Spiritual Practice. Philosophical Reflection

We come closer to a “meditation’ which is originally the Latin term for translation of the Sanskrit “dhyana’. However, there is suggestion for another English translation, namely, “contemplation’. It was essential polemic for its practical subject. The so-called “meditation’ is rather an attention to reality (vision as such) than thinking about something (a reflection of some image composed during vision of the particular object). This is a principle difference since Descartes’s “Meditationes de Prima Philosophia’, where the “meditation’ became the obvious background of Western philosophy. Due to this differentiation, we can discriminate between “applied meditation’ as a form of psychotherapy and “real meditation’ as increasing spiritual practice up to Samadhi. Western psychology use meditation as exchanging negative images for positive images. Anyway, there are images. While dhyana brings to total annihilation of all images (chitta vritti nirodha) proceeding to contemplation of pure conscious reality without any images. The main point is developing attention to Reality as such. There are many technical variations in different traditions which we can use for our spiritual benefit freely.

However, looking for traditional methods developing attention to Reality, do not forget about Reality itself! Otherwise, you will deal with religious but not spiritual practice. It happens often when it becomes more important to be a Christian than to realize the Christ himself in your heart. Limitations are formed as “credo’ by attracting attention to one object (even some “god’) without extending attention to non-objective stage. For example, “There is no god – only Allah!” or “Believe to One God, Almighty Creator’. Usually, it reminds me great Adwaitic saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who was devotee of goddess Kali at the beginning of his sadhana. He worshiped her until she appeared as living Goddess herself. Step by step, he got visions of all gods performing services of all religions. When he got self-realization as unity with Reality as such, suddenly he saw image of dear Kali. What did he do at that moment? He did not bow down, but took a “sword’ mentally and cut the goddess in half; finally, she would not shadow bright light of Reality. Then his attention became holistic without duality of “object’ and “subject’ in attention.

Yoga and Buddhism

The classic Yoga develops attention according to deepening and extending duration of objective contemplation. The inner work with consciousness starts from Pratyahara; that means returning sense organs from external appearance to Reality. The merging into Reality is called as Samyama including tree stages: Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (contemplation), and Samadhi (integration). In the whole process, it is difficult to separate each of three steps, while careful analysis can accentuate eight stages in Samadhi only. After the total unity with Reality, highest consciousness cannot join anything unreal again. The ability to discriminate between real and unreal is Buddhi (intelligence), which is different from Manas (mind). We will discuss the difference in the next part. An attention (samyama) is activity of reflection (buddhi) which is developing its own form. Nobody can be intelligent without practical attention. In this case the intellect is a possibility, while human life is going at the level of sensual mind only.

Attention is the base for Vipassana in Theravada Buddhism. Meditative practice means namely simple attention to any happening or activity: attentive prostration (concentration on hands), attentive walking (concentration on feet), and attentive sitting (concentration on breathing). Attention to unreal appearances makes obvious their transitory and unreal character. As result, your consciousness becomes absolutely empty (Shunyata). Meditation is real when there is nothing anymore. Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) makes attention clear in Maha-Mudra (the great “seal’) which is the form of emptiness while Shunyata is its content. Finally, the form is equal to its content! All human states are just endless flowing dharmas as permanent activity which is really empty. Being is Nothing. Buddha gave Vipassana as the main practice for enlightenment and liberation. When you develop attention itself, there is no need in other techniques. Similarly, Jnyana-Yoga (getting unity in knowledge) uses self-requesting as pure attention to Self. Vedantists accept it as the “direct way’, or the most difficult Yoga for everybody. A few great saints succeeded in this way: for instance, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Maharshi etc. They got self-realization by direct way of complete attention to Reality.

