Stages Toward the Mastery of Yoga by Vasujimbo

8/8/2019 Stages Toward the Mastery of Yoga by Vasujimbo

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Stages toward the Mastery of Yoga

by Vasujimbo

[email protected]

In the midst of lifes endless stream of ongoingness,

Is the rudder that harnesses this current,

Guiding us down our path,

As we choose a way.

The momentum of reality limits our choices,

Yet our will does make a difference.

Most of our limit is defined by the lack of wisdom in the choosing

We are more than a leaf falling to earth,

Or dust in the wind.

There is some choice within this confine.

It is possible to fashion the fabric of existence with the resources at handOne needs the insight to know how and why to do such

And the opportunity

In one's youth, one might play amongst the best and worst techniques,

Taking aim with some type of meditation or prayer or mantra or ceremony

Striving for some ideal system, naively responding with conditions to conditions

Faith guides us towards some perfection,

Hope keeps us going when the going gets rough

Love is the courage to hold hands while withstanding the pressure of the flow

Peace is a symptom of the cultivated harmonious life

Taken care to aim towards a journey of fulfillment

Unrest, irritability, depression, anger, grief, boredom,

A few of the multitudes of distress

These are the signs of our wobble

As we are shaken off our center

When steering down the stream of life

The current sweeps us in its grip

Yield enough to this force and use the rudder of the insightful will to turn about just right

continually returning to the upright;

Cultivating principled insight in the midst of a momentary force;

Harnessing insight into freedom from distress;Yoga is the ruddering of our way around the blockages towards fulfillment of our insight.

Yoga can be defined

as the settling of the distressing psychological processes.

Controlling the mind

allowing the witness to be established with its most essential nature.

Otherwise, there is false identification of the seer with the seen.

This attachment leads to distress.


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This detachment leads to freedom from suffering.

The eight limbs of yoga,

are techniques of control.

They are the categories of discipline that a yogi trains

to detach from ways that lend to further distress

to remain established in the original mind of Pure Subjectivity, Sentiency, No-disturbance

Modifications of the mind fall into certain categories, be they painful or pleasurable:

Correct knowledge is based on correct perception, deduction or testimony.

Incorrect knowledge, imagination, sleep, memory

Obstacles on the path are:

Disease, laziness, indecision, carelessness, lethargy, craving sense-pleasure,

erroneous perceptions, lack of concentration and unstable attention.

They are known by a sense of sorrow, worry, restlessness and irregular breathing

Overcome these obstacles by concentrating on their opposites and following the eight disciplines of

yoga.

The first category of discipline is proper ethical conduct:

So that one is not visited by the demons of past karma.

These ethical consideration require restraint from:

violence, lying, stealing, lusting, and greed.

The second is proper moral observances,

so that ones future karma remains clean:

These include:

Cleanliness, contentment, aspiration, self-study and surrender to the inconceivable.

Next comes the discipline of posture.

Taking a proper posture

allows us to be comfortable, to forget the body, and to begin to pay attention.

This puts us face to face with our breath.

Control of our breathing regulates the force and speed and rhythm of the thought waves of the mind

so that concentration is possible.

Through stillness of breath comes stillness of the mindstuff.

The end of an exhale is very quiet

Now it is necessary to withdraw from the senses,

or else they will remain a distraction.Attention can now be paid to the source of the light that comes from within.

When attention is focused for even a moment,

on the source of perceptions or conceptions,

This is called being concentrated.

When concentration is sustained this is called meditation;

This discipline utilizes the mental processes and still has a sense of a subject and object.


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This is meditating with seed

When there is complete control, and the subject and object disappear.

When time and change have no place,

Multiplicity comes to oneness.

This control is called absorption or samadhi.

This is where the seer, itself is reflected in the mindstuff.

And there is no distinction between the seer and the seen.

From this perspective, one is with the ultimate eternal truth of the Oneness of Reality.

Evolution has reached its fulfillment when i am not i, but am.

True freedom is at hand.

One who seeks mastery in this path is a yogi.

At first, there was darkness

no movement, no change,

no something, no nothing

no awarenessNo memory,

Then came reflexive response to sensed stimulation

change and movement ensued

something and nothing came to be

The scene was still dark and dim and quiet

Things swirled about

Some light

some sound

some feeling

some sense of movement

No big distinction of self and other

Then birth

The beginning of awakened, individuated knowledge

more light and form and shape

contrast, brightness, hue, sharpness

Loud, soft, soothing, confusing,

a lot of feeling and a lot of movement

both inside and out

taste, smell

infinite changeInconsistent, random

painful, pleasurable

want, dont wan, dont care

too much peace, much unrest, suffering

Mostly self, and others

Very aware of body

Quality and meaning are attached to objects directly

Everything is now, here or else


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The conditioning begins

More luminosity, more sentiency, more discrimination

more meaning and more value

names, classes, rules, expectations

Thoughts and feelings mixed,

options and choice pressured by impulsivity and compulsivity,

Not completely ignorant, very nave, very foolish

Trying to please oneself

trying to please others

Not very good at either

Disposition rules

Rules are real

Conditioning is the way. Choice is demanding and very nave.

