their defined areas of overlap new selves - new and combined shapes and colourations of awareness - are forever and constantly being created.

Yet we can go even further in explicating this new, clear and simplified model of ‘Self’ and ‘Consciousness’ in both their bounded and unbounded dimensions. For it remains a fixed prejudice of our ordinary ‘physical’ perception of space time that the space around or surrounding a containing surface or perimeter such as a bottle or cell membrane is larger and less bounded than the space it bounds or contains within it. In reality this is not the case - for space not only extends outwardly in an infinite and unbounded way but also inwardly. There is also an unbounded interiority to all things and beings. It is this unbounded inner space of awareness that connects them all inwardly, just as the space outside and surrounding them is what embraces and unites them outwardly. And just as there is an ultimate and singular circumference of awareness – Parama Shiva – a ‘circumference at infinity’ – so also do all things and beings lead inwards towards is also an ultimate, infinitely inward centre of awareness or ‘centre at infinity’. That singular centre is the dot or bindu of Parama Shakti, the ‘zero-point’ source of all powers of manifestation of awareness, all Shaktis. Circumference and Centre, Parama Shiva and Parama Shakti are united by that singular awareness (Anuttara) which is both outwardly and inwardly unbounded.

This new and clearer picture of the logic and dialectics of Shaiva Advaita is not only clearer and more simple but also more radical in its recognition of both the outwardly and inwardly unbounded nature of awareness, and with it, the unbounded nature of every seemingly bounding shape or form of awareness - such shapes and forms being the Self-nature of all beings and all things – from the very highest Consciousnesses to those belonging to even the most seemingly microscopic or insentient of things. For the space within even the tiniest molecule and atom of every body is ultimately as infinite and unbounded as the entirety of cosmic space surrounding it. Indeed ultimately it is this ‘in-tending’ or ‘intensional’ space of infinite interiority that lies behind and in this sense ‘surrounds’ the ultimate outward horizon or circumference of ‘outer’ space. How it does so is represented by the yantra of The New Yoga. For this represents any body as a ‘yoni-lingam’, as an ‘invagination’ (‘yoni’) within cosmic space of an all surrounding ‘intensional’ or ‘non-extensional’ space of awareness – the great black womb of Parama Shakti that is Ma Kali. This invagination of the ‘inner’ into the ‘outer’ also has the nature of a ‘linga’ that penetrates or protrudes like a phallus into ‘outer’ space from that realm of all surrounding inwardness. Hence all things and beings are Shiva-Shakti, having the character of both lingam and yoni - and uniting both unbounded and bounded awareness.

Edited by author 23-08-2009 01:37 AM
Thank you Acharya for your further expanding and clarifying. It does appear still, that ultimately, with Awareness expanding our choices of reponse, it remains a free choice of response, not always aware, constructive and helpful in nature, as we would hope.
If we are "under the sway" of positive or negative aspects of the Gunas within,(including the Sattvic as you correctly remind), correct choosing as I understand it, returns to the practice of abiding in a heightened state of awareness to discriminate more fruitfully the "forces" of the Gunas at the present moment. This appears in other references to point to our "buddhi" discriminating aspect, or "sheath" or, perhaps seen in the New Yoga as a specific potential quality of our greater Awareness, but one that is "realized" by expanding our individual awarenss.
The understanding of the Gunas, which is my current focus of learning at present, appears to show their eternally contributing aspect of the very nature of Be-ing/Non-Being within Awareness. By becoming more aware of the postive and negative aspects of each of the Gunas actions in our Be-ing, we learn to work fruitfully with them, rather than allowing them, (because of avidya), to work us. It appears they are centrally required aspects of the "Great Drama", arising within ParamaShiva.
The concept of our continuous "avatar-ing", our learning, growing, "godding" is indeed rich.
PS. It is pleasing that you and Karinji have had what appears to have been a lovely time of retreat in Slovenia.

Further Clarifications of ‘Freedom’ and ‘Choice’

To me the most essential key to clarifying the questions raised by Rod in response to my piece on ‘The Enlightened Ego’ - and its relation to free and aware choice - is that Fundamental Distinction, so central to The Awareness Principle. This is the distinction between all that there is an awareness OF, and the light of that pure awareness within which alone all things first stand out or come to light.

This fundamental ‘Epistemological Difference’ (between awareness as such and all that there is an awareness of) parallels Heidegger’s so-called ‘Ontological Difference’ (between Being as such and all manner of beings).

It needs restating to clarify the essence of freedom and choice. For the ordinary ego, claiming awareness as ‘its’ individual property, does not act out of pure awareness so much as act in a way that is always a reaction to particular phenomena, inner or outer, which it is currently aware OF.

Thus arises the “distrusting of the inherent ‘freedom’ for the individual awareness” which may indeed “get it wrong” - and is therefore seen as in need of “lots of rules of behaviour”. For it is true that many “errant followings of supposed inner awareness have occurred…” Yet is this through following awareness as such or through following limited modes of both inner and outer awareness?

The key phrases are “individual awareness” and “supposed inner awareness”, both of which suggest things of which a specific individual is (inwardly) aware rather than the Greater Awareness - that which is the all-surrounding field within and through which all individuals themselves first come to be - and to be aware OF things.

In line with the Fundamental Distinction between “individual awareness” and awareness as such – ‘Awareness’ with a capital ‘A’ - the principle of freely letting the latter guide our individual choices must not be CONFUSED with the false freedom that comes of letting those choices be determined by particular moods, emotions, situations, events or impulses that the individual is aware OF – and that their supposedly ‘free’ and ‘spontaneous’ actions are nothing but an unfree REACTION to.

I emphasised in my earlier piece that Awareness always embraces a greater range of alternate possible actions – thus allowing greater freedom of choice - than those arising purely from an “individual awareness” limited to an awareness ‘of’ this or that. It is that same Awareness that can then also guide the individual in his or her choices – rather than letting these be ruled or dictated – either ruled inwardly by particular moods, emotions or situations or outwardly by “rules of behaviour”.

