clear
    The notion of Godman, or woman as understood in India; a form of bhakti-yoga (devotional) is difficult to comprehend by the western mind. After fourty years of practicing yoga and studying the sacred writings as well the studies of higher states of consciousness by psychiatrist and transpersonal** psychologist; some argue the legitimacy of experiences during Sant Mat meditation, or any religious altered states and argue about the notion of godman, or Perfect Living Master.

    I didn't find an alternative to meditation and a better technique than Surat Shabd Yoga to be mindful, aware and have an elevated sense of ethics and refinement of character. I know from experience that Sant Mat Meditation which is to focus attention on the inner Light at the third-eye and to the inner Sound from above: when we attache our attention to this transcending power we can easily attune ourselves to it; as it is a natural method. The Sant Mat doctrine needs updating to be fully appreciated and practiced by modern societies, but since it is a natural, primal and easy technique of meditation I've full faith in the prevailing of the Surat Shabd Yoga and hope it will be taught widely as a tool to elevate consciousness gain right understanding and inner peace. I value my initiation into the inner Sound and Light the most among all the teachings I received during my lifetme and feel gratitude toward Sant Thakar Singh for initiating me to the inner realms, today my guru is the Sound and Light current itself.

    Every organisation, or movement is stamped with the personage of its leader. I value Sant Thakar Singh's efforts of continuing the upkeep of Ashrams (Manav Kendra), where He takes in the poor and gives initiation to the Light without any discrimination. This tradition started by His Master the great thinker Sant Kirpal Singh. Sant Kirpal . Sant Thakar's organisation Man Know Thyself as Soul Foundation sums up His belief, that first and outmost we should strive to know ourselves as soul, which is One with all and in all. He states that the fastest, most natural and easiest way to selfknowledge selfrealisation-godrealisation-enlightement is the Meditation with the help of Inner-Light/Sound.

"God is love and Love is god" Gospel of Love by
clearpixelSant Thakar

Awareness: the Unity of spiritual Path

For me ALL the path are similar and Swami Sivananda summed up the way to God-realization (enlightenment etc):
1. constant remembrance of God,
2. cultivating virtues
3. spiritualizing your activities.

*SANT MAT:
1.Nonviolence
2.Truthfulness
3.Selfcontrol
4.Humility
5.Being  Content
  
Nonviolence: in word; means no back-biting, in action: not to harm oneself with a harmful lifestyle and no killing; thus observing the vegetarian diet. Truthfulness: to oneself and to others This includes no lying, no illegal gain and honesty in business, cleanliness in thought action and speech. livelihood.
Avoid: Anger Lying Egotism Envy Vanity and  Lust

*BUDDHISM:
1.Right Understanding
2.Right thoughts
3.Right Speech
4 Right Action
5 Right Livelihood
6 Right Effort
7.Right Mindfulness
8.Right Concentration (Samadhi)


*DZOGCHEN: Five Celestial Buddhas.
Each of the other four presides
over one of the cardinal
points of the compass: Akshobhya, Amoghasiddhi,, Amitabha, and Ratnasambhava.Vairochana serves as the central deity. Each of these Buddhas is also associated with one of the five afflictions
of the human personality:
1.confusion
2.pride
3.envy
3.hatred
4.and desire


*YOGA:
1.YAMA: attitudes toward our enviroment
2.NIYAMA: attitudes towards selves
3.ASANA: practice of body exercises
4.PRANAYAMA: breathing exercises
5.PRATYAHARA: restraint of senses
6.DHARANA: right understanding
7. DHYANA: attention, meditation
8.SAMADHI: complete intergration

*ADVAITA:
(recommends the same as Swami) There are two Nirvikalpas:
the internal:
the mind completely merges in the inmost Being and is aware of nothing else the external: the mind is absorbed in the Self, the sense of world still prevails without a reaction from within.
When the external and the internal Nirvikalpa are realised as identical, the ultimate goal, Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi is been reached.
The mind obscures the innate awareness (or intrinsic awareness)


