4 Capítulo Hong So parte 2

Inner Guidance

Intuitive Guidance

From Awaken to Superconsciousness, Chapter 18

            You will attain superconsciousness more quickly if you seek to attune yourself with it in your daily activities, and not only in meditation.  The more you seek to be guided by intuition, which is an aspect of superconsciousness, the greater success you will meet in every undertaking.  For the rational mind can only point to probable solutions.  Intuition, rooted as it is in superconsciousness, will supply you with clear answers.

From a superconscious perspective, all life is a unity. From a rational perspective, life is disunity—a bewildering jigsaw puzzle, often, with many pieces that never seem to belong together.

To live superconsciously is to maximize our abilities in every department of life. For the rational mind, with its focus on differences, is essentially problem-oriented.  The superconscious, with its broader, more unitive view, is solution-oriented.

Superconscious living means to trust one’s life to the flow of a higher wisdom.

Superconsciousness arranges things in ways that we might never imagine.

            What I’ve learned in life is that, if you place matters with complete trust in God’s hands, things always work out for the best. Sometimes all you gain is the calmness to make the best of what might otherwise seem a bad situation. That does happen, for many of life’s problems are “solved” by simply changing our outlook. Often, however, the change is objective also. Events turn out so amazingly well that people later refer to them as miraculous. And yet it isn’t really a question of miracles.  It is simply that this is how the superconscious works: It ties things together It dissolves difficulties. It offers practical solutions, where the rational mind sees nothing but problems.

Where people see disunity, the superconscious mind sees the expression of Oneness in everything. To superconsciousness, everything is related.  Not relative, merely: related. You don’t have to be in superconsciousness to think superconsciously. All you have to do is train your mind to adjust your thinking to superconscious modes of perception.

Think more unitively, less analytically. Concentrate on finding the relationships between things, don’t dwell at length on the differences See others as your own greater Self. They are not alien to you. Look on them as friends, even if they appear outwardly to be strangers.

This is a delicate point for me to clarify, and for others to get clear. For instance, it isn’t a question of wanting anything, personally, but of wanting it because it is right. It is important to exclude ego-motivation as much as possible It’s also important that faith not become an excuse for irresponsibility. To live superconsciously means to cooperate with the superconscious flow, not to expect that flow to do everything for you.

It’s a question of energy in cooperation with faith You must be wholly focused on whatever you are doing, without seeing yourself as the doer.

Tuning in to Higher Guidance

Whenever you need special guidance but find none forthcoming, try following these suggestions:

·        Ask for guidance from superconsciousness at the Spiritual Eye.

·    Wait for a response in the heart center.  Be completely impartial.  Don’t intrude your personal desires into this process Pray, “Thy will, not mine, be done.”

·        If no guidance comes, propose several alternative solutions at the Spiritual Eye. See if one of them receives special endorsement in the heart.

·    Guidance often comes only after an idea has been made concrete by setting it in motion If, therefore, you receive no answer in meditation, act in whatever way seems reasonable to you, but continue to listen for guidance in the heart.

At a certain point, if your direction is right, you will feel the endorsement you’ve been seeking. But if your direction is wrong, suddenly you will know it is wrong. In that case, try something else, until the endorsement comes.

To refuse to act until you receive inner guidance is good only if you can keep your level of energy and expectation high. For it is high energy and high expectation that attract guidance. If you must act because you have no other way of maintaining that level of energy, then go ahead and act. Often, it is better to act, even in error, than not to act at all.

• Even if you feel inner guidance, never presume on it. That guidance may tell you, metaphorically speaking, to go north, but if you cease listening you may not hear it when, at the next corner, it tells you to turn east.
• A problem is half solved already once it is stated clearly. In seeking guidance, form a clear mental picture of what it is you need. Then hold that picture up to superconsciousness at the point between the eyebrows.  People often struggle for a long time to find the inspiration they want. No time at all is needed: only sufficient mental clarity, and energy.

Never use the claim of inner guidance as an argument for convincing others to listen to you. The flow of superconsciousness is always humble, never boastful.  It doesn’t cooperate with attitudes that discourage others from seeking their own inner guidance. To tell a person, “This is what my intuition tells me, so this is what we must all do,” is to say, in effect, “God will speak only through me, not through anyone else.” Such an attitude sooner or later gets its comeuppance. The divine law does not endorse pride.

Superconscious Attitudes

Every quality that flowers naturally in superconsciousness should be affirmed by the conscious mind, and transferred by the conscious mind to the subconscious Divine joy, for example, is a fruit of deep meditation.  A person of scientific bent might decide to test this truth with a “controlled” experiment. To prove the reality of superconscious joy, he might determine to be as grim as possible during meditation. But the way to attune yourself to divine joy is to hold a joyful attitude, even though the true experience of divine joy is—to use Paramhansa Yogananda’s words in his poem “Samadhi”—“beyond imagination of expectancy.”

If you’re expecting someone to visit you, you won’t wait for him in the basement . If you’re expecting a phone call, you won’t drown out the sound of the telephone by turning on the electric blender. If you keep a grim attitude during meditation, you won’t be prepared for the experience of joy even if it comes to you.  It won’t be your grimness, so much, that prevents you from experiencing joy as your essentially anti-superconscious attitude of skepticism, your resistance to the inner flow.