That is not to say that all things we are aware OF, whether in the form of events or situations, thoughts or feelings, moods or emotions – even urges and impulses – are not each themselves AN awareness in their own right. The question is then whether the ego first allows time for the particular awareness that is expressed by and held within any given mood, impulse or sensation to come to light in a larger Awareness – thus making it possible to be guided both by that particular awareness and by that larger Awareness as such, rather than by the particular mood, impulse or sensation itself. Here it may be clarifying to discriminate more explicitly a triad of three distinct dimensions of ‘awareness’, and with it, three ways in which the word ‘awareness’ can itself can be understood and used. These three dimensions of awareness can be named as:

1. Individual awareness – as ordinary awareness or ‘consciousness’ OF things.
2. Particular awareness – THE awareness that each and every thing essentially IS.
3. Universal Awareness or awareness ‘as such’ – that through which alone there can be an awareness OF anything and that which finds particular expression in ALL things.

If we wish speak of “freedom of response to awareness” or of letting ourselves be spontaneously or intuitively guided by awareness therefore, the question of WHICH of these three distinct dimensions of ‘awareness’ we are referring to becomes central.

For there cannot be either “core discrimination” “freedom” or “errant choice” in “response to awareness” without that third, Universal dimension of awareness which first brings to light more than one possible choice to discriminate between and follow. It is Awareness in this third, Universal aspect that both discriminates choices and guides us in selecting the right ones to follow. It does this both directly and intuitively – out of pure awareness – and through the Particular awareness that may be held within some thing we are currently aware of Individually - such as the particular bodily mood or state of consciousness experienced as an ‘illness’, or indeed any mood colouring Individual awareness.

It is for this reason and out of this triadic understanding that I believe we can come to a better understanding of and relation to ‘moods’ as such – recognising them as pervasive qualities of awareness colouring our awareness of all things. I see this insight as central also to understanding and relating to those ‘fundamental moods’ described in the Gita as the three ‘gunas’. That is why, in my essay on the Gunas, I saw it as important to:

(1) Recognise the gunas in their differing combinations as constitutive aspects of Individual awareness.

(2) Affirm the value of the gunas in bearing within them, like moods, a Particular awareness of potential significance - pregnant insights can in turn guide action.

(3) Emphasise that the Universal Awareness from which the three gunas emerge (as Particular qualities of awareness colouring Individual Awareness) is not itself a guna but has the character of a fourth (‘Turya’) which is essentially a ‘non-guna’ (‘Nirguna’).

Nirguna is the very translucency of Awareness in its Universal aspect – neither ‘light’ nor ‘dark’ and transcending the representative colours of the gunas (Sattvic white, Rajasic red and Tamasic black). Hence the words of Abhinavagupta:


Where all splendours are in the light
And all darkness in the dark
Brilliant light and gloomy darkness
I praise that transcendent light
Always new, hidden
Yet old and apparent to all
Shining alone with the brilliance of the Supreme


Resting with and within the Universal or Supreme Awareness (Shiva) we can allow ourselves to fully affirm ALL the gunas – whether Sattvic light and lightness, Rajasic passion or fire or Tamasic darkness and heaviness. Indeed we achieve the aim of ‘transcending’ the gunas all the more effectively by fully feeling and affirming the specific qualities and potentials of awareness (Shaktis) they each constitute. This is not the same as being ruled by them.

The question of the Gunas, as expressions of the Universal Awareness, brings us to what Rod calls “dark” or “demonic” aspects of Shakti - which he relates to Rajasic and/or Tamasic “extremes”. And of course there are extremes of experience and action which can stem from all of the three gunas (Sattva included). Yet these extremes ONLY arise from (a) unaware identification with the gunas, (b) egoic judgement and discrimination between them (eg. Sattva as ‘good’ and Tamas as ‘bad’) and (c) resulting egoic reactions to them. The types of action that arise from identification with the gunas quite different from those arising from an Awareness that both freely embraces and transcends them - rather than judging one or the other as innately better for all people in all situations. There are times, individual and historical, when light and calm is called for – other when fire and passion are called for, and times also when the light and fire of truth can only be safeguarded in relative darkness and invisibility.

• The “light’ of Sattva can not only illuminate but also blind.
• The “fire” of Rajas not only destroys but releases new creative
        potentials.
• The “darkness” of Tamas not only obscures but conserves and
        safeguards.

From a Hindu point of view, all that finds expression in the world as ‘evil’ is indeed the expression of Avidya (‘non-seeing’) or ‘ignorance’ - and yet it is from this very ignorance that, as Rod writes “future learning for individuals and humanity can emerge”. If this learning is NOT only to occur as it is doing now - slowly, painfully and painfully slowly - through awful and tragic world events and individual experiences, then the sheer extent of the ignorance, both emotional and intellectual, economic and political, ‘scientific’ and ‘spiritual’, that pervades today’s world needs to be clearly and courageously acknowledged IN awareness and countered with awareness. For essentially ignorance is simply an UNawareness of a sort that both breeds and is born out of fear of ‘seeing’ (Vidya) and of seeing through this ignorance - a fear that in turn serves to create and reinforce, through projections of ‘evil’ forces, the very realities it fail to understand.
There is no such thing as innate evil, for even the worst acts ultimately stem from good intents distorted by ignorance and fear. Yet there IS such a thing as ‘right and wrong’. And out of Awareness, understood as ‘pure con-sciousness’, comes also an entirely unforced and natural ‘con-science’ – a knowing of what is Right which requires no rules to enforce. Part of this natural con-science is a deep knowing or consciousness that when we harm, violate or kill another we harm violate and kill a part of ourselves. Awareness itself – as ‘pure conscience’ as well as ‘pure consciousness’ – makes us aware that violence or violations of any form are simply and purely WRONG, period.

