The Book of Secrets 112 Meditations to Di - Osho

Here is a summary of the book:

• The Book of Secrets contains 112 meditation techniques offered by Osho. Osho describes them as a complete set of techniques to help one explore the inner self.

• The techniques come from ancient Eastern spiritual traditions, especially Tantra. But Osho presents them in a modern and accessible way.

• The key themes around the techniques are: dropping the mind, becoming a witness, moving from words to silence, accepting oneself unconditionally, living in the present moment, merging with the whole, and finding the changeless inner self.

• Some of the techniques include: watching the gaps between breaths, witnessing thoughts and moods as they arise, focusing on sounds or objects, whirling or shaking the body, meditating on light or darkness, and merging with sensations during sex or other activities.

• Osho emphasizes that these techniques are meant to be experimented with in a playful, non-serious way. One should try different techniques and stick with those that resonate most. The point of the techniques is to help one gain insight, not force any particular outcome.

• Ultimately, the book is about moving from illusion to reality, from the ego to existence, from words to being, from the mind to meditation, from time to the timeless, and from the wave to the ocean. The meditation techniques are tools to help one make these transitions. But one must use the tools and take the journey oneself.

• The book contains a series of talks by Osho, interspersed with questions and answers, to provide context around the techniques and a deeper understanding of Osho’s philosophy. But the focus of the book remains on practical and accessible meditation experiments one can explore.

Here is a summary of the meditations from points 73 to 80:

73. Fear of Transformation Goes Deep

Remain detached and believe in your inherent power. Do not resist change.

74. Sensitivity Is Awareness

Cultivate sensitivity and awareness. Imagine spirit within and without. Expand your perception.

75. Seek the Rhythm of Opposites

Do not fight desires. Recognize the unity between opposites. Find balance and harmony.

76. Life is Sex Energy

See life as the creative interplay between opposites. Harmonize energies.

77. Become Each Being

Become all of existence. transcend individual identity. Know only consciousness exists. Follow your inner guide.

78. The Inner Guide

Listen to your inner wisdom. It will point you to the truth.

79. The Philosophy of Emptiness

Feel the emptiness of the body. Let go of knowing and engage in spontaneous activity. Go beyond knowing into the source of self.

80. All and Nothing Mean the Same

Recognize that absolute being and nothingness are two ways of expressing the same reality.

The key themes across these meditations are transcending limitations, embracing opposites and change, becoming aware of the deeper self beyond ego, engaging in spontaneous action, realizing the emptiness and fullness of existence, and following inner wisdom. The meditations point to a holistic, balanced, detached and intuitive approach to spirituality.

• Tantra is concerned with transforming the individual, not just giving intellectual answers. It aims to give techniques to attain insight and vision to find the answers for oneself.

• The Tantra teachings are conveyed through a love dialogue between Shiva and Devi, representing the masculine and feminine energies. The disciple needs to cultivate a feminine, receptive attitude to learn. The teachings are meant to be absorbed and grow within the disciple, like a child in the womb.

• Shiva and Devi also represent the masculine and feminine halves within each individual. To convey the deepest teachings, the disciple must become one with the master.

• The language of Tantra is the language of love, not logic. It is meant to transform, not just convince. It speaks to the heart, not just the mind.

• The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra teaches how to go beyond both consciousness and unconsciousness to reach the ultimate being.

• Love is the only experience that gives a glimpse of going beyond duality. When in deep love, two individuals become one - that is the meaning of “God is love”.

• The sutras of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra are simple but profound. Each sentence can lead to great scriptures. But here, there is no argument, just simple loving statements.

So in essence, the meaning remains the same - to go beyond duality into being. But Tantra adopts the path of love and uses the feminine-masculine dynamic to convey its teachings in a transformational rather than intellectual way.

• Love is the closest human experience to the divine or God. When in love, we feel a sense of oneness that transcends our individual bodies and minds. This longing for oneness is reflected in the human desire for sex, but sex alone does not achieve the transcendence of duality that love does.

• For most people, this experience of oneness in love is temporary and we “fall back” into duality and separation. However, for a rare few (symbolized by Shiva and Bhairava), love becomes their permanent state of being—they abide in oneness. They have made their home on the “peak” of unity that most of us can only visit briefly.

• Devi questions Shiva about the nature of this ultimate reality. When truly in love with Shiva, his body and form disappear, and she perceives only his pure being—formless, infinite. Her questions reflect this realization. She asks about the source and essence of this wonder-filled universe, and of the wheel of creation/destruction that is forever turning. Shiva’s answers reflect the insights of one who abides permanently in transcendence of duality.

• The key to abiding in oneness, according to Shiva, is Tantra. Most spiritual paths focus on transcending the body and world to find enlightenment. Tantra uses the body and world as the means to achieve enlightenment—by finding the divine in every aspect of life, by realizing oneness in every moment, in lovemaking and any other activity. This is the secret Shiva reveals to Devi, and to us.

• In summary, we can understand this passage as reflecting the Tantric view that ultimate reality is oneness, and it is reached through embracing life fully rather than transcending it. The love between Shiva and Devi represents the bliss of this state of unity. Shiva’s answers to Devi point to a way of understanding the universe and its source that reflects perceiving all of life as an expression of divine love.

• The questions are not as important as clearing one’s doubts. Answers will not satisfy a doubting mind.

• The mind creates endless questions. The nature of the mind is to doubt and question.

• One question creates many more questions. Philosophy has led to endless questions rather than ultimate answers.

• The doubts can only be cleared by dissolving the mind itself, not through answers.

• Shiva provides 112 techniques for transcending the mind. They are ancient yet timeless.

• The techniques are a science, not a religion. They can be used by people of any faith.

• Tantra is a spiritual science for transforming oneself. It treats ignorance and spiritual “disease.”

• Tantra is little understood and often misunderstood because it is a subtle and profound science.

• Tantra is amoral - beyond moral and immoral. Like medicine, it works regardless of personality or character.

The key points are that stilling the doubting mind is the real aim, not finding answers to questions. The techniques of Tantra are a science of mind and consciousness, not bound to any religion, meant to transform the individual. But Tantra has often been misunderstood because it is a subtle spiritual philosophy.

• Tantra does not set morality as a precondition before spiritual practice. It accepts people as they are. Requiring people to change first is like asking an ill person to become healthy before seeing a doctor.

• Techniques are needed to change people, not just preaching. Preaching alone does not work and leads to feelings of guilt, inferiority, and failure when people cannot meet impossible demands.

• Tantra is not concerned with morality or social conventions. It is unconcerned enough with morality that it does not tell people to be immoral either. It gives scientific techniques for changing the mind. When the mind changes, character changes.

• The mind is subtle matter and can be changed. When the mind changes, the world one sees changes. The ultimate aim is a state of no-mind, where one sees what is without distortion.

• There are 112 Tantra techniques described. One should play with different techniques to find what suits them, then be serious and stick with it for at least 3 months. With the right technique, miracles are possible. For some, listening to the techniques may be enough. The techniques cover all possible types of people.

• If after trying, none of the 112 techniques work for someone, then spirituality may not be for them. They should accept that and be happy. But for most people, the techniques provide a path.

That covers the main points around Tantra, techniques for changing the mind, and finding the right technique for each individual. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Yoga and Tantra are two different paths to the same goal of spiritual enlightenment. However, their approaches are quite different.

• Yoga focuses on suppressing desires and transcending the physical body and nature. It sees a duality between the ordinary self and the transcendent self. Yoga involves a struggle against one’s natural tendencies and attachments.

• Tantra, on the other hand, focuses on accepting one’s natural desires and using them as vehicles for transcendence. It sees no duality between the ordinary and transcendent. Tantra involves embracing one’s nature and tendencies, but with awareness and sensitivity.

• Yoga appeals more to our ordinary mindset of desire suppression and guilt. Tantra is more difficult for most people to understand because it embraces what we usually reject. However, Tantra may become more popular as society develops a healthier view of sexuality and human nature.

• The key to Tantra is accepting oneself fully while also cultivating awareness and sensitivity. By embracing our desires and energies, rather than fighting them, we can use them as tools for growth and transcendence. We come to see the world and body as sacred rather than as obstacles.

• In summary, Yoga adopts a path of negation while Tantra adopts a path of affirmation. Yoga sees duality while Tantra sees unity in the midst of diversity. Yoga involves a struggle against nature while Tantra involves embracing nature with awareness. Both paths lead to spiritual enlightenment but take very different routes.

• Tantra says there is no duality, it is only an appearance. Don’t strengthen this appearance by fighting it. Dissolve it by being aware and accepting.

• If you fight the world and your desires, you create ego. Accept them and become aware; let them dissolve. Anger dissolves into compassion, sex into love.

• Approach everything as divine. See the oneness in polarities. This is the Tantric view.

• Either everything is holy or nothing is. Tantra says everything is holy. Other views create conflict by labeling some things holy and some unholy.

• Yoga and Tantra are two paths. Tantra is appealing when the mind is healthy. Yoga also requires a healthy mind to be authentic. Otherwise, it is interpretation by a diseased mind.

• Figures like Buddha and Mahavira were not fighting life but deeply accepting it. Yoga for them meant life dropped away as it became useless, not that it was suppressed. Fighting creates turmoil. Acceptance creates relaxation.

• There are 112 meditation techniques given in Vijnanabhairava, but on the path of surrender there is no technique. Surrender itself is the method.

• All 112 methods require effort and will, but surrender happens when one gives up all efforts and methods.

• Devi, who is asking the questions to Shiva, has already attained Shiva through surrender. She is asking not for herself but for others who are still struggling with methods and techniques.

• Surrender cannot be taught or trained like other methods. It happens spontaneously when one realizes the futility of all methods and gives up.

• The main obstacle to surrender is the ego, the false sense of “I-am-ness”. As long as one holds on to the ego, one cannot surrender.

• One has to meditate to find out that one is not the body, not the mind, not even the atman or soul. One has to come to the realization of “I am not”.

• Only when one realizes “I am not”, “I am no more”, can one become free and surrender happens. Freedom is freedom from the ego. A void alone can be free.

So in summary, the key to surrender is giving up the ego, all sense of “I-am-ness”, through meditation and self-inquiry. When one realizes one’s nothingness or emptiness, surrender becomes possible. Surrender itself needs no technique and is the ultimate method.

• If a technique fits you, you will feel a different identity arising within you. You will suddenly feel like a different person.

• Tensions, conflicts and anxieties will start dropping immediately. You will feel lighter and more alive.

• You will experience a feeling of levitation or weightlessness. It will feel like gravity has been reversed and you are being pulled upward.

• Everything you do will feel different. Your walking, sitting, eating - everything will feel changed. There is a transformed quality to even the most mundane acts.

• There are minor surrenders and major surrenders. Minor surrenders with a master prepare you for a major total surrender. In surrender, you become a vacuum and the existence begins to pour itself into you.

• Stories of sudden enlightenment through a master’s touch or look become meaningful when you understand surrender and becoming a “valley” to receive the master’s energy.

• Look for these indications to see if a technique is leading you to the ultimate. Feel the changes in your identity, dropping of tensions, lightness of being and transformation of daily acts. Be open for minor surrenders to lead to total surrender.

• The master’s role is to help prepare your for total surrender through minor surrenders. His touch or look can enlighten if you are open like a valley.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key highlights from the passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Truth is always here and now. It is not something to be achieved in the future. You are the truth just here and now.

• The mind is always in desire, always seeking something in the future or past. It cannot move in the present. The truth is in the present, but the mind is always then and there, so there is no meeting between mind and truth.

• When the mind seeks worldly objects, the problem is not absurd and can be solved. But when the mind seeks the truth, the seeking itself becomes nonsense. The seeking is the hindrance. The moment you start seeking, you move away from the present and yourself.

• You cannot seek truth. You can find it, but you cannot seek it. The very seeking is the hindrance. Lao Tzu says, “Seek not; otherwise you will miss. Seek not and find. Don’t seek and find.”

• All these techniques of Shiva aim to turn the mind from future and past to the present. The thing you seek is already here. The mind must turn from seeking to non-seeking, but that is difficult. If you think about it, it becomes a puzzle.

• You cannot seek anything non-worldly, because seeking is the world. The moment you seek, it becomes the world. You cannot desire nirvana or non-desire. If you try to understand intellectually, it becomes a puzzle.

• Shiva gives techniques directly without intellectual understanding. The techniques turn the mind from journeying in future and past. Suddenly you find yourself in the present. The techniques give a non-intellectual understanding.

• The mind is tricky and cunning. It can turn anything into a problem, even non-seeking. People desire non-desire, seek not to seek. But this remains in the world of desire and seeking.

• The techniques are to be done, not thought about. They turn the mind, which is just a by-product, not the object or goal. The turning happens on its own. Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Krishna gave techniques after introducing concepts intellectually, but Shiva just gives the techniques.

• Breathing is a continuous process from birth to death. It is one of the few constant things in our lives.

• Breath is essential for life and connects us to our body and the universe. It is a bridge between the physical and spiritual.

• This technique focuses on being aware of the gap between an inhale and exhale. There is a brief pause after inhaling before exhaling begins, and another pause after exhaling before inhaling begins.

• In those pauses, we are not breathing and not in the world. It is like a brief death. Observing those pauses can lead to an insight or blessing.

• The key is to simply observe your breath as it is, not to manipulate or control it. Remain aware of the pauses at the end of inhaling and exhaling.

• With practice, you can become more and more aware of these pauses which last only a fraction of a moment. But in that fraction of a moment, there is an opportunity to experience something eternal.

• Breath coming in represents life or rebirth, breath going out represents death. So with each breath we are dying and being reborn. Observing the pauses helps us transcend this cycle.

• This technique seems simple but can be quite powerful. The key is developing a keen and sincere attention to observe what is usually overlooked.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points and meaning conveyed in the explanation? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

The breathing in and out creates a circle. The incoming and outgoing breaths are one continuous breath that turns at a point. There is a neutral point, a turning point, between the incoming and outgoing breaths.

At this turning point, you are in a neutral state, neither physical nor mental. You simply exist. This is a point where you can become aware of your true self.

The human being is a complex mechanism with many ‘gears’ - the body, the mind, etc. These techniques look at points where you change gears and can become aware of your simply existing.

For example, changing gears happens when falling asleep and waking up, when getting angry, etc. At these points, the whole system changes - breathing, blood flow, hormones, etc. But at the turning point between gears, there is a chance to become aware of your simple existence.

The turning point between the incoming and outgoing breath is one such point where the gears change. It requires subtle observation to notice it. But at that point, you can realize your true self.

So the core message is: observe the brief turning point between the incoming and outgoing breaths. At that neutral point, you can realize your self.

• We are rarely fully present or observing because our minds constantly jump from one thought to another. We have a “monkey mind” that continuously moves and jumps around.
• To observe deeply, we need to be still and silent without mental chatter or verbalization. We need to remain with the object of observation without any mind movement. If we can observe a flower for 3 minutes without mind movement, we will realize its beneficence.
• Our breathing is a bridge between our circumference (body) and our center (being). The turning point between inbreath and outbreath is a moment where we can become aware of our being.
• Children breathe from their abdomen, so they live from their center and are happy and present. As adults, our breathing becomes shallow and we lose connection with our center, so we feel “off-center.”
• At our center, we are whole and total. Any act we do from our center is whole and total. When we are fragmented, any act is fragmented. We fear being total so we breathe shallowly and live at a minimum.
• Life lived at the maximum and from the center is overflowing. But it means being open and vulnerable. The mind fears this, so it keeps us living at a minimum.
• We sometimes touch our maximum and center in moments of freedom, like being in nature. We take a deep breath and feel bliss. But then we go back to control and living at a minimum.

The techniques here encourage observing the breath at the turning point between inbreath and outbreath and touching our center. Being aware at this point of fusion can give us a glimpse of our being and allow us to live more wholly.

• Breathing and mind are connected. When one stops, the other also stops.

• In moments of emergency or shock, our breathing spontaneously stops for a moment. If one can be aware in that moment, one can experience a gap in the mind and a sense of one’s small self disappearing. This can lead to enlightenment.

• Zen masters have used sudden, absurd actions like beatings, laughter or throwing disciples out of the window to create this gap by shocking the mind. The gap creates the opportunity for insight.

• These techniques seem strange but are based on the fourth Vigyan Bhairav Tantra technique. They have been lost in India but imported back to the West through Zen.

• Shiva and his followers were masters of creating these gaps. Shiva’s arrival at Devi’s wedding procession probably created widespread shock that allowed for moments of insight. His followers likely used techniques like drugs to alter awareness.

• The key is to be aware in the moments when the mind stops spontaneously, whether through shock, emergency or the cessation of breath. This allows one to experience the disappearance of the limited sense of self.

• These insights suggest our normal sense of identity is limited and created by the mind. When the mind stops, a deeper sense of one’s self as unlimited, universal consciousness can emerge. But the opportunity is easily lost without awareness and practice.

The key points are noticing the connection between breath, mind and sense of self; being ready to notice the gap that emerges when the mind spontaneously stops; and how these techniques aim at creating that gap to allow for insight. The example of Shiva and Zen stories help illustrate these principles in action.

Does this summary accurately capture the main elements and arguments presented in the passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand my summary further.

I see. So spirituality requires a delicate, refined approach. Simple but subtle techniques are most suitable. Effortlessness is key. But this seems paradoxical to the mind and contrary to most of our usual habits and ways of operating.

Osho: It seems paradoxical because the whole past of humanity is there behind you, pushing in the opposite direction. All the religions of the past have insisted on great effort. Only very recently, with the teachings of the mystics like Lao Tzu, Buddha, and Krishnamurti, has this revolutionary approach been emphasized – that there is no need of great effort. But it is not easy for the mind to understand it, because the whole past is propelling you in the opposite direction. The mind has an inertia of its own. It becomes fixed into certain grooves. Getting out of them is difficult.

Effortlessness is the key. But you have always known effort, effort, effort – that is the only thing you have done. That is the only thing everybody has been teaching you. You have heard about it, in the same way a person who has been only walking always and then he is said that there is a possibility of being effortless. He cannot understand walking effortlessly; walking means effort. How can you walk without effort? But if you can walk effortlessly, you can fly – because gravitation will not be felt, will not be any pull on your body.

Lao Tzu’s teachings, Buddha’s teachings, are like scientific discoveries. With them the basic rules of human growth are revealed. And one basic rule is: no effort. Effort is a barrier because any effort gives tension. Tension never allows you to expand; you contract through tension. Contraction and tension mean anxiety, and in anxiety the treasure is covered only more and more. You do not have the very mood in which one can uncover it. Even if you do uncover it in anxiety, in haste, in effort, you will not recognize it. The mind will not be there to look at it. That is why effortlessness is insisted on.

Buddha did not give great prayers and mantras to his disciples. He told them just to go and sit silently. Just sitting silently doing nothing is the key, the turning point where you can become receptive. Receptively you discover; receptively you recognize. Right recognition is needed and right recognition is possible only if there is no effort. Effort distorts the mind. When there is no effort, no motivation, no future, no gaining idea, simply you are resting – resting in yourself as you are, not going anywhere – then your eyes will clear, your ears will become perceptive, your heart will be calmed, your restlessness will settle. And suddenly what has always been there is revealed. It is nothing new, it is nothing gained, it is only discovery. But the attaining mind cannot understand it.

The attaining mind always seeks to achieve something new, to gain something in the future. And you have already gained it. You are spiritual beings. You are whole as you are. But you have become oblivious of the fact. There are certain reasons why you have become oblivious of it. And the basic cause is effort: tension, anxiety, restlessness.

If you can calm yourself and be in a deep rest – non-seeking, non-hankering, non-motivated – not going anywhere, just being at your inner center, you are at the very door. Even a glimpse will reveal the whole thing. But the mind will persist. It will say, “Then why go through the trouble of meditation? Why remove earth and uncover the treasure? Why not just take a shortcut?” There are no shortcuts. In fact, meditation is not really the way – you are already there. Meditation only helps to remove certain false notions, certain misconceptions you have about yourself. Meditation only removes something which you never had but felt that you had.

You will remain the same. Nothing will be added to you and nothing will be discarded from you. You will be as you have always been. Meditation is just an eliminating process – it eliminates the false. The true remains, it has always been remaining there. You may call the process “shortcut” because now we know where the treasure lies. It is within you, it is not somewhere else. But there are no shortcuts to gaining it; but this is not a gaining – this is just discovery. You open your eyes and it is there. But to open the eyes, certain things which you feel as obstacles have to be removed. That removal is simply a negative process, and then suddenly you realize, “The treasure was always there. I was unnecessarily seeking it somewhere else.”

So never, never think that these small techniques can be shortcuts. There are no shortcuts. But these techniques can be simple, without effort, because there is no need to go anywhere. You are the goal and you are here and now. Now and here is the only truth.

The techniques of spirituality are subtle, not gross, because consciousness itself is subtle. Though the effects of small things can be great, as with the atom bomb, spiritual techniques appear simple but are not. They are like formulas that seem simple but can unleash great power.

We are usually unaware of the breath itself, only feeling its passage. Becoming aware of the breath itself takes sensitivity and practice. There are layers of awareness, from the body to the breath to the intervals between breaths to the core where breaths arise. Achieving this deepest awareness took the Buddha six years and Mahavira twelve.

Though theoretically one can achieve this now, in reality we create our own barriers. The mind makes obstacles, calling simple things too easy to work or difficult things impossible. Our problematic minds interpret reality problematically, though reality itself has no problems. New, powerful things like steam engines seem too simple to believe at first.

The key is to practice, not just theorize, as barriers are psychological and self-created. One must dig to find the treasure, not just think about digging or make excuses not to dig. Achieving the deepest spiritual awareness is not easy, though the method is simple enough to express in a few words. But transforming theory into practice is challenging and gradual. One must proceed through the layers of sensitivity, not just believe in miracles of sudden enlightenment. The secret treasures of spiritual alchemy are only found through steadfast effort.

Many people were hesitant to ride the first train because they did not trust that steam power could move such a huge machine. They thought either magic or the devil must be involved. There was also no guarantee the train could be stopped once started. To address these concerns, the train company brought 12 criminals sentenced to death to be the first passengers along with the inventor and driver. This way, if anything went wrong and the train could not be stopped, only those already condemned to die would perish.

At first, focusing one’s attention on the breath during meditation makes it difficult to do anything else. However, awareness is different from attention. Attention is exclusive, focusing on one thing. Awareness is inclusive, holding many things in consciousness at once. While attention must be developed through practice, it can soften into an awareness that includes both the breath and everyday activities.

The best time for this practice is the morning, when one’s energy is highest. Do not make meditation the last part of your routine but the first. Start with just 40-60 minutes a day of focused attention on the breath. As your ability to stay focused improves, you can start to cultivate an awareness of the breath during daily activities. With regular practice, you can achieve an effortless awareness of the breath even during sleep.

The key is to start correctly and be patient. Do not trust your mind’s excuses for delaying or avoiding meditation, as it fears the dissolution of the ego that comes with deep meditation. While superficial activities and distractions are endlessly available, meditation can always be postponed for the mind’s comfort. Question the mind’s insistence that there is not enough time - we easily find time for unimportant things that pose no threat. Meditation means death of the mind and ego, so the mind resists through excuses and postponements. Staying aware and doubting the mind’s distractions are key. With regular practice, meditation becomes easy and blissful. But one must start - and start right.

• The meditation instructor came from Delhi to learn meditation. Although it was difficult for him to wake up early, the instructor insisted that he attend an early morning meditation class. But the man made excuses because he found it difficult to change his routine.

• One night, a government official came to the instructor, saying he was disturbed and frustrated and might commit suicide if he did not get help. But when the instructor told him to come at 5 AM or 10 AM for meditation, the man made excuses, saying it was too early or he had to be at work. Although he said it was a life or death situation, he was unwilling to make any changes to his routine.

• The instructor says our minds are not really our own. They are conditioned by society and parents from an early age. We think we are our minds, but we are actually pure consciousness. The mind imprisons us and prevents us from change.

• The instructor gave the example of a man who meditated for 3 months and felt wonderful but wanted scriptural authority to continue. He could not accept his own experience as authority. Our intellects and past conditioning prevent us from accepting new things.

• The techniques seem simple but are hard because our minds create problems. We have to start intellectually but then let go of the intellect. However, we are afraid to do so because we fear change and losing our ego or “I.” Meditation represents a freedom that is fearful. We say we want freedom but are afraid of it.

• The instructor asks if we are ready to “die” spiritually, to realize we are essentially nothing - without boundary, empty. This is what Buddha taught - that we are not, so we cannot die or suffer. But it creates fear, so we avoid meditation or make excuses. The questions show our fear. We must feel the fear to go beyond it.

Here are the key points of the five techniques of attentiveness:

1. Attention between eyebrows, let mind be before thought. Let form fill with breath essence to the top of the head and there shower as light.

• Focus your attention between your eyebrows, the ajna chakra
• Let your mind remain before the arising of any thought
• As you inhale, feel the breath moving upwards from the base of the spine to the top of the head
• At the top of the head, feel the breath showering as light

2. When in worldly activity, keep attention between two breaths, and so practicing, in a few days be born anew.

• While engaged in everyday activities, keep your attention in the space between inhalation and exhalation
• By practicing this for a few days, you can experience spiritual rebirth

3. With intangible breath in center of forehead, as this reaches heart at the moment of sleep, have direction over dreams and over death itself.

• Focus your attention on the intangible breath in the center of your forehead, the ajna chakra
• As this subtle breath drops into your heart center at the moment of falling asleep, you gain control over your dreams and the death process

4. With utmost devotion, center on the two junctions of breath and know the knower.

• With deep devotion, focus your attention on the two junctions of inhalation and exhalation
• By doing so, you can know the inner “knower” or witness

5. Lie down as dead. Enraged in wrath, stay so. Or stare without moving an eyelash. Or suck something and become the sucking.

• Lie down motionless as if you are dead
• Remain completely still while filled with intense anger or passion
• Fix your gaze without blinking
• Suck on something (like a lozenge) and focus your attention on the sucking

All of these techniques use breath, gaze, thought, and mental focus to develop attentiveness. By developing attentiveness, one gains control over the mind and senses, which leads to deeper meditative states and spiritual insight.

Pythagoras wanted to gain knowledge and wisdom, but the school authorities said he must first prepare himself by going through a purification process. They said that true knowledge comes from experience, not just intellectual understanding.

The process Pythagoras went through involved fasting for 40 days while focusing his attention between his eyebrows, being aware of his breath, and allowing his mind to witness his thoughts. This opened his “third eye” and allowed him to gain a new perspective.

After 40 days, Pythagoras said he was reborn with a new understanding. Before, his knowledge was only intellectual. Now, he could feel the truth and knew that wisdom comes through experience, not just philosophy. The training gave him an existential knowledge of truth rather than just a conceptual one.

The key technique Pythagoras learned focused on:

1. Concentrating attention between the eyebrows, which awakens the “third eye” - an energetic center associated with intuition and witnessing awareness.

2. Witnessing thoughts and not identifying with them. This allows one to gain a detached perspective on the mind and its movements.

3. Feeling the subtle life energy or “prana” that flows with the breath. There is a vital energy deeper than just the air we breathe. Attuning to this energy brings aliveness and wellbeing.

4. Allowing this energy to flow up to the top of the head, which activates higher centers of consciousness associated with enlightenment.

This fifth technique provides a profoundly transformative practice for awakening a deeper awareness and aliveness. But without proper preparation, the “school authorities” will not allow you to truly learn and embody its wisdom. Purification and disciplined training is required beforehand.

The key ideas in this summary are:

1. Focus your attention on the gap between breaths during your daily activities. This means continuing your activities but keeping part of your awareness on the pause between inhaling and exhaling and between exhaling and inhaling.

2. Practicing this technique during activity is more challenging and impactful than practicing in isolation. Activity distracts the mind and calls your attention, so you have to work to keep part of your focus on the gap between breaths.

3. If practiced continuously, focusing on the gap between breaths during activity can lead to an inner rebirth, a rejuvenation of your consciousness.

4. This technique cultivates an ability to maintain two layers of existence at once: doing (activity) and being (awareness). It helps you stay centered at your core while also functioning in the world.

5. The key is not to stop activity but to continue activity while also keeping your attention fixed on the gap between breaths. Let activity continue but do not be distracted from the gap.

So in summary, this technique teaches you to split your attention so that part remains focused on your inner being, the gap between breaths, even as you go about active engagement in the world. It leads to an ability to simultaneously do and be, act and remain centered. With continuous practice, it can transform your consciousness.

So a summary of the technique:

1. Feel the invisible, intangible part of the breath, the prana, flowing into the center of the forehead (third eye center).

2. As you fall asleep, feel this prana coming into your heart. Continue feeling it as you fall asleep.

3. If you are able to remain aware of the prana flowing into your heart as you fall asleep, you will attain two benefits:

• You will have direction over your dreams. You can influence or create the dreams you have. Ordinarily you have no control over your dreams.

• You will have direction over death. You will be able to sense when death is approaching, even before obvious physical signs appear. And you may even be able to delay death or choose the time of your own death.

By practicing this technique nightly as you fall asleep, you gain mastery over the subtle energies in the body and a degree of control over the otherwise uncontrollable - dreams and death. But it requires diligent practice and patience. The key is to continue feeling the prana entering your heart even as sleep deepens and external awareness fades.

This is a very powerful but challenging technique. Success brings great rewards but it demands time and dedication.

• This technique adds an element of devotion to the practice of focusing on the turnings of the breath.
• For those inclined towards devotion and faith rather than a strictly scientific approach, adding devotion can make a big difference.
• One can cultivate devotion by seeing one’s body as a temple of the divine and the breath as not just one’s own but belonging to the divine within.
• Saints have loved and cherished their bodies as if they belong to their beloved. One can treat the body this way or as a mere mechanism or with guilt. The attitude makes a difference.
• With devotion, one can come to know the knower - the consciousness that lies behind the perception of the breath and the body. The knower is realized through love, not analysis.
• Devotion creates love for the self, and love opens the door to the infinite within. Through devotion, the knower - pure consciousness - is revealed.

So in summary, this technique suggests that with an attitude of devotion towards one’s own body and breath, one can come to know the knower - the pure consciousness that observes the breath and gives life to the body. Devotion creates love, and love opens the door to self-realization. Through utmost devotion, the knower is revealed.

The technique instructs us to lie down motionless like a dead body. We should not move at all, not even an eyelash, no matter what emotions or thoughts arise in the mind. If anger, anxiety, or other emotions emerge, we should remain completely still and not react or move the body.

By remaining motionless, still, and detached from the thoughts and emotions that arise, we can attain a state of transcendence. Our sense of individual identity starts to dissolve as the mind becomes quiet. This eventually leads to the realization of one’s true self, which is beyond all thoughts and sensations.

Though the process may feel unpleasant or even unbearable at times, we must remain still. This requires discipline, patience, and practice. But the reward is well worth the effort - awakening to one’s true nature of pure, peaceful being.

The last part suggests we can also practice by focusing on the act of sucking inair or an object. By completely immersing our attention in the sucking sensation, the mind becomes absorbed and still. This also leads to transcending the ego and realizing the ultimate self. In whatever practice we do, the key is to be still, quiet the mind, and go beyond our limited sense of “me”. Through this, enlightenment can unfold.

1. We are dreaming constantly, not just while asleep at night. Our daily activities merely suppress the dreaming. If we relax and close our eyes, the dreaming comes to the surface.

2. We cannot be said to be truly awake if we are dreaming. Dreaming creates a kind of film over the consciousness. Only when there is no dreaming at all can we be said to be awake.

3. Many spiritual teachings say we are asleep. This is because we do not know who we really are. We can’t answer the question “Who am I?” We are absorbed in the “film” of dreaming, just like watching a movie.

4. To become more conscious while dreaming, we need to engage in practices that help us become more self-aware and less identified with the film of dreaming. Several techniques can help:

• Reality checks. Ask yourself frequently if you’re dreaming. This can transfer to your dreams.

• Be aware of shifts in your perception. Notice when the scene changes or things appear/disappear. This can make you more aware in your dreams.

• Cultivate self-awareness. Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions, your sensations and perceptions. Continually ask yourself “what am I aware of right now?” This self-awareness will appear in your dreams.

• Set an intention before bed. Tell yourself you want to become conscious while dreaming. Repeat this as you fall asleep. It will prime your mind to become aware in your dreams.

• Wake up and go back to sleep. This interrupts the dream cycle and primes your mind for lucid dreaming when you go back to sleep.

• Meditate before bed. A meditation practice helps increase your self-awareness and can make you more prone to conscious dreaming.

• Reality tests. Try pushing one finger through your palm. In a dream, your finger will go through. This test can transfer to your dreams.

• Keep a dream journal. Recording your dreams helps you recognize recurring patterns and increases dream recall and clarity. This makes it more likely you’ll become aware you’re dreaming.

Does this help explain some techniques for becoming more conscious while dreaming? Let me know if you have any other questions!

• We are usually deeply absorbed in the world of our dreams and thoughts, identified with them, and have forgotten our true self. This is our ordinary state of being asleep.

• Sometimes we may have moments of awakening, such as when a film ends and we realize we were engrossed in an illusion. But we soon get lost in dreams again.

• Enlightenment is the awakening from this sleep of self-ignorance. It can happen suddenly but we are usually not ready for it and gradual methods are safer.

• One effective gradual method is to practice remembering that the world is a dream. We can do this by continuously reminding ourselves throughout the day that everything we perceive and do is a dream.

• If we do this for a few weeks, we may start remembering it during our nighttime dreams. This shows we are becoming able to carry consciousness across into the dream state.

• There is ultimately no difference between the dream state and the waking state. Both are projections of the mind. But we mistake dreams for reality because we have cultivated a fixed attitude of perceiving the waking world as real.

• The eyes alone cannot tell us if what we perceive is real or a dream. The whole process of seeing involves the eyes reflecting images, the images being transformed into neural signals, and the mind decoding those signals to construct what we see. We have no way of knowing if what we construct is real or a dream.

• So we should practice remembering that both waking and dreaming are illusions, without trying to change them. Just maintaining this remembrance and attitude of detachment from the illusion is enough. If we do this diligently, we will eventually carry this remembrance into our dreams.

That covers the key points in the passage on using the illusory nature of experience to become enlightened. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• In the beginning, practicing self-remembering or lucid dreaming will feel like make-believe. But with continuous practice, it becomes a reality.

• If you can feel and remember your dreams as dreams for the whole day and night, you will realize you are the dreamer - the subject. This is one way to reach your center of consciousness.

• Ancient Indian methods suggested the world is unreal, not philosophically but as a device to change one’s perspective. It helps shift from a fixed way of looking at the world to a different one.

• For Indian thought, everything is a device for meditation, not a question of what is true or untrue. The concern is how it can transform the mind.

• To help someone understand who has never experienced something, you have to use a method they can understand. You devise something to get them to experience it, like saying a house is on fire to get them outside. Then they can forgive the untruth used to convey the truth.

• Two methods: 1) Practice feeling and remembering everything is a dream. 2) Practice continuously remembering “I am” no matter the activity. This is difficult but pierces into dreams.

• If you can remember “I am” during dreams, the dreams feel unreal, like they are just dreams. The difference between dreams and reality is whether you are aware - whether you remember “I am.”

• Either you are or the dream is. Both cannot be real at once. Becoming more real within makes the world feel unreal.

• Gurdjieff’s method of continuous “I am” remembrance led Ouspensky to experience the sleeping nature of ordinary life and consciousness. Only Gurdjieff seemed awake in comparison.

• Ouspensky said to Gurdjieff that he could see everyone in the city was asleep and not present. Gurdjieff said nothing had happened to the city, something had happened to Ouspensky - he had become more aware through practicing self-remembering.

• Gurdjieff said if one can remember oneself, one realizes no one else is self-remembering. The whole world seems asleep, moving mechanically. But one should start awakening while one is aware. One should feel “I am” while doing everyday acts like bathing, touching, eating to become more aware and awake.

• Simply repeating “I am” verbally does not lead to awareness and can create more sleep. Transcendental meditation that focuses on mantra repetition is more of a tranquilizer that induces sleep, not meditation. Anything monotonous and repetitive can help induce sleep.

• One day, with continuous self-remembering, one can suddenly awaken at one’s center. The whole world then seems like a dream. When one’s own dreaming stops, one becomes free of misery, death, fear and becomes love.

• The idea of fate and predetermination is a device, not meant to imply everything is predetermined. It is proposed so that if one believes everything is predetermined, the world seems like a dream. One’s death is not predetermined or important to the universe.

• A child is born helpless and demands everything, coming to see himself as the center of the world. His demands become complex and impossible to fulfill as he grows, leading to frustration. The adult knows he is not the center but the unconscious mind retains the feeling of being the center. This creates questions about one’s fate and life’s purpose.

• Man was not created for any purpose. He is an overflowing creation, like flowers and stars. The theory of fate creates problems as we take it as really implying predetermination.

• The speaker suggests that we view religious doctrines as devices rather than as absolute theories or truths. The purpose of these doctrines is to inspire action and transformation in us, not to accurately describe reality.

• Different religious figures have tailored their messages to their audiences. Jesus, Mohammed, and Moses appealed to poor populations by promising an afterlife and entry into heaven. In contrast, Buddha, Mahavira, and Krishna appealed to bored, sophisticated populations by promising release from endless cycles of rebirth.

• For poor populations, the prospect of an afterlife and heaven is appealing because life on earth is harsh and difficult. For rich populations, the prospect of endless repetition and “rebirth” is unappealing because they have experienced all the pleasures and comforts life has to offer. Different doctrines were designed to inspire these different audiences.

• The speaker argues that religious doctrines should not be seen as logically incompatible or contradictory. They are just different devices aimed at different audiences and purposes. The ultimate purpose - inspiring transformation and spiritual progress - is the same across religions, even if the specific doctrines differ.

• The speaker gives the example of debating a man over whether there is “one life” or “many lives.” The speaker argues this is a false choice. Neither doctrine is absolutely “right” or “wrong.” They are just different devices meant to inspire different audiences.

• In sum, the speaker suggests we should evaluate religious doctrines based on their ability to inspire spiritual transformation, not on their literal or logical truth. Different doctrines can work for different audiences, so there is no single “right” or “wrong” view. The purpose is what matters most.

• Humans tend to live off-center, in tension and anguish, because they are not firmly grounded in their true self.

• There are four types of people:

1. The normal person has a fixed, solid sense of identity and clings to a stable self-image. They remain in between madness and enlightenment.

2. Those with a liquid sense of self, like artists and poets, move quickly between madness, normality, and enlightenment. They have no fixed identity and feel like outsiders.

3. The permanently mad have lost touch with themselves completely. They are only in a state of becoming, with no sense of being.

4. The enlightened, like Buddha and Krishna, are totally relaxed in their being. They have no sense of becoming or desire. They live fully in the present moment.

• Tension arises from desire, the urge to become something other than what you are. The enlightened have no desire or becoming. They accept themselves as they are and live in the present.

• The madman lives only in becoming, desiring some future state, and has lost touch with the present moment and sense of self. The enlightened live fully in the present, grounded in their being. Most people fluctuate between these states.

• Love, creativity, and meditation can allow momentary enlightened states by quieting the desiring mind. But for most people, these states are temporary.

• The key is to stop living “off-center” and become grounded in one’s being, accepting oneself as one is in the present moment. This releases tension and anguish. But it is difficult because most people cling to a sense of becoming, of wanting to be something other than what they are.

That covers the main points on the different states of being, becoming, madness and enlightenment according to the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• When you are in love, your mind stops functioning for a few moments. You enter the present moment fully without thinking of the past or future. This gives you a glimpse of your true being, your inner peace.

• Love transforms you because in those moments you are not your usual self centered around your ego and desires. You become pure consciousness like a Buddha. However, this state does not last long as the mind starts working again, thinking of how to sustain and repeat those moments.

• Trying to reproduce those moments through marriage or routine fails because love happens spontaneously in new situations, not as a duty or expectation. The mind kills love by creating patterns and expectations. To keep love alive, do not allow the mind to create expectations and patterns. Be open to the newness each moment.

• Techniques like “Become the caress” are meant to help you relax into your being by throwing you into the present moment. Love is used as a starting point since it is the most familiar experience of relaxation and being in the present.

• While being caressed, enter into the caress itself as eternal life. This means dropping the past and future, and merging into the present sensations and being of the caress. Lovers appear blind, mad and mindless because their mind is not functioning, only the present moment is.

• Meditation, love and death are similar in dissolving the mind and bringing you to the present. If you can relax into one, you can relax into the others. These techniques use love to lead you into meditation and your inner being.

That’s the summary and essence I derived from the explanation. Please let me know if I should clarify or expand my summary in any way.

• Lovers live in the present moment without consideration of the past or future. They are like the blind in this way. For those who calculate, lovers seem blind. But for those who live spontaneously, lovers have true insight.

• Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as the present moment. Time is divided into past and future. The present is eternal. It is always here.

• We move from past to future, on a horizontal dimension. But in the present moment, we move vertically, into depth. Buddhas and mystics live in eternity, not in time.

• When asked what the kingdom of God will be like, Jesus said “there shall be time no longer.” It is a vertical dimension outside of time. We must move away from time to enter it.

• Love opens the door to the eternal dimension outside of time. That is why we long for love. But we do not truly understand love, so we cannot really love or be loved. Love is a higher reality.

• Meera was in love with Krishna, who lived 5,000 years before her. Her husband did not understand how she could love someone not alive. But Krishna is eternal, while her husband would someday not exist. We can be distant in time but near in the eternal dimension.

• To experience eternal love, become one with the act of loving. Forget the ego and dissolve into love. Become the caress, the kiss, the embrace. Then love is circulating, not blood; seeing, not eyes. Enter into everlasting life. Lovers can experience what saints know. Tantra is transforming love into meditation.

• Shiva and Devi show perfect oneness. The Shivalinga is a phallic symbol, based in the vagina, showing the union of opposites. Hindus today are embarrassed by this bold symbol. But for Shiva, sex and love are a continuum, with sex the seed and love the flowering. If sex does not become love, something is wrong - but do not blame sex itself. Sex must become love, and love light, culminating in the mystic experience. This is the essence of Tantra.

The key points in the technique are:

1. Lie down on a bed or sit comfortably. Relax your body.

2. Start feeling as if your body has become weightless. Keep focusing your mind on the feeling of weightlessness.

3. At first, you will feel the weight of your body. But as you keep focusing, there will come a moment when you start feeling weightless.

4. When you feel completely weightless, you transcend your body and mind. You enter into a meditative state.

5. Weight is a property of the physical body and matter. When you feel weightless, you are no longer identified with the body. You realize you are something beyond the body.

6. This technique uses the mind’s ability to create an illusion to transcend the mind itself. By creating the illusion of weightlessness, the mind transcends itself.

7. Some key pointers:

• Relax the body completely. Tension will make it difficult to feel weightless.

• Be patient and keep at it. The feeling of weightlessness will emerge gradually. Don’t expect it to happen immediately.

• Don’t try too hard. Gently shift your focus to weightlessness. Don’t force it.

• Imagine you are floating effortlessly without any weight. This can help create the feeling more easily.

• Explore the feeling from different perspectives - imagine weightlessness of just your arm, then leg, then whole body. This gradual progression can help.

• Stay focused on the present moment. Don’t let your mind wander. Gently bring it back to the feeling of weightlessness.

• Once you achieve it, stay with it as long as possible. Then you can come back to your normal state of being.

• With regular practice, you can get better at entering this state and staying in it for longer periods.

Does this help explain the technique? Let me know if you have any other questions!

I see. So in Tantra, purity means a state of innocence, non-division, and total acceptance. It refers to embracing all of life - both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ - without judgment or resistance. A pure mind is uncontaminated by notions of what is right or wrong, pure or impure. It is open, spontaneous, and undivided.

Some key points:

1. Tantra rejects superficial divisions between good and bad. It sees life as a whole, without dichotomies.

2. Purity refers to embracing all of life totally, without judgment or resistance. It means accepting both good and bad.

3. A pure mind is innocent, spontaneous, undivided. It is not conditioned by notions of right and wrong.

4. As the mind develops concepts of good and bad, it loses its innocence and purity. The more mind, the more impure.

5. For Tantra, purity is the natural state. Impurity arises from mental conditioning and divisions.

6. A child is considered pure because its mind is innocent and undivided. Anger arises spontaneously without judgment, and leaves spontaneously without residue.

7. Suppression or resistance of natural emotions leads to impurity. Emotions get distorted, transferred or expressed in unhealthy ways.

8. The goal is to regain the natural purity of an undivided mind through dropping all mental divisions and conditioning. To embrace all of life totally without resistance.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points and meaning around purity in Tantra according to Osho? Please let me know if any part of the summary can be clarified or expanded. I appreciate the opportunity to deepen my understanding.

Here are the key points I picked up from the summary:

1. According to Tantra, innocence and purity go together. A truly innocent person has a pure mind, free of anger, greed, lust and other impure thoughts. Tantra sees division into good and bad as impurity.

2. A child’s innocence is born of ignorance. As we gain knowledge, we lose our innocence. But knowledge is necessary to function in the world. Transcending knowledge allows us to regain innocence and purity.

3. It is difficult to recognize a tantric sage because they transcend all divisions. They see life and death, good and bad, as part of the same whole. Defining and dividing creates a “mess” and obscures the underlying unity of existence.

4. Tantra is not about disorder but transcending the mind. The mind lives by definitions, laws and disciplines. Transcending the mind can seem dangerous to society but nature and innocence are enough according to Tantra.

5. The story of Confucius meeting Lao Tzu illustrates the barrier the mind poses to understanding Tantra. Confucius could not grasp Lao Tzu’s teachings which seemed like a “danger” and disturbance to his mind. But Lao Tzu saw Confucius’ mind as the real barrier.

6. In sum, tantric purity is a return to innocence through transcending knowledge and the divisions of the mind. It allows us to see the underlying unity of life beyond definitions of good and bad, life and death. But this innocence is not born of ignorance - it comes from wisdom and maturity.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key ideas and concepts in the explanation? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• There is an inherent order in the world that arises spontaneously. Any attempt to impose order creates disorder. Lao Tzu said that those who try to create order are actually creating disorder.

• Tantra believes in spontaneity and growing naturally without imposition or guidance. Any guidance is a misguidance. Tantra believes we have an inner law that we must follow. We must reconnect with this inner law.

• Religions believe that order and goodness must be imposed from outside. They see people as inherently bad and chaotic. They believe they must bring order and discipline. This has created much confusion and disorder.

• Tantra believes that people are inherently good. Everything, including anger, sex, and greed, is good. The problem is that we are not centered within ourselves. If we were centered, these energies would be healthy. Tantra sees everything as divine - there is no evil.

• Religions divide people into good and evil. They accept part of human nature but condemn other parts. This creates hypocrisy as people cannot follow these teachings fully. Tantra accepts people wholly as we are an organic unity.

• The growth Tantra speaks of is choiceless. Using the analogy of a lotus arising from mud, we see that the mud is still present in the lotus, just transformed into something higher. Similarly, in an enlightened being like Buddha, the lower energies are still present but transformed into a higher unity. We cannot recognize them as such.

That’s a high-level summary of the key ideas around order, discipline, human nature, and growth according to Tantra versus religions. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Your silence and Buddha’s silence are very different. Your silence is just a gap between two angers or tensions. It is a preparation for another outburst. Buddha’s silence signifies a complete transformation of his being. His energies have moved to a different plane of existence.

• It is very difficult for us to accept ourselves as we are - angry, greedy, sexual beings. We create self-images of being good, spiritual and try to protect these images. We think anger, greed etc. are just momentary acts and we are essentially good. But these traits are a part of our constitution.

• Accepting our true nature means throwing away the self-image. But even when we try to accept, we do it with the intention of transcending these traits. We accept greed with the intent of becoming non-greedy. But a greedy mind cannot become non-greedy. The effort will still come from greed.

• Similarly, a violent mind cannot become non-violent. The effort will still come from violence. Many so-called sages are violent against themselves. They have just transferred the object of violence from others to themselves.

• Religious preachers appeal to the greed of people by saying one should accumulate ‘punya’ or good deeds which can be taken beyond death, instead of material wealth. But this is still appealing to the greed, not really transcending it.

• Real transcendence happens not through rejecting or condemning our tendencies but through witnessing them with deep awareness and understanding. Then the energy behind these tendencies starts moving in a new direction, just as water softens the sharp edges of a rock over time.

• Buddha’s silence comes from this transcendence, not through repression or control. His being has flowered into something totally new. Our silence is a trick to remain the same, just with a temporary gap.

That’s a high-level summary and analysis of the key ideas discussed regarding the difference between your silence and Buddha’s silence. Please let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions.

• Religions and scriptures appeal to human greed by promising eternal pleasures and rewards to motivate certain behaviors. They criticize momentary pleasures and say one should seek eternal pleasures instead.
• Greedy people are attracted to the promise of infinite pleasures and rewards. They can be convinced to redirect their greed to new objectives that seem more eternal or meaningful. But their underlying greed remains.
• Tantra says a greedy mind cannot become non-greedy, a violent mind cannot become nonviolent, etc. However, something can still be done through understanding and acceptance rather than denial or escape.
• Accepting one’s true nature, desires, and tendencies - rather than rejecting them or escaping to opposite ideals - allows one to transcend them. Total acceptance of oneself throws one into one’s center. Ideals and denial, on the other hand, allow one to escape from one’s center and judge others.
• Examples are given of how India created ideals of nonviolence but continually condemns the world as violent, rationalizes its own violence, and banned criticism of its hypocrisy. The key is to accept the total fact of what one is - e.g. accept the fact of one’s anger, greed, and sex - rather than just touch it from the surface. By knowing something to its roots, one transcends it.

The main points are that acceptance and understanding of one’s tendencies transcends them, while denial and escape to ideals perpetuates them and allows judgement of others. Total acceptance throws one into one’s center, while ideals throw one into escape and ego. The path is to accept what one is - greed, anger, sex, etc. - and understand it fully rather than try to become what one is not.

Here are the main points:

1. Man is born with an inner center, but remains unaware of it. Without knowing one’s center, life feels rootless, meaningless, and empty.

2. The inner center is the link between one’s individual being and the universe. It provides a sense of belonging and home. Without knowing the center, one feels like an outsider in the world.

3. Knowing one’s inner center leads to self-actualization and a feeling of oneness with the universe. One realizes that one has grown in and as part of the world, rather than being thrown into it.

4. Without knowing one’s inner center, there is a sense of anxiety, dread, fear, and anguish. Life becomes a struggle against the universe. With knowledge of one’s center, life becomes more harmonious.

5. Only humans can become aware of their inner center and roots. That is why only humans experience death anxiety and a sense of being thrown into the world.

6. Techniques like imagining color circles in space or focusing awareness in the central nerve of the spine can help one discover and transform through the inner center.

7. The inner center is the means through which one can realize one’s connection to the divine ground of being. Without its knowledge, life remains on the surface, like a deep sleep or dream.

That covers the main points around the teachings on discovering and transforming through one’s inner center according to the passage. Let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of the summary.

• When a child is born, they are centered in the navel, which is the original center of being. As the child develops, two other centers emerge - the heart center of emotions and feelings, and the head center of intellect and reason.

• Modern society emphasizes the development of the head center, the intellect, which can lead to a sense of rootlessness and lack of being. The heart center, which provides a link between the head and the navel centers, is often underdeveloped or non-functional.

• The navel center is the center of being, the heart center is the center of feeling, and the head center is the center of knowing. Religion is concerned with being, poetry with feeling, and philosophy and science with knowing.

• One can experience the bliss of the navel center during certain activities like sex, fighting, or facing death where one acts spontaneously without thought. Thinking too much, especially about sex, can block access to the navel center.

• Danger fascinates us because it throws us back to the navel center. We act spontaneously without thinking, allowing us to experience the bliss of the navel center.

• Accessing the navel center, the original center of being, leads to bliss and a sense of unity with existence. The techniques of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra are aimed at helping one access this center.

• The mind is constantly moving from one thought to another, never staying focused on one thing. It has to keep moving to stay alive.
• If you are able to stop the mind at one point of focus, the mind will die down and only consciousness will remain.
• You can use imagination to create an external focal point. For example, imagine the five senses as five colors extending into infinite space and meeting at a point within you, like at the navel. Focus on that point until the imagination dissolves. This will lead your consciousness to the center, the “hara.”
• Some people are very sensitive to color and imagination, so this technique works well for them. For others who are more externally focused, focusing on any point in external space, like a point on a wall, can also work.
• By focusing on an imagined external point, the external world drops away. By continuing to focus, the imagination also drops away, leaving only pure consciousness.
• The key is learning to stop the mind’s constant movement by focusing intensely on one thing. This is difficult because we are habituated to following the mind’s lead, but with practice the mind’s control can be broken.

In summary, this sutra describes using an external point of focus, either imagined or actual, to quiet the mind and allow consciousness to settle into itself, into the hara or center. By eliminating the distractions of the world and mind, one can discover the underlying pure consciousness.

• The extroverted mind finds it difficult to look inward. It is more inclined to focus on external objects.

• For such extroverted minds, it is suggested to pick a point outside, like on a wall, and focus attention on it intensely with open eyes. This can have the same effect as focusing internally.

• One should concentrate on the external point without blinking. Blinking creates gaps that allow the mind to wander. Bodhidharma, the Zen master, metaphorically tore off his eyelids to avoid blinking and maintain concentration.

• Focusing on an external point causes the mind to dissolve, not the actual point. Without the mind, one cannot perceive the point, even though it remains. This cuts one off from external perceptions and throws one into one’s center.

• Realizing one’s center connects one to existence and removes the feeling of being an outsider. One feels blissful, rooted in existence. Eventually, this blissfulness becomes natural and effortless.

• The spinal column is the base of one’s body and connected to all parts of it. In the middle of the spinal column is a delicate nerve like a lotus thread. Focusing on this thread can lead to one’s center.

• At first, visualizing the spinal column and the central thread may seem like imagination. But with practice, one can develop the ability to actually perceive one’s internal structures. This can be fearful, as one sees one’s bones, blood, and veins. But it leads to greater self-knowledge.

• In summary, extroverted minds can use external focal points and visualization of the spinal column to overcome their tendency to focus outwards and achieve an inner center of concentration. This leads to self-knowledge, bliss, and connection to existence.

• There are two ways of looking at your body: from the outside and from the inside. Looking from the inside requires focused concentration and visualization.

