Adam W's Suggestion - And an Aziz Quote

"Adam W" wrote on the Way-of-Light list:

I have come demonstrate to myself, that all we need to do is
absorb ourselves in awareness - which takes two things:
(1) Time and therefore patience.
(2) Discipline to maintain single pointed focus of relaxed
attention in one's own awareness.

Ramon: Absolutely! It makes me wonder if perhaps now is the time to strip
away all traditional/cultural trappings (non-English terms, etc.) from
the basic teaching and put it in concise, vanilla-modern terminology that
anyone can understand. Of course that's what J-P and others here have
been doing... but hey -- what about dumping anything but the most essential?
Awareness of awareness does it for me very well... although there
definitely are levels - awareness-of-awareness-of-awareness? I think
almost all teachings must end up here, yes? For example, here is Master
Aziz's description of the various levels, edited for conciseness:

1. State of Presence
This state represents the awakening of Awareness, which
gives birth to the permanent sense of I Am within the mind.
2. Being
...The experience of Being is an energetic expansion into the
vertical reality of the Now. . . [and is] felt all-over the body
(does not include the Heart if it is not activated) but the main
direction of energy is downwards towards the hara and beyond.
3. Absolute State
In this profound realization the Soul moves fully to the State
of unbroken Rest. . . . We have to notice, however, that in the
Absolute State the mind and consciousness of the Soul have not
yet merged with the Source. At this stage of realization one
experiences the unity with Reality only within the Being
aspect of I Am.
4. Awakening of the Heart
This significant level of awakening opens the door to the
Divine Dimension. The Heart is the realm of the Soul, the
Beloved, Love and Grace. . . . However, the deeper and true
awakening of the Heart requires the Purification of Intention
and realization of the Soul.
5. Transparent Me
. . .The awakening of the Soul takes place in the Heart but it
needs to deepen through further merging with the whole of the
Inner State. The shift to Transparent Me gives birth to a very
holistic experience of oneself and represents awakening to
pure subjective existence of the Soul.
6. State Beyond Polarities
. . .Here one moves beyond polarities of the Inner and the
Outer, the Here and the Now. The State Beyond Polarities
represents a radical integration between Awareness, Heart
and Being, where all the three aspects of I Am merge into
One State. Through this integration a deeper absorption into
the Beyond takes place. The State Beyond Polarities is an in-
between state - between Presence and Absence - as one has not
yet fully moved to the Other Side.
7. Transcendental State or The Second Absolute
In the First Absolute, the Soul reached the unconditional
absorption into the Beyond, through the gateway of Being.
However, her consciousness still remains outside the Absolute.
In the Transcendental State, it is the Consciousness of the
Soul, her I Am in the Mind, which shifts to the Beyond. The
Mind, the Ego and the sense of separate identity are being
uprooted, so the Soul, as a Pure Me, can fully move with the
whole of herself into the Divine Realm. Entering the Tran-
scendental State, which is the realm of Absence, is a begin-
ning of a very complex process of dissolution of the Ego
and the Subconscious Mind. For the completion of this
process, the Me needs to fully surrender its existence to
the Beyond.
The end result is Complete Soul Awakening. The Soul returns
to its Original State and all the links with the human mind
become severed. This is what is called Liberation. Liberation
is not reached by negation of our human existence but through
The Realization of the Soul.
. . .
Ending of Karma, Purification and healing are essential in
order to release the burden of the past. They do accompany
all the way the process of inner awakening. For healing to
take place, one has to be in touch with the light, of the Soul
and open to the dimension of Grace. Everything that stands on
the way of our completion has to be gradually removed,
transformed and transcended. Spiritual Path should not be
seen as an escape from earthly challenges and difficulties
of human life. It is through becoming a real and fully
conscious human being that we can face these challenges and
transform all difficulties. Only from that place we can truly
move beyond our human identity and finally transcend earthly
existence.

Although Aziz currently is in seclusion and his website closed, this site
gives a brief overview and links to his books:

Of course 'terms' and 'descriptions' of the indescribable will vary...
Speaking for this particular illusory self-refreshing pristine
awareness embodiment/ emanation, I find 'personally' that:
1. just dropping into a lightly held awareness of awareness
2. utilizing a 'voluntary' blink to detach from any thought stream
3. smiling to keep the endorphins bubbling, and
4. resonating the sleep breath to stay within the heart
is really all I need!!!
Er, with an occasional self-arising tongue-tip held firmly between
the teeth while I suck on my uvula. It's sort of like the threading-
a-needle focused expression. But then, once on that other shore, one
dumps the boat and... Everything furthers!
Thanks again, Adam!

