We know that evolution has no end, and there is always a higher truth beyond the horizon awaiting us. Additionally, we must consider how much truth human beings can handle and absorb. At times, revealing too much truth is not helpful at all, because it is not what people need. This is something that we need to consider in spiritual teaching. Even though a spiritual master should not be tight fisted, this does not mean that he should reveal the most secret aspects of the teaching to everyone. There is such a thing as a moderation in truth, where we want to convey only the knowledge that is evolutionarily useful and necessary.
The challenge with our teaching is that it contains a lot of information, which can be intimidating not only to newcomers, but also to older students. Therefore, we must ask ourselves an honest question – what of it is truly needed for our students? We can even go further – which elements of spiritual evolution are required for human beings in general, and what, in fact, constitutes human enlightenment?
Why Past Traditions Failed in Addressing the Truth of Human Enlightenment?
We must face the fact that human beings are on a very low level of spiritual evolution, being fundamentally immature. They cannot even stop the mind after sitting years in meditation. The utter spiritual ignorance in the prevailing teachings about meditation and consciousness is a contributing factor, as seekers cannot receive even basic assistance. It works both ways, as the spiritual teachings on this planet reflect the low level of human evolution too. Even when speaking of ‘ultimate’ self-realization, many of the traditions of enlightenment propagate useless information, not helpful at all to anyone.
As one of countless examples, If an Advaita master teaches that there is only Self, and ego is either unreal or needs to be fully surrendered, what is the use of it? Which human being can realize that there is only Self or can surrender their ego? A seeker just gets frustrated or lives in egoic delusion of being ‘Self’ and having no ego. Self-deception of that sort or dishonesty is very common. Such teaching may inspire intellectually, but it is useless on a practical level. It is not just that it is too advanced – in truth it is so impractical that it is no longer true, and it is actually false.
Even if a spiritual master has indeed realized a profound state, there is just too much gap for humanity to benefit at all. For instance, Ramana Maharishi was an exceptionally evolved soul, but he did not understand human beings and failed to create a bridge to self-realization for normal people. This was for many reasons, but one very obvious one was that he was not a human himself, in a manner of speaking that is. Being very intelligent and compassionate, he tried here and there to give seekers some kind of practical tools, but he could not break free from the simplistic mind of Vedantic philosophy to succeed in this. It is a big problem. He actually did not remember his own process and his beginning. He suggested that what he had awakened as a boy has never changed even after many years, which was very much untrue. To be self-realized does not make you an effective teacher of humans. In order to be a teacher, it is much more important to understand the beginning of our evolution than its end. Yes, some of his devotees did receive spiritual transformation, to different degrees, being in his profound presence, but most seekers could not benefit at all, because how could they? For them, he was just an object of devotion and a symbol of the greatest hope that there is enlightenment. But hope alone eventually becomes a lie, because if enlightenment never comes to you, it does not exist (for you). It is no different than religion. Hope alone is a path to and of depression. It is an indolent waiting for Godot. You need to do something to succeed on the spiritual path, and for this you need to understand how all of it actually starts.
Seekers often hope to receive enlightenment by sitting in the presence of a master, but it does not work this way. A seeker must first prepare the ground in human enlightenment and awaken his consciousness on a basic level. And this is the role of a true teacher: to help a seeker to mature spiritually through gradual progression on the path before anything can be transmitted at all. If a teacher does not know the spiritual limitations of human beings, and is merely propagating non-dual nonsense, he cannot be called a teacher of humanity.
On the path of self-knowledge, one is meant to reach enlightenment through self-enquiry, using one’s intelligence to reveal the true self. And this is a very good approach, a crucial element of the spiritual path, as a matter of fact. But there is a catch. The only awakening that can happen through self-enquiry is the realization of the primary me as the seer and the thinker. Why? Because at this point, we have no other sense of self. But due to imprecise guidance, self-enquiry most often does not lead to any awakening, it is just a game the mind is playing with itself. Most commonly, self-enquiry is done unintelligently, it is just mind talking to itself. Furthermore, self-enquiry does not lead to enlightenment, because the primary me is very limited in itself and pure consciousness cannot be reached through any kind of enquiry.
