Spring Weekend Seminar with Babaji Bob Kindler

Student's Reflection and Notes
One of the indelible parts of this retreat for me was to learn that many of the 97 "minor" upanisads (out of 108) in the Vedas incorporate what we have come to know as Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. Many are given the names of the Deities and some Incarnations as well, suggesting an element of Tantra. As Babaji stated in classes this visit, the rishis had a deep love of Yoga.

The first class of this four-class weekend was given to exploring from various angles how the rishis conceived of absolute and relative realities.  In their deepest states of awareness they realized that everything is Real, everything exists, because the substratum of all phenomena is pure Existence. Everything is coming forth from That and returning to That.  "Sarvosmi," "Everything is," is the Sanskrit phrase used to express this idea.  So if Everything Is, why does it come and go?  And this goes to the heart of the matter.  There is no origin -- as in a creation out of nothing -- for anything, nature or Soul.

Babaji presented three charts designed to extinguish the notion that there is life and death, beginnings and endings, existence and non-existence.  Even the more subtle idea of cycles of creation, preservation, and destruction are not able to quell this idea that we are born and that we die. Rather, on the "breast of Ultimate Reality (pure Consciousness)" waves are rising and falling, manifesting and unmanifesting, but no change is really taking place in Consciousness.

The first chart, "Manifest and Unmanifest Prakriti" shows the tip of an iceberg above the ocean, as well as its massive bulk below the surface. The idea here is that the "tip" represents what we can see with our external physical senses, which is a very small portion.  What lies below the ocean represents unmanifest Prakriti, in which are found subtle and causal realms of reality.  All of this rests in the water of the ocean (the Supremely Unmanifest).  But whether the water is frozen above the surface or below, it is still water. Further, as water from the tip melts back to the ocean, it resolidifies on the surface on and around the iceberg, thus expressing the idea that names and forms are eternal; they simply manifest for awhile, then return to nonmanifestation. And the Self is the seer of this phenomena.

The second chart Babaji showed was his "Russian Doll" chart on the Five Akashas: bhutakasha (space of physical objects), pranakasha (space of prana), chittakasha (space of thought), jnanakasha (space of Intelligence), and Chidakasha (space of Awareness). Just like the Russian dolls fit together, one inside the other, each akasha from gross to subtle fits within the next most subtle.  Each of these akashic dolls represent respectively physical or subtle realms of existence and the beings that dwell in them as well.  It is important to note that our essential nature is the Chidakasha, and all these other realms are in us and come out of us.  Depending upon where we "tune" our awareness, we can have darshan with the beings of these akashas.  As Babaji states at the top of the chart: "Like five Russian dolls of diminishing size, which neatly nest inside of one another, all ending up as one all-inclusive unity, similarly do the five atmospheres through which name and form manifest all reside within each other -- from causeless to causal to subtle to gross -- each holding multiple dimensions, countless worlds, and myriad beings."

The third chart on this topic of manifest and unmanifest was "Omkara -- The Great Cause, Emanation and Dissolution in Vedic Cosmology." In this chart, Babaji covered manifestation and nonmanifestation from the standpoint of vibration as it relates to AUM and the Four Padas (waking, dreaming, sleep, and Turiya). The idea is that sound (vibration) is inherent in the bell, just like AUM as the manifesting principle is inherent in Brahman or Turiya, represented by the bell.  The sound is not created, it is already and always present.  It is simply manifested or not.  And when the vibrations die away, they return to the bell. States Svayambhava Manu, "All universes in space and time lie within Om.  With knowledge of the Word (Om), and how cosmic projection goes forth, one can follow the shining rays of Jnana-wisdom straight to the Source, penetrating all brahmandas (vibrating spheres).  Then the Mother of the Word will immerse one in the Ocean of Consciousness."

Many more charts and Upanisadic teachings were given throughout the seminar. What is noted above caught this student's attention in particular.  The following are some notes gathered from all the classes:

Selected Notes
You cannot understand the Absolute from the standpoint of relativity.  And from the plateau of nonduality, relativity does not exist.