Taoism and Warriors

The Taoist practices developed mostly in Marshal Arts and became popular as “dynamic meditations’ nowadays. In this methodology your attention is totally concentrated within holistic volume of your body keeping personal axis and center. Some Taoist masters constructed many systems, based on deepened attention during dynamic practice where consciousness is united with body. Tao is Self-Being as such. Tao is recognized by itself or naturally as the only eternal “low of being’; that is a Strategy. Primarily the low supports the dynamic balance of two oppositions (Yin and Yang). Chinese tradition developed attention to human body and created elaborated map of subtle channels and structure of subtle bodies (similar to Indian Yoga). Previously, we mentioned the main attention to central axis as the basic structural principle for any spiritual practice. Taoism uses attention as an instrument for inner alchemy where it plays active role for energy accumulation and conscious transformation of whole human structure, in order to collect and purify all additional energy, developed during practice. Finally, the activated attention becomes a total consciousness of your body itself. It culminates in the phenomenon of “physical immortality’.

Let us find some links to distant spheres of European classic philosophy and American “way of warrior’. Best of all, the notion of attention was explained in Husserl’s concept of “intentional consciousness of temporality’. The intentional consciousness is just an “attention’ in common sense. The modern phenomenology prefers a description rather than the visible world. It clarifies connection between consciousness and visible world. Moreover, it reflects the same consciousness as a visionary of the world. It is not a static object but dynamic connection as a reconstructed “object’. As result, the modern philosophy became the most adequate system for description of shamanic practices. American anthropologist Carlos Castaneda used it during his research of some magic experiences with native shamans. We have a philosophical analysis of Castaneda’s work by his follower and unpublished academic works by Castaneda himself mentioned in interviews (ten volumes of Castaneda’s review on Husserl’s phenomenology). Basically, attention plays technical role in the way of warriors, namely, as a stalking (reflection of your own activity in each particular circumstances) and a dreaming (contemplation of “diverse reality’). The perfect attention is necessary in order to find “break between two worlds’; and direct vision of Reality itself is required in any other spiritual practice. Finally, the warrior disappeared in “inner fire of consciousness’ or merged into ultimate Reality. So, magical training is based on development of attention too.

Attention Techniques

How to develop attention until its technical characteristics will allow the vision of God? Attention can be increased by some attentive activity only; this process does not depend on anything external. Each spiritual tradition has some simple exercises as a preparing meditation. If you become attentive using one system then you will not lose your attention working with another system. Trataka is the most well-known Yogic technique in order to develop attention to an outer object. Commonly, it is fixed concentration on the flame of a candle. When you proceed to purification of your consciousness from all inner objects, you can use the method of “coming back to the very beginning of thinking’, tracking every thought till its appearance from nowhere. Then you restore the initial moment of appearing fluctuation in surrounding vibrational field of the pure being. For example, Sri Aurobindo got Nirvana within three days of highly attentive contemplation of his incoming and outgoing thoughts. Similar self-realization gotten by Ramakrishna took few days of sitting in a locked house. His teacher stocked the sharp stone into his forehead as an orienteer for attention to his hidden third eye. However, it is remarkable, that both adepts had long-time training before they applied their abilities to the last effort. As usually, the reality is a starting point for interpretation.

The transition from objective to non-objective meditation could be explained by the example of some satsangs with Stan. He was the direct disciple of Papaji and Vipassana teacher in USA. I met him in a small mountain village in northern Thailand. He lived quietly being merged into contemplation of Emptiness and sharing his own state during satsang, or his “guided meditation’. First, closing your eyes, you concentrate on appearing images, sounds, thoughts, emotions – just observing how they come and go. Next, you should reflect your position as a witness, giving your attention to the very source, who is witnessing all current processes. Improving yourselves as a witness, you can look for any space between all moving objects. Please, do not create any images of holes. Try to find the real space in-between changing states. When you discover total emptiness, where all thoughts and other objects are sinking, simply move your attention into that pure space. Then it becomes endless, enlightened and blissful. At that point, the subject unites with the object. In other words, Witness and Space become One and inseparable. Finally, there is nothing except of sat-chit-ananda (being-consciousness-bliss). There are many similar techniques; here I used some of them as illustration of the principle only.