One reason I emphasise the importance of ‘The Enlightened Intellect’ as well as ‘The Enlightened Ego’ is that what is taken today as the ‘rational’ intellect is but a façade – an instrument for the artificial RATIONALISATION of unaware emotional impulses, defences, fears and reactions. The Enlightened Intellect on the other hand is a rational Reflection and Recognition of a innate and natural awareness of what is Right and True - whether logically, ethically or metaphysically. It is the task of The Enlightened Intellect to turn ‘reason’ itself into a rational reflection and recognition of the deepest and broadest Awareness of all that is, rather than using it as a tool to objectify the world for the still unaware subjective purposes of the limited ego - something which only results in the most crude (or deceptively sophisticated) forms of intellectual ignorance OF the world.

That is why the ‘Jagadguru’ or ‘Karmayogi’ does not only seek an ever greater Awareness of the world, but is guided by Awareness to freely Act for the world and other individuals - using every aware word and deed to free that world from ignorance in each and every way it is encountered - whether intellectually or emotionally, individually or socially, economically or politically, personally or relationally. It is in this way that gurus and yogis themselves embark on a path of ‘further’ or ‘higher’ education – an ‘Education in Awareness’. They do this through following a path of ever freer and more FREEING thought, speech and action of a sort for which the cultivation of The Enlightened Intellect is a vital if not core necessity. On this Path we are not alone but encouraged by the studies and learning of others, supported by their love and gifts - and both guided and empowered by that Universal Awareness of which each is a living ‘Avatar’.

I wrote before of the connection between true freedom of choice and awareness of alternative possible actions – including alternate ways of understanding reality rationally and intellectually. For the ordinary ego the ‘I’ is a fixed identity or set of identities. For The Enlightened Ego, the ‘I’ that chooses to say, do or think one thing is not the SAME ‘I’ as that which chooses to say, do or think another. Our every thought, word, and action is, in this sense, the birth of an ‘Avatar’ – the worldly incarnation of a particular ASPECT of our self as a whole – of our ‘Awareness Self’, ‘Great Soul’, ‘Atman’ or ‘Mahatma’.

In this context, I remember only too well how an individual I have never met and who is still entirely unknown to me - but who happens to live opposite to my sister - revealed to her on hearing her mentioned my name as her brother, that he had himself been studying my many websites for many years, observing the evolution of my thought. Most intriguingly - and yet also most wisely - he referred to the websites as my ‘Avatars’. And so they are - just as are my books and letters, just as is this very essay and all others.

And simply giving full awareness to another, at no matter what distance, we send out an Avatar or awareness-shape of ourselves to them.

The gods themselves do not simply gift us with ‘Avatars’. They themselves ARE Avatars of the Supreme Awareness - gifted by IT - and offering us both images of, and a path of access to ITS diverse Aspects and potentials. From these we in turn can become Aware Avatars of the Supreme – but only by choosing WITH awareness which of ITS many godly aspects, capacities, comprehensions and potentials (Shaktis) to express and incarnate - at any given time or in any given place – as the very activity of ‘Be-ing’.

And perhaps it is through ‘Be-ing’ understood in this way, as well as through the mystery of ‘Spanda’ – understood as the eternal vibration or ‘quivering’ of the Potential within the Actual - that we can feel the depths lurking beneath the words of Martin Heidegger, words kept safe and in the dark till after his death, with the awareness that they would, at the time they were written, receive nothing but academic ridicule.

The words read:

“Be-ing is the quivering of God godding.”

Acharya

Edited by author 07-08-2009 11:01 PM
Acharya, this new statement on the nature and role of 'The Enlightened Ego', as seen within the New Yoga links within me to issues about freedom, choice and 'allowing' in regard to the full spectrum of the Awareness.

Awareness is portayed as Light, and from this article I receive, there appears to me to be a firm assent to the experience of "allowing", that Light to show us both the choices before us, and the grace of utter freedom to allow us the choice of what we, "ourselves" will allow to emerge.
Response-ability has usually implied for me, the ability to respond appropriately to the situation.
The word arises from its original root meaning of, "to make one's own". And thus we "appropriate" something.
In responding "appropriately", in following your understanding, our "I", enlightened by time given to Awareness, "allows" the choice of awareness to emerge with a sense of, own-ing that choice, but also, in a sense, allowing the situation (also an awareness) to own it and all the ensuant consequences for ourselves and others. It also embraces the thought that we allow the awareness emerging, to own us.
I taste also the rasa in "appropriately", of it being a 'fitting' own-ing. It is fitting and appears right, with all that has come to us in awareness, to allow this to emerge, and merge into our lives.

Paths that have a lot of rules of behaviour, and expected responses I expect would be discomfited by this approach, distrusting the inherent “freedom” for an individual awareness to “get it wrong”. Conversely, the New Yoga commits to its experiential understanding that out of awaiting upon Awareness, correct individual choices will ensue. If Awareness, Shiva, is as we say, then this is exactly what should be expected to happen.

I am seeking to relate all this to the dark aspect of shakti manifestation from awareness, and how this is embraced , or contained or seen.
At its utmost manifestation this is about the “demonic” that arises, the destructive, or the chaotic, that can be seen in tamasic, or rajasic extremes, or both together. My reflections on this in the past have brought me to the understanding that these aspects are “allowed for”
as the necessary background of the emerging Light of Awareness, which is that which we both allow and follow as it leads us.

