Beyond Meditation

We use meditation to heal the disease of ignorance. When its function as remedy has been fulfilled, both the disease and the remedy should be forgotten. To 'practice' meditation past the point of our recovery from ignorance defeats its entire purpose - to be.

One should not become addicted to the practice of meditation, forever dependent on it as a means to reach further expansions. Unless we go beyond meditation and become one with the inner realm, there will always be a split between the act of meditation and our abidance in the now. Only through the power of surrender to the now can we transcend the dichotomy of doing and being, and rise above the view of meditation as existing apart from reality as it is.

In the collective mind, the practice of meditation is an expression of earthly consciousness bound by the principle of ignorance. Although meditation points directly to the heart of the now, the practice of meditation beclouds the perfection of being. The very need for exertion that practice implies re-confirms our split from the whole. For our completion, we need to arrive at the point in our evolution where all effort can be dropped and absorbed by reality. To go beyond meditation is to dissolve practice in the extolled realization of the natural state.

Beyond Practice

Although meditation is the means and the goal, meditation as a 'practice' represents only the means. Correct practice does carry the seed of the essence, but the full realization of the essence eliminates any need for practice. Hence, dropping practice is a natural result of completing the inner path.

There are two extreme views regarding the subject of practice. One claims that there is no need for practice at all, as one can reach self-realization directly. The other, that not only is practice necessary, but that there can be no end to it, for even after enlightenment one still needs to meditate in order to perfect the inner state. Neither of these views reflects the whole truth. It may be true that one can experience awakening without meditation, but one can never arrive at complete self-realization in this way. As for the belief in the need for never-ending cultivation, it is a false conviction based on confusion over the difference between partial awakening and complete realization. Partial awakening does indeed demand the continuation of practice for the sake of the stabilization, deepening and integrating of the states to which one has awakened. Complete enlightenment, however, by definition, eliminates the need for any kind of additional practice. The state beyond practice does exist, and represents the essence of freedom.

In some cases, the decision to drop practice reflects one's inner potential and the desire of the soul; in others, resistance from the mind. Unfortunately, meditators generally lack sufficient knowledge of the inner realm to sense the difference. They either give up their practice prematurely or insist on continuing with it when it is no longer relevant: For instance, one should not stop cultivating self-remembrance prior to stabilization of awareness, or insist on practice with being when the absolute state is already established and integrated. Prior to reaching complete enlightenment, the decision to drop the specific practice should be made based on a clear view of our potential and the expansiveness of our spiritual aspirations. As we progress, we pass through many different levels of the relative states beyond practice. At these signposts of inner expansion, we can simply relax, enjoying what we have attained. As time goes by, however, we consciously dive into the adventure of the inner work, responding to the call for further evolution once again. A true seeker never gives up the work of evolution before becoming unconditionally free. This is when he is truly beyond practice.

Sudden and Gradual Enlightenment

As long as the science of enlightenment has existed, there has been disagreement between different traditions as to whether self-realization is the outcome of a sudden awakening or a gradual process. There is no confusion, though, if we are able to see this issue from a higher perspective. Awakening is always sudden, for it is a breakthrough in our experience of reality. Complete enlightenment, however, cannot happen suddenly - the chasm between ignorance and self-realization is simply too wide to cross in a single instant. A gigantic leap of this sort would defy the laws of nature, consciousness and energy.

We need to understand that enlightenment is not a mere shift in perception and consciousness. It is an existential metamorphosis on all levels that radically transforms the frequency of our energy system and the delicate balance of various elements in our brain and subtle bodies. A sudden and complete enlightenment that bypassed all intermediate stages undoubtedly would result in a mental and emotional breakdown, or even physical death. Such a radical transfiguration as enlightenment requires adequate time for the body and mind to adjust to the dramatic change in our energy and sense of identity.

The generally accepted models of sudden and gradual enlightenment are based on the false assumption that ignorance and enlightenment are strict opposites, having no intermediate reality. However, the matter is much more complex and fluid, for there are many transitional stages between forgetfulness and awakening; one can be more or less ignorant, just as one can be more or less awakened. Awakening is sudden by nature, but rarely instantaneously complete. A post-awakening period of cultivation of the state that has been awakened is almost always necessary for the sake of its stabilization and integration. Only when a particular awakening has matured into relative completion can one then initiate the process that leads to the subsequent awakening. In this way, one journeys step-by-step towards becoming increasingly more whole and complete. The concept of gradual enlightenment is valid, provided we accept that it is a gradual process composed of sudden awakenings. It is gradual in the sense that one's inner state progressively expands as one awakening follows another, in tandem with the cultivation of the inner state as a whole.

