Spiritual Practice
Philosophical Reflection
Atma Ananda

© Atma Ananda, 2024

ISBN 978-5-0064-9520-3

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Preface to the 2nd English edition

The author’s translation of the books from Russian into English was made a long time ago in 2009—2013 when I was in Bali for publication on the American print-to-order service. Then the book appeared on the Amazon world trade network among millions of books on this topic.

The very idea of the book is connected with my research interests as a philosopher and orientalist, which extend to both theoretical and practical aspects of Oriental culture.

Unsurprisingly, the original Russian edition was much more successful in Russia itself. The very first Russian editions was published in the LitRes publishing house in Moscow although I lived and worked abroad, communicating exclusively in English.

Over the years, my English skills improved, especially since I professionally worked on translations from English into Russian, which was my earnings in those years, and subsequently became the basis for admission to the Russian Translators’ Union.

Preparing the second English edition through the Russian Ridero system, of course, it would be worthwhile to make a new translation of this book. However, due to the lack of time and the large number of new projects, I leave everything as it was, correcting only few obvious mistakes.

I hope that the sophisticated reader will forgive the imperfection of my early translations, paying more attention to the content that concerns eternal questions, and perhaps enjoy the specifics of the Russian mentality when transferring knowledge from East to West.

Maria Nikolaeva

St. Petersburg, 2024

Self-Being Strategy. Research Methodology

Foreword

Reading Maria Nikolaeva’s book came actually as a quite pleasant surprise to me. The title of the book led me to expect just another book on meditation and the discovery of one’s self; and, truth be told, there are many of those in print! Fortunately, I was wrong! This book is an easy-to-understand guide to the exploration of one’s self in conjunction with space, time and the cosmic scene. It is a roadmap that imprints not only the paths of self-awareness but also describes the provisions one must carry on the way. I have read phrases such as “one road many ways,” “one way many roads,” etc. In the case however of this particular book, the Author proves both sentences true provided that the correct conditions concur.

The problems of self-awareness and the discovery of one’s true self and as a result, of one’s true volition, have been engaging the mind of man for many centuries and continue still to be a research subject of substance. Starting with Socrates’ exhortation “Know thyself,” the mantle is taken up by the Gnostics, who first pointed out in a systematic way and with a religious structure the fact of the fallacy of appearances when compared to the truth of being. The illusive world of the Creator (“Demiurge”) of the Gnostics differs very little from the Maya, the illusive reality of Hinduism. The Hindus in the authentic “Sanathana Dharma,” the Vedas and their books of knowledge, wherein they have concerned themselves with a multitude of issues, point out the inability of human beings to understand the nature of the Divine as well as their own limitations to perceive the natural reality which surrounds them. This inability to understand the nature of the Divine is also pointed out by Origen, who while walking on the beach with a student proceeded to ask him to count the grains of sand. The student by confessing his inability to do so, received the following answer: If you are incapable of investigating something as finite as a beach how dare you wish to perceive the nature of infinity? What one perceives is a dreamy state, Maya, which imposes an illusory perception of reality. This illusory perception of reality results in an equally illusory perception of oneself, of what one is, where one goes and what one really wants. Modern science confirms that man’s tools of perception of reality have their own limitations. Our senses collect but a fragment of the reality surrounding us and codify it in a way suitable for us to perceive it. From the moment we accept that the Universe is temporary and relative and that we perceive it with ineffective means, it is clear that on a level of consciousness we live in a micro-universe within another Universe. The attempt to break through the walls of the virtual universe we perceive, to break through the Matrix —if I may use the modern terminology for Maya— is clearly to be made using supersensory means, such as those possessed by one’s spirit, one’s higher self, which by its own nature participates in both realities, the Matrix as well as the cosmic truth. One such tool, which has been proven effective through the ages, is meditation.

This book presents a roadmap that guides us to meditation. This is achieved using the Hindu tradition as a point of reference, and yet in an non-dogmatic way, i.e. without imposing authority but with the provision of such means that shall assist the reader to discover his or her own way, without stumbling into obstacles. The references in the book make the analogy between the eastern meditation and the orthodox tradition of anchorites, and the correspondence of yogis to the Christian orthodox “holy fools.” For them the common ground is their distancing from the matrix of material perception. Anyone seriously interested in meditation and wanting to be informed in a correct, objective, impartial and nonsectarian way, has acquired the right book. For me it has been a pleasure to read the book and an honour to meet the author.

Athanassios Theodorou

Greece, 2015

*Athanassios Theodorou is Bachelor of Arts in Law (National University of Athens), Master of Arts in Philosophy with a focus on the history of religions (University of Sorbonne, Paris), Practicing law in Athens, Greece.

Expert Feedback

In a very interesting way, through her personal experience and knowledge, Maria Nikolaeva describes the interaction and methodology of several practices to achieve self-realization into Reality- Samádhi, Nirvana or Satori. Personally, through my experience as a Yoga Instructor, I agree to interact multiple paths to attain Enlightment. What really matters is the goal; the way to attain it is a personal choice. As I often say to my students: “your mind is your guru, so follow your Inner Voice.”