I see a problem arising from the incorrect interpretation of the freedom of response to awareness, leading to the difficulties of relative moralism. “One man’s food is another’s poison, so, hey, everything is ok, ultimately.” This is not so.
But errant followings of supposed inner awareness have occurred, in history and ourselves. Often murderous tyrannical systems have been built on lofty philosphies, even today. This is correctly seen as avidya, “not seeing”, or ignorance, from which future learning for individuals and humanity can emerge.
I think I am grappling with the core of discrimination within the free response to awareness. In Tantric practice, I see it as the connection constantly being formed with the Whole, the mark of Shiva in All, that brings discrimination. What is wholistic is wholesome, fruitful, constructive. The dark tends to obscure, separate, and anything separative, ultimately is destructive, dissolving - but this is all also part of the all-embracing Triadic Nature.

In your words, or others of the kula, more clarity I expect will ensue.

AWARENESS, AWARE ACTION AND ‘FREE WILL’

On the nature and role of ‘The Enlightened Ego’ in The New Yoga:

To me one of the most new and life-relevant dimensions of The New Yoga lies in the way it allows us to reconsider – on the basis of The Awareness Principle – the relation of awareness to action, and with this, the question of 'free will', human and divine.

In this context, I see it as essential to distinguish what I call ‘aware action’ from what finds expression as ordinary egoic agency or ‘doer-ship’.

My central message is that truly aware action always and only arises from an awareness of MORE THAN ONE possible thing we can do or say, and/or MORE THAN ONE possible way of doing or saying it.

Hence its connection with free action or ‘free will’ - since only where there is free CHOICE between alternative words and deeds is there freedom –‘free will’.

Yet choice itself is not an act of will or ‘doership’ but rather a LETTING be or LETTING enact of one possible action or way of acting.

In this letting enact the ego itself can allow itself to be intuitively guided by awareness as such - thus uniting individual ‘will’ with the divine ‘will’.

Essentially however, the divine does not ‘will’ at all in the ordinary egoic sense of being a wilful agent of action or ‘doer’. It just does not 'do' doing at all - initiating action in the way that the ordinary ego BELIEVES itself to do.

Instead it is as Awareness – as Shiva – that the divine lets innate powers and possibilities of Action – Shaktis – unfold and enact themselves freely, from and within awareness.

(This explains also why Iccha, Jnana and Kriya (will or intent, knowledge and action) are not Shiva as such but Shaktis of Shiva, and why the enlightened Ego is itself a Shakti of the Awareness Self.)

As unbounded awareness, the divine is also a field of unlimited and ever-multiplying POSSIBILITIES of action and actualisation.

Within this field itself all potentialities and possibilities are constantly being actualised.

Within the linear time-space of physically incarnate human awareness however, these limitless possibilities present themselves as ALTERNATE possibilities and ALTERNATIVE choices – thus offering both freedom of choice and opportunities for learning.

Freedom, as a choosing or deciding between alternative actions, is not so much ‘free will’ as Responsibility in the essential sense of this word: ‘response-ability’.

This response-ability rests in an awareness of different POSSIBLE responses (some more fruitful and fulfilling, others less so) both to other people and to all the challenges and opportunities of life.

‘Aware Action’ means choosing freely from out of this capacity for response-ability, out of a responsible and responsive awareness of alternatives.

Action in this sense is not essentially an act of doership on the part of an agent - whether a human ego or ‘I’, or a divine ego or ‘I’.

And yet the ego DOES have a vital role to play in ALL human action, not as an initiator or agent of action but as its freedom giver or allower – freely LETTING or ALLOWING one action rather than another to enact and body itself.

The true function of ‘the ego’ therefore is not to ‘do’ but to responsibly recognise alternative choices, not in order to just wilfully, impulsively or intellectually decide between them, but rather to let itself be intuitively guided in its choices BY awareness - by the divine - which is that which alone knows what the best possible action or response is in any particular circumstance.

God knows best and God’s will is all-mighty and supreme. Yet this is not because there is always and only ONE right or wrong thing to do for ALL people.

God’s ‘will’ is supreme only because that very 'will' is essentially an AWARENESS. This awareness embraces and understands - more intimately than the intellect, the full and entire life and world context within which the individual is called upon to choose. Thus it can also GUIDE the ego in allowing or letting do what is right for THEM in THEIR life world and circumstances - and right also for others within that world.

The ultimate choice then, is not between surrendering our ego to the will of a God or Guru on the one hand, or else ignorantly and ‘egotistically’ willing our own actions on the other.

The New Yoga alone recognises that the liberation and freedom that Awareness bestows demands neither the sacrifice of our individuality nor the annihilation or surrender of the ego or intellect.

The New Yoga alone recognises that the pure AWARENESS of ego is itself innately egoless – just as the ego itself can become a pure mirror of the self that IS that pure awareness.

Hence the motto ‘Love thine ego as thy Self’ - that is to say, as and from the Awareness Self - is by no means ‘egotistic’ in the ordinary sense.

For it is the true and future role of both ego and intellect to recognise and reflect that Awareness which both allows us to BE aware of more than one possible action and also guides us in CHOOSING between alternative actions.

Our innermost Self, being nothing but a pure awareness of individuality in all its many sides, is in no need of ‘realisation’ - for it is already our most essential, ultimate and divine Reality.

The aim of The New Yoga therefore, is not ‘self-realisation’ but the creation of something wholly different and indeed new – a newly enlightened ego and intellect.

The enlightened ego does not see itself as a wilful doer, agent or initiator of action. Instead it recognises its own source in Awareness, and understands its true role within it – to let or allow Action to unfold - freely from and within Awareness itself.

It does this through the enlightened INTELLECT -which is there to reflect the INTUITIVE guidance granted by awareness in choosing between alternate possible deeds and words.

The ego and intellect are therefore nothing to be sneered at. For they are that very portion of the divine awareness in each of us which alone can grant or ALLOW more time and space for awareness (this being the most basic practice of The New Yoga).

It is the enlightened ego that grants more time to awareness than the ordinary ‘wilful’ ego - thus expanding that field or space of awareness within which ALL potentialities and possibilities of thought and action lie latent.

