Month: December 2012

Upaaya-Kaushala: Expertise inthe Means of Liberating Oneself and Others

Posted on by ahymsin

One of the Ten Paaramitaas, Perfections of a Bodhisattva1

I am constantly experimenting with upaaya-kaushala paaramitaa, one of the ten perfections required of an aspiring-to-be Bodhisattva. The perfection in the means and methods for liberating oneself and others.

All my teaching, organizational efforts, communications are part of that constant self-experimentation.

As part of that series of life-long experimentation I have reached these conclusions on the basis of which all my ‘policies’ (what a horrible word, better to say ‘approaches’) are developed. Some, only some of many, of the conclusions are:

  • There is no difference between teaching on one hand and running a family or organization or any relationships or communications even ‘business’ communications on the other. The latter becomes a part of the teaching. This must always reflect the level of realizations one has arrived at with regard to the principles of ahimsa, maitri 2, and so forth.

On the basis of that

  • I began the difficult task of de-conditioning myself. This required sifting through all formative impressions, samskaras, gathered from the day I can remember myself. De-value and discard those that were not conducive only (a) to the perennial goals and (b) to the principles like ahimsa and maitri and so forth.

Thus, in inter-relationships within the organizational family, fully aware of each participant’s shortcomings – as they (just like me) have not yet reached perfection – I must

  • use the best of each person’s qualities, as far as they have reached the desired steps on the path to perfection;
  • not keep looking at their shortcomings;
  • continue to ‘make use’ of their strengths and valuing and appreciating the services they CAN perform; not judging them negatively;
  • waiting for them to perfect themselves in the areas that still need improvement, and patiently wait, wait , wait, even into many future incarnations as my Master has so patiently waited on my perfection (not yet achieved, alas) for so many incarnations;
  • keeping on trying to design and redesign the organizational family to help achieve these goals, and
  • I must (we also must) continue the self-experiments in upaaya-kaushala paaramitaa.

This is the approach on which my decision making process is based.

As to a successor, the one I am looking for needs to have these qualifications:

  • Love and loyalty for the Master(s) and his/their teachings – feeling direct connection with and reverence for the Rishis
  • Deep meditation and a record of guided intensive sadhana
  • Universal love
    • (a) beyond castes, status, country, culture, gender and language
    • (b) each person is [all women are] mother-sister-daughter, [all men are] father-brother-son, entitled to that purity of love that one gives to one’s own
  • Communication
    • (a) loving, everyone should feel loved at the first greeting
    • (b) open, sharing information
    • (c) consulting widely to arrive at a decision
    • (d) yet effective in liberating oneself, librating others, and getting the Mission to be successful
    • No unilateral decisions and declarations of any sort
  • Following the principles I have written about in this document and in Sadhana of Applied Spirituality document.
  • Access to shastras, the ancient texts.

I admit that I may have to settle for less — if Gurudeva so desires.

I ask all my family to examine if these principles and ways seem (a) aligned to our spiritual goals, (b) conducive to our aspirations for perennial values and thereby (c) help and serve the Tradition and the Mission.

I ask all my family to examine if the (i) principles (ii) ways (iii) approaches they choose seem (a) aligned to our spiritual goals, (b) conducive to our aspirations for perennial values and thereby (c) help and serve the Tradition and the Mission.

Do spend some time contemplating on this.

Many have succeeded but only to a certain extent, each according to his/her capacity, that is, the ability to free themselves of the force of samskaras and the consequent habits of emotion and temperament.

Do continue (making no separation between living personal life, teaching or running administration or organization) conquering and proceeding well on the path of becoming a jina 3.

a-kinchanah 4

Swami Veda Bharati

1 Future Buddha, one who has taken the vow : I shall not desist. I shall not step back. I shall not fear. Not till all living beings from a blade of grass to a Brahma ( soul of a universe) are liberate, shall I enter nirvana. That is my vow. One bodhisattva, by the name Kshiti-garbha (Earth Womb) has taken the vow of dwelling in hell till all beings cease entering hell.

2 Buddhist metta in Pali language; universal amity.

3Jina, term common as an epithet of the Buddha and even more common for the founders of the Jaina religion. Conqueror, in a spiritual sense.

4I like two ways of signing; these are very common among Sanskrit-speakers. A-kinchana, one who is a nothing. Daasaanudaasa, servant of the servants (of the Guru or the Lord). The ‘h’ at the end as in a-kinchanah or daasaanudaasah is a mark of nominative singular.

Christmas Greeting, 2012

Posted on by ahymsin

On a silent night did Krishna incarnate in a prison to liberate the world.

On a silent night did Jesus take birth to give salvation to his world-wandering herd.

On a silent night did Buddha sally forth in secret to find enlightenment.

Of the silent dark night does St. John of the Cross sing; when his love yearned and his house was at rest.

On that happy night, all his senses stilled, did he exit by the secret ladder—says he.

Such a night is the sister of Dawn. Such a night is the night of light wherein all that were restless come to settle down– says the Veda.

On such a night does the priest remain awake — says Ahur Mazda to Zarathushtra.