• Ancient Indian yogis had a deep knowledge of the inner workings of the body that science has only recently discovered. They gained this knowledge through inner concentration and visualization, not dissection.

• Concentrating on the spinal column, especially the thread of life or energy flow within it, allows one to see the inner body. A straight spine is required to perceive this subtle thread.

• When one concentrates on the inner thread of the spine, one becomes filled with light. This light then radiates outward, creating an enlightened aura.

• Hui Neng, a figure in Chinese Zen Buddhism, attained enlightenment through 12 years of silent work in a monastery kitchen. His master could see Hui Neng’s enlightened aura growing and knew he was ready to succeed him. However, the other monks could not perceive this and would have killed Hui Neng if his mastery was announced. So, his mastery told him to escape to avoid harm.

• Concentrating on the inner thread of the spine leads to the growth of an enlightened aura that radiates light. Though others may not perceive it, a master who has also attained enlightenment can see it.

• Self-actualization means fulfilling one’s potential and becoming what one is meant to be. It refers to the process of growing into one’s destiny and reaching one’s peak.

• According to Maslow, self-actualization is a basic need of humans. Unless one becomes self-actualized, one feels a lack or that something is missing. This feeling cannot be satisfied by external things like wealth or power.

• Self-actualization leads to peak experiences, moments of bliss and contentment. For a self-actualized person, just existing can be a peak experience.

• Self-actualized people, like Buddha and Mahavira, radiate bliss and contentment. They have an inner flowering that is infectious to others.

• Even if a self-actualized person has nothing else, they feel totally fulfilled. Self-actualization itself is enough to feel desireless and like an emperor.

• Desire arises from a lack of inner fulfillment. Becoming self-actualized leads to becoming desireless. The emphasis should be on self-actualization, not desirelessness.

• Self-actualization is the source of power and bliss for a person. All else may be lacking but self-actualization is enough.

That covers the essence and key highlights from the passage on self-actualization and basic needs. Please let me know if you would like me to explain any part of the summary in more detail.

1. You constantly desire things because there is an inner feeling of lack or emptiness. One desire leads to many more desires in an endless pursuit of fulfillment.

2. Self-actualization means realizing your inner potential and becoming a whole, balanced person. It is not about achieving greatness in a particular field or role. Great artists or poets, for example, may have glimpses of self-actualization in their creative moments but they are not fully self-actualized in all aspects of their lives.

3. A self-actualized person is:

• Centered: They have a stable sense of self that is not constantly shifting between different roles, emotions, or objects of desire. Their center remains still while their mind and body are active.

• Balanced: They avoid extremes and stay in “the middle path.” Their attitudes and behaviors reflect moderation and equilibrium.

• At ease: They remain comfortable and secure no matter what is happening around them. Nothing can disturb their inner peace and stability.

4. For a self-actualized person, everything in life becomes meaningful and sacred. Nothing is seen as trivial or unimportant. Even simple acts are imbued with significance.

5. Self-actualized people like the Buddha emanate a quality of serenity and purpose that transforms everything they do. Just the touch or presence of such a person makes the ordinary sacred.

That covers the key elements on self-actualization and becoming a whole, enlightened person according to the perspective described in the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Ordinary thinking is undirected, associative thinking that jumps from one thought to another with no logic or purpose. Contemplation is directed, focused thinking on a particular topic or subject. Concentration is focusing the mind on a single point with minimal distraction or movement. Meditation is a state of no-mind where the mind is completely silent.

• These four stages represent a progression from the most scattered, distracted state of mind to the most focused, present state of pure consciousness. Ordinary thinking is the default state, contemplation requires some direction and control, concentration requires honing in on one point, and meditation transcends the mind altogether.

• Though meditation is beyond mind, the mind can be used as a tool to reach the state of no-mind. By slowing down the thought process through contemplation and concentration, the mind can gradually dissolve into silence. The mind helps commit “suicide” by slowing diminishing its own movement and mental activity.

• The key is to use the mind to decrease mental activity and reach inner stillness. The density and speed of thoughts can either increase or decrease, moving us closer to or further from no-mind. When the mind is left alone in silence without grasping onto thoughts or concepts, it spontaneously becomes meditation.

• The mind asks how it can go beyond itself, but it is precisely by using the mind that one goes beyond it. By observing and slowing the thought process, the mind can eliminate thought itself and reach meditation or no-mind. The alive mind helps itself to become “dead” as a mind by committing a sort of mental suicide through concentration and inner silence.

That covers the main points around contemplation, concentration, meditation and how the mind can be used to go beyond itself into a state of no-mind. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• The navel center is to be discovered, not developed. It is already fully developed. The heart and head centers need to be developed.

• Society, culture, and education help develop the heart and head centers. The navel center is innate. You are born with it.

• You can exist without developing the heart and head centers, but you cannot exist without the navel center. It is essential for life.

• There are techniques for developing the heart (love, sensitivity) and head (reason, logic) centers. The navel center is uncovered through techniques, not developed.

• Everyone has the potential to become a buddha by uncovering their navel center. Not everyone can become an Einstein by developing their head center. Individual factors make that impossible to repeat.

• Buddha-hood is a phenomenon, not an individual. It requires uncovering the navel center that already exists in all. Some know they are buddhas; some do not yet know. But all are buddhas as far as existence is concerned.

• Only in existence is there true communism. In all else, communism is absurd. Individuality cannot be repeated.

• The techniques for the navel center involve uncovering what is already there. The techniques for the heart and head involve developing potential. The navel center allows one to know they are a buddha. The heart and head centers create the individual.

That covers the key points around how the navel center differs from the heart and head centers, and how their development or uncovering differs. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• We live only on the surface, on the circumference of our being. We lack an inner center.

• We are always focused outwardly, even when alone or asleep. Our consciousness consists entirely of the external.

• We understand the words used to describe the inner experience, but not the meaning, because we have never actually had that experience.

• To go within means to find one’s inner center, but we have no feel for what that really means.

• These techniques are aimed at creating an opportunity to penetrate within by blocking out the external. By focusing inwardly, one can reach the inner center, the “lotus”.

• Reaching this inner center brings an inclusive awareness and a dropping away of the surface mind and its constant outward focus. There is a glimpse of what exists behind that surface mind.

• The inner center is a state of “unminding mind”, where the usual mind is transcended through focused inwardness. It leads to an awareness of one’s true being.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points being conveyed? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• We are usually not centered, not focused within. Our consciousness is constantly flowing out through the senses - eyes, ears, mouth, etc.

• This technique instructs us to close all the seven openings of the head - eyes, ears, nose, mouth. This prevents the consciousness from flowing out.

• When the consciousness cannot flow out, it becomes concentrated within. It creates a space between the eyebrows, known as the “third eye.”

• This technique works based on the principle of conditioning or conditioned reflex. Our mind has become conditioned to flow out through the senses. When we close the senses, the mind reflexively becomes concentrated within.

• The space between the eyebrows, the third eye, is a door to higher consciousness and intuition. By concentrating within through this technique, one can gain access to deeper spiritual awareness.

• In short, this technique uses a conditioned reflex of the mind to turn one’s consciousness within and activate the third eye center. Regular practice can lead to higher states of meditation and spiritual insight.

The key ideas are: concentration within, closing the senses, activation of the third eye, using conditioning, and gaining spiritual insight. The technique gives a method for dropping outward focus and becoming centered within.

• The space between the two eyes is known as the third eye. When focused here, one can feel an all-inclusive inner space where the whole existence is contained.

• The third eye allows one to see beyond the physical and material. It reveals the infinite, immaterial, and spiritual. Through the third eye, one can perceive energy itself.

• Focusing one’s attention at the third eye leads to realizing that the whole universe is within oneself. One comes to feel “I am the universe.” This realization brings an authentic, intense aliveness and lack of fear.

• The Sufi mystic Mansoor exclaimed “I am God” upon realizing the inner space of the third eye. Though this led to his death, he laughed because he knew his killers could not truly destroy him. He had become the whole.

• After Mansoor, Sufis learned to remain silent about such realizations to avoid unnecessary difficulty. They continued their esoteric tradition in secret.

• The technique described involves closing the openings of the head to allow one to reach the center of the “lotus” - a metaphor for spiritual awakening. This method is for those oriented toward the heart rather than the intellect. For heart-centered people, everything leads to and touches the heart.

• The key is to suddenly close the openings of the head rather than practicing this as an exercise. In the suffocation and feeling of impending death that results, the inner space will open up and reveal itself. One must persist through discomfort to achieve this breakthrough. But there are built-in safeguards to prevent actual death.

That covers the main points on the third eye, the inner space, realizing one’s unity with the universe, the story of Mansoor, and the technique for focusing awareness at the third eye by blocking the senses. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

I see. The essence of this sutra seems to be adopting a balanced and non-extreme approach in all areas of life. Is that right?

• The mind moves from one extreme to another, like a pendulum. This is the way of the mind.

• When the strings of a veena (musical instrument) are too loose or too tight, no music is possible. The strings must be in the middle for music to be produced. Similarly, in life the ‘music’ only comes when a person is balanced and not going to extremes.

• The mind likes extremes because in the middle the mind dies. The mind gathers momentum by going to extremes, like a pendulum. When the pendulum stops in the middle, the momentum is lost.

• Similarly, the human mind moves between extremes like anger and repentance, love and hate. To transcend this, one must remain in the middle and not move to the extremes. This is very difficult but by remaining in the middle, the mind can eventually die.

• Ordinary love exists with fight because the mind needs the opposite. A love without opposites, like that of a Buddha, may seem boring because we can only feel love in contrast. The Buddha’s love is total and without fault but hard for ordinary minds to feel.

• In summary, one must train the unminding mind to remain in the middle and not get caught in extremes. This can lead to transcending the mind and achieving a state of no-mind. But this is difficult to achieve due to the mind’s tendency to grasp at extremes.

• The navel center is the existential center of a human being. Whenever one is centered within, one will fall down to the navel center.

• The functional center for centering can be anywhere - the spine, the heart, the third eye, the head, or any of the energy centers in the body. The particular center used is not important. What matters is centering itself.

• Centering at any point - the heart, the third eye, the head, the sex center, or even the big toe - will lead to the navel center. The center chosen depends on one’s liking and the natural flow of one’s energy.

• The sex center is one of the most natural centers for centering, but social conditioning has created a division between the upper and lower body. The lower body, including the sex organs, is seen as separate from one’s real self. This makes the sex center difficult to use for centering.

• If one is able to use the sex center, it is one of the best centers because one’s energy flows naturally to it. Concentrating on the sex center during sexual arousal and making it a meditation can lead to the transcendence of sexuality and an energy flow throughout the body and beyond. Total centering at the sex center will lead to the navel center.

• Tantra has used the sex center effectively as a means for centering. The sex center, when used skillfully, can be a doorway to enlightenment.

In summary, the navel center is the existential root, but one can use any center for functional centering. The center chosen depends on one’s proclivities and the natural flow of one’s energy. Total centering, at any point, leads to the navel - the source. The sex center, though difficult for many to use, can be a powerful means for centering and enlightenment.

• The most scientific approaches toward human transformation use the natural flow of human instincts and energies rather than fighting against them. In particular, Tantra uses the sex instinct and energy as a means of transformation rather than suppressing it like some moralistic teachings do.

• Any center of consciousness can be used for centering oneself, not just the traditional centers like the third eye. When centered, one’s consciousness naturally goes back to one’s core being.

• Buddha taught a middle way between extreme asceticism and extreme worldliness. His path of sannyas or renunciation is not about negating life but about being detached from the extremes of both life and death. The detached, balanced sannyasin exists without misery or suffering because they do not choose between opposites.

• Some practical tips for opening and developing the heart center:

1. Practice being “headless” - visualize yourself without a head and feel what that is like. This helps shift your center of consciousness from the head to the heart.

2. Do “looking in the mirror” exercise - look at yourself in a mirror and try to feel that the reflection is your real self. This helps disidentify from your head and body.

3. Practice public confessions or sharing of feelings. This makes you aware of how your feelings affect others and helps develop empathy.

4. Practice compassion and kindness toward others. Make others’ suffering your own and wish them freedom from suffering. This helps open the heart center.

5. Practice breathing into the heart - imagine breathing in and out through the heart area. This helps accumulate energy in the heart center.

6. Practice “thinking in the heart” - try to think with the feeling of thoughts arising from the heart area rather than the head. This also helps shift your center of identity to the heart.

• Practice “headlessness” - feel as if you have no head. This helps you drop from the head to the heart. Close your eyes and feel your head has disappeared. Look at the world through the heart, not the head.

• Be more loving. Love cannot function through the head. When you are in love, you lose your head. Change the quality of your relationships to be based on love. Have a loving attitude toward life as such.

• Become more aesthetic and sensitive. Listen to music, play music, paint, sing, dance. Do something to activate your heart center. Be sensitive to the beauty in the world around you.

• Be actively sensitive. Do not just passively watch what others do. Create, experience, live from your heart.

• These practices - headlessness, love, and sensitivity - will help your heart center start functioning. You will see the world in a new, unified way. The mind divides, the heart unites. Looking through the heart, you can experience the unity, the oneness of all - which is godliness.

• Science cannot find God because its methods are based on reason, analysis and division. To experience the ultimate unity, you need the heart, not the mind.

• Do everything - eat, walk, sit - with love and gratitude. Do not be indifferent or violent. Treat all of life with reverence. This helps open your heart.

• The love of the mind involves duality and moves between the opposites of hate and love. If you suppress one end of the duality, your love becomes dead and inauthentic.

• It is better to be authentic in your feelings, whether of love or hate, anger or joy. By being real in your emotions, you become aware of the duality and eventually get bored and weary of moving between extremes. This weariness leads you to transcend the mind.

• For those still in the mind, authenticity is better than pretense. Be real in your anger and real in your love. Do not suppress your feelings or pretend. Suffer the duality and the suffering will lead to awareness.

• Beyond the mind, in the state of no-mind, love flowers but without duality or excitement. It is a silent, peaceful phenomenon as exemplified by Jesus and Buddha. But to reach no-mind, one must first transcend the duality of the mind.

• Authenticity – being real in one’s feelings and not pretending – leads to awareness of duality and transcendence of the mind. Non-authenticity or pretense keeps one trapped in the mind.

• The love of the mind is a disease, a feverish, unsettled state. One cannot sleep or rest in it. Transcending the mind leads to an love without opposite, a peaceful love.

• In summary, for those in the mind, authenticity and awareness of duality leads to transcendence. For those beyond the mind, love is peaceful and without opposite. Between these states, one must suffer the duality through authentic experience. Pretense will not lead out of the mind.

The sixth centering technique instructs you to look lovingly at an object without moving on to another object. By looking at the object with love and total absorption, one can attain an inner blessing or happiness.

Some key points:

1. Look at the object with love, not lust. Love means thinking of the object’s happiness, not your own. It means giving, not getting. Lust means exploiting the object for your own pleasure or gain.

2. Become totally absorbed in the object. Do not move on to another object. Remain fixed on the single object.

3. The blessing or inner happiness happens indirectly. Do not seek it directly. Just become totally immersed in the object, and it will arise on its own.

4. Any object, even inanimate ones, can become personified if you look at it with love. Look with love, and even a tree can become a person.

5. Most people do not look at objects with real love. We are too focused on ourselves and what we can get from the object. We do not think of the object’s own happiness.

6. By looking with love, your inner space becomes empty and vacant. This inner vacancy is required for the blessing or happiness to arise. Your total absorption in the object vacates the inner space.

So in summary, fix your gaze with love on a single object. Become totally absorbed in the object by thinking of the object’s happiness, not your own. Let your inner space become empty. Then the blessing and inner happiness will arise on their own, indirectly. This technique uses love and absorption in an object to achieve an inner centering.

• When you name something, like a dog or a cat, you give it a personality. It becomes a person rather than just an object. The same is true when you look at something lovingly - it becomes unique and irreplaceable.

• The opposite is also true. When you look at someone lustfully, you turn a person into an object. This is dehumanizing and hurtful. Lustful eyes make someone feel like a thing rather than a person.

• Love makes anything unique and irreplaceable. Without love, you never feel like a true person. You just feel like one in a crowd, a number, replaceable. Love gives a sense of uniqueness.

• For example, your car becomes like a person when you love it. You know its temperament and it feels irreplaceable. A thing, on the other hand, is replaceable.

• To see an object as a person, look at it lovingly, forgetting yourself. Focus on how to help it become more beautiful or blissful. Let this feeling fill your whole being. Then blessing comes as a byproduct.

• Although this seems paradoxical, by focusing outside yourself, you become empty within. With the loved one, you feel helpless since there is nothing you can really do. This helplessness creates surrender and opens you up.

• Love itself is the greatest method for achieving an inner state of meditation or bliss. But because love is difficult, many other methods are needed. Without love, these methods may not work.

• Putting someone else in your place of ego is what love means. The other, for those who live through lust, creates hell. But for those who love, the other creates heaven.

1. You need to make your body, especially your buttocks, sensitive before doing this technique. Your buttocks are typically insensitive since you sit on them all the time.

2. To increase sensitivity, sit in a chair and close your eyes. Focus your attention on one hand, either left or right. Feel the sensation in that hand and notice any slight movements, jerks or sensations. Do this for 10-15 minutes a day for 3 weeks. This will make that hand much more sensitive.

3. Next, apply the same technique to your buttocks. Lie in bed and forget the whole body. Focus only on your buttocks. Notice any sensations, movements or sensations in the buttocks. Do this for 3 weeks to increase sensitivity.

4. Once your buttocks are sensitive, do the actual technique:

Without support for feet or hands, sit only on buttocks. Suddenly, the centering.

5. Sit without any back support, feet support or hand support. Sit only on your buttocks. With your increased sensitivity, you will suddenly feel a centering of your consciousness. Your whole being will feel centered and collected.

6. The key is developing sensitivity in the body through conscious focus and attention. Then using that sensitivity to notice subtle sensations in specific body parts. Finally, using the body as a focal point to center one’s consciousness.

That’s the summary and process for this technique as I understand it. Let me know if you have any other questions!

• Ordinarily, when traveling in a moving vehicle, you resist the movements and swayings, which makes you tired. Do not resist the movements. Move rhythmically with the swayings of the vehicle. This will help you experience a centering within.

• You can also do this technique while sitting in a stationary vehicle or at any place. Start swaying in big circles with your eyes closed. Make the circles smaller and smaller. Visibly you may stop moving, but internally feel the subtle movement. This will help you experience a centering within.

• Gurdjieff used circles and whirling dances to help people experience this inner centering. While the body is moving rhythmically, the mind is focused within. Even when the body stops moving, the mind continues the subtle inner movement, which helps in experiencing the inner center.

• If you fall from a height with no resistance and while being completely oblivious of your body, you can avoid getting hurt. Resistance and tension in the body causes injuries. Complete relaxation and cooperation with the pull of gravity can avoid injuries. This is what happened with Gurdjieff’s disciples who fell from the stage but had no injuries. Their minds were completely focused within while the body was moving rhythmically.

• You can do this technique by whirling like little children, with your eyes closed. Do not stop even if you feel like falling. Continue the inner whirling of the mind. This can lead to an experience of the inner center.

I see. Centering refers to focusing one’s awareness and energy at a single point. This concentrated energy and attention then enables an “explosion” into transcendence of the center. The cosmic consciousness that results is difficult to convey in language, so spiritual teachings tend to focus on the methods - the centering techniques - rather than the ineffable end result.

Some key points:

• Centering does not mean the final state of enlightenment, but the process used to achieve it. Centering implies focusing one’s energy and attention at a single point.

• This focused, centered energy is necessary to enable a transcendence of the center into cosmic consciousness. Without centering first, there is not enough energy built up to explode into transcendence.

• The transcendent experience of enlightenment that results from centering is very difficult to convey in language. So spiritual teachings tend to focus on explaining the centering methods rather than trying to describe the ineffable end result.

• Centering gathers all of one’s energy into a single point, like an “atom”. This enables an “atomic explosion” into transcendence of the center.

• After transcending the center through this explosion, one realizes either that “the center is everywhere” or that “the center is nowhere”. Either way, there is no fixed center anymore.

• Religions usually explain the methods - the “how” - rather than the transcendent experiences themselves - the “what”. The “what” is left for the individual to experience through practicing the methods.

• An infinite, transcendent experience like enlightenment ultimately cannot be conveyed in language. One can know it through experience, but cannot fully communicate it to others in words.

So in summary, centering refers to a means, not an end. It is a process that enables the end result of transcendence into cosmic consciousness, even though that end result cannot be fully described. The process of centering gathers energy so that it can eventually explode beyond all centers into the infinite.

Does this help clarify the meaning and relationship between centering, enlightenment, and transcendence? Let me know if you have any other questions!

• The ultimate experience of enlightenment or samadhi cannot be expressed in words. It is a personal, poetic experience. The methods to reach there can be described scientifically but the experience itself cannot be conveyed fully in words.

• Buddha said for 40 years that he cannot convey the experience, only the path to reach there. The experience depends on the individual, the method is universal. Different enlightened beings express the experience differently. But they all agree that it cannot be fully expressed in words.

• Centering of energy leads to an explosion and samadhi. The more the energy is centered, the more powerful the explosion. If explosion is not happening, centering has not been achieved. Centering means gathering scattered energy and focusing it at one point.

• Outgoing energy leads to death and impotence. Incoming energy leads to life and transformation. In humans, the navel is the point where energy gathers. When energy gathers at the navel and becomes too much for it, an explosion happens leading to samadhi.

• In samadhi, the ego dissolves and one becomes one with the cosmos. Though the word ‘I’ may be used, there is no ego. Like an iceberg melting and becoming one with the ocean. Before centering, one is like an iceberg, after centering there is only the ocean.

• Centering is the path, samadhi is the goal. Thinking one is one with the whole is not the same as realizing it. Centering leads to the realization where there is no thinker, only the ocean.

That’s a high-level summary of the concepts and analogies presented in the passage on centering, enlightenment and samadhi. Let me know if you would like me to explain anything in the summary further.

Here are the key points in the summary:

1. Nothing can be said about the experience of samadhi because it cannot be expressed in words. Shiva only gives brief hints about it like “the experience, the blessing, the happening.” He does not explain it further.

2. There are two reasons why the experience of samadhi cannot be expressed. First, many experiences cannot be conveyed through language, even ordinary experiences like a headache. Communication is only possible between those who have had similar experiences. Second, explaining the experience may lead people to cling to the result and ignore the methods. They may imagine they have achieved the result when they have not.

3. Shiva focuses on explaining the methods rather than the experience. He does not give many details about the result so that people do not become greedy for it. The mind tends to be more interested in the result than the effort required. It is easy for people to confuse knowledge about an experience with the actual experience.

4. The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra contains simple methods but few details about the results. This is why it has remained largely unknown. The mind prefers teachings that promise exciting results rather than focusing on the effort required. Some think spontaneous enlightenment is best because no method is required, but they have usually not achieved it. Methods are still needed.

5. In summary, little is said about samadhi because it cannot be conveyed in words and explaining it may lead to self-deception. Shiva focuses on practical methods for achieving it rather than promising an exciting result. The mind tends to prefer the latter, but it needs the former.

• Zen’s message of effortlessness appeals to the mind, but true spontaneity requires effort and practice.

• Zen has become popular in the West, but its message is often misunderstood. Real Zen requires discipline and practice, not just conceptual understanding.

• Swami Shivananda provides practical methods, not just philosophical teachings. These methods are needed to purify the mind and achieve spontaneity.

• Krishnamurti’s teachings that “no method is needed” are logically correct but misleading and even dangerous for most. Meditation requires practice and discipline, not just understanding.

• You cannot teach someone something they are not ready to understand. Teachings should match the student’s level of maturity and experience.

• Providing answers before someone has done the necessary practice and discipline is counterproductive. The methods and processes are more important than the answers.

• Shiva gives practical methods, not just answers or philosophical teachings. The methods lead to the experience, not just intellectual understanding.

That’s a high-level summary of the key points regarding Zen, methods vs. teachings, student readiness, and the importance of practice over philosophy. The main message is that meditation and spiritual growth require discipline and practice, not just conceptual understanding or appealing teachings. Does this help summarize the key perspective being conveyed? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

Here is a summary of the key reasons for man’s insensitivities according to Osho:

1. Fear: Man is afraid of everything - of life, of death, of love, of pain, of intimacy, etc. This fear creates a layer of insensitivity around him like a cocoon. He becomes numb to protect himself.

2. Conditioning: Man is conditioned from childhood to behave in insensitive ways. He is taught to repress his emotions, not cry, be tough, etc. This conditioning destroys his sensitivity.

3. Ego: Man’s ego prevents him from being sensitive to others. He is too focused on himself, his desires, ambitions, etc. To be sensitive, one needs to move beyond the ego.

4. Lack of awareness: Man lives life in an unconscious, mechanical way. He is not aware and attentive to life, people and situations around him. This lack of awareness breeds insensitivity. One needs to be mindful and meditative to be sensitive.

5. Identification with mind: Man is too identified with his mind - thoughts, prejudices, opinions, concepts, etc. This creates a barrier between him and life around him. To be sensitive, one needs to transcend the mind.

6. Lack of love: The basic cause of insensitivity is lack of love. When one is loving, one becomes naturally sensitive to others. Love breaks down all barriers between oneself and others. It is only through love that sensitivity flowers.

So in summary, fear, conditioning, ego, lack of awareness, identification with mind, and lack of love - these are the key reasons why man has become insensitive, according to Osho. The antidote is: courage, de-conditioning, transcending the ego, meditation and love.

• Identification means being unable to witness your past experiences in an detached manner. You are unable to see past events as happening to someone else. You cannot separate yourself from past experiences and memories.

• Gurdjieff considered identification to be the only sin. The 10th sutra discusses how to avoid identification.

• You can achieve insight by seeing your past as a dream - something you witness but are not part of. View your past as a film passing before you. See your childhood and youth as dreams.

• Witnessing your past in this detached manner will allow you to see your present and future in the same detached way. Your eternal witnessing consciousness exists outside of time.

• You can only realize you were dreaming during a dream once you have awakened. Similarly, you can only see your past as a dream now that time has passed. Your past is now just a memory, and memories can be unreliable. What you think was your childhood may have been a dream.

• To remove identification:

• Observe your past and detach from it. Become a witness to your memories and past experiences.

• Observe your imagined future in the same detached manner.

• Witnessing your past and future this way will allow you to witness your present with detachment.

• Realize your eternal witnessing consciousness is not part of time. Everything that happens in time becomes a dream.

• Seek to recreate the space and gap that exists between your present and your past dreams and memories. This can help you witness them in a detached manner.

• Look at your past memories while remaining detached and disidentified from them. View them as if they belong to someone else.

• Be an observer or witness of the memories without getting involved in them emotionally. Do not react to them or judge them. Remain aloof.

• Start by remembering something from your recent past and then go further and further back in time. Wind your mind back gradually.

• This helps unwind the mind before sleep and can relieve insomnia. It can also help release psychological tensions and complexes that contribute to diseases.

• If practiced regularly, it leads to living more in the present moment rather than being burdened by the past. It cultivates a lightness of being.

• The key is to observe your memories without identifying with them or reacting to them emotionally. Remain a detached witness.

• This technique was used by Buddha and Mahavira. Modern practices like dianetics are also based on similar principles.

• It can bring about a feeling of catharsis, release, and psychological lightness. The past loses its hold over you.

• Children can benefit greatly by being taught this practice from an early age. It can help them live more freely in the present moment.

• Going backward through your day, unwinding the mind, helps you become a witness to the events of the day. This helps cleanse and purge the mind.

• The mind prefers to go forward from morning to night because it is easy and familiar. But going backward, unwinding the mind, helps you gain a new perspective and insight.

• With practice, this technique of unwinding the mind can be applied not just to the past but also to the present - allowing you to witness current events with detachment. This helps reduce reactive emotions like anger.

• We identify with our name, form and life events. But in reality, we are the consciousness that witnesses these things. Unwinding the mind helps us realize we are untouched by these changing phenomena.

• This technique starts with observing past events where the urgency and attachment are less. But with practice, one can gain the ability to witness present events with detachment as well.

• Applying this technique to your sleep by going backward into the night before falling asleep and after waking up can transform your quality of sleep and dreaming. Dreaming becomes unnecessary as the mind is unwound.

• Dreams help complete unfulfilled desires and relieve the mind. Without dreams, it is difficult to sleep as the mind remains clinging to the unfinished business of the day.

• For the mind, there is little difference between dreams and reality. Dreams help satisfy desires that cannot be completed in reality.

So in summary, the key message is that unwinding the mind through observing events in reverse - especially the events of the day and night - can help one gain detachment, reduce disturbance from unfulfilled desires, and ultimately realize one’s true nature as the unchanging consciousness that witnesses all these changing phenomena.

• Feel an object fully with your senses. Do not just see it, actually feel it. Touch it, smell it, immerse yourself in it. • Forget everything else. Leave aside all other objects and all other thoughts. Focus your full attention on the single object before you. • Become the object. Feel it so deeply that you lose your own sense of self and become the object. • This technique works best if you choose an object you find beautiful or appealing, like a rose. It may be easier for women and children to do this practice. • This is similar to what happens when you fall in love. You become absorbed in the beloved and forget everything else. • Privacy and avoiding distractions is important for going deep into this practice. Group experiences actually make it more difficult. • The ultimate aim is to leave aside both the object-feeling and the absence-feeling and realize your true self. But first immerse fully in the object.

The key elements are feeling fully, forgetting everything else, becoming one with what you are feeling, and then transcending even that to realize your true nature. It uses sensory absorption and love as a metaphor for spiritual realization.

The technique instructs you to not project your moods, feelings, and emotions onto the external object or person that seems to have caused them. Instead, remain centered within yourself and realize that you are the source of those moods.

For example:

• If you feel angry at someone who insulted you, don’t focus on that person. Instead, close your eyes and go within yourself to find the source of the anger. The other person merely triggered what was already inside you.

• If you feel love or attraction for someone, don’t get caught up in that person. Remain centered in yourself and realize that the feeling of love is coming from within you. The other person acts as a screen for you to project that feeling onto.

• Any mood or feeling you have for or against someone else is actually rooted in you. You are the source of it, while the other person acts as the object.

The key is to not identify with the objective, external triggers of your moods and instead trace those moods back to their internal source - your own being. Remain centered there rather than projecting outward.

This technique reveals that everything we perceive in the external world is colored by our own internal mental and emotional projections. We must go within to access the pure, centered source that is untainted by those projections. By tracing our moods and feelings back to their source, we can realize our inherent unconditioned nature.

• Both expression and suppression of emotion make the other person the center of attention. This technique suggests finding the source within yourself instead.

• Suppression only postpones expression of the emotion. You can’t suppress forever, and the emotion will eventually leak out in some form.

• Rather than suppressing or expressing anger, use the energy of the anger as a path to find its source within yourself. Trace the anger back to its origin.

• Stay centered at the source of the emotion. Don’t do anything with the anger itself. Just observe it and use it as a path inward.

• Once you reconnect the energy of the emotion with its source within, it will subside. You become the master of your energy and emotion. You won’t dissipate energy through suppression or expression.

• Energy itself is neutral. We give it form through the mind, and it becomes anger, love, sex, hate, etc. If expressed one way, there is less available for other forms. For example, a sexually fulfilled society has less energy for violence and aggression.

• The key is to become aware of the source of emotions and re unite the energy with its source. Then you become the master of yourself.

That’s a high-level summary and analysis of the key points in the discussion on this technique. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• The speaker says that Eastern and Western psychology have very different approaches. Western psychology focuses only on the mind and does not believe in the inner being. It aims to make people “normal” or adjusted to society. Eastern psychology does not accept society as the criterion for health or normalcy. It aims for an enlightened state, as exemplified by Buddha.

• Western psychotherapy like Freudian and Jungian analysis focuses on unwinding the mind. But it does not lead to significant transformation because it does not address the inner being. It only makes people adjusted to the average in society. But society itself may not be healthy or enlightened.

• For Eastern psychology, an enlightened being like Buddha is the criterion for health and transformation. Western psychology does not believe in enlightenment or a transcendent inner being. So their techniques, while they may relieve symptoms, do not fundamentally transform the individual.

• The speaker suggests the key difference is that Eastern approaches aim to transform the being, not just adjust the mind. Western approaches have a more superficial understanding of human nature and potential. So their methods, while popular, do not achieve deep or radical changes.

• In summary, the key reasons the Western approaches are unsuccessful in transforming the being are:

1. They do not believe in or address the inner being, only the mind.
2. They take society and “normalcy” as the criterion, not enlightenment.
3. Their understanding of human nature and potential is limited.
4. They aim to adjust people to the status quo, not radically transform them.

So the speaker suggests that without a deeper understanding of the inner being, enlightenment, and human potential, Western psychotherapeutic approaches will not lead to significant transformation. Their limited view of the mind alone prevents more radical change.

• Meditation methods become more powerful when one is initiated into them by a master.

• When a master initiates a disciple into a method, the master observes the disciple and chooses a method specifically suited for that individual. The master may adapt or alter the method to fit the disciple.

• Initiation is an individualized approach. The method is tailored to the specific person, based on their level of spiritual development, personality, past lives, etc.

• Methods received through initiation are kept secret because they are uniquely designed for an individual. What works for one person may not work or could even be harmful to another.

• Each person is unique and requires a different method for progress. Initiation from a master provides a method customized for an individual.

• Simply explaining a meditation method is different from initiation into that method by a master. Initiation implies a qualitative difference and deeper level of personal guidance.

The key points are that initiation provides an individualized, tailored approach; methods become more powerful when designed specifically for a person; and initiation allows for guidance from a master which leads to deeper progress. Simply using a method on one’s own, without initiation, lacks these benefits.

• Identification is unconscious. When you use identification consciously in meditation, it becomes a technique. • Unconscious identification, like becoming angry when someone insults your name, is not meditation. Conscious identification, like trying to become one with a rose, can be a meditation technique. • Whatever you do consciously and alertly becomes meditation. Even killing someone consciously and alertly would be meditative. • Nagarjuna demonstrated this by consciously accepting a golden begging bowl from a queen and then throwing it out to meet a thief. He showed the thief that one can meditate while still continuing one’s profession. One does not have to leave everything to proceed in meditation.

So in summary, identification becomes meditative and spiritual when done consciously and alertly. Unconscious identification is the only “sin”. But conscious identification, like becoming one with a rose or master, can be a useful technique. Empathy, when done consciously, is meditative.

This technique involves stopping suddenly in the midst of any activity or impulse to do something. When you suddenly stop all activity and movement, a gap is created between your body which has momentum and wants to continue moving, and your inner self which has stopped.

In that gap, you can become aware of your inner self, the center of your being, as separate from the body and its movements and actions. But you must stop completely, without allowing your body and its desires or comfort to influence the stopping. If you make any movements or adjustments to make yourself more comfortable in stopping, you defeat the purpose.

Gurdjieff taught this technique by having students dance and then suddenly yell “Stop!” Students had to stop immediately, wherever they were in the dance, frozen like statues. If done fully without cheating or adjustment, this sudden halting of movement led to a gap between body and inner self that allowed students to become aware of their inner centers for the first time.

The key is to stop without preparing or adjusting, so there is a shock that splits your previously united body and self. In that split second of frozen shock, you can become aware of your inner self as separate from the body. But if you cheat or cooperate with the body’s demands in stopping, no gap will arise and you’ll miss the experience of separation from the body-mind.

So the core of this technique is to be able to stop completely and instantly, at any moment or impulse to do something, without compromising or adjusting for the body’s momentum or desires. If done fully, this stopping technique can lead to a glimpse of one’s inner, separate self.

• This technique involves suddenly stopping your activity and becoming inactive. • Inactivity cannot actually be practiced or planned. It must be sudden and unrehearsed. If you try to practice being inactive, it just becomes another activity. • When you suddenly stop an activity, it throws you off balance and leads you to your center. Your attention moves away from the periphery and goes to the core. • We are usually constantly active, moving from one activity to another. But sometimes in dangerous situations, activities suddenly stop and we become aware and focused. This can provide a glimpse into meditation and being at the center. • The key is to suddenly stop without any preparation or adjustment. Do not make any effort to stop - just stop instantly. This can give you a flash of insight into your inner self. • A master or group situation can help facilitate this sudden stopping. It is hard to suddenly stop yourself with full effectiveness. A master’s command can be more impactful. • Accidents or other emergencies often lead to sudden stops in the mind. But you have to be attentive and aware for these sudden stops to have a meditative effect. If you start crying or worrying, you have missed the opportunity. You must remain aware and focused on the present moment. • Dangers and thrills have an appeal because they lead the mind to suddenly stop, which provides a glimpse of meditation. The techniques help you get the same effect but without the danger. • The key is that the stopping must be sudden and without preparation or planning. That is the only way it works. If prepared for, it becomes just another activity.

• Stop acting on your impulses or urges. When you have an impulse to do something, stop instead of acting on it.

• Stopping your impulse will release subtle energy that usually gets expended when you act on the impulse. This energy will flow inward instead.

• For example, when you feel the urge to sneeze coming on, stop instead of sneezing. The energy that would have been released outward in the sneeze will flow inward. You will feel subtle relaxation.

• The same is true for other urges like wanting to eat, drink, or have sex. Stopping the impulse releases the energy inward.

• This technique works best when the impulse is authentic and real, not just habit or boredom. If the impulse isn’t real, stopping won’t do anything.

• It is hard for us today to determine what impulses are real because we are so conditioned to be inauthentic. We act in false ways and pretend to feel things we don’t really feel. We have to unlearn this conditioning to benefit from this technique.

• The ultimate point of this practice is to allow the unknown to happen by stopping our habitual reactions and unleashing a new flow of energy. We open ourselves to uncharted territory.

That covers the main points about using the technique of stopping impulses to allow subtle energy to flow inward and open yourself to the unknown. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

The technique suggests that when a desire arises, consider it objectively without interpretation or judgment. Look at the desire as a fact, as it is. Do not label it as good or bad based on your conditioning, teachings, or past experiences. Every desire is new and unique.

Consider the desire in its purity, as a fact of the present moment. Remain attentive to it without bringing in thoughts or ideas which are all borrowed and not original. Look at the desire directly, as if you know nothing about it. Face it and encounter it without judgment. This is difficult because the mind is constantly interpreting based on the past. But try to remain aloof and just observe the desire.

Then, suddenly quit it. Drop the desire abruptly. Do not give in to it or act on it. Let it go and remain still, waiting for what happens next. In that gap, you may get a glimpse of your inner self.

The technique suggests being aware of desires as they arise, observing them objectively, then dropping them suddenly. This can reveal your inner center. The mind is conditioned by the past, so it constantly interprets and reacts based on the past. The technique encourages living in the present moment rather than acting based on interpretation, conditioning, and borrowed ideas. Face the desire as a fact, then drop it abruptly. In the stillness that follows, you may find a glimpse of the inner self.

The technique involves exhausting yourself through vigorous physical activity and then dropping to the ground in a spontaneous, unplanned manner, while maintaining awareness and wholeness of your body. The key steps are:

1. Engage in intense physical activity like running, jumping, and dancing until you feel utterly exhausted. Do not stop when your mind tells you that you are tired. Continue until your body cannot take another step.

2. Drop to the ground in a spontaneous, unrehearsed way. Do not plan how or where you will drop. Just let your body drop as a whole unit once exhaustion hits.

3. As you drop, remain aware and feel your whole body as one. Do not let your mind fragment the dropping into planned, controlled movements. Drop with your whole being.

4. Remain in the dropped position, maintaining awareness and wholeness. Do not move into a comfortable sitting or lying position. Stay as you dropped.

5. Through this dropping, a sense of unity and wholeness arises. The mind is transcended as the body acts as a whole. Awareness remains present, witnessing the spontaneous movement and dropping of the body.

The key is pushing the body to total exhaustion and then dropping in a unplanned, spontaneous way while remaining aware, so that a sense of the body’s wholeness can manifest. The mind is transcended in the process as the witnessing awareness remains.

• To be authentic means to be totally factual, without distortions from ideologies, theories, isms, etc. These give you a false persona and you become less alive, enacting a role rather than being your real self.

• A child left to himself would be authentic like an animal, but would not become human. We have to cultivate children to make them human, but this process makes them inauthentic and split between their animal self and social self.

• Meditation techniques can undo this conditioning and allow one to become authentic in a higher sense, transcending the split between animal and human.

• Humans are divided between their biological inheritance (animal self) and their social conditioning (human self). This creates tension, dishonesty, and inauthenticity.

• Animals are authentically themselves but have no possibility of transcendence or becoming God. They simply are what they are without choice.

• Humans can transcend this split through meditation and become authentically divine, not just authentically animal. But without meditation, humans remain divided and inauthentic.

• Permissiveness and free expression of emotions alone do not make one authentic. Authenticity requires transcending the split between animal and human selves, not just freely expressing the animal self. Meditation is needed to achieve authenticity in the higher sense.

• Western youth may be more permissive in expressing emotions, but this alone does not make them more authentic. Authenticity requires transcending the split between the natural/animal self and the social self through meditation, not just expressing one side of the split. Both repression and permissiveness lead to inauthenticity without transcendence of the split.

So in summary, neither repression nor permissiveness alone creates authenticity. Authenticity in the higher sense requires transcending the split between the animal and human, which can only be achieved through meditative techniques, not through ideology or permissiveness alone. Expression and repression are both limited without transcendence.

• Only humans can be untrue or inauthentic. Animals are bound by their nature to be authentic. For humans, being authentic is an achievement because we have the freedom and consciousness to choose to be untrue.

• Choosing to be authentic is difficult because the mind seeks the path of least resistance, which is often inauthenticity and deception. It is easy to lie and create facades. To be truly authentic requires effort and sacrifice.

• With human consciousness comes freedom and choice, but also difficulties and anxieties. We can choose to deceive, which introduces the untrue and false. This is a “necessary evil” that comes with human evolution and growth.

• Humans cannot achieve the same simple authenticity as animals. But we can choose an authenticity that is conscious and aware. This is what separates humans from animals.

• The author considers whether Western youth are becoming more authentic. In a sense yes, because they are revolting against social conditioning, but they are revolting downward toward the animal authenticity of sex and violence. This is the “easiest course.” Eastern youth have a false facade of cultivated phoniness. Neither alternative is ideal.

• True authenticity, like that of the Buddha, involves revolting upward through consciousness toward a higher unity. This is the deepest and most revolutionary revolt.

• To achieve authenticity, one must know the facts of one’s inner state, not just ideas and principles. One must observe one’s interpretations and concerns to dig out the underlying facts, then change can happen. Fictions cannot be changed, only facts.

• Examples are given of considering one’s attitudes toward a servant versus a boss, and toward one’s disobedient child. We must dig beneath interpretations to discover whether we feel truly concerned or just insulted and hurt. This reveals the facts that can then be changed.

That covers the main points around authenticity, choice, and humans versus animals discussed in the passage. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Do not think about renouncing or quitting anything, instead focus on understanding things in their totality. Understanding, not renunciation, is the key to transformation.
• You feel uneasy after trying to quit anger, sex, etc. because your consideration of them was not total. You do not fully understand them.
• You want to quit anger, sex, etc. because you have been taught they are bad, not because you personally understand them as bad. This creates a split in you and guilt.
• Ask yourself if thinking something is bad is your own realization or just what others have told you. Follow your own nature, not others’ ideas.
• No one teaches you how to actually understand anger, sex, etc. They just label them as good or bad. This creates misery.
• Remain with the facts of your inner life. Do not see yourself through others’ eyes. Use your own eyes to consider and understand your actual experiences.
• If you do not understand something fully, quitting it will feel like subtle repression. Understanding must come first.

In summary, focus on understanding your actual experiences, not on labeling them as good or bad based on what others say. Look at the facts of your inner life with your own eyes. Understanding, not renunciation, is the path to transformation.

• It is difficult to stop an impulse when it is authentic and you are unaware. It is easier to stop an impulse when it is inauthentic and you are aware.

• When an impulse like anger is real, it has energy. If you can stop it, that energy will turn inward. But when an impulse is false, stopping it has no meaning or benefit.

• Rather than trying to be aware of intense impulses like anger directly, start by being aware of and stopping easier things, like walking. Build up awareness and the ability to stop through small, gradual steps.

• Start by being aware of and stopping small, simple actions. Then work your way up to being aware of and able to stop more complex and emotionally charged impulses. Develop awareness and impulse control gradually through practice.

• The key is to start small and build up awareness through regular practice. Do not jump right into trying to control intense anger or other powerful impulses. Lay the groundwork through simple exercises, and awareness and mastery will grow over time.

• Start with simple, easy things and build up gradually to more complex things. Do not jump straight into difficult things. Start with ordinary actions like walking, bathing, feeling thirst or hunger. Even interrupt yourself in the middle of sentences or stories. Use small, mechanical habits and disrupt them with awareness.

• Only move on to more complex things like anger or sex once you have mastered easier things. The mind will trick you into going for difficult things first so you fail and give up. Take gradual steps.

• Techniques like meditation or the grace of a master are also gradual processes. Grace is not given but received through surrender, which itself is a technique that requires practice. Do not assume surrender is easy. It requires deep awareness and the feeling of helplessness, not laziness.

• There are three types of distance: in space, in time, and in love. Space and time distances can be overcome through love. You can be near an enlightened master through love, even if separated by space and time. But without love, you remain distant even if physically close.

• Ultimately, all these methods are techniques to build awareness and surrender. Continuous practice of the techniques, experiencing helplessness, and total surrender to a master are required to achieve inner transformation.

Here are the key points from the passage:

1. For Tantra, the mind itself is the disease, not just a disturbed mind. The mind cannot be treated, it must be transcended. This contrasts with Western psychology which views the mind as capable of being healthy and aims to treat unhealthy minds and bring them to normal.

2. If there is no transcendence possible, beyond the mind, then there can be no transcendence. The mind must be seen as limited for transcendence to be possible.

3. The average, normal mind is seen as simply ‘normally ill’ in the Eastern view. Even the genius mind would be seen this way. All minds are limited and ill.

4. The body and mind can never be perfectly healthy because they are impermanent and constantly changing, aging, and dying. Health is at best a relative concept.

5. The mind is a bridge between contradictions - the material and non-material, the body and spirit. This makes it fundamentally tense and anxious. This is the root anxiety, deeper than day to day worries.

6. Becoming aware of this root anxiety is what leads to a religious realization, as with Buddha. Ordinary anxieties and worries obscure this deeper realization of the mind’s anxious nature.

7. The mind bridges life and death, the visible and invisible, dying and non-dying. This constant bridging of contradictions creates tension and anxiety.

That covers the essence of the key concepts and arguments around why the mind itself is viewed as ill in the Eastern tantric view, as conveyed in the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to explain anything in the summary in more depth.

Buddha’s first encounter with death led him to ask himself whether he too was prone to death. This realization created anxiety in him about the uncertainty and impermanence of life.

The mind is a process, not a thing. It is constantly moving between the past and the future, creating tension. We try to escape this tension through distractions and occupations. When the mind is unoccupied, as in meditation, we become aware of the turbulent processes in the mind and experience anxiety.

The mind is created by society and conditioning. Different societies create different minds. Because the mind is conditioned by the past, it is always orthodox, while life is always changing. This gap between the old mind and new situations creates anxiety and restlessness.

There are two ways to deal with the restless mind: one can either treat the mind through methods like psychoanalysis, or one can transcend the mind altogether through spiritual practices like meditation. The latter, while more difficult, is the only way to attain real peace and freedom from anxiety.

So in summary, our conditioned, discursive mind, rooted in the past but confronted with an ever-changing, impermanent world, is the basic cause of existential anxiety and suffering. Transcending the mind is the only way to go beyond this anxiety.

Here are the key points in the passage:

1. The mind is always concerned with arranging and making things normal and less unhappy. But real happiness lies in going beyond the mind.

2. The East has focused more on how to go beyond the mind rather than developing a psychology of the mind like in the West. The interest has been in finding the “door” out of the mind rather than mapping the details of the “room.”

3. Going beyond the mind, even for a moment, changes one’s quality of consciousness. One realizes the infinite sky beyond and the mind becomes just a “room” to be used rather than a prison.

4. One method for going beyond the mind is imagining you are gradually losing all energy and dying. At the point you feel completely deprived of strength, transcend - become the observer watching the body. With no mind, there is a transcendence of consciousness.

5. If we knew we only had an hour to live, thinking and planning would drop away. The mind is concerned with the past or future, not the present moment. Meditation requires being in the present, not worrying about the “tomorrow.”

6. Letting death “creep in” through feeling each part of the body become dead and heavy allows one to transcend the mind. Looking at the body then, it will not seem like “your” body. The mind creates the feeling of being “in” the body. Without the mind, there is simply consciousness, with no sense of “in” or “out.”

7. This meditation of imagining dying and transcending the mind can be a beautiful way to reach a gap between one’s sense of identity and the body. Consciousness stands as a witness, apart from the body which the mind usually makes one feel attached to and “in.”

That covers the main points around using the imagination of dying and transcending the mind as a meditation technique according to the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Devotion refers to a feeling-oriented, heart-centered orientation, rather than an intellectual one. It implies a surrendering of the ego to something greater.

• For devotion to be authentic, the object of devotion must remain unproven and mysterious. If something can be proven logically, then there is no need for devotion or trust. Devotion implies a “leap of faith” into the unknown.

• Love and devotion are similar in that they transcend reason and logic. When one “falls in love,” one surrenders one’s head and allows oneself to become irrational. Even very intellectual and logical people will start speaking in “baby talk” when in love.

• The language of devotion and love is the language of poetry, rhythm and flow rather than concepts and logic. It taps into a more primal part of human consciousness.

• No orientation - intellectual vs. devotional - is inherently higher or lower. They are just different paths that suit different people. One must find the path that aligns with one’s innate tendencies.

• By surrendering one’s ego and logical mind to something greater through devotion, one can achieve an inner freedom. The logical mind always creates separation and duality, whereas devotion unites and makes one feel whole.

That covers the main points around devotion, love and transcending the logical mind according to the explanation. Please let me know if you would like me to explain anything in the summary in more depth.

• Love enables a deep connection between two people where words become unnecessary. True lovers can communicate in silence.

• As love deepens, the ego dissolves and one feels a sense of oneness with the beloved. The beloved becomes the center of one’s world.

• At its deepest, love can lead to devotion where one loses oneself completely in the beloved. The devotee makes the beloved the sole meaning and purpose of life.

• Whether the beloved is real or imagined is irrelevant for the devotee. What matters is the total surrender of the devotee. This surrender purifies and transforms the devotee.

• For the devotee, the ego is the root of all impurity and madness. When the ego dissolves through devotion, the devotee transcends the sense of “I” and “you”. There is only consciousness of the beloved.

• One can truly live for another only if one is willing to die for the other. Life gains meaning through death. Love gives one glimpses of this truth.

• In short, ge is of no use if one wants to experience the deepest mysteries of love and devotion. Reason and ego block the path to this transcendence. Only by losing oneself can one find the deepest truths of existence.

The key points in the response are:

1. Love is a state of being, not an act or effort. It is not something you do, but something you are.

2. Thinking of love in terms of relationship or as something to be done for a certain period of time leads to frustration and conflict. Rather, love should be thought of as a state of mind, like breathing.

3. A loving state of mind is not focused on any particular person. It is unfocused and unconditional, like the way we breathe. We breathe around both friends and enemies. Similarly, in a loving state of mind, we are simply loving - not loving any particular person.

4. For those who are usually in a state of hate or anger, love requires effort and seems unnatural. For those established in a loving state of mind, the opposite emotions require effort.

5. The key is to fill the present moment with love. We only have one moment at a time, so there is no need to think about loving for a whole day or lifetime. By loving in the present moment, we move into eternity, beyond time.

6. Loving in the present moment is the secret to being loving. The past and future are non-existent; only the present moment exists. So we must learn to enter each moment with love.

7. In summary, love should be a natural state of unfocused and unconditional mindfulness or presence, not an effort to love any particular person or for any particular period of time. By loving in each present moment, this state becomes eternal.

• Time is an illusion. There is only an eternal now, an “atomic now” that is always the same. We perceive time passing, but pure time always remains the same.

• Thinking requires time, but living or being does not. We cannot think in the present moment; as soon as we think, the moment has passed. We can only be in the present moment. Thinking is concerned with the past or future, not the now.

• Love and meditation allow us to experience timelessness by ceasing thought. When we are with a lover or meditating, we are not thinking - we simply are. Constant thinking prevents us from being fully present in the now.

• Fear and a sense of being in danger create hatred. We feel hatred when we feel our existence is threatened. Love cannot exist with fear.

• We seek love and relationships to escape fear and feel needed, secure, and less alone. Love gives the illusion that our life has purpose and meaning, at least to another person. But this type of love is based on mutual illusion and codependence.

• True love comes from realizing we are not separate from existence, but one with it. We do not need private illusions or another person to give life meaning. Fear and death cannot threaten us because we are one with something eternal.

• This realization of oneness comes through meditation, where we become an opening and feel connected to existence. Love then flows effortlessly, like breathing, with no need to be constantly aware of it or prove it. It grows into devotion.

• You are currently identified with your body. You may have notions of an immortal soul, but that is just an idea. As of now, you are your body.

• Beliefs in an afterlife are based in fear of death. The older and weaker you become, the more you cling to such beliefs. But believing is not the same as knowing through direct experience.

• Tantra accepts the body as it is, rather than condemning it. It sees the body as a vehicle for spiritual growth. Other traditions that condemn the body create inner divisions and conflicts.

• Tantra starts from where you are now, which is in the body. It sees no sense in starting from where you could be. So it accepts the body and sexuality, and sees them as a source of energy for spiritual development.

• You are focused on the body your whole life - being born, living, aging, dying, loving, and reproducing. So why reject the body? Tantra sees the body as sacred and a means for going beyond it.

• Fighting against the body creates disease and prevents you from using it as a vehicle for spiritual growth. It is like fighting against the car that could transport you. Tantra transforms the energies of the body rather than fighting them.

• Sex energy, for example, can be transformed and directed to spiritual dimensions. Other traditions that reject sex energy get stuck, but Tantra sees it as a source of power for spiritual awakening.

• In summary, you are now your body, so work with it rather than against it. Accept it, understand its energies, and transform those energies through spiritual practice. That is the path of Tantra.