It is the enlightened ego that can say the word ‘I’ in a way that resounds with and reflects the Awareness that is its source – that ‘Self’ whose nature is Awareness and nothing else.

The enlightened ego is nevertheless quite distinct from that immature ego which thinks of itself as 'possessing' or 'owning' Awareness, and as initiating or willing Action – and that solely in order to do or to own MORE.

The enlightened ego itself can be no wilful creation of or by the ordinary, immature ego – whether in the form of a human ego, a divine ego or the still immature ego of some self-proclaimed spiritual master or guru.

The enlightened ego is not an ego ‘with’ awareness but essentially a pure awareness of the ego – itself recognised as that portion of our Awareness Self entrusted with the role of letting or allowing an expansion of Awareness - and the unfoldment of specific Actions from it.

The enlightened ego does not place demands, give commands or impose commandments. It is not a demander or commander but rather a granter and allower.

Its role is not to Rule over the body or nature, the social world or other people but instead to (1) Recognise them all as manifestations of awareness (2) Receive or let them into awareness, and (3) Respond to them with awareness – not least the awareness of alternate ways of responding.

The Enlightened Ego is the human eye and mirror of Self and Other - not their ruler or master.

Oddly and alone, The New Yoga recognises The Enlightened Ego as the ‘Third Eye’ and Third ‘I’ of Shiva Himself in human form.

For it can shine, radiate and burn with the reflected light and heat of that Supreme Awareness whose power of action or Shakti it LET BE - whether reflecting it like a broad mirror, differentiating it like a prism, directing it like a laser - or focussing it like a powerful burning lens.

Yet its mundane significance too is immense, being that part of us which grants more time – even if only a matter of minutes - to be more aware of WHAT else, HOW else or what MORE there is we can let into or let arise from Awareness - or let unfold as Action from it.

The Enlightened Ego dwells within the larger time-space of the Awareness Self. Indeed it is through the spacious expanse of this time-space - the Sky of Shiva and womb of Mahakali - that the ordinary ego is itself en-lightened and en-lighten-ed.

To be or abide in this time-space means to not feel confined in some cramped ‘now’ – the sole focus of the ordinary ego.

Instead it is to feel this and every ‘now’ as the centre of a vast, clear time-sphere of awareness, and to feel the very vastness of cosmic space around us AS this vast TIME-space.

This Spacious Cosmic Time-Sphere can then be felt to span, encompass and embrace an entire surrounding day, month or year - and more – with all its joys and tears.

For it holds within it all actual and possible ‘nows and heres’ - past, present and future - together with all their corresponding ‘thens and theres’ - and all that is Let-Enacted within them.

Acharya

Edited by author 29-07-2009 07:33 AM
Enjoy your retreat, nice place for one, Steve. Talking of snakes, it would be good to have the opportunity to share some interesting experiences I have had with these fascinating creatures, over a Foster's.
The myths and symbolism of Naga remains for fuller exploration,like much else for me, but is already becoming rich. I have read Acharya's statement on Om Namah Shivaya. Reading for me needs to be followed by deeper experiential absorption, something I find more of a delightful challenge. But it is certainly opening up with Murti Darshan.
Thanks for the numerous leads you are dropping. I will follow up as much as I can. I am definitely getting Muller-Otega's Triadic Heart of Shiva soon. I can't wait any longer.
If the Awareness leads you to want to correspond otherwise, apart from via the bulletin board, Acharya has my email, and I think it is on my blog.

Thank you Acharya for this fuller statement too on the implications of Seth. This is another book I want soon to get. I have been reading some of his communications via the net and some readings on YouTube, as well as from you in the interim.
I find, as with the New Yoga and with the sages of the path, what we see as boundaries are but our own subtly built ones, and any boundary becomes rather a functional tool of perception, a door rather than a wall. There is much to explore and to question about but not now. I need to get a wider basis of knowledge on him and his writings. I am inundated with rich fields of exploration and knowledge.

Rod.

To Rod Lloyd: Thanks for appreciating what I wrote. It's great to find people out there who are interested in this stuff. You mentioned the U.S.'s image in other countries, so here's a few of my images of Australia: Lew Hoad, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Evonne Goolagong; Gulpilil and Nanjiwarra; the extinct Tasmanian Tiger (last living specimen photographed in 1933) and the Tasmanian Devil; the Death Adder and the Tiger Snake (world's most poisonous snake), the Amethystine Python, one of the world's top 4 constrictors; and of course, Foster's lager. Sllght preference for Steinlager (of New Zealand) at least on tap, but Foster's is pretty good too.

About that Aham: Muller-Ortega talks about it a lot in Triadic Heart of Shiva; its composition, meaning of a, ha, and m, anuttara, visarga etc. but he writes from the "outside." It's A.G.'s quotes that suggest an "inside" and therefore for me trigger amazement. The subject /discussion of "Aham" seems to rachet up in intensity even more in light of Dyczkowski's announcement of Utpaladeva's inauguration of the "Supreme Egoity" and then Acharya's zeroing in on the precise meaning of "I-consciousness." Have you read his paper on om namah shivaya? Best breakdown of a mantra I've seen, and fascinating discussion of mantra in general.

I'm now heading up for a one-day meditation retreat in a cheap motel in Duluth, Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Superior, affectionately known as The Big Lake They Call Gitchigumee. I'll have 2 pictures with me, one of Kali and one of Bhairava, which were given to me by Acharya on a visit to England in February of this year. I hope to have something more to say whenever David Lawrence's new book Teachings of The Odd-Eyed One arrives.

Steve

THE QUESTION OF SETH


Question from Rod:

May this "Seth novice" ask what you have felt is the most confirming or revealing aspect of his writings (via or merged with the Jane awareness)?

