Sri Ramakrishna in samadhi
Following my own heart opening, I more or less have forgotten about the Self and fallen in love with love.
Either the path of Self-realization or the path of love-actualization, I’m quite sure, will take us to the goal.
And, looking back, I think the path of love will appeal to a lot more people in this mass Ascension than would an abstract concept like the “Self.”
So “love” is probably a better tool than “Self” to share with others who haven’t yet awakened or are newly-awakened to Ascension.
Let’s look at sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi, which is the culmination of our Ascension.
One of Ramana’s students, Swami Annamalei, tells us that if there are any breaks in our awareness of the Self, we haven’t reached safe haven yet.
“If there are breaks in your Self-awareness, it means that you are not a jnani [enlightened sage] yet. Before one becomes established in the Self without any breaks, without any changes, one has to contact and enjoy the Self many times.
“By steady meditation and the continued practice of self-inquiry, one will finally become permanently established in the Self, without any breaks.” (1)
Archangel Michael once told me that it isn’t as necessary for this generation to have multiple experiences of the Self.
Let’s listen to Ramana describe the manner in which sahaja is achieved:
“Enquire into the nature of that consciousness which knows itself as ‘I’ and it will inevitably lead you to its source, the Heart, where you will unmistakably perceive the distinction between the insentient body and the mind [i.e., see the Self].
“The latter will then appear in its utter purity as the ever-present, self-supporting intelligence, which creates, pervades its creation, as well as remains beyond it, unaffected and uncontaminated.
“Also finding the Heart will be experienced as being the Heart. When this experience becomes permanent through constant practice, the much-desired Self-Realisation or Mukti [Liberation] is said at long last to have been achieved – the ‘I-am-the-body’ illusion has [been] broken for ever.” (2)
And what about the vasanas – the trauma-born reaction patterns that ensnare us further into duality? When are they transcended?
With sahaja, the unwholesome vasanas fall away. The seeds of future reaction are incinerated. Those vasanas which are wholesome and don’t lead to attachment persist, Ramana says.
“In Yoga Vasistha two classes of vasanas are distinguished: those of enjoyment and those of bondage. The former remain even after Mukti [Liberation] is attained, but the latter are destroyed by it.
“Attachment is the cause of binding vasanas, but enjoyment without attachment does not bind and continues even in Sahaja.” (3)
Let’s go to Yoga Vasistha and read what Sage Vasistha says on that subject. He explains how the wholesome vasanas assist our liberation while the unwholesome ones are what keep us in the cycle of birth and death.
“Moksa or liberation is the total abandonment of all vasanas or mental conditioning, without the least reserve. Mental conditioning is of two types – the pure and the impure.
“The impure is the cause of birth; the pure liberates one from birth. The impure is of the nature of nescience and ego-sense; these are the seeds, as it were, for the tree of re-birth.
“On the other hand, when these seeds are abandoned, the mental conditioning that merely sustains the body is of a pure nature. Such mental conditioning exists even in those who have been liberated while living: it does not lead to re-birth, as it is sustained only by past moment, and not by present motivation.” (4)
The use of similar terms does not make two events the same. A “permanent” heart opening such as I had on March 13 is not the same as the permanent heart opening we’ll all have some time after Ascension and deeper into the Fifth Dimension.
A full and permanent heart opening is what ends our connection with the Third and Fourth Dimensions vibrationaly and raises us to the frequencies of the higher dimensions.
That alone constitutes what the religions see as liberation from birth and death.
Footnotes
(1) Annamalei Swami in OE, 110.
(2) Ramana Maharshi in S.S. Cohen, Guru Ramana. Memories and Notes. 6th edition. Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 1993, 95-6. [Hereafter GR.]
(3) Ibid., GR, 89.
(4) Sage Vasistha in Swami Venkatesananda, ed., The Concise Yoga Vasistha. Albany: State University of New York, 1984, 5.