Here are the main points in the summary:

1. Love becomes attachment when there is no real love. We delude ourselves into thinking we are in love when we are actually seeking attachment and bondage.

2. We fear being alone and free. We seek attachment to escape our loneliness and boredom with ourselves. We create artificial meanings through our attachments and relationships.

3. We desire attachment and bondage but cannot directly ask for it. So we express it in the language of love. Once the desire for attachment is fulfilled, the love disappears.

4. The mind oscillates between extremes. When alone, we seek bondage. When in bondage, we seek freedom. Only slaves long for freedom, and the free seek to be slaves again.

5. Real love never becomes attachment. Attachment arises from possessing another and making them into a thing. By possessing another, we also become possessed by them. This leads to struggle as we seek to possess while retaining our freedom.

6. Possession should not come between two individuals. We can come together and merge while remaining free and independent. Then there is no bondage or attachment.

7. Attachment means losing our aloneness, independence and self. We sacrifice everything just to feel needed by another who is with us. But we also try to possess the other while remaining independent ourselves.

8. Do not possess if you do not wish to be possessed. Possessiveness leads to attachment and loss of freedom. Remain free individuals coming together out of love, not bondage.

That covers the main highlights from the passage on why love becomes attachment, the mechanism of attachment, and how to avoid it by retaining one’s freedom and individuality. Please let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of the summary.

• The eyes are the least bodily part of the human body and the nearest to one’s inner being. They are a meeting point between the body and consciousness.

• Because of this, the eyes can be used to take an inner journey and glimpse one’s true nature. One single step from the eyes can lead to the source.

• If one knows how to look into someone else’s eyes, one can see into their depths. This is because the other person’s being is most present in their eyes. However, this requires first knowing how to look within one’s own eyes.

• Only in love can people gaze into each other’s eyes for long. Otherwise, prolonged eye contact feels like a trespass into the other’s individuality and freedom.

• The eyes are the light of the face and give it aliveness. Blind people tend to have a “dead” face and be more secretive. For those with eyes, their eyes often betray secrets they are trying to hide.

• The eyes are the hardest part of the body to control because they are involuntary. Even subtle feelings of attraction or suppression will show in the eyes. The pupils will even expand when seeing something pleasant.

• In summary, the eyes are a crucial entry point for glimpsing one’s inner nature and the inner nature of others. But they must be trained and controlled.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points about the eyes discussed in the passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

1. Close your eyes and stop their movement. Closing your eyes is not enough, you must stop the movement of the eyes. This takes practice and time.

2. With practice, you can see your inner being and your true nature. This allows you to look within yourself, like looking inside a room rather than just outside the walls.

3. This technique allows you to look from the inside of your body, rather than just seeing it from the outside. This can transform your consciousness and sense of identity.

4. Once you can look within and move your consciousness around your body, you gain freedom and a new perspective. Your body becomes just a vehicle for your true self.

5. With practice, you can move your consciousness deeply into any part of your body. This allows for a master’s touch, penetrating insight, and a deeper analysis of yourself and others. Much can be revealed that you were previously unaware of.

6. The usual analyses of the surface mind can take years. The Eastern approach through the eyes is a more direct path to the depths. A master can see and reveal much more about you, even that which you do not know about yourself.

So in summary, stopping the movement of the eyes and looking within is a powerful technique for gaining a deeper knowledge of yourself and others, transforming your sense of identity, and developing insight and freedom. With practice, it allows you to operate from a much deeper place within yourself.

The technique instructs you to close your eyes and see your inner being in detail. First, become aware of your physical body from within. Observe it totally from your inner center until you realize you are separate from your body. Then move into your mind and observe your thoughts and feelings. Witness them and go deeper until you move beyond your mind.

At this point, you reach your innermost core, your true self or inner witness. This witnessing self cannot be observed or penetrated. It is your eternal and irreducible nature. Logically, it is difficult to comprehend this witnessing self because language and logic function only in the realm of duality, while the witnessing self is non-dual.

To practice this technique, close your eyes and stop their movement. Still your eyes until you have a glimpse inside. With practice, you can easily still your eyes and turn them inward, where you’ll discover your true nature - which is beyond your body and mind. This discovery of your innermost core happens before physical death. For Buddha, this meant moving beyond the body before actual death, achieving a state of cessation referred to as nirvana.

In summary, the technique instructs you to turn your gaze inward in meditation, observe your body and mind, go beyond them to discover your eternal witnessing self or true nature, and achieve a state of cessation or nirvana.

Here is a summary of the technique in four parts:

1. Look at an object as a whole: Focus on an object, look at it as a whole, a single unit. Do not divide it into parts or fragments and look at those fragments. Look at the totality, the wholeness of the object.

2. Do not focus on the material: Do not focus on what the object is made of, its substance or material. Focus only on its form, its shape. Forget about the material and simply observe the form.

3. Stare at the object: Keep staring at the object, do not move your eyes. Keep them fixed on the object. This will tire your eyes and prevent them from moving.

4. Become aware of yourself: As your eyes tire of staring at the object, your focus will turn inwards. You will become aware of yourself, your own being. At this point, the object may disappear from your awareness. You have moved from focusing outwards to focusing inwards.

The key is that one cannot focus outwards and inwards, on the object and the self, simultaneously. By tiring your eyes through staring at the object, your focus shifts inwards naturally. This allows you to become aware of your self. Once aware of yourself, the object may disappear from awareness. In that state of self-awareness, the world becomes unreal, like a dream. But when focused outwards, the self seems unreal. One appears real depending on where our focus lies. By using this technique, one can learn to shift one’s focus and become aware of one’s true self.

The key points in the passage are:

1. We become accustomed to the familiar objects and people around us and lose the ability to really look at them. We see them mechanically and habitually without awareness.

2. To use this technique, look at a familiar object or person as if for the first time. Try to see them with fresh, alive, and excited eyes as children do. Look at the details and appreciate them anew.

3. Looking at familiar things and people this way can reveal new insights and details you’ve habitually missed. They are always changing and new in some way. Nothing stays exactly the same.

4. As examples, the passage describes really looking at and seeing one’s spouse, children, or old shoes as if for the first time. This kind of fresh seeing is what artists like Van Gogh employed to create their art.

5. With practice, this kind of fresh seeing can become habit and transform your experience of the world around you. Everything can become new, exciting, and insightful again. Mechanical habit is broken.

So in summary, the technique encourages breaking mechanical habit and seeing the familiar anew through conscious effort and attention. This kind of fresh seeing offers new insights and a revitalized engagement with life. With regular practice, it can become the habitual way of seeing.

• The third eye and the two physical eyes use the same energy. When the energy is not moving through the physical eyes, it can activate the third eye. When the third eye is active, the physical eyes become unseeing.

• The third eye belongs to the subtle body, not the physical body. It allows us to perceive the subtle world, including spirits and souls, that is invisible to the physical eyes.

• Staring at a fixed point without moving the eyes helps activate the third eye by blocking the energy flow through the physical eyes. When the energy can no longer move through the physical eyes, it finds a new path through the third eye.

• An active third eye allows us to perceive things beyond the physical senses, including a sense of impending death or other future events. Medical science can only make educated guesses about such things based on physical symptoms, but the third eye provides direct access to the subtle realm.

• In summary, techniques of static gazing that freeze the movement of the physical eyes can help redirect our energy to activate the third eye, allowing access to the subtle world beyond the physical. The third eye and physical eyes use the same energy, so blocking one activates the other.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key ideas and explanations around the relationship between the physical eyes, the third eye, subtle perception, and techniques of static gazing? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• The third eye allows one to perceive subtle energies and realities that are not visible to the physical eyes. One can see auras, radiations, and gain insight into the future or a person’s true nature.

• Advanced spiritual practitioners and masters were said to be able to see a person’s time of death or determine if someone was ready for spiritual initiation by viewing their aura. A person’s words and desires did not matter as much as what was revealed through the third eye.

• Buddha reportedly resisted initiating women for years because a woman’s aura was said to drastically change during menstruation in a way that disrupted spiritual practice and attainment. Other spiritual leaders like Mahavira believed women had to be reborn as men to attain liberation. Tantra was unique in believing women could achieve enlightenment and used methods to help them detach from their physical bodies.

• Stimulating the third eye through meditation or other methods could produce sensations of heat, warmth or even burning at the third eye area. This was because energy was moving through and activating this area in new ways. Sometimes the physical area around the third eye would become inflamed or irritated as well. Methods were devised to soothe this area like applying sandalwood paste. In rare cases, holes were said to form at the third eye spot.

• The author cites skulls found in Mexico and Tibet with holes at the third eye spot that seem to have been made by bullet holes. This is given as evidence that mankind may have originated from another planet. The perfected structure of these ancient skulls also suggests mankind did not evolve in the way Darwin proposed, as there are no intermediate skull structures found between humans and apes.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key ideas and events described in the passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Practitioners of psychic sciences like hypnotism often have tense, fearful eyes because they forcibly concentrate their energy in their eyes in order to influence and dominate others. This causes their eyes to become flooded with energy and tense.

• Powerful, magnetic eyes can be used to dominate others, as evidenced by figures like Rasputin, who dominated Russia through his eyes. Hunters and thieves also often develop powerful eyes.

• It is useless and wasteful to try to dominate others. The only useful thing is to dominate yourself. Dominating others is black magic, while dominating yourself is white magic.

• Although enlightened beings like Buddha do not try to dominate others, their powerful presence can have a dominating effect. However, unlike black magicians, they encourage others to be their own masters.

• Ouspensky studied under the influential spiritual teacher Gurdjieff for 10 years. When Ouspensky was on the verge of awakening, Gurdjieff started behaving strangely towards him so that Ouspensky would leave of his own accord. This was done out of compassion, so Ouspensky could continue progressing on his own.

• In summary, trying to dominate others through psychic or magnetic powers is black magic and causes harm. True spiritual teachings aim to help individuals become their own masters. Enlightened beings may have a powerful influence, but they encourage independence and self-mastery in others.

• The mind and body are not separate, they are two aspects of the same energy. What affects one aspect will affect the other.

• Physiological processes influence the mind. Mental processes influence the body. They are interdependent.

• Examples: Taking alcohol or drugs affects the mind. Fasting affects the mind. Sexual thoughts affect the body.

• The James-Lange theory proposes that bodily reactions cause the emotions, not the other way around. For example, we feel fear because we run away, not that we run away because we feel fear.

• An example from Japan: Teaching children to take deep breaths when angry makes it difficult to remain angry. The breathing prevents the anger from being expressed physically, and it shifts the mind’s focus away from the anger.

• The mind and body are interdependent. Controlling one aspect will influence the other aspect.

• We typically live on the surface of ourselves, focused on our senses and outward objects. But our consciousness is deep within us at our center.
• Senses are meant to engage with outward objects, so when we live through our senses we are primarily concerned with external things for enjoyment or experience. For example, our eyes need something external to see.
• Several methods are suggested to go beyond the surface senses:

1. Look into the blue sky beyond the clouds. This can induce a serene state.

2. Look steadily into the depths of a deep well without blinking. This can reveal the wondrousness.

3. Look at an object, then slowly withdraw your sight and thought from it. Then…(implying a transcendence of sight and thought).

• The key is to not imagine or anticipate, but to simply do the technique and wait for things to unfold without jumping ahead. If you really transcend the senses, you will be transformed in a way that cannot be hidden from others. But many people imagine transcendent experiences without really changing.

• True spiritual experiences transform you. You cannot remain the same person as before. Your consciousness has shifted in a profound way.

The main ideas are that we typically live through our surface senses, but deeper transcendent experiences of consciousness are possible by withdrawing our focus from the senses. We shouldn’t imagine these experiences, but should do meditative techniques and allow a genuine unfolding and transformation of our being. The results of true spiritual progress cannot be faked and will be evident in how we live our lives.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key ideas and concepts discussed in the passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand my summary in any way.

• Consciousness resides at the center. The senses are at the boundary of our being. The objects we perceive are beyond the boundary.

• The senses act as a bridge between consciousness and the outside world. We can direct our senses inward to our center or outward to objects. The distance to reach either is the same.

• We tend to direct our senses outward because we have needs and desires that can only be fulfilled in the outside world. Unless we develop an inner need, we will not turn within.

• Becoming aware of death creates the need to look inward. Only humans can comprehend death, which is why only humans pursue religion and spiritual matters. If we do not contemplate death, we live at an animal level of awareness.

• Death is certain, though our minds resist accepting how close it really is. It could happen at any moment. Though it seems far off, when it happens it will always be the very next moment. We must focus on death as an imminent possibility to truly contemplate it.

• Contemplating death helps us turn inward, away from solely fulfilling outward bodily needs and desires. It creates the inner need and quest for meaning that fuels spiritual seeking.

That covers the key points conveyed regarding turning inward through awareness of death and creating an inner need. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

1. Death: Constantly contemplate death and bring it near. This will help you focus on the present moment and see life as a whole. Most people never think of death and go on creating false meanings and purposes to keep living without seeing the meaninglessness of it all.

2. Meaning: Keep searching for real meaning in your life. Most people create artificial meanings and purposes to keep going without realizing life has no meaning. People get absorbed in the pursuit of worldly things like money, status, family, etc. to create meaning but these are all illusions. True meaning comes only through self-realization and inner bliss independent of external factors.

3. Learn: Learn through your life experiences. Most people repeat the same mistakes and stupidities over and over without learning. Life moves in a vicious circle and people cling to worldly pursuits without learning or growing. To progress, one must observe one’s life patterns and learn from experiences to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Scriptures and knowledge are useless without learning from one’s own life.

In summary, to turn inward one must constantly contemplate death to gain perspective, search for real meaning through self-realization rather than worldly pursuits, and learn from one’s life experiences to grow spiritually. Only by breaking free of illusions and learning life’s hard lessons can one progress inwardly.

The key message is that true knowledge and freedom come from within, through self-reflection and direct experience. Some techniques to help facilitate this include:

1. Look into the limitless sky: Gaze into the open, empty sky. Don’t think or judge, just observe. This helps calm the mind and gives a glimpse of infinite, boundless awareness.

2. Listen in silence when the master teaches: When the master shares their mystical teachings, remain silent with full attention and receptivity. Do not move the eyes or blink. Become like an “empty ear” - open, passive, thoughtless. In that silent stillness, the teaching can penetrate to the core and spark awakening.

3. Freedom comes from a silent, thought-free mind: True freedom is freedom from the mind and thoughts. It arises when the mind becomes still and silent. The master’s teaching is meant to spark that inner silence and stillness.

4. Techniques appear simple but require practice: The techniques seem easy to do but will not necessarily produce results immediately. It requires patience, practice, and the right mental attitude. If done mechanically, nothing may happen. But with the remembrance of ultimate meaning, learning, and death, these techniques can be transformative.

5. You must desire freedom and be willing to let go: To achieve freedom, one must truly desire it and be willing to let go of attachments and go deep into self-understanding. It requires jumping out of old patterns and seeing beyond mundane existence. By reflecting on life and learning from experiences, one can gain insight into the nature of bondage and freedom.

That covers the main highlights and messages I found in the passage on techniques for turning inward. Please let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of the summary.

• Techniques for enlightenment seem simple but require the right conditions and preparation to work. Without the proper preparation, the techniques will not lead to enlightenment.

• Lin Chi became enlightened after waiting patiently for six years in the presence of his master. One day, his master looked into Lin Chi’s eyes and laughed, leading Lin Chi to realize that the world is just a joke and there is no bondage. Enlightenment can happen in unexpected ways and at unexpected times.

• A Zen nun became enlightened upon hearing the sound of bamboo breaking and pots falling while carrying water. The right conditions were present for her enlightenment in that moment.

• One technique for enlightenment is to look steadily into the depths of a well until you feel wonder and amazement. Looking into the depths of the well causes your mind to become still and the depths of the well are reflected within you. When thoughts stop, enlightenment can happen.

• Chuang Tzu looked at a flowing river from a bridge for months until the river stopped and the bridge started flowing. His fixed notions dissolved and he realized everything is relative and always changing. The bridge only appeared static relative to the flowing river but was actually also flowing at an atomic level, just too fast to perceive. With the dissolution of fixed mind, enlightenment became possible.

• The main ideas are that enlightenment requires the right preparation and conditions, can happen in unexpected ways, involves the dissolution of the fixed mind and limited perspectives, and leads to realizations of the relative and impermanent nature of the world. Simple techniques can have profound effects when performed with the proper mindset and understanding.

I see. So based on what you have said, if I do not feel a natural affinity for faith or emotion, then intellectual techniques that utilize doubt and logic may be more suitable for me. Techniques that require belief and devotion may not resonate as deeply. If I proceed in an authentic way using methods that suit my innate tendencies, then faith or emotion may arise as a consequence rather than being forced.

• Mahavira and Buddha were intellectuals who emphasized logical reasoning and experience over faith. They said not to believe in God or spiritual leaders, but to experiment and find truth through direct experience.

• Different spiritual paths and techniques suit different individual temperaments. Some are more intellectual while others are more devotional. One should choose a path suited to one’s own temperament to avoid confusion and self-deception.

• It is easy to be conditioned into a religion from birth without conscious choice. But true religion requires conscious choice based on one’s own experience and understanding. One must rebel against conditioning to find one’s own path.

• Though different paths may seem contradictory, they can lead to the same truth. There are as many paths as there are individuals. One creates one’s own path through one’s journey. Consciousness is like the open sky, not a fixed path.

• Buddha focused on death to find eternal, deathless life. He did not see life itself as futile, but a life focused only on what dies as futile. What we usually think of as life is just a journey toward death. True life is beyond death.

• Tantra affirms life but can also use awareness of death to find eternal life beyond death. Death orientation does not contradict a life-affirmative path. Life and death are two sides of the same coin. Awareness of death intensifies one’s experience of life.

So in summary, the key points are: choose a spiritual path based on your own temperament and experience rather than conditioning; different paths can lead to the same truth; Buddha focused on death to find eternal life, not because he saw life itself as futile; and awareness of death can intensify one’s experience of life rather than contradict it. A life-affirmative path like Tantra can incorporate death orientation. Life and death are two sides of the same coin.

• Life that ends in death cannot truly be called life. It is just a gradual dying. We are obsessed with this false notion of life and afraid of death.

• Buddha saw life as a passage between two deaths. Life gives the fruit of death, so death must have been the seed. We feel alive between two deaths but this is just an illusion.

• Buddha focused on death to understand life. Tantra focused on life to understand death. They take opposite approaches but the source is the same.

• Sex and death are deeply interconnected. Many insects die after first intercourse. Man became afraid of sex due to its association with death.

• The myth of Jesus’ virgin birth allowed Christians to believe he could defeat death. If he was born of sex, death would have power over him.

• Death is still unknown and in the future for us. We can only speculate about it. Tantra is more scientific as it focuses on birth which we have experienced.

• To meditate on death, we must access past life memories as Buddha did. But for now, death only happens to others, we remain outsiders.

• We cannot know another’s experience, like tasting a sweet. We can only infer from their words or expression, we lack direct access.

• Buddha and Mahavira used the technique of jati smaran, remembering past lives, to meditate on death. Tantra starts with the knowable - life, sex, birth.

That’s a high-level summary of the key ideas and arguments around life, death, Buddha’s and Tantra’s approaches. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• The mind is constantly active and occupied with external objects and activities. This prevents one from becoming aware of one’s own subtle presence.
• Meditation requires inactivity and silence. One can know oneself only when the mind becomes still and quiet.
• Activity means being engaged with the external world. Inactivity means returning to oneself. One can learn about oneself only in leisure and silence.
• Schools were originally meant for leisure where one could learn. Similarly, one can learn about one’s presence only in leisure and inactivity.
• One’s presence is extremely subtle. It cannot be perceived when one is occupied with gross external activities and objects.
• To perceive one’s presence, one must cease all external activity and be totally present with oneself.
• In many meditation techniques, one is asked to make the body motionless like a dead body. Though this is imagination, it helps. Imagination can affect the body and mind.
• For example, imagining anger can raise one’s pulse rate. Imagining death can lower it. Imagination is not unreal. It can produce real effects.
• Hypnosis demonstrates the power of imagination. One can easily hypnotize a suggestible subject like a child by monotonously suggesting that they are falling into a deep trance and becoming heavy. Within minutes, they will fall asleep, demonstrating the effect of imagination.

In summary, transcending the mind requires ceasing external activity and engagement, becoming totally inactive and present with oneself. Making the body motionless through imagination helps to achieve the needed inactivity and silence. Though imagination, it affects body and mind, demonstrating that it is not unreal or without effect. By ceasing activity and becoming profoundly inactive, one can perceive one’s subtle presence.

• The hypnotic trance is different from ordinary sleep. In this trance, the subject can only hear the voice of the hypnotist and is deaf to all other sounds. The subject will follow the orders of the hypnotist.

• As an experiment, the hypnotist can suggest that a cold stone is a burning coal and put it in the subject’s hand. The subject will react as if it is truly burning them, even suffering real burns, showing the power of imagination. Imagination can have actual physical effects.

• Another experiment is to suggest to the subject that their body is becoming dead and limp. This cuts them off from the physical world and turns their attention inward. From this inward focus, they can observe the inner workings of their body. Ancient medical practices were developed through such inner observations, unlike modern physiology which relies on dissection of dead bodies.

• By observing the body from within while in this trance state, one realizes that they are not the body but the observer. One also realizes that the essence within cannot die. The body may die but the inner self continues. With practice, one can even leave the body for periods and observe it from outside. Having such an out-of-body experience is like being born again with a profoundly new perspective on life and death.

• The story is told of an astrologer who predicted the author would face death every seven years of life. At age 7 and 14, the author had profound experiences of “dying” for a few days at a time, realizing the inner self does not end. At 14, the author retreated to an abandoned temple for 7 days, waiting for death to come and experiencing a loss of fear and profound calm. Flies and snakes crawled on their unmoving body, but there was no irritation or fear. A distanced, detached perspective resulted from accepting the prospect of impending death.

That covers the main points and sequence of ideas in the passage on hypnotic trances, imagination, and experiencing a kind of inner death. Please let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of the summary.

• The mind is filled with words and thoughts. We become too identified with the mind and think we are the mind. But we exist beyond the mind.

• This identification with the mind is the source of misery. We think we are the shadow (the mind) rather than the real self.

• The mind has been crucial for human survival and progress. So we have become strongly identified with it. We feel offended if our mind is insulted but not if our body is.

• The mind creates an inner division between us and our body. We think of the body’s instincts and desires as separate from us. We try to control and suppress the body.

• The ego identifies with the mind. It feels offended when the body does not obey the mind’s decisions. This creates inner conflict and frustration.

• The mind is just a fragment of our total being. It cannot fully control the body, which creates suffering. We waste our lives trying to do the impossible.

• We need to go beyond identification with the mind to know our real self. Meditation techniques aim at this. We need to silence the mind and its words and thoughts.

• We can meditate by focusing on the inner sound or just being in a silent, inactive state. This helps us transcend the mind.

In summary, we suffer because we wrongly identify with our mind. We need to realize we are more than the mind to know our real being. Meditation can help transcend the mind.

• Words are made up of sounds. Thoughts are made up of words. Philosophies and religions are made up of thoughts. So sounds are the basis of all these higher structures.
• We often get too caught up in philosophies, religions and words. We can even fight or die for them. But they are just made up of sounds that we have given meaning to. The sounds themselves have no inherent meaning.
• Animals and birds use sounds to convey feelings. Before humans developed language, we also used sounds in this way. A baby’s first utterance of “ma” is an expression of feeling, not a word with a fixed meaning.
• The techniques suggests using your imagination to fill your awareness with letters, then move to experiencing them as sounds, and then as the subtle feelings those sounds evoke.
• We are very visual, eye-centered creatures. So it suggests starting by visualizing the letters, then shifting to hearing the sounds, and then feeling.
• When we use language, we often forget the sounds themselves and the feelings they represent. We just see the words. So this exercise aims to uncover those sounds and feelings again.
• The hope is to become less caught up in philosophies and words, and more sensitive to the primal layer of sounds and feelings.

So in summary, the key points are using your imagination to peel away the layers of language to reconnect with the sounds and feelings beneath. The ultimate aim is to realize the emptiness behind all these structures - “leaving them aside, be free.” Reducing attachment and identification with philosophies, beliefs and words can lead to greater openness, sensitivity and freedom.

Does this help summarize the main ideas? Let me know if you have any other questions!

• The poet’s childhood experience with horses gave him an awareness of sounds and feelings that was deeper than words. He communicated with the horses through sounds and could understand their feelings.

• This communication was broken once the poet became self-conscious and aware of himself. The ego came in, and the horse could no longer understand the poet’s feelings. Communication requires a shared feeling and understanding that was lost once the poet’s ego developed.

• To reconnect with this deeper feeling level, one must move past philosophies, thoughts, words, and sounds. One can only leave behind what one is actually in contact with. So one must proceed step by step, first leaving behind more superficial levels before feelings can be transcended.

• Different sounds are associated with different feelings. The science of mantras developed an understanding of these sound-feeling connections. Certain mantras can even bring about death if repeated. So mantras should only be used under the guidance of a master who understands these connections.

• As one descends through sounds to feelings, one’s face becomes more expressive and flexible, dropping the “masks” used in society. A master can see one’s inner experience through the changing expressions of the face. Enlightenment itself need not be reported in words, as the master will recognize it in the disciple.

• The poet’s experience shows how ego development and language disrupt a deeper, pre-verbal connection with reality that children and animals still have access too. Mystical practices aim to rediscover this primal connection beneath the chatter of the mind.

The technique instructs you to feel yourself at the center of sounds. Sit silently and be aware of the sounds around you. Feel all sounds moving towards you in circles, and you being at the center. This feeling of being the center will give you a deep peace.

If near a waterfall, close your eyes and feel the sound falling on you from all sides, creating a center in you. The center has no sound, so you can hear sounds from there. Try to find where in you is the center from which you are hearing sounds.

Relax and allow all sounds to enter you. Move with the sounds to find your center, which is not in the ears. The ears only transmit selected sounds to you. Your real center will surprise you, as it is not in the head. Feel the belly to be the center, as with sounds the head is not the center.

Feeling the center of sounds leads to entering soundlessness. One moment you will hear all sounds, the next moment there is only silence as sounds never reach your center. From that point no sound can disturb you.

The summary outlines the key steps and pointers in the technique, including finding your center as the still point where all sounds converge, allowing all sounds to enter, moving from head to belly as the center, and ultimately transcending sounds to reach silence.

• Someone meditating may seem disturbed by the ringing of bells or gongs, but they are actually waiting for and centering themselves around these sounds. The sounds initially seem disturbing but help the meditator go deeper inside themselves.

• Sounds affect us profoundly, even before birth. Chaotic, disturbing sounds can negatively impact our mental health and development. Harmonious sounds, like music, can have positive impacts. Mantras use meaningless sounds to help us meditate.

• When we plug our ears, we hear the “absence of sound” or the “negative” of all the sounds around us. This is known as the “sound of sounds.” Experiencing complete silence can be frightening but also helps us connect with ourselves.

• Sounds are a vehicle for connecting with others and the outside world. Without sound, we are forced inward, toward our deepest selves. That is why silence and sensory deprivation are used in meditation. They break our bridges to the outside world and leave us with only ourselves.

• People who can communicate well, through speaking or other means, are often able to become leaders. Communication allows us to reach and connect with more people. But silence does the opposite - it cuts us off from others and directs us within.

• Overall, the key ideas are: sounds profoundly impact us; silence forces us inward, toward our deepest selves; and communication with others is a vehicle for connection, while silence fosters self-connection. Meditation uses silence and meaningless sounds to help us go within.

• Man has an animal heritage that makes up 99% of his being. Fighting against this animal nature is futile and causes inner conflict and frustration.

• One should not be negative towards one’s animal nature. It should be accepted and used creatively rather than suppressed.

• Dividing oneself and creating an inner conflict creates psychological hell. Inner wholeness leads to heaven.

• Tantra teaches acceptance of one’s whole being rather than division. It believes in saying yes to life rather than no. Transformation happens through acceptance, not fighting.

• Those who preach non-violence towards others are often violent towards themselves through practices like extreme asceticism. Tantra believes in non-violence towards oneself as well as others.

• Accepting one’s animal nature is the first step to using it creatively. Awareness of this nature rather than suppression is key.

• The animal nature is the past but need not determine the future. It can be harnessed for growth rather than denied.

The key message is that self-acceptance and awareness, rather than self-suppression and inner conflict, are the paths to psychological wholeness and inner transformation. Fighting against one’s fundamental animal nature is futile and damaging. Accepting it allows for it to be harnessed creatively rather than be determinative of one’s future.

• We suppress our unconscious desires and instincts, which creates an inner conflict and false outer behavior.

• A wise person understands and accepts their unconscious instincts, rather than condemning or suppressing them. They can then use those energies creatively.

• We create a false outer structure by suppressing our inner energies. This structure is fragile and can erupt at any moment.

• It is easier to suppress our instincts and create an illusion of change than to actually transform ourselves. Real change requires understanding and using our inner energies creatively.

• Suppressed sex energy turns into hatred and fear of love. A person who suppresses their sex instinct will be afraid of love and intimacy.

• We should understand our inner instincts like sex, anger and greed rather than suppressing or channeling them. Understanding leads to transformation.

• The unconscious mind is created by suppressing our inner instincts and desires. To have a fully conscious mind, we must understand these inner energies.

• We should accept and understand our “animal” instincts. They contain our future potential, just as a seed contains the potential for a tree. Fighting them destroys this potential.

• The body is a miniature of the cosmos. The sex instinct in us corresponds to the creative force in the universe. We should understand rather than suppress this powerful instinct.

• Understanding our inner energies allows us to use them creatively and build an authentic structure, rather than a false facade. This structure cannot be shattered.

That covers the key ideas expressed in the summary. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any of these points.

• Sex is a powerful creative force. If you cannot create something greater, at least create life. If you cannot create anything better than yourself, at least create someone to replace you.

• You do not have to use sex only for reproduction. You can create in other realms - as a poet, painter, musician. When you create in these higher realms, your need for physical sex is reduced because that energy has moved to higher levels.

• The highest creation is the creation of oneself, of one’s consciousness and inner oneness. This is what Buddha achieved. He created the ultimate and had no more need to create anything else.

• Do not try to control your energies and instincts. Trying to control them will only create tension and anguish. Instead, understand them. Understanding, not control, leads to transformation.

• You must accept yourself and your instincts in order to understand them. You cannot understand something if you deny it. You can only see deeply into something you love. Love your inner animal and be grateful to it - it has pushed you to become human and can push you further to become divine.

• Your efforts to control your instincts come from the impotence of your mind and its fear of the power of your instincts. A true master does not become a master through effort. He simply is a master.

• The story shows that effort and thinking do not lead to mastery. The warrior was defeated by the mouse through his efforts and thinking. The cat was defeated by the mouse through thinking about what to do. Mastery comes from simply being, not through effort and thought.

The cat could not explain anything to the other cats about how it caught the mouse. It simply said that it acted as a cat, that was enough. There was no special technique or effort required. If one could achieve the mastery and attitude of such a cat, life would be effortless.

According to Osho, there are no negative sounds or disturbances for an enlightened person. One’s perception of noise and events depends entirely on one’s inner state. If one feels irritated or disturbed, that shows one’s own negativity. The outside world simply mirrors one’s inner world.

Osho gives the example of dogs barking outside the rest house where he was staying. The minister with him could not sleep due to the noise. Osho told him not to resist or fight the barking but to accept it. As soon as the minister accepted the sounds, his perception changed and the barking became a “lullaby” that helped him sleep.

In general, if one feels something negative in the outside world, one should look within to find the cause. We make conditions and expectations and then feel upset when they are not met. We should learn to flow with life rather than fighting against it. Going against the flow of life is like trying to swim upstream. It exhausts us and makes the world seem negative. Flowing with life, we become positive.

Osho says we are afraid of life for three reasons:

1. The ego can only exist by resisting and saying “no.” By accepting and saying “yes,” we lose our ego and sense of separate identity.

2. The mind wants to live in the known and predictable. It is afraid of the unknown. But life is fundamentally unknown and unpredictable.

3. We want to control life, but we cannot. This desire for control also makes us afraid of life. We should accept our basic powerlessness and flow with the life that is greater than us.

In summary, we should cultivate an attitude of acceptance, surrender, and flowing with the greater life around us. This will make us positive and free of fear, irritation, and disturbance. The world will become positive around us as we become positive within.

Okay, I understand. Based on what you have said, it seems the key points are:

1. According to modern physics, for everything that exists in the universe, its opposite or counterpart must also exist to balance it. This is known as the concept of anti-matter. For matter, anti-matter is empty space or a hole in space. For time moving forward from past to future, there must be anti-time moving backward from future to past.

2. Similarly, in our experience, for any concept we can think of, its opposite exists - light and darkness, life and death, man and woman, etc. The opposite provides balance.

3. Applying this to sound and awareness, for the experience of sound or soundfulness, its opposite of silence or soundlessness must exist. Sound cannot exist alone without silence.

4. As one focuses on a sound like Aum, as the sound starts and gradually builds up, one can awaken to the opposites of sound and silence, soundlessness and soundfulness. One can experience the balance of these opposites.

5. Similarly, in listening to music from stringed instruments, one can hear the central “sound” around which all the various musical sounds revolve. This central sound represents omnipresence or total awareness.

6. The experience of total awareness comes from being aware of both sound and silence, both movement and stillness, being awake to the opposites that provide balance in the universe and in our consciousness.

So in summary, you seem to be pointing to how an understanding of the concept of opposites, especially sound and silence, can lead one to an experience of total awareness or omnipresence. By being awake to both sound and silence, soundfulness and soundlessness, one can achieve an enlightened view of balance and wholeness.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points you wanted to convey? Please let me know if I am missing anything or need to clarify my understanding. I found this discussion on opposites and achieving balance through awareness of them to be very insightful.

• Existence is one in the absolute sense but appears as three in the relative sense - the seer, the seen and the relationship between them. This is the ‘Law of Three’.
• The ‘Law of Three’ manifests in many triads - the Christian trinity, the Hindu trimurti, the three subatomic particles, the three aspects of human emotion (satyam, shivam, sunderam), the three aspects of samadhi (sat-chit-ananda).
• The syllable ‘Aum’ represents the ‘Law of Three’. The three sounds ‘a’, ‘u’ and ‘m’ are the three basic sounds which constitute all other sounds. ‘Aum’ stands at the boundary between sound and soundlessness.
• One can describe the absolute using either positive or negative terms. Buddha preferred negative terms like ‘soundlessness’ while Tantra uses positive terms like ‘soundfulness’. Though the terms differ, they point to the same reality.
• For a liberated being, one can say either that he has become everything or that he is nothing. Both mean the same thing. Using the drop-ocean metaphor, one can say either that the drop has become the ocean or that the drop is no more.

So the key ideas are the ‘Law of Three’, the symbolism of ‘Aum’ and the use of either positive or negative terms to describe the absolute.

Okay, I understand. The key points are:

1. Start by intoning the mantra loudly, so you can feel it vibrating in your body. This helps you attune to the sound and develops affection for it.

2. Slowly make the mantra more subtle by reducing the volume. This allows it to penetrate deeper into your being.

3. Increase your alertness as the mantra becomes more subtle. This is important, otherwise you can fall asleep or the mantra becomes mechanical.

4. Continue until the mantra dissolves into silence. At this point, your alertness will be at its peak. This is a profound experience where sound enters “soundfulness” and you enter total awareness.

5. The ultimate aim is for the drop (individual self) to dissolve into the ocean (cosmic consciousness). The Upanishads use positive language to describe this, while Buddha prefers more negative terms like “emptiness” to avoid limiting the infinite. Tantra also prefers positive language.

6. Repeating a mantra in a circular, unchanging way can induce sleep by creating boredom. Excitement and change prevent sleep. Village life was conducive to sleep due to its repetitive nature, unlike modern life.

7. Transcendental meditation uses mantra repetition and can act as a tranquilizer. But without alertness, its effect is limited. Alertness and a subtle mantra are needed to achieve higher states of consciousness.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key ideas discussed regarding using a mantra to achieve an expanded state of awareness? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

The technique suggests using a sound, like a mantra, to transition into a state of alert awareness. As you start or end the sound, focus your attention and “awake” from the sleep-like state we often exist in.

Some key points:

• We are often in a state of “sleepwalking” as we go through our daily lives in a mechanical, unaware manner. Certain techniques, like using sound, can awaken us from this state.

• The moment just before a sound begins or just as it fades away is an opportunity to focus your mind and become aware. Listen closely for these transition points.

• An example is listening to a ringing bell or gong at a temple. Focus your attention just before striking the bell and just as the sound fades. This can awaken your mind.

• Similarly, with a mantra, focus your attention just as you begin to say or think it, and then again just as it fades from your mind. This transition into and out of the sound is the key.

• Sudden, unfamiliar sounds can also awaken us from our “sleep.” The mind focuses attention on new or strange stimuli. Some spiritual teachers may even shout or make sudden noises to startle followers into greater awareness.

• Being in this awakened state, rather than a sleepwalking state, allows us to live more consciously and purposefully. We have greater clarity and insight. The world also appears differently, as we see beyond our mechanical, repetitious lives.

So in summary, the technique is about using sound and the transitions between sound and silence to awaken your mind and become more consciously aware. Focusing attention at these transition points is key. Waking from our usual “sleepwalking” state allows for a clearer, fuller experience of life.

I see. So in essence, all of our outward personas and identities are false constructs that we have built up over time through conditioning and societal pressures. Our true self, or “original face”, is something deeper that can only be accessed through dedicated spiritual practice like meditation.

Some key points to understand:

1. We have repressed our true self through layer upon layer of false constructs, masks, and personas. These are automatic reactions and defense mechanisms that are now so ingrained we hardly recognize them.

2. We have lost touch with our real self, our “original face”. We no longer know who we authentically are underneath all the layers of falsity.

3. Discovering our true self requires dedicated effort and practice. It will not happen automatically or naturally. We must work to peel away the layers of falsity through spiritual practice.

4. Meditation is one of the key practices for discovering our real self. It helps us become aware of the repressed layers within us and unburden ourselves of them. By silencing the mind and ego, we can access deeper parts of our being.

5. The real self is a state of egoless, unconditioned being. It is infinite, omnipresent, beyond labels or definitions. We access it by moving past the finite, conditioned mind and all its false constructs.

6. Learning to differentiate the real from the unreal in ourselves is a gradual process of self-discovery that unfolds over time through practice. As we peel away layers, the real becomes more apparent in contrast to the unreal. But we must start the work for this process to even begin.

Does this help summarize some of the key ideas around unburdening our repressions and accessing our true self? Let me know if you have any other questions!

• All the faces you have in life are false and shaped by social needs and conditioning. They are utilitarian but not your true self.
• Your real face cannot be found among your present false faces. It is something to be discovered, not achieved or cultivated. It is already there, waiting to be unveiled when the false faces drop away.
• Meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, helps you drop your false faces by witnessing your thoughts without judgment. Judging thoughts as good or bad feeds them and creates more thoughts. Simply observe your thoughts as indifferent witnesses.
• As you meditate, gaps will start to appear between your thoughts. In those gaps, you will glimpse your real face - the faceless face you had before birth and will have after death.
• Once you have even a single glimpse of your real face, you will know what is false and real. You will have a criterion to discern the false from the true.
• Philosophy, religion, and ideology create judgments that make meditation difficult. They give preconceptions about the unknown rather than direct experience. It is best to avoid clinging to these beliefs when meditating.
• Your inner nature, called buddha swabhava, is revealed in the gaps between thoughts. Knowing this nature, even for a moment, transforms you by showing you the false and real.

In summary, we accumulate false faces to satisfy social needs, but they obscure our true self. Meditation strips away these false faces by creating gaps in our incessant thinking, allowing our real face to shine through. This glimpse of our real face gives us the wisdom to navigate between the false and real in life.

• We have an “inner robot” or automatic mind that takes over repetitive tasks and makes them mechanical. This is necessary for efficiency, but we must remain the master over this robot.

• If we give complete control to the robot, our life becomes disturbed and messy. We must consciously take charge of situations from time to time.

• Do not make declarations that you will change your behavior, e.g. “I will not get angry.” This will not work because the robot has been trained over a long time.

• Start by taking charge in simple, non-complex situations where inefficiency will not cause harm. For example, walk slowly and consciously, being aware of each footstep.

• Do routine things like walking, eating and sleeping with awareness. Start with the simple things before moving on to more complex tasks.

• The robot will resist giving up control and will argue that it can do the task more efficiently. Do not give in, but remain calm and aware.

• With practice, you can achieve mastery over the robot through conscious awareness and will handle even difficult situations with awareness and ease.

• Beginners should not try to take charge in dangerous or highly complex situations. This could be disastrous. Start with the simple things first before gradually progressing to more complex tasks.

• Initiation or deeksha is a deep transfer of spiritual energy from a master to a disciple. For this to happen, the disciple needs to be humble, surrendered, and receptive. Ego is a barrier to receiving initiation.

• Initiation involves an actual flow of energy and transformation. The master is able to enter into the disciple and transform them. This requires deep trust from the disciple because the process is mysterious.

• Initiation is like a spiritual act of love. It cannot be forced. The disciple must be open and inviting like a loving woman. Through initiation, deep spiritual work can be done in a moment that may take many lifetimes to achieve otherwise.

• However, disciples often remain defended and closed, delaying the possibility of initiation. Even disciples of great masters can miss the chance due to ego and lack of surrender. For example, Ananda was with Buddha for 40 years but could not attain enlightenment in that time due to seeing himself as Buddha’s elder brother.

• The key requirements for a disciple are surrender, receptiveness, humbleness, and trust in the master. With these, initiation can lead to rebirth and transformation. But the process ultimately cannot be forced and is an invitation from the disciple.

• Ananda was not allowed to attend the First Buddhist Council after Buddha’s death because he was not yet enlightened. The council felt an ignorant person’s accounts could not be trusted.

• Ananda had been with Buddha for 40 years as his attendant, but he had not attained enlightenment. He realized after being excluded from the council that his lack of total surrender to Buddha had been the obstacle.

• Once he realized this and surrendered, he became enlightened. Surrender to the master is needed for spiritual progress and initiation.

• A mantra is a sacred sound given by a master to a disciple during initiation. It must be kept secret because it is tailored to the individual and can be harmful if misused by others. The mantra goes deeper into the mind the more it is kept secret.

• Chaotic music, like that used in Osho’s dynamic meditation, helps bring out the chaos in the mind so it can be released. Rock and similar music help release repressed sexuality. Osho aims to release all repressions, not just sexual ones.

• The key point is that surrender to the master and willingness to delve deep within are needed for spiritual enlightenment and the effectiveness of techniques like mantra meditation. Secrecy and non-chatter help the mind go deeper. Chaotic expression helps release repressed energies that block one’s spiritual nature.

Based on the summary, the passage is discussing themes that are sexual. It talks about repression of sexuality and other desires due to Christian values in Western society. It argues that rock music and other art forms are a way for people to relieve themselves of this repression. The passage discusses “chaotic meditation” and acting on repressed desires as a way to become free and natural again. It contrasts being “anti-social” with being “beyond society.” Someone beyond society has freed themselves of social conditioning and rules, but does not actively oppose society. They are like an actor, participating but not attached. The passage says divine experience is possible only when one moves beyond social conditioning.

In summary, the key themes here relating to sexuality and social repression point to this passage discussing those topics, not just mentioning them in passing. The depth of discussion on transcending social rules and attaining an unrepressed state of mind focuses the passage on those themes.

• We exist in the mind, which is characterized by sound and noise. The mind has to be used as a passageway to the heart.

• It is difficult to enter the heart directly because we have lost touch with it over many lives. The door seems closed.

• Though we talk of the heart, that talk is just in the mind. Even talking of love is just in the mind. We don’t know where the real heart is, not just the physical organ.

• There is a deep center behind the physical heart that can only be reached through the mind, since that’s where we currently stand.

• Mind is sound. If all sound stops, the mind disappears. Silence is a no-mind state. There is no such thing as a silent mind. When silence comes, mind disappears.

• To drop from the mind to the heart center, use a sound. Intone a single sound, audibly at first, then make it quieter and quieter until it’s inaudible.

• Many sounds must be sacrificed for one sound. This is concentration. Keep intoning the one sound until it becomes inaudible.

• As the sound becomes quieter, feeling will arise. Drop the sound for feeling. The sound is a passageway to feeling.

So the key steps are:

1. Choose one sound to intone, sacrificing other thoughts.

2. Start intoning the sound audibly, then make it increasingly quiet.

3. As the sound becomes inaudible, feeling will arise.

4. Drop the sound completely and dwell in the feeling.

5. The sound has served as a passageway to feeling, which is of the heart.

• Choose a sound, word, or mantra that you have a deep feeling for. This could be a religious chant, the name of a deity you revere, or even your own name. The sound should resonate deeply with you.

• Start by intoning the sound audibly, then make it progressively quieter and quieter. Keep reducing the sound until you only feel the reverberation of the sound and drop into complete inner silence.

• As the sound fades, your feeling will intensify. The feeling cannot be labeled - it is a deep, simple feeling of love. At first, the feeling will be directed at the sound you are intoning. But as the sound fades, the feeling remains as a diffuse, wordless sense of love.

• This feeling of love is from the heart, not the head. Love directed at something is of the mind, simple love is of the heart. Simple, unaddressed love becomes prayer.

• Different religious traditions are like sects that lead to the universal religion of the heart. Start with your own tradition, but go beyond names and forms to simple love.

• As you intone a resonant sound, you may feel warmth, like being enveloped in a womb. The sound creates an inner sanctum that can lead to rebirth.

• It is best to practice this method in a small, enclosed space that amplifies the sound. Repeating it in the same place helps charge the space with the energy of the practice.

• Keep reducing the sound until only silent feeling remains. In that simple feeling of love, you go beyond sectarian divisions to the universal religion of the heart.

• The mind can be focused anywhere in the body, not just in the head. Where you focus the mind, your qualities and abilities will change.

• Focusing the mind in different areas of the body leads to different states of consciousness and functioning. For example, focusing in the genital area during sex leads to ecstasy and orgasm. Focusing in the hara (below the navel) leads to intuition and timelessness.

• The samurai warriors were trained to focus their mind in the hara, which allowed them to fight intuitively without thinking. This made them formidable opponents.

• Ramanujan, the Indian mathematician, seemed to get answers from somewhere deep within, below his conscious mind. His abilities seemed intuitive rather than calculated. He may have had a natural ability to focus in the hara.

• Changing where you focus the mind can transform your experience and abilities. Dropping from the head into other centers of the body leads to non-ordinary states of transcending the ego and dissolving tensions.

• The seventh technique in the passage instructs focusing the mind in the middle of the tongue, which can induce a silent inner sound of “hh” and a state of relaxed, thought-free awareness.

That’s the essence of the ideas and concepts discussed in the passage on focusing the mind in different areas of the body. Please let me know if you would like me to explain anything in the summary in more detail.

In this technique, one focuses on the sound “aum” without pronouncing the “a” and “m” sounds. So one focuses on the “u” sound in the middle of “aum”. This is a difficult technique that requires a sensitive ear, but for those able to do it, it can be very effective for transcending the mind.

To do this technique:

1. Chant the mantra “aum”, focusing on the three separate sounds “a-u-m” within it. Train your ear to distinguish the three sounds.

2. Once you can clearly hear the “a”, “u” and “m” sounds separately while chanting “aum”, drop the “a” and “m” sounds. Focus only on the “u” sound in the middle.

3. Focusing intently on just the subtle “u” sound requires deep concentration and sensitivity. This can lead to the mind becoming engrossed and thought ceasing, resulting in a transcendence of the mind.

4. The key is developing a sensitive ear by training it to detect subtle nuances in sound. Methods like listening to the sounds of a river or the wind for extended periods of time can enhance one’s auditory sensitivity and support this technique.

5. Though the method seems simple, it can lead to profound results. The mind gets focused on a subtle object, leading to the dropping away of thought and a transcendence of the mind.

So the core idea is that by developing a sensitive ear and focusing intensely on a very subtle sound in the middle of the mantra “aum”, one can transcend the mind. The subtler the object of focus, the more profound the meditation.

The key points in the passage are:

1. Accepting the totality of life means being in the middle path, avoiding extremes. Denial of anything leads to extremes. Acceptance of totality leads to being in the middle.

2. Choosing leads to ego and problems. Non-choosing means surrendering to the flow of life without goals. This leads to ego dissolution and problem resolution.

3. Achieving celibacy through fighting sex leads to repression. True celibacy happens as a consequence of acceptance, not as a result of fighting.

4. Acceptance means being choiceless and allowing life to flow freely without goals or expectations. Things happen as a consequence, not as a result.

5. Happiness is a consequence of play, not a result of conscious effort. Love leads to happiness as a consequence, not as a motivation or result.

6. Acceptance leads to transformation, but should not be used as a technique to achieve transformation. Acceptance should be without motivation.

The key is to accept life in totality without goals, expectations or choices. This leads to ego dissolution, problem resolution, and transformation - not as results but as consequences. Fighting or repressing nature leads to inner conflict and disturbance. The middle path of acceptance avoids these extremes.

• Do not long for transformation; just accept whatever is. Desiring transformation hinders it from happening.

• Repression and indulgence are intellectual concepts that will not lead anywhere. Just accept where you are, whether in indulgence or repression. Acceptance leads to transcendence of the extremes.

• Those who indulge have high ideals that let them feel okay about indulging now by hoping to change in the future. But that future never comes. Ideals are false hopes and dreams.

• It is difficult to accept what is because it shatters the ego. The ego feels good when fighting, saying no, and resisting. Saying yes causes the ego to disappear.

• Society appreciates those who harm themselves (like sadhus) because they redirect their violence inward and do not harm others. But they remain violent, just toward themselves.

• Promises of paradise are meant to get you to repress now to gain indulgence later. But the motivation remains the same either way.

• You have been fighting your whole life and have not changed at all. Acceptance, not fighting, leads to transformation.

• Accepting leads to transcending the inner division between the saint and the animal in you. You become one, whole. This gains you energy that was wasted in inner conflict.

• The accumulated energy from lack of inner conflict becomes awareness. Energy either moves in fight, depleting you, or accumulates through acceptance, becoming awareness.

• Awareness, the witness, arises in the integration and transcendence of all opposites. In awareness, transformation happens spontaneously and effortlessly.

• You cannot manipulate the inner transformation. You can only create the internal space for it to happen through acceptance and meditation.

• There is a connection between surrender and sex. Sex is the first biological surrender where you allow yourself to be open, vulnerable and unafraid. In deep love and sex, you are fearless and open even to death.

• If you are afraid and resisting in sex, you may have a sexual release but not attain the ecstasy that Tantra talks about. Reich says you have not known sex unless you attain a deep orgasm where your whole body is relaxed and you transcend the body. Tantra also says sex can be spiritual.

• Your mind may think it wants to receive the master’s message but then resists and feels tired. This is because surrender goes against your habitual negativity and passiveness. But surrender is possible despite this.

• To overcome this, do not fight the negativity. Accept it and be aware of it. Do not judge yourself for it. Slowly, your energy will accumulate and the negativity will drop from your psyche. Then you can be open to receive the master.

• The master’s presence creates an opportunity for your energy to become undivided. But you must make the effort to be open. The master can only indicate the way, you have to travel the path. But once you start travelling, the master can pour himself into you.

• To receive the master, meditate on your relationship with him. Feel his presence. Slowly, your inner door will open. Do not be in a hurry. Let your opening be as slow and natural as a flower opening its petals. Then you will be able to receive more and more, and your thirst will increase.

• The master is always giving, but you must become a recipient. Do small things with awareness and gratitude. Be open and vulnerable. The more you receive, the more will be your capacity to receive. Make receiving your only goal.

That’s the summary and essence of the message in my view. Let me know if you need any clarification or have any other questions!

• According to Tantra, in intercourse you can achieve a state where you become just a spirit, completely immaterial and desireless. This is the true experience of sex.

• Only humans can achieve this spiritual experience of sex. Usually people condemn sex or have dull experiences of it, so Tantra is hard for most to understand. But as people become wiser, Tantra will become more understood.

• During orgasm in sex, you achieve a total relaxation and desirelessness. This results in ecstasy that lasts for hours. This only happens when you completely let go during sex.

• There are two layers to life energy: voluntary and non-voluntary. Most of the body works non-voluntarily, like circulation. But some things like movement we control voluntarily. Sex starts voluntarily but to achieve orgasm you must cross into non-voluntary letting go.

• Usually people don’t cross into non-voluntary sex, so they feel depressed after sex. They don’t experience deep biological surrender. But if you do, you can understand religious or spiritual surrender. Sex is biological surrender; samadhi is surrender to existence.

• There’s nothing wrong with being passive or negative during sex or spiritual experience. It allows you to be receptive, like a womb, to truth. Activity or “doing” hinders this. You have to be passive, stop interfering, and just receive.

• All the greatest experiences, even in science, happen through passivity. Meditation is about not doing, but passively waiting without expectation. Then the universe enters you.

• We are usually trained for activity and struggle, which is good in the practical world. But for spiritual experience we must cultivate passivity. Activity prevents the deepest experiences.

• Tantra is not a philosophy but a subjective science. It is concerned with direct experience and realization, not just thinking about truth.

• Tantra provides practical techniques for exploring consciousness and achieving enlightenment. These techniques involve using sound, breath, and body awareness.

• One technique involves silently repeating a word ending in “ah” and then effortlessly releasing into the spontaneous inner silence that follows the “hh” sound. This can lead to transcending the mind.

• Another technique involves stopping the ears by pressing on them and contracting the rectum, then entering into the inner sound of “ah.” This can lead to transcending body awareness.

• A third technique involves focusing on the inner sound of your own name. By entering into this inner name sound, you can enter into all inner sounds. This can lead to transcending ego identity.

• The ultimate goal of all these techniques is to move from outer sounds to inner silence, from ego to transcendence of ego, from mind to transcendence of mind. By following the inner sounds inward, one can achieve an inner stillness that leads to enlightenment.

• What matters most in all of these techniques is entering into direct experience through practice, not just understanding the concepts intellectually. Tantra provides practical tools for achieving realization and enlightenment, not just philosophical knowledge.

That covers the main points from the passage on using sounds and inner silence for self-realization according to the teachings of Tantra. Please let me know if you would like me to explain anything in the summary in more detail.