Awareness is a state that has equilibrium and disequilibrium

Awareness has a field of awareness

Objects move on that field in the context of a sceneAwareness is the knower of this field within this scene

Objects come to the field of awareness

with feelings and thoughts conditionally attached to them

These perceptions and thoughts and feelings and the memory of such

are represented in the field of awareness in a multitude of qualitative distinctions

These representations are conceptions

One learns language to share conceptions

One learns sharper distinctions between this and that and their names

And learns to identify the field of awareness and the body and mind as its servant

With effort, one learns the mind can control the body and thus the world

Strong identification with the powers of the body and the mind

Mental process control an imaginary calculator to envision potential future outcomes

Feelings impulse thoughts of opportunities

Play on words

Play with everything

express feelings and thoughts, speak, hear

I-me-mine

A moment of choice, consequences witnessed, remembered

Conditioned response tied onto objects and scenes

Karma creating, karma patterning, tendencies seeded and already sprouting.

Dispositions, habits and tendencies develop into traits

Awareness develops ways of responding to identified objects and scenes

Judged by want, dont want, dont care.

Contact with objects gains skill by this

and gains a clinginess, a want in the future to attach as such

to call in this memory, this way of identifying it, relating it

Feel about it, think about it and can manipulate it as well

Meta-opinions develop,


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Teams are joined and left and new ones identified with

Peers are the source of wisdom

The elders and others are the source of the oppression.

To obey the rule or not that is the question

Feelings are enough, beliefs follow feelings and conditioned memories

Choice is limited to these

Opportunities abound

The mind is quite contriving

Sneaking to skew the outcome

Distorting the real into its real

Projecting, avoiding, justifying, complaining

Seeds of times past brew forth into decisions

Reasons and attachments guide our choices

Choices that steer our karma forth

Further disturbing the mind-field

Every neurosis is a clever trick

To justify our karma

Steering the wake of our own mind-field

Bringing filter to comprehension

The filter further skews the present mind-field

By attaching the karma to the now

This moves the now forward

As an impulse to become as such

This suchness goes forth in a spectrum of ways

As a disturbance upon our resonance

This disturbance stems forth from

Previous clever tricks of the mind

At some point in a persons life

Perhaps it is an instant

Perhaps it was a phase or an outcome of an experience

For whatever reason, for whatever twist of fate

This being destined to be a yogi, opens up to the notion that

THERE IS AWARENESS, (usually initially conceived as I am aware)

Awareness is glimpsed as the most precious and essential aspect of our experience

Awareness is the dimly recognized as seer of the seen, knower of the knownThe toucher of the textured contact of the assemblage point

the insight itself and not the object of insight

The peaceful fulfilled, undisturbed,

The aether of awareness remains undisturbed by the medium that occupies it

Unless, of course, it attaches meaning and value into an implication and desire brings the karmic

cling

This give weight to the mass, curving the apparent field of awareness

as it accommodates or assimilates or ignores the object


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The stronger the attachment, the stronger the skew of the apparent field

Awareness is fooled to believe that it is the objects it beholds,

Awareness is essential for consciousness of the body, perceptions and conceptions and comprehensions

At last, the yogic path begins by seeing

that awareness is awareness and the field of awareness and its objects are not awareness

Clarifying this confusion is the path of yoga

Yoga is the establishing of awareness as essential, wisdom as substantial, and freedom as the way

These are many stages of the path towards mastery of yoga

At first, one may mock or ignore or discount the way of yoga

Through naivety, doubt or stupidity or foolishness one ignores the cause of everyones discontent

and thus remains preliminary to yoga

Yoga is the sincere discipline to cultivate a truthful relationship between awareness and the objects

that occupy it.

The path of yoga begins by aspiring toward yoga, towards being free of distress.

The early aspirations are full of ideas and feelings and attempts to gain skill

Attachment still has a clear stronghold on the contactThe assemblage points of awareness remain fixed to the preconditioned karma,

the aspirant begins to see that karma has repercussions and this karma needs cleaning

Feelings still prevail, thoughts are opinionated, beliefs are held,

and a path of yoga is conceived.

This conception is misconceived, but still a pinhole of insight into a vast opportunity

Same old story, told in a different way,

But this particular way towards yoga still feels unique.

False belief of right and wrong, good and bad, truth and untruth, yoga and not yoga

Yet the aspirant holds onto the thread of illumination and sees a source of light

The golden flower of the source of awareness shines and the aspirants sees into knowledge

Meditation opens the opportunity to witness with less distraction, when really paying attention,

Objects and the witnessing of objects with attached feelings and thoughts and implications

Aspirants remain caught up in the whirlwind of the mind

Mental processes catch the attention towards a verbal construct, an image, a memory

Back and forth between distraction and oblivion,

the aspirant has moments of peace, of insight, of freedom from conditioned attachments to objects

Then is swept back into the momentum of the karmic currents

Objects come and go at their own will.

There is desire for liberation

The aspirant conceives that the mission is to control awarenesss reactive attachment to objects

Plenty of opportunities

As the yogic aspirant matures, it becomes clear that this particular aspirant

is a certain way, has certain tendencies and capacities and talents

Learning some techniques are manifested easier than others

The Path of Discipline begins with the commitment to dedicate these talents

to fulfilling the most enlightening way for this particular being.

The aspirant becomes a disciple when the skills are developed and matured

And can effectively subdue the conditioned tendencies to allow the tranquil and encouraging field


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states and insight

Discipleship is liked to the talented musician who decides to master the violin.

In her life, she may master many instruments, but this primary commitment is a disciplined phase of

mastery.

The disciplined yogi chooses a focused path that clearly distinguishes the most fulfilling way

Unfortunately it takes much skill to see clearly and much effort to work hard

and much of early discipleship is spent trying on ways.

The path of discipleship is established once this choice is made and the skillful path committed to.

The being achieves more skill from purity of intention, sincerity and common sense.