Be joyful in meditation. Be peaceful. Bless all the world with your love. And, even walking down a city street, secretly send divine love and blessings to everyone you pass. You’ll be surprised how many strangers will treat you as a friend.

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            Question: How can I be really sure that I’m being guided superconsciously?

            Answer: You can’t be absolutely certain; the mind is very adept at fooling itself! You can, however, become increasingly satisfied with the results, as everything you do works increasingly effectively for you.

            Don’t abandon reason in your attempt to be guided superconsciously.  Reason is a valuable tool for understanding. It is the corrector. Though not creative in itself, it is an important part of the creative process. Reason checks your conclusions objectively and helps you to make sure they will really work. Reason looks at the ideal and sees whether, in application to prosaic reality, the ideal will work.

            Nikola Tesla, for example, the great inventor, “invented” a number of marvels that had to await the discovery of new materials before they could be made practicable. His inspiration outstripped the practical knowledge of his times. Superconscious guidance will be true, but it may be true before its time in this world of prosaic realities. Sometimes, also, guidance comes mixed with human desires and expectations. Reason will help you to separate the true from that which you merely wish to be true.

--From Meditation for Starters, Chapter Eight

Breathlessness

Without properly regulating the breath and solving its mystery by doing away with it, one cannot reach high self realization. If you can do without breath, you can control bodily life, prolong it, and rise beyond it — to Soul, while living. To do without breath is not to force or suppress it in the lungs. To watch the breath is the preliminary step in controlling it, because then the consciousness of man separates itself from the involuntary bodily function of breathing, and gradually realizes itself as distinct from it. Man’s consciousness is the only thing that is real to him, and by training his consciousness by the method described in this Lesson, the student begins to realize that his life is not identified with, nor dependent upon bodily functions, and that his real nature is Spiritual and immortal.

“Man (man’s body battery) shall not live (cannot be sustained) by bread alone (by solid and liquid food and oxygen only), but by every word (unit of Life Energy) that proceedeth out of (pours forth from) the Mouth of God” (the medulla oblongata m the head, through which Cosmic Energy descends into the body). — Matthew 4:4. (The Life Energy which transforms food into energy is the real sustainer of life. According to the Hindu Scriptures, the food of the future super man will be almost solely this Life Energy from the Cosmos.

            When man s body, mind, and Soul batteries run down, they will be recharged through Cosmic Energy).

By breathlessness: —

(a) The Soul is released from bodily bondage and breath slavery

(b) The supreme noise of the body is stopped

(c) The decay of the internal organs is stopped

(d) One realizes that the body lives by Cosmic Energy coming through the medulla,

(e) The heart calms down and switches off energy from the five sense-telephones, thus helping concentration

(f) One learns to live by Cosmic Consciousness and not by bread or breath alone.

--From Praecepta, Lesson 21 (1938)

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“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that falleth from the mouth of God” –Bible

“I protest, by the rejoicing which [ have in Christ (i.e., Christ-Consciousness), I die daily

(i.e. , leave the body consciously daily)” –Bible

Breath is life. If you can do without breath you can control life prolong it and rise beyond it. To do without breath is not to force or suppress it in the lungs. It is the preliminary step in controlling it.

--From Yogoda Course, Lesson 4 (1925)

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            Perfection in this technique means to pass from breathing to breathlessness. Only in breathlessness can God be fully realized Elsewhere in these lessons I have pointed out that the breath responds instantly to different mental and emotional states Even the way in which it flows in the nostrils indicates one’s state of consciousness. The reverse also is true: As the breath flows, so flows the mind. Heavy breathing can make the mind restless Calm breathing calms the mind By concentration on the breath, too, the mind becomes calmer. This greater calmness is reflected in increasingly gentle breathing, which in turn induces still deeper concentration and calmness, a process that continues until mind and breathing both achieve perfect stillness.

There are several explanations for how it is possible to remain breathless for long periods of time without in any way damaging the body or the brain. (Indeed, the rejuvenating effects on the entire being of superconscious breathlessness are truly wonderful.) My guru explains some of the physiological reasons in his lessons; I won’t repeat them here. The fact is, once the yogi attains breathlessness in ecarbo, the body is kept alive by the direct flow of energy from the medulla oblongata. It is possible in this state to remain breathless for days, months, even for years. The body appears lifeless, outwardly, but inwardly one is filled with the consciousness of infinite life.

In 1961 the director of the Zoological Institute in Darjeeling, India, told me of a scientific expedition he had once in the Himalayas. He and his companions came upon a yogi seated on the ground, well above the snow line, in a state of samadhi. The yogi must have been sitting there motionless for at least six months, for his fingernails, very long by this time, had grown into the bark of a tree beside him in such a way that the slightest movement on his part would have snapped them off.

Periods of breathlessness may come to you, while practicing Hong-Sau, long before you enter superconsciousness. Don’t be alarmed; they can’t possibly hurt you, as long as you let the breath flow naturally, and don’t try to hold it in or out of the lungs by force. When your body needs to breathe again, it will do so. By increasingly deeper calmness, however, you will find that you need less and less fresh air to sustain your body.

The breathing process, as well as the heartbeat, is regulated by the medulla oblongata. The positive pole of this medulla is the ajna chakra, or Christ center, located between the eyebrows. Stimulation of this medulla by deep concentration at that center can induce complete suspension of the breath and heartbeat by placing one in perfect harmony with the cosmic energy, and drawing this energy into the body in such abundance that impurities in the body are instantly neutralized.