There is a different yet similar situation with the teachings that employ more of a gradual approach to awakening. They are commonly connected to the path of meditation. We have many times pointed out the shortcomings of various meditation techniques: such as Vipassana, the practice of mindfulness, watching the mind, and many others. These practices may have some practical benefits, as they bring totally unconscious people closer to consciousness. But they are not awakening anybody because of the lack of a basic understanding of consciousness. These teachings don’t even know ‘who’ is mindful, as they do not know Me.
Another approach is Shikantaza in Zen (“just sitting”), which offers calming benefits and can open the space of Being. But it does not lead to awakening either, because you cannot awaken consciousness by sitting in meditation. The purpose of meditation is not awakening, but the deepening and maturation of an already reached awakening. Awakening happens not in meditation, but with eyes open, in activity, because this is where we have the full experience of the waking state. In meditation, you are going into a state between waking and sleep. Many realizations can and should happen in meditation, but awakening to pure consciousness is not one of them.
One of the approaches worth mentioning is the Tibetan practice of Mahamudra, where one goes through the four stages of progression – one-pointedness, freedom from elaboration, one-taste, and non-meditation. Yes, such practice is relatively profound and can open the space of awareness beyond the mind. However, the nature of consciousness is still not understood. What is this one-pointedness? It is a form of concentration in the mind. But unless you understand ‘who’ is concentrating, this practice is missing the point. Freedom from elaboration in simple terms refers to certain relaxation in the mind, detachment from it, non-elaboration in thoughts, equanimity in the mind. One-taste is when you have a supposed insight into the empty nature of phenomena and are able to dwell in such a state. Non-meditation, or beyond practice, is basically a natural state of empty and luminous awareness beyond discrimination. This description of the awakening process appears deep, and has a certain beauty and sophistication to it, but what it really reveals is the helplessness of human desperation in evolution. We have learned almost nothing along these few thousand years of human spirituality. Nobody knows how this awakening is meant to happen. Mahamurda can develop a focus in the primary me, but is not awakening it as Me. It can somehow open the space of awareness in the head, but only by accident. It is not a scientific process, and it certainly cannot lead to the awakening of pure consciousness, unless by accident (i.e., grace).
Another school of Tibetan Buddhism is Dzogchen, which is more of a sudden approach to awakening. There are some elements of the path of self-knowledge, or you can find similarities with the teaching of J. Krishnamurti. This path is about direct recognition of the bare awareness, which they call ‘rigpa’. It is meant to be the most advanced path in Tibetan Buddhism, and it has its appeal. An example of their practice is sky-gazing, where you relax the muscles of your eyes and look panoramically at the world, allowing the open space of awareness to manifest. And it is a good practice, but what is it that you realize exactly? Who is looking, and who is seeing, and who is aware in sky-gazing? It is the primary attention that when relaxed (and hopefully self-aware) allows you to see the world without the filter of the mind. But is it enlightenment? It is not. It is just the initial awakening of primary me, which is not understood and not met as Me, and also confused with bigger Consciousness. This path and similar ones are unknowingly meant to lead to the awakening of the center of intelligence, which is the primary me. But they lack the understanding of Me, and do not create a proper bridge to a realization of pure consciousness. Regrettably, spirituality on this planet is a clear example of the blind leading the blind. There is no light to be seen anywhere, not because there is no light, but because people don’t know in which direction to look, and most often there is ‘no one’ to see it.