Personality begins to conform to the intended expression of the deeper insights

Condition tendencies remain in the form of skilled capacities to learn

A tool to see clearer, not an end

A thought is recognized as a thought and a feeling as a feeling, body as body, breath as breath

and awareness is different than these.

Meditation can be of various types, but will be defined here to includethe techniques involved in inducing samadhi on subjective reality, sentiency and fulfillment

Samadhi is the successful state of absorption into a concentrated state.

Samadhi can be a result of concentration on an object

Samadhi can be the result of concentrating on the process of concentrating and its disturbances

Samadhi can be on the undisturbed state of awareness but still with a sense of self

Samadhi can have no reflection, no discrimination, no attachment, no sense of self

Space and time is witnessed with no boundary; there is no change; no causal induction.

This samadhi has no karmic repercussions, the yogi is thus free from self-induced stresses

Yoga requires samadhi, like the painter needs a ladder to paint the top story.

At some point the ladder is a means to the end and in itself is not an essential to the painted

though causally interdependent. Once causation ceases, supporting objects are unnecessary.

Objects support insight

Insight support wisdom

wisdom supports becoming free

and once free, freedom needs no further support

There are many objects for the focus of meditation

Objects can be gross or subtle, concrete or abstract, substantial or insubstantial, formed or formless

Objects can have distinct boundaries or not

Objects can be a feeling or state of consciousness like bliss

Objects can be on a process or pattern of mental processes

An object can be a physiological process like breathing, heartbeat, pain, pleasure, muscle tension

An object can be an object directly or through reference as an symbolic image, sound, word or conceptI-amness can be an object

I am not can be an object

An object can be no object, the void, emptiness, nothingness, that which is not, zip

The state of the field of awareness is experientially correlated with the relationship with objects and

scenes in this field

The state of awareness transgresses through nebulous, yet distinct stages of progression into samadhi

and eventually to wisdom and its freedom


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There are many ways to appreciate the stages towards mastery

One can appreciate the Nine Abidances of Mind to achieve samadhi

These are stages the distracted mind finds peace and satisfaction

A first stage is the stage of inner abiding, purposely attending toward an inward chosen object

Second is continuous abiding, which maintains a sustained attention for an useful integral of time

Third is calm abiding, which appreciates finally, a settling of the restless mind, at least momentarily

Fourth is near abiding brings a taste of serene tranquility through the greater control over the

wandering mind

Fifth stage of samadhi, well-adjusted abiding achieves the ability to remain undisturbed by

externally sourced objects

The six stage is abiding in stillness; Now the mind remains peaceful and undistracted; Objects and

scenes are now accepted without personal projections upon the object/scene.

Still some karma and some sense of self.

The seventh stage is abiding in deep stillness, when there is no recognition of any stress

disturbance, pain or suffering.

Abiding in single-mindedness is the eighth stage when the absorption in clear minded focus. No

projections, no disturbance, calm, serene, clearly reflecting the object and subject at will.Skilled in remaining undisturbed as part of personality in all cognitive dimensions. All objects are

objects, and the subject is the subject. There is awareness and awareness remains as awareness.

The nine stage is Abiding in samadhi without effort, when full absorption is the way of the being.

And the stage of non-abiding with wisdom and freedom;

Freedom even from abiding;

this way is fully effortless

Samadhi is a ladder to other stages of freedom from further suffering and distress.

Any attachment, any clinginess, any sense of self, any lack of appreciation for causal interdependence

for the vastness can perpetuate further karma.

Freedom from any result from any action can come only as samadhi is achieved, for the ability to

sustain this resonance frequency demands the skill of samadhi.

The skill of Samadhi can be appreciated in other ways as well

Samadhi can be conceived to have two distinct phases, samadhi with a seed or without a seed

Samadhi with a seed is characterized by the stages of samadhi in which the mental process are still

present, being utilized and chooses an object of focus.

A seed is that which carries a potential of attachment for this particular being and can thus generate

karma

Samadhi with a seed uses an object like a mantra, a image of a respected teacher, the breath, etc.

Desire and avoidance remains, as the mind wanders into memories of conditioned reflection.This object means this to me, I feel this way about his object, I am this object., This reminds

me of that are typical distracting styles of mental processes that still cling onto objects as seeds to

future distress.

At least there is reflection, at least the attempt at control is being made, at least the disciplined effort

is at hand.

What a blessing to have even come to this point.

With discrimination, awareness makes distinct the properties of an object and the mental processes


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attached to it.

This is actually the object or scene at hand is comprehended, as opposed to the physiologic and

karmic projections onto that object/scene.

Still, feelings and thoughts and judgments, and a sense of self are still present, but the tool of

discrimination discerns, like a compass, the awareness,

As distinct from the object of the mental processes within the field of awareness.

With skill in reflection and skill in discrimination the opportunity comes to see the difference between

self and object.

Awareness uses this distinction (between subject and object) to help detach from the seed.

This is still samadhi with seed, because there is subject and there is object and they still have karmic

(prepatterned, conditioned, impulsive) relationships

At a certain point of concentration, the absorption lets go of the subject-object duality

and there becomes no object, no sense of self.

There simply is awareness.

This awareness is experienced as boundariless, as timeless, as formless, as objectless, as subject,

aware.At some point there is no subject, simply awareness with insight; fulfilled and secure.

This is now samadhi with no seed, seedless samadhi.

Here-now and for all now-heres, awareness does not cling to objects. Free at last.

The seeds of potential karma have already reached their fruition and the seeds are fulfilled

In young meditation, there is access to the assemblage points and reflection that there is assemblage

Then the discrimination of object properties

Then discrimination of subject-object-scene relationship

Then effort to purify intention of letting go of all pre-conceived notion

The end of exhale achieves the peace, inhale and more impulsive distractions, attractions

then, subject is known as subject, object as object.