--From The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Chapter 9:7

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            Transcendence is the goal of life. Rest is the goal of action.  Breathlessness is the final goal of all breathing exercises Spirit is the eternal silence out of which all sound and vibration are born.  Deep yoga practice is not possible until superficial movements, including the movements of breath, have been stilled, leaving the mind free to soar in superconsciousness.

That the breath can be stilled may be seen from the fact that man breathes in proportion to his body's need to cleanse itself of broken-down cell tissues. After running a race, or while experiencing intense emotion, one breathes more heavily The body's need for oxygen is greater at such times.  In deep sleep, on the contrary, the breath becomes slow because the body's need for it is slight.

You may already have observed in meditation that there are times when your breath ceases to flow. At such times the beginner is often afraid. There is no need for such fear. One has simply relaxed so deeply that very little carbon is being formed in his body, to be thrown out by the lungs as carbon dioxide. When the yogi becomes calm within, he can remain breathless (and more fully conscious than would be possible in a normal physical state) for long periods of time.

            Hatha yoga teachings often stress kumbhaka, or the forcible retention of the air in the lungs. This is artificial breathlessness—unscientifically, and sometimes even injuriously, induced. Breathlessness should be, rather, a perfectly natural outgrowth of complete inner calmness and relaxation.

            After practicing the breathing exercises, go into inner stillness. Feel the connection between your breath and the Cosmic Breath, as if your breath were but a function of the breezes of cosmic consciousness. In your breathing, as in your working, feel that you are an instrument of the Divine.

--From The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Chapter 14:3

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Breathlessness is not kumbhaka in the sense of forcibly retaining the breath. Rather, true kumbhaka comes when the body no longer requires air for its maintenance. The purpose of respiration is to expel carbon dioxide from the lungs, and to take in oxygen. In ecarboni exercises, the breath is used to produce a state of equilibrium in the body, in which state the physical activity of breathing is no longer required to maintain it in a condition of equilibrium.

When one rises above the need to breathe, the heart pump also slows down, then stops altogether.

There is a subtle connection, through the medulla oblongata, between the breath and the heartbeat. When breathing becomes unnecessary, the heartbeat, as just indicated, slows down and then stops. Between these two phenomena—the breath and heartbeat, on the one hand—and sensory awareness, on the other, there is a close connection.

The energy in the senses, as in the whole body, relaxes and withdraws—as happens, indeed, to a lesser degree in sleep. A sleeper may be called—he may even be shaken—before he is even aware of being wanted. This diminished involvement with objective reality occurs because, during sleep, the energy is partially withdrawn from the body and from the “sense-telephones”—even as the tortoise withdraws its head and limbs into its shell.

It is only when the “sense telephones” have been “switched off” that the mind can become wholly absorbed in the inner world of meditation. The energy in the motor nerves, too, must be withdrawn, as happens naturally when the senses are stilled.                    --From The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita 2:58

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                        Remember, however, that as you shift your vision from the conscious to the subconscious, the life force and energy must also be switched off from the lamps of the billion-celled muscles and the visual, auditory, olfactory, tactual, and gustatory nerves.

In shifting from the conscious to the superconscious plane, your lungs must be breathless, your heart calm, your cells inactive, your circulation stilled, and you must be listening to the symphony of the Cosmic vibration of Om.

While in the superconscious state, one experiences complete cessation of unrest—fruition of peace—soul-expansion, unhampered by the friction attending sensations in the realm of consciousness.

If anyone claimed that he could sleep while he was running, he would be ridiculed, for healthful sleep is always accompanied by sensory and motor relaxation. Many profess to have attained Cosmic Consciousness, who have not yet learned to relax at will. The first signs of the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness are the fixed gaze, the consciously stilled heart, and breathlessness. If one cannot demonstrate these, he has not attained Cosmic Consciousness.

            Why not learn the method by which you can switch off the life current from the entire body through conscious will by the steady, conscientious practice of the fourth Yogoda lesson, thus freeing the soul from the bondage of death. Besides, just as electricity does not die with the breaking of the bulb into which it flows but merely retires into the big dynamo behind it, so our real self is not destroyed but retires into the Infinite Omnipresent Self, when our life forces are switched off from the body-bulb   After thoroughly mastering the fourth lesson and attaining the breathless state, the following method will be found very helpful for reducing relaxation at will.

 --From Super Advanced Course Lesson 3, by Swami Yogananda, 1930

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From Pracepta Lessons

            Food is necessary if you are starved, deep breathing is necessary if you are oxygen-starved.  But as over-eating is unnecessary when you have food in your system, so is over-breathing unnecessary if your blood contains less carbon due to the right habit of eating fresh fruit and little starch.  If you are calm and there is less motion in the body, there will be less decay in the body and you will need to breathe very little, most of the time remaining breathless. That is why calm people breathe less, and the animal type of people, who eat starch and meat all the time, have to breathe like bellows and have to keep their Life Force and mind constantly busy with the physical functions of breathing and with the heaviness and motion of the flesh. Breathlessness and calmed internal organs free the mind, so that it can concentrate upon the Soul.                                                                                                                                                                       --Lesson 23

            To shift your consciousness to the superconscious plane, direct your vision and eyes in between the eyebrows, and instantaneously go consciously into the state of deep peace, intoxicating joy. These states of consciousness must be genuine and accompanied by their bodily indications As in the subconscious or sleep state your body will have all the signs of sleep, so the superconscious state will be accompanied by the consciously stilled heart, fixed gaze, and breathlessness…

            Self-Realization students who practice breathlessness as given in an early Lesson need never be forced out of the body by death, but may be guided through the luminous eye into the light of God. They will find that death is but a freedom from the chain of breath on to the breathless Spirit. --Lesson 104

            Please sit upright. By watching the breath, you calm the heart, and when the heart is calm, the energy withdraws from the senses and your attention is then free and can be put on anything you desire to concentrate upon. By watching the breath, you attain breathlessness. By watching the breath, you separate yourself from the breath. Breath is the cord that ties the Soul to the body. If you know how to die daily, by releasing your energy from the body by untying the cord of breath, then you are Spirit.