Most of these teachings speak about no separation between subject and object, but you actually need to separate subject from object in order to fully awaken it. In common reality, there is no subject at all, and a sense of awareness is experienced only through objects. First the subject has to come into existence. Above all, human enlightenment is about realization of our true individuality, and not merely trying to dissolve the so-called ego as an obstacle to non-separation. Traditions of enlightenment have it all backwards, as they are living in outdated dogmas of past concepts. If anything, the more unconscious you are, the more one with the world, because you are more like an animal. In other words, the less sense of self you have the less you feel separated from that hallucination called ‘world’. It is like a dream, you don’t feel separated in your dreams, do you? Becoming more conscious makes you more separated, because you become conscious of your subjectivity vs the objectivity of the world. To realize conscious oneness with all things, you need to first become fully separated, isolated from the matrix of the world of appearances as an individual, and only then can you reach out to it from the deeper place.
Yes, you can realize unity with all things through pure consciousness, the mirror-like consciousness reflecting all that is, as it is. However, you remain still separated as an individual, or else you could not exist as a human being. To understand this, you need to stop your binary thinking, that something is either one or the other. Unconscious people live only in the state of separation, which they try to lessen through creating emotional connections. But what they are separated from above all is not the world, but themselves. If you are separated from yourself, you are by default separated from everything else. People are amusing when they want to become one with the external world. What world, and who exactly is supposed to be one with the world? They don’t understand that the main reason why they suffer so much is not separation from the world, but separation from their own very self. When you transcend separation from yourself through awakening your soul in pure consciousness, you can experience natural oneness with the whole world of perception, as being an extension of your consciousness. However, you are still you, and as such, you exist as a separated-distinct being in your body and personal intelligence. We could refer to it as an awakened separation, separation in which all the self-realized beings live. If someone says that he does not experience separation at all, what kind of delusion is that? This just means that he is as mad as a hatter.
The Nature of Realistic Teaching
The purpose of a higher teaching is not to present a higher and higher truth; people do not need a higher truth when they cannot even grasp a lower truth, or often any truth at all. Rather, it is about bringing clarity to the spiritual path, and to how different critical goals can be actualized. It is to actually explain in the most direct and practical manner what human awakening is, so that the concept of enlightenment can be brought back to earth and our everyday ordinary existence. But even more so, an intelligent teaching must focus on the essentials of our evolution, on our most important requirements and determining what kind of spiritual awakening human beings actually need.
Because some souls are more evolved even within the limitations of human spiritual potential, the boundaries of human awakening and our human limits are not absolutely fixed. However, after working with spiritual seekers for a quarter of century, we see that they are struggling in their evolution on very basic levels. And keep in mind that this teaching is attracting souls that are much more evolved than average. All in all, it only makes sense that we compromise in what kind of goals we wish to set.
So what really constitutes human enlightenment? Above all it is the realization of pure consciousness. Indeed, without pure consciousness our situation is simply hopeless and we have no soul. Yes, pure consciousness is the proper human enlightenment. But this realization must naturally include becoming awakened in the primary me, as the seer and the thinker. Otherwise, we remain fundamentally unconscious. However, in order to become whole we must also surrender to the body and emotions, and for this to be possible we need to realize Being through surrender towards the Absolute. And last but not least, a critical element of our evolution is the awakening of the heart and actualization of our true nature as pure love. Now let’s elucidate these basic elements of human enlightenment.
Awakening of the Primary Me
Primary me and primary attention is the core of our consciousness, and the source of its illumination. How can one even dream of being conscious without having a center of Me? Having established primary me allows us for the first time to exist beyond the mind. Primary me, which is our identity in the eyes, is also the center of our empirical awareness through which we can become conscious in our relationship with creation. When this center extends itself into the mind, we have for the first time a true presence through which we can think consciously, or stop thinking if we wish. For human beings, the awakening of the thinker (which we previously called the ‘person’) is an absolute urgency and the first step toward transcending suffering.