Tranquility ensues for a moment

The state remains fluctuating until skill is established to maintain the state of equilibrium of clear

illumination.

Serenity is reached.

Here-now, one pointedness is possible.

Skill brings the one-point, and with sustenance, karmic purity to leave this one-point alone

The harassment is over, no more bullying from the glamour of objects

Equanimity has freed the way from conditioned response. Samadhi has succeeded.

Now the opportunity for freedom.

Awareness is not enough to secure wisdom and freedom

Awareness imbued with the insight of wisdom is Yoga.The stages of samadhi scales the path of discipleship into the wisdom path as this level of

concentrated skill is necessary to secure the stability of the field of awarness as it is expressed into the

world.

One thing to sit in meditation and be wise with objects another to live ones life wisely and being free.

The objects of the world are incredible teachers, powerful and oppressive, seductive.

The yogi must deal with these objects as well and this is where wisdom comes in.

Every thought, every feeling, every worldy aggression and attraction gives opportunity for samadhi,

temptations to stir us from the one-pointedness


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And samadhi the opportunity for further freedom from distress,

for awareness to be well-established and wise.

And for wisdom to manifest the opportunity for compassion to truly help others be free from thei

particular distress

So many opportunities, unless the mind is preoccupied and narrowed, biased, pressured.

Samadhi establishes the secure skill in maintaining a resonant, karma-free field of awareness

This allows insight and the wisdom that ensues.

Wisdom requires that the discipline be aligned with the proper principles

The four noble truths and eightfold path outline those principles

Many lessons have come down and this one seems so true:

All sentient beings seek to avoid suffering and seek a peace that is permanent.

First we must see

the fact of birth;

the fact of aging;

the fact of illness;the fact of the inevitability of death.

The first noble truth recognizes these facts

and realizes that there is distress and suffering.

All things have their cause.

The second noble truth recognizes that

suffering, like all that exists, has a cause.

The body is fleeting;

Feelings are fleeting;

Perceptions and memories are fleeting;

Ideas are fleeting;

Even awareness, itself, is fleeting.

Believing that these are less than fleeting is the cause of our suffering;

Desire to find fulfillment through these, engenders this suffering

The third noble truth recognizes that the cause of suffering is

the false identification and craving for that which is impermanent.

The fourth noble truth recognizes that the there is a way to end suffering.

The end of suffering requires putting an end to the cause of suffering.Freedom from suffering comes from successfully seeing our false identification with the impermanent.

This requires higher training in ethics, concentration, compassion and wisdom.

Proper ethical conduct helps us to see the impermanence of our actions,

and allows us to work out our karma to begin the higher trainings.

Compassion helps us to see the impermanence of feeling,

and to witness clearly, suffering.

Wisdom helps us to see the impermanence of our thought,


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and to correct the ignorance of mistaking the impermanent for the permanent.

Samadhi helps us to sustain the application of the higher trainings.

Signposts of freedom from suffering are the eightfold path:

Right Understanding

Right Thought

Right Speech

Right Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness

Right Samadhi

Freedom from suffering tunes us with a Peace that is permanent; No further distress.

What will it be like when I achieve samadhi? are the words of an aspirant

Finally, some peace and clarity and insight; This is why, and how to. Aha; This needs done are

the words of a disciple

As it is, so it is, and so much more to do; I am not doing, I am not; nothing needs to be done, nothingis, nothing is not.Aaaahhhhh...oooooooo.mmmmmmm are the words of the master

The Jnana are a way of conceiving the stages to freedom as going through eightfold jnana.

The first jnana includes a concentrated effort that includes vitakka, vicara, , piti, sukkha, ekaggata.

The goal of these is to counter the five hindrances of sensual craving, ill-will, laziness, restlessness

and weak conviction.

Vitakka is the applied thought about an object.

It is the turning of awareness to attend to an object.

The holding of the object in mind on purpose for more than a few moments is Vicara.

Piti is the tranquil rapture resulting from the quieting of the mental processes.

This rapture may be momentary and fleeting or prolonged and maintained, it can bring instantaneous

joy or bring repercussion of joy; the joy can be thoroughly transforming or partly so, convincing or not

Piti is the enchantment of seeing the way of peace.

Sukkha is the bliss that follows from being thoroughly enjoyed and sustained in peace;

no want, at least for more than a moment.

Ekaggata is the one pointed state of mind that comes from full absorption onto an object. No other

objects are considered at that moment. Only that.

The first jnana has all five modes.

the second jnana utilizes piti, sukkha and ekaggata

The third jnana uses sukkha and ekaggata

The fourth jnana uses ekaggata and Upekkha { equinmity objects are objects}

These four stages are with form, the last four stages of jnana are without form.

Form means within object boundaries. Has characteristics, properties, qualities. With seed.

Without form, means no objective boundary, no qualification or discrimination. Without seed.

Each stage,except the last, is marked by a skill in consideration, a skillful contact, a skillful holding

on, a skillful letting go, a skillful reflecting back

In the fifth jnana, the yogi enters the experiential realm of space with no boundaries.

No sense, no dimension, no extension, no movement


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One sees into the infinite vastness of time and space

One sees the vastness, hears the peace. Sitting on the edge looking over.

still a sense of self and space.

Something else is and is not.

The sixth jnana enters the realm of awareness with no boundaries

So called, Infinite consciousness

Awareness is everywhere, here, now, then, there, was, will be

Consciousness of boundariless extension, minute, macro, instantaneous, forever,

Infintesimal, infinite, the source of all knowing and not-knowing.

