Form vs. Formlessness
In Hinduism, the conflict of worshipping the form and the formless is inevitable for the “sadhaka”, especially, at the initial stages of the spiritual journey. Different schools of Hinduism have talked about the “Saguna” and “Nirguna” Brahman and their respective advantages.
But it is important to conceive that the goal of spirituality is to deep dive into the ocean of unknown. It is pointless to stick to the theories and philosophical interpretations created by the humans. They are important to some extent for our rational minds but there is something beyond all these piles of theories called the ultimate consciousness or the Brahman. The Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, and Tantra shastras affirm this ideology.
In Medicine, we often see Doctors using two parallel approaches or drugs to cure the same disease. None are bad by itself, but their combination is better. Similarly, in Hinduism, we see this eternal advantage of combining the form and the formless at our own preference.
Over years, I have met individuals with specific inclination towards the form and the formless or both. The popularity of non-dualists (e.g., Advaita Vedantists) has led to new avenues towards the understanding of the formlessness without vehemently denying the forms. For instance, siddhas like Ramakrishna Paramhamsa have described the importance of both methods of worship. But then again, what is the correct approach and what leads to enlightenment?
The human brain is designed to focus on a form more easily than the formless. The complete realization of self is very challenging for the masses and depends on our past samskaras. But meditating on the form continuously often leads to the formlessness. The experience depends on how fast we get rid of our “sense of I” and start surrendering as described again and again by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
Talking about form and formless reminds me of a beautiful exploration of Sri Aurobindo. Once he visited Karnali near Chandod, on the banks of Narmada, towards the end of his Baroda phase. Sri Aurobindo mentioned later that how his Europeanized mindset was not ready to embrace image worship. But again, how his visit to the Mahakali Temple expanded his consciousness and altered his perception. In his own words, after seeing the image of Mahakali he mentioned that “I believed in the presence of God.”
Before I conclude, I would like to mention some of the lines penned down by Sri Aurobindo after his experience at Karnali into one of his sonnets, “The Stone Goddess”:
"… Now veiled with mind she dwells and speaks no word,
Voiceless, inscrutable, omniscient,
Hiding until our soul has seen, has heard
The secret of her strange embodiment,
One in the worshipper and the immobile shape,
A beauty and mystery flesh or stone can drape."
- Abhishek Ghosh, PhD (Canada)
(Don salmon here). Beautiful reflections. My teacher’s teacher (Swami Ramananda of Rishikesh) spontaneously opened to Mother’s Force in the mid 1930s, but his conscious mind had no idea what was happening. For a year, he received what was essentially the entirety of Their teaching, and it was only toward the end of the year he discovered Bases of Yoga and Mother’s Prayers and Meditations. In Bases, he finally found something (which he found in no other classic Indian or other spiritual teachings) to help him understand what was going on. And he had been keeping a journal that year and found in some cases he had written almost word for word what Mother had written
ReplyDeleteIn a book of his I read in 1977, “Evolutionary Sadhana,” there were a few lines that for me continue to represent that integration of form and formlessness you speak of, in a very simple, deeply experiential way - an integration I myself had been searching for since I first came across Ramana Maharshi;s Advaita approach in 1972 and then the deeply devotional Ramakrishna - and even more, looking for some way to understand how the non dualist and devotee’s approach connected with the evolutionary approach of Sri Aurobindo.
Swamiji wrote, “Dive deep into the Atmic sphere; it’s easy, you can do it. In the infinite depth of that Silence, you’ll feel the aspiration of your soul calling for the Mother. Open to that, allow Her to work in you, and don’t lift a finger to do anything else.”
The key here, something I all too rarely hear in the Integral Yoga literature, is that initial step out of false identity. Sri Aurobindo himself, in one of his longest, most detailed summaries of the integral yoga process, strongly recommends the Advaita method, ‘I am not the body, the life, the mind.”
But in just about every IY writing or conversation I’ve had, people seem to treat it almost as a mantra (or worse, a kind of New Age affirmation). I don’t think I could have made much if any progress in Integral yoga if I had not studied sunyata with Buddhist teachers and Advaita contemplative practices with various Vedantins.
The education in formlessness gave me the key to devotional surrender to the Divine Form - and beyond!
Thanks Don for the elaboration. As you said, I am a student of IY and realizing that how beautifully Sri Aurobindo has integrated the dualistic and non-dulistic philosophies into a common algorithm called IY with formlessness being the final destination or the highest pinnacle. Abhishek
DeleteInteresting, Don
ReplyDeleteIn theravada teachings they say there are 4 dhyanas ( each more concentrated than the previous), before infinite space, infinite consciousness, and then sunyata. So I figured meditation on void must require advanced practice. Following Sri Aurobindo's practice of intropection ( detached and non-judgmental observation of contents of consciousness) seems to lead to a state when after all mental images and other sanskara have expired, one would experience the void behind.
