Liberation


4.1
Spiritual powers can be obtained by birth, or through drugs, incantations, austerities, or meditation.

4.2
The transformation of one form or level of existence to another is the nature of the creative force.

4.3
Deeds and practices are not the direct cause of transformation, but they can clear away obstacles, just as the irrigator clears earth from the watercourse so that water may flow according to its nature.

4.4
It is the sense “I am” that produces the many minds.

4.5
Though the activities of the many minds are varied, the one Original Mind controls all.

4.6
Of the many minds, only the mind purified by meditation is freed from experiencing latent karma.

4.7
The karma of the yogi is neither white nor black.  The karma of others is white, black, or both.

4.8
Of the tendencies inherent in one’s karma, only those for which environmental conditions are favorable with manifest and ripen.

4.9
Because the imprint of unmanifested tendencies transcends birth and death, the chain of cause and effect is unbroken by changes in form, time, and place.

4.10
Because the desire to exist is eternal, the succession of identity images produced by these tendencies is without beginning.

4.11
These tendencies and identity images are held together by cause and effect grounded in desire, and stimulated by sense experience.  When these factors are removed, the succession of identity images comes to an end.

4.12
The form and expression called “past” and the form expression called “future” exist in the eternal Now of objects as properties of their essential nature.

4.13
These properties are either manifest, subtle, or latent according to the interplay of the three gunas.

4.14
Because the three gunas comprise every form and expression of objects, in reality there is only Unity.

4.15
Though the essential nature of an object is always the same, its material existence is perceived differently by individual minds according to the observer’s state of being.

4.16
So if an object perceived by a single mind is no longer cognized by that mind, can it be said to exist?

4.17
An object’s existence or non-existence depends on whether or not it is reflected in mind.

4.18
The Self, Lord of the Mind, is the immutable, unchanging witness of the mind’s fluctuations.

4.19
The mind is not self-knowing since it can be observed as an object.

4.20
Neither can the mind be both the perceiver and perceived simultaneously.

4.21
To postulate an anterior mind perceiving the first, one would have to postulate an infinite series of minds, each perceiving the one before it, thus causing an endless confusion of percepts and memories.

4.22
The Self is immaculate, unchangeable.  When Self is reflected in mind, the mind abides in Self-awareness.

4.23
Self-awareness, reflecting both the knower and the knowable, is omniscient.

4.24
Though the mind has numerous identity imprints and desires, it is merely an agent of Self and cannot act independently for its own sake.

4.25
One who clearly sees this distinction no longer confuses the mind with Self.

4.26
The mind then bends to discriminating Awareness and is borne onwards to liberation.

4.27
Until liberation, however, distractions due to imprints and habitual thinking may still arise when discrimination waivers.

4.28
These distractions are similar to the obstacles of Self-realization already mentioned, and can be overcome in the same way.

4.29
One who remains undistracted even by attainment of the highest illumination becomes – as a result of this perfect discrimination – what is called the “Cloud of Virtue.”

4.30
Thus comes the end of illusion and freedom from karma.

4.31
All obstructions and impurities vanish, and in the presence of infinite Awareness, the whole of the sensory universe appears as nothing.

4.32
The interplay of the three gunas – light, inertia, vibration – then ceases, having fulfilled its transformative purpose.

4.33
The sequence of changing moments in time begins and ends in the eternal Now.

4.39
When the three gunas are devoid of purpose, liberation is complete.  Self is revealed as Unity, and nothing remains to be done.