Development of attention needs activation of intelligence. Let us concretize the area, since not so many people (except of professional philosophers) understand the structure of their mental abilities. We are talking here namely about “intelligence’ (or reason) instead of “mind’, because intelligent development needs reflective abstraction from mental activity. Still there are some superstitions: for example, many beginners try to “stop mind’ but really they “loose intellect’ or block any possibility to develop their reflection. It is nonsense. This is a difficult topic for neophytes in the most spiritual traditions. It creates wild fanatics and open vacancy for different sects. Sure, when a person suppress his intelligence as personal ability to discriminate between real and unreal, such idiot rejects the gift of self-awareness which is necessary even in order to follow a guru. In the last case, namely his intelligence will keep a disciple on the way giving him spiritual benefits until he will cut off all unreal and transitory. To accept and follow his guru, a disciple must be able to recognize his reality and concentrate on it for a long time. He will develop his intelligence in the process of following because he wanted to follow a real guru only. Thus, direct self-realization happens spontaneously when you follow Reality itself.

We can use similar pairs of terms in Sanskrit (Buddhi – Manas) and in English (Intellect – Mind) in order to fix this principle difference within our mental field. Both Western and Eastern philosophers use them in the same sense. Buddhi is intellect as primary ability to discriminate between real and unreal, true and false. It is the direct projection of sat-chit-ananda (being-consciousness-bliss). Manas is mental activity for analytical systematization of sensory data and for planning to reach some particular goals. All people have more or less developed manas due to education while the most people have their buddhi in a latent state, and they are even not interested in its awaking. However, buddhi can be developed by spiritual practice only. Sometimes it can be activated in extreme situation, when a person faces a contradiction which cannot be solved by mind only. It is no wonder, that a serious illness often becomes the starting point for deepening of consciousness. Being sick, a person can see difference between real and unreal much easier, especially coming to the border between life and death. For this reason, Vedic sages often mentioned sickness as a kind of tapas (austerity); it can serve as another “props’ for fast development of discriminative power. Nevertheless, it can be done by attentive contemplation without extremities.

Intellectual “Blade’

Every function is developing under optimal “workload’ only, therefore, it would be naïve to hope on intelligence as God’s gift without proper efforts. God gives you legs but if you move by car you will become invalid soon. God gives you eyes but if you see through spectacles you will become blind soon. In the same manner, God gives you intellect but if you do not make proper conclusions and do not take responsibility for your decisions, you will become an idiot soon. Notice, I mean buddhi (intellect) rather than manas (mind). Let me remind some quotations from classic Western philosophy which are suitable for building a “bridge’ between two different cultures. According to Hegel, philosophy requires to remove all “idle opinions’ of an individual mind (manas) in order to follow “immanent rhythm of notions’ as they really exist within purified mentality. The starting point of his dialectic logic was a contemplation of Pure Being! According to Fichte, a developed intellect can observe the “facts of consciousnesses’, while they are hidden from usual mind by illusory thinking. So, it is not the Eastern approach only. Western culture also needs Darshan, or the direct vision of Reality as such, which is above formal thinking about Reality creating its images. Yoga philosophy suggests development of buddhi by improvement of attention. We see similar suggestion in Western philosophy: to develop high intellect instead of using low mind, which is not fit for acceptance of high Reality and cannot discriminate between real and unreal.

Your intellect is developing in personal experience of reflection (nothing to do with common thinking or education) and spiritual practice. However, its directions are different or even opposite in Western philosophy and Indian darshana. Let us compare the beginning of both traditions: “Meditations on Primary Philosophy’ by Descartes (the founder of classic Western philosophy) and Upanishads (basic texts of traditional Vedanta philosophy). Their methodologies seem to be similar at the start: both are looking for true Reality increasing doubts in everything – physical body, emotions, current thoughts and collected ideas. Descartes also agreed with illusory nature of his knowledge and all appearing conclusions! The divergence of two ways was located namely in activated intellect, answering the question how to apply buddhi? Descartes discovered buddhi as foundation for his doubting: “I think, therefore, I exist’. Next, he restored the whole structure of universe (thoughts, emotions, material thinks) on this founded base, coming back to the world. In opposite, Upanishads turned buddhi to its source in sat-chit-ananda because a self-realized person would be not interested to deal with illusory matter anymore.

