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Post by Pathfinder on Aug 1, 2023 7:37:55 GMT
The next yogic practice is dhyāna. What is the real dhyāna for such a yogī?
When these sounds subside and he goes beyond the experience of them he attains that supreme state of
ecstasy which is ineffable and which only he knows. This is actually dhyāna. (Lakṣmī Kaulārṇava
Tantra 8.16)
Now for this yogī, what is the yogic practice known as dhāraṇā?
When he holds the consciousness of Lord Śiva in continuity, eternally, without any break, that is
dhāraṇā. (Lakṣmī Kaulārṇava Tantra 8.17)
What is samādhi for this yogī?
When such a yogī experiences the state of universal consciousness of Lord Śiva, not only in his
internal state of consciousness of self but also in the very active life of the universe, this is called real
samādhi. (Lakṣmī Kaulārṇava Tantra 8.18)
So it is explained in the Netra Tantra that dhyāna, dhāraṇā and samādhi will
also direct you toward the state of consciousness of Lord Śiva. So, the kind of
dhāraṇā explained in the Netra Tantra will carry you toward the state of
consciousness of Lord Śiva and that kind of dhāraṇā, which leads to the
attainment of yogīc powers
Swami Lakshmanjoo Shiva Sutra
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Post by Pathfinder on Aug 1, 2023 14:09:16 GMT
When knowledge (vedana) of the eternal aspects of Śiva—universal knowledge, universal will and universal action—is held and the knowledge of supreme God consciousness is also achieved (bodhanā), and when the negation of universal God consciousness is abandoned and universal God consciousness is possessed (varjana) that, in reality, is called knowledge (vidyā). You must establish yourself there and then the supreme light of universal God consciousness, which is the only cause of entering into your real nature, will appear. (Svacchanda Tantra 5.395–96) Now, for that yogī who has achieved this kind of pure knowledge of universal God consciousness, Swami Lakshmanjoo 8. jāgratdvitīyakaraḥ // The waking state is another form of his real nature of consciousness. Wakefulness is not other than his own nature, his real nature of consciousness. It is another formation of his universal consciousness. In speaking of the waking state, the dreaming state and the state of sound sleep are also included. So for such a yogī, these three states, which are experienced in daily life, are not other than universal God consciousness. The waking state (jāgrat) is another formation, another ray of his being, his expansion of self. For him, the waking state is not separate nor is it foreign. It is, on the contrary, another form of his expansion of universal Self. The divinity that he gains in the state of universal God consciousness is found by him to exist equally in the waking state, in the dreaming state, and in the dreamless state, deep sleep. And then, after achieving the state of pure knowledge, this yogī pervades this supreme knowledge with oneness. He is always aware of his universal consciousness. So, for such a yogī, the waking state is the second form of his establishment of being. Where does this yogī find this state? This state of wakefulness is not found in “I”-consciousness. It is found in “thisness,” because “thisness” is absorbed and digested in Universal God Consciousness. So, for such a yogī, this whole objective world is another way of his being, another way of universal consciousness. The state of God consciousness, on the other hand, does not digest “thisness”; it only digests “I”-consciousness. So, this yogī realizes that the state of wakefullness is just another ray of his universal consciousness. For him, this whole universe is not separate from him. It is his own expansion. It is only the sparks of his own being. It is said also in Vijñānabhairava Tantra: The universal consciousness of God is experienced in each and every way in this field of organic action (akṣamārga), whether it be hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, or smelling. So, when the aspects of universal God consciousness are always present and when that universal God consciousness is the main aspect of that yogī, his universal God consciousness is filled everywhere. It is never absent for in absence it is also not absent. (Vijñānabhairava Tantra 117) This is the meaning of this verse. Whatever is found in this universe is existing in universal consciousness. So there is nothing to eliminate, nothing to separate from your consciousness. When universal God consciousness is the foremost aspect of this yogī, then everything is filled with his universal consciousness. It is never absent. For in absence, it is also not absent. If it is absent that means it is also existing because the absence of universal consciousness is also existing in universal consciousness. So, in the absence of universal God consciousness, he also finds the presence of universal God consciousness. For, in