Through this book, readers will find an intelligent and profound explanation to the development of their Inner Consciousness.

My sincere congratulations for this wonderful book that transmits the essence of rich experience and knowledge by Maria Nikolaeva (Atma Ananda).

Namaste.

Lina Gonçalves

Portugal, 2015

* Lina Gonçalves is Yoga Samkhya Instructor, Reiki Master and Master of Magnified Healing in Lisbon, Portugal

Introduction to Reality

Spiritual practice is the self-being strategy. Historically, we see different options for development in 4 particular situations: self-realized persons 1) in a tradition 2) outside of all traditions; not self-realized people 3) among devotees 4) atheists. It is not important, what is the tradition or who is the guru. The only important thing is unity with Reality itself. Devotion (bhakti) or religious devotedness is just one of the options to open true Reality; that means in the path of traditional realization, surrending dominates self-investigation. Actuality is the direct way to Reality; that means there is nobody else anymore except of one’s own Self, who would open Reality itself, in pure unblocked being-consciousness-bliss (sat-chit-ananda in Sanskrit). There are no guides or intermediates. You know or you do not know, other people’s knowledge and/or experience are irrelevant. Reality is factually not changing. If you choose the traditional way to realization, at the end you will need to do the same action which could be done at the very beginning – to see Reality as it is. Sooner or later you have to face Reality without any intermediary, and the most important question is if you will be able to recognize Reality as your own Self; otherwise you will still keep an “ideal of Reality’ which you got from your tradition or your gurus. Paradoxically, whether you have a guru or not, your self-dependence has one and the same degree.

Usually people think that Eastern traditions are based on the line “teacher – disciple” where one can get knowledge. There is even such opinion that self-realization is not possible without guru. However this statement becomes contradictory if you will study comparative Eastern traditions. For example, the original form of Buddhism (Hinayana, or Theravada) supposes enlightenment by your own efforts only; while Zen tradition (Mahayana) converts this suggestion into extreme judgment: “If you meet the Buddha, kill him!” A similar position in Western self-awareness was developed by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. He rejected initiation into the mysteries, but later Pyphia of the main temple declared that namely, he was the wisest among men! Modern people are not able to follow a guru thanks to self-confidence, and this quality really finds the best soil for their growing in the East. Yet we do not ask to reject traditional knowledge, because people have different dispositions or tendencies. We have to learn how to use them without losing our own base in Self. Another example from Theravada Buddhism: enlightenment is your personal achievement; and it developed many practical techniques how to do it!

To be in the state of presence means to understand the cultural variety in a society. Now actually in any country, a person exists in a multicultural space where Christian churches, Hindu temples, Buddhist pagodas, and Muslim mosques are built closely while people study Yoga, Tai-Chi, Reiki etc. and all them are mixed in families and in a society. Each spiritual tradition has its own theoretical system for the interpretation and description of the world and a practical strategy for self-realization or liberation from the world. Each person follows his own system, working out strategies for interaction with other people. All systems are dualistic: “this or that’; while strategy is algorithmic: “if – that’. A system has a fixed structure, while strategy is dynamic, we have to choose from moment to moment. Obviously, now most people are interested in a strategy even without studying or constructing a system. In the cyber era it is common to use algorisms practically. Spirituality has united with practice in the notion of “spiritual practice’ in East separated from practical philosophy of “will and good’ in West. We try to restore balance between understanding and activity, abstracting a common “self-being strategy’ for reflection of multiple structures and orientation in a complex cultural space which you cannot already escape. Borders of cultural traditions become more transparent being penetrated by illumination of all-embracive true Reality.

You know, it is important HOW to do – not WHAT to do; no matter, what cultural traditions appear in the field of our activity or where we are ourselves. It is essential to develop main parameters for personal reflection which are characteristic for all systems. At the same time, we need to develop a strategy that can be used with any traditional techniques in order to work with the necessary aspects in a surrounding world. Anyway, being present, you always understand the current situation in a particular way as a starting point. Usually, at the beginning you may have a particular goal which can be achieved step by step, and you can create some program for your activity (probably, also one for the rest of your life). However, when you become closer to your goal, your understanding becomes clear, and your vision of the goal becomes more direct too. Then we see what is the next step we can make in our new presence. A guru can help you but your self-confidence is more valuable. If you understand something by your own, nobody will take it from you. But if a guru handles everything, you can decide nothing – and you cannot learn how to choose for yourself. I remind the example of Siddhartha in German Hesse’s novel: meeting alive the Buddha, he recognized Him as a realized person. But he continued his own way until he reached self-realization by his own efforts.

