Vision and Experience

Blurry or imperfect vision can affect one’s perception of colors, objects, the ability to read – so many things. Astigmatism, for example, a refractive defect of the eye, compromises optical focusing ability. The result also is blurred vision. The inability to see clearly does not enable one to fully enjoy and experience life.

Who would willingly choose to go through life with impaired vision and experience?

In the same way that impaired eyesight adversely affects our experience of the world, incorrect vision due to avidya, or ignorance, affects our experience of life, and the narrower or more impaired the vision/awareness, the greater the suffering one will experience. All suffer from varying degrees of the near-sightedness of avidya, but the realized being has a kind of dual awareness – he is aware of the suffering of the body, for example, but is also immersed in the bliss of the Soul. Sri Swami Sivanandaji gave the illustration of a person standing in waist-deep water: he experiences both the cold wetness of the water and the warm illumination of the sunlight simultaneously, and the latter experience even lessons that of the former. Beings who reach the highest stage of realization will have no body-conscious at all – they perceive themselves as limitless Spirit only. Owing to the clarity of their perfect vision, life for them is filled with perpetual joy.

The experience of the joy of Spirit begins well before full realization, however. Resorting to the corrective lens of spiritual practice such as Kriya Yoga helps to correct our perception, giving us right vision which alleviates suffering and fills our awareness with increasing calmness, divine intoxication, and peace. In the beginning, the aspirant struggles because the mind does not much like attempts to still it – it is used to having free reign. In addition, the initial progress is very subtle – it registers in the spiritual plane and is not initially perceptible to the seeker. As a result, many make the unfortunate mistake of giving up, of suspending their efforts to attain Tranquility. This is most unfortunate. They forget that nothing worthwhile is gained without effort. Furthermore, many engage in great efforts to obtain money and material possessions – which are, of course, needed in some measure in order to sustain life and thrive in the world. But these gains are only of a temporal nature. He does not reason that the treasures yielded by spiritual practices are permanent. It is true that no amount of spiritual effort is ever lost. Spiritual practice burns karmas also. Those who persevere on the spiritual path gain the grace of God.

One’s experience of the world is determined by his state of consciousness. Those whose awareness is restricted to the dense, limited field of body-consciousness cannot comprehend the vast, blissful vision and experience of the advanced yogi. Yet when the soul becomes weary of life’s countless sufferings resulting from the clouded perception of ignorance, he seeks a realized teacher or guru who alone can prescribe the lenses of wisdom to help him see clearly and enjoy the limitless skies of Self-Knowledge.

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Radiations from the Realized

Ramana Maharshi:

A realized one sends out waves of spiritual influence in his aura, which draw many people towards him.  Yet he may sit in a cave and maintain complete silence.

Meditation depends upon the strength of mind. It must be unceasing even when one is engaged in work.  Particular time for it is meant for novices.

Realization is our true nature.  It is nothing new to be gained.  What is new cannot be eternal.  Therefore there is no need to be doubting whether we would gain or lose the self.

Bliss is not something to be got. 

On the other hand, you are always Bliss.

This desire (for Bliss) is born of the sense of incompleteness.

To whom is this sense of incompleteness?

Enquire.  In deep sleep you were blissful.

Now you are not so.

What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss?

It is the ego.

Seek its source and find you are Bliss.

Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world

Question :  How can the terrible fear of death be overcome?

Ramana Maharshi :  When does that fear seize you?  Does it come when you do not see your body, say, in dreamless sleep?  It haunts you only when you are fully `awake’ and perceive the world, including your body.  If you do not see these and remain your pure Self, as in dreamless sleep, no fear can touch you.  If you trace this fear to the object, the loss of which gives rise to it, you will find that that object is not the body, but the mind which functions in it.  Many a man would be only too glad to be rid of his diseased body and all the problems and inconvenience it creates for him if continued awareness were vouchsafed to him.  It is the awareness, the consciousness, and not the body, he fears to lose.  Men love existence because it is eternal awareness, which is their own Self.  Why not then hold on to the pure awareness right now, while in the body, and be free from all fear?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Time is in the mind, space is in the mind.  The law of cause and effect is also a way of thinking. In reality all is here and now and all is one.  Multiplicity and diversity are in the mind only.

A quiet mind is all you need.  All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet.  As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind.  In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without effort on your part.

Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment.  Co-operate with your destiny, dont go against it, dont thwart it.  Allow it to fulfil itself.  All you have to do is to give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind.

When you are no longer attached to anything, you have done your share.  The rest will be done for you. 

Treating everything as a dream liberates.

Give up all ideas about yourself and simply be.

You are like the man in the cinema house, laughing and crying with the picture, though knowing fully well that he is all the time in his seat and the picture is but the play of light.  It is enough to shift attention from the screen to oneself to break the spell…without waiting for the death of the body – it is enough to shift attention to the Self and keep it there.  All happens as if there is a mysterious power that creates and moves everything.  Realise that you are not the mover, only the observer, and you will be at peace.

This attitude of silent observation is the very foundation of yoga.  You see the picture, but you are not the picture.

                 

Yogi Vasistha:

When pots, etc. are broken the space within

them becomes unlimited.  So also when bodies cease to

exist the Self remains eternal and unattached.

Nothing whatever is born or dies anywhere at any

time.  It is Brahman alone appearing illusorily in the form of

the world.

The Self is more extensive than space; it is pure,

subtle, undecaying and auspicious.  As such how could it

be born and how can it die?

All this is the tranquil, One without beginning,

middle or end, which cannot be said to be existent or

non-existent.  Know this and be happy