The seventh jnana enters the experiential realm of no-thing

there is no object

no dimension

no extension

no thought, no feeling, no memory, no image no sensation, no perception, no conception, no

comprehension, no doing,

no subject-object distinctionWitness of I-am not

am

The eighth jnana is the realm of awareness neither of something nor no-thing

simply aware of being, simply aware,

Sentient

Skillful ability to neither categorize nor uncategorized

neither to perceive nor not perceive

neither conceive nor not conceive

neither comprehend nor not comprehend

neither do, nor not do

I neither am nor am not

Neither disturbance nor no disturbance

Neither aware, nor not aware or something, nor nothing

am and am not

All is, is not.

All nothing

neither all, nor nothing

Full of potential

Empty of everything

These jnana or knowledges are important, and like samadhi, do not ensure the final freedom

The Jnana describes for awareness, the topography of knowledge it travels, on the way to clarity andillumination

What the yogic disciple does with this knowledge jnana -- determines the wisdom of the yogi

Wisdom is the right skill applied to the right end.

Wisdom is the capacity to transform sentiency into wisdom, not just with oneself

but with all other sentient life.

There is awareness

and there is awareness of suffering.

Awareness is not enough, skillful awareness, skillful desire, skillful beliefs, skillful application o


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resource, sincerity, disciplined cultivation of meditation and achieving samadhi and bringing the

freedom from clinginess back to the world and mastering the skill in helping others tame desire,

thought, feeling, memory, and causes of further distress

Upon the mastery of samadhi, objects are now comprehended as sensations, perceptions, conceptions

comprehensions. And awareness as awareness. And those objects as objects on the field of awareness

Awareness is aware of being aware

There is no self, no object, no change

There is awareness

Full of potential, real, sentient and satisfied.

Objects have their fullest potential with an awareness that is functioning at its fullest potential

Wheares when giving in to desire and avoidance, awareness was plagued by many conditions, mostly

overwhelming conditions

A lot of ignorance, clumsiness, and the ensuing wounds

Many obstacles, many hindrances, many ways to stagnate the flow and suffer distress

Eventually, awareness strives to harmonize negative thoughts and feelings and intentions

mental processes are asked to harmonize habits, beliefs, opinions and behavior from unwholesomeconditions

Thus continues aspiration.

Skill in harmonizing the mental processes from overwhelming distraction;

skill in settling the restless mind;

Hope of peace; hope of freedom.

Committed conviction that yoga is the way of skillful insight, skillful mental processes, skillful

behavior, skillful contact, holding on and letting go of objects.

Thus continues discipleship.

Still clumsy, still confused, still unclear, and still not fulfilled, but striving to become full and clear

and bright

And clear that a particular dogma, at least, is not the way.

The way becomes clearer, which is especially important as the power is stronger

Especially when really skilled in yogic techniques, the energy must be disciplined with the proper

principles

If misguided or lost or confused or arrogant or ignorant, the energy is displaced and proper principles

not fulfilled

The principles of yoga require the continual returning to the next level of freedom

Giving up and letting go to the obviously right way is most of it

Control of impulses and compulses; maintaining the equilibrium through one-pointed equanimity

Dedicated use of the insights into achieving the way of samadhi and jnana

Personality and mental faculties are tamed to being valuable capacities

Peace is experienced.Sentiency is experienced

Overwhelming satisfaction is experienced

This way is secured and used as a valuable resource for all sentient creates in contact

Thus continues the way of the master of yoga.

The symptom of when the higher mastery is achieved is when there is a more freedom from karmic

repercussion.

No disturbance is emanated from this creature.


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All is at peace with no personal issues,

No disturbing thoughts, feelings, words, actions, intentions

Others come to rest, the resonant vib is uplifting, illuminating and encouraging.

Wisdom is proven in the harmony and enhancing way of being.

Yogic mastery into freedom from distress can be conceived through the words used to delineate the

stages of insight lining the yogic path.

Remember, yoga is the joining of the forces of personality with the intentions of the essential

awareness.

For success in yoga, one must be established in ones original mind

Day after day

Month after month

Years on end

Cells turn over

Thoughts and opinions change

Feeling move on to others

Here, thereWith him or her

On and on and on.

To and fro we go

Back and forth continuing between oblivion and distraction, as if that were the right way.

Mindful of the center,

Remains the watchful eye

Spacing out, gone, oblivious

Caught on an idea, past, future, distracted

Mindful of the balance point

Remains the undisturbed

Unmindful of doing, distraction

Unmindful of being, oblivion

Mindful of the equilibrium

Remains the thusness

Penetrate to the thusness

To that which remains

Be the original face

Centered between oblivion and distraction

Experience depends on open eyes

Perceptions need a perceiver to be perceived

Perspectives change the eyes of the perceiver

From here to there

With this or that

On and on and on

Memories and learnings filter experience


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The perceiver is conditioned by previous experience

In the midst of all the change is a sense of sameness

An identity that is unconditioned, a non-identity

A preconceived conceiver, preconceiving conceiving

The original mind

Untarnished by past or future experiences

Unmuddled by the screen of consciousness and the mental modifications

Unfiltered by our notions

Not trapped by words

Not imagined

Not thought

Not felt

Simply being the being of our being

Simply being the original mind

The original mind remains free

Words are not the thing,And are certainly not, no thing.

Pointing to that which is,

We use words to go beyond words.

I pluck the petals from the flower,

I pluck the stamen, leaves and stem;

I dig up the root,

What remains of that plant?