We could give many similar examples but the essence is the same: a saint can be recognized by a saint only. Even if you accept somebody as your guru, namely YOU are responsible for your choice – not him. Anyway, this is the act of surrendering which has no guarantee, at least at the conscious level, because your surrendering is based on the intuition that you will be guided. You believe in him due to your own feeling or someone’s recommendation or his position in tradition. At this moment you also deal with the presence and the personal choice of your ultimate goal. You feel that the person is similar to your ideal of self-realization, and if you follow him you will become like him. Sure, it works. You can put responsibility on your guru for the further process of self-realization. But then again – this is YOUR choice. So, you will be responsible if you will reach the goal or not. There are pluses and minuses in any case. If you choose a real master, you will get many practical instructions about WHAT to do in order to see Reality without wasting time in research; maybe you will get initiated to experience HOW to see Reality without your own efforts (shaktipat etc.) jumping into an advanced state. However, even if your guru is “real’ he will decide for you everything and you cannot develop your own buddhi (ability to discriminate between real and unreal) but always use his ready-made knowledge. For instance, in Vajrayana you will rebuild your whole structure and become recognized as a Lama. But nobody can promise that you will become Buddha. This is your own chance.

Nevertheless, we must be aware that looking for Reality without any intermediate is not always respected by people. Most traditions have a line of gurus with “rules of recognizance’ while self-development can be based only on your own “insights of recognizance’… Remember how many saints started in this way only to be respected at the end. Ramakrishna was treated as “mad man’; Ramana Maharshi was beaten with stones and became an object of jokes; Sri Aurobindo was proclaimed by his shot-time guru as “embodiment of evil’; Satya Sai has million devotees while millions laugh at him as a charlatan. I am giving extreme examples but in the case of an “ordinary person’ who decided for himself – to be or not to be a disciple of this or that guru – nobody will care to understand him. Even worldwide religions fight in the same way: Christians often call Buddhism as Satanism etc. So, the choice is a private deal. Finally, it can end without result, and such person would have not attained anymore than his own experience which nevertheless can be a step for further self-development.

I. Timing and Spacing

It is a sort of philosophical banality that all our sensual experience is limited by two formal structures of perception – time and space. From the Eastern point of view we have a lot of time because of the theory of reincarnation: people can wait for many lives to do something good or to improve the present life. From the Western point of view, we always have lack of time for the spiritual experience, because we are so occupied by all forms of business, while our eternal consciousness, (since in the Christian tradition our soul is eternal) does not need to do anything for our self-realization, and keeps us in complete spiritual stagnation. While traveling many years in Asia doing my cultural research the notion of “timing’ was very useful. Timing is a complex notion that includes many perspectives: “a period’ (for a particular activity), “set’ (chosen chain of actions), “synchronism’ (harmonization of our actions with going on events or social programs), “success’ (sudden connection of personally reaching a goal with a common benefit for others), “fate’ (accident, mystical meeting etc.), “end’ (death as the final point of a biological life or of any form of physical process). So, timing is time as such in its flowing, conscious of time current, subjective feeling of changing. To be in proper time in proper place (space) – means to get everything in proper order. This is active intuition of actual chance, or just psychological ability to be “here and now’. Usually, you can find many cultural descriptions and parallels.

Among philosophical systems, “time’ as pure form of sensual experience was exposed very clearly and specific in “Criticism’ by Kant; and “time’ as an active form containing data of perception – in “Phenomenology’ by Husserl. However, spiritual practitioners are less interested in time structure in the world. They are intending to become aware of aggregates as all periods in historical time inclusive in one consciousness. This is the ideal of knowing about all cosmic events and human destinies (like in astrology and the low of karma), not only just the form but also the content of each process. Such goal changes the acceptance of time from the very start of their way in a spiritual practice. That is why the lives of saints are full of mystic happenings during their development even before achievement of self-realization. Their position according to timing is replaced by staying in “volume consciousness’ or eternity (as you can see in the “Volume Way’ chapter). While the volume is not all-embracive in the beginning, this is already principally another strategy of life. Conscious timing will be described in the following chapter about “tuning the rhythm’ when we will understand the role of the subject in the situation. Here we are dealing with objective characteristics of the world as time-space matrix: situation, dynamism, and periods.

Situation as it is

The notion of “timing’ is the most important for any present situation even if this is just routine work. Needless to say about spiritual practice, where time is hold under conscious control. I used the notion of “timing’ since I met one Western sannyasi (a type of monk) who was traveling in Asia for 16 years. We did not keep in touch by phone or e-mail but often “accidentally’ met in three different countries (Thailand, Laos, China), and everyone knows how many such a mystic meetings happens during traveling. Discussing next tracks he often reminded me about “timing’ to decide how long to stay in this or that country: waiting for spring or using visa-run. Once I was shocked in the street when a motorcyclist crushed and died just at my feet. He run to the cross-street, felt as in a movie, turned two-three times and fallen apart. His body tried to stand up while his broken head pulled him down. After some convulsions he died. In the evening I told the incident to my friend. He answered just with one word: “Timing!” But in a few minutes of silence he added: “Useful to observe’. Well, it is useful in any situation to see: how “time starts’ and how “time ends’. You are ready or not; win or lose – that is all. You can make one decision but you never know what will happen. It is only “timing’.

