The Upanishads highlight various ways and means of attaining the Supreme Brahman. The principal method prescribed is direct inward communion with that Reality. Direct inward communion is called meditation. Deep thought, profound thinking and a fundamental, basic feeling for it – longing for it, and getting oneself convinced about one's non-difference from it because of its being All-Existence – is the great meditational technique of the Upanishads. Inasmuch as this meditation is nothing but the affirmation of the knowledge of the universal existence of Brahman, it is also called jnana, the path of wisdom. ----Swami Krishananda
As we continue our inner view through Meditation and self observation, we start noticing things which were unconscious of. If we can understand these stages , it would be good. However a word of caution. All people are not the same. The way in which we have lived , our experiences are all very much subjective. So the time required for these stages and how they are passed is all relative to that person. There is no need for any sense of dejection that something is not happening or anything. Everything varies.
The first thing to understand in this path is noticing all things or developing clarity . This is the most essential stage. Everything depends on how carefully and meticulously we do this . Also it is required to extend this to all of our life, after we practice this well in meditation. This stage can be called Looking. This looking should be complete. It should try to not involve with what is being watched at the same time just notice all intricacies. If we just look, with no judgement or interpretation it can be called Looking. Here we are just looking and not looking at any content of the thoughts emotions etc. Whatever be the object that we are looking , we don't want to know what is inside, we just want to know what it is. Is it a thought , is it an emotion , is it a fearful feeling , is it a pain sensation?. Just look at all sufferings without looking into its contents. We need to have a simultaneous view of all .
The second stage involves contemplation of the impermanence of things. As we continuously look, we notice that all our fears, all our worries, are highly impermanent. As we remarked before, there are two important messages in impermanence. One is that, all things are dependent on each other. The whole universe is interconnected. So anything when trying to exist independently will not succeed. This is one of the reasons why our bodies change and die. This is one of the reasons why people behave in odd ways. Take any change and you would see the inter dependencies with other people , their expectations and so on. In the midst of all these things change and they arise and disappear. Second message of impermanence is its value. If things change so much why should we attribute so much value. So it is worthless to pursue empty things which can disappear at any time. So this stage can be called Contemplation on Impermanence.
There is a zen story regarding transient nature of things
A famous spiritual teacher came to the front door of the King's palace. None of the guards tried to stop him as he entered and made his way to where the King himself was sitting on his throne.
"What do you want?" asked the King, immediately recognizing the visitor.
"I would like a place to sleep in this inn," replied the teacher.
"But this is not an inn," said the King, "It is my palace."
"May I ask who owned this palace before you?"
"My father. He is dead."
"And who owned it before him?"
"My grandfather. He too is dead."
"And this place where people live for a short time and then move on - did I hear you say that it is NOT an inn?"
The third main stage is to see specific attachment points and finding that it is caused by the false self or the ego. If you start noticing things completely , some attachments ( desires and aversions) never leave us. It goes on coming and going in a repetitive pattern. If you look at them closely you would see that they are labeled by the me thought. If it concerns me, how can we stop worrying. If i dont worry who will?. These thoughts are clinging which are persistent. Now this can be only resolved by understanding the ego. Try to enquire into the nature of the I mentioned. This is not asking the mind with the question who am I?. It is trying to locate where this I is situated. So we probe, using our looking power, where is this I thought ?. Have i seen it anywhere ?. It is like a looking deeply into the mind. You will see that even though you see thoughts and perceptions and emotions , this I thought cannot be found. So this means that it is an elusive thing. You can see that once the I thought is removed from a persistent thought, it is also one of the arisings and we can let it go. Just as we see the impermanence of things , we see here false and fake things in our mind. This stage can be called Self enquiry.
The fourth important stage is establishing firmly in the path with the understanding that there is only one thing that seems to be permanent while everything else is either impermanent or illusory. This helps us to establish from the perspective of the awareness to look at life in a very light way. It is like finding the essential treasure after digging up lot of mud. The digging is understanding all unnecessary things as impermanent. This stage can be called living in awareness as awareness.