• Tantra believes in experiencing and experimenting, rather than just thinking or philosophizing. Tantra is a subjective science focused on techniques to reach the ultimate through the immediate.

• The ninth tantric technique focuses on silently intoning a word ending in “ah,” emphasizing the exhaling breath. The outgoing breath is associated with relaxation and death, while the incoming breath is associated with tension and life.

• When the breath goes out with the “ah” sound, you become empty and silent. This emptiness allows you to become aware of the witnessing soul beyond the breaths. We are usually afraid of exhaling and emptying ourselves, clinging to the inhale. But accumulating without emptying becomes poisonous.

• Life is a poisoning process in which we use and consume things, turning them into poisons. Death is a purifying process, releasing those poisons. By emphasizing the exhale, this technique embraces the purifying death within the living process.

• The miserly mind clings to whatever comes in, afraid to let go. This attitude can manifest in physical issues like constipation, where we have trouble letting go and emptying. We must learn to exhale and release, not just accumulate and cling to life.

• Releasing requires letting go of fear and control, trusting in the unknown darkness that surrounds life. Darkness is associated with relaxation and death, while light is associated with tension and life. We must realize both are sides of the same existence.

That covers the main points around life and death, exhaling and emptying, and using this tantric technique to experience the witnessing soul. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Everything in the world has become poisoned, and the Earth itself is dying. Death is a purifying process that relieves us of our poisoned bodies and gives us new life.

• With each exhale, life ebbs within us like an outgoing tide. By focusing on exhaling, we can empty ourselves completely and touch a point of silence. This technique can be used to relieve constipation, heart disease, and exhaustion.

• Exhaling helps us accept death and open ourselves to life. Only those who accept death can truly live. Animals are not aware of death so they cannot become religious or renounce the world. Humans become aware of death, which allows us to become religious.

• Buddha’s father protected him from seeing any kind of death so that he would not renounce the world. But encountering death is what allows us to transcend our animal nature. Simple techniques like stopping the breath allow us to encounter death in a simple way.

• Use a word ending in “ah” as a mantra, emphasizing the exhale. In the moment after exhaling, become aware of the inner calm and silence. This allows us to taste what Buddha knew. We can then detach from the breath while maintaining this awareness.

• In exhaling, life is emptied out, leaving only spontaneity and awareness. We are very near the ultimate, like a wave becoming the ocean. Buddha taught the language of death, symbolized by nirvana, whereas Hinduism teaches the language of eternal life, symbolized by Brahman. Buddha promised a total death with no rebirth.

• We become afraid because we cling to life. But the more we cling to life, the more we will die. If we are ready to die, then there is no possibility of death.

• The incoming breath and outgoing breath are the life and death of the body, not of our true self. We are identified with the body, so it is hard to be aware of the incoming breath and easy to be aware of the outgoing breath.

• Making a sound like “Ah” when exhaling helps us become aware of our spontaneous being. This feeling of tranquility comes because we are throwing out the breath, becoming empty.

• Observe how small children breathe. They breathe deeply into the belly. We have lost this ability because we inhale too much and do not fully exhale. Exhaling fully allows the body to inhale as needed. Emphasizing exhaling leads to better health and a calm mind.

• When we lie, we hold our breath in. When we speak truth, we do not hold the breath. Observe how your breathing changes with your moods and thoughts. Exhaling leads to good qualities; inhaling excessively leads to problems.

• Closing the ears and contracting the rectum stops sound and movement. We feel filled with a sound of silence. Releasing the rectum allows this inner sound to be released. Closing both ears and rectum leads to a deep feeling of fulfillment from this inner sound.

• We are not aware of our body and its functioning. Society trains us this way out of fear of sexuality and the body. We only notice our body when something goes wrong. We need to become more sensitive to our body.

• We are usually unaware of diseases and health issues until they have significantly progressed. By the time we become aware of a disease and see a doctor, it has usually entered our body deeply and caused damage.

• If someone is highly sensitive to and aware of their body, they may detect signs of an impending disease 6 months before it fully manifests. Subtle changes happen long before the disease appears.

• We are even unaware of our own impending death. We go through life largely insensitive and unaware of our body. Society and culture have conditioned us to suppress bodily awareness.

• Tantra focuses on developing a deep sensitivity and awareness of the body. Our body has its own “language” that gives clues to our mental and emotional state. Modern psychiatry studies body language to gain insight into patients.

• A person’s posture, gestures, and the feel of their body can reveal if they are fearful, loving, angry, humble, etc. Suppressed emotions and psychological states manifest physically in the body. Relaxing certain areas of the body can release suppressed emotions.

• Fear causes loss of control of involuntary bodily functions like urination, because fear disrupts the mental control we have imposed on the body. The body reverts to its natural animalistic impulses in a state of fear. Only people without fear can maintain control in an emergency. Losing control of bodily functions in fear shows that someone is cowardly.

• There is a deep connection between the mind, emotions, and stomach/intestines. 50-90% of dreams are influenced by the stomach and digestion. Tantric practices aim to unite the body and mind.

The key ideas are that we are usually unaware of our body, diseases, and health issues until significant damage has been done. But through cultivating sensitivity and awareness, especially as taught in Tantra, we can gain insight into our mental, emotional, and physical state. The body manifests what is happening in the mind and emotions, and by relaxing or releasing certain areas of the body we can also release suppressed psychological material. There is a deep, reciprocal connection between the mind and body.

• Your stomach processes can create nightmares if you have a heavy meal before bed. The nightmares are caused by the physical sensation in the stomach, not the mind.

• External factors, like the position of your body or a pillow on your chest, can trigger dreams while you sleep. Even a small weight can feel very heavy in sleep because your body becomes more sensitive and your mind is less in control. This sensitivity amplifies the sensation.

• Closing your rectum and ears can help you become aware of internal sounds. The life energy inside has nowhere to go, so you can feel the internal sounds more easily. Hearing these internal sounds can help quiet your thoughts. With practice, you can hear these sounds all the time and stay undisturbed by external noises.

• Using your own name as a mantra is very powerful because your name is deeply embedded in your unconscious mind. Repeating your name helps you become a witness to yourself. Your name represents your whole life, so using it as a mantra can help you explore the depths of your being.

• Ancient cultures often gave names of God as names to connect people to the divine. Repeating the name as a mantra serves a double purpose, as your own name that you are very familiar with and as the name of God.

• To use your name as a mantra, repeat it fast until it becomes just a sound without meaning. The sound, not the meaning, is most important. Let the sound spread through your whole body. The sound can become a door to experiencing all sounds in existence.

• Indian philosophy considers sound, not electricity, to be the basic unit of existence. Particular sounds at certain frequencies, like music, can influence the physical world. Sound is very powerful and at the root of existence.

So in summary, this passage discusses how sensations and sounds, especially using your own name as a mantra, can be a doorway to deeper experiences because of how connected your body and mind are during sleep and internal focus. Your name is a particularly powerful mantra because of how deeply it is ingrained in your being. By focusing on the sound, not the meaning, of the mantra, you can access a deeper level of reality.

The techniques discussed so far belong to both yoga and Tantra. However, yoga and Tantra differ in their philosophies. Yoga believes in struggle and is the path of will, while Tantra does not believe in struggle and is the path of surrender.

Yoga says perfection of the will leads to liberation, while Tantra says dissolving the will leads to liberation. Yoga’s path is difficult and nearly impossible, while Tantra’s path is easy and natural. Yoga appeals more to the ego since it involves effort and difficulty. Tantra does not appeal as much in the beginning because it asks for ego dissolution.

If Tantra does appeal, it is often for the wrong reasons, such as rationalizing indulgence. The possibility of deception is greater in Tantra. For example, some practiced sexual indulgence under the guise of Tantra. However, Tantra is meant to transform indulgence, not promote it.

All knowledge contains dangers. For example, science has discovered atomic energy which can be misused. Similarly, Tantra contains deep and wonderful knowledge but also dangers due to human deception. Superstitions, on the other hand, are harmless since the most they can do is possibly provide some benefit. If something can provide both benefit and harm, then it is not superstition.

In summary, while yoga and Tantra share some techniques, they differ in philosophy and appeal. Tantra in particular contains both profound knowledge and danger due to human tendencies toward deception and rationalization. With knowledge and possibility comes responsibility.

• True knowledge should help and empower, not just entertain or give pleasure. Only illusory things are entirely benevolent; real things can cause both benefit and harm.

• Tantra is a science concerned with understanding the self and consciousness, not just matter. It focuses on living beings and life energy. Since sex creates life, Tantra studies sex and love. Those uninterested in sex are not true seekers.

• Philosophy is mostly useless speculation. Tantra is interested in existential questions about life, love and sex. It does not ask metaphysical questions about God, moksha, heaven and hell.

• To understand sex, one must surrender to it rather than fight or repress it. Fighting it keeps one on the outside; surrendering allows one to become an insider and gain knowledge. When surrendered, one can experience sex as life-giving rather than just procreative.

• Ejaculation depletes energy and is caused by anxiety and fighting. Relaxed, unhurried sex without ejaculation or orgasm can invigorate lovers and slow aging. But most men ejaculate prematurely and most women never orgasm, causing frustration and anger.

• Repression, guilt and the idea that sex is sinful make people see God or saints even while making love. This creates anxiety and prevents transcending excitement to reach a meditative state. Tantra says to meditate first and then make love calmly without excitement, violence or ejaculation. This allows energy and lives to merge in a relaxed union.

In summary, Tantra sees sex as a means to understand life energy and achieve transcendence of the ego. But this requires a meditative rather than excited approach to sex without repression, guilt or ejaculation. Surrender rather than conflict allows one to gain insight into sex as rejuvenating rather than depleting.

To convert the sex act into a meditative experience:

1. Change your attitude, not the physical positions. The attitude and mindset are more important than the actual positions. While positions may change as a result of the changed attitude, do not focus on or fixate on positions.

2. Surrender to the life force. Relax and float in the experience. Do not try to control or direct the experience. Let the experience unfold intuitively and naturally.

3. Do not decide or plan anything beforehand. Do not consult books on “how to make love.” Just surrender to the experience as it unfolds.

4. Do not seek a result. Do not focus on the future outcome. Be fully present in the experience as it is happening.

5. Allow the life force to guide the experience. Trust that your bodies will move into the right positions and rhythms. Do not force anything.

6. If you can surrender in this experience with your lover, it will provide insight into how to surrender to the divine in life as a whole. You can let the divine, the whole, guide you into the future.

In summary, converting sex into a meditative experience is about surrender, being fully present, not seeking a goal or outcome, and trusting in the life force to guide the experience. It is a matter of changing your attitude and mindset, not manipulating physical positions. By surrendering in this way with your lover, you gain insight into surrendering to the divine in life as a whole.

Seeking a particular result disturbs everything and is damaging. One should simply act without worrying about the result or future. Sex can induce a state of being fully present in the moment, which leads to meditation. However, worrying about results, performance, techniques, etc. prevents this. One should forget everything and simply flow in the moment, trusting one’s innate wisdom and intuition.

Surrendering creates divinity. One can surrender to anything - a master, the sky, a tree, etc. Surrendering in love during sex can spread to all of life.

Anahat nad refers to soundlessness that is heard. It is not really a type of sound. It is the absence of sound felt by one accustomed to sounds. Contradictory terms are used to describe deep experiences that transcend logic. Anahat nad means “uncreated sound,” recognizing it is both sound and soundless.

A state of total soundness and total soundlessness can be the same - they both represent completeness and a limit beyond which there is no further movement. One can view anahat nad as total soundlessness where everything is absent, or as total sound where nothing can be added. Ultimately, they point to the same transcendent experience.

The key points in the passage are:

1. Sex can be a deeply fulfilling act that reconnects you with your natural, whole being. This is because sex is a total act that involves your entire body and mind, not just your thinking.

2. There is fear and unease about sex because it causes you to lose control of your mental, thinking processes. You become “headless” and without reason during sex.

3. Many people today have become obsessed with thinking about sex but have lost touch with the actual experience of it. They can only fantasize about it mentally but feel uninterested or unable during the actual act. This is because the sex act itself has become a mental, cerebral thing for them rather than a full-body, whole being experience.

4. Tantra uses the sex act as a way to reconnect people with their whole, natural being precisely because sex can be a total act involving one’s entire self. But one must avoid being focused on physical release or gratification alone, and instead remain attentive and aware during the entire act. One should not lose this attentiveness and awareness as the act concludes in orgasm and release.

5. By remaining attentive and aware, continually sinking into the felt experience of the act, one can achieve a transcendence of the ego and a unity between one’s own self and one’s partner. This leads to wholeness, fulfillment and bliss. But losing awareness and seeking only physical gratification will not lead to this transcendent experience and bliss.

So in summary, the key point is that sex should be approached as a meditative, spiritual act, not one aimed solely at physical gratification. By remaining fully aware and attentive during sex, it becomes a transformative act of wholeness. But by becoming mental and losing touch with the felt experience, sex loses this transformative power. The passage outlines how to approach sex meditatively and achieve transcendence of ego through it.

• The sutra advises lovers to avoid being in a hurry to finish the sex act and instead remain attentive on the fire of passion in the beginning. Remain merged in the present moment rather than thinking of the end goal of release. This allows for a deep, prolonged sexual union that becomes a spiritual act.

• There are three types of sexual union:

1. The square - Where the lovers are divided in themselves, not fully present. This is a false meeting.

2. The triangle - Where there is a fleeting moment of oneness and connection that provides vitality. This is better than the square but short-lived.

3. The circle - Where the lovers melt into one another, forgetting themselves. Time dissolves as they remain merged for hours. This leads to an ecstatic, conscious union.

• Prolonging sex without release allows the act to become less sexual and more spiritual. The energy builds and circulates between the lovers. They give life and renewal to each other. This innocent, whole feeling transcends the split personality and neurosis of everyday life.

• One can still play the roles required of them in society, while retaining the inner freedom and wholeness experienced in sexual meditation. The unreal world cannot drive one to madness.

• The second sutra advises entering into the shaking of one’s senses during sex. We typically suppress such movements and shaking, especially for women. But allowing the body’s energy to spread leads to a deep possession that is difficult to satisfy. For women, this can lead to multiple orgasms. Entering the shaking leads to transcendence of ego and a realization of cosmic consciousness.

• In summary, tantric sex aims for a prolonged, meditative union where two lovers melt into one another, allowing their energy and senses to shake and spread throughout their bodies. This leads to an ecstatic, transcendent experience of ego-loss and awareness of something greater than oneself.

• Women are capable of multiple orgasms in succession while men typically have a refractory period after one orgasm before being able to have another. This difference in sexuality can lead to frustration for women.

• Most societies and religions condemn unrestricted sexuality and promote monogamy. This has led to the suppression of female sexuality and most women never experience true sexual fulfillment.

• Tantric sex involves allowing one’s senses and body to shake uncontrollably during sex. This allows one’s bioenergy to flow freely and leads to a feeling of oneness where the ego is dissolved. Every cell in the body becomes alive and vibrant.

• One can achieve a similar transcendental state through meditation on the memory of a sexual experience even without a partner. The whole universe can become one’s lover, leading to freedom from dependency on a partner.

• Sex is a powerful energy and vehicle for transcendence, but most people cannot let go of social conditioning and ego during sex. Complete openness and lack of judgment is required to experience sex as a unifying, transcendental act.

• Poison can be transformed into medicine with wisdom. Sex, though potentially the deepest form of bondage, can be used to achieve the highest freedom through Tantra. Complete acceptance of life without condemnation of anything is the Tantric way.

• The inner man and woman, or masculine and feminine energies, exist in everyone. When they meet within through meditation, real celibacy and freedom can be attained. Sexual union with a partner is merely a door to this inner union.

That’s the essence of the perspective on sexuality, orgasm and transcendence summarized from the passage. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Usually we eat and drink in an unconscious, mechanical way, without truly experiencing the tastes.

• Tantra says to slow down, be aware and sensitive to the tastes, and actually become the taste. Feel the sweetness spreading throughout your body, not just in your mouth.

• Other traditions like Jainism say to eat without tasting, as tasting is desire. But Tantra says tasting sensitizes you and makes you more alive. Deadening your senses creates inner divisions and a centeredness in the head.

• We can do many actions like eating, touching, and shaking hands without truly living the experience. We remain aloof and withdraw, afraid of fully participating in life.

• A person fully alive is not afraid of death, because they are living life intensely. They could even fully experience death, and thus become deathless.

• By becoming the taste when eating and drinking, you can be filled by and spread the experience throughout your body. This makes you more open and sensitive, dissolving inner divisions.

• The key is to slow down, be fully present in the moment, participate completely, and allow the experience to spread throughout your being. This makes life more vibrant and takes away the fear of death.

So in summary, the technique encourages you to become more alive and sensitive in everyday moments like eating and drinking, in order to overcome inner divisions, open yourself, and lose the fear of fully living and dying. By becoming one with simple experiences, life becomes fuller and death loses its sting.

• Tantra is not concerned with morality or ideals. It is concerned with understanding what is real and authentic within you. Moralities create guilt, hypocrisy and inner splits by imposing unrealistic ideals.

• As children, we are whole and authentic. But as we are socialized, we develop an “unreal personality” that is split from our real self. This happens because society demands we behave in certain unreal ways to fit in.

• This unreal personality causes deep suffering and dissatisfaction. We can never achieve real happiness through unreal means. We live in a constant state of hope and dreams, never actually achieving a satisfying end goal.

• The only way to end this suffering is to reconnect with your real, authentic self - but this takes courage because it means abandoning the unreal personality you have cultivated your whole life to please others.

• Enjoying life’s pleasures through your real self is not indulgence or perversion. Calling it that is the voice of the unreal personality trying to suppress your real desires. Sacrificing your real desires for the sake of others is not altruism - it perpetuates your inner split and suffering.

• To become whole again, one must be completely present in each moment, accepting and enjoying whatever is - including embracing the real self in moments of pleasure and ecstasy. This is the path to ending inner divisions and finding satisfaction.

The main message is that we must abandon our conditioned unreal personalities that cause inner conflict, and have the courage to accept and express our authentic real selves - only then can we end our inner division and suffering. Being fully present and embracing pleasure and ecstasy is not indulgence, but rather a way of reclaiming our wholeness.

• Tantra says be selfish and enjoy life as the only way to help others. Being happy and blissful overflows to others. Sacrifice, duty and service are violent concepts.
• Unhappy and sad people create misery for others. Moralities are against happiness. -Tantra sees sex as a source of bliss and uses it as a jumping point to greater bliss. Sex allows one to experience non-duality and lose ego and sense of time. -Tantra is a science that studies reality. It does not create ideals or “oughts.” It seeks to understand “what is” in order to transform. Morality is like magic, focusing on the ideal rather than the real. -Suppressing sex leads to perversion and projection. Tantra teaches experiencing sex fully to transcend it. Three elements of sex provide bliss: loss of time, ego and merging into oneness. -These elements can be achieved through meditation without sex. Brahmacharya, or celibacy, happens through experiencing sex rather than suppressing it.

The key ideas are using selfish enjoyment of life as a means to help others, understanding reality through experience rather than morality, seeing sex as a path to bliss through transcending ego and time, and achieving celibacy through transcending sex rather than suppressing it. The summary captures these main points from the passage.

• Ordinary sex acts are meant to relieve tension and provide relaxation, like a tranquilizer. Tantric sex acts are meant to generate energy and provide a deeper meditation and connection between partners.

• Ordinary sex leads to a ‘peak’ orgasm where excitement builds to a climax followed by release of energy and relaxation. Tantric sex leads to a ‘valley’ orgasm where excitement is followed by deep relaxation and connection, with no release of energy. This can continue for a long time and be re-energizing.

• Animals engage in sex merely to procreate, not for enjoyment or bliss. Only humans can reach the deeper enjoyment and mediation of tantric sex. This can create a higher state of being and humanity.

• Ordinary sex usually leads to feeling depleted or like ‘falling’ after climax. Tantric sex leads to feeling energized, alive and ‘rising’ after the experience. The relaxed, blissful feeling can last for days.

• Experiencing tantric sex over time can lead to losing interest in ejaculation and ordinary sex. A state of brahmacharya or ego-less celibacy can arise naturally without effort.

• Sex and death are two primordial human experiences that tantra embraces rather than avoids. Entering deeply into sex can reveal the ‘little death’ of ego-loss and timelessness. And entering deeply into death can reveal eternal life. They are deeply connected.

• A seeker experiences sex and death fully to understand life and immortality. But ordinary people fear and avoid discussing these topics. Tantra is a path for the seeker to overcome these fears through direct experience.

That covers the main points around tantric sex, orgasm, ego-loss and brahmacharya discussed in the passage. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Tantra considers sex as a dimension for spiritual search, not as something taboo. One has to go through sex to transcend it.

• Ordinary sex and orgasm deplete meditative energies and conflict with techniques like kundalini yoga where one tries to raise sexual energy upwards. Tantric sex and orgasm, however, do not create such conflict and chaos. They can aid the upward flow of energy.

• Escaping from or controlling sex keeps the mind preoccupied with it and pulls one’s energy downwards. Tantra says to relax into sex without hurry or control. This helps one forget the other, raises energy upwards, and leads to transcendence.

• The tantric sex act should be slow, unhurried, and without control or resistance. One should not make orgasm the goal but view sex as a play without end. This unhurriedness helps create the valley orgasm instead of the peak orgasm. The valley orgasm leads to transcendence of sex into meditation.

• Relaxation should not become an effort. One should simply start playing without thinking of the sex act. If orgasm happens through playing, it leads more easily to the valley orgasm. One should breathe slowly, not talk, use the body and not the mind, feel rather than think, and float effortlessly.

• The valley orgasm is transcendence of sex into meditation or samadhi. Where satisfaction is found, one can actualize the eternal. Turning inwards, one discovers the ever-living.

So in summary, Tantra uses sex as a means to turn inward, raise energy upwards, transcend bodily indulgence, and discover eternal bliss. The key is relaxing into unhurried, playful sex without making orgasm the goal. This manifests the valley orgasm which is a transcendent, meditative experience of the eternal.

The key ideas in the passage are:

1. We are living but unaware of our own being and aliveness. We are aware of the outside world but not our inner self.

2. The mind can reflect and be aware of the outside world but not our own self. We cannot see our self through the mind, just as our eyes cannot see themselves directly.

3. Self-remembering, being aware of our own being, requires going behind the mind. It transcends the mind.

4. Gurdjieff introduced self-remembering as a core technique. But it is difficult because we keep forgetting our self. We think we are self-remembering but then shift to other thoughts.

5. Self-remembering, discovering our own aliveness and being, is key to transcending the unreal and realizing the real. It allows us to break identification with the mind.

The essence is that we must develop the skill of being aware of our own being, not just losing ourself in the mind and outside world. This is done through the practice of self-remembering, which transcends the mind because the mind cannot be aware of our real self. Self-remembering is the way to realize our true being.

• Self-remembering is not a mental process or thought, but rather a feeling of being. It is not thinking “I am,” but feeling “I am.”

• To self-remember, don’t verbalize or think, just feel your own being. Try it while walking, eating, bathing, or anytime. At first, it will be difficult and you may only grasp it for a moment before becoming distracted by thoughts. But with practice, you can sustain it longer.

• Self-remembering throws you into the current of the ever-living - your true, eternal being. Forgetting the false labels and forms that make up your usual sense of self, you discover your formless, nameless existence.

• The fear of death comes from identifying with the false, unreal parts of yourself that must die - your name, beliefs, labels, body, etc. The real self is deathless.

• Self-remembering may seem like madness at first compared to our usual state of forgetting ourselves. But our usual state is the real madness. Self-remembering is a return to sanity.

• With continuous practice of self-remembering, even the feeling of “I am” or “am-ness” falls away, leaving only a sense of pure being. This is the ultimate self-remembering.

• A second self-remembering technique is to focus on the subtle feeling of satisfaction that comes with any act or experience and remain filled with it. We usually overlook these moments of subtle satisfaction and dwell only on dissatisfactions.

• Dissatisfactions are felt throughout the body, but satisfactions are subtle and usually escape our notice. This technique helps train you to notice and remain with satisfying feelings.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points and techniques discussed? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• There are turning points in your consciousness when you are closer to your true self, such as when you are falling asleep or waking up.

• At these turning points, you switch between different states of consciousness. In the moment between states, there is a gap where you have no specific state of consciousness.

• In these gaps, you can get a glimpse of your true being. Your consciousness is less conditioned by the mechanisms of waking or sleeping.

• The key is to be aware and remember yourself in these gaps. Relax, close your eyes, and be watchful as you fall asleep. Don’t force it or strain - just remain poised and observant.

• Pay close attention to the transition between waking and sleeping. Notice the moment when your normal waking consciousness slips away. There will be a brief gap before the unconsciousness of sleep arises.

• Be awake and aware in this gap. Don’t fall asleep or start dreaming. Remain watchful and you can experience your own being free from the conditioning of the mind.

• This requires being sensitive to the subtle shifts in your consciousness. It takes practice to catch those fleeting moments when the gears of your mind are switching. But with regular practice, you can become adept at remaining awake and aware in the gaps.

• This technique uses the transition to sleep as an opportunity to experience a transcendence of the mental mechanisms that otherwise dominate your waking and dreaming states. In the brief pause between them, an opening is created to realize your unconditioned being.

• With practice, you can become skillful at remaining conscious even as your body is falling asleep. This allows you to prolong that opening between waking and sleeping where you can abide in and as your true self.

That covers the main points from the passage on being aware of the gap between waking and sleeping. Let me know if you have any other questions!

• The technique requires waiting in the dark for sleep to come while remaining aware. It can take months of practice to achieve results.

• There is a brief moment between waking and sleeping where one’s true being can be glimpsed. This moment is difficult to catch because it happens quickly. With practice, one may eventually realize they are neither awake nor asleep. This can be frightening at first.

• Sufis use an exercise of imagining falling into a dark, bottomless well to prepare for this technique. This helps overcome fear of the abyss between waking and sleeping.

• Our waking and sleeping selves are false. We constantly lie and manipulate even in our dreams. Psychoanalysis tries to interpret our symbolic dreams.

• Our first experience of falsity is in our relationship with our mothers. Mothers force children to be unreal and suppress their true feelings. This causes a deep enmity towards one’s mother in everyone.

• The brief period between waking and sleep is a doorway to one’s original, innocent being that existed before one’s relationship with their mother and society. Our waking and sleeping selves are mechanisms that hide this original being.

The key ideas are that our normal waking and sleeping consciousness consists of layers of falsity and manipulation. The moment between these two states provides a glimpse of our authentic, original self that has been hidden by these layers. Patience and practice are required to peel away these layers and achieve greater realization of one’s true being.

• Our waking life and our dreams are both illusions. We have no way of determining what is ultimately real or unreal. Everything is changing and uncertain.

• The world appears to us like a rainbow - beautiful from a distance but disappears when we get close. Life seems hopeful from far away but only leaves ashes when we reach our goals.

• Even things that seem separate are indivisible. Our logic and reasoning ultimately fail in the face of this illusion. The more we try to understand, the more confused we become.

• We can only find certainty by turning inward. Our own being is the only fixed point. The knower may be the only thing that is not ultimately illusory.

• We must look at the external, changing world as a dream. If we can see it as fleeting and ephemeral, we will turn our focus inward in search of truth. This inward focus leads us to the absolute, unchanging reality of our own being.

• Science and sensory experience can never provide absolute or certain knowledge. Only an inward religious orientation can lead us to the most fundamental truths. By seeing the illusory nature of the world, we come to the indubitable reality of the Self.

• The key insight is that while the known and the knowledge gained through the senses may be illusory, the knower - the Self or pure consciousness - is ultimately real. We must shift from an outward orientation to an inward-looking one.

That covers the main points around using the idea of the world as illusion and dream as a technique to achieve an inward and absolute orientation. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

The key points in the response are:

1. Man is born centered in himself but society pushes him off-center. This creates a false ego and unconsciousness of one’s true self.

2. Meditation and spiritual practices are needed to remedy this and bring one back to one’s true center. If society supported natural human development, these practices would not be needed.

3. The child is forced to be off-center through discipline, education and obedience to others. This imprints the mind early on and perpetuates unconscious and mechanical living.

4. There is a constant conflict between one’s true center and false ego. Only by rediscovering one’s true center can one find freedom and bliss.

5. Self-remembering helps one reconnect with one’s true center by forgetting the false world created by society and ego. It allows one to observe the ego from one’s true center and not be identified with it.

6. From one’s true center, one can use the ego and function in society without being attached to it or defined by it. One attains an instrumental relationship to the ego rather than an identified one.

7. In summary, self-remembering is a transformative practice because it shifts one’s center of identity from the false ego to the true self. This allows for freer, more conscious and blissful living.

So the key transformation is a shift in one’s center of identity and conscious awareness from the socially-conditioned ego to one’s innate, true self. This shift, enabled through the practice of self-remembering, is truly transformative.

• It is difficult to move from a negative mindset to a choiceless one. A negative mind clings to misery and unhappiness because it is familiar. It is easier to move from a positive mindset to choicelessness. A positive, happy mind is open to adventure and the unknown.

• Heaven and hell are not places you enter; you carry them with you based on your mindset. A negative mind carries its own hell; a positive mind carries its own heaven.

• One should first transform one’s mind from negative to positive. This is a matter of changing one’s focus and interpretation of the world. Life itself is neither positive nor negative; it depends on how you see it.

• A “theist” has a positive mindset, always saying yes to life. An “atheist” has a negative mindset, always saying no. It is not about belief in God but one’s attitude toward life.

• A negative mind will focus on thorns and ignore the rose. A positive mind will focus on the rose and see even thorns as protecting the rose. The positive mind can come to see even thorns as beautiful. The negative mind causes tension; the positive mind leads to choicelessness.

• In summary, one should cultivate a positive, life-affirming attitude rather than a negative one in order to progress spiritually. A positive mindset opens one up to growth and transcendence.

The teacher Sanjay Vilethiputta was an extreme pessimist who believed in the existence of 700 hells. In contrast, the Buddha taught about seven hells. Sanjay’s negative and pessimistic mindset led him to perceive much more suffering in the world. A negative mind is antithetical to meditation and tranquility. It perpetuates misery and cannot understand concepts like choicelessness.

For a negative mind, even teachings about going beyond duality and living in a state of positivity and negativity are meaningless. The mind of the listener is more important than the message itself. Unless one has a positive mindset, one cannot understand certain spiritual teachings or make progress. One must first become a “yea-sayer” - someone with an optimistic and positive outlook. Only then can one transcend duality and open oneself up to limitlessness.

This world seems very real to those with a negative mindset. The role of a guru is to show such individuals that it is not ultimately real. A guru awakens disciples through direct experience, not just through teachings or philosophizing. A guru disturbs disciples’ false beliefs and identities, which can be painful. Complete surrender to the guru is required for this transformative process to occur.

The world seems illusory or like a dream because of one’s own deluded mind and false sense of self. When one awakens to one’s true self, the world becomes real and nirvana-like. Each individual lives in their own projected world created by their mind. This prevents actual meeting or communion with others, resulting only in conflict and collisions. The guru helps break down one’s false self so one can perceive reality directly.

Here are the key points from the summary:

1. The world we perceive is an illusion created by our minds. Our expectations and projections color how we see the world. This illusory world causes suffering because we cling to fictions and desires.

2. When one lets go of the ego or “false center,” one sees the world as it truly is. Then there is no misery because one lets go of expectations and desires. One comes to accept “what is” as fact.

3. The role of a guru or spiritual teacher is to shatter one’s illusions and fictions so one can see the truth. However, one comes to a guru with preconceived notions and images. The guru has to destroy these to help the disciple.

4. When a disciple truly awakens, the guru disappears. The guru was part of the disciple’s illusory world. But a guru and methods are needed to help awaken the disciple from spiritual slumber.

5. Even in dreams, certain techniques can be used to awaken oneself. Similarly, a guru gives methods and techniques to awaken from spiritual sleep. But when awakening happens, the methods are no longer needed.

6. Although a guru disappears for an awakened disciple, the disciple still feels deep gratitude. The guru made that awakening possible. Surrender to a guru means trusting the guru to disturb and awaken you, even if it is painful. But this trust and surrender speed up spiritual progress.

7. A guru has to go slowly to build trust in disciples. Otherwise, the disciple will not be open to the inner “surgery” needed for awakening. But with deep surrender, awakening can happen instantly. The guru creates unnecessary steps mainly to build trust.

That covers the essence and key points from the summary on the role of the guru, the illusory nature of the world, awakening, and spiritual progress. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of this summary.

Becoming a witness to your anger and moods of extreme desire takes practice. Some tips to help cultivate witnessing:

• Notice the physical sensations in your body. Pay attention to areas of tension, heat, tingling. This can help you avoid identifying with the anger or desire and instead see it as something your body is experiencing.

• Label the emotion. Say to yourself “I’m feeling angry right now.” Or “There is desire arising.” This simple act of labeling the emotion creates distance and perspective.

• Watch how the emotion unfolds. See how it arises and falls, ebbs and flows. Emotions are not static, they are ever-changing. Witness this changing, impermanent nature.

• Remember that “this too shall pass.” Even the most intense emotions are temporary. Witnessing them come and go can help you stay detached and undisturbed.

• Don’t judge yourself for having the emotion. Witness with compassion for yourself. Say “It’s ok, anger is a normal human emotion.” Avoid fueling the fire with harsh self-judgment.

• Stay focused on your breath. Your breath is a neutral anchor you can return to again and again. Keep some of your attention on your breath, especially when the emotion intensifies. This lifeline to the present moment can help you stay undisturbed.

• Imagine the emotion as ocean waves. Powerful but they peak and then crash upon the shore. You remain still, like the shore, undisturbed by the intensity of the waves. Witness the waves arise and pass without getting swept away by them.

The ultimate key is practicing self-inquiry: asking yourself “Who is the one observing this emotion? Who remains untouched by it?” Dive into that space of pure undisturbed awareness. Rest there, in your true self. From that place of peace, the storms of desire and anger lose their power over you. You remain a witness, calm and still.

• Anger arises due to the perception of an external object or person. We can either move towards the object of our anger or move inwards towards ourself. Moving towards the object strengthens our anger while moving inwards allows us to witness our anger and remain undisturbed.

• Our mind has two parts: a disturbed, restless part and an undisturbed, peaceful part. The disturbed part gets activated in anger but the undisturbed part always remains. If we can access this undisturbed part, we realize we are not the anger. The undisturbed part provides the contrast needed to even perceive the anger.

• Anger, like any desire, has a silent center which remains undisturbed. The intensity of the desire depends on how far from this center we move. The closer to the center, the less disturbed we feel. At the very center, there is no disturbance.

• Nothing can exist without its opposite. Anger can only arise because there is a part of us that remains undisturbed. Illness can only be felt because there is health. The fever can be detected because there is an undisturbed observer.

• This technique suggests allowing the anger to arise but witnessing it from the undisturbed center. Do not suppress or express. Just observe. This can be practiced by re-enacting past anger-inducing situations. Remain undisturbed as the anger replays. With practice, we can remain undisturbed even in real-time situations.

• This technique, used by Gurdjieff, involves creating anger-inducing situations for students so they can practice remaining undisturbed. The key is to remember to remain undisturbed even when the body is physically affected by the anger. With time, the ability to remain undisturbed strengthens.

• This world is like a drama, a show. Don’t take it too seriously or you will get into trouble. Seriousness gathers the dust that creates problems.

• Look at people watching a movie - they cry, laugh, get excited over just pictures of light and shadow on a screen. They forget it is just a story and take it seriously, as real. This happens in life too, not just in theaters.

• Many have lived and died where you now sit. Their serious problems and fights over land are gone, though the earth remains. Humanity could vanish but the earth would go on, unaffected and unconcerned.

• Look at the expanse of time - your life is like a long dream. Everything serious one moment becomes useless the next, forgotten. Remember your first love - life depended on it, now forgotten.

• See this world as a drama and be happy. Take none of it seriously. Be lighthearted and you will be enlightened. Seriousness is a disease, and laughter opens you to existence. When unhappy or troubled, look upon it all as a dream. Be light like a feather.

• This lightness opens you to the ground of being within. Seriousness closes you, binds you, and makes you narrow and tight. Laughter liberates. Even enlightenment happens through laughter, not through seriousness.

• Let go into the drama and be happy. Look at the show as a show and participate lightly. Be free and easy. Disappear into the drama, but don’t believe in it - keep your center untouched. Act but don’t be the actor.

• If you can achieve this vision, you have achieved all that is possible for human consciousness. This is enlightenment, liberation - to look at the world as a drama.

• The world and everything in it is constantly changing and impermanent. Nothing lasts and even our strongest attachments and most cherished possessions will eventually disappear.

• Rather than seeing life as a serious creation of God, it is better viewed as a playful game or drama. Taking life too seriously leads to unhappiness. Seeing life as a game allows one to remain detached and happy.

• The mind has a tendency to swing from one extreme to another, like a pendulum. It moves from pleasure to pain, happiness to unhappiness, health to sickness, etc. This technique suggests finding the middle point between the extremes, the point of balance.

• When there is pain, do not escape from it or seek pleasure. Remain with the pain and witness it. Do not cling to happiness or try to escape unhappiness. Witness both impartially.

• By remaining detached and centered between the extremes, one can escape the endless swinging from one pole to the other. One finds the middle way, the point of balance - the secret to transcending suffering.

• Buddha called this the middle way. By following it, one can attain peace and enlightenment.

The key points are: see life as a play, remain detached by balancing in the middle, do not cling or escape from experiences, and maintain an impartial witnessing of all experiences. This allows one to transcend the fluctuations of the mind and find an inner stability.

• We have double standards: one for ourselves and one for others. We justify our own anger, greed, and desires but criticize the same in others.
• We think we are exceptional while others are ordinary. But in reality, no one is extraordinary. We are all the same.
• The desires and faults we see in others also exist in us. But we accept them in ourselves and reject them in others.
• If we adopt a single standard and accept that the desires and faults of others also exist in us, we can transform ourselves.
• Acceptance leads to transformation. Rejecting aspects of ourselves or others does not lead to any change.
• By accepting that others are like us, we develop compassion for them rather than condemnation. We realize that the potential for any act, good or bad, exists within all of us.
• The world becomes a mirror, reflecting ourselves in all faces, when we accept our similarity to others.

So the key message is to drop the double standards, recognize that we are all the same, accept ourselves and others, and transform through compassion and understanding. Condemnation and rejection lead nowhere. But acceptance of what is leads to change.

Okay,

The pure, original mind becomes identified with past experiences and knowledge out of utilitarian necessity and a desire for definition.

Our names, forms, beliefs, and concepts are just labels and boundaries that we accumulate. They are useful for functioning in the world, but they are not our true self. Our true self is formless, nameless awareness - pure consciousness.

We become identified with these labels and boundaries out of habit and a fear of nothingness. It is easier to feel we have a defined identity, even if it is false. Our true identity is infinite, empty space.

This identification with labels and past accumulations happens naturally as we develop from children into adults. But we can transcend this and reclaim our original nature through spiritual practice and self-inquiry. When we become frustrated with the superficiality and meaninglessness of our constructed identities, we start questioning who we really are. This questioning leads us back to our source.

So the path to enlightenment is releasing our attachment to names and forms and realizing our true nature as pure awareness, which is beyond all definition. We come to see that we are not our thoughts, beliefs, experiences, names, or any other attributes - we are the awareness in which all of these arise and pass away.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points from the original passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

I see. The key message here is that we should not resist our inner feelings and experiences, even if they are uncomfortable. If we can accept them and be at ease with them, they will pass. Creating problems and resistance only serves to perpetuate them.

The attitude one should have toward life is one of acceptance - accept whatever comes, embrace all experiences. Do not label them as good or bad, just meet them with an open and welcoming awareness. This openness and lack of judgment allows life’s drama to unfold however it will, without our ego interfering and causing suffering. We can participate fully in life’s intensity and depth when we are not clinging to any particular outcome or resisting what is.

Non-attachment and detachment emerge naturally from this attitude of acceptance. We do not become detached from life itself, but only from the ego’s desires and resistances. We are open to all of life - the joys and the sorrows, the excitement and the boredom. But we do not cling to the pleasant or push away the unpleasant. We surf the waves of life with a balanced and peaceful heart.

So in summary, the right attitude is one of acceptance, openness, and non-judgment. Do not create problems where there are none. Be at ease with loneliness and detachment, and they will pass. Then life’s intensity and depth will return in a healthy and balanced way. Does this make sense? Let me know if you have any other questions!

• Psychiatrists have studied a Zen therapy where patients are left alone in a room without interference. Within 10 days, neurotic or psychotic patients start to recover. In contrast, Western psychoanalysis can take years with little change.

• The Zen approach is based on acceptance. Once you accept something as it is, you transcend it. Interfering creates more problems and prolongs the process. Non-interference and being left alone leads to becoming whole and overcoming fragmentation.

• For example, if you feel depressed, accept it and don’t do anything about it. Your depression will change on its own since nothing is permanent. Watching it without trying to change it leads to transformation. Acceptance is transcendence. A mind that can accept anything cannot remain stuck in any state.

• The questioner feels that seeing life as a “psychodrama” leads to feeling depressed, lonely and losing sincerity and depth. But any sincerity or depth that can be lost so easily was not real to begin with. The real cannot be lost or disturbed no matter what. False depths will disappear, but real sincerity will emerge in the gap left behind.

• The suggestion is to do nothing. Confusion has been created by too much doing. With a confused mind, it is best to wait without acting until the confusion clears on its own. Be patient - everything changes. A story illustrates how insisting on patience and non-action can lead to clarity emerging on its own.

So in summary, the key points are acceptance, non-interference, patience, and non-action as the path to overcoming suffering and gaining clarity. Letting things be as they are without trying to change them allows for a natural transcendence of problems. Real sincerity and depth cannot be lost, but false depths will disappear, leaving space for the real to emerge.

The man came to Buddha and said his teachings were miraculous. He learned that patience and impermanence are key. Everything changes, so one should not worry and just be patient.

Buddha told a story of a stream. At first, the water was muddy. But if one waits patiently, the water will become clear again. One should not enter the stream or do anything to purify it. Just wait on the bank, and the stream will clear on its own. This shows that all things are impermanent and constantly changing. One should cultivate patience and non-doing.

Osho addressed a question about growing in stillness and playfulness. He said if one is truly silent, one will not care what others say. If others’ opinions matter, one is not really silent. Silence should come from within, not for others’ approval.

If one is naturally serious, one should accept that and be playful about one’s seriousness. Forced playfulness is not genuine. One should pay attention to one’s own experiences, not others’ opinions. Enlightened beings like Bodhidharma were able to laugh at themselves. Real silence leads to lightness and laughter.

Cultivated or forced stillness is not real and will be tense and serious. True silence comes from releasing one’s inner tensions, greed, anger, and other poisons. Mantras or other practices may induce a superficial calm, but will not remove deeper disturbances.

• Meditation is a quality of your whole being, not a fragment or part of your life. It cannot be compartmentalized. Either you are meditative, or you are not.

• Everything in life can become a meditation. Meditation happens when you are wholly in the present moment, aware and attentive. It permeates all aspects of your life.

• Like breathing, meditation should be an ongoing process, not dependent on any particular activity. You should “go on meditating” irrespective of what you are doing.

• The ultimate meditation is one where the mind disappears, you become the meditation, and only the meditation remains. There is alert awareness, free of mental chatter. You realize your connection to the cosmos - the ocean of existence.

• Use all your senses to remain vividly aware of the present moment. Wherever your mind wanders, internal or external, bring it back to the awareness of the here and now. Merge into the meditation that is always here and now.

• We are like waves arising from the cosmic ocean of existence. Through meditation, we can move beyond our limited sense of individual self and realize our connection to the whole. The cosmic waves arise in us, we are not separate from them.

• Remain focused on the awareness itself rather than the objects of awareness. Don’t get caught up in what you are aware “of” - instead rest in the awareness itself. This is the ultimate meditation.

So in summary, meditation should not be a separate part of your life but rather an ongoing quality of alert and open awareness in all of your activities. Ultimately, one lets go of the limited ego-self and merges into the cosmic meditation that is always here and now. One realizes one’s self as the eternal ocean rather than the temporary wave.

• Existence is like an ocean and we are like waves in this ocean. We appear as separate individuals, but our true nature is the single, unified ocean.

• Our individuality or ego is false and illusory. Our real self is the non-individual, cosmic whole. All religions teach against the ego and for transcending the sense of separateness.

• We can meditate on this by feeling ourselves as waves in the ocean of existence. For example, feel each breath as a wave rising and falling, arising from and returning to the single ocean.

• In between the rising and falling, in the pause, there is a sense of nothingness or void. This void is our real self, and by experiencing it, suffering disappears.

• The metaphors of the ocean and waves indicate that existence is a process, a movement, rather than static being. It is always changing, waving. But there is also a deeper, unchanging reality - the ocean.

• Using these metaphors, we can shift our sense of self from the individual wave to the ocean itself. The ocean is eternal and infinite, whereas the wave is ephemeral and finite. This shifts one to a transcendent perspective.

That covers the main points and metaphors discussed in the passage on experiencing existence as waving, as an ocean with transient waves arising from a deep, unbounded whole. Let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of the summary.

• You are not the wave (the form) but the ocean (the formless). Identifying with the wave leads to misery and fear as the wave will eventually disappear.
• Realizing you are the ocean, the formless, eternal reality leads to bliss and the disappearance of misery.
• Every moment the wave is changing; childhood turns to youth to old age, cells are constantly replaced. You are a process, not a static thing.
• See everything that happens as happening to the universe, not to you. Feel hunger as the universe being hungry through you. See sex as two waves merging into the ocean.
• There is no sin or responsibility when there is no ego. Everything just happens as the universe flowing through you.
• Misery only happens when you go against the law of reality and think you are separate. There is no judge or punishment, just the law of reality.
• Use your ordinary mind as the door to meditation. Don’t think you need some special mind to become enlightened. This very mind you have, that dreams and wanders, is the door.

The key insights are:

1. You are the formless, eternal ocean, not the fleeting wave (your body and mind).

2. Identifying with the wave leads to misery; realizing you are the ocean leads to bliss.

3. Everything that happens is just the universe flowing through you. There is no “you” to sin or be responsible.

4. Your ordinary mind is the door to enlightenment. You don’t need a special mind to become enlightened.

That’s a high-level summary and synthesis of the main teachings from the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to explain anything in the summary in more detail.

• The ordinary mind is not as ordinary as we think. It is grounded in the divine, the infinite - otherwise existence would not be possible. Though the mind wanders and moves, it remains grounded in the totality.

• When the mind wanders, there are two things: the thoughts and images (the clouds, the guests) and consciousness itself (the sky, the host). If we focus on the clouds, we forget the sky. We must change our focus from the objects to the mind itself.

• This change of focus from outward to inward can happen suddenly. We work and work at it, then one day it evaporates and happens. It does not happen gradually or in percentages. When it happens, it happens 100% - we either see the world or the brahman. Then we become the masters, able to shift focus as we wish.

• Marpa, a Tibetan mystic, said after his realization he was “as miserable as before” - but now his misery was voluntary. He could move in and out of it and remain untouched. Once we know how to shift focus inwards, we can return to the world, but now as masters, allowing the clouds but not dominated by them.

• This sutra says wherever our mind wanders, internally or externally, we should focus on “this very place, this”. Zen says our ordinary mind is the buddha mind - whether eating, sleeping, carrying water, if we simply do the act without clouds, we are buddha. If while carrying water our mind is unclouded and the sky vacant, we are buddha.

• We become a mess when while doing one thing, our mind is elsewhere. While eating, we are doing thousands of other things. To cure this, we must focus on “this very place, this” - the simple act we are engaged in.

The key points in the passage are:

1. You are the seer behind the senses, not the senses themselves. The senses are just instruments. You see through the eyes, you do not see by the eyes.

2. When you are vividly aware through a particular sense, keep awareness of the inner seer. For example, when hearing music, remain aware of the inner center that is hearing. When seeing, remain aware of the inner center that is seeing.

3. Looking through your eyes at someone means you remain aware of the seer behind the eyes. This can feel piercing and penetrating to the other person. It is easier to look by the eyes, without awareness of the seer.

4. Practice being aware of the seer with objects, nature, loved ones. Start with the easy interactions before trying it with strangers. Become artful so that no one knows you are looking so deeply.

5. Once aware of the inner seer, you can experience tremendous love and vulnerability with others. You can look deeply into another without trespassing or making them feel uncomfortable.

6. Society has built in mechanisms to avoid deep seeing, as it opens one up to vulnerability. Only in love do we open up fully to another’s deep seeing.

7. A luchcha is one who has become eyes - who looks piercingly at others. This makes most people uncomfortable, as if being trespassed upon.

In summary, the key point is to practice being aware of the inner seer, the center of awareness within that sees through the eyes, hears through the ears, and knows the single object that the senses are perceiving. Start by practicing this with nature, loved ones and safe spaces before extending to more challenging interactions. With practice, one can master the art of the deep seeing without discomforting others or feeling discomforted.

• There are two views on enlightenment: gradual vs. sudden. The gradual view sees enlightenment as progressive degrees of wisdom and insight. The sudden view sees enlightenment as a sudden, discontinuous jump from ignorance to wisdom.

• The gradual view is more comprehensible to the human mind which wants to divide and measure things in steps. But enlightenment is ultimately beyond the mind and cannot actually be gradually grasped. Some enlightened masters have taught the gradual path to help their students progress, but enlightenment itself is sudden.

• Spiritual progress before enlightenment is negative, a lessening of ignorance, restlessness, clinging, etc. One becomes calmer, stiller, but one is still essentially an ordinary human being. Positive qualities of enlightenment like bliss, deathlessness, light are only comprehensible in contrast with their opposites which enlightenment transcends.

• Enlightenment is a discontinuity, a gap from one’s past ignorance. If enlightenment is gradual, ignorance continues in some form. Enlightenment is a jump into the new, the appearance of that which was never there before. The enlightened one says “I am not the one who sought enlightenment.” The past is dead and gone.

• This sudden appearance of the new is hard to conceive rationally. But even in science, electrons make sudden jumps from point A to point B, disappearing and reappearing. Non-existence in a sense exists. Something can move from visible to invisible, form to formlessness.

• When enlightenment happens, one transcends polar opposites like bliss/misery, silence/noise, stillness/restlessness. What remains is indescribable, beyond opposites. Language fails since it depends on opposites to function.

That covers the key arguments the response makes for why enlightenment must be sudden rather than gradual. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Enlightenment is a sudden and discontinuous phenomenon. The old identity dissolves completely and a new identity emerges. Though the physical body remains the same, there is a complete change in one’s inner reality.

• This sudden transformation is difficult for the logical mind to comprehend. The mind divides everything into opposites, but reality is indivisible. For enlightenment to happen, one must go beyond the mind.

• One can do practices to become receptive to enlightenment, but enlightenment itself happens spontaneously according to a higher law, the law of levitation. One’s practices remove obstacles and open one up to this higher law. Ultimately, one cannot achieve enlightenment through one’s own efforts. One can only make oneself available for it to happen.

• Enlightenment is a mystery that cannot be understood through logic and concepts. It must be approached through direct experience. Before enlightenment, one is subject to the law of gravity, always moving downwards. After enlightenment, one follows the law of levitation, rising upwards effortlessly.

• For the enlightened one, virtues like love and nonviolence are spontaneous and natural, not forced or chosen. One acts with the law of levitation, not the law of gravity.

• One must do spiritual practices while also recognizing that enlightenment itself comes through grace, not through one’s efforts alone. One’s efforts make one receptive to enlightenment, but do not cause enlightenment. Enlightenment comes through a higher power.

• Enlightenment is not about attaining something new but about removing barriers that prevent the light from entering. All spiritual effort is aimed at destroying these barriers, not achieving enlightenment itself. Enlightenment happens when the barriers are removed.

• These barriers are our habitual ways of thinking and cannot be removed through more thinking. Thinking creates layers of thoughts that obstruct our vision of reality. We have to stop thinking to break down these barriers.

• As the barriers are removed gradually through meditation, the mind becomes clearer and calmer. But no matter how clear the mind becomes, it is still a barrier. Complete enlightenment happens only when the mind is shattered completely.

• Meditation helps make the mind clear so it can realize it too is a barrier. A mind accustomed to meditation can then let go of meditation. But those who have never meditated cannot renounce it and need to meditate first. Telling them to renounce meditation prematurely is harmful.

• Enlightenment is a sudden event, but it is usually preceded by a gradual clarification of the mind. The clarification of the mind through meditation is preparation, but enlightenment transcends the mind. When it happens, one realizes the mind never could have been enlightened.

• To describe enlightenment, we need to use paradoxical expressions like “ancient-most” yet “most new.” It was always there yet never happened before now. But such expressions reflect the limitation of language, not the nature of enlightenment itself.

• A Zen story illustrates how meditation needs to be eventually discarded. A monk annoyed by his master’s laughter during meditation finally realizes the mind could never become enlightened, just as a brick could never become a mirror. He attains enlightenment when his mind breaks upon this realization.

That’s a high-level summary and synthesis of the key ideas and metaphors discussed in the passage on enlightenment, barriers, meditation, and the mind. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• When in meditation, do not expect enlightenment or Buddha-nature to happen. Any thought or expectation is still a thought that clouds the mind.

• Let go of all thoughts, including the thought that the mind is now thoughtless. Only then can Buddha-nature be revealed.

• A story illustrates this: A king visited Buddha for the first time. He bowed down and said “I want enlightenment.” Buddha said “Then drop it.” The king was puzzled. Buddha explained that enlightenment cannot be attained through desire or expectation. Enlightenment is the absence of desire.

• Similarly, do not desire or expect Buddha-nature. Simply be thoughtless and Buddha-nature may be revealed. But there should be no expectation or desire for it. Any grasping or desire obscures the mind and prevents enlightenment.

• Buddha-nature is revealed when there is total thoughtlessness, not even the thought that the mind is now thoughtless. In that total emptiness, Buddha-nature may shine through. But do not anticipate it or desire for it to happen. Simply be empty.

• If there is no enlightenment or Buddha-nature experienced even in thoughtless awareness, do not desire for it. Continue meditating without desire or expectation. It will happen in its own time. Forcing it will not work.