Timing is good to travel for some period since (slowly and surely) you can develop strong feeling of unity with the dimensions of time-space, where everything is inter-correlated and inter-connected. You do not need to worry about the future, but it makes sense to analyze incoming events and trace your own trajectory of movement. Mastering “timing’ gives a flexible strategy for your planning: you have an algorithm of actions, which can be immediately changed at any moment if you get new information about better chances or possible danger and obstacles. A similar strategy is needed in a spiritual practice: by choosing a particular practice, you arrange everything around its performing, and it will become a central part of your whole activity. But if you see signs of something wrong in the practice, meet a better instructor or find another experience – you must be ready to coordinate everything according to the new situation. Do not just leave your started practice behind, but complete a transfer from previous actions to the new ones. Transaction is a working zone because the whole of life as such is a transaction – from nothing to being, from darkness to light, from death to life. Any situation includes everything: timing, knowledge, and realization.

Static / Dynamic

Static and dynamic is the basic correlation in feeling your own path. Similar to balancing, timing is mastered in personal experience only. Everybody knows that even worldly business requires both skills in patience (waiting for months and years until success) using stability for improvement of your foundation and ability to do multiple parallel actions (while traveling coordinating the staff at a distance) without errors in every step. Spiritual practice concentrates timing in the eternal unity of the individual and god. Ideal timing is the being of Time itself in its evolving through destinies of people and ages. The person is a conscious axis for cosmic circling. For instance, some kriya-yoga teachers explain self-realization as becoming Time itself. That is why timing is more obvious in examples of great personalities. They are embodiments of whole ages in human evolution. They found the basis for new traditions giving “programs’ to people and nations for hundreds of years. Such epochal changes happen in a direct synchronized moment. Before they become able to guide the world’s destiny, their lives are full of fate when timing possesses their personal structure for alignment with common development. Literary, they do what they cannot escape – and nothing else!

Technically, when you master timing on the structural level, first of all, you need to develop an axis for centering. It would be a process of coordinating the center of your self-being with Supreme Self. The yogic ideal requires performing different rituals in many cultures. Slowly, the ritual became abstract as pure principles of development – movement and / or stability. If we take the version of spiral (circling around axis) we can call it as “movement in stability’. So, first strategically the connection in any personal algorithm is “timing – axis’. Punctuality depends on being centered, and vice versa; axis is developing together with punctuality. For example, Yogi Bhajan always prescribed meditation for a precise period 11 minutes and then – you have three, two… minutes left. Kundalini Yoga needs the centering of all practices around rising Kundalini up alone the spine. However, you can use for this goal both dynamic and static techniques, punctually changing your practice in the proper time. Eternity does not discriminate between movement and stability. Everything is moving in a total stillness in the holistic universe. This is the perfect orienteer for coordination between dynamic and static.

Periods

Obviously, every developed person demonstrates his mastering in “timing’. Each special practice (sadhana) or life period is directly separated in time. After that a sudden inexpectable change happens and one starts another period moving to a different field, changing ones style or manners etc. Such radical changes seem crazy and unreasonable for surrounding people while they always have an inner foundation being very punctual in timing. For instance, at the beginning Ramakrishna’s conduct caused laugh and he was treated as a mad man. You see, once he prayed to Jesus Christ, and then he performed Muslim prayes, next he jumped on trees like Hanuman (god monkey) calling Rama, etc. However, Ramakrishna himself finished each sadhana after a specific determined period in his self-realization; especially when he achieved the final goal as the Vision of God (Darshan). The very end of his efforts was adwaita (non-duality). We see similar periods in Ramana Maharshi’s life: leaving home, 17 years in the cave, staying in the house with his family, as a head of the ashram. The saint (recognized in India) was silent ten years, and suddenly he started to accept many visitors daily and answering to everyone. Why all changed? Inner work creates the intention to start a new period, and everything is converted according to new task.

Timing is required in your interaction with different traditions too. You can belong to this or that school due to initiations, perform some particular sadhana, accept some guru, or study classic scriptures. For example, Swami Satyananda was disciple of Swami Sivananda for 10 years, and he was the best disciple, therefore everybody expected him as the next head of the ashram. But once he was sitting on the bank of the Ganges (a river of northern India) and thinking that he cannot become enlightened there. Next day he left the ashram, forever, not worrying what his guru and people will say about this. Otherwise, he would had never become the founder of the Bihar school of yoga which he created after ten years of solitary wandering and studying with many other masters. In the same way, Swami Vivekananda chose the time for his trip to America, where he was not invited by anybody, while he felt that Time itself sent him to the West. Waiting, praying, asking for blessings, visiting sacred places, and meditating day and night, he got the necessarily sign and became enthusiastic: “NOW I am ready!” Timing creates a strong feeling of beginning and end for everything. Events do not come sooner or later. You can develop your mastering of timing in daily practice which requires periods.

II. Central Axis

In most Asian countries a “white person’ walking on the street is pulled to many different directions by people wishing “to cut him into pieces’ wanting from him many things. You will fall apart without axis. You need self-confidence and clear understanding WHAT are you going to do by your own and HOW to realize your projects. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed by various requests, and you will start to do something different from what you have planned even ten minutes ago. Next, if you were naïve enough, you will find yourself in an unknown place, being surprised why you spent so much money for something that you did not want in the first place. And you will need to waste more money in order to come back to your original place and mental state of an independent person. A similar situation will happen with choosing a spiritual teacher: if you are focused in your central axis, you know directly what you need and you develop in chosen direction. Otherwise, you will be fished by anybody and you will need a long time to remove wrong opinions from your mind. As Socrates said, “If you have eaten something wrong you can save your life by vomiting and purifying your stomach. But if you have digested false knowledge – how can you remove it from your mind?” Axis is the base of your path. Building an axis on the energy structural level you will get the column of your character, and the right way on the spiritual level. After you have formed your axis you will get stability in calm and direction in movement. The axis can be kept by correct proportions of static and dynamic work.