Does this resonate with "The education in formlessness gave me the key to devotional surrender to the Divine Form" ?
Actually, the Theravadins and the Indian and Tibetan Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists make a very strong distinction between the trance states of the Dhyanas and the Silence of Nirvana (which, both Sri Aurobindo and numerous other Vedantic scholars - such as J Chatterji - is really no different from the realization of the Impersonal Brahman).
DeleteThe trance states are states in which the separate "I" sense goes into abeyance, but when you come out of that trance, the "I" is as strong as ever.
The Atmic sphere that Ramananda spoke of as 'easy" to find is the same one that Sri Aurobindo spoke of in Synthesis of Yoga when he referred to the peace that is at the basis of the mind which is always present.
It might help to make it more practical. John Yates (aka "Culadasa') a neuroscience professor and later "full time" Buddhist meditation teacher, specialized in the teaching of the 10 stages of "Samata" (perfect equanimity), drawing on Theravada teacher Buddhaghosa and Mahayana teacher Kamasila.
As one gets toward the 6th and 7th stages, one is likely to experience at least the 1st and 2nd dhyana, and by the 8th or 9th easily experiences the 3rd and 4th. Note that though the word "sunyata" may sometimes be used to refer to the 4th, it is not the sunyata of insight - which is clearly indicated in the manuals of samata, since the path of true insight does not begin until one reaches the 10th stage of samata.
Here's a brief description of each. Breath awareness is used as a focal point until stage 8, when light and sound appear spontaneously which draw one much deeper inward (thus enabling the various trances or dhyanas). I gave a talk on this for NAMAH in 2022 as an example of how it can be possible quite easily to reach a state of perfect mental silence (at least, the absence of all verbal thought)
Continued in Part 2)
PART 2: ONE: One finds it almost impossible to concentrate for more than a few seconds on the breath.
DeleteTWO: one spends most of the meditation period with mind wandering, with occasional periods of 30 seconds to a minute concentrating on the breath. Very important note; Culadasa, like many Tibetan Buddhist teachers, instructs people to employ two forms of attention - one, selective attention, narrows or as Sri Aurobindo would say, "Exclusively concentrates" on the breath. the other is completely open. Students with 20, 30 or more years of practice found they could reach the 10th stage in a matter of months having learned these 2 forms of attention)
THREE: one spends most of the meditation period focused on the breath, with occasional lapses of attention.
FOUR: This is the first major milestone. In any meditation period, no matter how long, one stays focused on the breath, even if lots of emotions and thoughts are arising in the mind. This is the beginning of what Sri Aurobindo calls "the quiet mind."
FIVE to SEVEN: Nothing major changes; one is still more and more effortlessly focused on the breath but the extraneous thoughts, and other distractions are quieter and quieter. You can see how the first two states of trance can be - if one wishes to go in that direction - much more easily accessible. If you recall the 4 qualities of quiet mind, this is the transition from simple quiet to calm.
EIGHT: This is the next milestone. At this point, one rather effortlessly spends much if not most of the meditation session without any verbal thought. Usually at this point, subtle inner radiant light and subtle inner sounds are perceived. In order to go more deeply inward, one may switch focus from the breath to light and sound - this then very easily leads to the 3rd and 4th trance states, One is, in terms of Sri Aurobindo, going from quiet, to calm to peace, and touching on a much deeper Silence.
NINE AND TEN: now that all of one's meditation sessions are pervaded by calm and peace, effortlessly absorbed in light and sound, possibly having some immersion in the 3rd and 4th states of trance if one is oriented more toward that than insight, this calm, peace and silence begins to extend to all of one's life, even dreams and sleep. By the 10th stage, the Silence stays as the foundation of one's consciousness throughout the meditation session and all of life. Sri Aurobindo taught this to Kapali Sastry saying it was quiet easy - telling him not to make any effort but to relax into the Silence, conceiving of it first as the background of everything and then letting go of all thought to "Be" the Silence. I also found, decades ago, that all of the above description of effort was secondary to that surrender to the Shakti. After some years, the Shakti spontaneously opens the mind, life and body to the all pervading Silence, which remains no matter how much "noise" or activity there is on the surface.
(continued in Part 3, conclusion)
(part 3, conclusion)
DeleteOne now is beyond interest in the dhyanas. As Alan Wallace taught the next step in a class on Dzogchen I took with him in the mid 1990s, "Now that you've reached the end of the path of quiet and calm, of samata, you simply "turn around" and wordlessly inquire - what is it that is aware of this?
And as Loch Kelly points out, often the Tibetan teachers, especially of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen tradition, start with this, with absolute beginners, asking, "What is awake and aware, right now?"