My response:

Your question about the SETH contribution to The Awareness Principle and what for me, are the most “confirming” or “revealing” aspects of his writing would require a whole book to answer – yet it also offers me an opportunity to share, albeit in brief, some very important understandings. For one thing, I see the vast body of writings - amounting to more than 40 large published volumes - mostly stemming from Seth but also including many written directly by Jane Roberts through their inspiration - as in many ways comparable in stature and significance to the Kashmiri Shaivist Tantras. For me they also offer important keys to understanding the latter – and vice versa. Without reading and re-reading, studying and re-studying the Seth books for decades, and without learning from Seth’s ground-breaking, articulate and iconoclastic revelations, there simply would be no such thing as ‘The New Yoga’ or ‘The Awareness Principle’ – for these are essentially a unique creative synthesis of the Jnana of the Shaiva tantras and the Gnosis of the Seth books.

This synthesis was made possible by my erstwhile mentor, Michael Kosok. For it was his writings that first brought Andrew Gara and I together, Michael who first introduced me to Seth in 1975, and his philosophy - together with my own initiation into the thinking of Martin Heidegger - that decisively contributed to this synthesis, albeit a synthesis that for me was not only philosophical but experiential from the start, and even before.

This is the reason why I cite Seth in my books, most often in my latest book - Event Horizon – which includes extracts from Seth’s account of ‘creation’ (presented in a book called ‘The Seth Material’) and deals at length with its relation to that of the Shaiva tantras. It is also why I cite Michael Kosok in the first pages of The Awareness Principle, and also cite from Jane Robert’s book entitled ‘The Afterlife Journal of an American Philosopher’ – in particular the description of and from that afterlife by William James (see ‘The Light of Awareness in the Afterlife’ in Tantric Wisdom for Today’s World).

The summary of Seth on the site you refer to an in your mail is absolutely correct in all respects - but nowhere near comprehensive. That is the problem. For despite selling her books in millions (in particular ‘Seth Speaks’) Andrew and I have, for decades, been baffled and appalled by just how little even the most avid and convinced of Seth’s many readers could make of so much – and that so superficially (for the most part concentrating entirely on the single mantram ‘You create your own reality’ and turning it into a parody of simplistic New-Age style ‘positive thinking’). As for what I myself see as the most important aspects of Seth’s writings (or rather his speech – which Jane herself was only able to read through her husband’s transcriptions of it as it came through her in trance) that is another matter entirely - one which, as I say, could fill an entire book. Nevertheless I will seek to make a beginning – both for you, for others (perhaps via the bulletin board) and simply ‘for the record’ as regards the nature and history of my work. What follows then, is a short summary of what I have drawn from Seth:

1. My understanding of the essence of health - as “value fulfilment” – stems from Seth, just as my understanding that illness expresses meanings and not ‘causes’ unites insights drawn principally from both Heidegger and Seth.

2. The understanding that seemingly material ‘things’ are just as much symbols (linga) as words are. In terms of The Awareness Principle they are the living experiential ‘vocabulary’ of awareness, given form through a basic alphabet (matrika) and what Seth describes as inner light and sound – which I understand of course as the inner light and sound of awareness.

3. The fundamental understanding that whilst not a person, God is nothing purely impersonal either. How could he be, Seth asks rhetorically - since that vast consciousness that He is IS itself the source of our personhood, immanent within it.

4. In a section of ‘The Seth Material’ entitled ‘The Agony of All That Is’ he introduces the paradoxical idea that “There is non-being”, yet that this is not a Buddhist void of nothingness (empty even of consciousness) but instead a realm of infinite potentialities - at first dimly sensed in the consciousness of ‘All That Is’ (Seth’s term for ‘God’) and then gradually differentiating and multiplying in his dreams as infinite potential individuals and worlds – all yearning for actualisation. From Seth therefore, I also drew the understanding of ‘non-being’ as merely the non-actual, which does not exclude the reality of all that is potential.

5. Seth does indeed emphasise that we have ‘infinite life experiences’ and that our journey of consciousness is unending. Our infinite lives include not only reincarnational existences (which he for the first time presents as simultaneous incarnations of a common ‘entity’ or ‘oversoul’), but also ‘counterpart’ incarnations living in the same time era, as well as countless parallel lives, lived in parallel worlds. A young physicist brought this idea of parallel worlds to Niels Bohr and was dismissed out of hand. Since then, the idea has been popularised in a number of movies and sci-fi series – recognising that for every decision we take between more than one choice, there is a self that chooses differently. For us that self which chose differently is just a road we could have taken, a life we could have lived. For all our ‘parallel’ selves it is the other way round – ours is the ‘imaginary’ life it could have led, the self it could have become, and/or the world it could have ended up living in.

6. Time is not a line leading from earlier to later, past to future. A tree’s roots do not seek out that ‘earlier’ tree from whose seed it grew, but grow down into the soil from which all trees arise – and grow upwards and outwards towards the light which gives them life and that enables the seed or sapling to become a tree. The physicists have it, according to Seth, exactly the wrong way round and so do philosophers (except Heidegger), psychologists, and historians - including scholars of philosophy and of the tantras. For the fact that light from the outermost edges of the universe takes ‘light years’ to reach us does not mean it gives us a picture of the distant past of the cosmos. Instead the further outward we travel in space - physically ‘or’ in awareness –the more we move towards the future. Just as a sapling roots both down into the soil and towards the very light which enables it to grow into a tree - only thus becoming what it can be - and just as a child grows towards what it could or wants to be in the future – so are all ‘origins’ essentially futural and not ‘rooted’ in the past. The New Yoga is itself rooted in the same soul and soil from which Kashmir Shaivism itself grew, which was not from just its own ‘earlier’ sources but from their soil, and towards what could unfold from that soil and in a light streaming ‘backwards’ from the future.

