Years ago, while watching the movie African Queen with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, a line in the movie struck me like a lightning bolt. Bogart justified his behavior by saying it was his nature. Hepburn’s character responded: “Nature… is what we are put in this world to rise above.”
A fundamental understanding of the implications of that quote could transform society’s perspective on human behavior, psychotherapy, allopathic medicine, and spiritual development…
This whole world is a world of imagination. It was all imagined into being through a play of Consciousness. So we have a very profound distinction between imagination and fantasy. Or maybe we would say “Imagination” with a capital “I”, and “imagination” with a small “i”, which is fantasy. But I prefer to say, “This is all imagined into being.”
There is an article we link to in the previous blog in which someone was asking Maharishi, “What do you mean this is all imagination?” and the article sort of downplays relativity. However, there is a foundational reality, which is the Transcendent, and then the self-interacting dynamic of pure Consciousness that structured the whole universe. All those different facets, those different levels, those different manifestations, are different realities. A table is real. It becomes more real because you can’t go around it, like that song says… “So high you can’t go over it, so low you can’t go under it, so wide you can’t go around it, you gotta go through the door”. The only way you are going to fathom this reality is to go through it.
It’s really beautiful, because even when it comes to bringing Transcendental Knowledge to this world, there’s a certain level to which you’ve got to go through this world. The opposition to that is the Rakshasa value, and so you have to contend with it.
For you as an individual, the time will come when you have the ability to dissolve this entire universe with the snap of your finger. But you won’t do it. Because, concurrent with the cultivation of that ability, is the awareness that on the Transcendental level, all is well and wisely put. I would say that a number of my students have the ability to perform miracles. But they won’t, because the time isn’t right. How did Maharishi put it? “If it wasn’t for world consciousness, we’d be able to fly through the air already.” Do you see how all of that connects?
One of the criticisms of Vedanta is that “the world is just illusion”. Christians and others use this to say that the Vedic tradition doesn’t care about helping people. This is untrue, of course. Quite often, they know that, but they don’t care.
The proper term in this context is not “maya” but “mithya” which was discussed by Shankara and others in Advaita. It is the proper approach to take in refuting this criticism.
This talk by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is good. But fortunately, we have been able to further explain the reality continuum, with greater fullness, clarity and rigor. Add in the fact that the continuum is in not just in the vertical, but the horizontal, and it gets even better…
A student read all of this and responded:
Thank you for sending. Once again, I am happy you are my teacher because your explanations are rigorous, concise, easy to understand, and they feel complete. They are integrated with both science and our everyday experience.
However, Maharishi’s talk helps me understand terms used in spiritual texts and by traditional spiritual teachers:
1) Imagination – Regarding a plant, “we accept its essence, and we accept the obvious face.… “when it is not what is appears, then what appears is only imagination.”
2) Temporary existence, no substantial existence – “We could only say about the world that it has temporary existence. It has no substantial existence. No substantial existence” because [it is] that which is changing…”
3) Real and unreal – “real means permanent” “…unreal means [that] which doesn’t exist.” “The world is…Neither real nor unreal.… That means, it has its existence but that existence is not permanent.”
4) This and That – “…Creation has been, and will be, and it has been temporary on the basis of that permanent field… and like that it will continue. That is why the real statement about the world is “This and That”.” “This is also true, and That is also true. This [cycle] is also eternal and That is also eternal.”
5) What I am – “This and That, both taken together is what I am.” “the “I”, the individuality belongs to both of them taken together – the material and the spiritual, both taken together.”
Consciousness becomes conscious of itself, and the notion of other is born.
The sense of separation between those two births space.
The continued, sequential unfolding of that process births distance and time.
Time and space are thusly intimately entwined.
As to the question: Why must there be an upper limit to velocity, i.e., the speed of light?
Answer: That need not be. But if there were not, the notion of distance, and therefore space, and therefore the notion of time, would not exist, and so there would be no universe.
Special relativity is just that simple.
Dimensionality, then, is dependent upon space-time.
Acceleration through space-time alters the experience, the nature of that dimensionality.
General relativity.
Theoretical physics first must understand nature. Then, the equations are found to express that nature in the language of mathematics. Trying to derive the nature of things from the math is a folly. First, nature must be understood. Then, the math is found to express that. The math then further clarifies the understanding.
Great things emerge out of ideas that were originally abstract. Think Newton, Watson and Crick, Maxwell, and Einstein, to name just a few. And now, think of the technology of the Transcendent. And furthermore, those ideas formed predominantly by individuals in their twenties and perhaps thirties.
You can take my teachings and come to understand them intellectually, and then file them away in a shoebox and decide you get it. Or, you can work with them to the point you find the truth of them deep within your own being. Only then can you truly live them. Only then do you truly understand them.
Our inner resistances and inner conflicts are what are visible to others.
Having no inner resistance means to be invisible.
But invisible is not nothing.
Quite the opposite…
Invisible is everything
Invisible is unbounded
Invisible is eternal
Invisible holds within itself all that is… all knowledge… all wisdom.
I just want to make sure that everybody understands that the Advanced Techniques Course is much more than an 8-day program. It lasts a full year. The techniques we will be learning are as subtle as they are profound. The general idea is that we will continue to work with them over the year with Internet discussions along some format. At this point in time, we’re not certain what the format will be. It could be via Skype or something else. It will be set up in a way that people who cannot attend the conference (hopefully live online) will be able to access the recording.
The Advanced Techniques Course this summer will be the foundation for the Advanced Techniques that follow over the next couple of years. Where it leads is breathtaking. Please do everything you can to not miss this opportunity! Because the techniques are so subtle, it is important to be introduced to them in person, which is why we constructed the 8-day summer course the way we did.
If at all possible, those of you on the west coast would do well to attend at least the first day (Friday, March 31) of the upcoming class at Walnut Creek. Some of the techniques that will be taught there may assist you in your learning of the Advanced Techniques this summer. Attending that Friday session is not a prerequisite, but is advisable.
Thus far, I have only given the initial techniques to the people in the Mount Soma Ashram Program. Everyone finds it extremely exciting. The experience of teaching the ashram the techniques has assisted me in refining the methodology through which they are best taught. I intend next to teach members of the Mount Soma staff, followed by the course this summer. We’re all very much looking forward to it!
P.S. Please note that for some time now, I have been writing blogs as well as articles. The articles are for the public at large. So, you can read them if you like, but it is more important that you read the blogs because they are more directed toward students and a deeper knowledge.
“Do not try to understand them. And do not try to make them understand you.” This beautiful quote from the movie is so far reaching. It feels best to put no limits upon it.
It applies to so much of life… to every single relationship… to dealings between cultures and to those whom we love so deeply… our children, our partners, our friends. To grasp anything, to name it, to define it, to decide you understand it… is to limit it. So much of life’s beauty lies in its unfathomability. To understand better is not to hold on, but is to let go.
Years ago, while watching the movie African Queen with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, a line in the movie struck me like a lightning bolt. Bogart justified his behavior by saying it was his nature. Hepburn’s character responded: “Nature… is what we are put in this world to rise above.”
You can take my teachings and come to understand them intellectually, and then file them away in a shoebox and decide you get it. Or, you can work with them to the point you find the truth of them deep within your own being. Only then can you truly live them. Only then do you truly understand them.
Our inner resistances and inner conflicts are what are visible to others.
“Do not try to understand them. And do not try to make them understand you.” This beautiful quote from the movie is so far reaching. It feels best to put no limits upon it.