What remains of I

What is here today is already both yesterday and tomorrow.

I am just a piece, a spec of aggregate, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

This aggregate is interdependently meshed with the rest of the aggregate.

I have already passed, as has everything, into the impermanence.

Impermanence is permanent.

I, here, now, this aggregate, am a projection onto the aggregate.

Empty of this projection, I am not here, now.

I am not what I am projected to be.

I am not I, but merely labeled that.

I am not I.

I am not, but there is awareness

The seed depends on the water, air, sun and soil.Conditions that determine a dependent co-arising;

The flower is not the seed,

Dependent on so much more.

Cut off air, food, water, love,

Our aggregate also has this dependency,

Pluck off a hand, replace the heart,

Our self, like the flower, can be plucked to nothing.


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All that is, is not.

Projections of coherency, but devoid of independence;

Remove the aggregate and what is left?

Emptiness.

The mind is just one thought following another,

The self, a refraction of the aggregates into coherency.

Both dependent on so much more,

Both can be plucked away into emptiness.

I am not what I think I am

No-mind, no-self, no I am, no I am not.

What is there to cling to, without a self.

Suffering has nothing to stick to,

Empty of self, there is no one to suffer.

Still one thought follows another,As one moment of form follows the next,

Leaving emptiness to be filled by the moment,

Empty of the torment of the past

Potentially free, potentially tormented

Freedom follows from this insight, this choice, this effort

be free of the fears and the worries and the stresses and bad decisions

be free of the concern of death

be free of any attachment, any want or no want that is unwholesome

be free of all personal issues

Imagine having no issues

Imagine the body aligned, healthy, strong

Imagine the mind happy, clear and settled

Imagine the heart true and fulfilled

Imagine getting along well with others

Imagine flourishing on the earth and the earth flourishing from us

Imagine enlightenment, peace and harmony

Imagine manifesting these imaginings

Imagine having no issues about manifestation

Imagine having no issues

Hanging on to moments past,Attached to things bygone,

A sense of ego lingers on,

Keeping us from what is.

Watching memories

With feelings attached,

Ideas and fantasy take precedent,

As we stumble down our path.


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Unless we can be like an empty vessel,

Ready to be filled,

With the substance of the moment ;

Then we can deal with what is.

Otherwise we drown in the worry of the morrow;

Or in the guilt of deeds done past.

Demons and goddesses and whatever could be,

Distract our attention from what fills us.

Stumble no more,

Be filled with the void of the present,

Put to rest worry and guilt and all those disruptions of attachment.

And become an empty vessel.

Looking in, if we have patience and courage,

We can see our world anew,Full of possibilities,

Fresh light coming in on our darkness.

Welcome the Great Eastern Sun.

Peaking over the horizon,

The Great Eastern Sun allows us to see;

Allows us to uncover the world

Of our innate wakefulness,

Of our internal radiance shining forth.

Being with the dawn of the Great Eastern Sun,

Awakens us to our inherent goodness;

We can appreciate ourselves and the world

For the good that we are.

This takes bravery.

Bravery to behold also the darkness,

And to not get caught up in the fear of the setting sun;

Death is inevitable,

Yet so much of our life is spent in fear,

Choosing to identify with the possibility of darkness.

Be brave, like a warrior,And go forth with that, which is already available,

Our radiance is here, now,

Available to shine forth.

Return to the primordial goodness, the original mind

Enliven this knowledge

Continually returning,

To shine the Great Eastern Sun.


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The entire universe, science confirms,

Is expanding and contracting;

Inflating and consolidating;

Radiation wrestling with gravity.

Energy has its plus and minus,

The minutest of particles repel and attract;

The earth gives forth life,

Then calls it back.

Amongst all the transformation,

Remains the great interconnectedness;

Cause is based on dependent relationship,

Synchronistic movement within the change.

Even in our own lives,

We go out and come in.We expand our person in the world.

And contract our awareness to our own self-awareness.

We can expand our consciousness,

And contract our bodies,

We can focus our mind,

And move forth into the world.

All elements are subject to change,

Only the great void goes beyond expansion and contractions,

Only nothing remains the same.

What is to know nothing?

What is it to know something?

What is knowledge?

What is it to know?

Knowledge is that which we know

Knowing is the apprehension of a meaning of that which is known

What is meaning?

What is apprehension?

Meaning is an idealize form of a concept

Apprehension means to grasp the realness of the meaning of that conception

What is an idealized form of a concept?

What does it mean to grasp the realness?

An idealized form of a concept is the essential characteristics of that which is conceived

Grasping the realness is the beholding of the essential characteristics


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How does one behold?

What are the essential characteristics?

One beholds by paying attention to what is

The essential characteristics are that without which we would not know what we know

What is what is?

What is that?

Being is what is

That is what we know

To be is to know,

To know that is knowledge

Pay attention

BeBehold what is

know that as knowledge

Ideas are great, so is the imagination

Dreams are fantastic

As are hopes, wishes and aspirations

Intention is a blessing

Manifestation is even more important

Making sure our hopes and dreams come true

Early on we manifest our instincts, our whims and drives

Soon comes our aspiration to do something purposeful

To become an active participant in reality

Later we become disciplined and skilled in our manifestation

Like a craftsman mastering ones trade

Creating something precious from a plan

Molding matter into life with meaning and purpose

Ensuring our preciousness into life

Manifesting our destiny towards our fate

Making something of nothing.

And using something to realize nothing

Is nothing really nothing?

Or is it really something?

Does the Great Void have a place?

Is mindfulness no mind?