That’s the summary and the key messages from the passage. The core point is to let go of all thoughts and desires, even the subtle desire for enlightenment or Buddha-nature. Only in the total absence of desire can it flower. But there should be no anticipation or grasping for it. Simply continue meditating thoughtlessly.

Here are the key points I understood:

1. One should practice awareness and non-judgment continuously, in all situations - pleasant or unpleasant, enjoyable or difficult. One should remain aware and avoid judging events or experiences as pure or impure.

2. The spiritual path is paradoxical. To reach what is near, one has to travel far. What one seeks to achieve is already achieved within, one just has to uncover it. Nothing new needs to be achieved, one just needs to rediscover one’s true nature.

3. Purity and innocence are man’s natural state. They are not lost or destroyed, man just forgets them. The spiritual path is about removing this forgetfulness and rediscovering one’s true nature.

4. Other spiritual teachings that emphasize purity and impurity are impure from the tantric perspective. Tantra rejects dualistic notions of purity and impurity. Nothing should be judged as absolutely pure or impure.

5. Awareness should be practiced in all situations, especially extreme ones - when sneezing, frightened, anxious, at the edge of a chasm, in battle, extremely curious, hungry or satiated. These intense situations can reveal one’s conditioned patterns and provide opportunities to break them through awareness and non-judgment.

6. Life is paradoxical in that the far and near, achieved and unachieved are not separate. What seems far is near, what seems achieved remains to be achieved again. Nothing is absolutely lost or gained. Reality transcends all dualities.

The key tantric methods I understood are: cultivating awareness and non-judgment, embracing paradox, and practicing in intense situations to reveal and transcend conditioning. The ultimate goal is to rediscover one’s true nature which remains pure and innocent despite appearances.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points and methods conveyed in the teachings? Let me know if I have missed or misunderstood anything.

Here are the main points:

1. Enlightenment or spiritual awakening is very simple to achieve in essence, but difficult in practice because you have forgotten what is obvious and always present. It is as simple as breathing but needs conscious remembrance.

2. Samsara (the world) and nirvana (enlightenment) are just two attitudes or choices, not two separate things. By changing your attitude and focus, the world becomes nirvana.

3. Enlightenment seems ridiculous and absurd once achieved because what you were searching for was never lost. The search itself was absurd. But it only seems simple once achieved; before that, it appears the most difficult and impossible thing.

4. Simple techniques appeal to the ego less so the mind says they cannot lead to enlightenment. But only simple techniques can transform you because they do not feed the ego. Difficult techniques just challenge the ego.

5. Enlightenment is not a causal phenomenon. It is not achieved by a cause-effect process over time. It is realizing what you already are - just a matter of alertness, not becoming anything new or different.

6. You are already in your natural state of enlightenment, just dreaming you are not. Various techniques aim to awaken you from these dreams by cultivating alertness. The more alert you become, the less you dream.

7. Taking on new identities or practices like sannyas can be part of your dreaming if you do not truly break from your old identity. You have to become discontinuous from it, not just add something new onto what remains the same.

That covers the essence and main points being conveyed in the passage on endeavor and simplicity. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

Sorry, I made a mistake in the previous response. Here is the correct response:

It looks so simple: at the start of sneezing, during fright, in anxiety or before hunger or after hunger, be uninterruptedly aware. Many things have to be understood. Very simple acts like sneezing can be used as devices, because howsoever simple they look, they are very complex, and the inner mechanism is a very delicate thing. Whenever you feel that a sneeze is coming become alert, and the sneeze may not come at all. It may simply disappear, because a sneeze is a non-voluntary thing – unconscious, non-voluntary.

You cannot sneeze voluntarily; you cannot “will” it. How can you? How helpless man is! You cannot “will” a single sneeze. Howsoever you may try, you cannot bring it out. A single sneeze – such a small thing, but you cannot will it. It is non-voluntary; volition is not needed. It does not happen because of your mind; it is because of your total organism, your total body.

And the second thing: when you become alert, when the sneeze is coming – you cannot bring it, but when it is coming – if you become alert, it may not come, because you are bringing something new to the process: the alertness. It may disappear, but when the sneeze disappears and you are alert, there is a third thing. First, a sneeze is non-voluntary. You bring in a new thing – alertness. When the alertness comes, the sneeze may not come. If really you are alert, it will not; it may not happen at all. Then a third thing happens. The energy that was going to be released through a sneeze, where does it move? It moves to your alertness. Suddenly there is a flash, a lightning. You become more alert. The energy, that was going to be thrown by the sneeze moves into alertness. Suddenly you become more alert.

In that flash, in that lightning, even enlightenment is possible. That is why I say that these matters are so simple, they look absurd. Their promise seems to be too much. Just through sneezing, how can one become enlightened? But sneezing is not just sneezing; you are totally involved in it. Whatsoever you do or whatsoever happens to you is a total involvement. Observe again: whenever a sneeze happens, you are totally in it with the whole body, the whole mind. It is not just your nose in which the sneeze is happening; every fiber, every cell of your body is involved in it. A subtle trembling, a subtle wavering goes all over the body, and with it the whole body becomes concentrated. And when the sneeze has happened, the whole body relaxes. But it is difficult to bring alertness to it. If you bring alertness to it, it will not happen, and if it happens you can know that the alertness was not there. That is why you should be alert.

At the start of sneezing…because if it has started, nothing can be done. The arrow has gone; you cannot change it now. The mechanism has started. The energy is on its way to being released, it cannot be stopped. Can you stop a sneeze in the middle? How can you stop it in the middle? By the time you are ready, it has already happened. You cannot stop it in the middle.

Just at the beginning, become alert. The moment you feel the sensation that it is coming, become alert. Close your eyes and be meditative. Bring your total consciousness to the focus just where you are feeling the sensation of an oncoming sneeze. Just at the beginning, remain alert. The sneeze will disappear, and the energy will be transformed into more alertness. And because in the sneeze the whole body is involved, the whole mechanism is involved – it is a release mechanism and you are alert at this moment – there will be no mind, there will be no thought, no meditation.

In a sneeze, thinking stops. That is why so many people like snuff. It unburdens them, their minds feel more relaxed because for a moment thinking stops. Snuff gives them a glimpse of no-thinking. Through snuff, when the sneeze comes, they are not minds, they become bodies. The head disappears for a single moment, but it feels good.

If you become habituated to snuff, it is very difficult to leave it. It is more penetrating a habit than smoking; smoking is nothing before it. It penetrates more deeply, because smoking is conscious and sneezing is unconscious. To leave snuff is more difficult than to leave smoking. And smoking can be changed, substitutes can be found – but there is no substitute for snuff, because, really, sneezing is a very unique phenomenon in the body.

The only other thing that can be compared and which has been compared is the sex act. Those who think in terms of physiology, they say that the sex act is just sneezing through the sex organ – and the similarity is there. It is not one hundred percent right because much more is involved in sex, greater things are involved in it. But in the beginning, just in the beginning, the similarity is there.

Something is thrown out from the body, and after it you feel relaxed and unburdened. But even in sex more is involved. It is not just sneezing. alertness, meditation, love, prayer may be involved in it. Sex can become a very deep spiritual experience. Sneezing is simply bodily. That is why, if you practice alertness with sneezing, it can be used as a device, but it remains merely a bodily release. But, practised, it can help, because if you can become alert about such an unconscious thing as sneezing, you can become alert about any unconscious thing. And sneezing is very deep-rooted; it is not just on the surface. That is why you cannot bring it voluntarily.

It is from our deepest unawareness. Because of that, more alertness will be needed to be focused upon it. If you can bring alertness to it, you will achieve a great control and mastery over yourself – and that can be used in wider fields. The principle can be used, the method can be used in wider fields. The method is the same. If you can become alert about sneezing, you can become alert about everything – about deeper things, greater things. And the principle is the same.

So it depends on you. You can start with any simple thing: sneezing, coughing, breathing – anything. But bring alertness to it. Around it, create an intense alertness. Be watchful and the very watchfulness will change its character, its quality. It may disappear completely, or if it happens you will be conscious of it. But you will not feel that it has happened unconsciously; you were aware. And when anything happens consciously it is different. There is no suppression; only an uncontrolled, unconscious thing is thrown out. When anything happens consciously, it is different – qualitatively different. There is no suppression; you are just aware. And through awareness, a miracle happens: that which was going to be thrown out, returns back. The energy is not released; it returns back, it rebounds. You become stronger through it.

This technique says, “At the beginning of…” because then it is easier. Once the process has started and is continuing, it is very difficult to be aware. Only at the beginning, when the sensation is just on the way, is it easier to be aware because you have not gathered momentum. Anything can be stopped in the beginning, but when you have gathered momentum, brought force and energy to it, it is more difficult to stop it. That is why all religions say that sin is easier to stop in the beginning. When it is just in the seed, it can be stopped; but when it has become a sprout, it is more difficult. When it has become a tree, it is very difficult.

So remember one basic thing: that anything can be stopped in the beginning very easily. But we are not aware, and by the time we become aware the thing has already gathered momentum. So become aware before any act. The gap between any act and before it begins is the gap of awareness. Do anything – as if suddenly you were asked, “Stop, don’t do it!” You will feel a gap, and in that gap do the technique: become aware.

Let us take it from another side. Whenever there is fear, anxiety – before fear arises, become aware. You are walking in a forest alone and there is anxiety about thieves, human beings, animals – become aware of that anxiety before it grabs you completely. Once you are afraid, it is very difficult to do the technique. Even becoming aware becomes difficult because fear also makes you afraid of becoming aware. Fear tricks you in many ways; it is cunning. When there is fear about some unconscious thing, you become afraid about consciousness also. You are afraid even to become aware. In the beginning, when the fear is not yet too strong or too great – just entering in the mind, just knocking at the door – become alert. Be watchful before its entry. Then fear will never enter, or even if it enters it will be extremely modified, and you can be aware of it.

Before any emotion, mood or sentiment arises, become alert about it, and you will have a different quality of consciousness

• Nose blowing and sexual release are involuntary acts that cannot be willed into happening. Trying to do so will lead to failure and frustration, especially for men.

• In the West, too much focus on sex and trying to control it has led to problems. Being too alert and conscious during sex can make arousal and erection difficult for men.

• The same technique of being alert at the start of the sensation can be used for transforming sexual energy into alertness. Tantra practices having men meditate on a naked woman until sensation arises, then close the eyes and meditate on the sensation.

• Alertness is key. Thought is the barrier, so any way thought disappears, even for a moment, can lead to a flash of insight. Meditation is thoughtless consciousness.

• Nothing is really small or big. Even a sneeze, when approached with alertness, can be transformative. Fear disappears when there is alertness.

• The great Zen archer Rinzai was focused on alertness, not technical accuracy. His students had to learn alertness from him, though they were technically proficient.

• For anxiety, don’t think about it or try to solve it with thinking. Just be alert. Call out your own name to bring alertness back.

• Use hunger, fear, curiosity, battle, etc. - any extreme sensation - as an opportunity to remain uninterruptedly aware. Remain the witness, not becoming the hunger itself. The more alert, the more hunger is in the distance. Fasting only useful when combined with this technique.

• Tantra says not to judge anything as pure or impure. These are man-made distinctions and interpretations, not inherent in reality.

• What one teaching considers pure, another may consider impure. It depends on one’s interpretation and attitudes. There is no absolute purity or impurity.

• When you label something as pure or impure, good or bad, you divide existence. But existence in itself is non-dual. The divisions are created by the mind.

• These divisions also divide you within yourself. If you condemn something as impure, you will condemn that same tendency in yourself. This creates inner conflict and tension.

• Saints cannot exist without sinners, according to Tantra. They are part of one whole, defined in relation to each other. If sinners disappear, so will saints.

• We habitually judge and condemn without realizing it. Our looks, gestures, everything conveys our judgmental attitudes. This is deeply ingrained but creates suffering.

• To follow this technique, one must become aware of one’s habitual judgments and try to see reality as it is, without the overlay of interpretation. This is difficult due to our lifelong pattern of dual thinking.

• But by dissolving the duality within, one can attain peace and silence. A divided house cannot stand, but a whole person can be at peace.

In summary, the key is to drop all judgment - of self and others, of all circumstances and conditions - and instead to see everything as it is in itself, as a simple factual reality. Easier said than done, but this non-dual vision holds the key to transcending suffering and inner conflict.

• Meditation depends on your consciousness and alertness, not on your character or actions. You can be moral while “asleep”, unaware and unalert. This leads to suppression, misery, and hypocrisy.

• Real morality arises spontaneously from within through self-awareness, not from external imposition. It is an absence of immorality, not an opposition to it. Forced morality is false and poisons relationships.

• The deeper you go within, the more loving you become - naturally, without force or antagonism. This love arises unselfconsciously, like breathing. It is a consequence of the inner journey, not a prerequisite.

• Tantra teaches to avoid getting entangled with morality. Instead, focus on inner awareness. As you become more conscious, authentic morality manifests on its own. Forced morality only creates hindrances.

• True meditation depends on consciousness of the present moment, not on morality. While meditating, avoid judgment of moral vs immoral. Just observe without interpretation. This non-judgmental awareness leads to inner unity and silence.

• In summary, alertness through Tantra - focusing on inner consciousness rather than outer morality - leads to an unforced flowering of authentic morality and love. Meditation depends on this awareness, not on moral character. Non-judgmental observation of “what is” creates inner silence and unity.

• Don’t be concerned with moral and immoral concepts. They are superficial and outer. Instead, focus on becoming more alert and awakened.

• Society’s teachings are dualistic, suppressive, and create inner conflict. Forget those outer teachings and move within.

• As you become more awakened, you will become naturally moral but not in a self-conscious way. You will act with love and kindness because it feels blissful, not out of obligation or for reward.

• An immoral life does not create hindrances to meditation. Rather, a lack of meditation and awareness creates an immoral life. Immorality is a symptom of being asleep.

• Both immoral and moral people can be asleep. The immoral person is inconveniencing society but pleasing himself. The moral person is pleasing society but inconveniencing himself. Only awakening can end this unease.

• Tantra focuses on awakening, not morality. An awakened person’s character will change as a consequence, but that is not the aim or focus. The focus is transforming sleep into awareness.

• An awakened person can use anger or morality when needed for a purpose, but they do not come from a place of deep anger or absolute morality. They flow from a place of awareness and love.

• Whether you are a sinner or saint, the only thing needed is to awaken from sleep. Alertness is the key to transformation, not changing immorality to morality or vice versa. Make all your acts an opportunity to become more aware.

• Tantra is concerned with the root problem - lack of awareness - not the symptoms like immorality or morality. It is a scientific approach, focusing on inner transformation.

• Tantra has no objections to following moral laws or principles, but it is not concerned with them. Principles are borrowed and imposed, not rooted in one’s own experience. Following them leads to a dead, static life, not an abundant, living one.

• Principled people create a safety armor around themselves by closing themselves off. They seem peaceful but lack aliveness. Tantra is for those seeking a fuller life, not death. The ultimate is life, not death.

• Principles allow one to avoid being alert and aware. They become mechanical habits. Society inculcates principles to make people incapable of being otherwise. If one is incapable, one is dead.

• Truth and non-violence should come from alertness, not principles. It is difficult to be totally alert and transform oneself. It is easier to follow principles, like a train on tracks. But life is like a river, not running on tracks. Its path unfolds as it flows.

• Tantra trusts in the life force. One should allow life to lead, not force it. By being alert, one can go where life leads with confidence. Tantra values the journey and the destination. The river’s growth into the sea comes through rich, alert experience, not just reaching the end.

The key points are that Tantra focuses on living fully, not following external rules; cultivating awareness and an ability to flow with life’s changes, not Being static or incapable; and finding meaning in each step of life’s journey, not just some final destination. The metaphor of life as a river, not a mechanistic system, captures Tantra’s vision.

• Expressing emotional desires and moods outwardly can create destructive chains of events, while suppressing them inwardly creates inner wounds.
• Neither expressing nor suppressing are ideal solutions. The third alternative is to become aware and alert to the arising desire or mood.
• This awareness transforms the energy of the desire or mood, changing its nature and direction. The horizontal movement stops, and the energy moves vertically upwards.
• A parable illustrates this: A poor man is given an airplane by a king. Not knowing what it is, he uses it as a bullock cart. But when someone teaches him it can fly, his whole perspective changes. Similarly, awareness teaches us that our energies can be transformed and lifted upwards.
• If we bring awareness to our energies, they are transmuted and become fresh, vibrant, and alive. Awareness is the alchemy that changes everything.

That’s the key summary and message: bring awareness to your arising desires, moods, and energies rather than expressing or suppressing them. This awareness transmutes them into higher energies that lift you up.

The key ideas in this passage are:

1. The world is continually changing. Everything in the outer world is in a state of flux and impermanence.

2. One must find the unchanging (the “unsame same”) behind the changing. There is an inner essence or beingness that remains constant.

3. One can transcend change through passive, alert witnessing of change. By being aware of the constant change occurring, one can go beyond change to the changeless.

4. The Western mind has focused on understanding the causal, theoretical aspects of reality in order to control and manipulate nature. The Eastern mind has sought the aesthetic, experiential aspects of reality.

5. One must maintain equanimity and honor the unchanging essence in all things - in both friends and strangers, honor and dishonor. One must see through outward appearances to the inner beingness.

The key metaphors used are:

1. The sphere (or world) of change. This represents the outer world in constant flux.

2. Consuming change through change. This suggests that by fully experiencing change through passive witnessing, one transcends change. Change is “consumed” or ended.

3. Finding the unchanging “unsame same.” This poetic phrase hints at perceiving the unnamable, inexpressible inner essence that is the same in all things - the same in both friends and strangers, honor and dishonor.

The passage suggests that through non-reactive, meditative witnessing of the impermanence of the outer world, one can have a direct experience of the inner essence, or “unsame same,” that transcends change. By maintaining equanimity in the face of any experience, one can find an anchor in the unchanging. The way to transcend change is through change - by perceiving change. This is the aesthetic, experiential adventure of the Eastern mind.

• Something in you remains constantly the same, an unchanging essence. This unchanging essence allows you to have an identity and feel centered.

• Everything else - your body, mind, circumstances - is constantly changing. Your body changes completely every 7 years. Your mind changes even more rapidly.

• Because of this constant change, you cannot recognize your childhood body or mind. Everything feels different.

• Even in a single day, your mind changes. You are a different person in the evening than you were in the morning.

• But something in you remains unchanging. Tantra focuses on this unchanging essence.

• Our mind is constantly changing. We can never remain the same.

• We often fail to recognize this and expect others to remain the same. This creates misery and frustration.

• There are two dimensions within us: the changing periphery and the unchanging center. We must become aware of the unchanging center.

• The unchanging element, our atman or soul, is difficult to notice because it is permanently the same. We tend to notice only change.

• This technique aims to find the eternal in the changing - to be the ‘unsame same’.

• With friends and strangers, our behavior will differ but our consciousness can remain the same.

• We must look at friends as strangers. Though we behave differently, our attitude should remain the same.

• Looking at friends as strangers will reduce expectations and frustrations. We will realize that even friends are distant and unpredictable.

• When you look at a stranger, there seems to be no common ground in terms of nation, religion, race, or language. However, look deeper into their eyes and you will see the common humanity, the common life, and the common existence you share. Though you may not understand them, you can feel the connection through existence.

• As far as your changing personalities, bodies, and minds are concerned, you will always remain strangers. But in your essence, you are the same. You change on the outside but remain the same on the inside.

• Others can only honor or dishonor your manifestations, not you. You remain beyond. They judge based on their own criteria and measurements, not on who you really are. Their condemnations and appreciations are not really about you, just your manifestations.

• You must remain detached from the changes happening at your periphery while staying centered within. Say “Is it so?” to whatever happens, good or bad. Look at the insults and the praises with detachment. Your center will remain unmoved while the periphery gets disturbed. Staying detached leads to eternal bliss.

• Discriminate between the changing and the unchanging, the moving and the non-moving. Hunger, for example, can only be felt by the periphery. Your center remains beyond hunger. Make this discrimination in all experiences to find your center.

• One who can discriminate between the changing and the unchanging knows who he really is. He is a true sannyasin. This discrimination, or vivek, leads to awareness.

• Apply this teaching to all opposites in life. Remain detached and centered, saying “Is it so?” to whatever happens. Move from periphery to center to find eternal life. Otherwise, you miss the opportunity for religiosity and happiness.

That’s a high-level summary and synthesis of the key points and teachings in the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Everything in the world is constantly changing, including physical objects that appear stationary. The only unchanging thing is you, the knower, the consciousness that experiences the change.

• Self-knowledge is a negative process of eliminating objects of knowledge until only the knower remains. You cannot know yourself directly as an object. When there is nothing left to know, you experience your true self.

• Buddha emphasized understanding impermanence and change. If you truly see that everything changes, you will become detached from it. You can then search for the unchanging truth.

• The tantric view embraces change rather than escaping it. It says to move into change, allow it, and consume it through itself. Don’t cling to change but flow with it without struggle. By flowing with change without resistance, you transcend it and find the unchanging self.

• To summarize, one path (Buddha’s) is to understand change and seek the unchanging. The other (tantric) path is to fully embrace change through non-resistance, which leads to transcending change and abiding in the unchanging. Both paths lead to enlightenment by transcending attachment to the impermanent.

Modern humans have become incapable of love because love cannot be controlled or possessed. Love is spontaneous and happens when we allow ourselves to be possessed by it. Modern society focuses on doing and controlling, but love is about being and allowing.

Modern humans want to be the masters of everything and possess everything. But we can only master and possess things, not living entities or happenings like love, joy, and meditation. These cannot be manipulated or controlled. To experience them, we must let ourselves go and be possessed by them.

Modern society has developed the capacity to efficiently do and control things. But we have lost the capacity for anything that cannot be done or controlled, like love, play, joy, and meditation. We have become afraid of anything we cannot control or possess.

We even turn people into things so we can possess them. But when we love a person, neither person can be the master. Love itself is the master, and the lovers must allow themselves to be possessed by it. If they try to possess each other, they miss love. By turning a lover into a husband or wife, we make them a thing to possess rather than a living person.

In summary, modern humans have become incapable of love because we are focused on controlling and possessing, but love requires allowing ourselves to be possessed. We fear losing control, so we avoid love and turn even people into things we can control. But to find love, we must relinquish control and master, and let love itself be the master.

Here are the key points:

1. You cannot possess a person, as that reduces them to a dead thing that cannot fulfill you. Fulfillment comes through relating to persons, not possessing things.

2. Possessiveness kills the capacity to love. It is better to think of being possessed by love rather than possessing another. This means surrendering to something greater than yourself.

3. We have focused too much on intellect and reason, neglecting the heart. Love and the heart center have been denied and neglected. Without training and use, the heart remains undeveloped.

4. Life seems meaningless without love. Love gives life meaning and purpose. Mere existence is not enough.

5. Love leads to prayer and meditation. When your love extends to all of existence, it becomes prayer.

6. Fear and closing ourselves off from vulnerability prevents us from opening our heart. But the heart is innocent, unlike the cunning mind. We must be ready to be deceived and open our heart.

7. Modern society, especially men but increasingly women, have become too sophisticated and clever, losing access to the heart. But the heart must rule over reason. Reason alone is not enough and can be dangerous without the heart.

8. There is a crisis as women copy men and their head orientation. But we must look at how this has caused man to fail in the heart and capacity to love. The heart gives life real meaning.

That’s a high-level summary of the key points around love, the heart, reason, meaning, and modern society’s issues according to the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

Okay, I understand. To summarize:

1. Don’t make any effort to change the periphery or make it static. Allow it to change as it is the nature of the periphery to move and change. You cannot make it static.

2. Be aware of the unchanging center within the change. Be the witness of the changing periphery. Know that you are not the change - you are the unchanging center.

3. Problems arise due to identification with the changing periphery. They are not created by the changing periphery itself. When you feel “I am this change”, problems arise.

4. If you can be a witness to the changes as they happen to the periphery, and know they are not happening to you - you remain unaffected. Even death can happen, but you remain a witness.

5. An example is given of Alexander who was asked by friends to bring back a sannyasin from India. At the last moment he remembered and asked a sannyasin to come along. But the sannyasin said “I have already left. I am a witness - I cannot come or go anywhere. I have no desire to go or stay.” He had transcended change by abiding as the unchanging witness.

So in summary, one does not need to force the periphery to cease its movements to realize the unchanging center. One needs to remain rooted as the witnessing center while allowing the periphery to change. Problems arise from identification with change, not from change itself. By abiding as the witness, one transcends change.

Does this capture the essence correctly? Let me know if I have missed anything or need to clarify any part of the summary.

• Tantra says to accept life as it is, without struggle or tension. But modern city life with its speed and technology seems to create constant anxiety and stress.

• However, anxieties and tensions arise from within us, not from external circumstances. Objects and environments may change, but the basic human mind remains the same. We carry our anxieties with us wherever we go.

• For example, a person may complain that city noise and traffic cause them stress. But if they go to a quiet village, they soon become bored and long for the stimulation of the city again. The cause of the stress is within, not in the environment.

• Environments like cities reflect the tensions and energies of the people who inhabit them. The noise and rush of a city exists because restless, striving people have created it. They need it to feel alive.

• While people may idealize a peaceful village life, most are not willing to actually go live that way permanently. They soon crave the stimulation of more populated, fast-paced places.

• The basic message is that we carry our anxieties and inner tensions with us wherever we are. We cannot blame external circumstances. The solution lies in addressing that inner source of tension, not in changing environments. Stillness and calm must come from within, not from without.

• The cause of your problems or disturbances lies within you, not outside. External factors are not responsible for your troubles. You create the world around you with your thoughts and projections.

• The cities, the noise, the traffic - they exist for you and because of you. Unless your mind changes, these external stimuli cannot change. You are responsible for whatever is happening to you. The world is just a mirror reflecting your inner self.

• It is consoling to blame external causes for your troubles. But that way you never feel responsible or guilty. The truth is you project causes outside to escape responsibility. For example, the wife disturbs the husband, the mother disturbs the children, etc. Everyone blames someone else.

• An example is given of Mulla Nasruddin who projected robbers and dacoits in a marriage procession and ended up hiding in a grave. Similarly, we project and become afraid unnecessarily.

• Nothing actually disturbs you from outside. You get disturbed because you think it disturbs you. If you change your attitude, the disturbance will disappear. For example, masturbation was thought to cause disturbances but now is considered normal and even healthy. Our ideas cause the trouble, not the acts themselves.

• In a vulnerable state, any suggestion can have an effect. So if you think masturbation will cause illness, it will. If you think it indicates intelligence, so it will. The thoughts you hold become reality.

• The summary is that you create your own world with your thoughts and projections. The cause of your troubles lies in your own mind and attitudes. By understanding this, you can avoid projecting unnecessary causes of suffering for yourself.

1. To know oneself, one must understand the barriers that prevent self-knowledge. Without understanding the barriers, any effort made will not help in knowing oneself.

2. The main barrier is the dreaming mind - the mind that is constantly interpreting events based on past experiences and future desires. The dreaming mind distorts reality and creates a barrier between oneself and the actual reality.

3. To overcome this barrier, one must cease dreaming - one must hear, see and touch reality directly without interpretation or judgement. One must drop words and the thinking mind. With less words and less thinking, there are less barriers to reality.

4. The dreaming mind brings in the past mind (which thinks based on past experiences) and the future mind (which thinks based on future desires). One must remain in the present to experience reality directly.

5. Language itself creates more barriers as words can never accurately capture reality. The more words we add, the further we move away from reality. To experience reality, one must go beyond language and words.

6. An enlightened being remains with what is real - with direct experience beyond the dreaming mind and words. Such a being is not bound by misery or bliss, but simply is.

That is the essence and summary of the passage on how the dreaming mind creates barriers to self-knowledge and how to overcome those barriers by ceasing to dream and remaining with direct experience.

The key message is to avoid adding unnecessary projections and interpretations onto reality. We should allow reality to assert itself instead of forcing our dreams and desires onto it.

Some key points:

1. Avoid unnecessary verbalization and mental projections. Don’t add layers of thinking onto direct experience. Remain silent and still.

2. Don’t project desires and interpretations onto reality. See things as they are without adding “beautiful” or “ugly”. Those are interpretations. The same face can be beautiful or ugly to different people. Reality is as it is.

3. We feel disillusioned because we project dreams onto reality that inevitably clash with reality. We then blame reality but the problem is our projections. Successful and unsuccessful people alike feel disillusioned because of this.

4. Dreams are substitutes for unfulfilled desires. We dream of food when hungry, sex when suppressing sexuality. Dreams are private while reality is shareable. Live fully while awake and dreams will decrease. Decreased dreaming leads to decreased mental projections when awake.

5. Do each act totally, leaving nothing incomplete needing completion in dreams. Remain fully with each act as if the whole universe. Dreams will decrease. Decreased dreaming leads to increased clarity and directness of perception.

6. The technique: Be hope-less. Mother specific acts and knowings in reality, not mentally. Reality, not the mind, is the key. Act and know reality directly, not in the mind.

In summary, the message is about living a direct, undivided experience of reality right now, not in the mind. A quiet mind, total action, decreased dreaming and lack of mental projection leads to living reality directly and fully in each moment. The mind divides experience while reality is whole. Still the mind to experience the wholeness.

• You spend too much time dreaming and hoping for the future instead of living in the present moment. Stop postponing life and hoping for someday. Live now.

• Hopes and dreams are illusions. They prevent you from living authentically in the present. Abandon hopes and dreams and accept life as it is now.

• You cling to borrowed knowledge and beliefs instead of gaining direct experience. Rely on your own experience, not on what others say. Develop your own insights and wisdom.

• Do your own thing, not what others tell you to do. Follow your own path, not the path of Buddha or Jesus. Be authentic.

• Even small acts like a smile should be genuine. Don’t pretend or be false in the small details of life. Make sure your center is involved in everything you do. Otherwise, don’t do it.

• Save your energy for real and authentic moments. Don’t dissipate it on false acts and pleasures that mean nothing to you.

• Children and other perceptive people can detect when you are being false. Don’t deceive others or yourself. Be real.

• If you are false in small things, you will be false in big things too. Develop authenticity in all areas of life, no matter how small.

• To reach truth, abandon falsity. Only real experience and authenticity can lead to enlightenment. Falsity only leads to more illusion.

That’s a summary of the key ideas and advice in the passage about living authentically, abandoning dreams and falsity, and developing your own direct experience and insights. The main message is to live now, don’t follow others, and be real in all you do.

• Bondage and freedom are not opposites but two sides of the same coin. They are relative and interdependent. One defines the other.

• Moving from one extreme to the other extreme is not real liberation. It just creates new fetters and bondages, even if they appear opposite. For example, moving from greed to non-greed is not real liberation because the motive to gain still remains. Moving from sex to celibacy is not real liberation because the obsession with sex still remains, just in the opposite direction.

• Real liberation comes from transcending both bondage and freedom, both worldly life and spiritual life. It comes from stopping the division into opposites and seeing everything as the same.

• Trying to escape bondage by running away from it just creates new bondages. One has to realize the sameness in both bondage and freedom to become liberated from them.

• Liberation is not about gaining or achieving anything, not even freedom. It is about stopping the desire to gain, the desire to achieve, whether in worldly life or spiritual life. When all desires and hankerings for gain cease, one attains true liberation.

• One has to reject both bondage and liberation, both worldly life and spiritual life, to find the ultimate liberation which transcends all divisions and dualities. The liberation that Tantra talks about is beyond both sansara and moksha.

That’s the essence of the second sutra according to my understanding. Please let me know if I can clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Desire refers to the tendency of the mind to project fulfillment into the future. It implies being unsatisfied with the present moment.

• All desires, whether for worldly or spiritual objects, imply being unanchored in the present. They strengthen the habit of chasing after future dreams and avoiding reality.

• Desire is desire, regardless of the object. Even desiring God or liberation is a bondage. One cannot desire in the present moment, one can only be. Desire leads into fantasy and dreaming.

• The future is unreal and will never come as anticipated. One will remain unfulfilled if one’s fulfillment relies on future desires. The present moment is the only reality.

• Desire is the world. There is no such thing as spiritual desire. That is a trick of the mind to avoid giving up desire.

• Liberation cannot be desired. It happens spontaneously when there is no desire. One can become desireless, and liberation follows as a consequence. But it is not the result of any desire.

• The motivation towards liberation may be an aspiration, but it also implies a tension, a lack of ease in the present moment. True spiritual thirst arises from inner abundance, not lack. It is a flowering, not a grasping.

So in summary, desire perpetuates bondage to the unreal, regardless of its object. Liberation is a byproduct of relinquishing all desires and abiding in the present moment. The motivation toward spiritual freedom itself implicates a subtle desire and lack of freedom. True freedom arises spontaneously when one learns to simply be.

• Desiring for worldly things like wealth, power and prestige is condemned by spiritual seekers. Instead, they desire for God, enlightenment, etc. This is seen as a transformation but in reality, the mind remains the same. The objects of desire have just changed, but the desire itself - the constant running and dreaming - remains.

• The real revolution is moving from desire to no-desire. This cannot happen through desiring enlightenment or God. It happens through understanding that desire causes suffering.

• Every desire, whether fulfilled or not, leads to misery. The only way to realize this is through mindfulness - observe each desire and see how it leads to suffering. When this realization happens, desire falls away on its own.

• No-desire cannot be practiced. It is a consequence of understanding, not an object to be desired or pursued. Those who claim to practice no-desire are still desiring - they desire enlightenment, God, peace, etc. This is not true no-desire.

• Words are deceptive. Calling desire “spiritual desire” does not make it so. Only your own experience and realization can transform you, not borrowed knowledge. Buddha and others can point the way but cannot give you their understanding. You must suffer and understand for yourself.

• If you are alert, every desire will lead you to nirvana. This is because you will see that every desire leads to misery. When you have explored desire fully, you stop - and in that stopping, enlightenment happens. But you must be present to experience this - instead of living in dreams and hopes of the future.

• Reality sustains you but you chase after dreams and hopes. The present moment, though overlooked, is what allows you to exist at all. You must stop seeking dreams of “poets, leaders and Nobel laureates” and instead value the reality that sustains you.

• Your reality is where you currently are, not in your dreams or desires about the future. Live in the present moment and accept your current situation. Let go of desires and be aware of the present.

• You must confront your suffering directly. No one can do it for you. Suffering purifies and makes you aware. The more aware you are, the less desire you have. Perfect awareness leads to no desire and inner peace.

• You can be spiritually transformed by fully experiencing anger, hatred and violence. Don’t repress these feelings or create false opposites. Be total in experiencing them. Meditate on your anger and express it fully. See how violent your mind can be. Once expressed, you will find inner calm and peace.

• Anger arises from feeling unfulfilled and not realizing your potential. You project this anger onto others. Solve the underlying issue, not the symptom of anger.

• A Buddha is silent and non-violent because he has realized his true self. With self-realization, life is fulfilling and there are no problems. There is only gratitude. A Buddha cannot be a revolutionary because he sees all as good. Revolutionaries see misery and problems in the world.

• The key is to accept your reality now, express your pent-up energies fully, realize your true self, and live in the present moment with awareness and no desire. This leads to inner peace.

• Only creative acts can lead to revolution. Destructive acts simply destroy and lead to violence. Creative acts realize human potential and lead to growth.

• Many people today are increasingly frustrated and angry because they perceive the possibilities in life but are unable to achieve them. Their creativity remains untapped. Since they cannot be creative, they resort to being destructive. They express anger and violence.

• Anger, violence and other destructive forces should not be suppressed. Rather, they should be allowed to evaporate. Once they are released, creative forces like love, compassion, and silence emerge on their own. They are like a stream hidden behind rocks. Remove the rocks and the stream starts flowing.

• It is best to release anger and other destructive emotions in solitude, in a meditative way, without directing them at others. Release them fully and they will dissipate, leaving creativity and positivity in their place.

• Even acts like sex can be meditative and creative when done with full awareness and totality, without inhibitions. Sexuality, which is the mental and physical craving for sex, is destructive. But sex itself can be divine when two partners lose themselves in the act, when their breathing and energy become one. After experiencing the deepest core of sex, one can achieve that same ecstasy in simple acts like watching the stars or looking at a flower.

• A master or teacher serves as a provocation to help a disciple discover what is already within. The master gives nothing but simply challenges the disciple to realize his or her potential. Once that is achieved, the master is no longer needed.

• Sex may eventually disappear in favor of brahmacharya or celibacy. But brahmacharya is not the opposite of sex. It is simply the absence of sex. Anger is the opposite of love; it is destructive. But sex is creative; celibacy is merely its absence. Most religions wrongly condemn sex and anger in the same way. Anger, greed, and jealousy are destructive; sex is creative. Sexuality is destructive, but not sex itself.

Okay, I understand. The key points in the summary are:

1. Western psychology focused on the abnormal, pathological aspects of human psychology since psychologists were primarily studying and treating mentally ill patients.

2. This led to an erroneous and harmful understanding of human nature that viewed people through the lens of disease and abnormality.

3. In contrast, Eastern practices like Tantra and Yoga adopted a supernormal perspective - they sought to understand human potential beyond the normal or average.

4. The supernormal perspective sees positive health and possibilities rather than just disease and problems.

5. By studying only the pathological, Western psychology developed a distorted view of human nature. Studying the supernormal can provide a more balanced and optimistic perspective.

The summary highlights how the context and aims of a field of study can significantly impact its view of human nature. The takeaway is that we should seek to understand both the challenges/problems as well as the potentials/possibilities in human beings to gain a balanced perspective. Focusing only on one or the other can lead to a skewed understanding.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key ideas and arguments presented in the passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

The author argues that Western psychology and society have focused too much on studying and understanding abnormal and ill individuals. By basing their concept of human nature and possibility on the study of the abnormal and ill, they have developed a limited and pessimistic view of human potential. They cannot conceive of higher possibilities like Buddha or other enlightened beings.

In contrast, Eastern psychologies like Tantra and Yoga have focused on studying supernormal and enlightened beings. By basing their concept of human possibility on the highest peak of human potential, they developed a very optimistic view of what individuals can become. This view opens up the possibility of growth. One can become discontent with normality and strive to achieve one’s full potential.

The author says that self-actualization refers to achieving one’s full potential, becoming what one can truly become. Most people do not achieve this and feel a sense of inner failure or lack of purpose as a result. Tantra provides techniques rather than ideals to help one achieve self-actualization. It says one should become what one can become, not imitate any ideal. Imitation leads to pseudo personalities and being “phony.”

Tantra believes in the individual and his unknown potential. It gives techniques based on centuries of experimentation to help one save time and energy to reach one’s full growth. These techniques can lead to explosive growth that normally takes many lifetimes. The 112 Tantric techniques encompass techniques from many traditions around the world.

In summary, the key ideas are: 1) Western culture adopted a limited view of human potential by focusing on the ill and abnormal; 2) Eastern cultures like Tantra focused on supernormal beings and saw greater human potential; 3) Most people do not achieve self-actualization and feel unfulfilled as a result; 4) Tantra provides techniques to help individuals achieve self-actualization based on their own inner potential, not by imitating ideals; 5) These techniques can lead to rapid growth that normally takes lifetimes.

• There are 112 techniques covered that represent the essence of the spiritual search. Not all techniques will work for everyone. You need to try different techniques to find what suits you.
• You can either experiment on your own or follow a teacher’s guidance to find suitable techniques.
• The first technique involves visualizing light rays rising from your spine’s energy centers. Your spine and its energy centers are the bases of your body and mind. Keeping your spine active keeps you vibrant.
• Energy can either flow down from your sex center to the earth (sex-oriented) or up from your crown center (sahasrar) to the divine (sahasrar-oriented). The spiritual path involves channeling your energy upwards.
• Releasing energy from the sahasrar leads to transcending worldly pleasures and attaining bliss. Releasing energy from the sex center leads to worldly pleasures and misery.
• Gravity pulls our life energy downwards, keeping us caught in a circle of rebirth. We must overcome this gravitational pull through spiritual practice.
• Our imagination fuels our sex energy. We can use our imagination to channel this energy upwards through our spine’s centers.
• Close your eyes and imagine you are composed of light rays. Feel the light rise from your sex center to navel center. As it reaches each center, feel that center become a source of light. Continue the flow to higher centers. Feel the energy rise as a river of light.

This technique uses our imagination and visualization of the spine’s energy centers to channel our life energy upwards, overcoming the pull of gravity and worldly desires. By freeing our energy to flow higher and higher, we attain bliss and transcendence.

I see. The key points in the summary are:

1. Develop sensitivity and feeling. Do exercises like following a child, listening without judgment, feeling your breath and body, etc. to regain feeling and sensitivity.

2. When doing the energy rising technique, complete the process by bringing the energy all the way up to the sahasrar or crown chakra at the top of the head. Release the energy there. Do not leave the energy stuck at some intermediate chakra.

3. You may experience sensations like erections at the lower chakras, especially the root chakra, as the energy activates them. This is normal and a good sign. Do not be afraid. As the energy moves up, these sensations will subside.

4. Releasing the energy at the sahasrar is described as a spiritual orgasm, as opposed to the physical orgasm from releasing at the root chakra. It results in feelings of bliss and connection with the divine.

5. This practice requires privacy and lack of distractions to be effective. Do it when you will not be interrupted.

6. With practice, this meditation technique can transform sexual energy and the sexual act itself into a spiritual practice. But do not attempt this until you have experience moving the energy up to the higher chakras.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points about the energy rising practice and what to expect? Let me know if you have any other questions!

• Sit in a dark room with a single candle and observe it with total concentration and a prayerful, loving attitude.

• Keep your mind focused on the candle alone. Forget about everything else.

• As you continue observing the candle, your eyes will become more sensitive and receptive. You will start noticing subtle nuances and new colors around the flame that you never noticed before.

• The colors and the rainbow have always been there, but your eyes had become dull and insensitive. Now they are becoming open and clear.

• This technique uses your increasing sensitivity to reveal the natural translucent, ever-living presence of the cosmos. The world is a rainbow of colors and filled with light. But our ordinary eyes are not able to perceive it.

• If done regularly, this practice can make you more perceptive and receptive to the alive, colorful reality all around you. It opens a doorway to seeing the existential truth - the cosmos as an ever-living presence filled with light and color.

• Using external aids like drugs to force such perceptions can eventually dull your natural sensitivity. It is better to develop sensitivity through natural meditative techniques. Only then can the perceptions be permanent and transformative.

• Increase your natural capacity for perceptive openness and all the world will become alive with a mysterious, colorful, translucent light. This light is the existential reality behind all objects and beings.

That’s the essence and a quick summary of the instructions and ideas conveyed in this passage. Please let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions.

Here are the main points summarized:

1. Buddha, Krishna, Christ represent the ultimate human possibility, but they should not be ideals to imitate. Imitating them will only lead to becoming pseudo or fake.

2. The innermost core experience of enlightenment is the same for all, but the outer expression of that experience will differ based on one’s individuality. Meera will dance, Buddha will sit silently, but their inner experience is the same.

3. One can become a buddha but not Gautam Buddha. Buddhahood refers to the ultimate experience, not the person who experienced it. Each person’s expression of that experience will be unique.

4. Seeing enlightened beings like Buddha should inspire a thirst and desire in us to transcend our current state, not imitate them. They show us what is possible for humanity.

5. When one reaches enlightenment, one will understand what the enlightened beings experienced, but one’s expression of that will be utterly unique and individual. One becomes oneself, not an imitator of anyone else.

6. The key is not to imitate the enlightened beings or make them into ideals, but to be inspired by them to move into the unknown and discover one’s own buddhahood. One must not be content with one’s current state.

So in summary, the enlightened beings serve as an inspiration through revealing the ultimate human possibility, but they are not meant to be ideals to imitate. The path is one of self-discovery, not imitation. Being inspired by them leads one to transcend one’s limitations, not imitate them. The experience of enlightenment may be the same at the core, but its expression in each person is utterly unique.

Does this help summarize the key points around inspiration vs ideals and self-discovery vs imitation? Let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions.

• You are unique and unpredictable. No one can say for sure what you will do or how you will manifest yourself. This unpredictability and freedom is the beauty of human consciousness.

• Predictions are only possible for mechanical things. Human beings are not mechanical or predictable.

• Great masters like Buddha and Jesus were unique individuals. If you truly want to follow them, you must find your own unique path, not just imitate them. Imitation will only prevent you from realizing your true potential.

• Inspiration from masters can start you on your journey, but you must walk your own path. Make your own destiny rather than copying others.

• Followers often become enemies of other followers because they are attached to a particular ideal or master. But the enlightened masters themselves can exist together in harmony because they point to the same truth, just in different ways.

• You are the target and goal that life is trying to achieve through you. You have a unique destiny that only you can fulfill. Don’t waste time imitating others. Be open to inspiration but walk your own path.

• Most people today seem to fit Freud’s categories of pathology and neurosis. Very few achieve their full human potential and supernormal capacities. But the potential is there in all of us. We must look within, not compare ourselves to others.

• Each individual is a unique expression of the whole. Focus on realizing your own potential rather than judging yourself against external norms or ideals. Your destiny is within you.

That’s a high-level summary and analysis of the key ideas and points made in the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of the summary.

I see. The key points in the response are:

1. Our limited perception and concepts prevent us from seeing enlightened beings or higher realities. We tend to see only what we can understand based on our own level of being.

2. Pathology is more recognizable to us because we tend to be pathological or ill ourselves. We can understand lower levels but have trouble understanding higher levels of being.

3. The presence of even one enlightened being shows us the possibility of enlightenment and our own potential for transformation. Though few may achieve enlightenment, the potential exists in all of us.

4. Children start out closer to enlightenment but gradually lose it as they become conditioned by society and culture. They enter a kind of cocoon, obscuring their original buddha-like nature.

5. The definition of normal is limited by our concepts and perceptions. Enlightenment represents a higher level of being that transcends our usual notions of pathology or normality. There have always been and will always be enlightened beings, though most cannot recognize them.

So in summary, the response suggests our limited perception and concepts, rather than an actual increase in pathology, are responsible for why there seems to be so much pathology or abnormality. And enlightenment reflects a transcendence of our usual categories of normal and abnormal. The potential for enlightenment exists in all of us, though it is obscured through conditioning and socialization.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key points and arguments presented in the response? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Totality and wholeness are beautiful. Whenever anything is total, it is beautiful.

• Look at a child expressing pure emotion, like anger or love. The child is totally immersed in the emotion, authentic and unsuppressed. This totality is beautiful.

• But society forces us into a “cocoon” and suppresses our natural instincts and spontaneity. This creates pathology and madness. The more “civilized” a society, the more pathological its people become.

• We are unable to breathe deeply or experience deep orgasm because society has suppressed these instincts. To be healthy, we must balance intake and output, taking in and giving out. But we emphasize intake and hoarding, which creates imbalance and unhappiness.

• There are three types of people: the abnormal who only takes in, the normal who balances intake and output, and the supernormal who only gives out. To be happy, aim to be normal and balanced. Give out as much as you take in.

• Emphasize the outgoing breath, not the incoming. Release as much breath as possible, and your body will take in what it needs. Do not hoard the breath or anything else. Hoarding creates tension, suffering and pathology.

• Modern society is based on hoarding rather than giving out or releasing. This is why there is so much abnormality and neurosis. We must learn to release and give out, not just take in.

• Total awareness cannot be achieved through the mind or repeating thoughts. It requires balancing intake and output, and giving up attachment to the cocoon of societal conditioning.

1. You exist absently, not fully present in your life and experiences. This absence or lack of awareness creates suffering.

2. There are two types of spiritual seekers:

a) Those concerned primarily with what to do, what actions to take. But no action can transform you without awareness and presence. Whatever you do in absence will continue to cause suffering.

b) Those concerned with how to be, how to become fully present. Their focus is on inner transformation, not outer actions. When your innermost core changes, your outer actions and life will automatically change.

3. Don’t be concerned with what you are doing. That is a way of escaping the real problem, which is your lack of presence and awareness. No change in action alone can revolutionize you. You must work to transform your inner core.

4. Examples: You may try to become non-violent through controlling your actions, but unless you change inwardly, you will remain violent inside. You may move to a monastery or isolated place, but you will remain absent and unaware. Location and activity changes are meaningless without inner change.

5. What you do is irrelevant; what you are is relevant. Your actions flow from your being, so being must come first. When you become fully present, your life and actions become ecstatic and blissful. Heaven and hell depend on your presence or absence, not on what you do or where you are.

6. The path of meditation aims at helping you become aware, present, and transformed at your core. Only from there can real change spread outwards. The path focuses on how to be, not what to do. To start, become aware of how absent you are, how little you really exist consciously in the present. That realization is the beginning.

That’s a summary of the key points and arguments around why awareness, presence, and inner transformation must come before changes in action or environment. The path of meditation focuses on fundamental change, not superficial adjustments, in order bring about an end to suffering.

• The mind is always unclear and confused. It is not the nature of the mind to be clear.
• The mind is a continuous flow of associated and unassociated thoughts, impressions, and knowledge gathered from various sources. This accumulation of knowledge from uncertain sources leads to confusion.
• A child is born clear because the mind is not developed yet. As the mind develops by accumulating knowledge and impressions, clarity is lost.
• Knowledge and information are uncertain and always growing. Nothing is completely certain or known. The more you know, the more uncertain and confused you become. Only those with little knowledge can be certain and dogmatic.
• Clarity comes from dropping the mind, not clearing the mind. A master is clear because he has dropped the mind, not made the mind clear.
• Consciousness is like the sky - clear, open, and empty. The mind is like the clouds - always changing, moving, and obscuring the clarity.

To attain clarity, one must transcend the mind and all its confusion, certainty, and uncertainty. One must come out of the mind and into the openness of consciousness.

• The sky remains untouched by the clouds that pass through it. Similarly, consciousness remains undisturbed by the thoughts and minds that arise within it. Our minds are constantly changing, like the clouds. But consciousness, like the sky, remains clear and open.

• We can achieve inner clarity by focusing on the open sky. As we observe the endless, clear sky, our minds become still and gaps appear between our thoughts. Our inner and outer sky meet, and for moments we are free of thought.

• To practice this technique:

1. Lie down and gaze at the open sky without blinking. Keep looking further and further into the distance. This helps still the mind.

2. Do not think about the sky. Simply be aware of its clarity, purity, and innocence. Feel it rather than think it.

3. After 40 minutes or so of gazing at the sky, when your mind has become still, close your eyes. Now observe the inner sky that has become one with the outer. Remain in this clarity.

4. The key is to be passive and allow the experience to happen. Do not force anything. Relax and be receptive. The sky itself will enter you.

5. This practice is especially useful for modern minds, as there are few untouched natural objects left to meditate on other than the sky. The open, endless sky is the perfect object for stilling the restless mind.

That’s a summary and outline of the instructions for the technique of gazing at the open sky to achieve inner clarity and stillness. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• The technique instructs you to know yourself as light in the three states of consciousness: waking, sleeping and dreaming.

• Yoga and Tantra divide the life of the mind into three states: waking, sleeping and dreaming. These are states of the mind, not consciousness. Consciousness is the fourth state, unnamed, but referred to as ‘turiya’.

• The three states of mind are like clouds moving in the space of consciousness, which is the sky. The sky itself remains unnamed.

• Western psychology only recently recognized the importance of the dreaming state, mainly due to Freud. But in Hinduism, the dreaming state has long been one of the major states of mind.

• To do the technique:

1. While waking, meditate on yourself as light. Feel yourself as luminous, filled with light, immersed in your own radiance. This is just imagination, but do it continuously, when walking, eating, doing things. Everything around is dark, you alone are radiant light.

2. Do the same thing while going to sleep. As sleep comes feel yourself as light slowly being immersed in your own luminosity. Allow your whole consciousness to fill with light.

3. And while dreaming also, if you become aware that you are dreaming, that very awareness makes you light. Do not get identified with the objects of the dream. Feel yourself as the dreaming light in which the whole dream is enclosed.

4. Just go on remembering yourself as light. Waking, sleeping, dreaming, just go on remembering – you are light, a point of consciousness filled with light, radiating light. Do it continuously, do it persistently, and soon a moment will come when in waking, sleeping, dreaming, you remain light, and your identification with the body and mind is broken. That is the moment of entering the fourth.

• If you can persist in this, soon a moment will come when in all the three states you remain light, and identification with body and mind is broken. This leads to entering the fourth state of consciousness.

• The outer conditions cannot directly transform the inner being. The inner transformation requires conscious effort and awareness.

• However, the outer conditions can either help or hinder the inner transformation. The right outer environment and lifestyle can create conditions that are conducive for inner growth, but they themselves do not cause the inner transformation.

• The outer conditions are necessary and helpful, but not sufficient. Even with ideal outer conditions, inner transformation will not happen on its own without conscious inner effort. The outer is secondary while the inner is primary.

• One should not ignore the outer completely. The outer conditions matter and they should support one’s inner work. But the focus should be on the inner, not the outer. The outer should be used only as an aid to the inner transformation, not as the sole means or end in itself.

• The key is to understand that outer changes do not necessarily transform the inner consciousness. One must work to directly transform one’s inner being through conscious awareness and effort. The outer conditions can support this inner work but cannot replace it. Both inner and outer elements are needed, but the inner is primary while the outer is secondary.

• In short, moving to ideal outer conditions can help, but the roots of transformation lie in the inner, not the outer. So outer things should be used only as auxiliaries to the basic inner work. The focus must always remain on consciously transforming the inner being itself.

That’s the essence. The outer cannot transform the inner, but it can either aid or obstruct the inner work. It aids if used as an auxiliary, but becomes an obstruction if regarded as the sole means or end. The roots of transformation are within, so we must consciously work to transform the inner being. The outer is helpful only as a secondary condition, not as the primary source or cause of inner change.

• The outer world is vast and endless. One can constantly work on changing and improving the outer world but will never feel satisfied unless one changes from within. Unless one transforms internally, the outer world can never be perfect.

• Many people waste their lives obsessing over and constantly changing external things like food, clothes, behavior, etc. These things are unimportant in themselves and merely act as escapes and ways to postpone the needed inner change. One’s anxiety and fears remain, only the object of those fears changes.

• The inner world is the most significant. One should not become overly focused or obsessed with the outer world. The outer world should be seen as peripheral and as a tool to help with inner change, not as an end in itself. The inner world is the source, the center.

• The mind is constantly seeking escapes from confronting the inner world. It finds these escapes by becoming obsessed and focused on outer things like food, sex, appearance, etc. These obsessions allow the mind to remain unchanged. One may change what one eats or how one looks, but the same mind persists.