The Path of Sri Ramana: Self-inquiry that is more like Self-attention or awareness watching awareness being awareness. "The only true and full awareness is awareness of awareness. Till awareness is awareness of itself, it knows no peace at all." "Is it not because you are yourself awareness that you now perceive this universe? If you observe awareness steadily, this awareness itself as Guru (or in Dzogchen, primordial nature of mind, intrinsic intelligence) will reveal Truth."
"If one were to distinguish between Self-inquiry and Self-abidance, then it might be more accurate to call the awareness watching awareness approach Self-abidance. If the instructions given by Ramana Maharshi to be the Self or to abide as the Self have not been clear as to how? This instruction of awareness watching a wareness while ignoring thought provides easy instructions as to how. Just your present awareness watching itself. There are other ways that this can be described: "Know the knower" "watch the watcher" etc. However, the clearest instruction to follow is:

Your awareness watching your awareness while ignoring thought. Automatically the "your" (and me and mine) will drop off and it will be obvious that awareness watching awareness is really awareness abiding in or being awareness.
The reason to start with the instruction "Your present awareness watching your present awareness" is so that it is clear that one is not referring to some far off awareness called the Self (or God, Buddha, external Guru etc.). It is just your awareness now looking through your eyes turned around to watch itslf.Awareness watching awareness, consciousness watching consciousness. Initially awareness recognizes itself. And then this is the "View" that is cultivated and maintained -all ya gotta do is maintain the View-. When there is a lapse in awareness from mind contact with any object then mind is in a "Bardo". This is temporary and after awhile easily recognized. When awareness becomes very strong and continuous, then attachment to objects or mind is less


...Awareness, the actual nature of mind is just more interesting as an "object" that which is totally open to the "words", anything read, seen, touched, heard, felt etc. "self-liberates" in recognition of this as expression of awareness. Thus there is nothing dual, separate or other than awareness.
Now from: Longchenpa: (Dzogchen) "Look nakedly at whatever appears at the moment it appears. By relaxing in that state, awareness- in which there is no grasping at appearances as something arises nondualistically, intrinsically freed."
"Know the state of pure and total presence (awareness) to be a vast expanse without center or border. It is everywhere the same, without acceptance and rejection. Blend the nature of mind and it's habit patterns into nonduality. Because entities, whether subjectively conceived or directly experienced, Are present as ornaments as one's own state of being,(magical display) Do not accept or reject them. Because they are not divided into self and other, The apparitional, spontaneously present objects are a play of pure experience." Regarding the passions (the world, phenomena etc.) Longchenpa says: "So then not eliminating passions, as do those who are content with preaching, or being independent, or refining away passions, as do bodhisattvas, nor transforming them as tantrics do; these judgmentally- -conditioned passions are pure and transparent in their own place. This is called the spontaneously perfect, universally creative, self-generating, majestic state of pure presence. In here lies the distinguishing superiority of this approach over all others. By means of this sheer presence, whatever passions arise are freed as facets of pristine awareness."
Surya Das: Dzogchen basically deals with the innate intelligence or intrinsic awareness which all beings possess.
It means seeing non-dualistically rather than in the usual dualistic object-subject dichotomy. By definition, delusion is dualistic, while non-duality is ultimate wisdom.

It is said that in Dzogchen "the view" is of ultimate importance.
Surya Das: .. the view comes first, and is crucial. The view is the outlook that everything is primordially pure and perfect just as it is...
--- you've recognized it yourself. You've seen the sun break through the clouds, for a moment at least. The clouds might obscure the sun again, just as the mind obscures the innate awareness, but the important point is that we have recognized the ultimate nature with certainty; we have actually come to see how things are.
"Remember we are all Buddhas."

"You are all Buddhas There is nothing you need to achieve. Just open your eyes."
Siddhartha Gautama Buddha


**   Example of the argument raised against the validity of inner experiences from the page the Eckcult by Prof. David Lane: "..it is theoretically conceivable that an earnest devotee may have an authentic experience of a fabricated mystic in higher planes of consciousness beyond the waking state. [3] However, it is important to remember that the authenticity of such an encounter has nothing to do with the image-content as such. Rather, it is the structure of consciousness itself which gives numinous power to the experience. Whether or not a guru is a literary invention or a historical personage matters very little in terms of authenticity. (It does have an important role, though, in determining the ultimate legitimacy of the encounter.) [4] Near-Death experiences, which are replete with culturally bound visions, indicates that the content of one's experiences may be unconscious projections (Christians see Jesus, not Buddha; Sikhs see Guru Nanak, not Mohammed; and so on), whereas the context or field of such transpersonal interplay is superconscious and not due to cultural restrictions."

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