Is Enlightenment a hopeful dream,

Freedom from all pain?

Can desire be put down,


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Or will it always reign?

Is emptiness no more than a coveted goal?

Is fulfillment more our plight?

Even the Dharma of Buddha nature,

Could be something, right?

Flowers fall and weeds grow up;

The wind is forever abiding.

Why do we need fan ourselves

and strive after something?

Because Buddha nature is like the wind:

Present but still worth striving;

Something is nothing and nothing is something, and we are here, now,

and Enlightenment is still worth trying.

Be like the Butterfly,Who flies with the wind;

Surfing the Buddha nature,

sipping the cream from the flowers and weeds.

The Buddha nature is the original mind of every sentient creature

Void of attachments and the desire to create further attachment,

The Buddha nature is empty of attachment as the potential for future suffering

Buddha nature is the awakened, aware, insightful, wise aspect of sentient experience

freed from the nagging distractions of feelings and thoughts and memories and opinions and all that

stuff

Quickenings are brief, but powerful glimpses aspirants and disciples have of Buddha nature

Kensho is the undeniable insight into Buddha nature the illumination of a way of seeing

that now opens the insight into Buddha nature.

Still a peep hole and an unsteady field holding the insight

Still someone doing something, instead of being with insight

The skill in cleaning the karma is not necessarily caught up yet

Kensho opens the door to wanting to be skillful in insight

The wanting is still there, but now with a clearer insight of an opening of a way of illumination

Often these quickens and kensho are mistake for the end of the yogic path;

Far from it

It can be more like a sailor who figured out how the stars move in the sky

and now can begin to navigate through the tides of life.

The insight of that the stars move in a pattern in the sky is very powerfulto open the door to mastering the implications of this insight.

Kensho shows the disciple the experience of profound insight and some of the understanding that

follows

A disciple skillfully cultivates these insightsful experiences, these quickenings and awakenings and

kensho

Though the tiniest crack the light can shine through

Once it is known, beyond doubt, that there is illuminatory insights, this path can be committed to.


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The power of the mind to inject its distraction based on preconditioning remains so impressive that it

keeps kensho a committed goal long before it is even decided on consciously to be mastered, let alone

mastered

These kensho experiences come to a ready state of awareness by grace,

and are mastered by the committed tuning in to the kensho of the original mind of Buddha nature

Satori is the name of a more sustaining awakening of disciples as they transition into mastery.

The actual experience can be sudden or eventual, but never by coincidence

The personality is now under the discipline of the buddhic mind, intelligence itself.

This takes both insight and undivided dedication to skillful control and letting go

Satori is the entering into being securely insightful on the obvious path of the obvious way

Karma can still be created and karma still to be paid

and the higher samadhis and jnana yet to master

Still sentient creatures who are in distress, yet fully insightful of how and why

Nirvana is the final letting go of all attachments by the way of skillful freedom

Satori enters the disciple into the way of mastery of freedom

Nirvana is the mastery of being free

Be awakeSit straight

Be comfortable

Attend to the breath

Be aware

Perception occurs

Not this

Watch to the breath

Be aware

Feelings arouse

Not this

Encourage the breath

Be Aware

Thoughts wander in

Not this

Witness the breath

Be aware

Will urges movement

Not this

Atone with the breathBe aware

The mind is such that it takes on the characteristics of that which it is focused on

Not this

Breath in

Be aware of the inspiration

Breath out


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Be aware of the expiration

Between the exhale and inhale there is a momentary pause

There is quiet

Be aware of the stillness of the mind

There the seer resides in peace

Realization comes from this meditation

Go forth and breath this realization

Day after day

Month after month

Years on end

Cells turn over.

Thoughts and opinions change

Feeling move on to others

Here, there

With him or her

On and on and on.

Each moment flows seamlessly into another

Being becomes

The drop of an instant

Transforms into an ocean of becoming

The now becomes the was of is

Is was is many times

Eternally now becoming then

Yet now remains

Here now is.

All that was

Which is all but what is

This all rides the wake

Into the ocean of becoming

Becoming the is of the here now

Masterfully surf the experiential tide of this becoming by balancing on the ups and downs joyfully

Experience depends on open eyes

Perceptions need a perceiver to be perceived

Perspectives change the eyes of the perceiver

From here to there

With this or that

On and on and onStop this cycle of excuses, justification, rationalization, cowardness, laziness, excitement, covet;

Transform the ups and downs by right effort.

Be awake, be aware, be careful

the rest is a footnote for the excuses

Memories and learnings filter experience

The perceiver is conditioned by experience

In the midst of all the change is a sense of sameness


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An identifier that is unconditioned, not identified by any thing or person

A preconceived conceiver

The original mind

Untarnished by past or future experiences

Unmuddled by the screen of consciousness

Unfiltered by our notions

Not trapped by words

Not imagined

Not thought

Not felt

Simply being the being of our being

Simply being the original mind, the ideal sentiency

Let us contemplate, for a moment,

The full extent of ideal sentiency.

