Advaita Post, #15 no. 9 - Being awake on the subtle level

 

 

October 1, 2014

Text Satsang

From an advaita talk with Douwe Tiemersma in Gouda on March 3, 2004 - Part 1

Being awake on the subtle level

The process of the recognizing of yourself as openness continues. Fortunately, that proceeds for everyone. There are more and more people who are recognizing that open-being. The important things happening with it occur on the subtle level, prior to and beyond thought. It is clear: you are also present there, also that is your own sphere, even more so than the realm of  'I think', the world of words.

Then in the teaching you will also see that words become less and less important, that it’s increasingly about a direct action thereby, about a direct event without words, without thinking. When you begin looking at words as words, they are separate, external things and at best they can be used as a way to refer to something. Once you have understood the meaning, you don’t need to stop there, you don’t need to continue to listen to them because then the truth is directly there. On that subtle level it increasingly proceeds directly. The more lucid you are there, the faster you learn how it is. There, the important things continue to apply: how is your orientation, and: do you let yourself become distracted or not? Learning increasingly proceeds in a direct way, as a direct confirmation. We don’t stay busy with the means. Truth is directly there, you recognize truth directly. The only thing is to stay there.

When you remain lucid in it, the distracting forces lose their strength. So that happens through the clarity of your own conscious presence. No darkness can penetrate that light. When you recognize yourself as light, it’s the most natural thing that the light stays. The sun too doesn’t have to do its best to remain illumined because that is its natural state. So you, also, don’t have to do your best to be aware, because that is your own nature. Only, just be sure to stay there in an aware way, if you allow yourself to be easily distracted, if the light-being is not yet staying spontaneously. Then an internal consciousness is necessary. That frequently proves to be so, because you forget the light so easily, because one again a veil has shrouded the clarity.

All forms become transparent and their importance slips away. They decrease as a stimulus on which to react. Thus, an increasing freedom from conditions arises, a greater and greater independence.

Being free does not mean being free on the level of conditions. Modern man has always sought it in that way: to be increasingly free from conditions through technology. But then you are still attached to all sorts of things, in any case to your own technology. There are simply laws that apply to the material and psychic levels, on these levels there simply are patterns. There is nothing wrong with that. Freedom is being free from attachment to conditions, in a vertical sense, by releasing your identity on the level of cause and effect, on the level of activity and technology. When you recognize yourself on the levels of a greater and greater independence, of more and more freedom, then you see how much the attachment to form and activity is just a way of thinking, a construction, a belief. At that level, you see that faith is superstition, a false belief, because you attribute an infinite dimension to finite things. You make relative things absolute. That can apply to all forms.

On the more spacious, freer levels, the process of recognition and becoming free proceeds in a subtle manner. In this sphere the teaching occurs in a different way than in the situation of external instruction. Recognize that. See what’s taking place, what's happening, what’s going on with yourself. There are no fixed forms of yourself any longer. So, don’t grasp them back up. Note that the forms are primarily thought forms. Don’t grab them back up, for you are already more aware than the 'I-think’. Clearly affirm: this is it; I don’t have to go back to fixed forms any more; I don’t need to grasp any more. In this open consciousness-sphere the dissolving effect of the openness proceeds. The final residues fall apart, the last fogs lift. That is the radicalization of the process.

Does anyone here have anything more to ask about this? When it’s clear, it’s clear. But, be lucid so that you are facing all the ambiguities. Are there still ambiguities? Do you clearly recognize what I have outlined? Be incredibly lucid therein for yourself, crystal clear, so that there’s no vague sphere or intuition remaining. When you can realize that, it means that it has become totally clear, that it has become so real that a limiting restriction doesn’t have a chance any more. It’s a waking up on this level.

Are you awake on this level? It’s important to be able to affirm that. When you are awake, you can. When it’s not lucid enough in a certain way, affirm that as well. It is clearly something different than dozing away and enjoying the spacious sphere. No, it's really about waking up on this level. Does anyone have a question?           

* * * *


Er is geen tweeheid

als je ontspannen bent
in zelf-bewustzijn
is dat duidelijk.


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