Practice the technique on breathlessness given in a former lesson on Meditation, Affirm: "I know that breath is the cord which ties my Soul to the body. In breathlessness I find my Soul free to unite with Thy Omnipresence, both within and beyond my body. The storm of breath causes ripples of sensation and thoughts on the lake of my mind, and I behold a distorted image of the presence of the Spirit. Stop the storm of breath. Conjure away the ripples of restlessness and teach me to behold Thy calm mooned Presence in the unruffled lake of my consciousness."                                                    --Lesson 114

Yogis practice control of Life and the breathless state to be able to live in airless regions of living light, unburdened by the body.                                                                                                 --Lesson 125

Self-Analysis and Significance of Dreams

In theaters human actors play dramas on the stage, while in the movies electric shadows, emitting intelligent sounds, flicker across the silver screen.

Imagination is the mental stage on which thoughts play many dramas of varying moods. The mental dramas acted on the stage of fancy are plays, originating in the brain of the human Ego. Later, these mental dramas are either written and played materially in theaters, movies, and real life, or else played mentally on the stage of dreamland. This last kind of mental drama, or inner movie, is played on the screen of the subconscious mind.

The conscious mind works with the sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch during wakefulness, but sleeps at night. The subconscious mind works through memory during wakefulness and through dreams at night It is awake during the day, working in the conscious mind making records for it, and it is also awake during sleep at night looking after the functions of the heart, lungs, and so forth, of the human engine, like an old janitor, as well as acting like a manager-operator of the mental dream-movies in dreamland.  Superconsciousness works first in the subconscious mind and then in the conscious mind, without becoming entangled with them.

The conscious and subconscious minds have likes and dislikes. The superconscious mind works through all phases of consciousness without being even slightly attached to either the attachments and troubles of the conscious or the subconscious minds.

The dream movies

Just as in making a motion picture there has to be a playwright, director, cameramen, and actors, so also, in the dream motion picture, stories of various scenes and dramas are created by the intelligence of the conscious mind, with the subconscious mind as the director and the visualizing subconscious imagination as the cameraman. The players are the thoughts, feelings, determinations, and desires.

The different dramas of comedies, tragedies, and real facts passing through the conscious mind are photographed by the intelligent subconscious mind. These inner mental films are stored away in the groove-like shelves in the convolutions of the grey matter in the brain.

During sleep, when the energy retires from the five sense-telephones and the muscles, it becomes concentrated in the head. The subconscious mind is a triple personality. Sometimes it is a cameraman, sometimes it is a director, and sometimes it is the operator of the inner movies Like real motion pictures, the subjects of the inner films are various. Some are news reels of real happenings, and some are real or imaginary tragedies or comedies. However, sometimes the all-seeing superconscious mind photographs a true happening and drops the film in the subconscious movie house, to be played for the guidance of the erring Ego.

The subconscious mind, whenever it is too much taxed with the fears and worries of the conscious mind, takes revenge on the conscious mind during the state of sleep, by using the Concentrated energy in the head during sleep to film a dream tragedy on the screen of relaxation. Notice that, just like the dark movie house, the subconscious mind is dark and therefore suitable to the showing of dream-movies.

The subconscious mind sometimes produces comedy pictures to delight and entertain the overtaxed conscious mind. In tragedy and fear dreams, the subconscious mind deploringly and glaringly shows to the conscious mind its undesirable actions. The conscious mind gets to see the evil which it often mentally or unconsciously performs.

When you are dreaming, you are not resting, for your mental movie house is still working and showing different pictures to the Ego of subconscious feelings and thoughts.

Meaning of superconscious dreams and visions true and false subconscious dreams visions.

Visions are created during the wakeful state by the all-seeing, all-powerful superconsciousness. The superconsciousness uses brain energy to materialize thoughts about a true event which is to happen in the near or far future, and shows it during the wakeful state with the eyes closed. When a true vision is seen with open eyes, the Life Force is projected from the brain into the ether. In this case the persons and scenes in the brain may not be true-to-touch, though they are true-to-vision, and will be true in every sense in the future if spiritual development is carried on.

The last kind of super-vision, in which one can see and touch and talk to a Saint appearing in a vision, is created by superconsciousness impregnated with Christ Consciousness, which uses Cosmic Energy and super-Divine will with which to materialize invisible Saints, or it may be possible to invite a Saint who materializes himself. Visions can be willed by Masters into the conscious mind of their true developed disciples.

Superconscious dreams.

