=kitc24.txt

CURRICULUM OF THE SUFI ORDER INTERNATIONAL

The teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan
Presented and paraphrased by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
Including parallels with the ancient Sufis

LESSON 24
SATIPATHANA: WATCHING OUR CONSCIOUSNESS
A COMPLEMENTARY APPROACH TO SATIPATHANA
EMPHASIZING PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS

In the first stages of the Satipathanas described by Buddha you
have observed your body, thinking, emotion and personality without
identifying with them. Now, in the fourth Satipathana, watch your
consciousness without identifying with it.


"Place the memory of yourself before yourself"
 (DIGHA, XXII, 2)...

 ...while carrying your consciousness beyond the point where it is
functioning as the witness.

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN:
"You are yourself the object of your observation."

PRACTICE:

"Dwell in your body, watching your body without thinking any
thought connected with your body."

"Dwell in your feelings, watching your feelings without thinking
any thought connected with your feelings."

"Dwell in your mind, watching your mind without thinking any
thought connected with your mind2.

"Dwell in your consciousness watching your consciousness without
thinking any thought connected with your consciousness." 
(MAJJH. CXXV)

[ That citation apparently applies to all 4 of the preceeding
quotes. -- sa ]

Now we deal with the most difficult stage.

You say, "I am not my body, I'm not my mind and I'm not my
personality. What am I? I must be my consciousness because I
perceive this, I realize this and I remember that. What do I mean
by 'I'? Of course, I mean my consciousness. I am that which is
aware. The body, and even my character, are that of which I am
aware, but I am that which is aware. I am the subject."

Even that has to go by the board as the most basic of all
illusions.

BUDDHA explains it this way. He says, *onsciousness is like a
flame. A flame depends upon the combustible. As long as there is
the log, well then there is a flame. But if you ran out of logs,
there would be no more flame."
[ The preceeding quote is not in italics, so it may be PVK's
paraphrase.  -- sa ]      

Further, he questions, is the flame the same that burns first one
log and then another? When the fire is extinguished, and then
relit, is the second flame another flame or the same flame?

How can you say I am this consciousness or that consciousness? You
start realizing there is just consciousness which emerges when a
formation has been built up, like a plant or a crystal.
Consciousness flows in the plant or in a cell or in a crystal. But
you can't say this is the consciousness of the crystal; it is the
consciousness that flows through the crystal. Or in the same way,
if you could get into the consciousness of an ant in an ant nest
you would realize that the ant is so conscious of the kind of will
of the ant nest that the consciousness of the ant nest is much
stronger than the consciousness of the individual ant. It does the
things that the ant nest wants to do.

Then you become aware of the total consciousness of the universe.
Consciousness, which you thought was really at least the epitome
of me, is totally implicated in all consciousness of the universe.

Often I find that people have trouble with this practice because
they are watching their thoughts, or their breath, from the
vantage point of their personal consciousness rather than, as
Buddha suggests, from a vantage point where consciousness is
carried beyond its functioning as a personal witness. Consequently
people err by engaging in introspection. Therefore having
proceeded through the three previous Satipathanas and having
arrived at the fourth, one needs now, once more, to proceed
watching one's body, mind emotions and personality from the
vantage point attained in the fourth Satipathana.

PRACTICE:

Buddha enjoins upon us to observe: this is my body composed of
flesh, bones and blood. It is a formation configured by cosmic
forces regardless of my will...

" ...as a function of the impersonal forces which follow their
course with complete indifference to our person."
 Opus. Cit. p. 165
[ I suppose the opus cit. is this_here 'Digha' -- sa ]

Moreover, Buddha declares that considering the inevitable decay of
the body results in dis-identification with the body and
consequently confers upon the ascetic a sense of deathlessness (in
Sanskrit AMRITA.)

Likewise are my thoughts and my personality so configured.

In the days of Buddha little was known of physics. Through this
study we find that already during one's lifetime the molecules of
our body cells are ionized: all that remains is electromagnetic
charge. Matter is transmuted into energy. This energy field will
be the infrastructure, the support system, for our body during
'life after life' that we call death.

Buddha affirmed, admittedly initially, that one's body and
personality are conditioned by one's ancestral inheritance. This
corresponds to the presence of the past, as SHELDRAKE postulates,
where determinism sets in.