No matter where I am living, when I wake up I start from finding my axis as a focus of attention, rather, than rebuilding the inner lost feeling of it, like in Tai-Chi where you do not separate physical movement from energy flow and mental concentration. If I am staying in a comfortable house with gardens, then I prefer a dynamic movement of circling exercises in order to get my axis back. If I spent the night in airplane or car, sitting in armchair, I restore the feeling of axis only by meditation. It is the principle of contrast: outer calm requires inner dynamic while outer movement requires inner calm. It is useless to do anything without axis – you will not succeed or it will take too much efforts and time. Timing is still working: you involve your personal time into evolving of “axial time’. I will give some simple techniques here, but remember that techniques are not really important and you can exchange them for better techniques of your own creation. If you understand the PRINCIPLE, you can compose many techniques for your own purposes, but if you just learning some particular techniques, they will not really help you except in the case that you repeat them till the degree that you will see how they work in principle. The principle of axis is permanent while techniques vary. Our age of high technology makes even spiritual practice too technical. So, it becomes both non-spiritual and non-practical.

Alignment

The notion of axis is central for most spiritual traditions on structural level. Symbolically, we see cross in Christianity, minaret in Islam. Technically we have axis everywhere: column as the base in Taoism, Tadasana (rock posture) as basic asana in Yoga, standing (concentration on the cross) in the whole night in Christian prayer. In transforming systems, systems that transform the very structure of a human being up to physical level, the vertical axis serves as a direction for rising the Kundalini in Tantra or descending of super-intellect in Integral Yoga. Axis as such is obvious in Sufi circling dance. All these are methods to improve the vertical axis. I described many techniques for building the axis in my books: “Hatha Yoga Practice: Disciple against Wall’ and “Taoist Female Practice: Period of Preparation’. Everything depends on our axis, no matter what tradition you follow, or what practice you perform. Vice versa, no matter what you do and what tradition you belong to, and it is important how good is your axis developed. Namely, axis coordinates your consciousness and connect microcosm with macrocosm. There is no working situation without axis; therefore, mastering of axis is the base, the process, and the achievement in any spiritual practice.

Any tradition includes various practices in standing position as I mentioned above. Taoism is based on “column’ for all dynamic styles (Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Syn Yi) which is precious as a meditative practice by itself. Chinese like the story about a disciple who avoided martial arts preferring to stand in a “column’ for hours, and all others laughed at him. He stood one year, ten years… The master became old and decided to choose another head for the school. The main condition for the candidates was to be good “rooted’ since the head of a monastery must be stable like a rock. So, the master checked all his disciples to know how the improvement of their central axis was. He pushed everyone, and all fell down except the disciple who was standing in a “column’ for years. As result, he became the head of the monastery. You can find many versions of the story with the same essence: the basic principle is the foundation for all practices. Mainly, it is enough as such, if you do it not just externally but following detailed inner principles. When you deal with the vertical axis, the standing position is the most important.

In the sitting position any technique of meditation requires straight spine while the position of your legs can be different. However, in classic meditative asanas, it helps to close your body at the bottom, stopping to lose the energy and cutting downward flowing, therefore, the energy is reoriented upward. These asanas construct a triangle as base of a “pyramid’, where the axis is fixed into the most stable structure. Then you can keep axis automatically. The Lotus posture is an ideal pose for meditation both in Indian and Chinese systems. Energy work needs focus attention to the spine since your axis must be active. Anyway, you can sit on your knees as well – religiously, it is used mostly in prayer and other rituals. Buddhist prostrations start from vertical axis while it is standing in Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) and sitting in Theravada (original Buddhism). In both cases you build axis for doing the prostrations and again come back to the central axis. We will remind this practice while discussing the personal rhythm of the spiritual practice where you add movements like the dynamic Taoist meditation.

In the laying position, there is horizontal axis as well. However, it is Yin state, while the spiritual practice requires namely vertical axis. Women can use laying positions since they have horizontal energy structure. Men can use the laying positions in order to improve foundation. All people can choose the laying position for practice when they are tired. Hatha Yoga practice is finishing by Shavasana which is relaxation in the lying position on your back with arms and legs aside of your straight spine as the central axis. Yoga Nidra (conscious sleep) is performed in Shavasana, as a pose for deep meditation, where the whole body is mastered by focus attention, step by step, symmetrically around the axis. The Taoist dynamic meditation is performed in the same posture with some additional movement of arms and legs. Bend arms and legs simultaneously connecting palms and feet but keeping them on the surface; then turn to a side closing elbows and knees; come back to previous position; turn to other side with the same movement; come back to “8” -pose again; stretch you arms and legs; and finally you are in the starting position of Shavasana. This can be better understood in actual practice with the teacher. When you are ready to stand up, first you have to turn to a side as before. The Taoist sleeping meditation needs also straight spine and controlled limbs.

