On
a day forever etched in my memory I unexpectedly discovered the extraordinary
teachings of the Yaqui Indian seer, don Juan. While looking for something
new and interesting to read, I had unknowingly stumbled upon a treasure
trove of mystic lore and esoteric knowledge. After a few weeks of
studying don Juan's teachings I became mesmerized by the wise old
Indian's words. I slowly began to discover that don Juan was a magnificent
warrior and man of knowledge. His mysterious teachings
revealed a path to the mastery of awareness. I had been completely
unaware that man had access to higher states of consciousness or that
a path through the mastery of awareness to enlightened being existed.
Having had little or no interest in the subject of altered states
of awareness, it seemed unlikely that my personal world and interests
were about to profoundly change. During the next few years as I studied
don Juan's teachings, as brilliantly expounded in the writings of
his disciple Carlos Castaneda, a number of exceptional experiences
in non-ordinary reality occurred.
The
first of these events involved a radical shift and permanent change
in my perception of the nature of time. The significance of this had
far reaching effects, and was an incredible impetus for the metamorphosis
in consciousness that was about to occur. For if time was not the
regular linear expansion that I had always taken for granted, then
belief in the absolute nature of my perceived world and personal self
was in jeopardy. My experience can best be described as an implosion
of awareness wherein the world had stopped. As my awareness
came to an absolute standstill I noticed that as long as my focus
did not move off of absolute center that time had no duration, memory
was barely a sliver, and that the universe was arising solely and
uniquely as a function of my perception. A tiny shift in the assemblage
point of awareness brought with it an expansion of both a perceived
historical world and personal self, as well as a heightened realization
that the unfolding of these worlds were synchronous with movements
away from the absolute center of awareness. The world and self could
be seen to be arising as modifications in consciousness. Once
this witness-position is attained in meditative absorption,
or heightened awareness, these movements of the assemblage
point of awareness are seen to be non-binding modifications
in consciousness, and without duration or lasting relationship to
the ¨I¨ at the center of perception. A seer, or don Juan would
see this as being the time of the double.
Once
it has learned to dream the double, the self arrives at this weird
crossroad and a moment comes when he realizes that it is the double
who dreams the self.
Tales Of Power, Carlos Castaneda
Later,
I learned that this event was a glimpse at the first of the four yogas,
the one-pointed yoga or cosmic consciousness. This was followed during
subsequent years by a series of alterations and expansions running
through the range of all of my senses, and a journey in consciousness
through each of the four yogas and the psychological formation and
integration of the self. My internship in the meditative exploration
of time, self, and the very nature of reality itself had begun in
earnest.
The
various teachings presented in this book have been accessed and assimilated
while in meditative absorption, or in don Juan's terminology heightened
awareness. Learning to stop the world, bringing cohesiveness to movements
of the assemblage point through discerning wisdom, and specifically
the transformation from egoic-self to enlightened Being through the
mastery of nondual awareness are the dominant themes of The Four Yogas
Of Enlightenment.
‘What
happens to the persons whose assemblage points loses rigidity?’
I asked. ‘If
they're not warriors, they think they're losing their minds.’
The Fire From Within, Carlos Castaneda
Meditating
on the teachings of different masters and traditions can synergistically enhance
heightened awareness. With understanding achieved in more than one tradition,
cross verification of terms and states of consciousness can be correlated. Without
correlation, progress is exceedingly difficult because there is no contrasting
point of view with which one can glean the intended meaning, nor a deeper understanding.
The Four Yogas Of Enlightenment guides the reader along the meditative path to
enlightenment through transcendence of the ego, spiritual awakening, and the stabilization
and mastery of transcendental awareness. This book explores enlightenment, the
spiritual path to radical sanity and infinite love, in an informal but informed
and accessible manner.
The undertaking of the transcendence of egoic mind is an awesome but not impossible
task. The beginning of enlightenment and the end of self-inflicted neurotic thinking
is within the grasp of anyone willing to learn how to still the discursive mind
and then study the resultant state with full awareness. In fact, it is not until
one has gained sufficient meditative distance from the verbal dimensions of consciousness
through meditative silence that one can begin to gauge the neurotic dimensions
of egoic mind. The
ideal state to study consciousness is found at the juncture of meditative absorption
and discerning awareness, the equivalent to don Juan's heightened awareness.
The journey towards the mastery of awareness begins by stilling the mind, while
single-pointedly stabilizing the assemblage point in heightened awareness,
thereby stopping the world. At this position in awareness consciousness
studies consciousness itself, revealing the hidden and ultimate nature of time,
self, and reality. The apprentice sorcerer while in heightened awareness
and having stopped the world clearly sees the inner luminous path
to becoming a seer and man or woman of knowledge.
Inner
silence works from the moment you begin to accrue it. The desired result is what
the old sorcerers called stopping the world, the moment when everything around
us ceases to be what it's been.
It is this moment when man the slave
becomes man the free being, capable of feats of perception that defy our linear
imagination.
The Active Side Of Infinity,
Carlos Castaneda
The
Four Yogas Of Enlightenment presents a reconstruction of the stages of awareness
leading to enlightenment and leads the reader progressively away from neurotic
self-construction through the union of meditative absorption and discerning awareness.