However, in addition, one recognizes that - I enjoy free will by
my personal incentive. I can alter my body by my diet, by jogging,
by awakening dormant faculties, by monitoring the endocrine
glands; and I do and can alter my personality by unfurling
potential qualities.

If living systems were predetermined, they would be locked into
sclerosis.

Instead of being predetermined as LEIBNITZ suggests, quantum
physics points out the role of randomness to foster the way
evolution proceeds by trial and error. Further, Prigogine
introduces in his theories of dissipative structures not only the
"undeterminate" in science, but also randomness as opening the
chance for systems to explore unforeseen patterns by trial and
error, thereby self-organizing themselves to foster creativity.

[ Note (sa):  Leibnitz is our friend.  He said, 'monads'.  Monads
are atomistic, but each is a microcosm of the macrocosmos.
Bartok has a composition called 'Microcosmos'. Someone said of
monads, "They have no home, because they are always at home." 
That's us HippieSufis. ]

Buddha discounts the personal incentive. But who seeks for freedom
from conditioning if not the individual? Conditioning is not the
act of the individual!

The Sufis consider the personal dimension of our identity as the
customizing of the global Being uniquely in each human being. This
makes for a bounty of possibilities since the factors in the
cosmic code are infinite. For the Sufis this bespeaks of the
divine magnanimity.

IBN 'ARABI:

"The One who enjoys this independence and has manifested the world
did not manifest it by necessity, but He created beings so that
they may enjoy existence in order to free them from the solitude
of the void. This was done by dint of altruism, because He chose
not to remain the only holder of those things that He gave."
 FUTUHAT AL-MAKKYA, CHAPTER 146, P 19

"When God sent Himself down to the waystations of His servants,
their properties exercised their influence over Him. Hence He only
determines their properties through them. He does not determine
our properties except through us. Or rather we determine our own
properties through ourselves though within Him. He only will
according to the situation."
(IBN 'ARABI),  FUTUHAT AL-MAKKYA, CHAPTER 146, P 19

WERNER VON BRAUN:

"Man is the observer of the universe, the experimenter, the
searcher for truth, but he is not spectator alone. He is a
participant in the continuing process of creation. All Believers
are Brothers"

[ Footnote kitc23__vonBraun]

PRACTICE:

Take advantage of the objective observation of your body to render
the state of consciousness 'corporeal.'

The consequence is that one acts nobly. One acts with decorum,
maintaining a high standard in everything that one does.

WATCH YOUR EMOTIONS

One must cultivate an attitude of absolute objectivity with regard
to one's psychological and emotional soul-searching.

PRACTICE:

Observe objectively "this feeling arises."

Now inquire: what were the circumstances or thoughts which
triggered off this feeling?

Discern clearly that this sensation or thought had this effect
upon my feelings.

Observe that by exercising detachment, the feeling subsides.

The clue to exercising detachment is outwitting the forces that
result from identifying with the personal dimension of one's
being.

Here lies the secret of one's wounds provoked, even exasperated.
One is aroused by the incoming emotion triggered off by not only a
disturbing event or thought, but frustration at the obstacles
standing in the way of the fulfillment of one's desires:
covetousness, concupiscence, jealousy, hate, anger, pride, doubt,
the primordial anguish, wavering, the need for attention or
recognition, winning an argument, agitation, restlessness.

Usually we confuse that aspect of ourselves that is the observer
with our psyche. Distinguishing between these proves most useful
to psychotherapists in their efforts to alleviate the despair of
patients by teaching them to identify with the observing self
while pointing out that it is the psyche that is distressed, not
the observer.

Pain, distress, anguish, despair, frustration, a broken heart,
self-pity are right there lurking in our personal identity; in our
transpersonal identity there is the self-assurance that begets
peace and sovereignty. To make this transit, overcoming desire
requires a lot of maturity, of discernment as to values, and of
mastery.