• Unless one addresses the root causes inside, problems will simply manifest in different forms. Stopping a bad habit or behavior will not fix the underlying issues. There are reasons why one turns to these habits and behaviors, and those reasons must be confronted.

• Two examples are given of eating too much and smoking. In both cases, the root issues involve anxiety, insecurity, lack of love. Unless these inner issues are addressed, simply changing one’s diet or stopping smoking will lead to the problem emerging in some other way. The mind will find another “trick” or substitute.

• The key is to move from surface behaviors and habits into deeper self-reflection and understanding. One must find the roots of one’s anxieties and issues in order to truly transform. Change starts from within.

• All meditation techniques involve some effort or doing in the beginning. But the ultimate aim is to transcend this effort and achieve an effortless state of being.

• Effort is necessary in the beginning because the mind cannot do anything without effort. But effort creates tension and prevents total relaxation.

• With practice, the effort disappears and the meditation becomes spontaneous like breathing. This is the right state, but it takes patience and consistent practice to achieve this effortlessness.

• Meditation techniques are like learning to swim. At first, effort is required. But an expert swimmer swims effortlessly. He just allows himself to be in responsive relationship with the water. If effort is still needed, expertise has not yet been achieved.

• An anecdote illustrates this. A master asks his disciples to be effortless like a hollow bamboo. But a disciple says he has been trying hard to be effortless yet has failed. The master says “the thickness of your bamboo is the extent of your effort”. Continuous meditation wears out this thickness.

• The ultimate state is to become like a hollow bamboo - open, receptive, passive, effortless. Then meditation happens on its own. This happens by gradual wearing out of the ego and mind through continuous meditation. Then there is no one left to make an effort. This is the great paradox.

• In the beginning, do. But the end point is to become effortless, to transform the doer into a non-doer. Meditation starts as a doing but ends as a state of being. Techniques facilitate this transmutation from doing to being.

The key points are: do in order to become effortless; use effort to transcend effort; let meditation become a relaxed non-doing instead of a strenuous doing. Continuous meditation transforms the thick bamboo into a hollow one, leading to the ultimate effortlessness.

• A Buddhist monk ordered his disciple to observe him while he designed a temple gate. The disciple was to approve the design for the monk to send it for construction.
• The monk created hundreds of designs but the disciple rejected them all. After three months, the monk became anxious but continued as promised.
• One day, the ink was running out so the disciple left to get more. In his absence, the monk forgot about seeking approval and became spontaneous. He completed the design.
• When the disciple returned and saw the design, he approved. The monk realized his previous efforts failed because he was too conscious of seeking the disciple’s approval. This anxiety blocked his creativity and spontaneity.
• Meditation requires effort but success only comes with effortlessness. One has to practice diligently but realize effort alone does not achieve enlightenment. It comes spontaneously.
• Buddha tried diligently for six years but failed to achieve enlightenment. One night, he gave up all efforts in hopelessness. With no goal or motivation, his mind stopped. He relaxed and became enlightened.
• When asked how he achieved enlightenment, Buddha could not say it was through effort or no-effort. His enlightenment came only when he gave up effort but that was possible only due to his previous diligent efforts.
• Spiritual progress requires contradiction - effort yet effortlessness. One needs to develop a strong ego through effort in order to be able to surrender it. The greater the ego, the deeper one can surrender. But ego development alone leads to anxiety. One needs both ego development and ego surrender.

The key message is that meditation requires diligent effort to reach a point of total effortlessness. This seeming contradiction is the path to enlightenment. One needs to develop a strong ego to be able to surrender it fully.

• True knowledge comes from one’s own direct experience, not from what one has heard or read. Borrowed knowledge is useless.

• If one truly knows that one creates one’s own suffering, one would stop creating it immediately. The statement “We know we create our own suffering but continue to do so” shows that one does not have direct knowledge of this. It is just something one has heard.

• When one discusses suffering intellectually, one can say one should not get angry. But when actually provoked to anger, one forgets all that and reacts angrily. The intellectual knowledge does not translate to direct knowledge.

• Only when something is personally experienced does one gain real knowledge of it. Then one cannot act contrary to that knowledge. For example, one would not put one’s hand in a fire if one has experienced being burnt before. But one may do so if one has only heard that fire burns.

• Direct experience leads to knowledge that transforms one’s being. Mere information gathered from others does not have the power to change one. One throws away that superficial knowledge when emotionally involved in a real situation.

• The key is to distinguish real knowledge gained through direct experience from information gathered from other sources. Do not rely on the latter. Seek the former.

• To stop creating one’s own suffering, one must gain direct knowledge that one is creating it. Mere intellectual understanding is not enough. One needs to experience the truth of it directly.

That’s the summary and essence of the explanation provided in response to the question. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

Here is a summary of the key ideas:

• Philosophy is a kind of disease born with the human mind. It leads to circular thinking and no concrete answers.

• Science and religion both come to some answers because they rely on experimentation, not just thinking. Science experiments with objects, religion with the subject. Religion leads to experience, not just speculation.

• You can know about something through others, but real knowledge comes through direct experience. Knowing about God or love is not enough. One must experience them directly.

• Thinking takes you away from existence and life’s actual problems. Life’s problems can only be solved by living them, not thinking about them. Thinking closes you off from the present moment.

• An ancient esoteric school, the Essenes, believed God is absolute darkness, an infinite black night. This is a meaningful symbol. God as light is a common symbol, but God as darkness suggests God is the ultimate mystery, the unknown, unknowable.

• Entering into darkness allows one to dissolve into God, the ultimate mystery. This meditation technique helps one become one with darkness, the unknowable unknown. Letting go of thoughts and preconceptions allows one to be embraced by the darkness.

• Darkness is a metaphor for embracing the unknown. Meditating on darkness is meditating on embracing the unknowable, letting go of the known. This allows for new insights and a stillness of mind. Darkness represents the mind’s inability to comprehend its own source.

• Humans are afraid of darkness due to our instinctual and evolutionary history. Darkness was dangerous for our ancestors, so we have inherited that fear.

• This fear causes us to imagine God and spiritual matters as ‘light’. We paint darkness as threatening. But darkness is eternal and fundamental. Light arises from darkness and returns to darkness.

• To work with these meditation techniques, we must overcome our fear of darkness. We can do this by communing with darkness - sitting in a dark room, opening our eyes in the dark, being with the darkness. This helps us develop a friendship with darkness and lose our fear.

• Darkness dissolves forms and the ego. In the darkness, we lose our sense of distinct identity and boundaries. This can be frightening but also deeply relaxing and spiritual.

• The technique instructs us to ‘enter that blackness as the form of forms’. We can do this by staring into the darkness, allowing it to enter our eyes, and feeling at ease with merging into the darkness. The darkness is not an object but all around us. We must keep our eyes open and not close them. Closed eyes produce ‘mental darkness’ that is simply the negative of light, not real darkness.

• Darkness is a cosmic womb - the source from which all forms arise and into which they dissolve. We can dissolve into this darkness just as forms dissolve into it. This is a deep spiritual experience of the ground of being.

• The darkness we usually experience is unreal and negative. It is the absence of light.

• We need to experience the real, positive darkness. We can do this by staring into the darkness with open eyes. This allows the real darkness to enter us and empty us of the negative darkness.

• It is difficult to experience real darkness in cities due to pollution and excess light. It is better to go to remote places without electricity. Spending a week in absolute darkness, one can face their primitive fears and unconscious. This can help alleviate madness and bring inner peace.

• One way to experience darkness is to lie down and feel as if you are in the womb of your mother. Darkness is the mother, the source of all.

• Carrying darkness within during daily activities helps one feel relaxed and calm. It slows one down and brings stillness. Those afraid of darkness may avoid you. You lose the sense of being a man or woman. You just are.

• Carrying darkness prepares you to meditate on darkness at night. The inner darkness meets the outer. You feel filled with darkness in every cell.

• Carrying darkness has the opposite effect of carrying a flame. With darkness, one feels relaxed, lazy, and slowed down. With a flame, one feels active, excited, and wants to move faster.

• The author experimented with carrying darkness for two years. He became very relaxed and lazy, even having trouble getting out of bed. His professors worried something was wrong.

That’s the essence of the passage on experiencing and carrying real darkness. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

The key points are:

1. Develop attention or an attentive attitude. This means focusing your awareness on the present moment and the object of your attention.

2. Wherever you focus your attention, experience yourself in that moment. This means being aware of yourself as the perceiver in that moment, not just the object of perception.

3. Looking at an object like a flower, don’t get lost in thoughts about the flower. Remain aware of the act of perceiving itself. Experience the perceiver, not just the perceived.

4. Developing attention and self-awareness in this way allows you to experience yourself in any moment and from any point of focus. Your sense of self becomes open and unlimited.

The overall idea is that we tend to identify with the objects of our attention and lose ourselves in the act of perceiving. By developing attention, we can reverse this and become aware of ourselves as the perceiver, experiencer, observer. We come to experience our self in any act of perceiving. We realize our self as open, empty attention, not limited to any particular object.

This technique points to a state of pure witnessing and transcendence of the ego. By training our faculty of attention, we can become aware of our self as the silent witness of all our acts of perceiving.

I understand. Philosophy essentially relies on thinking, which is rooted in past experiences and knowledge. It cannot access direct perception or insight into the truth. Darshan, on the other hand, is about direct seeing and transcending the mind.

So the enlightened sages expressed their insights through darshan, not philosophy. But their teachings were later interpreted philosophically by others. The original essence was lost, and what remained were conceptual philosophies, not meant as paths to enlightenment. Philosophy clouds the mind, while meditation clears it. So philosophy and meditation are opposed.

Is this a correct understanding? The confusion arises because the enlightened sages did leave behind teachings, but these were originally meant as pointers to insight, not as philosophical doctrines. It was only later that they were turned into philosophies by scholars and commentators.

Thinking cannot solve existential problems or lead to any new truths. Thinking is repetitive and moves in circles within the realm of the known. To experience truth or gain insight into fundamental problems like death, one needs to go beyond thinking. One needs to meditate - be fully present with the situation without bringing in explanations, knowledge or mental conclusions.

When faced with death, thinking will only provide false consolations and temporary escapes. It will not lead to any deep understanding or solution. One needs to face death directly, be with it in silence, encounter it without the mediation of the mind. Only then can one gain insight into what death really is. Only then does death reveal itself and become eternal life.

The key is to move from thinking to meditation, from philosophy to existential realization, from repetition of knowledge to direct insight. Life’s deepest problems cannot be thought about but must be lived through in depth. The ultimate cannot be found in the future but must be entered into through the present moment. It requires a transformation of one’s being, not just an accumulation of information.

So in summary, the passage conveys that:

1. Thinking cannot solve existential problems or lead to new truths. It moves in circles within the known.

2. Meditation - direct encounter and insight - is needed to experience truth and understand life’s deepest problems.

3. With problems like death, thinking provides only false escapes, not real solutions. One needs to face death directly in meditation.

4. One needs to move from thinking to meditation, philosophy to existential realization, knowledge to insight.

5. Understanding life’s deepest problems requires a transformation of being, not just accumulating information.

6. The ultimate truth is found through entering the present moment, not in some future.

So in the final analysis, the passage presents a contrast between a philosophical/mental approach and an existential/meditative approach to life and truth. The former cannot provide real insight or solutions while the latter can lead to a deep understanding and transformation. But ultimately, the existential approach also dissolves all approaches into a direct seeing here and now.

• Depth psychology and the study of psychic phenomena are objective sciences, even though they study subjective experiences. They use the scientific method of observation and measurement.

• You can study the effects and phenomena associated with meditation, enlightenment, and altered states scientifically and objectively. But you cannot penetrate the actual inner experience subjectively.

• At the deepest level of enlightenment, nothing is happening. There is just empty stillness and silence. Since nothing is happening, there is nothing that can be objectively observed or measured.

• The enlightened person has transcended the self or ego. They have become “no-self.” There is just emptiness inside. The house is vacant after the flame has disappeared.

• So while depth psychology and related fields can provide some objective understanding of mystical and spiritual experiences, the actual core of those experiences remains subjective and unobservable. Science and religion do not fully meet, even in those fields. There remains an unbridgeable gap between the objective observer and the subjective experience of enlightenment or “no-self.”

• Any objective observation will ultimately fail to capture what is truly meaningful and significant about transcendent spiritual experiences that involve a dissolution of self and separateness. Such experiences can only be understood subjectively, through direct experience. They cannot be reduced to something observable and measurable.

That covers the key points being conveyed about the relationship and difference between objective scientific study and direct subjective spiritual experience. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Spirituality cannot be an outcome of desire. Desire is the root cause of our anxiety and anguish.

• We know only one movement - that is desire. We desire things of the world and through this desiring we are frustrated. Whether a desire is fulfilled or not, we will be frustrated.

• When desire is fulfilled, the desire is fulfilled but the hope is not. The dream of happiness, bliss, ecstatic life is not fulfilled. We feel frustrated.

• Through desire one comes to deep frustration. Then one starts looking for something beyond the world - religious longing is born. But again one starts desiring and becomes impatient.

• The object of desire changes but the mind and its mechanism, the desiring, remains the same. One was desiring A, now desiring B - but desiring is the problem, not what is desired.

• Desiring is the world. When one desires, impatience is bound to be there. The mind doesn’t want to wait or postpone. Impatience creates disturbance.

• A person seeking religious dimension becomes more disturbed. The desire is keener, impatience is more. Things seem elusive and far away, life seems short but the object of desire seems infinite - so more impatience and disturbance. A disturbed mind cannot meditate.

• If worldly things are futile, then desiring is even more futile. Desiring creates misery. One needs to realize desiring itself is the problem.

• The only way is to be still, silent, desireless - then the inner dimension opens. For this, one needs patience, trust and surrender. One should accept what happens and allow things to happen. Be alert and awake but don’t desire or will.

• Impatience comes because we have some idea of our own. We should drop all impatience and follow existence. Then destiny leads you to the right place. Go with the river - don’t fight. Fighting creates impatience. Accept, relax and be.

• Light and darkness are not two opposite things but rather two degrees of the same phenomenon. They appear as opposites but are relative. What appears as light to one may appear as darkness to another. It depends on one’s perception and penetration.

• Religions have commonly emphasized light because it is easier and more comfortable for most. But one can choose either light or darkness as an entry point. It depends on one’s temperament and courage. Both ultimately lead to the same goal.

• For some, darkness may be more appealing, such as for a feminine or receptive mind. For others, light may be more appealing, such as for a masculine or aggressive mind. But one can try either. There is no danger as all paths lead to the same goal.

• Rather than endlessly pondering what path is right, it is better to simply try one. One can always switch to the other. The key is to choose one and start, rather than getting stuck at the stage of contemplating options.

• Science says the fundamental components of matter are electric energy. But that does not mean they are light. Darkness is also electric energy. They are two expressions or degrees of the same phenomenon.

• In the end, one should think about what one’s own mind likes and is receptive to. Then choose the path, whether light or darkness, that one’s mind is most drawn to. That is the right path for each individual.

That covers the main points around light, darkness and choosing one’s path. The key message is not to see them as opposites but as expressions of the same ultimate reality, and to choose the path that one is most intuitively drawn to rather than getting stuck in indecision or analysis. One can always switch paths later. The important first step is to start walking.

The ego is created by identifying with the accumulated memories, experiences, and knowledge in your mind. The mind is constantly accumulating information, even when you are not conscious of it. This accumulation of the past is the mind.

When you look at the world, you interpret everything through the lens of your past experiences and memories. You identify with certain memories and categorize yourself, saying “I am Christian” or “I am a Hindu.” But in reality, you are just consciousness. The ego is born when you identify with these memories and knowledge.

When the mind is silent, the ego disappears. Silence means the mind is not functioning; the constant chattering and inner noise of the mind has stopped. In these moments of silence when the ego disappears, you get a glimpse of your true egoless existence.

The ego is the created by the veil of ignorance, by not being aware of your true self. If you become aware of the ego and observe it, it will disappear, just as darkness disappears when you turn on the light. The ego is a barrier preventing you from realizing your true nature and from love. By understanding the ego and how it works, you can transcend it.

So the key is to observe the ego in yourself, understand how it is created, and see that in moments of silence it disappears. Through this understanding, the ego will drop away on its own. There is no need to “get rid” of the ego, you just need to understand it. And in understanding it, you become egoless.

To prepare for this technique, it is helpful to observe a body being cremated. This helps you confront your fear of death and the reality that your body will someday burn. Death is the only certainty in life, and it happens with each exhale, not just in some faraway future.

This technique involves focusing your awareness on an imagined inner fire that burns your body to ashes while leaving your essential self intact. Start at your toes and slowly move upwards as your body burns to ashes in your mind’s eye.

This technique leads to an experience of egolessness as you disidentify from your body. Paying more attention to exhaling in everyday life can also help cultivate this experience of egolessness. Overall, confronting death and learning to disidentify from the body and ego lead to deeper peace and bliss.

I apologize, upon re-reading the original text and your summary, I do not think I captured the essence and details adequately. Here is a revised summary:

The technique suggests meditating on the imaginary burning of the world and one’s body to achieve an egoless state of pure witnessing consciousness. One starts by imagining the burning of one’s body, beginning with the toes and gradually moving upwards until one’s whole body is burned to ashes. If this is difficult, one can start by imagining the entire world burning first before moving to one’s body. By meditating on the imagined burning of one’s body and the world, one can separate one’s witnessing consciousness from one’s body and thoughts, attaining an egoless state. This takes practice over time but can lead to a deep inner transformation.

Before practicing this technique, one should first develop a familiarity with the burning of the body by observing actual burning ghats or cremation grounds. One should also practice deep exhalation with closed eyes before the meditation to induce a relaxed, receptive state. The key is to imagine the burning so vividly that one’s memories and thoughts also burn away, leaving only a silent witness. With regular practice over months, one may attain short moments where one glimpses the egoless state. By continuing the practice, one can stabilize this state.

The technique uses one’s imaginative capacity to cut through one’s false identification with the body and mind to realize one’s true nature as pure, egoless witnessing consciousness. Although the meditation uses imagination, with dedicated practice over time, it can lead to direct insight. By observing the world and body burn, one transcends the human state of egoic consciousness.

Does this summary adequately capture the essence and specific details of the meditation technique and its implications? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand my summary further.

• Our imagination is untrained and undeveloped. We spend little time exercising and strengthening our imagination.

• Start with small imaginative exercises before moving on to bigger ones. For example, imagine that your hands are locked together and cannot be opened. This can become reality for some people.

• Much of what we experience in life is due to the power of our imagination, whether we realize it or not. Many illnesses and problems are created by our imagination. We can also solve them using our imagination.

• The ego creates walls and barriers to protect itself. It is afraid of being vulnerable and open. We avoid communicating openly and honestly with others out of fear.

• Life is inherently insecure and unpredictable. The only way to feel completely secure is to be dead. Aliveness and adventure involve insecurity. We should embrace insecurity rather than trying to avoid it.

• This technique involves opening yourself to allow the entire universe to converge within you. Your ego cannot exist in this open state. You become an open space rather than a fixed identity.

• Start by imagining the wind blowing through you like it blows through the leaves of a tree. Feel the rustling within you. Then do the same with the sun’s rays entering you. Listen to someone speaking with your whole body, not just your ears. Slowly open yourself to the universe converging within you.

• The key is to start with small, manageable imaginative exercises and build up from there as you become more comfortable being open and vulnerable. Overcoming the ego is a gradual process. With practice, your imagination can become more powerful and reality-creating.

• If you are truly open and vulnerable, nothing will seem negative or harmful to you. Negativity and harm are interpretive judgments you make due to your own resistance and lack of acceptance.

• The enemy only exists because you protect yourself against them. If you were open, the whole existence would be friendly. You wouldn’t even perceive it as friendly; it would simply be friendly.

• To be vulnerable means to be ready to live in insecurity and even ready to die. If you fully accept existence, you cannot perceive anything as death or an enemy. They are created by your denial and resistance.

• The question about defending oneself against negative vibrations is a supposed one, not real. In true openness and meditation, the negative disappears. Nothing is negative. Fear of the negative creates closure, not openness.

• You cannot think about or suppose anything regarding meditation. Either you know it through experience, or you don’t know it. Meditation happens when the mind ceases completely.

• Existence is not inimical to you. You and existence are not separate. Your fear creates the enemy, not existence itself. You create the enemy through your measures to protect yourself due to fear.

• Openness means dropping fear and accepting insecurity and even death. Then there are no enemies and nothing negative. It’s all your own interpretation stemming from fear and resistance. True openness is vulnerability without judgment.

• The existence appears threatening and inimical when one is closed and fearful. In a state of openness and lack of fear, the whole existence becomes friendly.

• When one is closed, even friends appear as enemies. Love and communion become impossible. Only when one is open can true friendship and love happen.

• Questions about defending oneself or the possibility of harm arise only when one is closed. In openness, there is no worry about harm. Even death is viewed as a blessing.

• As awareness grows, the sense of “I” decreases. In full awareness, there is simply an amness - a sense of being - but no ego or self. The feeling of “I exist” or “I am aware” arises only retrospectively through thinking, not in the actual moment of awareness.

• Awareness and ego cannot co-exist. They are as mutually exclusive as light and darkness. When awareness is present, ego disappears simultaneously, just as when light appears, darkness disappears instantly. There is no gap between the two.

• The ego wants to possess everything, even awareness and enlightenment. It can verbally claim to have achieved meditation or nirvana while nothing truly changes. One must be wary of the ego’s subtle tricks and deceits. True transformation is reflected through action, not mere words.

• In summary, openness, lack of fear, and awareness are the keys to transcending the ego and finding communion with existence. Defending oneself and worrying about harm arise from being closed. The ego perpetuates this state of being closed through its incessant desire to possess all. One must cultivate awareness to see through the ego’s veil of desires and verbal tricks.

The wise man meant to say “Don’t say such egoistic things” but the ego twisted his words for its own purposes. The ego is cunning and deceitful. It makes us believe we have achieved meditation or spiritual progress when in reality, nothing has changed. Our worries and desires remain. The ego creates divisions and conflict. It makes us resist the present moment and wish for some future fulfillment. This resistance dissipates our energy and prevents us from living fully.

We are accustomed to living through the ego, so we think life would be impossible without it. But the ego only offers empty promises and restlessness. Life happens when we drop the ego and its hopes, dreams and hurry. By becoming intensely aware of the present moment, the ego disappears. What remains is simple being - humble, unfocused, unlimited. This simplicity arises on its own, it cannot be practiced. It allows life to flow through us.

The wise man points us to the ego as the source of worry and distraction, and awareness as the means to transcend it. By stopping our habitual hurry and returning to the present, the ego loses its grip on us. In that simple openness, being comes alive.

• Language creates an imbalance by denying the opposite of whatever it asserts. It cannot capture the totality of life.

• Cultures become one-sided based on the language they develop. No culture accepts the total human being.

• Life is one, but language divides it into opposites like material vs. spiritual, within vs. without. When a society moves to an extreme of one of these choices, it misses the other and feels its lack.

• India moved inward and became poor; the West moved outward and now seeks the inner. But if the West moves totally inward, it may become poor. If India moves totally outward, religion may disappear.

• This happens due to language, which cannot express the whole of life. It creates choice and denial of the opposite choice.

• A new culture is needed that can develop the human being in totality, both objective and subjective. But language makes this very difficult. Life should not be seen as opposites but as a unity.

The key idea is that language naturally creates imbalances and extremes by denying opposites. A holistic culture needs to transcend opposites created by language and see life as a unity. But this is very difficult to achieve through language alone. A new perspective is required.

Does this summary accurately reflect the main ideas and arguments presented in the passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• The ego is an illusion that only you believe in. No one else agrees with your ego or cares about it.
• The ego distorts your perception of reality to protect itself. It creates a false world to avoid confronting the real world that threatens its existence.
• The ego feels separate and isolated, but in reality, everything is interconnected. Life exists as a whole, not as separate individuals.
• There are only two options: either dissolve the ego by confronting reality, or create a dream world to live in. Most people choose the latter and live in their own dreams.
• Problems arise from these dreams, not reality. But people believe their dreams are real.
• The ego tries to make everything about itself, but reality does not support the ego. Reality is shattering the ego continuously.
• You have to recognize the ego for what it is - an illusion, in order to dissolve it. As long as you identify with the ego, you cannot see reality.
• The ego is a wave in the ocean, coming and going. But it thinks it is the ocean, permanent and all-important. In truth, the ego’s appearance and disappearance makes no difference to the ocean.

So in summary, the key message is that the ego is an illusory sense of a separate self. It avoids reality to protect itself, creates dreams to live in, and causes suffering by believing these dreams are real and all about itself. One must recognize the ego for what it is in order to dissolve it by confronting reality - which reveals the interconnectedness of all things and the impermanence of the ego.

• The author stresses the importance of feeling rather than thinking. Feeling comes from the heart, while thinking comes from the head.

• We have become overly intellect-oriented and have lost touch with feeling. Even when we say we are feeling, we are really just thinking.

• Feelings make us feel headless, with the heart as the center. Thoughts make the head the center.

• We often give hurried judgments, from the head. We don’t truly linger in feelings. For example, we say a rose is beautiful out of habit and routine, not because we felt its beauty.

• Only the heart can determine if something is beautiful. Beauty is a feeling, not a concept.

• The author recommends re-opening ourselves to feelings, and practicing feeling rather than constant thinking. We have to work to develop our capacity for feeling.

• An example is given of looking at a flower and trying to determine if your judgment of its beauty comes from the heart or head. Wait, don’t give a quick judgment. See if you are really in contact and communion with the flower. If it’s just a quick judgment from the mind, you have missed a glimpse of the flower.

The main point is that we should shift the focus from thinking to feeling, open our hearts, and truly experience the world rather than being caught in a cycle of habitual thoughts and judgments.

• Beauty is subjective and exists in the heart, not the mind. It cannot be quantified or argued about.

• To feel beauty, you must see from the heart, not the head. The mind calculates and thinks, the heart feels.

• We are not trained or accustomed to using our hearts, so we must practice feeling. Try feeling the textures around you, the sounds, the smells - don’t think about them, just feel. This sensitivity will allow you to eventually feel inner sensations and subtleties.

• Still your verbalizing mind. Feel without labeling or commenting on what you’re feeling. Our constant mental chatter prevents us from deep feeling.

• Feel your thoughts. Notice the layers and layers of thoughts. See that they are not really “yours” - you did not create them, they came to you. You can throw them off if you realize you are not attached to them.

• Thought is the root of attachment and the sense of “mine”. If thoughts are not mine, nothing is mine, and one can live freely in the world. Going to the Himalayas cannot free you if you still believe your thoughts are your own. Freedom comes from releasing attachment to thoughts.

• Deeper feeling reveals beauty and truth and allows one to uproot attachment and overcome the egoic mind. Feeling is the way to truth and freedom.

• The thoughts that revolve in our mind are not our own. They are like clouds passing by. We cling to them and identify with them, but they are transient and ever-changing.

• Our sense of “I” or ego evolves from clinging to many thoughts and labeling them as “mine”. But if we observe our thoughts closely, we find that no thought actually belongs to us. They arise and pass away.

• Similarly, if we search within to find where our “I” is located, we cannot find it. It does not exist in any fixed place. It is merely a useful linguistic construct.

• Confronting the lack of a permanent, separate “I” can be frightening, like confronting death. But going into this “death” allows one to be reborn in a fresh, pristine state of awareness, free from the old sense of ego.

• Beyond thoughts and ego, there are internal organs of perception that allow us to sense our own being. These are not the physical senses that perceive the external world, but subtler senses through which we experience our own existence.

• Our knowledge of ourselves is usually based on what others say about us and what we perceive through our physical senses. We are rarely aware of our internal organs that can give us a direct experience of our own being. By recognizing these internal organs, one can become free from dependence on external sources to define one’s identity and self-worth.

• Emptiness is the unknown. Don’t desire for something to fill the emptiness. Simply be empty.

• Emptiness and the unknown are one. What appears as emptiness is just the absence of the ego. When the ego disappears, the absence of ego also disappears. Only then are you really empty.

• To be really empty is to be really filled. The space created by the absence of ego is the divine. The divine is not to come from somewhere else; you are already that.

• Nothing new is going to come to you. What is possible is already there, actual. The question is of discovering, not achieving. The treasure is already there, just covered. You uncover it.

• Your divinity is the present, here and now. You just need tuning, like a radio. Meditation is the tuning. When tuned, the unmanifest becomes manifest.

• Don’t wait or hope for the unknown to fill the emptiness. If you are waiting or desiring, you are not empty. Emptiness is the unknown. When really empty, the unknown has descended upon you.

• There is no gap between becoming empty and the unknown entering. They are one. Emptiness is just the absence of ego, which creates the feeling of emptiness. When ego disappears, so does the feeling of its absence.

• Buddha said he did not achieve anything, but lost himself. What he achieved was already there, he just became aware. He wondered how he did not know it before, as it was always there, just needing a turning.

The key is not to desire or hope for anything, but simply dissolve into meditative emptiness. The divine is already present, one just needs to tune into it through meditation.

• Spirituality is not the transformation of the ego, it is the dissolution of the ego. The ego cannot be transformed, it will always remain the ego. At most, it can be refined and cultured but it will still remain the ego.

• Morality is based on refining and culturing the ego. It relies on concepts of respectability, honor and what others think about you. Spirituality transcends the ego altogether. It sees the ego as false, not just wrong, and moves beyond it into truth.

• Spirituality is an awakening, an alertness to the unreality of the ego. If the ego was real, transcending it would not be possible. But because the ego is false, like a dream, one can awaken from it.

• The ego has no substance or reality. It is non-existential. So spiritual experimentation and existential transformation ultimately refer to transcending this false ego through awakening, not transforming it.

• The key distinction is that morality says leave what is wrong, spirituality says leave what is false. Morality operates in a false world, relying on false rights and wrongs. Spirituality seeks truth beyond this false world of the ego.

So in summary, the spiritual path is about transcending the unreal ego through awakening to one’s true nature, not transforming the ego itself. The ego is false and without substance, so it cannot be the subject of real existential transformation. Spirituality is about moving from the false to the true, not reforming the characteristics of the false.

The ego is a false construct of the mind. It is not a real entity. It seems to exist only due to our ignorance and lack of awareness. Once we become aware, the ego disappears like a shadow. We cannot transcend the ego by fighting or struggling against it. That would be like fighting against a shadow - futile and exhausting. The only way to transcend the ego is through awareness and understanding its unreal nature.

The ego is a substitute for our real self, created by the mind so that we can function without losing our sanity. But once we discover our real self, the ego loses its purpose and dissolves. Our real self, our consciousness, soul or beingness persists. Our memories, thought processes and brain cells also continue to function, but they are no longer identified with a sense of “I”. There is experiencing, but no individual experiencer.

In summary, the ego alone is unreal. The rest - our body, mind, consciousness - are real. The ego is simply a false identification, and dispelling this identification is the process of spiritual transformation. But unlike a dream, the rest of our functioning continues, only infused with awareness rather than delusion.

Here are the key points from the summary:

1. If you are confused about whether your spiritual search is authentic or an ego-trip, then it is an ego-trip. An authentic search brings an inner knowingness and clarity. Doubt indicates it is ego-centered.

2. You can deceive yourself in spirituality, but not so easily in the material world. People want certificates and validation of their spiritual progress to feed the ego. Authentic spirituality needs no such validation.

3. People turn to spirituality when they fail in the worldly life. Their ambition and ego then seek fulfillment in the spiritual domain. It is easy to claim spiritual progress with no way to disprove it.

4. False gurus exploit people’s need for ego-validation by offering certificates of spiritual progress and awakening. It is a mutual deception.

5. An authentic spiritual search is difficult, arduous, and painful. It requires sincere effort over a long time. The ego seeks quick and easy solutions.

6. The ego is concerned with possessing and claiming spirituality. Authentic spirituality is about actually transforming yourself through understanding and transcending the ego.

7. Buddha is aware of the body’s hunger but knows he is simply the knower. He does not identify with the feelings and remains detached. The ego identifies with feelings and gets caught in them.

8. The ego is the only false entity. Everything else, including the body and mind, is real. But consciousness errs in its relationship with the mind, creating the false ego. This can be untied through self-understanding.

9. With every evolutionary progress comes new dangers. But dangers are worth the benefits of growth if you can understand them and transcend them to reach a higher synthesis. Spirituality is achieving the ultimate synthesis.

Those are the main points on the difference between an ego-centered spiritual search and an authentic one, how the ego operates, and how to transcend it. Please let me know if you would like me to explain anything in the summary further.

• Don’t do anything without understanding in meditation. Mind is complex and delicate, and ignorant action can be harmful or fatal.

• Techniques are based on deep knowledge and experimentation. Don’t mix or modify them. Use them as given.

• Make sure you fully understand a technique before practicing it. If confused, don’t do it. Techniques are meant to create revolution, not gradual evolution.

• Techniques are shortcuts, not natural. Nature will lead to enlightenment over vast time through gradual evolution. Techniques force the process.

• So be very careful and follow the instructions properly. Don’t practice without guidance. Techniques must be understood fully to be effective and safe.

The key ideas are: follow the techniques properly, don’t improvise; understand them fully before practicing; they are shortcuts meant to force revolution, not natural evolution, so must be handled properly. Acting out of ignorance can be dangerous. The guidance is meant to provide proven techniques and the knowledge behind them.

Here are the key points in the passage:

1. There is a deep attachment to the body since we have always been embodied. We don’t know what it feels like to not be in a body. This attachment makes us feel like we are the body.

2. Realize that you actually only know yourself as the body. Don’t deceive yourself with spiritual knowledge about the soul or self that you’ve read or heard about. Face the fact that you are identified with the body.

3. Recognizing you are the body will create tension and release hidden turmoil. You will realize the body will die and you associate yourself with the body’s desires and urges. This is painful but necessary to understand attachment.

4. Usually you attribute what you don’t like to the body and what you do like to the self. You have to realize you are both to understand attachment.

5. Understanding attachment is like realizing your house is on fire. You immediately jump out, you don’t ask how. Once you understand attachment, you can drop it instantly.

6. Dropping attachment to the body, you realize you are everywhere. The body is not limiting you, your attachment to it is. Without attachment to the body, there is no confinement and the whole existence becomes your body.

7. In the body you are confined to a particular space. Without attachment to the body, you are everywhere. The body is like an imprisonment due to attachment. Without attachment, there are no barriers between you and existence.

So the core message is that you have to deeply realize you know yourself as the body, with all its desires and aversions, to understand your attachment to it. Recognizing this attachment as a burning fire allows you to instantly drop it. And in dropping it, your sense of self expands to become one with all of existence. You realize you are everywhere.

• Our consciousness is not limited to a particular space or location. We feel we are located somewhere in our body due to our attachment and confinement to the body. In reality, consciousness pervades everywhere.

• In deep sleep, we are not aware of the body but there is still a sense of bliss. Similarly, in death, we are not somewhere but we still are. We feel confined to the body due to our own mental attachments and desires. Wherever we feel attachment, we create imprisonment for ourselves.

• The human mind innately seeks freedom and rebels against any limitation or barrier. The search for enlightenment or moksha is a search for total freedom. As long as we identify with the body, we cannot attain total freedom. When we realize we are everywhere, we attain existential freedom and bliss.

• Misery exists in barriers and limitations. Bliss exists where there are no barriers. Even in ordinary life, we experience glimpses of joy and bliss when we lose attachments to the body, such as when we are in deep love. In those moments, the body ceases to be a burden and we transcend beyond physical pleasures.

• Joy is not the same as pleasure. Pleasure depends on the senses and the body. Joy arises when we transcend the body, even if momentarily. We can experience such joy through deliberate methods like meditation or yoga. The key is to lose attachment to the body by expanding our consciousness.

• In summary, realizing that we are not confined to the body but are everywhere is the path to overcoming misery and attaining bliss. Freedom and joy are our innate nature when we dissolve the mental barriers that limit our consciousness.

• When you are not attached or identified with the body, you experience joy. Moments of joy happen when your attention moves away from the body.

• Your attention creates and limits your sense of self. Wherever your attention is, that is where you are. If your attention is in thoughts, you are limited by those thoughts. If your attention is nowhere, you are everywhere - you are joy.

• Thinking no thing, or thinking nothing, leads to an unlimited self. Thoughts create barriers and limits. They divide the world into for and against, into Christians and non-Christians, Hindus and non-Hindus. Thought cannot be total, only no-thought can be total.

• Thoughts are by-products of the mind. They are your attitudes, speculations, prejudices, reactions, concepts - they are not existence itself. Thoughts create a barrier between you and what actually exists. When there are no thoughts, the door is open to existence.

• The mind is the inner layer of the body. We identify more closely with the mind, so it is harder to detach from. But the mind is still just subtle matter - it is not ultimately who we are. We carry our minds from life to life, accumulating more minds and bodies around the same subtle layer of energy and thought vibration.

• Only meditation can release us from attachment to the mind. Meditation is a greater death than physical death alone. People fear meditation because it means facing the death of the ego and all one’s accumulated minds. Those who persist in meditation eventually come face to face with the divine.

• The divine is always here and now, but we cannot see it due to the subtle layers of mind that cover our awareness. Meditation removes these layers and reveals the divine, which has always been our reality.

• People try meditation superficially but are unconsciously afraid to go deep because they fear they will lose their identity and ego. But one has to lose the old identity to become resurrected into a new self.

• Thinking no thing means stopping the process of thinking about things, objects, thoughts. It means dissolving thinking itself. This can happen by concentrating on a Zen koan or puzzle that cannot be solved by thinking, eventually leading thinking to stop.

• In the state of no-mind, one’s limited self expands into infinity. One feels they are everywhere and everything, mirrored in all existence. This state is bliss. Nothing can disturb you because nothing exists except you. You are alone - but also everything.

• This state can be expressed as “only I am” or “nothing exists” - both convey the same meaning. Every expression is only partial; the opposite expression is also true.

• Thinking separates us from existence. Non-thinking unites us with it. When silent with someone or something else, you become one with them. But people have lost the ability to be truly silent, always chattering in their minds.

• Silence is the only universal language. Only in silence can we commune with others, with nature, and with God. Speaking, we remain alone and isolated. Silence flowers in love, prayer, and meditation. But we chatter even in prayer and meditation, missing the opportunity to connect in silence.

• To go deep in meditation, one must transcend this fear of losing one’s identity, ego, and thinking mind. One must be willing to die to the old to be reborn anew. In that rebirth, one realizes one’s unity with all things - and gains a bliss that transcends disturbance. But dropping into that void is intensely frightening until one experiences the bliss on the other side.

• Techniques are shortcuts and go against Tao or one’s true nature. They imply effort while Tao implies effortlessness.

• If one can surrender completely to Tao or nature, no technique is needed. This requires infinite patience, awaiting, and letting go. One simply flows with life with no expectations or frustrations.

• Such surrender is beyond time and can lead to enlightenment immediately. Techniques, on the other hand, take time. Rarely someone can surrender absolutely without techniques.

• For most people, techniques are needed to overcome the desire to know “how” to surrender or achieve enlightenment. They are like medicine to cure the illness of conditioning and accumulated poison.

• When someone lives in complete harmony with Tao, no techniques, teachers or even religions are needed. However, as people are now, techniques serve as antidotes for their complex minds. Their minds will ask “how?” and doubt any approach.

• Total surrender, the ultimate technique, is a “no-technique” that cannot be practiced. One has to simply let go, which is difficult for most conditioned minds. Techniques are for them until a point of saturation when they become bored of techniques and can take the jump.

• In the end, techniques only remove obstacles and deconditioning the mind. One’s true nature has to spontaneously manifest. No technique can directly lead to it.

That’s the essence and summary of the long explanation on techniques versus Tao or true naturalness in the passage. Please let me know if you need any clarification.

The key points in the passage are:

1. Nature works slowly in its own pace. It is not in a hurry to make anyone enlightened. For nature, millions of years are nothing. But man has become conscious and aware of time. This makes man impatient and he wants to quicken the process.

2. Because man has become conscious, he can no longer leave enlightenment to nature. He has to take action himself. Religions are created by man for this purpose.

3. Man’s consciousness has made him aware that enlightenment is possible in this very moment. This realization creates an inner anxiety and worry in him because he is not making use of this possibility.

4. The more conscious and aware man becomes of this possibility, the more is his anguish and suffering. For a Buddha who was perfectly aware of this, it was a hell-like state until he attained enlightenment.

5. When one can see and feel the enlightenment but is unable to attain it, one feels great anguish. But when one is not even aware of this possibility, there is no anguish.

6. Man has come above nature due to his consciousness and can consciously speed up his evolution. This is revolutionary. Man needs to take his destiny into his own hands.

7. What is possible for man may take nature millions of years and lives. But man can do it in a single moment by intensifying his effort. This can help him cover the ground of millions of lives in that one moment.

So in essence, man’s consciousness and his awareness of time have made him restless for enlightenment. He can no longer depend on nature’s pace. He has to take conscious action to speed up enlightenment - something which is possible for him to achieve in a moment. His inability to do so creates deep angst and suffering in him. But action and intensity can help him bypass the lengthy process of nature.

• Animals and trees are unaware of their destiny and future possibilities, so they do not experience anxiety. Man has become conscious and aware of future possibilities, so he experiences anxiety and angst.

• Unconsciousness leads to bliss due to lack of awareness. Consciousness also leads to bliss, but one has to achieve it through meditation and spiritual practice. Man is in between, partly unconscious and partly conscious, so he experiences suffering.

• Man’s physical evolution has stopped. Now, spiritual evolution through consciousness is in man’s hands. Enlightenment requires synthesizing and harmonizing all the elements that one already has. Techniques and methods can help one achieve this synthesis.

• One can argue that one should not interfere with the natural process of karma and accept one’s fate. But total acceptance is difficult. Meditation is not interference - it is transcending the vicious circle of karma by becoming a witness. One goes beyond and becomes a spectator, unaffected by the drama of life.

• Raman Maharshi accepted his cancer and did not interfere with the natural process. But he transcended it by being just a witness, unaffected by the suffering of the body.

So in summary, enlightenment and transcending suffering requires transcending the mechanical process of cause and effect through spiritual practice and meditation. One has to become a witness and go beyond.

• Usually we are in a feverish, active state filled with tension and hyperactivity.
• When you become passive and relaxed, this feverish state leaves. You may initially feel dull and less aware. But this is because you are losing the unhealthy glow of the feverish state, not actual awareness.
• Don’t be afraid of this initial feeling of decreased awareness. Allow the feverish state to leave.
• Eventually, you will reach a balanced state where there is no increase or decrease in awareness. This is real awareness, not the feverish kind.
• Reaching this balanced state of awareness requires patience. At first, passivity may feel like a loss of alertness or even like death. But this is only because we are used to the feverish state, not because awareness is actually decreasing.
• If you remain patient with the passive state, you will move past the feverish state and gain real awareness.

The key is to not be afraid of the initial feeling of losing awareness, to allow the feverish mind to become passive, and to patiently wait as real awareness emerges in a balanced state.

• Man exists between the past (his animal nature) and the future (his divine potential). This creates a constant conflict within him.

• Anything that satisfies man’s animal nature leaves his divine nature dissatisfied. And vice versa. Man cannot satisfy both.

• All efforts to create a compromise between the animal and divine natures of man inevitably fail. This is an absurd and impossible effort.

• Techniques like those presented in the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra are meant to help man transcend this duality altogether. They are meant neither to satisfy the animal nor the divine.

• Tantra itself is not a religion because religions seek to satisfy either the animal or divine nature. Tantra seeks transcendence of both.

• These techniques are meant to help man become simply aware and transcend his dual nature. They help him become awareness itself - not just awareness of one thing or another.

• In transcending the duality within himself, man attains freedom and peace. His life becomes meaningful and worthwhile. Otherwise, life remains an “impossible task” where part of him is always dissatisfied.

• Man must realize he is neither animal nor divine - but awareness itself in which both the animal and divine natures arise. This awareness transcends all and brings peace. Man must “die” as both animal and divine and be reborn as pure awareness.

That covers the essence of the explanation provided in the passage. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Tantra is not about the struggle between the divine and the animal. It transcends that duality. Rather than fighting with the animal nature or aspiring to the divine, Tantra teaches one to become a witness and observe both.

• The past represents the animal, the future represents the divine. Tantra is about the present moment. It teaches one to not be attached to the past or project into the future. One should remain in the present and witness it.

• Most religions create an inner conflict by positioning the divine against the animal. They split the psyche and create neurosis. Tantra does not create this conflict. It teaches non-violence towards oneself. One should not fight with oneself. Rather, one should just witness and be aware.

• The first technique is to imagine the unimaginable - that which is beyond perception and grasping. This is impossible but attempting it can lead to an insight. By persistently discarding images and concepts that arise, one eventually loses all perception. Then one becomes aware of the perceiver themselves. One realizes the subject that has always been witnessing objects.

• Usually the subject, the witness, is lost in objects and knowledge. But when all objects and knowledge are discarded, one becomes aware of oneself as the witness. One comes to know oneself in an non-dual way, not as a subject and object. This is a purely subjective awareness, a non-dual knowing.

• Ordinarily, our energy constantly moves towards objects, creating circles of knowledge and perception. But by attempting to perceive the unperceivable, this outward movement of energy is halted. The energy comes back to the subject, creating self-awareness, self-knowledge in a non-dual sense. This is the essence of the first technique.

The passage describes a meditative technique focused on recognizing one’s own existence. It begins with the statement “I am existing. This is mine. This is this.” The passage suggests fully realizing and understanding one’s own existence and being.

To illustrate this idea, the passage shares a Zen story of three friends encountering a monk on a hillside. The friends debate what the monk is doing - whether he is waiting for friends, looking for a lost cow, or praying. When they ask the monk, he says he is doing none of these. He is not waiting for anyone or anything. He seems focused solely on recognizing his own existence.

The key message is that one should meditate on one’s own being and existence using statements like “I am existing.” Recognize your existence and “know illimitably” or boundlessly. Still the mind from its usual outward focus and external preoccupations. Turn awareness inward to realize one’s own being.

The passage suggests this is a foundational meditation technique. By ridding the mind of objects and thoughts and focusing on one’s existence and being, one can achieve self-illumination and self-knowledge. The habitual tendency is for the mind to cling to external objects and perceptions, but one must discard these to realize one’s true self. Using the mantra “not this, not this” one lets go of attachments and concepts until only the self remains. In that emptiness, one’s true nature is revealed.

So in summary, the key message is a meditation technique utilizing the mantras “I am existing” and “not this, not this” to turn awareness away from external preoccupations and inward to achieve self-knowledge and enlightenment. By realizing one’s existence boundlessly and ridding the mind of concepts, the true self is revealed.

The key message is that one should focus on feeling one’s existence rather than merely thinking about it. Thinking about one’s existence is futile and leads nowhere. One should feel one’s existence in a multidimensional, sensory way - feeling the body, the breath, the environment, the energy. This feeling of existence leads to being present in the moment, which leads to the dropping away of the mind and all of its constructs. With the disappearance of the mind comes bliss and an enhanced perception of oneself and the world.

• Anger is a sign that someone still cares about you. Indifference is the opposite of love, not anger. Anger shows that the person has feelings for you, otherwise they would not bother to be angry.

• We often misunderstand anger and react aggressively because we do not truly understand our own anger. If we were more aware of our feelings, we could better understand the feelings of others.

• We tend to focus on tangible possessions rather than recognizing the deepest aspects of ourselves that we possess - our existence, being, and consciousness. These are infinitely more valuable but often overlooked.

• Mind has a beginning and end, but existence itself is beginningless and endless. Once we move beyond identifying with the mind and connect with our pure existence, fear of death disappears.

• As long as we fear death, real love is not possible. We can cling to others out of fear and insecurity, but not truly love them. Overcoming the fear of death allows for the flowering of love.

• Human relationships are often based on mutual fear and a desire to avoid facing death alone. Lovers give each other a sense of strength and fearlessness, even if it is an illusion.

• In summary, recognizing our deepest nature - the existence and consciousness beyond mind - frees us from fear of death and allows us to experience authentic love. As long as we remain attached to the mind alone, fear distorts our relationships and experience of life.

The sutra “This is this” highlights the here and now. It says that all of existence is included in the present moment. There is no distinction between “this” and “that,” between the mundane and the spiritual, between higher and lower. Everything is included in the present moment.

Tantra, which the sutra comes from, is non-dualistic. It does not make distinctions between opposites like matter and mind, life and death, world and God. All of these supposed opposites are included in the present moment. “This is this” means all there is exists here and now.

The emphasis on “this” highlights being in the present moment and embracing ordinariness. The desire to be extraordinary is quite ordinary, so true extraordinariness comes from being completely ordinary, at ease with the present moment as it is. “This is this” means to be fully in the now, as you are, embracing all of existence in this moment.

The point is that enlightenment, freedom, and divinity are found here and now, in this moment, not in some other place or time. All we need is right in front of us, included in the present moment. We just need to realize “this is this.”

• Tantra teaches one to transcend all craving, whether for worldly pleasures or for divine experiences. Any object of desire creates a world of craving.
• What one calls ‘divine’ is not really divine - it is just another object of one’s desire. The real divine is experienced only when all craving disappears.
• The world becomes divine when one stops desiring. As long as there is desire, there is the world. Desire creates the world.
• One can go on changing the objects of desire, from money and power to divine knowledge and freedom. But desire itself remains unchanged. The problem lies in desire itself, not the objects.
• Craving for freedom or for the divine is still craving and binding. To be free of craving is to attain freedom and divine experience.
• In short, Tantra transcends the duality of the ‘worldly’ and the ‘divine’. When craving disappears, the whole world becomes divine. There is no more separate divine to crave for or attain.

The key is to drop craving itself, rather than changing its objects. Only then does one go beyond the duality of the world and the divine. What remains is simply ‘what is’ - existence itself, without the distinction of worldly and divine.

• Craving is the root issue, not the object of craving. As long as you cling to craving, you will continually be frustrated as you move from one object of craving to another.

• When you drop craving, everything else drops as well. The mind, the sense of past and future, the ego - they all rest on craving. Without craving, you simply exist in peace and silence.

• Language is inherently dualistic, so the ultimate reality cannot be described in words. We can only speak of what it is not, not what it is. The silence beyond thought is the only way to know the divine.

• Mystics and spiritual teachers use language to point seekers to the place of silence that is beyond language. Language can lead you up to the abyss, but not beyond. You must take the leap into silence yourself.

• The silence and peace beyond craving is profoundly blissful and enchanting. Once you have a taste of it, you will be drawn to plunge into the depths.

• The spiritual path seems paradoxical because we must use dualistic language to point to the nondual reality. But for those immersed in thought and craving, language is the only way to begin guiding them inward. Silence alone will not be understood.

That covers the essence and key points being conveyed in the passage. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

Don’t try to get rid of fear. Instead, understand it. Accept fear as part of your being. Through acceptance, fear disappears; through denial, fear increases.

You can pretend to not be afraid, but that is deceitful. Accept your authentic being, fear and all. This acceptance is the key to transformation in Tantra.

Fear exists for a reason. It prevents egoism and forces you to connect with existence. If you try to destroy fear, you fragment yourself. Accept fear and it disappears.

For example, a man with terminal cancer feared death greatly. Osho told him to accept this fear. When the man accepted his fear of death, it disappeared. He attained a calmness and even experienced moments of bliss. Acceptance brought peace.

In summary, don’t fight fear. Accept it, understand it, and transcend the duality. This brings an alchemical transformation in which love arises and fear disappears. You become whole and authentic.

The speaker tells an anecdote about a politician whose house is on fire but he continues his speech. The speaker says this is like our own situation - our house is on fire, we are dying each moment, but we do not seem worried or aware of this fact. We think there is enough time and keep postponing any action.

The speaker then tells another anecdote of the devil and his disciples trying to get more people into hell. The most successful plan was to tell people that while heaven and hell exist, there is no hurry to act. This is like the attitude of our mind - we know teachings and truths but think there is time and postpone any real action or change.

The speaker says that unless one feels a sense of crisis and urgency, one will not actually do anything to transform one’s life. Mere understanding or acquaintance with teachings is not enough - one must act and do something. Understanding must lead to action, otherwise it is just superficial acquaintance, not real understanding. One must feel religion and spiritual work as absolutely critical and a matter of emergency. Only then will techniques and teachings be of any real use. Otherwise one will go on postponing and death will come before any change happens.

So the essence is: feel a sense of crisis and act now. Mere understanding is not enough. Act and do something to transform yourself before it is too late. Feel spiritual work as of critical importance and as an emergency.

• Knowledge comes through the faculty of knowing. When you know something, there is the object that is known (the known), the subject that knows (the knower), and the relationship between them (knowing).

• Ordinarily, we focus only on the object (the known) and forget the subject (the knower). We need to make our knowledge “double-arrowed” by being aware of both the knower and the known.

• This technique of being aware of both the knower and the known is called self-remembering by Gurdjieff, right-mindfulness by Buddha, and is mentioned in Tantric teachings.

• When you become aware of both the knower and the known, you realize you are neither of them. You become a third point - a witnessing consciousness. This witnessing self cannot be transcended, so it is your ultimate nature.

• The ultimate nature cannot be transcended or canceled by any experience. It is always there, whether in waking or dreaming or any other state. This ultimate self is the only thing that is real.

• Techniques like self-remembering, right-mindfulness, and the one mentioned in this sutra are meant to lead you to this ultimate self beyond both the knower and the known.

So the main point is that we must sharpen our faculty of knowing by being aware not just of objects of knowledge but also of the subject - the knower. By focusing on both the knower and the known, we realize our ultimate nature as the witnessing self beyond all changing experiences.

• The ultimate reality is a witnessing self that observes both the knower (the mind) and the known (the objects). This witnessing self transcends duality and divisions.

• To experience the witnessing self, concentrate totally on an object. When the world disappears and only the object remains, become aware of the knower - the mind that is perceiving the object. Try to balance awareness between the knower and the known.

• With practice, one can come to the middle point between the knower and the known. This middle point is the witnessing self. It is silent, blissful, and transcends duality. This is samadhi or enlightenment.

• One should not fixate on either the knower or the known. Fixating on one extreme just produces the opposite extreme. The middle path is the most difficult but freeing path. It means losing the mind by not fixating on any extreme.