Given that, as far as I can perceive, the evolution has profoundly speeded up in the past 25-50 years, I find more and more I meet people in their 20s and 30s who can start there, and are waking up quite fast. This is only the very bare beginning of the Integral Yoga, but it seems to me the Mother is aware of the importance of more and more people waking up.
So to conclude, I would amend your last sentence to, "recognition of and immersion in the Silence beyond all trance states, and realizing that Silence to be an aspect of my Self, is the key to devotional surrender to the Divine Reality beyond all form and formlessness.
Thanks Don,
DeleteYes, I understand dhyana’s are just a foundation. There is joy of oneness of subject and object of consciousness, and sustained absorption plus other details as you described. I have not experienced anything beyond some degree of concentration, but intuitive insights has helped me more.
In the tradition I studied in the 80s ( Taung-Pulu Sayadaw of Myanmar) there was the disctinction between samata, and satipathana Vipassana, or insight ( which I take to be close to Sri Aurobindo’d introspection, though, from which place the observation is done is a good question. Is the mental ego turning inward, or from the point of True Mental- Sri Aurobindo’s four types of knowing may be helpful here).
In the Manual of Abhidamma, they enumerate 32 planes of consciousness beyond all dhyanas is infinite space, infinite consciousness, inifinite nothingnes, neither perception nor-non-perception, and then Nirvana, so there is resonance with much of what you say.
A lof these practices can be helpful, but as you say may not transform the outer being.
meditation on and activation of the psychic being could be a great help in that regard.
Good conversation!
(Don again). Yes, very good, and fascinating connections. I can’t recall if I’ve talked to you about my project of the last few years; “Integral Yoga in Everyday Language.” So my challenge to myself is to talk about these things without referencing any traditional OR IY language. Let me see if I can try just a bit (and a LOT briefer than before:>))
ReplyDeleteSo, generally, I find it very helpful to “drop the story” and “come to my senses.” That is, to let attention rest in this-moment sensory/feeling/intuitive awareness…….ok, now, the verbal thought fades, and a sense of Divine Presence starts to percolate through, first somewhat localized, then all pervading….. and a more palpable sense of both Silence and Alive Presence flowing through everything. Objects in awareness take on a shimmering quality as the verbal thinking remains absent…..the Silence appears both to be “me” and “not-me” - the flowing, Alive Present-Energy feels less like “me” and just IS. The words now being typed feel less locally “intentional” and more of the substance of that flowing Energy-based in Silent Consciousness…
So, if I come back to my thinking mind, I find I can’t define any of this clearly as one tradition or another, or even psychic or Self - I mean, I could squeeze them into categories but it feels richer to let the words loosely clothe the seeing-feeling-awaring….
I still am in the process of feeling out how much to connect this spontaneous wording with specific IY terminology…… will see what Mother intends……. (This leads me back to a thought I had reading the original post - do “form” and ‘formlessness” - terms used for traditional spirituality, necessarily even apply to the unfolding of Consciousness in the 21st century - they never seem to have encompassed the kind of knowing/feeling/experiencing described in the first paragraph of this comment….
I think that all these terminologies are for communicating with others. I appreciate your approach.
ReplyDeleteComing into the present moment, seems to also widen the sphere of consciousness.
I think witnessing is an important practice. Watching the inner being from the outer being is impossible and rather absurd. So, the inner being needs to be watched, from the inmost being, or Purusha if possible. But concentration is also needed to exist the outer being.
They say when the inner eye opens, the whole outer world feels like a projetion- a film on a wall and the illusoriness is readily seen. I makes intuitive sense to me.
"use the map to get to the territory, but drop it when you get there!" is my slogan. But all you can show someone who hasn't been there is a map. All the labor of Sri Aurobindo has been to provide a map of his experiences, so we need something to start with.
Thanks Bahman (gosh, spell check keeps changing that to Brahman!). I really like the simplicity of the phrases you’re using. In terms of simplicity, I was just looking at Dan Siegel, who teaches the wheel of awareness (distinguishing knowing from what is known - Purusha Prakriti) - Do you know he (successfully!) teaches this to children as young as 5? There are something like 50K to 100,000 children around the world in schools where they teach this. He’s also used it successfully as a major part of treatment for people with depression, eating disorders, chronic pain, trauma disorders and more!
DeleteThe other thing (besides this kind of childlike simplicity) I think is urgent is finding a way without using complex philosophic language (much like the Mother said She aspired to do in writing Her essays on education in away that even “the most intransigent positivist” might not be put off) to challenge materialism.
David Bentley Hart (one of the most brilliant AND complex Orthodox Christian scholars in the world) is publishing a book on philosophy of mind. His writing often reminds me of Sri Aurobindo. While I find the first chapter of Book 2 of The Life Divine to be possibly the most helpful in terms of challenging physicalism, Hart’s book is likely to be a kind of updated version of that. I’m working with a group of folks on this project (one of whom you know - Marco Masi) and one thing we’ll definitely be doing is looking at Hart’s book and “translating” major parts of it into VERY simple language (fortunately, Hart is VERY interested in children’s books, and I subscribe to his substack, so perhaps he’ll help:>))
(Don again) speaking of 5 year old children learning in their experience to distinguish purusha and Prakriti, they sound like “the sun eyed children of a marvelous Dawn!”