In the 108 Upanisads contained within the Vedas, all the darshanas [philosophical systems] found their place, and the gods and goddesses too.  None vied for supremacy.  It was all integrated.

The scriptures say that if you want a long life of 100 years, then you should purify your senses and mind.

Atharvans, a class of priests who performed the Vedic sacrifices, were the fire tenders, both external and internal.  The outer rituals (fires) appeased the gods, neutralized karmas, and kept the balance of nature.  The internal fire consisted of the fire of knowledge and the fire of Yoga.  The fire of Knowledge refers to all the Wisdom they were collecting.  The fire of Yoga is one's attempt at realizing that Knowledge.

[Babaji presented the chart: "The Seer, the Seen, the Unseen, and the Obscene"]
Seer = Consciousness; Seen = what you see with the senses; unseen = inner realms; Obscene = what people see with a fragmented mind where the Seer is mixed up indiscriminately with the seen.  If one does not know via study and meditation that earth goes to smell, water with taste, fire with sight, etc, and that all these connect into the mind at individual, collective, and cosmic levels, then one is probably living a fragmented life.

The theme of this first class is Sarvosmi, "Everything is."  All these things are either manifest or unmanifest.  If you do not understand this then you neither intuit the Seer nor see the Unseen, and then will ignorantly turn the Seen into the obscene.  If you are in knowledge of AUM, or Sri Krishna's Gita, then you are either sporting in manifestation or transcending it.  There is no lower maya in this knowledge, only Mahamaya.

India shut out Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, and the British.  India's Ahimsa,  nonviolence, marched across the world in the form of Buddhism.  Buddhism did not raise a finger, what to speak of a sword, in its spread across the world.  Among phenomena, this is a most amazing one.

Christ intended that we base religion on "I and my Father are one," not Genesis.  After two thousand years this idea of beginnings is so deeply embedded in our western consciousness that we now think in terms of birth and death, and increments of time.  Genesis is okay, that is what those Five Russian dolls represent, or the Bell chart.  But all these merge into their Source.  What is called "creation" does not come out of nothing.

Where does the sound of a bell go?  Out into the ethers?  If it does, it gets distorted.  I know this as a sound engineer.  I liken this to the soul distortion that occurs the farther one moves from the Source.  Better to think of and see the sound as being inherent in the Bell -- vibration is inherent in the Self.  You get to the Father through the Son.

Arguing about form and formlessness -- what nonsense!  There are some who want the form only, or formlessness only.  But how do you get wine to your lips without a bottle?  What is more, how do you know what you are drinking without the label?  Brahman is the wine, the Son is the bottle, and the revealed scriptures represent the label.  Together they solve all issues.  So we do not need to argue about this.  You get to the Father through the Son.  God is with form, formless, and beyond both.

Mukti is not liberation from bondage.  It is not an experience.

Why does the ego come out?  Because of desire.  What are its desires?   The five elements, according to Lord Buddha.  We wanted to stand on solid ground, eat food, and smell fragrances, drink water, see and touch objects, and hear sounds.  The elements are our desires made manifest.

Assume the position of Samadhi even before you believe in it.  There is no Samadhi in the Self where meditation, meditator, and object of meditation are one -- just as described by the Avadhuta Gita: "....homogenous, like the sky."

Your perfection cannot be purified.  You cannot gain it or lose it.  The Self is already pure.  Now just realize It.

Sri Ramakrishna wanted householders to renounce internally, for they are so vulnerable, living amongst family and jobs.  The most basic duality to renounce is pleasure and pain, but as you go along with your practice, you come across subtle dualities such as form and formlessness, bondage and liberation. Pondering these is very helpful.  When you see God everywhere, you do not see the world.  What world is there to renounce?

Sakshi is the Cognizer of the presence and absence of the triputi of knower, knowledge and knowing. That is, Sakshi is the cognizer of the shifting of states of absence and presence.

"The Atman, hidden in all beings, reveals Itself not to all, but is seen only by the seers of the subtle through their refined and pointed intellect." - Katha Upanisad