Mastering Axis

In any position, the axis is felt clearer and kept stronger if you add twisting of your whole body around the axis. Standing in the column, you can turn left-right keeping arms down (the palms will create a circle around your hips); arms in the middle horizontally (the palms will create a circle around your chest); finally above head (the palms will create a circle around your high energy channel). Sitting with crossed legs, you can make stronger twist to perform more “closing’ asanas: start from Siddhasana, coming to Ardha-Padmasana and finishing in Padmasana (lotus). It can be comfortable to put your palm on opposite knees at twisting while other palm is going behind your back to opposite hip. Laying on your back you can do a simple asana when you put one foot on opposite knee and put bent knee on the floor to opposite side while turning your head back. The most important thing is to improve straight line from top to foot. All symmetrical asanas must be done on both sides. Dynamic twisting will be a subject of the following chapter about rhythm in movement. Technically, you can deal with my description if you are yoga practitioner since I use well-known poses.

Another similar exercise for mastering of your axis is multiplied turning around the axis. This is the way of dancing Sufis and some African magicians. Moreover, we can find round movement in many temple rituals (bow down to all sides, walking around Stupa in Buddhism or around Altar in Hinduism) and technical practices (walking around in Ba-Gua, radiant steps with coming back to central point in Syn-Yi – both are the Taoist practices). Hatha-Yoga was developed in this aspect by a teacher whom I met in Nepal. He worked out surrounding space by set of Asanas composed in connection with central axis with turning to all possible directions. All these examples make the notion of rhythm very important, since it is not just a position (simple axis) but a particular movement during some time in limited space. Sure, it includes the energy factors which are reflected in emotional states. The emotional axis means equanimity. So, the techniques are useful for energy balancing which is required for spiritual stability in your chosen way. Finally, the spiritual axis is the most important thing. When you have the spiritual axis, you need not any techniques.

The Eastern practices including sitting meditation are well-known in the West nowadays. However, I saw often in different meditation centers some Western practitioners who were ready to break their knees in order to do wishful Lotus posture. So, I pay attention to this point. Lotus is an ideal foundation for central vertical axis in whole body. As all Yogis know, it is performed not bending knees but opening hips and turning of legs. The knee cannot be bent to aside even for a little without being broken or hurt, while the hip can never be broken by opening. Sitting on the floor and stretching legs with some distance in between, you can understand how much you need to turn your hips that, bending your leg naturally, you would find your foot on opposite hip. This is the working area. There are many additional Asanas in Yogic literature. After opening hips, you can also remove energy blocks from your abdomen developing your low chakras and healing emotional problems. Since Lotus stops to lose energy flowing down, when you open hips all freed energy will rise up into your vertical axis stretching your spine and full it with energy for keeping and balancing.

You can take care of your knees using standing poses like “column’. Long sitting meditation requires strong knees anyway, even if your Lotus is correct. You can improve your knees by walking meditation or other dynamic practices, but a stable standing works better for this purpose. Especially, when you are standing long time in the Taoist “column’ where your knees are bent little bit. Also, you can use Yogic Utkatasana for a stronger effect. Stand up closing your legs; bend your knees as much as possible, as if sitting on an invisible cheer. Close your forearms keeping elbows before chest and hands before face (or stretch your both arms up). This posture requires very strong legs because you must keep straight spine. Of course, this is far from being meditative Asana, but it is very useful for improvement of your body before meditation. If you are able to work out the axis doing this standing posture, it will help you also. In the same way, you can master Lotus posture using some additional Asanas where Lotus as an element is the part of complex structure. But we will not deepen Hatha-Yoga here (see my other books).

Spiritual Pillar

Technically, an axial meditation includes also spreading of your personal sphere up to Supreme Self (Atman=Brahman). You can do some preliminary practices in any centered position (standing, sitting, and lying) while standing is the best option. Here you already start to develop a “volume consciousness’ and the concept of a “volume path’ (see the last chapters). Try to keep axis not only by concentration on the axis itself, but spreading your attention and awareness to a bigger sphere. First, concentrate on the axis, then spread your attention as a circle around, absorbing space but not fixing on any particular objects, images or thoughts within this area. Feel everything equally in your presence. Next, come back to the axis, and again spread your attention to a bigger sphere. Try to move it as far as possible, where your concentration reaches including bigger volume into consciousness which is associated as your own “I”. Finally, you accept the whole universe as “I”. It must be not an idea only, but the real feeling and experience of global consciousness. There is nothing “individual’ in this Self till you come back to your central axis as an axis of the world.

