LIVING ENLIGHTENMENT🔗

Awakening to your higher intelligence

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Living Enlightenment

is nothing but living our life intelligently,

expressing all our possibilities,

functioning in a conscious and integrated way.

Understand, meditation is not apart from life!

Living your daily life in a conflict-free way,

with deep awareness and understanding in every moment,

is the greatest meditation.

It can directly lead you into the space of superconsciousness.

Living Enlightenment is nothing but

an ordinary life lived in an extraordinary way!

Now we will look at the fourth layer or energy body – the intelligence layer. As we move closer and closer to the core consciousness, you will see that there is less and less action to be performed by us. When we were working on the body and breath, we had many physical postures, breathing techniques – you had a lot to do! When we worked with thoughts and emotions, you had to witness, work and transform yourself. Here, when we are working on the intelligence layer, all you have to do is tune in to the higher vibrations of consciousness already available to you.

What we call consciousness is nothing but a highly subtle form of energy pervading the cosmos. Consciousness is energy. When the same consciousness is filtered through the medium of body and breath, it expresses itself as body intelligence and life-force. Here, the consciousness is functioning as instinct. When it is expressed through the third or mental layer, we understand it as logic or intellect. In the fourth layer, the same energy shines forth as a highly refined intelligence (vignana). In the fifth or bliss layer, this energy flowers as intuition.

Instinct, intellect, intelligence, intuition

All of us use a mix of instinct, intellect, intelligence and intuition to handle our external and internal environment. Basically, all these refer to the same energy working at higher and higher levels of consciousness. When intellect is purified, it becomes intelligence. When intelligence is further purified, it becomes intuition.

Don't imagine that just because you are a human being with mental faculties, you are operating at the level of intellect or intelligence! The more consciousness you are able to bring into your life, into your responses, your decisions, the higher the chance there is that you are operating at the level of intellect or intelligence.

When we looked at how the mind perceives the world, we saw that our process of perception is partly conscious and partly unconscious. If your unconscious perception (Tq) is greater than your conscious perception (Tp), you are operating at the level of instinct. If your conscious and unconscious processes are more or less equal, you are operating at the level of intellect.

If your conscious process is faster than your unconscious process, you are using intelligence. When you operate totally out of awareness, you make the leap to intuition.

Understand, all of us use all these processes at different times. Not only that, they are not clearly demarcated, but flow into one another. It is simply a process of greater and greater refinement of the same energy, greater and greater awareness being brought in when handling the same energy.

Intellect is what you normally use when making your decisions! Intellect uses only logic to act. It does not know any other language. Intelligence is more creative, more constructive. It knows how to respond to life moment to moment, how to be awake to the challenge of the moment. Intelligence is aware of the situation, it can alter the answers according to the demands of the moment.

Intuition is when the decision simply happens as a revelation! It happens from the energy of your being, not from the space of the mind. With meditation, you go beyond the mind, into the being. In the being, no rules exist! You are free to explore your full potential.

Living Enlightenment or jeevanmukti is nothing but living a conflict-free life in the inner world and the outer world; living without a gap between the inner world and the outer world. What are the dimensions of Living Enlightenment? Shakti – the Energy to understand and change whatever you need to change in life. Buddhi – the Intelligence to understand and accept whatever you don't need to change in life. Yukti – the Clarity to understand and realize that however much you change, whatever you see as reality is itself a continuously changing dream Bhakti – the Devotion, the feeling of deep connection to That which is unchanging, Eternal and Ultimate, and Mukti, the ultimateLiberation into Living Enlightenment when all these four are integrated.

When we work on the fourth layer, we bring the force of intelligence into our life, to enter the space of pure consciousness. Living Enlightenment is nothing but living our life intelligently, expressing all our possibilities and functioning in a conscious and integrated way. Understand, meditation is not apart from life! Living your daily life consciously, with deep awareness and understanding in every moment, is the greatest meditation. It can directly lead you into the space of superconsciousness.

When you work on the intelligence layer, two tremendous energies are awakened in you: the power of visualization, and the power of discrimination.