Such a night is the luminous dawn of enlightenment for the yogi.

May you, senses stilled, experience the Divine Birth within on such silent night of interior stillness and find the secret ladder whereby to ascend to the throne of Light.

Celebrate with serene joy the Silent Night, the seven-chakra-candle Hanukkah, a change of season, sun’s turning, you prospering with a spiritual fortune.

Enjoy your awakening into stillness and let that be the celebration of joy.

Imparting the Knowledge of Brahma Vidya

Posted on by Mandala

Imparting the knowledge of Brahma Vidya is the most difficult of all tasks for the following reason:

  1. Students cannot organize their internal states due to a lack of discipline, and thus their mental energy remains dissipated.
  2. The desire to know Truth is only one of many desires of the human mind, and without a single and one-pointed desire, one is not able to direct the course of his life.
  3. The modern way of life distracts one with many preoccupations and involvements.
  4. One does not find a suitable and quiet environment for sadhana.
  5. The aspirant is easily swayed by a variety of philosophical statements and concepts, and so due to lack of experience, changes his way of sadhana.
  6. For lack of true and selfless guidance from a competent teacher, the student does not make the decision that sadhana is his prime duty and that all other duties that he has to fulfill are only a means to attain the goal of sadhana. The goal of sadhana should be understood comprehensively both in theory and practice before one treads the path. There are many opportunities to become lost in the inner jungle of thoughts, feelings, and desires.
  7. The further the aspirant advances in his experience of the inner levels of life, the greater are the obstacles he finds. One therefore needs considerable patience.

Unless one follows discipline in all levels of life, regulating the four primitive urges — food, sleep, sex, and self-preservation — sadhana is impossible. And without sadhana there is no experience of the Self. Five or ten minutes of practice may give one a bit of solace, but sadhana that is not motivated toward the attainment of constant consciousness does not lead to experiential knowledge. For lack of direct experience, one knows yet does not know. The Upanishads say, “One who believes that Atman can be comprehended through the knowledge of the mind is ignorant.”

Many aspirants acquire superficial knowledge from reading books or listening to scholars and then contend that they have acquired profound knowledge, but they are merely feeding their egos. Thus they created additional barriers instead of removing those that already exist. The ego maintains a fortress all the time. It loses consciousness of the Self and forgets that is a representative of the Self. This is the prime source of delusion.

One should not merely acquire intellectual knowledge but should practice self-discipline, which is an essential requisite and not a source of stress and strain. It is impossible to perform one’s own duty successfully without being disciplined. It is important to note here that modern teachers and leaders are not disciplined themselves but nonetheless try to discipline others. Thus they are not successful. He must first discipline himself before he can teach others self-discipline.

Editor’s Note

An excerpt from Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Rama, published 1985 by the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy of the U.S.A.

Definitions from the glossary in Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad Gita:

BRAHMA VIDYA

The science of BRAHMAN, the absolute Reality, which includes philosophical and practical disciplines that lead one to the spiritual goal.

BRAHMAN

The absolute Reality, pure Consciousness. According to ADVAITA VEDANTA philosophy, Brahman is the Absolute non-dual Reality, and Its essential nature is existence, consciousness, and bliss. There is a perfect identity between the Self and Brahman; the difference or duality between Brahman and the Self is mere illusion.

Chitta-Prasaadanam

Posted on by Mandala

The eight angas of yoga from the second chapter of the Yoga-sutras of Patañjali are commonly identified as the essence of yoga. Here it is to be remembered that the second chapter, saadhana-paada, from sutra 28th onwards is for a saadhaka of the mrdu-samvega (mild progress and momentum) as the term is defined in YS 1.21-22 and the commentaries thereof.

The teachings of samadhi-pada, the first chapter, are often ignored in giving popular definitions of yoga. What is in samadhi-pada that may incorporate the yamas and niyamas for a teevra-samvega saadhaka, if not by definitively explicit statement but by implication?

Our answer is in YS. 1.33:

Maîtree-karuNaa-muditopekShaaNaam sukha-duHkha-puNyaapuNya-viShayaaNaam bhaavanaatash chitta-prasaadanam.

(bhaavaartha=paraphrase): The mind-field is made pleasant and clear by the practice of amity towards the happy, compassion towards those in suffering, joyfulness at seeing others meritorious, and the practice of indifference towards the transgressors of virtue.

It appears simple enough but the actual meanings are profound; this becomes clear by studying the explanations given by commentators, starting with Vyasa. He adds:

By practising these there arises in one the bright virtue (or bright attributes) (shukla dharma). Thereby the mind-field becomes pleasant and clear; thus made pleasant and clear it attains the state of stability and stillness (sthiti-pada).

In our contemporary parlance the word pra-sanna is commonly used to express ‘pleased’. In the classics it means pleasant because it is clear. For example in Valmiki’s Ramayana, Sage Bharadwaja showing a beautiful mountain stream to Rama says, it is pra-sanna,

san-manuShya-mano yathaa
like the mind of a noble person.