Cultivation involves both the polishing and perfecting of an already awakened state, and preparation for the awakening that will follow. Though necessary to assure the ensuing awakening, cultivation is never its direct cause. The correlation between cultivation and awakening is in fact extremely subtle: awakening is never the direct result of our effort, yet without our effort, no awakening can take place. Through the practice of cultivation, we prepare our existence for the influence of the higher intelligence that alone can shift our consciousness to an increasingly elevated state of light.

Awakening, in its essence, is always based on grace. Grace does not denote anything supernatural or magical in the simplistic sense of these terms. It is intrinsic to the natural evolution of the soul and the realization of her destiny, an immanent characteristic of her blueprint, re-awakening each aspect of her eternal identity when the time is right. It springs from within the soul herself. However, in the dimension of forgetfulness, we need also a higher transformative power that is transcendent to the soul, in the sense that it descends from the beyond. This type of grace represents the eternal support emanating from the over-soul and the divine, and the timing of its appearance reflects the soul's karma, maturity and destiny.

In the earthly dimension, it is most often a human guide who initiates the inner awakening of a seeker. This initiation takes the form of an energetic transmission of the states beyond the mind, and requires the medium of a self-realized being who embodies the awakened reality. To make himself ready and as receptive as possible, the seeker has to prepare for the initiation through practice. He must bring his energy and consciousness as close as possible to the verge of the state that is to be awakened so that he can be reached by the transmission. A transmission of this type is not the simple transfer of a state. It is the planting of a seed of higher consciousness that in order to result in complete awakening must be nurtured through its cultivation into maturity. Whether awakening happens spontaneously or is initiated by grace, the principle of sudden awakening and gradual cultivation applies.

The Natural State

The natural state of meditation is the true goal of all meditators. Beyond the polarities of inner and outer, activity and non-activity, thinking and non-thinking, doing and being, the natural state is an unaffected, unconditional immersion in reality. Through the realization of this state, we move completely into the dimension of pure subjectivity, the domain of the self. We continue to exist in the world, but are no longer of the world; our essence is rooted in the beyond. By the power of our expansion into the realm of pure being, we return to our original state while still maintaining a life on earth. This secret domain of immaculate peace is the abiding place of all beings on this planet, and in other dimensions, who have yielded their existence to the eternal light of I am.

Non-being

Non-being is the deepest experience of meditation. It is not the opposite of being, but rather signifies the absence of the checker within the state of pure being. That which we perceive as 'being' in fact exists only in reference to an experiencer. In the absence of a knower, there is no one to relate to being as something to dwell upon, no one to be. When the knower merges with being, he is no longer external to where he abides; he disappears in existence.

Non-being is the state in which the division between the inner state and the observer is dissolved into one reality. It is an experience without an experiencer, knowing without a knower - freedom without anyone being free. This supreme experience-non-experience of reality can be revealed only to no one. In the absence of oneself, the universal self is all-that-is.

The State of Bliss

It is a common error to cling to superficially blissful experiences in meditation. Most so-called meditative experiences are extraneous to our real nature; they come and go and possess no existential value. Lacking true depth, the mind becomes dependent on stimulating experiences and strives desperately to repeat them again. However, because these experiences exist outside of I am and are not anchored in the essence of pure subjectivity, the experiencer is separated from the experienced. The illusive bliss that a beginner sporadically accesses is accidental in nature, and can never become permanent. These experiences of false bliss or semi-meditative states are still confined to the mind. A meditator must guard himself against the addiction to blissful experiences for they can easily divert his attention from the real work of diving into the trans-experiential dimension of being.

There is an unspoken law of meditation that before one can enter the state of real bliss one has to pass the gate of neutrality, absorbing and integrating the essence of unqualified emptiness: disidentification from experiencing, non-evaluation of experiences, non-doing of being, non-dwelling upon phenomena and non-abidance upon the beyond. To enter reality, a meditator has to establish himself in a state beyond pleasant and unpleasant, blissful or boring. He has to become unconcerned with his experiencing to truly become one with the experience. He has to disappear in the experience. Only then is he permitted to become immersed in the impersonal bliss of existence.

A neutral taste experienced in meditation shows that one abides in reality, for one has moved beyond the mind, yet it also indicates that the experiencer is still separated from the space of his abidance. Neutrality can be said to be the closest experience to reality for a separate experiencer; beyond it the experiencer is no more. The moment the gap between the experiencer and the inner realm is bridged by his immersion, the true nature of reality divulges itself as pure bliss. It is not the kind of bliss that one can relate to, or get used to and become bored, for it is experienced not through our presence but our absence. In the absence of a meditator, the hidden depth of meditation opens as the homogeneous consciousness of divine absorption. Once we have crossed over the neutral dimension of meditation, we begin to disappear into reality and merge with the supreme bliss of the self. The bliss of meditation is innate to the divine realm of the source - it is uncaused, unoriginated, unbecome - it is. To taste through the consciousness of the soul the timeless bliss of being is to merge with the unborn heart of the beloved.

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