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN:

"Man seeks freedom and pursues captivity." In an Eastern Rose
Garden  

[ Quip kitc23_1 (sa) ]
[ 'In an Eastern Rose Garden' is the title given to one of the
volumes that comprise the Collected transcriptions of all that HIK
said in lectures to his mureeds. ]



"The moment a person feels that he will no longer remain in
prison, the prison bars must break instantly of themselves."
(HIK)
  
[ Footnote (sa) kitc23_2 ]

"It depends upon your discrimination: what to renounce and for
what; whether to renounce things momentarily precious for
everlasting things or everlasting things for things momentarily
precious." 
(HIK), SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS GATHEKAS

BUDDHA:

"He remains vigilant over the eyes and the ears. Watch over the
doors of perception. He remains vigilant over the mind." 
(CF,. OPUS CIT P 174)

PRACTICE:

Place sentinels at the doors of perception. Impressions are
arrested at the periphery by an attitude of detachment before they
reach and trigger off one's emotional reaction.

Since the frustration of one's craving or aversion is the cause of
suffering, Buddha advocates curbing any inclination or attraction
for what the world offers you which draws you into the samsaric
"vicious circle" and robs you of your freedom. In doing this one
is isolating oneself in splendid isolation which is the way of the
ascetic, not that of valuing life with all its joys and pains and
challenges which is the way of the Sufi. But Buddha lays the
ultimate value in freedom. It is desire that avers itself to be
the impediment whereby one is conditioned that robs one of one's
freedom.

This detachment is sparked by girding oneself with silence.

BUDDHA:

"Between the world and me there is now a zone of silence."

You will find that you will reduce the period of sleep and promote
deep sleep (orthodox sleep) rather than sleep with dreams
(paradoxal sleep).

PRACTICE:

To appreciate the serenity arrived at by detachment, perform the
Yogic practice of Yoni Mudra. Like the popular statuette of the
monkeys obstructing perception, place fingers on eyes, ears, nose
and mouth.

Here we are reconnoitering precisely the deep ground for
resentment. Therefore Buddha is tackling one of the most
fundamental of all psychological problems and therefore it is a
pointer for psychotherapists: the healing of wounds by dis-
intoxification.

SCRUTINIZING THE MIND

A we have seen when studying yoga, particularly nirvetarka
samadhi, the Yogi frees his mind from the limitation due to
labeling a thought, for example one's representation of a quality
by a name, by defining it and thereby limiting its outreach.

BUDDHA:

"That part of this aggregate that is gross and material is form,
and that part that is subtle is name, and between the two there is
an independent relationship."
 MILINDAPANDHA, 49

It is in the perspective of our individual consciousness that we
segregate objects and thoughts by labels.

EVOLA:

"Thought and form condition each other." 
(OPUS CIT, 59)

This should caution us about "vain repetition" of which Christ
warns us. The error lies in trying to develop a quality in our
self without maintaining the representation of that quality in its
perfection predicated to God as the archetype of which the coveted
quality in our personality is the exemplar.

AL JILI:

"There is access to the knowledge of God only through the
intermediary of His names and His qualities. But he who breaks the
seal, transpiercing thus quality and name, is with God through the
essence without the divine quality being veiled from him. He
becomes the mirror of the divine name so that he himself and the
name are like two mirrors confronting each other and being
reflected the one in the other."
( INSAAN AL KAMIL )

No doubt the signs, the ayat, of which the QUR'AN speaks in their
bounty scatter our thoughts in thought associations. To this
Buddha opposes the state of nirvana: emptiness, "the sign-less."
In a further step, in nirvecara Samadhi, the Yogi frees herself
from thought associations.

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==============================================================

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY: 

[ Note (sa):  Leibnitz is our friend.  He said, 'monads'.  Monads
are atomistic, but each is a microcosm of the macrocosmos.
Bartok has a composition called 'Microcosmos'. Someone said of
monads, "They have no home, because they are always at home." 
That's us HippieSufis. 
I bet you Leibniz gets his Revival pretty soon.  Like it took them
a while to catch up with Bach.
I had a course on Spinoza, taught by Paul Wienpahl (UCSB) from a
Zen perspective, but I don't recall seeing a course offered on
Leibniz. 

Spinoza is great too, once you get past all those academic
trappings.  I mean, to write in the style of that fool Descartes,
and then to do it up like Euclid. Oy.  And as for approaching
Spinoza as if all philosophy is a footnote to Hume and Russell and
the British Aristotelian Society -- all of which I lump under the
term 'empiricist epistemology' -- from which Wittgenstein saved us
just as that buggy was about to run off the cliff of terminal
scepticism -- oy 2.