The power of visualization is the energy to transform all your dreams into reality. The power of discrimination is the wisdom to realize that whatever you think of as reality is also a dream! Understand, both these dimensions are available in this layer. We can travel in whichever direction we want.

Awaken shaktis, visualize, transform, express!

When intelligence is used to transform our dreams into reality, it is known as shakti or energy. The path that focuses on awakening our latent potential, raising our energy to its peak and expressing this energy in our life, is traditionally known as yoga-marga. That is why you will see, in yoga marga, a lot of importance is given to culturing the physical body, preparing it to hold the tremendous universal energy.

When it is pursued intelligently, yoga can awaken the tremendous kundalini shakti, the universal life-force that lies latent in us. Understand, yoga does not just mean body-culture and breathing techniques. Just though intelligence, through awareness, we can raise our consciousness to perform unimaginable feats in the material and spiritual world. That is why it is known as jnana-shakti or intelligence-power.

Understand: this energy does not come from outside you! Every moment, the energy of your Self is available to you. Whatever thought you place before your Self, that becomes reality. If you place a picture in front of a projector light, that can be seen as reality on the screen. In the same way, whatever thought you place before your Consciousness, before your inner light, you see it in the outer world as reality. The more often you place the same thought before your Self, the more you see it in the outer world! Any desire, once you contemplate upon it, once it penetrates your inner space, will express its own power. Every desire that plays in front of your inner light becomes alive. When jnana-shakti (the energy of intelligence) is added to iccha shakti (the energy of desire), it results in kriya shakti (the energy of action or creation).

Ichha shakti ___ jnana shakti___> kriya shakti

When the jnana-shakti or the intelligence is totally purified, any desire is instantly transformed into reality. When a desire is submitted in front of the pure enlightened consciousness, it is instantly transformed into reality. The sankalpa (desire or will) of an enlightened being has the power to directly become reality. This is the secret behind the ‘miracles’ performed by enlightened beings! All siddhi (mystical powers) are nothing but the expression of awakened intelligence in its dimension of shakti, the power of visualization.

Whether you believe it or not, intelligence is a dynamic energy! Even in your day-to-day life, you can see the power of intelligence at work. Simply by harnessing your intelligence, you can actualize all your latent potential, express all your possibilities. When you bring intelligence into your daily living, naturally your ability to respond to new situations, your inner clarity, your decision-making abilities are all enhanced. Whatever you visualize, you are able to execute. You will see that you are doing things that you never imagined you could do! This is shakti. Using your shakti, you can change whatever can be changed in your outer and inner world.

All our life, we try to change whatever we can in the outer world and in the inner world. In the outer world, we constantly try to improve our life by changing our job, our home, our car, if possible even our spouse! We are constantly trying to express our shakti. As long as your energy and enthusiasm are at their peak, maybe till you are around forty, you will be on this trip.

Then, when your energies start declining, gradually your buddhi will start expressing itself! Slowly, you will have the understanding that some things in life cannot be changed. All the changes you see in your physical body, your very diseases will teach you acceptance. When you have thrown yourself against life and hurt yourself enough, you will naturally learn acceptance. Understand, life is the biggest teacher!

Life awakens buddhi in you in the form of experience. Slowly, you start accepting that, beyond a point, you cannot change anything. You have to live with the same old body, same old life... same old wife!

Of course, if you are a little intelligent, you will straightaway understand that it is not necessary to change everything! You don't have to change the whole thing. Otherwise you will be too busy changing life instead of enjoying it! If you think that you can enjoy life only if the world becomes as you want

Directly you will have the buddhi to accept whatever doesn't need to be changed.

Learning to handle these two energies, shakti and buddhi, is the basic necessity for a balanced life. Be very clear: I am not even speaking of spirituality. Even to handle your daily life, you have to have a clear understanding of how to balance these two energies.

People ask me, how to know which things in life can be changed, and which have to be accepted? This is an important question. How to know when to use shakti, and when to use buddhi? I can tell you, there is one clear experiential way to understand which energy you are using in your life at the moment, and which you need to use.