Orientating to the final god-realization in prayer, we can remember a “pillar’, which is the strongest ascetic practice of Christian Fathers. Many years they were standing on a stone as if being its extension, constantly repeating the Jesus prayer and rising to God. Some of them became saints and were canonized by Christian church. Similar extremity was performed by Indian ascetics who were doing “standing sadhana’ many years. They still continue doing similar practices in modern times. For example, a mahant of the Naga-Baba ashram in Varanasi was standing above 10 years before he reached Samadhi and left his body. The case happened in the end of 20-th century. He was the patron of my yoga teacher, and I saw the photos in his home album. Even the image of that saint was still powerful spiritually. It was not only physical practice, while I do not know what type of mantra he used during standing sadhana. Anyway, we see a good example, how the lifelong practice can be done as keeping an axis for total self-realization. Building personal axis, you can reach all your personal goals. But if you surrender an individual axis to the universal axis, then you can keep concentration of holistic evolution in each movement and action.

III. Rhythm Tuning

During my long Asian research I always traveled alone. It was taking risk but getting important factor of self-investigation, namely, the strict attuning of personal rhythm without a need to “follow’ or “carry’ someone. So, any cooperation would force you to deviate from a central axis. Sooner or later, you will need to restore your central axis and attune your personal rhythm. While being disciple, you can simply follow somebody in order to learn some rhythms and feel how they influence your own style of life, slowly attuning your personal rhythm of the spiritual practice. Visiting some group seminars or following a guru is helpful for understanding of the rhythm itself (though it seems that you are studying something different like mantras or asanas). Namely the rhythm will help you in any traditional way as a guiding line to reconstruct your natural organism to the cultural structure. For example, if you choose Buddhism you have the only chance – to become recognized Lama or just stop your development at some ordinary level. In such case, you cannot realize any other structure available in Hinduism or Taoism. You will be fixed in this chosen tradition forever. You can become even Buddha, but you will never become Christ or anybody else. The final goals are different – not the ways only. There are rear cases, when people choose holistic experience, like Ramakrishna, who finally declared that all ways are leading to the same goal, has unique result. I call it Self-realization in comparison with traditional God-realization according to some religious image of particular “god’.

Obviously, second connection of these principles, namely “axis – rhythm’ creates third connection “rhythm – attention’. When we build the axis, we need simple attention as direct concentration. But when we attune our personal rhythm we need complex attention as all-embracive concentration. Such broad attention includes duration of holding complicated content. Next, coordination of the personal rhythm with external rhythms is not natural. They are separated due to description and comparison from each other for completing the whole picture. The holistic attention would be a hearing “music of spheres’ where all rhythms are harmonious, and the individual self is equal to a supreme Self. Usually, we are intended to reach the goal by starting needful changes in our structure. Sure, at the very beginning you cannot hear any “music of spheres’, not being able to coordinate a rhythm of your own actions in order to resonate with the whole universe. However, this setting itself changes the structure of your self-consciousness principally elevating your individual at the level of integrated activity (Karma-Yoga). Everything else is the question of developing attention, and we will discuss it later.

Personal Rhythm

The human life is mystic due to resonance between both personal and universal rhythms. Slowly, you can develop feeling when to start and to finish this or that practices, when to stay in mountains or at beach, when to meet some teachers or practitioners, how long to wait and how fast to do something. Synchronization is associated with real resonance without trying to change everything according to opinion of others, no matter, how “great gurus’ they are… Tuning personal rhythm becomes faster, if you avoid any “help’ at the outset without allowing anybody to stay between you and God (like Sri Aurobindo, for instance). This is an ideal solution, if you are strong enough. You are really strong, if you are taking universal position, since the tremendous power of Universe belongs to Supreme Self, and you are united with it. Then all needful meetings immediately happen by miracle and communications never cause troubles but improve balance. This is common structure for many traditional practices (such as building axis) with rhythmic movement.

Keeping axis and rhythm, while moving here-and-there, is obvious in Christianity and Integral Yoga (comparable with Vipassana walking meditation). In my youth, I stayed in Valaam monastery where I liked to walk along alley of a “lonely monk’, as locals called it on the island. Two lines of high trees were at the border of old cemetery; and the lines were so near, that only one person could walk in the middle, almost touching trees by his shoulders. The monk recited Jesus prayer many years, walking in the alley until his death, and I did the same. Interesting, a force of resonance kept me within the alley, and it became very difficult to stop practice and to go out of it. While the ends of the alley were open, some invisible force turned me back and I walked another round again and again. So strange action continued until deep night as probably the monk did previously. Coming back to village from cemetery, I could notice briefly how people were afraid of my appearance in darkness. A similar practice was done by Sri Aurobindo (the founder of Integral Yoga in XX century) who walked eight hours per day in his own room from wall to wall. It was not an “alley’, but he shoveled a path through the floor as a channel while walking constantly. Instead of rising to God (symbolized by trees), he downloaded super-intellect into his physical body (symbolized by geometry of his closed house). In both cases, the methodology included similar rhythmic movement and keeping axis. We can find some other examples in both Zen and Vipassana walking meditations.

