Spiritual Practice. Philosophical Reflection. Atma Ananda
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.