Just observe yourself when you wake up in the morning. At the moment of waking, what is your mood? Usually, the first few thoughts which arise in you upon waking will be about the day ahead. The moment you remember your day ahead – your office, or the tasks you have to complete that day, if you experience a sense of depression – understand, you have taken on more than you can handle! If you feel that your sleeping state was more pleasant than your waking state, you are expressing too much shakti. Now you are feeling the stress! It is time for you to relax and accept. It is time to bring buddhi into your life.

At the moment of waking, if you feel a sense of release, it means you need to express more energy in your life. If your sleeping state seems to be suffocating, if you are just waiting to wake up and act, it means you have not utilized your shakti enough. It is time for you to express your shakti and change whatever needs to be changed in your life. If you wake up feeling relaxed and refreshed, ready to start your day, it means you are living in the right way! You are maintaining a perfect balance of shakti and buddhi in your life.

But you need to understand one thing: as long as you are expressing only these two energies, you are living life at the minimum. At the most, you will be leading a peaceful life, but not a life of higher awareness.

It is only when the mind has jumped enough between these two points, between effort and acceptance, expression and relaxation, that a new understanding happens in you. You finally realize that no matter how much you try to change it or transform it, the whole reality that you experience is itself no more than a waking dream! Whether you transform or accept, everything in this world is changing continuously. What you imagine to be reality is itself an illusion. This is the awakening of yukti, the power of discrimination.

Awaken yukti: listen, contemplate, radiate!

When intelligence is focused on transforming your dreams into reality, it is shakti, the power of visualization. When the same intelligence is used to understand that reality itself is a dream, it is yukti, the power of discrimination.

When yukti happens in us, we have taken a quantum leap from the plane of shakti and buddhi. As long as we are playing with shakti and buddhi, we are working on the assumption that whatever we see around us is real. Whether we try to transform or try to accept, we have not understood that the stuff we are working with is itself an illusion!

Yukti always happens only when we are tired of playing with shakti and buddhi. This can happen in two ways. The first is what I call the depression of failure. Usually, it is only when the limits of our shakti and buddhi are tested again and again, that we get ready to drop both. When we realize that we are neither able to fulfil all our dreams nor accept the reality, suddenly a new intelligence is awakened in us. We get out of the game.

In some rare cases, when all your dreams become reality, suddenly the realization comes, that what you think of as reality is nothing but your dream! When there is nothing left to aim at, suddenly we see the futility of the whole process. This is the depression of success! Even in your normal life, if all your dreams are constantly fulfilled, if you don't have to struggle to achieve any of your desires, suddenly you will feel empty! You find that whatever you wanted has been achieved, but that sense of fulfillment for which you did everything is still not there.

A small story: A man dies in a car accident. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a beautiful place. Many celestial beings are standing around him and asking him, ‘What do you want? You only have to ask!’ The man orders food and drink, all kinds of things. Everything is immediately delivered, and he enjoys himself immensely. The next day he asks for expensive clothes, a palace, beautiful women. The instant he asks, everything is given. The third day, he is busy searching for things to ask! Somehow he asks for this and that, and everything is instantly delivered. Whatever he asks for is given. How many days can you live like this? You will die out of sheer boredom, because whatever you can think of is there. After a week, he tells one of the celestial beings, ‘I am getting a bit bored of being in heaven! Just for a change, can I go to hell and see how it feels?’ The being asks him, ‘Where do you think you are right now?’

Be very clear, if all your desires are fulfilled, you are in hell, because there is nothing left to hope for! When you realize that even if all your desires are fulfilled, it cannot bring lasting inner fulfillment, you take the first step on the spiritual path. This is the expression of yukti. Traditionally, this path is known as jnana-marga (the path of wisdom) or viveka-marga (the path of discrimination). In the scriptures it is said: vidyaayaamrutam ashnutey (through wisdom, we can taste immortality). Right knowledge can take you directly into the space of consciousness.