Awakening of Pure Consciousness
Realization of pure consciousness is the proper enlightenment. Even though in our journey to wholeness we need to also enter the body, the term enlightenment refers specifically to the awakening in consciousness. For human beings, the realization of pure consciousness is an extraordinary achievement of highest significance. It happens through the emanation of primary attention as pure attention towards the portal to the universal consciousness, which is located at the back of the headspace and behind the head. This is where the center of pure me is established, which later expands into the whole space of pure consciousness throughout the head. In this event, the intelligence of the primary me is being transferred into pure me so that it can be actualized as our soul. Yes, our soul is born at the place of meeting between our personal intelligence and universal consciousness.
Pure consciousness is a very advanced state, and it must be awakened and established by anyone who is truly on the spiritual journey towards our true self. Without pure consciousness, our sense of self is extremely limited and we simply do not have a soul. Opening that space takes us to a place of true freedom and transparency within us, allowing us room to finally exist, breathe, feel, and love. If anything, it is the absence of pure consciousness that is the very cause of our greatest suffering.
Surrender to the Absolute and the Body
Establishing the space of Being through vertical surrender to the Absolute goes beyond the traditional concept of awakening and ultimately completes our enlightenment. Only by having the space of Being can we consciously incarnate into our body and realize the spiritual body. Humans are not in the body, but only experience it through the network of the nervous system. To enter the body, consciousness has to surrender to the body so that it can be actualized as pure subjectivity.
Having surrendered to the body, we begin to heal physically and emotionally. Creating a correct relationship with our emotions must happen in the body, through our conscious surrender to them and merging with them. We are emotional beings, and including emotional transformation in our evolution must naturally be included in our spiritual path.
Some of you may wonder if reaching the absolute state is crucial on the path. It has to be made clear that realization of the Absolute is a very rare attainment on this planet. It was certainly absent in Indian spirituality, because Indian sages were commonly not grounded in the body. We can find some hints about the Absolute in Taoism or even in Zen, because these traditions were focusing on the center of the vital force, tan-tien, which is the portal to the Absolute. In our teaching, the concept of the Absolute was present from the very beginning, but the fact is that even more spiritually mature human beings are simply not equipped to identify the Absolute. They just don’t have the necessary sensitivity for this. Furthermore, they are unable to identify the absence of the Absolute or the need for this realization. It is just too deep and too far from anything that remotely resembles human experience. It is too transcendent to how reality is experienced in the earthly dimension. Even to identify the difference between shallow and deep Being is very difficult for seekers. A student needs to strive to go as deep into Being as possible, but I would not consider realization of the Absolute as a must for everyone. Still, naturally, such realization is very welcome, as it profoundly deepens our surrender into the body. One of the reasons why reaching the Absolute is so difficult is because the portal to it is very far from primary attention, and when pure attention emanates into the tan-tien it is easy for it to get dissipated. Not only must pure attention enter and pass through tan-tien, but it must create a center there, which we call ‘pure me of being’, to empower our relationship with the Absolute – the source and container of creation and our very soul. Additionally, the intelligence of the primary me must be transferred into the pure me of being to become a center of our pure subjectivity. Because it is the most remote area of our inner self, to enter there requires a very profound surrender, and such surrender must be empowered through the strength of our identity established there.
When we speak about the Absolute, we usually refer to the inner dimension of Self that is reached through our body. However, keep in mind that it is also possible to enter the Absolute directly from consciousness, and this happens through the portal in the fundamental me. So, even those who fail to enter the Absolute through tan-tien may still be able to enter it through the fundamental me, and then through the original me, which eventually also pulls pure consciousness into the Absolute. It still requires very deep surrender, but the proximity of primary attention to the portal to the Absolute in the fundamental me makes the process easier. Furthermore, in realization of the original me, it is primary attention and primary me that enter the Absolute directly.