In superconscious dreams the superconsciousness photographs real future happenings and drops them into the dream-movie-house to be filmed there for the guidance of the Ego. These dreams, good or bad, always come true The superconsciousness is specially interested in dropping messages which will awaken the Ego to return home from wallowing in the mire of sense pleasures to the home of happiness in God.  Besides very occasionally giving real dreams, the superconsciousness also gives dream hints of Spiritual progress, and of the call of God.

Whenever you dream calmly about huge fires, the ocean, or vast waters, rivers, boats, angels. Scriptures. Saints, temples, churches, altars, flowers, cloudless skies, sunny lights, auroras or the moon, or of a feeling of expansion in space, then know that the time for your spiritual development is near to the working out of the effects of pre-natal or post-natal bad actions, by the power of good living in this life.

            Fire represents the burning of past Karma; light and the ocean represent vast perceptions of Self-Realization in meditation. Water represents the results of Divine perceptions attainable by meditation.

A river suggests plying up the river of Life Force in the spine through Yoga practices or meditation.

A boat indicates that one should seek the right Guru, (human vehicle and messenger of God)  whose voice, intelligence, and Spiritual perception the Divine Being uses to completely redeem the disciple in one or many incarnations.  The Guru is the boat or vehicle of salvation, or the Spiritual mariner who takes the disciple across oceans of past Karma to the shores of God.  A boat also represents Self Realization received through the practice of the technique of salvation received from the Guru.

Angels represent Divine friends and Saints in past lives who remember us and try to redeem us through silent suggestions of their presence.

            Scriptures represent that the dreamer should follow the path of wisdom and study to attain the end-Saints represent the sages whom we specially adored in the past. Temples indicate that one should follow the teachings of the Masters.

Churches indicate that one should worship God deeply according to the Yogic method of real concentration, and not be absent-minded.

Altars represent communion with God, or marriage with an extremely Divine Soul. The real marriage and the happiest one lies in the union of negative feminine Souls of all human beings, both male and female, with the only masculine, positive Soul of God.

Cloudless skies represent a serene, pure path of communion with God-Spiritual development without trouble, and an abundance of clear Spiritual perceptions.

Flowers represent budding of the blossoms of creative wisdom in the garden of thought. By the magic wand of “just mere willingness” the Spiritual devotee will find the right thought arising at the right time.

Sunny lights signify Astral visions illumining vast spaces during meditation.

Auroras represent Cosmic Astral Light, in which one can see all the Astral planets, large and small, glittering in space, and the visitation of Cosmic Consciousness during deepest meditation.

The moon indicates that one should combine devotion with Astral visions perceived in meditation in order to progress in the Spiritual path.

A feeling of expansion in space represents the feeling of omnipresence felt during meditation.

And of the above visions are hints that the dreamer shows development in the above spiritual accomplishments in the past life, or in this life, and that it would be easy for him to try and develop along those lines with little resistance.

Comedy and tragedy dreams.

Comedy dreams are entertainment given by the subconscious mind requesting the conscious mind to relax and to be less serious about life.

Falling in dreams, and so forth, indicates that the dreamer should control sex thoughts. Dreams of temptations are hints that temptation is not a physical but a mental fact, and can be controlled by development of the will.

Tragedy dreams are hints of the subconscious mind to the conscious mind that it should desist from formulating dramas of worries and fears.

Beating or hurting others in dreams represents that the conscious mind should not think revengeful thoughts.

Seeing a lady in dreams signifies marriage. Seeing a house, a mine, an office, furniture, palaces, shops, or money, represents coming prosperity if some effort is made.

Sadness in a dream represents coming sickness. Flying in the light indicates spiritual development Flying in the dark indicates prosperity. Waterfalls represent the passing out of bad Karma.

Meaningless dreams are nothing but comedy dreams and should be ignored. To dream too much is bad. Clearing the bowels by means of a laxative, and a fruit dinner at night, will do away with meaningless dreams and will give birth to superconscious dreams only

To will dreams and visions.

Visions can be had only by going deep into meditation and then wishing to see the real state of things. It is always good to be able to dream at will before one can have a real vision

Art of dreaming at will.

Sit in your dimly lighted bedroom just before you feel fairly sleepy. With half-open eyes steadily and simultaneously look at a portion of the room and try to visualize and memorize every detail All the time will yourself to see all the objects of your vision in a dream and fall asleep while you are visualizing. In this way you will be able to visualize or produce a mechanical vision of anything, any person, or any place in a dream consciously produced in the subconsciousness

Dreams are not given to you They are created unconsciously by your own conscious , subconscious, or superconscious mind. Hence, by your conscious or subconscious mind during sleep, or by superconscious will, you can create any dream.

Visions are real, while dreams are only imaginary images Visions of true future happenings are very useful, for they guide and mold your life when you can produce them by Christ Consciousness or superconsciousness.

The Divine man seldom dreams any false dreams. To be able to dream at will signifies that your will can materialize thoughts, and that you are getting ready to be able to produce Guiding Visions.

-- Super Cosmic Science Course (1934):  Lesson 3, By Swami Yogananda

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Samadhi

            The Ego consciousness in man tries to keep the soul attached to matter in the form of individual traits and mortal desires born out of them.  The Soul, being a reflection of the Omnipresent Spirit, ought to reflect its omnipresent, all-knowing character.  It is the pure, perfect reflection of the Spirit, but when it forgets its own real nature and becomes identified with the body and its attachments, it loses its consciousness of Omnipresence and becomes conscious only of the limitations of the body.  This body-bound soul is called Ego. The soul in the Ego state is a prisoner of the flesh and its limitations.

