Tree of Wisdom


The Stages of Life
1) Student    2) Householder    3) Retirement    4) Renunciation

The Goals of Life
1) Material Security    2) Fulfillment of Duty    3) Sensuous Enjoyment  
4) Preparation and Quest for Freedom


THE VEIL OF SEPARATION

The universe originates from Brahman; and though the universe originates from Brahman, that Brahman remains the same. Maya is illusion, the phenomenal appearance and our field-of-action. We live in an imaginal space, that is: a world of images and imagination. But, we are born ignorant of first principles and fundamental processes. We are born in this world without locomotion and totally dependent and instinctual. We need warmth, quiet love, and time to grow physically and develop psychically, but especially in our contemporary age, this is difficult. Like the Silver Age of the Ancient Masters, people today live like infant children until they are old then die without ever really maturing. Conforming stupidity and counterfeit knowledge produce a tyranny of error. People have brains, but they lack critical thinking skills and discernment. They assume sense perception is an accurate representation of the world and live in confusion and doubt. They are lazy fanatics. There is no shortage of quick-talking opinions, and a disruption of cause-and-effect is on display everywhere.

Meditation is not merely sitting quietly and staring at the impressions on your closed eyelids or contemplating emptiness, but a combination of mantra, icon, posture, gesture, and breath-control to gain in body powers and perfections, and extrasensory perceptions and mind-powers. There are some schools that keep the information, but they are hesitant to give accurate instructions for fear of incorrect application. Some students are willing to pay small fortunes to learn the correct method, and many have been cheated by unscrupulous charlatans. Authentic meditation is not really an appropriate practice for most people, and the right conditions rarely exist to practice it. So, explicit directions for those advanced practices were hidden, and other methods are promoted that aren't authentic meditation. 

Many teachers will prescribe dawn and dusk practices that include chanting, devotional rituals and other mindfulness activities. It is also advised to create a space in your home especially for these practices; some people perform meditation and prayer at a personal shrine with incense, fruit and flowers, scriptural quotes, and chosen ideals. It is sometimes easier to perform these rites with others, and there are often communities that form around specific practices and personalities. Routine is necessary because it builds momentum and anchors us in spiritual principles regardless of the other demands of the day. For the common man, spiritual practice gives strength and dignity amidst life's problems and challenges. When we share a spiritual practice and philosophy with others, then we have the strongest bond for victory in the field-of-action. The goal is freedom. 


THE VEIL OF GLAMOUR

There is no single standard for behavior, but a common ideal is to be attracted to what ennobles us and gives us dignity while having aversion for that which makes us weak and ineffective. With skillful means, even desire can sometimes lead to enlightenment, though restraint and detachment is required for advanced disciplines. Being situationally outraged or feeling severity and hate is natural to being human, and difficult emotions can also be a tool toward enlightenment, given the right time, place and context.  When you feel difficult emotions, take them to a wise Teacher, who can direct you in ways to use that experience for your own good and in benefit to the common good. This is how the most difficult emotions find acceptable expression and relief. Accept your difficult emotions are natural. They are also impermanent. Analyze them carefully. Your fears often reveal your core values. Your anger may actually be a sign of your love of justice!  Strive to know the Truth behind the fleeting appearances. Remember, life is the unfolding of problems, so expect trouble. Shock, confusion and sorrow are temporary reactions that offer wisdom-in-disguise for those who make use of the opportunity. 


Read the world's scriptures and study the lives of saints and visionaries. Go on pilgrimage to different sites of worship, and make friends with the people gathered there. Seek out inter-religious dialogues. Associate with people who have incorporated these ideas in their life. For many people, spiritual practice is a quick-fix solution to their health, love affairs and finances. They need relief from the anxieties of material survival, and when the crisis is over, their commitment to the practice wanes. They weren't really motivated by love of Truth. Others become too sentimental and lose their powers of discernment in flights of fancy. Another danger is decadent ceremonialism, which is attractive to some, disliked by others, and often misunderstood. What is needful is authentic spiritual nourishment. The scriptures and the lives of the saints and visionaries offer a map that can be an excellent lens for interpreting our own experiences. The ancient laws always advised the need of a good Teacher, but they are rare today. Nevertheless, they exist, and if you go on pilgrimage, you are certain to find a Teacher. Some say that a man who has seen God sometimes behaves like a madman, sometimes like a ghoul, sometimes like a sweet child, and sometimes he sits and cannot work. Others say he becomes all-loving and jolly. Sometimes he is inspired to teach. He may join a company of like-minded philosophers, or he may travel on long pilgrimages. He is often surrounded by an entourage of devotees and students. He sometimes lives as a wandering beggar. If he proves himself as a Torchbearer of Truth, then follow him even if he is young and drunk, and reward him with whatever privileges he desires. Brahmins are always regarded as honored guests. 