Awakening of Love
Opening of the heart is also a most significant goal of our evolution into human enlightenment. We realize our soul in pure consciousness, but the soul is still evolving into meeting its divine essence, which it meets in the heart. Our soul needs to learn what love is to discover its greatest beauty and learn self-love. Awakening of the heart allows us to enter the space of unconditional love and reach unification with the Divine. Beyond our pain, the gateway to true healing is in our heart and we enter there through our absolute surrender.
A Whole Human Being
Human enlightenment is about becoming spiritually whole, becoming what a true human being is supposed to be. It is to become fully conscious and established in pure consciousness, which is our soul. It is to become one with our body, to embody our physical form as one being. It is to become one with our emotional existence, to embody the emotional body. It is to realize our own heart as love. And it is to live in our human reality from total immersion in our inner self. In short, it is to become a real human. Such a human is no longer confined to his personality and mind, or defined by his psychological existence, but has become his soul, a being of light that lives in the body while becoming his most pure expression through human consciousness in the wonder of Creation. Unified Consciousness
The realization of unified consciousness is certainly beyond human enlightenment, if we consider both the human potential and need in general. It requires a very deep transformation in the structure of consciousness. Here, the essence of Self as experienced by us in primary attention has to be transferred via the original me into pure consciousness. Not only that but it results in decentralization of Me and relocation of intelligence so that our experience of reality is no longer dominated and controlled by the front of the head, namely, the eyes and prefrontal cortex. It is no doubt a very high attainment, which requires enormous maturity from a student.
I do believe that it is in the capacity of some of the dedicated students to reach it. But many of them still struggle with properly establishing pure consciousness, unable to find release from the control of the primary me. It is not their fault, but just reflects the universal limitation of human consciousness. There is a deep resistance to change this tendency. So all we can say is that if you are ready and willing to breakthrough, to really rise above your basic limitations, then realization of the unified consciousness is open to you.
Evolution is a Response to Our Need
How deep one can go into enlightenment is a reflection of both one’s potential and need. Most people are not ready to awaken pure consciousness, and they do not need it. They actually are not able to register the suffering caused by the absence of pure consciousness. Evolution goes in steps, and one needs to be ready to take the next step. If one is not suffering due to lack of Being, what is the point of trying to reach it? In general, humans do not recognize their spiritual suffering; they only register psychological suffering. So they may think that ‘awakening’ can help them to stop living in the mind, but the purpose of awakening is not to stop the mind for its own sake, it is to regain our true self. If you give a cat pure consciousness, it would not know what to do with it. In the same way, most people do not need pure consciousness; all they need is the tiny bit of awareness in the prefrontal cortex to seek gratification and security in the external world. Yes, they live in hell, but they do not recognize it, because their whole life is nothing but one big hallucination. But some souls have come to the threshold in their evolution where they start to need pure consciousness, beginning the movement to a higher level of existence. It is for those souls that this teaching is directed.
So the question is what do you need? What is missing in your spiritual reality? In which areas of your inner existence are you suffering? You need to identify what you lack before aspiring to reclaim it. Trying to reach everything just for the sake of spiritual attainment makes no sense, it is not rational. How far you can go in your evolution depends on what your soul really wants and needs, and how much you can sacrifice for it. In our teaching, we have been doing everything to expand students’ potential, to help them identify their true suffering, and to motivate their spiritual longing, will and intelligence. Evolution is a response to our need, but also it is a form of creativity, because we are in fact creating our true self from nothing, from the absence of it. You need to be really alive, dynamic and passionate about your evolution, focused on your goals, serving the light of your true self with all your life. You have been given very deep knowledge and guidance on how to transform into your higher self. And now it is your turn.
Now, you may ask, if the human capacity for enlightenment is rather limited, what is the use for the elaborate descriptions of the awakening processes in the Book of Self? Most of it is actually very practical for anyone walking this path. And even if some subjects are very advanced, they provide you with a deeper understanding of the spiritual dimension as a whole. Furthermore, as a teacher, it is always my deep wish for my students to exceed and surpass their evolutionary potential with the power of grace and love from this teaching.