Author: Veritas Administration

[Q]: “Where does emotion fit in spiritual growth or spiritual values? It seems that every time it’s spoken of, they’re not serving the spiritual life well.”

We see on the Scale of Consciousness that the emotion depends on the level of integrity and that emotion itself is not necessarily detrimental. We were talking about negative emotions which calibrate below 200: hatred, anger, self-pity, guilt, remorse. But as you get over 200, now emotion becomes a positive asset. The commitment to integrity is a certain emotionality. It’s not emotionality the way most people think of it, but it’s a certain space of commitment. You can do it when you clean up the kitchen in the morning. You can commit to “getting this place absolutely clean the way I want it.” Eventually you see as the emotion goes up, it calibrates higher and higher. Probably the most important emotion…in spiritual work is that of love, but beyond that, devotion.

What makes any spiritual understanding comprehensible, and work, is one’s devotion to the truth. So, the pathway of heart and pathway of mind are one and the same. They end up one and the same. Because the pathway of Advaita, let’s say, Advaita, pathway of No-mind, the pathway of Zen, is really based on a profound and intense dedication. One-pointedness of mind is the expression of an intense dedication, a love that is not in the world of ordinary emotionality.

The love, the devotion to achieve one-pointedness of mind, is extreme and intense. To leave everything in the world, fixate only on that which is straight ahead of you, with no deviance, takes an intense dedication, and that is devotion.

New! Beyond Illusion: Exploring Perception, Ego, and Meditation on the Path to Truth, pg. 130-131

This book contains the transcriptions from the May and June 2002 lectures.

Just know that you are the field out of which arises the content of the field, because how do you know there’s anything in the field? You can only know by knowing it. That which has the capacity of knowingness has the capacity for recognition, see. You see, it goes back then to that’s what meditation is. So, contemplation, then, is walking about in the world in a meditative state in which one’s focus is on the source out of which the entire phenomena is arising. Outside of time, outside of conceptualization, outside of worryingness, outside of giving it names. There’s awareness of awareness, but there’s no awareness of an “I” being aware. That’s a mentation that you add on top of it.

from the June 2002 lecture, disk 2, point 00:30:00

and also:

New! Beyond Illusion: Exploring Perception, Ego, and Meditation on the Path to Truth, pg. 122

Publishing date is April 29th! You can pre-order today!

So, one way of understanding our own ego is to see how it functions in society. Society is the big model out there. One reason people love movies is you can sit in the safety of your home, and without getting personally involved, watch the vagaries of the ego as it works itself—it’s easy to see “out there.” So, if we understand something about the functions of the ego, its mechanisms, and its structure, and we observe its functioning in the world, it’s an easy step then to see that it’s probably going on within myself. If it’s not going on within myself, I wouldn’t find the world interesting. If it’s not going on within myself, I wouldn’t recognize it in a movie. So we can say then that the world out there is a projection of what is within us; and studying the world then gives us an indirect; it’s easier to accept; it’s easier to see out there.

Then, the serious student says, “And how is that going on within myself?” “And how is that happening within myself?”

New! Beyond Illusion: Exploring Perception, Ego, and Meditation on the Path to Truth, Ch. 1, pg. 3

This book will be released on April 29th.

When our inner feelings are of peacefulness, serenity, tranquility, stillness, openness, and simplicity, the effect on other persons is to increase their awareness along with our own, and to give them a greater sense of freedom, perfection, unity, and at-oneness with ourselves. In their relationship with us, they will feel joined; they will identify with us; they will understand at a deep level; and they will feel in communion with us. As a consequence, they will seek our presence, because in it they feel complete, recognized, and contented. They will experience an increased awareness of their own real Self. They will feel higher in our presence or when they think of us. Their response back to us will be that of love and gratitude for the blessing of our presence. In such a relationship, goals are automatically and effortlessly accomplished. Because we are not holding negativity, there is nothing we wish to hide from the other person, and this openness allows the other person to drop all defenses. Nothing is hidden out of guilt or fear, and there is a very conscious psychic connectedness.

Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender: Ch. 18, pg. 248

Spiritual commitment simply means to recontextualize  the goal and meaning of one’s life.  This needs to be done totally, all inclusively, so that life does not become segmented into spiritual work versus ordinary life.  All life now becomes spiritual practice because context becomes the priority that encompasses every act, thought, or moment.  This poised point of view already results in a degree of nonattachment.

From this viewpoint, the emphasis in practice is to observe all the content of evolving life without making  any comment, criticism, or judgment.  The prevailing attitude can be stated as “That is how it seems to be.” The observer/witness becomes detached from commentary about life and is then capable of transcending opinionation, likes, dislikes, aversions, attractions, arguments, or objections.

Life unfolds of its own and does not need commentary.  The habit of editorializing about what is witnessed needs to be voluntarily surrendered to God.

I: Reality and Subjectivity: Ch. 17, pgs. 299-300, 2003 Veritas Publishing