Ideal sentiency includes the ability to discern the real, the true and the goodFrom that which is unreal, not true and disturbing

Reality, itself, must exist and be knowable and transformable

Conditions must exist for a sensation to be sensed

Conditions must exist for a perception to be perceived

Conditions must exist for a conception to be conceived

Conditions must exist for an insight to be comprehended

Conditions must exist for an intention to be intended

Conditions must exist for change to occur and intention to induce it

These conditions are the resources for meaning and value

Ideal sentiency includes the ability to take input and know its meaning

So that reality can be mapped

This mapping is the conceptual representation of a perceived or conceived input

Meaning is the correlation of one representation with another

Knowledge is the comprehension of meaning of the representations

Truthfulness is the correlation of comprehended meaning with what really is

Truth is what really is, whether we know it or not

Ideal sentiency includes the recognition of the truthfulness or not of perception

Ideal sentiency includes the recognition of the truthfulness or not of conception

Ideal sentiency includes the recognition of the truthfulness or not of comprehension

Ideal sentiency includes the recognition of the truthfulness or not of intention

Ideal sentiency includes the ability to take input and know its value

Value is the recognized quality that lends to experiential fulfillment or relieves suffering

Ideal sentiency includes the recognition of the value or not of perception

Ideal sentiency includes the recognition of the value or not of conception

Ideal sentiency includes the recognition of the value or not of comprehension

Ideal sentiency includes the recognition of the value or not of intention


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Ideal sentiency includes the ability to create meaning and value

Creation is the qualitative transformation of resources

Resources includes that which is available to be recognized and transformed

Ideal sentiency is the ability to recognize the truthful meaning and value of resources

Ideal sentiency is the ability to create truthful and valuable transformation of resources

And to induce these abilities for all available sentient creatures

Ideal sentiency is nirvana

Nirvana is the state of awareness that is no state

States require fields and objects extending in that fields to be qualified

Nirvana is awareness of objects as objects and awareness as awareness

untied from past and future implication

Nirvana is freedom from any constraints, being awake, aware, free.

Ideal sentiency allows one to realize the full extent of the suffering of others.

Look around, my friend,

See that all that is, is not;Clinging on to what was or what could be,

Deludes us from what is.

Afflictions arise from this attachment,

Suffering arises from this delusion;

Believing that we are immune from this process,

Only festers the wounds.

See first your own existential agony,

Your own grasping onto the unreal;

See how you too are drowning,

Behold your own immersion into the grand ocean of delusion.

Recognizing this delusion allows us to see

that we were not drowning at all;

It was a dream,

Mistaken for the real.

See the how your neighbor and loved ones,

Are also apparently immersed;

Caught grasping for a life-raft,

They act in fear and insecurity of impending doom.

Insight into the nature of impermanence,

Allows us reel ourselves and others to shore.

Compassion is the life-raft,

To free all from being caught up in sorrow.

Compassion is the wishing that,

All be freed from their misery;

Freed from believing were drowning,


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When we are safely ashore.

Our thoughts can create our reality,

Insight can take us beyond thought;

The greater insight into our well-beings dependence on others,

The greater our compassion will be.

Compassion is the steps we walk towards enlightenment;

For it allows us to go beyond our self-centered delusions of our own fate;

Every sentient creature deserves freedom from suffering,

Especially from the suffering of suffering.

It is harder to be compassionate to those,

Whose delusion appears as wealth or fame;

They find it harder to recognize the suffering of change,

How all that is, is not.

Fear of loss, overconfidence of gain,

These cause people a lot of pain.

Suffering is also a by-product of cyclic existence,

Being caught up in negative emotion or thought;

These breed sticky karma,

Bringing the past to bear its burden.

Gaining insight into the nature of suffering,

Allows us to see its pervasiveness;

Compassion is the urge to go beyond this,

Into the loving-kindness of graceful karma,

The wheel of suffering stops when there is no unwholesome desire;

When there is no particular self to desire.

Compassion is acting empty of preconceived notions,

Kindly urging all life onto the graceful way.

When sorting through lifes great lessons,

We can get stuck from our most graceful way.

Too often we mistake this stuckness,

For where we hope to be.

We struggle for survival,

Motivated by our instinct to survive,We get stuck surviving,

We struggle for our comfort,

Motivated by our desires,

We get stuck desiring

All paths have glitches,

When walking we will stumble;


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To walk well, we must be careful

and watch how we are going.

Each step requires a cultivated grace,

One foot put skillfully in front of another;

Destiny provides us with challenges,

Challenges that could propel us with grace.

To be free from suffering, and all negative emotions,

Also requires skillful dealing with these challenges;

We can wobble out of these glitches,

By cultivating grace as our normal way.

How could we have known what life would be,

If we had died at some point, not lived?

Our life, which has manifested, would not have happened,

The here, now, would have been then.

So much has happened,

Fate has become known;

Destiny has led us to here.

Weve seen if our hopes have occurred.

Fate and destiny behold new light,

As we ponder on our life as if death already happened.

It seems death has come too early,

Before life is fulfilled.

Yet here, now, in the moment,

We live as if we will always be.

As if consciousness and flesh are immortal.

As if our future will exist.

As if we can wait for grace.

We can appreciate the preciousness of the moment,

Secure at least that we are in that;

The morrow will be whatever will be;

But it wont be, without the succession of the here and now.

So whether or not we end up fulfilling our dreams,

And whether or not were immortal;Take refuge in the fact that there is now an existence,

And a consciousness here to appreciate the multitude of opportunities to be aware

Especially to be aware, free from any personal torment, actually enjoying the surf

Ideal sentiency can be approached

by continually returning to the yogic path,

by principled effort,

and by grace,


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manifesting the effortlessness wisdom of being free

Some people wait their whole life

Longing for freedom

Life itself passes them by

Their own freedom unrecognized

Freedom comes by being free

Peace comes by being peaceful

Live life by living fully

Recognize freedom

Be aware, mindful, harness the wisdom

Be masterfully careful and live freely

Care

Be free

THIS IS THE MASTERY OF YOGA!

Documents

Stages Toward the Mastery of Yoga by Vasujimbo