Hello-ing A New Friend

Hello, RS!

Just today I discovered your very interesting website via
a posting of a quote from you on the NonDuality Salon (via
ND Highlights) that I immediately saved. It begins:
"For me mystical ecstasy is a feeling and a realization."

It's wonderful to read someone who is not afraid to talk
about 'mystical ecstasy'! And also about what I usually
refer to as 'zero-ing out...' In fact recently I tried to
describe is as a formula:although my math-inclined friends say it’s nonsense.
I describe its meaning as ‘zero-ing out through any number
of the levels that present themselves equals Foreverland.’
Foreverland is a poetic term for Nirvana – I’m constantly
trying to find modern English equivalents for foreign
phrases.

My main interest these days is summed up on this page of my website:

Some might consider me as hopelessly hedonistic,
but I would perhaps change that to ‘hopefully’...
because the only hope I see for our poor planet is
to find easily accessible methods for a larger percentage
of beings to increase their bliss tolerance than the reported
1% that Buddhism ‘enlightens’.

Also, I think the time for ‘secret’ or ‘whispered teachings’
is long past, and all and every possible method should be
shared as widely as possible, including the shaman’s
paths and all the most esoterically held exercises. Frankly,
I think I may have stumbled in my own back-assed
way onto a number of them (tracheal resonance,
blinking to swat thought streams, etc.) but also try to keep
a sense of humor about it all (smile).

Thank you for introducing me to the term ‘apophatic.’
Do you consider it related to the so-called Christian
‘Via Negativa’ and in Hindu, ‘Neti neti?’ I’m somewhat
familiar with these ‘dark night’ experiences, and perhaps
my essay on ‘Light’ you might find of interest:

I don’t consider myself to be part of any particular lineage
or ‘path,’ although I have met many mostly unknown enlightened
teachers, perhaps summed up in this essay.
http://www.raysender.com/volsimp.html

I’m interested to read that you live in the Bay Area. My wife
Judith and I have been happily settled in San Francisco’s Noe
Valley for 24 years. We run a free-admission speakers’ series
at the Noe Valley Ministry on odd-calendar-numbered Mondays.
The series is six years old, and the seventh season will start
this September.

My personal experiences tell me that matter and spirit are
intrinsically one Holon and that our star the Sun is a conscious
entity we might as well refer to as Our Mother Goddess Self. Of
the current crop of teachers, I especially admire Adyashanti,
Master Aziz Kristof in Poone (currently in seclusion), the
Christian contemplative Bernadette Roberts, and my spiritual
friend David Spero. For a sampling of his talks and videos, see www.davidspero.com

Also, I’m continually amazed by Ken Wilber’s ability to inhale
all East and West traditions and map them in marvelous ways. If
I were a 20-yr-old, I’d intern in Boulder for as long as I --
or they -- could stand it. Interesting gathering of folks.

On top of all that, I realize I might just as well continue to
throw all this silly nonsense out the window and just remain
seated, fat and sassy, on Mother’s lap where upwelling gratitude
means downpouring Grace. Go gettum, Sri Sri Ma!

Quote from jax on the DzogchenPractices list:

Dzogchen is the sound your hear that is part of your
world of sensory experience... all sound is the mantra
of Rigpa as it is. The samaya of Dzogchen is simply "to
remain undistracted"...but even that notion is too
dualistic as it implies there is "someone" who should
avoid being "distracted". Rigpa never is distracted
from the state of Rigpa... the "self" does not exist,
as it is only a concept or thought of "me" that arises
from and within Rigpa, and therefore has no volition of
its own to be distracted or not. There does not exist
an entity that get's distracted, who by practicing "non-
distraction" can realize Rigpa. There is "no one" that
realizes Rigpa or Enlightened Awareness. Buddha's main
teaching was "anatman" or absence of self. He said there
is no personal self or individual... that was the whole
liberating realization of the Enlightenment! He also
realized at that same moment that "no one" else exists
either. Hence he states in the Diamond Sutra that there
are no sentient beings to save or liberate. To think so,
he said, would be still suffering from the root delusion,
that there is some "self" entity.