The evolution of mind also happens through each stages. As we go on seeing and enquiring about the nature of everything, the mind too starts abandoning its egoistic roots and tries to live with calmness and equanimity . A taming of our mind happens. At first our mind is like a wild elephant wild in its instincts, uncultured in its patterns and largely unpredictable. But with time it becomes a controllable beast. This happens automatically and not by force. We can never tame our mind by rigorous practices.
Thoughts would be there , but they hardly stick, no separation would be felt with everything. All emotions becomes positive and pure . Love and compassion is felt in its truest sense.
The first thing to understand in this path is noticing all things or developing clarity . This is the most essential stage. Everything depends on how carefully and meticulously we do this . Also it is required to extend this to all of our life, after we practice this well in meditation. This stage can be called Looking. This looking should be complete. It should try to not involve with what is being watched at the same time just notice all intricacies. If we just look, with no judgement or interpretation it can be called Looking. Here we are just looking and not looking at any content of the thoughts emotions etc. Whatever be the object that we are looking , we don't want to know what is inside, we just want to know what it is. Is it a thought , is it an emotion , is it a fearful feeling , is it a pain sensation?. Just look at all sufferings without looking into its contents. We need to have a simultaneous view of all .
The second stage involves contemplation of the impermanence of things. As we continuously look, we notice that all our fears, all our worries, are highly impermanent. As we remarked before, there are two important messages in impermanence. One is that, all things are dependent on each other. The whole universe is interconnected. So anything when trying to exist independently will not succeed. This is one of the reasons why our bodies change and die. This is one of the reasons why people behave in odd ways. Take any change and you would see the inter dependencies with other people , their expectations and so on. In the midst of all these things change and they arise and disappear. Second message of impermanence is its value. If things change so much why should we attribute so much value. So it is worthless to pursue empty things which can disappear at any time. So this stage can be called Contemplation on Impermanence.
There is a zen story regarding transient nature of things
A famous spiritual teacher came to the front door of the King's palace. None of the guards tried to stop him as he entered and made his way to where the King himself was sitting on his throne.
"What do you want?" asked the King, immediately recognizing the visitor.
"I would like a place to sleep in this inn," replied the teacher.
"But this is not an inn," said the King, "It is my palace."
"May I ask who owned this palace before you?"
"My father. He is dead."
"And who owned it before him?"
"My grandfather. He too is dead."
"And this place where people live for a short time and then move on - did I hear you say that it is NOT an inn?"
The third main stage is to see specific attachment points and finding that it is caused by the false self or the ego. If you start noticing things completely , some attachments ( desires and aversions) never leave us. It goes on coming and going in a repetitive pattern. If you look at them closely you would see that they are labeled by the me thought. If it concerns me, how can we stop worrying. If i dont worry who will?. These thoughts are clinging which are persistent. Now this can be only resolved by understanding the ego. Try to enquire into the nature of the I mentioned. This is not asking the mind with the question who am I?. It is trying to locate where this I is situated. So we probe, using our looking power, where is this I thought ?. Have i seen it anywhere ?. It is like a looking deeply into the mind. You will see that even though you see thoughts and perceptions and emotions , this I thought cannot be found. So this means that it is an elusive thing. You can see that once the I thought is removed from a persistent thought, it is also one of the arisings and we can let it go. Just as we see the impermanence of things , we see here false and fake things in our mind. This stage can be called Self enquiry.
The fourth important stage is establishing firmly in the path with the understanding that there is only one thing that seems to be permanent while everything else is either impermanent or illusory. This helps us to establish from the perspective of the awareness to look at life in a very light way. It is like finding the essential treasure after digging up lot of mud. The digging is understanding all unnecessary things as impermanent. This stage can be called living in awareness as awareness.
The evolution of mind also happens through each stages. As we go on seeing and enquiring about the nature of everything, the mind too starts abandoning its egoistic roots and tries to live with calmness and equanimity . A taming of our mind happens. At first our mind is like a wild elephant wild in its instincts, uncultured in its patterns and largely unpredictable. But with time it becomes a controllable beast. This happens automatically and not by force. We can never tame our mind by rigorous practices.
Thoughts would be there , but they hardly stick, no separation would be felt with everything. All emotions becomes positive and pure . Love and compassion is felt in its truest sense.
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