1.1
OM. What follows are instructions on Unity
1.2
Unity obtains when the
activities of the mind have ceased.
1.3
The witness then abides in
its true nature
1.4
Otherwise, the witness is
identified with the activities of mind and is just another thought-form itself.
1.5
There are five types of
mind activity, both painful and pleasurable.
1.6
These are correct
perception, misperception, imagination, dreamless sleep, and memory.
1.7
Correct perception may
derive from direct observation, valid reasoning, or accurate testimony of
enlightened teachers.
1.8
Misperception is knowledge
based on the illusion of forms, rather than on the true nature of reality.
1.9
Imagination is mental
images derived from words and concepts rather than objective observation and
sensory perceptions.
1.10
Dreamless sleep is the
state of mind when thought is absent and sensory perception is in abeyance.
1.11
Memory is the retention of
thoughts and images generated by sensory perception and imagination.
1.12
Cessation of mind activity
is achieved through the practice of yoga
and the habit of dispassionate non-attachment.
1.13
Yoga
practice is the willful effort to restrain the five activities of mind and
abide in a state of stillness.
1.14
To be firmly grounded,
this practice must be performed with earnestness and devotion over a long
period of time, all the while holding the goal in clear and constant view.
1.15
Dispassionate
non-attachment is the absence of desire for experiences of the senses – seen
and unseen, here and hereafter.
1.16
Supreme dispassion is
indifference to the three gunas of
creation – light, inertia, and vibration – owing to a direct knowledge of Self.
1.17
Meditation for direct-knowing
of the objective world is fourfold in nature: exterior observation, inner
perception, alert stillness, and the sense “I am.”
1.18
The other state of
meditation is when awareness perceives no thought or object – only the seeds of
unmanifested possibilities.
1.19
This is the natural state
of formless beings and those absorbed in True Nature.
1.20
Others can attain it
through faith, earnestness, self-inquiry, clarity, and insight.
1.21
Those who proceed with
unshakable intent can attain this state quickly.
1.22
Those who practice with
varying degrees of effort – mild, moderate, intense – will progress in
accordance with their efforts.
1.23
The other way to attain
the natural state is through surrender to God.
1.24
God is the Supreme Being,
formless, unbounded, limitless, untouched by action and desire.
1.25
The omniscience of God is
infinite. Man is but a germ of
awareness.
1.26
God is timeless, the
ever-present master of the ancient masters.
1.27
He is called by OM.
1.28
Silently repeat this world
as a mantra while meditating upon its significance.
1.29
From this comes the
disappearance of obstacles to the realization of Self.
1.30
The obstacles to
Self-realization are disease, inertia, doubt, carelessness, procrastination,
laziness, sense cravings, false perception, inability to concentrate, and
inability to stabilize higher states when attained.
1.31
Encountering these
obstacles one experiences grief, despair, physical agitation, and anxious
breathing.
1.32
To overcome these
obstacles the constant practice of a single truth is required.
1.33
The mind can be stilled by
the earnest practice of openness, compassion, virtue, and indifference.
1.34
Or by breathing in and
out, intentionally.
1.35
Intentional focus on any
sense experience will enhance perception and still the mind.
1.36
Concentration upon the
inner light beyond sorrow stills the mind.
1.37
Meditation upon a
transcendent being stills the mind.
1.38
Inquiring into the
experience of dreams and dreamless sleep stills the mind.
1.39
Fixing attention on that
which is nearest the heart, also stills the mind.
1.40
The stilled mind of a yoga master realizes everything, from
the infinitely small to the infinitely great.
1.41
As pure crystal takes on
the adjacent colors, so does the mind free of thought become indistinguishable
from that which it contemplates. The
perceiver, the experience of perceiving, and the object perceived are one.
1.42
When the mind projects
names and concepts on what is seen through direct perception, confusion and
delusion result.
1.43
When the mind is clear,
empty of memories and knowledge, things are seen exactly as they are.
1.44
These same two conditions
– projection and clarity – also apply to the perception of subtle, unmanifest
realms.
1.45
The observation of
progressively more subtle realms leads to the primal source.
1.46
These meditations have
separate perceptions as the seed.
1.47
When there is no
perception of separateness, the supreme Self reigns.
1.48
And absolute Truth is
revealed as self-evident.
1.49
The direct experience of
Truth is nothing like intellectual knowledge gained from scriptures and
teachings.
1.50
The direct experience of
Truth supersedes and destroys all previous impressions.
1.51
When the impression of a
direct experience of Truth is also wiped out, there remains only Awareness
without seed.