In the tradition of Vedanta, the process of discrimination is said to happen in three stages: shravana, manana and nidhidhyaasana. Shravana means intensely listening to the Truth; manana means contemplating on it and internalizing it; nidhidhyaasana means living it, radiating it in one’s life.

It is not necessary that every seeker will need to go through all the three processes to take the leap into consciousness. For a really ripe seeker, just the very process of listening to the Truth from his Guru, or from the holy scriptures, is enough! Just by hearing the Truth, he can experience it, he can enter that space. That is why so much importance is given to shravana, right listening. Just hearing the truth can bring tremendous inner healing.

Many times people ask me, ‘Swamiji, how did you heal me with just your words? How did it happen in me? For just a few days, I sat with you and listened to your talks. Suddenly I feel that my entire system is healed. Even my physical health is better!’ Understand: it is Truth which has healed you! When you listen with complete openness, when you make yourself available to Truth, it can do wonders for you. The words which arise out of enlightened consciousness are not ordinary words. They will touch the same pure space inside you. This knowledge of the Truth is what I call ‘knowledge-weapons’ or shaastra-shastra.

The truths which bring you out of depression and add self-healing clarity and confidence to you are called shaastra-shastraa.

You will see when these truths are added into you, they can redesign your whole life. Whatever you now think of as the sum total of your life - your desires, your fears, your worries, your depression, your very identity - all these things will suddenly disappear. You will have an inner clarity that cannot be taken away by any fear, any depression. When the load is taken out of your inner space, nothing remains but healing! Healing is the only thing that can happen to you.

Again and again bringing your awareness back to Truth is manana or reflection upon Truth. Again and again, using the power of the shaastra-shastra to respond to and handle the different situations of your life is manana.

Whenever depression attacks you, suffering attacks you, life brings different scenes in front of you, just turn this shaastra-shastra upon them! Understand, the Truth is so powerful, its very presence in your heart can bring you right out of depression. So, even if the truth is too much, don't bother. Try to digest, assimilate and keep it in the corner of your heart. Let the shaastra-shastra be stored inside you. Don't think that these are mere ideas!

Understand: meditating upon Truth directly increases your self-healing clarity. When you have a mighty store of shaastra-shastra, naturally fear and depression will be afraid to attack you. You don't even have to attack your depression! The moment you display your power, they will think twice before attacking you.

When you accumulate this self-healing understanding, shaastra-shastra, inside your system, you will see that depression will be afraid to come near you.

Recently we conducted some simple research on the connection between spirituality and self-healing clarity. We chose two groups of people of more of less the same age, from the same economic background, etc. The first group consisted of people who were practicing meditation or studying spiritual literature regularly. The second group consisted of people who had not been exposed to spirituality in any way. Both groups participated in the 10-minute experiment I mentioned earlier. They were asked to write down whatever thoughts came to their mind without editing them. When I read those papers, it was a very shocking revelation.

In the case of the group which had not been exposed to spirituality, if a person had written 100 thoughts, more than 80 thoughts were directing him towards more and more depression. Only 20 thoughts were ‘self-healing’ or bringing him out of depression. But in the case of the people who are exposed to spirituality and meditation, I saw that more than 60 percent of their thoughts were self-healing. Only 40 percent were towards depression. This is the power of the touch of Truth!

Understand, sometimes Truth will be strong. That is why you are afraid even to listen to it, let alone practice it! If you want to sincerely follow the Truth, you will have to totally redefine life as you know it. The other day, after a talk, I got a note which said: ‘I know that what you speak is the Truth, but it is too strong! I never expected that I will have such clarity. Now I am afraid of my own clarity.’

Sometimes, people are afraid of going near the Truth.

But unless you have the courage to go near the Truth, the real healing will never happen.

There is no other way. And I tell you, it only looks like suffering at the initial level, because you feel you have too much to lose. Actually, you have nothing to lose but your depression! If you just allow the Truth to enter you, it will create so much ecstasy in your inner space, and so much energy to expand in the outer space.