            The soul, through meditation, can reach the state of Samadhi and thus can do away with its Ego or matter consciousness.  Reaching Samadhi, or Oneness with God, is the only method by which the Ego consciousness can be completely defeated.

            Samadhi is the great general of the metaphysical army which leads the soldiers of devotion, vital celibacy, spiritual memory.  Discriminative intelligence, extreme dispassion, negative good power, positive good power, proper bodily posture, reversed Life-Force, and withdrawn consciousness from the senses to battle the soldiers of Ego, Bhisura, or King Material Desire.

            There are different stages in the realization of Oneness.  There is the realization of Oneness of the Ego and the soul, and that of Oneness of the Soul and Spirit.  There are really three kinds of Samadhi: Jara, or unconscious trance; Sabikalpa, or perception of Spirit without the Waves of Creation; and the third and highest state is that of perception of the Ocean of Spirit with the Waves of Creation.

            The unconscious state is useless for the most part because it is produced by a physical control, or by the mental anesthetic of keeping the mind blank.  In this state a sense-bound soul can only be kept from increasing its attachments.  It can never acquire wisdom or roast the seeds of pre-natal or post-natal bad habits in this state, the mind is unconscious within and without.

            It is related in the Hindu Scriptures that a wicked snake charmer went into a trance and fell into a well.  The well dried up and became full of dirt and the man remained buried there for a hundred years with his body perfectly preserved in a state of suspended animation.  At the end of a hundred years some people who were digging out the old well found him and revived him by the application of hot water.  As soon as he regained consciousness, he began to scold and curse the people for stealing the musical instruments with which he charmed the snakes.  His hundred years of unconscious trance had not roasted the seeds of bad thought habits or cured him of his wickedness.

            In the Sabikalpa Samadhi state the attention and the Life-Force are switched off from the senses and are kept consciously identified with the ever-joyous, ever-wise Spirit.  In this state, the soul is released from the Ego consciousness and becomes conscious of Spirit beyond Creation.  By repetition of this state of ecarbo, the soul absorbs the fire of Spirit Wisdom, which roasts out the seeds of mortal desires.  In this state, the soul, as the meditator, its meditation on the Spirit, and the Spirit as the object of meditation, become one.  The Wave of Soul meditating in the Ocean of Spirit becomes merged with the spirit.  It does not lose its identity, but only expands into Spirit.  In this state, the mind is conscious of the Spirit within only.  It is not conscious of Creation without.

            In the most advanced, or Nirbikalpa Samadhi state, the soul does not expand itself into the big Spirit, but realizes itself and Spirit as existing together.  This is the highest and most enjoyable state in which the Ego consciousness, the soul consciousness, and the Ocean of Spirit are seen all existing together.  It is the state of watching the Ocean of Spirit and the Waves of Creation at the same time.  In this state the individual does not see himself any longer as John Smith related to his body and his outer environment, but he sees that the Ocean of Spirit has become not only the Wave of John Smith, but also all the waves of all lives and of all things.  In this state, the soul is conscious simultaneously of Spirit within and of all Creation without.

            The Swabikalpa Samadhi and Nirbikalpa Samadhi states are described in the following ancient Hindu song:

            “In the Swabikalpa Samadhi Yoga (union)
            You will drown (melt) yourself (Ego)
            in yourself (Spirit).
            In the Nirbikalpa Samadhi Yoga
            You will find (see) yourself (Ego)
            in yourself (in Spirit).”

            The Ego consciousness tries to keep the body under its control by reminding it of the limited physical relations of country, race, nation, family, possessions, characteristics, and so forth.  The soul is held to the body by the Ego conscious.  Ness.  In the highest Nirbikalpa Samadhi state the soul unites its Ego consciousness of race, country, family, body, possessions, and characteristics with the omnipresent, omniscient, all-blessed Spirit.  The Ego reminds the Soul of its limitations, while Samadhi reminds the Soul of its omnipresence.

            Before General Samadhi can defeat the body-bound Ego, it is necessary for the Soul to call out its other metaphysical soldiers to defeat the army of the senses.

--From Interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 1:8/section 2, Paramhansa Yogananda

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                “Once the mind is interiorized,” Paramhansa Yogananda said, “and withdrawn from its identification with the world and with the body, the inner light comes into clear and steady focus. The inner sounds become all-absorbing. Aum fills the brain; its vibration moves down the spine, bursting open the door of the heart’s feeling, then flowing out into the body. The whole body vibrates with the sound of Aum.

            “Gradually, with ever-deeper meditation, the consciousness expands with that sound. Moving beyond the confines of the body, it embraces the vastness of infinite vibration. You realize your oneness with all existence as Aum, the Cosmic Vibration.

            “This state is known as Aum Samadhi, or union with God as Cosmic Sound. Aum is that aspect of the Christian Trinity which is known as the Holy Ghost, or Word of God.

            “By still deeper meditation, one perceives in the physical body, underlying the Aum vibration, the vibrationless calm of the Christ Consciousness, the reflection in creation of the unmoving Spirit beyond creation.

            “In ancient spiritual tradition, the Christ Consciousness is spoken of as the Son. For just as, among human beings, the son is a reflection of the father, so in cosmic consciousness the Christ–in Sanskrit called Krishna, or Kutastha Chaitanya–reflects in all things the consciousness of God, the Father, beyond creation.