ReplyDeleteI belive that Siegel's approach is called 'bare awareness' in Buddhist practice.
DeleteOrdinarily, the knowing agent is so fused with the objects of knowledge that most people would not know the difference in ordinary ego-consciousness ( basic avidya). Once the subject of consciousness ( the wintnessing I) gets established, it would be located in the 'heart' area, not in the head. It would be misdirected to rise to the top of outer mental ( transcendental ego) looking down at contents of consciousness. Once the proper location in the heart is felt, it can be deepened to True Mental and then to purusha itself. Here it's possible to separate purusha from prakriti. Before that purusha is caught up in prakriti. Syntheis of yoga , Ch. 27.
You know, it's interesting to compare all these terms with actual experience.
DeleteWhat is actually happening, if you read the accounts of people doing the wheel of awareness exercise, in Sri Aurobindo's language?
The 9 year old girl who is feeling anxious during recess, and tells her teacher she wants to go sit by a tree so she can access the "hub" of the wheel of awareness? From her account, you could do a kind of "left hemisphere" categorization:
1. A psychic impression in her surface consciousness, not necessarily located experientially near the physical heart but as a general all pervading sense of well being
2. A reflection of the Cosmic and Individual Self in the Surface Consciousness
3. As she is only 9 and not yet fully "mentalized," she may open to subliminal impressions of beauty from the higher vital as well as the psychic.
4. She may also simply find the quiet of the mental purusha.
But if we leave behind these definitions, what I find is there are VERY VERY rarely moments in the day where ANY of these phrases quite apply to my experience:
1. The verbal thoughts stop all together, and a sense of pervasive peace, not associated with any part of the body.
2. Shortly after the thoughts stop, a feeling of deep happiness may spontaneously emerge that IS centered around the physical heart (or center of the chest or just below or above). Simultaneously, a sense of a smile pervading the air, which is both experience as the substance of Silence and a dynamic all pervading energy.
Does any terminology really fit this?
But I'm not being anti intellectual here, either. What sparked these thoughts is that many and dramatically varied accounts of the wheel of awareness, along with the possibility that in a certain percent of them perhaps "bare awareness" might partially describe some, while others may simply be ordinary, surface level metacognition, some may indicate some reflection of the mental purusha, or the psychic being, or the Self. And yet others may involve a direct opening to the inner being.
This is why I like language a child can relate to. I love Siegel's approach because he works with infants, toddlers, children and teens, and so has to come up with language they can relate to.
There's a great story in "The Whole Brain Child" where Tina Payson, a clinical psychologist and co author of the book with Siegel, is driving with her son who is irritated that his father was not able to attend his baseball game the previous week.
On the spur of the moment, Payson points to a bug splattered on the windshield, and says to her son, "So imagine that is your anger. And that leaf pasted on the other side of the windshield is your sadness." She goes on to point out various items of dirt and other things on the windshield, which - since her son already knows the wheel of awareness exercise - stands now for the awareness within which all that he experiences is located.
For clinical or educational purposes - at least for children, teens, and probably most adults not involved in any kind of conscious Sadhana - my experience is the fewer words the better. When I started using brain language in my practice, for example, I had at least 12 or more words. people barely could remember 3. So now the only brain terms we use are (1) the prefrontal cortex; (2) the autonomic nervous system; and occasionally we speak of neural pathways (conditioning and reconditioning) and neuroplasticity.
I get that you're mostly addressing scholars and grad students. I'm struggling with how to translate this to the 90% of adults (and frankly, probably 90% of sadhaks!) who don't know the meaning of these terms and aren't likely to care.
(Follow up) But I think it goes beyond that. Back in the late 1990s, I asked a few people who had been involved in the Ashram with integral psychology for over 15 years: "Can anyone tell me - without using any standard IY language - how the physical mind is functioning this moment, in your experience?"
DeleteNote I wasn't asking about the supermind, the psychic, the witnessing purusha, etc. Just experience common to every human being. Every person admitted they had never tried to describe such a thing in their own words. I see in the integral psychology community over the past 20 years this kind of thing has been addressed more and more - Manoj Pavitran, working with students and corporations, has focused in particular on this.
But not only the psychology, I'm aiming to put the language of philosophy - the challenge of understanding how physically affects every moment of our modern lives - in language that a 13 year old kid could understand. AND ultimately, do it experientially, not just intellectual.
In any case, if any of this sounds interesting, I'd love to get your help with this when we start working on it full time toward the end of next year. If nothing else, it's a fun challenge!