INTEGRATE PERCEPTIONS OF UNITY

As if an optical illusion, the undifferentiated Being has taken on the appearance of a myriad of beings and exists as-such. The question arises: Who am I? So, you peel away the layers: I am not the body, I am not these sense perceptions, I am not these emotions which come and go, I am not these thoughts I am thinking. You peel away the layers until your finite existence is dissolved in Brahman, the Ultimate Being which also animates everybody who ever lived, everybody that is living now, and everybody who will ever live. That's eternal life. But, there is no guarantee of personal immortality, however long your deeds and thinking are remembered after your body expires. Achieve non-dual knowledge, then do as you wish.

EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION and MIND-POWERS:
1) Astronomical correspondences: knowledge of stars and other heavenly bodies, their interactions and correlations
2) Knowledge of the planes of dimensions of existence
3) Telepathy: shared emotion (sympathy, empathy) and knowledge of others' thoughts
4) Knowledge of the working of the personal mind
5) Knowledge of things-as-such
6) Knowledge of anatomy and physiology; bodily centers and structures
7) Knowledge of past life and previous incarnations
8) Knowledge of future life and events, including death
9) Knowledge of the Light of revelation in human communication, animal calls, birdsong, and other beings like flowers and trees
10) Supernatural knowledge of human history
11) Communion with the Masters of Wisdom
12) Knowledge of invisible processes of Nature
13) Remote-hearing
14) Remote-viewing
15) Remote-tasting
16) Remote-smelling

BODY POWERS and PERFECTIONS
1) Shrink
2) Expand
3) Weightless
4) Immovable
5) Reach to the moon (or any remote object) and touch it by fingertip
6) Instant wish fulfillment
7) Creative Mastery
     - instant manifestation of material things and sensations
     - physical transformation of objects
     - invisibility
     - projection of multiple forms, assumption of various perspectives
     - transformation of instinctual physical mind to vehicle of expression for spiritual values
     - enlighten others to essential Nature
     - benefit society with new order, new lifestyle, and new values as a figure-of-history and person-of-destiny
8) Control and Mastery of internal and external Nature
     - resistance to disease, decay; longevity, vitality and physical charm; ability to die at-will
     - control others through bioenergetic suggestion
     - calm brute instinct, wrath and aggression of animals and humans
     - mastery of personal instinct, passion, motivation
9) Teach by compassionate look, touch, loving embrace, mantra
10) Heal excessive suffering
11) Convert Elements to food
12) Immortality
13) Revive the recently dead
14) Mass hypnosis
15) Reasonable will
16) Impersonal will
17) Nirvakalpa Samadhi
18) Integration


INTEGRATE VISIONS AND DREAMS

A vision quest typically involves a ritual ordeal including fasting, wilderness retreat,  consumption of entheogenic plants, and supervision by a specialist; this should not be attempted without correct preparation. The expansion of individual awareness and acquisition of extraordinary mind-powers is dangerous without the right context and a guide, which is repeated again and again by yogis and gurus and found as warning throughout the texts of the ancient mystics. Beware risky short-cuts through use of hallucinogens. Authentic spirituality is a lifestyle and a consistent discipline.

Dreams offer a view into the depths and recesses of our nature of which we usually have no access in the  waking state. To a doctor, a dream gives witness to or foreshadows transformation in waking life, also often useful as a diagnostic of bodily health. Dreams are a product of multiple agencies. The content of a dream is determined by the individual personality of the dreamer. Dreams borrow contents from what has passed through our sense perception or found a place in our waking thoughts and fit them into archetypal structures. When we dream, we imagine many different characters and places, though when we wake up, it was all a product of our mind; the waking life is also like a dream, and when you wake up from this dream of Life, you will know your true identity.