            “By ever deeper meditation, one expands his awareness of the Christ Consciousness beyond the limits of the body to perceive his oneness finally with the Christ Consciousness, which underlies the manifested universe.

            “By deeper meditation still, one goes beyond creation and unites his consciousness with that of the Father, Satchidananda, the vast ocean of Spirit.

--From The Essence of Self-realization, Chapter Twenty/1

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The Eighth Stage: Samadhi

            At this point, spiritual progress becomes a matter of progressively deeper Self-remembrance. The soul, recalling its true nature, identifies itself more and more fully with that divine memory. It realizes itself, first, as only a projection of Pure Consciousness. Then, finally, it realizes itself as, in fact, Pure Consciousness.

            Samadhi (oneness), the eighth and final stage on the meditative journey, comes when the soul, losing body-identity altogether, merges in the greater reality of which the body and everything else in creation is only a manifestation. The identity it abandons is not its physical body only, but its subtler bodies as well. Once that subtlest wall of separation is demolished, there is nothing to prevent it from merging into the Infinite. The wave, having played on the surface of the sea for many lives, merges back again into the sea—its motion dissolved at last in perfect stillness.

            Samadhi is not a state of mind. It is cosmic consciousness, the state where the soul perceives itself as truly “center everywhere, circumference nowhere.” In that state, no ripple on the sea of consciousness remains. Thoughts and feelings are completely stilled. This emptiness is the state of nirvana. The soul, in that emptiness, knows only that it exists. It is stripped to its ultimate, irreducible essence: the stark realization, “I AM.”

            This is not, however, the final state. It is a release: It is not final attainment. Into this emptiness then bursts a new reality: Bliss absolute; Love eternal. From knowing nothing but its self-existence, the soul discovers that it knows everything. From stripping the onion of its last peel—the last kosha covering the heart—the soul proceeds to discover that it is everything. In possessing nothing, it finds that it possesses everything. It is Satchidananda: ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss.

            There are several stages of samadhi. To attain divine perfection, not only must the ego transcend itself in soul-consciousness: The soul must convince itself that it truly is free in Infinity.

            Those who imagine that God seeks to impose a state of ego-lessness on the soul have little idea of how completely we must persuade Him that we long for Him alone.

            At first, the ego’s addiction to a separate existence allows the soul only brief flights of ecstasy before selfhood reasserts itself. The bird, imprisoned for eons in its little cage, fears to come out even though the door of the cage stands wide open. After a time, deciding that no threat is posed by that openness, the bird hops briefly outside—two or three hops, only—fluffs its wings, then hops hurriedly back to the reassurance of its cage again. Again it hops out, and ever and again returns, still preferring its delusive security to freedom. Then at last it begins to think, “Why, outside the cage is where I really belong!” At last, taking courage, it leaves its cage altogether, and flies out the window to embrace the freedom it had so long denied.

            Different terms are used by saints of East and West to describe the final stages of liberation. Paramhansa Yogananda used the terms sabikalpa samadhi and nirbikalpa samadhi.

            Sabikalpa samadhi, he said, describes that stage in which the soul first emerges from its ego-cage and merges in the cosmic light or sound (or into any of the other six aspects of divine consciousness). Sabikalpa samadhi is temporary, not permanent, oneness. The soul knows freedom in that state, but the memory of ego-bondage lingers, and pleads as if from the back of a deep cave, “Enjoy your Self for a time if you must: but please, remember me!”

            Repeated sorties from the ego are required before the soul can retain its divine state of awareness even after it returns to outer consciousness. At this point it is no longer aware of the ego in human terms, but knows it as a manifestation of the infinite reality. In this state, it finally is able to retain its consciousness of inner freedom even while performing its normal human functions in this world. This, finally, is the state of jivanmukta, a state of eternal freedom because the soul is released from bondage to its former consciousness of “I” and “mine.” This highest samadhi Paramhansa Yogananda termed nirbikalpa samadhi. Other great teachers have named it variously—sahaja samadhi, for example: “effortless samadhi.”

            Nirbikalpa samadhi does not yet represent final emancipation, because the soul is still not free from all past karma. Final emancipation is attained when all the old seeds of karma have been destroyed. This final state of emancipation was attained by Buddha, Jesus Christ, Krishna, and others, including several great masters of modern times. Other masters are not less in the state of their realization, but only in that they have some past karma still to work out. Many such masters, my guru told me, keep some of their old karma as a way of drawing them back to help their disciples. For in that state, he explained, it doesn’t matter when the old karma is destroyed. What hurry is there, after all, once you’ve attained cosmic consciousness? In nirbikalpa there is no longer any danger of slipping down the ladder, through succumbing to nostalgia for the little self. The ego no longer exists. There is only its remembered reality of many incarnations. Long-buried impressions still need persuading that they, too, were parts of a divine play—God alone dreaming the entire sequence: butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.

            Only when the soul is convinced down to its last layer of consciousness that it is free, is final liberation attained.

            Many people, somewhat aware of the Indian teachings, are familiar with the term avatar. Few people, however, even in India, understand it except superficially. Avatar means “divine descent into the material realm.” An avatar is one who, having attained final liberation, returns to this world out of compassion to help all humanity to fulfill its spiritual destiny. An avatar, as distinct from lesser saints and masters, has a universal mission. He (or she) also has the power to bring as many souls to freedom as come for guidance and enlightenment. His power is no longer circumscribed. Like the power of God Himself, it is infinite.