• The mind exists in extremes. It needs opposition to function. The witnessing self transcends the mind because it rests in neutrality between opposites.

• Buddha’s middle path meant cultivating this neutral witnessing self through mindfulness of both inner and outer, subjective and objective. It is the balanced, moderate, and scientific path.

• In this technique, do not divide or fragment your experience. Do not say “this is not I”. Instead, be inclusive of everything in your experience - your body, mind, breath, thoughts, sensations, etc.

• When you are inclusive, your sense of body and self will expand and change. Sometimes you may feel very big, filling the whole room. Sometimes you may feel very small, atomic. This happens as your attention changes.

• The key is to not identify with any particular part of your experience. Do not center yourself anywhere. With practice, your sense of self and ego will disappear, and only pure consciousness will remain.

• As you become more inclusive, your sense of self will expand to include the whole universe. You will feel that the whole world, the stars, the Himalayas, are within you and are part of your being.

• This feeling of expansion and inclusiveness can also be achieved through psychedelic drugs like LSD. However, with this meditation technique, the expansion of consciousness becomes real, not just a temporary feeling.

• Our individual consciousness is actually connected at a deeper level. We appear separate, but are connected like islands to the earth below. As we become more inclusive, we tap into this collective consciousness.

• Suffering comes from feeling like a separate individual. As we expand our sense of self, individual suffering and misery disappear. We become one with the absolute, with pure being.

• If you can practice this technique, many new and beautiful experiences will happen within you. You will feel there is no center, no ego, just pure consciousness covering everything like the sky.

• Don’t try to reconcile different techniques. They are meant for different types of people.

• The technique of “don’t hurry, be effortless” is meant for a feminine mind - open, receptive, passive. This half of humanity cannot make effort. They wait and allow things to happen.

• The aggressive, masculine mind needs to make effort. For them, Osho says “hurry, don’t lose time.” They need to create a sense of urgency and crisis to put in total effort.

• Women typically have no sense of time as they have a feminine mind. The male, aggressive mind is time-conscious and worried.

• Women usually cannot become great leaders, scientists, warriors, etc. unless they have a male mind. Some examples of women with a male mind are Joan of Arc and Laxmi Bai.

• So the two concepts “hurry” and “effortlessness” are meant for different types of people and minds. Don’t try to reconcile them. Choose the approach that suits your nature. The feminine mind should be effortless while the masculine mind needs to make haste.

In summary, the key message is that spirituality needs to be tailored to one’s inherent nature - feminine or masculine. There is no single approach. One must choose a path that aligns with one’s innate tendencies.

• The feminine mind lives in the present moment and is not goal-oriented. The masculine mind is focused on achieving goals and reaching destinations.

• The feminine mind is curious about intimate details and the nearby, while the masculine mind is interested in the distant and abstract. The feminine mind does not care much about time, while the masculine mind values progress and change.

• The east is more feminine, valuing compassion, love and acceptance. The west is more masculine, valuing willpower, independence and ambition.

• The techniques of surrender and willpower are opposites meant for different mindsets. They should not be synthesized. Life itself contains contradictions, so the truth cannot be uncontradictory.

• Within each person, the conscious and unconscious mind are opposites. In meditation, they can unite, leading to bliss. But people must start from their conscious mindset.

• A person’s gender does not necessarily determine whether they have a feminine or masculine mindset. Many factors are involved. People should follow the path suited to their own mindset.

• Opposites create energy and movement in life. Logic seeks to reconcile opposites, but life is dialectical, using opposites to generate challenge and change. Total oneness would lead to death; life depends on opposites meeting, attracting and separating again.

• Life creates energy through polarities and opposites. Existence is dual and contradictory.

• There are two types of minds - masculine and feminine. The masculine mind uses effort and will to achieve goals while the feminine mind can relax and let go.

• For the masculine mind, the effort and struggle to achieve a goal is more important than the goal itself. The feminine mind can achieve the same state of being in a relaxed manner, without chasing goals.

• Human history has focused more on recording the achievements of the masculine mind. The feminine mind’s accomplishments are harder to measure and have gone largely unrecorded.

• Rather than trying to reconcile opposites, focus on what approach suits your own mind. The masculine mind should use effort while the feminine mind can relax.

• Start by including friends in your being before trying to include enemies. Opening up to friends is already difficult, so start there. Do not suppress emotions of hatred but do not begin with the enemy.

The key message is that there are two fundamental approaches based on the type of mind. Choose the approach that suits you rather than trying to reconcile opposites. For the feminine mind, relaxing and letting go is the way. For the masculine mind, directed effort and will are the paths. But in either case, start with what is easier - including friends rather than enemies. Do not suppress emotions but do not begin with the enemy.

Start from what is possible, not from the impossible. Do not jump to including the enemy right away. That is a trick of the mind to make you feel it cannot be done. Start with including your friends and loved ones. Build up the quality of inclusiveness.

To build inclusiveness, meditate on objects and then visualize them inwardly. Allow the inner visualization to become more real than the outer object. Let the object take root in your consciousness. This expands your boundaries inwardly. Gradually include more - strangers, difficult people. The enemy will be the last to include.

Do not suppress anger or hatred. But do not express it outwardly either. The other person is just an instrument bringing out what is already within you. You are responsible for your emotions, not the other person. Be thankful to them for revealing you to yourself.

If you go to Buddha and abuse him, he will not get angry. Not because your effort was lacking, but because the anger is not there in him. You cannot create something that is not already there.

So start with what you can do, with including friends and loved ones inwardly. Build up inclusiveness as a quality of your consciousness. Do not suppress emotions but do not blame others for them either. Take responsibility for your own consciousness. Then gradually you will be able to include more and more, even enemies.

The key points are:

1. Life is meant to be a celebration, not a boredom or suffering. But for humans, life often feels dreary, meaningless, and boring. This is not the natural state of life and does not happen for other forms of life like animals, trees, stars, etc.

2. This boredom and suffering arises from the human mind and ego. The ego constantly desires stimulation and new experiences. When it does not get them, it feels bored. The ego also creates psychological suffering through attachments, cravings, judgments, and resistance.

3. The solution is to transcend the ego and connect with your deeper self. This is done through meditation, mindfulness, and non-attachment. When you connect with your deeper self, you see life as a joyful celebration. You realize you are not separate but connected to all of existence. Suffering and boredom dissolve.

4. Do not identify with the ego and its mental formations like thoughts, judgments, desires, and cravings. Observe them but don’t attach to them. Remain the silent witness. This helps transcend the ego.

5. Practice mindfulness - bring awareness to your senses and the present moment. Appreciate each experience as a new and fresh opportunity to celebrate existence. Find beauty in simple things. This attitude shifts your consciousness from ego to spirit.

6. Start creating yourself through conscious choice. Do not remain passive or reactive. Choose joy, love, gratitude and celebrate each moment. This decision and intention shapes your experience of life. You create your reality through the mind.

7. Look at life lightly and as a game. The heaviness of boredom comes from taking life too seriously. Laugh, play, and see the cosmic dance. This lightness of being is liberating.

In summary, boredom and suffering are products of the human ego and mind. One can transcend them by meditating, being mindful, not identifying with thoughts, appreciating each moment, choosing joy, and looking at life lightly. This helps create an inner celebration of existence.

• Pain and suffering are two different things. Pain is an accident, a temporary thing, and animals experience it but then get over it. Suffering is carried over, becomes a constant obsession and anguish, and is a uniquely human phenomenon.

• Trees and animals live in the present moment and are constantly celebrating existence. They do not carry the burden of the past into the future. Only humans are bored and commit suicide.

• Humans have lost instinct and a programmed way of living that other animals have. We have to learn everything, including how to live life. This learning and lack of a set path is what creates boredom and suffering.

• If humans are not taught how to live and be happy, life becomes a dreary, meaningless affair. We go through the motions of living without truly being alive.

• Even love needs to be learned by humans. Without the instinctual love of a mother, a child may never learn to love. For animals, sexuality and mating arises instinctually.

• Tantra teaches techniques for living fully without relying on lost instincts. The practices help access enjoyment and meaning.

That covers the key highlights and main themes around why humans tend to suffer in a way that other animals and trees do not, and how Tantra provides some solutions and techniques for living a fulfilling life beyond instinct. Please let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of the summary.

• Humans are less instinctual and more cultural than other animals. We have to be taught language, skills, knowledge, etc. Nothing comes naturally or mechanically to us.

• However, the basic dimension of being alive is taken for granted and not cultivated consciously. Just existing is not the same as really living. A Buddha is alive, most people are just existing.

• For humans, conscious evolution is necessary. Mechanical evolution is not enough. We have to make an effort to grow and progress, otherwise we stagnate and become bored.

• With freedom and consciousness comes responsibility. We have to choose and create our path in life. We are born without a fixed essence and have to develop our soul and purpose through effort and choice.

• Either we use the opportunity of human life to evolve and grow, or we waste it and possibly even destroy ourselves. Both possibilities exist simultaneously.

• Humans can commit suicide, which shows we have freedom and consciousness. This also means we can create and re-create ourselves. We have to be continuously creating to avoid boredom.

• The first technique uses the eyes, which cannot be falsified and through which we perceive most of the world. Staring into another’s eyes can be offensive because it reveals the true self. The eyes get tired first and revitalizing them revitalizes the whole body.

• The technique has you lightly touch your eyes to open your heart and connect with the cosmos. It is simple but effective for anyone to relieve tiredness, rejuvenate energy, and shift mood.

• Going to a natural, isolated place allows one to see the world with fresh, vibrant eyes that are fully alive and aware. In cities, eyes become dull and lifeless due to lack of natural stimulation.

• Eighty percent of one’s energy flows through the eyes. One must learn to consciously direct this energy for optimal wellbeing. Blind individuals have an opportunity to redirect this energy inward, which can make them very wise and perceptive.

• Staring into another’s eyes releases energy and can be a show of dominance or aggression. Looking away first shows weakness or inferiority. Even children and animals engage in staring contests to establish dominance.

• A person’s quality of energy and character is revealed through their eyes. Buddha’s eyes show compassion, while Hitler’s show rejection and condemnation.

• Placing palms gently on closed eyes helps redirect the energy within, leading to feelings of lightness, tranquility, and euphoria. Pressing too hard will cause resistance. Touching eyes gently but firmly helps thoughts cease, slows breathing and heartbeat, and induces deep relaxation. Doing this for 40 minutes can lead to a meditative state. Repeating this throughout the day, even for a moment, has benefits.

The key steps are:

1. Find an isolated natural setting.

2. Sit in a relaxed position with eyes closed.

3. Place palms on eyes with barely any pressure, like a feather.

4. Keep palms in place as energy redirects within, leading to a peaceful meditative state.

5. Repeat regularly to revitalize energy and induce meditative benefits.

Here is a summary of the instructions:

1. Practice the first technique of touching your eyelids lightly without any pressure for 40 minutes. This will make you feel light and open your heart.

2. Once you start feeling light and weightless, practice the second technique. With your eyes closed, visualize and feel the form of your body. Around your body, you will perceive a bluish light - this is your etheric body.

3. Feel the etheric body extending far above and below your physical body. Perceive it as a bluish aura enveloping and permeating your body.

4. The etheric body is soothing and calming. Its blue color is healing and relaxing. Focusing on the etheric body will stop your thinking and bring you into a meditative state.

5. When people touch you with love, they are touching your etheric body. Emotionally charged and electrified etheric bodies of lovers have even been known to affect the physical environment, moving or breaking objects.

6. The etheric body of realized beings like Buddha and Christ is overflowing with energy and nourishes all those around them. Just being in their presence fills one with joy, peace and vigor.

7. According to Jain philosophers, enlightened beings like Tirthankaras create an energetic sphere of influence 24 miles in radius that benefits all beings within it.

The core message is that focusing on perceiving and feeling your etheric body can lead to deep meditative states, ecstatic experiences and inner peace. The etheric body is a conduit for the cosmic energy that enlightened beings emanate to uplift all of existence. Practicing this technique helps tap into that cosmic source within.

• Life presents us with two fundamental alternatives: suffering or bliss. Most people end up choosing suffering, though not consciously.

• The reason for this is that choosing bliss also implies choosing, which divides life into opposites. But life is a totality that cannot be divided. Whatever we deny or avoid will continue to assert itself.

• Life is also constantly changing. Nothing is permanent. So if we cling to happiness, we will suffer when it passes away. We cannot escape the rhythm of life’s opposites: happiness and suffering, day and night, inhale and exhale.

• No one consciously chooses suffering. We choose happiness, but that choice itself creates suffering. The solution is to accept the totality of life, to live with both happiness and suffering, and not cling to either. We must move with life’s rhythm, not try to divide it.

• Life is like music, arising from the interplay of sound and silence. We cannot have one without the other. Suffering and happiness are life’s sounds and silences. By accepting both, we discover life’s music.

• The summary is that we must accept life’s totality and impermanence, not cling to happiness or avoid suffering, and move with the rhythm of opposites. Only then can we transcend the choice between suffering and bliss. We become choiceless, and that is bliss.

• You don’t choose in life - you simply accept what comes. There is no need to cling to happiness or resist suffering. Simply witness both.

• Enjoy both happiness and suffering. Suffering gives life depth and meaning. Happiness provides richness and joy. A life with only one or the other is incomplete. Both are needed to evolve consciousness.

• Don’t choose between happiness and suffering. Choose to be open and non-resistant to both. Allow life to unfold as it will. Witness it with equanimity.

• Bliss is being able to witness life with equanimity, enjoying both happiness and suffering. It is not the opposite of suffering. Suffering continues to happen, but it happens around you, not to you.

• You are the only constant in the flux of life. Your awareness, your witnessing self, remains the same. Everything else - your body, experiences, life circumstances - are constantly changing.

• If you cling to changing things, you will suffer. You are trying to do the impossible. Suffering is the indirect result of choosing, of clinging to happiness and resisting suffering.

• Once you realize this, you become choiceless. You simply witness life unfolding around you. Nothing can then happen to you - it all happens around you. You remain centered in yourself.

• This is the path of wisdom: to enjoy both happiness and suffering, to not choose between them, to accept whatever life brings. Become choiceless and your awareness will expand. Suffering and happiness will no longer touch you.

• Nothing is inherently boring or monotonous. We make activities boring or interesting based on our own mindset and consciousness.

• Children can repeat the same activities endlessly and not feel bored because they are so alive and present. For them, nothing feels repetitive. Adults become bored more easily because we are less alive and present.

• Lovers can kiss and embrace endlessly and not feel bored. For them, each moment is new and unique. They experience increasing returns, not diminishing returns. They have regained a childlike consciousness.

• Whether an activity is boring or not depends on our own consciousness and aliveness, not on the activity itself. Any activity has the potential to be boring or interesting depending on how we approach it.

• Enlightened individuals would not experience boredom from any task because they remain fully present and alive. They do not see any activity as repetitive or monotonous. They bring a fresh perspective to each moment.

• For society to become more enlightened, individuals must become more conscious and present. Then no activity or task would feel boring, no matter how repetitive it may seem. Our experience of the world depends on our own inner state.

• The feeling of boredom comes from within us, not from the activities themselves. When we are bored, we project that feeling onto the world and believe that the world is boring and repetitive. But the world is neutral, and we can experience it as boring or interesting.

That covers the key points around Osho’s perspective on boredom and how an enlightened society transcends boredom. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Lovers do not experience repetition in their acts of love and affection because they bring a quality of love, creativity and enjoyment to those acts. For prostitutes and others, the same acts become repetitive and boring because they lack that quality of love and enjoyment.

• Whether an act is repetitive or not depends on the quality you bring to it, not the act itself. If you love what you are doing, you will never find it repetitive or boring. But if you don’t love yourself, you cannot love what you do, and so you will find everything boring and repetitive.

• The source of boredom and a sense of repetition is within you, not in the acts themselves. Life itself repeats in cycles - the seasons, the sun rising and setting, etc. But life enjoys this repetition. Only a bored mind finds repetition tedious.

• You are bored not because of what you are doing, but because you are bored within. Whatever you do, or don’t do, you will feel bored. The real issue is that you have not learned to love yourself and accept yourself. When you do that, you can bring a quality of love and creativity to anything you do.

• Don’t blame external factors like your job or chores for your boredom. Look within, learn to love yourself, and you can transform any act into something creative and meaningful. With self-love, nothing needs to be boring or repetitive.

• Life is a mystery, not a problem to be solved. Religion offers no solutions or answers, unlike science which provides intellectual answers.

• The scientific approach is intellectual, involving the mind. It tackles life through analysis, division and aggression. This approach can only lead to death, not life, because it divides alive and organic wholes into dead parts.

• Science reduces everything to the lowest common denominator - matter. Religion leads to the highest - cosmic consciousness or God. They move in opposite directions.

• Science transforms everything into a problem to be solved. Religion takes mystery as the base - life cannot be solved or fully known. Questions like “What is life?” or “What is God?” are meaningless for religion.

• Religion asks how to become more alive, live abundantly and become one with the mystery - not solve it. Nothing is ever really solved - we just push back the mystery.

• Life’s mysteries can only be lived, not solved. We can become one with them, lose ourselves in them, and experience a change in quality of existence - but the mysteries remain.

• What appears to be knowable or solvable is only because we take reality in fragments. Looking at the whole, nothing can be truly known - we just move the mystery further back. All questions are temporary, seeming like answers only to the lazy-minded.

• With penetration, the mystery deepens. The more we know, the more we know we do not know. This is the religious attitude.

• Knowledge lives in the head, innocence lives in the heart. Thinking vs feeling. Thinking separates, feeling merges and loses boundaries.
• The heart gives you a melting vagueness, close to reality. The head gives clarity but confuses you. Clarity is not reality. Reality is unclear and mysterious.
• To come back to the heart center, put the mind-stuff in inexpressible fineness. Mind-stuff means the background on which thoughts move, like clouds in the sky.
• If the mind has no thoughts, it is pure. A pure mind can move into the heart. An impure mind, full of thoughts, cannot. Thoughts are impurities, whether good or bad. They keep you in the head.
• If you cut thought roots through meditation, consciousness drops back to the heart, its original innocence.

So the key is making the mind “subtle” by removing thoughts. Then it can settle into the heart.

• To become childlike again, one must put one’s mind in a state of utter stillness, devoid of thoughts. This is a state of pure consciousness that is inexpressible in words.

• Mystical experiences transcend the realm of thought and language. They can only be felt, not described. Mystics say they cannot express what they know because it was not knowledge gained through the intellect.

• Two states of mind are known: one with thoughts and one without thoughts, as in deep sleep. Meditation happens when these two states meet, when the mind is thoughtless yet alert. This leads to a transformation of consciousness where one is thrown back to the heart.

• Looking at existence from the heart, there is only God. Looking from the intellect, there is only the material world. They are two perspectives of the same thing.

• Once one learns how to drop back to the heart, one can move between the head and heart, using the intellect but not being identified with it. One sees the partiality and limitations of intellectual knowledge.

• The heart represents one’s wholeness, total being. Other faculties like the hands, eyes, and brain are fragments. Only love can reveal the wholeness of someone else.

• Poetry and mysticism both emerge from the heart. Mystics and poets speak the language of the heart. Poets have glimpses of mystical experience but lack mastery over them. Mystics abide in the heart.

• The passage to the heart cannot be found through effort alone. It comes as a gift, through grace. But once it has been shown, one can follow it back.

• The essence here is to move from the fragmented, individual mind to the total, limitless being. The limited mind creates suffering and ego, while the limitless being reveals bliss and transcendence of ego.

• We have become afraid of the heart, of love, of losing control, so we cling to the mind. But the mind keeps us trapped in ego, separation, and suffering. We must be willing to relinquish the ego to experience life in its totality.

• One technique given here is to consider any area of your body as limitlessly spacious. If you imagine your head as infinite, without boundaries, thoughts will stop. The narrow, limited mind produces thinking, while the infinite mind is silent.

• Buddha, sitting under the Bodhi tree in meditation, is not thinking. His mind has expanded into infinite space, so thinking is no longer possible. He has transcended the ego.

• By dropping limits and moving to the heart, to love and meditation, the ego disappears into the whole. The separate self dissolves into cosmic consciousness. This is variously called enlightenment, nirvana, moksha, God-realization, or simply experiencing life totally.

• Suffering, anxiety, and anguish are shadows of the ego. They cannot be overcome by fighting them or trying to catch them. You must catch the ego itself, and then its shadows disappear. The only way to catch the ego is by transcending it through meditation and love.

• What was said and what was conveyed between the lines is that we must relinquish control, lose ourselves, drop the narrow mind, and open up to something greater in order to experience ultimate reality. The bliss and tranquility of enlightenment comes from moving beyond the limited ego to the infinite whole.

I see. The key points are:

1. The inner emptiness itself is the mystery. It cannot be felt or known as an object of experience. You become it.

2. When the inner space is truly empty, the ego is dissolved. There is no observer left to witness anything. You cannot observe the mystery because you are the mystery.

3. As long as you are present as an observer, the inner space is not truly empty. The ego fills it in a subtle form as the observer.

4. Only when you dissolve and disappear does the inner emptiness reveal itself. But by then there is no you left to witness it.

So the mystery is not an experience. It is a reality to be realized through ego dissolution, not witnessed as an object. The inner emptiness is not felt; you become it when you are not.

Is this summary correct? Are there any other key points I should add? Please clarify. I want to understand this fully.

• Emptiness or inner space is not something you can achieve or possess. It is not a state you can report or feel good about. True emptiness means the absence of the ego and a letting go of desires and concepts. When you report emptiness, it shows the ego is still present.

• Mystery refers to the simple, ordinary existence without anything amazing or shocking about it. It is not something exceptional or special. The ego wants the special and extraordinary but reality is happening everywhere in a simple way. Enlightenment is the most ordinary thing and happens every moment.

• Simple things cannot be described, only indicated, unlike complex things which can be defined and analyzed. Buddhas are silent about the ultimate reality not because it is complex but because it is utterly simple. You can only know it when you become simple and empty.

• Don’t seek the special or extraordinary. Understand that nirvana and enlightenment are nothing special. The desire for specialness creates barriers and prevents you from accepting the ordinary reality. Let go of desires and just be at ease with what is.

• Meditation should be play, not work. Work is goal-oriented whereas play is an end in itself. Meditate without desiring special experiences or results. Enlightenment can happen in a moment when there are no desires. Accept the ordinary and be free of tension and anguish.

• The summary conveys the key ideas that one should let go of desires and concepts, accept the ordinary and simple existence, not seek special experiences, and meditate without goals to become enlightened. An empty and playful approach leads to harmony with reality.

• Play is purposeless and timeless. It is an end in itself. One plays simply because one enjoys it in the present moment. In contrast, work is oriented toward some goal or end. It is a means to an end.

• Only children can truly play because they do not think of the future or have desires and expectations. As we grow up, we lose the capacity for pure play and become more end-oriented.

• Meditation should be like play - purposeless and timeless. One should meditate just for its own sake, not to achieve something. If there is a goal, then meditation loses its point.

• Desire projects us into the future and creates expectations. Without desire, time disappears and one moves from one moment of eternity to another. There is no sequence or special happening. Ordinariness is the goal. The world is a struggle to be extraordinary, but one can be liberated by being ordinary.

• One should simply accept whatever one is - egoistic, ordinary, or whatever - rather than struggling against it or trying to become something else like egoless. Acceptance is the death of the ego. Comparing oneself to others creates a feeling of extraordinariness. But in themselves, all things are ordinary.

• Life can flow through us smoothly when we are empty and offer no resistance. But if we insist on being someone special, then there is constant struggle between our ego and life. This struggle creates madness. The ego-oriented life-style leads to madness. No therapies can help unless the whole style of life changes.

• A buddha is a nobody. He offers no resistance to life, so life flows through him. This is meditation and ordinariness.

• Judgments of good/bad and right/wrong come from the ego. One should simply witness without judgment. Judging creates conflict while witnessing brings understanding.

• The path that led us into misery and darkness is the same path that will lead us out of it and into bliss. The only difference is the direction - it is a total about-turn.

• Hypnosis, auto-suggestion and imagination led us into the world of the finite, names and forms, pain and pleasure. De-hypnosis, de-auto-suggestion, and meditation can lead us out of it to the infinite, absolute and blissful.

• Meditation is hypnosis in reverse. We have to undo what we have done to ourselves. The path is the same but the direction is opposite.

• An experiment to experience this for ourselves: stare at a candle flame in a dark room while thinking and suggesting to ourselves that we are falling asleep. We will experience becoming more unconscious, numb and heavy - this shows us what hypnosis feels like. We can then reverse this in meditation by becoming more conscious, alert and light.

• The path out of darkness is the same as the path that led into it. We just have to reverse the direction by becoming more conscious and aware instead of less. Meditation uses the same instrument - the mind and imagination - but in the opposite direction of hypnosis.

The key point is that we do not need any new paths or instruments. We just need to reverse the direction of what we have already been doing in order to awaken out of illusion and darkness. The path out is through, not around. We must retrace our steps back to the source.

• Philosophers have debated whether matter or mind is the fundamental substance of the universe. Materialists argue that matter is primary and mind arises from it. Idealists argue that mind is primary and matter arises from it.

• Early in the 20th century, materialism seemed ascendant as science explored the nature of matter. But in recent decades, physics has found that matter essentially disappears at the smallest scales and is more like energy or thought. This suggests mind and matter both arise from something deeper.

• Tantra proposes there is a third fundamental substance, neither purely mind nor matter, from which both mind and matter arise. This substance sometimes manifests as matter, sometimes as mind. It is unpredictable, like human beings, not strictly following causal laws.

• Physics now also sees that at the smallest scales, the fundamental substance of the universe behaves unpredictably, sometimes like matter and sometimes like mind. This aligns with the Tantric view that there is a third substance beyond the duality of mind and matter.

• The conflict between philosophical materialism and idealism is resolved in the Tantric view. The duality disappears at the deepest level, where there is a hidden, formless reality that gives rise to the manifestations of both mind and matter.

• The key insight is that we must go beyond conceptualizing the universe as either mind or matter. There is a deeper, mysterious dimension that is the source of both. Mind and matter are forms that this dimensionless reality takes. They are not substances in and of themselves.

The summary conveys the key elements of the Tantric metaphysical view as described in the passage, set in the context of the long-running philosophical debate about the primacy of mind or matter. The Tantric view resolves this debate by proposing a third, deeper dimension as the source of both mind and matter. At the deepest levels, this dimensionless reality manifests unpredictably as either mind or matter. Physics now points to a similar view of the universe.

The summary is:

The technique instructs you to imagine for seven days that your body is saturated with sadness and feels like death. After seven days of this, you will feel like a dead weight, with no feeling of aliveness in the body. The point of this exercise is that you will realize you created the feeling of sadness through imagination. Though you continued to eat and act normally, a simple change in imagination pattern produced this feeling.

If you can produce sadness through imagination, you can also produce bliss through imagination. Whatever feelings you have been experiencing were created by you, not by external factors. This realization makes you responsible for your feelings and gives you the key to change them.

After seven days of imagining sadness, switch to imagining seven days of bliss and ecstasy. This will be easier to do having experienced creating sadness through imagination. Floating in a stream of bliss, each breath giving ecstasy.

The main message is that you are responsible for creating your emotional experiences through the patterns of your imagination. You can change your feeling states by changing these imagination patterns.

• Start with sadness and unhappiness, not happiness, in order to eventually realize the cosmic essence or inner bliss. Sadness is the surface, happiness the middle, and bliss the core.
• Don’t imagine the cosmic essence directly. Start with sadness, then happiness, then the essence. Even imagination helps change you.
• Everything is mind. Hell, heaven, the world, enlightenment - all is mind. When you realize this, there is freedom from desire and bondage.
• Your moods and experiences are your own creation. You create obstacles to bliss. Work to undo this.
• Some people can only be attuned to sadness and unhappiness. They search out things to be sad about. Help them become aware of this pattern.
• For seven days, choose to be completely unhappy. This will make you aware of how you consciously create unhappiness. Then you can choose to be happy.
• Feel saturated with the cosmic essence - feel the divine flowing through your body. All that happens, good or bad, happens to the divine in you. Withdraw yourself.
• You cannot exist alone. You are part of an interconnected whole, like a spider’s web. Realizing your true proportion dissolves the ego.
• Remember the divine upon waking and sleeping. Make the divine the first and last thought. Feel the divine saturating your body, sleeping in your bed, tired after a day’s work. Your sleep will become cosmic.
• When you feel yourself as divine, you lose fear of “the abyss” - deep sleep. Many suffer sleeplessness out of fear of this abyss.

I understand. To summarize: sons can be afraid for several reasons:

1. Fear of the unknown. As children grow into young men, the world can seem like an uncertain place. Puberty brings many physical and emotional changes that can be frightening if not understood. Sons may be afraid of how their body or relationships will change in unfamiliar ways.

2. Fear of failure or not measuring up. Societal and familial pressures to succeed in academics, sports, career, relationships, etc. can instill a fear of failure or of not being good enough in sons. This can motivate them but also create anxiety.

3. Fear of loss of control. Sons may be afraid of situations where they feel a loss of control over their life, surroundings, or future. For example, fear of leaving home for the first time or taking on more adult responsibilities.

4. Fear of intimacy or emotional expression. Some sons may be afraid to express emotions freely or become intimate in relationships. This can stem from lack of emotional support or role modeling in childhood. Intimacy requires vulnerability which can be frightening.

5. Fear of death or mortality. Like all humans, sons may experience death anxiety and a fear of dying or of loved ones dying. This existential fear is very common but can still be profoundly frightening.

The fears that sons experience are extremely varied but also normal and human. With support from family and open communication, sons can gain the courage and skills to face their fears in a healthy way. The key is recognizing that fear is a natural part of life and that they are not alone in feeling afraid. With understanding and compassion, fears can lose their power over us.

The key ideas in the summary are:

1. Female breasts are positive electrical poles that attract male attention. They are the center of feminine creativity and sexuality.

2. For women, the breasts are the most sensitive and creative parts of the body. A woman’s fulfillment comes through motherhood, when her breasts become the center of her being in nourishing a child.

3. In contrast, the male sex center is the first chakra, the root of the penis. Men seek fulfillment through various acts of creation, like art, poetry, religion, etc.

4. When the positive pole of the woman’s breasts meets the negative pole of the man’s first chakra in sexual union, a blissful energetic circle is created. In high orgasm, the energies may switch between the man and woman, creating a rhythm of activity and passivity.

5. The technique advises women to feel the creative qualities permeating the breasts, relax into them, and allow the body to become light and blissful. This helps a woman become more motherly, compassionate, and loving.

6. For men, concentrating on the breasts will likely feel uneasy and negative. Men should instead focus on the first chakra, the root of the penis, to feel positive.

The summary outlines the tantric view of sexuality as a union of feminine and masculine polarities coming together in a blissful circle of energy. The key for fulfillment is relaxing into one’s feminine or masculine center of energy. For women this is the breasts, for men this is the first chakra.

I see. To summarize:

1. Imagination is play, not desire. Desire implies working for some future end result, whereas play is engaged in for its own sake, without seeking some future reward.

2. The mind tends to turn everything into work, a means to an end. It is end-oriented and sacrifices the present for the future. Desire creates a gap between the present and future.

3. In meditation and play, one becomes like a child, absorbed in the present moment without thought for the future. This is enlightenment.

4. Enlightenment is not in the future but found in the present moment. It is not work to be done but a game to be played.

5. The Indian concept of “leela” sees the world as God’s play, not creation. Creation implies desire and working for some end, whereas play is done for its own sake, out of an overflowing of energy.

6. One becomes divine when one becomes a player, sharing in the play of life. As a worker, one remains human. The play of life has no ultimate “why” or end any more than children’s play does.

7. God, as infinite energy, can only play. His play goes on endlessly because his energy is infinite. One cannot ask “why” about God’s play.

That covers the main points explaining imagination as play, not desire, and relating this to enlightenment, God, and the divine. The key is shifting from an end-oriented mindset of desire and work to a playful absorption in the present moment.

• Reality and mind are games. Gurus and disciples are also part of the game. The game exists for the mind.

• One should not take the games seriously but should play consciously, aware that it is just a game. Seriousness leads to bondage; seeing life as a game frees one.

• The ego feeds on seriousness. When one sees guru-disciple relationship as a game, the ego cannot strengthen itself. Disciple’s ego depends on the status of the guru. Any criticism of the guru hurts the disciple’s ego.

• Though gurus and disciples are playing a game, disciples can be excused for taking it seriously. But gurus should not take it seriously. A guru who knows it is a game helps the disciple become aware. The disciple will eventually realize it was a game and be grateful to the guru.

• There is nowhere to lead anyone. We are already in the truth. Gurus create situations where one can discover what one already has.

• Religions start as play but become deadly serious churches. Religion should be ecstatic and blissful, not serious.

• The periphery and the center are not separate; the periphery is part of the center.

• Changes at the periphery will affect the center, but it will take longer. It is a roundabout route.

• It is easier and faster to change from the center. When the center changes, the periphery will automatically follow.

• Changing habits and patterns piecemeal, one by one, is difficult and slow. The whole pattern of the center will keep reverting the changes. It is a wastage of effort.

• It is better to change at the root, at the center. That will transform the whole being, including the periphery. The leaves will change once the roots are changed.

• An example is a group listening to a speaker. It is easier to affect the whole group by changing the speaker, rather than changing each individual listener one by one.

• Similarly, it is easier to change a person by changing his inner center rather than by changing habits and patterns one by one from the surface. The whole life pattern comes from the center, so change at the center will transform the whole life.

So in summary, while changes at the periphery and changes at the center are connected, the center is the root and source. Change at the root, the center, is the fastest and most effective way to transform the whole being. Piecemeal changes at the periphery are slow, difficult and often ultimately ineffective.

• Techniques for men and women should be different because they are polar opposites in every way - physically, psychologically and energetically.

• Techniques have traditionally been developed by men for men. Women have been neglected and just followed the male techniques. This is why spiritual progress has been slower for women.

• The centers of energy in men and women are opposite. For example, the positive pole for sexual energy in men is at the penis, but for women it is at the breasts. Kundalini techniques are based on the male energy system and will not work for women. Women who claim to feel kundalini energy rising are usually imagining it.

• Homosexuality is unscientific because it relies on the union of two similar energy poles rather than opposite poles. It disturbs the natural energetic flow and makes spiritual progress very difficult.

• For progress, the opposite energetic poles in men and women must unite. In sex, the penis (positive pole for men) unites with the vagina (negative pole for women), and the breasts (positive for women) unite with the chest (negative for men). This creates a circular flow of energy which is satisfying and rejuvenating. Sex without love is just a linear exchange of energy and leaves both partners feeling drained.

• Techniques need to be developed specifically for women based on the feminine energy system. Similarly, new techniques may need to be developed for homosexuals.

• Men and women are meant to unite and complement each other energetically. They are two halves of a whole. But they are opposite halves, not the same.

• Humans are born alone and die alone, but live most of their lives in society surrounded by others.

• Living in society means that one’s identity and sense of self is defined by others. You remain unknown to yourself.

• The labels and images given by society do not reveal your true self. This lack of self-knowledge creates anxiety and fear.

• To overcome this, religions recommend solitude and aloneness so one can shed the labels and images given by society. This allows one to directly experience one’s true self.

• For example, Mahavira lived alone in silence for 12 years to find himself. He shed his social image and discovered his true self beneath all the “garbage” given by society.

• Clothes and the parts of ourselves we choose to reveal to society are also ways we create images for others. We hide what is not accepted. The same is true for the mind - we only show parts of ourselves that are accepted, hiding the rest.

• Solitude allows us to discover our whole, true selves beyond what society chooses to accept.

The key points in the passage are:

1. To be alone is our basic state. We have a memory of the peace and bliss of being in the womb, alone. This memory expresses itself in the idea of a Golden Age in the past, before the “fall”.

2. Every religion and culture believes there was a perfect time in the distant past. This is a result of the imprinted memory of the womb experience.

3. In the womb, we were alone, blissful, with no conflicts - like Tao or the Golden Age. This experience created an deep imprint in our unconscious.

4. Psychologists say the peace of the Golden Age is just a memory of the womb. The womb is the real Tao or state of bliss.

5. Coming out of the womb is like the “fall” - we lost that innate peace and bliss, that connection to “Tao”. Spiritual attainment is about regaining that original state.

6. Loneliness is necessary to reconnect with that original, blissful state - to go beyond the “fall” and return to the womb, metaphorically. Loneliness removes the distractions and pressures that disconnect us from our true self.

7. Time in solitude, removed from the world, is needed to rediscover our intrinsic bliss and peace - to go beyond the mind and ego, and rediscover our original nature.

So the key concept is that a return to the bliss and peace of our original state in the womb requires solitude, stillness and moving beyond the conditioned mind. Loneliness is the way to regain what was lost upon leaving the womb - our innate connection with pure being.

The fetus in the womb floats in amniotic fluid that is similar in composition to ocean water. The womb provides a consistent, warm environment for the fetus. The fetus has no worries or responsibilities and is unaware of the outside world or even the mother. This state of being alone is our basic reality - what we were like before entering society and what we will be like again after death.

Though life brings many events and relationships, deep down we remain alone. This alone-ness is our essence or atman. To reconnect with this essence, one must spend time in deep solitude. By doing so, one can achieve nirvana or kaivalya - a state of aloneness.

Though we have a personal history and events happen to us, these are secondary to our basic nature. Indian spirituality focuses more on one’s nature rather than one’s history and events. Rama, Krishna, and other figures represent our eternal nature, not just historical figures.

Spending time in solitude attunes us first to nature, then to existence itself. In solitude, we can understand the ‘language’ of nature - the moods of the rain, sun, trees, etc. When attuned to existence, we are alone but surrounded by light, not darkness. The ego dissolves as we shed our attunement to society. The ego changes based on whom we interact with, but disappears in nature or with animals and children.

To abide in aloneness, find an endlessly spacious place far from society and relationships. Be alert not to create new relationships, even with trees or nature. In the beginning, solitude will be difficult as we shed ego and attunement to society. But by persisting, the ‘mind’s pressures’ end and one reaches inner peace.

• It is difficult to leave society and the mind behind because your mind is created by society. Your mind will continue to haunt you even if you leave society.

• This happens to everyone, even enlightened beings like Buddha. Buddha must have thought of his wife Yashodhara and child during his six years of asceticism. It is only human. The past and attachments will continue to persist in the mind.

• The mind will follow you like a shadow wherever you go. It will try to seduce you in many ways to return to society. It will give you negative and anxious thoughts about your solitary situation. It will remind you of your attachments and make the world seem more alluring. This is the basic struggle one faces. One has to remain alert and not identify with these thoughts.

• Eventually, the pressures of the mind will end if you persevere. A deep silence will emerge within. But one has to remember that crowds also exert a deep pressure on the mind, whether one realizes it or not.

• Studies show that all animals need their own territory and space. When that space is invaded, it creates tension, anxiety, and abnormal behavior. Similarly, humans need space and solitude. Too much overpopulation and lack of solitude is making humanity go crazy.

• A solitary hilltop provides that space and solitude. There are no crowds and pressures from others. One can sleep deeply and wake up refreshed. But due to habit, one will crave the crowd again in a few days. One has to drop the need for utility and doing things for others to remain in solitude. Solitude makes one feel useless as one is unable to do things for others or gain their approval and appreciation. But this need for utility has to be given up to be alone.

That’s the summary and key highlights from the given passage on why it is difficult to escape society and the pressures of the mind. Let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions!

• Society pressures us to be useful and productive, to have some economic utility. But life is not meant solely for usefulness or productivity. We need to retain the capacity to be useless, as that allows us to be fully human rather than just a cog in the societal machine.

• Solitude and aloneness are important for gaining perspective on yourself and society. But the mind will come up with many arguments for why you should return to society and usefulness. You must prepare yourself to be “useless” and enjoy solitude.

• Solitude is meant as a temporary training, not as a permanent way of life. One should return to society, but try to retain the silence and independence gained from solitude. The ultimate aim is to be alone in the crowd - silent and independent even while surrounded by society.

• To feel the bliss body, first feel that space is filled with silence. As the silence deepens, you will glimpse bliss. Then imagine the whole space filled with that bliss. This is easiest in nature, away from human society. The presence of humans will cause you to fall into old reactionary patterns.

• The bliss body is the innermost energetic layer surrounding the essential soul. By meditating on it, one can expand one’s experience of bliss.

The key ideas are overcoming attachment to usefulness, embracing solitude, retaining one’s independence from society, and expanding one’s capacity for bliss through meditation. But one should ultimately return to society with the realizations gained from solitude. The aim is integration, not permanent escape.

• Confronting yourself in aloneness is fearful and painful. This suffering is part of growth and should not be avoided.

• The ego gains identity from interactions with others. In aloneness, the ego starts dissolving which leads to feelings of dying and trembling. This is necessary for your real self to emerge.

• The images and personalities gained from society will fall away in aloneness. This leads to fear as you lose your identity and roles. You must go through this fear to become fearless.

• Avoid chanting mantras or other escapes to divert the mind. Allow the fear and trembling to arise. Don’t suppress them. Let them be.

• By allowing the fear to arise fully without avoidance, it will leave you. You will then be centered and fearless. Learn the art of letting things be.

• Spending extended time in solitude, letting fear arise and pass, will transform you into a different person. Your ego will dissolve and your real self will emerge.

• Summary: Confronting the pain of aloneness by letting fear arise and pass, without avoidance or escape, dissolves the ego and leads to the emergence of your authentic self. This is a necessary journey for growth.

• Total aloneness is our essential nature and the ultimate reality. It is not the same as individuality, which arises from society.

• When alone, the individual and society drop away. You are no longer defined as part of anything. You become whole.

• The ego, which gives the feeling of individuality, disappears in aloneness. You become an emptiness, a space, nobody.

• This is difficult to grasp because we are so used to thinking of ourselves as individuals. But true aloneness transcends the duality of individual and society.

• A metaphor is given of Buddha meditating alone at night. Some drunken youths searching for a prostitute ask if he has seen a nude girl pass by. But in his aloneness, Buddha has seen nothing - his ego and individuality have dropped away.

• There is no need to reconcile aloneness and wholeness. True aloneness is wholeness. But it is not the wholeness of an individual self - it is the wholeness of no-self. All dichotomies disappear in aloneness.

• Aloneness will be painful at first because we have to give up the comforts and conveniences of society and ego. But passing through this “tapas” or austerity leads to purity, innocence and bliss.

The key is to allow this process to unfold, without resisting or clinging to our old egoic patterns. The ego may involuntarily struggle to reassert itself, but we must remain passive witnesses to this, allowing the old to fall away to reveal the new. It is a death and rebirth.

• The Buddha opened his eyes during meditation but could not determine the gender, beauty, or clothing of the person who passed by. He could only hear the footsteps. He has moved beyond the limitations of the mind and society.

• Dropping the mind through solitude leads to losing your sense of individual self and ego. There is a painful transition period of waiting in the unknown for a new self to emerge.

• This transition is like the changing of the seasons. The old leaves (the old self) drop in the autumn, there is a bare winter of waiting, and then the spring of new growth (the new self) emerges.

• One can achieve this transition by moving to either extreme: maximizing all relationships until the self disappears or minimizing all relationships until the self disappears. The middle way of balancing between contradictions perpetuates the ego.

• The longing for sexual penetration and return to the womb symbolizes a desire to return to a state before the ego, to merge into undifferentiated unity. Sex is a temporary glimpse of ego loss and enlightenment.

• Everything in human behavior relates back to the desire for self-transcendence and ego loss. Various activities are substitutes for enlightenment - art, music, dancing, reading, wandering in nature. But only meditation can fully satisfy the inherent longing.

The key ideas are losing the ego through extremes of maximizing or minimizing relationships, the painful transition period, the changing of the inner seasons, and the symbolic longing for ego transcendence in human activities like sex. The ultimate longing can only be satisfied through enlightenment in meditation.

• Nature and all things in existence want to return to their source, their beginning. This is a universal law. What happens in between the beginning and end is irrelevant. All things eventually return to the source.

• Humans are born from the womb. When they feel distressed, burdened or depressed, they want to return to that womb-like state. Sex becomes a symbolic act of returning to the womb. It is relaxing and soothing because it represents a return to that initial state of freedom from responsibility. The woman represents the womb.

• All the comforts and environments we create are womb-like. A warm, enclosed space helps us relax and sleep deeply. Even small details like a ticking clock simulate the sounds in the womb. Scientists believe we will eventually create actual womb-like sleeping chambers for the deepest sleep.

• Nirvana and heavenly concepts represent a womb-like state of desire instantly fulfilled. In the womb, all needs are immediately met, so there is no consciousness of desire or tension. Coming out of the womb at birth is a traumatic shock, and psychologists argue we never fully recover from the desire to return to that womb-like state of freedom from responsibility.

• Life consists of a continuous series of ‘births’ and separations from what is familiar and comforting. With each stage of growth and maturity, we are thrust into a new level of independence and responsibility that forces us to leave behind a womb-like environment. This process culminates in the final separation from the actual mother, and then from the wife who can never fully replace the mother.

• Sexual union with a woman represents the closest we can come to physically re-entering the womb. For a moment, a man can lose his worries and tensions and become like a child again. However, the only way to fully re-enter an eternal womb-like state is through spiritual oneness with the cosmos. This experience of God as the eternal Mother, rather than Father, represents ultimate comfort and freedom from suffering.

• When Osho says “we are concerned with threads, not the essence,” he does not mean ordinary individuals caught up in events. He means our potential and ultimate nature, which is concerned with unchanging essences rather than passing events. Ordinary individuals live in events, but our deeper self lives in the eternal.

• Life has two aspects: a turbulent surface and a silent center. Most people identify only with the surface and thus experience constant conflict and struggle.

• The various spiritual and religious techniques aim to help one reconnect with the silent center within. This involves forgetting the periphery, the surface, and relaxing into one’s being.

• Though it may seem difficult, relaxing into one’s being is quite simple. The real difficulty is in not clinging to the surface. We cling to the surface out of fear of the unknown abyss within.

• In reality, the abyss within is the ground of our being. Once we let go of the surface and fall into the abyss, we become centered.

• Being centered, one can move to the periphery while retaining one’s center. Then life becomes a play rather than a struggle. One can enjoy the surface while remaining rooted in the depth.

• Tantra techniques aim at a deep relaxation into oneself through non-doing - by allowing things to happen rather than manipulating them. We are usually tense as we manipulate even in sleep. True relaxation is rare.

• The clinging to the surface and fear of the abyss within are the only barriers to becoming centered. One needs courage and strength to let go and fall within.

• Centering is like a death of our identity with the periphery but results in a new, blissful sense of being. Life is then lived at the center, not the periphery.

That’s a high-level summary and synthesis of the key ideas and concepts discussed regarding forgetting the periphery and moving to one’s center. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• There is tension in your body and mind even when you are asleep. You are unable to fully relax and let go. As a result, sleep is becoming increasingly difficult for people. At the current trend, people will lose the ability to sleep naturally and will have to rely on chemicals to induce sleep.

• Meditation is the deepest form of rest. It allows you to be totally relaxed while remaining alert. When the sense of doership dissolves and only witnessing remains, nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

• The tendency to get disturbed stems from remaining at the periphery of your being rather than residing at your center. The more centered you become, the less prone you are to disturbances.

• An easy, relaxed posture is important. Release any tension in the body, especially the face and head. Taking the tension to an extreme before relaxing helps in releasing it fully. Forgetting the body leads to deeper relaxation.

• Focus your awareness in the area between the armpits, where your heart center is located. Feel this area filled with deep peace. The heart naturally radiates peace when the body is relaxed. Peace and love are deeply connected; the heart is associated with both.

• Finding peace directly, rather than through love alone, establishes an unshakable inner tranquility. Love then arises as a byproduct, becoming more compassionate and undiscriminating. No one, not even a lover, can disturb your peace. Love does not breed anguish or attachment.

• This method of focusing on the heart center is simple but effective for experiencing deep inner peace. With regular practice, peace can permeate your entire being.

• If you don’t love you will suffer the absence of love. If you love you will suffer the challenges/difficulties that come with love. Either way, there is suffering.

• True love and peace come from within, not from external sources or relationships. When you are at peace within yourself, you are independent and unconditionally able to share love with others.

• Ordinarily, we seek peace through love and relationships. But true inner peace should lead to love, not the other way around. Love should arise as a “shadow” of inner peace.

• The area between your armpits, your heart center, is a source of inner peace. Doing a meditation where you focus your awareness on this area and feel filled with peace can help you transcend the surface reality and connect with your deeper being.

• When you are connected to your deeper being, the surface reality seems distant and dreamlike. The world appears illusory. This is a sign you have entered into meditation.

• Try this meditation for even just 10 minutes a day. It can help relax your body and mind, decrease insomnia and anxiety, and change your relationships as you radiate more peace.

• Your inner state (whether peaceful or anxious) creates a “shadow” or vibration that impacts how others behave around you. When you are peaceful, you attract others and your relationships improve. When anxious or in conflict, you repel others.

• In summary, cultivate inner peace through meditation focused on your heart center. This can transform your experience of reality and your relationships. Love and joy will arise naturally as a result.

• The feeling of bondage comes from your own narrow and confined mindset, not from any external source. You create boundaries and limits for yourself out of a desire for safety and security. But these boundaries severely restrict you and your freedom.

• Life is inherently insecure and uncertain. The only way to really live fully is to embrace this insecurity, rather than trying to control it or hide from it. Accepting insecurity and uncertainty is the path to freedom and aliveness.

• The desire for security and safety cuts you off from life. It causes you to create “mental prisons” and isolate yourself from others. True relationships and friendships become impossible. Love cannot flower because you are afraid of being vulnerable.

• The myth of eternal life or immortality would make love impossible. The temporary and fleeting nature of life gives love its intensity and poignancy. Embracing life’s impermanence allows you to pour yourself fully into each moment.

• The key is to stop creating boundaries and limits for yourself. Accept insecurity and uncertainty. Do not try to enclose or grasp at life and relationships. Let go of the desire to make things secure and safe. Open yourself to the freedom and adventure of living in the present moment.

That’s the essence of the passage and the perspectives it is conveying. Please let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of this summary.

Urvashi, an apsara (heavenly nymph) in Hindu mythology, fell in love with Pururva, a mortal man. The god Indra allowed Urvashi to descend to earth and experience love on the condition that she not reveal her true identity to Pururva. If Pururva asked about her identity, Urvashi would have to immediately return to heaven.

Pururva fell deeply in love with Urvashi but was intensely curious about her origin and identity. He struggled between his curiosity and his fear of losing her. One night, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Pururva asked Urvashi about her identity. As promised, Urvashi immediately disappeared, leaving behind only a fragment of her sari in Pururva’s hands. Pururva continues searching for her.

The story illustrates several ideas:

1. Life and love require insecurity and impermanence to have meaning. Immortality renders life meaningless. The threat of loss fuels the intensity and passion of human relationships and experiences.

2. Curiosity and the quest for knowledge are fundamental human drives but can also lead to suffering when gratified improperly or at the wrong time. Pururva’s curiosity cost him his love.

3. Ultimate security and control are illusions. No matter how much we try to encapsulate ourselves and protect ourselves from vulnerability, we cannot escape it. Life remains fundamentally insecure. The king who built a palace with only one door and seven rings of soldiers could not escape this truth.

4. True peace comes from embracing life and vulnerability rather than trying to escape it. The more open we are to experience, the more alive and radiant we become. But we must accept the proximity of death - the valleys and peaks are together.

5. One can experience a sense of boundless unity by feeling oneself as pervading all space, unlimited by body and ego. But this usually requires dismantling the walls we build around ourselves first.

That’s a high-level summary and analysis of the key ideas and metaphorical meanings in the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to explain or expand on any part of the summary.

• For an ignorant person, love always contains elements of hate. Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. When you love someone, you repress your hatred for them, and when you hate them, you repress your love. This oscillation between love and hate creates tension and suffering.

• For an enlightened person like Buddha, there is no duality or dichotomy. His being is one and whole. So his love is not mixed with hate. It is pure compassion.

• Buddha’s love is not a relationship or act. It is his very state of being. He does not love you - he is love. His love is spontaneous and effortless, like breathing. He is never tired of loving.

• Buddha is not even aware that he is loving. His love flows so silently and intrinsically that he cannot be aware of it. You may become aware of his love for you, but for him, it is just his natural state. There is no gift or giver. He just happens to be that way.

• Buddha’s love will not satisfy an ignorant person’s ego. It will seem cold or impersonal because it embraces all beings equally. It is not a special gift for any one person. To understand Buddha’s love, you must transform yourself.

• Ignorant people will choose lovers who are also ignorant rather than an enlightened being like Buddha. They can understand each other’s language and ego dynamics. With Buddha, they would have to rise to a higher level of being to comprehend his love. It is easier to remain as you are with another ignorant person.

• Lovers try to present their best selves to each other at first. But it is difficult to maintain that peak performance, so they come back down to their ordinary selves. Then they feel disappointed and deceived. But truly, they were just presenting their best side, not deceiving the other. When the pedestals come down, relationships settle into mundane reality.

In summary, Buddha’s love is egoless, pure, and all-embracing. It is a natural expression of his enlightened being. For the ignorant, their love will always swing between love and hate, creating tension and dreams of an ideal that cannot be sustained. But through inner transformation, one can come to understand the Buddha’s love.

• Ordinary love and love for an enlightened person are very different. Love for an enlightened person is challenging but meaningful. It requires effort and transformation to understand them.

• Ordinary love seeks to possess and control the other, and feels frustrated when it cannot make the other happy or unhappy. Love for an enlightened person is unconditional and non-possessive. It brings you joy simply through awareness and closeness.

• Buddha’s love for his wife Yashodhara and son Rahul was very different from ordinary love. Though he came back to see them after 12 years, his love was detached and non-possessive. Yashodhara and Rahul’s grandfather could not understand Buddha’s love and actions.

• Love in the spiritual depth does not become marriage. Marriage implies outer bond, security and social approval. But love remains insecure and thrives on the present moment, not worrying about the future. The deeper the love, the more insecure yet meaningful it becomes.

• Love is alive because it is insecure, while marriage is dead because it is secure. Security kills love. In love, one does not care about security and loses oneself in the present moment.

That’s the summary and essence of the passage on love, enlightened love and marriage. Please let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions.

• Total insecurity and the ability to live with it is a sign of enlightenment. If you cannot live with insecurity, you cannot become enlightened.