To reverse the upmaana and upameya (analogue and analogous) in the simile, it follows that the mind of a noble person is pleasant and clear like a mountain stream. That is what is suggested by ‘pra-saadana’ in the sutra.

Only such a mind can be stabilized in meditation and can attain the desired stillness.
It answers a question the sadhakas often raise: why does my mind not settle down during meditation? Why does it keep wandering? The answer is implicit in the sutra: Dear Sadhaka, your mind wanders, does not attain stability and stillness because you have not made it pleasant and clear through the practice of the four right attitudes of chitta-prasaadana.

I term this as emotional purification. Without emotional purification in daily life, there can be no ‘pra-saadana’ of the mind and consequently the mind will not attain stability during meditation which alone leads to stability and interior stillness.

The commentators go further into the psychology of these practices. Vachaspati Mishra (VM) states (paraphrased here):

The sutra states the means and methods for making the mind-field pleasant and clear that serve as antidotes to the negative attributes like malice (asooyaa) and so forth. It is because the mind that is unrefined is filled with these malice and so forth, it cannot bring about samadhi and its supporting means and methods.

These practices are the methods of refining the mind (pari-karman).

It works as follows:

When one practices amity towards those who are happy and in comfort, his mind-field’s dark stains of jealousy are turned off.

When one practices compassion, that is the desire and inclination for eliminating others’ sufferings in the same measure in which one wishes to remove one’s own, then the dark stains of any inclination towards harming others cease.

When one cultivates joyfulness at seeing other beings virtuous, the dark stains of malice are turned off.

When one cultivates indifference, that is neutrality, remaining in the middle (madhya-stha), then the dark stains of intolerance vanish.

By these changes incurring in one, the rajasic and tamasic attributes are turned off and the bright attribute (shukla dharma) is produced and grows. That means that one becomes prosperous in the ascendance of sattva.

This pleasantness and clarity of mind become natural to him and favour the cessation of vrttis. Thus made clear and pleasant, the mind-field, by methods to be prescribed further, attains stability and stillness.

Without the presence of these four right attitudes, amity etc., the methods to be prescribed [in follow-up sutras] will not succeed.

It is to be borne in mind that Ys.1.33 is an adhikara-sutra, ‘command-sutra’; that is, it not only starts a topic but ‘controls’ the contents of the following sutras. The anu-vrtti, implied repeat of the compound phrase chitta-prasadana, goes on till the sutra 39, the result of which practices is given in sutra 40.

The list of undesirable traits to be overcome through this four-fold refinement (pari-karman) of oneself is not exhaustive. Says Vijnana-bhikshu (VM).

All other traits antipathic to yoga, such as raaga (attraction, attachment) and dveSha (aversion) (see YS. 2. 3ff.) are all included, implied… …

The mind-field thus made pleasant and clear attains the status of being stable and still (sthira), that is, it becomes capable of not slipping away (in meditation).

These practices are central in Buddhist meditation also where they are termed brahma-vihaara, frolics in Brahman. Here we translate the relevant portion from a leading text of Buddhist tantric practices, Saadhana-maalaa, Ch.56.  It not only gives a theoretical explanation of the brahma-viharas but also gives direction for a detailed meditation practice, only the introductory part of which is being translated here. The remainder better not be learnt from books but received as an initiation from a Master proficient in the particular system. Here is the first part of that chapter 56 (We have broken one complex paragraph of the original into several for an easier paraphrase):

First a mantri (one who has received mantra by way of initiation) sitting in a place well disposed to the mind, in a comfortable posture (sukha-asana) should contemplate a moon manifesting from within the syllable in the heart1.

In that moon one visualizes the syllable ‘dheeh’ [the bija-mantra of Manju-shri, the Buddha of Wisdom].

Thus, from the rays of that syllable and the moon having eradicated darkness from his heart, he may contemplate, bring into being in himself (vi-bhaavayet) the fourfold brahma-vihara in following sequence.

What is amity (maitree)? Feeling of love towards all beings as one has towards one’s only son.

What is compassion (karuNaa)? Desire to upraise from world-ocean the beings who are suffering from three kinds of pains.

What is joyfulness (muditaa)? When someone has cultivated the roots of wellness (kushala) and thereby has attained pleasures and comforts and sovereign power (aishvarya), [saadhaka’s] own heart feeling gladness [upon seeing that].

What is indifference (upekShaa)? Natural inclination, flowing of its own accord, towards (a) conciliating resistances by way of humble entreaty and (b) an attribute of being benevolent and beneficial to others.

When one has cultivated through contemplation (bhaavanaa) the fourfold brahma-vihaara [further meditations continue]……

Here we can see how deep this fourfold practice goes and combines not only attitudinal changes but also remains a major part of Mahayana Buddhist meditation practices.

It is obvious by the statements of Vyasa and the commentators like VM and VB that no practices of yoga can succeed without a success in these chitta-prasaadana observances, the refinements of mind-field, emotional purifications.

Why the yoga teachers are not giving this message loud and clear to all the millions of yoga students and practitioners world-wide is a puzzle and the situation waits to be corrected.

1) This requires visualization of the syllables appropriate to the given chakra.