Advaita Post 12-10 - Independence and freedom are possible...

Volume 12 No. 10 (June 27, 2011)

--- Independence and freedom are possible only by letting go of what you hold on to; that is only possible by accepting it within a more expansive sphere of being ---

Letting go

Text: Independence (Part 2)

From a talk in Gouda, March 30, 2011

When you accept that you can't keep holding on to your forms, that you can never give yourself a stable ground in any thing, your childishness, pettiness and sentimentality disappear. There is an infinite relaxation, space, freedom. Nothing else needs to be done to preserve your sense of self, to defend, to strengthen. That falls completely away - the whole dependence on your own emotional ideas. Only then do you notice that you come to yourself, to independence. You see it in the life which now proceeds in a very free and spontaneous way.

So remain with yourself and see how things go. Let your awareness be very sharp in order to see through all your dependencies. Always confirm again and again what's going on with you. To what extent are there limitations and petty responses in the continual grasping of things and reacting to conditions from self-interest.

When you are independent, you are in an area that precedes all the oppositions that are so important in ordinary human life. Then you are also in the area that precedes the opposition between life and death. Yes, it is certainly said: you have to integrate death in life. But how? That can only be done when you find yourself aware on a level that precedes the distinction between life and death. It can't be otherwise. From that standpoint it is clear that you are not bound by this opposition. Then you see that this whole situation in which a person is actively focused on continuing to live is no longer there.

Because you, as a person, feel that your life is finite, there is continual fear. Maybe you can take measures against it, for example with your vitality and the resources to keep you vital, but that's no real solution. The only real solution is to become aware of yourself previous to that whole personal level. Fear can't be resolved on the level of fear. Even though there are still so many good and beautiful things that are said and done, you will need to be aware of yourself on the level previous to the fear. There, you are.

This transition is only possible when accept your fear and that which you are afraid of, totally accept. It is frequently said in the advaita tradition: become aware of the suffering and the limitations that cause the suffering: you are not that. That's right, but if you remain only with this detached approach - I am not this, I am not that - most likely you will continue to hold on to your problems. There is still a duality. Take a look at what it really means that you are not "all that". What does that mean? That you totally accept "all that". First you have to totally accept your fear and its duality. In the acceptance of the oppositions, in acceptance of the fear and of that which you are afraid of, you transcend the whole level. That is the motion towards self-reliance, freedom, non-dual openness. Only from this 'higher' level is acceptance possible. That is the letting go of where you were stuck initially, and this release is only possible when you fully accept it. On the level of the person you can't let go of the object of your fear, because you are too anxious. You want to hold it off, you develop a resistance against it. It's as though you want to hold the sea back with dikes. You can release this tension only when you have accepted the sea not only as a fear-object but also as yourself. Of course it's about letting go, but then not in a 'negative' sense, as an escape. The letting go is a full acceptance and through that coming to a different level where the conflict no longer exists.

This applies to all aspects of your life and co-existence. Conflicts are not solved on the level of the conflict, because that is the level of the opposition. They are resolved only when you come to another level. This also applies to the conflicts in yourself. The largest and most fundamental conflict: I want to be infinite, without the limits of space and time, but I experience the limitations of myself and of everything in my life. I want to live forever, but I notice myself losing vitality and I know for sure that death will come. Can the conflict be solved on this level? First you will have to accept your limitations and your death. When you have accepted them, the separation between yourself and that which you fear disappears. Only when this distance and this separation disappears, will there be a relaxation. Then there is a completely different situation, the situation in which the old opposition and the old conflict no longer play a role.

Only then is it clear that you are independent. Just let the realization of the absolute independence continue to penetrate. That can't be accomplished by a person because with that realization the whole structure of the person in his world disappears. The realization is the recognition that you are more than the limited self of the person. "Here I am myself, free from the conditions that I had initially imposed upon myself; in this self-being I am independent."

As a person everything in your life is determined. You already have an idea that you are free, but you still need to accept that your life is "determined". Given the conditions everything is already fixed. Everything that happens is 'God's will' or however it is formulated. Yes, that's true to the extent that you position yourself on the personal level. When you know enough about the person and his conditions, you can predict everything in advance. Why? Because the person behaves according to rules. And advertising, politics, you and the people you live with make use of that. These rules are used everywhere it involves power.

Nevertheless one important point remains: that that whole level can be transcended, that you can become aware of your core prior to the conditioning. People have a core that is free from every condition. If there is something that can be said about people, about yourself, it is that becoming aware is always possible: "apparently it is like this under certain conditions, but I am much more". And the depth of this 'more' is infinite. Understand that. This is the total openness that lies at the foundation of personal existence, where people imagine that they are free. Yes, they are free - that's right - but not on the personal level. The depth of self-being is endless. You can recognize that and you can see it in others. The depth is infinite. What does that mean? That all conditions are blasted away, or in any case become very relative and transparent. To become aware of yourself there means independence, you realize that you're independent, free, open.

Is that clear?

Text

From the newly published book Chakra Yoga - Experiential knowledge and liberation of the life energies and bodies (see: Chakra Yoga): pages 13-14

I flew along in the great space, in a vehicle that consisted only of energy, half transparent and unbelievably powerful. I had surrendered myself to the energy, it was my energy and it took me along with it at great speed. As a unit we hurried on towards a bright white light in the distance.

During the fast passage the vehicle let go of my solid form and dropped me off in space. Even my coarser emotional energies dissolved in the ensuing hunt. That also happened with finer energies, as a purification. All the chromatic energies disappeared, one after another. And the raging motion proceeded with all its force through regions of continually lighter and more translucent colors. Sometimes there were even strong shocks.

There was the notion of the right course, very precisely on the line towards the white light. It was clear that a hair's breadth deviance from the central line would be disastrous. A sharp awareness remained by itself. It illumined the exact middle of the pathway in a crystalline manner like a brightly frosted sky. So the knowledge also remained that the steadily approaching light was always already my home.

In the region of the white light it was silent. Even though there was the sense of continual motion in the silence. My last shreds of energy and form dissolved here. There was no longer a notion of me, body and energies. There remained only an infinite self-being-consciousness. And that dissolved, too ...

An infinite sphere of being appears in the source. Everywhere there is homogeneous light with an internal awareness. This consciousness is aware of itself. It becomes self-being, an infinite notion, I am. This atmosphere is blissful, but in the I-am a desire comes to connect itself with something else. And immediately there is something else. The one sphere is broken up and differentiates itself into the many. The white light is broken up into countless colors. I am aware of the other and I shoot into it with tremendous speed. I dive into a form, at first with a fine and afterwards a coarser substance of different colors and fix myself there.

Still, the original and the infinite sphere remain open, because they were consciously experienced. I remain aware of myself there, while the incarnation continues on all levels of rarification and density.

While the open-ness stayed on, there is a going along with the life energies in multicolored richness, dancing in the world together with others. Because the open-ness stayed on, the dancing remains as a loving non-duality with everything and everyone. The dance continues until the game is over. The forms will disappear once again. I know how it proceeds in the greater space. I know my home and have never left it.

Announcements

Many have contributed with different activities to assist with Douwe's health situation, even if it was only with a card or inner contact. That's how it goes with the conditions in this life. Everything has to do with everything, everyone with everyone. We acknowledge that and also the gratitude and the happiness, ananda.

From August 19 to 26 there will be a retreat week on Schiermonnikoog with morning yoga - see: Retreat Weeks.