7. According to Seth, time has an ‘inside’ as well as a before and after. In my terms, it has the character of circles within circles (chakra) or spheres within spheres of a time-space which embraces multiple pasts, presents and futures. All ‘time-lines’ from past to future are but multiple possible lines followed on the surface of a time- sphere. Yet every point or period of time on such a surface line is also linked inwardly to every other through the centre of the time sphere – its Bindu. Ultimately all points and periods in time arise from its withinness and not from earlier or even later points and periods. Thus all Mondays and all 4pms - pictured as petals of a lotus or points on a circle or chakra - are more closely connected with one another than they are with all Sundays or Tuesdays, all 3pms and 5pms – arising as they do from a common inner centre of a time-circle, sphere or ‘lotus’. The ultimate ‘future’ therefore is not the end of any line of time followed on the surface of a time-circle or sphere. For a circle has no beginning or end. Instead the essence of futurity as such is an ultimate circumference, circle or sphere of time-space as such, understood as a circumference of awareness - and its manifestation as the luminous starry centres or ‘galactic gods’ closest to that circumference. Not only is the attempt to determine a point in time at which time itself began – with a ‘Big Bang’ – pure logical nonsense. The very attempt to do so by seeking light from ever-further edges of the known universe gets it the wrong way round. For if we understand time as a sphere of time-space (rather than as ‘lines’ of ‘space-time’) then the ultimate cosmic circumference is when it all ‘began’ (the expanding time-womb of Ma Kali) and not the result of a ‘Big Bang’!

8. Thus it is that whilst I have described The Awareness Principle and its Practice - The New Yoga - as a ‘reincarnation’ of the soul of Kashmir Shaivism, from my neo-Sethian perspective it is more accurate to say that they are that TOWARS WHICH which Kashmir Shaivism itself was growing and striving. The Awareness Principle and The New Yoga are themselves evolving and unfolding in and towards the bright light of a still unforeseeable way of thinking and being, one belonging to a civilisation that is already a reality – not in some long-gone past argued over by archaeologists of the Indus Valley, or fantasised as a long-lost continent of the past - but a possible or ‘probable’ future of humanity. Similarly, what Heidegger called ‘The Last God’, is the ‘earliest’ god only in the essential sense of being that god, which - by virtue of being the ‘fore-runner’ or first to set out – is also the latest or last to fully ARRIVE. Shiva, as the ‘earliest’ god, is in essence this ‘Last God’ – not a past god but that bright sun beckoning us in the present to all our possible futures. Understood in this way, Shaivism and the message of Seth converge in the words of Martin Heidegger for whom the last god is:

“the totally other over and against gods who have been, especially over and against the Christian god … The last is that which not only needs the longest fore-runnership but also itself is … the deepest beginning …not the end but the other beginning of immeasurable possibilities for our history…Preparation for the appearing of the last god is the utmost venture … All heretofore ‘cults’ and ‘churches’ and such things cannot at all become the essential preparation…”

9. For us all as individuals, the future we prepare for is of course…death. Heidegger too, spoke of ‘being towards death’ as the most authentic mode of being. Yet nowhere but in ‘Seth Speaks’ have I read what appears to me as the most accurate account of the death experience, and of the choices and FURTHER paths of development of awareness and being that lies beyond it. What I see Seth ADDING most to both the Shaiva tradition in particular and Hindu/Buddhist philosophy in general then, is a glimpse – in some detail - of the eternal life of the soul after its final incarnation and the larger worlds of awareness it can then explore. For in the multi-dimensional universe of awareness within which Seth describes himself as existing, there are countless planes of awareness, and countless types consciousnesses many of which - unlike his - have never taken physical or human form. Our earthly physical plane then, is no starting point for our development as ‘souls’, nor is it the centre of this multi-dimensional universe of awareness – but merely one minor plane within it. According to Seth it is essentially a type of nursery school in which basic truths, ethical and metaphysical, must be learned before those souls who incarnate within the physical plane and in human form can pass on to the Greater Life of Awareness - embarking on yet greater Journeys of Awareness and fulfilling potentials of awareness impossible to realise within the physical plane. Central to this Greater Life and Journey of Awareness is an expansion of awareness, aided by discarnate teachers, that allows the individualised awareness or ‘soul’ who has left the reincarnational cycle to (a) embrace an ever-greater multiplicity of selves or identities within it, (b) freely mix and merge its identities with those of others (c) explore new planes of awareness and (d) playfully weave and create – like an artist - whole new worlds of awareness.

10. Alternatively, according to Seth the soul may decide to train as a teacher or healer for those still bound to the physical plane. This requires a background experience of many lives in which intimate knowledge of the diverse cultural, social, scientific and religious symbol systems of different eras and civilisations has been acquired – so that these ‘native’ symbol-systems can then be awarefully and artfully deployed as a medium for the communication of truths transcending them – not least the recognition of non-physical realms and dimensions of awareness. Such teachers have always existed, and may operate either from those non-physical realms or through deliberately chosen incarnations as teachers. All the great ‘Mahasiddhas’ and ‘Boddhisatvas’, as well as many great artistic or philosophical geniuses, have trained or served as such teachers – and/or teacher trainers – in this specific sense. Seth himself explains how painters such as Michelangelo used accepted religious symbols in a way that subtly challenged and transcended the framework within which they were understood by the Church at the time. Whole teachings have been presented to humanity by such teachers - either explicitly, as philosophical treatises or tantras, and/or else in the form of art works (for example musical works or literary ‘fiction’ - including ‘science fiction’. To me one of the greatest ‘spiritual teachers’ of the 19th century was not a philosopher or yogin but the composer Anton Bruckner (formally and in his outer personage a devout Catholic). For his symphonies were and are teachings of the most profound character, just as were - and are - the operas of Richard Wagner. And it was Seth’s concept of ‘feeling tone’ – understood in The New Yoga as innate sensual tonalities of Awareness - that was most crucial in helping me to understand and articulate my experience of the awareness-nature of many things – not just music itself, but also of mantra, ‘non-being’ as realm of manifestation-potential, and the experience of ‘tantric pair meditation’. For it was through the innate Siddhis I cultivated and applied through it that I recalled what has always been closest to my heart - the nature of the direct wordless communication of awareness that I had already become accustomed to in the ‘life between lives’. That is also why for me personally, the most important “confirmation” of the Seth books lay in recalling the truth that the ‘afterlife’ is not a mere interlude between physical incarnations nor is leaving the reincarnational cycle a matter of attaining some ultimate state of total identification with the Great Awareness - one lacking all further potential-manifestation or Shakti. Instead what we think as a ‘life between lives or the life ‘beyond transmigration’ is but a PORTAL to The Greater Life and Journey of Awareness’ – a journey that can take us into countless new worlds of awareness, allow us to encounter the higher consciousnesses that inhabit them, offer ever-richer and more intense experiences of awareness and open up ever broader horizons of awareness – up to and including that ultimate circumference or ‘Event Horizon’ of awareness, of which there is nothing higher - Anuttara.