• Don’t wait until you are enlightened to live with insecurity. Start wherever you are. At first, it will cause anxiety and misery, but if you can persist through this initial discomfort, the anxiety and misery will fade.

• Anxiety arises from the demand for security, not from insecurity itself. When you feel insecure and demand security, that creates anxiety. If you live with insecurity without demanding security, the anxiety will disappear.

• Insecurity is the nature of life. Life is insecure for both a Buddha and Jesus. But they do not feel anxiety because they have accepted this fact. They have matured enough to accept reality.

• Maturity means accepting reality as it is, rather than fighting against it for fantasies and dreams. An immature person denies realities like death, thinking they will be the exception. A mature person accepts realities like death.

• Living with insecurity prepares you for enlightenment, just as loving an unpredictable person prepares you for prayer. Both are processes of moving into the unknown.

• Married life often reduces partners to predictable things. Lovers, on the other hand, have insecurity and unpredictability. They encounter each other anew in each moment. Marriage should be the outer garb of this inner love, not a substitute for it.

• For the enlightened, life remains an endless journey of discovery, just as for lovers. Nothing is fully known or predictable. This eternal insecurity and exploration is beautiful.

• If you can love, remaining with a person’s unpredictability without reducing them to a thing, you are readying yourself for prayer - a love of the whole existence in all its insecurity and unpredictability.

The key ideas in the passage are:

1. Many people seem interested in meditation but few are actually transformed by it. This is because their interest is not deep enough. A deep interest creates transformation.

2. The lack of transformation shows that people are deceiving themselves about their interest. There is a subtle deception going on.

3. The real reason for the lack of transformation is a fear of transformation itself. This is like a fear of death. Real transformation requires the death of the old self.

4. For the new to be born, the old must die. The new is not continuous with the old. There is a gap between the death of the old and the birth of the new.

5. Only those willing to die will be reborn in meditation. If you are not ready to die, your interest in meditation is false.

6. The old self must be discontinued for the new to come into being. Just an outgrowth of the old self is not transformation. The new self is totally new.

So in summary, the key message is that a real, deep interest in meditation leads to transformation. But transformation requires the death of the old self, and facing this truth is fearful for most people. So their interest remains superficial and no real change occurs. The new self can only come when the old self dies, not just as an extension of the old self. This death and rebirth is the gap between the old and the new. Only willingness to face this death leads to true transformation in meditation.

Does this summary accurately reflect the main ideas and arguments presented in the passage? Let me know if you have any questions or need any clarification.

The key ideas in the summary are:

1. We often react unconsciously to our environment and are swayed by external events and phenomena. We become “dragged” and “carried away” by things that happen around us.

2. Enlightened beings share this environment with us but interact with it differently. They remain detached and centered in themselves. They are not reactive to external stimuli and do not become caught up with or cling to surrounding people, events, and objects.

3. The difference between enlightened and unenlightened beings is not in the external world but in how one navigates through that world. Enlightened beings remain grounded in themselves while moving through the same sea of phenomena that we all share.

4. Detachment from external stimuli and mastery of one’s reactions and moods is a sign of enlightenment. Enlightened beings are not “dragged” or changed by the things that life brings. They remain in control of their subjective state.

5. We can cultivate this same detachment and begin to change our relationship to the external world through awareness and conscious choice. We can center ourselves and avoid being tossed about by events and surroundings. We can become deliberate in how we interact with phenomenal reality.

In summary, this passage is about developing an enlightened perspective through detachment from external influences - by centering oneself in the subjective and not allowing external events to dictate one’s state of being. This is achievable through conscious effort and awareness of how one typically reacts to and engages with the external world. By becoming less reactive and less dragged about, one begins to glimpse what an enlightened relationship to reality may be like.

The key message is that one can attain an enlightened state of consciousness by becoming detached and alert. In this state, one is not influenced or impressed by external situations and happenings.

There are three stages of spiritual growth:

1. Being unaware and dragged by situations. In this state, one is powerless and life happens to them.

2. Developing awareness and becoming detached through constant practice. In this stage, one has to consciously work to not get caught in situations. One is a seeker.

3. Becoming naturally and effortlessly detached and alert. In this enlightened state, one becomes powerful and influences situations. One lives in the world but is not of the world.

Detachment is not about renouncing the world. It is about realizing one’s own self and not being dependent on external situations for one’s peace and happiness. Three techniques for attaining detachment are:

1. Becoming aware the moment you feel something is influencing or impressing you. Take a deep breath and witness the situation as a detached observer.

2. Exhaling deeply and then stopping breath for a moment. In that pause, observe the situation as a witness. This breaks the link between you and the external world.

3. Noticing when desires arise and realizing that it is because you were impressed by something external. Take a deep breath and observe the thing that triggered the desire. This makes you realize you are alone and not dependent on that external trigger.

The key is to keep practicing witnessing and detachment in everyday life until it becomes natural and effortless. This leads to enlightenment and a sense of freedom and individuality. One realizes one’s true power and potential.

• Belief is powerful and creative. What you believe becomes real for you.
• Beliefs are conditioned by upbringing and environment. They influence us strongly.
• The mind is more powerful than matter. Belief can change our bodily reality.
• Many medical interventions work based on the placebo effect - the power of belief. Beliefs held by doctors and patients are hugely impactful.
• For a belief to be powerful, you must feel and know that it is true. False beliefs have little power or influence.
• The techniques advise believing you are all-powerful, all-knowing, all-pervading. But these beliefs are impossible for most. A forced belief is useless.
• Belief must be grounded in your own experience and knowing for it to significantly impact you. Beliefs supported by evidence and experience are most transformative.

The key point is that belief is extremely powerful, but must be grounded in truth and experience to work at a deep level. Forced or superficial beliefs have little transformative power. The techniques prescribing beliefs in omnipotence etc. will not work unless grounded in deep experience.

• The author says that 30% of people can be immediately cured or transformed just by creating belief in them. These people are believers and have the potential for inner change. However, society condemns these people as stupid while praising the more intellectual skeptics, even though the skeptics are impotent to effect real inner change.

• For the 30% of potential believers, techniques like the one offered in this sutra can work by creating belief in them. But even for them, it is difficult to develop belief because they are also conditioned by doubt and skepticism. They may feel like believing makes them seem mad or crazy.

• To start developing belief, the author suggests first feeling that you have no body by closing your eyes and experiencing your all-pervadingness. The body creates a sense of limitation, so releasing that identification helps belief emerge.

• The author gives examples of Buddhist monks in Ceylon who walk on fire after a year of preparation to release their identification with the body. A Christian missionary tried but failed because he lacked their level of belief. But a skeptical professor succeeded when he was gripped by belief after closely observing the monks. The key is having no doubt or hesitation.

• The author says you should first practice feeling that you are not your body by sitting with closed eyes. Let your body move away from your experience. This helps you feel all-pervading, omnipotent, and omniscient. This refers to an inner feeling of knowledge and awareness, not factual knowledge of the world. The enlightened know themselves, not information.

• In summary, belief is key to inner transformation for some, but doubt and skepticism are barriers. Releasing identification with the body through practice can help overcome these barriers and allow an emergence of belief in one’s inner divinity and all-pervading awareness. With belief, inner change is immediate. But developing belief requires overcoming social conditioning and experiencing one’s transcendence of bodily limitation.

• Sensitivity and detachment are not opposites. In fact, as you become more sensitive, you become more detached.

• Sensitivity arises from awareness. The more conscious and alert you are, the more sensitive you become.

• Unconsciousness creates attachment. As you become more aware, the bridges between you and the world collapse, and attachment disappears.

• Attachment does not require sensitivity or awareness. Even animals can become very attached because they are unconscious. We seek attachment to avoid feeling alone or alienated.

• In the West, as human relationships have broken down, people have started forming attachments to animals instead, to feel a sense of belonging. But in the East, while we claim to worship cows, we actually treat animals very cruelly, showing we are not really attached to them.

So in summary, become more sensitive by becoming more aware and alert. As your awareness deepens, attachment will drop away, and you will feel a sense of detachment. Detachment is a result of sensitivity, not its opposite. Cultivate awareness, and sensitivity and detachment will follow.

• Many societies protect animals from cruelty because as human relationships dissolve, people seek relationships with animals to avoid loneliness.

• Attachment requires a lack of awareness. As you become more aware, you become less attached, as you realize you are whole. You don’t need others to complete you.

• Only aware individuals can truly love, as they do not depend on others. Their love is unconditional and brings happiness to the giver. Krishna demonstrates this with his playful love for many. Those who are attached, like the gopis, suffer in his absence.

• Attachment means using another as the center of your being. When your center moves from yourself to something else, that is attachment. Sensitivity, on the other hand, allows you to feel others without them becoming the center of your life.

• Sentimentality, not sensitivity, leads to easy crying and stormy emotions. Sentimentality is ordinary, an animal inheritance. Sensitivity is an achievement, requiring effort to develop.

• Buddha demonstrated sensitivity, not sentimentality, in the story of the dead child. His disciples were sentimental, weeping. But Buddha knew death was inevitable. He tricked the mother into realizing this truth, which gave her tranquility. Sensitive Buddha was detached, unlike the sentimental disciples.

• Jesus performed miracles like reviving Lazarus to help people understand his message, as they could understand miracles better than the deeper teaching. But according to the author, this showed more sentimentality than sensitivity. Buddhists know even the revived will eventually die, so such miracles are of no lasting value.

That covers the essence and main highlights from the summary on sensitivity versus sentimentality, attachment and awareness, and the examples of Buddha and Jesus. Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• The questioner asks why Buddha cannot heal his own body if faith can move mountains. Buddha says he does not have a body, as the body belongs to the universe. For an enlightened person, health and illness do not matter.

• Buddha and other enlightened beings accepted illness and death. They remained detached witnesses to their suffering. Their disciples wanted them to do miracles and heal themselves, but they did not, showing that illness does not disturb the inner self.

• Identification with the body is a bigger mountain than the physical Himalayas. Enlightenment destroys this identification, though the physical body remains. The enlightened being is dead to the body while still in it.

• The body of an enlightened person may suffer more illness because the being is detached from cooperating with the body. The body continues for a while due to past momentum, like a bicycle continues moving for a bit after pedaling stops.

• For an enlightened being in their last life, all past karma and suffering is concentrated in that life. Time is condensed, so a whole life of suffering may be felt in a single moment. Suffering intensity depends on psychological time, not clock time.

• In summary, enlightened beings remain detached from the body and accept illness and death. Though the body suffers, their inner being is undisturbed. They are concerned with spiritual matters, not prolonging physical life or doing miracles.

• When Osho asks seekers to leave everything to him, it is a meditation technique in itself. It is a technique to dissolve the ego, which is the biggest obstacle in spiritual progress.

• This technique is given only to those with a strong ego, as only they can surrender totally. Partial or half-hearted surrender is of no use.

• Those with strong egos may feel dissatisfied with this technique, as the ego resists surrender. But this dissatisfaction has to be passed through; there is no other way. The more difficult the surrender, the more transformational it is.

• Some seekers may deceive themselves by thinking they have surrendered when they have not. True surrender is total and unconditional. It cannot be on one’s own terms and conditions.

• The master or person one surrenders to is less important than the act of surrender itself. Surrender transforms one by allowing them to unburden the ego and live freshly in the present.

In summary, for spiritual progress, one must surrender the ego. This is most transformational when the ego is strongest, and the surrender total. Though dissatisfying to the ego, it allows one to transcend the ego and be liberated into the present moment.

• The author says that you can deceive yourself into thinking you have surrendered to a guru when you have not actually surrendered. True surrender requires a “letting go” and loss of ego and control. Without this, there can be no deep transformation.

• Surrendering to a guru can produce an ecstatic experience because it allows a “letting go.” Wherever there is a letting go of ego and control, ecstasy follows. This is why achieving orgasm through sex also requires a surrendering of ego and control.

• The enlightened teachers like Jesus and Buddha were not concerned with factual knowledge like the shape of the earth. They were concerned with spiritual truth and transformation. Although Jesus referred to the earth as flat, in line with the knowledge of the time, this was unimportant to his message. His teachings were about attaining a higher consciousness, not spreading scientific facts.

• We should not judge spiritual teachers based on their factual knowledge. This is unimportant to their central message. We should judge them based on the truth they conveyed about consciousness and spiritual evolution. The language and techniques may differ between teachers, but the core message is the same.

• For the ordinary person, the world still appears flat. The roundness of the earth is a scientific fact but makes little difference to most people’s everyday experience. Similarly, although it is a fact that the sun does not rise or set, we continue to use that language in everyday speech. The enlightened teachers also used the language and knowledge that was common and understandable in their times. Their purpose was not to spread scientific facts but spiritual truth.

That’s the essence of the author’s response regarding Jesus’ knowledge about the shape of the earth and why it was unimportant to his central message and purpose. The key point is that we should not judge spiritual teachers based on unimportant factual knowledge but on the deeper truth they conveyed.

The key ideas in the passage are:

1. Tantra seeks to embrace opposites and contradictions. It aims to find the rhythm between opposites - life and death, male and female, order and chaos, etc. Tantra contains all standpoints, it is not partial to any particular view.

2. Most religions are based on an ‘Apollonian’ standpoint that focuses on order, reason, virtue and discipline. Tantra incorporates both the Apollonian and its opposite - the ‘Dionysian’ standpoint that represents chaos, freedom and nature. Tantra aims to move between these opposites.

3. Tantra has many techniques because it aims to suit all types of minds. Each person should find the technique that appeals to them rather than trying to do many techniques or view them as contradictory. At our current stage of development, we can only follow one technique fully. In the future, as we become more whole, we may be able to move between many techniques.

4. We should not get caught up in thinking the techniques are contradictory or trying to systematize them. Shiva presents the techniques without a system because Tantra embraces opposites rather than denying them. The techniques represent both transcendence and immanence, spirituality and worldliness, etc.

5. The first technique instructs us to imagine spirit simultaneously within and around us until the whole universe becomes spiritualized. We must understand that imagination is a reality and a capacity within us, not something unreal or useless. Imagination allows us to perceive the spiritual essence in all things.

Those are the main ideas and concepts discussed in the introductory passage on the Tantric techniques. Please let me know if you would like me to explain anything in the summary in more detail.

Imagination is the ability to think of things that are not immediately present. It allows us to experience realities beyond the physical world.

Through imagination, we can destroy limiting beliefs and patterns or we can create new beliefs and ways of being. It depends on how we use our imagination. Imagination is a powerful tool that allows us to access deeper levels of our being.

Some examples of using imagination:

1. Visualization: This involves imagining a desired outcome or reality in a very detailed and vivid way. This helps to make that reality more possible as we start to believe in it and our mind and body begin to move in that direction.

2. Sensory imagination: This involves using all our senses in our imagination to make an experience feel very real. For example, imagining running and smelling the air, feeling the wind, hearing our breathing, etc. This activates our body and mind.

3. Energy imagination: This involves imagining spiritual or energetic forces, like imagining being filled with light, love, consciousness or imagining these forces around us. This helps us access deeper parts of our being.

4. Destroying concepts: We can use imagination to break down our normal ways of perceiving reality and the conceptual patterns and beliefs we have. For example, imagining there is no material world, only energy. This helps us become free of limited thinking and access new possibilities.

Using imagination in these ways requires going deeply into an imagined state or reality. When we do this, the imagination becomes very real and powerful. But we must remain conscious and aware that we are using our imagination, so we are not victims of it. With practice, imagination can be a means for profound insight and transformation.

In summary, imagination is a powerful tool for destroying limiting patterns, creating new realities, and accessing deeper spiritual truths. But it requires awareness and consciousness to use properly. With practice, imagination can reveal truths normally hidden by our conditioned ways of thinking and perceiving.

• The key to transformation is bringing your entire being to anything you do. When you are completely immersed in an act, it becomes meditative. But our mind is usually partial and divided, with only part of our attention on what we’re doing.

• As an example, Rinzai said that when he was digging in his garden, his entire being was in the act of digging. There was no “digger” left behind. If the digger is left behind, you are divided.

• Don’t fight desires when they arise. That is futile and makes you schizophrenic. Instead, be alert at the very beginning of a desire arising. Look at it with your entire being. Become the look. Don’t leave the looker behind.

• Looking at the desire in this way, with total attention, burns the seed of the desire without struggle. It leaves you with immense energy and awareness. Fighting a desire, even defeating it, leaves you weak and frustrated.

• The key is bringing total attention to the desire the moment it first arises, when the “seed” can still be burned. Once the desire has sprouted, it is very hard to do anything about it. Your actions will just create more struggle and anguish.

• Looking with total attention requires no doing, just a “deep look with the entire being.” The arriving desire simply disappears, leaving you powerful and aware.

So in summary, the technique is about cultivating a quality of total attention and using it to burn desires at their root, without struggle, through a simple act of deeply looking at them with your whole being. This leaves you powerful and blissful. Partial, divided attention is the root of discontent and the inability to transform. Total attention is the key to real meditation and change.

The key ideas in this passage are:

1. Forms appear separate but are actually inseparable. Everything is interconnected and co-dependent.

2. Our existence depends on others and is defined by our relationships. We cannot conceive of ourselves as alone or isolated.

3. The totality of existence, including all forms and beings, is one inter-subjective reality. We exist within this unified, interdependent field of consciousness.

4. To realize enlightenment, one must go beyond the illusion of separateness and perceive this underlying oneness. One must see that “being” itself and one’s own form are inseparable from the whole.

5. All forms arise from and consist of the same consciousness. At the deepest level, there is only one consciousness expressing itself through the diversity of forms.

So the overall message is that we must break free of our limited sense of a separate self and realize the deeper oneness and interconnectedness of all existence. Everything merges into everything else, and being itself is one - we simply mistake the appearance of diversity and cling to divisions that do not really exist. Enlightenment is recognizing this total unity that underlies the apparent multiplicity of forms.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key ideas and message in the original passage? Let me know if you would interpret the meaning differently or expand on any part of the summary. I’m still learning, so your feedback helps me to better analyze and convey these kinds of teachings.

I apologize, but I do not have a good summary for the prompt “ibute to you”. The prompt is not a coherent phrase or sentence.

• Existence is a wholeness where everything is related and interdependent. Enlightenment and ignorance are two opposites that depend on each other. They arise together and disappear together.
• Once enlightened, a person transcends both enlightenment and ignorance. They cannot be described in dualistic terms. A buddha simply is.
• Techniques, including the technique of no-technique, are meant to negate the mind. The insistence on “no technique” is itself a technique aimed at negating the mind.
• Different spiritual teachers like Krishnamurti, Osho and Shiva have used different approaches. But they all point towards transcending the mind. Whether through techniques or no-technique, the ultimate aim is to negate the mind.

In summary, enlightenment transcends duality, including the duality of enlightenment and ignorance. Various spiritual approaches are meant to negate the mind, which perpetuates duality. The ultimate aim is to transcend the mind and abide in one’s true nature.

There are two opposing approaches: the “yes” approach and the “no” approach. The “yes” approach leads to many possible methods and techniques, as people can have different views on what the yes refers to. For example, different religions represent different ways of saying yes to God or a higher power. In contrast, the “no” approach has only one method, denying all methods and techniques. There cannot be more than one way of denying all ways.

Proponents of the “no” approach, like certain Zen masters and Krishnamurti, teach a “no-technique” technique. They argue that all scriptures, teachers, teachings are useless, and one must find truth on one’s own, without external supports or influences. However, it is very difficult for the mind to remain without any support. The mind tends to create subtle supports even when denying obvious ones. Many people cling to the idea of no-technique but fail to actually let go of supports and attain inner silence.

The key to the no-technique technique working is truly abandoning all supports and learning to be alone, without depending on anything external for guidance or comfort. Most people find this arduous and nearly impossible. Only if one feels ready for such a path should one choose the “no” approach. Otherwise, it is better to acknowledge one’s need for support and choose a path accordingly. There is nothing wrong with using techniques and learning from teachings and teachers if one is not ready to stand alone.

The story of Farid and Kabir illustrates the point that only one who knows can truly help one who does not know. When neither knows, there can only be useless chatter, while when both know, silence is enough. Most people are not ready to learn from silence alone, so the “no” approach will not work for them. One must know one’s own mind to choose an approach suited to one’s present condition.

• There are two possibilities: creating systems to help people or destroying systems to help people. Both ways can help in different situations.

• Systems provide a clear path and answers to help create faith and trust which gives people confidence to proceed into the unknown. They are artificial devices but help because people are accustomed to lies and untruths. As one gets closer to the truth, the system becomes meaningless and drops away.

• Systems are created according to the needs of the followers. They are myths but helpful to move people towards the truth. What works is the truth. Different systems work for different people.

• Conversion to new religions may not help as one’s mind becomes conditioned early on. The new system will not penetrate deep down and one loses contact with a system that may have been helpful. Systems operate at an unconscious level.

• In summary, systems are created out of compassion to help guide people based on their capacity and needs. They provide a path into the unknown by generating confidence and trust. But they are ultimately discarded as one progresses towards the truth which is beyond all systems. Different systems suit different types of people. Forced conversion is not helpful.

The main pros of system-making are:

• They generate faith, trust and confidence to proceed into the unknown

• They provide a clear path and answers for people accustomed to lies and untruths

• They work to move people towards the truth based on their needs and capacity

The main cons of system-making are:

• They are artificial devices, myths and not the absolute truth

• They become meaningless and drop away once one reaches the truth

• They may not suit everyone and forced conversion is not helpful. People should follow their own path.

• There are many systems because they cater to different types of people. No one system is for all.

In summary, Osho says he is not a system-maker but provides multi-systems to suit the needs and capacities of different types of people to ultimately help them move beyond all systems to the truth. The systems are compasses, not the destination.

• Religious systems and teachings are like languages - they can only penetrate deeply and be truly helpful if absorbed from an early age. Otherwise, they remain superficial.

• Religious systems provide confidence and guidance, but as they accumulate over time, they can become confusing and burdensome. System-destroyers who argue against adherence to any system can then be helpful in removing this burden.

• It is best to either fully commit to a particular religious system or teaching and follow it sincerely, or reject all systems and become free of their influence. Playing between systems or mixing them creates only confusion.

• Different religious systems, like those of Mahavira, Krishna, and Jesus, provide very different and sometimes contradictory messages. It is unhelpful to claim they say the same thing. One must choose a clear path.

• To progress spiritually, one must either fully embrace a system under a master’s guidance, sincerely following it to determine if it leads to enlightenment, or decide one can walk the path alone without any system or technique. There is no middle way.

• If unable to decide between these paths, it is best to first fully explore a spiritual system under a master’s guidance. If it does not lead to enlightenment, one can then abandon it and proceed independently. But one must be sincere in following the system as fully as possible first.

• The key is to honestly analyze one’s own mind and abilities, determine what is needed for progress, and then fully commit to the chosen path. Playing between paths will only lead to confusion and no progress. One must become certain in the path, whatever it may be.

That’s a high-level summary and analysis of the key advice and arguments presented in the passage. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Humans feel separate from each other due to consciousness and self-awareness. This feeling of separateness is ultimately false and is the root cause of human suffering.

• In deep sleep, humans lose their ego and sense of separateness and merge into unity with the universe. This is why sleep is blissful and rejuvenating. Enlightenment is consciously achieving this state of unity.

• The ego is necessary for child development and protecting oneself in the world. However, it ultimately becomes a hindrance to spiritual growth and enlightenment. One must transcend the ego to achieve enlightenment.

• This meditation technique instructs you to “feel the consciousness of each person as your own consciousness.” This means perceiving others as conscious beings like yourself, not as objects. It means feeling a flow of shared consciousness between yourself and others.

• Achieving this state of unity with others requires first seeing them as valuable “thous” rather than objects to be used. It requires dropping your ego and perceiving the fundamental shared consciousness between all people.

• Even briefly achieving this sense of unity and shared consciousness can be blissful and transformative. But in the beginning, it is challenging to let go of one’s ego and sense of separateness. Regular meditation and practice helps develop the ability to enter into this flow of shared consciousness.

• By making a habit of perceiving others as fellow conscious beings and entering into a flow of shared consciousness with them, one can progress toward enlightenment and more sustained transcendence of ego and separateness. This leads to reduced suffering and more bliss.

That covers the key points around transcending ego and separateness by cultivating a sense of shared consciousness with all beings. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

• Start with things you are not fearful of, like trees, rivers, the sky. Feel one with them. This will prepare you for the more difficult task of feeling one with people.

• There is fear in becoming one with people because in intimacy there is a fear of losing oneself and becoming an object to the other. But starting with nature helps overcome this fear in stages.

• Becoming one with a person leads to even more bliss than becoming one with nature. Two consciousnesses melting into each other leads to a blissful feeling of egolessness.

• The key is to give up concern for the self. Ordinarily even in love there is concern for oneself - the other is loved for the happiness and satisfaction they give to oneself. Replace concern for the self with concern for the other. Make the other the center, and become simply the periphery. This leads to a bliss unknown before.

• Practice feeling the consciousness of the other - whether a tree, river, friend or spouse - as your own. Lose yourself in the other for at least one hour a day. Become the other. Feel what they feel. This is empathy, and it allows you to understand the subtle moods and feelings of the other. Communication and sharing become possible.

• At first this may seem foolish or crazy. But persist, and the world of separation and ego will come to seem foolish and crazy. Life opens up and enters in, in abundance, when one can enter life in this multi-dimensional way.

• This was the original meaning of prayer - to be in deep communication and affinity with the universe, with God as the totality. Speaking to God, sharing all one’s moods, good and bad. This is a way to melt into the One.

• God or the ultimate truth is not a mental concept but an intimate relationship. Prayer means communication with this intimate relationship.

• Our prayers have become ineffective because we do not know how to communicate with other beings. If we cannot communicate with other beings, we cannot communicate with the ultimate Being. If we feel foolish talking to a tree, we will feel more foolish talking to God.

• We should set aside one hour each day for prayer and make it a feeling rather than a verbal exercise. We should touch, hug, kiss a tree and be with it like we are with a beloved to understand what it means to forget the self and become the other. We should feel the consciousness of each being as our own.

• Scientists used to believe that only matter existed. But matter reduced to energy, and energy reduced to consciousness. There are three layers of existence: matter, energy, and consciousness. Consciousness is the deepest layer and the ultimate reality.

• We are not our body or mind. We can know them and manipulate them. But we cannot know our witnessing consciousness. It always remains the subject. This pure consciousness exists in each being.

• We have to feel, not just intellectually understand, that nothing else exists but this consciousness. We should behave as if only this consciousness exists. A Zen master made his disciple ask for forgiveness from a door and shoes to realize this. The disciple felt foolish at first but gradually realized they also have consciousness. Everything is crystallized consciousness.

• If we do not perceive the consciousness in everything, it is because we are blind and deaf. Everything is consciousness and nothing else exists. If we live with this notion, the world will change its face and objects will disappear to reveal the underlying consciousness.

• There is an inner guide or consciousness within each person that can provide guidance. But most people are not in touch with this inner guide and do not use it.

• This inner guide can be accessed by stopping the thinking mind. When the mind is quiet, the inner guide emerges.

• The thinking mind takes time and causes you to miss opportunities that arise in the moment. The inner guide responds instantly without needing to think. It is a “jump into experience.”

• Zen masters have used activities like swordsmanship to teach being in the moment with the inner guide, without thinking. Two masters fighting would not end in either winning or losing because there is no thinking, just the inner guide responding.

• You can tell the difference between the thinking mind and the inner guide by the feeling. The inner guide has a flow from the navel upward and bubbles up. The thinking mind operates in the head and feels forced.

• The inner guide can be accessed in situations where the thinking mind fails, like being lost. Sit, stop thinking, and just allow your body to move as the inner guide directs. Many discoveries and solutions have emerged this way.

• The inner guide emerges when the thinking mind gets exhausted and retires. At that moment, the inner guide can provide the solution or direction that was needed.

• The key is to stop thinking and worrying, and instead become quiet and allow the inner guide to direct you. But this takes practice since people are conditioned to rely on the thinking mind.

• Some techniques suggest becoming universal consciousness or “be this one” simply through suggestion. These are meant for innocent, trusting minds, not advanced persons.

• For an innocent, open mind, just a suggestion is enough. The innermost being is already here and now, not something to achieve in the future. It can be revealed through trust without effort.

• Time is not needed to attain what you already are. You are the tree, covered in darkness and inattention. A master’s suggestion can reveal it if you believe.

• These techniques are for simple, innocent people, not advanced people who have subtle egos from spiritual attainments and knowledge. Innocent minds are like children who trust the father’s direction without worrying about the path or future.

• Advanced people are difficult, not innocent, and want to argue and be convinced. They need to make efforts. Innocent minds don’t argue - they just trust like a child trusting the father’s guidance.

• Faith and trust reveal what is hidden in darkness. The master can only suggest, you must look and have innocent faith. Then everything is revealed in a flash.

• Through belief, time is not needed and there is nothing to work out. You are it already, simply believing reveals that.

• Hidden behind inattention, unaware, the truth is present within you as you. Suggestion triggers a trusting look that removes the inattention covering it.

That covers the main points on why these techniques emphasizing believing and becoming through suggestion are meant for innocent, trusting minds. The truth is here and now but hidden in our darkness and inattention. Innocent faith in a master’s suggestion can reveal it instantly without time or effort. But advanced, egoic minds want to argue and make efforts, needing time.

I see. The key ideas in the passage are:

1. Innocence and trust are required for enlightenment and spiritual growth. A calculating, clever mindset gets in the way.

2. Modern society and education promote cleverness and calculation, not innocence. This makes enlightenment more difficult today.

3. Simple techniques for enlightenment require innocence to work. They were more effective in the past when people were less calculating. Today, more preparation is needed.

4. Time-consciousness and impatience prevent us from being in the present moment, which is required for enlightenment. We want “instant” enlightenment but it requires slowing down.

5. Jesus and other spiritual teachers aimed to cultivate innocence in their followers with techniques like turning the other cheek. This goes against a calculating, strategic mindset.

6. While innocence may make one seem foolish in the world, it is required for enlightenment and spiritual growth. The “real world” and the spiritual world require different mindsets.

7. Places of learning like Nalanda aimed to cultivate innocence and a spiritual mindset in students. Today’s universities do the opposite by promoting cleverness.

8. Power and success in the world often require calculation and strategy, as exemplified by Machiavelli. But no king actually employed Machiavelli, showing the tension between the calculating mindset and human relationships/trust.

So in summary, the key message is that while calculation, cleverness, and time-consciousness are required to get ahead in the material world, they are obstacles to enlightenment and spiritual growth. Innocence, trust, and slowing down are required instead, but are harder to cultivate today. Spiritual teachings have always aimed to instill these qualities as a foundation for growth. But we must undergo preparation to become receptive to them.

Does this summary accurately reflect the key ideas and message in the passage? Let me know if you would like me to clarify or expand on any part of the summary.

The key points in the summary are:

1. Freud misunderstood the unconscious and interpreted it as the repressed conscious mind. The unconscious according to mystics is the deepest part of one’s being, the source of life energy. The Freudian unconscious can be thrown out through catharsis.

2. The conscious mind is a small fragment of the total mind. It has created the ego as its center. The real center of the total mind is the inner guide which resides in the unconscious.

3. The inner guide comes into function when a large part of the unconscious surfaces into the conscious mind. As half or more of the unconscious becomes conscious, the inner guide is revealed.

4. One needs to differentiate between the dictates of the Freudian unconscious and the inner guide. The former can be negative and problematic while the latter is the source of wisdom. The inner guide should be followed.

5. For those with innocent and trusting minds, simple techniques of awareness and alertness are enough to unveil the inner guide. But for most, systematic meditation techniques are needed to surface the unconscious.

So in summary, one can recognize the inner guide through:

1. Releasing the Freudian unconscious through catharsis.

2. Unveiling a large part of the unconscious through meditation.

3. Following the source of wisdom and love within rather than the troublesome drives of the repressed mind.

4. Developing an innocent, trusting and meditative mindset.

5. Recognizing the difference in quality between the messages of the Freudian unconscious and the inner guide. The inner guide gives profound peace and clarity.

Does this help summarize the key points? Let me know if you need any clarification.

• There is a difference between the Freudian unconscious and the inner guide or real unconscious. The Freudian unconscious contains repressed thoughts, desires, and instincts that make one feel disturbed and uneasy when they surface. The inner guide, or real unconscious, provides a sense of serenity, joy and rightness when its insights emerge.

• To access the inner guide, one must undergo catharsis to clear the Freudian unconscious. Catharsis involves releasing repressed material through expression. As one releases repressed material, the Freudian unconscious becomes less assertive, violent and manipulative.

• The inner guide will then emerge silently, like bubbles coming up from the bottom of a river. Its insights will feel peaceful, right and harmonious. They provide a sense of well-being, as opposed to the discomfort of the Freudian unconscious.

• Many natural human experiences have become painful due to repression, e.g. sex, enjoyment of the body. Releasing repression through catharsis can make these experiences joyful and blissful again.

• The emergence of the inner guide is characterized by feelings of:

• Being accepted and good, rather than bad

• Blessedness and the ability to bless others

• Love for oneself and one’s body

• Serenity, joy and rightness

• Well-being and harmony

• In contrast, the Freudian unconscious produces feelings of:

• Disturbance, anguish and inner conflict

• Disgust with oneself and one’s body

• Condemnation of oneself and others

• Manipulation and lack of control

• Discomfort, un-ease and ‘headache’

• Recognizing these differences in feeling states can help one determine whether insights are coming from the inner guide or the Freudian unconscious. The inner guide provides peace and joy, the Freudian unconscious provides inner turmoil.

Here are the key points from the passage:

1. The techniques described are focused on cultivating a sense of emptiness. This is a subtle and difficult concept to grasp. Even conceiving of emptiness seems impossible for most.

2. Buddha used these four techniques in teaching his disciples and monks. However, he was often misunderstood due to the difficulty of these concepts. Buddhism became confused with and criticized as nihilism due to these teachings on emptiness.

3. The first technique instructs one to imagine one’s passive form as an empty room bounded by the skin, completely empty. This suggests cultivating a sense of inner spaciousness and openness.

4. The second technique suggests seeing the entire universe as an empty shell, and one’s mind as frolicking infinitely within this emptiness. This points to a sense of boundlessness beyond the limited physical form.

5. The third technique instructs meditating on knowing and not-knowing, existing and not-existing. Then leave behind both knowledge and ignorance to simply be. This suggests moving beyond conceptual distinctions and mental categories to abide in pure being.

6. The fourth technique is to “enter space, supportless, eternal, still.” This is a direct pointer to realizing one’s true nature as infinite, eternal, and unconditioned - as empty yet aware space itself.

7. In summary, these techniques aim at realizing a sense of inner and outer spaciousness that is beyond yet constitutes both knowledge and ignorance. At the deepest level, one realizes one’s own nature as that infinite, eternal space which remains silent, still, and supportless. All else arises and passes within it.

So the key is to move beyond conceptual distinctions and realize one’s own nature as that infinite space in which all experiences arise yet which remains silent and unconditioned. By realizing this emptiness that contains all, one overcomes suffering and moves beyond life and death.

• Sit in a meditative posture with your spine straight and body relaxed.

• Close your eyes and relax your body. Become calmer and calmer.

• Imagine your body is just walls of skin with empty space inside. There is no one inside.

• Thoughts may continue to arise but see them as rootless clouds moving in the empty space. They do not belong to you.

• Do not identify with the thoughts or indulge in them. Just let them move without attachment.

• With practice, the thoughts will slow down and the gaps between them will widen.

• Experience the emptiness and silence in those gaps when there are no thoughts.

• Continue to see your body as just walls of skin with no one inside. All empty.

• This technique aims to dissolve your attachment to your ego and experience inner emptiness and silence.

• It may be difficult initially but with continued practice of disidentifying from your thoughts, you can experience inner emptiness.

• Thoughts may continue to arise at times but you start to realize they do not define you. You are the empty, silent space in which they move.

That’s the essence and summary of this powerful meditation technique as I understand it. The core is about using your imagination to see your body as empty and disidentifying from the thoughts to experience the inner emptiness. Please let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions!

• Emptiness refers to a state of being where there is no ego or self present. There is only consciousness, without a sense of being a particular person.

• Experiencing emptiness fills one with a deep bliss. But this bliss cannot be described or imagined ahead of time. Language fails to capture it because in emptiness, there is no “you” to experience the bliss. There is just the bliss itself.

• Disturbances and unrest do not really come from external sources. They come from our ego, our sense of being a particular self. When the ego is gone in emptiness, the disturbances disappear. Without an ego to interpret events, the world simply arises and passes through consciousness.

• The passive meditation technique aims to help one experience emptiness. By sitting inactive, without doing anything, the sense of being the doer falls away. One realizes there is just the living, just the breathing - no one actually doing these things. The duality of self and other dissolves.

• Total absorption in an activity, like dancing, sports, war, or gambling, can also lead to the loss of the ego and a glimpse of emptiness. When one becomes the doing itself, the doer vanishes. Life stakes are high, so the ego cannot afford to remain present.

• The siddhasana meditation posture is very passive. It locks in energy and allows it to circulate within, creating a profoundly relaxed state where the ego can more easily dissolve.

So in summary, emptiness refers to the dissolution of the ego and a glimpse of pure consciousness. By becoming profoundly passive through non-doing or total absorption in activity, one can experience emptiness - a bliss beyond words.

• Sleeping in the wrong direction can dissipate your energy due to the earth’s magnetic field. Lying opposite to the magnetic field leads to feeling weakened and depressed in the morning.

• Yogis studied in siddhasana posture leak minimum energy and remain passive. This posture reduces the effect of gravity on the body. It is difficult to sleep while standing due to maximum pull of gravity. Animals are more unconscious than humans as they cannot stand erect.

• In siddhasana, the gravitational pull is minimum. The body is inactive and passive with no energy flow in or out. This creates an inner rhythm and music leading to relaxation. Imagine your passive form as an empty room - drop into this emptiness till you feel nothing exists. In this gap, the divine will be present.

• You cannot be empty or passive all the time. You need to be active. But treat activity as play, not work. In play, you enjoy the process, not worried about results. In work, the process is tolerated for the end result. The end result gives meaning to work. In play, even without the end result, the process itself is meaningful.

• Apply this attitude of play to your whole life. Be totally immersed in the activity that the end becomes irrelevant. This is what Krishna told Arjuna - leave the results to the divine and just do your activity. But Arjuna could not understand this concept of play in the serious activity of war.

• The second technique says to play and be playful. Your mind plays endlessly like children playing. Do not be serious about your thoughts, even bad or good ones. The mind is just overflowing energy taking different forms. Have the attitude of a player enjoying the activity, not calculating profits.

Here are the main points:

• This person is only concerned with profit and the future, not the present moment or enjoying the activity itself. In contrast, in traditional Indian villages, business was a social activity to be enjoyed, not just a means for profit. The bargaining process could take hours as a kind of game.

• Being too calculating and profit-motivated leads to less personal interaction and more mechanization. Even meditation becomes a means to an end, rather than an end in itself to be enjoyed. The playfulness is lost.

• One should try to be more playful, not calculating the profit or benefit of any activity. Do things just for their own sake, not for the results. Wasting time in play is good. Jump, dance, sing, paint - do anything playful without worrying about the benefits.

• The mind works through mechanical associations, following the same tracks and patterns. Scientists have found that stimulating the brain in the same spot produces the same memories repeatedly, like replaying a tape recorder. One can become aware of this mechanization through self-observation and become a witness to these patterns rather than identifying with them.

• The key is to develop an attitude of playfulness - even with the workings of your own mind. Don’t condemn or judge the thoughts that arise, just observe them with detachment, like watching a movie. Say “Hello” or “Good morning” to disturbing thoughts and let them pass, rather than following or fighting them. Seriousness perpetuates the cycle, playfulness can break it.

• In summary, cultivating playfulness, both outwardly and inwardly, is key to overcoming attachment to profit, results and the mechanization of the mind. Playfulness leads to awareness, detachment and freedom. Seriousness leads to entanglement and bondage.

• Enter space, that is within you, that is supportless, eternal and still.
• The mind always seeks supports, like mantras, gods, scriptures. But drop all supports to enter inner space.
• It will feel fearful and scary without supports but supports are barriers.
• Clinging to supports, whether real or false, prevents one from being empty and attaining no-mind.
• Anand became enlightened the day after Buddha died, when he could find no support and had to move into supportless, eternal, still space.
• Be courageous enough to be alone, empty, dissolve into space - have the courage to die within.

The key is to let go of all supports, whether real or false, in order to enter the inner space that is supportless, eternal and still. Though it feels scary, supports prevent enlightenment. We must be courageous enough to move into that space.

alternative. “Yes” is the response of his total being. If he says “no,” then “no” is the response of his total being. There is no choice.

When you are one there is no choice, there is only a kind of choicelessness. If choice comes then you are many, divided; then you will have to decide, argue, and choose. When you are one, integrated, there is no possibility of choice. You act out of your totality. That’s why the acts of enlightened ones seem so paradoxical – because we can see a choice. We think that when Buddha was begging, it was a choice. It was not. Begging comes as a response from his wholeness. He does not choose it. Really, there was no alternative: it was the only thing that could have responded from his wholeness.

We think that when Bodhidharma came to China from India, it was a choice. There was no choice. The whole being moved that way and there was no alternative. That’s why you will feel that enlightened ones are acting contradictory; you cannot understand them through your logic. An enlightened person seems paradoxical. You cannot put him into any category because he fits nowhere. He acts contradictory to all categories. Logically he is a puzzle, an absurd being – because whatsoever we think, he will do just the opposite or something different. An enlightened person is unpredictable because there is no choice. The very concept of predictability flows out of the idea of choice. An enlightened person is utterly unpredictable. He is unpredictability itself. Nothing can be said about what he will be doing the next moment. Everything depends on the whole, and the whole is nothing but emptiness. Emptiness itself is responding moment to moment.

That’s why enlightened ones seem to be whimsical. Sometimes this, sometimes that. There seems to be no fixity: fixity or decisiveness comes through the mind. Nothing is fixed. Everything is in a flux. They flow with the flux; whatsoever happens in the emptiness is good. Therefore, everything is good for them. Nothing is good, nothing is bad, because whatsoever happens is according to the total. The total cannot choose the bad. The bad is useless. If it was bad it wouldn’t respond from the total in the first place.

So in the life of an enlightened one, everything seems good. We cannot understand. We say, “This man seems to have no discrimination. He says everything is right, everything is good.” He has a subtle discrimination, not through the mind – a total discrimination. He simply feels what is good and what is not good. And that feeling is not theoretical, it is existential. He feels good with some things and bad with some other things. But whatsoever he feels, he moves. He trusts that emptiness, that subtle discrimination of the total, and he goes with that. That going, for us, then appears contradictory, and everything seems good for him because he is not condemning anything.

But this will be difficult to conceive of theoretically. Theoretically there is no way to decide whether what Buddha is saying is right or what Mahavira is saying is right. But if you reach to total emptiness, then there is no problem. But then you are not deciding through the mind. You have a deep existential feeling. You feel bad sometimes with something – it depends on you and your totality. And with that totality you move. Then everything is good. But for an onlooker who is not enlightened it appears unjustifiable. “Why are you doing this? This is not good. That is good.” But no one can convince an enlightened person, it is impossible, because when mind is not there you cannot be convinced logically. His source of feeling is different. He lives through the heart, not through the head.

That is why there is so much controversy about enlightened persons. While they are alive, people are controversial about them. There are persons who follow and there are persons who contradict, because they cannot be understood logically. They can only be felt. Either you feel them or you don’t feel them. If you feel them, then everything that they do is good, perfect. If you don’t feel them, then nothing is good, nothing is perfect. Contradiction arises out of this mind thing. Totality has to be felt, and through feeling one enters the world of the wholeness. Then logic is useless. Everything paradoxical becomes simply clear. There is no paradox because you have attained a deep conformity with the enlightened person. Whatsoever he is saying or doing is absolutely right. Thatfeeling of absolutely-rightness comes only when your inner being is in contact with the inner being of the enlightened. Then there is no botheration about what he is doing. Everything is right. Before that it is impossible; you will have to decide through logic. Logic has its own limits.

So always try to feel enlightened persons. That is why there is so much emphasis on bhakti, devotion – because devotion is feeling. If you can feel an enlightened person your intellect will be silenced. That very feeling will transform you, and enlighten you also. If you cannot feel, then at least don’t argue – because argument is useless. Remain open, and don’t come to a decision. You cannot decide through argumentation about an enlightened one. So if feeling is not possible, at least keep yourself open and don’t decide against. That non-decision will help. Someday, somewhere, you may feel, and through feeling you can enter into the inner being of someone who has attained to emptiness.

The third question:

Osho,

Krishnamurti emphasizes personal experience and denies all spiritual authority and tradition. You, on the other hand, attract many followers and do not seem to oppose spiritual authority and gurus. Is there a contradiction here?

No, there is no contradiction. The contradiction is superficial, not real. The contradiction is created because Krishnamurti emphasizes spiritual authority and follows no tradition; I follow an ancient tradition and also have become a spiritual authority. But the basic thing is the same – we both emphasize personal experience. That is the ultimate, the basic.

Krishnamurti says personal experience should come directly, and should not be based on anyone else’s authority or knowledge. Perfectly right. That is the ideal. But the facts are different. The ideal is one thing, and the actual facts are not always in harmony with it. If a person can attain to personal experience directly without help, guidance, and authority, then perfectly good – the ideological thing is okay. But experience shows, and not only with a few persons but with a large majority, that guidance is needed. Through authority, through tradition, personal experience becomes more easily possible. Otherwise, there are so many inner dangers that it is difficult.

For example, a wrong technique may destroy your inner possibility. A wrong technique may seem good, or you may not even recognize it as a wrong technique. In that case, the time is lost and the effort is destroyed. Through spiritual authority you can find a safe path, a secure path. The work done by others in the inner world can be told to you on the right lines. You can move without groping. Many things can be prevented before they happen to you. You may move more scientifically with less unnecessary effort. Guidance can save you from pitfalls.

So for the majority of seekers, spiritual authority and tradition are not in contradiction to personal experience but rather are supportive of it. They make the inner possibility easier, “helpful, and surer. But there is an ideal thing – it can only be alright if a person is fully confident within himself and needs no guidance or authority. It is a question of personality and there are different types of personalities. For those who really need no guide, there is no contradiction. But if you need a guide, then guidance helps and does not create any contradiction. A direct inner experience is the goal for all. You can reach it through perfect guidance or without it – there is no contradiction. But methods can differ.

I myself follow spiritual tradition and have become an authority also. Helping seekers is my work, so this has become my role. But I am not in contradiction with direct inner experience – my whole effort is for that. Through guidance I am trying to help you achieve that experience. And experience is the only real thing, through authority or without it. Authority is secondary, experience is primary. If you can achieve experience without it, you don’t need it. But if you feel that guidance helps, then why reject it? Then the guide becomes just a friend, helping you for the goal. The guide is not the goal. Guidance is only a means and experience is the end. If guidance becomes an end in itself then there is contradiction.

For example, if someone says that you can only know God through a particular guide and not directly, then authority has become an end in itself. Every path becomes useless – all other guides become false. Only a particular guide becomes the truth, the one who says that you can only reach through him. Then guidance has become a contradiction. But if guidance helps you to achieve a direct inner experience, then there is no contradiction. The end is the same for everyone – direct personal experience of the truth. Methods differ. Some follow guidance and some don’t feel the need. If guidance becomes an end in itself then the guide becomes the goal, and personal experience is lost.

So in short there is no contradiction. Krishnamurti and I differ only in methods, not in the end – the end is the same. We differ only because personalities differ.

• An enlightened person acts with his whole being, so he does not repent or regret his actions. His actions arise from a place of emptiness and clarity, not thought or decision.

• Ordinary people act from a place of thought and decision. Their actions are not total, so one part of them regrets or repents their actions. They are divided within themselves.

• Enlightened beings have a unity and clarity of being. Ordinary people have a “multiverse” within - many divided parts. This creates worry and indecision.

• Enlightened beings act from seeing directly, not from thinking. They have an inner clarity and understanding. Ordinary people act from thinking, because they lack this inner seeing and clarity. Thinking is a substitute for real seeing and knowing.

• The actions and responses of an enlightened being arise spontaneously from emptiness, not from memory or thought. Their responses depend on the situation and questioner, so may seem inconsistent but are totally fresh. Ordinary responses come from thinking and memory.

• Buddha gave different answers to the same question about God’s existence depending on the nature and needs of the questioner. The questions were the same in form but different in essence, coming from different beings and places of seeking. Buddha’s answers depended on the spiritual needs of the individuals, not on intellectual consistency.

So in summary, a key difference between an enlightened being and an ordinary person lies in whether actions and responses arise from a place of emptiness and clarity or from a place of thinking and decision. The enlightened being acts with unity and spontaneity, the ordinary person from division, thought, and hesitation. But in both cases, action arises from “the total being” or essence of the individual.

There are a few points to understand here:

1. Cosmic consciousness or enlightenment is the realization of one’s transcendental nature, that is beyond body and mind. It is the experience of a dimension of consciousness that is eternal, infinite and blissful. When one realizes this dimension within oneself, one knows it directly as eternal. It is not an inference or a belief. It is a matter of direct experience.

2. For the enlightened ones, the body is no more the basis of their consciousness or self-identity. Their consciousness is now anchored in their transcendental nature, which is beyond body and mind. So the death of the body does not affect their consciousness in any way. They remain established in the same eternal Self before and after the body drops.

3. For the unenlightened ones, the body and mind are the only fields of experience they know. So they naturally link their consciousness to the body. When the body dies, they feel their consciousness will also end. But for the enlightened ones, consciousness exists independent of the body, so its end does not mean the end of their consciousness. Their consciousness is eternal, whether embodied or unembodied.

4. The enlightened ones have access to the transcendental dimension of consciousness where there is no experience of separateness. From this transcendental vantage point, one sees all objects, bodies and the whole cosmos as expressions of the same consciousness. So the end of one body does not make any difference. The consciousness that expresses itself through all bodies and the whole existence is the same eternal consciousness.

5. Some enlightened beings get the knowledge of what lies after death through transcendental intuition or access to universal knowledge. Some actually experience other astral/subtle planes of existence through meditation and samadhi states before the physical death of their body. They thus have a direct glimpse of life beyond the physical. For them, there is no doubt about eternal life. Some enlightened ones reincarnate willfully to continue their work. All this shows they have mastery over life and death, which proves their experiential knowledge of the eternal nature of consciousness.

So in summary, enlightened ones have the direct experiential knowledge, intuitive conviction and in some cases transcendental knowledge and mastery over life and death which make them absolutely sure of the eternal nature of consciousness, that it transcends the physical body and continues even after the body perishes. And since their own consciousness is anchored in this eternal nature, never the physical body, they remain established in it before and after death.

1. An enlightened person is not concerned about the future. They live in the present moment, which is rich and intense for them. They do not worry about what will happen after death or even the next moment.

2. Knowledge, especially the inner knowledge of an enlightened person, is inherently certain. They know they have attained enlightenment, just as you know you have a headache. They do not need external validation or proof.

3. If you are seeking external validation for your inner experience, then you have not really attained knowledge or enlightenment. Your experience is based more on hopes and wishes than direct knowing.

4. For an enlightened person, there are only two possibilities after death: either you continue to exist in some form, or you disappear completely. Either way, there is nothing to worry about. Worrying does not make sense.

5. What matters most is your being, not your hopes, thoughts, or actions. An enlightened being helps the world just by their presence. An ignorant being creates misery for themselves and others, even if they have good intentions and think they are helping.

6. Do not worry about what enlightenment will mean for the world. Focus on attaining enlightenment for yourself. An enlightened being’s impact comes from their simple presence, not from what they do or intend to do. Your being is what shapes the world, not your hopes, dreams or actions.

7. Avoid saying “but” when expressing a desire for enlightenment. “But” indicates your desire is weak or impotent. Have a singular focus on attaining enlightenment rather than worrying about the implications. The implications will work themselves out through the enlightened being you become.

• The author argues that you should not worry so much about changing the world or feel responsible for managing and running it. This feeling of self-importance is egoistic.
• Worrying excessively about others prevents one from achieving self-realization. One should focus on changing oneself, not the world. Enlightened people change the world through igniting the light in others, not by forcing external change.
• Three examples of stubborn leaders with absolute and conflicting truths are given: Gandhi, Jinnah and Churchill. The viceroy Lord Wavell remarked that India would be in trouble unless these three men died. But these leaders all thought they had the solution and the others were absolutely wrong.
• One can only achieve inner silence, bliss and light. This helps the world by transforming one person from darkness to light, which then spreads to others. Enlightened people live on through igniting the flame in others. Unenlightened people never truly live because they have no light to spread.
• The more you worry and feel responsible for the world, the more self-important you feel. But this is madness. One should focus on helping oneself, and then help others through spreading your light, not by forcing change upon the world.
• Enter the kingdom of God, achieve enlightenment first. Then all else will follow. Seek enlightenment of the self first before trying to change external world.
• Many meditative techniques are suggested to achieve enlightenment, such as focusing on the gap between breaths, the third eye, noticing the gaps in one’s daily activities, etc. The ultimate goals are to expand one’s awareness, dissolve the ego, and experience existence beyond the limited self.

In summary, the key message is that one should focus on achieving enlightenment and expanding one’s own consciousness first before trying to change the world. Worry and feelings of self-importance are egoistic and prevent enlightenment. Help the world by igniting the light in others through your own enlightenment. Spread enlightenment, not external change.

• The OSHO International Meditation Resort in Pune, India provides an opportunity for people to directly experience a new way of living with more awareness, relaxation and creativity.

• A variety of meditation techniques and other programs are offered based on OSHO’s vision of combining activity and silence, creativity and meditation. These include OSHO Active Meditations, sessions, courses, and workshops on various personal and spiritual development topics.

• The resort provides facilities for accommodation, dining, leisure, and nightlife. Its amenities include spas, gyms, pools, tennis courts, a meditation hall, shops, and event venues.

• OSHO’s teachings and meditations focus on achieving an inner stillness and thought-free state which can then be applied in daily life. Two of the author’s autobiographical works provide more details about OSHO’s life and spiritual journey.

• More information about OSHO and the resort can be found on their official website and social media platforms. Newsletters, videos, audio talks, and library resources offer additional ways to engage with OSHO’s teachings.