The union of meditative absorption and discerning awareness is a special state
of heightened awareness that is explored and clarified in the pages of this book
and can be viewed as an achievement in consciousness arrived at and stabilized
through continued practice in meditative absorption and simultaneous study of
the teachings of master seers. Although
the terminology of various masters may be difficult to access at first, with continued
practice clarity is enhanced, and discerning awareness flowers. Many of the passages
mentioned herein at first seemed to me to be impenetrable. However, when assimilated
over time, magnificent teachings and wondrous states of awareness arced across
the sky of mind, and my progress was immeasurably enhanced. Perhaps
those who do not meditate, or have never experienced altered states of reality,
may find it difficult to believe that extraordinary states of awareness and the
seed of transformative growth are available within consciousness. However not
believing, or never having had the experience does not alter the hidden truth.
For example, if you do not speak French you would have to study for some time
before you could assimilate unfamiliar sounds. However, prior to your understanding,
it would not be accurate to deny the existence of meaning within the French language
simply because it was not within your current understanding. There are newfound
states of consciousness to be grasped, practiced and finally mastered in meditative
absorption, and their existence can only be discovered and mastered through our
own effort.
I've
said that the new seers believed that the assemblage point can be moved from within.
They went one step further and maintained that impeccable men need no one to guide
them, that by themselves, through saving their energy, they can do everything
seers do.
The
Fire From Within, Carlos Castaneda
One
of the major difficulties the student of heightened awareness has is to bring
a degree of cohesiveness to the newly found factors in consciousness. For the
skilled meditator the requisite cohesiveness can be provided by means of consciousness
studying consciousness from the perspective of a variety of meditation languages.
The next stage is completed when the tonal and the nagual, or the egoic and transcendental
aspects of awareness are brought into balance and harmony. Unbending intent coupled
with an open and flexible approach to acquiring and assimilating seemingly disparate
teachings are key factors in maintaining progress along the inner path to transcendental
wisdom. It
is in the final stages of yogic awareness that the egoic mind continues to function
and serve the needs of the self in the world, however the egoic mind is no longer
in absolute control. The emergent man or woman of knowledge establishes a new
way of being as the giver of knowledge, not the keeper; the source of love, not
the seeker. The inconceivable transformation-death of old mind, with its endless
labyrinth-like soliloquies and false projections, is replaced by transcendental
mind. The seed from within has flowered and the path to Self mastery is in view.
The guru within, obscured until now by egoic mind, can proceed along the stages
of yogic awareness and development.
My
recognition of the necessity of a book organizing and clarifying these teachings
came about as I wrestled with understanding yogic knowledge and altered states
of awareness. However, it soon became apparent that not only is progress slow
and difficult to achieve, it is perhaps even more difficult to speak or write
about states of consciousness that are beyond the ordinary realms of language.
I realized that I required either a personal guru or a means of enhancing my understanding
through expanded effort. A relationship with a guru never materialized and other
and perhaps more powerful means of continuing my education appeared. In retrospect
it seems that when each stage of my development in consciousness exploration stabilized
a new and more powerful teaching became available.
During
the mid-eighties the exiled Tibetans began to disseminate the written teachings
of the great sages of Tibetan Buddhism. The translation of these extraordinary
teachings into English was another serendipitous occurrence for me. Just as I
had reached some major impasses in my studies of don Juan's lessons many marvelous
Tibetan Buddhist teachings texts became available. Of particular interest were
texts illuminating both the gradual and instantaneous path instructions of realized
sages. These teachings revealed a cohesive knowledge and systematic path leading
to the attainment of a radically quiescent mind, and instructive guidance for
seeing and analyzing the true and apparent nature of consciousness and
reality. I could see striking parallels with the teachings of don Juan,
and realized that I had once again found lessons in the way of the warrior embodying
Self-realized qualities such as fearlessness, serenity, wisdom, and compassion.
Contemplate
the three planes of existence [past, present, and future] as being of mental origin,
since they are designated by the mind. By analyzing the mind, the meditator examines
the essence of things.
The
first Bhavanakrama
‘Was
it something I will see in the future?’ I asked. ‘There's
no future!’ he exclaimed cuttingly. ‘The future is only
a way of talking. For a sorcerer there is only the here and now.’
Tales
Of Power, Carlos Castaneda
The
Four Yogas Of Enlightenment illuminates the sublimely transcendental stages of
awareness of Tibetan Buddhism. In contrast with Buddhism, I examine the way of
the warrior, and the mastery of luminous awareness as elaborated in the writings
of Carlos Castaneda. I have also drawn upon and revealed the mystic teachings
of the nondual awareness school of Kashmir Shaivism. In my final chapters I correlate
the most advanced, esoteric, and incomparable states of samadhic awareness of
the Western avatar and living Buddhist master, Adi Da Samraj, with the quintessence
of don Juan's Nagualism and Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism. That
which we in the West consider to be completed adult development, is considered
by both Eastern and Western masters in consciousness to be a state of arrested
development. This samadhi in four yogas illuminates the stages of awareness leading
to enlightenment through comparative analysis and progressive meditative exploration.
The transformation in consciousness which occurs is nothing less than a mystical
encounter with the spirit, relinquishment of the traditional egoic self, and metamorphosis
into a flexible, highly adapted man or woman of knowledge and numinous being.
In the final part of Carlos Castaneda's Tales Of Power, don Juan, just
prior to revealing the sorcerers' explanation to his disciple Carlos, prefaces
his discussion with these sage comments: Personal
power decides who can or cannot profit by a revelation; my experiences with my
fellow men have proven to me that very, very few of them would be willing to listen;
and of those few who listen even fewer would be willing to act on what they have
listened to; and of those who are willing to act even fewer have enough personal
power to profit by their acts. Seize
your cubic centimeter of chance with The Four Yogas Of Enlightenment. Continue
the journey towards incomparable knowledge and Self mastery. | 
OF ENLIGHTENMENT
©
