Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

Finding that which is beyond even Brahman

The quote below is from page 73 and 74 of me "Master of Self-Realization." The way it is translated, it is he sort of ambiguous. It talks both about clarifying the causal body state in order to discover Turya, or the (King of knowledge state), the Supra Causal Body, but it also talks about going beyond knowledge altogether to find the ultimate cognizer, which will be known once the pursuit of knowledge ceases. As long as one looks from a place of lacking, and attempting to fill that lacking by means of the mind, one can never rest in Turya, or beyond even that, in the para-Brahman state, the absolute, the witness of all. When one ceases all mental activity, all seeking, all Samadhis, one is already in that para-Brahman state, the witness, but unable to witness oneself or even realize there is a witness to be witnessed. One just IS; the pure subject.

This section warns against searching within the world of objects, ideas, spiritual teachings, and going into the forest and jungle (meaning in modern terms, special retreats, workshops, guru shopping, but in classical terms was actually going to the jungle and forest in profound individual retreat) in searching for this IS, because the searching will drag you back to the subtle body, the intellect, the impulses, the imagination and images, and the self (Turya), will never be found, just as that which is beyond Turya, will never be found.

You see, it is all within YOU, and is not going to be found ultimately even with the guru. You cannot search from without. You cannot find it in books, workshops, dream analysis, psychoanalysis, the collective unconsciousness or drugs. It is already within you, just as you are in ordinary mind.

From the Master of Self-Realization:

This is the condition of the one that is himself Brahman and yet is in search of Brahman. Where and how can He find Himself? His exact position is such that he is the one who knows everyone but is not known by anyone. The one who tries to know Him does not know that His own true nature is "pure consciousness" so He wanders about in the forest and jungle (searching for that which has never been lost). How amazing this is. How can He, the one who is known only after "the capacity for knowing" has been transcended, be known? Unless one becomes steady within oneself, leaving behind having the desire to know, one cannot have the "knowledge of Brahman." (Comment: this is a new way of knowing, not by knowledge of the intellect her mind, but the more sure knowledge of just being.)

When the Subtle Body gets destroyed and one comes to the Causal Body, the one who is trying to know Brahman with the subtle intellect does not become steadied in the causal body. Instead He gets pushed back to the Subtle Body by force from the Causal Body and once again comes under the sway of imaginings, concepts, impulses, desires, and doubts. If an aspirant dreams, employing the use of words or the mind, he will never progress to (the place or state) where speech and mind cannot enter. Instead, he will go to a lower plane. The aspirant cannot remain as an aspirant, but has to become a Siddha (One Who Is Accomplished). For this, one has to cross over the steps of all four bodies. By constant study, one has to enter on the platforms of the four bodies, and clean and clarify them through investigation. Only then can the "Truth of the Self" be invoked and become fully established.

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I am making emphasis on this point for one very important reason.

When I first started my spiritual quest in 1968, I did so with the pure mind and very clear direction of doing self-inquiry. I knew this was my path, and I took with me Ramana’s short book "Who Am I?,” As well as Philip Kapleau’s book the "Three pillars of Zen" that contained the story of Bassui, who only practiced self inquiry, the “Who am I?” koan. Those two books were my guide, and that is all that I did. I had in enormous numbers of kundalini experiences, seeing clearly the void, having many physical body transformation experiences, as well as daily seeing the brilliant bright light of consciousness itself, which every afternoon constantly sucked me down into itself; but out of fear I ran away.

Eventually I was to go to the Mt Baldy Zen center to study with Zen master Sasaki who forbade his students from using that koan.  He stated it was far too difficult.

Thereafter I lost my way for many, many, years. Many years of useless pursuits, wanderings, seeking different teachers, different Zen Masters, Muktananda, chanting, bhakti yoga, and then psychotherapy for seven years, until I met Robert, 18 years after I lost my single-minded pursuit of Self by means of the "Who am I?" Question. I was lost and drifted for 18 years of wasted effort. Even after I met Robert, it took another six years of the practice of self-inquiry to have my awakening experiences.

However, the form self inquiry took for me after meeting Robert was different from the form that I practiced in the 1960s, which was more focused on peering into and watching the light of consciousness, the emptiness form of the void, and filling that voidness with the bliss chanting. Had I known what I know now, I would've added loving another, whether God worship or human worship, to better fill out the sense of I Am with its own energy of self loving.

Thus I implore you, do not get distracted from the straight and narrow, and short but difficult path of just watching yourself, being with yourself, loving yourself, and trying to catch hold of the sight of the I Am, then loving it and worshiping it.

This is why I always emphasize just having one guru, one teaching, and that teaching being reflecting on one's own self, loving oneself, seeing the I Am, and loving the I Am. Please do not waste two decades of your life in fruitless searching in the jungles of the spiritual marketplace, because it will only suck you back from the void, and more deeply fixate you in your mind, impulses, emotions, imaginations and searchings of the intellect for decades. This is what happens to most people, the search goes on, and on, and on with no clear direction or purpose, just following books and impulses, and decades pass with nothing happening, and most give up entirely unless they are rescued in the last half of their life by a true Sadguru, or by consciousness itself. But one can never count on such grace.