INTEGRATE ENLIGHTENMENT

Brahman is infinite, undivided, unchanging existence and awareness. It shines. Brahman is the impersonal Absolute, the source and substance of all phenomenal appearances and personalities. Atman is the personal soul; Atman is to Brahman as a drop of water is to the ocean. Mind is both heart and intellect. Our emotions are largely a product of our thinking, and our thinking is confused by our instincts and social pressures. Quiet the chatter of the monkey-mind, and have mercy! Live simply and free of clutter. Avoid gossip, and inhabit spaces free of spasmodic interruptions and acute sensory distractions. Grow plants, even in a window-box or container garden, and follow Nature. There are two ways mindfulness is defeated: past-life intrusions and future speculation. Mindfulness is achieved when you choose your words carefully and observe silence. Mindfulness is achieved when you are deliberate in your actions and waste no effort. Mindfulness is enhanced by steady practice.


Where four streets meet, where there is too much noise, where there are many corrupt characters, do not practice Raja Yoga. Do not practice when the body feels very lazy or ill, or when the mind is miserable and sorrowful. Go to a place that is well hidden, where people do not come to disturb you. Do not choose dirty places. Rather choose beautiful scenery, or a room in your own house which is beautiful. When you practice, first salute all the ancient Yogis, and your own Guru, and God, and then begin. In solitary places such as mountain caves where the floor is even, free of pebbles, fire, or sand, where there are no disturbing noises from men or waterfalls, in auspicious places helpful to the mind and pleasing to the eyes, meditate.

The end result is perfect enlightenment, freedom from fear, and reconciliation with the Absolute Source of all Being; the demands for secrecy at this point are severe: the teachings were never written down and lessons were conducted in private far, far, far away from the city, where the initiate could experience the symptoms and ecstasies in deepest solitude. Without an appropriate environment and right guidance, madness is possible, and even death. The dangers of the technique and the select few initiated at this level suggest that the goal of this step is not appropriate for most people.

1)      Yama – Restraint
a.       Ahimsa – Non-injury
                                                              i.      Abstinence from harm in thought, word, and action
                                                            ii.      Peace in mind, mouth, and hand
                                                          iii.      War must be avoided by sincere and truthful dialogue
                                                           iv.      Do not assume the world is free of aggression. Immaturity and ignorant assumptions cause people to intrude and attack, out of error or fear. Avoid the conflict, if possible; protect yourself with honor.
b.      Satya – Truth and Mercy; Order and Duty
c.       Asteya – Freedom from hoarding and greed
d.      Aparigraha – Austerity and simple lifestyle
e.      Brahmacharya – “follow Brahman”
                                                              i.      Abstinence from thrill-seeking sensuality
                                                            ii.      Transformation of needs for food and sex
                                                          iii.      Striving for excellence in character and relations
                                                           iv.      Association with righteous company and lovers of God
2)      Niyama – Discipline
a.       Shaoca – Purity
                                                              i.      Clean body and home
                                                            ii.      Correct diet
                                                          iii.      Simplicity in dress
                                                           iv.      Mindfulness
                                                             v.      Benevolence
                                                           vi.      Chakra cleansing
b.      Santosha – Contentment; enthusiastic satisfaction
c.       Tapas – Service and Generosity
d.      Sradhyaya – Inquiry, Spiritual Study, and repetition of mantra
e.      Ishwarapranidhana – Attention to God through devotional practices
3)      Asana – body postures (Hatha Yoga) preparation for meditation
4)      Pranayama – breath control; command of vitality
5)      Pratyahara – withdrawal to solitude; withdrawal from senses; withdrawal from thought
6)      Dharana – Concentration
a.       Candle hypnosis (beginners)
b.      Steady focus on chosen ideal and mantra (intermediate)
7)      Dhyana – Meditation
a.       Raja Yoga twice daily (advanced)
8)      Samadhi – Unitary Consciousness
a.       Savikalpa: Saguna Brahman – heightened perceptions and powers; intuitive inspiration
b.      Nirvakalpa: Nirguna Brahman – absorption in the Limitless Light free from name+form