            Oneness, then, is the final goal of meditation. Well before that ultimate goal, however, one reaches the point where meditation is no longer needed as a formal practice, for every moment of one’s life, every flicker of human consciousness, every atom of one’s body is permeated throughout with divine bliss.

--From Awaken to Superconsciousness, Chapter Sixteen

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Astral body and the chakras

The yogi who can fix his concentration on the spiritual eye leaves his body consciously, whether in deep ecstasy or in death. Is the spiritual eye, one may ask, merely symbolic? No, it is actually beheld, and is, in fact, a reflection of the light in the medulla, through which the energy moves down the spine in three nadis, or subtle channels of life force, called the sushumna, the vajra, and the chitra. The brahmanadi is the “spine” of the causal body, so called because it is the primal channel through which Brahman—the divine consciousness—descended into the body. The spiritual eye, when seen clearly, is universally the same: a field of dark blue light surrounded by a golden halo, in the center of which is a five-pointed star. The golden aureole represents the astral world; the blue field inside it, the causal world and also the omnipresent Christ consciousness; the star in the center, the Spirit beyond creation.

Paramhansa Yogananda pointed out that man is made, as the Bible says, in the image of God, because that five-pointed star resembles the body of man: With parted legs, and the arms stretched out to the side, the head at the top, man has the very shape of that star. Symbolically (it should be added) a five-pointed star with the fifth point turned downward is inauspicious.

The spine is the primary channel through which the energy flows. The energy’s upward flow is blocked by certain plexuses in the spine, from which energy flows out into the nervous system, and through that system into the body, sustaining and activating the different body parts. When the yogi in deep meditation withdraws his energy from the outer body to the spine, and then up the spine to the brain, he finds that passage blocked by the outward flow of energy from those plexuses (called centers in English translations of the yoga treatises; in their Sanskrit original they are called chakras). The energy at each chakra must be withdrawn into the spine in order to continue its upward journey.

--From The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter Five (look around the 3-4 pages)

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Driving the chariot of spiritual endeavor between the two armies signifies the withdrawal of energy into the spine, and the awareness which comes to the meditating devotee that there are actually two forces within him, vying together to draw him in opposite directions: downward and upward. The purpose of meditation, according to yoga practice, is to raise the energy in the spine, in so doing to transfer all the lower energies into higher energies in the spine, and finally, then, to focus them at the point between the eyebrows, uniting them ultimately with the highest pole in the body at the top of the head (the sahasrara).

--From The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter Five (3^rd paragraph from end of chapter)

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The center of the body’s energy is in the spine. In deep meditation, that energy must be relaxed from the surface of the body, as we saw earlier, and withdrawn up the spine through the chakras to the brain. The normal outward flow of energy, as it works to sustain the body, must be reversed to flow upward.

It may be helpful at this point to pause briefly and consider the relation between breath and the flow of energy in the spine. First, where the spine is concerned, come the two superficial nerves known as the ida and pingala, which are located, respectively, on the left and right sides of the spine. Fish eaters will be familiar with the two nerves that run the full length on either side of the spine of a fish. The energy flowing in these superficial nerves is connected with the reactive process of the emotions, which, in turn, is connected with the breath. The upward flow of energy in the astral spine, through what is called the ida nadi (nerve channel), in the astral body, is the cause of inhalation. A downward flow through the pingala nadi is the subtle cause of exhalation. It is this flow of energy in the astral spine that results in the physical breath. Otherwise, there would be no physical compulsion to breathe; one wouldn’t know what to do about the body’s need to expel carbon dioxide and bring in revivifying oxygen.

Causing the inhalation, then, is the upward energy-flow. This upward flow in the superficial spine is reminiscent of the deeper flow upward, in deep meditation, toward spiritual enlightenment. The upward flow through ida, therefore, accompanies any positive emotional reaction. Thus, with a positive reaction of any kind—joyful, hopeful, triumphant—to some outward stimulus, the energy flows automatically upward in the spine, causing the lungs to inhale.

When, by contrast, one’s reaction is negative—pained, sorrowful, despairing—the energy automatically flows downward through pingala, and exhalation ensues. Thus, when, for whatever reason, one reacts with emotional delight to any stimulus—physically, emotionally, or mentally—he automatically inhales. And when, on the contrary, one reacts negatively, he exhales. That is why, when we feel emotionally pleased, we automatically inhale deeply, and when we feel disappointed, we automatically sigh.

--From The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, 2:58

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When the life force is withdrawn from outward body awareness during deep meditation, the yogi beholds currents of energy trickling back through the flesh, like little rills of rainwater in a forest, to the great river of energy in the spine. When all of the body’s currents are in this way withdrawn, they then pass successively into, and through, the three luminous nadis (channels) of life force in the astral spine: the sushumna (which is outermost), the vajra, and then the chitra. Passing through the chitra, the energy and consciousness enter the innermost channel, the brahmanadi, which constitutes the spine of the causal body. It was through the brahmanadi that Brahma, the Creative aspect of AUM, in His aspect of Creator of individual beings and their three bodies, descended into outward manifestation. It is through this final channel of brahmanadi, therefore, that the soul must once more ascend in order to become again one with the Spirit. As the yogi withdraws his energy up through this final channel, he is able fully to offer his separate, individual consciousness into Infinity.                      --From The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, 5:10