That's the key premise of Dzogchen: there is "no one"
to liberate, and "no one" to attain enlightenment. "Being"
is all there is and Being is who you always are. That
perfection cannot be added to nor diminished. That's why
there is nothing to "practice"! Who would do the practices?
Explain that...

E wrote:

There is no point in allowing Buddhism or any other philosophy to disturb
my peace.

I completely agree!!

I no longer believe I have any need to go further.

For this self, I completely disagree! There always seems to be FURTHER....
yes? More dissolved, more awareness'd-out... greater cataracts of
grace... more flavors of amrita to quaff... Epiphanies to forget so that
one has the joy of rediscovering them again. I know I've forgotten
more states than are in any Union... We're not nouns, but verbs, as
Bucky Fuller liked to point out.

Sometimes when we reach our bliss tolerance level we mistake it for
Nirvana, but bliss tolerance levels can always be raised... and
raised again...

Why do we incarnate? Not for the physical pleasures that are so
evanescent. I think we plunge into the Pool of All Possibilities
through the Veil of Forgetfulness just for the intense delight of
reawakening again, of rediscovering we are Just That, of returning
Home to our Friends.

Then there's the amazing Master Aziz's warning (somewhat edited.)

The Dangers of Pseudo-advaita
by Aziz Kristof

We would like to express our concern regarding the recent phenomenon of
'satsang-culture,' which in our opinion has impoverished seriously the
Original Spirit of Advaita. These days many individuals, who have very
little or no knowledge at all about the Process of Awakening, feel
qualified to give satsang and lead other souls on the Path. Enlightenment
has become very cheap these days. Nobody actually really knows what is
the meaning of this term as it virtually means everything and nothing.
Nowadays it is sufficient to say, 'I am awakened' in order to give satsang.

Because of the unverifiable nature of Enlightenment, this term has been
much manipulated. Satsang has been Americanised. In an average
satsang gathering, everybody is laughing, showing signs of euphoric
and unauthentic joy, while the teacher tries to look like he or she is
in bliss. Just like a TV show. Very few actually meditate. Why meditate
if we are already all awakened? But is this really Advaita? Is Advaita
a poor repetition of a several slogans like 'There is nobody there,'
'You are That,' 'You are already awakened' or 'There is no Path', etc.?
Has this anything to do with teaching of great masters like N. Maharaj
or R. Maharishi? Ramana sat in caves for 20 years before he could be
really complete. In his presence, disciples had to meditate for months
and years before they could receive from him the glimpse of the Self.
[SNIP]
We would like to clarify, for the sake of general knowledge, that there are
actually several levels of expansion beyond the mind. There are three basic
types of Inner Expansion:
1) Awakening to Pure Awareness (the State of Presence behind the mind).
2) Awakening to the Absolute State (unity with the unmanifested).
3) Awakening of the Heart (expansion into the Divine).
In each of these levels there are three stages: Shift into a state,
Stabilisation and Integration. For instance, many satsang-teachers do not
experience the same state outside of teaching. This is because they are not
established permanently in the state they have attained. For that reason,
they can have a deep state during satsang, but when they leave the
satsang room, they return back to ordinary consciousness. In such a case,
only conscious cultivation of the particular state can allow one to
establish it permanently. However, if one does not believe in an actual
process of awakening, how can one consciously cultivate anything? One
does not even know that one is in a State. Here we see the importance of
correct understanding. If one just follows in a dogmatic and unimaginative
way the Advaita idea that 'I am already That,' how can one cultivate
anything?

We recommend to all students and teachers of Advaita to be more critical.
Follow Advaita if you wish, but know that Reality is simply much more rich
than any linear philosophy, Advaita included. The Practical Advaita
and the Theoretical Advaita are very different. In the Theoretical Advaita,
the Self is the only reality, there is no Path and we are all already
awakened. But Practical Advaita knows that there is a long way to go
before the truth of these statements can become our living truth.

We would like also to create a few practical anti-pseudo-advaita
statements:
'You are not awakened unless you awaken!'
'You are not That unless you reach unity with Universal I AM!'
'There is no Path but only for those who complete it!'
'There is nobody here, but only when somebody has dissolved!'
[SNIP]
Blessings to Seekers of Truth and Clarity who have the courage to renounce
the False.

[end quote]
For a complete copy, see
http://www.raysender.com/aziz-falseadvaita.html