 49. Enlightenment |
This is the direct or sudden Method of Enlightenment. The true Self is Realized through direct and present dissolution of the egoic mind, the self-defining acts of attention, the subtle and causal coverings of the soul. One who surrenders the mind into the heart by the direct Method had transcended all desire for experience.
In that case, the Bodily Current of the All-Pervading Life, or the true Breath of Life in the body, which circulates in the body via the spinal line, becomes naturally and spontaneously polarized toward the higher brain, the brahmarandhra, the crown of the body. Therefore, the Current flows in the direction or disposition of prior transcendence of bodily and mental experience, rather than toward the generation and exploitation of bodily and mental experience, extended from crown to toe. In this manner, the mind, or the play of attention, is transcended at the heart, and the sensory body is constantly yielded into the internal Life-Current, which breaks through the upper limits of the brain and merges with the All-Pervading Radiance of the Divine Person. Therefore, at death, all the coverings of the soul are utterly dissolved in the Transcendental Heart, wherein the body-mind appears and disappears. One who thus renounces the body-mind no longer separately appears in any dimension of the Realm of Nature, the experiential Realm of Changes.
There is another Process, which ultimately leads to the same Enlightenment, after long cycles of births and deaths in the realms of subtle or ascended experience. This Method is chosen by those who yet desire the experiences of the subtle realm of mind, even though they have mastered all desires that lead into the grosser realms or experiences of the elemental body.
This Method involves the raising of attention into the brain core, the ajna chakra, below the crown of the body, via the Life-Current, or the Breath of Life, in the spinal line of the body. Attention is not directly yielded at the heart, but it remains active as the subtle mind, analogous to the consciousness of the higher and deep brain, and it is associated with the subtle counterparts of the physical senses. By such means, the atomic soul may attain the subtle body in the sky of mind, and wander, by its powers, throughout the Realm of Nature. The soul may thus ascend into the abodes of other ascended beings, who live long lives and enjoy various extraordinary powers.
But such mystics eventually and inevitably pass through many changes, becoming an ordinary sacrifice, along with all of the transitory elements of the Realm of Nature.They disintegrate and pass on, from stage to stage in the orderly illusion of phenomena, until at last they also enter into the sacrifice of the body, the senses, the mind, and the entire process of arising or differentiated attention that is the ego, the "covered" soul. Therefore, they too must finally yield the mind of self into the Radiant Heart of the Divine Person, the true Self, Who is Eternal Bliss, Transcending all selves and changes.
These are the two Paths by which souls may Realize the Eternal Bliss that is Truth, the Condition of the Divine Person. One Proceeds by gradual ascent of attention within the planes of experience, dissolving, by degrees, the coverings of the soul in the planes of illusion and change, until the Heart Out-Shines the inner being. The other Path Proceeds directly and immediately to the Heart, the Radiant Self, prior to all experience, all progress, all strategic austerity, all dramas of attention. One Path Proceeds by mystical ascent of the illusory inner self, or mind, via the Chain of Creation. The other Proceeds by direct intuitive submission of the entire body-mind into the Radiant Source and Transcendental Matrix of all phenomena.
There is no other or easier Path by which born souls may Realize the Bliss of the Living God. There is, indeed, only the Single Path, which may be followed either slowly or suddenly to the Heart. It is the Great Path of self-surrender in Love-Communion with the Radiant Self, the All-Pervading and Transcendental Divine Person. Those who "hear" this Teaching "see" the Divine Person as the true Self of the inner soul. They are cleansed, forgiven, and altogether purified of all impulses toward experience in the Realm of Nature, and they certainly Realize the Blissful Person, the Radiant Consciousness that is the Eternal Matrix, Truth, and Destiny of the World.