Let us find a personal rhythm during walking meditation in Vipassana practice. Thai forest monasteries support this tradition many centuries, choosing it from four meditative postures given by Buddha (walking, standing, sitting, and lying). According to Achaan Nyanadhammo, at first visit to a monastery, the Vipassana master checked its paths for walking meditation. If paths were good worn, he accepted it as a good sign. There were amazing examples of practitioners. For instance, one monk practiced walking meditation on the top edge of monastery wall stepping carefully at high level as if balancing on a rope in the circus. Some Thai monks walked 10—15 hours per day covering about 20 km, even though they did it slowly. Achaan Singtong walked on the same path so long that he created a tunnel down to the ground. Achaan Dtun walked day and night not coming inside his hut even for sleep. He just lay down on the path and continued to walk again after awakening. Literary, he lived in the way. Since Westerners accept meditation mostly as sitting practice, these facts seem to be unusual.

As for length and speed, both parameters depend on your personal rhythm only! After he got liberation in Bodhgaya, Buddha used path as long as his 17 steps. The sacred path is a place of worshiping until now. Later some wandering monks used longer path about 30 steps, while several masters recommended for beginners to start from 15 steps. When you have too long path, your thinking becomes intensive and chaotic. Achaan Chah recommended natural walking, namely, not very fast and not very slowly. Anyway, it is easier to start from slow walking win order to notice all sensations and to develop your concentration. But some phlegmatic people need fast walking, otherwise, they “sleep’ in the way. Interesting, total concentration during walking will make it slower till full stop. Then you can proceed to standing meditation, next to sitting meditation, and finally to lying meditation. Vice versa, when you can keep attention on the chosen object in sitting position, you can try to extend concentration during walking. The task is more difficult, but it allows getting perfect concentration. Anyway, meditation is a control of thinking, which must be done independently from any position of your body in the space.

External Rhythms

When you realize your personal rhythm, you become very sensitive to any external rhythms, since you still cannot know the way of stars and destiny of people, at least till some degree. You need important ability to turn aside softly from your central axis keeping self-awareness and coming back to your central axis again without any contradictions. There is easy Taoist technique developing rhythm, namely, “pendulum’ in position sitting on your knees. You decline from your central axis forward and come back to vertical position again. Try to find your own rhythm! Some duration of such practice is very important since one-two movements will give nothing. More complicated version requires position sitting on your buttocks, stretching your legs forward, little bending your knees and joining your feet. Start rotation, slightly fixing three positions: decline forward (palms on ankles); move to left side (palms on shanks); decline backward (palms on knees); move to right side (palms on shanks); decline forward (palm on ankles). Then start circling to opposite direction. Spine is straight while declining from central axis without bending corpus. You can keep permanent concentration on axis only while your physical body is circling around it.

Of course, you can use some mantras, ritual dances and many dynamic practices for rhythm developing. However, using any traditional technique you must follow the specific rhythm of this tradition. No problem, if your current situation fits such experience (sometimes a “situation’ as long as the current life). Nevertheless, you will need to synchronize the rhythm of chosen spiritual practice with other rhythms of social life etc. Staying outside of monastery, you will need to coordinate your own rhythm with harmonization of spiritual, working, social, family and other spheres. Always there are some external obstacles; therefore, you have to tune your rhythm regularly, being independent of any actions. Otherwise, you will false in your own life. Probably, you will not notice the beginning of your personal corruption! Traditional realization makes everything simpler, if you exist within the tradition permanently, and nothing can influence your behavior. Then you can synchronize with your teacher, and he will build your structure according to some traditional spiritual standard. Finally, you will be converted into a similar teacher in order to support the rhythm of the particular tradition.

Stilling Rhythm

No matter, how your personal rhythm is coordinating with external rhythms, tuning universal rhythm causes complete stillness of any rhythm. Finally, it is obvious in meditation on technical level, when your breath and pulse become slower with long pauses which are impossible for human being naturally. External yoga practices make it clear already at Pranayama stage: first you choose some breathing rhythm, and then you extend it due to natural relaxation of whole organism, being attentive to breathing itself. Principally, this is non-violent action, and you must not suppress your breath forcefully. This is namely rhythm tuning in a “volume’ way. Proportion of breath-in and breath-out (and breath-holding, if necessary) is permanent usually, though you extend duration of each period. Slowly, it becomes as subtle as almost invisible and inaudible. The classic Yoga system recommends doing meditation after completing pranayama. The effect is useful for deepening attention which controls both breathing and heart pulsation, as the main function in human organism. Finally, Yogi can stop pulse by his own will, and I controlled such demonstration personally once in India.

Let us describe Vipassana as a rhythmic practice too. Slowly, you will also calm both movement and breath due to deepening attention. Breath becomes equal in both nostrils (Swara-Yoga is a holistic system for this purpose), more subtle, flowing, and transparent, as if you drink water with your nose. Exhale become shorter, finally you will not feel it in your nostrils. Pulse can be reduced twice (from 60 to 30 heart-beats per minute). Reaching this stage, you need not a regalement for father practice because duration is extending by itself. Breath-holding creates holistic consciousness of emptiness, but new inhale will bring you back to Samsara, which becomes obviously elusive and unreal. When you come to the state of “breathless corpse’, you will calm your personal rhythm completely. Then you will get perception of a universal rhythm without distraction and finally experience Nirvana. Your personal rhythm becomes not actual anymore, because Nirvana contains Samsara.

IV. Attention

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.

V. Discriminative Power

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.