the absence, his being is present because he is aware that universal God consciousness is not existing. Similarly, it is existing in negation because negation also exists in universal God consciousness. This is not the same in God consciousness because in God consciousness the negation of God consciousness is discarded. It is only in universal God consciousness that both the affirmation and the negation of universal consciousness are digested. So, if you know universal God consciousness, it is there and if you do not know universal God consciousness, it is there. Both knowing and not knowing are existing there because not knowing is also existing in that supreme being. Not knowing cannot exist without universal God consciousness, because not knowing is also existing in supreme being. So absence is also present. It is also said in Sarvamaṅgala Śāstra: In this universe, there are only two aspects found—energy and the energy holder. Of these two, it is energy that is held in each and every part of the universe because this universe is, in fact, the existence of energy. And the energy holder is Maheśvaraḥ 13 himself alone. (Sarvamaṅgala Śāstra) This universe includes everything, whatever you feel, whatever you hear, whatever you experience in the daily routine of life. That is the existence of energy. Śaktimāna, the energy holder, is the great lord (maheśvaraḥ), Lord Śiva himself. So nothing is lost because when you lose something, you experience that there is something less. But that lessening of consciousness is also existing in universal God consciousness. If that lessening of consciousness is found as part of awareness, it will improve the functioning of that universal God consciousness. When, day by day, your consciousness becomes less and you are aware of it, nothing is lost. When a madman is completely mad and he knows he is mad, then he is not mad. If he is aware that he is mad, then he is not mad at all. But when he is unaware of his madness, then he is actually mad. So, when he is aware that he is actually mad, then he is not mad. When a yogī is aware that his nature of self has become less, then, because he is aware, it has not become less. The nature of the self is awareness. When awareness is held, everything is held. Such a yogī always resides in the consciousness of his nature. For him, 9. nartaka ātmā // The dancer in this field of universal dance is his self of universal consciousness. What is this universal dance? It is everything that you experience in your life. It may be coming. It may be going. It may be birth, death, joy, sadness, depression, happiness, enjoyment. All of this forms part of the universal dance, and this dance is a drama. In this field of drama, the actor 14 is your own nature, your own self of universal consciousness. This self of universal consciousness is the one who is aware, he is the actor in this universal drama. Those who are not aware are not actors; they are played in this drama. They experience sadness, they experience enjoyment, they become joyful, they become depressed. But those who are aware, they are always elevated; they are the real players in this drama. So it is your own self of universal consciousness which is, in fact, the actor. Why? Because he acts. The actor is he who conceals his real nature. When you conceal the real nature of your being and, to the public, reveal another form of your being, that is the behavior of acting. Because when any person, say, a person named Denise, is the real actor and, as an actor, she appears as Lord Kṛiṣṇa, as Lord Śiva, as a woman, as a child, as a silly fellow, then the real and actual state of her being is concealed. So for others, the actual state of her being is concealed and a superficial formation is revealed. But for her, the actual state of her being is not concealed. She knows she is Denise. At the time of becoming Lord Kṛiṣṇa or Śiva or Jesus Christ, she is aware of her being Denise. In herself, she knows she is really Denise. So, Lord Śiva is the real actor. And although his nature of universal consciousness is concealed to the public, in fact, he knows that he is that reality. Actually, being filled with that awareness of universal God consciousness, he sometimes appears in the waking state, sometimes in the dreaming state, sometimes in the dreamless state, etc. This, however, is actually his play. It is not his real action. His real action is his being in his own universal God consciousness in each and every moment of revealing his differentiated forms. At the time of revealing his differentiated formation in the waking state, he diverts his universal consciousness in the state of wakefulness. And also in that state, he finds he is playing. Actually, this is play, he is not becoming that state. For although he has become the waking state, he has not actually become the waking state and he has not become the dreaming state or the state of