Now, let us see how both traditions developed till getting some shaped results in XX century. In modern times, great Yogi Sri Aurobindo started his sadhana, but he did not stop his mental and social activity. He simply shifted up at buddhi level to the background of Reality using his ability to discriminate between real and unreal as the very root of any contradictions. If any thinking appeared, he kept his mind open to opposite thinking. Finally, the prestige of mind fell down, since there was nothing permanent in its flow. His understanding of Vedanta was non-canonic being deepened in his book “The Secret of the Veda’. Founding his new-age Integral Yoga, actually he worked as Adwaitist turning his intellect (buddhi) to super-intellect (sat-chit-ananda), or real Self of everything. Now, look at the top of Western classic philosophy in Hegel’s dialectic logic. It starts from basic unity of pure Being and pure Nothing, discovering inlaid contradiction in their unity. Balancing primary contradiction brings the discovery of a new contradiction. In this way, pure Being of pure Consciousness serves as the foundation for further concretization. The huge logic structure is constructed by the principle “unity of opposites’. Vedantic Self is represented in the notion of Absolute Subject as “unity of subject and object’. All contradictions disappear at the end.

This comparison demonstrates the primary difference between philosophy and spiritual practice, in the manner of using buddhi. Both thinkers worked at the level of buddhi – not manas! Both were able to discover the source of buddhi in the highest being-consciousness-bliss. Though Hegel actualized only being-consciousness, he was appreciated as a great “mystic’ by many spiritual workers. However, their personal connections to Reality were different: philosopher Hegel observed the reality of unreal while spiritual master Sri Aurobindo worked to improve real within unreal; the last expected that unreal material would demonstrate its reality by itself. Both balanced contradictions between real and unreal in one Reality. Both purified their individual thinking (mind or manas) abstracting intellect from all phenomena. Sri Aurobindo spent three days observing his mental field and merged into Nirvana. Hegel dedicated his “Phenomenology of Spirit’ to similar observation (explaining difference between mind and intellect) and started “The Science of Logic’ from the only word: “Being’. According to spiritual reality, as soon as he began to think about Being from position of conscious being, the whole sphere of “pure ideas’ appeared as the matrix for materialization. For this reason, a professor called Hegel’s logic as a “partita for trance’. It makes sense.

Intellect and Guruism

Can a real guru ask his disciples to suppress their buddhi and become unreasonable? Actually, when a guru teaches meditation he suggests one-pointed concentration stopping thoughts. It becomes the process of developing buddhi (intellect) for his disciples. There are some initiations when thinking stops in the presence of a saint who has the vision of Reality. But it is impermanent because it needs support from disciple’s buddhi while it is not developed yet. If disciple follows Guru-Yoga, going by the way of unity with his guru, this is the same situation. He needs to develop attention to a guru in the same degree as if he would develop attention to Reality itself. No matter, how you use your buddhi, – to recognize Reality itself or to recognize Real Guru, – both methods are effectual for your development. Reality helps as a guru, forcing to do what is necessary. But if you are stupid, no one guru will help you. For example, Ramakrishna merged to Reality both his disciple Vivekananda (spiritual person by his nature) and his servant (kind non-intelligent person). Both were impressed and shocked till the extreme degree, and Ramakrishna brought them back to usual illusory world for their safety. Later, Vivekananda continued to develop his buddhi even after his guru passed away, and finally he got permanent abiding in Reality. In opposite, the servant left his guru, got married, built house, worked in garden, and lived ordinary life until death. GURU WAS THE SAME.