I once occurred to me, on the basis of a lecture at Harvard, in
that ugly new science buildint opposite Sanders Theatre across the
street from Harvard Yar -- just to the left of Oxford Street --
that one might trace a connection, even derivation, from
Maimonides to Spinoza.

Spinoza is psycho_physical parallelism -- "as ahove so below" to
take a slogan from -- Jewish mysticism -- 
And Spinoza is the freedom that comes from detatchmen from one's
bodily emotions, to the 'ecstacy', as PVK would say, of 'divine
emotions' as PVK says.

So you see, Spinoza is our friend.
And so is Leibniz.

P.S.  Sitting at R. Joel Glick's Chomat haLev HippieYeshiva in the
Old City of Jerusalem, this is ca. 1985, it occurred to me that
one might trace a continuity -- evolution, really -- from
Whitehead's Process and Reality, through Rav Kook, to PVK.

-----------------------------------------------------------

[ Footnote kitc23__vonBraun]

Mazaltov, and you should only make an honest living selling
herring.

And anyhow, where is the town of Brown.

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"Man seeks freedom and pursues captivity." In an Eastern Rose
Garden
                                          
[ Quip kitc23_1 (sa) ]

Yup, that's why sometimes I walk down to Olivone to shoot pool. 

Just took one lap around the Campground -- clounds coming in, moon
almost full.  Feizy used to say, the moon on the runningbrstream
is very beautiful.  Somebody bring back Feizy, there's a gap on
the basketball team.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                          
"The moment a person feels that he will no longer remain in
prison, the prison bars must break instantly of themselves."
(HIK)
  
[ Footnote (sa) kitc23_2 ]

I once heard Leary say, best's I recollect, I think that was at
Columbia ca. 1963, 'If you are contemplating a jail_break, you
must first know the size and shape of your prison. '

No history of mysticism, especially of the 20th century, is
comoplete without a volume on Leary.  That's Professor of
Psychology (fired) Timothy Leary of Harvard University.

He used to say:

"Tune in, turn out, drop out -- gracefully, gracefully."

"Freedom consists in playing games of one's own choosing."

"My selves hate metal -- don't yours."
(Said at Columbia, with regard to one of his first visits to
jail.)

He once said to me,
"There is nothing to be afraid of."

Susie, Rick's chick, at New Buffalo, used to sing,
"You've got nothing to lose."                                   

Leary once visited New Buffalo, and sat at our campfire, talking
only to his own people.  He asked of someone and they told him
something like, he's taking care of his wife.  Leary said, best's
I recollect, 'That's a good yoga.'

He used to say, 'The LSD yoga is the longest hardest yoga of all.'

He once said, best's I recollect, that was at his Columbia U.
lecture, ca. 1963, 'When you drop LSD, you put all your big
counters on the table.'  Like, on a spin of the roulette wheel.
                   
He wrote various works of mystic merit.
One was Psychedelic Prayers, which is an adaptation of the Tao Te
Ching.

He ended died in rather a debacle, but what does that matter.
We none of us look our best in certain situations.
         
Leary was semt to San Quentin after 'confessing' that the pot in
his daughter's twat when the crossed the border from Old Mexico
into davka Texas had been his.

Well, the USA sent Wilhelm Reich to die in jail, after he offered
a cure for cancer.  All Reich said was, better let yourself feel
your  sexual energy, because if your force it back down you might
wind up with cancer, or walking around doin' the goosestep (Wm.
Reich, 'Psychopathology of Facism.')                             

PVK says, let your energy run free, optimally in a spiritual
breakthrough.  Because if you try to keep it bottled up -- maybe
that's Aladdin's Genie in the Bottle, says I -- you might either
go crazy, of if you have strong mind and good self_discipline you
might get cancer instead.
That's in one of these KITs, and also I heard him say that in
lecturs once or more.  

PVK once said, this was in a Zenith lecture, best's I recoolect:
'Meditation is the greatest luxury this world affords.'

Gimmee a break, Jake.
Mail me a NordSee Fish.
That's from the HauptBahnhof in Zurich.
Only honest SnackBar in Switzerland.
Except for the Pizza Place up the street from the Lugano
Synagogue.

================================================================

sa, Campra, 16 Nov '05 -- 14 CheShvaN -- 
Moon through high clouds

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