deep sleep. In fact, he is already there in that universal God consciousness. In the hymns composed by Devī contained in the seventh chapter of the Tantras known as the Naiśvāsa Devī Maheśvaranartakākhye it is said: In one way, O Lord Śiva, you are actually residing in your own nature, and yet you have put on different coverings. Covering that universal God consciousness in one way, it appears as wakefullness and covering it another way, it appears as the dreaming state or the state of deep sleep. It is because of these coverings that this universal God consciousness is not found. Bhaṭṭanārāyaṇa has also said in his Śāstra, the Stavacintāmaṇi: O Lord Śiva you have present in your own self the germ of universal existence from which this universe has expanded. It is from this seed that you create the drama of the three worlds, the drama of waking state, the drama of the dreaming state and the drama of the state of deep sleep. O Lord, you create these three types of drama from the sprouting of that seed which is already residing in your real nature. This is only the course of your action of awareness. Who else can act in this way to create this drama and then withdraw it again? (Stavacintāmaṇi 59) The Pratyabhijñā Śāstra, which expounds pratyabhijñā, the way of recognition, the secret of all tantras, also says the same thing, O Lord, in this world which is absolutely unaware of what is existing, only you are aware. You are the creator of the drama of this universe. You are unique and the one who is actually awake in this dreaming state. (Pratyabhijñā Kārikā) He has established the covering of the waking state, the covering of the dreaming state, and the covering of the dreamless state because he has to maintain the drama of the universe. It is for this reason that he takes good care of this covering. Otherwise, this covering has no meaning. Meaning only exists in universal God consciousness. So, this entire universe is actually the result of a colossal universal drama which is taking place. And who is the hero in this drama? Here the part of the hero is played by the internal soul 15 who is also the universal soul in disguise. In his theatrical costume, he steps into the play, which is this drama of the universe. Now, in the next sūtra his method of acting is explained, 10. raṅgo’ntarātmā // The player is the internal soul. In this universal drama this actor plays many different roles in various ways. For example he may play the part of Rāma or of Sītā, or he may play the part of Pārvatī, or so many other characters. This acting, called abhinaya in Sanskrit, is thought to be of three kinds: sattvika, rājas, and tāmas. 16 When the actor is portraying or acting the part of Rāma, the audience must feel that this actor is actually Rāma, not just a person pretending to be Rāma. They must totally disregard the fact that he is an actor. If the audience is convinced that this actor is actually Rāma, this is known as sattvika abhinaya. This is how great actors in this universal drama act, playing various parts in this world. Rājas abhinaya is that quality of acting where the audience feels that there is something of Rāma in the actor and yet they still feel that this actor is not actually Rāma. In tāmas abhinaya, the audience feels that the actor playing the part of Rāma is only an actor and nothing more. Here in this universal drama, the actor is the internal soul. He is acting in this universe just to reveal that this universe is actually a universal drama. In the drama, this internal soul is the stage where he plays the parts of many various characters. And although this internal soul plays the parts of these many different characters, yet from the universal point of view the internal soul is only one. And so, because this internal self has shrunk from the expansion of universality, it is this self in which the soul is residing in the dreaming state, in the state of deep sleep and in the void state. You should realize, however, that this internal self is not the external soul. It is the external soul which resides in the body in the waking state. There, in that field of drama, the internal self steps in and begins his dance, revealing this drama of the world by infusing the movement (spanda) of his organs. Sometimes he is sad, sometimes he is weeping, sometimes he is laughing and all of this is his play. In actual fact, he is neither laughing nor dreaming nor sad nor joyous—he is one, just as he has always been. This is already explained in Svacchanda Tantra: By entering into the subtle body found in the dreaming state (puryaṣṭaka), he journeys in each and every womb in this universe. He is known as the interior self (antarātmā). (Svacchanda Tantra 11.85) Who are the spectators of this drama of that one who acts on the stage of the interior self? 11. prekṣakāṇīndriyāṇi // His own organs are spectators.
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