I could go on and on…as I say this is just an introduction to what unaware and untrained ‘Seth fans’ have been wholly unable to grasp from their reading of the Seth books. Suffice it to say that I understand myself as a teacher in the sense described above – and understand this life as the final incarnate stage of my training – a life in which I have succeeded in recalling, mastering and interweaving sufficient symbol-systems - past and present - to forge a new one of the sort so much needed for the future of humanity.

Beyond this life, words will once again cease to be my principal medium of learning and teaching, as they have already long ceased to be in the practice of puja – not to mention the gifts I employ in the new forms of tantric pair meditation I have evolved and their use for healing, teaching and initiation. I look forward to death first of all as an opportunity to engage in fully free and playful Lila – to revel in once again revealing the many currently invisible forms and faces of my awareness body, whilst inwardly communicating with others in the way I love most - through quasi-musical tonalities of awareness and their countless sensual qualities and dimensions. I also know in advance - and from experience already attained in this life - that I will be able, if I choose, to let my awareness flow into the soul bodies of those still physically incarnate, and thus in some way also re-body myself through them without the need of further incarnations myself.

I have shared in this letter some very deep and ‘esoteric’ personal and trans-personal understandings with you in answer to your question about Seth. These in may raise yet further significant questions for other readers. I say to all - feel free to ask them.

And for anyone thinking of embarking on reading Seth himself I recommend that I they start with the book entitled ‘Seth Speaks’ – but ignoring all the unnecessary notes and comments interspersed in it by Robert Butts.

"Shiva has many names." (Rod) Put in other terms the Absolute Awareness - God - 'gods' under many names, and in the form of many higher trans-physical awarenesses. Seth is no doubt one of them - even though one of the first messages he spoke through Jane was that names are not important.


Acharya

Edited by author 26-07-2009 12:55 AM
May I share two further awarenesses of this central discussion initiated by Steven, that have arisen following Murti Darshan.
I referred to the Mandelbrot Set and on further reflection, it appears to be an even more likely analogy of the nature of the Awareness Self, than I first appreciated. Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, in their "The Collapse of Chaos" state "Like thousands before us, we are trying to come to grips with 'emergent phenomena' - collective behaviour of a system that somewhow transcends its components. Because it transcends them, it can't be "in" the components. So where is it?"
Indeed. And as in all the fields you have applied the Awareness Principle to Acharya,it here too "completes" the conceptual resolution.

Here we see in a most mysterious manifestation of mathematics, the Mandelbrot set [I don't presume mathematic knowledge, of which this layman has only the surface, so point to here as a summary statement about the Mandelbrot http://www.ddewey.net/mandelbrot/] - in its infinite complexity arising from a quite simple ever-expanding reiterative formula. Behind that is also reference to one of the most mysterious and paradoxical conceptions of all mathematics, imaginary numbers, still essentially undefinable, yet used, required and experienced in mathematics constantly. Echoes of quantum science.
Its undefinability and its infinite manifestation have made this as an ever evolving yantra to me. Even its very form is telling, with its ever budding, spiralling creations. As discussion of the nature of the "I" has already been explored extensively here, I will simply raise it for reflection as a suitable analogy.
The other awareness, was from the ground so to speak. Here in Australia as well as elsewhere, there is rising tide of brutal insensitive human attitudes in sections of a new generation, along with a sad rising of youth suicide. The connection I saw was the cold separatism ("I am not you, and you are not me, so if you hurt, what does it mean to me?" ) that has arisen from an equally cold-hearted misconstrued Western science, devoid of soul.
Many have lost a true sense and experience of deep identity, of identity with a Transcendent that contains them and upholds them. Much in religion has this also, that while they use many fine labels and different conceptions, betray a fact by their separatist attitudes to each other. In the Awareness Principle, and Kashmir Shaivism, and indeed in its Mother Hindu philosophy in general, a deep answer to these destructive separist attitudes is to be found.
Only with a true experiencing of Transcendent/Immanent Awareness does the Other become Self. Shiva has many names.

Om Namah Shivaya.

Edited by author 25-07-2009 03:09 PM
Just further, as I took in more of "Aham" article, an equally relevant statement -


"When Śiva wants to create, the first step is said to be the creation of an interior space (the space of his heart) - a matrix of energies that will be the substrate of the new world. This place is called Aham which means "I" in Sanskrit. Thus the absolute first creates the divine person, Aham, and from this divine person will appear the manifestation itself.

Aham is identical to mātṛkā (the wheel of phonematic energies), essential nature of all categories from Pṛithvī tattva (earth) to Sadāśiva tattva,[4]. Aham is the final resting place, dwelling place, abode of all beings, receptacle of the world."